At 23 and me, you'll often get an idea of Cousinship with a match request. It will say something like "estimated 4th cousin with a range of 3rd to 5th cousin" or "5th to distant cousin". Some lines in my family end at second great grandparents, so I've tried to note them in every generation as parents of or grandparents of a known person.
I'm splitting this one out from my other Ancestors by cousinship because of the divergence in our Thompson family DNA. This is what the paper says though and it is a good starter for looking at Thompson genetic matches for the U152 Indiana Thompson line.
Here is our Thompson side paper trail list of ancestors by cousinship:
****2nd cousin sharing great grandparents****
Albert Thompson
Birth 19 Jan 1870 in Alexandria, Madison, Indiana, United States
Death 14 Oct 1909 in Alexandria, Madison, Indiana, United States
Ida Rachael Williamson
Birth 8 Nov 1874 in Greenville, Wayne, Missouri, USA
Death 11 Sep 1936 in Alexandria, Madison, Indiana, United States
****3rd cousin sharing 2nd great grandparents****
Levi Thompson
Birth abt 1838 in Butler County, Pennsylvania, USA
Death in pos. Tama, Mercer, Ohio, United States
Rose Anna (Rosa) Blades
Birth Oct 1837 in Van Buren, Madison, Indiana, United States
Death 1906 in Anderson, Madison, Indiana, United States
Henry H Williamson
Birth 1 Mar 1840 in Indiana
Death 19 Jun 1913 in Monroe Township
Susan or Susannah Maynard
Birth 8 Mar 1839 in Madison County, Indiana, United States
Death abt 1887 in Madison County, Indiana, United States
****4th cousin sharing 3rd great grandparents****
Parents of Levi Thompson born 1834-38 Butler PA.
...pos Albert E Thompson and Nancy Unknown from Pike Berks Pa
James Blades
Birth 1795 in Maryland, USA
Death 30 Jan 1872 in Van Buren, Madison, Indiana
Elizabeth Unknown
Birth abt 1816 in Maryland, USA
Death Mar 1850 in Van Buren, Madison, Indiana, United States
William or Joseph Williamson (Multiple Williamsons from the same family died between 1840 and 50 leaving wives and children but no husbands listed)
Birth abt 1814 in Kentucky, USA
Death abt 1846 in Richland, Madison, Indiana, United States
Susannah Unknown
Birth 1817 in Indiana, United States
Death 8 Dec 1863 in Richland, Madison, Indiana, United States
Christopher Columbus Maynard
Birth May 24, 1815 in Pike, Kentucky, United States
Death May 23, 1862 in Madison Co., Ind (bur: Holson Cem)
Elizabeth Mabbitt
Birth 14 Jul 1821/23 in Indiana
Death 18 Jul 1879/80 in Indiana, United States
****5th cousin sharing 4th great grandparents****
Grandparents of Levi Thompson born 1834-38 Butler PA
...pos James Thompson and Elizabeth who lived in Pike Berks Pa
Parents of James Blades and Elizabeth from Maryland pioneers in Madison IN.
Hammond Hammon Haman Williamson
Birth abt 1783 in Clinch River Valley, Russell, Virginia, United States
Death 1874 in Anderson, Madison, Indiana, United States
Ruth Ford
Birth abt 1785 in Washington, Tennessee, USA
Death aft 1860 in of Anderson, Madison, Indiana
Parents of Susannah Unknown born 1817 in Indiana died 1863 in Richland, Madison IN
MOSES JACOB MAYNARD
Birth 18 OCT 1766 in Hillsboro, Chatham, North Carolina
Death 15 JUN 1874 at 108 in Alexandria, Madison, Indiana
SARAH ELIZABETH GREENSTREET
Birth 20 APR 1777 in Hillsboro, Orangeburg, South Carolina, United States
Death 28 OCT 1846 in Richland City, Madison, Indiana, United States
Thornburg or Thornberry Mabbitt
Birth 28 Oct 1799 in South Carolina, United States
Death 9 Mar 1870 in Madison, Indiana, United States
SUSANNA SMITH
Birth 22 Oct 1801 in Rushville, Rush, Indiana, United States
Death 2 Dec 1858 in Richland City, Madison, Indiana, United States
Sorting out the Puzzle Pieces in My Big Messy Family
Showing posts with label General_Thompson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General_Thompson. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Connections to Others in Grant Indiana
I decided to spend some more time looking at the man from Butler PA that I can follow fairly well. John Burgess Hollingsworth. This time I focused on histories. Using three histories of Grant county I was able to figure out that John B. Hollingsworth is John Burgess Hollingsworth, his middle name reflects his mother's maiden name. I have some garbled machine translated text from the histories that I'll post here.
This first one is really interesting because it gives him a birth place outside of Pennsylvania which is unexpected. It also lists the Kelsay family (see set in stone) and gives more information about his life:
JOHN B. HOLLINGSWORTH
Retired monument dealer, was born in Hudson County, Ohio, August 5, 1836. His grandparents were natives of Pittsburgh, as were his parents, William Hollingsworth, born June 5 181 1, and Lucinda, born May 8, 1814. William and Lucinda' Hollingsworth were the parents of six children, namely: Wesley B., John B., Gilmore, Mariah, Isabel and William. In 1856 John B. Hollingsworth came to Fairmount Township with his parents, locating in Fairmount, then a village of about a dozen houses. The father opened the first cabinet shop in the Township, making household furniture of all kinds by hand, and supplying pioneers with coffins for their dead.
This is really neat because it gives information about his parents, saying they are from Pittsburgh. No Mention is made of their time in Butler PA. William Hollingsworth makes coffins, which translates very well into the related profession of tombstone manufacturer that Levi Thompson is in 1870. John B becomes a stonecutter instead of a carpenter.
John B. went to school at White
Hall and also at Summitville. He
started to learn the carpenter trade
with his uncle, William Wellington,
then living at Summitville, remain-'
ing with his relative about one year,
then returning to Fairmount and
working at odd jobs until the spring
of 1861.
On April 23, 1861, he en-
listed in Company K, Eighth Indi-
ana Volunteer Infantry, for the
three months' service, remaining
with this regiment until the com-
mand was mustered out on August 6, 1861. He, with Smith Kelsay and
Isaac Smithson, were the first three Fairmount Township men who at the
outbreak of war responded to President Lincoln's call for troops. October
I, 1861, Hollingsworth enlisted in Company H, Twelfth Indiana Volunteer
Infantry, serving seven months in this regiment. With this command he
was discharged May 18, 1862. On August 10, 1862, he volunteered for the
third time, enlisting in Company H, Eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, for
three years, or until the close of the war. The Eighth was mustered out
June 14, 1865. He was with his regiment at the battle of Rich Mountain.
West Virginia, July 12. 1861. During his second enlistment his regiment
was on guard duty, being stationed near Sharpsburg, Maryland, guarding
the Potomac River. During his third enlistment he saw hard service with
the Eighth Indiana Infantry, participating with his command in the battles
of Blackwater. Missouri. Port Gibson, Champion Hills, Jackson, Big Black,
Vicksburg, second battle of Jackson, Hall Town, Oppcquon, New Market.
Cedar Creek and T'isher's Hill. At Cedar Creek, on October 19, 1864. just
before Gen. Phil Sheridan arrived to rally his deinoralized army, Hollings-
worth met Harry Norton, who was then sick. Hollingsworth helped his
comrade along as far as Norton was able to go. The Confederates had at
this point flanked the Union forces and it was a case of every man for him-
self. Norton insisted that Hollingsworth go on and take care of himself,
explaining, after much effort, that he was too sick and too weak, to go far-
ther. Hollingsworth reluctantly left his comrade. The Confederates were
upon them. Hollingsworth wheeled around, fired at his pursuers as he re-
treated, and took to his lucls. making his escape to the Union lines as
bullets were "throwing up dirt all about him." Norton fell into the hands
of the Confederates, and was taken to Libby Prison, where h^ died.
Now I know that William Wellington in Summitville (a township in Van Buren Madison Indiana) is John B Hollingsworth's uncle and is teaching him to be a carpenter before the war. You can also see that Smith Kelsay enters the war with John B Hollingsworth.
In June. 1865, Hollingsworth returned home and for many years successfully
carried on a monument business in Fairmount. - On February 17. 1876, he
was married to Mrs. Hary Hall Hathaway, daughter of William and Han-
nah (Stanfield) Hall, who was born February 11, 1844, in Fairmount Town-
ship. To this union four children were born, namely: Martin L., Morton,
Joseph B. and Sarah L., all deceased except Morton.
And here is the mention of the monument business and stone cutting that I am familiar with. So it seems like John B. Hollingsworth may be the source of Levi's stone cutting after all.
Here is more on William Hollingsworth. Notice the bit about "undertaking goods":
WILLIAM HOLIINGSWORTH, undertaker and cabinetmaker, Fairmount, was
born in Chester County, Penn., June 25, 1811, and is the youngest of a
family of five born to William and Hannah (White) Hollingsworth.
