* Making Progress on My Auble Cousins - Post 1: Finding Elizabeth's Will (25 April 2016).
* Making Progress on My Auble Cousins - Post 2: Transcription of Elizabeth Auble's Will (28 April 2016)
* Making Progress on My Auble Cousins - Post 3: Identifying Elizabeth Auble's Heirs (29 April 2016)
In this post, I will discuss the major challenge that I found with the heirs of Elizabeth Auble named in her 1893 will.
1) Elizabeth Auble identified her nephew, William H. Auble, son of her brother, William Auble, as one of her heirs.
The only information I had about William Auble before finding the will of Elizabeth was a newspaper article published in 1899 in the Sussex [N.J.] Register newspaper. The article was highlighting articles from about 55 years before. The highlighted article said:
"From "The Register" for 10 September 1844:
"William Auble, a native of Sussex, and a brother to David Auble, stabbed to death during a quarrel in Philadelphia, by two brothers, who sang obscene songs as Auble was returning from a party with ladies. Auble had a loaded pistol, but did not use it. The deceased and the men who sent him to an untimely grave were intimate acquaintances, and but for improper use of strong drink the trouble never would have occurred."
Source citation:
Newspaper Clippings from the Sussex Register, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), page 54, citing original data from The Register, 1897-1899.
David Auble was identified as a brother to William Auble in this article, David Auble was named as a brother to Elizabeth Auble in her will, and Elizabeth Auble was named as a sister to David Auble in David's obituary. The relationships are defined consistently.
No problem right? One logical conclusion might be "So William Auble and an unknown woman must have had a son William H. Auble before he died in 1844."
2) Then I found a guardianship record for William H. Auble in 1862 in the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Orphan's Court records:
The transcription of this document is:
"The petition of William Henry Auble by himself and his father William Auble of
Abington Township in said County:
Was presented setting forth:
That the said William Henry Auble is a
minor son above the age of fourteen years of the said William Auble & Tamson Auble.
The said Tamson having deceased leaving an Estate of which the said William Henry
Auble is entitled to a share or interest in and has no person legally authorized to
take charge of said interest or to see after the same.
And therefore praying the Court to permit him to make choice of
some suitable person as Guardian to take charge of his said Estate.
Whereupon May 20'th 1862 J Elwood Conly was chosen and
by the Court appointed Guardian agreeably to the prayer of the petitioner."
The source citation for this document is:
Pennsylvania Wills and Probate Records, 1683-1993, indexed records and digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 3 May 2016), Montgomery County > Orphans Court Dockets, Vol 13-15,1857-1866, Volume 14, page 149 (image 534 of 1066), William Henry Auble petition for guardianship.
This Guardianship document states clearly that William Henry Auble is age 14 in 1862, and is the son of William and Tamson Auble, and that Tamson has died. Is this the same William H. Auble named in Elizabeth's will, son of William Auble. I think it is.
3) Then I found an 1860 census record for the William Auble household in Abington, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania:
The extracted information is:
In the 1860 United States Census, the William Auble household resided in Abington, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The household included:
* William Auble - age 51, male, a farmer, $10,000 in real property, $1,000 in personal property, born Pennsylvania
* Harriet Auble - age 40, female, born Pennsylvania
* Henry W. Auble - age 12, male, born Pennsylvania
The source citation for this record is:
1860 United States Federal Census, Population Schedule, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Abington, page 48, dwelling #361, family #354, William Auble household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M653, Roll 1143.
4) And then I found an 1850 U.S. Census record for the William Auble family:
The extracted information from this record is:
In the 1850 United States Census, the William Auble household resided in Philadelphia South Mulberry Ward, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. The household included:
* William Auble - age 40, male, a tavern keeper, born New Jersey
* Mary Auble - age 30, female, born Pennsylvania
* William Auble - age 2, male, born Pennsylvania
* Edward Keyser - age 38, male, bar keeper, born Pennsylvania
* Elizabeth O'Brien - age 25, female, domestic, born Ireland
The source citation for this record is:
1850 United States Federal Census, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Philadelphia South Mulberry Ward, page 235A, dwelling #253, family #300, William Auble household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, Roll 815.
