Last weekend, I wrote the blog, Hidden In A Letter, in which I was trying to connect the Ohio Stephanz’s to the Kansas Stephanz’s. Little did I know the mystery man was right in front of me the whole time.
I was confusing my generations a bit, but it was the same family nonetheless. I was also so focused on the fact that MY Stephanz was in Kansas that I did not see the facts staring me right in the face! It took two other people seeing my conundrum to help me put the puzzle pieces in the right place.
Back one generation of the Kansas family is my third great-grandfather, Matijas Štefanc married to Marija Fugina. I did not have much information on him except that he was born on 17 Sep 1845 in Stari Trg ob Kolpi, Slovenia, and that his son was also Matijas Štefanc who immigrated to Kansas. It turns out that my third great-grandfather was living a double life. Newspaper articles helped me figure out the secrets.
Matijas Štefanc married Marija Fugina in June 1866 at the Parish Church of St. Jozef in Stari Trg ob Kolpi, Slovenia. In 1867, their son Matijas was born at #10 in Dolenji Radenci, Slovenia. According to a newspaper article, the two separated around 1869 and Marija immigrated to Kansas to be with family.
Another article stated that Matijas left his wife and son in Slovenia around 1865 (it was 1869) and came to America. In 1872, he met and married Clara Latour in Toledo, Ohio. They had three children together. They also had an adopted son who went back to his birth name sometime after 1911.
In 1892, the son, Matijas, traveled to Toledo from Slovenia to visit his father. This is when it became apparent that ‘ole Matijas had a second family and was still married! He makes it legal and divorces his first wife (I have not found a record of the divorce) and remarries Clara in October of 1892. Eight years later, Clara died. A month after her death, he remarried Marija on 15 October 1900 who immigrated here on 26 June 1900. She died in 1904 of tuberculosis.
Yes, he married both wives twice!
Now I have two more 2nd great-grand aunts and a 2nd great-grand uncle giving me numerous cousins! My 1st cousin 1x removed (my mom’s first cousin who is four years younger than me) will be meeting one of those descendants soon! They both have the same 2nd great-grandfather in Matijas (1845) but two different 2nd great-grandmothers.
In the letter, my great-grandfather, Matijas (1894), mentions he’s staying with Alice. Alice is his first cousin, Matija’s and Clara’s granddaughter.
Look at all these cousins! And I haven’t even traced the bottom two lines!
And to think, it all started with a letter from 1916. ✉️
Stay tuned for more stories—who knows what other surprises are hidden in our family’s past! 🔍
Do you have ancestors you want to find out more about? Contact me.
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Five years ago, I blogged about my great-grandfather, Mathias Paul Stephanz, Jr. In it, I posted a letter he wrote to his sister, Mary.
~~~
The postmark and what he wrote on his letter says “Detroit, Mich”. I can only assume he was visiting. In his letter from 1916, he refers to his adventures in “Toledo”. He starts it with what must be her nickname, (written as he wrote with punctuation and spelling.)
“Dear Squib,
I got your letter all ok. I spent the 4th in Toledo and went to Toledo Beach sure had a good time. I am going to tell you something that I don’t want the old folks to know. I think I’ll marry in Toledo. I’ve got the girl at last I believe and I found her myself too. Her name is Bessie Jacobs. Tell you how I met her Elizabeth’s old friend Frances (can’t read last name) has been trying to land me “ha ha” the old fossil she got me to come over and meet her cousin from Detroit and this little girl happened to be there too and she didn’t introduce us but I made up my mind that I didn’t need any and the funny part of it Bessie told me later that she had her mind made up to know me too but Frances kept on her tail so much that I couldn’t talk to her alone until the next day. She is a telephone operator and I’ve got the job taking her home when I am there now there’s another fellow but his name will be mud before I’m done. Sis, you can talk about fast work, but listen to this I met about 2 o’clock Monday and Wed night about 12 I proposed (she would not give me a final answer yet) She didn’t know me well enough yet but I think my chances are good. I wish you or Leah could come here on a visit and meet her I wonder if she is a big as Joe’s girl she weighs 103 pounds and reaches about to my arm pit and she wears glasses but she can look nicer in them than any girl I ever saw she 19 years old and she can cook and do housework too she’s not a fancy cook but she can put up a meal so I should worry. I’ll think I’ll move to Toledo and go living Alice’s husband is trying to land me a job there and I can be making 100 (word looks like “bones”) in a short time and I know I’ll like it better he’s got 2 uncles that are engineers too so it will all be in the family and I can save more money there too. What’s the matter with the King (Joe’s nickname maybe?) I thought he was going to be a candy maker he better try something where he can learn to be something so he won’t be a common laborer when he is my age I wish you all would move to Toledo you could all get jobs here easy enough and we could all have a dandy time better than in KC I believe. Well sis I guess I told you all I could so I will close now hoping to hear from you soon and tell all my friends hello for me Leah and Joe too (Leah must have been Joe’s sister, Lizzie- maybe a nickname) Tell that King to get a job dam quick and tell the Belgian hello too I almost forgot her.