The father was a hatter by trade, and followed that vocation until his
death; he died in 1812, and his wife in 1837. The boyhood of our
subject was very like that of any other Pennsylvania lad of the same
period, and he early in life learned the bitter, but beneficent lesson
of self-dependence, and soon took up the business of life in manly
earnest At the age of eighteen years he began to learn the
cabinet-maker's trade, in Pittsburgh, Penn. After serving his
apprenticeship he worked at his trade in different localities. In 1852
he came to Madison County, Ind., where he opened a furniture shop and
salesroom of his own, which he carried on till 1869. He then moved to
Fairmount, where he conducts an extensive business in all styles of
furniture and undertaking goods. He was married in Pittsburgh, Penn.,
April 25, 1833, to Miss Lucinda Burges, a native of Pennsylvania, bora
October 14, 1814, and died in Fairmount in the year 1881. The
following are the children by this marriage : Wesley B., John B.,
Gilmore, Maria and Isabel. The three sons served in the war of the
Rebellion. Gilmore, the third son, died in Fairmount in 1885. Mr.
Hollingsworth is a member of the United Brethren Church. In politics
he is a Republican.
William Hollingsworth is said to live in Madison County and he's from Chester County PA so this family has been on the move for a few generations.
Now I'm going to post an image from an e-book on Grant county that mentions the Kelsays, and John B along with his stone cutting business. The story is about John Montgomery who worked for John Hollingsworth and the Kelsay brothers who bought John Hollingsworth's business:
Another family name really sticks out to me in this listing. I see there are Brodericks. They're not the exact same Brodericks that Levi Thompson lives with in 1860, but they are a Broderick family from Grant Indiana, just like George Broderick (born in Grant) who lives with Levi.
All of this is just adding some cohesion to what I'm seeing in the census. How did these people come together? Maybe if I keep going I will find out why George Broderick and Levi Thompson name their daughters Frances (and probaby both Rena too). Was it a shared cultural item or a respected person in the community? Did they all attend the same church?
If John B Hollingworth is Levi's friend or employer, why isn't he a witness on Levi's pension file? Did they know each other from Butler PA? Is there something for me to look into in Hudson County Ohio in 1850? Is Pittsburgh a stand in for Butler PA or are the Hollingsworths really from there? Who are the Wellingtons?
Lots of questions that could be pulling me closer to good answers or pulling me further away.
This first one is really interesting because it gives him a birth place outside of Pennsylvania which is unexpected. It also lists the Kelsay family (see set in stone) and gives more information about his life:
JOHN B. HOLLINGSWORTH
Retired monument dealer, was born in Hudson County, Ohio, August 5, 1836. His grandparents were natives of Pittsburgh, as were his parents, William Hollingsworth, born June 5 181 1, and Lucinda, born May 8, 1814. William and Lucinda' Hollingsworth were the parents of six children, namely: Wesley B., John B., Gilmore, Mariah, Isabel and William. In 1856 John B. Hollingsworth came to Fairmount Township with his parents, locating in Fairmount, then a village of about a dozen houses. The father opened the first cabinet shop in the Township, making household furniture of all kinds by hand, and supplying pioneers with coffins for their dead.
This is really neat because it gives information about his parents, saying they are from Pittsburgh. No Mention is made of their time in Butler PA. William Hollingsworth makes coffins, which translates very well into the related profession of tombstone manufacturer that Levi Thompson is in 1870. John B becomes a stonecutter instead of a carpenter.
John B. went to school at White
Hall and also at Summitville. He
started to learn the carpenter trade
with his uncle, William Wellington,
then living at Summitville, remain-'
ing with his relative about one year,
then returning to Fairmount and
working at odd jobs until the spring
of 1861.
On April 23, 1861, he en-
listed in Company K, Eighth Indi-
ana Volunteer Infantry, for the
three months' service, remaining
with this regiment until the com-
mand was mustered out on August 6, 1861. He, with Smith Kelsay and
Isaac Smithson, were the first three Fairmount Township men who at the
outbreak of war responded to President Lincoln's call for troops. October
I, 1861, Hollingsworth enlisted in Company H, Twelfth Indiana Volunteer
Infantry, serving seven months in this regiment. With this command he
was discharged May 18, 1862. On August 10, 1862, he volunteered for the
third time, enlisting in Company H, Eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, for
three years, or until the close of the war. The Eighth was mustered out
June 14, 1865. He was with his regiment at the battle of Rich Mountain.
West Virginia, July 12. 1861. During his second enlistment his regiment
was on guard duty, being stationed near Sharpsburg, Maryland, guarding
the Potomac River. During his third enlistment he saw hard service with
the Eighth Indiana Infantry, participating with his command in the battles
of Blackwater. Missouri. Port Gibson, Champion Hills, Jackson, Big Black,
Vicksburg, second battle of Jackson, Hall Town, Oppcquon, New Market.
Cedar Creek and T'isher's Hill. At Cedar Creek, on October 19, 1864. just
before Gen. Phil Sheridan arrived to rally his deinoralized army, Hollings-
worth met Harry Norton, who was then sick. Hollingsworth helped his
comrade along as far as Norton was able to go. The Confederates had at
this point flanked the Union forces and it was a case of every man for him-
self. Norton insisted that Hollingsworth go on and take care of himself,
explaining, after much effort, that he was too sick and too weak, to go far-
ther. Hollingsworth reluctantly left his comrade. The Confederates were
upon them. Hollingsworth wheeled around, fired at his pursuers as he re-
treated, and took to his lucls. making his escape to the Union lines as
bullets were "throwing up dirt all about him." Norton fell into the hands
of the Confederates, and was taken to Libby Prison, where h^ died.
Now I know that William Wellington in Summitville (a township in Van Buren Madison Indiana) is John B Hollingsworth's uncle and is teaching him to be a carpenter before the war. You can also see that Smith Kelsay enters the war with John B Hollingsworth.
In June. 1865, Hollingsworth returned home and for many years successfully
carried on a monument business in Fairmount. - On February 17. 1876, he
was married to Mrs. Hary Hall Hathaway, daughter of William and Han-
nah (Stanfield) Hall, who was born February 11, 1844, in Fairmount Town-
ship. To this union four children were born, namely: Martin L., Morton,
Joseph B. and Sarah L., all deceased except Morton.
And here is the mention of the monument business and stone cutting that I am familiar with. So it seems like John B. Hollingsworth may be the source of Levi's stone cutting after all.
Here is more on William Hollingsworth. Notice the bit about "undertaking goods":
WILLIAM HOLIINGSWORTH, undertaker and cabinetmaker, Fairmount, was
born in Chester County, Penn., June 25, 1811, and is the youngest of a
family of five born to William and Hannah (White) Hollingsworth.
The father was a hatter by trade, and followed that vocation until his
death; he died in 1812, and his wife in 1837. The boyhood of our
subject was very like that of any other Pennsylvania lad of the same
period, and he early in life learned the bitter, but beneficent lesson
of self-dependence, and soon took up the business of life in manly
earnest At the age of eighteen years he began to learn the
cabinet-maker's trade, in Pittsburgh, Penn. After serving his
apprenticeship he worked at his trade in different localities. In 1852
he came to Madison County, Ind., where he opened a furniture shop and
salesroom of his own, which he carried on till 1869. He then moved to
Fairmount, where he conducts an extensive business in all styles of
furniture and undertaking goods. He was married in Pittsburgh, Penn.,
April 25, 1833, to Miss Lucinda Burges, a native of Pennsylvania, bora
October 14, 1814, and died in Fairmount in the year 1881. The
following are the children by this marriage : Wesley B., John B.,
Gilmore, Maria and Isabel. The three sons served in the war of the
Rebellion. Gilmore, the third son, died in Fairmount in 1885. Mr.
Hollingsworth is a member of the United Brethren Church. In politics
he is a Republican.
William Hollingsworth is said to live in Madison County and he's from Chester County PA so this family has been on the move for a few generations.
Now I'm going to post an image from an e-book on Grant county that mentions the Kelsays, and John B along with his stone cutting business. The story is about John Montgomery who worked for John Hollingsworth and the Kelsay brothers who bought John Hollingsworth's business:
Why I find this exciting stuff is that it helps me put a timeline and frame in when Levi Thompson became a stone cutter and tombstone manufacturer. It also means there may be more to look into in Grant county and maybe something of interest in the Wellington family.
It gives me the idea that when Levi returned from the war and wasn't fit to be a farmer, John B Hollingsworth gave him a job as a stone cutter. So chances are, Levi lived in Madison county but worked in Grant.
This final bit is about the Methodist Episcopal Church in Grant County. William Hollingsworth was a member of the United Brethren, some united brethren were Moravians but I think in this case it is a Methodist church and was probably the Unity Church in Grant County. William Hollingsworth's children seem to be attracted to the Methodist church as I see familiar names like Isabel Hollingsworth among the congregation.
The Methodist Episcopal Church, of Fairmount, was originally or-
ganized in 1 86 1. The first services were held in the old frame school
house,* which, at that time, stood on the east side of Walnut Street,
between First and Second.
The charter members were William H. Broderick, class leader ;
Agnes Broderick, Joseph Broderick, Martha Broderick, David Baldwin,
Elizabeth Baldwin, Martha A. Wilcuts, Hannah Wilcuts, M. M. Mason
and Anna Mason.
In 1864 the membership had increased by the addition of the fol-
lowing names : John R. Kirkwood, Phebe Kirkwood, George N. Eck-
feld, Sarah M. Eckfeld, (Mary H. Moreland, Mahala Ward, Martha A.
Smith, Thomas J. Parker, Rebecca Parker, John Shields, Martha
Shields, John S. Bradford, Louisia Williams, Rachel Fankboner, Sarah
Moreland, Jane Knight, Delilah Hollingsworth, Wesley B. Hollings-
worth and Isabel Hollingsworth.
ganized in 1 86 1. The first services were held in the old frame school
house,* which, at that time, stood on the east side of Walnut Street,
between First and Second.
