More on Eve Dorothy Yingling Dell

I also have some circumstantial evidence to link Eve Dorothy Dell to the family of Christian Yingling, Jr., and Susannah Lehman. First of all, when Eve Dorothy and Nicholas Dell’s second child, John, was baptized in 1772, the godparents were John Kessler and Eve Dorothy Lehman. This Eve Dorothy, wife of John Kessler, was the sister of Susannah Lehman Yingling.

Families at this time (especially German families) often had family members act as godparents when their children were baptized, and the child would often be named for the godparent. In fact, it’s very likely that Eve Dorothy Yingling was named after her mother’s sister, Eve Dorothy Lehman. It is not surprising, therefore, that Eve Dorothy chose her aunt and uncle as godparents for her second child.

Another piece of evidence I have for Eve Dorothy Yingling’s parentage is a land record I discovered years ago between Nicholas Dell and a man named John Yingling. When I first found this record, I wondered if John was a relative of Eve Dorothy. Now that I know a little more about the Yingling family, I decided to dig out the old record and give it another look.

One of the known sons of Christian Yingling and Susannah Lehman was John Yingling, who was born in 1748 and died in 1816. According to The Yingling Genealogy, John was a prominent tanner in Westminster, which was then part of Frederick County, Maryland.

The land record in question was from 1785. On December 13 of that year, Nicholas Dell, cordwainer (i.e. shoemaker), leased to John Yingling, tanner, Lot number 25 in the town of Westminster. The lot was situated on the southwest side of Main Street and was leased to John for farming. Nicholas had purchased this land 6 years earlier, along with an adjacent lot, number 24.

It is fairly certain that the grantor in this transaction was the same Nicholas Dell who was married to Eve Dorothy Yingling. He is listed in the record as a cordwainer (shoemaker). Several of Nicholas and Eve’s sons are known to have been shoemakers, and it’s likely that Nicholas would have passed that trade on to his sons.

The grantee, John Yingling, was listed in the record as a tanner. It’s quite likely, therefore, that he was Christian Yingling and Susannah Lehman’s son, John, since their son was known to be a tanner in Westminster at that time.

I think these 2 records (the christening record and the land record), together with the DNA evidence I discussed previously, make a pretty strong case for Eve Dorothy Yingling Dell being the daughter of Christian Yingling, Jr., and Susannah Lehman (and thus the sister of John Yingling). What do you think?

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.

Genealogy Tips: Strategies for Success

My last 3 "tips" are strategies that I've found useful in my own research. Hopefully others will find them useful as well.

The first tip may sound strange, but it is this: "Take a break." If you get to a point in your research where you feel like you're banging your head against a wall, move on to something else. When I hit a brick wall with a particular individual or family, I sometimes like to switch gears and research a different family line. Later, when I go back and look at the other family with fresh eyes, I often find things I missed before, especially since new sources of information are becoming available every day. Here's an example of this strategy in my blog of 8/16/2010: http://familydetecting.blogspot.com/2010/08/if-at-first-you-dont-succeed-try-try.html

The second tip is to "Look at the big picture." In other words, don't focus on just one person or family. Instead, look at the person or family as a part of a community which includes siblings, cousins, neighbors, etc. I discussed this strategy in detail in my blog of 8/17/2010: http://familydetecting.blogspot.com/2010/08/looking-at-big-picture.html

The last strategy is what I like to call "Put your thinking cap on." It's important to take time periodically in your research to evaluate all the information you've accumulated and to formulate a plan for filling in any gaps. For an example of this strategy, see my blog of 10/4/2010: http://familydetecting.blogspot.com/2010/10/detective-work.html

Genealogy Tip No. 2: Cite Your Sources

My next genealogy "tip" is very important, but is often neglected by family history researchers: CITE YOUR SOURCES. There are many reasons why this is so important.

The first reason is an ethical one. When you use someone else's work, you should give them credit. I have been researching my family for nearly 15 years. I have spent countless hours in libraries, courthouses, archives, and historical societies, not to mention the many hours spent in front of a computer doing digital research. I have painstakingly entered thousands of facts and sources into my genealogy database. I've been pretty successful and have shared my work with many others to help them in their own research. If they use my work and don't give me credit, that's not really fair, is it?

