#52Ancestors-Favorite Photo-Week2

This was both an easy and a hard choice.  With all my ancestors, my siblings, my children and my grandchildren, I have many special photos.  But the one photo that stands out for me is an interesting choice.  It's a photo of myself at the age of one year old.  That seems rather self-centered, I know, but the reason it is my favorite photo is because it is a photo that my grandmother displayed prominently all of my life, right up to her death in 1986.  When she died, my mom let me have the photo and so I have it in its' original frame on my desk in my bedroom.  Every morning when I see it, I think of how much I was loved.  What a gift a grandmother's love is. 

#52Ancestors: Rosa Kerrott Smyth-the Starter

For Starters I decided to write about my 3rd great-grandmother, Rosa Kerrott Smyth.  Rosa was the first of my grandmothers from this line to come to the United States, thus she was the "starter".

Rosa was born on the 14th of October in 1814 in County Down, Ireland to John Carrott and Catherine Fegan.  John Carrott was a farmer.  At this time, I have identified two siblings for Rosa: William Kerrott, born in 1810, and Edward Kerrott, born about 1813.  In 1833, Rosa married Patrick Smyth, the son of a neighboring farmer.  At the time of their marriage, Rosa was 18 years old, and Patrick was 23 years old.

It appears that Rosa was the first of her family to leave Ireland.  Patrick and Rosa left for the United States the day after their wedding!  They landed in Albany, New York.  Rosa's brother William emigrated to Canada in 1835 and her other brother, Edward, emigrated to Canada around 1845.  After about 20 years in Canada, William moved to Minnesota and lived there until his death in 1897.  Edward remained in Canada and died in 1888.  It is interesting to wonder if Rosa ever saw her brothers after she left Ireland.

Patrick and Rosa stayed in Albany for 13 months, and then went to Trumansburg in Tompkins County, New York.  There Patrick worked as a laborer.  Their first son, Francis, was born in New York in 1835 and the following year, their daughter Mary was born.  Sadly, little Francis died in 1837. The next year Patrick, Rosa, and Mary left New York and came to Kickapoo, Illinois, and in the fall of 1838, they purchased their first home. Their daughter Catherine was born that year.  Another daughter, Anna, was born in 1839.  Again, sadness struck when little Catherine died in the fall of 1839. Following the death of Catherine, Patrick and Rosa went on to have 11 more children, for a total of 15 children born to them.

Rosa and Patrick's last child was born in 1858 and three years later, Patrick died.  When he died, he and Rosa owned about 284 acres.  Rosa was 46 years old when Patrick died.  The 1860 Census shows that 12 of their children were living with Rosa and Patrick.  When Patrick died the following year, his sons Frank and Jack were ages 21 and 19, so they probably managed/ran the farm for Rosa.  Patrick did not live to see any of his children married.

In 1870, seven of Rosa's children were living with her on the farm.  And by 1880, 4 of their children were listed in the census with her, along with 1 grandson.

Rosa Kerrott Smyth died on the 14th of April in 1882 and is buried at St. Patrick's Cemetery in Kickapoo.  She was 67 years old when she died.  She had lived 21 years past her husband's death.  She must have been a force to reckon with to have raised all those children and managed the farm!  She had 66 grandchildren.  She saw 3 children of her own die before her (Mary died in 1879).

I consider Rosa a starter because she was the mother of my great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth Smyth.  Elizabeth married William H. Murphy, which was the start of my direct line to the Murphy family!

Tombstone of Patrick and Rosa Kerrott Smyth in Kickapoo, Illinois.

Review of 2017 and Goals for 2018

2017 turned out to be an amazing year for my genealogy pursuits.  I have been working (usually daily in some capacity) on my genealogy since about 1995.  I am constantly amazed at the new findings out there, especially as access to old records open up.

I felt like I did a good job keeping up with the Ancestry hints.  They can get very overwhelming if one isn't vigilant on that.

I had two very major breakthroughs this year.  As stated, I have been working on genealogy for over twenty years.  And one of the very most elusive challenges has been trying to locate my great-uncle's children.  The family lived about four hours away from us. Oddly, the children are younger than I am (my mother's uncle was only seven years older than her).  The children's father died in 1963 and there was only sporadic contact with them over the next few years.  Once I started working on genealogy, my mother continued to ask if I could find them.  I never could.

