Know the In-Laws: The Ludington Sisters of Catskill

You might be surprised by what is published in a local newspaper about someone who does NOT live there.  I happened upon a Texas death notice in a Saugerties, New York newspaper because the deceased's sister lived there.

The Ludington sisters, daughters of Tertullus, lived in Catskill, New York. Harriet was born in 1817, married John Lusk in the late 1830s and remained there even after being widowed in 1848.  Several years later she married widower Henry Turck of Saugerties (about 13 miles south of Catskill) and moved there with several of her children.  Harriet remained in Saugerties until her death in 1898.

A Civil War Pension File Can Reveal Family Stories

At first I wasn’t sure I wanted to pay the fee for the Civil War Pension File of Reuben Lake who served with the New York 127^th Infantry.   Then I heard the family tale that he’d been a prisoner at Andersonville who weighed 65 pounds when released and his wife Sarah went to transport him home.  Now that sounded intriguing … BUT be wary of family tales !

James McDole: His Revealing Civil War Registration Record

 In 2011 Ancestry.com published additional Civil War records to its collection including “New York Town Clerks’ Registers of Men Who Servedin the Civil War”.

Some of the information gathered included: date of birth, place of birth, father’s name, mother’s MAIDEN NAME, marital status, previous occupation, bounty received, if any.  Interesting that the bounty amounts seemed to range from $50 to $900.

Not all town registrars were thorough, many were incomplete, some were rather illegible and some clerks could not spell ! (occupations:  laiborer, taylor, etc).  I have the CW pension file of one of my ancestors, so I know he enlisted in Ulster County, NY but he is not found in these registers.  However,  I really lucked out on my ancestor James McDole. 

Were any of your relatives impacted by the sinking of the Titanic?

Prior to last month, I would have said NO.  But, as I delved into New York Ludington family members who migrated to Wisconsin, I discovered a connection to this terrible event.  Not a close relative by any means, but part of the larger family group.

My ancestor Tertullus Ludington (1773-1821) had several nephews who ventured further west while he remained in New York State. In particular, the sons of his younger brother Frederick (who also spent his entire life in NY) moved west to Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and beyond.

Spelling Challenges in Wisconsin

In tracing the Wisconsin spider experts George Williams Peckham and his wife Elizabeth Gifford, I began re-constructing her family.  Elizabeth, known as Bessie, was born in 1854 to landscape architect Charles Gifford and his wife Mary Child in Milwaukee.  Her father died when she was about 7 and her mother remarried.   

Confirming her stepfather’s surname was not easy as it was spelled differerently in every record found.  Luckily Wisconsin has some great genealogical websites that helped piece it together.  Always search a local or county biographical record – it might just provide priceless information.

Hankey or Hankinson?

Researching the 1841 birth of John Hankinson Appleton/Stockton Heath, Cheshire England stumped me when it came to identifying his parents and finding their census records. In 1864 he married Rosina Craghill and listed his father's name as William with his occupation as tailor. Generally this information, always collected on UK marriage certificates, is very helpful.  But I could not find anyone named William Hankinson in Cheshire nor Lancashire or any other likely spot.  I ordered several possible birth certificates for John based on free bmd listings, but the father's information never matched.

Know the In-laws: Who was William Austin's wife in Matagorda Texas?

In the Matagorda Texas 1860 census William Austin of New York (who had been living with his maternal aunt Amelia Ludington Hodges) was married to Mary E born 1838 in Virginia.  At the time they had three children under the age of 6. It caught my eye that there were 3 additional people in the household all with the surname Ives, aged 18, 14, and 8: Lucy, Charles and Walter. The older two were born in Virginia and Walter in Texas … could they be Mary’s siblings?