The second reason for citing your sources is so that you can find them again. When I first started my genealogy research, I didn't see the point of this. I was sure I would remember where I got the information. However, I quickly learned that this was not true. As my tree began to grow, there were more and more things to remember. I soon saw the value of documenting my work.

When you are doing family history research, it is inevitable that you will have to re-check some of your facts, often years later. If you haven't noted where you got the information, you may waste hours (or even years) trying to find the information again.

The last reason for citing your sources may be the most important one. Whenever you do any kind of research, it is important to use the most reliable sources. You probably learned this in high school or college when you had to write that dreaded research paper. If you were researching the Civil War, for instance, you would want to consult many sources, then evaluate which sources were the most reliable. The best sources would probably be documents that were written at the time (diaries, letters, etc.) or books written by historians who have consulted those primary sources and have documented their work.

The same is true for genealogy. It is important to use the best sources available and to document those sources, so that other researchers can evaluate the validity of your work.

I'd like to conclude with a word of warning about internet genealogy. I mentioned in my blog on Thursday that the internet has made family history research much easier and faster. However, you should be aware that there is also a lot of misinformation out there. The internet has made it very easy for people to post their family trees online. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these trees are undocumented, so there is no way to evaluate the validity of the information contained in them. My favorite site for online family trees is Rootsweb's World Connect Project: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/

Rootsweb has a search feature which allows you to limit results to those which have sources. I try to stick with trees that have good source documentation. Even then, I check everything myself before adding it to my own tree. Of course, in many cases the sources given are other family trees, but I can usually find a few trees that are well documented.

If you ever get to the point where you have researched your family and want to post your tree online, I have another piece of advice for you. Don't include any living individuals in your tree. With the increase in identity theft, you wouldn't want to post all that personal information online.

Genealogy Tip No. 1: Start with what You "Know"

I've been doing genealogy research for almost 15 years now. I don't purport to be an expert, but I have been pretty successful in tracking down my elusive ancestors. For the next few blogs, I'd like to share some techniques I've used in my own research that might help others who are just starting out.

One of the first things I learned about genealogy was to start with what you know. Many researchers make the mistake of trying to prove a connection to some famous person. They start with the famous person and try to work their way down to themselves. What they should really do, though, is start with themselves and work their way backwards.

If you're thinking about researching your family history, you should first find out as much as you can about your immediate ancestors: your parents and grandparents. Find out when and where they were born, when and where they were married, maiden names, how many children and siblings they had, etc.

If your parents and grandparents are still alive and lucid, interview them. Besides getting their vital information (birth dates, etc.), ask them about their lives when they were younger. Also ask them if they have any documents (like birth and death certificates) or any old photos. One of my biggest regrets is that I never had the opportunity to do this for my own family. By the time I started my research, my mother and my grandparents and most of my aunts and uncles were already gone.

Once you have interviewed your living relatives (and don't forget about older aunts, uncles, cousins, or close family friends), your next job is to verify the information they have given you. Don't take anything they say, especially names and dates, at face value. As we age, we all start to forget things and get confused about events that occurred many years in the past.

When I first started my genealogy research, I had very little to go on. I only had one living aunt at the time. She gave me a lot of information about her parents and sisters. Hovever, since she was the youngest child, she knew very little about earlier generations.

My best source of information about my earlier ancestors was a genealogical report written by another aunt several years before she died. Although the report gave me a lot of leads to follow up on, it was also full of misinformation and half-truths. For instance, my aunt stated that my grandmother had raised her youngest brother, Gene, because Gene's mother (my great-grandmother) had died when Gene was three.

I knew from other sources that my grandmother's family had belonged to St. Edward's Catholic Church in Baltimore, so one of my first tasks was to search the St. Edward's church records on microfilm for references to my family. I was able to locate a baptismal record for Gene in 1907. If my aunt's story was correct, that would mean that Gene's mother, Bridget Dell, died about 1910. However, the only Bridget Dell that I could find in the death records had died in 1931 and was buried at Wards Chapel Cemetery. I didn't think this could be my Bridget Dell, but I made a note of the information and made a photocopy of the record.

