Dead Ends in Genealogy - I've Hit Another One!

Johann Gottfried Hauer (John Godfrey Howard) Family Line

Dead Ends in Genealogy - I've Hit Another One!

____________________

by Carolyn Ann Howard

Nobody likes to be stuck in their family tree, but I most certainly am - all the time - and if you're my cousin, so are you. I wish our ancestors would have left more bread crumbs for us to pick up. And probably if you had asked them at that time, they would've scoffed at their great-grandchildren wanting to learn more about them.

What is frustrating about the world of genealogy is how complacent we - all of us - become with so-called "facts." I'm just as guilty as everyone else. For example, my family ran around in circles for years trying to solve the Joanna problem.

Here's the Joanna problem: Abraham Howard's first wife was Joanna. Joanna died young and after that, Abraham married Mary Ann Toles. Then I met my wonderful cousin, Greg, who is also from Abraham's line. And guess what? I realized his family was using the same equation for Abraham's brother, Elias. Elias's first wife was Joanna. Joanna died young and after that, Elias married Katy Vader.

Mystery solved and look how easy, but it wasn't easy until Greg told me it was. Abraham's first and only wife likely was Mary Ann Toles. Mary Ann outlived her husband. Joanna's stone in the graveyard says she was the wife of Elias.

How did this get so mixed up? Just that we're human and make up stories about everything, even if those stories are wrong.

One so-called "fact" is that Susanna Harwick's parents were Magdalena Meyer and Conrad Harwick. My theory is that they're likely related somehow, but these two just aren't old enough to be Susanna's parents. It's not that that it isn't a possibility, but it feels quite doubtful, especially since we have the baptismal records, and they just don't match up. I spent the last few days working on a theory that Conrad Harwick was Susanna's brother, but I couldn't prove it and came to yet another dead end.

Ancestry uses algorithms to suggest potential parents to their users. Because so many people have Susanna's parents as Magdalena and Conrad, these are also Ancestry's recommendations for her parents. But it's just an algorithm. Nothing more.

Another route I've been working on is Godfrey Howard's friendship with the Brust family. What an interesting time to have lived, pre-Revolutionary War. I have read that some in the Brust family were loyalists, which means they were loyal to the crown, Great Britain. Godfrey was a Hessian soldier from Germany who was hired to fight in the Revolutionary War on the side of the U.S. After the war was over, many of the loyalists fled to Canada. Hessian soldiers also were outcasts. Did this friendship lead the two families together to escape their labels? Click on photos to enlarge

1767 Map of Rensselaerswyck
Public Domain, via Wikipedia

Stephen Van Rensselaer III
Public Domain, via Wikipedia

I've also been reading, studying, and trying to understand Rensselaerwyck. This is the area where Godfrey Howard originally lived in New York. It was a large tract of land given to the Van Rensselaer family. The Van Rensselaer family then leased the land to farmers and were kind and generous landlords. Did Godfrey lease land from the Van Rensselaer family? I have yet to find any evidence that he did, but it is an extremely interesting study. Hopefully it doesn't lead to another dead end!

© 2022 by December Moonlight Publishing, LLC

Lyon Family Researchers - BEWARE!

The Lyon Family of Martin County, Indiana

Lyon Family Researchers - BEWARE!

A Comparison of Two Different Samuel Lyons

____________________

by Carolyn Ann Howard

Samuel Lyon (1781 - 23 Jun 1860)

Sources for date of birth: 1850 census and Find-A-Grave, which can be a useful tool but also can be unreliable.

Source for date of death: Find-A-Grave, not finding him on 1860 census, and wife, Amelia, living with son in 1860.

Place of birth: Unknown, but certainly New Jersey.

Place of death: Stockholm, Sussex, New Jersey.

Father: Isaac C. Lyon.

Samuel Lyon (1780 - 14 Jan 1860) 

Source for date of birth: U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedule.

Source for date of death: Ohio, Wills and Probate, U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedule and Find-a-Grave.

Place of birth: New Jersey.

Place of death: Miami County, Ohio.

Father, according to Ancestry member family tree: Matthias Lyon.

While trying to find more information about Samuel Lyon, Joel Lyon's grandfather, my lines kept getting crossed with the Ohio Samuel Lyon. I thought for a while they were one and the same person. When I found the Ohio Samuel Lyon's will, however, I was able to construct his family and realized these two men are very different people.

