Names, Places and Most Wanted Faces

I haven't been writing nearly as much as I'd like, so here's a good time to jump back in: Thomas MacEntee has suggested that bloggers revive the Names, Places and Most Wanted Faces blogging meme from Craig Manson of GeneaBlogie. Thomas explains how it works:

"To participate, do the following at your own blog and post a link back here in the comments:

1. List your surnames in alphabetical order as follows:

[SURNAME]: State/Province (county/subdivision), date range

2. At the end, list your Most Wanted Ancestor with details!"

So, here are mine:

1.

ATTANUCCI: Campania, Italy (Pastorano, province of Caserta), 1840-1900

AZZOLINO: Campania, Italy (Pastorano, province of Caserta), 1840-1900

BOEHM: Hessen, Germany, 1786-1840; Pennsylvania (Allegheny County) 1840-present

BOYD: Pennsylvania (Allegheny County), 1800-1900

BRENTON/BRINTON: Pennsylvania (Washington County), 1740-present

BROCK: Ohio, 1820-1850; Pennsylvania (Washington County), 1850-1900; West Virginia (Marion County), 1895-present

DAVIES: Pennsylvania (Beaver County), 1919-present

DURKIN: Pennsylvania (Centralia, Columbia County), 1860-1940

ELLER: Pennsylvania (Beaver, Lawrence and Fayette counties), 1860-present

FERGUSON: Pennsylvania (Fayette and Westmoreland counties), 1880-1930

FRITSCHLE: Baden, Germany, 1785-1852;

FRITZLEY: Pennsylvania (Allegheny and Beaver counties), 1852-present

HAYES: Ireland, 1820-1870; Pennsylvania (Beaver County), 1870-present

KANE: Pennsylvania (Centralia, Columbia County), 1880-1971

MERALILLO: Campania, Italy (Pastorano, province of Caserta), 1830-1920

MUSCIANESE: Campania, Italy (Pastorano, province of Caserta), 1820-1921

OVERAND: Scotland (Lanarkshire), 1836-1863; Pennsylvania (Allegheny and Westmoreland counties), 1863-1940

SWIFT: Pennsylvania (Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties), 1820-1953

TEMPLIN: Pennsylvania (Allegheny County), 1905-present

WAGNER: Bavaria, Germany (Schedendorf), 1860-1923

WRIGHT: Pennsylvania (Washington County), 1840-1910

2. Most Wanted Ancestor:
Charlotte DUBREE/DUEBEL
b. abt. 1885 in Arkansas
m. abt. 1905 to William TEMPLIN
d. probably between 1920 and 1930
Lived in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

SNGF - My Matrilineal Line

I am trying to get back into posting regularly after a long absence, as life has been extra...interesting...lately. I am working on a few things at the moment, aside from client work. I'm currently doing research for an article about the Crawford Expedition, in which I'm fairly sure my ancestor was a prominent participant.

In the meantime, I thought I'd jump back in here with something fun. Randy at Genea-Musings posted this challenge:

"Hey genealogy buffs - it's Saturday Night again -- time for more Genealogy Fun!!
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) List your matrilineal line - your mother, her mother, etc. back to the first identifiable mother. Note: this line is how your mitochondrial DNA was passed to you!

2) Tell us if you have had your mitochondrial DNA tested, and if so, which Haplogroup you are in.

3) Post your responses on your own blog post, in Comments to this blog post, or in a Status line on Facebook or in your Stream at Google Plus.

4) If you have done this before, please do your father's matrilineal line, or your grandfather's matrilineal line, or your spouse's matrilineal line.

5) Does this list spur you to find distant cousins that might share one of your matrilineal lines?"

Here's my matrilineal line:

a) My mother, Laura, whose maiden name was Fritzley.
b) Helen Ada Brenton (1924 Brownsville, PA - 2008 Pittsburgh, PA), married William Fritzley.
c) Gertrude Ada Swift (1903 Scottsdale, PA - 1953 Brownsville, PA), married Everett Brenton.
d) Delilah Ferguson (1872 Mount Pleasant, PA - 1936 Mount Pleasant), married Robert Swift.
These next two generations are unverified; many online family trees have them, but I haven't found anything to support them yet other than a few census records.
e) Catherine Pletcher (1832 Westmoreland County, PA - 1895 Bullskin, PA), married George W. Ferguson.
f) Phoebe Nichols (1802 Liberty, PA - 1872 Ruffsdale, PA), married David Pletcher.