I had never heard of Wards Chapel, so my next task was to find out more about the cemetery. I learned that the cemetery was connected to Wards Chapel Church, a Methodist church on Liberty Road near Liberty Dam. This piqued my interest, because my aunt had also mentioned in her report that my grandmother grew up on a farm, near where Liberty Dam is now located.

If I had taken my aunt's information about her grandmother's death at face value and had ignored the conflicting information, I would have missed out on one of the most important leads I have ever encountered in my years of genealogical reseaarch.

As it turned out, my great-grandmother did in fact die in 1931 and was buried at Wards Chapel, and that cemetery turned out to be a "mother lode" of information on my family. Both of my grandmother's parents are buried there, as well as her father's parents and their mothers, not to mention hundreds of siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins. I figure that I am probably related to almost half of the people buried there.

Besides leading me to my grandmother's father's family, that one death record was also what ultimately led me to her mother's family as well. It was from Bridget Dell's death certificate that I obtained the first names of Bridget's parents (who my aunt had simply referred to as "Male Hickey" and "Female Fox"). See my blog of June 11, 2010, entitled "The Joy of Discovery" for that story.

In conclusion, if you're serious about learning the story of your family, remember these things: start with yourself; find out everything you can about your immediate family; and check in other sources to verify the information you've been given and to go back farther in your family tree.

Family History Research in the Digital Age

In some ways, family history research today is very different from that done by the "pioneers" in the field years ago. Those early genealogists often traveled long distances to consult records in courthouses, libraries, and archives. They visited cemeteries and spent a lot of time writing letters to possible family connections and to churches and courthouses, etc., that were too far away to visit. They spent years collecting and organizing information about their ancestors. The result of all this time and effort was a family tree to pass on to their descendants. The resulting family tree was often handwritten or typed, a true labor of love to be treasured by succeeding generations.

Today, the "digital highway" has made this whole process much easier and has opened up all kinds of possibilities for the modern genealogist. My latest project has been to research my son-in-law's Louisiana roots. Since I live over 1,000 miles from Louisiana, this would have been a monumental task even 25 years ago. It probably would have taken me a lifetime to research and document his ancestry.

Today, though, with the advent of websites like Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org, I can access, in minutes, records that would have taken earlier researchers months, if not years, to acquire. Besides having digital copies of original records, many of these websites have indexes as well, making it easier than ever to locate those elusive documents.

I can go to Ancestry.com and view census records that were written as much as 200 years ago. I can search GenealogyBank.com to find obituaries and stories about my ancestors in the newspapers and historic documents. These sources all help to bring our ancestors to life, to reveal the stories behind the names.

One of the things I find especially exciting about the digital age is the large amount of primary source material becoming available on the internet. Most of my son-in-law's ancestors originated in France or Canada. Fortunately for me, the French government has been making most of their old documents, particularly church records, available online, so I have been able to locate baptism, marriage, and death records for many of his ancestors in France. Most of these records were created in the early to mid 1700's. I just think it's really cool to be able to view documents that were written over 300 years ago, without ever having to leave my house.

For genealogists like me, who want to place their ancestors into historical context, another exciting development has been the digitization of old books. At websites like Google Books and Archive.org, I can access books that were written at the time my ancestors lived. In this way, I can get a glimpse of what life was like for them.

Another big advance in genealogy has been the advent of message boards and search engines like Google. These tools help to bring together genealogists from distant places who are researching the same family. While the researchers of old were limited to letter writing and queries in genealogical magazines to network with possible relations, I can accomplish the same thing much more quickly. I recently did a search for one of my son-in-law's elusive ancestors, and my efforts were rewarded. I found two new connections: distant cousins who had been researching this particular ancestor for over 30 years. They have given me all kinds of new leads to follow up on.

Family tree software has also made things much easier for the modern genealogist. With programs like Family Tree Maker and RootsMagic, researchers can enter names, dates, and other facts, as well as source information, into a computer database. Once the information is entered, the software does the work of organizing the data. With the click of a button, genealogists can generate any number of charts, trees, and genealogy reports.

When all is said and done, though, family history research has not changed that much since the "early days." I am accessing many of the same records that my predecessors did. I'm just able to do it a lot more quickly and easily. I have a great appreciation and admiration for those early genealogists who paved the way for people like me. Many of the indexes that I use today were created by those same "pioneers," who sat in dusty courthouses or church archives years ago. They painstakingly extracted names and other pertinent information, so that future researchers like me would have an easier time finding what they were looking for.

