My Trails into the Past

Do you always get all the clues from a document the first time you view it? Or do you just record the main information and move on to the next document in a broad search? I admit that I have done that. I might locate a document that gives me the answer to my research question, such as the date of a marriage or the place of residence from a census. I would record that information in my genealogy database. I may not always read the whole document carefully or transcribed it completely. Those were my baby genealogy days. I try hard not to do that anymore. I spend time with the document, recording the full citation right then as I have the document on the website and can get the full URL and other details I need. I then read the entire document, and either fully transcribe it or take careful notes about all the important information. I’ll look at neighboring documents, or if a census, neighboring entries, and make note of them. But what about those documents I have collected years ag...

A new month and a new surname to study. I’ll start with Amos Gorrell Jr., then move to his father, Amos Gorrell, Sr., and lastly Amos’ father, James Gorrell. I will attempt to locate information about Amos Sr’s wife, Leah Wollam, and James’ wife, Sarah Mullholland. Like months before, I’ll work through the documents I already have, then search for more. Amos Jr’s wife, Catharine Shotts will be researched in a later month. Amos Gorrell, Jr. My husband’s great-grandfather, Amos Gorrell, was the son of Amos Gorrell, Sr. and Leah Wollam. He was born on 12 February 1837 in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, perhaps in Ohio Township, where his father was living in 1840. [1] However, Amos stated later in life that he was born in Beaver Falls, which was not in Ohio Township. [2] His parents moved to Ohio and first settled in Scioto Township in Jackson County, where he attended school with his younger brother, Joseph. [3] Later they moved to Ross County. On 25 December 1858, Amos and Joseph pur...

Outside activities included phenology, and two short trips to the History Center and library. I was busy this week with GRIP. Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I volunteered at the History Center for a couple of hours on Tuesday and Wednesday after my GRIP class. Basically, I had time to just catch up with what is needed and answering a couple of queries. I was the Zoom host on Saturday for the CGS webinar on newspaper research. They held it live at the new site, so it was a hybrid presentation. Genealogy Meetings:  I hosted the RootsMagic SIG but only one person came. Genealogy Writing/Research : In my free time this week, I searched for deeds for Denis and John Tierney in Nepean Township, Carleton County, Ontario (or Upper Canada). Blog Posts Published: When Circumstances Forces Father Hork to Leave For the theme of “a hard choice” I wrote about Father Albert Hork having to choose to leave a parish that was too poor to care for him. Checking the California Vote...

In the last post about the Tierney family, Margaret (Tierney) Gleeson had grown up in Carleton County with her parents, John Tierney and Ann Murray, and was one of eleven children born to them. The earliest census that John Tierney was enumerated in was 1842, the census of Canada West in the Upper Canada Province. By this time, John owned 100 acres of property and was a farmer. So, property records should show when he acquired this land. Land Records The earliest deed I located was dated 3 August 1830. William Hamilton of Nepean, sold about 100 acres of land located in the rear half of lot number 29 in the 6th concession, to Denis Tierney and John Tierney, both of Nepean. They paid £87.10 (87 pounds, 10 shillings) of lawful money of Upper Canada. It is very likely that Denis Tierney was John’s father. [1] Before going further, the layout of concessions needs to be discussed. Land was surveyed and divided into concessions and then into 35 lots. Each lot was about 200 acres unless so...