research – My Origin Stories

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:

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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.

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:

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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.

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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.

Postcard I

Originally posted on September 9, 2015.

This is one of my favorite postcards from my collection. It was sent or post marked from Litchfield, Connecticut on April 11, 1913 at 6:30pm. It’s amazing that I can get that close with the date and time. It was sent to Mrs. Lyman M. Husted, also known as Lucy Lamb Husted. Lucy is my great-great-grandmother and this postcard was written by her mother Adella Bunnell Lamb. This post card also looks beautiful, it has a ridged texture. Here’s a picture of both sides of the postcard and a transcription of the writing:

Dear Luci (?)

Not receiving a letter from you this week as yet, will drop you a card instead of a latter. Naturally you are disappointed in not seeing Roy. He thought when we went away he couldn’t afford to go to both places. I think the experience has showed him some things. He is at home + at work again. All are well, Mamma

In all of the letters that I have from Adella to her daughter, Adella always talks about how Lucy doesn’t write. Even Lucy mentions it in her letter to Adella. Maybe Lucy didn’t like to write letters, or perhaps she was to busy to write, as she explains in her letter. When Adella wrote this postcard, Lucy was 23 years-old with one child and another on the way.

The Roy in the letter is most likely Leroy W. Lamb. He was born in 1894 so at the time of this post card, he was around 19 years-old. In a 1917 military census Leroy was still living at home and worked as a farm hand. He lists that he has a serious disability, “Breack”. I have no idea what that means.

I don’t know why Roy was traveling or where he went instead of visiting his sister, maybe other correspondence will shine the light on Roy’s travels.

Origin Story: Michael D-?

First published on September 2, 2015.

Most of this information in this post comes from The True Genealogy of the Dunnel and Dwinnell Family of New England…, by Henry Gale Dunnel (I have no idea why this is an ellipsis on at the end of the title). While you can look at this book online, you can also order it from Amazon, which I did so that I could show people the book that was written about my ancestors.

So who was Michael D-? This was Michael Dunnel, Doniel, Donell, Dunwell, Dwenell, Duenell, Doenell or Dwinill. It was noted that Michael did not usually spell his name, instead affixing his seal to legal documents. Believe or not there are some legal documents that mention Michael, but lets start from the beginning.

Based on an American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI) with is a large database of names that have been printed in genealogies, searchable on ancestry.com, Michael was born in 1640, in Massachusetts, which I feel like is slightly wrong information. Michael was probably born in 1640 but not in Massachusetts where he lived earlier. Henry Gale Dunnel writes that there’s some family historical discussion about the origins of the family, whether it is France or Ireland. Growing up I heard the same thing, the gist of the story was that my ancestor was French nobility who fled France and moved to Scotland or Ireland, changed the name a little, then moved to America and changed the name a little. I’m not sure how much of this true, I haven’t branched my research out into Europe yet.

Michael was married by 1668 to Mary Read in Massachusetts, so he was in America by that time. They had their first child Mary that same year. They had their second child, Michael in 1670, he would go on to be the first doctor in Topsfield, Massachusetts. In 1672, Michael and Mary had another child Thomas, and Michael bought ten acres of land from the Pabody’s. Mary and Michael had a lot of children, besides Mary, Michael and Thomas they had, John in 1674, Elizabeth in 1677, Maudlin in 1679, Joseph in 1682, Susannah in 1685 and Johanna in 1688. Joseph born in 1682 is my direct descendent.

Michael also had a will, in which he gave his sons parts of his land. He ordered (his words) John and Joseph to keep “Two cows, a horse and ten sheep” for Mary Read. It also says that Joseph will have no power to sell the land he was given without the agreement of his mother or counsel. It seems that John and Joseph were to split Michael’s homestead with their mother.

Michael’s will was “proved” on March 3, 1717, meaning he died around that time, either in 1717 or 1716. Mary, his wife and his sons, Michael, Thomas, John and Joseph, all signed that they were present when the will was presented. Even though they signed one after the other, the spellings of their last names differ between Dunnel, Dunnil and Dunnill.

