My Origin Stories

Brick Wall: Rebecca Wright McBride Stanton

I’ve found out so much about Jehial Stanton but I’ve run into a brick wall with his wife Rebecca Stanton, meaning I don’t have the name of her father or mother. I recently found her obituary, detailed in my last post, and from there I’m going to try to work through this brick wall. Jehial is also still a brick wall but I think I’ve gone as far as I can right now with the information that I have for him.

One of the most interesting pieces of information from the obituary was that at the time of Rebecca’s death, her mother was still alive at 94 years old, but her name is not mentioned in the obituary.

I know that the Stantons moved to the Iowa area from New York around 1847. I know that Rebecca was born in New York to a father from Ireland and a mother from Massachusetts. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything about their marriage in 1846.

I also don’t know her mother’s name nor where she lived or died, so I think for now this brick wall will have to stay there.

Origin Stories: Jehial Stanton and Rebecca Stanton

I thought my last post about Jehial would have been the last post about Jehial but I found some new information! I searched through newspapers.com again for information about Jehial and his wife Rebecca Stanton. I’m sure I had done this before but there are probably more newspapers added since then.

I had narrowed down Rebecca’s death year to between 1885 and 1895 through census data and Jehial’s between 1908 and 1909 from city directories and census data. So I used those estimates to browse the last name “Stanton” in newspapers from Davenport, Iowa. The only speed bump was that the Secretary of War during the Civil War was Edwin McMasters Stanton, so I had more results to sift through than I had hoped.

I think I have said before that obituaries offer a wealth of information and luckily I found an obituary for both Rebecca and Jehial and information about Jehial’s funeral. Here is Rebecca’s from May 2, 1887:

I still am not certain of her maiden name, she was married once before she married Jehial Stanton. But now I have a good lead on information about her mother. I also may be able to find out more information about her through her children listed here.

Here is Jehial’s obituary from March 29, 1910:

I knew most of the information in this obituary besides his exact date of birth and where he was born. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any information about Boone, New York. There are some misspellings in this obituary so maybe it was misspelled, I will have to do some digging later.

I also found this funeral announcement from March 30, 1910:

I re-searched the records and found that Jehial was buried there (his name was spelled wrong and there were more than one list) right near Sarah, although there was no information about his death and burial date.

My next steps are to continue with the clues I have about Rebecca Stanton.

Origin Stories: Jehial Stanton Further Research

Wow, have I done a lot of work to figure out more about Jehial Stanton. I thought it was important to take a minute and acknowledge all of the leads that have fizzled into nothing. I have some major information missing from Jehial; where specifically he was born, the names of his parents, the day and place he died and where he was buried.

I mainly used books about the areas where he lived and his family name to see if I could find out more information about him. First I looked in some Stanton Genealogies, there are few because there have been some famous Stantons throughout the years. I searched through A Book Called Our Ancestors the Stantons by William Henry Stanton. I couldn’t find any mention of Jehial in this book, there is some talk of Iowa and some interesting anecdotes about life there in the middle of the 19th century. I also found the Stanton Family Lineage by William Austin Macy, but again no luck.

Then I looked at books about the areas in Iowa where he lived, The History of Clinton County Iowa published by the Western Historical Company. No mention of Jehial. History of Scott County Iowa, published by Interstate Publishing Co., no mention of Jehial. History of Whiteside County, Illinois: From Its First Settlement to the Present Time edited by Charles Bent, no mention of Jehial. Historic Rock Island County published by Kramer & Co., no mention of Jehial.

The next place I looked was the cemetery where his daughter Sarah J. Stanton Husted was buried, Pine Hill Cemetery in Davenport, Iowa. The website for the cemetery has a genealogy section with a lot of information. I looked through their burial records and found where Sarah was buried and used the maps to see if perhaps Jehial or any other family was buried near Sarah, but I did not find anything.

