Ernest Justus Hancock

Edward, Earnest, and James Hancock
No date on the photo, but must be in the early to mid 1860s

This is part 3 of my series on my great-great grandparents. Ernest Justus "E.J." Hancock, and his wife, Julia Etta Kinney, could not have been more different from the subjects of my first two posts, David and Jennie (Brattain) Dean, although their children married. The Deans and Brattains were descendants of Midwestern farmers, from families that been earlier colonizers of the areas that had been conquered from Native peoples in Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa. In some cases, earlier generations of Deans/Brattains had left the South because of their opposition to slavery. The Brattains, for example, were original Quaker. Some members of both families were active members of the abolitionist movement. Although their lineages included Revolutionary War soldiers and other brave and resourceful men and women, they didn't come from a background of particular wealth or fame.

The Hancocks and Kinneys, on the other hand, came from older and more patrician stock. They were descendants of the Jamestown and Plymouth colonists, respectively, with all of the positives and negatives such descent implies. Ernest and Julia met and married in the state of Washington, as some of the first members of their family to leave Virginia or New England.

Ned, Ammon, Ernest, Charlotte, and Lilly Hancock
Around 1865 (Lilly was born May 1864)

Ernest Justus "E.J." Hancock was born November 24, 1854, in Lynchburg, Virginia, the son of Ammon Goode and Elizabeth Charlotte (Hewitt) Hancock. I won't write much about his childhood because I discussed his father in great detail in an earlier post. Suffice to say, he was born seven years before the start of the Civil War into a family with a tobacco factory, large tobacco plantations and, therefore, they had enslaved a large number of people. The Hancocks were wealthy. E.J.'s father had to petition President Johnson for a pardon in 1865 because he owned more than $20,000 in property. I don't know exactly how much his father was worth, but $20,000 in 1865 is worth nearly $300,000 today. In other words, the Hancocks were one of the families whose wealth was based on forced labor, who had the most to gain by keeping their workers enslaved, and who were in a position to finance the fight to maintain the slave economy. Although E.J. and his siblings were too young, and his father was apparently too old, several of their cousins were officers in the Confederate army.

Despite Gone-With-the-Wind-inspired fantasies of poor white folks devastated by war (a war, remember, that they had started because labor extracted through terror was cheaper than paying people), the Hancocks were clearly well off after the war. Undoubtedly, some of their wealth was lost, (wealth, again, extracted through violence from the bodies of enslaved people), but in 1870, they were still living in the same house, still owned the same tobacco factory, still owned at least some tobacco plantations (I'm not sure about all of them), and still employed Black servants (1). Ernest. and his brothers could afford to go to college; both Ernest and his younger brother, Ned, attended the Virginia Military Institute, matriculating in 1875. Ned graduated in 1879, but E.J. left the university without graduating and moved west to Coupeville, Washington (2).

Why did he go there? His uncle, Samuel Hancock was on Whidbey Island by 1860, and in the Pacific Northwest significantly earlier (3). Another uncle, Francis "Frank" Hancock, who was married to Hester Hewett, likely a cousin of E.J.'s mother,  lived there from 1862-1870, before moving to Stillaguamish flats (4). Presumably, the good reports from his family, and having a support network already in the region, inspired Ernest's choice of location.

Aloha Farm in 1899. The people are E.J., Julia, and Vera Hancock.
The woman in the center was a local teacher.

According to his profile in An Illustrated History of the State of Washington by Harvey Kimball Hines, (published 1893, p. 568), Ernest moved to Washington in 1879, then returned to Virginia in 1881. He apparently spent the next couple of years making arrangements for a permanent move back to Washington, which took place in 1883. He bought 45 acres on Whidbey Island and built Aloha Farm. My great-aunt Lillian, his granddaughter, wrote that the family no longer remembers why the farm was named "Aloha". E.J.'s wife, however, had some connections to Hawai'i, so it's possible that the farm got its name after their marriage.