I have been trying to crack the case of our Samuel Lyon's wives, too. One wedding record in New Jersey has Samuel Lyon marrying Nancy Farber. And maybe Sarah Farber. And also Sally Farber. And then I found Sarah Farber also in Miami County, Ohio, not married? She's still living with her parents in 1860 and died in 1865. But this isn't OUR Sarah Farber, if we indeed have a Sarah Farber.

Me: Tearing my hair out.

I just want to know about our Samuel Lyon, and now I'm not sure of anything!

© 2022 by December Moonlight Publishing, LLC

  

Geneology Before Technology

Genealogy Tips

Genealogy Before Technology

____________________

by Carolyn Ann Howard

This blog post was updated 20 Aug 2021

I'm looking through my father's records, amazed. Oh, the theories that went back and forth between my father, his sister, and others who were early Howard researchers.

I remember doing a bit of genealogy in the 1970s when thinking about writing a history of Monticello, Indiana, the town where I grew up. It was grueling. Hours in front of the microfilm, looking at every single name on the census record, hoping against hope that the person you were researching was at the very beginning of the file or that the file was small. Or that your eyes hadn't glossed over thereby missing the information needed. We had no search engines. We were the search engines! Click on photos to enlarge

Book kindly sent to me concerning John Harbolt from Monticello, IN

Information was slow and hard to come by, especially if a person lived far away from the area they were researching. Instead of looking up records on-line, a genealogist would have to send away for records and usually for a fee. Afterward, they would have to wait for weeks and weeks until finally the new information arrived in the mailbox. Maybe the new information was a break-through. Many times, unfortunately, it wasn't.

On one of my several research visits to Monticello, which is 5 hours away from my home, I was, as usual, excited. What interesting information would I find? I had invested much into taking this trip, but it was only for 2 days. I should've called ahead. (Maybe I did. It's not like me to not plan everything.) When I got to the library on the second day to search through microfilm, I was asked to leave. The preschoolers were there for their movie. I begged the librarian to let me stay, but she wasn't having any of it. So much for that.

My first day was spent at the Monticello (White County) Historical Society, which was wonderful. A tip if you're planning a trip, though, definitely call ahead. A later trip to Indiana State Historical Society was also productive as, indeed, most trips to historical societies go well.

A great genealogical tool available in on-line places at Google Books or Archive.org, for example, are the various county histories written in the early part of the 20th century. Many of these books were out-of-print in the 1970s and now are freely available on-line! If my memory is correct, I paid $22 for a History of White County, Indiana, where Monticello is the county seat. What a treasure trove of information! This volume is now available free-of-charge at books.google.com. Go specifically to books.google.com and type in "History of White County, Indiana" and BOOM! It comes up as the first choice. Try this for the county where your ancestor lived. You might find out some stuff about them that you didn't know before!

One way of making your ancestors come to life is to make a timeline of things that happened during their lifetime, such as wars, presidents, epidemics, weather or even just when the county fair was that year. These early histories can help a lot in building such a timeline. If you use the Life Story feature in Ancestry, they try to do this, but its better when you do it for yourself.

As a funny aside, John Harbolt, the man from Monticello I was researching, it was said in the History of White County, Indiana, that he "went west to die." Ahhhh. When I first stumbled upon Find-A-Grave nearly forty years later, on a whim, I looked up his grave. I found out that John Harbolt had gone to Kansas. I contacted the person who made the Find-A-Grave page, and she laughed. White County history states that he "went west to die." Their history states he "left the east so he could live." And live he did. He took a wife, who apparently was the life of the party, and had children.

John Harbolt's brother, Billy.
Courtesy of White County Historical Society

One regret is that we had a family who went to our church in Monticello who was descended from the Harbolt family. I didn't realize it, though, until many years later. Too bad. But it is something to keep in mind should you pick up fresh research. You might actually be socializing with people related to the person you're researching.

Facebook is also a great place to connect with all those cousins you're bound to find through your research. This has been the most rewarding part of being a family genealogist.

Back to my father's records. Dad's sister had written letter after letter to the Wyoming County, New York Historical Society. I think the society may have gotten tired of the many inquiries. Many letters back to her started with "I'm sorry it has taken so long to respond to your latest inquiry. We really have nothing more we can tell you about your ancestors."

