Beyond the Little Green Leaf: Ancestry for sale, cheap. Vital records not included.

How five generations of my family mostly managed to avoid vital record registration

This blog entry is a redux of information compiled for another project. I'm adding the content here, because it provides insight into the record circumstance influencing research about which I often blog.

Some of my ancestors were pioneer settlers in the area of Columbiana County, Ohio. These ancestors came to Ohio between about 1800 and 1810, when land there became available for purchase and settlement. They came from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland; the men were farmers and probably traders. The known surnames are Carle, Low(e), Firestone, Miller and Kimmerling.

Columbiana County began recording marriages in 1803, but the practice there of recording births and deaths didn't begin until 1851. http://www.familyhistory101.com/county/oh-county-columbiana.html

Other than the "names the same," the marriage records I work with from Columbiana County don't contain the kind of identifying information by which I could relate them more directly to a birth record (even if such a record existed). The early marriage records I work with from Ohio usually contain the bride/groom names, date of marriage, who performed ceremony, and date and place the marriage was recorded. An example of one marriage record is below.

For the most part, two generations of my family's births and deaths occurred at Columbiana County for which no vital record ever existed.

Moving down the road. Almost 20 years before Columbiana County began to report births and deaths, the third generation of my Ohio based ancestors, those who married at Columbiana County, had moved on. They moved to Richland and then Williams County, Ohio, as land in the more northwestern part of the state opened up. Both Richland and Williams counties didn't begin to record births and deaths until about 1867.

Another group of my ancestors were pioneer settlers in the western part of Ohio. John Butler was an Irish immigrant. He settled at northwest Ohio after his service in the Revolution, via Pennsylvania and Michigan. About 1812-1814, two brothers, reportedly soldiers and traders, arrived from New Hampshire via a route we haven't yet learned. The brothers were in Miami County, Ohio, long enough for one to marry in 1814.

Like Williams County, Miami didn't start to record births and deaths until 1867.

From Miami County, the brothers migrated to Fort Defiance, say 1815-1816. They are considered the first settlers of that place. It became part of Williams County when the latter was formed in 1820. Still later, the same place became part of Defiance County, but I digress.

By the time Williams County was formed, one of the New Hampshire brothers had died. No vital record exists about his death, and his children's births were not recorded, either. The older brother, my ancestor, became the first sheriff of Williams County. He married in 1820, probably at Defiance, then part of Williams County. Williams County didn't have a place to keep records until 1824, so his marriage was not recorded for six months. Even then, it was written into the books of Wood County--two Ohio counties to the east.

Many children were born to the Sheriff and his wife, but there are no vital records about those births.

It's finally 1850--Columbiana County will soon start recording births and deaths. Time for the next generation of my family to migrate out of Ohio via the Oregon Trail, headed for the California gold rush. :)  These fine folk will eventually settle at Deer Lodge County, Montana. Deer Lodge didn't start recording births until 1907; they started recording deaths in 1895.  :)

... And they blew the house down

Sad but thankful.  In about 1800, my Revolutionary War ancestor, William Preston (1754-1842) built a house at Rumney, New Hampshire.  The house still stands, but not for long. Demolition has already begun.

If walls could talk. William's first wife, Elizabeth (Clark) Preston died in 1807, quite likely in the home. Maj. William probably died there, still later. William's second bride, Mary (Herbert) Preston would have considered it to be her home, too. 

Elizabeth was the mother of twelve children, and Mary, two. Each of the mothers lost one child young, but there were no doubt many at the table over the years for family occasions. There were other visitors, too. About one of the stories William and Mary's daughter, Hannah (Preston) Webster, told her cousin, Charles Herbert, he wrote (1887), "She remembers men coming about pensions, also when decanters were always on a table—later, when set aside, when any one came & all were welcome—especially old soldiers, it was, 'Mary, get out the  decanters--' & her mother speedily responded with other refreshments.”

