A Shot in the Dark

I've looked long and hard for the origin of the patriarch of my Phillips family in Philadelphia, Richard Phillips, born ca. 1796. I knew he was born in England, and came to this country fairly early in his life. I have a deed where he was given a house in exchange for a debt in 1823, and that really helped pin it down a little.

Over time, I have searched naturalization records, passenger lists, and other online resources but have yet to find anything definitive. 

One day, while digging around in his family tree, I noticed something interesting. Richard had named one of his sons William. William, in turn, had named one of his sons William. Richard's daughter, Mary Jane Carpenter, had given her son the name William Phillips Carpenter, who named one of his sons the same.

It dawns on me that this name William must have some significance in the Phillips family. The most logical explanation would be that perhaps Richard's father had that name.

I pop on over to Family Search, and go to the Philadelphia death records. I put in the search: William Phillips, born in England between 1765 and 1780. One result that pops up looks promising. So I click on the link to see the document and start reading. William Phillips, Sr., born in England, check; born in 1776, check; died in 1861, occupation tailor, buried Baptist Ground Frankford.  Could be...

As I get to the bottom of the certificate I notice the address where this William Phillips died, 581 Wharton Street. It looked familiar to me. So I quickly look at Richard's death certificate and lo and behold the addresses are the same! Richard died on March 7, 1861 and his father William died in the same house on May 28, 1861. (1861 was a bad year for  the Phillips men - Richard's son William died in November that year.)

I quickly went to Genealogy Bank to see if I could find a death notice in the newspaper. Coincidentally, another William Phillips died on May 23 in Philadelphia also. But I managed to find my William and as the article was loading I begged for something interesting. And I got it!

His death notice stated that he was a soldier in the War of 1812 and that his funeral would be at the residence of his late son Richard Phillips, and gave the address. It also said that he would be buried at Frankford.

I did the happy dance so familiar to us genealogists when we find something significant :-)

The next day I sent a letter to the Philadelphia Register of Wills to see if they had a file for William. A couple weeks later they said there was no record found. Darnit.

I now know that the name William Phillips is pretty popular during the early to mid-1800s in Philadelphia.  I have dug through all of the city directories for that timeframe and still haven't really definitively found him. I cannot find him in the 1860 census. I did locate what could be him in the 1850 census living with two families I couldn't tie to him, so I'm not sure.

I dug through a whole bunch of naturalizations with no luck. I also waded through the Philly index of deeds and came up empty.

The conclusions so far: William was here by 1814; Richard came here with or to join his father;  if there is a William, Sr. it stands to reason there is a William, Jr.; they may have been Baptist (Richard's daughter Caroline was married by a Baptist minister) and William had some ties to the Frankford area of Philadelphia as he was buried there.
I did get help from a Philadelphia genealogist to try to find more about this family, but the results have been lukewarm at best. It's a tough time period and at this point, everything is a fishing expedition. 


But that's not the end of this story. Technology assists in a breakthrough in my next post.

The 4 Rs of Genealogy

OK, I've been AWOL from this blog for a couple of years. I had a project that took over for about two years, so genealogy was sporadic. But I'M BAAAACK!!!

I've had a few cool discoveries in the past few months, so I will share them with you.

I run hot and cold on family research -- sometimes I'm so tired of not finding stuff that my drive wanes a bit. During those periods, I go to my Ancestry tree and track peripheral lines forward in time. I love seeing what happened to people, plus I love finding living cousins to share info with, so this helps to get me over my "bored" hump.

Other times, I'm ticked at my brick walls and that makes me go back and rethink, reanalyze, reassess and renew the search.

My Phillips family are real buggers. Everything happened in the difficult period of 1800-1850: before civil registration of vital records and before the census showed everyone in a household by name.

The patriarch, Richard, blessed me with a goldmine of a will written one day before he died in 1861. (Read about it HERE) His son that I descend from died in 1857, his wife died in 1865 (the same day as President Lincoln!), leaving their children to be raised by Richard's wife, their grandmother Margaret. Only one of Richard's children lived a long life.

Due to those early marriages, I don't know either woman's maiden name. Their religious affiliations look scattered about, so it ain't gonna be easy to find them!

