Plus One

      And just like that their family grew by one.  

     The Gates family was one of the first family that I researched.  I had gotten the name of my 2nd great-grandfather, William R. Gates from my Aunt Jane.  From there I started examining the census records.  The 1850 Census was the first to state the names of all members of a household.  In addition to Elisha and Christina, the 1850  Census lists John, L [Elizabeth Louisa], F [ Francis Leo], and M [Martha Ellen] Gates.  The census didn't mention William Raymond Gates but he had married in 1849 and lived nearby. 
     Eventually, I found baptismal records for two additional children, Susanna Emily and James Ferdinand.  I never found James F. in any later records so I might guess that he had died young.
     After those initial records I spent a lot of time trying to prove the connection between William and Elisha.  (That proof showed up in a land deed where Elisha mentions his sons, John G. and William R. Gates.)  Then I began researching Elisha's ancestors and William's descendants.
     Now fast forward several years, after I have found Elisha's ancestors and I have begun research for Christina Ann Summers Gates' parents.  One of the pieces of information that I thought might help was to determine John G. Gates' middle name.  His will didn't help but his will and census records did give me his wife's name.  Yesterday I received an email from my cousin, Rick. He was in Salt Lake City on business and asked if I needed anything from the Family History Library.  While I waited for his answer on John G Gates' marriage record I continued looking to fill in a few missing records. 
    About the time I heard back from Rick on the marriage record (which didn't have his full name) I found another marriage record for Mary Ann Gates and William Sims.  Elisha sign the consent for the marriage.  Mary Ann would have been about 16 years old.  Was this the correct family or some new family group?  
    After evaluating some other documents that I have collected, I have concluded that Mary Ann Gates was an older sister to John and William.
          Mary Ann was the name of Elisha's mother.
          The Simms family lived next door to the Gates family.  
          Mary Ann Sims was a sponsor for the baptism of James Ferdinand.  
          Emily was a sponsor for Mary Ann's child.  
          A daughter with the age of Mary Ann is consistent with data in the 1830 Census.  
    So Elisha and Christina Gates's family just grew by one. 

     

One Thing Leads to Another

     In the process of writing a blog entry on John Buryl Ireland, who was the father of Sarah Nina Ireland Prinslow, I made a chance discovery.  I had been trying to find out more information about a Civil War battle where he had been wounded.  For some reason I googled his full name, not really expecting to find much.  I noticed one search result that mention the Prinslow name, which wasn't by itself surprising since John B. Ireland's daughter married Charles Prinslow.  What was interesting was that this search result sent me to a blog about Prinslow genealogy.   Naturally I had to contact the blogger and ended up on a Facebook page about John Ireland and Rhoda Hartson Ireland.   It turns out that the blogger's grandfather is a cousin of our Pop, John Prenslow Boyd.  The blogger even had a picture of John B. Ireland that we had not seen before. Yesterday was a good day.
   But one thing lead to another. Things got better because our 'new' relative, Sarah Prinslow Frempong also was researching the surname Neely.  Neely is a surname that is is my family tree.  Back around 1805, Elizabeth Neely, my 3rd great-grandmother married George Berlin.  I visited George and Elizabeth's son, Jeremiah Berlin's gravestone last summer.  Rick Platt and I hiked around Allegheny Cemetery looking for the grave of George's father and another son, Jesse.  Back in August I wrote several blog entries about this part of the family.  See Nicholas Berlin and Anna Marie I hadn't found much about the Neely family but part of the problem is the spelling of Neely.  So today while goggling  'John Paul Neely' I spotted an entry that lead me to a Findagrave Memorial for Him.  Now I know why I hadn't found it before.  First the picture has not been online all that long and I had not researched the Neely name in the last year.  The other reason was the spelling.  I had been aware that Neely was sometime spelled Neleigh.  Now I have several new spelling to look for.  Neely had morphed into Naly 

NEELY; NELEIGH; NELIGH; NELICH: NALY; and who knows what else will open the door.

Courtesy of LAB on Findagrave.com

Paul Neely on Findagrave      Veronica Shupe Neely

Courtesy of KRL on Findagrave.com

Nicholas Berlin: Interred 39 Years After Death

   The last few blog entries have focused on Elisha Gates because we are celebrating the Bicentennial of the Battle of Lake Eire and the Battle of the Thames in which he participated.
    But on a recent journey east, my cousin Rick Platt (actually first cousin once-removed) and I made a side trip to Pennsylvania.  My goal was to visit the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh.  Based upon  Allegheny Cemetery online records, I knew that I had several ancestors interred there.
   John Nicholas Berlin (my 4G-Grandfather on my mother's side) died 12 Aug 1821.  But he refers to himself as Nicholas in his will.  On these cemetery records he is John N. Berlin.  The Allegheny Cemetery website directed us to Section 25 Lot 31.  Unfortunately, there was no stone for Nicholas Berlin.  Whether or not there ever was is not known.  The lot is on a fairly steep hillside and could easily be covered by dirt.   Lot 31 is between the top of the Hampton-Miller Crypt and the tree above the crypt.
     The cemetery records that I obtained at the Allegheny Cemetery Office gave a little more information about Nicholas Berlin.  He was interred thirty-nine years after he died.  What!  It turns out that of the seven people buried in this lot six were transferred here on 20 September 1860.  The only one not buried here on that date is Nicholas' son Daniel.  Daniel and John N. are listed as owners of the lot.  Were they buried elsewhere in this cemetery or at some other cemetery?  
      The first burials in Allegheny cemetery took place in the middle portion of the nineteenth century.  So this cemetery was not in existence when Nicholas was first buried. There is a reference on the Internet about the fact that Nicholas and his wife, Anna were first buried in the Lutheran Church Cemetery but moved when the church was enlarged.  This information was unsourced but could certainly account for the fact that six bodies were interred here on the dame day.