October 1, 2018

MORSE: A Helpful Death Notice in 1909

The large Morse family lived in Wawarsing, Ulster County, New York. With such a common surname, it is not always easy to trace all its members.  Recently I was made aware of the 1909 obituary of Mary E Morse Corbin published in the Kingston Daily Freeman. Mary was the daughter of William Morse and Anna Peck, the 2nd of their 9 children. Her death notice mentioned the following family members, referring to them as “surviving members of her father’s family”; in fact they were her siblings. Her father was also one of 9 children and I will report on them in another post.

A recap of those mentioned include:

Her deceased husband Albert 1827-1900
His brother Isaac Corbin 1830-1888

Her 6 surviving siblings:

Mrs Thomas Smart in Penn = Jane 1829-1914
 Recently widowed and the mother of 12 !
Leonard Morse in California = 1831-1914
              out west since mid 1860s, widower no children
 John Morse in Ellenville = 1834-1915 married, 8 children
 Mrs W W Miller in NYC = Alice 1846-1915 
              twice widowed, 2 children
Mrs Belle Johnston of Staten Island = Isabelle 1851-1915
Mrs Seth Catlin of New Jersey = Emma 1843-1940, 5 children

Her other siblings were Edgar 1839-1887 who died unmarried in Nashville, TN (where their uncle George ran successful stockyard operations) and Addie 1838-1893 wife of Dr John Jackson Ward, 1 son.

Some of these siblings had married before 1850 and were never listed in the census with their parents, disappeared from NY (like Leonard) or females married several times becoming hard to identify and locate.

This newspaper item helped me piece together all of Mary’s siblings. I always find it helpful to flush out every person listed in a death notice.

September 30, 2018

What happened to Mary D Comfort, daughter of Joel ?

Mary, the oldest child of Joel Dubois Comfort and his wife Emeline Ludington, was born 1829 in Catskill, NY. According to church records she married James W Johnston 'of Dubuque, Iowa' in September 1856 at the Leeds RDC.  I have found no subsequent record for either of them. I had expected that James would be in the Greene County 1855 census, but he was not found. Nor have I located him in 1850 in Iowa or elsewhere.

Interestingly, Mary's parents are listed in the Catskill 1865 census with their youngest daughter Josephine and with a 6 year old granddaughter with the surname Johnston. Sadly, this record is almost impossibly hard to read. I cannot decipher the girl's first name nor did I find her with her grandparents in the 1870 census.

Who is she and where are her parents?  I cannot find James and Mary in 1860, when their daughter would have been an infant. I have found no 11 year old female Johnston in Greene County in 1870.
This family group remains a mystery.