Alice Watson Marries John Young

After doing a lot of reading on the Watson, Walton, Livezey, Roberts families in and around the locations where our Watson line lived (again the main purpose was to identify Rebecca's father), I realize not all of the Watson's continued to follow the Friends (those are the lines that are easier to document). I still don't have all of Isaac's siblings' families, but I was able to link Alice to a very influencial Methodist Minister and Elder, John M. Young.

Rootsweb, Ancestry.com didn't have a "tree" linking Alice up to father William Watson, and there were no posted "trees" identifying Alice Watson Young to our line--there is now.

From the Lycoming Gazette 25 Mar 1829
John Young to Miss Alice Watson of Muncy Creek Twp. on Thursday last by Rev. John Thomas (the Methodist minister who marries brother Isaac W. Watson/Rebecca Roberts and logically Rebecca's sister Eliza Roberts/Frederic Boone.)
(Lycoming Gazette 10 May 1826-10 May 1936, on line, contributed by Paula Radwanski)

John marries Alice when she is eighteen years of age and the following year they move to Ohio, and from Ohio to Page County, Iowa (1859)--the 1850 Census shows them in Wayne Indiana. The 1860 Census has the residence as Nebraska City. In 1863 they settle near Salt Creek--the future Lincoln, Nebraska. (The original intention of Lincoln was for the establishment of a church colony). John is considered a founder of Lincoln, Nebraska.

John became a Methodist minister in 1829--that would be about the same time as his marriage to Alice. He was President of the Ohio Methodist Annual Conference for several years and President of the Nebraska and Iowa Conferences for about 20 years.

The various Census' identifies children as John, Hannah, George, Isaac, James, Lemuel, Levi, and William.

For more information check out the History of the City of Lincoln, Nebraska, A.B. Hayes and Sam D. Cox, 1889, p.74, 75--the book is online through Ancestry.com and HeritageQuest.

George Roberts, father of Rebecca Roberts

George Roberts appears to be the father of our Rebecca Roberts (1810-1859. The 1810 and 1820 census shows George Roberts in Muncy, Lycoming, Pennsylvania and the 1830 Fairfield Twp., Lycoming census shows Isaac W. Watson (and Rebecca) living near him, Peter Roberts and George A. Roberts.

There are tons of Roberts in the area, but very few Roberts lines have a George Roberts...I'm sorting through all the books eliminating family lines....but it looks like our George Roberts would be the one mentioned in the Lycoming County book.

John Else works for George Roberts. John Else marries a Mary Ann Roberts. It would be a logical conclusion that Mary Ann Roberts would be the landowner’s daughter. These are first settlers of the area.

The Lycoming Gazette references a 25 Jan 1832 marriage of Eliza Roberts, daughter of George Roberts of Fairfield Township to Frederic Boone of Mifflin Twp, by Rev. Thomas---Rev. John Thomas (a methodist minister) also married Isaac W. Watson and Rebecca Watson. The History of Lycoming County book by Meginness states George Roberts as a trustee for the early Methodist church.

George Roberts
Rebecca Roberts (1810-1859) m 1829 Isaac W. Watson by Rev. John Thomas
George A. Roberts (abt.1805)
Peter Roberts
Mary Ann Roberts
Eliza Roberts m 1832 Frederic Boone by Rev. Thomas

It's apparent as you read the next story on Isaac's sister Alice, that the connection is even stronger…

William Watson (born 1769) Death Notice

From the Friends' Intelligener: Philadelphia, First Month 21, 1860:
Died, At Millville, Columbia Co., PA., on the 25th of 7 mo., 1859, William Watson, aged a little over 90 years. He was the son of Amos and Phebe Watson of Falls Twp, Bucks County, and removed from That place to Muncy, while a young man, near the close of the century. He reside there till 1841, when he reitired from his farm and with his famly removed to Fishing Creek, where he spent the rest of his life. He was an active member of the Society of Friends, and for many years an elder therein. He posessed a robust constitution and was a very industrious and worthy citizen. The many deeds of charity he rendered were a real test of his Christaian benevolence, and as a parent, neighbor, and friend, he was well known for many excellent traits, and especially for his decision of charater. For the last year or more his powers of body and mind gradually declined, and being full of years, he at last sunk quietly to his peaceful rest, having survived his wife about nine years.

Marriage date (and source) of William Watson (1769-1859) and Hannah Walton

One of the first marriages in Penn's Dale (this is the Quaker Meeting House in Muncy or Muncy Creek, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania) was the marriage of William Watson to Hanna Walton, in 1800. Job McCarty and Jane Walton in 1808; Jacob Haines and Rachel Ellis in 1815; John Warners and Louis Atkinson in 1821; Henry Encroyd and Catharine Whitacre, in 1823.