I intend on having my mitochondrial DNA tested as soon as I can save up for it, and I'm very much looking forward to the results.

This line is one that I don't have much information about past my great-great grandmother, Delilah (Ferguson) Swift. I know there must be many, many distant cousins out there, and I hope to find more of them soon!

Sorting Out Contradictions in Ancestry.com Member Trees

There's been a delay in posting the next generation in my Brenton family study, because I've run into some problems. My last post was about Isaac and Jane Brenton. I have Isaac's parents as Joseph Brenton and Louisa Hair. On Ancestry.com, there are at least 10 public member trees that include Joseph and Louisa. All of them contain conflicting information. I'm currently going through all of them and sorting out the conflicts.

I'm having some trouble figuring out how to handle this via the blogosphere. What should I post regarding public member trees on Ancestry?

The bottom line is that I will have to spend some more time writing this report, since there are many conflicts to resolve. I will also be contacting the owners of the trees once I do that, so that we can (hopefully) work together to figure out the facts regarding our common ancestors.

One-Line Study - Isaac Brenton

On Saint Patrick's Day, I wrote about my great-great-great grandparents, Isaac and Jane (Johnston) Brenton. That post covered my Irish roots via Jane. Today, I'm going to continue with my one-line study with Isaac Brenton (father of Johnston P. Brenton).

Isaac was born about 1830 in East Pike Run, Washington County, Pennsylvania^1-5. He worked on the family farm there when he was young, along with a few of his siblings^3-4. I am not sure when he married Jane. I do have a general idea - their first child (that I know of) was born in 1859⁶, so they were probably married before that. Jane would have been about 20 in 1859⁷, so most likely only a few years before that at most. Knowing when Jane immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland would help to narrow the date further, but I am having trouble finding those immigration records due to Jane's common name.

So far, I know of nine children that Isaac and Jane had together. The 1910 Federal census indicates that Jane had 9 children, and that 7 of them were still living at that time⁸. As I indicated in the last post, two of their children (J.P. and William) opened a very successful butcher shop together in West Brownsville, Washington, PA⁵. Three of their children (J.P., Henry and Mary Louise) married, settled nearby, and had children. James, William, Emily and Elizabeth never married^9-11. They lived together and helped support each other in West Brownsville area, not far from their brother J.P. and his wife Lena.⁵

Isaac, along with his brothers, were enumerated on a Civil War draft in 1863⁴, but I have not found any service records for any one of them, so I cannot tell whether any of them served. There was a space of a few years (from 1861 to 1865) where Isaac and Jane did not have any children, as far as I know. This may mean that he did serve in the war. I will continue to search for evidence of what he did during those years.

The last census on which I've found Isaac is the 1870 Federal Census¹. According to an undated, unsourced list of deaths in a 1904 directory of West Brownsville, Isaac died 11 Jul 1877¹². I haven't been able to find solid evidence to back this up, however.

I do know that Jane was enumerated on the 1880 Federal Census, living with her unmarried children in East Pike Run (perhaps on the family property there)⁹. She also lived with them in West Brownsville, according to the 1900¹⁰ and 1910⁸ Federal Censuses. In 1910, that household lived a few houses away from Isaac and Jane's daughter Mary Louise and her husband David Watkins⁸. Jane died on 24 Mar 1918 in West Brownsville, and was buried in Bridgeport Cemetery in Brownsville, Fayette County, PA⁷.

I hope to find some other death records soon to verify Isaac's death date, as well as some property or tax records to tell me a little more about Isaac. A search for his will came up empty. The best source I have for the details of Isaac's life is a few sentences from Joseph McFarland's 20th Century History of the City of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens⁵:

Isaac Brenton, also a native of East Pike Run Township, was born on the farm on which his father, Joseph Brenton, a native of Virginia, settled at an early period. He married Jane Johnston, who was born in Ireland, and came to this country during her girlhood days, with her parents, Thomas Johnston and wife...

