Tag Archives: Ohio

Two Hancock County Georges

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While trying to determine WHICH George Long was William’s father, I discovered two George Longs in Hancock County, Ohio, of similar ages.

George W. Long, Amanda Township

One George Long used the middle initial W. He lived in Amanda Township with his wife, Elizabeth. He obtained 160 acres on 20 April 1837 through a cash sale.1 That patent refers to him as of “Franklin County” which is several counties to the south and east of the original cluster of counties from which Carroll County was created. In 1830, one George Long lived in Franklin County, Ohio; there were only girls, presumably daughters, in his household.2 Examining the 1840 census, reveals still only one George Long in Franklin County.3 Comparing those two households show that it is likely the same family that shows up in Amanda Township in 1850 with probable wife Elizabeth, and daughters Susanna and Lydia.4 George W. Long died on 18 August 1880 and was buried in Salem Cemetery in Houcktown, Jackson Township, Hancock County. This George was reportedly born in Maryland in about 1794. George’s will was entered into probate on 31 August 1880. His children were listed as daughters Mary, Eliza, Mahala, Elizabeth, Susan, and Lydia; no sons were listed.5

George Long, Portage Township

George Long purchased 40 acres from William R. Alexander in Portage Township.6 In 1850, he was living there with his wife Isabella and four of his children: Susan, Alexander, Ellen, and John.7He owned the farm in Portage Township until George’s heirs sold it to Abraham Miller in 1857.8 George’s heirs were listed on the deed selling his farm to his neighbor Alexander Miller in 5 March 1857: Alexander Long and Elizabeth, his wife, Isabella Long, Ellen Long, Catharine Franks, and Susan Long.9 Missing from the list of heirs was son John (presumed deceased between 1850 and 1857) and William. William, however, sold his “undivided eighth” portion of the same land to Alexander Miller in a separate transaction on 3 April 1858.10 George died on 8 October 1855 and is buried next to “Isabel” in Thomas Cemetery, just down the road from his farm.11

Maps

This is a good reminder to look at maps when researching your ancestors. It is one thing to say that one George was in Amanda Township and one was in Portage Township. It is another thing to see it on a map.

From the Library of Congress. Portage is in the upper left, Amanda is in lower right.

This close up shows the section of Portage Township where George’s land, that was sold to Alexander Miller, and the Thomas Cemetery, are located.

Based on the land records and the family make-up (i.e. George in Amanda Township did not have any sons), we can determine that the George Long in Portage Township is the father of William Long.

Now, where did the Portage Township George come from? Ten more candidates were found in the right times and places to possibly be the correct George. We won’t belabor all of those that I eliminated, but we will put together the pieces of the correct George and look at how I processed the information and kept it manageable next time.

  1. George Long (Hancock County), state volume patent (1837), certificate no. 174, Bucyrus, Ohio, Land Office; image, “Land Patent Search,” Bureau of Land Management, General Records Office Records (https://glorecords.blm.gov/details/patent/default.aspx?accession=OH1020__.174&docClass=STA&sid=bbz1fuho.ven). Patent for land in the Northwest 1⁄4 of S33, T1S, R12, 160 acres. ↩︎
  2. 1830 U.S. Census, Franklin County, Ohio, population schedule, Madison Twp., p. 88, George Long household; image, “1830 United States Federal Census,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8058/images/4093939_00192). ↩︎
  3. 1840 U.S. Census, Franklin County, Ohio, population schedule, Madison Twp., p. 19, George Long household; image, “1840 United States Federal Census,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8057/images/4409549_00206). ↩︎
  4. 1850 U.S. Census, Hancock County, Ohio, population schedule, Amanda Twp., p. 469 (stamped), dwelling 124, family 124, Geo. Long household; image, “1850 United States Federal Census,” Ancestry  (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8054/images/4204481_00165). ↩︎
  5. Hancock County, Ohio, Probate Court, Record of Wills, Vol. 3 (1862–1884), p. 484–485, George Long’s Will, recorded 31 Aug 1880; image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9M2-LP1), IGN 5430906. ↩︎
  6. Hancock County, Ohio, Recorder’s Office, Deeds, Vol. 7 (1848–1850), pp. 112, William R. Alexander, deed to George Long, 10 Feb 1848,; FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C37X-QCZZ), IGN 8578921.  ↩︎
  7. 1850 U.S. census, Hancock County, Ohio, population schedule, Portage Twp., sheet 45A, dwelling 74, family 74, George Long household; image, “1850 United States Federal Census,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8054/images/4204481_00312). ↩︎
  8. Hancock County, Ohio, Recorder’s Office, Deeds, Vol. 7 (1848–1850), pp. 112, William R. Alexander, deed to George Long, 10 Feb 1848; FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C37X-QCZZ), IGN 8578921.  ↩︎
  9. Hancock Co., Ohio, Deeds, 13: 290–292. ↩︎
  10. Hancock County, Ohio, Recorder’s Office, Deeds, Vol. 14 (1858–1865), pp. 224, William and Sarah Long, deed to Abraham Miller, 3 Apr 1858; FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C37X-NVXQ), IGN 8578925. ↩︎
  11. “George Long (1789–1855),” tombstone photograph, Find a Grave (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/39549214/george_long), memorial 39549214, created by “Calling~All~Angels”; Thomas Cemetery, Portage Twp., Hancock County, Ohio; tombstone photograph uploaded by “Calling~All~Angels,” 17 Jul 2009.  ↩︎

