Success at Last!

To organize information about the Yingling family ( see my last post), I started a new family tree on Ancestry.com with Christian Yingling as the home person. I then began filling in the tree, little by little, with information I found about Christian and his descendants.

One of my main sources for information about this family was “The Yingling Genealogy,” a family history written in 1958 by one of Christian’s descendants, Claude J. Rahn. A free digital copy of the book is available here: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/005787843   The book is also available on Ancestry.com if you have a subscription.

Through the Yingling genealogy, Ancestry.com, and FamilySearch.org (a free genealogy website, which I will discuss in another blog), I was able to get a pretty good picture of Christian and his family. For instance, I learned that Christian had 8 children, 4 sons and 4 daughters.

Because Eve Dorothy Yingling was born in 1751, I surmised that she must have been Christian’s granddaughter, the daughter of one of his 4 sons. (She was born too late to be one of his daughters and too early to be a great-granddaughter.)

The question, of course, was, “Which son?” Once I had entered the information about the 4 sons and their families into my tree, I began to analyze the information to see if I could eliminate any of them as a possible father for Eve Dorothy.

John Yingling, Christian’s second son, had 14 children, all of whom were named in his will. Since Eve Dorothy was not among the children listed, I could eliminate him as a potential father.

Christian’s third son, Andrew Yingling, remained in Pennsylvania his entire life. He only had 2 known children, both sons, so it’s unlikely that he was Eve Dorothy’s father.

That left only 2 sons: Abraham Yingling and Christian Yingling, Jr. Abraham had 6 known children, 5 sons and a daughter Rachel. All 6 children are named in the will of Abraham’s wife, Mary. There is no mention of a daughter named Eve Dorothy.

In my opinion, therefore, Christian, Jr., was the mostly likely candidate for Eve Dorothy’s father. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to prove the connection with documentary evidence alone.

Baptismal records exist for 6 children born to Christian Yingling, Jr., and Susannah Lehman between 1748 and 1762. Unfortunately, Eve Dorothy was not among those in the records.

However, there are some gaps in the dates, including a gap between February of 1750 and January of 1753. Since Eve Dorothy was born in October of 1751, it’s very possible that she was born to these parents, but was missing from the baptismal records.

I still couldn’t prove Eve Dorothy’s parentage conclusively. I was stumped for several days, until I suddenly had a brainstorm.

I went back to my DNA results, only this time I searched my matches for the Lehman surname. If any of my matches descended from one of Susannah Leman’s siblings, I could prove that Christian and Susannah were indeed the parents of Eve Dorothy.

I anxiously searched through my Lehman matches and was thrilled to find not just one, but 8 matches: 4 who descended from Susannah Lehman’s brother, Johan Jacob, and 4 from their sister, Eve Dorothy! At last I had conclusive proof that Eve Dorothy’s parents were Christian Yingling, Jr., and Susannah Lehman!

 

 

Solving the Puzzle of Eve Dorothy Yingling Dell

I was also able to use the “Search by Surname” tool on the Ancestry DNA website (see my last blog) to identify the parents of John Nicholas Dell’s wife, Eve Dorothy. According to an entry in a Dell family Bible, Eve Dorothy’s maiden name was Yingling, and she was born 1 Oct 1751.

Years ago, I came across information about a man named Christian Yingling who immigrated to Pennsylvania about 1710. This man had many children, including 4 sons. Several of his sons eventually moved down into Maryland, so it seemed possible that Eve Dorothy might be descended from one of the sons.

However, there was no mention of an Eve Dorothy among any of Christian’s descendants. I had no way to prove her connection to this family; that is, until I got my DNA results and began learning how to use the tools available through Ancestry.com.

A few months ago, I decided to search my DNA matches for the surname Yingling. The search engine returned 27 matches containing that surname.

Four of the matches had private trees. To view those, I would have to obtain permission from the owner of the tree, so I removed those from my search for the time.

Three of the remaining matches I already knew to be part of my Yingling line through Eve Dorothy. That left me with 20 matches to investigate further.