With Love, Mat
P. S. I repeat I would like picture of the bunch as soon as possible. ”
~~~~~~~~~
In November of 2022, my 1st cousin, 1x removed (my mom’s 1st cousin) instant messaged me asking. “The Ohio connection is still a mystery, right?” She found a person on Facebook that lives about 20 minutes from her who has a maiden name of Stephanz and has connections to Toldeo, Ohio. I had to refer back to this letter to re-familiarize myself with the details.
So, with her name and the names of her uncles and her half-siblings, I decided to create an Ohio Stephanz family tree to see what I could find. Sure enough, I was able to build her tree. I was able to trace it back to another Mathias Stephanz, born in Austria. The kicker is that he was born the same month and year as my great-grandfather and he married a Clara. However, this Clara’s last name was Latour. About a month later, he married Marie (maiden name unknown) in Wyandotte, Kansas! This has to be our Kansas connection! But, I need proof.
And why did he marry again only a month after Clara died? Well, see this article for the reason.
There were other connections. In the letter, he mentions Alice and that her husband’s uncles are engineers, “keeping it all in the family.” The Toledo Mathias’ sons work with the railroad. And, his daughter Francis had a daughter named Alice. She is only a couple of years younger than the Kansas Mathias. Could this be the Alice he was staying with when he wrote the letter?
We now know that Mathias and Marie had a son before he came to the states, according to the news article. What was his name? We know Marie came to Kansas after they separated, did she bring her son?
How is the Ohio Mathias Stephanz connected to the Kansas Mathias Stephanz?
That, my friends, is the million-dollar question. I am hoping by blogging this story, someone connected will contact me. I also hope my cousin’s meeting with the Ohio Stephanz baker will shed some light.
Hello followers! It has been many months since I have written. I could blame it on the virus, and I will. It did start because of Covid-19. When the students from my school were sent home in March, I had additional admin duties. Yes, I was blessed because I was considered “essential” and was able to work many hours from home, but I was swamped.
Being home, I spent a lot of time in my yard and garden in between having to be on the computer. I started concentrating on the garden as it reduced my stress level. I have blogged about this before; gardening helps you forget the world’s problems and be in the moment. If you want to follow my trials and tribulations with my “yarden”, follow me at @marleesyardening on Instagram.
I also wrote an article for Family Tree (U.K.), and it was published this month. You can read it here (although it looks much better in the magazine itself!) My Wolcott Family, I hope you enjoy it. You can also follow my Loganalogy posts at @Loganealogy on Instagram or @Loganealogy on Facebook.
Recently, I was able to help my cousin’s wife’s family with her mother’s history. Here is their story.
“Both my mom and my Aunt have been trying to replace their U.S. naturalization papers for years. After 9/11, they haven’t been able to renew their driver’s licenses, which means they can’t write a check, travel anywhere, etc. The problem has been the lack of documentation of their immigration from Latvia to the U.S. in 1949. Their names were missing from the ship’s manifest, the courthouse clerks I contacted told me they didn’t have a record of them, they weren’t listed at Ellis Island. It was like they didn’t exist. We consulted an immigration attorney, worked with Senator Bill Nelson’s office and spent countless hours on the phone with USCIS and the local USCIS field office. Aunt Roz was going through the same nightmare in California… she hired an immigration attorney, etc. Nothing.
A few weeks ago, we decided to ask Matt’s cousin Marlee, a genealogy consultant, for help. All we asked her to do was to verify the ship the family was on and what port they arrived. Last week, Marlee sent us 25 perfectly clear documents: scanned copies of the original immigration cards for my entire family, the amended ship manifest with their names on it, my grandparent’s work application, written notes about the camp in Germany they were in, and how they had to flee Latvia, even the list of items in my mom’s suitcase when she arrived. My Aunt and I were both in tears when we received it all. We are kicking ourselves for not seeking Marlee’s help sooner, but we are so thankful we finally did.”
I am happy to say that you’ll be hearing from me more often as I help others discover their roots and find connections, especially my own. If you know of anyone who would like help building their family tree, let me know.
Until next time,
Marlee
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Hello Followers. I wanted to check in with you since I have not written a blog in quite some time. The last real blog was March 19, so almost a month now. Like you, my family has been self-isolating. Not only from the virus but the crazier people who do not think it is a serious threat.
My son and I are both essential works so we have been working except for my Easter vacation. I am working four hours in the office and four hours at home. My son works all day in the warehouse. Neither of our companies allows outside visitors. We are both very careful as my mother, who is in her late 70s, lives with us.
Since I am working from home I have not had a lot of the extra family history time I see a lot of people talking about. But, I have tried to take advantage of the free sites and free records that have become available. It’s funny, some of the records I have run across have names that I could have used a couple of years ago. But, now I at least know I am on the right track.
I did have success with my 80 year old uncle’s tree. Back on Thanksgiving he was telling me about his brick wall with his grandparents on his mother’s side. Her father seems to have disappeared after deserting her and her brothers. The name he always went by with this family seems to actually be a nickname. In tracing the date of birth and his birthplace, we tracked down what we think is his real name.