This is a good start, but all of the statements need to be further verified. Also, the account is a little suspect (expected for secondary information like this), since part of it is not correct; that is that Joseph Brenton, Isaac's father, was a native of Virginia. I am confident that Joseph Brenton was not from Virginia. His wife was most likely from Virginia, and that is probably where the mix-up occurred. The Brenton family, generations before, did briefly live in Virginia, but they had always lived in the same area. There was a heated border dispute between Pennsylvania and Virginia, so that many people in what is now Western Pennsylvania were not sure exactly whether they lived in Pennsylvania or Virginia at a given time. This has made land record research for that time especially fun (i.e. complicated). I will detail this further with the information I have gathered about Isaac's parents (and grandparents) in the next few posts.

(Sources below the cut).

One-Line Study - Johnston Playford Brenton

Last week's post continued my one-line study of my Brenton ancestors with my great-grandfather, Everett Mansell Brenton. I'm going to write summaries of my progress so far in a "Brenton Study" page on the blog soon.

The next ancestor in my study is Johnston Playford Brenton, Everett's father and my great-great grandfather.

 J.P.'s headstone in Taylor Cemetery, Brownsville, Fayette, PA. Courtesy of Joseph Howard Matthews.

Johnston (J.P.) was born in Pennsylvania on 28 Feb 1859 to Isaac Brenton and Jane K. Johnston (Brenton)1-3. He was their oldest child (as far as I know) and it seems that his parents gave him his mother's maiden name as his given name4 - a bit unusual, as it was more traditional to give a child his/her mother's maiden name as a middle name.

He resided in Washington County for his most of his lifetime. His father owned a farm in East Pike Run township, and he worked as a farmhand there in his youth5. On 1 Oct 1896, he married Lena Wright, also of Washington County (West Brownsville)6. This marriage was the focus of the post "Did J.P. and Lena Elope?" as I (still) don't know why they married in Marion County, West Virginia when they had no known connections there (and they were both over 21 at the time of their marriage). They had 7 children together, as mentioned in the last post: Everett, Bessie, Mary Virginia, Sara, one child still living, and two children who died very young (Emery and Robert).

For a few years in the early 1900s, J.P. and his brothers owned Brenton Brothers Meat Market in West Brownsville7-11, where he and Lena moved after they married. Unfortunately, it seems from "street view" on Google Maps that the market is no longer there.

Around 1919, Lena became ill with tuberculosis, and she and J.P. (along with 3 of their daughters) moved to Los Angeles to seek treatment12-14. While in Los Angeles, J.P. (around 60 years old then) worked as a laborer in a tire plant. Lena succumbed to her illness in 1924, at age 5515.

J.P. himself became ill around 192616, and moved back to Washington County around the same time. He  moved in with his daughter Bessie and her husband Addison Wise in North Bethlehem17. On 7 Apr 1931, J.P. died at age 7218 and was buried in the family plot in Taylor Cemetery (pictured above).

Next week, J.P.'s father Isaac...

(Sources below).

One-Line Study - Everett Mansell Brenton

First, a little background: in a previous post, I discussed studying the Brenton line of my family in preparation for my BCG portfolio (a study focusing on my direct ancestry). The beginning of that that study was my grandmother, Helen (Brenton) Fritzley, who was born 28 Mar 1924 to Everett Brenton and Gertrude (Swift) Brenton in Brownsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. She was the focus of the post linked above.

This post goes forward in the study with the next ancestor in the Brenton line: Everett Mansell Brenton, my great-grandfather.

Everett's headstone in Taylor Cemetery, Brownsville, Fayette, PA. Courtesy of Joseph Howard Matthews.

