Duer – Page 3 – GenealogyAtHeart.com

Test Driving MyHeritage.com and Making an Amazing Find!

I had a free account with MyHeritage but I was never a subscriber until recently when a 50% discount offer was made for members of the National Genealogical Society. I believe the discount is now offered for a limited time to everyone – check it out here. I decided to give it a try and I immediately scaled a brick wall on my Duer line that I’ve recently been researching. Here’s how I did it…

I downloaded my gedcom from Ancestry.com to my home computer and then uploaded to MyHeritage. My tree is large so I received an email from MyHeritage once it had been loaded and was ready to go. The following day I went on the site and it was easy to upload a site photo (I used my Genealogy At Heart logo that I keep jpg’d in Dropbox and my Google+ pic, added a blurb about what my research interests are and what I’m currently investigating. I happened to write that my brick wall was to determine the link between John Duer and his purported son, Thomas. Thomas died in 1829 intestate and John, in 1831, with a will that omitted Thomas, understandably since he was deceased, but did not include any of Thomas’ children. That wouldn’t have been odd, however, John did include a grandson who lived out of the Trumbull County, Ohio area, who was the son of one of John’s deceased daughters. Why include a grandson that lived in another state and not the grandchildren that lived next door? Hmm.

I have researched probate, land and court records, cemetery records, tried to find Bible and church records, obituaries, collateral lines, biographies, area histories, and contacted area genealogical societies and libraries but found nothing. The census and tax lists just aren’t helpful since they do not show relationships that far back.

I put the research aside for a month but it’s been gnawing at me. I originally made the connection of John and Thomas through the work of Edgar Duer Whitley, a gentleman who had found me on the internet 6 years ago from a Rootsweb posting I had made in the early 2000’s. My tree proved lineage to Thomas but I couldn’t go farther back. His tree showed lineage to Thomas’ son John who had a daughter, Maria, that I’m descended from. Edgar emailed me and kindly sent me an electronic copy of all his years of sleuthing. He never had a citation, though, of how Thomas and John were related. Shortly after he emailed me he no longer responded to my emails. He was quite up in age and I figured he was deceased. Thus, I couldn’t know how he knew that Thomas was the son of John.

I would love to tell you that MyHeritage found the answer super quickly but that didn’t happen. I actually didn’t receive any Record or Smart Matches from them. I assume that’s because my uploaded tree is well sourced.

I decided to snoop around their Family Trees located under the Research category. I entered birth and death location and death year info for Thomas Duer. A number of trees popped up with displays similarly to Ancestry.com. I clicked on the first one and didn’t find anything exciting. The citations were all from Ancestry trees. Ugh!

Then things got interesting – I clicked on Thomas’ wife Hannah as the tree owner had her listed as Hannah Preston. I had her listed as Hannah Byrd. When I went to Hannah’s page I discovered that she had remarried to a James Preston in September 1831 in Trumbull County, Ohio. How had I missed that? Interestingly, here’s how the marriage license is written:

“Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013,” database with images, Family Search (https://familysearch.org: 21 Nov 2016), Trumbull>Marriage licenses 1828-1839 vol 2>image 55 of 181; county courthouses, Ohio.

Notice the right side records Hannah’s surname as “Dewer” but in the body of the text as “Duer.” The record is indexed by Dewer so I never found it. The tree owner had found it because he was descended from James Preston. Putting in “James Preston” in the FamilySearch.org search form would have brought it up.

How do I know that the Hannah Duer is the wife of Thomas. There was only one other Hannah Duer living in the country in 1831 and she was 10 years old, residing in Pennsylvania. My Hannah and James were both born in New Jersey in 1775. James’ first wife died in 1829 in childbirth with twins shortly after Hannah’s husband, Thomas, died. Both had young children in the home so it makes sense they would have blended their families.

I went back to Ancestry.com, Familysearch.org and Rootsweb’s World Connect Project, to see if other’s had this information. Nope! Only the one tree on MyHeritage. For me, this was definitely worth the price.

