Surname Saturday – My Boone Ancestors and Relations

Posted on October 1, 2022 by Anna Kasper, ACDP

I decided to take the month of October off from my 52 Ancestors writings, the prompts for this month just didn’t appeal to me, but the November prompts are awesome! And in my opinion were more fitting for the month of October. So, I’ll be back with those writings come November. Until then I decided to utilize a past writing prompt called Surname Saturday.

This Saturday I chose to write about the surname Boone in my family tree.

My Boone ancestor is my 7th great-grandmother Jane Boone. She was born by 1660. It is thought she was born in Colonial Maryland in Anne Arundel County; the county was formed in 1650.

Her parentage is unconfirmed, but it is known that she and Capt. Humphrey Boone were siblings.

Humphrey Boone was born about 1658 in Anne Arundel County, Maryland and died 20 November 1709 in Baltimore County, Maryland. He married Rebecca Burle. There is much more written about her brother Humphrey and his descendants.

The first grant of Provincial Maryland land to Captain Humphrey Boone was known as “Boone’s Adventure” and surveyed on 10 May 1672. This original tract of 160 acres was along the north bank of Rock Creek in the South Patapsco Hundred (later to become Baltimore County). Sometime between 1700 and 1709, this land was passed to another owner. The land known as “Burle’s Town Land” came into the Boone Family via his wife Rebecca Burle’s inheritance and was held by them for several generations.

He is listed as a Captain due to his military service. In 1692 he was commissioned in the Company of Foot, a part of the Anne Arundel County Militia.

Jane and Humphrey are thought to be the children of a Robert Boone, who died in Baltimore, Maryland, and possibly Ann ___.

Jane Boone married by 1678 in Colonial Maryland to John Armstrong. They either married in Anne Arundel or Baltimore County, Maryland. John Armstrong was born 1 January 1650 in Colonial Maryland, although there is a chance he was born in England or Scotland or shortly after his father arrived in Colonial America. He was the son of John Armstrong, who came to America in 1653, and was from what is called the Borderlands, the borderlands of England and Scotland. They were what is called Borderers, which is to say, inhabitants of the Anglo-Scottish borderlands, and so, hailing from Northern English counties such as Cumberland, Westmoreland, Northumberland, Yorkshire and Lancashire, and counties of the Scottish Lowlands, such as Ayrshire, Dumfriesshire, Roxburghshire, Berwickshire and Wigtownshire. They were early settlers in Colonial Maryland. They are found in the church records of All Hallows Parish, Anne Arundel, Maryland. John Armstrong died 9 July 1699 in Baltimore County, Maryland.

The land of John Armstrong was found in the North Side Gunpowder Hundred (which later became part of Baltimore County). This site explains quite well the description, details, and history of the Baltimore County Hundreds & Boundaries.

Location of Lowlands vs. Highlands of Scotland. Image from HOMEORIGINS.

We don’t know when exactly Jane died, but she was alive when her husband died in 1699. After his death, she married second to Abraham Taylor.

Boone Surname Meaning:

Boon in England has two likely origins: either it is a Norman import from the French word bon meaning “a good person” or from the placename Bohon in Normandy (Humphrey de Bohun had fought with William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings) or, if the name occurs in the north of England, it is a variant of bain and describes a tall lean person. The northern dialects preserved the long “a” sound, while in the south the “o” pronunciation was usual. (1 & 2)

Boon or Boone? The English have preferred Boon, the Americans Boone.

Boone in America could also have Dutch origins. Here the Dutch root was bone meaning “bean” and Boone would be a bean grower. (1)

Boon and Boone Surname Ancestry in England and America:

One early spelling was Bone or Bohun, such as the Roger Bone who was recorded in the Kent hundred rolls of 1273. Another was Bohun, found in the west country. A Bohun or Boone family was recorded in Taunton in Somerset during the 1400’s. (1)

Some of these Boones made it to America:

  1. A Boone family in Taunton gave rise to the 17th century London merchants John and Christopher Boone and the Boones of Calvert County, Maryland.
  2. The line from George Boone, born near Exeter in Devon around 1636, led to the frontiersman Daniel Boone. (See more about Daniel Boone’s line below).
  3. A third family from Dartmouth produced John and Thomas Boone, early immigrants to South Carolina, and the London merchant Charles Boone. Charles’s son Thomas Boone was a colonial governor in America in the 1760’s. Thomas Boon came to Virginia around 1663. His descendant General Daniel Boon, born in North Carolina in 1786, was one of the founders of Wake Forest College and a wealthy landowner with plantations in North Carolina and Mississippi. John Boone was onboard one of the ships that came to found the Charleston settlement in South Carolina in 1670. He too prospered. His family story was narrated in Mary Long’s 1990 book Fair Were Their Dreams. (1)

The principal British spelling has been Boon. The main Boon numbers in the 19th century were to be found in London and in the west country, in the southwest around Devon and in the northwest in Staffordshire, Cheshire, and Lancashire. (1)

One of the more well-known of the Boone family in America is that of the frontiersman Daniel Boone. He was born in 1734 into a Quaker family in Reading, Pennsylvania. His father Squire Boone had been a weaver from Devon who had come to America in 1713, seeking religious tolerance in Penn’s Pennsylvania. Daniel Boone’s later frontier exploits – as recounted in William Bogart’s 1858 book Daniel Boone and the Hunters of Kentucky. – made him one of America’s first folk heroes. Daniel’s grandson Alphonso migrated west to Oregon in 1847 and many Boone descendants are to be found there. (1)

I have not found a link between my Boone family and that of the ones discussed above, although it can be assumed their roots are to be found in England. The only DNA link I have found is to descendants of Jane’s brother Humphrey Boone.

Children of Jane Boone and John Armstrong:

Gen. George Amstrong Custer. A descendant of John Armstrong and Jane Boone.
  1. John Armstrong born 4 August 1679 in All Hallows Parish, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and died 1735 in Baltimore, Maryland. He married 26 August 1714 in Baltimore, Maryland to Rebecca Hicks. She was the daughter of William Hicks. They are my direct ancestors.
  2. George Armstrong born 2 November 1681 in All Hallows Parish, Anne Arundel County, Maryland.
  3. Mary Armstrong born 5 December 1682 in All Hallows Parish, Anne Arundel County, Maryland.
  4. Robert Armstrong born 5 April 1688 in All Hallows Parish, Anne Arundel County, Maryland.
  5. Solomon Armstrong born 25 June 1689 in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, he died before24 November 1749 in Baltimore County (now Hartford County), Maryland. He married Mary ____. Gen. George Armstrong Custer is a descendant of this couple.
  6. Thomas Armstrong born 30 January 1692 in All Hallows Parish, Anne Arundel County, Maryland. He married before by 1720 to Frances ____. They have descendants.
  7. Henry Armstrong born 21 January 1695 in All Hallows Parish, Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

General George Armstrong Custer was given the middle name of Armstrong after his maternal great-grandmother Sarah Armstrong Rogers, who was a great-granddaughter of John Armstrong and Jane Boone.

References:

  1. Boone Surname Meaning, History & Origin – select surnames website.
  2. Boone Name Meaning – Ancestry.com

Additional Reading:

  1. Boone Bulletin: A Magazine of History and Genealogy, Volume 1, Issue 7
  2. Baltimore County Hundreds & Boundaries

If you use any information from my blog posts as a reference or source, please give credit and provide a link back to my work that you are referencing. Unless otherwise noted, my work is © Anna A. Kasper 2011-2023. All rights reserved. Thank you.

Posted in Famous Kin, Genealogy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Jezebel of The Bible, A Jezebel, and the Jezebel Spirit

Posted on September 26, 2022 by Anna Kasper, ACDP

Jezebel: Phoenician Princess of Ancient Sidon, Pagan Priestess, and Queen of Israel.

Jezebel – In the Old Testament

According to biblical texts, Jezebel was a Phoenician princess who married Ahab, a foreign king, who presided over the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th century BCE. She helped him rule and she established pagan worship at Ahab’s court on a grand scale. He is depicted as a terrible ruler who is disloyal to the Israelite god by promoting the god Baal and the goddess Asherah. Jezebel is portrayed as an evil foreign woman who leads Ahab astray by encouraging his worship of other gods. At her table were no less than 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Baal’s consort Asherah (I Kings 16:31,21; 18:19). By her orders, the prophets of Yahweh were attacked and put to the sword (I Kings 18:13; II Kings 9:7). (1 & 2)

1 Kings 16:31 (BBE) “And as if copying the evil ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, was a small thing for him, he [Ahab] took as his wife Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Zidon, and became a servant and worshipper of Baal.”

Ahab’s wife Jezebel came from the Phoenician city of Tyre where her father had been a high priest and eventually king. Jezebel worshipped the god Baah and his consort Asherah. In order to please her, Abah built a temple and an alter for Baal (1 Kings 16:32), thus promoting idolatry and leading the entire nation into sin. (3) Tyrian purple — a dye produced from the glands of mollusks found along the rocky shores of Lebanon — would forever become associated with royalty; it also featured prominently in the Israelite High Priest’s vestments. Meanwhile, Jezebel’s grandniece, Princess Elishat (Elissa for Greeks; Dido for Romans) of Tyre, would go on to found Carthage, the torment of classical Rome, in today’s Tunisia. (4)

Ahab then became upset when he learned that the owner of a vineyard abutting his palace, a man named Naboth, was not willing to sell the property. Queen Jezebel arranged for Naboth to be arrested on a trumped-up blasphemy charge, and the vineyard owner was stoned to death (I Kings 21:7). His property thus fell to the crown. (1)

Artist: Thomas Matthews Rooke (1842–1942). Elijah, Ahab and Jezebel; Southwark Art Collection.

Shocked by this blatant crime, Yahweh’s prophet Elijah pronounced a curse on Ahab and his house. His prophecy was fulfilled: Ahab would be killed during another campaign against his old Syrian foe, while his son Ahaziah would die after a fall from his window. Ahab’s second son Jehoram was then ousted from the throne in a bloody coup by a commander named Jehu, reportedly with Elijah’s assistance, while Queen Jezebel was thrown out a window to her death and her blood spattered on the wall and horses. Jehu trampled her body under the horses’ hooves. (II Kings 9:6-10; 30-37) (1, 3 & 4)

The much-maligned queen gets her comeuppance in an illustration by the 15th century Dutch painter Evert Zoudenbalch.

After Jehu finished eating dinner that night, he sent some people outside to bury Jezebel, “Someone go and bury this cursed woman, for she is the daughter of a king.” However, when the servants got out there to bury Jezebel all they found was her skull, her feet, and the palms of her hands, the rest had been eaten by dogs. This fulfilled Elijah’s curse that “dogs shall eat Jezebel. . .so that [her] carcass shall be as dung upon the face of the field in Jezreel.” (II Kings 9:33-34; 10:9). (1, 3 & 4)

Archaeological Notes:

Jezebel’s make-up stone boxes. “When Jezabel, the queen mother, heard that Jehu had come to Jezreel, she painted her eyelids and fixed her hair and sat at a window” (11 Kings 9:30 NLT). An Expedition sponsored by Harvard University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The British School of Archaeology, and Palestine Exploration Fund (1908-1910, 1931-), found, in Samaria, in the ruins of Ahab’s “ivory palace” (1 Kings 22:39), saucers, small stone boxes, in which Jezebel mixed her cosmetics. They had a number of small holes to contain the various colors: kohl for black; turquoise for green; ochre for red; and a central depression for mixing. There are still traces of red. (3 & 5)

Megiddo. In Megiddo, in the Archaeological stratum of Ahab and Jezebel’s time period, jars were found containing remains of children that had been sacrificed to Baal, illustrating the horrible nature of Baal worship.