As I looked through each of the 20 matches individually, I began to notice a pattern: almost every one of the matches was descended from the immigrant Christian Yingling. It was pretty evident from this that Eve Dorothy was one of Christian’s descendants, but I still wasn’t sure where she fit in.

In my next blog, I’ll share what I discovered about Eve Dorothy and her family through AncestryDNA.

Searching DNA Matches by Surname

A very useful tool on the Ancestry DNA website is the ability to search my DNA matches by surname. This only works for those who have a family tree attached to their results. Searching by surname brings up all my matches who have that surname somewhere in their tree.

When I searched for “Dell,” for instance, the search engine displayed over 50 matches with that surname. I then had to look at each match individually to see which ones matched my Dell family.

The matches are grouped by predicted relationship, with my closest relations at the top. Each entry has the person’s name, the likely range of relationship to me, the likelihood (confidence) that they are a true match, the amount of shared DNA with me, and the number of people in the tree. These are the details for one of my 3^rd cousins:

Possible range:3rd-4th cousins
Confidence: Extremely high
Shared DNA: 101 cM across 5 segments
1,689 people

To the right of each match is a green button which says, “View Match.” This particular entry has a green leaf to the left of the button, which indicates that I share a common ancestor with this person.

When I click on “View Match,” I am able to view the person’s tree (if it is public). I can then attach a note to that match, indicating what I discovered, if anything. In this case, I noted that this match and I share ancestry with Jesse W. Dell and Susannah Parker, our great-great-grandparents.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, for years I have been trying to connect my ancestor Nicholas Dell to John Nicholas Dell and Eve Dorothy Yingling. I had a lot of strong circumstantial evidence to support this connection, but had been unable to prove it.

With my DNA results and the search by surname tool, I was finally able to prove that my Nicholas Dell was indeed the son of John Nicholas Dell and Eve Dorothy Yingling. John Nicholas and Eve Dorothy had 9 children (6 sons and 3 daughters), all of whom were named in Bible records and/or estate documents.

When I examined each of my Dell matches, I came up with many who descended from my Nicholas Dell and his wife, Barbara Barnhart. However, there were also quite a few who descended from several of John Nicholas and Eve Dorothy’s other children, not my Nicholas. This proves that I am also descended from John Nicholas and Eve Dorothy. Thus, my Nicholas must be their son.

Expanding my family tree with DNA

For many years I’ve been hearing about using DNA for genealogical purposes. I must admit I was pretty skeptical about its usefulness. Periodically I would get notices from Ancestry.com about a sale on their DNA tests. I would think about buying one, but would always forget about it until after the sale ended. It just wasn’t a priority for me.

About a year ago one of my genealogy contacts asked me if I had done a DNA test yet. Shortly after that, I got a notice from Ancestry.com that their DNA tests were on sale again, so I finally took the plunge and ordered a kit.

Once the kit arrived, I spit into the enclosed test tube, as instructed, and sent it off to Ancestry’s lab. For about 6 weeks I anxiously awaited my results, not really knowing what to expect.

Finally, the day arrived. I received a message from Ancestry.com with a link to my test results. My ethnicity estimate was pretty much exactly what I expected: 100% European, with 57% heritage from Ireland and Scotland and 43% from England, Wales, and Northwest Europe. I knew from my research that my roots were almost entirely from the British Isles (especially Ireland) and Germany, so this result was not much of a surprise.

I was, however, very pleasantly surprised by the other results: my DNA matches. These were the people whose DNA matched mine in some way.

The first thing I noticed was that one of my first cousins was at the very top of the list. I also recognized a number of third cousins that I had already connected with through traditional research methods.

Since my results first arrived about a year ago, I’ve gradually learned how to use the tools on the Ancestry DNA website to find new connections and to prove some relationships. I hope to share these techniques and discoveries with you in upcoming blogs.

Bureau of Land Management, Part 2

I have several collateral relatives who fought in the War of 1812 and received land patents, but they are not yet listed in Fold3’s Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Index because their surnames begin with “T.” However, I discovered a method for finding their warrant information on the BLM website here: https://glorecords.blm.gov/search/default.aspx

(See my last blog for more information about this website.)