The charter members were William H. Broderick, class leader ;
Agnes Broderick, Joseph Broderick, Martha Broderick, David Baldwin,
Elizabeth Baldwin, Martha A. Wilcuts, Hannah Wilcuts, M. M. Mason
and Anna Mason.
In 1864 the membership had increased by the addition of the fol-
lowing names : John R. Kirkwood, Phebe Kirkwood, George N. Eck-
feld, Sarah M. Eckfeld, (Mary H. Moreland, Mahala Ward, Martha A.
Smith, Thomas J. Parker, Rebecca Parker, John Shields, Martha
Shields, John S. Bradford, Louisia Williams, Rachel Fankboner, Sarah
Moreland, Jane Knight, Delilah Hollingsworth, Wesley B. Hollings-
worth and Isabel Hollingsworth.
Another family name really sticks out to me in this listing. I see there are Brodericks. They're not the exact same Brodericks that Levi Thompson lives with in 1860, but they are a Broderick family from Grant Indiana, just like George Broderick (born in Grant) who lives with Levi.
All of this is just adding some cohesion to what I'm seeing in the census. How did these people come together? Maybe if I keep going I will find out why George Broderick and Levi Thompson name their daughters Frances (and probaby both Rena too). Was it a shared cultural item or a respected person in the community? Did they all attend the same church?
If John B Hollingworth is Levi's friend or employer, why isn't he a witness on Levi's pension file? Did they know each other from Butler PA? Is there something for me to look into in Hudson County Ohio in 1850? Is Pittsburgh a stand in for Butler PA or are the Hollingsworths really from there? Who are the Wellingtons?
Lots of questions that could be pulling me closer to good answers or pulling me further away.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
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.
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.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
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.
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) *
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.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Set in Stone
Following up on the stonemasons that live around Levi in the 1860 Census, I found John B. Hollingsworth from Butler Pennsylvania living with a Kelso Family. He is listed under a "Smith" Kelso who is also a stonecutter. Smith Kelso actually is Smith Kelsay and is part of the Kelsay family that moves to Indiana from Ohio. I believe Smith may be Robert's much younger brother...or his son. In which case he would have been born before his parents were married.
Robert Kelsay (born around 1809 in VA) the head of the family is listed as a farmer in 1860. In 1850 when there is no Levi Thompson or John B Hollingsworth in Van Buren Indiana, Robert Kelsay is listed as a stonemason. His wife Hannah is from Pennsylvania. In family trees is shows that they were married in 1843 in Paris Ohio and gives Hannah's name as Hannah Minyoung.
Robert Kelsay has a son named Albert Kelsay. Alberts always get my attention. I attempted to find a connection for Hannah Minyoung in Pennsylvania, but couldn't find any.
At a minimum, I think this is the source for Levi's tombstone manufacturing after the civil war. It would seem to me that he and John B. Hollingsworth picked up the skill after they moved to Indiana and lived with or near Robert Kelsay and family.
Whether there is some further connection between these people, I don't know.
I was able to follow up on the Hollingsworths a bit more. John B. Hollingsworth's mother was Lucinda Burgess, in family trees she is shown as being born in Pittsburgh. John B's father William Hollingsworth born 1811 is shown in family trees to be from Chester county PA. They have a daughter Isabella who was born in 1848 and a son Gilmore who was born in 1838.
Of course, as I've probably mentioned before when looking at the John Thompson and Jane Stevenson, the Bayer family and other Thompsons all from North Butler...the name Isabella seems to repeat. The Thompsons, Bayers and Hollingsworths all seem to have Isabellas and sometimes multiple generations of them.
It's too bad Levi didn't have an Isabella in his mix of children. That would be an awesome pattern match.
Robert Kelsay (born around 1809 in VA) the head of the family is listed as a farmer in 1860. In 1850 when there is no Levi Thompson or John B Hollingsworth in Van Buren Indiana, Robert Kelsay is listed as a stonemason. His wife Hannah is from Pennsylvania. In family trees is shows that they were married in 1843 in Paris Ohio and gives Hannah's name as Hannah Minyoung.
Robert Kelsay has a son named Albert Kelsay. Alberts always get my attention. I attempted to find a connection for Hannah Minyoung in Pennsylvania, but couldn't find any.
At a minimum, I think this is the source for Levi's tombstone manufacturing after the civil war. It would seem to me that he and John B. Hollingsworth picked up the skill after they moved to Indiana and lived with or near Robert Kelsay and family.
Whether there is some further connection between these people, I don't know.
I was able to follow up on the Hollingsworths a bit more. John B. Hollingsworth's mother was Lucinda Burgess, in family trees she is shown as being born in Pittsburgh. John B's father William Hollingsworth born 1811 is shown in family trees to be from Chester county PA. They have a daughter Isabella who was born in 1848 and a son Gilmore who was born in 1838.
Of course, as I've probably mentioned before when looking at the John Thompson and Jane Stevenson, the Bayer family and other Thompsons all from North Butler...the name Isabella seems to repeat. The Thompsons, Bayers and Hollingsworths all seem to have Isabellas and sometimes multiple generations of them.
It's too bad Levi didn't have an Isabella in his mix of children. That would be an awesome pattern match.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
John Bayer 1782 Butler PA
I attempted some follow up on the Thompson children living with John Bayer born 1782 in Ireland. These are further Thompsons who live near John B Hollingsworth in Butler PA.
There are multiple names in North Butler at the time that seem like I might be looking at an extended family. John Bayer has a wife named Isabelle in the census. His daughter is named Margaret B Bayer born 1828. The Thompsons living with him are John born 1833, Mary born 1835 and Isabelle the youngest.
Also in North Butler is a woman named Margaret Thompson born in the 1760s in Ireland with another woman named Isabelle Thompson who is in her 50s living with her. That's a lot of Isabelles and Margarets between these two families and it makes me suspect some sort of relationship. It also makes me suspect some missing male Thompsons.
It's possibly of interest that in the same 1850 census Jane (Stevenson) Thompson (b 1781) is living with her adult son David William Thompson and Nathaniel S Thompson. Her husband John Thompson having died in the 1840s. Jane would be about 69 here, which is one reason I doubt she could be the mother of Levi Thompson, she would have been 53 when he was born in 1834. So there is at least one missing male Thompson that I know of.
In at least one family tree for John Thompson and Jane Stevenson I see a daughter named Isabella. In all the trees I have John Thompson is listed as being born around 1770 which would make him about 10 years older than Jane Stevenson. If I make some conjectures given the relative ages of people, it seems like John and Jane have at least one child born around 1802 (Samuel). The Isabell listed with Margaret is in her 50s (I'll have to recheck the record). That would put her birth date around 1800. This could be John's child..possibly an oldest daughter. Margaret born in the 1760s could be a sibling to John..she doesn't seem old enough to be a parent, but then the 1770 date for John's birth may be a best guess.
They could be totally unrelated Thompsons in the same town. I've seen that enough.
I couldn't track the Bayer family any further than this single census because I'm not sure their name is spelled correctly..in 1840 there are Barrs, Bears and Berrs in Butler.. and with one daughter of marrying age and parents near their 70s, they just may not exist as a unit beyond this point. "John" and "Mary" Thompsons will be hard to track. Isabelle offers the best hope because of her relatively young age and fairly unique name.
Also in this family, John Thompson living with John Bayer would have to BE Levi Thompson. What I'm really hoping for here is sort of what I found with my Williamsons. If I looked at the Census That listed Henry Williamson with his mother and no father, a few houses away was his grandfather..sitting there the whole time. I can't say with a certainty who his father was but I have a few candidates among the Williamson men who all died around the same time that would fit well.
Similarly Levi and his parents may just fall into a record gap I can't get past. Not all the children of these Thompson patriarchs are known or documented, but if I can jump over is parents to find his grandparents (like I did with Henry Williamson), I might get a lot closer to piecing this together and maybe with the help of genetics, work it the other way around.
It's possible that these people who live near John B. Hollingsworth represent a larger family we're tied to. It's a funny quirk of being a Thompson that even here when I've got a very narrow search I turn up at least two totally separate Thompson families. Still it gives me a bit of hope to think that I may be looking at aunts, uncles, cousins or if I'm really lucky, grandparents for Levi.
There are multiple names in North Butler at the time that seem like I might be looking at an extended family. John Bayer has a wife named Isabelle in the census. His daughter is named Margaret B Bayer born 1828. The Thompsons living with him are John born 1833, Mary born 1835 and Isabelle the youngest.
Also in North Butler is a woman named Margaret Thompson born in the 1760s in Ireland with another woman named Isabelle Thompson who is in her 50s living with her. That's a lot of Isabelles and Margarets between these two families and it makes me suspect some sort of relationship. It also makes me suspect some missing male Thompsons.
It's possibly of interest that in the same 1850 census Jane (Stevenson) Thompson (b 1781) is living with her adult son David William Thompson and Nathaniel S Thompson. Her husband John Thompson having died in the 1840s. Jane would be about 69 here, which is one reason I doubt she could be the mother of Levi Thompson, she would have been 53 when he was born in 1834. So there is at least one missing male Thompson that I know of.