If you've ever thought about researching your family tree, there has never been a better time. Although some of the websites I've mentioned require a subscription to access their records, there are also many sites that offer their services for free. One of the best free sites is FamilySearch.org. Many public libraries also offer access to the subscription sites to patrons in their library.

I'll warn you, though, that genealogy is addicting. Once you get started it's hard to stop, but it can be a fun and fascinating hobby, especially if you have an interest in history.

Rachel Gosnell

After I identified Susannah Tilghman Parker's mother (see post from 4 April), I wanted to learn more about her father. While researching family members who fought in the War of 1812, I had come across the name of Jacob Tilghman in the same unit as the Parkers. I figured this was a good place to start, so I did a Google search for "Jacob Tilghman" in Maryland.

The first thing I found was a reference to a Jacob Tilghman who was born about 1790 and married Rebecca Israel in 1818. This looked like a promising lead, not for Susannah's father, but for a possible brother. Jacob and Rebecca were married by the same minister who married Zebedee and Susannah Parker, Edward Triplett and Elizabeth Parker, and Susannah's mother and her second husband, John Reed. I made a note to follow up on this line of research, then looked at some of the other hits on Google.

One of the hits was a long post from a genealogy message board. As I scanned down the message looking for the name of Tilghman, something caught my eye. There was reference to a Rachel married to William Parker!

After I located the Tilghman reference in the post, I went back and read the section about Rachel and William Parker. It was a reference to the will of Zebediah Gosnell, who died in 1807, leaving the following children: Greenbury, James, William, Rachel Parker (wife of William), Ann Israel (wife of Ely), Sarah, Henrietta, and Leah. When I saw this, I knew that this had to be my family.

Rachel Gosnell Parker almost certainly named her son, Zebediah Parker, after her father, Zebediah Gosnell. Also, Rebecca Israel (who married Jacob Tilghman) was the daughter of Ann Gosnell and Ely Israel. The "icing on the cake" was the name of Greenbury Gosnell. I already knew from land records and newspaper articles that William Parker's land bordered on that of Greenbury Gosnell. What I didn't know was that the two men were brothers-in-law.

Just from this message post I was able to trace Zebedee Parker's ancestry back another three generations. I was able to locate Zebediah Gosnell's will online, as well as the will of his father William Gosnell (died 1762). I also learned that William Gosnell's father was William Gosnell, Sr., who died about 1709. I haven't looked at William, Sr.'s will yet, but I found an abstract of it which named his children.

So you never know what you're going to find when you start researching your family history. My search for Susannah Tilghman's father led me instead to her husband's mother and her family! Curioser and curioser!

Susannah "Reed"

Most of the records I have for my great-great-great-grandmother, Susannah Parker, give her maiden name as Tilghman. A few weeks ago, though, I came across death certificates for two of her children which listed her as Susannah Reed. This presented a puzzle for me to solve, and I always love a good puzzle.

When Susannah married Zebedee Parker in 1819, the marriage record listed her as Susan Tilghman. I had assumed this was her maiden name, but these death certificates made me wonder. Perhaps she had been married before and Tilghman was her married name.

Another piece of the puzzle was a census record from 1850. At that time Susannah was widowed and living in Carroll County with several of her unmarried children. Also listed in Susannah's household that year was a 79-year-old woman named Margaret Reed. When I first came across this record years ago, I had wondered if Margaret was Susannah's mother. She was the right age (about 25-30 years older than Susannah), but I had wondered where the Reed name came in if Susannah was a Tilghman.

I did some research in the Maryland Marriages database to see if I could find a marriage record for a Susan or Susannah who married a Tilghman, but to no avail. I also went back and looked at Susannah's obituary from 1892, but the obituary definitely said that her maiden name was Tilghman.

I was stumped until a day or two later when I had a sudden inspiration. Perhaps it was Susannah's mother who was married more than once, not Susannah! I went back to the Maryland Marriages database and did a search for a woman named Margaret who married a man with the last name of Reed. Bingo! I was ecstatic when a record came up for a marriage between John Reed and Margaret Tilghman in Baltimore County in January 1821 (just one year after Zebedee and Susannah were married)! Further research revealed that John and Margaret were married by the same minister that married Zebedee and Susannah.