My first search was for Edward Triplett:

This time, instead of searching by document #, I searched by Edward’s last name. I knew that he served with the Maryland Militia, so I entered that in the search box beside “Militia.” This search brings up anyone with the last name of Triplett who served with the Maryland Militia. In this case, Edward’s was the only patent that met these criteria:

I then clicked on the patent image, which gave the warrant number, the number of acres, Edward’s rank and militia unit, the physical description of the land, and the name of the person to whom Edward assigned his warrant (in this case, Mary B. Boardman). This is all the information I should need to order a copy of Edward’s Military Bounty-Land Warrant Application File from the National Archives. (See blogs of Feb. 5 and 6, 2019, for information about these files.)

I also searched for Jacob Tilghman, using the same method. This search resulted in 7 matches with the last name of “Tilghman,” but only 1 Jacob Tilghman, so I easily found the entry I was looking for.

If one of your relatives served in the War of 1812, check out the Military Bounty-Land Application Files. You may find details there that you won’t find anywhere else.   

The Bureau of Land Management Website

When I first received Nicholas Dell’s warrant application (see yesterday's blog), I was very surprised to discover that he had been issued a warrant for 40 acres of bounty land. I knew there was no bounty land in Maryland, yet Nicholas had remained in Maryland all his life. What became of that land, I wondered.

In Barbara Dell’s application, she stated that Nicholas had “disposed of” his land legally. That led to many questions: Where was the land located? Who received it? Could it have been one of Nicholas’s heirs? I knew his oldest son had moved to Illinois, but that was before the warrant was issued in 1853.

It was only recently that I was able to find the answers to those questions. When a soldier received a warrant, he was issued a patent for the land by the federal government. If the soldier had transferred the warrant to someone else, though, his name would appear on the patent as the assignee, and the patent would be made out to the person who received the warrant from the soldier.

These “General Land Office Records” are kept by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”). The BLM has a very useful website for locating these records: https://glorecords.blm.gov/default.aspx

I had used this website before to search for land records, but I only recently discovered that I could search for military bounty-land warrants on the site. It took some experimenting, but I finally figured out that I could enter the warrant number (from the warrant application file) into the search engine next to “Document #.” Since I didn’t know the location of the land, I selected “Any State,” and clicked “Search Patents”:

There were 3 entries that matched Nicholas Dell’s warrant number of 59,718:

I clicked on the Accession number for Nicholas Dill [sic], which brought up the patent details for the land:

This page gave the full description of the land, which was in Lawrence County, Illinois, in Section 10 of Township 3 North, Range 13 West. Selecting the “Patent Image” tab at the top of the screen brought up a digital image of the patent:

With this document, I was able to answer my questions about where Nicholas Dell’s land was located (Illinois) and who received it (Miles White). It was common for soldiers to sell their bounty land to others, usually through an agent. This was the case with Nicholas Dell. He assigned his land to Miles White, who was a very wealthy Baltimore merchant.

Nicholas Dell was not the only one who sold his land to Miles White. There are over 1,000 entries for White in the BLM records, as he bought up land all over the country. In 1870, he owned real estate valued at 1 million dollars, and at his death (about 1876) his estate was valued at 2.5 million dollars!

I was also able to locate the patent for Barbara Dell’s land, using the same method as above. Her land was located in Minnesota. Like Nicholas, she assigned her warrant. Her warrant was assigned to a man named Patrick Fox, who then assigned the warrant to Leander Smith.

If you find your ancestor in the warrant index on Fold3, be sure to check out the BLM website for more information about the land. This is especially important if your ancestor actually used the patent for himself rather than assigning it to someone else.

In my next blog, I'll explain how to locate your ancestor's land and warrant number if he is not in the index on Fold3 yet (i.e. his surname begins with M-Z).

 

 

 

 

Military Bounty-Land Applications, Part 2

I was able to learn a number of things from Nicholas Dell’s Military Bounty-Land Warrant Application file (see yesterday's blog). I knew from other sources that Nicholas Dell was married to Barbara Barnhart and that he died about 1854.