There were plenty of racial tensions in Washington, just as there had been in Virginia. Most centered around the status of Chinese immigrants. Like many immigrant groups, the Chinese community on the west coast met with social and political barriers put up by white Americans. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the most significant anti-Chinese legislation of American history. Interestingly, Ernest denounced the Act, writing, "The Chinese, by industry, pay strict attention to their own business, and studying their employers' interest, have created a demand for their labor, and it is only justice that they be allowed to fill the demand." (6).

Justus, Virgil, and Vera Hancock, who all miraculously
survived to adulthood

Ernest married Julia Etta Kinney on March 3, 1886. Julia has a fascinating history of her own, which I'll discuss in another blog post. Genealogically speaking, though, their marriage combined the Hancock's First Families of Virginia line (going back to Jamestown) with the Kinney's Great Puritan Migration lineage (going back to the Mayflower). Ernest and Julia had four children. Their three sons were Eugene Ammon, Justus "Jut" Lee [that Lee middle name just kills me], and Virgil Kinney. Their only daughter, Vera Houghton, was my great-grandmother. 

Ernest. was clearly successful in Whidbey Island, no doubt helped along by his family's ill-gotten money. He was one of the founders of the Island County Bank of Coupeville in 1892, and elected its first vice-president. Unfortunately, the bank closed in 1893, when "the cashier absconded with the funds, spending them in the 'most disreputable dives in Seattle'" (7). The bank building itself still stands, however. Ernest also owned "an immense amount of city property, and [had] many other profitable investments" (5) in addition to Aloha Farm. 

Ernest died on August 1, 1924, in Coupeville. He was 69 years old.
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References:

1) "United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFLK-NVT : accessed 25 September 2015), S G Hancock, Virginia, United States; citing p. 62, family 468, NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 553,137.

2) VMI Roster Archives, available here: http://archivesweb.vmi.edu/rosters/index.php?LastName=Hancock&FirstName=&VMIClass=&keyword=

3) https://qmackie.com/2010/02/20/samuel-hancock-witnesses-smallpox-among-the-makah-1853/

4)  http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=98503324

5) An Illustrated History of the State of Washington by Harvey Kimball Hines, 1893, p. 568

6) quoted in Coupeville, by Judy Lynn, Kay Foss, and the Island County Historical Society.. . Arcadia Publishing, 2012.

7) Self-Guided Walking Tour of Historic Coupeville - National Park Service

Sarah Jane "Jennie" Brattain Dean

This is a continuation of my series of posts on my great-great-grandparents. Last time, I wrote about David Philip Dean. This post is about his wife, Jennie Brattain.

Sarah Jane Brattain, known as "Sally" or "Jennie", was born November 7, 1855. I had always heard the name pronounced as "Bruh-TAYN", but on-line sources suggest it's usually rhymes with "satin". I don't know if our family line pronounced it differently than others, or if her maiden name came down through the generations with an incorrect pronunciation. In the census of 1860, the family name was spelled "Bratton", suggesting the census worker, at least, heard it more like the "satin" pronunciation (1).

Jennie was the eldest child of Hiram and Louisa May Wisehart Brattain. Unlike her husband, who was born in an area that had only recently been conquered for white settlement, Jennie grew up in an area that was already well integrated into the United States. Indiana had been a state since 1816. Both of Jennie's parents had been born in Indiana and came from families that had moved there from the South in the 1820s or 30s. Family records claimed Jennie was born in Alexandria, Indiana, however, I cannot confirm that with primary documentation. Her family was living in Alexandria in 1880 (2), and perhaps they had been there at the time of her birth, but my first record of the family is in the 1860 census, when they were living in Fall Creek Township, Henry County, Indiana (1). This is where Louisa grew up and where many of her siblings lived.

Jennie was born six years before the start of the Civil War, in which her father served. Hiram Brattain joined Company F, 8th Indiana Volunteers, at the beginning of the war. Later that summer, he fought in the battle of Rich Mountain, West Virginia, where his brother-in-law, Jennie's uncle Philander Wisehart, died in his arms. His regiment mustered out of service on August 6, 1861. Hiram remained in Indiana until August of 1862 when he was commissioned as second lieutenant of Company H, 69th Indiana Infantry, just in time to fight in the battle of Richmond, Kentucky, one of the most complete Union defeats of the war. Most of the men in his regiment were captured by the Confederates, but he luckily escaped. He served until March 27, 1863, when he was forced to resign for health reasons (3).

