Wisdom Wednesday: Moving Right Along

See, the thing is that I'm an intermediate genealogy kinda person, just a bit beyond the newbie phase and just getting going on the middle part. This week I got that middle school feeling where you see beginners over there but the really cool kids are in a big crowd over in high school having so much fun, and you can see how much growing you have yet to do.

Honestly, I have so very much to learn and feel that every day, no make that every hour, there's even more than there was yesterday. Is it just me or is this whole area of interest growing at an explosive rate? And did I hear that the number two searched term now is "genealogy" or some variation. Go ahead and guess what the number one search term is...? Porn.

I have finished up my research for Samuel Albert House and you can see my long post here and the last post here. When I finished that last one I had a really nice feeling that I'd done a pretty good job of it and executed what for me, where I now am, might be called a Junior Grade Reasonably Exhaustive Search.

I celebrated by reorganizing all of his research and making sure the printed materials and the digital materials were soundly put together so that I could easily find anything with out too much digging. Then as one should, wrote it all up as a report, printed it out, and did an edit. I'll let it sit for a bit and then go back over making sure it's sourced (good girl) and viewing it in such a way that anyone picking it up would know what I'm talking about. Also shared SA House's death certificate with Cousin William because he's a good researcher and has shared with me and didn't have it. Because it cost me $25 to get from the Maryland State Archives, this sharing will save him time and money and who doesn't like that?

Once that was done and SA House was put to bed, so to speak, I just went ahead and gave the whole area a spruce up over here under the Nut Tree. This time around I felt like the materials on the shelf had some better organization than they ever had before. I know that as this work goes along it gets harder to drop everything and organize it all. (I've seen Mom's space and she's been doing this since 1970s so you can imagine what she has to deal with if she wants to "organize".) I felt great when everything was properly labeled and sitting in its place on shelves.

Last, it's time to start on Samuel Albert House's natural father Isaac Biggerstaff. The first step was to gather all of the materials I had on him, read them through and put them in proper order. Called Mom and we chatted about what's already known on him. Mom has a book about the Davis and Biggerstaff families that she mailed to me last week and I'm reading it now. Also have reread Allegany Passage, which is the story of the Church of the Brethren community, or Dunkards, in Maryland and their migration to what's now West Virginia. The Biggerstaff family is mentioned there. I figure that I need to be familiar with what's at hand before I can move forward and find the missing. We're back in the frontier of the 1700s "over the mountain" so it will be rough going. It's all land records, wills and probate, and tax reports. I do find it fascinating!

For the first time I gathered all of my tools and helpful hint sheets and put them together in the FAN Principle folder, which I live by lately and will help with the Dunkards who stuck together. That felt really good. Made certain that all my tools for the states of West Virginia and before that Virginia were at the top of the stack. Are these called finding aides or is that something else, I don't know? Now my goodie pack is together and I'll no longer have to hunt for each item. You would have thought I'd have figured out to do that before this!

And then there's the DNA results which were the sum of yesterday's posting! Whoop! I got totally immersed in that for two days and counting. I can not believe that the 23andMe test and massive results were only $99. Whatta deal! Randy Seaver of the wonderful Genea-Musings blog just posted more of his 23andMe results yesterday and his writing helped me think deeper into what I was looking at. I really couldn't believe it but at 99.9% European I'm more Caucasian than Randy who was wondering if he's the whitest guy in the world in his first post! How can that be possible with all his New England ancestors?! But I'm a tad jealous because he has Native American DNA, or that's the presumption. Oh well, I'm very happy with my .1% Sub Saharan African DNA. Wonder where that came from and if it's just a tiny vestige of a long ago migration. Fascinating!!


Photo of the Day from the Archive:

A lovely old post card of

Cumberland, Allegany, Maryland, 1906.