So over the summer, while employing the four Rs, I decided to dig into the man that was co-executor of Richard's will with Margaret. John H. Kinsley is on the 1860 Census in Philadelphia as a 37 year old blacksmith living with what appears to be his mother. Not much help. Can't find him for sure in 1850 or 1870, so I head to Genealogy Bank to see what may be in the newspapers. This marriage announcement appears on May 30, 1847:

He was married to a Caroline B. Phillips! She would be of the correct age to be Richard's daughter. But, since she wasn't in Richard's will, nor mention of her children, that meant she hadn't lived until 1861.

(I did finally find them living together in the 1850 Census, close neighbors of Caroline's brother Charles and his wife, my 3X great grandparents.)

Between newspapers, death records and cemetery/funeral records, the sad tale unfolded. Their daughter Kate died at age 2 in March, 1853. A month earlier, John Jr. died at 9 months of age.

In April of 1855, Caroline gave birth to a baby girl named Caroline. Then the mother died on May 9th. Baby Caroline only lived until August 10th. This poor family!

John himself remarried and had two daughters. He died in 1903 at age 78. A lot of Ancestry trees have this John with a different first wife and a passel of kids. But the plot record at Oddfellows tells the real story. John was buried with his first wife and their three children (and his mother). We are certain it's the same man because his grown daughter Jennie is listed as holding the deed and ordering a grave marker when they were all moved to Lawnview in 1951.

Coincidentally, Caroline's sister named one of her daughters after her, before Caroline died. That Caroline had one child, named Caroline also, but they both died shortly after the baby was born.

Had I not gone digging for that executor, I never would have known Caroline B. Phillips even existed.

I have a whole section of my website devoted to this family, with documents attached HERE.

UPDATE: I found the little marker on their graves in the huge field at Lawnview, thanks to the wonderful groundskeeper. I was skeptical (you always hear about bodies not actually being moved where they say they are) but this place took their job very seriously. They said if there was no obvious remains at the original grave, they dug up the dirt and boxed it up for reburial here. That makes me happy!

Land Ho!

I admit it. Until recently, I didn't really utilize Land Records much in my research. What a mistake! Property records are RICH with genealogical information.

No matter what happened to church, civil, census and other mainstream records, you can count on the property transactions to be reconstructed first. Land was, and is, important. And many are available on the Net.

Look at the above deed's (from MD State Archives) first paragraph: It says so much! It tells us that Richard & Nicholas Hopkins are brothers; that their father is Gerrard, and that his will in which he left them this property was written in 1741. It also tells us where they lived at the time, although you must take old boundaries into account.

I recently found, just by dumb luck, that Philadelphia's property records are on line, and have been for 5 years! No mention is made on the City Archives website of the free indexes or the subscription-based deed books. They also have "Parcel Explorer" on which you can trace the chain of ownership of an address from 1865 forward to the present. (You do need to be aware of street name changes.)

Detail of Parcel Map for 531 Wharton. Green highlight is the exact lot with lot number.

Entry in land register books of lot #177, owner in 1869 and previous owner Margaret Phillips

These very documents lead to me finding the brother of my 3x great grandfather and his family. Charles R. Phillips (my 3XGG) died in 1857 while his children were young. His wife and kids lived with his parents, Richard & Margaret Phillips. When Richard died in 1861, he had a will written just one day before his death, leaving property to his wife, sons William B. & J. Wills Phillips, his daughter Mary Jane Carpenter, and the children of his deceased son Charles R. Phillips. (read this story HERE.)

Until last month, I could not find J. Wills Phillips, and I had been looking for a year! I found a likely death certificate for a John W. in Philly in 1864 (it showed his residence as the same address his sister lived at one time). But really nothing else. No census, no city directories. The other siblings were easy - not J. Wills darn it.

So when I found the deed indexes, I located several for Margaret Phillips, who was executrix of her husband's will, along with John Kinsley. I looked up each deed and to my delight, found this:

In 1866, Angelina D. Mackenbur, widow of John Wills Phillips, is asking for the sale of the property left by Richard Phillips to his son and therefore to her 2 minor children, John H. & Enos P. Phillips of Washington, DC! (She had subsequently married a Joseph Mackenbur in DC.)