I can imagine it was a difficult time for Jennie, with her father away and her mother left to manage Jennie and her younger siblings, Augustus and Catherine. (Eventually, the couple had a total of eight children). Luckily, her mother's family was nearby, and her father's family was not much farther. Her father had a farm in those early years, but after the war they relocated to Middleton, Indiana, where in 1870 Hiram listed his occupation as "druggist" (4), and in 1880 as "running sawmill" (5) (Clearly, the degree of specialization required to be a druggist was not what it is now.)

Jennie married David Philip Dean on August 22, 1876, in Des Moines, Iowa, at the age of twenty (6). One mystery I have yet to solve: how did they meet? Did Jennie spend some time in Iowa? Her father had lived there briefly as a child, so perhaps he had friends or relatives there with whom she was staying? Or did David travel to Indiana? This seems more likely. David's maternal grandfather, Philip Welsheimer, lived in Ohio, but he had bought land for his sons in Indiana. David had several Welsheimer uncles in northern Indiana in the 1870s. Perhaps he went to visit or to work for one of them and met Jennie while there? Regardless, they were married in Iowa, not Indiana.

I wrote about their married life and their large family in my previous blog post. I won't repeat it here. I will end with one more mystery, however. Jennie is buried in Coupeville, Washington, next to her husband. According to her Find-A-Grave site, she died March 27, 1919, in Seattle. However, I can find no death certificate or other proof that she died in Washington and not in Iowa. If she did die in Washington, she must have done so very soon after moving there.

[Update]: I guess I just hadn't looked recently for her death certificate. I can't find an image of the original, but FamilySearch has the record for Sarah J. Dean, daughter of Hiram Brattain and Louise Wisehart, dying in Seattle, Washington, March 27, 1919. No cause of death is available in the index record, at least.

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References:

1) "United States Census, 1860," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4FB-NF3 : accessed 27 August 2015), Hiram Bratton, Fall Creek Township, Henry, Indiana, United States; from "1860 U.S. Federal Census - Population," database, Fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com : n.d.); citing p. 126, household ID 74, NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 803,266.

2) "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH9K-VRN : accessed 27 August 2015), Hiram Brattans, Alexandria, Madison, Indiana, United States; citing enumeration district 21, sheet 103B, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 0293; FHL microfilm 1,254,293.

3) Harden, Samuel. 1888. Those I Have Met, or Boys in Blue. William Mitchell, Publisher. Available On-line here: http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/inauthors/view?docId=VAC2091&brand=ia-books

4)  "United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXXT-VMF : accessed 27 August 2015), Hiram B Brattain, Indiana, United States; citing p. 13, family 100, NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 545,822.

5) "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH9K-VRN : accessed 27 August 2015), Hiram Brattans, Alexandria, Madison, Indiana, United States; citing enumeration district 21, sheet 103B, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 0293; FHL microfilm 1,254,293.

6) "Iowa, County Marriages, 1838-1934," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XJFP-Z8X : accessed 11 January 2015), David P. Dean and Sarah Brattian, 22 Aug 1876; citing Des Moines, Polk, Iowa, United States, county courthouses, Iowa.

David Philip Dean

David and Sarah "Jennie" Dean

So far, my blog topics have been haphazardly chosen, based on whatever interests me at the moment. To try to be more systematic, while also improving the quality of information I have on Wikitree.com, I'm going to create blog posts for each of my great-great-grandparents. Why my great-great-grandparents? Well, since most of them died before 1940, most of the documentary evidence is old enough to be publicly available. I'd like to write about my great-grandparents, as well, but that will be a collaboration with  my parents who have personal memories of them. 