Then in the middle of last March, out of the blue, I received an Ancestry message from the oldest daughter, my first cousin one time removed.  She had been on Ancestry and found my family tree. It has been wonderful catching up with her and sharing with her over the past few months.  I've been able to share pictures with her, and even some of her father's letters from WWII.  I hope to be able to visit with her in 2018.

The other breakthrough was finding the will of Luke Tippitt as I have written about on this blog.  It took some tenacious work, but I did it!  And it has opened up some other clues for the Tippitt family, although so far, I haven't been able to successfully follow up on them.  But the discovery was from a hint on Ancestry, where old records were open for access.

My goals for 2018?  I am going to participate in the #52Ancestor Challenge again this year.  I did it a couple of years ago and it was very helpful in getting me to dig deeper for records and information, so I am hoping that I can stick with it!  It is a lot of work.  I have begun a genealogy bullet journal to help me with my genealogy pursuits.  It will be interesting to see if I find it helpful or burdensome!

Benjamin Tippitt

Benjamin Tippitt was the son of Luke Tippitt and Nancy Adamson.  His name was the one that I had not known and found in the will of Luke Tippitt.  I have not been able to learn anything more about him.  I don't know or even have a good estimate of when he was born. The 1825 Edwards County Illinois Census shows three sons in the family, which fits with Benjamin being there.  The only "clue" about Benjamin that I have is from Luke's will where it states:

"Will of Luke Tippett
 Luke Tippett during his last sickness declared the following to be his last will and Testament.
 To my son William Tippett I give and bequeath my sorrel mare. To my son Matthew I leave my sorrel horse.  At the same time he requested that his son-in- law James Sawyers take the boys and learn them a trade and that Sawyer take the horses and dispose of them or keep them and at the time the boys attain the age of twenty one he Sawyers deliver them horses equal in value or their worth in _______ at the time he received them-he Luke Tippett stated that he gave to his wife the old sorrel mare and the remainder of his property for her support and to raise the children to wit Milly and Benjamin Tippet." 

So I'm not sure if by the "boys" he meant William and Matthew, and was leaving the remainder of his property to his wife to care for their daughter and Benjamin? So does that mean that Benjamin was the youngest of the children? I know that Milly was born in 1812, William in about 1815, and Matthew was born in 1817. So William and Matthew were only about 11 and 9 years old when Luke died.

I have searched census records but have been unable to locate Benjamin Tippitt.  I have not found his mother Nancy Tippitt after Luke's death in the 1830 or any other census.  I don't know if she remarried or died early.  In a biography of Matthew Tippitt, it states that:

 "A short time afterward (after Luke's death) our subject, accompanied by his mother, removed to what is now the city of Olney, then in Lawrence County, and settled upon a farm." 

So what happened to Benjamin Tippitt?  Or to his mother, for that matter!

Update on Luke Tippett

As I wrote a few days ago, I was frustrated with being unable to locate the will or probate for Luke Tippett after I had found his name on an index for Wills and Probates for Edwards County, Illinois.  I wrote to the County Clerk and to the Illinois Regional Archives Depository for Edwards County and neither found any records of Wills or Probates for Luke Tippett.

Today, I decided to take another look at the Index that I had found on Ancestry.com.  I started looking at the actual records there and after awhile I realized that the stated page on the index did not match with the page of the microfilm that is on Ancestry.com.  So I began a list of matching  names and numbers of the index compared to the microfilm records.  And, after about an hour of work, guess what I found!  Yep, the will for Luke Tippett!

The will gave me the name of a son that I didn't have before and the name of a son-in-law that I did not have.

A will from 1826=happiness for me!

Two new records on Luke Tippett found

July is leaving us.  I had a couple of good finds this month, but now remain a bit discouraged with the questions that the finds left me.  I wrote about Luke Tippitt in November of 2015.  He was married to my great-great-great grandfather's sister, Nancy Adamson.  I have never learned what became of Nancy after Luke died (around 1826). Here is the link to the earlier blog about the family: https://suesresearch.blogspot.com/search?q=luke+tippitt

While searching Ancestry.com, I came across a listing for Luke Tippett in the Tennessee, Early Land Registers, 1778-1927.  Here Luke was listed with a Register Date of 13 May 1814 in Warren, Tennessee.  Grant or Warrant Number was 966.