Since the entry I found in the applications index indicated that the warrant was issued under the 1855 Act, I wondered if the date of death I had for Nicholas was wrong or if the application was filed by one of his heirs. In either case, I felt the file would likely contain some valuable genealogical information.

When I received the file, I discovered that the 1854 date of death for Nicholas was indeed wrong. I also discovered that the 1855 warrant application was filed by his widow, Barbara Barnhart Dell. These were both very important pieces of information.

I had known there was a Nicholas Dell who served in Randall’s Rifle Battalion of the Maryland Militia during 1812, but I had never been able to verify that this Nicholas Dell was my ancestor. Since the warrant application was filed by Barbara Barnhart Dell, who I knew to be my Nicholas Dell’s wife, I was able to confirm that the Nicholas Dell who served in Randall’s Rifle Battalion was indeed my ancestor.

The year of death I had for Nicholas came from a Civil War pension application, which was filed about 1863, more than 5 years after Nicholas’s death. However, the warrant application, which stated that Nicholas had died on 28 March 1855, was filed on 21 May 1855, less than 2 months after his death.

Even though both dates were supplied by the same person (Barbara Barnhart Dell), the date provided in the warrant application is much more likely to be accurate, since it was filed much closer to the date of the actual event (Nicholas Dell’s death).

Another unexpected detail I learned from the application file was that Nicholas himself had applied for, and received, a warrant for 40 acres in 1851, under the 1850 Act. Barbara’s application was for the balance (120 acres) which was due to Nicholas under the 1855 Act. Nicholas’s application was included in the file with his widow’s application, and it provided some important details.

For years, I’ve been trying to connect Nicholas to a couple named John Nicholas Dell and Eve Dorothy Yingling. Many years ago I learned from a Bible record that John Nicholas and Eve Dorothy had a son named Nicholas who was born 23 June 1784, but I had been unable to prove conclusively that this was my Nicholas Dell.

In the warrant application, filed 31 October 1851, Nicholas stated that he was 66 years old, which would put his date of birth about 1785. This fact gave me another strong piece of circumstantial evidence that my Nicholas was indeed the son of John Nicholas Dell and Eve Dorothy Yingling.

Nicholas and Barbara’s applications also provided more details about his service during the War of 1812:

Nicholas enrolled for service at Baltimore County, Maryland, in July of 1814, for a term of 6 months. From 31 July to 13 October, he served as a 4^th Corporal in a company commanded by Capt. John T. Randall. This company was part of Randall’s Rifle Battalion, of the Maryland Militia, which was commanded by Major Beall Randall.

From 14 October to 1 December 1814 Nicholas served in Capt. Benjamin Gorsuch’s company, which was also part of Randall’s Rifle Battalion. He was honorably discharged at Baltimore on 1 December 1814.

With this information, I can check sources on the War of 1812 to find out in which battles Nicholas may have participated. From the research I’ve done so far, it seems almost certain that Nicholas fought at Bladensburg, Maryland, on 24 August 1814, and in the defense of Baltimore in September 1814.

One last piece of evidence in the application file was that Nicholas Dell and Barbara Barnhart were married, by a Methodist Episcopal minister named Rev. Garrison, early in the year of 1830. Barbara stated that there was no family or other record of her marriage, so it’s likely that this application file is the only place where the details of this marriage are recorded.

If you have an ancestor who fought in the War of 1812, see if you can find them in the index on Fold3: https://www.fold3.com/title/918/bounty-land-warrant-applications-index

If you do find your ancestor in the index, I encourage you to seriously consider ordering the application file (or if you live close enough to the National Archives in Washington, go there in person). As I said in my last blog, I highly recommend using the digital transfer delivery method if you decide to order the file.

By the way, the index on Fold3 also includes the names of those whose claims were rejected. In this case the entry in the index will say “TRUE” next to “Rejected.” This just means that they didn’t receive a warrant. However, it’s the application that has all the vital information, and there will be an application file whether they received a warrant or not.

Happy hunting!

