Surname Saturday: The Prices and Missing Pieces

Off we go on another Surname Saturday, a very useful  blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers! I really am loving this opportunity to work with Mom's Big Tree and delve into each line taking it back as far as we have gone, and then talking to Mom in depth about what's there and what's missing.

This week we're looking at the Price family and they are a puzzle to me. The records get very cloudy fast and the trail is murky as it get all mish-mash in Virginia, England and Wales from the 1730s forward. So let me share what we have and list what we don't have so that Mom and I can work on it.

1. Diane Kelly Weintraub

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

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

12. Daniel Williams 1852 - 1920
13. Jane Price 1862 - 1939

26. William Price 1829 - 1872
27. Diane Thomas about 1832 - 1871
William Jr. was born in Bedfordshire, England, why we do not know. He died in Aux Sable Township, Grundy County, Illinois. Our working theory is that they went west, possibly mining, and to be with family. He's listed in the 1841 English Census living with his mother, Ann who is a lace maker. In both the 1850 and 1870 US Census he is listed as a miner and then more specifically, a coal miner.
Williams' wife Diane was born in Wales. She died in Mount Savage, Allegany County, Maryland. Mom believes that she traveled back to where family was to have her last child and died in childbirth or shortly thereafter.
They had these children:
William Henry Price 1852 - 1910. William was born in Frostburg, Allegany, MD and died there. He married Julia Elizabeth Koegel.
Benjamin Price 1854 - 1906. He died in Streator IL.He married Hanna "Annie" ?.
Diane Price 1856 - ????. She married Charles Busch and they lived in Brooklyn, Kings, NY, and presumably died there.
13. Jane Price 1862 - 1939. She was born in Mount Savage, Allegany, Maryland and died just up the hill in Frostburg.
Ellen Nellie Price 1864 - ????. She married the musician Buford Alley, born in Indiana.
James H. Price 1856 - 1933. He married Elizabeth Hiller and died in Streator IL.
Mary Price 1869 - ????
Victoria Price 1871 - ????

52. William Price ???? - before 1860
53. Ann ???? - ????
William was born in Wales and died before 1860 in Annapolis Maryland. We don't know a thing about Ann. Obviously we need to get going on this couple!
Some preliminary work looks like Ann went to Illinois and that's why her son William went there and died there... but is it the same Ann Price the lace maker, that's the question?
These are the children we've found so far:
26. William Price 1829 - 1872
John Price 1821 - ????

104. Arjlon Price 1738 - 1822
105. Catherine Katey Hill 1740 - 1824
Both Arjalon and Catherine were born in North Farham Parish, Richmond County, VA, and died in Allegany County, MD. What is believable is that this family migrated west to Ohio. But notice the strange Wales birth of William. And that the parents die in Allegany County in Western Maryland. Doesn't fit in. Am having trouble wrapping my head around it. Needs way more work to tie up these lose ends.
John Price 1762 - 1845. He was born in North Farham Parish, Richmond County, VA and died in Marshall County, WVa. He married Martha Ann.
Arjalon Garner Price 1764 - 1852. Born in Ohio County WVa and died in Marshall County WVa. He married Nancy Ann Thompson.
George Washington Price 1788 - 1820. George Washington was born in Ohio County, WV. He married Martha Patsy Ellis Burbridge. They both died in Moundsville Ohio.
52. William Price ???? - before 1860. Born in Wales. Doesn't fit in.

If you are a knitter, sometimes you get to a point and look at the work and have a sinking feeling that it's not right and you're going to have to take it apart and start over, or at least re-do a bunch of work. Yeah, that's how Mom and I are feeling about this line. Following in Mom's footsteps, I need to now do a "reasonably exhaustive search" with the resources available today and see where it goes. The Price Family goes on my ever-growing list of things to do.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/02/surname-saturday-prices-and-missing.html

Treasure Chest Thursday: The Barque Tiberius Brought Them

Last fall when on a trip back east to see Mom and the family, we went to the Frostburg Museum over in the old Hill Street School. Frostburg is the tiny Western Maryland town where Mom and Dad grew up, met, got married and where almost the entirety of the first few generations of my tree come from. So I was excited to see what the museum had and how it might relate to the family.

