Saturday, June 25, 2016

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Where Were Your Ancestors 150 Years Ago?

I'm accepting Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun mission, "Where Were Your Ancestors 150 Years Ago?", as follows:
  1. Determine where your ancestral families were on 25 June 1866 - 150 years ago.
  2. List your ancestors, their family members, their birth and death years, and their residence location (as close as possible).  Do you have a photograph of their residence from about that time, and does the residence still exist?
My direct ancestors who were living in 1866 stretch from a single 4th great-grandmother (in my mother's line) all the way down to my paternal grandfather, including all 16 great-great-grandparents.

For the most part, I've based the residence locations on the 1860 and 1870 censuses (or 1861 and 1871 in Quebec), occasionally tempered with knowledge of birthplaces of children around 1866. I don't have photos of any of the houses, and don't know if any of them still exist.
  1. Silas Kirk (1827-1909) and Sarah Sukeforth (1838-1905), my great-grandparents, were probably residing in Auburn, Androscoggin County, Maine, by 1866, with their first two children Chester F. Kirk (1857-1939, my grandfather) and Abbie (who died in Auburn the following January). I'm not sure exactly where they were living, because Silas didn't buy his land in Auburn until 1868.
  2. Jabez Bradbury Kirk(patrick) (1800-1884) and Abigail Faulkner (1808-1891), my great-great-grandparents, were living in Warren, Knox County, Maine, probably with their adopted daughter Georgianna Oliver, who would have been 16. 
  3. Simon Sukeforth (1813-1874) and Jane Miller (1810-1879), my great-great-grandparents, were living in Washington, Knox County, Maine, probably with their four youngest children Addie, William, Frank, and Lawrenton.
  4. Isaac Hodsdon (1812-1890) and Abigail Greene (1814-1878), my great-great-grandparents, were living in Byron, Oxford County, Maine, probably with younger children Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon (1847-1911, my great-grandfather), Isaac Winfield, Francis Ireland, Matilda Ann, and Charles.
  5. Nahum Alonzo Rand Sr. (1813-1884) and Dolly Brister (1818-1904), my great-great-grandparents, were living in Andover, Oxford County, Maine, probably with children Kate Maria Rand (1855-1940, my great-grandmother), Nahum Alonzo Jr., Ezra Davis, Asenath Matilda, Samuel P., and Annie Grace.
  6. William Murphy (1830-1909) and Flora McDonald (1832-1911), my great-great-grandparents, resided in Prince Edward Island; judging from baptismal records, in 1866 they were probably in or near Vernon River. At the time they had seven children: Dominic Murphy (1854-1914, my great-grandfather), Lot, Flora Ann, Mary, James, Martha, and Daniel.
  7. Neil McIntyre (1814-aft 1881) and Mary Ann McLellan (1817-1896), my great-great-grandparents, also resided in Prince Edward Island, probably in Indian River, though they may have moved to Lot 8 by 1866. All ten of their children would have still been living with them: Hannah, Angus, Alexander, Leo, Sarah Ann, Kate, Mary, Mary Ann, John Alfred, and Rose Ann McIntyre (1862-1937, my great-grandmother).
  8. Celina Cloutier (ca 1850-1881), my great-great-grandmother, who would marry Louis Rabideau in 1869, almost certainly was living in Quebec in 1866. I have not yet discovered her parents or birthplace, so I have no idea where in Quebec.
  9. Mary (Washburn) Yates (1831-1917), my great-great-grandmother, who would marry Uriah Woodward in 1867, was widowed in 1864 and was almost certainly living in Holland, Orleans County, Vermont, with her nine children from her marriage to Stephen Yates.
  10. Jacob Hodsdon (1787-1879), my 3rd great-grandfather, was living in Byron, Oxford County, Maine, either with his wife Sally Huston (my 3rd great-grandmother, who died between 1860 and 1870), or, if Sally had died by 1866, probably with his son John and family.
  11. Sarah (Chamberlain) Brister (ca 1790-1881), my 3rd great-grandmother and widow of my 3rd great-grandfather Enoch Brister, was living in Rumford, Oxford County, Maine, with her daughter and son-in-law, Obed and Jerusha (Brister) Taylor.
  12. Alexander McLellan (ca 1786-1867), my 3rd great-grandfather, was living in Prince Edward Island, probably Indian River.
  13. Louis Robidas (ca 1832-1921) and Marie Deshaies-St. Cyr (1829-1895), my 3rd great-grandparents, were living in Quebec, probably either in Saint-Paul-de-Chester or Sherbrooke, with their children Louis Robidas/Rabideau (1850-aft 1913, my great-great-grandfather), Alfred, Louise, Marcelin Sinaie "Samuel", and James.
  14. Royal Woodward (ca 1803 to 1879) and Mary Hawley Sawyer (1815-1880), my 3rd great-grandparents, were living in Walden, Caledonia County, Vermont, with their youngest children Frank P., Uriah Sawyer Woodward (1847-1881, my great-great-grandfather), and Mary A.
  15. Mary (Palmatier) Washburn (1812-1879), my 3rd great-grandmother and widow of my 3rd great-grandfather Samuel Orcutt Washburn, was probably living either in Holland, Orleans County, Vermont, or in Dummer, Coos County, New Hampshire, most likely with one of her children and their family.
  16. Divine Louise Girardeau (1790-ca 1875), my 4th great-grandmother and widow of my 4th great-grandfather Jean-Baptiste Robidas, was living in Quebec, possibly in Stoke, Richmond County, where she resided with her son Damase "Thomas" Robidas in 1871.
So I had 32 direct ancestors definitely living 150 years ago:
  • 1 grandparent
  • 6 great-grandparents
  • 16 great-great-grandparents
  • 8 great-great-great-grandparents
  • 1 great-great-great-great-grandparent
Additionally, I had 4 great-great-great-grandparents who were possibly alive at that time, i.e., they were living in 1860 or 1861 but I have no record of them after that. They are Robert Sukeforth, Sally (Huston) Hodsdon, Michael Murphy, and Magdelen (Morison) Murphy.