 

 

GeneaBlogger's blogging prompt for this post and day of the week is called Wisdom Wednesdays. Thank you, GeneaBloggers:)


The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/03/wisdom-wednesday-moving-right-along.html

Amanuesis Monday: Samuel Albert House's Death Certificate

Amanuensis Monday

What's an Amanuensis, you say? It's a copyist: someone who sits like a crazy person squinting their eyes and probably ruining eyesight to read that old document hand-written so very long ago and type it out. We do because we love:)

 

There has been a whole lot of posting going on over here under the Nut Tree lately about one Samuel Albert House, who happens to be my 2nd great grandfather. You can find recent posts here:

Surname Saturday: House - Biggerstaff - Caton

Mystery Monday: The Strange Life of Samuel Albert House

 

Mom told me that SA House's death certificate information was provided by Mom's grandmother, Catherine Elizabeth House. Her son and Mom's favorite Uncle Tuck has been a strong resource for Mom's view of what happened because he gave her some behind the scenes info. Quite a while back Mom said that her grandmother was concerned that his death certificate reveal his illegitimate paternity, and so to make it all work out, she switched the surnames of the father and mother. In that way Samuel Albert ended up with the last name of House, which he went by all of his life, and his father became Isaac House instead of Isaac Biggerstaff, which was his natural father's name. We know plainly and for sure that his mother's name was Rebecca House.

 

There has been an ample amount of confusion about the identity of Samuel Albert's father around the internet, and this is the document that started the trip down the rabbit hole. Now that all other pertinent data and sources are lined up, one can more easily see what happened, and why anyone without all of the pieces to the puzzle would draw the same erroneous conclusion. 

 

So here's his Certificate of Death. Then I'll follow with a transcription of the salient passages, and explain the conclusion and how it's arrived at.

 

 

 

 

STATE OF MARYLAND

CERTIFICATE OF DEATH

18634

(Circled) 81

Registration Dist. No. 9

 

County: Allegany

Village or City: Frostburg

 

FULL NAME: Samuel A House

 

PERSONAL AND STATISTICAL PARTICULARS

Male

Color or Race:  White

Single, Married, Widowed, or Divorced:  Married

Date of Birth: Feb 11 1832

Age: 85 yrs  7 mos  21 days

 

Occupation: Track foreman

General nature of industry: Railroad

Birthplace: W Va

 

PARENTS

Name of father: Isaac House

Birthplace of father: Not known

Maiden name of mother: Rebecca Biggerstaff

Birthplace of mother: W Va

 

THE ABOVE IS TRUE TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE:

(Informant) Elizabeth House

(Address) Frostburg Md

 

MEDICAL CERTIFICATE OF DEATH

DATE OF DEATH: 10 (month)  2 (day) 1917

 

And then follows the other information that he died of arterial sclerosis and the place of burial is St. Michaels. The date of burial is 10/4/1917.

 

And then the fun started!!

 

Who was this Isaac House, listed here as his father? The only Isaac House who was anywhere in the state of Virginia in 1832 lived in Harpers Ferry and nowhere close to the place of birth of Samuel Albert House and his mother Rebecca House. But that said, someone a while back attached that Isaac House from Harpers Ferry to the ICI file as Samuel Albert's father. Too bad about that piece of misinformation!

 

So I've followed this ancestry of Samuel Albert House all along from his recorded and indexed birth in Hampshire County, Virginia, through his work on the railroad and then as a farmer, to his move to Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland, and finally to his death certificate. I think his case is closed for me now and it's time to write it up and then one last check for any holes. In my and Mom's minds his father is undoubtedly Isaac Biggerstaff. Let's go find his family!!

And finally:

 

Cumberland Evening Times, Pg 2, February 1907.

 His Seventy-Fifth Birthday

 

Mr. Samuel A. House, one of Frostburg's

oldest citizens celebrated his

seventy-fifth birthday at his home on

Hill Street on Monday, Feb. 11th. Mr.

House is the father of sixteen children,

sixty-five grandchildren and one

great grandchild. He was the father

of the late Wm. House who met his

death at Newcastle lately. Mr. and

Mrs. House are both hale and hearty,

and can walk five miles with ease.

Mr. House received many gifts from

his many friends who wish him many

more happy years.

 

 

Amanuesis Monday is a weekly blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers. You can find the whole week's list of prompts here. Thanks, GeneaBloggers for being you!!


The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/03/amanuesis-monday-samuel-albert-houses.html

Surname Saturday: House - Biggerstaff - Caton

It's Surname Saturday time again which is a very useful blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers. Every time I sit down in front of the glowing magic screen and craft my Surname Saturday post I make mental connections about the ancestors and write them down here. I recently started making notes within the post of items yet to do just to insure I don't forget. I swear if we ever meet in person I'll probably have a post note on my forehead:)

I truly don't know how to handle this line because it's probable that Samuel Albert House was illegitimate. The question for me is, do I follow his natural father's line or his step father's line? I guess that I shouldn't follow his House line because some time after the age of sixteen he started calling himself House, and that's his mother's family's surname.