Megiddo was the famous battlefield, Armageddon, which gives its name to the “Great Final Battle of the Ages” (Rev. 16:16). It was situated on the south side of the Plain of Esdraelon, 10 miles southwest of Nazareth, at the entrance to a pass across the Carmel Mountain range, on the main highway between Asia and Africa. It was a key position between the Euphrates and the Nile rivers, and a meeting place of armies from the East and the West. (5)

Jezebel – In the New Testament

Image © Phil McKay. Goodsalt.com

In the Book of Revelation, it rails against “that woman Jezebel… [who] seduces my servants to commit fornication” (Rev. 2:20), further paving the way for her name to become synonymous with lewd promiscuity — her name Jezebel, ironically, meant “woman of god” (as in the god Baal) in her native Phoenician language. (3 & 4)

The name Jezebel is used for a woman once again in Revelation 2:18-29. Here, Jezebel is described as a prophetess, a false teacher, an immoral woman and idol worshipper. She attended a church at Thyatira. She encouraged those who attended the church to engage in sexual sin and to worship other gods. (6)

But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent; and she does not want to repent of her immorality. Rev. 2:20-21 (NASB)

She was like the Jezebel in the Old Testament. They share many of the same characteristics. God warned this Jezebel that He would punish her if she did not stop teaching evil and repent. God not only warned Jezebel the teacher, but He also warned her followers to stop sinning and to repent (Rev. 2:22-23). (6)

And I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. Rev. 2:23 (NASB)

We do not know the true name of this woman who is nicknamed Jezebel in this verse. It is unlikely that her name was actually Jezebel. It wouldn’t be a name that parents would have wanted to bestow on a child at this time in history. Although I will point out here that in later centuries the Puritans used all the names from the Bible when naming their children. And as a genealogist, I have come across records listing women named Jezebel! Although not a super popular first name in more recent history, it is found in hundreds of records in the United States, and to a lesser degree in Europe, into the 20th and even the 21st century. (11)

The Majority Text indicates “Jezebel may have been the wife of the angel of the church.” (10 & 11) What is meant here by the word angel is the pastor of the church, this Jezebel found in Jesus’ letter to the church of Thyatira may have been the wife of the church’s pastor. Whatever her role in the church, she was a woman who was extremely influential.

The church at Thyatira had been allowing Jezebel to promote her scriptural teaching in their midst (Rev. 2:20), but not the slightest detail had escaped the eyes of the Master. Also appearing in Revelation 1:14, the eyes like a flame of fire indicate His [Christ’s] omniscience and omnipresence. He is well aware of what is happening within the church at Thyatira, especially those things he opposes (Rev. 2:20). (11)

Christ describes her as persuasive in the Church, using her self-appointed position to lead Church members into sin. This was like the Jezebel of the Old Testament who influenced the people of Israel to corrupt themselves. She was promoting destructive heresies and leading many into moral compromise. Christ also says of this Jezebel, “I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent” (Rev. 2:21). This is like the impudent Jezebel of old who remained defiant of God to her gruesome death. This Jezebel [of Thyatira] meets a violent end (Rev. 2:22-23) like the Old Testament Jezebel, a lesson for the Christian not to allow her seductive influence in the Church. (9 & 11)

Jesus does give a message to those that have not followed her [this Jezebel]. He tells them to “hold tightly to what you have until I come.” (Rev. 2:25)

The imagery of both eyes and feet found in these passages in Revelation is that of impending judgement upon Jezebel and her children (Rev. 2:22-23). The judgement will serve as a witness of His omniscience: “All the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts” (Rev. 2:23).” (10 & 11)

So, what does it mean to call someone a Jezebel?

Merriam Webster defines a Jezebel/jezebel as an impudent, shameless, or morally unrestrained woman. (7) Although most often directed toward a female, “a Jezebel” can be a man or a woman. The Jezebel has been associated with being conniving, evil, or having a bad reputation. No one wants to be called a Jezebel.

Jezebel’s name has become synonymous not just with wicked women but also with promiscuity. However, by all accounts, Jezebel was a loyal wife. The queen’s sins seem to be directly connected to her being a foreign woman who was unafraid to wield her power [and using the power in a quite wicked way] and her unwillingness to leave her pagan religion. The writers claimed she was promiscuous, fully intending to show she was disloyal to her husband as well as the faith of Israel. The Bible also used the fact that she put on makeup as evidence of her desire to cheat and take power for herself. (9)

The Jezebel Spirit.

What is a Jezabel Spirit?

Although the term a Jezabel Spirit or someone having a Spirit of Jezebel is not directly mentioned in the Bible, it is derived directly from the Jezebel of the Bible.

It is a spirit that seeks to destroy churches, families, people and God’s prophets. The best way to define the Jezebel Spirit is to say it characterizes anyone who acts in the same manner as Jezebel did, engaging in immorality, idolatry, false teaching, and unrepentant sin. 

Referring to the Bible character – Jezebel – after which the spirit is named, Jezebel took control of her husband, Ahab, getting him to abandon his God and serve her idols. She manipulated Naboth’s death just so her husband could get his plot of land. There was no limit to her wickedness and deception. (8)

“It is a wicked, cunning, manipulative spirit that is often associated with females, but actually can manifest in anyone. The spirit of Jezebel is wreaking havoc in the church, tearing down ministries and servants of God and destroying lives. . .anyone operating under it likes to be in control of people and are manipulative and will do anything to get what they want. They will lie, scheme, befriend and then turn on the person … without a shred of remorse.” – Rev. Marie Berbick of Touching Your World Ministries.

The Jezebel Spirit not only attacks the church and its members but is also present in some homes and workplaces. . .[the] things to look out for are very much the same … the agenda is always to disrupt and destroy. (8)

References:

  1. How a pagan queen became a notorious villain in the Bible Thrown from a window because of her “wicked” ways, Queen Jezebel is one of the few female villains of the Bible, by Jean-Pierre Isbouts, Culture – People in the Bible, 15 March 2019. nationalgeographic.com
  2. Jezebel Isn’t Who You Think She Is by Nyasha Junior, 5 November 2019. DAME MAGAZINE – online.
  3. Life Application Study Bible, New Living Translation, 2014, Wheaton, Il: Tyndale House Publishers.
  4. Defending the Harlot Queen, by Tibor Krausz, 1 October 2007, The Jerusalem Report. tiborkrausz.com
  5. Inductive Bible Study – Old Testament, II Kings Handbook. inductive.indubiblia.org
  6. Who was Jezebel? Who was Jezebel in the Bible? Never Thirsty, Like The Master Ministries. John Calahan. NeverThirsty.org
  7. Definition of a Jezebel/jezebel, Merriam Webster Dictionary online. merriam-webster.com
  8. Understanding the ‘Jezebel Spirit’ by Cecelia Campbell-Livingston – Sunday Gleaner Writer, 12 January 2020. The Gleaner Newspaper (online); Kingston, Jamaica. jamaica-gleaner.com
  9. THE TRUTH ABOUT QUEEN JEZEBEL IN THE BIBLE, by Emilia David, 5 August 2021, GRUNGE. grunge.com
  10. The Majority Text as represented by [Zane C. Hodges and Arthur L. Farstad], The Greek New Testament According To The Majority Text (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1985).
  11. An Analysis of Revelation Chapters 2 through 5, by Anna Kasper, ACDP; 11 April 2021. anna-kasper.com on WordPress.
  12. Who Is Jezebel in Revelation 2 verse 20? Beyond Today – United Church of God [Website]. Accessed January 23, 2021. Who Is Jezebel in Revelation 2 verse 20? | United Church of God (ucg.org)

Additional Reading:

  1. How Bad Was Jezebel? by Janet Howe Gaines, 22 March 2022, Bible History Today, Bible Review, BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY. biblicalarchaeology.org
  2. Jezebel: Phoenician Princess of Ancient Sidon, Queen of Israel, by Dr. Joshua J. Mark, Professor of Philosophy, Marist College, 15 October 2019. brewminate.com
  3. Bible Story of Jezebel, by G. Connor Salter, 24 October 2021. biblestudytools.com
  4. Lessons We Can All Learn From the Story of Jezebel in the Bible, by Hannah Skentelbery, 14 March 2021. warrington-worldwide.co.uk
  5. Jezebel in the Bible – What We Can Learn from Her Story, by Blair Parke, 18 June 2020. crosswalk.com
  6. Jezebel Bible Study – 10 Key Points for Bible Study, Homewords Ministry, Small Group Bible Study Ministry. wordpress.com
  7. An Analysis of Revelation Chapters 2 through 5, by Anna Kasper, ACDP; 11 April 2021. anna-kasper.com on WordPress.

If you use any information from my blog posts as a reference or source, please give credit and provide a link back to my work that you are referencing. Unless otherwise noted, my work is © Anna A. Kasper 2011-2023. All rights reserved. Thank you.

Posted in Bible Study, Catholic, Judaism, Religious, Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

52 Ancestors Week 34: Timeline. Trying to Reconstruct a Timeline of My 3rd Great-Grandparents Michael Nestor and Catherine Hanberry using Irish Petty Session Court Registers.

Posted on August 22, 2022 by Anna Kasper, ACDP
Old postcard of the inside of a family home in Ireland in 19th and early 20th century. From Postcards Ireland.com

This week’s writing prompt is Timeline. I have decided to write about my 3rd great-grandparents Michael Nestor and Catherine Hanberry of Gort, Galway, Ireland. In my research they appear to be non-existent in church and census records in Ireland! Below explains why finding your ancestors in records in Ireland prior to 1901 is so difficult.

From The National Archives of Ireland website.

There are very few records that survive from this area of Galway during this time. They did try to reconstruct the 1851 Irish Census in 1919/1920 but in my family’s case, no one was living in Ireland to submit the information, and many had died. He appears in the Irish Petty Court Registers for Gort and Derreen, and a Catherine Nestor also appears in Gort court records numerous times. Although we know Catherine most likely died in the 1870’s in Ireland, but we don’t know for sure, she could have died in the 1860’s or even prior to 1860, her death record has not been found. Her husband Michael Nestor immigrated to the USA after 1870 and before 1880 and possibly shortly after her death and is found living with their married daughter Catherine Mary “Kate’ Nestor Mullen Fahy (Fay) in the 1880 US Census.

Michael Nestor was born about 1814 in or near Gort, Galway, Ireland, and died 6 February 1894 in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky. He was the son of Michael Nestor and Bridget _____.

In Ireland, the surname Nestor was derived as a shortened form of Mac Girr an Adhastair, meaning son of the short man of the bridle. It was sometimes shortened to Mac an Adhastair. The surname Nestor is most common in Counties Galway and Clare.

