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52 Ancestors Week 13: The Old Homestead

On 1 April 2018

Homestead records! I had heard so many good things about these records and was so excited to find ancestors who had these.

So today I’m going to focus on Sylvester Erway, my 4x great-grandfather. He was born to Daniel and Hilah (Clark) Erway on 8 March 1827 in New York. ((Michigan, “Death Records, 1897-1920,” database and images, Library of Michigan, (http://seekingmichigan.org : accessed 29 March 2018), entry for Sylvester Erway, 12 Mar 1908, citing Michigan Department of Community Health, certificate register no. 2, stamped 63.))

By 1853, Sylvester had applied for some land in Midland County:((Sylvester Erway (Midland County) cash entry file, certificate no. 7199, Genesee, Michigan, Land Office; Land Entry Papers, 1800-1908; Records of the Bureau of Land Management, Record Group 49, National Archives, Washington D.C. [Best copies available].))

It is hereby certified, That,in pursuance of Law, Sylvester Erway of Midland County, the Lot or North half of North East quarter and North half of North West quarter of Section No Twelve (12) in Township No. Sixteen (16) of Range No. One (1) West containing One Hundred and Sixty acres, at the rate of __ dollar and fifty cents per acre, amounting to Eighty dollars and __ cents, for which the said Sylvester Erway has made payment in full as required by law.

Now therefore be it known, That, on presentation of this Certificate to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, the said Sylvester Erway shall be entitled to receive a Patent for the lot above described. [Date 19 September 1853]

According to a Midland County biography, Sylvester “came to Edenville Township, Midland County, arriving the last days of November, 1854… his marriage was the first event of the kind within the limits of Midland County. His first business movement was to buy 160 acres of land. It was in an unbroken state of nature, and of the 100 acres he now owns he placed 60 acres under cultivation. He sold 60 acres in 1858 to his brother. ((Chapman Brothers, Portrait and Biographical Album of Midland County, Mich. : Containing Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the County, Together with Portraits and Biographies of all the Governors of Michigan and of the Presidents of the United States : also Containing a Complete History of the County, from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time {Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1884), 222; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 June 2014); locate through database of same title.))

The marriage mentioned was to Julia Bowman 6 April 1855. By 1860, Sylvester was farming in Midland County with his wife and two young daughters (one of whom is my 3x great-grandmother, Isadora Erway), and lived next door to his father, Daniel, and to his wife’s uncle. It was a small area at the time and there was a lot of family nearby. ((1860 U.S. Census, Midland County, Michigan, population schedule, Jerome Township, sheet 21 (penned), dwelling 168, family 168, Sylvester Erway household; image and index, Ancestry.com(http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 29 March 2018); citing NARA microfilm T653, roll 543))

For homestead records to be complete, Sylvester needed proof that he had actually settled and cultivated the land as required. He had, by April 1856, “erected thereon one Log House and cleared about three acres of laid lands” He needed other voices besides his own to prove that though. In come Edward N. Burton, who writes in stating that this is true. This Edward N. Burton was a neighbor who also owned about 160 acres of land. I get the impression that this area had many homesteaders who seemed to all look out and support each other. ((Sylvester Erway (Midland County) cash entry file, certificate no. 7199, Genesee, Michigan, Land Office; Land Entry Papers, 1800-1908; Records of the Bureau of Land Management, Record Group 49, National Archives, Washington D.C. [Best copies available]. Also David Burton (Midland County), cash entry file, certificate no. 7685, Genesee, Michigan, Land Office; Patent image, U.S. Department of the Interior (http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ : accessed 5 June 2014).))

Now, the great thing is, I can take that information of where his land was and map it out to what it would look like today. Funny enough, the property that he owned was just north and west of where I did my student teaching. I had had no idea how close I had been to that land during that time! What I’d really like to do (and plan to) is see what had happened to that land over the years – did it stay in the family? I know it’s still farming land to this day. I wonder if there are any remnants of the original homestead still around!

52 Ancestors Week 11: Lucky

By Nichelle Barra

On 19 March 2018

In 52 Ancestors

This is a tough one! I feel like this one needs more of an ancestor’s actual story than could be told by records alone. With that, one story came to mind. It’s more personal and more recent than others on my tree as well.

These are my grandparents. My beautiful grandmother worked hard to fit into that dress! I can’t remember what the waist size was exactly (10 inch waist? Was that even possible??) but she did some extreme dieting. I remember her telling me it was a coffee and cigarette diet, which she then followed with a very stern and serious – “Never do that.”

My grandmother claims is was this that caused her to fall seriously ill a few years after their wedding with Insipidus Diabetes. I’m not sure if that’s true or not, of course, but my grandmother firmly believed this was the cause.