With the help of the West Virginia Archives and History Library, we followed these coincidences and found all kinds of information on his family. But, until we find a document where he uses his nickname along with his real name, we cannot be 100% sure it is him. Or, until we can find some DNA matches. Once we entered his real name into our database, a whole slew of information and family members popped up. Including others on their public trees who seemed to have come to the same conclusion. And, here’s the kicker, it seems there is another family who this man deserted…under his real name. We hope to connect to this family to find some answers.
West Virginia Archives and History Photo Gallery
I’ve also been doing a lot of gardening, my other great passion. We had some umbrella palms start to take over so we had them pulled out, by the root balls. Little did I know a few years after I planted them, they would become evasive! They loved the wet clay soil, too much! I’ve since been filling the spaces in with some organic matter from my compost pile. I’ve also added a few pieces of cardboard and will mulch and soil over that. It’s like having a blank canvas to start planting in.
And, my flowers are blooming. Always a welcome sight and lifts the spirits. My garden is defintely a great boost for my mental health.
I cannot seem to concentrate enough to pull an ancestor story together for a blog, but I did want to check-in. I hope that you and your family are safe and well. As our ancestors did from their pandemics, this too shall pass.
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The last couple of weeks have been busy! Sure, I am busy working my full-time job, but my dabblings with my family history, as well as other’s family history, have kept me hopping.
However, this makes it all worthwhile.
This young girl is my true young protégé! She is so very excited, as are her mother and grandparents. Showing her documents and how to read them has been amazing. It helps that she is smart as a whip.
We use Zoom, video conferencing, where I can annotate, share our screens, and make notes on a whiteboard. She has genuinely picked up on chasing the leads and picking apart the information in the records.
Finding Abigail has proven to be a significant challenge. As I wrote in Finding Abigail… Part 1, her last name has been elusive. I have been tracking my research about her through the research logs, and here is what I have.
Date Contacted-Who Contacted-Why Contacted- Response
12/2/2019 City of Danbury, CT Abigail Soper They wrote back and said, “Certifiable records began in 1840.”
12/26/2019 Dorset Historical Society Proof of Abigail’s assumed last name of Soper My email: I was hoping you could please do a preliminary search and let me know if you have any information on the Soper family. My main search is for an Abigail Soper who married Daniel Logan, about 1780, my 4th great grandparents. It is stated, but not sourced that Abigail’s father was Samuel Soper. Supposedly a Hugh Logan married Abigail’s sister, Jemima, about 1784. And, Lucy Logan (Hugh’s sister) married their brother, William, about 1797. I have contacted a few county clerks, but they do not have these earlier records. Any help or direction is much appreciated.
12/27/2019 Dorset Historical Society His response: I checked through our archives and could not find any information to tie Samuel Soper to Abigail Soper Logan. I did find some tidbits which may be of use.
According to the History of Danby, Joseph Soper was the first settler of Danby, in 1765, and two of his (unnamed) brothers settled in Dorset. They came from Nine Partners, New York.
According to a genealogy of the Allen family, “Seth Allen was born 16 Jan 1733/34 in Dartmouth, Bristol, Mass., and died Aft. 1801. He married Anna Soper Abt. 1752 in Dutchess County, N.Y., daughter of Peletiah Soper and Martha Soper. She was born 06 Feb 1734/35 in Windsor, Hartford, Ct. and died after 1801.” Seth and Anna bought land in Danby in 1769, which they sold in 1770, when they were in Manchester. They bought land in Manchester in 1773 from Peletiah Soper. After that, things get murkier, but they probably lived in East Dorset around 1800, and in Bromley, Vt. after 1800 (Bromley later changed its’ name to Peru).
“The Marriage Records of John Strong” records the wedding on September 5, 1782 of Robert Allen and Patty Soper of Dorset.
Several records say that the Soper Tavern was in South Dorset, at the intersection of modern-day Route 30 and Cross Road. None of the records give the first names of people who operated the tavern.
The Dorset Church records record the baptism of “Mrs. Samuel Soper 1803-04.”
Last, Rev. Parsons Pratt, in his genealogical records, noted that other Soper family members settled in “Brandon and other northern [Vermont] towns.
Like I said, nothing specific to your request, but I hope some of this scattershot information proves useful in your quest.
Sincerely yours,
Jon Mathewson
Curator
12/25/2019 Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness https://raogk.org/ Any Soper info Raymond Toolan from RAOGK emailed me back (his words)
I have done some looking and have found at least one extended family of Sopers from the mid-18th century in the towns of Dorset and Manchester in Bennington County. Your Abigail creates a bit of a problem. Remember the brief history lesson I gave you? In 1765 the French and Indian Wars had only ended two years previous. This means that England had new land it needed to quantify. The colonies of New York and New Hampshire felt that each of their grants gave them most or all of this former French territory as part of their landholdings. Each colony sent surveyors in to lay out grants. An early Vermont land speculator, Ethan Allen and his brother Ira preferred to deal with the governor of New Hampshire and so they formed The Green Mountain Boys, an ad hoc group of vigilantes whose mission was to force the New York surveyors and tax collectors out in favor of New Hampshire. There is some argument as to how successful they may have been. History remembers this group regarding their taking over Ft Ticonderoga in NY. The point in this is that in 1765 those towns were most likely considered part of NY as Vermont, per se, did not exist at that time. Middlebury, Vermont, is a bit north in Addison County, also on the west side of the Green Mountains, and also was most likely considered part of NY before 1777. I will see if I can find anything that connects Abigail to this family in Dorset and Manchester. You might see if you can get the contact information for the town’s historical society in Dorset and Manchester, Vermont. Every town has a historical society, and some are more active than others.