He was the oldest and had several known siblings including:

  1. John Nestor born about 1819 in Gort, Galway, Ireland.
  2. Mary Nestor born about 1825 in County Galway, Ireland. She married Timothy Glynn. I have DNA matches to their descendants.
  3. Patrick Nestor born 1827 in Gort, Galway, Ireland, and died 17 June 1899 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. He married Mary Ann McCarthy. I have DNA matches to their descendants.
  4. Honora/Honoria Nestor born about 1829 in County Galway, Ireland and died in Derrybrien, Loughrea, Galway, Ireland. She married John Gilchreest, and they lived in Caherlavine, Loughrea, Galway, Ireland. I have Gilchreest DNA matches in Ireland from this line.
  5. James Jacob Nestor born 1831 in Gort, Galway, Ireland, and died 10 August 1890 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania. He married/1 to Catherine Duignan and married/2 to Catherine Grimes. I have DNA matches to their descendants.

I also have DNA matches to the descendants of his aunt Ellen Nestor who married John Shaughnessy and immigrated to Troy, Rensselaer County, New York, and his uncle Patrick “Paddy” Nestor who married Ellen___ and some of their descendants went to England.

Catherine Hanberry was born about 1820 in Gort/Derreen (Kilbeacanty), Galway, Ireland. The surname Hanberry/Hansberry is not a common surname in Ireland. There are only two pockets where the name is found, in south Galway (and just over into County Clare) and an area of County Mayo. The surname Hanberry/Hansberry is derived from the old Gaelic personal name Ainmhire, meaning freedom from levity or madness.

The names of Catherine’s parents are unknown, but we do know that her mother’s maiden name was Glynn.

Catherine was also the oldest and had several known siblings including:

  1. Michael Hansberry born 1825 in Gort, Galway, Ireland, and died 10 March 1867 in Mobile, Mobile County, Alabama. He married Mary Ann Hanlon. I have DNA matches to their descendants.
  2. Peter Hansberry born about 1826 in Derreen, Gort, Galway, Ireland, and died in Pennsylvania. He married Margaret Donnady/Dormady. I have DNA matches to their descendants.
  3. Julia Hansberry born about 1829 in Gort, Galway, Ireland, and died 5 March 1869 in Mobile, Mobile County, Alabama. She married Martin Hanlon (he and Mary Ann Hanlon were siblings). I have DNA matches to their descendants.
  4. Thomas Hanberry born 1832 in Tubber, Galway, Ireland, and died 16 February 1910 in Corrofin, County Clare, Ireland. He married Catherine Walsh.
  5. Patrick Hanberry born about 1835 in Derreen, Kilbeacanty, Galway, Ireland, and died in County Galway. He married B. Monaghan.
  6. Bridget Hanberry born in Derreen, Gort, Galway, Ireland and died young in Derreen, Kilbeacanty, Galway, Ireland.

I also have DNA matches to the descendants of her uncle Michael Hansberry who married Mary Shaughnessy.

Known children born to Michael Nestor and Catherine Hanberry/Hansberry:

  1. Thomas Nestor born about 1835 in Gort, Galway, Ireland. He may be the same Thomas Nestor that marries Bridget Potter and later moves to Hillsbrook, Galway and dies sometime after the 1911 Irish Census where he is found living in Hillsbrook.
  2. Michael Nestor born 1836 in Gort, Galway, Ireland and died 28 April 1869 in Emmetsburg, Palo Alto County, Iowa. He married 15 July 1861 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania to Mary Joynt, as her first husband. Mary Joynt was the daughter of David Patrick Joynt and Bridget Ann McDermott. I am related to both Michael Nestor and his wife Mary Joynt. He is my 2nd great-grand uncle, and she is my 1st cousin, 4x removed. I have DNA matches to their descendants, as well as to the descendants from Mary Joynt Nestor and her second husband Edward “Ned” Murphy.
  3. John Nestor born about 1837 in Beagh Parish, Galway, Ireland and died December 1923 in Tuam, Galway, Ireland.
  4. Jeremiah “Jerry” Nestor born about 1839 in County Galway, Ireland. He married Anne Carroll. I have DNA matches to their descendants, but I have a double connection. His great-granddaughter Eileen Frances Connelly immigrated to the USA from Ireland. and married 29 November 1934 in New York City, New York to Michael Moylan. Michael Moylan was from Gort and was a Fahey/Fahy relation. He and my grandmother were 3rd cousins.
  5. Catherine Mary “Kate” Nestor born 10 January 1840 in Gort, Galway, Ireland, and died 8 June 1902 in Ottumwa, Wapello, Iowa. She states on census records that she came to the U.S. at age 16 in 1856. She is believed to have married briefly to ____ Mullen who died, which would explain her name being listed as Mullen. I have found no DNA connection to the name Mullen/Mullens. She marries 17 December 1858 in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky to Daniel Wolfetone “Dan” Fahey/Fahy (Fay). Her name is listed as Catherine Mullen in the marriage license. (My direct ancestors).
  6. Bridget Nestor born in Gort, Galway, Ireland.
  7. Patrick Nestor born in Gort, Galway, Ireland.

So, what were the Petty Sessions Courts?

The Petty Sessions were the lowest courts within Ireland’s judicial system up to the early 20th century.  They dealt with the minor cases and were presided over by unpaid Justices of the Peace who were usually local landowners or dignitaries.  These judges could make summary judgements on cases and there was no jury. The Sessions were convened daily, weekly or monthly, depending on the volume of cases.  The cases heard at the Petty Sessions courts generally included minor law-breaking such as public disorder or drunkenness, poaching and other minor larceny, straying animals, and also complaints by individuals about non-payment of debts, boundary disputes, quality of purchased goods, and minor assaults. – From the Illustrated London News.  The more serious cases were referred to ‘Quarter Sessions’ where a jury would hear the case.  

I find Michael Nestor in the Petty Session Courts records for in and around Gort, Galway, Ireland.

The first place I find him is in 1858. The actual court record is not available to view. The court is in Derreen in Beagh parish close to Gort. He is the Defendant, and the trail date is 16 September 1858. Unfortunately, nothing more is known about this case. But it would be a minor case as described in the definition of The Petty Sessions.

His wife Catherine Hanberry/Hansberry was from Derreen in Beagh parish which is near Gort, so it is not surprising he is found in the Derreen court.

Below you will see the next Petty Session Court register he appears in. It is from 18 February 1865 and in the Petty Session court in Gort.

The Complainant is S.C. James Driver. He appears in three entries for this day. He appears to be a Constable. From what I can find the S. C. probably meant Special Constable. Michael Nestor is the Defendant and is listed “of Gort”. The charges are the same for all three entries where S. C. James Driver is the Complainant. The charges are for allowing his cart _____ to be an obstruction on the public road at Gort on 14th February 1865. The other two Defendants in the other cases are John Fahey of Gort and John Hynes of Gort, same charges on the same date.

He may be the Michael Nestor who applied for a dog license in Gort.

Accounting for his age and that he immigrated to the USA in the 1870’s I believe those are the only two entries for my Michael Nestor in the Petty Sessions Court.

There are several entries for a Catherine Nestor. Usually, she is appearing as a witness in cases before the Petty Sessions Court and as a Complainant and Defendant only a few times. She is in the Gort records from 1855 to 1874. I do not find a Catherine Nestor in the court records after 1874. I cannot be sure she is my Catherine Hanberry Nestor, but it’s quite possible.

1880 US Census for the town of Aroma in Kankakee County, Illinois.

What I do know is that Michael Nestor is left a widower prior to the 1880 U.S. Census. He is found in the town of Aroma in Kankakee County, Illinois. He is the living with his daughter married daughter Catherine Fay and six of her children. He is listed as Michael Nester. Her husband Daniel “Dan” Fahey/Fahy (Fay) is not in the census with them and is thought to be out of town working.

In 1860, Daniel and Catherine are living in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky. In the 1860 US Census they are listed as Daniel Fahy and Catherine Fahy with their eight-month-old son Thomas Fahy. Also living with them is a Michael Doyle aged 29 and born in Ireland. Daniel and Michael are both listed as laborers. Who was Michael Doyle? I do not know what connection he had to them. A family member? A friend? A co-worker of Daniel? A border?

He may be the Michael D. Doyle buried in the Saint John Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky with a birth year of 1829 and died 7 May 1890.

He may instead be the Michael Doyle born June 1832 in Ireland and is found in the 1900 US Census for Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky. Living with his wife Ellen born July 1840 in Ireland, and their 2 sons; J. Thomas Doyle and J. Michael Doyle. Ellen’s maiden name is given is Nevil and Mooney in later records. But the son’s list their place of birth as Ireland in this census and future records. And the whole family lists their year of immigration as 1888. So, this is most likely not the same Michael Doyle that was living with my ancestors in 1860.

My beautiful great-great grandmother Catherine Mary “Kate” Nestor Mullen Fay.

In 1870, Daniel and Catherine are found living in the city of Chicago. In the 1870 US Census they are living in the 18th ward of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois. They are listed as Daniel and Catherine Fay. Dan listed his occupation as a Tanner. Living with them are three of their children and a John Ward aged 15 born in Pennsylvania working as a laborer, and a Daniel Donovan aged 5 and born in Kentucky.

I do have some connections via marriage to the surname Ward in Gort, via intermarriage with my Fahey related O’Donnell cousins, but I don’t see a direct connection to the John Ward found in the census with them.

I have been unable to locate John Ward or Daniel Donovan in any other records. Was Daniel Donovan a relation? He was born in Kentucky and at only age 5 he must have been related to them or possibly to the 15-year-old John Ward.

Michael Nestor is not found living with his daughter until 1880. He dies before the 1900 US Census. He died in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky on 6 February 1894.

Sources for Nestor and Hanberry surname information and the Petty Sessions Court definition:

  1. Nestor Surname meaning – Wikipedia.org
  2. Nestor Surname. The Surnames of Ireland, Edward MacLysaght, Dublin, 1978.
  3. Hanberry/Hansberry Surname – houseofnames.com
  4. Great insights from Petty sources – the Petty Session Court Records, Jim Ryan April 26, 2020. ancestornetwork.ie

If you’d like to learn more about the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks project, please visit here:

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

Or join the Facebook group Generations Cafe.

If you use any information from my blog posts as a reference or source, please give credit and provide a link back to my work that you are referencing. Unless otherwise noted, my work is © Anna A. Kasper 2011-2023. All rights reserved. Thank you.

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52 Ancestors, Week 31: Help. How Chief Tuccamirgan of the Delaware Tribe Helped My Ancestor Johann Philip Kaes (John Philip Case).

Posted on August 1, 2022 by Anna Kasper, ACDP
Mine Brook, Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

This week’s writing prompt word is help. I decided to write the story of how Chief Tuccamirgan of the Delaware Tribe helped and befriended my ancestor Johann Philip Kaes (John Philip Case).

First a little biographical information about him:

Johann Philip Kaes was born about 1679 in Anhausen, Neuwied, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany, the son of Hans Henrich Kaes and Anna Veronica ____. He is found near Rückeroth at Anhausen in church records. Anhausen is 5 miles northeast of Neuwied.

He married first to Anna Elizabetha Jung, daughter of Frantz Henrich Jung and Veronika Remer, on 29 November 1703 in Anhausen, Germany. His first wife Anna Elizabetha Jung died 21 September 1721 in Anhausen, Germany, and Johann Philip Kaes immigrated to America. He was naturalized in New Jersey on 8 July 1730. He married second to Rachel Houser/Hauser in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

He and his first wife Anna Elizabetha Jung are my direct ancestors.

Case-Dvoor farmhouse, barn and property today.