Now I was off to the races! Found John in the Census in DC (I remembered seeing the 1860 one, but had no proof it was him.) Tracked his descendants forward and got in touch with some of them. All because of one deed! Still don't know why he was in Philly when he died, but oh well.

Property records also helped me knock down a brick wall in New Brunswick, Canada. Family Search has the indexes and deed books online for free and I was able to track back 2 generations on one line, thanks to the inheritance by sons of their father's property.

Sweet.

Our Own Swedish House Mafia

No, not the musical act, but actual cousins of my father's from Sweden, here in the US for a visit!

Twenty-something years ago, my grandmother had given me the addresses of two of her first cousins in Sweden, from where both of her parents had emigrated. Her mother, Jenny Margreta Gustafsson, and her sisters had left behind their parents, a sister and one brother, Gustaf Hjalmer, who was much younger.

Hjalmer married and had 2 sons before losing his first wife. He married again and had a daughter, Anna Maria. My grandmother had stayed in touch will all 3 of them over the years. She and her sisters had travelled there several times.

I started corresponding with Anna Maria in the 80's while our children were very young. We shared information back & forth, but eventually lost touch.

This spring, someone had copied some info from my Ancestry tree from this family and I wrote them to say I had lots more not on there. She wrote back to say that her cousin, Anna  Maria, would be more interested in that! She was referring to my grandmother's cousin  - I was so excited to be put back in touch with her!!

Well, we emailed back & forth a bit, then she told me her son, EG, would be in the US for 3 months working. As he was only going to be 1.5 hours from me, I offered to have him meet his many American cousins! We Skyped ahead of time; they both speak English really, really well!

Needless to say, we've had a blast this summer! He attended a few family gatherings before finding out that his mother had decided to hop on a plane to meet us all too! (I guess we hadn't overwhelmed him too much) Anna Maria came for a week that was chock full of family and fun!

My dad with Anna Maria (note the Swedish Flag!)

We held a luncheon at my parents' and invited my grandmother's sister's granddaughters whom I had never met. They brought photos and stories and were thrilled to be all together. That was also the first time I met Anna Maria, which was fabulous. My face hurt from smiling so much!

  

She brought with her some incredible family treasures for us as well. Wonderful photos of ancestors (scroll down to bottom), some original paintings by a local artist of their town, a hand-painted Swedish horse, a book written about the town (Vreta Kloster)  the family lived in written by a grandson of my 3x great grandfather. It even features a whole chapter on him - -  of course the book is in Swedish. I will be working on translating that, you can bet!

But the pièce de résistance was a linen towel. Not just any towel. This one is very special. My 2x great-grandfather, Nils Gustaf Gustafsson planted and harvested the flax, extracted the fiber, spun it into thread and wove the fabric. And his wife, Anna Sofie,  embroidered her initials on it. Wow. What an extraordinary gift!

We took them on a tour of Washington DC, which they found amazing; tasted the best craft beers and local cuisine there. They then headed to spend 2 days with my parents at their house on the Wye River, where they boated, crabbed, took a tour of the Eastern Shore (and my fave town, St. Michaels) and just got to know each other.

Anna Maria & EG headed to Philly for a walkabout, then to the airport the next day as she headed home to Sweden. After that, we had a farewell party for EG, and went to an Orioles game. EG leaves tomorrow and we will miss them both. They had a wonderful time here and said they will be back!

In the meantime, we have an open invitation to Sweden :-)

Getting to meet and spend time with these relatives from so far away truly enriched my life and I am so grateful for it.

Some family photos:

The Gustafssons - Nils Gustaf & Anna Sofia seated, (l to r) Signe, Hjalmer & Gertrude

Visiting "Tomtebo," the family home

My 2x great grandfather, Nils Gustaf, at Tomtebo

Per Danielsson, my 3x great-grandfather

Per's grave

My Bad Apple

So, the last time I wrote about Samuel G. Hopkins, my 3x great-grandfather, I was pretty much just waiting and hoping for a chance to go to the Nat'l Archives #2 in College Park to search the Secret Service's files. He was a five-time convicted counterfeiter in Baltimore and Philadelphia. As such, the Secret Service, at that time part of the Treasury Department, would hold the records of counterfeit investigations. The listings at the National Archives show not only investigative files but photos as well. I was hoping against hope to at least find some information on his family as this was a major brick wall. (See previous posts HERE and HERE.)

