The Family Tree Problem Solver: Tried-And-True Tactics for Tracing Elusive Ancestors (29 page)

During the latter half of the eighteenth century, there were at least ten men named Christian Newcomer living in the western half of Lancaster County, at least nine men named John Newcomer, and four named Abraham Newcomer.

One of the early problems I encountered was identifying the parents of Christian Newcomer, a man born about 1793 who married Elizabeth Hartman in the Lutheran church in the village of Lancaster. Because he served in the War of 1812, I learned a lot from his military pension record about the events of his life after he left Lancaster County in the 1820s. But who were his parents?

Researchers initially assigned him to the family of an older man named Christian Newcomer and his wife, Anna Witmer of Manor Township, Lancaster County. But when I pointed out that Anna Witmer Newcomer would have been about fifty-two years old at the time of this Christian Newcomer's birth, and that this Christian was ten years younger than Anna's youngest child, a new set of parents was sought.

This time the selected father was another Christian Newcomer, a man who lived in Hempfield Township. In the 1800 census, however, there were two men named Christian Newcomer listed as living in Hempfield Township. One of these men had three males under the age of ten in his household, so he appeared to be the best prospect. This Christian Newcomer was believed to be the brother of the John Newcomer of Hempfield Township, who left a will in which he named each of the eight children of his deceased brother, Christian. Those children were John, Christian, Abraham, Jacob, Elizabeth, Henry, Mary, and Barbara — all very common names among the families in the area. The testator was born about 1760 and lived until 1848, approximately eighty-eight years. He and his wife had no surviving children when he made his will in 1822. Most researchers had written down the names of the eight children named in that will and let it go at that. On this basis alone, the Christian Newcomer who married Elizabeth Hartman was assigned to this family. The names fit, so the pieces fit, right?

This example provides an excellent case for “letting the record speak to you.” John Newcomer's will tells us more than just the facts written there; it tells us about the values and beliefs of the individual who made it. Let's review what it says. In addition to naming his deceased brother's children, John Newcomer gave $100 to another man named John Newcomer, whom he called “an elder in our Mennonist Society in trust to the poor.” Obviously, the testator was still an active Mennonite. The discrepancy between this John Newcomer's religious beliefs and the actions of his supposed son, Christian Newcomer, the husband of Elizabeth Hartman, should provoke some questions. Would John Newcomer, the active Mennonite, have given an inheritance to a man who married in the Lutheran church and took up arms in the War of 1812?

Further research proved that Christian and Elizabeth Hartman were living in Hamilton County, Indiana, when the nephew of John Newcomer, the Mennonite of Hempfield Township, signed the receipt for his inheritance. That nephew, Christian Newcomer, was living in Ashland, Ohio — not Indiana. The discrepancy in values, however, was the first red flag that should have told the researcher that this is likely not the same family.

Signatures can also be extremely helpful when sorting out individuals of the same name because each is unique.
Military records and probate packets are good original sources for signatures. Other sources include petitions for roads, for the laying out of a county boundary, or for the formation of a militia company. If your ancestor did not leave probate records himself, he may have been a witness or deponent for one of his neighbors. He may have signed a receipt for work done for a deceased neighbor, or he may have signed a variety of documents as the attending physician, the mortician, the carpenter who built the coffin, the crop harvester, the fence mender, or the wood chopper. Try to find those signatures, because comparing them can help you sort out individuals. (Of course, if your ancestors could do nothing more than sign with an X, this may not be particularly helpful!)

Deeds and other land records are invaluable. When you gather information, note the exact description of the land owned by each man, how he acquired it, and how he disposed of it. If he made a will, pay particular attention to how he refers to the land containing “the dwelling house.” Who is living there now? Will the widow retain the house until her death? Which land goes to which son? How is that land described on the tax list? Follow that land through the years, even after the man you are seeking has left it.

Step 6:
Remain alert to inconsistencies and contradictions.

Don't manipulate the data to fit a highly desirable hypothesis. Remember to do your math so you don't have sixty-year-old women giving birth and seventeen-year-old boys having their fourth child. Contradictions or inconsistencies should raise red flags to warn you that more than one person probably generated the records.

Step 7:
Place the records in chronological order, not in families.

This is a truly essential step. When you gather a lot of data, it is easy to become overwhelmed. However, when you place the records you have gathered in chronological order and make note of the ages of the individuals involved, you probably can eliminate many names from further consideration. Perhaps documents from the same time period appear to name different spouses for the same person. In other cases, the man you seek may seem to be in two different locations simultaneously. Or perhaps the individual seems to be doing contradictory things — making a major land purchase while experiencing the foreclosure of his farm.

Chronology is said to be the spine of history; this is also true for genealogy. The facts must fit a logical order and usually correlate with normal behavior for a person of his age, marital status, and socioeconomic level.

Step 8:
Analyze your findings and put the pieces together slowly, logically, and consistently.

Do the pieces fit together? Has the picture of a unique person emerged? Can you include all the facts you have uncovered? If not, you need more information.

Let's go through another case illustrating the steps involved in sorting out individuals.
In this situation, we will try to find the origins of a man named Benjamin Johnson. We know nothing about this man except that he purchased forty acres of federal land in Greene County, Missouri, on 25 January 1838. Since we know nothing else at this point, we will move to the second step in the process: pinpoint his location. Figure 8-3 shows the location of the land.

Figure 8-3
Location of Benjamin Johnson's land.

The next step is to
enlarge his circle
. As this land is on the rectangular (or section, township and range) survey system, we can correlate his neighbors on the land with the listing in the 1840 census rather easily. Fortunately, there was only one man in Greene County named Benjamin Johnson who was head of household in 1840. His household consisted of one male under five, one male age ten to fifteen, one male age fifteen to twenty, one male age forty to fifty, two females age five to ten, two females age ten to fifteen, two females fifteen to twenty, and one female age forty to fifty. Thus, we know we have a middle-aged man who appears to be married and who has a number of dependents, some of whom may be his children. We are fortunate that the census taker did not alphabetize this census. Enumerated on the same page were Joseph Headlee, William Dysart, Robert W. Sims, William Jenkins, Columbus Williamson, Archibald Adams, John Headlee, and Jeptha Wallace. By checking the land purchases of these men, we know that the Benjamin Johnson listed in the 1840 census is the man who bought the land.

Figure 8-4
By 1850 there were five men named Benjamin Johnson.

Of course, the 1850 census will give us more specific information. Oops! By 1850, there were five men named Benjamin Johnson living in Greene County. None were living near the town of Ebenezer and none were the right age with the right family configuration to match the man who was head of household in 1840. I examined the records for each one and had to eliminate all of them as the Benjamin Johnson who purchased the land. For now, we had better confine our search to the years between 1840 and 1850, when
our
Benjamin Johnson was likely to be generating records that will tell us more about him.

I checked all available records: marriages, county histories, circuit court minutes, probate, and tax records. I took careful notes and placed every piece of information that I found in chronological order. Of course, you always collect more information than you need, but you never know which piece of data is the crucial one until the problem is solved. The more information you gather, the more likely it is that you will have the critical pieces.