52 Ancestors - Week 3 - Jacob Shaffer

 I am going to branch out a little bit and go somewhere I haven’t really been yet with my blog, and discuss a collateral ancestor. I’ve really tried to focus on the direct line with my blog, though I have researched lots of collateral lines for various reasons, including the reason I am working on Jacob – I need to find out about his mother. (See Last Week's Blog) I started with him because he is the oldest living child of Abraham and Rebecca (Bennett) Shaffer, if I continue with my assumption that William Bennet/Benason is the son of Rebecca and a previous husband.

I started researching Jacob expecting to run through him, and keep going with all the kids, but as soon as I did a preliminary search on Ancestry.com, the first thing that popped up was a link to his Findagrave memorial.  It originally looked like this: (since then it was transferred to me and I fixed it)

And I found a tree on Acom that listed his parents as Solomon Shaffer and someone else, not Sarah. So I had to look into this. I knew I was not wrong and Solomon was definitely NOT married to a Margaret, so I could definitely let that person know that was wrong, which I did. However, looking at it now, I guess he could have been married once before Sarah but that would be very briefly and then that person had Sarah's children attached to her so that part was still wrong! Anyway, Solomon Shaffer and Abraham Shaffer are brothers, both are sons of Jacob and Odilla Shaffer. They also happen to both be my direct ancestors. (That's where this tree gets more bush like! Solomon's great grandaughter Rose married Abraham's grandson Aaron. They were 2nd cousins twice removed. Confused? That's ok, I'll blog about them later. :)

Back to Jacob. I wasn't sure if Solomon and Sarah had a son named Jacob, that is not something I can remember off the top of my head. So I pulled out my stuff and took a look. Here are my proofs that Jacob belongs to Abraham and Rebecca:


1) Solomon and Sarah marriage information, per Vogt and Kethley, Shenandoah County Marriage Bonds 1772-1850 p. 193:


    
             Not unusual to have a child out of wedlock, but it's unlikely that Jacob would have been born 8 years before his parents were married! Sarah was 20 when they married, she would have been 12 when Jacob was born.

2) Abraham and Rebecca are listed with Jacob as their son in Klaus Wust's Old Pine Church Baptisms 1783-1828, p. 39.




He was likely named after Jacob Nehs (Neese/Nease), his sponsor.

I've located Abraham (Abram Shaver in 1810, Abraham Shaver in 1820 and 1830) in the 1810-1830 censuses, and the family in 1860 and 1870, all in Shenandoah, VA.

Now, since Jacob is buried in Champaign, OH, I have to assume he was part of the family group that migrated to OH in the mid-1850s. He's found in Mad River, Champaign, OH censuses from 1850-1880, and I'll assume he was there on that missing 1890 census since he's buried there in 1893. He was a blacksmith and a farmer, and so was Abraham.  Abraham and Rebecca supposedly did NOT migrate to OH, since I find them still in VA in 1860-70 and the families went to OH in the mid-1800s; but I haven't located their graves yet. I would presume they are buried in Solomon's Lutheran Church graveyard, or maybe there is somewhere else in New Market that I don't know about yet. But that's for another blog.

So that's Jacob. I'm still no closer to figuring out his mother Rebecca, but I at least have some more info on the family and that is what this exercise is all about. Prompting me to work on an ancestor per week! :)

52 Ancestors - Week 2 - Rebecca "Peggy" Bennett

I think I might be developing a theme so far for these blog posts. This week will also be a female brick wall. I have a total of three brick wall women so far in this line - if I just had more time and easier access to Virginia records, I could kick them down! Time and distance are my biggest genealogical enemies. :(

This week features Rebecca or Peggy Bennett. She was my third great grandmother. As with Margaret Maurer, I know nothing about her until after her marriage. I try to look into her every once in awhile, and recently I had an idea as to who her family might be, but so far have not had a chance to look any further into it.

Rebecca was born about 1787, per the census records. That's about all I have for a birth record. One census record lists Loudoun, VA, as her place of birth. I don't really know yet. It would be great if she was, I have a lot of historical context for the Loudoun area up to the Civil War.

The next record I have is the marriage record, as reported in Vogt and Kethley's Virginia Marriages 1775-1850.  15 December 1807, Abraham Shaver and Peggy Bennett are married, bondsman is Thomas Hommon. New Market, Shenandoah, VA.