Michael was a farmer, and the land he had served such a purpose. When The True Genealogy of the Dunnel and Dwinnell Family of New England… was written in 1862, the author remarked that this land was still being tended by Michael’s descendants, I wonder if that is still true today. This is about all the information I know about Michael for now. Maybe as I do more digging, I’ll find more stories about him.

From the Dwinells Side of Things

First published on August 31, 2015.

I’ve been focusing lately on my Husted lineage, partially because that’s the most recent research that I’ve been doing and partially because I have a treasure trove of pictures from that side of the family. However, I started my research, maybe two years ago, by following my last name, Dwinells as far back as a could.

You would think that this would be easy because my last name is unique, but because my last name is different, it was spelled so many different ways: Dwinell, Dwinnell, Dwinels, Dwinnells. You get the picture. Some of these variations in spellings are caused by error on the part of the census taker, transcriber or even the part of my ancestors. If they weren’t literate, it might be hard to spell your last name. However some of the variations are due to different parts of the family estranging themselves. I remember by grandmother saying that some parts of the family moved away and changed the spelling of our last name to even further distance themselves from relatives that they didn’t like.

Although this created a lot of confusion for me, I was able to uncover a wealth of information about the Dwinells family that goes as far back in America as the Husteds. While doing my research, I found that there was a book out there about my family genalogy, The True Genealogy of the Dunnel and Dwinnell Family of New England… by Henry Gale Dunnel, written in 1862. (I also want to mention that Internet Archive is amazing). In his introduction, Henry Gale Dunnel writes that he started his research because of the discrepancies between his father’s last, Dunnel, name and the last names of his uncles, Dwinnell.

Henry finds that his ancestor, who also happens to be my ancestor came to Topsfield, Massachusetts in the 17th century. His name was Michael and his last name varied. You can see on the genealogy that I posted, how many different spellings of his last name there are. There is some more information about Michael that I will talk about in a later post. Michael is my eight-times great-grandfather and when I discovered him, as with most of my discoveries, I was amazed. I knew the name of my eight-times great-grandfather. I knew where he lived and some of what he did. For me, that’s a big deal.

To lay the ground work for the Dwinells side of my family, I made a quick tree:

Anecdotes: John Mead

First published on August 27, 2015.

Because my last post was so long and took me the entire weekend to research, here’s a small little bit of my family history. Following my Husted ancestry back, I encountered John Mead, who is my nine-times-great-grandfather. He lived in the middle of the 17th century, as far as I know his birthday is unknown, but he died in 1699. John was one of the early settlers of Greenwich, Connecticut. While researching Greenwich, I came across a book called Ye Historie of Ye Town of Greenwich by Samuel Mead. The title sounds like it was written in the middle ages, but it was written in 1863. Not only does it have a good history of the early town, it also includes a genealogy of many families in Greenwich.

John Mead is a character in this book, part of a chapter is dedicated to him. There’s also an anecdote which “shows” his character. I’ve linked to the page it is on here, but I will also transcribe it below:

One day when he was quite an old man, as he was going for his grist on horseback to the mill at Dumpling Pond, before he reached the Mianus River he overtook an old Quaker jogging slowly along loaded with a heavy budget. In a real spirit of kindness he offered to take the Quaker’s load upon his horse, and thus give him a lift on his journey. “No,” replied the Quaker, “thee don’t get my bundle, for I can read men’s thoughts. Thee wants to get my bundle, and then thee’ll run off. Thee don’t get my bundle.” “Very well,” was the simple reply, and so they went slowly on together. At last they came to the brink of the Mianus River. Here the Quaker was really in trouble. How to cross a river, two or three feet deep, dry shot, was quite a puzzle. But he gladly accepted a second offer of assistance from the horseman. The bundle was mounted in front, John in the middle and the Quaker behind. Arriving at the centre of the river, in pretending to adjust his stirrup, John caught the Quaker by the heal and gave him a gratuitous bath. Such treatment was too much, even for Quaker forbearance, and the victim, with his hands full of pebbles, would have taken summary vengeance, had not the other party threatened to put the bundle under a similar course of treatment. This threat, and the lecture following it, gradually cooled off the Quaker’s anger. John informed him that all had been done for his good, to teach him a lesson, and the lecturer said he hoped the stranger would never again profess to read men’s thoughts. “For,” said he, “I asked you to ride, kindly in the first place, when you refused; but at the second time of asking, I really intended to do as I have just done.” So saying, and tossing the bundle back, he rode on, leaving his companion to apply the moral as he thought best.