The last thing I did was google Jehial’s name, I figured that maybe it would turn up something and it did, albeit a small piece of information. I have this clipping among my pictures:

Born on the fourth.jpeg

It is just the clipping so I have no idea the date (although that’s easy to find out from the clipping) nor the newspaper where it is from. Through the Google search I found this on Newspapers.com. Now I know that this comes from The Daily Times of Davenport, Iowa and was published on July 3, 1905.

I think I will search again on Newspapers.com in case there have been any more newspapers added since the last time I searched.

DNA: Updates

About a year ago, my fiance and I ordered the Ancestry DNA kit from Ancestry.com. I’m not sure how much it was, I think we got a deal so it was cheaper. The kit came in the mail and we spit in the tubes and a month or so later we got our information back. I was very excited when I got the email that my results were ready. They looked something like this:

Screen Shot 2018-11-05 at 6.46.33 PM

Most of the results were expected. I have Hungarian ancestry on both sides of my family, thus a large percentage in Europe East. The only thing that seemed strange was that the percentage for England, Wales and Northwestern Europe was so small. I know that my maternal grandfather’s family comes from England so I thought that this result would be larger.

I learned from doing this DNA kit is that I didn’t inherit an exact 50% of my parents’ DNA. This is, if my father is 50% Hungarian, I don’t automatically get 25%. I always thought that everything was split in half which, now that I’m thinking about it, doesn’t make sense. In actuality, I got a random half of my parents’ DNA. If my father is 50% Hungarian, I could get 10% or 40% or 27%. It is, however, more probable that I would get something around half their DNA (the 25%). So it’s possible that I didn’t a large amount of the English DNA from my mother but the probability would be low.

I didn’t second guess my results from Ancestry DNA because DNA can’t lie right? That was until I got an email from Ancestry saying that they had updated my DNA results. What?

Whoa! Big changes! Eastern Europe stayed mostly the same but Ireland went down by 12%. And England went up by by 26%! I also lost 10% from Scandinavia (I’m assuming it changed to Norway). Ancestry explained that the changes resulted from more reference samples. The first estimate used 3,000 reference samples but the update used 16,000 reference samples. More samples means that there can be more specific results for regions that are closer together. It seems like there will be more DNA updates in the future (based on the update FAQ) when this “cutting edge” science gets sharper.

Origin Story: Jehial Stanton and the Iowa State Census

Wow, it is amazing to look back at work I was doing two years ago and pick up where I left off. My last post about Jehial was featured the Federal Census. I was able to find him in the Federal Census up until 1880, most of 1890 Federal Census was lost in a fire. Try as I might, I could not find him in the 1900 Federal Census. His daughter, Sarah J Stanton Husted is there, living at the address where Jehial would eventually live, but no Jehial. I know that he was alive in 1900 however because there is data about him in the 1905 Iowa State Census. I was also able to find information about him in the 1885 and 1895 Iowa State Census.

Here he is in the 1885 Iowa State Census:

Screen Shot 2018-11-01 at 9.07.47 PM.png

Taken in 1885 in Olive, Iowa
Name looks like Josiah Stanton
Age is 55, making year of birth 1930
No occupation listed
Born in NY
Blind
Wife age 66 named Rebecca Stanton, born in NY, Occupation listed as housewife

The 1895 Iowa Census has no images just information:

Taken in 1895 in Calamees, Clinton IA
Name listed as Jehial Stanton
Age 70 making year of birth 1825
Birthplace is NY

The 1905 Iowa Census has no images of the census data but images of the index.

Screen Shot 2018-10-28 at 5.18.08 PM

Information from both of those sources:

Taken in 1905 in Scott, IA
Name listed as Jehial Stanton
Age 82 making year of birth 1923
Widowed
Father’s and Mother’s birthplace NY
Lives with Sarah J. Husted and Jas E. Husted

Lastly in 1905 there is a population schedule. I’m not sure if this is different but it has the same information above, so it’s probably the same.

1905 Jehial Stanton - Population Schedule (1)

The only additional information on this population schedule is that Jehial had been in Iowa for 39 years, making his arrival in Iowa around 1866.

