Levi Pension Files

Quite a long time ago now, I ordered Levi Thompson's pension records. Not the full pension, but a partial pension. It was listed as the pension most appropriate for genealogists. I think it's an awesome thing, but I was disappointed in how little information on family it really gave. For instance, not even his wife is listed in the pension. The example documents you see when you order show marriage records and other things, but Levi had none of those...at least not in the information I was sent. At some point I will need to order his full pension.

I figured I should include some images of the pension information I DO have though for posterity.

Above is a lot of interesting information, including some information that, if correct, would mean I've been off about his age. If this is 1869 when he's petitioning, and he is 31 then he was born around 1838, not 1834 as I've got listed and as I've seen in the census. It would be more in line with his discharge information which said he was 27 when he mustered out in 1866.

It also contains his own statement about his disability and I think it was written in his own hand, which makes this really cool. Considering that Henry Williamson (my other third great from this family) was illiterate. That makes me think that Levi's life was quite different from Henry's.

I believe the statement is "was taken with a sever pain in my left ankle which inflamed and ulcerated which sore made me very lame and was aggravated by marching and rendered unfit for duty and caused it to ulcerate so bad that it could never be cured so I am very lame and suffer a great deal with it yet."

Pension claim with date stamp.

Statements of witnesses. I think one is named McTiernan and the other is Sylvanus Free. Sylvanus I have tracked a little. I'm not sure about McTiernan. This verifies Levi's occupation in the 1870 census which is Tombstone manufacturer..a stone mason.

A request for more information on Levi (get in line!) and some more documentation of his absence at muster out. He was sick with diarrhea. I imagine caused by a massive infection in his leg.

This page, I think, is the end of the road for Levi's pension in 1902. They didn't have any more information on Levi other than he was sick at muster out. No further indication of a disability case closed. I have no 1880 census for Levi. I have an 1890 Veteran's Roll in Hopewell Ohio saying he lives in Celina Ohio and has a disability of "Stiff Leg". In 1906 his wife's obituary says he disappeared "These 20 years ago" while he was a witness in a trial.

For an idea of what that march to Indianapolis was like, here is a google map if you were to drive it today. It's over a 1,300 miles. 

Obituaries and Findings

I ordered several obituaries form The Anderson Public Library for Henry Williamson, Ida Williamson (Thompson), Rena Frances Thompson (Tyler), Mattie Thompson (Clifford), James Thompson and Mary Thompson (Fennimore). Trying to get more information about these people and their families.

I was happy to see that Henry Williamson's obituary listed his civil war service, but a bit disappointed that it didn't contain any information on his parents. In fact that seemed to be the standard with all the obituaries except Rena Tyler. Her obituary lists Mr. and Mrs. Levi Thompson. Hers is the first obituary that mentions him by name. Even his wife's obit leaves his name out.

I also learned that James Thompson is really James Henry Thompson and Mary Thompson is really Mary Alice Thompson. So I have middle names for several of the children. That could be helpful when trying to figure out family relationships.

I also learned the death dates for several of Levi's children. James was 1929, not too awful long after he took that picture. He died in Ida's house. All of that information is good to have too.

I can continue with my plan to order death records for Henry Williamson and Rosa Blades, I will probably add Ida Williamson to that list too. Death records seem to have information about parents on them, so I hope to be able to get mother's names for all three of those people and father's full names if possible. If the state death records turn out to be informative, I might order one for Albert  to see if I can get his full name and possibly the full name of Levi.

I put a question in to the Madison County Historical Society to see what resources I might have to learn about the trial Levi was involved in. I haven't heard back from them yet. After some time I may contact the library again to see what they might have there. I imagine it was news worthy, because it was still talked about a decade plus later.

The Case for Butler Pennsylvania

When I first found out about Butler Pennsylvania (after ordering Levi Thompsons state records from Indiana). I was really really excited. I thought I would surely find him there. Since then, I've been all over the place trying to locate any tie to the area that I can, and I just can't place a Levi Thompson in Butler PA.

It occurred to me though that, even though I talk about it a lot I may not have posted the document that led me there.

