Where There's a Will

Experienced genealogists will tell you that wills and probate records are a treasure trove of information about your ancestors.  They can confirm relationships, pinpoint residence, and give you some insights into the way they lived their lives.  Were they wealthy, or destitute?  Were they religious, or agnostic?  Were they farmers or merchants?

Sometimes, you can also find some gems that reveal family dynamics.  Did your ancestor favor one child over another?  Did they give someone a "slap in the face," with a token bequest of one dollar?  Or, did they disinherit someone completely?

Other wills create more follow-up questions.   An example is the will of my immigrant ancestor Robert Irving.

Robert was born about 1812 in the vicinity of Watermillock, in Cumbria, England.  He married 14 February 1835 in the port city of Lancaster to Miss Ann Airey, formerly of Clapham in West Yorkshire.  They quickly moved to the town of Preston, where there was an abundance of work due to its bustling cotton mills.

Robert was a skilled moulder, so his talents were always in demand.  But, the working conditions were oppressive, and laborers had no real political recourse, because they weren't property owners.  Disaffection boiled over by 1848, with the "Chartist Movement." No doubt, the Irvings were caught up in it.  And, when the movement failed, they decided to seek better opportunities in the United States.

The Irvings arrived in New York City aboard the ship West Point out of Liverpool on 22 September 1849.   They initially lived in Manhattan's busy 8th ward, near the Hudson River docks, where Robert's skills quickly helped them to rebuild their fortunes.  Soon, they were able to leave the overcrowded 8th Ward to settle across the river in Jersey City, New Jersey.

In Jersey City, Robert capitalized on his skills to establish his own plumbing business, which he passed on to his son and namesake.

Robert made his will 26 May 1886, and it was presented to probate officials just five days later.  So, he must have known his time was short when he wrote it.

The will not only confirmed the names of his surviving children, it specifies the exact plot he owned at "the Catholic cemetery on West Side Avenue in Jersey City."  This was the sort of information I expected to find in the document, and will help me pinpoint his final resting place during my next trip up to New Jersey.

It also contained an unexpected tidbit of new information.  Robert mentions that he owned a farm near Wheelertown in Herkimer County, New York.  It never would have occurred to me to do any genealogical sleuthing in that part of upstate New York . . . who knows what I may uncover there!

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Land

One of my favorite online databases is the General Land Office Records, maintained by the US Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management.  (https://glorecords.blm.gov).

It can provide some really great information, if your ancestors purchased land from the federal government.

For example, I knew my extended BLAKESLEY family left Ohio some time after the 1840 census and settled in Illinois by the time of the 1850 enumeration.  By using GLO Records, I was able to narrow that window to 1848/1849.  (See screenshot above.)

I was also able to pinpoint the locations of the property purchases, and calculate the distances between them.  (See illustration below.)  Two brothers Amasa and Warren Blakesley bought land in McHenry County, Illinois, in the spring of 1848.  Their parcels were less than eight miles apart.  In the autumn of 1849, Amasa's son John bought a third parcel about fifteen miles to the southeast.

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Air

I recently rediscovered this yearbook assembled by my grandfather William John Gleeson, Sr. (1914-1967) in 1955, during his service at RAF Manston in Kent, England.

I was a little disappointed that he only included one photo of himself.  (Humility is an inherited trait!)

But, I did enjoy browsing through the "local colour" photos, seeing some of the faces and places that would have been part of his every-day experience over there.  And, there were some interesting facts in the unit histories that gave me a better understanding of the bigger mission he and his comrades were completing during those early days of the Cold War.

Hard to believe this was 65 years ago . . .

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Fire

One of the saddest tales in my family history occurred early on a Thursday morning, 27 July 1893 to be precise.

At that time, my great great grandparents Robert & Elizabeth (Lynch) Irving owned a three-story brick building at 179 Montgomery Street in Jersey City, New Jersey.  The first floor was occupied by Bob's plumbing business.  The second and third floors were occupied by his large family.

Around six o'clock on that fateful morning, the family was awakened by its faithful Scottish terrier.  When Bob descended the stairs from the third floor to the second, he was confronted by billowing smoke.  He quickly raised the alarm, gathered his wife and children and rushed them outside to safety.

Within half an hour, city firemen succeeded in extinguishing the flames.  Fortunately, the damage was confined to the rear of the building, and the Irvings had an insurance policy to recoup the estimated $600 in repair costs.

Sadly, they did not recover their little dog.  He had been suffocated by the smoke.

But, he will never be forgotten.  If not for his urgent barking that morning in 1893, I might not be here today . . . 

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Water

When you live in Florida as long as my family has, you respect water.

Water can be your friend, providing relief from the scorching sun.  Who doesn't have fond memories of taking a dip in the lake, or gulping cool water from the garden hose after a hard afternoon of playing with your neighborhood friends?

But, water can also cause an awful lot of damage.  And, it's better to prepare for the worst if you want to preserve your genealogical records around here.

I can think of two examples from my own family history.

The "good example" was my maternal grandmother Ruth (Norton) Gleeson.  Everyone knew about the little red suitcase she kept in the coat closet at her home in Audubon Park.  In times of crisis, or threat of hurricane, we all knew that suitcase went with us.  Because, inside were all the important family documents, secured inside a series of Ziploc bags.  

My grandmother died in 1995, but that little red suitcase has survived and is a treasure trove of genealogical information.  (Thanks, Grandma G!)

The "bad example" was my great great grandparents William and Lola (Blakesley) Morgan.  He was a cowboy who worked the Chisholm Trail.  She was known for both her penmanship and for being a good listener.  According to family legend, William told Lola all his stories of riding the range from Texas thru Indian Territory to the railheads in Kansas, including a run-in with the legendary Bat Masterson.  She dutifully recorded them for posterity.  When they moved here from Missouri in 1907, they put this precious record along with many of their other possessions inside a wooden barrel and loaded it onto a southbound train.  Unfortunately, that old barrel was not watertight.   You can guess what happened to those precious tales . . . 

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