In particular, it seems the Howard family was quite interested in the fate of George Washington Howard. His family is all together on the 1850 and 1860 census records, but he isn't with them. He appeared later in Michigan. Theories abounded. Did he change his name? Perhaps the family is mistaken in whose family he really belongs. One theory - I kid you not - was that one of our forebears "turned into George Washington Howard." Another person turned into George Washington Howard? Abracadabra!

Another example is our forebear John G. Howard. For some reason, my family decided to rename him Jacob Howard, because they had found a Jacob Howard in the 1810 and 1820 New York census records. I found John Howard in the 1810 and 1820 census records living in Grafton, New York, the place where our John Howard lived. The new technologies and applications allow us to do this work quickly and easily.

I'm in the process of reading through all the letters, and if they're just conspiracy theories, they're getting shredded. I don't want to be the bearer of falsehoods. I understand the speculation, particularly in the era prior to technology when records were so difficult and many times expensive to come by. I'm sure it was fun to ask all the questions, no matter how stupid some of them were, in the end. They have no place in our modern era of genealogical research, though. Questions, certainly. Theories, yes. Conspiracies? Definitely not.

It was truly the voice of reason that stated, calmly, George Washington Howard left his home at the age of 14, because he didn't get along with his stepmother.

My relatives went back and forth and back and forth trying to figure out what happened to George Washington Howard. I'm grateful that someone knew the answer, but getting to that answer was truly overwhelming. And unnecessary.

I'm still looking for George Washington Howard in the 1850 and 1860 census and also for Henry Albert Howard in the 1860s. I may  never find them but it won't be for lack of trying. In the meantime, however, no speculation is required.

© 2022 by December Moonlight Publishing, LLC

The Orphan Boy - Abraham Frank Howard III

Johann Gottfried Hauer (John Godfrey Howard) Family Line

Abraham Frank Howard III (1859-1925) The Orphan Boy
____________________

by Carolyn Ann Howard

This blog post was updated 29 Apr 2022.

I used to feel sorry for Frank Howard, the orphan boy. You see, Frank's mother died shortly after he was born in Iowa. Frank's father, Abraham II, and Frank's uncle, who lived with them, along with the baby, made their way back to their parent's home outside of Loogootee in Martin County, Indiana. Surely both sons were devastated.

It wasn't even a year later that Abraham II enrolled as a Union soldier in the United States Civil War, leaving his infant son in the care of his parents, Abraham I and Mary Ann Toles Howard. Abraham II was killed in the Battle of Antietam 17 Sep 1862. Therefore, the orphaned boy never knew either one of his parents.

A short time later, in 1864, Grandfather Abraham I died, leaving Grandmother Mary Ann a widow at the age of 50. After this, Mary Ann petitioned the court to adopt Abraham Frank Howard. She also applied for Frank to have his father's Civil War pension. It was $8.00/month.

Frank's grandmother, Mary Ann, had another set of grandchildren, too, Ella and Emory Howard. These children belonged to Henry Howard and his first wife, Elizabeth Smith. After the birth of these two children, Henry took a different wife and had other children with her. When Henry died in 1872, Ella and Emory were outta there. I haven't for sure tracked Emory down, but Ella went to Vincennes, Indiana, where her great aunt, Mary Jane, lived. Ella's grandmother, Mary Ann, and Abraham Frank III went with her.

My late father's research looses the trail after Mary Ann left Loogootee with her grandchildren. I don't understand this when it comes to Ella, as she is easily tracked. Unfortunately, by the time I had become interested in my family's genealogy and could talk with my father about Ella, he had already forgotten most of what he had previously known.

In the 1880 census, Mary Ann was in Mount Morris, Michigan, living with Frank and, down the road from her, was her other granddaughter, Ella Howard, now Ella Ellis! But where were Mary Ann and Frank in 1870? Ancestry couldn't tell me.

We knew that Mary Ann had remarried a man by the name of McAlpine, due to Frank's court records that listed her as Mary McAlpine. She was also listed on the 1880 census as Mary McAlpine. Because of that, using FamilySearch.org, I did a search of the 1870 Michigan federal census for Mary Ann McAlpine along with the person of Frank Howard. Bingo. There she was as the wife of Peter McAlpine living in Watertown, Tuscola, Michigan. Frank Howard is listed at the bottom of the family, age 11, the correct age. Ancestry's perimeters doesn't list Frank Howard as living in the same household, due to his last name being different from the rest, so he got lost on Ancestry. Family Search many times is the superior tool for researching.

