Turning the Unknown into the Known

I wasn't feeling particularly motivated to work on records yesterday evening, so I decided to set off in search of....well....the unknown! I had 3 people in my tree I knew were married into the family, but absolutely no clue at all as to their names. Since using 5 underscores doesn't mess up the algorithms, all 3 were listed as "_____ _____" in my tree. Those underscores peered back at me every time I opened my tree. I wanted....no...I needed to know their names. After quite a bit of searching, I've managed to identify all 3!

For the first, it was the husband of one of my 1st cousins 1x removed, who's living so I won't include names. I know she's married because her aunt (my cousin) filled me in on some family information a couple of years ago. My normal jump to FamilyTreeNow only provided some historical data. No clue as to her husband, married surname or where she may be living now. Ancestry wasn't giving up any secrets either. I know I could have just asked my cousin, but sometimes it feels a little awkward when it's not someone I talk to on any kind of regular basis. Not everyone understands just how much we family genealogists have a burning need to place everyone in our tree! I was hopeful I could find the information on my own. I tried Newspapers with no success. Since newspapers (in general) can be goldmines, I have subscriptions to several other sites. I'll be honest, my hopes weren't high. But as it turns out, I was able to find a marriage record in a newspaper from 2017 on GenealogyBank. While it didn't contain anything more than the names and ages, it was enough! Thanks to an uncommon spelling of her given name, I was confident I had the right couple.1 down, 2 to go!

The second was for the 2nd great-grandfather of my ex-husband, William Berendes (1835-1913). I've long known he had more than one wife. His oldest 2 daughters were born 10+ years before his other children, and the age of his 2nd wife eliminated her as a potential mother of these 2 daughters. Further, his will mentioned 2 deceased wives. Many trees show the first wife as Theresa Rawtermundt. The problem was, I wasn't finding any records for a marriage with this name. In fact, searches were only brining up his 2nd wife. William was born in Germany, but he arrived here in the US in 1852. His daughters were born 1861 and 1863. Based on his age at the time of arrival, it was likely the first marriage took place somewhere in the US. I decided to widen my search a little. Using wildcards in William's name did the trick. Instead of using William Berendes, I used Wil*m Ber*des. Using the * allows the algorithm to look for other potential spellings. I was actually expecting to find him listed as Wilhelm, but I turned up a record for William Berandes (with an a not an e) and a Thureza Rodermond. Now to be fair, the indexes may have been transcribed from records where the names were inadvertently spelled incorrectly. But I'm comfortable this is the right couple, and it's a starting point. I'm on the right trail! 2 down, 1 to go!

The final push was for a cousin, also still living so he shall remain nameless in this post, who was married previously, as per the record of his 2nd marriage. Of course I started with his name and year of birth (not helpful on its own), then narrowed only to marriage/divorce records from the US, and then further narrowed to the state of Ohio. The number of results returned wasn't 5 or 10, but I was in the zone and I went through quite a few pages. Finally, I was able to find both the marriage and divorce (even though they stubbornly wouldn't come up on their own when searching by name only). It was by sheer determination I was able to find the 3rd out of 3!

With these 3 names identified, I have no more "_____ ______" staring at me from my tree. I do still have plenty of first or last names still unidentified, but those will wait for another time. So, no matter how many times you've searched before, you never know when one more search will turn up the record you're looking for. Don't assume using the correct name is going to bring up all the records. Be creative! If you don't already, learn to use wildcards. Ancestry has a very helpful page of Search Tips. I've added this link to my Genealogy Toolbox so it's easy to find if you ever need it. How have you managed to find completely unknown names? Do you have any tricks you can share?

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

An Unexpected Bud on My Family Tree

The other day, I was checking  Ancestry's ThruLines® for my 3rd great-grandfather, Jacob Shelly (1772-1853). I randomly decided to check the DNA matches listed for his daughter, Ester Shelly (1800-1888). Although I don't have many records for her, I've long known she was married to David Alleman (1796-1864). So imagine my surprise when I also saw 3 potential children with the surname Call.

I poked around on Ancestry, doing several different searches, but wasn't coming up with anything helpful in terms of a marriage or births of children. I also did a quick survey backwards from the DNA matches, but ran into roadblocks when it came to actually matching the children to Ester. We're talking 1818-1822 and birth records are hit or miss at best. Trees mentioning Call didn't provide any useful documentation to prove the relationship either.

I was perplexed. But, the next day, I decided to do a full-text search at FamilySearch. I used the name of Ester Call (instead of her maiden name Ester Shelly) and then included the keyword Shelly in my search. I also limited the search to Pennsylvania where Ester was born, even though she ultimately ended up in Ohio. All the known documentation I've seen for her is focused in Ohio, but since the supposed children had birth dates prior to those she had with David Alleman, I figured it would be a likely bet, any previous marriage might have been before she moved. And I struck paydirt!

In the Cumberland. Appearance Dockets 1826–1828, I found where she had appeared before the court, seeking to disentangle herself from her husband Nicholas Call. In part the record reads:

"November 15th 1826 came into Court Ester Call by her father...Jacob Shelly and prefered [sic] a petition therein stating, that in the month of August in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixteen, this libellent [sic] was intermarried with Nicholas Call with whom she resided and cohabited until the month of January in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty three..."

Long story short, it appeared Ester married at just 16. By the time she was 23, she had at least 3 children with Nicholas. He abandoned his family, and she appears to have waited 3 years before filing to divorce him. This was about the same time as her father was in the process of relocating to Wayne County, Ohio. Several of his children made the trip with him to establish new roots there. I suspect Ester wanted to do the same (although I haven't come across any concrete records showing her in Ohio until the 1850 census.) 

By June 1850, she was married to David Alleman and had 2 grown sons with him, as well as one child who passed away. They did have some younger children enumerated in their household in 1850, but I've yet to determine just where they may fit in my tree. At the time of this Census, David Alleman was shown as having property valued at $5000 in Clinton, Wayne, Ohio. 

Then, I found another interesting twist (thank you again full-text search!) In the Wayne. Deed Books 1850–1852, by 1851 Nicholas Call had passed away, leaving 160 acres of land to his son Michael Call. Not terribly unusual for a father to leave property to the eldest son, except the land was in....wait for it!...Clinton, Wayne, Ohio. And to make it a little more strange, his will further specified:

"...the above conveyance is made on the express condition that Hester Alamon [sic] wife of the late Nicholas Call and the Mother of the said Michael Call shall have the use and occupation of said land during her natural life..."

There has always been some confusion if her given name was Ester, Esther, or Hester. I've seen records for all 3 different given names. And the misspelling of Alleman, as Alamon, doesn't give me any pause at all. I'm very confident we're talking about the same person.

Ester filed her initial petition to the courts in late 1826, Her children with David Alleman were born in 1827 and 1828. It's pretty clear she moved on quickly. But given Ester and David Alleman presumably already had property in 1850, it seems very unusual Nicholas specified she should have use of his land. Is it possible the property detailed for David was actually the land owned by Nicholas? I suppose it could be. Census enumerators asked questions and recorded responses. It wasn't their job to make sure the information provided was correct. Or did Nicholas also move, purchasing a separate property to be closer to his children? Equally as possible. For now, it's a mystery.

Ester probably struggled with social stigma in her home state of Pennsylvania. Even though Nicholas left them, being essentially a single mother of 3 young children wasn't the ideal situation for her. Moving to Ohio may have been the fresh start she needed. It's nice to know she found stability with David. I hope in the future, I can tease out more details of her story. In any case, I'm excited to work towards placing the Call DNA descendants in my tree. 

Image by wal_172619 from Pixabay