Friday, April 17, 2009

Finding Lamphears in Jefferson County NY - Post 2

As I've searched for Lamphear/Lamphere/Lamphier/Lamfear/Lamfier and other surname variants in Jefferson County, New York, I've tried to identify families in the records that lived in or near Henderson township. A little background:

I am looking for the biological parents of Devier J. Lamphear, born in 1839 or 1842 according to family records, and adopted by Ranslow and Mary (Bell) Smith of Henderson, Jefferson County, NY. I decided to start with the census records, and with the 1840 census. The only Lamphear/variant surname entries in the 1840 US Census for Jefferson County NY living near Henderson are in Lorraine - two townships away.

1) 1840 US Census: There are three indexed entries for Isaac Lanfear, William Lanfear and Erin Lanfear in the 1840 US census in Lorraine. Isaac and William are identified as early settlers in 1804 in Lorraine. They appear to be there for a long time, living near the town center.

In the 1840 census for Lorraine, Isaac Lanfear (aged 60 to 69) has two males, aged 15-19 and 20-29) - the older one is likely Latham/Lathrum who is in the 1850 census living with him. There is no infant male listed. William Lanfear (aged 50 to 59) has two males aged 10 to 14 and 15-19 in his household, and Orin Lanfear (aged 30-39) has two males aged 5-9, one aged 10-14, and one aged 20-29.

So there are no infant Lanfear males in the 1840 census in Lorraine, Jefferson County, NY living with Lanfear (and variants) families. Of course, there may be one hiding in the other 400 or so families in Lorraine, or the thousands of families in Jefferson County!!!

2) 1850 US Census: I knew that Isaac Lanfear died in 1851 in Lorraine, Jefferson County, NY (from cemetery records) and that his wife Rosanna Lanfear died there in 1881, and they were in the 1840 US census in Lorraine, so I figured they were probably in the 1850 US Census. However, searching for Isa* Lan* and Isa* Lam* in Lorraine yielded no results. I used Ros* without a surname to find Isaac and Rosanna Lamfear (it looks like Lamfear to me!) and easily found them, but they had been indexed as "Samfear." The capital "S" and "L" often are interchanged (I have much experience with this having searched for Seaver for many years).

There are two younger "Samfear" people in the record - Lathrum Samfear (a male age 36) and Melinda Samfear (a female age 27). Are they siblings or husband and wife? It's impossible to tell in this record. I checked the 1860 US Census and found Latham with a wife and infant living next door to Rosanna and Malinda. So they are probably siblings, although they could be brother and sister-in-law (if Melinda was a widow of a brother of Latham).

There is also a Hannah Lamfers family (Hannah age 50, Ann age 24, Martha age 11) and a Sarah Lamfers (age 22, living with the Clark and Maranda (age 33) Bailey family) in Lorraine in the 1850 census. I wonder if thiese are from William Lanfear's family? I don't find William in the 1850 census.

There is a John Lanfear (age 26), with wife (?) Rhoda Lanfear (age 24) enumerated in Worth, the town just east of Lorraine. John may be a son of Isaac Lanfear.

3) In the 1830 US census for Lorraine are not indexed as Lan* or Lam*. Are they there? Yes! All three are indexed as "Lmfrie." I can see how it might have been indexed as "Lamfier" or even "Lamfire" but I can't figure out how the indexer got "Lmfrie" out of it! In all three cases!

In this census, Isaac Lamfire (aged 50 to 59) has two young males aged 5-9 and 15-19 in his household. William Lamfire (aged 40 to 49) has one young male in his household aged 10 to 14. Orran Lamfire (aged 20 to 29) has a young male aged 0 to 4 in his household. Orran might be another candidate for having an infant and giving him up in the 1839-1842 time period. Orran is indexed as "Oran" although it is clearly "Orran" on the census image.

4) Potential Parents: Latham Lamfear rose quickly to the top of my list as a potential father of my Devier J. Lamphear (born 1839-1842). Did he marry someone before 1842 and have a small child, but lose his wife in childbirth or when Devier was an infant?

Melinda Lamfear also is near the top of my list as a potential mother of my Devier J. Lamphear. Did she have a baby out of wedlock (she would have been 16 in 1839 and 19 in 1842) or by a brother of son of Isaac and Rosanna Lamfear?

The son of William Lamfire (born 1815-1820) in the 1830 census is another candidate old enough to father a child in 1839-1842.

Orran Lamfire is also old enough to father a child in that period, but not before the 1840 census. However, I think that the Orrin Lanphere in Warren County, Illinois in the 1850 census is the Orran in Lorraine in 1830 and 1840, with children born in 1838/9 and 1841/2. Haven't proved this, of course!

So now I have identified several potential parents for my Devier J. Lamphear in Lorraine. There are probably more potential parents to identify, especially if I expand the search to all of Jefferson County and even the three neighbor counties.

Your comments and ideas are welcome! I will capture all of them and discuss them in a future post.

Addendum: I posted corrections to the three 1830 "Lmfrie" entries in Lorraine to Ancestry.com last night, and will correct the 1850 "Samfear" entries today. I hope the Ancestry.com system doesn't bog down because of my efforts!

1 comment:

Patti said...

That's great you made some progress!