Putting Names to Faces

Never published but written around September, 2016.

One thing that I have neglected to do is put pictures of my ancestors up on ancestry.com. I don’t know why I haven’t done it, but I recently found a picture of a common ancestor on another person’s tree and I was excited. I recognized my ancestor!

I thought it was important to put up the pictures so that others could find them. It was also nice to organize everything and see who’s pictures I had. Honestly, I didn’t have a lot. I’m not saying that I don’t have a lot of pictures, I have many of those, but I don’t have many pictures of people I know. It’s sad that most of the pictures I will never identify. It makes sense, because I’m sure that whomever owned the pictures that I now have knew who was in them. Now it’s easy to tag people in pictures and figure out who they are. Not so easy in 1900. As I firm up my trees on ancestry I will add the pictures of people that I do know and hopefully someone will recognize them.

Origin Story: Jehial Stanton, Part II

Never published but written in September, 2016.

This is the post about census data. Sometimes census data frustrates me because it is just the bare bones of a person, but in this case I have other information to fill in the gaps. As of right now I have four federal censuses that include Jehial (1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880) and two state censuses (IA 1895 and 1905). This post is about the Federal Censuses (it’s a lot of info for one post)

Lets start with the 1850 Federal Census:

Taken in November 1850 in Whiteside, Illinois
Name (looks like) Jehial Stanton
27 years old, probably born 1823
Occupation: Laborer
Born in NY
Wife Rebecca, age 31, probably born 1819 in NY
Daughter Lydia E., age 4, probably born 1846 in NY
Daughter Sarah J., age 2, probably born 1848 in NY
In the same family Dwelling there is also the family of William D. Mecker, age 42, born 1808, a farmer who owns $600 worth of land.
Perhaps the Stantons were staying with the Mecker family

Next is the 1860 census:

Taken July 3rd in the 2nd Ward of Rock Island, Illinois
Name appears Jehial Stanton
Age 36, if his birthday is July 4th then he was born in 1823
Occupation: White Washer
No real estate
At the end under the “Condition” column it reads (this is the best I can figure) “Help (as or at) Poor Person”
Wife is Rebecca Stanton age 42 (b. 1818) born before Nov. in NY
Step-Daughter, Henrietta McBride, age 17 (b. 1843) in NY, says “By 1st Husband”
Step-Son, Wilson McBride, age 16 (b. 1844) in NY, says “By 1st Husband”
Daughter Lydia E. Stanton, age 14 (b. 1846) in NY
Daughter Sarah Jane Stanton, age 12 (b. 1848) in NY
Daughter Caroline E. Stanton, age 10 (b. 1850) in NY (possibly born on the way to Iowa)
Son Francis A. Stanton, age 5 (b. 1855) in IL
Daughter Lucinda A. Stanton, age 2 (b. 1858) in IL
Son James M. Stanton, age 8 mo. (b. 1859) in IL

Then the 1870 census:

Taken the 10th of August in Olive Township, Iowa
Name appears Jehial Stanton
Age 46 (b. 1823) in NY
Occupation is farmer, owns $200 dollars of real estate
Blind
Wife Rebecca Staton, age 52 (b. 1818) in NY, father or foreign birth
Daughter Sarah Stanton, age 22, (b. 1848) in NY, domestic servant
Daughter Carrie Stanton, age 20, (b. 1850) in NY
Son Franklin Stanton, age 15, (b. 1855) in IL, farm laborer
Daughter Lucinda Stanton, age 12, (b. 1858) in IL, at school
Unknown Charles Blair, age 2, (b. 1868) in IL, at home

Lastly the 1880 Census:

Take 12th of June in Olive, Iowa
Name appears Jehial Stanton
Age 55 (b. 1825?) in NY
Blind
Father and mother are born in NY
Wife Rebecca Stanton, age 61, (b. 1818) in NY, Father from Ireland, Mother from Massachusetts, keeping house

That is all of the federal census data that I have for Jehial. Most of the 1890 census was was lost in a fire and I haven’t found Jehial in other the 1900 census, that will be in another post.