Knowing that Mary Ann married Peter McAlpine, her marriage certificate was easily found on Ancestry. This document notes Mary Ann as being Mrs. Mary Ann Howard from Loogootee, Indiana.

As previously noted, in 1880, Mary Ann and Frank are back in Mount Morris Michigan, living down the street from Ella. But where did they go after that? And what happened to the poor orphan boy, Frank Howard?

We have no 1890 census records, so using Family Search, I searched for Frank Howard in 1900. And one came up! YAY! Not in Mount Morris but in nearby Clio, Michigan. Even better, it correctly shows his father as being born in New York. And, he has a son named Rainie. Frank's mother's maiden name was Raney. It shows his name as Abraham Frank Howard, the same name as his father. It also shows his being born in Iowa, and his birth date was correct. It all adds up.

On other censuses, it doesn't add up quite so well, but census records can sometimes be a little sketchy; you can't always trust them. Mostly, though, it makes perfect sense that Abraham Frank Howard is our Frank Howard, especially that his father and grandfather were both Abrahams.

Frank's death certificate states he was born in Vincennes and his mother's name was Martha Raney. Frank was definitely born in Iowa and his mother definitely was Eliza Jane Raney. Wonder where the name of Martha came up in the memories of his children? Mary Ann and Frank sojourned in Vincennes, Indiana, a few years before heading off to Michigan, so Frank's children may have thought he was born in Vincennes.

When doing genealogy, it's so easy to project feelings onto your ancestors. Ahhh.... poor Frank. But Frank wasn't poor at all. Growing up, he had his grandmother and his Aunt Ella. Not sure what happened those few years his grandmother was with Peter McAlpine, though. How was that time for him living with another family?

Other than that, it appears he lived a good, normal life. He took a wife, had children and apparently several occupations: On the 1880 census, he is listed as a barber; 1900, merchant; 1910, funeral director; and 1920 real estate agent! We know that he actually was all of these things. To read more, go here. (Opens in a new window)

In memory of my late father and mother, Rev. William "Lester" Howard and Mary McLean Howard.

© 2022 by December Moonlight Publishing, LLC

Indiana's Historic Pathway Is Scenic, Especially through Martin County, IN

The Travel Blog

Indiana's Historic Pathway is Scenic, Especially through Martin County, Indiana

Note: You can see larger images by clicking on the image you want to view.

____________________________

by Carolyn Ann Howard

Martin County's treasures are abundant, including its breathtaking scenery at every turn. Consider a road trip on U.S. 150 that runs from Loogootee to Shoals, Indiana, and then onward to twin towns of West Baden/French Lick. Click on photos to enlarge

U.S. 150 enters hilly Loogootee as flat farmland.

U.S. 150 enters Loogootee, IN, running concurrently with U.S. 231 and another historic route, U.S. 50.

The routes run together until the main intersection of Loogootee at JFK Avenue where U.S. 231 runs north and U.S. 150 and 50 run east.

The road running from Loogootee to Shoals, which is the county seat of Martin County, is fabulous.

It is a spectacular drive, especially when you go down that hill and it opens up into a valley. It's magical.

Keep driving and taking in all the beauty of the hills, valleys and plains.

Before crossing the bride into Shoals, you might want to veer right onto Capital Avenue. This street comes up as soon as you pass the Pilgrim Holiness Church that my great-uncle John Carroll founded. The Martin County Museum is housed in the old courthouse on Capital Avenue. This beautiful building was built in 1876 to replace the old one that had burned down. It now houses the Martin County Historical Society and Museum.

Upon arriving in the charming town of Shoals, you will cross the East Fork of White River. Its so breathtaking.

Shoals was platted in 1844 under the name of Memphis. I've heard different theories as to how the name Shoals came about, but I don't know which stories are true.

On you're right, before you to turn right on U.S. 150, you might want to pull into the iconic Bo-Macs for burgers and fries. You might then want to stop at the Marathon next door for gas and a restroom break. Be sure to turn right at the intersection, though. If you go straight, it'll take you to Bedford. We want to end up in the twin towns of West Baden and French Lick, so turn right, staying on US 150.

As you begin down this road, you'll notice heavily wooded areas. One of my best friends here in Evansville, Indiana, worked at a lumber yard for many, many years. He supplied many of the merchants in Martin, Daviess, and Spencer Counties in Indiana with lumber products.

