Oh Susannah! Was this you??

Lancaster County Historical Society is the repository for the old County records, and entering them into the Society’s database is a long, time consuming process.  One person works eight hours a day on this task.  It will take years to finish it.  

A couple of Saturdays ago, when I was volunteering at the Historical Society, I was surfin’ through the database on Lancaster County records and came across an entry for “Susanna Leader” that had been added since I had last surfed through them.  It caught me entirely off guard! I had to find out what was in the Quarter Session documents, so I requested a copy of them from the Archives.

I knew Susannah had lead a tumultuous life, but this came as a complete shock!  In the 1823 November Quarter Sessions the “Grand Inquest for the County of Lancaster” found that Henry Heckroth, “late of the county aforesaid” (did he skip out??) . . . the ninth day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty . . . did commit fornication with a certain Susan Leader of Marietta and there did beget a Male Bastard child. . . .

Now, bear in mind that Susannah and Samuel Leader lived in Marietta ( the court findings have “Susanna Leader of the Borough of Marietta”) and her son, Frederick was born in 1821, seven years after her last child.   Also, in 1831, on the “Poor Children’s List,” Susannah, alone, was listed as the parent for Frederick.

The strange part of all of this is the fact that Samuel did not die until 1839, and Susannah’s Bible and her purchase of another home all center around his death date.  Were they separated for awhile?  Did they divorce?  So far, I can’t find anything to indicate so.  Did he die intestate with a little money?  No record of that either.

Timeline:

• 18?? Samuel and Susannah marry
• 1813 Samuel purchases a home in Marietta
• 1813 Maria born, first child
• 1814 Jacob born, second child
• 1819 Samuel in Debtor’s Prison, everything sold
• 1820 April 9th – Fornication w/Henry Heckroth
• 1820 Census shows 1 male 0-10 and 1 male 45 and older (Jacob & Samuel)
• 2 females 0-10, (Maria and ??) 1 female 26-45 (Susannah)
• 1821 Frederick born – month unknown
• 1824 Samuel’s home sold for debts (another home??)
• 1831 Susannah listed as parent on Poor Children’s List; Frederick owes for 3 sheets of paper
• Tax lists between 1829 and 1837 show Samuel owned no property
• 1839 Samuel dies
• 1840 Susannah purchases home in Elizabethtown
• 1844 Susannah marries George Kehler of Elizabethtown

This is going to take some more digging.  I’m going to start going through old newspapers on microfilm and find out what happened to dear old Henry.  Was he Frederick’s father?  Court records indicate such. . . .   we’ll see

I have a persistent nature. . .

 

Basic Research Records

When you start to research a family or person, what do you consider the “most important” records?  Where do you go first?  Which do you put the most faith in?

If you’re like most you start on the internet and probably Ancestry.com, don’t you?  Census records?  Yes, of course you should go there ~ if you know where the person was and if he wasn’t named a common name like”William Sherman” or “Peter Wolf” as my ancestors are!

 The records I start with (whenever available) are, in no particular order:

• Census Records – Depending on the year, again, you find an age range, number of children, wife’s age, occupation, and place of birth.  That’s a lot of information, all pieces to the puzzle.
• Church Records (Births) – Parents names, birth date, baptism date, sponsors, religion and in some cases (Moravian records for instance) mother’s maiden name!  
• Church Records (Marriages) – Both Parties names, ages, places of residence, in some cases occupations, parents names
• Church Records (Deaths) – Date of death, date of burial, place of burial, in some cases age at death, birth date.
• Tax Records – owner or renter?  What years did they live there?  Occupation, all of the above in some records
• Deeds – Did they own property? When? Where? Did they sell it or lose it? How much was it worth?  Was it land or was there a structure on it?
• Wills – How large was their estate?  Who did they leave it to? When did they die? When was the will proved? Did they have to sell property to settle the estate?  Where was the property?
• Cemetery records – Date of Burial, lot number, persons buried around them (could be family) Age, Date of Death, Place of death in some instances
• Obituaries – Depending on the newspaper, these can be goldmines!  They can list wife (and her maiden name) children’s names and their spouses, sister, brothers, parents, place of residence, occupation, organizations they belonged to and where they are buried.  
• Newspapers – check articles around the date of their death or marriage or other important date.  They could have died in an accident and there may be an article about the accident.  If they were married over 50 years there may be an article on their Golden Wedding Anniversary and there may be a big write-up on their wedding.  Ancestry has newspapers, Genealogy Bank has newspapers and many, many other sites have digitalized newspapers.  They are an excellent source of information!
• Family Bibles – If they are available, copy every record in them!  They are vital!  They were written by those who knew!  They may be misspelled, but that doesn’t matter.  They were written by your great grandfather, or great great grandmother, or even an aunt.  They are first person accounts!
• Books! – County histories, Family histories, Church histories, Historical journals and anything else you can possibly think about.
• Your local Historical Society – This is probably one of the most important resources you have!  There is usually somebody there that knows the county history by heart and can direct you to the right book or area.  They can suggest where to start and find out where you have looked so they won’t duplicate your efforts.  