So, on to my first great-great-grandparent: David Philip Dean

David Philip Dean was born February 16 (or 18th), 1852, on his parents' farm in east Des Moines, Iowa, on the banks of what is still known as Dean Lake (at the end of Dean St.). David was the youngest child of Abram Stewart Dean and Anne Retta Welsheimer Dean. His first name may have been in honor of his mother's brother, David Welsheimer, and his middle name, Philip, was in honor of his maternal grandfather. He had four siblings, three of whom were born in Ross County, Ohio, where the family was living before they joined David's grandfather, John Stewart Dean, in claiming land that had been recently conquered from Native people, who were forced into Oklahoma to make way for white settlers. Unfortunately, Abram died in January of 1859, not long before David's seventh birthday. His mother never remarried, but David's grandfather and multiple uncles and aunts lived nearby.

His childhood was far from easy. According to the Portrait and Biographical Album of Polk County, Iowa. (Lake City Publishing Co., Chicago, 1890), David was born in a "commodious house of hewed logs...on the north bank of...Dean Lake. Many privations and hardships were endured by the family, but they labored on, and at length had a good home." The book specifically mentions that David's father had to haul his grain 65 miles for a mill, and that there were no barrel-makers in the area so he created three troughs from a large linden tree to salt down pork, hold lard, and make soap. David's mother cooked on a large fireplace, "slapjacks, corn-dodgers, jonnie cake and lye hominy." The family were devout Presbyterians. One history (but not others) claims the first Presbyterian Church in Des Moines met in David's grandfather's house (1). David's father was an ardent Republican, at a time when that meant supporting the literal party of Lincoln, founded with the goal of ending slavery. Fifteen acres of the family farm were donated to the state for state capitol building. 

Although there must have been plenty of work around the farm, especially with Abram's early death, David and his siblings all attended school. In the 1860 Census for Lee Township, Polk County, Iowa, Anne Dean heads a household of five children, aged 8 to 17, all of whom indicated that they'd attended school within the previous year (2). Ten years later, in the 1870 Census, David was the only child still at home with Anne, but even at 18 and as his mother's only child, he had attended school within the year (3). Clearly, like many of their descendants, the family put a high priority on education.

David married Sarah "Jennie" Brattain on August 22, 1876, in Des Moines (4). He was 24; Jennie was 20. They spent most of their adult lives farming in Polk County, Iowa, but they may have moved within the county. In the 1880 Census, they were in Grant Township, Polk County, Iowa (at which time David's mother, Anne, was living with them) (5). However, by 1884, when their daughter Aura was born, they were listed as living in Clay Township (6). Presumably, this is near the town of Altoona, where they farmed Township 79, Range 23, Section 14, NW1/4 by the 1885 Iowa Census (7). This is where they lived until at least 1910 (8). 

David and Jennie had a large family, although they lost a number of children at a young age. Their children were:

• Mary Louanna (Manie) (1877-1974), married William Henry Edmundson
• Mary Estella (1878-1966), married Herbert L. Swenson
• Esletta (1879-before 1895)
• Ethel Gertrude (1879-1901), married William Casebeer
• Daisy (1881-1885)
• Harvey Edwin (1883-1885)
• Aura (1884-1964), married Karl Edward Hodges
• Eva (1886-1982), married Robert Wallace Trowbridge
• Edna (1887-1890)
• James (1889-1890)
• Infant Son (born and died August 10, 1890)
• Lillian (1891-1962), married Raymond Claire Stiles
• David Merlin (1894-1972), married Irene Louise Greaves and Marie Simpson
• Carl Philip (1895-1971), married Vera Houghton Hancock
• Ralph Hiram (1899-1918)

Sometime between 1902 and 1905, David and Jennie's eldest daughter, Manie Edmundson, moved to Coupeville, Washington, with her husband and children. Sometime after the 1910 Census, David and Jennie moved there, too. Jennie died and was buried in Coupeville, in March, 1919. The following year, David was living with Manie and her family (9). 

