It's Saturday Night,
time for more Genealogy Fun!!
For this week's mission (should you decide to accept it), I challenge you to:
1) The Family History Hound listed 20 Questions about your Ancestor, and I'm going to use some of them in the next few months.
2) Please answer the question - "What was the biggest surprise you found about an ancestor?"
3) Write your own blog post, make a comment on this post, or post your answer on Facebook or Google+. Please leave a link to your answer in comments on this post.
My response:
My biggest surprise doing research on my ancestors was that Devier James Smith (1839-1894) was adopted by Ranslow and Mary (Bell) Smith in about 1840 in Jefferson County, New York.
I initially found this out when I Googled Devier Smith's names as "Smith Devier" in 2007 using a "last name first" search. I was surprised to see the following on the http://www.rootsweb.com/~wiwaupac/Misc/M1.htm web site:
NAME = SMITH, Devier J. [changed from] LAMPHIER, Devier
COUNTY = Dodge
SOURCE = PrivDATE = 1866/Mar/21
I went to the Wisconsin State Historical Society in 2011 and found the Wisconsin State Senate act that change his name, but there was other supporting information.
Then I found his adoptive father's will from 1865 - it says, in part:
"Third. I hereby give, devise and bequeath unto
Devere J. Lamphear, Commonly called Devere J.
Smith, my adopted son, all the rest and residue
of my real and personal property of every name
and nature whatsoever, except the above named
Legacy:..."
That cinched the deal - it is obvious that Devier J. Lamphier was adopted by Ranslow and Mary (Bell) Smith as a child. When Ranslow Smtih wrote his will in 1865, he had not changed his name yet, and did so soon after his adoptive father's will was written.
I had been researching the ancestry of his parents, and had found a significant Hudson River Valley Dutch ancestry for Mary Bell; I had to excise that part of my ancestry and try to find a Lamphier/Lamphear/Lanphere/Lanfear ancestry for Devier. I'm still looking!
==============================================
The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/07/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-what-was.html
Copyright (c) 2017, 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.