Everett Brenton was born 18 Apr 1898 in West Brownsville, Washington County, PA.^1-5 His parents were Johnston Brenton and Lena (Wright) Brenton.^1-5 He went to school with some of his siblings in Bentleyville, a nearby town.⁶ His World War I draft card describes him as being tall with a medium build, brown hair and blue eyes.⁴ For most of his life, he was a brakeman on the railroad, like many men in the West Brownsville area.^4,5,7 In fact, the town of West Brownsville has train tracks running down Main Street.⁸

Everett had four sisters: Bessie Irene^2,3,5, Mary Virginia³, Sarah Jane^3,5, and a sister who is still living. He had two brothers who died very young: Emery and Robert Clayton, who are also buried in Taylor Cemetery.

When Everett was 22, he eloped on 11 Sep 1920 with 17-year-old Gertrude Ada Swift to Cumberland, Maryland⁹, where (it so happens) minors did not need parental consent to marry. Gertrude's parents were well-regarded in the Brownsville community (connected by bridge to West Brownsville). It seems Gertrude was unable to get their consent to marry Everett.⁹

Remember kids, listen to your parents.

Everett and Gertrude's marriage did not end well - I will spare the details, as some of Everett's close family is still living. They separated in 1932, and their divorce was finalized in 1934. They had 5 children, who Gertrude supported after the divorce with the help of her mother, Delilah Swift.⁹

As far as I know, Everett never remarried. He continued to work on the railroad, as a brakeman and later a conductor^9-12. He remained in the Brownsville area until his death in 1965, at the age of 66.¹² He was buried in the same cemetery as his father and siblings.

(Sources below).

Sláinte agus táinte this Saint Patrick's Day!

Since it's Saint Patrick's Day, I thought I'd take a side-step from the Brenton line to talk about some of my Irish relatives.

Only a small step, since my great-great-great grandfather, Isaac Brenton, married Jane K Johnston, an Irish woman. Jane was born around September 1839 in Ireland (according to the 1900 census), probably Northern Ireland. I don't know exactly when she immigrated, nor when she married Isaac, but I do know that she gave birth to her first child (that I know of), my great-great grandfather, Johnston Playford Brenton, on 28 Feb 1859, in East Pike Run, Washington County, Pennsylvania (according to his obituary). Isaac and Jane had seven children besides Johnston. On the 1870 census, a Thomas Johnston lived with Isaac and Jane. He is probably Jane's father, since he was 73 years old on that census, and Jane named her first son Johnston. Isaac does not appear with the family on the 1880 census, so I think that he died between 1870 and 1880. Jane would live in Washington County with her family until sometime between 1910 and 1920. She does not appear on the 1920 census; I am presuming for now that she died sometime in between those censuses.

Unfortunately, though, most of my information on Jane comes from census records. Since she and her father had such a common surname, I will have to use some different strategies to find more information than "the Johnston family from Northern Ireland." Since Jane was born around 1839, and immigrated before 1859, it seems possible that she and her father were affected by the Great Famine; but, I'll still have gather some more details on the two before a search of those records would be effective. I'm tempted to go off and do that now; but one line at a time! Hopefully gathering more information on Isaac and their children will tell more of Jane Johnston's story.

The Beginning of My One-Line Study - Helen Ada (Brenton) Fritzley

So, as I prepare my portfolio for BCG, I am also using this as an opportunity to apply for membership in the Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society's First Families of Western Pennsylvania. In order to be included, you must prove that your ancestors lived in "what is now Western Pennsylvania (the 26 counties west of Centre County) before 31 Dec 1810." Most of my ancestors in the Brenton line lived in Washington and Fayette counties, and it seems from my initial research that they have lived there since well before 1810.

But let's start at the beginning of my study. My name is Sarah Danielle Boehm, and I was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So was my mother, Laura (Fritzley) Boehm. Her parents were William Frederic Joseph (Bill) Fritzley and Helen Ada (Brenton) Fritzley. Helen was a remarkable woman. She had 6 children with Bill, the oldest and the youngest (my mom) 17 years apart. They survived well on a policeman's salary, occasionally supplemented by Helen through several different jobs. Here's my grandmother, my mother, and me at a New Year's Eve party:

 

Gramma Fritzley, as I called Helen, was the most selfless, understanding and generous person I've ever met. She was truly our matriarch. Her chief concern was always the happiness of her children and grandchildren. No one could host a family gathering like my gramma. She rarely had a bad thing to say about anyone, and I've never met anyone with a negative thing to say about her. She died in 2008, at the age of 83. Our entire family, and her wide circle of friends, were devastated.