These are just the tip of the iceburg.  I’ve found clues in prison records (yes!) divorce records, immigration records, guardian records, city directories and school histories, among other things.  Don’t overlook something you think doesn’t possibly apply to your family ~ you never know!  

Family legends tend to gloss over our ancestors imperfections. . . .

 

Wordless Wednesday and Donegal Presbyterian Church

 

Donegal Presbyterian Church, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Donegal Presbyterian Church on a Perfect Autumn Day

 

Donegal Presbyterian Church Cemetery

The Springs at Donegal Presbyterian Church

 

Donegal Presbyterian Church from the Springs

Donegal Presbyterian Church, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

 

Wordless Wednesday and our NYC Visit

 

Traveling Light

 

 

Roseland Workers

 

 

The Lady at Sunset

 

 

Manhattan Bridge Elements

 

Wordless Wednesday and Lancaster at Twilight

  

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church

 

Lancaster's Historic Fulton Theater

 

 

 

Lancaster's Central Market

 

Downtown Lancaster

 

What I get from Volunteering. . .

The neat thing about volunteers is we get to chose where we want to volunteer!  I’ve volunteered for Meals on Wheels, Salvation Army, a Kindergarten Classroom, United Way and different Historical Societies, and have received untold blessings from each one of them!  The people and their stories are probably what I enjoy the most.

This week I volunteered at the local Historical Society on two different days, and on each day I met a person who touched my life, both in different ways.

On Friday, as I was showing a lady how to thread a microfilm machine, I noticed she was from Virginia, and casually asked her if perchance she went to the Inauguration.  Since I was an Inauguration Junkie it was still on my mind. Her reply was she hadn’t gone, but her husband had.  Since he was sitting at a computer while waiting for her, I went directly over to talk to him, and he was the first person who touched my life!

I actually had tears in my eyes while talking to him.  I explained why this inauguration meant so much to me.  I was a child of the 50′s and 60′s and memories of Watts Riots and Medgar Evers, James Meredith and the Little Rock Six are still vivid for me.  

Growing up overseas I knew no prejudice.  Moving to the shores of our Nation in the 50′s taught me that.  I couldn’t understand why the color of a person’s skin made him less a person than I was . . . I still don’t understand the theory.

This gentleman shared his experiences with me, from the “Scouting Trip” several days before, to the 4AM Metro ride into the District on the 20th, the bitter cold he endured with his daughter, sister and her friend, and the spirit of the crowd.  I was thrilled to talk to a person who had been there!  He pulled up his website for me with over 400 pictures of that day and showed me shots of the crowded train into the Washington, Riot Police, crowds of people, and many, many candid shots of the crowd. Then!  He offered to send me a link to the pictures!!!

I have gone over and over the pictures!  They are awesome and I am so thankful to him for sending me the link.  I now have a first person view of that day.  Unbelieveable!

The second person who touched my life was the next day and she touched my life in a completely different way.  She was a researcher and the stories about her husband’s family are the stories that make a family real ~ warts and all!

In tracing his heritage they came across prison records, arrests and an ancestor who ran a “Bawdy House!”  Think of all the information there is on that family!  Newspaper articles, court documents, information in prison records, but the one thing she was looking for was not to be found.  An actual maiden name for the ancestor who ran the “Bawdy House.”   Why?  She couldn’t be found in Church Records and that would be the only source that would have marriage records in the time frame she would need!

This woman told the story in such a Story Teller’s fashion that I was fascinated!  She knew details of their arrests, who some of the clients were (Lawyers and Judges of the day) and where her “Bawdy Houses” were.  She and her husband had gone by each location and seen them since the buildings still stand today.

Did I help my family research this week?  No.  Was the time I spent volunteering spent not in vain?  To quote a defeated Vice Presidential candidate ~ You Betcha!  Do I look forward to this week and my days at the Historical Society!  Of course I do.  

I never know how the next person I meet is going to affect my life.

 

Wordless Wednesday and not a Golf Club in Sight!