12/24/2019 The period in history that is involved here is a tough one for research in Vermont. Initially, the area, including Vermont, was under French control. After the battle on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec [ending the French and Indian wars], the area became part of the English holdings. Both the colonies of New York and New Hampshire claimed all or part of the land between them. While they were still arguing, the War of Independence broke out in 1776. IN 1777, the residents of the land area between Lake Champlain and the Connecticut River declared themselves an independent republic. This lasted until 1791 when Vermont was admitted as the 14th state. All record-keeping was done at the office of the town clerk. It still is. The recording of births, marriages, and deaths varied from town to town and really was not codified until around 1865. Copies of the various records were not collected at a central archive until around 1911. I will see if I can find any sort of documentation for you, but, honestly, the odds are very slim.
FYI, the clerks of the courts cannot really assist you as other than records of divorces or other court-related issues they have no records. Births, deaths, and marriages are all with the town clerks and at the archive in Middlesex. There are 254 towns, cities, gores, and grants in Vermont, each with its own clerk.
12/26/2019 Manchester Historical Society Vermont Soper Emailed them, have not received a response as of 1/4/2020
1/18/20 Marlin Logan Emailed Marlin and asked if he had sources on his information for Soper.
1/19/20 Manchester Historical Society Vermont Soper and Logan Emailed them again
1/19/20 Dorset Historical Society Soper and Logan Emailed them on information for Soper
1/22/20 Email from Marlin Logan
Hi Marlee
Went back to all my old records and so sorry I don’t have anymore information than is on my Family Tree.
Tried unsuccessfully to check other resources also and I come up with a blank.
You have sparked my interest again so will keep your request as I update and find new information. Hopefully we can find a little more data than we have.
Good hunting.
Marlin
As you can see, I do not know much more than I did when I started. But, tracking my inquiries on this log will keep me from repeating quests.
I may look into the other Soper’s mentioned and see if I can find any Abigail’s in their lines.
As you can see, we all have brick walls in our family history. I may be able to help with yours. Contact me for your some virtual family history tutoring.
What is Virtual tutoring? * Individual screen shares- a virtual whiteboard to work on: * Family tree creation. * Records search for documenting your family history. * Get help to break down brick walls on a particular ancestor. http://loganalogy.com/genealogy-classes/
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In this 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge, Close to Home, I wrote about Mary Yeula Wescott, my great-grandaunt. She was born on 27 December 1889 at Poyner’s Hill in Currituck, North Carolina, where her father, John Thomas Wescott, was the keeper of the Poyner’s Hill Life-Saving station. She was the third of six children born to John and a year younger than my great-grandfather, Albert.
Laura Wescott, Martha Ann Chadwick Wescott, Mary Yeula Wescott
At a very young age, Mary loved to read and write. She was first published at the age of 12 when she decided to enter a writing contest for the St. Nicholas Magazine: An Illustrated Book For Young Folks by Mary Mapes Dodge. The following was published in January 1903:
Poplar Branch, N.C.
Dear St. Nicholas: I am a little girl twelve years old, and I live on one of the sand-bars of North Carolina, five miles from the mainland. The nearest store and post-office is five miles away. My papa is the captain of the Poyners Hill Life-saving Station. We are bounded on the north and south by sand-hills, on the east by the ocean, and on the west by the Currituck Sound. The land near and on which the station is situated belongs to the Currituck Shooting Club, the club-house is the nearest one to us except the station. The club does not allow any of the station men except papa to build on the beach. We live only a few steps from the station and a little further from the sea, while the club-house is on the other side of the beach. So you see, we have it lonely here sometimes. Inclosed [sic] find my contribution which I hope is worthy of a prize.
Yours truly,
Mary Yeula Wescott
(age 12)
The poem she enclosed won her a silver badge.
FORGIVING
BY MARY YEULA WESCOTT
(Silver Badge)
My little friend Annie
Came over to play.
We stayed in the house,
As ‘t was stormy that day.
She had her doll, Susan,
And mine was named Jane ;
We dressed and undressed them
Again and again.
We made them fine bonnets
For each little head.
They wore them to parties,
Then came home to bed.
Ann stepped on my finger,
And said she was glad.
I got up and slapped her,
She ‘d made me so mad.
Then I knocked Susan’s head off,
And Annie broke Jane.
We cried, and we quarreled
Again and again.