Bob Tedrow is one of those buyers: "I purchased many loads of lumber from your friend. I would often spend an hour a week talking to him on the phone, we got to be very good friends." He continued, "As you travel Hwy. 150 there are many curves and hills, some of the “old timers” say the highway was built this way on purpose to make you slow down and take in all the scenery."

Beautiful scenery, indeed!

The next landmark is called Singing Hill. My great-uncle John Carroll, the great Pilgrim Holiness pastor, helped to build this Holiness Campground. I don't know much about it's history, but I'll bet it's interesting!

Look at that old gas station! I love old buildings. Always try to envision what they looked like in their heyday.

The road continues to be beautiful as we cross over from Martin County, Indiana to Orange County.

We'll soon be at the junction of US 150 and Indiana 56. Turn left to continue on US 150 onward to Paoli. Or turn right onto Indiana 56 to enter the beautiful twin towns of West Baden and French Lick. Get a room at either of the two grand hotels in the area and enjoy your stay!

© 2022 by December Moonlight Publishing, LLC

______

Google Photos are used with permission by giving the proper attribution

Our Mysterious Howard: Elizabeth Nancy Smith Woody

Johann Gottfried Hauer (John Godfrey Howard) Family Line

Elizabeth Nancy Smith Woody Howard (abt 1832 - aft 1858)

____________________

by Carolyn Ann Howard

This post was updated August 30, 2021.

Elizabeth Nancy Smith Woody Howard has been such a puzzle for Howard family researchers. One of the reasons is that her last name was Smith. What a difficult name to research as it is one of the most common last name in the Unites States. Another reason is my immediate family's unusual history in Pilgrim Holiness, taking it a notch further. It sometimes feels that the criteria for being a part of this line is that the entire family must be holy, including our ancestors.

I don't believe our Howard line was particularly holy, including Abraham Howard I, Abraham Howard II, nor his son Henry, who was Elizabeth's husband. And by saying this, I'm not saying that these Howards were BAD people. Not at all! I just don't think they went to church, that's all. But perhaps that has nothing to do with our story, because Elizabeth is mysterious. We know very little about her, and it doesn't appear anyone else knows much about her, either. Again, Elizabeth Smith isn't a unique name.

Abraham Howard I was born in Grafton, New York. As a young man, he moved with his family from Grafton to then Genesee County, New York, now Wyoming County. Not his entire family but his father and mother, and his brothers Jacob and Elias. Jacob and Elias both became involved in The Free Will Baptist Church of Dale, New York and are listed next to each other in the 1850 census. Not so Abraham. Abraham settled in nearby Attica while the rest of his family stayed in Middlebury. It was said in a letter from the Middlebury Historical Society that Jacob and Elias were much more involved in church "than the other ones."

Abraham I broke with his family in his move to Martin County, Indiana, firstly settling in Shoals and then shortly later in Loogootee. Abraham and his wife, Mary Ann, along with their children, except for Joanna, arrived in Martin County in or around 1854.

When Ancestry came along, with their advanced tools, I linked Elizabeth Nancy Smith with Morris Woody, a potential first husband. It didn't feel like it could be true, but if so, she had 3 children with him, Samuel, John and Henry. Is it telling that her youngest son has the same name as her potential second husband? Unfortunately, I have Elizabeth's son Henry born the same year as Henry Howard and Elizabeth Smith's oldest, Ella, so, of course, that can't be correct, yet still, something doesn't quite add up.

When I started my public Ancestry tree, I once again linked Elizabeth Nancy Smith with Morris Woody, because, in essence, it fits. Even so, I almost deleted all the Woody's. But something stopped me and now more than ever, it feels that this union really happened.

Elizabeth Smith and Morris Woody married in 1850. In the 1850 census, they lived with Elizabeth's father, Samuel and mother Temperance Roberts Smith, in Spice Valley, Lawrence, Indiana. Living with parents after first getting married was common place at this time. Their first son, Samuel, was born about 1850, John in 1853 and Henry in 1856. However, the tree overlaps as Elizabeth married Henry Howard in 1854.

According to the 1870 census, Elizabeth and Henry's daughter, Ella, was born in New York in 1856. Their son, Emory was born in 1858 in New York.