In at least one family tree for John Thompson and Jane Stevenson I see a daughter named Isabella. In all the trees I have John Thompson is listed as being born around 1770 which would make him about 10 years older than Jane Stevenson. If I make some conjectures given the relative ages of people, it seems like John and Jane have at least one child born around 1802 (Samuel). The Isabell listed with Margaret is in her 50s (I'll have to recheck the record). That would put her birth date around 1800. This could be John's child..possibly an oldest daughter. Margaret born in the 1760s could be a sibling to John..she doesn't seem old enough to be a parent, but then the 1770 date for John's birth may be a best guess.
They could be totally unrelated Thompsons in the same town. I've seen that enough.
I couldn't track the Bayer family any further than this single census because I'm not sure their name is spelled correctly..in 1840 there are Barrs, Bears and Berrs in Butler.. and with one daughter of marrying age and parents near their 70s, they just may not exist as a unit beyond this point. "John" and "Mary" Thompsons will be hard to track. Isabelle offers the best hope because of her relatively young age and fairly unique name.
Also in this family, John Thompson living with John Bayer would have to BE Levi Thompson. What I'm really hoping for here is sort of what I found with my Williamsons. If I looked at the Census That listed Henry Williamson with his mother and no father, a few houses away was his grandfather..sitting there the whole time. I can't say with a certainty who his father was but I have a few candidates among the Williamson men who all died around the same time that would fit well.
Similarly Levi and his parents may just fall into a record gap I can't get past. Not all the children of these Thompson patriarchs are known or documented, but if I can jump over is parents to find his grandparents (like I did with Henry Williamson), I might get a lot closer to piecing this together and maybe with the help of genetics, work it the other way around.
It's possible that these people who live near John B. Hollingsworth represent a larger family we're tied to. It's a funny quirk of being a Thompson that even here when I've got a very narrow search I turn up at least two totally separate Thompson families. Still it gives me a bit of hope to think that I may be looking at aunts, uncles, cousins or if I'm really lucky, grandparents for Levi.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
A Comforting Thought and Some Follow Up on Carles
First some follow up on Carles Thompson.
It turns out that Carles Thompson and Susannah from Butler County PA (see last post Hollingsworths next door) are actually Charles Thompson and Susannah Colby from Butler County PA. I was able to find some family history on them. Charles is born in Massachusetts and his daughters marry Washington Perry Smith (ironically born in Indiana). Charles' son Warren dies in the area before his son Michael. No Levis are mentioned in the material I found.
Charles has some interesting connections to Allisons from the History of Butler County:
Mr. SMITH has been an active worker in the Republican party
since its organization, has held the office of school director for
sixteen years, and has always manifested a laudable interest in the
progress of the public schools. He was married in 1848, to Harriet, a
daughter of Charles THOMPSON, of Massachusetts. She died in 1850,
leaving one child, who died in early youth. His second wife was
Emeline THOMPSON, a sister of his first wife, to whom have been born
five children, as [p. 1073] follows: Harriet N., wife of John N.
ALLISON;
JAMES ALLISON, a native of Ireland, first settled in Maryland, and
came to Centre township, Butler county, Pennsylvania, in 1802. He
purchased 300 acres of land, and cleared a farm, a portion of which is
now in possession of his grandson, John ALLISON, the old homestead
being owned by O. D. THOMPSON. Mr. ALLISON married a Miss THOMPSON,
and his family were as follows: Frank; William; Robert; Margaret, who
married James PHILLIPS, and Ellen, who married Henry THOMAS
Now for the comforting thought.
John B. Hollingsworth and family from my last post make their way to Indiana between 1850 and 1860, without any decade of layover in Ohio. That means to me that my searches in Ohio may be fruitless. It's comforting though because it means that people really did just leave Butler PA and move to Madison Indiana. The family of Howell D. Thompson seems to make a similar trip from York PA to Randolf, Grant and Madison county Indiana so it's not uncommon at all.
What is uncommon to me is how I can track all these other families back to Pennsylvania, but not Levi. I've tracked multiple Thompson families in the Madison area and I can't get any of them back to Butler County PA. What makes me feel a lot better about this lack of data is that I CAN get John B. Hollingsworth, neighbor in 1860, back to Butler.
If Levi is on the up and up and he really is just misrepresented in the census records or in the index of those records (as he has been in every one I've found) then at least I have circumstantial evidence of other Butler-ites in the same town..one house away in Madison Indiana.
If Levi is not on the up and up and possibly doesn't even know his origins, but borrowed a background to make life easier when he joined the Army. Then I have a person he would have associated with who influenced him enough to give him some kind of past and a profession he would fall back on when times became hard.
Either way, he didn't just appear in Madison Indiana like a magic rabbit and that, to me anyway, is comforting.
Now I should check into the family that John B. Hollingsworth is living with because there is another stone cutter there and I need to look at the three Thompson children living with the Bayer/Boyers in North Butler.
Then of course there is the matter of John Thompson and Jane Stevenson's children. John dies in the 1840s, that doesn't count him out as a father of Levi but it's cutting it close. His other sons would be a decade or more older in that scenario. I have a few sons listed for John and Jane with no ages assigned. Any of them could be parents of Levi too.
The trail though really seems to stop at John. He is from Lancaster or Chartier's creek, and is one of the many faces of John Thompson in Butler. He may be the one with 11 children...or he may not.
It turns out that Carles Thompson and Susannah from Butler County PA (see last post Hollingsworths next door) are actually Charles Thompson and Susannah Colby from Butler County PA. I was able to find some family history on them. Charles is born in Massachusetts and his daughters marry Washington Perry Smith (ironically born in Indiana). Charles' son Warren dies in the area before his son Michael. No Levis are mentioned in the material I found.
Charles has some interesting connections to Allisons from the History of Butler County:
Mr. SMITH has been an active worker in the Republican party
since its organization, has held the office of school director for
sixteen years, and has always manifested a laudable interest in the
progress of the public schools. He was married in 1848, to Harriet, a
daughter of Charles THOMPSON, of Massachusetts. She died in 1850,
leaving one child, who died in early youth. His second wife was
Emeline THOMPSON, a sister of his first wife, to whom have been born
five children, as [p. 1073] follows: Harriet N., wife of John N.
ALLISON;
JAMES ALLISON, a native of Ireland, first settled in Maryland, and
came to Centre township, Butler county, Pennsylvania, in 1802. He
purchased 300 acres of land, and cleared a farm, a portion of which is
now in possession of his grandson, John ALLISON, the old homestead
being owned by O. D. THOMPSON. Mr. ALLISON married a Miss THOMPSON,
and his family were as follows: Frank; William; Robert; Margaret, who
married James PHILLIPS, and Ellen, who married Henry THOMAS
Now for the comforting thought.
John B. Hollingsworth and family from my last post make their way to Indiana between 1850 and 1860, without any decade of layover in Ohio. That means to me that my searches in Ohio may be fruitless. It's comforting though because it means that people really did just leave Butler PA and move to Madison Indiana. The family of Howell D. Thompson seems to make a similar trip from York PA to Randolf, Grant and Madison county Indiana so it's not uncommon at all.
What is uncommon to me is how I can track all these other families back to Pennsylvania, but not Levi. I've tracked multiple Thompson families in the Madison area and I can't get any of them back to Butler County PA. What makes me feel a lot better about this lack of data is that I CAN get John B. Hollingsworth, neighbor in 1860, back to Butler.
If Levi is on the up and up and he really is just misrepresented in the census records or in the index of those records (as he has been in every one I've found) then at least I have circumstantial evidence of other Butler-ites in the same town..one house away in Madison Indiana.
If Levi is not on the up and up and possibly doesn't even know his origins, but borrowed a background to make life easier when he joined the Army. Then I have a person he would have associated with who influenced him enough to give him some kind of past and a profession he would fall back on when times became hard.
Either way, he didn't just appear in Madison Indiana like a magic rabbit and that, to me anyway, is comforting.
Now I should check into the family that John B. Hollingsworth is living with because there is another stone cutter there and I need to look at the three Thompson children living with the Bayer/Boyers in North Butler.
Then of course there is the matter of John Thompson and Jane Stevenson's children. John dies in the 1840s, that doesn't count him out as a father of Levi but it's cutting it close. His other sons would be a decade or more older in that scenario. I have a few sons listed for John and Jane with no ages assigned. Any of them could be parents of Levi too.
The trail though really seems to stop at John. He is from Lancaster or Chartier's creek, and is one of the many faces of John Thompson in Butler. He may be the one with 11 children...or he may not.
Hollingsworths Next Door
With our paternity in question and just more confusion in the world of DNA, I decided to go back and look at the people around Levi again. I'm sure I've noted in the past that the person living next door to Levi in Van Buren Indiana in 1860 is a Stonemason and wondered openly if that is where Levi got his start in that trade. This time I looked more closely at the people involved. There are actually two stone masons living next door to Levi and interestingly enough, one of them is a Hollingsworth from Pennsylvania.
That name always gets my attention so I decided to follow up on him. He is around the same age as Levi, living in the same area, also with a seemingly unrelated family (Levi is living with the Brodericks) and he's from Pennsylvania. Worth looking into.
It turns out he is not alone. The rest of his family is in Fairmount, Grant, Indiana. Just a few miles away from the Alexandria area. In 1870 John B. Hollingsworth ends up living in Grant with his parents (nice) and just like Levi he seems to forget where he was born. Close families often travel together, so I thought I would look through Grant Indiana for some Thompsons.