Then I said I was sorry,
As much as could be;
So I forgave Annie,
And she forgave me.
Mary continued to send in poems and articles, as did her brother, Albert, and her sister, Laura. However, Mary continued to write to them until at least the age of 17.
My Dear St. Nicholas League: I am sending to you today my verses for the September competition, and I am so sorry to remember that I have but three more. Does everyone get old so dreadfully fast?
Your subject appealed to me this month, for I have several relatives including my father, who are members of the Life Saving Service to which I have a reference in the poem. This small band extends along the coast of the United States and guards its coast from the ravages of the storm. They maintain a constant watch along the shore and at the appearance of a distressed vessel launch their frail boats and, pitting their strength against the force of the waves, give aid to the distressed seamen. When the sea is so high that launching a boat from the shore is impossible, the beach apparatus is used and the sailors are brought from the vessel by means of a ” breeches-buoy,” which is drawn shoreward over a cable that has been shot across the vessel from the shore and fastened to the mast of the distressed vessel.
On our part of the coast, storms are numerous, and a rescue of this kind is a frequent occurrence.
I thank you so much for the encouragement you have given me in my endeavors to win that coveted cash prize.
But whether I succeed or not, I shall ever remember with gratitude the pleasure and benefit I have derived from your interesting work. Long life to you, my dear St. Nicholas League, and best wishes from your devoted League member, Mary Yeula Wescott (age 17).
It must have been this magazine that sparked her love of books.
Mary went to school in Durham and graduated from Trinity College (now Duke University) in 1914 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree, Magna cum laude. She taught Latin in local schools and went back to Trinity. In 1920, she took a leave of absence to attend and then graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree from the Simmons College of Library Science in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1924, where she also worked in a government position while attending school. Mary returned to Trinity College, her alma mater, to work at Trinity College Library (now Duke University Library).
About 1932, Professor William K. Boyd organized the work of the Newspaper Department and placed Miss Allene Ramage in charge of it. Miss Ramage, aided by Miss Mary Wescott and Miss Eva E. Malone, prepared a checklist of these papers under the title Bibliographical Contributions of the Duke University Libraries: a Checklist of United States Newspapers. This publication has been of value to many librarians and scholars throughout the United States.
Part I: Alabama––Georgia
Part II: Idaho––Massachusetts
Part III: Michigan––New York
Part IV: North Carolina
Part V: North Dakota––Vermont
Part VI: Virginia––Wyoming
~LIBRARY NOTES -A BULLETIN ISSUED FOR
The Friends of Duke University Library April 1953; Number 27
She worked there until she retired in December 1954 as Head of the Catalogue Department. A dinner was given in her honor on 14 December 1954. Among the special guests was Lawrence Quincy Mumford, Librarian of Congress. Mr. Mumford, who had known Miss Wescott since his student days, summarized well her contribution to college and university when he spoke of her retirement as the termination of “a valuable career in librarianship.”
~LIBRARY NOTES -A BULLETIN ISSUED FOR
The Friends of Duke University Library April 1953; Number 27
“Pride in her profession, friendliness, compassion, and a delightful sense of humor — these were the characteristics that made Mary Wescott deeply loved as well as highly respected. Exactly what her personal philosophy was, one would not presume to say. One feels though that possibly she expressed it in the last stanza of a poem she wrote long ago — “The Dream of the Sea.”
O my Heart keep young, we would cross that main
With its raging tide;
We would enter those fields of glad abode
On the other side —
And we, how we long for the mighty strife
And the waves’ wild sweep —
To battle our way to the rich reward
And then to sleep! “
Seven months after Mary retired, she died in her sleep. She never married.
By the way, I have never been able to determine where the name Yeula came from. The closest I found was that it could be an Indian word meaning Upward slope. Fitting for a woman who never stopped climbing.
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If you have read my other blogs, specifically “My Journey of Journeys,” you’ll remember I started researching my father’s side in the 1990s. I had started with the direct male line and then a few years later started with the wives, my grandmothers.
In 2010, I met up with a couple of others who were researching the Logans. One, in particular, was a retired Air Force Colonel living in Texas. He had an extensive tree on the Logans, and we emailed back and forth for at least three years. He is my 4th cousin, 1x removed.
Because I was still a rookie, I took what information he had on blind faith and plugged all the information into my tree. Not that his information was wrong, but I failed to verify for myself. Furthermore, I failed to get his sources. So, I have these people in my tree that I do not have verified documentation for.
One such person is Abigail Soper. Oh, I know her name is Abigail, as documentation from her children’s records lists their mother. What I do not have is her maiden name. I decided to try to verify her family once and for all, nine years later. With all the digitizing and new genealogical information, I thought for sure it would be an easier task now. I was wrong.
In November, I started writing historical societies and county clerks in the vicinity of Connecticut and Vermont. The information from my 4th cousin had Abigail being born in Connecticut but marrying Daniel Logan in Vermont around 1780. No cities mentioned. They could find no mention of Sopers or even Logans for that matter.