The site of the Case-Dvoor farmstead lies near the eastern end of a 5,000-acre tract that stretches along the northern edge of the Amwell Valley. Pennsylvania founder William Penn owned the land, and when he died in 1718, his three sons inherited it. Those sons — John, Thomas and Richard — subdivided the property, selling a 374-acre portion straddling Tuccaminjah Creek (later Mine Brook) to German immigrant Johan Philip Kaes (later Anglicized to Case) in March of 1738.

Johan Philip established his pioneer farmstead beside the Walnut Brook, which flows through property. After Johan’s passing, the property was split between heirs and some of it was sold. In 1798, Johan’s son Philip built the stone farmhouse that still stands today. Throughout the years the property has passed through a number of hands and has seen various uses including copper mining, a tannery, a dairy barn, and a stock farm. The Dvoor family, Latvian immigrants, were the last to own it before the Land Trust and sought to preserve it as a surviving example of the Flemington area’s agricultural heritage.

Today the site hosts a popular farmers market and winter market, featuring local fruits, vegetables, grass-fed meats, cheese, bread, wine, honey, live plants, alpaca woolens, and a variety of organic produce. Visitors can enjoy various trails through the property that connect to nearby nature preserves.

This is part of a mural found in the Union Hotel in Flemington, Hunterdon County, New Jersey and is of my ancestor Johann Philip Kaes (John Philip Case) and his friend Tuccamirgan, Chief of Delaware Native American tribe.

A rather peculiar story handed down in the Case family evokes the frontier conditions current throughout much of Hunterdon County well into the 18th century. One of Johan Philip’s sons used to talk about his mother getting lost in the woods. She went to hunt her cow and wandered around for several hours and finally saw a column of smoke curling above the tops of the trees. Going in that direction she came to a house, and, after knocking at the door, discovered it to be her own dwelling. . . The wolves would often howl around the Case house, and one of these animals came on the doorstep and attacked the dog, when Mrs. Case drove him off with a stick.

Johan Philip Case replaced his pioneer dwelling with a substantial stone house cemented with mud that stood on the east side of the creek (the land currently owned by St. Magdalen de Pazzi Roman Catholic Church). When Hugh Capner tore the house down around the 1850s, he found the walls solid and strong.

Philip Case (Johan Philip’s son) acquired the property on the west side of the creek encompassing the present farmstead, which had been sold out of the family some years earlier. He lived and farmed here throughout his life.

The land on the east side of the creek, including Johan Philip’s stone house, was sold to John Capner, whose family had recently emigrated from England. We know much about the Case family thanks to the Capners, who corresponded regularly with the relatives and arrived in America with a trunk full of letters from them. These letters now belong to the Hunterdon County Historical Society.” 

A Delaware Indian Chief named Tuccamirgan lived nearby, and John Philip and the Indian became very close friends. John Philip would not have survived on his settlement without the help of Tuccamirgan. The Indian assisted John Philip with the building of his cabin and provided protection from the hostile nearby natives. They protected the Cases from the dangers of the wilderness and showed them how to live off the land.

As time went on, the Delaware Chief and Case’s bond became stronger. The Cases had many young children, and the Delaware Chief and his wife, having none of their own, would frequently “borrow” some of the Case children. They would bring the children back to their wigwam up the creek, taking good care of them and spending the whole day together. They would then return the Case children to their father at the end of the day. 

It is also believed that Chief Tuccamirgan carved a crib out of a tree and gifted it to John Phillip Case to use for one of his babies. The Chief and his wife found great joy in the Case children, and they gladly spent their days babysitting and becoming second parents to the Case children. 

The actual pipe gifted to my ancestor by Tuccamirgan. Photo from HCHS.

The friendship Tuccamirgan and Case shared was an unbreakable bond. The Chief referred to John as his “blue brother,” and together they would smoke “the pipe of peace” over the course of their friendship. The ancient pipe bowl that accompanied Tuccamirgan’s pipe, an artifact which was already hundreds of years old at the time, was gifted to John as a sign of their friendship. It was passed down in the Case family until it was donated to the Hunterdon County Historical Society in 1925. 

As he was nearing his death, Chief Tuccamirgan requested that he be buried near his good friend so Case buried him on his land. This became the first grave in what was afterward known as the Case burial ground. The burial was attended with great ceremony (there was a wild dance about his grave, which was kept up all through the night). The grave was dug very deep, and the Chief was placed in a sitting position facing the East. His war and hunting implements were buried with him. Six years later John Philip Case joined his Indian friend in the little cemetery. The hallowed ground is less than a hundred feet wide. It is located in Flemington’s residential area on Bonnell Street surrounded by houses on all sides. In 1925 the Flemington Historical League restored the cemetery. The lot was regraded and re-seeded; stones were reset. A protective stone wall was erected at the front of the property and a monument to the Indian Chief who had befriended the first settler John Philip Case was raised. Seven hundred citizens attended the dedication of a marble obelisk in memory of Chief Tuccamirgan. On one face is written ‘In Memory of the Delaware Indian Chief Tuccamirgan 1750′; and on the other, “Erected by the Citizens of Flemington As a Tribute to this Friend of the White Man’.”

To learn more about Johann Philip Kase (later known as John Philip Case), his roots in Germany, his children and descendants, and their life in America, please visit my blog post about him here: My Ancestor Johann Philip Kaes (John Philip Case) of Anhausen, Germany, and New Jersey, and his Interesting Relationship with Chief Tuccamirgan of the Delaware Tribe.

Sources:

  1. The Case Family: Pioneer Settlers of Flemington (1) – Hunterdon Land Trust
  2. Johann Phillip Kaes (wikitree.com)
  3. Chief Tuccamirgan: a legacy of friendship – The Delphi (dvrhs.org)
  4. Tuccamirgan’s Pipe Rediscovered in HCHS Archives (hunterdonhistory.org)
  5. CASE-DVOOR FARMSTEAD at journeythroughjersey.com.

If you’d like to learn more about the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks project, please visit here:

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

Or join the Facebook group Generations Cafe.

If you use any information from my blog posts as a reference or source, please give credit and provide a link back to my work that you are referencing. Unless otherwise noted, my work is © Anna A. Kasper 2011-2023. All rights reserved. Thank you.

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Rest in Peace Cousin Tony Dow

Posted on July 29, 2022 by Anna Kasper, ACDP
Tony Dow. The cast of Leave it to Beaver.

I used to watch Leave it to Beaver in syndication when I was a kid. I was quite saddened to learn of Tony Dow’s death at the age of 77 this past Wednesday. So, I thought I’d post my genealogical connection to him. 😃 We were distant cousins, 10th cousins actually. We shared Colonial American ancestors Edward Bangs and Rebecca Hobart. His line continued with Apphia Bangs and Col. John Knowles and mine with Hannah Bangs and John Doane, Jr. This is on his Dow lines. My Bangs/Hobart ancestors are on my Cole side way back in Colonial Massachusetts.

Edward Bangs and Rebecca Hobart are the ancestors of many well-known individuals including:

  1. William Rufus Day, 36th U.S. Secretary of State.
  2. Bing Crosby, Singer-Songwriter and Actor.
  3. Thomas Pynchon, American Novelist.
  4. Brewster Kahle, Founder of Internet Archive (Wayback Machine).
  5. Annie Proulx, Novelist and Short Story Writer.
  6. Tamsin Todd, CEO of Findmypast.
  7. Anna Gunn, Actress.
  8. Fergie, Singer-Songwriter.
  9. Avril Lavigne, Singer-Songwriter.
  10. Edmund Sears, Boson Tea Party Participant.
  11. Eugene Foss, 45th Governor of Massachusetts.
  12. Pres. H.W. Bush.
  13. Pres. George W. Bush.
  14. Charles Dawes, 30th U.S. Vice President.
  15. Norman Rockwell, Artist.
  16. Jeb Bush, 43rd Governor of Florida.
  17. Endicott Peabody, 62nd Governor of Massachusetts.
  18. Kyra Sedgwick.
  19. Taylor Swift.
  20. Orrin Hatch, U.S. Senator from Utah.
  21. James Taylor, singer-songwriter.
  22. Dan Quayle, 44 U.S. President.
  23. Pete Buttigieg, current U.S. Secretary of Transportation.
  24. Sydney Biddle Barrows, Mayflower Madam.

The first eleven listed share the next set of ancestors with me and are also descended from Hannah Bangs and John Doane, Jr. Five of those eleven also share Paine ancestors with me. The rest above are descended from Edward Bangs, the brother of Hannah Bangs and Apphia Bangs. To my knowledge, Tony Dow is the only famous person descended directly from Apphia Bangs and Col. John Knowles.

Tony Dow, left, and Jerry Mathers as Wally and Beaver Cleaver. | Photo courtesy of Pat McDermott/Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

If you use any information from my blog posts as a reference or source, please give credit and provide a link back to my work that you are referencing. Unless otherwise noted, my work is © Anna A. Kasper 2011-2023. All rights reserved. Thank you.

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52 Ancestors – Week 30: Teams. My Cousin Mitchell “Mitch” Nutick. Dancer on Broadway and Founder of the West Hollywood Tennis Association.

Posted on July 25, 2022 by Anna Kasper, ACDP

This week’s writing prompt for 52 Ancestors is Teams. I do have Irish ancestors killed by a team of runaway horses, and many ancestors that were farmers and used a team of horses. I have some distant cousins that have played professional baseball. I have many ancestors that were in the military and militias. The words militia, squadron, etc. are related to the word team, as in a group of people. But I decided to write about my cousin Mitch Nutick, and his love of tennis.

Mitchell Edward “Mitch” Nutick was my double cousin. We were Nutick 2nd cousins, 1 time removed, and we were Armstrong 3rd cousins. Our Nutick ancestors were siblings, and our Armstrong ancestors were 1st cousins.

Mitch Nutick.

Mitchell Edward “Mitch” Nutick was born 13 September 1931 in Terrace Park, Hamilton County, Ohio, and died at the age of 88 years old on 14 April 2020 in Los Angeles, California.

He was the son of Mitchell Howard Nutick and Emma Jane Bowker. He grew up in Deer Park, Hamilton County, Ohio, and attended Deer Park High School.

In his 20’s he left the Midwest for New York City and settled in Manhattan.

He was a dancer on the Denny Vaughn Show which aired on the CBC Television channel (Canadian English language public television network) from June 1954 to June 1957.

He appeared as a bit actor in a few of the plays listed below, but he was mainly a dancer on Broadway in the original stage production of Bells are Ringing (1956) and:

The Body Beautiful (1958), The Girls Against the Boys (1959), 13 Daughters (1961), Guys and Dolls (1965), and an off-Broadway production of Guys and Dolls (1966).

He was a talented dancer, and handsome with beautiful piercing “Paul Newman” blue eyes.

Mitch Nutick.

By 1970 he had migrated to Los Angeles and was living in West Hollywood. He worked as a bookkeeper for many years. He loved to play tennis. In the Fall of 1978, Mitch, along with 7 other gay tennis friends, began a regular tennis gathering playing matches in West Hollywood Park. They called the original organization the West Hollywood Tennis Association — which is now known as the Los Angeles Tennis Association (LATA) with a 300+ annual membership.

Along with David Newlon, he researched the history of the club and presented the club with a History of LATA for the club’s 30th anniversary in 2008.