There are two families of Thompsons I've found so far. One is the family of a James Thompson who lives there in 1850 as well and is from Virginia. The other is the family of Samuel R. Thompson who is a brother of Howell D. Thompson who is well remembered in the history of Madison County Indiana. Howell D. Thompson's father John L. Thompson lives in Randolph Indiana and is from York Pennsylvania. (He is also a suspect. His wife dies in 1839. I haven't gotten a good 1850 record for him, Howell D is living separately in Pendelton Indiana in 1850.)
Neither Samuel R. or James from VA shows a Levi or even a male child of a similar age, so...darn. Of course I've already been through Grant County in the past and didn't find Levi there, but it's worth a try.
Next I stepped back in time to 1850 to see where the Hollingsworths were and who lived around them. With John B. Hollingsworth's whole family for reference, he was actually pretty easy to find. In North Butler, Butler County, Pennsylvania.
Hold the phone! Things I know about Levi Thompson, he's born in Butler County Pennsylvania and moves to Madison Indiana sometime before 1855. He is a farmer but after the war becomes a stonemason or Tombstone manufacturer.
Things I now know about John B. Hollingsworth, he's born in Butler County Pennsylvania and moves to Madison Indiana sometime before 1860. He's a stonemason. Now that is a bit weird.
I started to wonder about a lot of things, like why are these guys so similar? How is it that I can find John B. Hollingsworth, practically a clone of Levi Thompson (or maybe the other way around) but I can't find Levi? What kind of ninja is Levi Thompson?
Well, then my next step was to go through the 1850 census in North Butler, Butler Pennsylvania and look for Thompsons..which I would expect to find because Butler PA is awful with Thompsons. I find three families of Thompsons.
One family consists of several Thompson children living with a Bayer or Boyer family. No Levi Thompsons. The second is a family of Thompsons who is lead by a man listed as Carles (there is no H) and his wife. Carles is from Massachusetts his wife is from Vermont. Again, No Levi Thompsons. The other Thompson family is one I've seen before. It's Jane (Stephenson/Stevenson) Thompson and her son David and Nathaniel Stevenson Thompson. Their father John Thompson is dead. He is sometimes linked with John, James and Matthew threesome of brothers who settle in Center and Franklin, Butler PA. No Levi Thompsons.
Again here, I've already been through the Butler censuses for 1850 and didn't see Levi Thompson then either so no big surprise there. Given our DNA results, I thought maybe I should do a search for males who were not Thompsons but were about the right age and came up with a laundry list of 15 year olds in North Butler.
Of course the Hollingsworths were there, but also scattered around the Stephenson Thompsons were just plain old Stephensons. The Stephenson Thompsons are living in a cluster of Stephensons in 1850. Nathaniel Stevenson Thompson is named after Jane Thompson's father Nathaniel Stevenson who is a pioneer from Scotland I believe. Jane and her sons must have been living around what I imagine is her sibling's family. Among these Stephenson's there was one record that was interesting. A male child listed as (something) N. Stephenson at the end of a list of Stephensons. I believe he is not a direct descendant of the head of household because he is listed after the entire family down to a 2 year old (which is what I see often with unrelated children). Although I'm sure I'm imagining it, the first letter looked a lot like an L to me.
I was at the point that I was convincing myself it was an L I was seeing and that the census taker had mislabeled that last boy as a Stephenson when he obviously was L. N. Thompson. Then I conjectured that Levi Thompson was obviously this L. N. Thompson the son of John Thompson and Jane Stephenson and that he left Pennsylvania with a friend named John B. Hollingsworth and moved to Madison Indiana with him. That was when I realized that it is way too easy to assign too much meaning to these coincidences.
Still, even without that last bit of fever dream, there are an awful lot of similarities with these two men John B. Hollingsworth and Levi Thompson with their proximity in 1860 and the same birthplace and later the same occupation. I think it will be worth further investigation.
That name always gets my attention so I decided to follow up on him. He is around the same age as Levi, living in the same area, also with a seemingly unrelated family (Levi is living with the Brodericks) and he's from Pennsylvania. Worth looking into.
It turns out he is not alone. The rest of his family is in Fairmount, Grant, Indiana. Just a few miles away from the Alexandria area. In 1870 John B. Hollingsworth ends up living in Grant with his parents (nice) and just like Levi he seems to forget where he was born. Close families often travel together, so I thought I would look through Grant Indiana for some Thompsons.
There are two families of Thompsons I've found so far. One is the family of a James Thompson who lives there in 1850 as well and is from Virginia. The other is the family of Samuel R. Thompson who is a brother of Howell D. Thompson who is well remembered in the history of Madison County Indiana. Howell D. Thompson's father John L. Thompson lives in Randolph Indiana and is from York Pennsylvania. (He is also a suspect. His wife dies in 1839. I haven't gotten a good 1850 record for him, Howell D is living separately in Pendelton Indiana in 1850.)
Neither Samuel R. or James from VA shows a Levi or even a male child of a similar age, so...darn. Of course I've already been through Grant County in the past and didn't find Levi there, but it's worth a try.
Next I stepped back in time to 1850 to see where the Hollingsworths were and who lived around them. With John B. Hollingsworth's whole family for reference, he was actually pretty easy to find. In North Butler, Butler County, Pennsylvania.
Hold the phone! Things I know about Levi Thompson, he's born in Butler County Pennsylvania and moves to Madison Indiana sometime before 1855. He is a farmer but after the war becomes a stonemason or Tombstone manufacturer.
Things I now know about John B. Hollingsworth, he's born in Butler County Pennsylvania and moves to Madison Indiana sometime before 1860. He's a stonemason. Now that is a bit weird.
I started to wonder about a lot of things, like why are these guys so similar? How is it that I can find John B. Hollingsworth, practically a clone of Levi Thompson (or maybe the other way around) but I can't find Levi? What kind of ninja is Levi Thompson?
Well, then my next step was to go through the 1850 census in North Butler, Butler Pennsylvania and look for Thompsons..which I would expect to find because Butler PA is awful with Thompsons. I find three families of Thompsons.
One family consists of several Thompson children living with a Bayer or Boyer family. No Levi Thompsons. The second is a family of Thompsons who is lead by a man listed as Carles (there is no H) and his wife. Carles is from Massachusetts his wife is from Vermont. Again, No Levi Thompsons. The other Thompson family is one I've seen before. It's Jane (Stephenson/Stevenson) Thompson and her son David and Nathaniel Stevenson Thompson. Their father John Thompson is dead. He is sometimes linked with John, James and Matthew threesome of brothers who settle in Center and Franklin, Butler PA. No Levi Thompsons.
Again here, I've already been through the Butler censuses for 1850 and didn't see Levi Thompson then either so no big surprise there. Given our DNA results, I thought maybe I should do a search for males who were not Thompsons but were about the right age and came up with a laundry list of 15 year olds in North Butler.
Of course the Hollingsworths were there, but also scattered around the Stephenson Thompsons were just plain old Stephensons. The Stephenson Thompsons are living in a cluster of Stephensons in 1850. Nathaniel Stevenson Thompson is named after Jane Thompson's father Nathaniel Stevenson who is a pioneer from Scotland I believe. Jane and her sons must have been living around what I imagine is her sibling's family. Among these Stephenson's there was one record that was interesting. A male child listed as (something) N. Stephenson at the end of a list of Stephensons. I believe he is not a direct descendant of the head of household because he is listed after the entire family down to a 2 year old (which is what I see often with unrelated children). Although I'm sure I'm imagining it, the first letter looked a lot like an L to me.
I was at the point that I was convincing myself it was an L I was seeing and that the census taker had mislabeled that last boy as a Stephenson when he obviously was L. N. Thompson. Then I conjectured that Levi Thompson was obviously this L. N. Thompson the son of John Thompson and Jane Stephenson and that he left Pennsylvania with a friend named John B. Hollingsworth and moved to Madison Indiana with him. That was when I realized that it is way too easy to assign too much meaning to these coincidences.
Still, even without that last bit of fever dream, there are an awful lot of similarities with these two men John B. Hollingsworth and Levi Thompson with their proximity in 1860 and the same birthplace and later the same occupation. I think it will be worth further investigation.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Thompsons Thompsons Everywhere
So now I have another ball in the air. These Berks PA Thompsons. Without more details on where their information comes from, I can't say what to do with them. Is it a story, does it come from a church record, are there siblings for Levi? With a birth and death date for Albert E Thompson it seems like it has some source, but what is it? Were they passing through Butler PA when Levi was born? Is that baptismal record for Albert the right Albert? I just can't say, and there it hangs. I can't add them in.
I also can't add in any Thompsons from Butler PA. There are great candidates, but there are too many candidates and without some tangible proof like a church or census record..there's nothing I can do with those. The only thing I can think to do is go through any church records I can find in Butler PA for some sort of baptism record for Levi.
With my results from FTDNA in, I'm left to think that we're most likely from Southern or Southeast England and with all my Danish candidates falling away, it would appear that we're Saxon English, or at least that my father and I are. Then all my other English matches fell away and left just one single Elmer match. Along with that record comes the realization that I still don't match any Thompsons on the Y in any database. In fact, I've only gotten further away from the ones I had hoped to get closer to. The idea of an NPE becomes more likely.
