One of my main genealogical focuses has been the family branch to which I owe my name -- the Moyers. According to Charles Roberts' History of Lehigh County Pennsylvania and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of its Families (Vol. 3, p. 930), the progenitor of this clan was Wilhelm Meyer, who owned land in the towns of Lowhill, Lynn, and Weisenberg in Pennsylvania.
Wilhelm had at least one son -- Johann Peter Meyer -- and Johann Peter's large family left a great many descendants. According to Roberts, most of the children moved to Ohio. My own ancestor, Peter (Johann Peter's son), stayed behind in the Lehigh Valley. My goal has been to track as many family lines as I can, but with at least 16 children, it's not easy. Miraculously, I found much of the family carefully enumerated in a newspaper article.
The Library of Congress' Chronicling America website is a fantastic resource. That's where I located an article from Ohio's Western Reserve Chronicle originally printed on 11 October 1865 (annotated at right). The article is an announcement to heirs of Johann Peter, concerning his land. Johann Peter's living children are listed first, followed by his grandchildren by his deceased children, grouped by family. Below the fold is my attempt to make sense of each of the ninety-two names mentioned in the article.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Determining accurate ages
John Trittenbach -- my 4th great grandfather -- was born about 1783 somewhere near Easton. In 1810, he married Catharine Barnett, and spent the next few decades producing children who would vex future genealogists like me. Based on the censuses from 1820 to 1840, it looks like John and Catharine had nine or ten children, of which I've identified six...all girls. More than any other family in my tree, the Trittenbachs have stymied efforts to pin down their birth dates.
Take, for example, daughter Amanda (married William Mock). I have identified her in the 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses, which respectively imply birth years of 1824, 1820, 1811, and 1808. This has the somewhat dubious effect of making her 18 months older every birthday. Her church burial record indicates that she was born in 1812. What's a researcher to do? Until a solution appears, I've simply been averaging these numbers to 1815.
A bigger question is why we have this vast range of dates for Amanda's birth. As I understand it, birthdays generally weren't carefully tracked until the latter half of the 19th century. But it's a completely different matter to believe that you are aging 50% faster than everyone else around you. One conceivable theory is that vanity led Amanda to fudge her age a bit, but that she cared less the older she got. Or maybe she just liked lying to census takers. I may never know.
Take, for example, daughter Amanda (married William Mock). I have identified her in the 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses, which respectively imply birth years of 1824, 1820, 1811, and 1808. This has the somewhat dubious effect of making her 18 months older every birthday. Her church burial record indicates that she was born in 1812. What's a researcher to do? Until a solution appears, I've simply been averaging these numbers to 1815.
A bigger question is why we have this vast range of dates for Amanda's birth. As I understand it, birthdays generally weren't carefully tracked until the latter half of the 19th century. But it's a completely different matter to believe that you are aging 50% faster than everyone else around you. One conceivable theory is that vanity led Amanda to fudge her age a bit, but that she cared less the older she got. Or maybe she just liked lying to census takers. I may never know.
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