A copy of the land record shows:

"I have surveyed for Luke Tippett apiece of Thomas Jones fifty acres of lands in Warren County on the Dry forks of Barren Brook, Beginning at a white oak on the North side of said Creek, running north one hundred and twenty six poles to a hickory, thence East Sixty three poles to a White oak, then South one hundred and twenty six poles to a red oak then West Sixty three poles to the beginning including the improvement where Stephen Pentfrow (sp?) did live.
                      Surveyed 26th February 1814
                      John B. Parkins (sp?), DS
                      Filed May 13th 1814
Witnessed by Archibald Barre (sp?)
                       Elijah Tippett"

What this piece of paper does show is that this is "founded on Certificate Warrant no 966 issued by the Register of West Tennessee to Thomas Jones for three hundred and twenty acres."  I don't think that the Certificate would show anything for Luke Tippett since it states that it was issued to Thomas Jones.

The only Elijah Tippett that I have in my database is the son of Luke Tippett and his first wife, Mary Vincent.  This Elijah was born about 1794, so he would have been around twenty years old when he witnessed this transaction.

The most frustrating thing that I found in July was also on Ancestry.com was a listing in the Illinois, Wills and Probate Records, 1772-1999.  The listing shows very clearly (it is typed):

" 'T'
Tippett, Luke-19"

The source shows that this listing is for Edwards County, Illinois, which is where Luke died.  I wrote to Edwards County County Clerk enclosing a copy of what I have and requested any records.  None were found.  I sent a request to the Illinois Regional Archives for Edwards County and have not yet heard back from them.

The source page shows a Citation for "Will records, 1815-1922; Author: Illinois County Court (Edwards County); Probate Place: Edwards, Illinois.

Source Information shows: Ancestry.com. Illinois, Wills and Probate Records, 1772-1999. Original data: Illinois County, District and Probate Courts.

I'm not sure where that leaves me.  This information must be somewhere! I will keep pursuing this.

June 2017

It's been a slow month (in June) for genealogy for me.  Not for any lack of trying, but just nothing really coming up.  I have been keeping up with the Ancestry.com hints.  I have been trying again to find some information on my husband's grandfather's first wife, and thought I had a lead, but it didn't pan out.  I'm feeling pretty stuck with trying to find what became of this woman. I need to go over what few pieces of information that I have and see what is missing.

Estella Mabel Colwell was born around 1905 in Illinois to Charles Reuben  and Rhoda Rose Patterson Colwell.  Her brother Charles Edward Colwell was born in 1907 in Wyoming, Stark County, Illinois.  (She also had a sister Jennie who was born in August of 1902 in Illinois.  According to Find A Grave, Jennie died in December of 1905. However, she is listed in the 1910 Census as age 7, living with her parents and siblings.  But, the census also shows that her mother had 3 children with 2 living)

In 1910, Estella Mabel Colwell was listed in the Steuben, Marshall County, Illinois Census as "Mabel", age 5. She was listed as living with her parents, her sister Jennie and her brother Edward.  Her father was listed as a coal miner.

Mabel's parents divorced sometime before 1917, when her mother was listed as being married to Raymond Angelo Bice and living in Elmira, New York.  Mabel was twelve years old in 1917.  In the following year, Mabel's father died in Sparland, Marshall County, Illinois in October (1918). Mabel married George Leo Moreland in April 1919 in Lacon, Marshall County, Illinois.  She was fourteen years old when she married, and George was twenty-two years old.  Mabel's mother consented to the marriage.  George was in the service at the time of the marriage.

Mabel is listed in the 1920 Lacon, Marshall County, Illinois Census, with George, listed as age 22 and Mabel listed as age 15.  George worked as a Teamster and his father William lived next door to them.  Mabel's mother and brother Charles are listed as living in New York in 1920.

And there the records I have found pretty much end.  George Moreland married again in 1925 in Granville, Putnam County, Illinois.  So he and Mabel divorced between 1920 and 1925. I did find a record of Mabel's grand-uncle's probate from 1932 and it stated that the court had been unable to locate Mabel.

Both Mabel's brother and her mother's obituaries do not list her.  Her mother died in 1960 in New York and her brother Charles died in New York in 1976.

The only other clue that I have is that my husband's mother remembered her mother and father sometimes arguing over someone named "Mabel". Since my mother-in-law was not born until 1929, she would have had to have been old enough to remember their arguments about Mabel.

I think that I will retry my efforts over finding a copy of George and Mabel's divorce, but other than that, I don't have many ideas for searching.  I will try Newspapers.com again and see if that results in anything.