As was pointed out to me in the past, The Elmers do overlap with a Thompson family in the 1700s in New Jersey. I have some autosomal matches who are related to that Thompson family and the Elmer family with them. What to do with them? If I recall, some of those Thompsons do make their way to Pennsylvania. I probably should do a survey of them to make sure of it. The time between those New Jersey Thompsons and Elmers and Levi gets kind of tight though especially if I am to consider the Berks PA Thompsons (Albert E's parents) who were likely born in the 1780s. That is assuming that an NPE would occur between those families.
There is also the point to consider that an NPE can happen at any time. I'm definitely related to my father, but now I would need to search for possible Elmer parents at every generation back along my male line. From the advice of others in the genetic genealogy community, I should consider this seriously and proceed accordingly.
So, genetically speaking, I need to figure out when this may have happened. Of course that requires still more testing. On the Y side, the advice is to test other known Thompson relatives. For instance, my father and I match, but what about the Indiana Thompsons. If they don't match then we could suspect an NPE between Albert 1870 and my Grandfather 1925. There is also the possibility that if they don't match me, that they match a group of known Thompsons, which would be nice. If they do match then we would suspect an NPE from Albert 1870 back.
Also, I should continue working with the Elmer family to see if our match gets closer over time. So I would need to order more SNP testing to make sure we're still on the same branch of R1b-U106 and the 67 marker test at FTDNA to make sure we don't diverge too much. All of that is because there is still the possibility that even that match falls apart and we are then probably just men who are related way back beyond any records I'll find. At that point if the Elmers fall away, it would be good to have those other Thompson results, matching or not to continue with.
Autosomal testing comes into play too. I should have at least one of the Indiana Thompsons tested at 23 and me (which has been my plan) to see where they overlap with my father. It could be very telling if they share the same autosomal matches that contain Elmer related people. It would, also remove my paternal grandmother (directly but not indirectly as they are probably also related to her like everyone in america). They may also have some matches that my father does not, that further point us in a good direction.
It seems that every time I lop a head off this thing, two heads grow in it's place. No one said it would be easy, to the contrary, I was absolutely told it could not be done. This day at least, I'm starting to feel the sting of that statement. Every possibility from the past is still open and more are being added.
Will I be able to pull this swirling miasma into some sort of shape before I run out of resources?
Friday, June 29, 2012
John Thompson - the man of a thousand faces
This is a fools errand. The whole thing really, but especially this track of trying to find John Thompson from Centre Butler PA. Given my options, I thought it would be good to review my notes on John Thompson (listed here as a pioneer of the Pittsburgh area and moving into Butler county from Washington county.)
The reason I picked this one to try to follow up on is (from my last post) I have a couple of genetic relatives with ties to Washington PA and one of them is a Thompson while the other has Allisons. On this particular page of the history I found James Allison along with this description of John Thompson.
"John THOMPSON, also one of the Irish pioneers of the Pittsburg region, came from Washington county in 1796 with his wife and eleven children, and made his home here until death removed him, in 1845. "
Also listed here in a tax roll along with James and Matthew, Matthew has been a focus of mine in the past:
"John THOMPSON, 400, and James and Matthew THOMPSON, no lands taxed. The men named located in this township, while James, George and William MOORE, Lewis WILSON, Henry MONTOOTH, Eliakim ANDERSON and Charles SULLIVAN, who formed part of the company of sixty colonists, located in what is now Franklin township."
I included the next sentence as I've also tried to explore the relationships of Thompsons and Moores as well as trying to follow up on Eliakim Anderson who, if I remember correctly moves on to Indiana with the Coates family that I have also looked into because of genetic relatives. The city of Anderson Indiana where several of my Thompsons lived being named after Chief Anderson, himself from Pennsylvania I believe. Anyway, these are many of the names that swirl around when I start digging around in the past.
On that same page in the Butler county history is James Allison listed just after Nathaniel Stevenson:
"Nathaniel STEVENSON, mentioned in the history of Franklin township, located here with his wife Mary ALLEN in 1797.
James ALLISON, whose name appears on the first records of the county, came, it is said, after the Indian scare subsided. His son, William, improved upon the scythe by converting it into a cradle and leading all the men in the grain field. "
It's interesting to note that the Stevensons do marry into the Thompson family in Butler.
Unfortunately, James Allison doesn't come along with a description of where he came from.
So this one page had enough floating references to get my attention and made me want to check up on John Thompson again. I immediately ran into several problems. This particular John Thompson, or one very similar, is attributed to many families on Ancestry.com.
So what do I have for John Thompson, his wife and 11 children. Well, I have a letter from a researcher that attaches John Thompson to Judith Bodine both born around 1752 in Ireland. This family leads to James Marion Thompson and Sarah Gilliland and then on down to a Hogg family which caught my attention because of several Hogg genetic matches. Referenced here on another person's site and in the letter I have. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mooreorless/thompson.htm
This is great except that there is another John Thompson/Judith Bodine pair from New Jersey. They are born about 20 years earlier in 1734 (rather than 1752 listed for John Thompson from Butler PA) and instead of Judith being Irish like John Thompson from Butler, she is Dutch and French..ish. You can see some of this confusion in the file I linked above.
Here is more on the New Jersey Thompson Bodine Family:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bodine/n3956.html
and a tree listing John Thompson who marries Hannah Vansickle:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bodine/f6150.html
So we have two John Thompsons and two Judith Bodines. Ironically either of these scenarios works for me as I definitely have genetic relatives in that New Jersey Thompson family and, it seems, among the Monmouth NJ Dutch community.
James Marion Thompson reported offspring of a John Thompson in Butler has the only reference I could find to a Levi Thompson connection in the 1860 census in that Levi Campbell was living with the Thompson family then. It has been suggested that Levi Campbell could be a case of related families reusing names.
But that's not all. I see the same John Thompson 1752 to about 1846 in family trees associated with Martha Park also listed at this site which is a text scan of a book on Thompsons:
"John Thomson, born ;
died May-June, 1846, near Butler,
Pa. He was said to be a "man of affairs" in 1824. In the "Thompson
Family" booklet it is stated that he "married and lived in Juniata County;
moved to Butler County, Pa. The Thompsons and Pattersons of Butler
County are his descendants. One of his sons married a sister of David
Allen and moved to Covington, Ind. ? Ky. ? where they lived in 1857."
It is said he owned a store and a tannery. In Book B, p. 383, of Butler
County Wills is recorded the will of John Thompson as probated June
22, 1846. In this will, declared by word to Benjamin Miller and Margaret
Turk on May 12, 1846, he gives his remaining estate to his wife Martha;
his sons and daughters have previously received their shares. — See notes
on deeds to sons 91, 92, and 99. He married Martha Park, daughter of
, of Chester County, Pa. (she was still living at
the time of his death. May, 1848). Issue (i) John Park, (2) James,
(3) Joseph, (4) Samuel, (5) Isabella, (6) Zelia, (7) Frances, (8) Wil-
liam Clinton, (9) Robert W ."
I found this bit in this e-book site:
http://www.ebooksread.com/
This one also works for me because it lists a son that may have moved to Indiana after marrying an Allen and it contains the name Frances which seems to be a recurring family name for a few generations of Thompsons (Rena Frances Thompson daughter of Levi and her nephew Francis Pearl Thompson)
But that's not all. I see a very, very similar John Thompson from the history of Brady Township in Butler PA:
"The pioneers of 1790 included John Thompson, born in Ireland in 1752,
who moved into this township from Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, in
the spring of 1790, and located a mile or so south of the Douglass
cabin. He married Martha Humes, who died in 1861, surviving her
husband fifteen years. James, William and John McJunkin, also natives
of Ireland, arrived in 1790. Daniel Carter came the same year."
found here in a description of Brady Township:
http://history.rays-place.com/
I've seen a lot of trees for this John Thompson that contain pretty good accounts of the Thompson/Humes children.
So I have many references to John Thompson and circumstantially they would all be good possible leads.
It mentions in the notes on Judith Bodine that her story was read to the historical society at New Brunswick and that she is a huguenot. It also mentions that John Thompson had 11 children even though the story of Juda/Judith Thompson only lists one child for her at the age of 43. I'm not sure if the John Thompson in the notes of Judith listed with 11 children is John Senior or John Thompson of New Jersey who marries Hannah Vansickle.
The only thing that seems to be similar for all the John Thompsons is that they had 11 children and at some point lived and died in Pennsylvania and originated somewhere in the British Isles.
The reason I picked this one to try to follow up on is (from my last post) I have a couple of genetic relatives with ties to Washington PA and one of them is a Thompson while the other has Allisons. On this particular page of the history I found James Allison along with this description of John Thompson.
"John THOMPSON, also one of the Irish pioneers of the Pittsburg region, came from Washington county in 1796 with his wife and eleven children, and made his home here until death removed him, in 1845. "
Also listed here in a tax roll along with James and Matthew, Matthew has been a focus of mine in the past:
"John THOMPSON, 400, and James and Matthew THOMPSON, no lands taxed. The men named located in this township, while James, George and William MOORE, Lewis WILSON, Henry MONTOOTH, Eliakim ANDERSON and Charles SULLIVAN, who formed part of the company of sixty colonists, located in what is now Franklin township."
I included the next sentence as I've also tried to explore the relationships of Thompsons and Moores as well as trying to follow up on Eliakim Anderson who, if I remember correctly moves on to Indiana with the Coates family that I have also looked into because of genetic relatives. The city of Anderson Indiana where several of my Thompsons lived being named after Chief Anderson, himself from Pennsylvania I believe. Anyway, these are many of the names that swirl around when I start digging around in the past.