I imagine this house is where William and Elizabeth's first born son, William, Jr. (b. 1780), announced that he and brother John would set out for Ohio. Maj. William was probably here, at the home, when he learned John Preston had died at Ohio in 1819; son William, in 1837. 
  

Private beach and swimming hole. The house stands on just over 15 acres. The acreage is for sale and soon the house, now in a state of disrepair, will be no more. The property description (Gowen Realty) reads, "This is a great field lot with two levels one part sitting high above the river and the other level at river bank height. This parcel has a great private beach and swimming hole. Equestrian potential keeping horses in the lower field while sitting above on your deck watching them graze and enjoy all the space. Also a terrific view of Stinson."  According to the listing agent, parts of the house and/or hardware will be recycled by the demolition firm. 
 
Ivan Kemp. The man who last owned and much loved the house, Ivan Kemp, passed away in 2008.  Ivan also cared for the Rumney Cemetery where William Preston and his first wife, Elizabeth (Clark) Preston are buried. Ivan passed away about a month after I last interviewed him.

This old house. I spoke this morning with Susan Turbyne, Byron G. Merrill librarian and active blogger (http://rumneylibrary.blogspot.com/). I understand from our conversation that more than one group organized to save the house, but it was not to be.

Susan says the house was lovely at one time. She's located a picture held by the historical society and hopes to send it along. From my conversation earlier this week with the listing agent, I'm hopeful still other photographs might be found. In the mean time, Susan took time this afternoon to take and send a picture of the home in its partially deconstructed state (above).

Our thanks to those who kept the house standing for more than 200 years, and to those who have otherwise memorialized the house William built.

Zotero and Blogger: Love at first sight

Zotero is my choice as a user-friendly reference management tool, and Blogger is the place I, err... blog.  There's been a little match making going on. My two favs seem to be playing in the same sandbox!

I have Zotero installed in my browser, so logging a Blogger citation entry was as simple as Click- 1-2-3. 

I'm using Firefox, and I'm on an iMac. When I'm viewing a Blogger page, a small blue icon appears to the left of the favorites star in the browser address bar. (See the small blue icon circled in the graphic below.)

   

Clicking on that small blue icon saves the citation metadata as a "blog post" (item type) to Zotero. The metadata saved includes the TITLE of the blog post, DATE of the blog post viewed, the post AUTHOR, the BLOG NAME, web address or URL, and ACCESS DATE.

Isn't this cool! But wait, there's more....

Since the data is saved as a "blog post," once Zotero has captured the metadata, it's a simple 1-2-3 to capture/store an image of the web page and slide the citation into Microsoft Word (for me, that's Microsoft Word 2011 for Mac).

With the blog entry selected (Zotero displays the image #1 in the graphic), I click the paperclip icon  on the Zotero toolbar (item 2, circled in red)--Zotero saves a digital version of that relevant blog entry/page as an attachment to the citation entry. (The image attached to my entry has just a little different background than blog page, see the graphic.)

Oooo, don't you love it.

I simply drag the listed citation entry (not shown in the graphic) to Microsoft Word 2011, and it formats a citation (see #3 in the graphic).

I would probably dress up the formatting (Bear is a big EE fan) and add some additional references, but for Click 1-2-3,  I'm more than pleased about this Zotero-Blogger relationship.

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*Note: This worked "out of the box" for blog entries on the front page. To support archived blog postings, I had to update the Blogger.js file in my Mac folder, User>Library> Application Support> Firefox>Profiles>xxx.default>zotero>translators . See the link here for the update input I used.

Beyond the Little Green Leaf: Proving the maiden name of Elizabeth (Clark) Preston (1760-1807)

It was not surprising to find my ancestor, the wife of Maj. William Preston (1754-1842), listed as "Elizabeth Preston" in the death records of Rumney, New Hampshire. It was disappointing, however, to find her birth recorded there as "Elizabeth Preston." The birth record is negated as evidence, as it is an obviously delayed entry--Rumney wasn't populated until 1765.  Unfortunately, the Rumney vital record of her 1779 marriage also called her "Elizabeth Preston." She was the mother of twelve children, and each child's birth vital record calls her just "Elizabeth." Eleven of her children survived at the time of Elizabeth's death.