Well, since it's my blog and I've lost the number of the genealogy 411 people, think I'll post what's  known about everyone, except his mother because that will be coming up in rotation. Both the natural father and step-father's history end rather abruptly because Mom and I have been busy trying to prove what we can about Samuel Albert's life and frankly have neglected the rest. We'll get to the Biggerstaff and Caton history later when we know more.


1. Diane Kelly Weintraub

2. Francis Patrick " Pat" Kelly 1916 - 2007
3. Virginia Williams, living and loving it

6. Cambria Williams 1897 - 1960
7. Emma Susan Whetstone 1897 - 1956

14. Joseph Hampton Whetstone 1858 - 1938
15. Catherine Elizabeth House 1865 - 1947

30. Samuel Albert House 1832 - 1917
31. Mary Elizabeth Farrell 1835 - 1919
I wrote a longish blog post about Samuel Albert House this week and his strange life which you can find here. It tells the story of various jobs and moving and finally settling in Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland.
There's also an amusing post about the Counterfeiting Twins here, and those two, Rev. Edward Francis and Joseph Martin, were SA and Mary Elizabeth's children.
They had these 16 children:
James I. House 1844 - ????. He married Sara C. Wilson
John T. House 1855 - 1954. He married Sarah Dennison.
William H. House 1858 - 1907. He married Ada Elizabeth Garlitz.
Mary Amelia "Molly" House 1861 - 1949. She married John R. Davis.
Samuel T. House about 1862 - ????. He married Emma Siebert.
Garnet Soloman House 1864 - ????. He married Rhoda ?.
15. Catherine Elizabeth House 1865 - 1947
Rev. Edward Francis House 1868 - 1926. He married Martha Edith Dennison.
Joseph Martin House 1868 - 1950. He married Rose Praut and upon her death married Madge Cook.
George House 1870 - 1871.
Sarah Ellen "Sadie" House 1870 - ????. She married William Harvey Reckley.
Margaret Anna "Nan" House 1872 - 1968. She married Philip Long.
Sadie F. House 1873 - ????.
Charles Harley House 1875 - 1945. He married Blanch Perdue.
Michael A. House 1878 - ????. He married Lillian Meade.
Nora House 1879 - 1964. She married Denton R. Kaseycamp.

Now we're down to the fork in the road and taking either path results in a short ride right at the moment. Samuel Albert's natural father was Isaac Biggerstaff. His step-father was Patrick Caton. It's interesting to note that he took his mother's surname, House, as his own. Was that the custom?

Previous relevant posts about Isaac Biggerstaff are here:
The Dunkards
The "why" of Isaac and Sarah not wedding
We recently discovered an index from cousin William that lists Samuel Albert's father as Issac Biggerstaff. Now, we have a whole branch of the tree to build out because there is good solid information on this line available. It's time for Mom and I to get busy and research the Biggerstaffs!

The step-father was Patrick Caton, a solid man who most likely loved his wife, Rebecca House, and here's how his part of the tree looks.

60. Patrick Caton 1814 - 1881
61. Rebecca House 1808 - after 1851
Patrick Caton was born in Ireland in 1814. Because of where he ended up in America, which is now West Virginia on the Potomac River near the long gone town of Magnolia, he most probably was lured by work on the railroads or the canal, as were countless other Irishmen. In the 1850 US Census he's listed as a farmer, but Samuel (calling himself Samuel Biggerstaff) and Patrick's brother, Francis Caton a man of 30 years living in the household, are listed as laborers. Presumably based on history of the area they were most likely employed by the railroad or the canal digs.
Patrick and Rebecca had the following children:
Mary Caton 1846 - ????
Margaret Caton  1847 - ????. She married George W. Meade
And then of course they cared for:
30. Samuel Albert House 1832 - 1917

The end. Or rather, the beginning because we're off to research the Biggerstaff line. When we have something cobbled together there will be another Surname Saturday post, a bit out of order.

30. Samuel Albert House 1832 - 1917 and 31. Mary Elizabeth Farrell 1835 - 1919

 

Their daughter Sadie House and husband William Reckley

with their daughter Blanche.

