Destruction at Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn

Hurricane Sandy hit this beautiful, historic cemetery and felled many of its huge trees, destroying some monuments as has been reported in the NY Times and other New York papers. This cemetery is the final resting place of some very famous people like Leonard Bernstein, Louis Comfort Tiffany, "Boss" Tweed, etc. and lots of everyday people who were buried in this "rural" cemetery created in 1838.

If you, like me, have any ancestors buried at Green-Wood, please consider making a donation via their website . They estimate that 292 trees were downed and that clean-up will cost at least $500,000.  

If you can help, please do !

Who was Elisabeth Grafin Finck von Finckenstein ?

I have come to love pouring over legal notices for estate settlements, especially if the estate was large which brings all the long-lost cousins out of the hinterlands to grab a piece for themselves.

Unmarried Emily A. Watson died in Westchester County in 1924 at age 80 leaving an estate of $12 million ….. notice, that was in 1924 !!  She was the second-born daughter of “Colonel” John Watson and his wife Mercy Watson (who also happened to be his first cousin – turns out that was common with the Watson clan).  John had an extremely successful career in the leather industry and for some time was a partner with his brother-in-law Zadock Pratt.  John's older daughter, Mary J, had died in 1902, the childless widow of Evan T Walker.  Emily was the prime heir to both of those estates. 

A few first cousins whom Emily had never even met filed suit to get a share.  These were names I had not previously known from my family research:  Tennessee Taylor Watson Owen, Mary Rufus Watson Foster, Fannie Watson Carothers and Hattie Sanders, all born in Mississippi.  Really?  The Watsons were from Rhode Island and some of them ventured over to New York, but Mississippi ?? These were cousins on Emily’s mother’s side of the family. Two of Mercy’s younger brothers, Rufus and Asa, moved to Mississippi in the 1840s and evidently the families had lost contact.

While trying to figure out exactly who Tennessee Watson and others were and how they fit into the family, I broadened my newspaper searches once it became clear that the legal battles might wage on for a while. Yes, for quite a while.  I have found notices from 1924 through 1963 thus far. WOW ! Emily died in 1924.

But the New York Times article published 29 June 1932 listed two never-before-seen names:  Herwarth von der Decken and Elizabeth Grafin Finck von Finckenstein. 

Who were they?

Cousinology: Larz Anderson & Charlotte Higbee

I have come to learn that reviewing and identifying each person listed in a will and their relationship to the deceased can open a new world of cousins near and far.  One example is Larz Anderson who was found in a legal notice following the 1913 death of Charlotte Higbee in Binghamton, NY.The notice also stated "Cincinnati papers please copy". Why? Who lived in Cincinnati? The Higbees were from NJ and the Clarks from NY.

Charlotte was an only child born in NYC to Henry Higbee and Eliza W. Clark.  She never married.  After the death of her parents she relocated to Binghamton where she lived near or with the family of her mother's older brother Henry Clark. So how did Larz Anderson fit into the family tree?

New Evidence that I had the wrong parents for James W Clark of Delhi, NY

In my earliest efforts to piece together the family of Dr Adam Clark and his wife Harriet Watson of Albany County, NY, I made quite a few assumptions. They had married about 1820 and their numerous children were born between 1821 and 1843 prior to the establishment of government birth records. Several of their sons had Watson as a middle name and some had moved to Delhi in Delaware County. When I found a James W Clark, born 1829, living in Delhi, I initially wondered if he was another of their sons. James was a farmer in Delhi married to Elizabeth Bailey, the father of quite a few children, and a veteran of the Civil War. 

As time goes on more and more resources become available, providing the opportunity to check early life events more carefully. Especially helpful are smaller local newspapers, many of which are being digitized. For the era prior to government vital records, a newspaper report can be important. I have been spending time and effort searching those newly-available newspaper records for verification and documentation of many family members.  However, that is not how I discovered my error.

1951 Report of House Fire Reveals An Unknown Sister b 1822: Harriet Hill Hull

While searching online newspapers for information regarding the 1899 death of young Hiland Hill in Catskill, NY, the report of a house fire in 1951 surfaced.  It referenced a home at Hill and Bronson Streets in Catskill that had been built in 1848 by Hiland Hill (1786-1850), the great grandfather of my research subject.

It mentioned that the builder had been the father of  “late bankmen Frederick and Henry and Mrs. A. Cooke Hull”.  Really ? I had records for 2 other daughters of Hiland and his wife Mary Butler, Mary and Emily, both of whom had died unmarried. I knew nothing of Harriet.

Lucikly A. Cooke Hull is not a common name and I easily found him, a physician, trained in NYC and practicing in Brooklyn. He and Harriet married about 1845, too early for her to have ever been listed with her parents in a census. Aaron Cooke Hull was a leader in the field of homeopathic medicine as were his brother and brother-in-law which adds a bit of interest to the story of the Hill bankers.

You never know when a “remember when” or other historic notations in a newspaper will reveal new family members and stories.

Who was Alice Hill's Mother ?

While working on the Comfort Family of Catskill, NY I was tracing Hiram and Julia’s daughter Hellen, born in 1828.  She appeared as married in the 1860 census with husband Henry Hill and a daughter, Alice, aged 9. I had confirmation that Henry and Hellen had married in 1859 which made it seem obvious that Alice was not Hellen's daughter.  But who was Alice's mother?  Both Henry and Hellen had appeared in the 1850 census as single living with their parents. Had Henry married soon after and had his 1st wife died before 1859? 

I could find no evidence.

Although it is not available online, I was able to purchase a copy of the 1855 State Census for Greene County NY. There I found Hellen living with her mother, listed as single, and assumed I would find Henry as head of household with Alice and her mother. I did not. So I looked for his parents. His mother, now widowed, was listed as head with Henry and two of his sisters ... no Alice, no wife.

The Challenge of Common Names: Miss Black of Indiana

While working on the Peckham family, I found that George had married a woman from Indiana whose first name was at times listed as Elnora, Eleanor, Elenore.  I assumed that they married in New York City about 1917, but could not find a newspaper marriage announcement nor a matching entry in the ever-so-helpful index of brides and grooms created by and published for free by the Italian Genealogical Group. I wanted to find her maiden name and birth family.

Mrs. Peckham died in the mid-1920s and a death record index listed her name as Elenore Black Peckham … so that was a good start. I wanted to see if I could find Eleanor Black in NYC in the years before her marriage.  I did not find a census record, but a 1915 passenger record seemed to match her. It stated that she was born in Greenfield, IN about 1888 and was living on 114^th Street in NYC. 

I thought the rest should be easy – just check the 1900 census. Not found ! She had been traveling overseas, so find her passport application. Not found ! No matching birth record was found for Eleanor on family search either.