The town historian for Bennington, Vermont, however, was very helpful. She went over and beyond in trying to help me. She explained that the Logan name was not common in Bennington, but offered other historians who may assist me. One is in the town listed on an ancestor’s death certificate, Middlebury. Another is in the border town where my ancestor was married, Warsaw, New York.
The other Logans in this family were just as confusing as some documentation showed their sons born in New York, and some showed Vermont. I was perplexed. On a website called Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness, I contacted a gentleman who specialized in that area. He wrote me back immediately! And he had some excellent information.
I did not follow my own advice in studying the area of the time. This gentleman gave me the history of my ancestors’ time, and it makes perfect sense on how and why the documentation seems to be conflicting. Here is what he said, in his own words:
The period in history that is involved here is a tough one for research in Vermont. Initially, the area, including Vermont, was under French control. After the battle on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec [ending the French and Indian wars], the area became part of the English holdings. Both the colonies of New York and New Hampshire claimed all or part of the land between them.
While they were still arguing, the War of Independence broke out in 1776. In 1777, the residents of the land area between Lake Champlain and the Connecticut River declared themselves an independent republic. This lasted until 1791 when Vermont was admitted as the 14th state. All record-keeping was done at the office of the town clerk. It still is. The recording of births, marriages, and deaths varied from town to town and really was not codified until around 1865. Copies of the various records were not collected at a central archive until around 1911.
He later wrote: I have done some looking and have found at least one extended family of Sopers from the mid-18th century in the towns of Dorset and Manchester in Bennington County. Your Abigail creates a bit of a problem. Remember the brief history lesson I gave you?
In 1765 the French and Indian Wars had only ended two years previous. This means that England had new land it needed to quantify. The colonies of New York and New Hampshire felt that each of their grants gave them most or all of this former French territory as part of their landholdings. Each colony sent surveyors in to lay out grants. An early Vermont land speculator, Ethan Allen and his brother Ira preferred to deal with the governor of New Hampshire. So they formed The Green Mountain Boys, an ad hoc group of vigilantes whose mission was to force the New York surveyors and tax collectors out in favor of New Hampshire.
There is some argument as to how successful they may have been. History remembers this group in regard to their taking over Ft Ticonderoga in NY. The point in this is that in 1765 those towns were most likely considered part of NY as Vermont, per se, did not exist at that time.
Middlebury, Vermont, is a bit north in Addison County, also on the west side of the Green Mountains, and also was most likely considered part of NY before 1777. I will see if I can find anything that connects Abigail to this family in Dorset and Manchester. You might see if you can get the contact information for the town’s historical society in Dorset and Manchester, Vermont. Every town has a historical society, and some are more active than others.
So, as you can see, it was very convoluted at the time my ancestors were in that area. Trying to find documents in the 1700s is hard enough, even harder when the borders and politics changed so much.
1780 Map of New England- Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C. 20540-4650 USA dcu
I now have three things on my to-do list concerning Abigail.
1) Contact the county historian in Middlebury, NY, to see if he has any information on this Logan family.
2) Contact the historical societies in Dorset and Manchester, Vermont, to see if they have any information on the Soper family and, possibly, Logan.
3) See if I can contact my Colonel cousin to find out his sources.
Look at me, learning from my mistakes and continuing on. 😉
Wish me luck! I will keep you updated on my search for Abigail.
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UPDATED 3/2021: There is speculation about how our Beckwith line connects with the Yorkshire Beckwiths. More research is needed. Beware of “The Beckwiths,” Paul Edmond Beckwith, Albany, 1891. This genealogy, which contains a totally fabricated English lineage, is filled with errors, has a son Benjamin2, who never existed, and was thoroughly debunked in “The American Genealogist” articles by Simeon Fox. This genealogy is not recommended by the Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford.
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Sir Hugh de Malebisse (Malbisse, Malebysse, Malbis), one of the Norman knights who accompanied the Conqueror to England and served in the Battle of Hastings, is my 25th great-grandfather. That’s right, 25th!
“Sir Hugh de Malbisse held lands (in Yorkshire), time of William the Conqueror” is all the Domesday Book says about him. (The Domesday Book or “Book of Winchester” is a manuscript record of the “Great Survey” of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William the Conqueror.) Since he was a Norman, he must have had a fair complexion and a tall height. When he fought in Hastings, he wore “a leather coat of tough bull hide.” According to the book “The Beckwiths” by Paul Beckwith, the leather coat would have had metal rings sown upon it, just touching each other. The coat and breeches would have been one piece with a casque of metal at the breast gilded and painted. He would have had gloves of leather and sheepskin covering his legs. He must have been a formidable figure in 1066 A.D.
He married Emma de Percy, daughter of Henry de Percy of Acaster. (There is a lot of confusing information in different books on who this Emma married. Some say she married Hugh’s son, Richard. Others say she married a William.) I am more inclined to believe the original writers of history, such as the Madox, Hist. of Exchequer, i. 316, which states that the first Hugh was married to the daughter of Henry de Percy.