On that same page in the Butler county history is James Allison listed just after Nathaniel Stevenson:
"Nathaniel STEVENSON, mentioned in the history of Franklin township, located here with his wife Mary ALLEN in 1797.
James ALLISON, whose name appears on the first records of the county, came, it is said, after the Indian scare subsided. His son, William, improved upon the scythe by converting it into a cradle and leading all the men in the grain field. "
It's interesting to note that the Stevensons do marry into the Thompson family in Butler.
Unfortunately, James Allison doesn't come along with a description of where he came from.
So this one page had enough floating references to get my attention and made me want to check up on John Thompson again. I immediately ran into several problems. This particular John Thompson, or one very similar, is attributed to many families on Ancestry.com.
So what do I have for John Thompson, his wife and 11 children. Well, I have a letter from a researcher that attaches John Thompson to Judith Bodine both born around 1752 in Ireland. This family leads to James Marion Thompson and Sarah Gilliland and then on down to a Hogg family which caught my attention because of several Hogg genetic matches. Referenced here on another person's site and in the letter I have. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mooreorless/thompson.htm
This is great except that there is another John Thompson/Judith Bodine pair from New Jersey. They are born about 20 years earlier in 1734 (rather than 1752 listed for John Thompson from Butler PA) and instead of Judith being Irish like John Thompson from Butler, she is Dutch and French..ish. You can see some of this confusion in the file I linked above.
Here is more on the New Jersey Thompson Bodine Family:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bodine/n3956.html
and a tree listing John Thompson who marries Hannah Vansickle:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bodine/f6150.html
So we have two John Thompsons and two Judith Bodines. Ironically either of these scenarios works for me as I definitely have genetic relatives in that New Jersey Thompson family and, it seems, among the Monmouth NJ Dutch community.
James Marion Thompson reported offspring of a John Thompson in Butler has the only reference I could find to a Levi Thompson connection in the 1860 census in that Levi Campbell was living with the Thompson family then. It has been suggested that Levi Campbell could be a case of related families reusing names.
But that's not all. I see the same John Thompson 1752 to about 1846 in family trees associated with Martha Park also listed at this site which is a text scan of a book on Thompsons:
"John Thomson, born ;
died May-June, 1846, near Butler,
Pa. He was said to be a "man of affairs" in 1824. In the "Thompson
Family" booklet it is stated that he "married and lived in Juniata County;
moved to Butler County, Pa. The Thompsons and Pattersons of Butler
County are his descendants. One of his sons married a sister of David
Allen and moved to Covington, Ind. ? Ky. ? where they lived in 1857."
It is said he owned a store and a tannery. In Book B, p. 383, of Butler
County Wills is recorded the will of John Thompson as probated June
22, 1846. In this will, declared by word to Benjamin Miller and Margaret
Turk on May 12, 1846, he gives his remaining estate to his wife Martha;
his sons and daughters have previously received their shares. — See notes
on deeds to sons 91, 92, and 99. He married Martha Park, daughter of
, of Chester County, Pa. (she was still living at
the time of his death. May, 1848). Issue (i) John Park, (2) James,
(3) Joseph, (4) Samuel, (5) Isabella, (6) Zelia, (7) Frances, (8) Wil-
liam Clinton, (9) Robert W ."
I found this bit in this e-book site:
http://www.ebooksread.com/
This one also works for me because it lists a son that may have moved to Indiana after marrying an Allen and it contains the name Frances which seems to be a recurring family name for a few generations of Thompsons (Rena Frances Thompson daughter of Levi and her nephew Francis Pearl Thompson)
But that's not all. I see a very, very similar John Thompson from the history of Brady Township in Butler PA:
"The pioneers of 1790 included John Thompson, born in Ireland in 1752,
who moved into this township from Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, in
the spring of 1790, and located a mile or so south of the Douglass
cabin. He married Martha Humes, who died in 1861, surviving her
husband fifteen years. James, William and John McJunkin, also natives
of Ireland, arrived in 1790. Daniel Carter came the same year."
found here in a description of Brady Township:
http://history.rays-place.com/
I've seen a lot of trees for this John Thompson that contain pretty good accounts of the Thompson/Humes children.
It mentions in the notes on Judith Bodine that her story was read to the historical society at New Brunswick and that she is a huguenot. It also mentions that John Thompson had 11 children even though the story of Juda/Judith Thompson only lists one child for her at the age of 43. I'm not sure if the John Thompson in the notes of Judith listed with 11 children is John Senior or John Thompson of New Jersey who marries Hannah Vansickle.
The only thing that seems to be similar for all the John Thompsons is that they had 11 children and at some point lived and died in Pennsylvania and originated somewhere in the British Isles.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Albert E Thompson and the Silcotts
I recently found a listing for Levi Thompson that had parents assigned to it. Finding a listing for Levi is rare enough, but finding parents was very exciting.
This tree was designed from the perspective of the Silcott branch of the family and had wonderful pictures of Emma/Emily Thompson (Levi Thompson's daughter) her husband John Silcott and her daughter Nina (see the Silcott Puzzle).
Those pictures and the notes on the family were amazing all by themselves, but the icing on the cake was Levi's parents listed as Albert E Thompson and Nancy. The bonus was that Albert came with a baptism record from Pike, Berks Pennsylvania. The baptism record is from St. Joseph Hill Church, Pike, Berks, PA which is a Lutheran Church. It gets kind of confusing with this church as it's also listed as St John's Church for the German Reformed Congregation. Two congregations used the same log church that generally served the Oley area, a stone church was eventually built replacing the log church.
The baptism record is from 1815 and it also lists names of parents, James Thompson and Elisabeth who had at least one other child baptised in 1812, Thomas Thompson.
I am cautiously optimistic because although there aren't a ton of details for these people and I can't find Albert E Thompson and wife Nancy anywhere else yet, there are enough details to make me think there is a source for this listing, even if it's a family story.
Given the German leaning of my Y DNA I can't ignore the tantalizing possibilities of a Lutheran or German Reformed Thompson family. Although, it may have been the community church serving the area and a good place for British Thompsons to have their children baptised, German Thompsons are definitely not out of the question.
This tree was designed from the perspective of the Silcott branch of the family and had wonderful pictures of Emma/Emily Thompson (Levi Thompson's daughter) her husband John Silcott and her daughter Nina (see the Silcott Puzzle).
Those pictures and the notes on the family were amazing all by themselves, but the icing on the cake was Levi's parents listed as Albert E Thompson and Nancy. The bonus was that Albert came with a baptism record from Pike, Berks Pennsylvania. The baptism record is from St. Joseph Hill Church, Pike, Berks, PA which is a Lutheran Church. It gets kind of confusing with this church as it's also listed as St John's Church for the German Reformed Congregation. Two congregations used the same log church that generally served the Oley area, a stone church was eventually built replacing the log church.
The baptism record is from 1815 and it also lists names of parents, James Thompson and Elisabeth who had at least one other child baptised in 1812, Thomas Thompson.
I am cautiously optimistic because although there aren't a ton of details for these people and I can't find Albert E Thompson and wife Nancy anywhere else yet, there are enough details to make me think there is a source for this listing, even if it's a family story.
Given the German leaning of my Y DNA I can't ignore the tantalizing possibilities of a Lutheran or German Reformed Thompson family. Although, it may have been the community church serving the area and a good place for British Thompsons to have their children baptised, German Thompsons are definitely not out of the question.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Needle in the Needle Stack, Pioneer Style
Butler county Pennsylvania has presented a conundrum. I can't find any references to Levi Thompson. There actually seem to be very few Levis at all. I did find a Levi Campbell who would be much younger than Levi Thompson, living with a Thompson family, but that's about as close as I've gotten.
The other side of the coin is that Butler county is thick with Thompsons. Thompsons are early settlers in the county and by the 1870s there are so many it's hard to keep track. The unfortunate issue I have is that Levi was born around 1834-9. So the first census he would appear in would be the 1840. Assuming that he knew he was from Butler PA because he had some waking memory of living there, he's probably listed with his family then. The issue is that the 1840 census doesn't list everyone in a household. Just the heads of households and number of people in the household between certain ages.
So I will probably end up making a survey of the Thompsons there in 1840 who have children between the age of 1 and 10. The thing is that there are so many and there are enough origin stories to make your head swim.
Several sources say all the Thompsons of Butler are related to a single John Thompson born around 1755 near Juniata who is the son of John Thompson a Scot.
Others say there are two different Thompson families in Butler that are unrelated one straight out of Ireland with three brothers, James, Anthony and Moses and another from Lancaster county with it's own three brothers, John, James and Matthew. Still further in the same history of Butler it relates that one of the first Thompsons in the area was from Cumberland and of Scotch Irish heritage named William Thompson. All of this is taking place around 1796, but a quick glance at the 1803 tax list for Butler will tell you there are more Thompsons than these.
Connoquenessing Township:
Middlesex Twp., Butler Co., Pa.
These are not the lists from all the townships, but you can see that you have several John Thompsons to try to keep track of and little more identifying information. Some could be sons of those first settlers, or totally unrelated.
That is the thing I keep running into. Most of the histories of a place assume they are written for the current residents not for someone in a different state a hundred plus years in the future. They assume you can tell John Thompson from Lancaster from John Thompson from Slippery Rock or Dr. John Thompson who owns the furnace and mills. You would know which one you belonged to because it's 1895 and you're looking back fondly on the awesomeness of your family over that last hundred years.