Garnet House and Rhoda's daughters, Fay and Wanda.

Estella Reckley, daughter of Sadie House and William Reckley.

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/03/surname-saturday-house-biggerstaff-caton.html

Mystery Monday: The Strange Life of Samuel Albert House

Samuel Albert House (1832 - 1917) had an strange life, at least to my prying eyes. As my second great grandfather, whom I share with plenty of other interested parties, he's the exception in the tree. By that I mean that there are numerous well-behaved ancestors, but Samuel Albert was something else. Oh, it's not just that he was, and Mom is real sure about this, illegitimate but it's that his life, at least from the comfort of my computer screen, appears to have been a tad of a mess. Let me tell you what we know about him and you can draw your own conclusions.

Samuel Albert House was born on 11 Feb 1832 in Hampshire County, West Virginia, in the vicinity of the small town of Magnolia. His mother was Rebecca House born 15 Feb 1808 in that same place, about that there's no discussion and here's what the Hampshire County, West Virginia /Virginia records say and the text of the listing for his birth:

HOUSE Samuel Albert                   Feb 11 ,1832           Isaac/Rebecca Biggerstaff

And here's the image:

And here's the URL of the index at "Hamshire County VA: Vitals: Births":

http://files.usgwarchives.net/wv/hampshire/vitals/Births.txt

And the index is all we're likely to get because of fires and floods and whatnot at the courthouse. But as you can see it lists the parents of Samuel Albert House as Isaac and Rebecca Biggerstaff. Case closed, right? But why is the baby listed as having the last name of House? This makes me want to know more about this indexed record.

Back when Mom started this genealogy thing she went around asking her living relatives what they knew about the ancestors. Mom wanted to know more about her great grandfather, Samuel Albert House, so she went to ask Uncle Tuck. Uncle Tuck was Mom's absolute favorite uncle and he shared more than one bit of oral history with her and proved out to be a good solid source. Uncle Tuck gave her a few bits and pieces and then said cryptically, you shouldn't go nosing around because you never know what you'll find and you might not like it.

Now, you have to know Mom, because if you tell her she shouldn't know something, that's exactly what she's determined to find out! Off she went and found out something interesting about Samuel Albert right away. As you can see below, in the 1850 US Census he's 16 years old, living with his mother, Rebecca Caton, working as a laborer, and calling himself Samuel Biggerstaff. Rebecca House married Patrick Caton 13 April 1834, just after Isaac Biggerstaff, who had married Elizabeth Longstreth, died.  Here's the 1850 US Census.

 

 

And thus began Mom's journey to find out who Samuel Albert's birth father was, just who was this Isaac Biggerstaff, and piece together what might be known. You can check out a previous post to this blog here where you can see Mom's reasoning for arriving at this conclusion... and without much help from Uncle Tuck.

Quite a while back Mom received a write up of a House Family Reunion held in Ohio about 1910. In it attendees discussed how everyone in the community knew that Samuel Albert was illegitimate and that Isaac Biggerstaff was his father. OK, so Samuel Albert House was most likely illegitimate, big deal. If that's the worst thing that happens in a family it will be a miracle.

But as I'm piecing his life together, beyond the records, I start building an image of a troubled soul. Uncle Tuck is the source for a second story about SA House, and this one is not at all pleasant. But let's follow his life along using what's gleaned from records and the US Census returns. Here's his marriage record where he wed Mary Elizabeth Farrell on 20 Aug 1855 in Hampshire County VA.

 

 



In the 1860 US Census he's listed as living in the Piedmont area of Hampshire County, Virginia and working as a laborer and living with his wife and three children: John age 7, James age 4, and William age 2. So he'd gotten married, had a couple of kids, was working as a laborer (no skill mentioned, no employer mentioned specifically) going west from Magnolia, down the Potomac River to live and work near Piedmont.

Then there's the Civil War. Samuel Albert House joins up with the Confederate Army, even though all of his neighbors and relatives, especially his brother-in-laws, supported the Union. Family oral tradition (through Uncle Tuck) and Mom says that he got drunk, went "over the hill" into Virginia, and signed up with the Confederacy in August and was absent without leave by October of 1862. I found his war records on Fold3 and that's pretty much what happened.