I’m not sure how I feel about that story. It makes it seem like Quakers were the worst, especially Quakers who thought they were telepaths. On the other hand, John did dunk the Quaker into the river, but he didn’t end up stealing the Quaker’s bundle. This story does makes John seem like a really cool guy.

Photographic Evidence: Lyman B. Husted

First published August 22, 2015.

This is a photograph of Lyman B. Husted, or at least a photograph of someone with the name Lyman B. Husted written on the back. We found this photo in the box of pictures belonging to my great-grandmother, so I’m going to assume that this is indeed Lyman B. Husted, her grandfather and my great-great-great-grandfather. I was very excited to find this picture because it was very old, on a piece of metal and there was a name on the back. Recently I’ve been reading Family Photo Detective: Learn How to Find Genealogy Clues in Old Photos and Solve Family Photo Mysteries by Maureen Taylor. It is a very good resource and I thought I would use some of the techniques in the book to decode this picture.

The bottom of the photograph is full of clues. “TIMPE”, I believe is the photographer and the picture was taken in Davenport, Iowa. Lyman B. was still living in Connecticut in 1860 according to the 1860 Federal Census. I’m not sure why he moved to Iowa, but he at least was there by 1877 when he married his wife, Sarah J. Staton, in Iowa. Lyman B. died in 1897, so I’m thinking that this photo was taken at some point between 1861 and 1897.

This photo is a tintype photograph, which were introduced in 1856. They fell out of fashion by the end of the century because of the advent of paper photographs. This doesn’t help too much with dating the photo.

Based on the information provided in Family Photo Detective about dating fashion I think that this picture was taken between 1860 and 1870. The collar looks like a standard folded down collar that is worn today. In the decade prior, men wore popped collars that almost touched their cheeks. In the decade after, men wore thicker collars. Also during this time period, men had facial hair and their hair was parted to the side and a little bit longer. Deciphering mens fashion is difficult so I could be totally wrong about this. However if this photo was taken in this period he would be between 30 and 40 years old, which I think is accurate based on how old he looks.

I don’t know why Lyman B. took this photo or why he moved to Iowa, more family mysteries to solve.

Letters

First published August 16, 2015.

In a box of pictures that belonged to my great-grandmother, I found some letters. This letter is from my great-great-grandmother, Lucy Lamb (highlighted in blue) to probably my great-great-great-grandmother Adella Bunnell (highlighted in yellow). She mentions “Mort” who is her husband, Lyman Mortimer Husted (highlighted in red). I’ve included a quick family tree to show these relationships.

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I thought that this letter was really fun to read and gave a good glimpse of like back in 1923. Here’s a scan of the letter, I will transcribe it below.

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Bridgeport, Conn.