Madox was a legal antiquary and historian known for his publication and discussion of medieval records and charters, particularly his History of the Exchequer, tracing the administration and records of that branch of the state from the Norman Conquest to the time of Edward II. It became a standard work for the study of English medieval history. He held the office of historiographer royal from 1708 until his death.
Hugh had three sons. Richard, Hugh (2), and Galfred. This Hugh (2) is our direct line. He married first, Emma de Bray. I am not finding much on this, Hugh. His brother, Richard, seems to take up much of the glory, or in this case, scandal. More on him later. Hugh’s (2) will be proven in the third year of the reign of King Stephen, 1138. Galfred gave all his land to God and became the first Prior at the monastery of Newbo of Lincolnshire in 1142.
By the way, Richard, whom I mentioned before, was an interesting, cruel fellow. He was a justiciar, held Acaster in 1176, and was a forester for Yorkshire (Madox, i. 316). But then things changed for dear ‘ole Richard.
He was one of the leaders in the savage attack on and massacre of the Jews at York in 1190 (Will. Newburgh, i. 321, Rolls Ser.) As a punishment for his share in this outrage his lands were seized by the king. Malebysse appears to have been a supporter of Earl John, and in consequence he was one of those who were excommunicated by William de Longchamp in December 1191 (Hoveden, iii. 153). In 1193 he paid a fine of twenty marks for the recovery of his lands till the king’s return, and eventually paid six hundred marks for full restoration (Madox, Hist. of Exchequer, i. 473, 483).Richard Malebysse
Evidently, he owed many debts to “the Jews” and was known as “the Evil Beast’. On hearing the news of the southern outbreaks, he and various members of the Percy, Faulconbridge, and Darrel families determined to seize the opportunity to wipe out their indebtedness. One hundred and fifty Jews were killed. The entire Jewish community was wiped out! More can be read in the Jewish Encyclopedia.
However, after about ten years, Richard is back.
After the accession of John, Malebysse comes into some prominence. In June 1199, he, or it may be his brother Hugh, was sent as an envoy to Scotland to William the Lion to demand homage. In July 1200, he had a license to fortify Wheldrake Castle, but the permission was withdrawn at the request of the citizens of York. In May 1201, he was sent on a mission to the king of Scots to ask him to defer his answer to Northumberland until Michaelmas (Hoveden, iv. 91, 117, 163–4). Malebysse was a justice itinerant for Yorkshire in 1201 and next year sat to acknowledge fines at Westminster. In 1204, he was employed to enforce the payment of aid. He was keeper of the forests of Galtres, Derwent, and Wernedale. He died in 1209.
We must take the bad with the good in our family history.
Back to my direct line. Hugh (2) and Emma had Simon. He was lord of Cowton in Craven, England, and married a daughter of John, Lord of Methley. I do not know much about Simon either. More research needs to be done.
Simon had Hercules de Malebysse. Hercules married Lady Beckwith Bruce, daughter of Sir William Bruce of Uglebarnby and heiress of an estate named Beckwith. He retained the Malbisse escutcheon (his coat of arms) and assumed Beckwith as a surname during the period when surnames were being adopted in England. Beckwith was the name of his wife’s estate. So, the Beckwith surname was passed down. At this time, they still use “de Beckwith”. Lady Beckwith and Hercules had Nicolas de Beckwith born in 1260. He married a woman by the last name of Chaworth, but nothing more is known.
Nicolas and his wife had Hamon in 1294. Hamon married a daughter of Sir Philip Sydney. He was the first of the family to drop the use of the particle “de” in the surname. Hamon and Anne had William in 1316. William and “unknown” Usfleet had Thomas. Thomas and “unknown” Sawley had Adam. He married (second) Elizabeth Malebisse, widow of John Heringe. His children were all by his first wife, name unknown. His first wife and he had William. William married a daughter of Sir John Baskerville, a descendant of English and French ancestry, who traced his lineage to the Emperor Charlemagne (don’t we all).
I’ll run through our line in this paragraph as I know the names; I just haven’t researched them. William and his wife had Thomas, who died in 1495. Thomas had Robert, who had John, who had Robert, who had Robert. This Robert made his will on October 6, 1536, and died before March following. Robert had Marmaduke Beckwith in 1567.
In 1597 he sold Clint and purchased Fetherstone and Aikton (or Acton). Among his numerous children was William Beckwith, the founder of the Virginia line of Beckwiths, who landed in America in 1607. He sailed from England in the ship “Phoenix” and arrived with Captain John Smith at Jamestown, Va. (I’ll be researching this little gem!)
This immigrant ancestor and progenitor of the Beckwiths of New England and those branches of the family, which are offshoots of the New England lines, was born in England about the year 1610. The history of his life from when he came to America is somewhat obscure.
He is found early in Hartford, Conn. Here, he bought the homestead of William Pratt, one of the original proprietors of Hartford, in 1645. About 1652, he was in the same colony at New London and Lyme, his land lying in both towns. It is judged from the size of his real estate holdings that he was a man of considerable wealth.
He was able to give land to his sons liberally, and it is recorded that in 1675, thirty acres of additional land were granted to him, all of which he gave to his son, Joseph Beckwith.
