What a Tangled Web We Weave :: Part Five - The Kinexxions

If you haven't already done so, you may want to read part one as well as the 2nd part and part three as well as the 4th part.

The obituaries of the children of Ora Joslin Weeks led to those of some of their children. In all I ended up with 45 obituaries or funeral notices! It was really a lot of fun. Especially when I started finding some kinexxions to me. Perhaps stretching the kinexxions just a little...

The First Kinexxion:

Several sons of Ora (Joslin) Weeks lived in the Ormas area, which is in Whitley County and a few miles north of Columbia City. But apparently they lived just inside the Noble County line. What was interesting to me is that the Ormas area is also where Emily Eliza Joslin Long lived. Emily was a sister of my 3rd great grandfather Lysander Joslin. Emily and Lysander were children of James and Abigail Goodrich Joslin. (For ten years I also lived in Noble County, a few miles northwest of Ormas, but that really has nothing to do with this.)

I think it is highly likely that descendants of Emily Long and Ora Weeks knew each other. Emily died in December 1929 – Ora Weeks died in April 1920 so it's even possible that they may have known each other too. One of Emily's granddaughters married a George Fry. He is mentioned as a pallbearer in the obituary of Charles Weeks (one of Ora's sons). Without further research I don't know for certain that they are the same person. However, the George Fry that married Emily's granddaughter is buried in the same cemetery as Charles Weeks and his brother Bert.

A Second Kinexxion:

Rowena (Loe) Weeks was the wife of Phillip Weeks who was a great-great-grandson of Ora Weeks. I met Rowena a few years ago when she was researching the family of her half-sister Clarabelle Foster. Her Foster family connects with mine, a few generations back and I was able to provide her with information that took her line back to our immigrant ancestor, William Foster. Even though Rowena lived in California, she was a member of the Genealogical Society of Whitley County, as am I. Rowena passed away on June 25, 2009 and has one of the nicest obituaries I've ever seen.

Kinexxion Number Three:

Mary (Weeks) Brown was a great-granddaughter of Ora Weeks. When I was a kid growing up in Kosciusko County, Mary Brown – the one and the same - was one of our neighbors! She lived right across the road from my aunt - my Mother's sister - Patricia (Phend) Reiff for many, many years. They were good friends and attended the same church (Morris Chapel United Methodist), which I also attended as a kid. We moved a few miles north of Barbee Lakes when I was 12 years old. Mary and her husband sold their farm in the late 1990s and moved into Warsaw. I had seen her a few times in recent years. The last time was at Aunt Pat's 80th birthday party in June 2006. I was not aware that Mary had passed away on March 4, 2009 – I was recuperating from surgery at the time.

And, finally, a rather convoluted kinexxion between the Joslin and Winebrenner and Phend families:

My grandmother, Hazlette Brubaker Phend Dunn Ferguson, loved to play euchre. In her later years but before cancer took hold and changed her life, she and “the girls” would gather weekly to play cards. One of those ladies was a “cousin” named Gladys. Now, this was back in the day before I was even the least bit interested in genealogy. After grandma passed away and I became obsessed with this little hobby it took me a few years to finally determine their relationship!

As it turns out, Gladys was a daughter of Charles and Cora Long Burnworth who was a daughter of Emily Eliza Joslin Long... therefore, Gladys was a granddaughter of Emily. My grandmother was a great-granddaughter of Lysander Joslin, Emily's brother. That means Gladys and grandma were 2nd cousins once removed. It gets better. Two years after her first husband passed away Gladys married Jesse D. Winebrenner. Jesse was the father of Ty Winebrenner who married Evelyn Phend, my mother's first cousin!

Through several online family trees (no “real” research has been done by me to confirm these relationships) it appears that Ty is a descendant of Andrew Jackson Winebrenner (1818 – 1888) while Matilda Winebrenner who married George W. Joslin is a descendant of John Winebrenner (born 1812). Andrew and John are children of Christian Winebrenner (1764-1832) and his second wife Abigail Chrisman. My cousin Babs (see the first post in this series) is a descendant of Ester Winebrenner (1801 – 1851) who is a daughter of Christian Winebrenner and his first wife Mary Adams.

And that, my friends, is what makes genealogy and family history research so much fun! Don't you just love it!

What a Tangled Web We Weave :: Part Three

If you haven't already done so, you may want to read part one and the 2nd part of this series.

Since there was no estate recaord for JR Joslin or guardianship records for his children, the only other thing I could think of was perhaps he owned land when he died. So over to the Recorders office we went. I searched the General Index to Deeds looking for any land transactions for Joseph or JR Joslin or variations of the surname.