Mitch Nutick and the Los Angeles Tennis Association:

Founding Member 1978.
Board Treasurer 1984-2016.
LATA Lifetime Achievement Award 1995.
Inducted Into GLTA Hall Of Fame 2000.
President’s Award 2006.
Outstanding Member Award 2008.
President’s Award 2017.

Although his most recognizable contribution to the LATA was his service as a Treasurer for 30 seasons. His first stint as the Treasurer was in 1984 and his last was 2016. The club will always consider him a Treasurer Emeritus.

At LATA there have been several Mitch Nutick Club Tennis Tournaments.

Mitch Nutick on left, Norm Tucker on the right (1994).

In the above photo from 1994 are Mitch Nutick and Norm Tucker noting their victories in Men’s Singles tennis as U.S. Tennis Association Champions in 1987 and 1993.

Mitch Nutick in 2017.

To learn more about our shared Nutick/Weiss and related ancestors please visit my blog posts:

  1. Origins of My 2nd Great-Grandfather Elias “Eli” Nutick
  2. My Weiss, Fried, Propheter, and Related Ancestors from Klingenmünster, Germany.
  3. German Surnames in My Family tree and German Language Studies.

I have not written in this blog specifically about my Armstrong ancestors, but I have written about direct related lines:

  1. My Ancestor Rev. Thomas Shepard, an English and American Puritan Minister and Significant Figure in Early Colonial New England.
  2. Check it Out! My Ancestor Rev. Thomas Shepard.
  3. William G. Lyons, My 2nd Great Granduncle.
  4. Stormy Weather. My ancestors John Cogswell / Elizabeth Thompson – The Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635 – The Ship Angel Gabriel.
  5. My Ancestor Maria Thomas Badie, Gifted Two Silver Communion Beakers to The Dutch Reformed Church of Breuckelen (Brooklyn, New York) in 1684.

Sources for information about the West Hollywood Tennis Association and the Los Angeles Tennis Association (LATA):

  1. LATA.com.
  2. LATA on WordPress.com.
  3. Los Angeles Tennis Association on Facebook.

If you’d like to learn more about the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks project, please visit here:

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

Or join the Facebook group Generations Cafe.

If you use any information from my blog posts as a reference or source, please give credit and provide a link back to my work that you are referencing. Unless otherwise noted, my work is © Anna A. Kasper 2011-2023. All rights reserved. Thank you.

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German Surnames in My Family tree and German Language Studies. 52 Ancestors, Week 29: Fun Fact.

Posted on July 18, 2022 by Anna Kasper, ACDP
Just a few of the German surnames of my direct ancestors that the meaning of their name was helpful in my German language studies.

This week’s writing theme for 52 Ancestors is “Fun Fact.” Not everything in family history has to be serious. This week, we can be creative and think of something fun you’ve found during your research. With that in mind, I decided to write about German surnames in my tree, where I previously researched the meaning of the name and recently discovered with beginning to learn German on the Duolingo app that I already knew many German words due to the oodles of German ancestors I have in my family tree.

I have a large amount of German ancestry on my maternal side. I have a more recent link to Germany on my paternal side. One of my paternal great-grandmothers, Alice Elizabeth Nutick Armstrong, her parents were immigrants from Klingenmünster, Germany and Rawitsch, Wielkopolskie, Poland (which at the time was part of the Kingdom of Prussia), her maternal line was 100% German, her paternal line was mostly German with at least one Polish line.

On my paternal side, other than this one great-grandmother, the only other German ancestry is way back in New York when it was still Dutch. I have German and French Huguenot ancestors that lived in Dutch New Amsterdam and intermarried with the Dutch. But on my maternal side I have a ton of German ancestors. Many coming in 1710, others by 1750, and a few came later in the 1700’s.

I am including twenty surnames, out of multitudes in my tree, that I had prior researched their meaning, and that the words or related words popped up in my German language studies. I am not including German surnames that their meaning is related to personal names or placenames in Germany or surnames from old middle or high German that no longer are used or any that don’t correspond directly to words I could learn in my language studies.

As you can see below, my primary language studies at Duolingo have been in Norwegian. I only recently began to do more German language learning. Deutsche Sprache, schwere Sprache! A very true German idiom that means – German is hard/German is a difficult language.

My language studies at Duolingo.
  1. Ackerman 👩🏼‍🌾 – acker means field in German. The name means a man who works the fields. Examples in German: en Acker bestellen – to till the soil. die Äcker bestellen – to plow the fields. My Ackerman ancestors were from Fußgonheim, Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
  2. Scherer 🐑- From the German verb scheren meaning to shear as in shearing sheep. Occupational name for a sheepshearer or someone who used scissors to trim the surface of finished cloth and remove excessive nap. Example in German: Ich kann meine Schafe jetzt nicht scheren. Es ist noch immer kalt. – I cannot shear my sheep now. It’s still cold. My Scherer ancestors were from Barbelroth, Südliche Weinstraße, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Paternal side. Armstrong – Nutick – Weiss – Fried – Propheter – Scherer.
  3. Ohl 🌼🌸🌾 – From the German word öl which means oil and is a German occupational name for an extractor of linseed oil. Examples in German: Ich möchte mit Öl kochen. – I want to cook with oil. Öl und Essig sind mein liebstes Salatdressing. – Oil and vinegar are my favorite salad dressing. My Ohl ancestors were from Klingenmünster, Südliche Weinstraße, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Paternal side. Armstrong – Nutick – Weiss – Fried – Ohl.
  4. Weinmann 🍇🍾🍷 – Wein means wine in German, literally translated the name is vine-man or wine-man. It is an occupational name for someone who produced and or sold wine. Example in German: Ich möchte Wein zu meinem Pasta-Abendessen. – I want wine with my pasta dinner. My Weinmann ancestors were from Klingenmünster, Südliche Weinstraße, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Paternal side. Armstrong – Nutick – Weiss – Fried – Propheter – Weinnmann.
  5. Weinrich/Wenrich 🍇🍾🍷 – which is from the word Weinreich which means Wine Kingdom. Wein means wine and reich means rich i.e., rich with wine. Examples in German: Die Prinzessin lebte in einem Weinreich. – The princess lived in a wine kingdom. Die Winzer waren reich mit wein und Glück. – The winemakers were rich with wine and luck. My Wenrich ancestors were from Edigheim, Ludwigshafen Am Rhein, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Maternal side. Cole – Kennedy – Spatz – Wenrich.
  6. Weiss 🥚👰☁️ – which is from the German word weiß which means white. Example in German: Ich bevorzuge weiße Schokolade mit Erdbeeren. – I prefer white chocolate with strawberries. Der Schleier der Braut war weiß. – The bride’s veil was white. My Weiss ancestors were from Klingenmünster, Südliche Weinstraße, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Paternal side. Armstrong – Nutick – Weiss.
  7. Großhans (Grosshans) 👨 – from the German word groß which means large, combined with the personal name Hans i.e., a big man named Hans. Examples in German: Die Vase war groß. – The vase is large. Berlin ist eine große Stadt. – Berlin is a large city. My Grosshans ancestors were from Klingenmünster, Südliche Weinstraße, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Paternal side. Armstrong – Nutick – Weiss – Fried – Propheter – Grosshans.
  8. Keller 🍇🍾🍷 – In modern German the word keller means cellar or basement, but historically it designates a person who was a cellarer or winemaker. A cellarer was a person, usually in a monastery, responsible for providing food and drink. Examples in German: Der Kellermeister macht Wein. – The cellar master makes wine. Im Keller des Hauses herrschte Spuk. – The basement of the house was haunted. My Keller ancestors were from Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany but migrated to Enzweihingen, Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Maternal side. Cole – Losure/Lozier – Schwenck – Keller.
  9. Loew 🦁 – From the German word Löwe which means lion. Examples in German: Ein Löwe schlief unter dem Baum. – A lion was sleeping under the tree. Der Löwe, die Hexe und die Garderobe ist eines meiner Lieblingsbücher. – The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is one of my favorite books. My Loew ancestors were from Diedenshausen, Siegen-Wittgenstein, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Maternal side. Cole – Losure/Lozier – Womelsdorf – Kemper – Loew.
  10. Kaes/Kase 🧀 – from the German word Käse which means cheese. Denoting a person who made and sold cheese. Examples in German: Ich liebe alle Arten von Käse! – I love all kinds of cheese! Köstlichen deutschen Butterkäse finden Sie i Wisconsin. – Delicious German butter cheese can be found in Wisconsin. My Kaes ancestors were from Westfalen, Anhausen, Neuwied, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Maternal side. Cole – Kennedy – Price – Mateer – Chambers – Linaberry – Kuhl – Kaes.
  11. Jung 👧🧒 – from the German word jung which means young. Example in German: Der Junge war sehr jung. – The boy was very young. My Jung ancestors were from Anhausen, Neuwied, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Maternal side. Cole – Kennedy – Price – Mateer – Chambers – Linaberry – Kuhl – Kaes – Jung.
  12. Kuhl 🧊🆒❄️ – from the German word kühl which means cool. Examples in German: the verb kühlen which means to cool, chill, refrigerate, be cooling. kühl und sachlich – cool and factual, no-nonsense. kühl halten. – keep cool. kühl werden. – to become (to get) cool. kühl ab. – cool off. abends wurde es kühl. –  in the evenings it got cool. My Kuhl ancestors were from Zurbach, Maxsain, Westerwaldkreis, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Maternal side. Cole – Kennedy – Price – Mateer – Chambers – Linaberry – Kuhl.
  13. Silber 🤍🍶💍👩‍🦳 – means silver in German. It was an occupational name for a silversmith. It can also be a descendant of Silber, a pet form of Sigilbert (victory); one who came from Silber (silver), the name of various places in Germany; one with gray or silvery hair. Example in German: Ein Silberschmied stellte Becher, Schmuck, Silberwaren und andere Gegenstände aus Silber her. – A silversmith made cups, jewelry, silverware, and other items out of silver. My Silber ancestors were from Dettingen, Alb-Donau-Kreis, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Maternal side. Cole – Kennedy – Williams – Swartzlader – Silber.
  14. Sonntag ⛪📅 – means Sunday is German. It was a nickname for someone who had some particular connection with Sunday. It may have arisen from a personal name for a child born on Sunday, for this was considered a lucky day. Example in German: Sonntag ist ein Ruhetag. – Sunday is a day of rest. My Sonntag ancestors were from Nordhofen, Westerwaldkreis, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Maternal side. Cole – Kennedy – Price – Mateer – Chambers – Linaberry – Kuhl – Staats – Sonntag.
  15. Spatz 𓅪🐦 – means sparrow in German. Example in German: Der Spatz flog hoch in den Himmel. – The sparrow was flying high in the sky. My Spatz ancestors were from Söllingen, Pfinztal, Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Maternal side. Cole – Kennedy – Spatz.
  16. Kirchenbauer ⛪✟🙏👼 – the word Kirchenbauer in German actually means church builders. Examples in German: Meine Vorfahren waren Kirchenbauer. – My ancestors were church builders. Die Namen der Erbauer der Kirche sind unbekannt. – The names of the builders of the church are unknown. But if you divide the name into two parts, Kirchen means church and bauer means farmer, peasant. Bauer has some additional meanings / usages, such as a pawn in a chess game. Additional examples in German: Der Bauer verkaufte Obst auf dem Bauernmarkt. – The farmer was selling fruit at the farmer’s market. Der Bauer revoltierte gegen die Macht des Königs und der Kirche. – The peasant was revolting against the power of the king and church. Der Bauer ist eine wichtige Schachfigur. – The pawn is an important chess piece. My Kirchenbauer ancestors were from Noettingen, Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Maternal side. Cole – Kennedy – Spatz – Kirchenbauer.
  17. Hafer 🌾🥣 – means oats in German. It was an occupational name for a grower of or dealer in oats. Example in German: Ich möchte Hafer zum Frühstück. – I want oats for breakfast. Der Hafer war verkocht und trocken. – The oats were overcooked and dry. My Hafer ancestors were from Durlangen, Ostalbkreis, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Maternal side. Cole – Kennedy – Spatz – Hafer.
  18. Druckenmiller (Druckenmüller) 🌾🍞– was a name for a miller whose mill was situated in a dry place. Although the German word drücken means press and the German word drucken means print, this surname Druckenmiller comes from these two German words: trocken meaning dry and Müller meaning a miller. Examples in German: Der Mann war ein Trockenmüller. – The man was a dry miller. Der Hafer war verkocht und trocken. – The oats were overcooked and dry. My Druckenmiller ancestors were from Ediger, Cochem-Zell, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Maternal side. Cole – Kennedy – Spatz – Hafer – Druckenmiller.
  19. Kasebier (Käsebier) 🧀🍺 – in German Käse means cheese and Bier means beer, so literally cheese beer! An occupational name for a tavern keeper who served only cold food. Examples in German: Ich mache Käsebier. – I am making cheese beer. Ich esse Käse und Bier. – I am eating cheese and beer. My Kasebier ancestors were from Schwarzenau, Siegen-Wittgenstein, Arnsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Maternal side. Cole – Losure/Lozier – Womelsdorf – Kasebier.
  20. Schwarzländer (Swartzlander) 🖤 – from the German words schwarz which means black and länder which means countries / land which means the same in English and German. It is a name for someone from an area of Bavaria known as Schwarzland ‘The Black Land’. My Swartzlander ancestors were from Steinhart, Donau-Ries, Bavaria, Germany. Maternal side. Cole – Kennedy – Williams – Swartzlader.
Deutsches Bier und Käse perfekt für das Oktoberfest. – German beer and cheeses perfect for Oktoberfest. 🧀🍺