The first floor was super fascinating and we all roamed around looking at an amazing variety of stuff that we had some familiarity with. There's a small room with a lot of personal family history items relating to some of the families of the town that go way back. The Porters, The Workmen, and the Troutmen families all had genealogies there.

In that small room a couple of document facsimile were presented in glass cases. I took a close look and then with the permission of the docent, photographed them. I noticed the ship's list from the Barque Tiberius and knew it fit into our family's history but just as I was puzzling out where and who, one of our group drew my attention away to some other item, equally fascinating. It was like that all day! A wealth of relevant items to look at and consider in the ongoing process of understanding the world my ancestors inhabited. It was hard to take it all in and we plan to go back when I visit next time.

Back home and months later I'm sitting thinking, hey what about that Barque Tiberius? So I googled it and found a link to a transcription of the manifest and some very interesting notes which you can see here. Seems that it sailed from New Port, Wales to Baltimore, Maryland, and arrived in Baltimore 11 September 1838. Then I read the top of the manifest:

A List of Passengers on board of the American Barque Tiberias of Boston U.S., whereof George Sears, is Master, bound from New Port to Baltimore, U.S., burthen 299 tons Reg.

Columns represent: Name, age and occupation. The intention of all is George's Creek Co.* except Mary Bannista who is for Baltimore.
 

On board are three people who interest me to the max! They are:
Diana Thomas (1832 - 1871), my 2nd great grandmother, who was only 6 years old.
Benjamin Thomas (1793 - 1846), age 45, a collier (miner), and his wife,
Hannah (Evans) Thomas (1798 - 1968) age 40. Together, they are my 3rd great grandparents.

Holy-moley!! Seeing that just stops me in my tracks. Imagine! Benjamin with his entire family, all ten of them, confined to a small ship of just 299 tons, making their way for 46 days to cross, to the George's Creek Coal fields in a place they have never been to or seen. And with an infant child, Jane.

There's another Thomas family on board and in some way, I do hope they were connected, these two Thomas families, so as to be able to share the great adventure of their lives.

I feel for this family and don't have many details of their existence at hand which I can share with you. I do know that mine work was hard and dangerous. But I also know that the George's Creek Coal fields were the richest in the state, or adjoining states too at that time, and the miners who worked it prospered.  They raised large well-fed families and eventually purchased their own homes. Their children had good educations and they prospered as well.

Mom found one mention of Benjamin and Hannah in a small publication, The Lonaconing Mining Journal, 1837 - 1840, which is the recording journal of the mine manager. It was transcribed by Katherine Harvey about 1976. In it is recorded that Benjamin and Hannah were making merry and drinking on a Sunday evening at someone else's home, and arrested for being drunk! Here's the story. On Sundays, and after a long hard week of work, someone in the community opened their home to serve as a public house, a pub. Bars were outlawed by the mining company who kept an iron hold on the morals of their workers. It did not serve their best interests to have hungover miners working on Monday morning. So it seems that off went Benjamin and Hannah to have some downtime with neighbors. And they got caught by the mining company!

Also on the link, and written by Patricia Thomas, whose husband is also a direct descendant of Benjamin and Hannah is the following:

The Barque Tiberias appears to have left Wales on 31 June 1838 and is 109 feet long. The voyage took 46 days to cross from Newport, Wales to Baltimore, Maryland. The names of 76 passengers appear on the manifest. A cargo of 3,689 pieces of railroad iron was also on board. Most were men (and their families) hired as colliers (miners) due to mass recruiting by the George's Creek Coal and Iron Company in Allegany County, Maryland.

I thank Patricia Thomas for this paragraph, above.

In the Frostburg Museum, The ships register of the Barque Tiberius!

My 3rd GGF Benjamin Thomas and 3rd GGM Hannah Thomas on the Barque Tiberius roster along with my 2nd GGM Diane Thomas.

The Frostburg Museum now residing in its permanent home at the Hills Street School in Frostburg Maryland. There is much local history within its walls!

Mom and Brother look at her high school graduating class photo on display at the Frostburg Museum while our docent, Ralph, looks on.

Treasure Chest Thursday is a blogging prompt of GeneaBloggers. Find out more here.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/02/treasure-chest-thursday-barque-tiberius.html