Several transactions were found where Joseph R. Joslin purchased 4 lots in the town of Port Mitchell, which is in York Township, midway between Albion and Wolf Lake in the south-central part of Noble County. Joseph and his wife Almira subsequently sold 2 of those lots on October 20, 1845. That was the last transaction I found for Joseph. And what of the other 2 lots?

Well, in the 1870 census, Almira Walker is enumerated with her son Wash Joslin and family. She was the owner of real estate valued at $400 though a confusing notations states that she “lives with sister.” Cemetery transcriptions show that Almira Walker died on April 24, 1874 (the stone is illegible so we have to go by the transcription).

On April 27th, just three days after Almira's death, Ora Weeks and William Weeks her husband of Noble County and George W Joslin and Matilda Joslin his wife of Lincoln County in the State of Kansas sold Lots 49 & 50 in Port Mitchell. . . “being all of the Estate right title interest claim and remand of the said Ora Weeks and George W Joslin in and to the said premises as the Children and heirs at Law of Joseph R. Joslin deceased.”

Does it get any better than that?

Portion of Noble County, Indiana Deed Book 35 page 233
Showing the heirs of Joseph R. Joslin

Lots 49 & 50 were purchased on May 2, 1844 by Joseph R. Joslin and they are probably the real estate for which Almira was listed as the owner in the 1870 census and which was valued at $400. Ora and George sold the lots for $40 to Peter Elser. Ya gotta wonder whether Peter was related in some way. Why did he get the lots so cheaply?

George W Joslin moved to Kansas, first living in Lincoln County and later in Leavenworth County where on June 16, 1921 he passed away at the Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Leavenworth, Kansas. JM is a descendant of his son Schuyler Colfax Joslin while JJ descends through his son William Tecumseh Sherman Joslin.

But what became of Ora, wife of William Weeks, and sister of George W. Joslin?

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.

What a Tangled Web We Weave :: Part One

While I was back in Indiana (the last 10 days of April) I got hooked on researching a very, very distant Joslin relative who just happened to have lived in southern Noble County, not far from where my Joslin ancestors had lived in Whitley County. And by “distant relative” I mean really distant. You have to go back to the 1635 immigrant, Thomas Joslin, to get to our common ancestor! Thomas would by my 10th great-grandfather. I did say distant relative, didn't I?

This is going to be too long for just one post, so yeah, it's gonna be presented in several parts. It's also going to get a little confusing. Hopefully I've un-confused it enough so you can at least follow the threads...

The saga begins back in January 2010 when I was contacted by JM. She came across the Joslin information I had posted here at Kinexxions and wondered if perhaps I knew anything about the parents of her ancestor George Washington Joslin. He had lived in Noble County, Indiana in the mid-1800s and married Matilda Winebrenner then moved to Kansas after the Civil War. She said his parents were reported to be Joseph R. Joslin and Almira White but the Noble County Website gives his mother's name as Amelia Gruttler in the transcription of his marriage record as well as that of his sister Ora. Also on the same website, the mother's name is given as Amelia Walker in a Probate Index Record for his brother Rodney Joslin.

Also, just to add to the confusion, there are several family trees on ancestry.com that give George W's parents as James and Abigail (Goodrich) Joslin. They are my ancestors and I was fairly certain they were not his parents.

There is a JR Joselin in the 1840 census for Noble County that seemed to be a good candidate. And the initials fit. As did the size of the family, according to the information given to me by JM.

There is quite a bit of data on that Noble County Website that provided additional clues and the site is a tremendous resource but it has a huge problem, at least to my way of thinking. When creating the various index listings or abstracting records or even transcribing obituaries, the spelling of surnames was “standardized” and information was added (especially to marriage indexes) that wasn't in the record. And there was no indication as to where the additional information came from. Sigh.

I knew that at the time of the marriages of George and his sister Ora (1861 and 1860, respectively) the names of the parents were not included in the marriage record itself and marriage applications did not begun until about 1882 and then even sporadically until 1907 when they were required by Indiana law. So where did the mother's name come from? No way of knowing since there was no tracking system to identify the the source of the “extra” data.

And that is why it is so very important to obtain the original record and to not depend entirely upon indexes and transcriptions! Sometimes it's not possible or feasible to get the original record, but the attempt should be made.

I was in Indiana the last week of January 2010, but just didn't have time to go to Albion to obtain copies of the various records. I passed on the little information I had and wished JM good luck in her quest.