The Friends' Meeting House at Penn's Dale was founded in 1799.

p.543
History of Lycoming County, John Franklin Meginness, Brown, Runk and Co, Chicago, 1892.

There are 88 references to William Watson in this book. It will take a little time to go through them all since I can't print the pages or copy them, but the book is on books. google.....I'll probably go to the nearest library with the book before the end of the year and make copies of the most interesting pages.....now that I have to pay for all my photocopying I have to be more constrained.

Watson is on my maternal grandmother's side. Hopefully by the time I plow through this book I will be able to narrow (or identify Rebecca Roberts' father). Some of these are really large families with similar names so it should be time-consuming. But since I know now at least some of them are Quakers it doesn't look like any would qualify for DAR (revolutionary war patriots) and that was what I started working on these past few weeks. There's quite a few patriots to document.

Marriage Date for Isaac Watson and Rebecca Roberts

23 Dec. 1829 Lycoming Gazette (Lycoming is in Pennsylvania):
Martin STUMP to Miss Barbara KEHRER, both of Hepburn Twp., on Thursday last, by Jacob Grafius, Esq.
Charles EADER to Miss Elizabeth WALLACE, both of Hepburn Twp., on Thursday last by Richard Hays.
Isaac WATSON, of Muncy, to Miss Rebecca ROBERTS, of Fairfield Twp., on Thursday last by Rev. John Thomas.

Thursday last (according to the perpetual calendar) would be 17 December 1829.

Thanks to Paula Radwanski for posting 10 years of the Lycoming Gazette on-line.

Two Memes

I got tagged for two memes by Barbara of Our Carroll family Genealogy.

161

In this meme, you're supposed to go to page 161 of the book you're currently reading and list the 6th sentence on that page. Then you tag five other bloggers to do the same.

I'll let you guess the book, here's the sentence: "The Dodger sighed again, and resumed his pipe; as did Charley Bates."


Can you top this?

This meme was started by John Newmark of Transylvanian Dutch. It's purpose is to list your most prolific ancestor. John's great-great-grandfather had 22 children with three wives. He gives you extra credit if you show a screen shot from your family tree program to illustrate your ancestor's feat.

My family tree program doesn't have a feature to report a list of how many children each ancestor had, so I'm basically just guess-timating which had the most, and I think that would be my great grandparents Geyer. They had 12 kids, so no, I can't beat that by far! I did have an ancestor (Isaac W. Watson) who had 16 kids, but only 9 were his own, the others were stepchildren. Unfortunately, I can't add a screenshot of the Geyer Family Sheet, because there are still living children of this couple and I wouldn't want to publish their personal information!

Ginkens Marriages, etc.

I just received a scan of the Marriages page from a cousin who has the Ginkens family bible. The scan is fairly easy to read and contains the following information:

Henery A Ginkens, Mrs Alice M. McCracken, Nov. 2nd 1885
Sarah E Ginkens, James B Defrance, 12th Sept 1883
A. Harrison Ginkens, Marry M. Nelson, March 10th 1886
Martha J. Ginkens, William D Augustine, Feb. 11 1883
James B Ginkens, Brittie M. McCracken, Nov. 4th 1888
Mary E. Ginkens, Albert Carvin, April 20th 1890
J Edna Ginkens, Thos E Alter, Nov. 12, 1901
Aletha B Ginkens, Harold L Wilkin, Jan 27 1897

Henry Austin Ginkens and Martha Alice (Watson) McCracken were my 2nd great grandparents. Previous to her marriage to Henry, Martha Alice was married to a man named McCracken. I believe her first husband was David H. McCracken (born abt. 1850 in Ohio), her stepbrother, who was a son of her father Isaac Watson's 3rd wife, Louisa, but this is just an educated guess. I would love to hear from anyone with more knowledge on her first marriage. Martha had a daughter, Hattie McCracken, born about 1872 in Iowa, from this marriage.

I would also be interested to hear from anyone who knows who the father (or fathers) of Sarah E. Ginkens two children are: Vanna E. Ginkens (born Feb 1875 in Wapello County, Iowa) and Erk Harlow Ginkens (born 19 Jul 1877 in Wapello County, Iowa). One Ginkens cousin I am in touch with thinks Erk's father had the last name Harlow and that Erk may have been illegitimate. In the 1880 US Federal Census, Sarah and the kids are living with her father, Jesse Gum Ginkens in Clay Township, Washington, Iowa, and the children are listed with the last name Vandarn (alternatively, Vandorn or Van Dorn), while Sarah's surname is Ginkens.