It looks like the marriage didn’t last long which could explain why no one else has the information on their trees. By 1840, James was living with the children from his first wife and Hannah was living with one of her children as the tick mark in the age category for a female most likely is for her. That age tick mark is lacking on James’ record. In 1850, the couple remained separated per the census records. Hannah’s tombstone notes her first husband’s name, Duer. James lies next to his first wife. It appears that this was a relationship that both sides wanted to forget. This could also explain why Hannah’s first husband’s purported father, John, omitted her from his will written in 1830. I’m now searching for a divorce record. This story just gets more interesting with every find! I’m very happy to have found this information that quickly with MyHeritage’s site. Once I’m done with my Duer’s I’ll be searching their site for other clues on additional lines. Happy Hunting!

John Duer, Where Art Thou Buried and Other Duer Mysteries?!

My last post, Records Breadcrumb Trail May Lead to Wrong Conclusions, and an earlier post, Circular Migration Patterns-How History Repeats Itself, 30 May 2015) noted my research of my Duer line. My latest hurdle is finding the burial location of John Duer, my 3^rd great grandfather.

I know from his Indiana probate records that John died on 25 February 1885 in Adams County, Indiana.[1] John and his second wife, Margaret Martz Searight, were living in Jefferson, Adams County, Indiana in 1880, along with their two children Charley, age 14 and Lucinda, age 12.[2] Adams County, Indiana is adjacent to Mercer County, Ohio where both had resided with their first spouses. I’m descended from John’s daughter, Maria, with his first wife, Mary Jane Morrison.[3]

I’m discovering some interesting information regarding John and Margaret and I wish I could connect up with relatives who might be able to shed light on my findings. The first “odd” event was John and Margaret’s marriage on 11 December 1864.[4] How that is odd is that first wife, Mary Jane, did not die until 10 July 1866.[5] No divorce documentation has been found. Nothing leads me to believe that John was a polygamist; he was raised as a Presbyterian and his father, Thomas, was buried in a Presbyterian cemetery in Trumbull County, Ohio.[6] The Justice of the Peace for the second marriage was a third great uncle of mine on another line, John Leininger. The Leiningers were Lutheran. Since Mary Jane’s tombstone clearly states she was “the wife of John Duer” and there was only one other John Duer living in the area at the time who happened to be her son who was married to a Carolina Kuhn, this isn’t a case of mistaken identity. I’m positive that the John Duer that married Margaret was not John and Mary Jane’s son John (Jr.) as I have his marriage certificate to Carolyn in 1863. John Jr. and Carolina’s first child, John (of course!) was also born in 1866. Likewise, John Sr. and his second wife, Margaret’s first child, Charles, was born in 1866. I haven’t been able to find the exact birth date but remember, first wife didn’t die until July 1866.

If John Sr. and Mary Ann had divorced, why would Mary Jane’s tombstone inscription note her as a wife?

Figure 1Mary Jane Morrison Duer Tombstone[7]

To further support I have the correct John Duer, his will probated in Adams County, Indiana not only mentions his children from his second marriage to Margaret, but Angeline, his youngest daughter with his first wife, Jane.[8]

John and Jane had ten children; at the time of his death six were known to be living. Yet, he did not note any child from the first wife in his will except Angeline.

There could be several reasons for the omission. Perhaps his older children, as well established adults, did not need financial assistance. Maybe there was a falling out and the older children were no longer speaking to their father. Angeline, Mary and James, children from his first wife, were living in Adams County, Indiana while the other children were living in Mercer County in 1870. Although geographically these counties are next to each other, perhaps John decided only unmarried children living in Indiana would receive compensation.

I’ve searched for an obituary for John and Jane and haven’t been able to find one. I’ve also been unable to find where John was buried.

Kessler Cemetery records are incomplete.[9] Jane is mentioned in the records, however, John is not. According to one of the county trustees, the older section of the cemetery has no empty plots. There is an empty space in Jane’s row so it is possible that John was interred there with no stone. If they had divorced, why would he be interred close to his ex?