UPDATE March 2021: There is a question that the connection between Matthew 1 (b. 1610 or maybe 1612) and the Beckwiths of Yorkshire seems inaccurate/undocumented.
Matthew Beckwith occupied a prominent place in the community and was one of its most prominent citizens. He was killed on October 21, 1680, “by a fall in a dark night down a ledge of rocks.”
There are many books about the Malebisse family. You can research yourself at Google Books.
Sources:
(WordPress will not let me cite them properly without upgrading to the Business Plan!)
Fromhttps://www.foundersofhartford.org/the-founders/matthew-beckwith/Genealogy not recommended: “The Beckwiths,” Paul Edmond Beckwith, Albany, 1891. This genealogy, which contains a totally fabricated English lineage, is filled with errors, has a son Benjamin2, who never existed, and was thoroughly debunked in “The American Genealogist” articles by Simeon Fox.
There are several pamphlets entitled “Beckwith Notes,” intended to correct some of the “The Beckwiths” errors, but these only marginally help.
It has been a while since I have written, and I have missed it dearly. I hope that it will not be so long between blogs going forward. I am shocked at how many people have read my blog in my absence. I originally started it for my family to see their ancestors in story form; little did I know I would be helping people all over the world with their own ancestors. This puts a smile on my heart.
I have been watching “Finding Your Roots,” and in the one called “Mystery Men” Season 5, Episode 2, one of the guests is #Felicity Huffman. As they traced her line, the names started becoming more familiar. I pulled up my #Ancestry app; sure enough, her 9th great-grandfather is my 10th great-grandfather.
Sometime after that, someone commented on my blog about this ancestor, William Hickox. We share this 9th great-grandfather, our immigrant ancestor! She plugged me in her tree, which makes us 10th cousins 1x removed!! 10th! Now that is pretty awesome!
So, that got me thinking, who are all my immigrant ancestors? Have I traced them all? Let’s see.
Well, as always, let me start with the Logan clan.
John Loggan, Sr. (1699-1777)- Arrival 1717 to Boston from Scotland (maybe through Ireland)
John Rowan (1760-1843) – Immigrated in 1791 to Pennsylvania from Ireland (immigrated with his wife, Laetitia Porterfield (1765-1831)
Robert Stitt (abt. 1774) and Margaret Appleby (abt. 1759) to Pennsylvania from Ireland (more research needed on this line)
James Galbraith (1666-1744) to Pennsylvania from Ireland
John Lane (Johannes Lehn) (1655-1754) to Pennsylvania from Germany
John Kunkle (Johannes Gunkel) (1722-1795) to Pennsylvania from Germany, immigrated with his wife, Anna Margarethe Lorentz (1729-1785)
Johann Adam Schäffer (Schaeffer) (1709-1767) to Pennsylvania from Germany, immigrated with his wife, Elizabeth Bauer (1711-1777)
Christoph Heydrich (1704-1781) to Pennsylvania from Germany, immigrated with his wife, Magdalena Sontag (1715-1763)
Johann Michael Köppel (Kepple) (1697-1764) to Pennsylvania from France, immigrated with his wife, Anna Elizabeth Benzin (1707-1750)
(above’s son) Johann Nickel Köppel (John Nicholas Kepple) (1724-1804) to Pennsylvania from Germany and immigrated with his wife, Anna Maria Willems (Williams) (abt. 1736-1821)
Conrad Haag (Hawk) (1741-1833) to Pennsylvania from Germany
Michael Schlonecker, Sr. (abt. 1696-1769) to Pennsylvania from Germany
Johann Henrich Heilig (1700-1775) to Pennsylvania from Germany
(the above wife’s father) Nicholas Rittenhuijsen (Rittenhouse) (1666-1734) to Pennsylvania from Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Hans De Neus (abt. 1716-1736) to Pennsylvania from Germany
(above’s wife) Jenneken Blomen (abt. 1717-1762) to Pennsylvania from Holland (married Hans in Holland)
Michael Kocher (1730-1808) to Pennsylvania from Germany
William Wescoat(Wescott) (abt. 1641-1683) to from England to Virginia
Matijas Stefanc (Mathias Stephanz) (1867-1936) to Kansas from Stari Trg ob Kolpi, Črnomelj, Austria, immigrated with his wife, Marija Švegelj (Mary Swegel) (1867-1942)
(father of the above’s wife),Johann P. Reikowski (1844-1932) to Wisconsin from Poland
Well, this certainly proves that not only am I a mutt from hardy stock, but I am not finished researching my immigrant ancestors; the hunt continues. This also shows you can find your immigrant ancestor as far back as 350 years or as close as 150 years ago. It’s amazing how all these people somehow found each other to produce me!
I have come a long way since 1993 when I started tracing my Dad’s roots. It actually started in 1985 or so, but with the help of the internet in the 1990s, I started really started to dig. So, when you hit a brick wall and get discouraged, look back at how far you’ve come.
Read more about our Logan immigrant at
As always, please email me if you see any errors or have any questions.
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