It was difficult living in this part of Virginia that had just voted for secession from Virginia and become West Virginia on April 17, 1862. Skirmishes raged daily in the woods and streets. You could get killed hanging the clothes out to dry. A local story posted to the Hampshire County RootsWeb goes like this:
The Confederates built the cook fire one morning, the Yankees put the bacon on to fry, the Confederates ate it, and the Yankees put the fire out. The military would count this as one turn-over, but the beleaguered population considered it three turnovers.

By the time of the 1870 US Census, the Civil War has ended and he's moved his family again, this time to Springfield, West Virginia, and has a new profession working for the rail road. The railroad was the high-tech industry of the day and if you could land and keep a job there and could keep it, you were set for life. Springfield is about half way as the crow flies between Piedmont and PawPaw (near Magnolia or what's left of it, and read more about that here.)

In the 1880, 1900, and 1910 US Census he's living in Maryland but hopping around a bit. In both the 1880 and 1900 censuses he's a farmer.

And just why did he move from Virginia to Frostburg, showing up in the US Census there in 1910? Oral tradition has it that he was drinking a lot - too much - making a nuisance of himself and being abusive to his family. The adult male members of his family had what today we might call an intervention and moved him over to Frostburg where they could keep an eye on him. In that 1910 census he's in Frostburg and listed as doing odd jobs.

There was, as per Uncle Tuck, a particularly ugly scene in Frostburg, during which Samuel Albert threatened to kill his wife, Mary Elizabeth Farrell. Uncle Tuck's father walked in to find Mary Elizabeth kneeling on the floor saying prayers while Samuel Albert raised a hatchet over her head. Uncle Tuck's father put a stop to the madness by threatening in no uncertain terms to call the police if he ever raised a hand against her again. And he never did.

It seems to me to be a troubled life. I can't of course be certain of that but it would seem so from the details here and especially from the oral tradition handed down by Samuel Albert's grandson, Uncle Tuck, to Mom.

So what are the issues at play here and why am I posting this to the blog? First, they say it's difficult sometimes to set out what's known of a troubled ancestor's life. One needs to be objective and present factually accurate data about what's known and the source of that information, being respectful of lives I really know very little about.

And it's important to capture oral tradition too, which can be colored by personal leanings and the retelling of the story. Each person who retells it is a filter and can't help but change and modify the truth, whatever that was.

When looking at the gathering of research and stories I don't feel positively or negatively or judge; that's not for me to do. I can't know how his world saw him in the light of his well-known illegitimacy. Was it no big deal or a mark against him? It was remembered and talked about and recorded at the House Family Reunion in Ohio years later so it must have been something of note. But enlisting in the Confederacy when others in your family and community were fighting for the Union? And then going AWOL two months later? And the possibility that he was drunk when he enlisted and went AWOL is a tad unusual, don't you think?

The most difficult and egregious for me is his abusive of the family. The fact of it is not proven beyond a doubt nor documented in any manner except for oral history and I must remember that.

And then there's the need some of his other descendants feel to do what they can to cover-up his life. Changing names on a death certificate, looking and looking until they find an Isaac House, half-way across the state and presuming that he's the father, posting that to web sites near and far. Silly, really. Why not look at the man's life for what it was and lend some compassion to his presumed pain? And I do presume that he was is some sort of pain because drinking is mentioned in almost every story about him.

Samuel Albert House 1832 - 1917

 

Samuel Albert House 1832 - 1917 and Mary Elizabeth Farrell House 1835 - 1919

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/02/mystery-monday-strange-life-of-samuel.html

Big Family Secret: Dunkers

Still considering myself a newbie to this genealogy stuff, and am imagining that will continue for years. I constantly feel as though I'm simply stumbling from thing to thing even though I do make lists that outline my research goals. But often as not, in following a line of inquiry there's a bit that demands my attention as though it's calling my name. Look here, it shouts. So I do. Then stumbling I go into a fact that shines a completely new light on a tiny branch of the family tree. Suddenly I feel that I understand what happened to the ancestors in a completely different way! Things start to make sense.

And so it was with the Samuel Albert House situation. This blog post is a continuation of one you'll find below, entitled "Big Family Secrets." Here's the link, if you want to catch up:
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/06/big-family-secrets.html

Got thinking about the Biggerstaff family, especially after making contact with Cousin William through Ancestry.com Messages. Noticed that we share our 2nd GGF, SA House. He has a nice big tree in Members Public Trees and I messaged him about the SA House info he had there and the Biggerstaff line. He shared some web sites and other stuff.