So there it is. I have one census record that also says Levi is from Pennsylvania. It's the 1880 where he is missing, but Rosa must have told the census taker that he was born there. In 1860 and 70 I think he's listed as Indiana. The irony of the 1860 census saying Indiana is that John B. Hollingsworth who lives near him is accurately listed as being form Pennsylvania. It's as if, at every point, I must be thwarted.

Task Mastering

I was printing off my forms for death records for Rosa Blades and Henry Williamson (see task list) when it struck me that there was more I could do at the Anderson public library. In the past I ordered obituaries for Rosa Thompson and for Thompsons I thought might be related to Levi. This time around I focused on his children, I ordered obituaries for a James that could be mine..so hard to tell, Mary, Rena, Mattie and Albert. To see if they would shed some light on things. I ordered Ray Bishop Thompsons obit out of curiosity. I also ordered Ida Williamson, Henry Williamson, and Owen Williamson (Henry's brother) hoping they would shed some light on their families as well. Really it's moms I'm trying to track down with those.

So I still have to send in my death record requests for Rosa Blades Thompson and Henry Williamson, but I'm excited to see what I can find from these obituaries in the meantime. Finding moms for Rosa, Henry and Ida will help me determine where some of my genetic relatives fall.

I checked in with the genealogist at the public library in Butler PA to see if she had any Thompson resources that might identify Levi and she also could not find anything in her records. She did come across the Levi Campbell record (born 1844) who is living with James Thompson in Cherry, Butler PA in 1850, but no Levi Thompson.

I asked about orphanages in the area and I asked if it was likely that people would come to Butler to give birth (maybe the Thompsons had a son there but really lived in another county?). I also asked about possible Elmer families in the area.

On the DNA front, making note of that odd marker for my Y DNA cluster of DYS463 = 23. I asked my Elmer match at FTDNA if they would be willing to test, and they were. This will help them better match with the SMGF Elmer and the Knowltons there and it helps strengthen the case that the Elmers, Knowltons and I are in some related group within our cluster. Not a full 67 upgrade but a cheap way to get more data.

This next bit wasn't on the task list, but it's an interesting DNA/History tangent:

I was looking up Knowltons (it's a town name in England and there are a couple). The standard is that the Knowltons are from Kent, but there is another Knowlton..although it's not in Southeast England, it's in Dorset in Southwest England. In an odd coincidence, reading the wikipedia article on Knowlton Dorset I was surprised to see a familiar name in this text: "The Domesday Book also records two hides of the land of the Count of Mortain in Knowlton, named as Chenoltune in the book, held by Ansgar, which was held by Æthelmær in the time of King Edward. " Æthelmær is the name Aylmer is supposed to be linked to and Aylmer becomes Elmer. It's probably just a coincidence, but interesting all the same. Knowlton is a name you would call someone who had moved from Knowlton to your town. Bill from Knowlton would shorten up to Bill Knowlton in no time. According to a few sources the village in Dorset was struck by the black death and abandoned.  

Robert Thompson and Ann Kers(e)y

This is the Bermuda triangle of family names. I need to make this note for myself because it can easily become really confusing.

I was researching John B Hollingsworth and family (Hollingsworths Next Door) and it turns out that they bulk of their family moved from Butler PA to Grant county IN, not Madison county. John B Hollingsworth is in Madison county, down the way from Levi Thompson in 1860 but his family group is in Grant..not very far from where he lived in Van Buren, Madison, IN.

It's good to keep in mind here that there are other Hollingsworths roaming this part of Indiana at this time that came from the Carolinas. I imagine they are distantly related.

I decided to look for Thompsons in Grant in 1860 to see if maybe Levi's home group of Thompsons would magically be there. Of course part of my matching the Grant Hollingsworths with the Butler PA Hollingsworths and John B Hollingsworth was that I could follow the entire family from Butler in 1850 to Grant in 1860. It would be hard to know if any of the Grant Thompsons belong to Levi because I can't find him in 1850.

Still I tried, and found a few that were interesting. One of them was way to young to be a parent of any sort, but still of interest. Robert Thompson is in Grant in 1860, he is 40 years old, born in 1820 in Pennsylvania. He is in a household with a woman listed as Ann Kersy who was born around 1835 in Vir..which is I'm sure Virginia, which reminded me of all the Kerseys I looked up while research the Coates family from Butler PA. I've run into genetic matches for my father who have Kerseys and Coates in their families and I spent a bit of time looking at them.