Honorable mention, a few names that didn’t make it unto the above list of the twenty surnames:

Busch 🌳🦗🌲- – the German word Busch means a bush or shrub. A surname for someone who lived by a thicket or wood. Examples in German: brennender Busch – burning bush. Buschfeuer – bushfire. dorniger Busch – thorny bush. Maternal side.

Lindenmeyer 🟢👨‍🌾💚🥦- from the German word Linde which means lime tree. A surname for a tenant of a farm identified by a lime tree. Meyer, the second part of the surname, is not helpful to my language learning – Meyer is from the High German meier, a status name for a steward, bailiff, or overseer, which later came to be used to denote a tenant farmer. Example in German: Ich habe mehrere Linden ist mein Garten. – I have several lime trees in my yard. My Lindenmeyer ancestors were from Großgartach, Heilbronn, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. Maternal side. Cole – Kennedy – Palmer – Wolf (Nolff) – Lindenmeyer.

Since I love to learn languages, to me, this week’s writings are very much inclusive of what I consider fun facts! 😏

If you’d like to learn more about the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks project, please visit here:

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

Or join the Facebook group Generations Cafe.

If you use any information from my blog posts as a reference or source, please give credit and provide a link back to my work that you are referencing. Unless otherwise noted, my work is © Anna A. Kasper 2011-2023. All rights reserved. Thank you.

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Famous Fahey Kin. Actress Myrna Fahey. 52 Ancestors, Week 28 – Characters.

Posted on July 16, 2022 by Anna Kasper, ACDP
The beautiful and talented Myrna Fahey.

This week’s writing prompt is Characters. Although we are always free to be creative and interpret the prompt however we wish, some suggestions were: every family has a person who might be described as a “character,” or someone named for a famous character, or working through a language that uses characters other than what you’re used to, or deciphering a character on a tombstone? But as always, we can be creative and have fun with the writing prompt. I did notice another participant took it to be someone who played a character and wrote about her 3rd cousin actress Donna Reed. This got me thinking that maybe I should write about my 3rd cousin (1x removed) actress Myrna Fahey. I should note here that Myrna Fahey is also my 11th cousin! But more about that later.

She is not as well-known or remembered as more recent actors with Fahey/Fahy roots in Galway. Jeff Fahey’s great-grandfather was Thomas Fahey who was born in and married, Ellen M. Carney/Kearney, in Glenamaddy, Galway, Ireland. Glenamaddy is near the village of Boyounagh.

Actress Jennifer Lawrence also has Fahey ancestors from Galway. Her 3rd great grandmother was Ellen Hobbens Broderick who was born in Gurtymadden, Galway, Ireland and immigrated to Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky. She was the daughter of Michael Hobbens and Catherine Fahey.

I have Fahey connections to both Mountbellew and the Peterswell/Gort areas further south. Gurtymadden is 18 miles from Peterswell, while Glenamaddy is 12 miles from and closer to Mountbellew. I have not found a DNA or records connection between Jeff Fahey’s ancestors and mine, as of yet. But I have found a DNA connection to Jennifer Lawrence via her Fahey kin. I am still working out the connection between her Fahey ancestors and mine.

Myrna Fahey with Vincent Price and Mark Damon in the 1960 film House of Usher.

Back to Myrna Fahey. I love, love, love, Vincent Price, so I knew who Myrna Fahey was right away, from seeing her in the 1960 film House of Usher in which she co-stared with Vincent Price and Mark Damon. And yes, I do have a more distant family connection to Vincent Price, which thrills me to pieces! We share Spencer ancestors in Colonial America. This connection to him is on my maternal side.

I knew that my paternal great-great grandfather Daniel Wolfetone “Dan” Fahey (Fay) had a brother, Patrick Fahey, that came to the USA a few years prior to the family and settled in Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine before 1848. By 1855 Patrick had migrated to Vermillion, Dakota County, Minnesota. I also knew he had a brother named Edward, and I discovered that Edward Fahey, who was one of the siblings that originally stayed in Ireland, did come to the USA in 1860 and, as his older brother Patrick had done earlier, he settled in Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine. Edward did not migrate elsewhere, he stayed in Maine.

Myrna Fahey with Mark Damon in the 1960 film House of Usher.

Edward Fahey’s occupation as listed in the Bangor city directories was a stonecutter. He married Mary Burke in 1864. Her parentage is unknown, but she was born in Ireland and immigrated to the USA in 1861. They had the following children:

  1. John F. Fahey born February 1866 in Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine, and died 1944 in Penobscot County, Maine. He married Nellie I. Murphy. They had only one child Francis Edward “Mickey” Fahey, who was the father of Myrna Fahey.
  2. Edward P. Fahey born February 1868 in Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine, and died before the 1950 census in Maine. He never married. He is listed as a Riverman in Bangor city directories and as a laborer. As an older man, I find him living in The Salvation Army House/Hotel in Bangor in the 1930 and 1940 Censuses.
  3. Mary Ellen Fahey born April 1870 in Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine, and died 27 June 1900 in Bangor. She never married.
  4. Anna “Annie” Fahey born 26 August 1872 in Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine, and died 6 August 1976. She never married. She began working before she was aged 19 years old as a Compositor and continued this trade for several decades until she made a claim for Social Security on 11 March 1944 at the age of 74. A compositor was a typesetter, the person who inserted each letter of a word into the frames for printing. They had to be able to think back-to-front to put all the letters and punctuation in the right place – and they had to do it at some speed!  It was very much a skilled job. Interestingly, women were often employed in this occupation, it was said due to their deftness of touch and quickness of motion, making them particularly skilled at this job. She lived to the ripe old age of 103!

As noted above, only one of the children, John F. Fahey has descendants today. He was the only one to marry of his siblings. He married Nellie I. Murphy on 27 August 1904 in Bangor, Maine. Nellie was born in Rhode Island to Lawrence Murphy (born in Ireland) and Martha Slavin (born in Canada).

John F. Fahey and Nellie I. Murphy had one child, a son:

  1. Francis Edward “Mickey” Fahey born 11 April 1906 in Carmel, Penobscot County, Maine, and died 23 January 1985 in Columbia Falls, Washington County, Maine. He was the father of Myrna Fahey.
Myrna Fahey appearing on an episode of Batman with Burt Ward.

Francis Edward “Mickey” Fahey married Olevia Newcomb on 1 January 1927 in Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine. She was the daughter of Clyde Allen Newcomb and Laura J. Ingraham. Her Newcomb ancestors were in Maine for some generations, then her ancestors go back to Colonial Massachusetts. Although I do not share Newcomb ancestors with her mother, my ancestors did live in the same places in Colonial Massachusetts , and I am related via marriage to her Newcomb ancestors.

But I do share Hopkins ancestors with Olevia Newcomb! We are both descended from Mayflower Pilgrim Stephen Hopkins and his first wife Mary. Making me a 10th cousin 1x removed to Myrna Fahey’s mother Olevia Newcomb. Which is how I am both Myrna Fahey’s 3rd cousin 1x removed and also her 11th cousin!

Francis Edward “Mickey” Fahey married Olevia Newcomb had three children:

  1. Michael Newcomb Fahey born 30 May 1927 in Carmel, Penobscot County, Maine, and died 29 October 2001 in Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida. He served in the US Navy during WWII.
  2. Charles Francis Fahey born 8 June 1930 in Carmel, Penobscot County, Maine, and died 29 June 2010 in Bar Harbor, Hancock County, Maine. He married/1 to (Living) Usiak and m/2 to (Living) Trask Davisson.
  3. Myrna Elizabeth Fahey born 12 March 1933 in Carmel, Penobscot County, Maine, and died 6 MAY 1973 in Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, California. She never married.
Myrna Fahey (1959) from a guest appearance on the Western anthology series Death Valley Days.

Myrna Fahey is probably known best for her role as Maria Crespo in Walt Disney’s Zorro and as Madeline Usher in The Fall of the House of Usher.

She was a former cheerleader and beauty pageant queen. She was an avid skier and stock investor and was known for insisting that her dressing rooms be equipped with a stock ticker.

She appeared in episodes of 37 television series from the 1950s into the early 1970s, including Bonanza, Wagon Train, The Time Tunnel with Robert Colbert, Maverick with James Garner, 77 Sunset Strip with Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Laramie, Gunsmoke with James Arness, The Adventures of Superman with George Reeves, Kraft Suspense Theatre, Daniel Boone with Fess Parker, Perry Mason with Raymond Burr, and Batman with Adam West and Burt Ward. (1)

Myrna Fahey (1958) with Guy Williams in an episode of Zorro.

In 1961, Myrna took a starring role in the TV series Father of the Bride, based on the acclaimed film of the same name. She was cast based solely on her striking resemblance to Elizabeth Taylor, a comparison that Myrna did not appreciate, revealing to one interviewer “the fact that I’m supposed to look like Elizabeth What’s-Her-Name had nothing to do with my getting [the part], because we don’t really look alike, I don’t think.” Myrna fought to be released from her contract with the show, citing that too much emphasis was put on the “father” character and not enough on her “bride” character. the series lasted one season.