Military Bounty-Land Applications

About a year ago, I discovered a new collection on Fold3 called, “Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Index”: www.fold3.com/browse/247/h_5UoXzIz

Bounty land was granted to soldiers who had engaged in military service for the United States, up through 1855. Issuing bounty land had two purposes: rewarding those who had served; and encouraging settlement of lands in the country’s western frontier.

I have several ancestors and a number of collateral relatives from Maryland who fought in the War of 1812, so I decided to check it out. As of 2019, the index only covers surnames beginning with A-L. Luckily for me, though, one of my ancestors was Nicholas Dell, and I was able to locate him in the index.

This is the information provided by the index for J. Nicholas Dell:

Full Name: J. Nicholas Dell
Rank: Private
Service Year: 1812
State: Maryland
Military Unit: Capt. Benjamin Goshrah [sic], Maj. Beall Randall
Warrant Number: 55-120-85321
Rejected: FALSE
Conflict Period: War of 1812
Served for: United States of America

It took me a while to figure out what all this information meant (especially the warrant number) and what to do with it, until I came across this blog entry: https://ongrannystrail.com/2016/04/21/war-of-1812-bounty-land-warrant-applications/

From this blog and other resources, I learned that there were 2 Acts of Congress that were pertinent to Nicholas Dell’s time of service. The 1850 Act awarded soldiers, if they were honorably discharged and had served for at least one month, bounty land warrants for 160 acres, 80 acres, or 40 acres of land, depending on their length of service. Nicholas Dell qualified for 40 acres.

The 1855 Act extended the warrants to all who had served honorably for at least 14 days (or in battle for any time period). The acreage allotment was also increased to 160 acres for all soldiers. Those who had received the lesser amounts in the first act could apply to receive a warrant for the balance under the second act. If the soldier had died in the meantime, his widow could apply in his place.

With this information about the Acts of 1850 and 1855 I was finally able to decipher the mysterious set of numbers following “Warrant Number” in the index entry. The “55” stands for the Act of 1855; “120” was the number of acres granted; and “85321” was the actual warrant number.

When someone applied for bounty land, he had to provide documents to prove his eligibility. All these documents were kept together in the “Military Bounty-Land Warrant Application File.” These original files are stored at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Since I knew Nicholas Dell’s warrant number, I was able to order his application file from the archives.

To order the Warrant Application for your own ancestor, you will need to know the warrant number, the name of the soldier, and the unit with which he served during the war. This is the link you need to order the records: https://eservices.archives.gov/orderonline/start.swe?SWECmd=GotoView&SWEPostnRowId=1-29XS&SWEView=GPEA+Product+Catalog+Category+Detail+View+FFO&SWEHo=eservices.archives.gov&SWEPostnApplet=GPEA+Product+Catalog+Category+Form+Applet+FFO

For the Warrant Application File, you will need form NATF 85C. You can either fill out the form electronically (recommended) or print it out and send it in with your payment. The fee for this file is $30 (much cheaper than the $80 fee for pension files).

You are given 3 delivery options for the files: a CD or DVD; paper; or electronic transfer. I highly recommend the electronic transfer option. It’s much faster and is more useful than a paper copy. I used this option for Nicholas Dell’s file, and I think it arrived in just a few weeks.

More in my next blog about what I learned from Nicholas Dell’s application file.

Long Time No See

It’s hard to believe it’s been more than 5 years since I posted anything on this blog. I think it’s fitting that my last blog (1 Sep 2013) mentioned “taking a break,” for that’s pretty much what I did for much of those five years.

This was not so much by choice as by necessity. In the interim, I became a grandmother for the first time, downsized, and moved halfway across the country to be closer to my daughter, son-in-law, and new grandchild. That didn’t allow much time for genealogy.

About a year ago, I was finally able to resume my research. As I said in my last blog, taking a break at times can be very beneficial, and that was certainly true in this case. My research has “exploded” in the last year, with all sorts of new discoveries. I hope to share many of those discoveries with you here.

I’ve also given my blog a bit of a “facelift,” using a new theme from Blogger. I chose this theme because I thought the dark background and white lettering was easier on the eyes. I also liked the map in the background at the top, because I think it goes well with my genealogy theme. Tell me what you think.