To rule out a burial elsewhere, other cemeteries in Mercer and Adams counties were examined. No burial location for John was found. John died before death certificates were mandatory in Indiana so there is no clue to be discovered there.

John’s second wife, Margaret, was also buried in Kessler Cemetery and her burial is notated in the records. There are no empty spaces in Margaret’s burial location and all surrounding graves have readable tombstones, very similar to Jane’s. Like Jane, Margaret’s stone denotes her as the wife of John Duer:

Figure 2 Margaret Ann Martz Searight Duer Stone[10]

Margaret was first married to a Mr. Sea(w)ri(gh)te. She had a daughter, Effie, from her first marriage that was born in 1856. Effie was born in Ohio so Margaret had emigrated from Hesse, Germany prior to that time.

I’ve never been able to determine where Margaret’s first husband was buried, either. Oh, these missing men!

Here’s the second odd situation with this family – John and Jane’s daughter, Maria (not to be confused with Mary, another of their daughters) married Henry Kuhn Jr. Henry was also an immigrant from Germany; he was quite prosperous and well known in the German community in Mercer. The Leininger family (the JP for the second marriage) were much like the Kuhns; born in Germany they adapted quickly and held many political offices in the community as well as being successful farmers. Surely these individuals would have all known each other. Maria and Henry’s tombstone is ornate and also in Kessler Cemetery. They could have well afforded a small stone for John. Why doesn’t John have one if he was buried there?

Some individuals do not want a stone but I find no reason that John would have been one of those folks. His father, mother and grandfather had stones, as did both of his wives. It seems to me that his passing wanted to be forgotten.

As I was researching obituaries I came across the following unsettling article:

John’s wife, Margaret, had met a similar fate[11]

Figure 3 The Fort Wayne [Indiana] Daily News

The son that lived nearby was Charles.

Figure 4 The Evening Republican

Figure 5 The Fort Wayne [Indiana] Evening Sentinel

Figure 6 The Indiana Tribune (in German)

John and Margaret’s son, Charles Edward Duer, was married to Almeda Buckmaster.[12] I thought she was the “Mrs. Duer” who had died on 1 June 1894[13]. I began to wonder if there wasn’t a sinister side to this line but I’m happy to report that upon analysis, there were two Charles Duers, one in Indiana and one in Ohio. Both had a loved one die by fire but they were not one and the same. Whew! Thought I was identifying a murder suspect for a bit. Guess it’s just a creepy coincidence!

__________________________________ [1] “Indiana, Wills and Probate Records, 1798-1999,” John Duer, Volume A-C, page 484-486; digital image, Ancestry.com (http: ancestry.com: accessed 16 October 2016), citing Adams County, Indiana Circuit Court.

[2] 1880 U.S. census, Jefferson, Adams County, Indiana, population schedule, page 6 (handwritten), family/dwelling 54, John Duer; digital image, Ancestry.com (http: ancestry.com: accessed 16 October 2016), citing FHL microfilm 1254263.

[3] See previous blogs for citations.

[4] Ohio, Marriage Intention Application, John Duer,

[5] Find-A-Grave, database and image (http://www.findagrave.com: accessed 16 October 2016), memorial page for Jane Morrison Duer (1804-1866), Find A Grave Memorial no. 22503919; memorial created by Teresa citing St. Kessler Cemetery, Chattanooga, Mercer County, Ohio; image by Cousin Becky. Tombstone states “Jane, wife of John Duer” and clearly shows 1866 as the death year.

[6] Find-A-Grave, database and image (http://www.findagrave.com: accessed 16 October 2016), memorial page for Thomas Duer (1775-1829), Find A Grave Memorial no. 57798621; memorial created by BLJns75 citing St. Pricetown Cemetery, Newton Falls, Trumbull County, Ohio. No tombstone pictures but confirmed with a local genealogist in Trumbull who had tripped over Thomas’ fallen stone and had it reset, the cemetery was for Presbyterian’s only.