Robert is single when he is listed in the draft records for the Civil War. I don't have much information on him but he may be worth looking up and maybe there is some connection with the Kerseys that is worth putting together. Since he's born in 1820 it's possible he would appear in an 1840 and 1850 census. I could also try to find Ann Kers(e)y from Virginia.

1840 Butler PA Parent list

I made an informal survey of Thompsons from Butler PA in 1840 that have children in the 5 year old range. On the assumption that Levi Thompson would be about 5 or 6 and would still be living in the Butler area (lots of assumptions). If his age is right in his other census records he really should be in the 5 to 9 category. So I'll give the amounts, and the total boys that should fit and then I'll mark the ones who have 5-9 with a *.

Here is the list from the 1840 census of Butler PA:

james thompson from Cranberry two boys under 5 and two 5-9 (4 total) *

john thompson from Middlesex one boy 5-9 (1 total) *

john thompsoon buffalo one under 5 (1 total)

john thompson Donegal one under 5 and one 5-9 (2 total) *

2nd john thompson from Donegal one 5-9 (1 total) *

joseph thompson Cherry one under 5 and two 5-9 (3 total) *

moses thompson one under 5 (1 total)

robert thompson clearfield one under 5 (1 total)

robert thompson middlesex two under 5 and one 5-9 (3 total) *

robert thompson muddy creek one 5-9 (1 total) *

saml (samuel thompson centre butler two under 5 and three 5-9 (5 total) *

william thompson buffalo one 5-9 (1 total) *

william Thompson center three 5-9 (3 total) *

I guess the next step would be to try to identify these guys in 1850, what I always run into though is that I get confused with all the Johns and James and Williams and that people come and go quite a bit.

New Year Task List

Things I should do without DNA:

• I want to make some kind of list of Thompsons who emigrate from England before 1835, but it may not be worth it because there are many of them and their point of entry into the U.S. may not be telling. Also even though my Y seems to be English, it's still most likely that they came from Ireland (even if they were only there for a generation).
• I should make a survey of 1840 Thompsons who have children around 5 years of age that live in Butler PA. If he was born there, then maybe he was still there in 1840.
• I should contact the Anderson Public Library and Madison County Historical society to see if I can get more information on the trial Levi was in when he disappeared. Obviously it was memorable because they were writing about it 20 years later. Maybe the trial he was in will shed clues on the 1880s.
• I should order death records for Rosa Blades and Henry Williamson and Ida Williamson Thompson (all died after 1900 so they have state records with the Indiana Health department). It would be to gather information on their mothers who are all unknowns at this point. Each record look up is about $8 I think, so this is well worth the stamps.
• I should order Levi Thompson's entire pension record from the national archive. I ordered the short version and have been disappointed that it didn't have a lot of information. It's a $75 gamble though so  it will come later.

Things I should do with DNA:

• Order a Y test for the Indiana Thompsons. It's an expense, and it's limited to male line only, but it would give me either a good match or more to think about and may help me make autosomal DNA decisions. If it's a good Y match then maybe I should test the same person for autosomal, if not, then maybe I should do more Y tests among known relatives to see if I can identify a break point.
• Order autosomal testing for a Seelye. I need some sort of guide post on who is a Seelye match and who is not. A living Uncle would be nice, cousins of any kind will do too. It would be some kind of wedge, even if it only identified 1/8th of my father's matches as Seelyes it would give me over a hundred matches to consider as Seelye candidates. At $99 it's about the cheapest test I can order with 23 and me.
• Order an autosomal test for a Finks relative. There are a few still alive who are cousins of my grandfather and could be valuable in identifying matches that are Finks related.  Again $99. If you're tallying things up you can see that my list of things to do without DNA is much less expensive than my to do list with DNA!
• Upgrade my Y DNA results to 67 markers (and see if my Elmer match is able to do the same). It will give us a much better idea of how closely we continue to match up. Right now that's $79..but it's on sale so the price will likely be higher later.