Now this is where I think I might have a clue. There aren't any Bennetts in the New Market, Shenandoah VA area, so I was thinking that Rebecca might be a Bennett by marriage, and that perhaps Hommon (or Hamman) might be her maiden name, based on the bondsman's name. Here's the other clue:

In the records from 200 Years in the Shenandoah Valley by A.P. Kelley, he lists “William Benason was born into the world the 12 August in the year 1804 and baptized. Sponsor: Barba Hammon” (sic)--yet all the other children under Abraham and Rebecka are written as "to me was born into the world..." (see below for document...)
and 

Per Pine Church Baptisms by Klaus Wust, under Abraham Schafer and Rebecka: Willem Benat (?)[1]was born 12 Aug 1804. Sponsor Barbara Hamman.

So obviously this child was born prior to their marriage and has the name Bennett/Benat/Benason. (Remember that Klaus and Arthur were transcribing these documents from the German Lutheran Church records...so take all spellings with a grain of salt!) But the catch is that Thomas Hamman was married to Elizabeth Shaffer/Shaver, the sister of Abraham ~ so maybe Barbara Hamman was Thomas's sister and sponsor of the child, and maybe his name was William Bennett Shaffer. The date makes me think not, but I just don't know what to think at the moment. It still could be that Thomas Hamman married Elizabeth Shaffer and Abraham Shaffer married Rebecca Hamman, but I don't see a Rebecca Hamman so far in anything I've looked at. I'm still going to follow that as a possibility.

Oh and one other thing, there was a post on a message board about a John Homman b. 1770 in Loudoun, VA who married Polly Foltz in 1800. They had George, Jacob, Maria, and Anna Catherine according to the message board post. But that doesn't mean he could not also be the father of Rebecca (maybe a previous marriage) -- the Loudoun, VA birth caught my eye. Will have to explore further. 

Anyway, Rebecca and Abraham had these children: (per the Pine Church baptismal records)

Jacob

Jonatan

Johannes

Hanna

Moses

Aron

Sarah

Absolom (1820-1906)

Phillip

Rebeckah

Abby

I have copies of the 1860 and 1870 census as my next record in her timeline. Clearly I need to sit down and do more with this family! Abraham died (according to others) 15 July 1867, and I'll go with this for now til I have proof, but he is missing from the 1870 census so he obviously died between 1860-1870. In 1870 Rebecca lives with her son Philip and his family. This census states she cannot write. She is not found in the 1880 census, and some say she died 23 February 1878, so I'll go with this til I have proof as well.

So my job will be to search for the connection, if there is one other than Elizabeth Shaffer, between the Homman/Hamman family and the Bennett family. Then hopefully connect Rebecca to one or the other and figure out who she is.

Addendum 1-14-14:  I just noticed an interesting discrepancy. Klaus Wust's Old Pine Church Baptisms 1783-1828 lists Abraham and Rebecka's first child (after the mysterious William) as Jacob. His sponsors were Jacob Nes (Neese/Nehs) and wife. Arthur Pierson Kelley's transcription of the same records lists the first child as David, with the sponsor David Ness and wife. Ahhh the perils of secondary sources! Especially ones transcribing a foreign language! But I am pretty sure there was not a David Neese (Nehs/Ness). If there are any Neese family out there you could confirm for me. (I do not have a Klaus Wust's OPC Baptisms scanned, but I do own the book. The record in question is on page 39, should you care to check it out - here is the APK 200 Years in the Shenandoah Valley record:)

---

[1] (?) is actually how it is in the book!

52 Ancestors - Week 1 - Margaret Maurer

Hi everyone!

Here is my first week's blog on ancestors. No Story Too Small's challenge says it can be any ancestor or even a mystery you're working on etc.

I think I will start with the mystery I started working on recently. My paternal 4th great grandparents were Abraham Zerkel (Zirkle, Circle, Circkel - remember there are 39 spellings of Zirkle! I will use Zirkle since that is what I usually use)   Abraham's burial is here   and Margaret Maurer. (Margaret is buried here) Both are buried in the Shaffer cemetery in Champaign County, Ohio.

I am going to discuss MARGARET in this blog, but since women are so much harder to research you almost can't remove them from their spouses, especially during this time frame. So you'll need to know about both Abraham and Margaret.

According to the Findagrave memorial, Margaret was born Sep. 14, 1781 in Virginia. While this is plausible, I have no documented proof. Abraham was born in VA, and they were married in VA, but this does not mean she was necessarily born in VA. Abraham's family came to VA from PA so it's possible her family did as well.
I recently found a transcription from the Overseer of the Poor in Shenandoah, VA (click here) that lists in 1787:
- Overseer of Poor to bind George Mower, son of Michael, dec. to John Rouch. He is 11 yrs old Dec. 1, last.
- Overseer of Poor to bind Margaret Mower, daughter of Michael, dec. to Jacob Pennywitt. She is 6 yrs old Aug. last.

