Census Sunday : John Boyd household, 1940, Jay County, Indiana

My paternal 1st cousin 3 times removed, Martha (Wehrly) Boyd, was enumerated in the 1940 census in Pike Township, Jay County, Indiana.  She was living with her husband, John, and two boarders.

1940 U.S. census, Jay County, Indiana, population schedule, Pike Township, enumeration district (ED) 38-12, SD 5, sheet 8A, dwelling 165, ; digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 26 July 2015); National Archives, Washington, D.C..

The household consisted of John, age 73, born in Ohio and Martha, age 73, born in Indiana, as well as boarders Done Harker, age 17 born in Indiana and Leroy Chapman, age 57, born in Indiana.  Harker and Chapman were listed as farm laborers.  John's occupation was listed as farmer.  Both Martha and John had completed two years of high school.

John and Martha's residence in 1935 was listed as Pena Blanco, Sandoval County, New Mexico.  Before finding this record I did not know they had lived there, though in 1910 they were living in Oregon.  Apparently, they had returned to Jay County in the old age.


Census Sunday is a daily blogging prompt used by many genealogy bloggers to help them post content on their sites.

State & Federal census sheets are filled with information for genealogists. Both the population & non-population schedules give us insights into the lives of our ancestors. What have you found that is Surprising? Reassuring? Bewildering? Census Sunday is a daily blogging prompt suggested by Colleen Pasquale of Leaves and Branches.

Breakthrough in my Cook line

The ancestry of my maternal 3rd-great grandmother, Clara (Cook) Lambertson (1848-1943) has been a mystery to me for a number of years, but thanks to newspaper research I've made a major breakthrough.

Years ago, I obtained her death certificate from the Hamilton County, Indiana Health department which listed her parents as William Cook and _____ Hirbarger.  At the time of her death, she was living with her daughter, Lola May (Lambertson) Whisler and husband, Omer, so it is likely that one of them was the source for the information about Clara's parents.  Clara's birthplace has been listed as Ohio in various census records with her parents born in Virginia, and her obituary adds to the confusion as it states that she came from Virginia to Ohio with her parents in a covered wagon.

Needless to say, searching various census records in 1850 for a family of a William Cook born in Virginia with a daughter named Clara or some variant was highly frustrating.  I searched for German variants as well, thinking that Cook might have been Kuch, etc. with no success.

Preble County, Ohio was where Carey and Clara's oldest two children, Charles and Samuel, are listed as being born.  It borders with Butler County, Ohio, where they were living in the 1870 census with Carey's father, John.  I have yet to discover a marriage record for Carey and Clara in either county, but since the first two children were born there, I considered it likely that Clara's family was from there.

A search of the 1850 census in Preble County finds a family in Washington Township consisting of James M. Cook, age 37 born in Virginia; Mary, age 36 born in Virginia; Amanda, age 14 born in Virginia; Elizabeth, age 13 born in Virginia; Sarah, age 10 born in Ohio; Mary, age 8 born in Ohio; Thaddeus, age 4 born in Ohio; and Clarissa, age 2 born in Ohio.  

This was the closest match I had found for Clara, assuming that this Clarissa might be her. Yet the fact that the death certificate said her father's name was William, not James, had me keeping this record in my list of "close, but no cigar".  That is, until a couple of recent hints made me re-think who her parentage might be.

A recent Ancestry.com hint for Clara led me to the database U.S., Hinshaw Index to Selected Quaker Records, 1680-1940, which showed the following:

Ancestry.com. U.S., Hinshaw Index to Selected Quaker Records, 1680-1940 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

Original data: Hinshaw, William Wade. William Wade Hinshaw's Index to Unpublished Quaker Records. Swarthmore, Pennsylvania: Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College.

This is a membership card from the Hinkles Creek Monthly Meeting in Hamilton County, Indiana, recording the marriage of Carey Lambertson to Clara Cook.  It lists Carey's birth date as April 29, 1847 as the son of John & Sarah of Butler County, Ohio and Clara's birth dated as November 16, 1848 as the daughter of James and Mary of Preble County, Ohio.  Since this membership record was made by Clara and Carey, it is likely that they supplied the information to the church clerk and would have known who their parents were.

So this makes me think that the death certificate informant was wrong, and that Clara's father was James, not William.  At the time of her death, Clara was 94 years old and had spent many years as a widow living with her various children.  It's quite possible the informant at the time of death simply had the wrong names in their memory.  Not to mention that death is a stressful time for families and it would be easy to give the wrong name.

A newspaper find from the Alexandria Times-Tribune of November 4, 1924 also adds some interesting information.

Alexandria (IN) Times-Tribune, November 4, 1924, page 1

ATTEND FUNERAL OF COUSIN AT GERMANTOWN 

Charles Lambertson and Mr. and Mrs. Bert Lambertson were at Germantown, Ohio, Sunday to attend the funeral of the Messrs. Lambertson's cousin, the late Charles Martin.

Charles Lambertson was my 2nd-great grandfather, and Bert was his brother.  They are both the children of Carey and Clara (Cook) Lambertson.  Until this find, I was not aware of any cousins with the last name Martin on the Lambertson side, so this clue might lead to a cousin on his mother's side.  Germantown is in Montgomery County, Ohio another known location of Lambertson relatives as well.