I doubled my efforts to locate Henry Howard in the 1860 census. I looked through all the relatives and all their 1860 census records and did not find him. I couldn't find Elizabeth, either. I then decided to look at the Perry County, Martin, Indiana 1860 census. The rest of the Howard family is there as is Samuel Smith, Elizabeth's father. But here we see that Elizabeth's father is no longer married to Elizabeth's mother, Temperance. He is instead married to a different Elizabeth. I realized then I have Temperance's death date as prior to 1860 and the ages and names of the children all add up. Abraham Howard is family number 60, Samuel Smith 61 and there at family number 64 is the Crays family. Henry married Nancy Crays in 1861.

One last conundrum about our mysterious Elizabeth. On her Martin County marriage certificate to Henry Howard, her name is listed as Elizabeth Smith, not Elizabeth Woody. Although in that time, you could tell people any name you wanted. No background checks! No secure IDs!

When younger, I'd listen to my father banter about our genealogy and many times he would ask, "Did Elizabeth Smith die?" And I would think, "Let's not jump to conclusions!" But... maybe she did. Perhaps she died in childbirth with Emory. Childbirth was one of the number one causes of death in women at that time. And, after her death, Henry would've been forced to reunite with his Martin County family in order to have childcare. Click on photos to enlarge

Shoals Overlook
Courtesy of Marie Hawkins

I don't know why Samuel Smith brought his family from Lawrence County to Martin County. Abraham and Samuel go all the way back to when the Howard family first landed in Martin County, as he sold Abraham land along the gorgeous Overlook at Shoals, overlooking the East Fork of White River. But in the 1860 census, Abraham Howard and family are no longer in Shoals and Samuel Smith and family are no longer in Spice Valley. Instead, the two families are together just outside Loogootee. Henry and Elizabeth are nowhere to be found, and my family has been searching through census records for years without success.

Was this a scandalous love affair between Henry and Elizabeth? I think yes. Was Henry in on it? I think yes. He may have even been the instigator. Or she. What did his father Abraham and her father Samuel think? What did her husband Morris think? We may never know the answer, but if we had the answers, it would make a great story!

One reason it feels this was a scandal is that the couple went to New York. We know this, because their two children were born in New York. Were they banished there by their family? Were they banished there by the community? Did Henry's second wife, Nancy Crays, know about this? Well, Henry came back to Martin County with two children, so she knew at least that he likely had been married once.

In the 1860 census, Elizabeth's first husband Morris is living with the Dickerson Family in Spice Valley, Lawrence, Indiana. The three children are living with the William Woody family in Halbert Township, Martin County, Indiana. In the 1870 census, Morris Woody had married Nancy Chastain, had a little girl, Ellen, and the three boys are back together with their father and stepmother.

Henry married Nancy Crays in 1861. He did not fight in the Civil War and most likely never left Martin County again. He died in 1872 of tuberculosis. Upon his death, his daughter with Elizabeth, Ella, moved to Vincennes with her grandmother. We do not know Emory's fate. The last we hear from him is on the 1870 census with his step-family.

© 2022 by December Moonlight Publishing, LLC

Do Not Believe Your Family's Twisted Story

Benjamin W. Carroll Family Line

Do Not Believe Your Family's Twisted Story

____________________

by Carolyn Ann Howard

This post was updated 30 Aug 2021

My family tree has more twisted stories and lies. This is the one thing that saddens me about genealogy, but undoubtedly, every tree is filled with lies and varying degrees of twistedness simply because we're human beings each with our own filters.

Blood of My Ancestor was written to set the story straight about Joel Lyon's role in the murder of his wife and to clear his good name. He had previously been falsely accused of murder by my family and other families as well. Joel was the husband of my 2x grandaunt Adaline Cannon.

The story of Joel Lyon that my family likes to spin starts with "Joel was Catholic and Adaline was Protestant." This was happy news for the author in me, because it meant I'd get to write about the differences between Catholic and Protestant and to do so in a positive light. Because Adaline most likely would not have been taught about Catholicism in her girlhood, this became a great part of their story. Imagine her curiosity with Joel to begin with and then to learn his faith was so much different than hers.

About a month ago, I learned that even this, this small piece of the story another grandaunt had written down on paper was false! Author Beth Willis, who has chronicled so much of the history of Stockholm, New Jersey, from whence Joel came, told me that Joel was most likely Methodist. I posted this on Facebook -- like, can you believe it? And Joel's granddaughter replied:

I know that my grandfather was Methodist, because as a kid I would ride with him to church sometimes. And I was baptized Methodist when I was a kid.

