What a Tangled Web We Weave :: The 2nd Part

If you haven't already done so, you may want to read part one of this series.

Fast forward to February 28th of this year. An email was forwarded to me from my cousin George Joslin in Missouri, which he had received from JJ who was a descendant of George Washington Joslin from Noble County. This was shortly after my mother had passed away and I was busy dealing with “stuff” and preparing to depart on the Journey once again. I didn't really have time to go to Albion to get the records. I responded to his query, providing essentially the same information as I had given to JM the previous year.

Now, jump ahead a few more weeks to April 12th when I get an email from my cousin Babs in Huntsville (her father connected with my grandmother in 1968). Babs was researching her mother's Winebrenner line when she discovered that the daughter of her ancestor's brother had married a Joslin! Who was it? Yep, Matilda Winebrenner who married George W. Joslin. She was curious as to whether George W. connected to our branch of the Joslin family.

Two weeks later, I'm back in Indiana. I go to the doctor, get some meds for the legs, and take it easy for another 10 days. As if I didn't have anything else to do, I contacted JM and JJ and volunteered to go to Albion to get the desired documents. In the meanwhile, they had been checking around and found a family tree on ancesty.com and had been corresponding with each other and this other researcher and seem to have tied everything together except for George W's mother's name.

So one day in April a friend and I spent a couple hours in Albion (source details available upon request, just ask):

As suspected, the marriage records did not include the names of the parents. I think I may know where the name Amelia Gruttler came from but have no way of verifying my suspicions. Basically I believe the name came from the record of someone totally unrelated with the Walker surname. So what was Amelia's maiden name? JJ said he had obtained a marriage record for Joseph R Joslin and Almira White on 3 Nov 1836 in Cayahoga County, Ohio.

The Probate Record for Rodney Joslin states that he “left as his only heirs said Almira Walker his mother, George W. Joslin, Orra Weeks, and Sarah Walker, brother & sisters”. Note that the mother's first name was Almira, not Amelia, as listed in the online probate index. Her surname was Walker because she apparently married a Robert Walker after the death of JR Joslin though no marriage record has been found for them in Noble County. Robert Walker and Almira are listed in the 1850 census in Noble County with her 3 Joslin children - James, Ora, and Rodney - (George W. was enumerated with another family) and their daughter Sarah, age 1 year.

As a side note, James died at Atlanta, Georgia on October 16, 1864 and is buried at Marietta National Cemetery. Rodney died in November 1864 as a result of wounds received in the War and is buried in Lisbon Cemetery in Noble County. George W. also served, nearly 3 years in the 12th Indiana Infantry. We'll have more on the daughter Orra in a future post. It is not know what became of Almira's daughter, Sarah Walker.

The next question becomes, when did JR die? JR Joselin is living in 1840. But is he the father of Almira Walker's children, George W., Ora, Rodney, and James Joslin? Is there an Estate record? No. Guardianship records for the children? Nada.