These guys didn't have DNA testing and excellent paper trails. They were hunting wolves and fighting natives on the frontier and for their grandchildren, myth and legend was just as reasonable as a tax list.
So I'm working at gut feelings. I think Levi was likely there in 1840 but probably gone by 1850 because in 1855 he's married and having his first child. Where he is in 1850 is hard to say. He could be in the next county over still in Pennsylvania, he could be in Kentucky or Ohio he could already be in Indiana..he could be farther west.
What the histories do give me is an idea of what was happening at the time and how people felt about themselves. These were largely Irish, Scots Irish and German frontier people and they owned that. They fought and died, spied and killed, farmed and paid taxes. They also intermarried, a lot and had a lot of children. One of the Thompsons had 11 kids. Imagine if every one did that. No wonder the place is awful with Thompsons.
There in lies the hope of the genetic testing my family has done. So far, even through genetic testing it's hard to tease out the Thompsons (everyone is related to a Thompson), but I may be able to pull out members of these other families that married in and through them and the histories I can find, be able to match my Thompsons with their "John Thompson from X".
Several families mentioned in the history of Butler also move on to Indiana and may, in the end, be the key to a migration route from Butler PA to Alexandria IN.
The other side of the coin is that Butler county is thick with Thompsons. Thompsons are early settlers in the county and by the 1870s there are so many it's hard to keep track. The unfortunate issue I have is that Levi was born around 1834-9. So the first census he would appear in would be the 1840. Assuming that he knew he was from Butler PA because he had some waking memory of living there, he's probably listed with his family then. The issue is that the 1840 census doesn't list everyone in a household. Just the heads of households and number of people in the household between certain ages.
So I will probably end up making a survey of the Thompsons there in 1840 who have children between the age of 1 and 10. The thing is that there are so many and there are enough origin stories to make your head swim.
Several sources say all the Thompsons of Butler are related to a single John Thompson born around 1755 near Juniata who is the son of John Thompson a Scot.
Others say there are two different Thompson families in Butler that are unrelated one straight out of Ireland with three brothers, James, Anthony and Moses and another from Lancaster county with it's own three brothers, John, James and Matthew. Still further in the same history of Butler it relates that one of the first Thompsons in the area was from Cumberland and of Scotch Irish heritage named William Thompson. All of this is taking place around 1796, but a quick glance at the 1803 tax list for Butler will tell you there are more Thompsons than these.
Connoquenessing Township:
THOMPSON, Andrew ---
THOMPSON, James 400 (single man)
THOMPSON, John 400 (B.G.)
THOMPSON, John 400 (Muddy Cr.)
THOMPSON, Matthew 50 (single man) THOMPSON, William 400
Middlesex Twp., Butler Co., Pa.
THOMPSON, Anthony 400 THOMPSON, Hugh --- THOMPSON, John 400 THOMPSON, John 400 (blacksmith) THOMPSON, John 400 (Con. Creek) THOMPSON, John 400 (weaver) THOMPSON, Martin 400 THOMPSON, Moses 400 (single man) THOMPSON, William 100 THOMPSON, William 400 (single man)
These are not the lists from all the townships, but you can see that you have several John Thompsons to try to keep track of and little more identifying information. Some could be sons of those first settlers, or totally unrelated.
That is the thing I keep running into. Most of the histories of a place assume they are written for the current residents not for someone in a different state a hundred plus years in the future. They assume you can tell John Thompson from Lancaster from John Thompson from Slippery Rock or Dr. John Thompson who owns the furnace and mills. You would know which one you belonged to because it's 1895 and you're looking back fondly on the awesomeness of your family over that last hundred years.
These guys didn't have DNA testing and excellent paper trails. They were hunting wolves and fighting natives on the frontier and for their grandchildren, myth and legend was just as reasonable as a tax list.
So I'm working at gut feelings. I think Levi was likely there in 1840 but probably gone by 1850 because in 1855 he's married and having his first child. Where he is in 1850 is hard to say. He could be in the next county over still in Pennsylvania, he could be in Kentucky or Ohio he could already be in Indiana..he could be farther west.
What the histories do give me is an idea of what was happening at the time and how people felt about themselves. These were largely Irish, Scots Irish and German frontier people and they owned that. They fought and died, spied and killed, farmed and paid taxes. They also intermarried, a lot and had a lot of children. One of the Thompsons had 11 kids. Imagine if every one did that. No wonder the place is awful with Thompsons.
There in lies the hope of the genetic testing my family has done. So far, even through genetic testing it's hard to tease out the Thompsons (everyone is related to a Thompson), but I may be able to pull out members of these other families that married in and through them and the histories I can find, be able to match my Thompsons with their "John Thompson from X".
Several families mentioned in the history of Butler also move on to Indiana and may, in the end, be the key to a migration route from Butler PA to Alexandria IN.
Monday, August 29, 2011
The End and the Beginning
When I ordered my records from the State digital archives I also ordered several other records from Madison County. From the Anderson Library I ordered some obituaries I thought might belong to my family and I also ordered death records from the county using the forms I got from the Madison County Historical society.
The Health department kindly mailed my original forms back to me in the self addressed stamped envelopes I sent them. I'm not sure if there was some error in communication or if there is some message there.
I did however get the obituaries from the library and they were most informational. One lists Rosa with several children and the other references Levi without naming him.
This is a nice little obit listing the children and even her sister who I now know is an Eaton, but sadly not her husband. The next excerpt is a bit more ...tabloid, but it does contain some good information for me.
Disappeared! How, why? What really happened? The text is so vague, what is "these 20 years ago"? Does it mean 1886? Were there no police or no sheriff in this town? What was this lawsuit? If he disappears in 1886 how can I pick him up in a veteran's roll in 1890 in Ohio? Why is his pension request only closed in 1902?
"A later day will have to be awaited in order to solve the mystery."
The Health department kindly mailed my original forms back to me in the self addressed stamped envelopes I sent them. I'm not sure if there was some error in communication or if there is some message there.
I did however get the obituaries from the library and they were most informational. One lists Rosa with several children and the other references Levi without naming him.
Disappeared! How, why? What really happened? The text is so vague, what is "these 20 years ago"? Does it mean 1886? Were there no police or no sheriff in this town? What was this lawsuit? If he disappears in 1886 how can I pick him up in a veteran's roll in 1890 in Ohio? Why is his pension request only closed in 1902?
"A later day will have to be awaited in order to solve the mystery."
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Hollingsworths
As I've contacted genetic relatives and asked permission to view their trees, I've made it a habit to try to check them against each other to see if they have any matches. I have a lot of matches in the Pennsylvania area, and sorting them out can be pretty hard, not least because they are so interrelated. I began with just one genetic relative who happened to be from Pennsylvania and also happened to have Thompsons. She actually has two distinct Thompson families. One family beginning with Robert Thompson born 1786 in Lancaster Co PA and the other beginning with James Thompson born 1668 Wicklow Ireland (but moved to New Jersey).
Previously I had gathered a list of surnames surrounding the Lancaster PA Thompsons to see if they appeared fairly often among my genetic matches. Many of them did. When I find a pattern in my matches in simple surname searches at 23 and me, I like to search through the trees I have shared to see if there is anything there.
What I've found is that the New Jersey Thompsons marry into the Hollingsworth family right there in the early 1700s with James and his wife Ann Hollingsworth. I also found that a second Genetic match had Hollingsworths in her tree right there at the same point. The second match was related to Randal Malin who marries Mary Hollingsworth (sister of Ann).
What really blew me out of the water was that a third genetic match was related to the Hollingsworths at Mary Hollingsworth born 1816 in Illinois.
The other odd irony is that the Hollingsworths seem to be active right in the same area of Pennsylvania and Delaware that the New Sweden colony was. Some were even married in the old Swedes church.
Of course there are no Hollingsworths in my tree that I know of (but that's what I know). I seem to be related to people who are related to Hollingsworths, but I do not genetically match with two Hollingsworths I've seen at Gedmatch.dom.
They may not be my family but clearly they are to be watched.
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/d/a/r/Earl-L-Darrah/GENE3-0005.html
Previously I had gathered a list of surnames surrounding the Lancaster PA Thompsons to see if they appeared fairly often among my genetic matches. Many of them did. When I find a pattern in my matches in simple surname searches at 23 and me, I like to search through the trees I have shared to see if there is anything there.
What I've found is that the New Jersey Thompsons marry into the Hollingsworth family right there in the early 1700s with James and his wife Ann Hollingsworth. I also found that a second Genetic match had Hollingsworths in her tree right there at the same point. The second match was related to Randal Malin who marries Mary Hollingsworth (sister of Ann).
What really blew me out of the water was that a third genetic match was related to the Hollingsworths at Mary Hollingsworth born 1816 in Illinois.
The other odd irony is that the Hollingsworths seem to be active right in the same area of Pennsylvania and Delaware that the New Sweden colony was. Some were even married in the old Swedes church.
Of course there are no Hollingsworths in my tree that I know of (but that's what I know). I seem to be related to people who are related to Hollingsworths, but I do not genetically match with two Hollingsworths I've seen at Gedmatch.dom.
They may not be my family but clearly they are to be watched.
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/d/a/r/Earl-L-Darrah/GENE3-0005.html
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