5) In the 1870 U.S. Census, William Auble and his family are residing in Camden, Camden County, New Jersey:
The extracted information is:
In the 1870 United States Census, the William Auble household resided in Camden Middle Ward, Camden County, New Jersey. The household included:
* William Auble - age 62, male, white, $1000 in personal property, born New Jersey
* Harriet Auble - age 47, female, white, $1000 in personal property, born Pennsylvania
* William H. Auble - age 21, male, white, a conveyancer, $10,000 in real property, born Pennsylvania, married in March of last year
* Eleanor T. Auble - age 21, female, white, born Pennsylvania, married in March of last year
* Elizabeth McCuen - age 24, female, white, domestic servant, born Ireland
The source citation for this record is:
1870 United States Federal Census, Population Schedule, Camden County, New Jersey, Camden Middle Ward, page 378A, dwelling # 498, family #560, William Auble household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing Nationaol Archives Microfilm Publication M593, Roll 856.
There are census records for William H. Auble for 1880, 1900, and 1910. There are no further census records for William Auble.
Notice that William Auble had #10,000 in real property in the 1860 U.S. Census, but William H. Auble has $10,000 in real property in the 1870 U.S. Census? My hypothesis is that this is the inheritance from William Auble's wife Tamson named in the guardianship record.
6) There is a wealth of conflicting information in these records. The wives of William Auble seem to be:
* Mary A. from the 1850 U.S. Census.
* Harriet from the 1860 and 1870 U.S. Census.
* Tamson from the 1862 Guardianship record.
My hypothesis is that Tamson was the first wife of William Auble, the mother of William H. Auble, and may be the woman named Mary A. in the 1850 U.S. Census. She died before 1860, leaving real estate to her son, William H. Auble (which William listed in the 1860 U.S. census). After Tamson/Mary died, William Auble married Harriet before the 1860 census.
7) There are no death records available online for William Auble (before 1880?), Harriet Auble (before 1880?) or Tamson/Mary Auble (before 1860). There are no probate records for any of them, at least in the Ancestry.com probate index for Pennsylvania (I have looked for but not found records in Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties).
8) From the three available census records, it appears that William Auble, the father of William H. Auble, was born between 1807 and 1810.
But is this the William Auble who was the brother of David Auble and Elizabeth Auble, supposedly killed in a fight in 1844? It is apparent to me that William H. Auble of Philadelphia and Camden is the nephew of Elizabeth Auble as stated in the will. That makes, I think, William Auble, the father of William H. Auble in the 1850, 1860 and 1870 census records, and the Guardianship record, the brother of Elizabeth.
But what about the death notice in the newspaper? My hypothesis is that the article was about the brother of David and Elizabeth Auble, but that he survived the attack. There may have been a subsequent article in the Philadelphia newspapers and/or the Newton, N.J. newspaper, about it, but the issues have not been digitized, or at least I haven't found them on Ancestry, GenealogyBank, NewspaperARCHIVE, or Chronicling America.
9) I don't have answers to this puzzle yet. My hypothesis is that the William Auble of the newspaper article and of the guardianship and the census records and the will of Elizabeth Auble is one person. There are no others of the same name (William/Wm, Auble, Able, Aubel, Abel, etc.) or the same birth years (born 1807-1810) in the records or family trees on Ancestry.com. The FamilySearch profile for William Auble is from my research with the death article.
What do my readers think? What other resources should I consult for this problem?
UPDATE: 5 May 2016 - See Making Progress on My Auble Cousins -- Post 6: Solving the William Auble Challenge for the solution to this challenge.
Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver
Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.
6 comments:
I am not convinced that Mary A. was the same person as Tamson.
The guardianship record does not exclude the possibility that Tamson had older children.
You say, "She died before 1860, leaving real estate to her son, William H. Auble . . . ." You are referring to Mary A. there, but the "leaving real estate to her son" there applies equally to Tamson. The term "leaving" suggests that Tamson made a will and had the land in her own right. I think both notions are unproven. She could have died intestate. How *did* Tamson get the land? Are there later deeds conveying it that give more of the story?