Jue 3. 1923

Dear Mother – You wonder why Lucy dont write because she is doing Mort work in the garden The potatoes are up enough so the beans squash and other things are most in, Yes the early potatoes are rakes and the late potatoes as far as we have planted,

The car runs allright Frank says now you are out with your mother dont be in a hurry to come back he said he would help you here all he could but had a lot fo work to do, You have the fraim and saddle from Earnest England wheel they want $ 2. & told Robert they had the wheels ***** if you take it. Louise went from where mother sit when she was here out in the kitchen, Frances Vanderkruik can ride Marie wheel & robert think thinks he ou ght to have one,

The vegatables are up, We dont get any rain its is thundren now but the most of the rain went over just A little The black berries are in blossom some of them, Mays report card is a little better this time

Mr Brennen wanted to know how mother was * when is mMr Husted coming home,

DO you feel any better out there in that different air, Dave Gregory went to work since Red moved O Frank had a spill turning a round a car down in from front of the store when he came up & hurt his leg havnt seen him since. Robert made a wind mill & put it on the post the same as he had the other one

Robert liked to run the planter & got the rows pretty good for the first time Ma make Mort read this to you & tell him to help Nate the same as you made nate help

Mort here Hope you will get along alright I have written most of this to Mort but you dont care if he reads it to you doyou? May has said more then once I wish I would be out there with Daddy. Now I have said more then Mort We are all well & tired.

Yours, Lucy

P.S. Mr Gill came tonight saying if you wanted old house lumber they are tearing down the houses on North Ave and Warren St.

I know that “May” in the letter is my great grandmother, she would have been around 9 years-old at the time of this letter. I’m glad that her grades got better. “Robert” is my great great uncle, “May’s” brother. I’m not sure if “Mort” wrote this letter as Lucy dictated it. That would make the change in tenses more explainable. I also think that Mort is delivering the letter to Lucy’s mother, because she asks Mort to read the letter to her. I don’t know when Adella Bunnell Lamb died but perhaps she moved away from her family at this time, possibly with another one of her children, because Lucy asks her how she is feeling in the “different air”.

Hopefully as I post more pictures from my great grandmother’s box, I’ll be able to link those to the people mentioned in this letter.

Mystery Grandpa

First published on August 15, 2015.

Mystery Grandpa was my first real snag in researching my family. His name was Andrew J (or H) Dwinells (or Dwinnels) and he is my paternal grandfather’s paternal grandfather or my great-great grandfather. One problem that I encounter frequently is that the spelling of his, and my, last name is often different or transcribed wrong. That sometimes makes it difficult to find the correct information and is confusing, so excuse my spelling if it differs from documents.

From what I know, Andrew J Dwinells was born on August 15, 1846 (The date of this post!). His father was Joseph James Dwinells and his mother was Hannah Maria Kelly. I could not find a record of birth for Andrew, his birthdate comes from marriage and death certificates. The first record I found of Andrew was in the 1850 Federal Census for Haverhill, Massachusetts.

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He is listed (highlighted in purple) as a four-year-old, born in Massachusetts and his occupation is a pauper, which makes sense because he lived in the “Poor House” (highlighted in green). Also listed is his brother, Frederic Dwinnels. He appears five years later in the 1855 Massachusetts Census, still living in the poor house with his brother.

When I first saw this information I was intrigued. I didn’t even know what a poor house was. I also wanted to know why Andrew and his brother were there. I could not find any information about the deaths of Andrew’s parents, thus the beginning of the mystery. There are more mysteries involving Mystery Grandpa, that I will write about later, but recently I came closer to solving this first mystery.

I was reading “The History of Haverhill, Massachusetts: From its First Settlement, in 1640, to the Year 1860” by George Wingate Chase, when I found this paragraph:

In the early part of 1850, the small-pox broke out in the western part of the town, and for a time raged fearfully. It was confined principally to the northern part of the West Parish. In School District No. 2, there were between thirty and forty cases, several of them fatal. The loathsome disease was introduced into the parish by a young lady, on a visit from Boston.

I am at the beginning stages of fully researching this, but my theory now is that Andrew’s parents died in the small pox outbreak, leaving him and his brother orphans. I will have to try to pinpoint where Andrew and his parents would have lived and possibly try to get some records about the outbreak. I know that it is kind of a grim find, but I was excited to get one step closer to solving the mysteries of Mystery Grandpa.