[7] Find-A-Grave, “Jane Morrison Duer,”

[8] “Indiana, Wills and Probate Records, 1798-1999,” John Duer, Volume A-C, page 484-486

[9] Author to , Mercer County Trustee, Phone and Email, date, . Author is deeply appreciative of for not only scanning and emailing the cemetery records for the Duer family, but including other family members who were interred in the cemetery. Also physically went to the gravesite to verify that there was no stone for John Duer. She took pictures of surrounding stones and emailed to the author. Her dedication is exemplary!

[10] Find-A-Grave, database and image (http://www.findagrave.com: accessed 16 October 2016), memorial page for Margaret A. Duer (1823-1904), Find A Grave Memorial no. 22546617; memorial created by Teresa citing St. Kessler Cemetery, Chattanooga, Mercer County, Ohio; image by Cousin Becky.

[11] “Burned in Her Home,” The Fort Wayne [Indiana] Daily News, 29 December 1904, p. 1, col. 3.

“Aged Woman Cremated,” The [Columbus, Ohio] Evening Republican, 30 December 1904, p. 1, col. 2.

“Aged Woman Burns to Death in Home,” The Fort Wayne [Indiana] Evening Sentinel, 30 December 1904, p. 1, col. 3.

“Radridten and Indiana,” Indiana Tribune, 30 Dec 1904, No. 110, p. 1, col. 6.

[12] “Indiana Marriage Collection, 1800-1941,” Charles E. Duer and Elmeda Buckmaster, 6 March 1886; digital image, Familysearch (https://familysearch.org: accessed 17 October 2016); citing FHL microfilm 002321466; citing Adams County, Indiana County Clerk Office, p. 124.

[13] “Fatal Burns,” The Lima [Ohio] Times-Democrat, Vol. X, No. 195, p. 1, col. 1.

Records Breadcrumb Trail May Lead to Wrong Conclusions

I’ve been researching my Duer line lately with the idea that I’ll write a Kinship Determination from where my line begins, with Maria Duer, my great great grandmother, to my gateway ancestor, Thomas Stone Duer.

I’ve blogged previously about the serendipitous events and detailed how history repeats itself (see Circular Migration Patterns-How History RepeatsItself, 30 May 2015). After discovering the connection, I’ve become more determined to learn about the Duer Family.

Maria left some wonderful records, however, they initially led me to a wrong conclusion. Years ago, I had found her obituary through the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center Obituary Index[1] but I couldn’t decipher it as it was in German and used Gothic script. Her daughter Emma’s death certificate stated Maria was born in Germany.[2] The obit and the daughter’s death certificate led me to believe that Maria was of German descent. By just looking at the surface, those two records reinforced what I already knew about my father’s long line of German ancestry; I had Leininger, Bollenbacher, Kuhn, Kable, and Kettering surnames sprinkled everywhere in my tree and all of them were German immigrants. No surprise that Maria Duer would have also been German. How wrong I was!

Maria was born in Mahoning, Ohio on 2 September 1833.[3] Adam Kuhn, Maria’s son with whom she resided at the time of her death and who was the neighbor of his sister, Emma, had served as Emma’s death certificate informant. It is understandable that Adam most likely identified himself with his father Henry Kuhn’s German heritage. German born Henry Kuhn was a prosperous citizen in Mercer County, Ohio and maintained a close connection with others who had immigrated from Germany. Henry and Maria had been married for 55 years so she, too, would have been known in the German community so her obituary in a German newspaper makes sense. After having the obituary translated, I learned that it never stated she was German but it did mention her German born husband. Daughter Emma died at age 50 after suffering long term physical abuse from her ex-husband of 25 years. Adam likely recalled his father’s birth place instead of his mother’s when he provided Emma’s death certificate information. In grief, he probably just made an error.

Census records, a second obituary in English, and a mug sheet entry all confirm Maria was born in Ohio and connect her to her parents, John and Mary Jane (Morrison) Duer. Maria Duer was once a brickwall ancestor but no longer! What a great lesson in making sure a reasonably exhaustive search was performed AND analysis of all the found records was done.