FBI report and investigation

It was reported in December 1955 that she was at the Coconut Grove night club with Frank Sinatra associate Nick Sevano. (3) Myrna briefly dated Yankees baseball star Joe DiMaggio. In 1963, both Joe and Myrna received a series of anonymous death threats. Several messages threatened her with facial disfigurement with acid and Joe with the killing of his son, Joe Jr. As per the FBI interviews, the two only dined together once during a work visit to Rome in June 1962 – but columnists had recycled this alleged romance throughout the end of 1962 and 1963, to dramatic results. The FBI eventually traced those letters to an obsessive Marilyn Monroe fan and patient in a psychiatric institution in San Jose, California. In addition to briefly dating baseball player Joe DiMaggio, she also dated actor George Hamilton. (1 & 2)

In the early 1970’s, Myrna’s workload slowed, as she was diagnosed with cancer. She appeared in one episode of the medical drama Marcus Welby, MD and played a beauty pageant chaperone in the TV movie The Great American Beauty Contest. The producers devised her bit part solely to help her maintain her industry health benefits during her final illness. It would prove to be her final role. Myrna lost her long battle with cancer, at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, on 6 May 1973 at the age of 40. She was buried at Mount Pleasant Catholic Cemetery in Bangor, Maine. (1)

Her final resting place.

References:

  1. Myrna Fahey. wikipedia.org.
  2. Marilyn Monroe & Joe DiMaggio: A Retrospective – Part I. Blog on tumblr.com.
  3. Carroll, Harrison, syndicated columnist (December 21, 1955). “Behind the Scenes in Hollwood”. Greenburg Daily News. Greenburg, Indiana. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.

If you’d like to learn more about the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks project, please visit here:

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

Or join the Facebook group Generations Cafe.

If you use any information from my blog posts as a reference or source, please give credit and provide a link back to my work that you are referencing. Unless otherwise noted, my work is © Anna A. Kasper 2011-2023. All rights reserved. Thank you.

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William G. Lyons, My 2nd Great Granduncle. 52 Ancestors, Week 27: Extended Family.

Posted on July 10, 2022 by Anna Kasper, ACDP

This week’s writing prompt for 52 Ancestors is Extended Family. We often focus on those people from whom we descend. But what about their siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins? They played a role in our ancestors’ lives, just like those people play a role in our own lives. This is a good week to explore the lives of these other people in the family tree. I chose to write about my 2nd great granduncle William G. Lyons. The mining industry in Northern California and especially in Nevada played a big part in his life.

Photo: Miners at a mine in Nevada in the late 1800’s

He was the son of James W. Lyons and Catherine Ann Barton. His father was born in New Jersey and was of a New Jersey Lyons family. It appears that James W. Lyons was the son of Aaron Lyons and Joanna Hatfield. In old genealogical records and books, it does state that they had a son name James Lyons who married _____ Miller. Nothing more is noted about him. The books may be wrong about the wife’s name, or James may have married a woman with the maiden name of Miller that died, and he then married Catherine Barton. I do have DNA links to this Lyons family and also to Hatfield descendants. Catherine Barton was the daughter of Thomas Barton, and the family was of Bristol and New Britain in Bucks County Pennsylvania. DNA has given some clues to the Barton family origins, he may have been the son of Thomas Barton and Mary Kimber, but the line mostly remains a brick wall. But Catherine Barton’s mother was Rebecca Cooper who was descended on her paternal side from Pennsylvania Quakers and on Rebecca Cooper’s maternal side, she was descended from early German and Dutch settlers in New York.

James W. Lyons and Catherine Barton had several children including:

  1. Elizabeth “Betsy” Lyons born about November 1817 in Falls, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She is listed as a female aged under 10 years old in the 1820 Census and as a female aged 20 to 29 in the household of her father in the 1840 Census. She’s not living with her parents in the 1850 Census. She may have married, but I haven’t found a marriage record for her. Or she died prior to 1850. Little is known about her.
  2. Daughter (Possibly Sarah) Lyons born about 1818/1819 in Falls, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She is one of two females under the age of 10 listed in the 1820 Census and is most likely the female listed as aged 15 to 19 in the household of her father in the 1840 Census. She is not living with her parents in the 1850 Census. She may have died prior to 1850. (See below, she may be the Sarah Lyons that married Jeremiah Terry).
  3. Amelia Ann Lyons born 20 November 1822 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and died 26 September 1910 in Osborne County, Kansas. She married Robert J. Lukens.
  4. Catherine Ann Lyons born 26 December 1825 in Falls, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and died 1903 in Fletcher, Miami County, Ohio. She married/1 on 28 March 1847 in Hamilton County, Ohio to Albert Addis. After his death she married/2 on 25 October 1850 in Lost Creek, Miami County, Ohio to Isaac H. Stinsman.
  5. Henrietta Frances “Nettie” Lyons born 24 April 1828 in Bristol, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and died 7 December 1910 in Milford, Clermont County, Ohio. She married on 25 February 1847 in Hamilton County, Ohio to Marshall Davis Armstrong.
  6. William G. Lyons born 4 September 1830 in Falls, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and died 10 June 1904 in Phoenix, Maricopa, Arizona. He never married.
  7. Daughter (Mary M.) Lyons born about 1831 in Falls, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She is listed as a female aged 5 to 9 years old in the 1840 Census. I believe she is the Mary M. Lyons who marries Dimick/Derick B. Ten Eick on 17 December 1848 in Miami County, Ohio. He dies 3 months later. I do not know what happened to her, but it appears she may have also died in 1849, she is not found in the 1850 Census.
  8. James W. Lyons, Jr. born about 1833 in Falls, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and died after 1880 and before the 1900 census. He married on 20 February 1864 in Butler County, Ohio to Anna M. Fisher.
  9. Daughter Lyons born about 1836 in Falls, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She is listed as one of two females aged under 5 years old in the 1840 Census. She is not found in the 1850 Census with her parents and siblings. She may have died prior to 1850. The other female under 5 years old is Martha.
  10. Martha A. Knight Lyons born 3 October 1838 in Falls, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and died 15 August 1928 in Benton, Butler County, Kansas. She married on 15 October 1856 in Miami County, Ohio to Bradford Carroll Armstrong, as his third wife. (They are my direct ancestors). Marshall Davis Armstrong and Bradford Carroll Armstrong were brothers, so two Lyons sisters married two Armstrong brothers.

There are a few Lyons brides found in the Miami County, Ohio marriage records that do not belong to the other Lyons families known to be in Miami County at the same times as my Lyons ancestors. Here are the marriage records that may include the unknown named Lyons daughters above:

Sarah Lyons who marries Jeremiah Terry on 9 July 1847 in Miami County, Ohio. I have been unable to locate either of them in additional records, or have I been able to find anyone researching this couple. This couple may have been part of the group of settlers that were Randolph Slaves that settled in Miami County during the summer of 1846. And as such would not be connected to my Lyons ancestors. It appears that the word colored was written in the marriage record, although I do not find a record listing them among the names of the Randolph Slave settlers, and she may have been the daughter of James W. Lyons and Catherine Barton.

Mary M. Lyons who marries Dimick/Derick B. Ten Eick on 17 December 1848 in Miami County, Ohio. There is a Derick Teneick that died on 19 Mar 1849 in Miami County, Ohio. He was 3 months shy of his 22nd birthday. He is buried in Kepper Cemetery in Tipp City, Miami County, Ohio. If this is the same man in the marriage record, then he died 3 months after his marriage. I have not found anyone listing that he was married in their family trees. His name is listed as Derick Teneick on his headstone, but his name is also found in records as Derick TenEyck/Ten Eick. He was the son of Henry P TenEyck (Teneick) and Eleanor Baracalow. Fun side note here, I am also related to Derick Ten Eick, he is my 6th cousin 5x removed, we share early Dutch settlers in New York.

Most of the siblings stayed in Ohio for some decades with a few later venturing to Kansas. Only William G. Lyons decided to venture further west.

There are no known photos of William G. Lyons. In the 1850 census he is found living near, but not with, his family in Lost Creek, Miami County, Ohio. He is aged 20 years old and is working as a laborer.

One of the many mines in Placer County, California.

But by 1855 he had ventured to Placer County, California. According to his obituary he came to California from his eastern home during the ’49 excitement and followed placer mining there for a number of years. Placer County, California was at the heart of the 1848 California Gold Rush.

The same obituary states he didn’t come to Nevada until 1869, but I find him in directories in Virginia City, Storey County, Nevada in 1861 and in Dayton, Lyons County, Nevada in 1868-1869. Also included in his obituary is the following: The deceased was one of the pioneers of Nevada and especially of White Pine County, having been prominently identified with the mining industry in this section since the early days of Mineral City in the 70’s. [He] Was one of the original locators of the Monitor mine at Taylor, which was sold to the New Eberhardt Co. of London, England. He was also one of the locators of the Chainman mine here [White Pine County]. The Chainman mine was primarily a gold mine but was secondarily a silver mine. Moving to Virginia City during the palmy Comstock days, from which place he came to White Pines in ’69.

I was unable to locate him in any records for the time period he was in Placer County, California, when he was engaged in the mining industry there.

For great content and more photos, please visit the Nevada Expeditions website. A photo of the Taylor [White Pine County, Nevada] Mine shaft taken in 2020. The Monitor Mine was mostly a silver mine.

I was able to locate him in the 1870 Nevada territorial Census index for Gold Hill, Storey County, Nevada, but the image of the census was unavailable. Census records for Nevada, prior to the 1875 Nevada state census and the 1880 US Federal Census, are spotty at best.

I believe I did find him in state historical records which included the listing of businesses in Mineral City, White Pine County, Nevada in 1874 as “MITCHEL & LYONS – Lived at this time at what was later known as the OLE HANSON ranch.” Today, Mineral City is listed as a former populated place located along US highway 50. A former mining boom town founded in 1869 with a population of about 600 by 1872. (1)

It was just west of Ely, Nevada, and named Mineral City until 1876. It was the first mining camp in the Robinson District. Since Mineral City lay on the Central Overland Route, a stagecoach stop followed, and by 1872, the boomtown had a post office, a ten-stamp mill, mercantile stores, an express office, six saloons, hotels, four boarding houses, restaurants, livery stables, and a blacksmith shop. In 1896 the town was renamed Lane City for Charles D. Lane, following his purchase of Chainman, a major local mining and milling operation. It continued into the twentieth century, but as of 2014 the town (lying along what is now US 50) is abandoned and only a few structures and foundations remain. (2 & 3) Remember that William G. Lyons was one of the locators of the Chainman Mine. A locator was one who locates and establishes a mining claim.

He did quite well in the mining industry and in the 1880 Census for Ward, White Pine County, Nevada, his occupation is listed as Mine Superintendent. In 1883 he was the postmaster of the post office in Taylor in White Pine County, Nevada. Also see further down his business dealings in 1886 with W. N. McGill. In the 1900 Census for Ely, White Pine County, Nevada, his occupation is listed as Capitalist, he is living alone, and he owns his home free and clear. He is listed in the White Pine Newspaper several times in the listings of registered voters.

Luckily, his obituary also tells us a bit more about him as a person. He is described as one of the most kind-hearted and generous of bachelors, and while his presence will be greatly missed from among us, still his many kind deeds and acts of benevolence shall live forever after in the minds of scores he has be-friended.