Full Text Search Finds – More Misfiled Papers

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I’m working on an project adjacent to my George Long project. I want to identify his wife’s parents, or at least her father. Her name was Isabella McCullough. A will was located for a Hugh McCullough leaving things to his daughter Isabella Long. A slam dunk, right? Um no. These people are trying to take away my last remaining brain cells, I think. I have found TWO Isabella McCulloughs who married Long men, one to my George Long, and one to James Long. I am not sure if or how James Long is related to my Longs, but that is another story.

The main point of this post is to highlight the amazing perk from FamilySearch’s Full Text Search that I hadn’t anticipated, but makes total sense. We can find papers that have been misfiled! I posted about another couple of examples of this before, but just came across another one. In the midst of Hugh McCullough’s estate papers, are several papers that clearly belong to a different estate, that of John Abraham of Jefferson County, Ohio.

A few images later, we find the Estate of John Abraham.

If we were researching John Abraham, unless we examined every page of the microfilm, every file in the courthouse, every image on the digital film, we would have missed this! The images that belong in John Abraham’s file start at image 139 and end on image 145. The pages consist mostly of receipts and the inventory list of the estate sale. Documents I like to see for my ancestors.

FamilySearch just filmed the pages as they were contained in the folders, so this misfiling happened sometime before the filming. I couldn’t find a beginning placard on this digital set that might have clued me in to the year of filming. It doesn’t really matter. The point is, this happened (and still happens). Papers get misfiled all the time, and are then “lost” because they are not in the right folder. They have been “lost” to us researchers, but they are now findable again because of the Full Text Search. Amazing!

Recertification: What is it? And What Did I Do?

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Once you pass your first portfolio with the Board for Certification of Genealogists, you have to submit a project every five years that shows you are not only keeping up with your skills but also improving on any shortfalls they noted in your last portfolio. This time only one project is required at minimum, but it must meet the Genealogical Proof Standard.

My recertification project this time was to identify the father of William Long, my third great grandfather. I had one starting piece of information about William’s father. His William’s son, J. W. Long’s biographical sketch in the Wood County, Ohio, county history. The sketch claims that his grandfather, George Long, came from “North of Ireland” to Carroll County, Ohio, in 1817, married there, and then had several children named in the sketch: George, William, John, Catherine, Ellen, Susan, and Alexander. It does not name his grandmother, George’s wife.

There are some problems with this statement, which I will breakdown over the course of this series. As I was researching this family, several things became clear to me. The first thing was that Carroll County did not exist in 1817. It was not formed until 1833 when it originated from land taken from five counties: Columbiana, Harrison, Jefferson, Stark, and Tuscarawas.1 When George Long arrived in “Carroll County” in 1817, it must have still been one of these other original counties.

This meant that I had to widen my search from one county to five or six, depending on the time frame.

If George arrived in Ohio in 1817, then surely he was enumerated in the 1820 census. Of the nine George Longs in Ohio in 1820, only two lived in one of the target counties: George Long in Salem Township, Columbiana County, and George Long in Brown Township, Stark County. A similar search in the 1830 census shows there were 22 households in Ohio headed by a man named George Long (or similar), four of whom were in a target county. Depending on what record sets I looked at, I found MANY George Longs in and about the correct area in 1820 to 1840.

I identified twelve (12!) candidates that could have fathered William Long. The main purpose of my project was to examine these twelve candidates and eliminate them until only one man made sense. Some were easy to eliminate, others were trickier. I will share some of my information organization tricks in the next post.

