Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:
It's Saturday Night again -
Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!
Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along - cue the Mission Impossible music!):
1) Who is one of your most elusive ancestors? What research have you done to identify him or her? What research do you need to do?
2) Write your own blog post, or leave a comment on this post, or write something on Facebook.
The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2023/09/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-elusive.html
Here's mine:
My most elusive ancestors are the biological parents of my 2nd great-grandfather, Devier James Lamphier AKA Smith (born 7 May 1839). He was adopted by Ranslow and Mary (Bell) Smith of Henderson, Jefferson County, New York in the 1840 time frame. The Ranslow Smith family moved to Dodge County, Wisconsin in the 1840s. Ranslow Smith's 1866 will, and an 1866 name change in the Wisconsin state senate document that Devier's birth surname was "Lamphier" or "Lamphere."
There were Lanfear families in Jefferson county, New York in the 1820 to 1850 census records. I have investigated all of them, and the most likely candidate for a parent of Devier is a child of Isaac Lanfear (1777-1851) and Rosina (Lown) Lanfear (1781-1881) of Lorraine, Jefferson county, New York. Lorraine is two towns away from Henderson. Isaac and Rosina had at least ten children, and I have researched all of them to some extent. I have DNA matches on AncestryDNA and MyHeritageDNA with persons who have Isaac and Rosina Lanfear as ancestors.
My hypothesis is that one of the daughters of Isaac and Rosina Lanfear is the mother of Devier, and gave him up for adoption. Of Isaac and Rosina's children, their daughters Polly (1817-1908, married Nelson Muzzy in 1846), Eleanor Lanfear (1818-1902, married Lester Loveland in 1843), and Malinda Lanfear (1823-1905, unmarried) are the three candidates for an out-of-wedlock birth of Devier in May 1839. I think Malinda Lanfear is the most likely candidate since she was age 16 in May 1839 and never married.
What do I need to do next? I should try to find obituaries of all of the children of Isaac and Rosina (Lown) Lanfear, and especially those who might be Devier's parent. Perhaps there are clues in the obituaries. I should try to find probate records of all of the children of Isaac and Rosina.
What about the father? I need to review my DNA matches on AncestryDNA and 23andMe and MyHeritageDNA to find candidate surnames that lived in or around Lorraine, Jefferson county, New York in the 1840 time frame. Because the parents are third great-grandparents of me, I don't expect DNA matches to have more than 30 or 40 centiMorgans of shared DNA (i.e., 0 to about 0.6% of my DNA). Because I don't know the father's surname, I don't have any ThruLines on AncestryDNA yet. I need to search my DNA matches for persons who resided in Lorraine and catalog the potential surnames, hoping that several DNA matches share a surname from a family in Lorraine, New York.
That's my plan, and I need to get started on it!
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5 comments:
My elusive ancestor is my husband's great grandfather, which shouldn't be so difficult. He was born ca. 1840 and I know the name of the town Hardenbeck - a town of 200 people. When my husband's gr-grandmother, Julianne Ambellan (b. 1845), came to the US she was a widow. The family history told by all 5 of her children including my husband's grandmother Anna Ambellan Schattner was that her father was in the military and away alot. I found all five marriage and death certificates, and the father's name was never the same. It was Johann or Frederick and others. I thought, "Gee, he's gone so much, they don't even know his name." Anyway, the light bulb moment was when I was able to see their baptism records. In each one, it was Julianne's father, who came to the minister to ask for baptism, because she was unmarried - for all FIVE children. Ambellan is Julianne's maiden name. I tried to find a Johann or a Frederick who was the right age in the Hardenbeck baptism records. Actually we don't even know if the children had the same father. Maybe DNA will solve this. I'm waiting!
My elusive ancestor is my husband's great grandfather, which shouldn't be so difficult. He was born ca. 1840 and I know the name of the town Hardenbeck - a town of 200 people. When my husband's gr-grandmother, Julianne Ambellan (b. 1845), came to the US she was a widow. The family history told by all 5 of her children including my husband's grandmother Anna Ambellan Schattner was that her father was in the military and away alot. I found all five marriage and death certificates, and the father's name was never the same. It was Johann or Frederick and others. I thought, "Gee, he's gone so much, they don't even know his name." Anyway, the light bulb moment was when I was able to see their baptism records. In each one, it was Julianne's father, who came to the minister to ask for baptism, because she was unmarried - for all FIVE children. Ambellan is Julianne's maiden name. I tried to find a Johann or a Frederick who was the right age in the Hardenbeck baptism records. Actually we don't even know if the children had the same father. Maybe DNA will solve this. I'm waiting!
Here's mine. I don't have much hope.
https://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2023/09/sngf-elusive-ancestor-research-sullivan.html
My elusive ancestor is my matrilineal 2nd great-grandmother.
https://geneajournalsbyapearl.wordpress.com/2023/09/02/sngf-my-elusive-ancestor/
Here is mine: https://emptybranchesonthefamilytree.com/2023/09/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-258/
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