Also, according to his obituary, he always enjoyed good health until two years prior to his death, but the early vicissitudes of pioneer life began to tell upon him and, although he sought restoration in the climate of California and Arizona, it was to no avail. He died at Stone’s Sanitarium in Phoenix, Arizona. He appears to have died of tuberculosis. His mining and capitalists’ ventures left him well off financially for only affluent patients were cared for at these sanitariums in Pheonix.

William G. Lyons headstone found in Downs Cemetery.

The last view lines of his obituary tell us about his living relatives and that he only had two known living relatives (he actually had three siblings alive at the time of the death). His two sisters are mentioned as two sisters living in Kansas. They were Amelia Ann Lyons Lukens and Martha Ann Knight Lyons Armstrong. His sister Henrietta Frances “Nettie” Lyons Armstrong, at the time of his death, was living in Milford, Clemont County, Ohio, but Martha and Amelia were living in Kansas. His remains were shipped to Kansas, and his final resting place is found in Downs Cemetery in Osbourne County, Kansas. His sister Amelia Ann Lyons Lukens lived in Osbourne County, Kansas.

A final note, I did find in the White Pine Newspaper for July 28, 1904, a notice of hearing of petition for probate of the will and for issuance of letters of testamentary in the matter of the Estate of William G. Lyons. W. N. McGill filed a petition for the probate of the last will of William G. Lyons.

William Neil “Billy” McGill. Business partner of William G. Lyons.

I have been unable as of yet to view the last will and testament of William G. Lyons. But researching W. N. McGill, it appears they were in business together. W. N. McGill’s full name was William Neil McGill. In the 1900 Census for Ely, White Pine County, Nevada, he is listed as a farmer, albeit a quite well to do farmer, with a wife and several children, as well as a servant and several employees. By 1910 he is a widower and living with him are his sister, several of his adult children, a daughter-in-law and a granddaughter, as well as two servants. His occupation is now listed as Stock Grower.

On the Nevada Adventures website of exploring ghost towns and mining camps in Nevada, I was able to find the following: William Neil McGill and his partner, William Lyons, bought Cowger’s Ranch in 1886, and soon the ranch was one of the most prosperous in the county [White Pine County]. Lyons had been the co-discoverer of Taylor in 1885, and because of his interests there, he sold out to McGill in late 1886. (4) 

John Cowger established Cowger’s Ranch in 1872 and soon had extensive grain fields. By 1880 he had become the sole owner of the area’s water rights. An unsubstantiated rumor has it that Jesse James and his gang ate there while escaping from a sheriff’s posse. (4)

In 1886, William Neil McGill acquired full control of the ranch, and along with former Nevada governor Jewett Adams began one of the largest livestock operations in the state. Their strong partnership continued into the 20th century, until Adams died in June 1920, followed by McGill in April 1923, after which their empire fell. (5)

On the death certificate of William McGill of March of 1923, it states he was the manager of Adams & McGill Co., and the nature of the industry is listing as raising of silver stocks. He is found in the Who’s Who of the Pacific Coast, 1913, and it states he was Pres. of Campton Commercial Co., Ely Packing Co.; member of firm, Adam & McGill; Dir. First Nat’l Bank of Ely, Natl. Copper Bank of Salt Lake.

William G. Lyons and William Neil “Billy” McGill may have known each other in Ohio, as well as their business dealings in Nevada. Both the families lived in Miami County, Ohio and both had family connections to Hamilton County, Ohio and further back to New Jersey.

Whereas William Neil “Billy” McGill is listed in the Who’s Who and written up in newspapers for perseverance and its importance as a “must” to survive, and his many accomplishments, William G. Lyons, who was also quite successful in his financial ventures, was remembered for his kindness, generosity, and friendships.

References:

  1. Mineral City, Robinson Mining District, White Pine Co., Nevada, USA at Mindat.org which is run by the not-for-profit Hudson Institute of Mineralogy.
  2. Lane City, Nevada. Greatbasinheritage.org via Internet Archive.
  3. Lane City/Mineral City, Nevada. wikipedia.org.
  4. McGill (Smelter) (Axhandle Springs). nevadadventures.com.
  5. McGill, White Pine County nvexpeditions.com.

If you’d like to learn more about the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks project, please visit here:

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

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If you use any information from my blog posts as a reference or source, please give credit and provide a link back to my work that you are referencing. Unless otherwise noted, my work is © Anna A. Kasper 2011-2023. All rights reserved. Thank you.

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Eight of My Grandfather’s Siblings – All Broken Branches. Premature Death, Never Able to Bloom and Grow into Adulthood. 52 Ancestors, Week 25: Broken Branch.

Posted on June 20, 2022 by Anna Kasper, ACDP
Broken tree branch on a headstone.

The 52 Ancestors writing theme this week is Broken Branch. This is the meaning of a broken tree or broken tree branch in family trees and on headstones; a tree represents life, a broken tree, or a broken branch, symbolizes death, or more specifically a life cut short. This symbolism is usually used on headstones, to signify a break in the family tree, someone who died an untimely or premature death. Usually seen on a younger person’s gravestone, an alternate symbol is a broken flower bud, or rose stem.  A broken tree at the trunk usually represents the loss of a family patriarch. (1)

Broken flowers engraved on headstone.

Most commonly the hanging flower bud is used on headstones of children who died an untimely or premature death.  The broken rose or flower bud or stem represents the flower that did not bloom into full blossom, the life that was cut short before it had a chance to grow to adulthood.  The three leaves on the rose stem represent the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (2)

My grandfather Durward Edward Cole was the son of Joseph Edward Cole and Anna Cora Prindle. He had three siblings that lived into adulthood and married, although only one of his siblings, Jesse Cole, had children, so my Mom only had three Cole first cousins.

My grandfather had a total of eleven siblings, but I can only find records on eight of them. Eight of his siblings are broken branches on the family tree. These eight siblings died young.

This is what is known about the eight siblings who lives were cut short before they could grow and bloom into adulthood. Three of them, I can find no records about them. On the birth certificate of Carl Cole, the last child born to Anna Prindle and Joseph Cole, it is listed that she had given birth to a total of twelve children, with eight living at that time.

The first broken branch of his siblings is Mabel. The most is known about her. Mabel R. Cole was born 10 February 1896 in Dekalb County, Indiana. Her parents separated and divorced by 1910. She is found in the 1910 census in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, living with her maternal aunt Ona Belle Prindle and her aunt’s second husband Charles Danner, and her first cousin Helen J. Danner.

The House of the Good Shepherd, Detroit, Michigan – 1910.

Within a year after she is found in the 1910 census she is living in The House of the Good Shepherd (aka Sisters of the Good Shepherd Girls Reformatory). The Sisters of the Good Shepherd opened their Detroit house in 1883. The House was located on Fort Street West and the property took up an entire block. Although orphans were sent here, it was mostly a girl’s reformatory school. The home was not endowed, and the Good Sisters depended on their work and the charitably disposed for maintenance of the house. In 1920 the Sisters were looking after 500 girls. 

Mabel’s childhood was one of dysfunction with alcohol abuse within the family, she had to deal with her parent’s drama and fighting (which was at least partly chronicled in the local newspaper in Indiana), their divorce and her mother leaving her younger children with family members. As well as the fact that she was a teenager, which at any time in history can be a difficult time.

Mabel’s final resting place at Mount Elliott Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan. She has no headstone, but a grave marker tells us she is buried in this section.

According to her death certificate she died at The House of the Good Shephard on 5 September 1912 at the age of sixteen of Acute Nephritis which can come on quite suddenly. Nephritis is an old word for what is called Glomerulonephritis today. The causes are often a viral or bacterial infection, especially streptococcal bacteria. Easily treatable today, that was not the case in 1912. Symptoms Mabel would have experienced include blood in the urine (red or brown pee), fluid buildup in the tissues which engenders swelling around the face, eyes, ankles, legs, and belly, high blood pressure, headaches, nausea and vomiting. (3) Not a pleasant way to die.

I am a cradle Catholic that had a good experience with the religious Sisters that were my teachers, but I am not naive, I know that homes like this one would have had a large population of girls in comparison to the number of Sisters and other workers to take care of them. Abuse and neglect also happened. Some of the girls were prostitutes, others just considered problem children and teens, others were orphans, and often they were not believed if they said they were ill until it was too late. Mabel was under the care of a physician for only one day before her death. Whether neglect and/or abuse played a part in her death is information lost to time, but it is quite possible, along with lack of treatments available for her ailment at this time.

Divine Comfort by artist Heather V. Kreiter.

The second broken branch was a baby boy that only lived one day. He was born on 11 May 1898 in DeKalb County, Indiana, he died the next day on the 12th of May. He was not named and his place of burial in DeKalb County, Indiana is unknown.

Gladys Cole is on the right, her Prindle 1st Cousin Neva North is on left. Ashley, Dekalb County, Indiana.

The third broken branch is Gladys Cole. The photo above is the only known photo of Gladys Cole. She is on the right, her Prindle 1st Cousin Neva North is on the left. Gladys was born on 1 November 1902 in DeKalb County, Indiana. She died on 8 May 1910 at the age of seven. I was told by my Uncle George Cole that her death greatly affected the family, especially her father, for Gladys was his favorite. Her place of death is not known but was probably in DeKalb County, Indiana. I have been unable to find her mother Anna Cora Prindle Cole in the 1910 census. Her father is found in the April 1910 census of Detroit, Michigan living with his twenty-two-year-old son Jesse Cole. They are both listed as lodgers. Gladys is not living with him. Gladys may have been living with extended family and died before the census was taken in that area. Her final resting place is unknown. But if she died in DeKalb County, Indiana, she was probably buried there. There are numerous family members and ancestors buried in cemeteries in DeKalb County.

Photographer – Natalia Zakonova

The fourth broken branch is Ida Cole. She was born 20 November 1906 in Allen County, Indiana. She died prior to 1910, so would have been under age three with she died. She died in Indiana; her final resting place is unknown.

Birth certificate of Carl Cole.

The fifth broken branch is Carl Cole. He was born on 19 February 1909 in Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana. He died at age 6 1/2 months in September 1909 in Indiana. His final resting place is unknown.

The sixth, seventh, and eighth broken branches are unknown. They were born between the censuses, and no birth or death records have been found for them, all three would have died young, possibly shortly after birth.

I wanted to take this week’s writings to remember my three grandaunts; Mabel, Gladys, and Ida, and my two granduncles; Carl and an infant baby boy, and three others that all died young. Broken branches in my family tree.

Gone but not forgotten by me, your grandniece. My hope is that family members and others reading this, in doing so will remember these little ones taken before their time, leaving the earthly plane before their lives were fully lived. May they always have an angel by their side in heaven.

References:

  1. Meaning of a Broken Tree or Branch. City of Grove, Oklahoma website.
  2. Meaning of a Broken Flower Stem. City of Grove, Oklahoma website.
  3. Glomerulonephritis (GN). ClevelandClinic.org.
Broken Rose © 2011 Jens Schott Knudsen

If you’d like to learn more about the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks project, please visit here:

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

Or join the Facebook group Generations Cafe.

If you use any information from my blog posts as a reference or source, please give credit and provide a link back to my work that you are referencing. Unless otherwise noted, my work is © Anna A. Kasper 2011-2023. All rights reserved. Thank you.

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