[1] “Maria Duer Kuhn,” obituary, Die Minter [Ohio] Post, 1 August 1913, page 1, col. 3.

[2] Ohio, Bureau of Vital Statistics, death certificate, “Emma Landfair,” number 12296 (stamped, 21 February 1914.

[3] 1850 U.S. census, Killbuck, Holmes County, Ohio, population schedule, page 245 (handwritten) dwelling 557, family 572, Maria Duer; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 16 October 2016); citing NARA microfilm publications M432_696.

1860 U.S. census, Liberty, Mercer County, Ohio, population schedule, page 141 (handwritten), dwelling 1008, family 1013, Henry and Maria Coon Jr.; Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 16 October 2016); citing NARA microfilm publications M653_1009.

1870 U.S. census, Liberty, Mercer County, Ohio, population schedule, page 15 (handwritten) dwelling 55, family 58, Maria Kuhn; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 16 October 2016); citing NARA microfilm publications M593.

1880 U.S. census, Liberty, Mercer County, Ohio, population schedule, page 7 (handwritten) dwelling 55, family 58, Maria Kuhn; Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 16 October 2016); citing FHL microfilm 1255048; citing NARA microfilm publications T9_1048.

1900 U.S. census, Liberty, Mercer, Ohio, population schedule, sheet 9 (handwritten) dwelling141, family176, Meriah Kuhn; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 16 October 2016); citing NARA with no further information provided.

1910 U.S. census, Liberty, Mercer County, Ohio, population schedule, sheet 9 (handwritten) dwelling 320, family 278, Miria Kuhn; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 16 October 2016); citing NARA microfilm publication T624_1214.

Ohio, Department of Health Division of Vital Statistics, death certificate, “Maria Kuhn,” state file number 41826, 22 July 1913.

“Marie Kuhn,” The Grim Reaper, The Celina [Ohio] Democrat, 25 July 1913, page 1, col. 4.

Compilers, A Portrait and Biographical Record of Mercer and Van Wert Counties, Ohio (Chicago,IL: A. W. Bowen & Co., 1896) 400-401; digital image, Google Books (https://books.google.com: accessed 16 October 2016).

A New Way to Identify Name Variations

Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 18 Sep 2016.

I was reading the article Guild of One-Name Studies Is Now Available at FamilySearch.org in The Genealogy News recently and thought I’d check out the database on Familysearch. On a few lines, I trace everyone who has that name in the US in an attempt to make a connection across the pond. Stop and read the article and then come back to my blog.

If you followed the articles link to Familysearch, (added here in case you didn’t), and you enter a surname in the search field, you probably were disappointed. I know I was! I first added HARBAUGH and got links to everything but Guild Of One-Name Studies. I know family historians, some quite renown, have traced the name back to a HARBO who was a court scribe in the 1200’s in Denmark. I expected to find that and more but all I got were records of Harbaughs.

I then typed in LEININGER and got lots of IGI records but nothing for the Guild of One-Name Studies.

Then it hit me! On the left hand side, I should have scrolled down and filtered out everything but Guild of One-Name Studies.

I still got nothing for Harbaugh and Leininger but when I entered KOS I got Cass and Coss,

Next I tried KABLE and that’s when it occurred to me – duh – this could be an innovative way to come up with surname variations! My Kables were listed as Cable, Cabel, Kabel, Cobbold and Cabot. I would have never come up with Cobbold and Cabot.

Next I tried DUER and got Dewhurst. Now that was very interesting to me as I’ve been heavy into deeds and wills of my John Duer in Trumbull/Mahoning Counties, Ohio who died in 1831 after his son, Thomas, and I keep seeing Dewhurst in the records. I pronounce Dewhurst as doo’ herst but I guess it could be pronounced doo’ ers. Hmm.

We’ve all seen creatively spelled names, likely recorded from pronunciations, in records but I’ve never been really good at coming up with more than obvious variations. I’m adding this tool to my genealogy tool box!