What I Know: Jehial Stanton, Post I

First published on September 17, 2016.

To research Jehial Stanton, I started with the documents and information I already had about him. Amazingly, I have two news clippings that mention him. The first is a small clipping about his birthday:

From this clipping I jotted down the following information with the hopes of cross referencing it to other information from other sources as well as finding new avenues of research:

Name is only written as J. Stanton (his name varies wildly from source to source)
Lived on 917 LeClaire St, Davenport (IA) with his daughter Sarah Jane Husted
Born on the 4th of July
Been in Iowa/Illinois since 1850
“Well known…” may mean that he shows up in biographies, histories and diaries of people in the area.
Blind

The second clipping that mentions Jehial is from Sarah Jane Husted’s Obituary.

Here’s the information I wrote down from this obituary:

Daughter Sarah J. was born in Loville, Louis County, NY Aug 7, 1848
Moved to Rock Island (IL) in 1850
Name is listed as Jehral Stanton
Wife’s name is Rebecca Stanton
Stayed in Rock Island at least until Sarah was out of school
Sarah is a member of the Old Settlers Association of Rock Island County so he might be too
Has a son Frank A. Stanton who at the time live in Kansas City
Possibly has a nephew Edward Remer in Davenport, IA
Rev. H.B. Cox presided over Sarah’s funeral, might have information on the family in his diary

Again this is just the tip of the ice berg of information I have about Jehial. I know that some of this information might not be correct but hopefully I can corroborate these articles with census information.

Game Plan: Jehial Stanton

First published on September 14, 2016.

Here is my game plan for Jehial Stanton. He definitely need[s] some work, I had his birthday wrong on ancestry. Here is what I’m almost positive is a picture of him (taken from a group shot):

I though[t] he would be a good candidate for research, I have pictures and new clippings related to him, census data on him would be more substantial (mid 1800s to early 1900s) and I had no idea who his parents where. There is a lot more information to find. Without further ado, here is the list I created to help focus my research on Jehial:

Compile all the information I currently have, especially about his first and last name (find Jehial in 1900 census)
Find other Stantons who moved at the same time
Look at information from his children
Find more information about his wife (Rebecca Wright Stanton)
Look at Stanton Genealogies
Find books about the area of NY where he was born
Find books about the are[a] of IA/IL that he lived
Find out what information I can get from libraries if I go in person
Look at wills of family members
Look for diaries, church records in Scott (IA), Clinton (IA), Rock Island (IL)
Death date and place?
Look up nephew Edward Remer
Look up Old Settler’s Association of Rock Island County
Look up Rev. H.B. Cox

This is my list so far. I will try to follow this list as I research. The next few posts will be about the information that I have now. Hopefully I can get closer to Jehial’s origin story.

I’m Back And I Have Some Plans

First published on September 10, 2016.

I’m back to posting, hopefully regularly. This seems kind of counterintuitive but recently I’ve taken on a lot more responsibilities outside of work. Self care is really important to me, especially with the work that I do, and working on my ancestry is part of my self care. So I’m going to try to keep doing work on my trees and posting as regular as possible. To help with this, I’ve decided to focus my research and thus my posts on one person for now. This is Jehial Stanton. I’ve mentioned him in other posts, and I have a picture of him but I don’t know who his parents are. I’ll post my check list for my research soon and then my research as a get into it.

I’m also going to research how he got from New York to Iowa/Illinois, I have other ancestors who went from Connecticut to Iowa at the same time as well. I was talking about his story to a friend recently and she asked how he got to Iowa and I didn’t have that answer. I don’t know what I assumed. I think I was always imagining a Grapes of Wrath sort of scenario with all of the furniture plus grandma on top in the back of an old truck, but obviously in 1850 that would not be possible. She wondered if they had gone in a covered wagon akin to the Oregon Trail and that was something I never considered. So I’m also going to look into what that journey would have been like.

Like I said, I am going to try to keep up and keep researching.