Could Tamson have had just a pass-through right from one of her parents or a sibling or aunt/uncle? We have seen wills devising property strictly to a child and upon that child's death to his/her children. Or devising directly to a niece/nephew or grandchild. The guardianship petition need not have explained any such pesky details, and may have had one or two factual problems, such as the implication that Tamson had actual control over disposition of the land.
Some County organizations have legatee indexes, but most of these are not accessible on-line or indexed for search engines to pick up. However, I do think a long-shot search just for the name Tamson in the Ancestry and FamilySearch estate databases might be fruitful.
Good hunting!
If I were confronted with the record set you describe, my first hypothesis would be that I was looking at more than one family group. You don't indicate what occupations were listed in the 1870 census, but having many Pennsylvania farmers in my ancestry, they generally don't move around that much, or change their occupations. Occasionally, yes, but statistically rarely. Researching deeds for the various William Auble family groups might help determine whether property sales and purchases followed a consistent timeline or not.
You mention looking for probate records on Ancestry, but FamilySearch has many of (all?) the same probate records, including index books not susceptible to the sort of transcription errors in Ancestry's indexes. You mention Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties, I would have added Delaware County, Pa. (possibly Bucks, too) and Camden County, NJ.
FamilySearch also has Philadelphia City death records back to the early 1800s, although possibly not complete.
If William Auble's attackers were arrested and charged, there should be a docket record and possible case file in the Philadelphia criminal court. Unfortunately, these records are located at the Philadelphia City Archives, and apparently not available via e-mail or postal mail request.
Good points from Geolover and Darren on this challenge. Thank you. They show the value of collaborating before a writeup of the problem!
I think that the Tamzah (or Tamson) estate left real estate to her son, William H. Auble, who was a minor in 1860 (when his father William Auble had $10,000 in real property in the census), and who was newly married in the 1870 census with $10,000 in real property. One hypothesis is that when Tamzah/Tamson died before 1860 that the family moved to Montgomery County to the land inherited by the son, and the father was listed as a farmer, and then moved back to Philly by 1870.
I have searched for other persons named William Auble from the 1770 to 1850 time frame, and have several in my database. But none are born in the 1805-1815 time frame except this William Auble, apparent father of William H. Auble. There is another William Auble in York County born in the 1820s who has a Civil War pension and had a family in York.
FamilySearch does not have Philadelphia County probates. Ancestry does, but does not have Tamzah/Tamson listed in their index (which is probably incomplete). I searched the Administrations index and did not find her, but did see the William H. Auble guardianship listed. In Montgomery County, I searched the probate file index and found no Auble/Able folks with these names.
There may be land records for the property which may have been sold before 1880, but I need to search FHL microfilm for that. Likewise with the court records.
Thanks again -- Randy
The Philadelphis Records Dept has a Grantor / Grantee index online (very clunky--just images of the handwritten original). I can't cut and paste easily from my phone, but search for "iCris". Working from memory here, so some details may be wrong. Long text page, scroll down and click Agree / Acknowledge (or similar). New page opens, in left column is a link to Historical Something or other. Click that, new page opens. Grantor / Grantee indexes are on left, drill down to right time period and letter combination. File names are, e.g., A W, which indicates last name begins with A, first name begins with W. Click on the ones you're interested in, and everything that fits the A W criteria will be there, in chronological not alphabetical order. It won't help with MontgCo, but is very useful for Phila. HTH. Claire Keenan
Here's the site. http://philadox.phila.gov/picris/splash.jsp
More, the Historical Index is the free / no registration required part of the site. More recent records are behind a wall. Claire
The PhilaDox index is very cool - thanks! The direct link to the historical deed index is http://philadox.phila.gov/phillyhistoricalindex/index.html
Although the nav index on the left is broken down by individual years, it looks like each index page covers a fair range of years for a given S-G pair (surname-given name). It's just the index, but it lists the date, book and page of the deed itself.
If you go to the grantor index for 1683 "P W", you can see William Penn among the grantors. Although, oddly, they don't seem to be the earliest deeds in the books.
Cyndi's list doesn't seem to have this link, although she does have a link to a site that reportedly has images of the deeds themselves (for a $100/yr subscription fee):
http://phila-records.com/historic-records/web/
Post a Comment