FATHERS DAY 2019

In honor of Fathers Day I'm posting pictures of some of the fathers on my family tree. From the Wests:

Our Dad, Floyd E West, Jr.

 

Great grandfather Philip J. West, Cousin Stanley & Grandfather Floyd E West, Sr.

2x great grandfather Jonathan P.West & wife Louisa Almata (Richardson)West

3x Great grandfather John Cutter West

Some of the maternal grandfather's from Dad's family:

2x great grandfather Asa F Ellingwood & wife Florilla (Dunham)Ellingwood.

2x Great grandfather Amos Hastings Barker & wife Betsy Jane (Moore) Barker.

3x Great grandfather Philip Richardson

4x great grandfather Moses Coburn

 And the only pictures I have from Mom's side of the family:

Great grandfather John McFarland & wife Annie (Kelley)McFarland.

Great Grandfather Edward J White.

Happy Fathers' Day!

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 34: THE CHILDREN OF WESLEY COBURN

I've written about Wesley(Westley) Coburn  previously, but before I move onto
the families of the Coburn wives, I wanted to list the children of Wesley and Lucy (Stowe)
Coburn here  because of the interesting connections made by the marriages of
those children:


Lovinia Coburn b. 12 Sept 1828 at Albany, Me. Married Parker V Brown, 5Jun 1851 at
Shelburne, Coos, NH.

Melvin Stow Coburn, b. 4 Jul 1831 at Albany Me. Married: (1) Elizabeth Barker sometime before 1855. (2) Sophronia Merrill 16 Mar 1895

Leander Coburn  b. 1834?  N.F.R.

Moses R. Coburn b. 24 Nov 1835 Bethel, Me.  Married Mary S Reynolds  31 Jan 1858 at
Albany, Me.

Lucy Elizabeth Coburn b. 10 Aug 1842 at Albany, Me. Married Nathaniel S. Barker 31 Jan 1858 at
Albany, Me.    

A few observations about the list of children:
- Melvin Stow Coburn and Lucy Coburn both married children of Nathaniel Barker and
Huldah Hastings. Lucy is my 2x great grandmother.

- Moses R. Coburn's wife Mary S. Reynolds was the sister of Orpha Reynolds, first wife
of my 2x great grandfather Jonathan Phelps West. 

-Mary S. Reynolds' mother was Ruhama Ames, sister of my 3x great grandmother Arvilla Ames, who was Jonathan Phelps West's mother.

Oh what a tangled web!

PART OF THE PUZZLE SOLVED

Back in September I wrote a post about a lead I'd discovered
on FamilySearch Record Search to more information on my
3x great grandmother Lucy Stowe. Lucy was the wife of 
Wesley (Westley) Coburn but I'd never been able to
find evidence of who her parents were.

Then two weeks ago cousin Chris Dunham left a comment for
me which helped solve part of my genealogical puzzle:

"Lucy M. Stow and Wesley B. Coburn, both of Newry, married 
28 Feb. 1827 in Newry, according to town records.

Lucy was the daughter of Melvin and Ann V. Stowe. Melvin 
was the brother of Andrew Newell Stowe of Newry, both 
sons of Samuel and Abigail (Dana) Stowe of Sherborn, Mass.
(You'll find more on this family in Elizabeth Ellery Dana's  
The Dana family in America.) Melvin appears to have lived 
in Lisbon, Maine, in 1810, but removed to Newry by 1820.
He and his wife (whose maiden name I don't know) are buried 
in Sunday River Cemetery, Newry."

So thanks to Chris I now have two more family lines to investigate!

ANOTHER PIECE OF THE GENEALOGICAL PUZZLE

 

One of my brickwall ancestors is my 3x great grandmother Lucy Stowe.
All I (and other West family researchers)know for sure is that she was
born around 1808 and that she married my 3x great grandfather Westley
(Wesley) Coburn in 1827, probably in Newry, Oxford, Me. I've had
no luck discovering the identity of her parents or her place of birth.