As I wrote before, the Hopkins name was so common in Baltimore in the 1800s that you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting one! I had found a brother Benjamin listed as brother-in-law in a death notice for Samuel's wife Rebecca, but could never locate his death certificate. I traced his family forward to the present but no one alive could help.

I noticed an Ann E. Hopkins living with Samuel in Baltimore in 1850 who was the right age to be his sister. In later census records she is living with a Charlotte and a Sophia Hopkins and listed as their niece. When looking into their deaths and probate records, the name Richard H Hopkins showed up as administrator. When I searched for him in the census, it showed him as a  bailiff in a Baltimore City Court. I also found his death notice from 1917 at age 90, but I had no idea if he was related.

Ann Hopkin's  death certificate showed her as being buried at the Friends Cemetery on Harford Road in Baltimore. There is a book published that lists most of the burials there and it showed hers along with the notation of "daughter of Richard Hopkins and Mary Ann Gover." But again I had no proof that she was related and had had no luck in finding out anything about this couple except a marriage in 1817 in Baltimore.

Fast-forward to this month. Through the Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness  Facebook page I found a volunteer to go to the National Archives and look up Samuel's Secret Service records. Much to my delight, he found the following two ledger entries containing information on my little criminal. It also contained a reference to a photograph in their files as well. This RAOGK volunteer went back a second time to locate the photograph but had no luck as the index and the actual photo files did not jive. On the second trip though he hit a gold mine in another ledger entry about Samuel!

This entry listed family information as follows:

One brother a crier in Judge Dobbin's Court, another employed at a DC post office, a third in business in Baltimore! Woo hoo! (You can see the ledgers HERE.)

The second ledger also included a reference to another photograph different from the first one. (The next day I called the Archives to speak to the woman that helped the volunteer with locating photos. She was able to locate the photo listed on this new ledger page!)

I started looking at the Census, having been reminded of the bailiff listed above, and searched GenealogyBank newspapers for Judge Dobbins. Who pops up but Richard Hall Hopkins,  second cousin to Johns Hopkins died 1917 and worked for Judge Dobbins! Because he died in 1917 I stood a very good chance of finding his death certificate containing his parents' information! (His obit said he was born in Carroll County, but now I know differently.)

I also searched the census in Washington DC for a Hopkins with a similar job to that mentioned at the post office. The only one I found that came close was a Philip G. Hopkins who worked at, of all things, the Treasury Department! How in the heck does the brother of a counterfeiter get a job as a clerk at the Treasury Department!? He previously lived in Baltimore, working as a clerk in a counting house.

Through another RAOGK volunteer, I just received Richard Hopkins death certificate, listing his parents as Richard Hopkins and Mary Gover, both born in Harford County Maryland! Family Search had a record of Philip Hopkins' and his wife's deaths in DC that also listed his place of birth as Harford County and his middle name as Gover!

So now I just need a one generation bridge from Richard and Mary Ann back to their parents to complete the connection to the  famous Hopkins family that started out in Anne Arundel County. (Gerrard Hopkins and the Gover family both left Anne Arundel County for Harford County in the 1700s)

UPDATE 9/1/12 - Found the link I needed! In the book Colonial Families of Maryland, it lists Richard, married to Mary Ann Gover was the son of Joseph (b. 1761), son of Richard (1715 - 1785), son of Gerrard (1683 - 1734), son of Gerrard b. ca. 1650 in Canterbury, England and came to America with his brothers & perhaps parents. (The older Richard was the brother of Johns, grandfather of the well-known philanthropist Johns Hopkins.)

