I greatly enjoyed Amy Johnson Crow’s 31 Days to Better Genealogy! Many tips were wonderful reminders of how I should be doing my genealogy research – especially Day 12 – Research the Siblings.
With that in mind, I decided to look at one of my favorite brick walls, David Witherell (also spelled Wetherell, Witherall, Witherill, Witheral, etc.). David’s parents are supposedly John and Judith (Bullard) Witherell (see the above link for that information if curious). I had hoped to find some kind of connection through the Bullards to connect to my known Witherell’s and began to search in probate records for David Bullard, Judith’s possible father. Through that I learned about possible Revolutionary War information for Judith’s father and thought to give the DAR records a shot – with a win!
The diary, part of the material used for a DAR membership for a known relative of mine, mentions wonderful new clues to follow:
- John Witheral senior
- Judith Bullard, wife of John Witheral senior born July 4 1793
- John Witheral Jun Born Oct 5 1811
- David Witheral Born Feb 10 1813
- Darius & Cyrus Witheral Born Sep 12th 1816
- Jane Witheral wife of Wm Curr [or Carr?] born Jan 12th 1819
- Janet Vincent – wife of Darius Witheral Born Aug 22nd 1882
- [Under Janet’s name there is a faintly written part that seems to read “Infant daughter born… 13th 1840 died the same…” day maybe?]
- Hadley _ Witheral son of Darius and Janet born Feb 25th 1841
- [There seems to be another line after the above but the copy doesn’t go down far enough to see it. I’d need the original.]
- Ray Witheral son of John Witheral Junior born Aug __ 1838
Look at all these wonderful people I have to research now! Not to mention the sister’s husband’s name!
So I started with a quick search on Ancestry with John Junior. I did find some possible Civil War records for both John senior and junior, BUT I want more confirmation that they are the same people. The ages are off enough that make me think they may not be and I’ve ordered records before thinking it was my ancestor only to find (after quite an expense) that I was wrong. Oops!
I realized then that I was searching rather aimlessly and I need to create a plan for John Jr. as well as the others, especially since this started with a project titled 31 Days to Better Genealogy. Better Genealogy – so I want to do this right.
To keep me on track, I will write about my plans and the results as I go along! Here’s hoping I lose some bricks in this wall!