Playing With Names – Wildcard Searching and Other Methods to Discover Your Family

Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 13 Dec 2015

Just read a helpful blog about how to use wildcards when researching online. You can read it here. I have to admit that I’m not very good at using wildcards or identifying the many, varied and unusual ways my ancestors spelled their names. I think that many of my brick walls could could tumbling down if I took the time to use the wildcard search approach.

Another method I’ve used was just plain dumb luck but it taught me a very simple way that I’ve used since. I once had a dead end on my paternal grandmother’s line. A distant family member thought my 2nd great grandmother’s name was Maria Dure. I searched and searched for years and found nada! It never dawned on me that I had two of the letters reversed in the last name. Duh, DURE should have been DUER. I would love to take credit for that discovery but alas, wasn’t me who figured this out. I’m not sure how the gentleman found me but I received an email asking me about by DUER connection. I responded I didn’t see any Duer’s in my tree. The writer than let me know he suspected my Maria Dure was a long lost line he was pursuing. He knew his missing Maria had married an immigrant named Kuhn and sure enough, once I began looking for Maria under Duer the whole line fell into place! He was kind enough to send me his years of Duer research and they are just a fun family to learn about. (Well, probably getting kicked out of England wasn’t exactly fun, nor later being shunned or having to payoff an indenture in the Caribbean but you understand what I mean)

Last technique I’ve used is adding or removing an ending. My Koss’ are really Kos. Have found documents with both names so it pays to play with the last name.

Sorry this is so short but I’m recuperating from jet lag! Once my head clears I’m going to take my own advice and play with my Bird or is it Byrd?! or Berd or Burd line. Happy Hunting!

Being Thankful for Genealogy Goodness

Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 15 Nov 2015.

Last Sunday I wrote about genealogy bullies and record thieves. I reflected this week, and with Thanksgiving around the corner and the heinous events in Paris, I wanted to take a moment to think about all the kindhearted genealogists out there that far outweigh the small number of bullies. So with here’s what I’m thankful for…

Maggie Landfair who responded to a Rootsweb bulletin board posting I did in 1999 and provided me with so much info she had collected on her husband’s side and put me in touch with the author of two Leininger books so I could learn about my dad’s side of the family.
Bob Leininger who shared his electronic files with me while he was half way around the world. I’ve referred to those documents (and his books) time and time again. Just wish he would update them! Hint, Hint
Edgar Duer Whitley who somehow figured out that my DURE family should be DUER and shared his lifelong work with me just weeks before he passed away. I never found out how he got my email address but I was sure thankful he did.
Librarians across the country who have done lookups, gave advice and went above and beyond to help me solve so many family mysteries. Come to think of it, I don’t think I ever met a librarian that didn’t help me.
Countless distant relatives who have contacted me via online sources willing to share what they’ve discovered and nicely correcting wrong info I may have put out there.
Jenny Mig who I’ve never met but is the complete opposite of the bullies I mentioned last week. Here’s an email from her: “Hello, I just purchased a family bible from ebay that belonged to John Travis Harbaugh. I know it’s weird that I bought a family bible that has nothing to do with my family, it was just heartbreaking for me to see someones family history being auctioned off like that. Most of them are hundreds of dollars, but I was able to get this one cheap. I will be scanning all of the hand written pages as soon as it arrives, then I am donating it to the Perry County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society. Please let me know if you would like copies of the records that are written in the bible.” Jenny did just what she said she would. How inspirational that she cares so much about history and record preservation to reach out to a perfect stranger.
All my ancestors who took a stand for what was just. It took great courage and I let them serve as a role model for me.
My ancestors who didn’t make the right choice. That may seem odd to be thankful for but it reinforces our humanism and allows me to learn from their mistakes.
My emigrating ancestors who circled the globe to seek a better life. Their acceptance and acclamation of different cultures amazes me. Tolerance and acceptance, we could all use the reminder.
and I’m most thankful for my husband, daughter and son who put up with my incessant talking about dead people they never knew and dragging them to countless cemeteries, libraries, museums, courthouses, and old homes around the country for years. They still talk about how I got them lost in the Dismal Swamp on a road trip back from Washington, DC on December 30, 1999. No GPS, the AAA triptics were wrong, we were running out of gas, it was getting dark AND we were all concerned that maybe Y2K really would be a problem. We made it home safely and I continue the family search.