What makes her even more remarkable is that she had a very difficult upbringing. Her parents were Gertrude Ada (Swift) Brenton and Everett Mansell Brenton. Besides Helen, they had two daughters and two sons, only one of whom is still living. The family lived in Brownsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. They were very poor, even before Everett left the family in 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, when Helen was 8. Her parents' divorce was granted in 1934. How Gertrude managed to raise 5 children by herself at this time is a mystery to me, but I do know I admire her greatly for it. Gertrude went on to remarry and have two more daughters. Gertrude died, only 50 years old, in 1953.

Helen met Bill when he came home to Pittsburgh after serving in the Army in World War II. He showed up at my grandma's apartment, intending to ask out one of her friends, but Helen informed him that she wasn't there. Bill decided to ask my beautiful grandmother out instead. Here they are on their first date (the couple on the left):

They married in 1946 and settled in Pittsburgh. They were married for 52 years, until Bill passed away in 1998. I miss them both every day.

Next: The story of Everett Mansell Brenton...

Did J.P. and Lena Elope?

I am preparing a one-line study of my Brenton ancestors, to prepare for my BCG certification. I am confident that my great-grandfather was Everett Brenton, through the personal statements of my grandmother, Helen (Brenton) Fritzley, as well as other secondary evidence, which I will detail as I go further into this study.

Recently, I was searching for marriage records for my great-great-grandparents, Johnston Playford "J.P" Brenton and Lena Leotta Wright. They were Everett's parents. Johnston is (I believe) an interesting example of a child receiving his mother's maiden name as his first name, although he is sometimes referred to in census records, etc. as Johnson. Through FamilySearch, I found that the West Virginia Division of Culture and History had Johnston and Lena's marriage record, in the West Virginia Archives and History's Vital Records database. They were married 1 Oct 1896, in Marion County, West Virginia.

This raises some interesting questions in my research. Both J.P. and Lena were born and raised in Washington County, Pennsylvania. Their parents (as far as I can tell) lived in Pennsylvania for all or most their lives. Why would two people get married in West Virginia when they had no connections there? Did they elope? What other reasons could there be?

Surname Saturday - Brenton Family of Western Pennsylvania

I will have to break my promise to make my next post about my genealogy classes. The reason for this, along with my long gap in blogging, are school-related and will be explained in my next post. I'm waiting to hear back from a source at the moment.

On to the surname Brenton:
I do not know from what country my branch of the Brenton family immigrated to the United States. However, Ancestry.com indicates that most people with that name immigrated from England or Ireland. Since my first ancestor that I know of with this name lived in Pennsylvania in the late 18th century, I believe it is more likely that they came from England. Ancestry.com's surname search indicates that the surname Brenton mostly likely originates from a settlement of that name near Exminster in southern Britain.

This is my ancestry as to the Brenton family:

Surname Saturday - The Fritzley Family of Germany and Pennsylvania

This Surname Saturday, I'm reaching out for some help with my family line. I've had a great deal of trouble finding information on the origin on the surname Fritzley. This is my maternal grandfather's last name. His father's last name was Fritzler, on the ship manifest from Germany, as well as some census records, but I'm not sure if this was his last name in Germany, or if it was shortened when he immigrated (a common situation among immigrants to the United States at the time). According to Ancestry.com's surname search, Fritzler is “patronymic from a pet form of Fritz,” which in turn is a pet form of the name Friedrich. I have not yet found any other sources to verify that this is the origin of Fritzley. Ancestry.com indicates that Friedrich comes from Germanic words for “peace” and “power” - a very interesting combination indeed. I haven't met a lot of other Fritzleys. My line of the Fritzley family has lived in Pennsylvania since they immigrated from Germany, as far as I can tell. If you have any other information about this surname that you would be willing to share, I would be very appreciative.

Here is my line of the Fritzley family: