This was going to be an epic rant about my gg-grandmother's death certificate, but I realized that in order for the rant to make sense I would need to provide some context. So this week you get a lot of context (and few mini rants because, you know, genealogy). Next week, I'll whine and complain about gg-grandma's death certificate (because, you know, genealogy).
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In a recent diary, I talked about the difficulty I had as a research n00b in getting copies of death certificates from the State of Wisconsin. My g-grandfather Cyrus was in that group. While I was "disappointed," it was my understanding that Cyrus was born and raised in Wisconsin, so I didn't think it would be too hard to track down information on his parents, at least, whoever they were.
First I started from the info on his tombstone, which included his middle initial and full birth/death dates from 1861 and 1930. From his daughter's (my grandma's) death certificate:
Ok, the first name is not what I expected, but I knew the middle initial on the tombstone was "M", so I figured maybe Cyrus didn't like the name Cyrus and went by his middle name. The location of birth was of a small town south of Madison (Dane County). I also knew from family lore that he had died in Milwaukee. Cousins I talked to didn't know much more, but there was a vague sense of English/Irish heritage. It seemed I would need to dig through census records to fill in the missing years and locations, but since I was just searching one state I thought it would be a piece of cake. Once again, my naivete knew no bounds.
I could only find two census records: 1920 and 1930, both in the Milwaukee area. The heck? I searched for Careys/Carys using various combinations of Cyrus, with Milt(on), with Myra, with my grandma, with her brothers and sisters as search terms. Nothing between 1860 and 1910. Zippo. So my mom's mother and grandfather were a space aliens?
Back to the internet, I found a tree that referred to a Benedict Waters Carey and his wife Anna and their son Milton, with census citations for 1860-1900 in four different communities in three different Wisconsin counties. This tree also made reference to a Cary/Carey family with roots in Massachusetts going back to the 1630s, citing a couple of well respected genealogies from the late 19th century (John Cary and a supplemental volume on his descendant Eleazer Carey). I did a little happy dance--I had specific census citations, and the old books led me to hope for enough proof for some supplemental Rev War ancestors to claim at the DAR.
Once more, I pulled up the census indices in Ancestry.com, and found nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. After banging my head against the desk for a while, I pulled up the census images for each of the towns the researcher had cited, and went through them page by page by page by, well you get the idea. And finally found them...the info was there, just not yet indexed (at the time I was searching anyway), and not precisely by the names cited in the online tree:
1860 shows a "BW and Anna Carey" with 3 year old son "Milton" and brother "Nathan Cary" Ok, Rock Co. is next door to Dane County, and 3 year old Milton is pretty old in 1860 for someone I didn't think was born until 1861. But it is close enough to not reject it outright.
In 1870, there is another record of Benedict and Anna Cary in Vernon County with a 12 year old son Milton.
In 1880, in Neceedah, I find Benedict W. and Annie Carey, their 22 year-old son Cyrus M. (happy dance), plus a whole bunch of much younger children. Wow, what was the story there?
Finally, the 1900 census for the village of Shennington had BW and Annie E. Carey, with only one child, an unmarried daughter.
At this point, I was fairly certain I had found my Careys, even though I could not explain fully the 4-year discrepancy between the early census records and the tombstone for Cyrus' date of birth. There were consistent references to Benedict and his parents having been born in Pennsylvania, so was time to turn my attention to the published...specifically with the Eleazer Carey book, since it had the most up to date information on my supposed line. It appeared that Eleazer had moved his family to what is now Wilkes-Barre in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania a number of years prior to the Revolutionary War, so I also looked for local Pennsylvania histories for leads, and hit pay dirt.
The History of Hanover Township had an extensive genealogy of Eleazer Carey, his son Benjamin, and his grandson Nathan--who had a son Waters and had moved to Wisconsin in 1845:
The Eleazer Carey genealogy had this "helpful" but inconsistent note on Nathan's move west:
and supplemental bits about Waters and his brother David
and sister Sarah
Just a side note here: Old genealogies may contain faulty syntax as well as outright errors, but even in the errors there are elements of truth. Cross check and verify verify verify.
After uncrossing my eyes and unclenching my teeth, I looked for clues in land grant records, and found that a David Carey had purchased a parcel of land in Rock County Wisconsin in 1848.
Combing through the 1850 census for Rock County, I found a "Daniel and Sarah Carey":
Now "Daniel" is not "David", but he is married to a Sarah...but should I assume an error by the census taker without additional evidence? Well, what about the family next door?
Even this is a bit suspect ... the name of the head of household is badly written, maybe Nathan, maybe Matthew, and the wife is not Sally Ann but Eliza. The Eleazer Carey book indicated Nathan had a second wife, but did not give that wife's first name. However, compare the names of the children with the children listed in the genealogy and the county history. Particularly the 19 year old son "Waters."
So now I have a Nathan Carey, with a 19 year old son named Waters, as well as a collection of children matching the old county histories and Carey genealogies. But, only the name "Waters" ... what about that "Benedict" showing up in all the later census records? Hmmm, so I went back searching in Pennsylvania records ... and found an obituary for one of Nathan's sons who had not made the move to Wisconsin:
This lists the names of Elias Carey's siblings, which include "Benedict" and "Waters" as two separate brothers. Arrrrrgh! Newspapers drive me to distraction at times.
Meanwhile, I had decided to bypass the Wisconsin state vital records, and get Cyrus' death certificate elsewhere. I couldn't get it from the county where he died, but did manage to snag it from the county in which he is buried. Et voila, his parents were:
Walter Carey, born in Pennsylvania, and Anna Thornton, born in New York. Walter! (head meets desk again). But now I have a maiden name for Cyrus' mother. Going back to the 1900 census to check her date of birth, I start combing through Thorntons from New York, and found that in 1850 in Hammond County, New York an Isaac and Mary Thornton with a daughter Anna of the right age:
and 1860 had the same family, minus Anna, in rural Dane County Wisconsin near Stoughton!!
...and I had Anna and Benedict in neighboring Rock Co. with son Milton as noted above. Still, there was that 1857/1861 birth year discrepancy. Working on some tips from other Thornton researchers in online trees, I learned that Mary Thornton's maiden name was Bixby. Which led me to a published Bixby family genealogy
I've written about before. It had section on Mary Bixby, who married Isaac Thornton in New York, and had a daughter named Anna. Who was contacted by the author to provide information on her own family:
Benedict Waters Carey! Cyrus Milton Carey born in Stoughton. The birth date is 1858 not 1861 as on the tombstone, but the month and day match. And a sad listing of several babies that died in infancy (explaining the stark information in the 1900 census). So it seems that more facts are falling into place. I even had Benedict Waters' date of death, so I ordered a death certificate which said his name was
Walter.
At least his birthplace in Pennsylvania and the name of his father Nathan Carey was consistent. And I have everyone in the "right" counties.
On a side note, I eventually managed to find Cyrus on the 1905 state census living with his family (including grandma, whew) living next door to his widowed mother.
But still, with all the discrepancies, I was hoping to find some peripheral records to help tie everything together...when doing applications to places like the DAR, you have to be ready to explain WHY information does not EXACTLY coincide. These people have a lot of time on their hands, methinks. Good thing I am a determined researcher.
Marriage records in Wisconsin before 1907 were optional and fairly haphazard; I've not been able to find one for Cyrus and Myra; but I did find a couple of Cyrus' sisters on the index, so bravely ordered copies with my fingers crossed that the brides' parents would be listed:
This one helps:
This one does not:
Benjamin?!? really????
Well, how about plat maps. Such as this one from 1898:
I guess "WB Carey" isn't any worse than any of the other inconsistencies. :P Besides, looking a couple of parcels north, you see land in the name of "C.W. and C.B. Ayers." As in Clarence and Charles Ayers, sons of George and Sarah Ann (Carey) Ayers, as found in the 1880 census for Neceedah, living next to Benedict, Annie and their son Cyrus M.
In legal terminology, a "preponderance of the evidence" means that the evidence shows that one scenario is more likely to be true than not. And indeed, my application to the DAR on my Carey line was approved. Finally, that drawing of Elias Carey in the obituary? Check out his nephew Cyrus at a comparable age:
The moral of this story is that you should not ignore inconsistencies, but expand the scope of research. And for the people who only look at direct lines, well you could be missing some important clues.
Next week, I go on an epic rant about Anna Thornton Carey's death certificate; but for now, at long last, to anyone who is still with me,the floor is yours!
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