Now that I know who Susannah's mother was, I need to figure out who her father was. I've made some progress on that side as well, but I'll save that for another blog.

William Henry Harrison Dell

Today I made one of the most exciting discoveries that I have ever made in my years of family history research. In my blog last year about the Tale of Two Mothers, I talked about the young man who is buried at Wards Chapel Cemetery with a stone inscribed simply W.H.H. Dell, Co. E, 5th MD Inf. Ever since I first laid eyes on that stone I have wanted to know more about the soldier buried there.

Through my research over the years I had surmised that his name was William Henry Harrison Dell, and that he was the son of Nicholas and Barbara Dell, but I had never been able to prove it. I had located his Civil War service records and learned that he had been wounded at Antietam and had died 3 months later of disease, but there were very few details in the records.

About a year ago I learned that William Henry Harrison's mother had applied for a widow's pension. I knew from experience that Civil War pension files can be loaded with information. However, those files are kept at the National Archives in Washington. I added a trip to Washington to my genealogy "to do" list, but I knew it might be months or years before I could arrange a trip there.

A few days ago I got an e-mail from Ancestry.com about a special offer. Another genealogy website called Fold3 was offering an annual membership to Ancestry members for just $39.95 a year. Fold3 specializes in military records, and the price was right, so I signed up today.

After I signed up with Fold3 I went to their home page to see what they had to offer. They claimed to have Civil War pension files, so I decided to check it out. The database was searchable by state, then Arm of Service, then Regiment, then company.

I worked my way through the links to Company E and waited for a list of names to come up. When the names appeared I could not believe my eyes. There were only 5 men listed, but the second name on the list was William Henry Harrison Dell!

I followed the link and spent the next hour or more reading the files and getting a snapshot of this young man's life and death. I was able to confirm that his name was William Henry Harrison and that he was in fact the son of Nicholas and Barbara Dell. Before his enlistment he had worked at the Oakland woolen mill and also as a farm hand. He had given most of his wages to his mother for her support, even sending home a large portion of his military pay after he enlisted.

The files also detailed William Henry Harrison's last days. There were affidavits from one of his commanding officers and from the surgeon and doctor who attended him in his final illness. According to the afffidavits, Henry contracted dysentery a few days after the battle of Antietam and was treated by the company surgeon. When his condition worsened he was sent home on furlough, under the care of his local doctor. It was at his home that he died on December 23, 1862.

I am so thankful to have finally had the opportunity to "meet" William Henry Harrison Dell, to get a glimpse at his character and to honor the sacrifice he made. His death must have been a tragic loss, especially to his mother, but it is a comfort to learn that he died at home and not in some hospital far away from his family and friends.

Hot on the Trail

I've been out of the loop for a while, due to wedding planning, Christmas, extra hours at work, etc. A few weeks ago, though, I got back to researching my family history. In my last blog, over a year ago, I was talking about my two great-great-great-grandmothers, Barbara Barnhart Dell and Susannah Tilghman Parker. When I got back to my research this month I decided to concentrate on my Dell and Parker ancestry. I hope to write a book about the Dells and Parkers, focusing on these two women and their strangely parallel lives, and I had a lot of gaps to fill in.

Over the past few years I've done a lot of research in old newspapers. I keep a log of interesting things I come across that I might want to follow up on. Unfortunately I'm not as good about the following up part. So one of the first things I did this month was to go through my log and start following up on some of the leads.

As I was going through my notebook I came across a reference to two articles that looked particularly promising. The articles were from 1821 and 1826, and both mentioned an insolvent debtor named Zebadiah Parker.

The 1826 article was a notice by S. Barry, sheriff of Baltimore County, regarding some land belonging to Zebadiah and William Parker. The sheriff had seized the property and was going to offer it for sale at public auction the following month. The property was described as "about 18 miles from Baltimore, and near the 'Deer Park Road.'" This was very interesting to me, because my Dell and Parker relations lived very close to Deer Park Road, and I had never been able to locate any land records for Zebadiah Parker. I was pretty sure this was the same Zebadiah Parker who was married to Susannah Tilghman Parker, but I wasn't sure how to proceed from there.