What this meant was that she had to take a nasal spray everyday to keep everything in balance along with the fact that she always seemed to be very thirsty (or so I saw – she was always sucking on ice chips and had water close by). It also caused problems with her getting pregnant. This was the early 1950s and the doctors told her she would not be able to have children. However, as my grandmother once told me, she had always wanted to be a mother. She knew it was what she was supposed to do on this earth. With that mind set, I can imagine her look when the doctors told her she should not try. She, of course, did anyway. That stubbornness is definitely a family trait!

She had two miscarriages and her doctors urged her to stop trying as it was very hazardous to her health. She persisted, however, and in 1952, my aunt was born. Then my dad came along in 1954! The doctors proclaimed them both miracle babies!

My grandmother had her two children, a girl and a boy, and was quite happy! There was another pregnancy that happened, however, in 1965. That one ended in a very sad still birth. He’s buried with my grandparents and was named Glen A. (which is my grandpa’s dad’s name). My dad remembers that day very sadly as he had finally had a brother.

My dad and aunt were the miracle babies that my grandmother always wanted, but had been told she would never have. Without her persistence and risking her own health, my siblings and cousin (and the next generation) would not be here at all. To me, that makes us all very, very lucky.

52 Ancestors Week 10: Strong Women

By Nichelle Barra

On 18 March 2018

In 52 Ancestors

I have a number of women I’d call strong women in my genealogy. I’m picking one not at random, but also understanding that there are other strong women in my tree too.

Today, I’m focusing on my 3x great-grandmother: Anna (Dexler) Hagerl. She’s actually one of the women in my website’s header:

She’s sitting in the front row, 2nd from right. Her husband, Frank Hagerl, is in the front row 3rd from the right. Surrounding them are all of their children (my 2nd great-grandmother is in the back row, 3rd from the right).

Anna was born in Germany, likely Bavaria, on 23 Nov 1849. ((Michigan, “Death Records, 1921-1947,” database and images, Library of Michigan (http://seekingmichigan.org : accessed 15 March 2018), entry for Anna Hagerl, 20 Feb 1932, state office no. 73 4155, Michigan Department of Community Health.)) Her mother was also an Anna – Anna (Stockner) Dexler, but I’m not sure who her father was just yet. ((Michigan, “Death Records, 1897-1920,” database and images, Library of Michigan (http://seekingmichigan.org : accessed 15 March 2018), entry for Anna Dexler, 18 Jan 1901, registered no. 21, Michigan Department of Community Health.))

She met and married Frank Hagerl sometime in Bavaria and before the birth of their first son, Andrew, in 1872. Then came Mike in 1875, Anna in 1876, Frances in 1878, Joe in 1880, and Margaret in 1886. ((1900 U.S. Census, Saginaw County, Michigan, population schedule, James Township, ED 37, sheet 1, page 237 A (stamped), dwelling 4, family 4, Frank Hagerl household; image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 March 2018); citing NARA microfilm T623.)) Whew!

I’m still not sure what drew them out of Bavaria. Where they ended up in Michigan had a large Bavarian population, so it’s likely they had friends and neighbors who helped pull them to the area.

Either way, it is likely that Frank left first. He’s not on the passenger list with Anna and the children, so it’s very likely. On 25 September 1889, Anna arrived with her children in tow in Baltimore, Maryland. The record shows that:

Anna Hagerl, 40, female, wife – from Germany and Baltimore was her destination.
Andreas – 14, male [he would have been closer to 17]
Michael – 11, male [he would have been closer to 14]
Anna – 11, female [she would have been closer to 13]
Frances – 10, female [she would have been closer to 12]
Josef – 8, male
Marget – 3, female

Anna and her family were in steerage, which was a likely crowded and without much fresh air. Steerage has never been shown to be a fun nor easy way to travel. But it was cheaper and with a large family, it was likely their only option.

The family had 3 pieces of luggage total. Here you are, completely removed from not only your family and friends, but your entire country, language, and customs and thrown into a new world. Voluntarily, of course, but that had to be a large shock. They left everything behind that didn’t fit into three pieces of luggage. ((“Baltimore Passenger Lists, 1820-1948,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 March 2018), entry for Anna Hagerl, aboard Main, Breman to Baltimore.))

Can you imagine what that must have been like? Six children with you? The youngest only three? Grant it there were older children to help take care of the others, but what a journey!

Thanks to the 1900 census, I do that Anna’s mother made the journey around the same time as she did. I have yet to find her passenger list! And I know that two more children came after she arrived – John and Thresa. She was 41 and 43 when she had those last two!

Besides making that journey, leaving behind everything she had ever known and coming to a new country, she faced more tragedies after she arrived. Out of four of her daughters, she lived to see three of them buried.