A search of FamilySearch.org for the death record of a Charles Martin that would fit the search criteria found the following record:

"Ohio, Deaths, 1908-1953," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X696-RXQ : accessed 2 August 2015), Chas A Martin, 31 Oct 1924; citing Germantown, Montgomery, Ohio, reference fn 56258; FHL microfilm 1,992,606.

Charles A. Martin died October 31, 1924 in Germantown, Montgomery County, Ohio of pulmonary tuberculosis.  He was the son of Francis M. Martin and Laura Cook of Astoria, Butler County, Ohio.  

A search of the FindAGrave site led me to Charles Albert Martin's memorial page, with links to his parents memorials as well.  His father was Francis Marion Martin (1846-1910) and Laura Ann (Cook) Martin (1853-1904).  He also had a sister named Minnie L. Martin (1873-1932).

Laura's memorial page states that she was born February 1853 in Gratis, Preble County, Ohio and that her parents were James M. Cook (1812-1860) and Mary Jane Cook (1814-1891).

The James M Cook memorial page states that he was born November 13, 1812 in Virginia and died September 26, 1860 in Preble County, Ohio.

These clues line up with the family of James and Mary Cook found in the 1850 census of Preble County, Ohio.

In addition, a quick search of Ancestry.com Member Trees finds a couple of trees with this James M Cook, listed as James Madison Cook and his wife as Mary Harsbarger.  Could this be where Clara's parentage was garbled on her death certificate - Hirbarger from Harsbarger?  I think so.  James was born in the Shennandoah Valley of Virginia and died 1860 in Preble  County, Ohio.

I've located the family of James and Mary in the 1860 census of Lanier Township, Preble County, Ohio as James Cook, age 49 born in Virginia; Mary, aged 47 born in Virginia; Elizabeth, aged 22 born in Virginia; Thadius, aged 14 born in Ohio; Clarissy, aged 11 born in Ohio; Susan, aged 9 born in Ohio; Laura, aged 7 born in Ohio, Martha, aged 5 born in Ohio; and Henry, aged 3 born in Ohio.

This would tie the family groups from the 1850 and 1860 census together, and by the 1860 census we have Laura in the family who looks like a fit to be the one who married Francis Martin.  In addition, both of these records contain a Clara the right age to be my Clara in the right family group.  I'm pretty sure we have a match.

I've a lot more digging to see where the rest of these Cooks were in the ensuing years and possibly connect with folks researching the trees online, but I'm excited to be knocking down a brickwall.

If you have any additional information/corrections or are related to these families, I would love to hear from you.

Shaky Leaves : John Aaronson (1678-1741)

John Aaronson (1678-1741) is my 8th great grandfather on my paternal side.  The surname variants are many, and include Arison and Areson.  Ancestry.com currently is showing me 5 hints for him in my LeMaster & Allied Families member tree.  Four hints are from historical records.

I will ignore the Ancestry Member Tree hints for now and concentrate on the records.

One hint was from the database New Jersey, Abstracts of Wills, 1670-1817.  

Ancestry.com. New Jersey, Abstract of Wills, 1670-1817 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Original data: New Jersey State Archives. New Jersey, Published Archives Series, First Series. Trenton, New Jersey: John L Murphy Publishing Company.

1741, Dec. 14. Aaronson, John, of Mansfield Township, Burlington Co., yeoman: will of.  Children - Benjamin, Joseph, Aron, Thomas, Elizabeth and Sarah.  Grandsons-John Atkinson and his brothers and sisters.  Negroes-Phillis and Ester.  Real and personal estate.  Wife Mary sole executrix.  Witnesses-Benja. Talman, Francis Thompson, Elizabeth Talman, Isaac DeCow medius. Proved March 3, 1742.  Lib. 4, p. 357.1742 -3, March 3.  Inventory of personal estate £498.6.10 3/4, includes bonds, bills and note £220.2.8 1/2, and negro children £30, made by Robert Rockhill, David Rockhill and Benjamin Shreve.

The names of John's children matches what I had in my RootsMagic database, though I didn't have daughter Elizabeth listed.  I descend through son Joseph (b. 1706).  There may have been more children, but at least I know that these were the ones living by 1741.

I did not know that the family owned slaves, but they must have at least owned the two women.

Another hint was from the database U.S. Census Reconstructed Records, 1660-1820.

Name:	John Areson
Gender:	M (Male)
State:	New York
County:	Queens County
Town:	Flushing
Residence Year:	1700
Household Remarks:	"AN EXACT LIST OF ALL Ye INHABITANTS NAMES WthIN Ye TOWNE OF fflUSHING AND P'CINCTS OF OLD AND YOUNG ffREEMEN & SERUANTS WHITE & BLACKE &C. 1698. . . . ffreemen-men".

This record gives another alternative name for John, but matches where my database had him being married to Mary, circa 1702.  

Another hint was from the database New Jersey, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1643-1890.

Name:	John Aaronson
State:	NJ
County:	Burlington County
Township:	Mansfield
Year:	1707
Database:	NJ Early Census Index

The other record hint was from a compiled family tree database, so I'm ignoring that one as well for now.

I've updated the information I have for John in my RootsMagic database, and I added the additional children to my Ancestry Member Tree.

If you are related and/or have any additional corrections or information, I would love to hear from your.