The first thing I did was to search the Baltimore County land records around 1826, hoping to find a record of the sale. I was able to find a deed transferring the property from Standish Barry to Jesse Bennett, but I still didn't know how Zebadiah Parker came to own the property.

A few days later I had the inspiration to look through the administration index for Baltimore County for that time period. With a common name like Parker, I didn't really have much hope of finding anything conclusive, especially since the earlier records for Baltimore County include Baltimore City as well. However, I hit the jackpot. I located an administration in 1824 for a William Parker. The administratrix was Rachel Parker.

When I saw that name, it rang a bell. Years before I had found a Rachel Parker in the census on the same page as Zebadiah Parker. I had wondered then if she might be his mother, but had never been able to prove it. Another clue that I might be on the right track was the names listed under "securities": Edward and Eli Triplett. I knew the Tripletts lived in the same area as my Dell and Parker relations, and several of them had married into the family. Further research on Edward Triplett revealed that he married Elizabeth Parker in October 1817 (2 years before Zebadiah Parker and Susannah Tilghman were married).

I am now pretty sure that Zebadiah Parker was the son of William and Rachel Parker. The land that was being sold in 1826 was originally deeded to William Parker in 1779, and it was his property up until his death about 1824. William's estate was settled in 1826, just a few days after his land was sold at public auction. There were no heirs listed in the Administration Account, probably because there were more debts than assets. I think it is likely that William Parker and Elizabeth Parker Triplett were also children of William and Rachel Parker. I hope to eventually find the court records detailing the Parker insolvency case. With any luck they will confirm my suspicions about Zebadiah Parker's ancestry.

A Tale of Two Mothers

This is the tale of two mothers: Barbara Barnhart Dell and Susannah Tilghman Parker. These two women, who were the mothers of my great-great-grandparents, are buried side by side in the cemetery of Wards Chapel Methodist Church in Harrisonville, Maryland. It is fitting that they share a final resting place, for their lives were strangely similar and intertwined.

Both women were born in what is now Carroll County, Maryland. Barbara, who was born about 1810, was the daughter of David Barnhart. I have yet to identify Susannah's parents, but she was born about 1790. If the information on their tombstones is correct, both women (especially Susannah) lived very long lives for that time period. Barbara died in 1881 in her 79th year. Susannah died 11 years later, in 1892, in her 101st year!

Both Barbara and Susannah had very large families. Barbara and her husband, Nicholas Dell, had 8 children. Susannah and her husband, Zebedee Parker, had 9 children. Both Barbara and Susannah were widowed. Nicholas Dell died between 1850 and 1860. Zebedee Parker died between 1840 and 1850. Neither Nicholas nor Zebedee are buried with their wives. I have yet to locate a final resting place for either of the husbands.

These two families were joined in 1854 when Barbara's oldest son, Jesse W. Dell, married Susannah's daughter, Susannah Parker. (These were my great-great-grandparents.) Four years later Barbara's daughter, Tobitha Dell, married Susannah's son, Columbus Parker.

Both these women lived out their later years in the homes of their sons. Barbara went to live with Jesse and his family and Susannah lived with Columbus and his family.

This morning I discovered one other thing that these two mothers had in common; something no mother should ever have to go through: the death of a child.

When I first visited the cemetery at Wards Chapel about 10 years ago, I noticed a stone engraved with a shield and this simple epitaph: "W.H.H. Dell / Co. E / 5th MD Inf." Because of the inscription, I suspected this was the grave of a soldier, and I wanted to know more about the person who was buried there. One day, years later, I was doing some research online and came across a photograph of a Civil War era cemetery. In the picture was row after row of identical stones, and each one had that same shield design as the one at Wards Chapel. I knew then that my anonymous soldier had served during the Civil War.

I later discovered that a "Henry Dell" served with the 5th MD Infantry Regiment in Co. E from October 1861 till September 1862. Further research in the service records at the National Archives revealed that "Henry" was wounded in the battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862 (the bloodiest single-day battle in American history). He died three months later on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day of 1862. He had either succumbed to his injuries or had contracted an illness while in the hospital.

