Family Snippets: Comfort - Youngblood 1780s New York

In Montgomery, Orange County, NY brothers Benjamin and Samuel Comfort married sisters Elizabeth and Anna Maria Youngblood.  The four remained in Montgomery where they raised their families, died and were buried in the local church cemetery.

The grooms were sons of New York natives John Comfort (1725-1795) and his wife Annatje Maul (1726-1805). Their brides were daughters of Revolutionary Soldier Johannes Wilhelm Youngblood and his wife Caterina Buchstaber (1744-1807) who were also born in New York. All four had parents born in Germany.

Benjamin (1757-1814) and Elizabeth (1763-1805) married in 1780 and had 9 known children (8 sons and 1 daughter) and at least 53 grandchildren. Two of their sons (David b 1790 and Jacob b 1794) have not been found as adults. Only their daughter remained within the same county after marrying. Three sons moved to Catskill in Greene County and 3 sons moved south to Mississippi.  Benjamin outlived his wife by 9 years. 

Samuel (1760-1802) and Anna Maria (1762-1847) married in 1784 and also had 9 known children and 53 grandchildren!  All but one of them stayed in New York State – 1 in NYC, 3 in Catskill and the others in Montgomery. Their son James ventured south to Kentucky. Anna Maria outlived her husband by 45 years.

1887 Marriage Record: If Only All the Blanks were Filled In !!!

In researching the Bogardus family in Chicago, I came across this marriage record on FamilySearch.org.

William S Fowler married Ida May Bogardus (seemingly the ex-Mrs Frederick Branford) in 1887.  It certainly would have saved me lots of time and hassle if the items Marital Status and Previous Husband’s Name had been filled in.  Oh well, I found them anyway.

Look at all the great potential information that could have been listed … but wasn’t. 

California Death Record + Maiden Name

 

In tracing the Comfort family members who moved from Catskill, NY to California, I found Hiram and his wife Catherine with a young daughter listed in the 1880 census of Yolo.  I was quite sure Hiram was the son of Absalom Comfort, born in 1842 and last found in the Civil War registration records of 1863. I have still not found him in the 1870 census, though his daughter Alice was born in NY in 1873.

I checked the 1900 census but could not find him nor his wife. I did find a likely match on Alice, now 27, as a boarder in the household of New York born Samuel Wentworth. Also included in the household’s group of 9 was Jennie B. Comfort, 60, listed as “mother-in-law”. So, they were obviously related. Yes, Jennie was the widow of Joseph, brother of Hiram.

In checking additional records for Alice, I discovered her 1950 California death record (she had never married which made the match easier). It listed her birth in New York on 12 May 1873, her middle name as Maude, and her mother’s maiden name of FRY.  Realizing that these death records are a prime source of maiden names, I looked for Samuel Wentworth’s wife, born Katherine Comfort (the daughter of Jennie), born in 1870.  She died in 1842 and her mother’s maiden was ALSO FRY-- BINGO !!

So, looks like brothers Joseph and Hiram Comfort married sisters Jennie and Catherine Fry.  Now, to dig deeper for their marriage records (not found in the usual sources) and records of young Jennie and Catherine with their parents.

Mysterious Howard Masten Youngblood of Montgomery, NY

Howard’s Civil War Registration record lists his birth date as Dec 19, 1846 and his parents as Thomas Youngblood and Hannah Masten as shown below:

In going back to the 1850 Montgomery census I found no Howard Youngblood.  However, I seemed to have a match on a 3 year old listed as Howard E. MACKILHONE with mother Hannah in the household of her parents John and Eve Youngblood (no marital status was included in that census – might she have been a widow?).
 

In 1860 Hannah was the wife of Jonathan Masten, with Howard age 14 then listed as Masten plus 2 of Hannah’s brothers. In 1870, Hannah is the head of household (again, no marital status collected) and her son Howard is now married with 2 children of his own, and he is listed as YOUNGBLOOD !  In 1880 he is listed as Howard E. Youngblood and still has his mother living with them.

Additional Liverpool Records on Ancestry

In many ways I find researching in England easier than in the U.S. due to the wonderful b-m-d (birth, marriage, death indexes beginning in 1837). Of course, the UK census records are less data-rich than those in the U.S. and the most recently released is 1911.

Ancestry has added additional resources for Liverpool, some starting as early as 1659 !
I am most interested in those covering the period of 1813-1837. 

If you had ancestors in Liverpool, this can be a great resource -- check it out.

Were There Ethiopians in Mississippi in 1917 ?

While perusing WWI registration records for the Watson family in Mississippi I came upon an unusual card listing race as ETHIOPIAN !

I was looking for the white descendants of my Rhode Island Watson line, so this jarred me into examining this branch of the family .. and, yes, they had been slave holders likely resulting in an expanded grouping of younger men named Wheeler Watson.  As I looked more closely, I found several young men of similar age with this name -- so I have more investigations ahead of me.

Mystery: Michael and Ann Coughlin 1860 Ohio

In trying to trace Irish born Ann Sheils who married Michael Coughlin and was known to have lived near Zanesville, Ohio in the 1860s I found this census record which could be a match for her.  Frazeysburg is about 15 miles from Zanesville.

Frazeysburg, Jackson Township, Muskingum County

Coughlin
     Michael          25  born Ireland
     Ann                21  born Ireland
     Mary A            4  born Ohio
     Margaret E      2 born Ohio

I have not been able to find any of them in 1870.  The girls would have been 14 and 12, generally not old enough to be out on their own.  

I've checked church and cemetery records -- no help there either.

Can anyone help me unravel this mystery?