Seriously, though? The whole damn story written about Joel Lyon in my family's records was false to its very core. "Joel was Catholic and Adaline was Protestant" needs to be changed to "Joel was Methodist and so was Adaline." Then again, that one sentence would blow up the whole story that begins with Joel baptizing their new infant son as a Catholic behind Adaline's back.

I recently learned more about a different story that had only been heard in passing. The story was so crazy, it didn't even sink in. My father started the story by saying, "I understand that John Cannon was an atheist." John Cannon was my 2x great-grandfather. The story was so preposterous to me, I didn't even want to hear it, which made my father realize that it wasn't true. Thankfully, he stopped telling that story. Years later, my dear cousin said he had heard his father preach about how my great-grandmother, John Cannon's daughter, who birthed and reared my grandfather, was an infidel. An infidel!

I grew up in a legalistic household with lots of rules that must be kept in order to find favor with God. That upbringing made this word infidel conjure up feelings of vilification and shame. My great-grandmother, Hester Cannon Howard, however, was not an infidel. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and brought her children up the same. This was confirmed in her obituary that stated "from girlhood, she was a consistent adherent to the faith." We know that after she moved from Mount Calvary to within the city limits of Loogootee, Indiana, she attended the Methodist Church there in Loogootee. Prior to that, she attended Mount Calvary Methodist Episcopal.

I admit, sometimes I put my great-grandmother on a pedestal. Mostly, though, I just hold her in high esteem. Why not? She owned her own business and ran it successfully. She was a single mother, and she had spunk. Another uncle, one who had known her in real life, told me she had spunk. He said it with the most beautiful smile on his face. He was proud of her, for sure. Click on photo to enlarge.

Hester Howard on the left at her home in Loogootee, IN
Carolyn Ann Howard family collection

I have a theory how this story about Hester got started. You see, Hester had two boys with her husband, Billy, who died of tuberculosis shortly after their births. She was protective of them, and they of her. Her eldest son fought in World War I and, after that, he moved to Binghamton, New York, escaping her protection. Earl was 31 when he married, and he stayed in Binghamton the rest of his life.

Once Earl had moved, Hester only had her youngest son, Rodolphus, who went by Dolph, to help her on the truck farm, with their boarding rooms, and whatever needed to be done around the home. Hester's parents were gone, and her sister and best friend was gone - murdered brutally in cold blood. I'm sure Hester really relied on Dolph.

When Dolph turned 30, he married my grandmother, Grace Carroll. As was the custom in those days, the couple lived with my great-grandmother for about a year before setting up their own household. The two women did not get along. Not even a little.

I knew my grandmother well. She was excessively religious and felt rules needed to be followed in order to achieve holiness. Her father also was an extremely religious man. Her half-brother, John Carroll, was the founder of four Pilgrim Holiness churches in Martin County - Burns City, Mount Zion, Poplar Grove and Shoals, as well as the Pilgrim Holiness campground called "Singing Hill."

Singing Hill in Shoals, Indiana
Carolyn Ann Howard Family Collection

Rules were the order of the day. No pants for the girls. No dice. No playing cards. No board games. No laughter. Children do not talk. No make-up. No cutting hair. The rules were crushing. To make things worse, my grandmother attended the Methodist Church in Loogootee, and I knew these weren't Methodist beliefs, so it made absolutely no sense! The fact that her heritage as Pilgrim Holiness was never discussed led me to realize that she was a Pilgrim Holiness cleverly disguised as a Methodist.

In my grandmother's eyes, surely I'd be an infidel. I drink wine. I wear pants. I wear make-up. I use dice in my piano classroom to play music games with my students. It is doubtful that Hester drank or wore pants or make-up or even played with dice, but she had spunk and could stand up for herself, that is for sure. My uncle told me a man was harassing her, so she threw a tomato right in his face. He told me that with the same proud smile.

It's so easy to make up stories about the dead, whether those stories are true or false, good or bad. Your job as a genealogist is to sort through the data you have and make informed observations, backing that up as much as possible with eyewitness statements, newspaper clipping, and other documentation. It's also good to make sure everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

© 2022 by December Moonlight Publishing, LLC