1. Acts of A General Nature Passed at the First Session of the Thirty First General Assembly of the State of Ohio (Columbus: State of Ohio, 1832), p. 8; image, Google Books (https://books.google.com/).↩

A Father’s Day Look Up My Family Tree

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Kenny “Crazy” Miller

My dad, Kenneth Karl Miller, still living although he maybe shouldn’t be after all of the “crazy” things that have happened to him over the years: he blew up a house once accidentally, lived through a major motorcycle accident, car accident, tornado, lung cancer, numerous broken bones and other odd accidents that would only happen to him. He’s like a cat with 9 lives. He is usually called Kenny, but my kids call him “Crazy” or “Crazy Grandpa” because he always plays little jokes on them or acts a little off to tease them. For example, he would lay his hand on the table and tell them to hold it down and wind it up using his thumb as the crank. Then, when they’d let go, he’d flop it around on the table like an out of control wind up toy. They’d squeal in delight. I’m not sure how old he was in this photo, probably in his early teens, but even then, he looked a little mischievous. My dad lives in Findlay, Ohio.

 

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Karl H. Miller

Karl H. Miller, my grandpa, was born 19 February 1922 and died 12 November 2005, and a native of Wood County, Ohio. We are all still sad about losing him. He was one of the kindest, most gentle people I knew, and many say the same. He loved his wife for 60 years, they married in Zoar Lutheran Church in Perrysburg, Ohio in 1945. He worked his ass off despite a debilitating injury to his hip when he was nine years old. He always walked with a limp and used a cane most of the time I knew him. He worked an 80-acre farm with my grandma and drove a cement truck. He did all of that heavy physical labor despite his bad leg. He always had a smile on his face and never complained even in his worst pain, at least not that I heard. In the end, he had some strokes and spent many years in a nursing home, barely able to communicate. It was hard to watch a man of such perseverance, kindness, and strength be reduced to a pile of skin and bones, laying helpless in a bed. He always had a kind thing to say, a smile to give, or a funny story to share. I can still remember the shape of his hands, hard-working but gentle hands.

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Charles Miller, from wedding photo

 

Karl Henry “Charles” Miller, 1889-1972,native of Wood County, Ohio, died before I was born. I don’t know much about him except that after his wife Ernestine died, likely due to complications after childbirth, he left his three kids (Wilma, Karl, and Jim) to be raised by his parents, William and Carrie Miller.

 

 

 

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William “Bill” Miller, the only photo I have of him, from his 60th Wedding Anniversary

William John “Bill” Miller, 1863-1952, native of Wood County, Ohio. I didn’t get to know this man either, but I think my grandpa looked up to him. He always had good things to say about him and appreciated him for taking him and his siblings in. Bill was a farmer. Bill married Caroline “Carrie” Ann Limmer. I am named after her, but my parents spelled it “Cari.” (Which coincidentally, gets misread or misspelled as “Carl” all of the time. So, my grandpa “Karl” gets remembered in my name as well sometimes.) All my grandpa ever wanted was his own farm, which he eventually bought. My grandpa told me that his family knew German, would speak it sometimes at home. However, I have not yet found the Miller/Mueller immigrant in this line. Bill Miller’s parents were Fred and Mary Miller; Fred’s parents were John and Mary Miller, with no clues YET about their origins.

I don’t have any photos of Fred Miller, another native of Wood County, Ohio. He was born in 1842 and died in 1911. He married Anna Maria Artz in Wood County in 1862. His wife came from Nordheim, Germany. The Artz line has been traced back to Nordheim by some distant cousins. They have gotten me in touch with a cousin who still lives there. He’s a few months younger than me and I see him on Facebook from time to time. (Hi Ruediger!) Perhaps I’ll get to visit someday.

I feel most attached to researching this line but it is also the most difficult. With a brick wall like “John and Mary Miller” in the 1840s, it’s a tough research road. But one I’m gladly walking down.

Love and Marriage and Death – S. C. Dimick

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The Marietta (Ohio) Daily Leader, 3 May 1901, p.3.
The Marietta (Ohio) Daily Leader, 3 May 1901, p.3.

Samuel Cook Dimick moved to Wood County, Ohio from Lyme, New Hampshire in the 1870s. He married his wife, Mary Marshall in Lyme in 1860 and they spent the next 41 years building a life together. Their family only brought them 2 children, both sons, one who sadly died at age 19. Mary died at the end of April 1901. According to Samuel’s obituary he died just one week later: “He said that he had planned everything for his wife’s comfort and pleasure and now that she was gone he had no desire to live longer.”