Last night I was working on sourcing my Ancestry.com tree and did a
search on Lucy and Westley over on FamilySearch Record Search. I
lucked out: I found an image of a death certificate for a Lovisa Brown
of Milford, Middlesex, Ma. with Westley Coburn and Lucy E. Stowe
listed as her parents. I knew that Westley an Lucy had had a daughter
named Louisa or Lovinda, so this could be a variation of the name.
What puzzled me was the place of birth for all three was given as
Cochichuate, Ma . Westley and his family had lived mostly in Newry,
Oxford, Me. but the Coburns had originally come from Middlesex
County, Massachusetts. I needed more proof.

Lovisa's husband was listed as Parker V. Brown on her death record
so next I looked for any record of the marriage and found it again on
Record Search, this time in New Hampshire Marriages 1720-1920.
According to this, Lovisa and Parker V Brown were married in the
town of Shelburne, Coos County, New Hampshire on 5Jun 1851.

Finally, the name of the person who supplied family information on the
death certificate is given as "Mrs. F Barker".  Lovisa's nephew was my
great grandfather Frank W. Barker who had died in 1905. Was his widow
Charlot visiting her Aunt Lovisa when the older woman died in 1913 or
even perhaps living there when it happened?

So what am I to make of all this? The names certainly match up and are
unique enough to satisfy me that they are my relatives. The Cochichuate
reference is the first time I've seen that town listed in connection with
the Coburns but perhaps this gives me a clue on where to look for more
information on Lucy Stowe.

(As a sidenote, the town's name is pronounced  "Co-chit-u-it")

WHY WAS WESTLEY WHERE?

So you think that when you gain access to more records all
your family mysteries will be solved.

Hah!

Not only am I still hunting the Elusive John C., I’ve now found
a few more little mysteries to make me scratch my head.

We’ll get to the "Case of the Meandering McFarlands" in a
future post, but at the moment I want to talk about the case
of “Why Was Westley Where?"


Westley(Wesley) Coburn is my 3x great grandfather on
my father’s side of the family. Recently while on Ancestry
I found the 1850 Federal Census Record of “Wesley Coburn”
at the town of Mason, Oxford County, Me. It’s dated on 28th
Aug 1850 and the census taker was named either John
Wilson or Neilson. “Wesley” is listed as being 48 years old,
his occupation as “Miller” and the owner of 500 acres. His
family consisted of:

Lucy 41 F
Louisa 22 F
Melvin 19 M (occupation: Farmer)
Leander 17 M
Moses 15 M
Elizabeth 8 F

(Wesley B. Coburn Household, 1850 U.S. Census
Mason, Oxford, Maine;
Page: 238; Roll: M432_262; Image: 461.)


So I’d found Westley, his wife Lucy(Stow) Coburn and his
children, among whom is his daughter Elizabeth who is my
ancestor.


But wait. There’s more!


I also found this from the 1850 Census for the Town of
Albany, Oxford County, Me., recorded by a H(?) Hutchins Jr.
two days earlier on 26th Aug :

Westley Coburn 48 M Wheelwright 600 acres
Lucy 42 F
Louisa 21 F
Melvin 19 M Farmer
Leander 16 M Farmer
Moses 15 M
Elizabeth 8 F

(Westley Coburn Household, 1850 U.S. Census
Albany, Oxford, Maine;
Page: 28; Roll: M432_262; Image: 59.)

So here’s Westley/Wesley in two different places. It’s
obviously the same person because the families match up,
but he has two different occupations, and the acreage owned
differs as well.


What’s going on?


Albany and Mason, Me. were small towns that bordered each
other. Albany had a population of around 600 in 1870
according to Wikipedia and it seems that neither Albany nor
Mason ever really grew. In fact the towns are now
unincorporated and are part of the unorganized territory of
South Oxford, Maine along with two other former towns.
The total population of South Oxford was 515 citizens on the
2000 census.


My best guess is that Westley owned land that stretched
from one town into the other, with a mill in Mason and a
wheelwright shop in Albany. So both census takers counted
him and his family.



I’m not sure if this was legal or not. Perhaps one of the more
experienced geneabloggers reading this might shed some
light on it?

Source:Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census
[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations
Network, Inc., 2005.

Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census.
Seventh Census of the United States, 1850. Washington, D.C.:
National Archives and Records Administration, 1850.
M432, 1,009 rolls.