Understanding the records.  In New Hampshire, it has long been the job of the town clerk to record births, marriages and deaths. In the mid-1800s, a law was passed requiring towns to report about vital events to the state. Regular reporting of vital events became more uniform and effective in about 1905, when New Hampshire established a "Bureau of Vital Statistics,"  See, "New Hampshire Vital Records," [link now broken and removed] for reproduction of George F. Sanborn Jr., FASG, and Alice Eichholz, Ph.D, CG from Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.

I access the early Rumney vital events using FamilySearch collections titled "New Hampshire Birth Records, Early to 1900,"  "New Hampshire Marriage Records, 1637-1947," and of course, "New Hampshire Death Records, 1654-1947." For the Rumney eighteenth and nineteenth century vital events, these collections represent images of card-like forms created and supplied by the town in about 1905, working from the various early town record books.  The entry about William and Elizabeth's 1779 marriage record, from the FamilySearch collection, appears below.

A crack in the armour. If you look closely at the marriage record, above, you'll see someone crossed through Elizabeth's surname, "Preston." The name "Clark" appears faintly written below. Click on the image snippet below to see the strike-through and added notation more clearly.

Perhaps the alteration was made before the records were submitted to the state in 1905, or maybe a third party tried to change the record still later. From looking at the filmed images, we only know this additional "information" was added before the records were filmed by FamilySearch (1975-1976). If only they'd used a Bic, included their initials and dated the entry, huh! 

Rumney's Vital Record Books. In 2008, I contacted Rumney Town Clerk, Linda Whitcomb, to learn what I could about the town records. Rumney had received a grant for the maintenance of the old records not too long before, so the records had all been placed in plastic sleeves and rebound. The clerk confirmed the town marriage books report the Major's wife's name as Elizabeth Preston. 

A second set of books holds the key. In addition to the vital record books, a set of "Town of Rumney: Town Clerk Ledgers" exists. Linda described the ledgers as "town clerk notes from the late-1700s to the 1800s; notes about the goings on in the town." 

Linda found the marriage recorded in the Town of Rumney: Town Clerk Ledgers B: 242. The record reports William Presson and Elizabeth Clark married on 10 May 1779!

So there you have it. A little more than 100 years after her death, Elizabeth has a surname. Maybe someday soon I'll have a snap shot of that entry. --GJ

Updated: 2013, to provide for new fonts and changes to the GenealogyBank related graphic.

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Select Sources

[1]  "Died," Elizabeth Preston obituary, The Sun, Dover (New Hampshire) Gazette, and County Advertiser, Saturday, June 27, 1807, pg. 3, col. 1; digital image, NewsBank, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 5 January 2008), "Historical Newspapers" collection.

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[2]  Registrar of Vital Statistics, New Hampshire, "Index to marriages, early to 1900"; for William Preston-Elizabeth Preston, married 10 May 1779, Rumney; database and digital images, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : 16 Dec 2010), viewed as part of "New Hampshire Marriage Records, 1637-1947," cites film 1001291.

[3]  Town of Rumney, New Hampshire (79 Depot St., Rumney, NH 03266) to GeneJ, information supplied telephonically by Linda Whitcomb, Town Clerk, 20 October 2008, for William Presson and Elizabeth Clark, married 10 May 1779, citing "Town of Rumney: Town Clerk ledger," book B, pg 242.

[4] Separately see, Daughters of the American Revolution National Society, Lineage Books of the Charter Members of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, 152 volumes (18xx-1936); transcribed/database edition, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : 2000+), 100 (1928): 12, entry for Mrs. Mary Wallace Morse, DAR ID 99032, "... [descendant of] William Preston m1 Elizabeth Clark ..."