As you seen in the previous post, Samuel Albert was illegitimate and every indication is that Isaac Biggerstaff was his father. But why didn't he marry Rebecca House, Samuel Albert's mother? Cousin William's info kept me thinking.

Can't even tell you how I got there but I found a web site about the Tarvin Family, and many thanks to them! Here's the link: http://www.tarvinfamily.org/ As you see, it's beautifully done and a wealth of information even if none of our people are Tarvins!

There are two links on the main page that caught my eye. First is the PDF of the book, "Allegheny Passage: Dunkards on the Cacapon." The description reads: "We have received permission to scan and re-publish a key reference work on the history of the Brethren religion in the western area of Maryland and Virginia. The chapter that contains references to Rev. George Tarvin's family is posted here online."

I looked at the PDF and found about a full page on the Biggerstaff family as well as mention of the Longstreth family, both Church members. William and Samuel are mentioned by name, William being Isaacs's GF and Samuel his father. It also mentioned William's will, with which I was recently familiar due to the good graces of Cousin William.

As you might note from the previous post, Isaac Biggerstaff married a Longstreth girl instead of Rebecca House, mother of Samuel Albert. Mystery solved: he was expected to marry within his faith. I copy the following from a wonderfully lucid presentation by Rev. George Tarvin in 1988 at a Tarvin family reunion.

Here's the link: http://www.tarvinfamily.org/brethren.php  I have taken the liberty to quote at length here and hope that it does not offend. It's of such importance that I can't help myself... and I'm forever grateful to the Tarvin Family for this text! The bolded portions have been added by me to emphasize the importance of marrying within the faith.

To more fully understand our ancestor, a person must first look at the history and doctrine of the Dunker Church. The German Baptist Brethren, called Dunkers, grew out of the Pietist movement of Germany in the late 17th century. The Church of the Brethren was officially organized at Schwartzenau in 1708 by Alexander Mack, a miller. There were eight original members baptized by triple immersion (hence the name Dunker) in the Elbe River. Their belief was to live as close to Bible teachings as possible. They found themselves a persecuted people and by 1719 the first group came by ship to Pennsylvania to seek a refuge where they could worship as they pleased. This first group settled in Germantown, now a part of Philadelphia. In 1729, Alexander Mack led the remainder of his group from their native Germany to America.
During these early years, several Brethren communities were founded in southeast Pennsylvania and two in Maryland. The Dunkers were progressive farmers and tried to live simply, hence they were invariably included among the so-called "plain people" of Pennsylvania. They were often on the frontier, locating in the mountains of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and later extending south to the Carolinas and Tennessee and west to Virginia and Ohio.
The Dunkers were one of the historic peace churches. Most Dunkers have been conscientious objectors to military service. On the frontier, this went as far as not carrying guns and being friends with the Indians.
Some of the distinguishing beliefs of the Brethren were (1) baptism by triple immersion, previously mentioned as the reason for being called Dunkers; (2) full communion service including a meal and a footwashing service; (3) "Fellowship of Believers" which in the early days meant marriage primarily within the membership of the church; and (4) simplicity, meaning to dress plainly and to avoid any extravagance in spending. There was no official church creed and the main emphasis was on living as close to the teachings of the New Testament as possible. It was said, "A Dunker's word is as good as his bond."
Their beliefs which set them apart, and especially their emphasis on marrying within the faith, led to a close-knit group with a tremendous number of intermarriages among the few well-known family names.

Now I'm adding score points to the theory that Issac might have married Rebecca had they been of the same faith.


Photo of the day from my Archive:

Elizabeth Longstreth Biggerstaff's stone,

Cherry Orchard Cemetery,

Magnolia (or what's left of it) WVa,

She was Isaac's wife.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/07/big-family-secret-dunkers.html

Big Family Secrets

When Uncle Tuck found out that Mom was doing genealogy he told her, you might not like what you find out! Now Mom is way cool about family scandals... she doesn't care what the ancestors did as long as her brood stay out of trouble;)

Mom didn't think much about what Uncle Tuck said because he wasn't specific, but it did seem to her that there were secrets to be had if one looked hard enough. Some time went by and Mom discovered what Uncle Tuck was talking about. It looked like her great grandfather, Samuel Albert House was illegitimate!