Please take a moment to reflect on the good in the world and make it a goal to tell someone today you appreciate them.

Circular Migration Patterns-How History Repeats Itself

Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 30 May 2015.

My family does not stay in one place for long which makes tracing them a challenge. As I mentioned in my last blog, my husband and my family also tends to migrate in circles. -I’m still in Harbaugh Country but I’m thinking about the odd way I discovered this phenomena with my Duer family.

I had traced my paternal grandmother’s line back to a Maria Dure with the help of some distant cousins in the late 1990’s but I hit a brick wall with Maria and was unable to discover who her parents were. My cousins said she was German which made sense as Maria married Henry John Kuhn Jr. who was born in Germany 3 Dec 1831.¹ I tried to obtain a death certificate, probate records, cemetery records, and obituary for Maria hoping that a clue would be uncovered as to her parentage but nothing was available electronically. Then, online trees started showing Maria as the daughter of a John Duer and Mary Cook in Mahoning, Ohio. I wasn’t sure if my Maria was John and Mary’s daughter so in April 2010 I emailed a “cousin,” Edward Duer Whitley, about a posting I had found on Genforum. Ed informed me that I had spelled Maria’s last name wrong – reversing the last two letters (Dure should be Duer). He mentioned that he had been searching for Maria’s line for years as he had updated all of her siblings but had been unable to trace her. That was because Maria and her spouse had relocated to Mercer County, Ohio. Ed gave me his electronic tree going back to Robert Dure (1563-1617) who spelled his name the way I had spelled Maria’s. I don’t know why I had the original and not the most recent spelling. Perhaps Maria’s children had remembered the original name and that was what was passed down my line. Some mysteries we will never solve! Ed and I had only corresponded for a few weeks when I lost contact with him. I never discovered what happened and assumed he died as he was 93 years old. I know in genealogy we shouldn’t assume anything but he was up there in years, and then just disappeared. Since Ed had not made his tree public, it was fortunate that I had contacted him when I did or his years of work may have been lost. (My next blog will be about disappearing data!) I have entered all the information Ed shared with me on my public Main Tree on Ancestry. What was truly odd, though, was the timing of this find.

Maria’s great great grandfather, Thomas Stone Duer, was christened 29 Sep 1663 in Charleton, Devonshire, England.² He emigrated with his maternal Uncle George Stone to Philadelphia in 1683.³ Thank goodness he was a Quaker so there’s wonderful records of Thomas and his wife, Elinor “Ellen” Beans (Bayne/ Bane) but I will save Ellen’s story for another day.

Thomas and Ellen had a son, Thomas, born 7 Mar 1702 in Falls, Buck, Pennsylvania.⁴ From the Duer Bible, Thomas married in 1729 but the Bible does not list his wife’s name.⁵ Ed discovered she was Mary Ann Hollinshead, born 11 May 1712 in St. Michaels, Bridgetown, Barbados, West Indies, the daughter of Daniel and Ann Alexander Hollingshead. Ann died in Feb 1715 in Barbados.⁶ Why was the family in the West Indies? Daniel was in Barbados as an indentured servant.⁷ After Ann’s death, he remarried, completed the terms of his servitude, and moved with his family to New Jersey where he died in 1730.⁸

Why move to New Jersey? That I haven’t yet proven but I do know that while in New Jersey a strange family event occurred. “Daniel Hollinshead was born in Leicestershire, England in 1683. He was one of several brothers, one of whom was Captain under the Duke of Marlborough and was killed at the Battle of Blenheim. One of his brothers was a merchant in Boston, of him, he used to relate the following incident: While riding along the road at a distance from home, he overtook a person traveling the same way: They entered into conversation and after some time discovered that to their great joy, they were brothers. They had not seen each other since childhood. This brother had been shipwrecked on his passage from London to Boston and had lost the whole of his fortune. He went with his brother to his home in New Jersey where he then lived, obtained a public office, and died in Sussex County in 17–.”⁹

To sum up, Daniel Hollin(g)shead moved from his birthplace of Leicestershire, England to Barbados, West Indies as an indentured servant and then to Sussex, New Jersey where he died. He met his long lost brother who traveled from England to Boston, after being shipwrecked somewhere, and then on to Sussex, New Jersey.

