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.

FAMILY FOCUS: John I Hill 1801-1884

John was a lumberman in Wawarsing, Ulster County, New York, born to unknown parents possibly in Shawangunk.  About 1830 John married Esther Furman (1808-1902), daughter of Joseph Furman and Polly Sheeley.  My challenge this year is to identify John’s parents and siblings.

Interestingly one of Esther’s sisters, Catherine (1816-1880) married Isaac Dubois Hill (1812-1888).  I’ve been wondering if Isaac (who often seems to have gone by his middle name) and John might have been brothers or cousins.  Isaac reported that he was born in Orange County and John reported Ulster. They were born 11 years apart and the 2 counties are adjacent. Some unsourced online records show John as the son of John W and Charlotte Mullaney Hill; I have not been able to confirm this.

Assuming that John was in fact born in Shawangunk, I checked the 1810 census and found two families with boys under 10, headed by Isaac and Sturgis Hill.  But that trail goes cold in 1820 when neither Isaac nor Sturgis show up as head of household in Ulster County. Might they have moved to Orange County? There was a family headed by Isaac but it’s almost impossible to know if it is the same household.

John and Esther had 8 known children – perhaps one of their descendants knows something of John’s birth family and will stumble upon this post. That would be my lucky day !! The children and spouses are listed here.

1833   JOHN  + Phebe

1835   JOSEPH + Mary (moved to VA)

1837   LUCINDA (unmarried)

1840   JANE + James Cutler

1843   ALMIRA + August Stangle (Brooklyn)

1844   EMILY + Francis Sheeley

1847   WILLIAM + Eliza (moved to VA)

1850   MARY A + Lorenzo Low (moved to CT)

I don’t know where else to look. I’ll search out church records for Shawangunk and see if they show up. If you have another suggestion, please drop me a note 

Confusion over Lake Children in Kerhonksen NY

The 1870 census for the Wawarsing district shows various Lake family members in the same household in Kerhonksen, but the 5 children aged 4 to 12 are not recognized as belonging to either couple seen there.

The record states that they were all born in New York State:

            John                Age 12 (1858)

            Schuyler          Age 10 (1860) as Schnyder

            Caroline          Age 8 (1862)

            Patty               Age 6 (1864)

            Nancy             Age 4 (1866)

The adults in the grouping are George and his wife Nancy (sometimes called Helen) and his brother Reuben with wife Sarah Ann. The parents of George and Reuben were Schuyler and Caroline which is what convinced me that the 2 children named above are from the family and that the boy’s name was incorrectly recorded.

Reuben and Sarah were recently married and did not yet have children.George and wife had several young children who are NOT listed here, nor have they been found with other family members (as had their son Byron). Missing are:

            Alice                Age 13 (1857)

            Orrin               Age 12 (1858)

            Ida Jane          Age  5 (1865)

            Frank              Age  2 (1868)

Since the mysterious 5 children have Lake as a surname, their father must be a Lake. Wondering if he could be the missing brother Harry born 1833. There was some suggestion that he might have moved to Michigan … but I can’t find him there either. Are they playing tricks on me and temporarily changing their names and years of birth? Not likely.

Sometimes I find it so frustrating to work with common names (Lake) -- but even when you get an unusual name to go with it (Schuyler) the problem may not be resolved.