That would follow with a birth date of 1781. It also would explain how she was introduced to the Zirkles, as I cannot find any Maurers in the same area as the Zirkles. If George Mower is the brother of Margaret, John Rouch (Roush) was related to Catherine Roush (maybe her father), who married Abraham's brother George. Likely she would have kept in touch with her brother. The Pennywits were also in the area and married into various Roush and Zirkle lines...I just am not completely familiar with them at this time. If anyone else is, please drop me a line or a comment!

Margaret's obituary, published in the Urbana Union Newspaper, 21 December 1870, states she moved to OH as a little girl. (As you read more, perhaps this is not the correct obit, but it fits w/ her death date)

So that confuses me as to whether this is a correct marriage record (from Shenandoah County Marriage Bonds 1772-1850 by Vogt and Kethley):

According to another source, Abraham was a pioneer in what would become German, Clark County, Ohio, in 1805. (See American Family History)

*NOTE: Clark County, OH was formed in 1818 from Champaign, Greene, and Madison counties. Champaign County, OH was formed in 1805 from Franklin and Greene counties. (per Eichholz and Ancestry Publishing, Redbook.)



Abraham and Margaret had the following children: (bold = my line)
Michael, b. 20 Apr 1802 in Shenandoah, VA (probably New Market)
Regina, b. 6 Dec. 1804 in Champaign County, OH (probably Mad River)
Anna, b. abt 1806 "
Jonathan, b. abt 1808  "
Simon, b. abt 1810  "
George, b. 3 Oct 1812  "
Noah, b. ______ (can't find) maybe 1813? (See thread here that I started in 2012 for Noah's mystery)
Lewis, b. 1815  
Henry, b. 1816 
Catherine, b. 1818

In doing this blog, I have determined that I need to review these children. I have several of them listed as born in Shenandoah, which clearly is not possible if they lived in OH from 1805 on. I do have Abraham's Will settlement so I will sit down and review this as well. It is the document I used to prove Noah as his son, as I have nothing on Noah til his marriage.

Abraham is found in the censuses for Clark County, OH from 1820-1840 w/ the correct number of family members (censuses prior to 1850 do not list names other than the head). The 1810 census was lost for all OH counties except Washington, so I can assume if he was in Clark in 1805 and 1820, likely he was there in 1810 as well. In 1860 and 70 in Clark County, it is Abraham, Margaret, and Polly or Mary Gentis (poss wife of their son Jonathan who is deceased, but not sure why she's listed as Gentis and not Zirkle...) Abraham died in 1860. The closest thing I find for Margaret is in Jan 1870 the census in German, Clark, OH lists Rebecca Zirkle age 92 with Mary Gentis. Age and name doesn't match exactly but it's the same people as living together as in 1860 so I am not sure what to make of that either. Margaret died in December 1870 so it's still before she passed and the most likely census.

But the main purpose of this exercise is to focus on Margaret. Who is she? Who were her parents?
-Marriage record states her father was Michael. The VA Minute Book entry states a Michael Mower died before 1787. There's a Michael and Christina Maurer listed in the Old Pine Church Baptisms records with a daughter named Catherine born in 1784, these could be Margaret's parents. This follows along with something else I found -
  There is a George Michael Maurer, son of Phillip, b. in Swattara, PA 13 Jan 1756. (Records of Rev. John Casper Stoever : baptismal and marriage, 1730-1779, page 27)
  There is a Michael Maurer, pvt in PA Revolutionary War records (no other info listed- from acom and Fold3)
--> if Catherine born in 1784 was Michael and Christina's first b. in VA, then they could have just recently come from PA to VA. But then, why wasn't Catherine listed being bound out in 1787? Unless she died. I really need a copy of that Michael's probate record. That will be on my to do list.

I am leaning toward the Michael Maurer from PA as her father, but until I find anything more I am at a loss. I can only work on this occasionally so I'll post updates as I can.

I welcome comments and suggestions! If there is anyone out there with clarification, I'd love to hear from you!

New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year!

I've decided to start a New Year's resolution to blog on one ancestor every week. Hopefully I can keep up with this once school starts again!

Since I have two blogs, I may blog on either one to fulfill this resolution. Be sure to check out my other blog - GenXGenealogy.

I am also pretty sure one of my classes this semester will be creating yet another blog...unless I can use an existing blog! So I started one on WordPress as well. If I actually figure out how to use it, I will consider that part of this challenge as well, if I blog about genealogy there. I'll update this as necessary when I know more.

Thanks to No Story Too Small for the inspiration.