Yes, this is a weird chance meeting but what I find odder is my own child’s migration route 300 years later.

My oldest left Florida to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. During a January term, she visited friends in England who were attending Cambridge University and there she finalized her decision of where she wanted to attend medical school. Upon her graduation from MIT, our daughter moved to Grenada, West Indies. Why? As an International Baccalaureate graduate she insisted she wanted an international medical school experience. The medical school, St. Georges, is based on Long Island, New York. As I’ve noted in my previous posts, the early founding families of Long Island were my husband’s lines, along with his family connections with the Caribbean and the Dutch West Indies Company (see Motherhood and the Brain blog 10 May 2015). Our daughter did not choose the school based on previous family connections to the area, rather her decision was based on its strong international curriculum. St. George’s students spend the first two years in Grenada, West Indies and the last two years either in the US or England. She selected her last two years to be in Morristown, New Jersey. We have no relatives in New Jersey so why pick Morristown? At the time of her decision we didn’t even know where Morristown was located in New Jersey. She said she was drawn to it after speaking with fellow students who knew the area.

Even stranger, at the time of her decision I made the comment to a coworker in Florida that our daughter was relocating to New Jersey. Turns out, he happened to have been the former principal of Morristown High School. Truly, it’s a small world after all!

But before continuing on, let’s review my family’s migration patterns: We know our daughter was not the first in the family to move from Boston and the West Indies to New Jersey. If you take into consideration her student loans, she’s not even the first indentured servant in the family. But moving to Sussex, New Jersey is not the same as moving to Morristown, New Jersey. Well, the family travels will take another twist!

Thomas and Mary Ann Hollingshead Duer had a son, John, who married Susannah Miller in Sussex, New Jersey in 1773.¹⁰ After Thomas served in the New Jersey Militia during the American Revolution, he and Susannah relocated to, you guessed it, Hanover Township, Morris County, New Jersey.¹¹ Thomas and Susannah are my daughter’s 5 great grandparents. We did not know this relationship until a year after she was residing in an apartment that was built on the former site of the military encampment where her 5th great grandfather was housed during the American Revolution. Our daughter is a DAR but not through this line which we had not

1United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.

²Edmund West, comp.. Family Data Collection – Births [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2001

³Filby, P. William, ed. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2012.

⁴Hinshaw, William Wade. Marshall, Thomas Worth, comp. Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy. Supplement to Volume 1. Washington, D.C.: n.p. 1948.

⁵Editor. Literary Era, Vol. III, 1896, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Repository: 486-7, Print.

⁶Sanders, Joanne McRee. English Settlers in Barbados, 1637-1800. S.l.: Brøderbund, 1999. Print.

⁷England, Terri. Indentured Servants on Barbados Bristol Servants: A-F. N.p.: n.p., 2002. Print.

⁸Edmund West, comp.. Family Data Collection – Deaths [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2001.

⁹“The Hollinsheads.” Our Ancestors, A Genealogical & Biographical Magazine, 2.2 (1882): n. pag. Print.

¹⁰“The Henry B. Baldwin Genealogical Records.” Publication: File OR919.3B193r, (26 Jun 2010): Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Ohio.

¹¹Jackson, Ronald V., Accelerated Indexing Systems, comp.. New Jersey Census, 1643-1890. Compiled and digitized by Mr. Jackson and AIS from microfilmed schedules of the U.S. Federal Decennial Census, territorial/state censuses, and/or census substitutes.