After due research Mom wrote this in her Notes in Family Tree Maker:

"Samuel Albert House was born ot of wedlock to Rebecca House. There is every indication that his father was Isaac Biggerstaff.

Two reasons for this thought being that the 1850 cenus of Morgan Co.,W.Va. has a Samuel Biggerstaff living with Rebecca House Caton. His age is 16. Samuel was born 11 Feb 1832.

The other reason was that in his death certificate his daughter, my grandmother, listed his father as Issac House and his mother as Rebecca Biggerstaff but in that time period there was no Issac House and no Rebecca Biggerstaff in the Morgan Co. W,Va. area where he was born. There was a Rebecca House and an Issac Biggerstaff."

OK, so there you go. Big-deal family secret: Who da baby-daddy? All evedince points to Isaac Biggerstaff. Samuel Albert is even going by Samuel Biggerstaff in the 1850 US Census. And if you look at all the available male Biggerstaffs in Magnolia, West Virginia at that time, it points to Isaac.

So that's our starting point. I don't know what it is about all this but I smelled a really interesting story here beyond the usual who-slept-with-who tale. I have also just been back east to visit Mom and we all went to Magnolia, West Virginia, or what's left of it. The recent placing of my feet on the very soil of my ancestors back in the deep woods of West Virginia got me thinking.
(See posting below at http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/06/let-me-take-you-to-magnolia.html )

I have a big basket of information, random facts and thoughts surrounding this issue. So here in the best order I can make of it is what I know, or think I know. Please, feel free to jump in with thoughts and ideas about this saga. I'd love some help here:)

The Biggerstaffs were a landed family. Isacc's grandfather William left numerous acres of land to Isaac in his will of which I have a copy. Isaac also enjoyed additional land through inheritance from his father, Samuel. Isaac was land wealthy. The Houses on the other hand were, as Mom likes to put it, dirt poor. He did marry Elizabeth Longstreth who came from a prominent Pennsylvania family.
Thought: The marriage of Isaac to Rebecca House would not have been a good match in the eyes of the Biggerstaff family, especially Isaac's grandfather, William, from whom he stood to inherit. Did his grandfather step in?

Isaac Biggerstaff's first child in his marriage was named "Rebecca". Interestingly, this first child in his mariage to Elizabeth Longstreth arrived just about the time Rebecca House gave birth to Samuel Albert. We can conclude that Rebecca House and Isaac Biggerstaff were intimate right up the time he was married.
Thought: It's not unheard of back in this place and time for couples to get pregnant so as to force the parents to give them a blessing. Heck, my great grandparents did it because she was from a Lutheran family and he a Catholic family. They had to have a couple of kids to get the parents to cave:)

Rebecca and Isaac's child was named "Samuel". Samuel was Isaac's father's name.
Thought: Was this an effort to curry favor with the landed grandfather of Isaac by honoring Isaac's deceased father?

Rebecca House married Patrick Caton one month after Isaac Biggerstaff died. Rebecca House waited 12 years to marry and did so only after Issac's death on 24 March 1844. She married Patrick Caton, a man from Ireland, on 13 April, 1844.
Thought: Mom thinks that Rebecca and Isaac were true lovers and that she did not want to marry anyone else. Only after Isaac was finally gone did she feel free to mary.

Early 1900s House Family Reunion. In the early years of the 1900s and before 1910 there was a House Family Reunion in Ohio. Mom has a copy of the memories shared there and written down by all in attendance. It resided, gathering dust, in Mary's attic until one day Mary said to Mom, Hey you want to come over and see those old papers in my attic? You don't need to ask Mom a question like that twice:) She borrowed and copied them. In the papers of the House Family Reunion someone stated that it was commonly known that Samuel Albert House's father was Issac Biggerstsaff.

Isaac and Rebecca were possibly first cousins, once removed. Mom and I need to verify this but it looks like it could be correct. Yeah... it's West Virginia;)

Picture of the day from the Archive:

Samuel Albert House,

1832 - 1917

Other posts about the exploits of Samuel Albert House can be found on this blog at : http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2011/07/another-drinking-man.html

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/06/big-family-secrets.html

Please Note: Blogger is hay-wire today so I couldn't do a spell chack. I'm flying without a net for the time being. So sorry!