Later that year, David remarried, to Abbie Dean, in Washington, Ohio (10). Abbie remains something of a mystery to me, and I wish my Aunt Lil was still here to explain her relationship because I'm sure she knew. "Dean" was Abbie's married name. On their marriage certificate, she is listed as 64 and widowed, the daughter of William W. Perdew and Sarah Seffens. Her original husband, whom she married in Washington, Ohio, in 1876, was John T. Dean, but the marriage record does not include his parents' names (11). My suspicion is that John T. was a cousin of some sort of David's, which is how David met Abbie. After their marriage, David lived part-time in Washington, where he had his own home according to the 1930 Census (12), and part-time at his wife's house in Marietta, Ohio (13).

I've always been interested in David because he was (one of?) the first dedicated genealogists in the family. He was mentioned in several of the family references I found, include the book by Edith Welsheimer (13) about David's mother's line, in which she wrote: "David was the perfect gentleman - kind and gracious, and interested in all with whom he came in contact and able to converse with young and old. To him goes the credit for most of the work on his branch. Though eight years of age, he exchanged many letters with the author, which she values very highly."  

David died in Seattle on April 16, 1941, aged 82 years.

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References:
1) Wilson-Baird History by Fran C. Shepherd, 1942, p.2 (available on-line: http://baird-bard-beard.org/BB/downloads/Volume5-March1995.pdf):

2) "United States Census, 1860," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M82L-9MQ : accessed 11 January 2015), David P Dean in household of Ann Dean, Lee Township, Polk, Iowa, United States; from "1860 U.S. Federal Census - Population," Fold3.com; citing p. 161, household ID 1172, NARA microfilm publication M653, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.; FHL microfilm 803,338.

3) "United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDV5-DTF : 17 October 2014), David Dean in household of Ann Dean, Iowa, United States; citing p. 8, family 56, NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 545,914.

4) "Iowa, County Marriages, 1838-1934," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XJFP-Z8X : accessed 11 January 2015), David P. Dean and Sarah Brattian, 22 Aug 1876; citing Des Moines, Polk, Iowa, United States, county courthouses, Iowa.

5) "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDLZ-4KN : 24 December 2015), David T Dean, Grant, Polk, Iowa, United States; citing enumeration district ED 170, sheet 489B, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 0360; FHL microfilm 1,254,360.

6) "Iowa, County Births, 1880-1935", index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XVZL-FYZ : accessed 11 January 2015), David P. Dean in entry for Aura Dean, 1884.

7)  "Iowa State Census, 1885," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HWZL-XMM : 15 November 2014), David Dean, Altoona, Clay, Polk, Iowa; citing p. 235, 1885, State Historical Society, Des Moines; FHL microfilm 1,020,172.

8) "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MG99-TYR : 29 October 2015), Carl P Dean in household of David P Dean, Clay, Polk, Iowa, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 66, sheet 11B, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,374,431.

9)  "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHFY-X1B : 14 December 2015), David P Dean in household of William H Edmundson, Coupeville, Island, Washington, United States; citing sheet 6A, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,821,923.

10) "Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-1997," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VNQM-CJ7 : accessed 11 January 2015), Abram Dean in entry for David P Dean and Abbie A Dean, 23 Nov 1920; citing Washington, Ohio, United States, reference p 431; county courthouses, Ohio; FHL microfilm 2,320,085.

11) "Ohio Marriages, 1800-1958," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XDXT-KYL : 8 December 2014), John T. Dean and Abbie A. Perdew, 01 Jun 1876; citing , Washington, Ohio, reference ; FHL microfilm 0941959 V. 4-6.

12)  "Washington Death Certificates, 1907-1960," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N3RJ-SQS : 5 December 2014), David P. Dean, 16 Apr 1941; citing Seattle, King, Washington, reference 1448, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Olympia; FHL microfilm 2,023,903.

13) "A History of the Welsheimer Family", by Edith Welsheimer, Bronson Printing, Las Cruces, New Mexico, 1969. https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE97573

Jane Coltrain Williams?