Barbara and Nicholas Dell's youngest son was listed in the 1850 census as Harrison Dell. In 1860 he was listed as Wm. H. Dell. This information, along with the name in the Civil War records and the initials on the tombstone, have led me to believe that the young man buried at Wards Chapel was named William Henry Harrison Dell and that he was Barbara's youngest son.

Last night I was trying to fill in some gaps in my Dell family research. I located a death notice for Henry Klausman, who was married to Barbara's youngest daughter Sarah in 1864. The obituary noted that Henry had served in the Union army during the Civil War. I decided to research his war service on Ancestry.com, and I came across a very interesting piece of information. Henry had also served in Co. E of the 5th MD Infantry Regiment!

I made a note of this tidbit, then went on to something else. This morning I was thinking about my discovery, and I had a brainstorm. Susannah Parker's obituary had mentioned that her youngest son, William, had died in the Civil War. If William Henry Dell and Henry Klausman were in the same unit, then perhaps William Parker was as well.

I went back and checked the record, and sure enough there was William Parker. The notation next to his name indicated that William died at the battle of Antietam! So both Barbara and Susannah lost their youngest sons in that fateful battle, one on the battlefield that day and the other in a hospital three months later. What a sad coincidence.

Eureka!

Well, it's been a while but I finally found something new to blog about. After taking a break from genealogy for several months, I recently got back to working on my family history book. For the past week or two I've been researching farm life. The second chapter of my book is about James Hickey's time as a farm laborer on the farm of John Fox (who would later become his father-in-law). I wanted to have an idea of what life was like for James and his future in-laws.

I was able to find quite a bit of information about farming in Maryland in 1850, but I also wanted to know more about the setting of John Fox's farm (the layout of the land, etc.). To do that, I needed to know where the farm was located.

A few years ago I had found an entry from 1843, in the Baltimore County land records, which detailed John's original purchase of over 200 acres. I knew the property was located near Perry Hall, just south of the Gunpowder River. Pinpointing the exact location on a modern map, though, proved quite a challenge.

I knew that John Fox had died in 1872 and that his wife had died five years later in 1877. However, in spite of years of searching, I had never been able to locate a will or any probate records for John.

Two years before his death, he was listed in the census as a farmer with property valued at $8000. If he had been in possession of that much property at his death, there should have been an estate to settle. No such luck, though.

If he didn't have the property when he died, then he must have disposed of it sometime before his death. A thorough search of the land records, though, revealed no such transaction. I tried searching under John's name, his wife's name, even his sons' names. Nothing.

Last night I decided to look back at the original land transaction to see if I could get some new clues. First, though, I decided to look back over some notes written years ago by a distant cousin. She also had done extensive research on the Fox property. I had looked at the notes before and followed up on some leads, but had not found what I was looking for. This time, though, I hit the jackpot. It's like I said in a previous blog: If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

After several hours of backtracking through land records, I came across a deed from April 1872 (two months before John's death) which explained everything. The deed was from H. C. Wysham, trustee, to Emma Renshaw. Since John Fox was neither the grantor nor the grantee in the transaction, his name did not show up in any indexes. However, John and his wife are mentioned in the deed. It seems that John and Mary had a mortgage on the property which was not repaid, so they lost possession of their land, which was being sold to satisfy the debt.

Now that I knew what had become of the property, I still wanted to know where it was located. Since Emma Renshaw was now the owner of the property, I searched for her name in the land record index and came across an entry which showed that she sold the property in 1881. There was a notation in the 1881 deed that the property would thereafter be known as Rockland.

With this new piece of information I tried a Google search for Rockland near Perry Hall, Maryland. Eureka! To my delight, I discovered that Rockland Farm (also known as the Spamer Homestead) is on the Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties. I followed the link on the Maryland Historical Trust website and located a 19-page PDF file about the property. A line in the first paragraph particularly caught my eye: "The 1850 Sidney map denotes the Spamer Homestead as belonging to John Fox." The PDF file contains a history of the property, a USGS map showing its location, and photos of the house which was built in the early 1800's.

If you'd like to take a look at the PDF file, follow this link:
http://www.mdihp.net/dsp_county.cfm?search=county&criteria1=R&criteria2=BA&criteria3=&id=3365&viewer=true