Then for the last surprise of this whole mission, when looking through newspapers I found an article in 1848 Baltimore Sun, showing that a Philip Hopkins and Richard Hopkins Jr. had been arrested for -- you guessed it -- counterfeiting! They were found not guilty as the victim could not i.d. them.

These bad apples didn't fall far from the tree, but it looks like the other 2 learned their lessons!

Miracles never cease...

Flipping through some new Pennsylvania records on Family Search today yielded me a document that took my breath away.

My ex-husband's  paternal grandfather, Percy Ingles,  was a twin who's mother died when he was 2 and father died when he was 3. He and his brother were raised by their maternal grandmother and maiden aunts. Since this couple died so young, there isn't much about them to find. (Read a previous blog post about them HERE.)

Just for fun, I was looking at Family Search under Pennsylvania records and thought, "What the heck, I'll search these marriage records for Ingles, see who pops up."

I figured Homer Ingles and Annie Jukes had been married at her church in WV or MD. But to my utter surprise and delight, here was their marriage license from his hometown, Uniontown, PA!

As if that wasn't cool enough, it bore their signatures. I was VERKLEMPT!  (I love finding sigs)

Homer and Annie are one of my favorites, due to the challenges I faced finding their records and graves back 25 years ago when I embarked on this obsession hobby.

[Keep in mind that I admit that I have a really bad attitude about records in Pennsyltucky, because they are all over the darned place in that state, making it really tough to find stuff! Just when you think you know where to find something, SURPRISE! "Sorry ma'am, I think they keep those down at the old barn behind where Doc Brown's outhouse used to be..."]**

Thanks to Family Search, genealogy research there is moving into the 21st century. Almost.


**Don't send me hate mail, this frustration has built up in me for years!

Enz Family Reunion!

Well, maybe "union" is a better word!


Saturday, in the city of brotherly love, over 50 descendants of the Enz family gathered to meet, learn and share information about the original Enz immigrants that came to America from Drackenstein, Germany.


People came from as far away as Oregon. The oldest person there just turned 89. There are only 8 living grandchildren of the immigrants and we had 4 with us. Incredible living treasures.


I had only talked on the phone to most of them, having dialed them up to say "I think we are related!" Surprisingly, no one hung up on me!


This family represents a small branch of my mother's family, but what a force they are! The 6 immigrants produced over 50 children, although not all survived to adulthood. This family's surname in America died out in 1941 when my 2x great grandfather passed away, but it still going strong in Germany. (He had 8 daughters and his brother's only son had daughters.)


All of this came about because of a gift from the past...letters written from our immigrant ancestors to their families back home in Germany. Letters so precious, they were kept safe for well over a hundred years! The clues in these letters piqued my curiosity about the people who wrote and were written about, and I started digging with earnest. I have written many blog entries about these letters and the letters themselves (with translations) are all posted on www.EnzFamily.net.


I showed a video about the family's beginnings as an overview for attendees. (It is on YouTube HERE.) I also made a booklet for each attendee to take home with photos, documents and info on the early family history.Then a cousin who traveled to Drackenstein showed photos and videos of his two trips there. It was incredible to see the churches, homes, fields and towns they walked. 

I had hung a descendant chart starting with the parents of the first immigrants up to present day that measured 24 feet long! It was fascinating watching people find themselves on it! I had smaller charts beginning with each immigrant hanging up and pedigree charts for both parents as well, reaching back to the 1590s. 

After a delicious lunch, we Skyped with the Enz cousin still living in Drackenstein. What a thrill! We showed him all around the room to see his American family. He talked about a relative that visited his home in the 1930s and to his surprise, her 2 sons were at the reunion and were able to chat with him.


I talked to him briefly (his grandson was translating) to thank him for saving those letters and photos. I have tons of questions for him, but will do that later.

I can't explain how generous my new cousins all were with their time and knowledge. They brought photos and other family treasures to share. I could have sat with each for hours, but time didn't allow.

There were 2nd cousins that had never heard of each other, seeing photos of a parent or grandparent the other had never seen. Similarities in appearance and personalities being compared, memories being shared. I got to see the faces of people long dead that I had obsessed over finding in order to track their children forward. In a word - AMAZING!

I can never top this!


More photos at www.EnzFamily.net