Her oldest daughter, Anna, died in 1914 from shock following a tonsillectomy. ((Michigan, “Death Records, 1897-1920,” database and images, Library of Michigan (http://seekingmichigan.org : accessed 15 March 2018), entry for Anna Breidenbach, 28 July 1914, registered no. 468, Michigan Department of Community Health.))

Six years later, her daughter Margaret (my 2nd great-grandmother) died of puerperal septicemia, which was common after childbirth.((Michigan, “Death Records, 1897-1920,” database and images, Library of Michigan (http://seekingmichigan.org : accessed 15 March 2018), entry for Margaret Ann Almy, 26 July 1919, registered no. 545, Michigan Department of Community Health.)) There was no child mentioned though (no death certificate either), so perhaps she had gone into labor much too early. Although my great-grandmother did talk about her siblings and family often, there wasn’t any mention of what happened here.

Lastly, Francis died in a horrible accident in 1921. She had been run over by an car and killed. The cause of death on her death certificate states: “every bone in [the] upper part of her body was broken.” ((Michigan, “Death Records, 1921-1947,” database and images, Library of Michigan (http://seekingmichigan.org : accessed 15 March 2018), entry for Frances ryder, 28 Nov 1921, registered no. 807, Michigan Department of Community Health.))

Anna, however, lived to be 82 and died in 1932, in her adopted country and home in Saginaw, Michigan.

The things this woman had seen and been through make her my spotlight for strong women. Although I’m sure to her it was just what you did in life: carried on, kept going, stayed strong, etc. I also got the impression that they were a large and loving family through the stories from my great-grandmother. That, to me, shows a lot more of her strength of character than these records can really do justice.

Besides being on my website as they are, my great-grandmother always made these amazing lebkuchen cookies every Christmas that I know have a suspicion may have been her mother’s recipe and could have even come from Anna. I have to see if I can track that down…

52 Ancestors Week 9 : Where There’s a Will…

By Nichelle Barra

On 10 March 2018

In 52 Ancestors

I’m a bit late on my 52 Ancestors post! It has been a busy last two weeks. Better late than never though, so here is my Week 9 post!

When I was younger, I heard many rumors about my maiden name Witherell and where it came from and what it meant. The most frequent one told to me was that Witherell’s were shepherds and were named after the ‘weather-all’ they created for shelter in the fields. The rumor said they were from the England/Scotland border. So, one of the things I’ve always wanted to find out is how true all of that is!

Which means, of course, that I hit my Witherell brick wall in the early 1800s, still in the United States. I have confirmed my 4x great-grandfather and who he was: David Witherell, born in 1813 in New York and died in 1862 in Michigan. He is the beginning of my Witherells in Michigan and although he died in Genesee County, his wife and children moved to Saginaw shortly thereafter. His descendants have lived in Saginaw, Michigan since 1866 – which means that line of family has been in the same area for over 150 years ((Martha Curtis Obituary, Saginaw Daily News (Saginaw, Michigan), 14 January 1911, page 2.)). I think that’s pretty amazing.

It’s his parents where I hit a wall. David married a woman named Martha Wolcott, who has a family book where she is mentioned. In that book, it states that David is the son of John and Juda (Bullard) Witherell of Richmond, NY ((Wolcott Genealogy The Family of Henry Wolcott (Rochester, NY: Genese Press, 1912), page 212.)) .

My search on John Witherell didn’t lead to much, but Juda (or Judith) Bullard had more information. Her parents are David and Elizabeth (Hadley) Bullard ((Arad Thomas, Pioneer History of Orleans County, New York (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, INC, 1871 Reprint 1998), page 231.)). With that, I began to hunt for information on David, hoping he may have left a will that mentions his daughter or grandchildren.

I found a general index on FamilySearch.org for Orleans County, New York from 1825-1926 that showed David Bullard DID have a probate record. I then contacted the County Courthouse in Orleans County and they sent me along to the Orleans County Genealogical Society – my heroes for this post!

I gave them the box and file number and asked if the files still existed and if there was a way to get more information about this record.

By the end of that day, they had emailed me the ENTIRE file (it wasn’t large, thankfully)! I cannot stress how absolutely amazing this group is for doing something like this! I would have paid for the information as well and sent them a donation for doing such an amazing thing. Seriously, genealogy societies have gold mines of information!

The record did not have a will, sadly, but there was a lot of fun information:

These records do not specifically say if any of the names are his children or how they are related (if at all) to David. ((Orleans County, New York, David Bullard probate file, box 6, file 779; Orleans County Genealogical Society, Albion New York.)). That is usually the case though, and I have seen the name of Ransom Bullard in connection with a possible sibling of David. So it’s another link, albeit indirectly (and it needs more), but a link. Nonetheless, the generosity of the Orleans Genealogical Society brought me such a gift and I hold this probate record in high value!

Never underestimate the records of local groups!