A follow-up to my previous post on Finding Heman Williams: I still can't trace Heman's father, John, due to the preponderance of John Williamses in early 19th century America. However, I connected with another researcher, Linda Coltrin, who makes a good case for his mother's maiden name being "Coltrin" or "Coltrain", and that she was a daughter of Elisha Coltrain of New York. If so, that ties Heman's maternal line into a well-documented New England family that goes back to the Great Puritan Migration, including descent from the Mayflower's William Brewster. (I, too, am descended from William Brewster. If this information is correct, then my husband and I are 13th cousins once removed).

The evidence for Jane Williams, mother of Heman, being Jane Coltrain, daughter of Elisha Coltrain:

1. Her daughter Mary Jane's death certificate lists her mother's maiden name as "Coulton" (names were frequently spelled in a variety of phonetic ways at the time) (1)
2. In census records where she is listed, Jane Williams gives her birth state as New York and her birth year as around 1803. Her children also list their mothers' birth state as New York in later census records (2)
3. In The History of Lorain County, published in 1879, the author states that John D. and Jane Williams came to Ohio from the Cuyoga Lake region of New York (3). Elisha Coltrain, who was born in Massachusetts, was living in Milton, Cuyoga County, New York, by 1799 (4) and lived there until 1840 (5). There is at least one John Williams family in Cuyoga County, New York, in the 1830 census that fits the ages of John and James Williams (6), but this is not conclusive since they may have moved to Ohio by then. Census records from 1800-1840 show numberous Williams families living in Cuyoga County, including at least two separate "William Williams" families in Genoa, New York, in 1820, which is around the time and place when John and Jane Williams would have married (7).
4. John and Jane Williams moved to Ohio by at least 1836 (the date given in The History of Lorain County), but more likely by 1828 (when their son Albert may have been born in Ohio). Elisha Coltrain Jr., the son of Elisha Coltrain of New York, also moved to Ohio.  Extended families often moved together at that time. He was in Lorain County, the same county as John and Jane, in 1850 (8). Unfortunately, it's unclear where either family was in 1840.
5. John and Jane Williams named their eldest son Elisha C. Williams. John D. Williams applied for a marriage license for his son, Elisha C., in Lorain County, Ohio, in 1848 (9)

It's not a slam-dunk case, but the circumstantial evidence is quite strong. Some day, perhaps, someone will find a will or family bible or marriage certificate that pulls the whole thing together, but for now I'm considering this a probable but uncertain connection.

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References:

1)  "Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X6SJ-JB8 : 8 December 2014), Mary Jane Williams, 31 May 1925; citing Camden Twp., Lorain Co., Ohio, reference fn 29901; FHL microfilm 1,992,672.

2) "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXQ2-364 : 9 November 2014), Jane Williams in household of John Williams, Camden, Lorain, Ohio, United States; citing family 567, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

3) From History of Lorain County, Ohio, published in Philadelphia by the Williams Brothers, 1879https://archive.org/stream/historyoflorainc00phil#page/n5/mode/2up/search/Williams

4) New York, Tax Assessment Rolls of Real and Personal Estates, 1799-1804. On Ancestry.com 2014 

5) "United States Census, 1840," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHY4-46N : 24 August 2015), Elisha Colston, Genoa, Cayuga, New York, United States; citing p. 110, NARA microfilm publication M704, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 269; FHL microfilm 17,181.

6) "United States Census, 1830," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHP3-WYX : 18 August 2015), John Williams, Sterling, Cayuga, New York, United States; citing 418, NARA microfilm publication M19, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 88; FHL microfilm 17,148.

7) https://familysearch.org/search/collection/results?count=20&query=%2Bsurname%3AWililams~%20%2Bresidence_place%3A%22Genoa%2C%20Cayuga%2C%20New%20York%22~&collection_id=1803955

8) Year: 1850; Census Place: Pittsfield, Lorain, Ohio; Roll: M432_705; Page: 280B; Image: 83

9) "Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X8PS-QBM : 8 December 2014), Elisha Williams and Harriett Holcomb, 01 Nov 1848; citing Lorain, Ohio, United States, reference p 282; county courthouses, Ohio; FHL microfilm 447,523.