Confer Home in Pennyslvania

William Confer was born in Pennsylvania where his family had lived for many years.  His father, John Confer, at one point owned some land where a home was built.  He stated in his will that after he died the property was to be sold and divided between his sons William and David Fulton.  William, as we know, took his family and moved away from Pennsylvania.  David stayed behind and at one point put the property up for sale stating he was moving west.  We assume he was moving west to be closer to his brother.  This never happened.  In fact, he never sold the property.  The property did change hands for a time, but David's great granddaughter, Beth, purchased the property and is currently living in the old home.  Pretty cool huh!  I have been talking to Beth and another of David's descendants named Justin who is David's 3rd great grandson.  Beth and Justin are 2 cousins 3 times removed.  They descended from two different children of David's.  Anyway, they sent me an old picture of David's family in front of the old homestead and then some current pictures of the home.  I thought you might like to see them!

These are some picture of the homestead today.  Some of the pictures are taken at the angle as the above pictures!

Our Wonderful Confer Ancestors

Did you wonder if I had forgot to put anything on here?  I have uncovered some fun information and hopefully I can share it all with you!  So... Alice Confer, my 3rd great grandmother, was the daughter of William Confar and Rebecca Bennett.  When Rebecca died in 1872 many of the other children were still pretty young.  Alice was the oldest child and married to Edward Hartshorn with their own family and living in Iowa.  In fact, Alice died only a few years after her mother died.  Alice's father, William, took several members of his family and moved to Missouri.  In the 1880 Census you find William married to an Eliza living Cass County, Missouri.  I haven't been able to determine if he married Eliza in Iowa before he left or if he married her in Missouri.  Some websites have Eliza listed as Eliza Tilletson and marrying William in 1874, but I have been unable to prove this bit of information.  Still searching!  Many of William's children married in Missouri and started families of their own.  By 1885 we find William and his son Louis living Archuleta County, Colorado.  I don't know for sure when he came to Colorado, or why, but in the 1885 Colorado Census he is living in a house with another man and his son Louis.  Some of the other children also came with their families to Colorado a little later and settled there.  William died in September of 1890 in Chromo, Archuleta County, Colorado.  By this time he had a homestead where he was living with a new wife, Nancy Webb, whom he had married just a few months before his death.  By law, much of his estate was left to his widow, Nancy, and the rest divided between his sons.  Well, his children, particularly Louis, was not happy with what Nancy inherited and decided to fight for it in court.  There are several court documents pertaining to this fight.  Here is a link to some of what was going on:  Confar vs. Confar .

I don't know any more about Nancy.  The only documentation on her is her marriage to William and the court documents between her and Louis.

About 10 years or so after William's death, many of the children decided to move to California where many of them lived the remainder of their lives.  These are our cousins!

William Confar

Have you noticed that I put the last name for William as Confar instead of Confer? So far everything I have found has had their name spelled with the 'a'.

I went in search of some information about William Confar, the father of our grandmother Alice.  Everyone had said that he died in Chromo, Archuleta, Colorado in 1890.  What would he be doing in Colorado!  I still haven't find that out, but I did find him living there.  In fact, he moved there with several of his children.  I even found his burial information!  I would put it on Find A Grave, but I have no idea how to put it on there since it is so obscure!  Here is what I found on the following website: William Confar grave information

 Graves
      These grave sites are at various locations through out the 
     county and contain only one grave.

    BIRTH DEATH
GIVEN NAME SURNAME  YEAR YEAR  LOCATION

William M.  Confar   1820 -  1890  Located on Confar Homestead Chromo, Colorado.

If you pull up the website, it's pretty far down on the list.  He is the only one buried there!  I haven't been able to find any additional information about it, but I thought I would contact the courthouse for his estate papers.  I will let you know how that goes!

Confer Family Line

Okay, I thought I would let you know what I have been working on this past month.  Actually it was mostly just this past week!  I have had an impression that I should work on our Confer family line.  For those of you who aren't sure how this works, let me fill you in.  Alice Confer was my ggg grandmother.  Alice married Edward Hartshorn and one of their children was David Hartshorn who married Vera Hurlbut, my gg grandparents and their Daughter was my sweet great grandmother Margaret Hartshorn.  So...I have been trying to find more information about Alice.  I did find that she died on October 6, 1875 from burns she sustained from fire from a kersene lamp.  Ouch!  Here is a link to her grave memorial:
Alice Confer Hartshorn on Find A Grave

There is more information about her on her husband's grave memorial.  Here is a link to Edward's memorial:
Edward Hartshorn on Find A Grave

So..where did I go from here?  I have found from a few other people that they believe her parents to be William Confar and Rebecca Bennett.  I think this is correct too because of where William and Rebecca were living in comparison to Alice and Edward.  They were all in Wapello and Mahaska Counties in Iowa.  Alice and Edward married in Mahaska County and then made their home in Wapello County.

I am just going off what others are reporting as the parents of William Confar and on back to the 1500's in Germany.  So far I haven't been able to prove much of anything!  I would love some help from anyone who would like to help.

No Posts for awhile

Just wanted everyone to know that I have not forgotten about the blog!  Life has gotten a little crazy and hopefully once school starts again I will be able to focus more on keeping all of you up to date.  Will you all do me a favor?  Will you let me know if you are reading my blog?  I would love to hear from all of you!

James D. Gurley

I received the obituary for our uncle James Gurley.  It was full of great information.  It said that he immigrated with his parents in 1837 to Norwalk, Huron, Ohio.  Sound familiar?!  Another piece of the puzzle that fit nicely together.  It also lists his wife as Jane Louise High.  She died 12 years before he did.  James died in 1902 in Ten Mile, Macon, Missouri while living with his daughter Alice and her family.  The funny thing about this is that the document trail from 1900 to his death in 1902 all says that Alice was his niece!  I don't think that is correct.  Anyway, James and Jane married in Janesville, Rock, Wisconsin in 1859.  That is where Jane was living with her parents.  James was a railroad conductor and had been working on the railroads from a fairly young age.  I think his occupation took him to Wisconsin where he met Jane (many documents list her as Louise or Jennie).  He then had to go back to Norwalk to take care of some court issues and while they were there, Alice was born.  They stayed in Toledo for three years and then moved to Missouri.  I am not sure why they moved there.  Another mystery!  He did register for the Civil War in 1863 while living in Callao, Macon, Missouri.  They lived there for a few years before settling in Ten Mile where both he and Jane passed away.  They only had the one daughter, Alice and she was a first cousin to Grandma Vera.  I wonder if anyone really knew she existed?!  She married Mark Nelson and had several children of her own.

We found him!

I got back home yesterday to a package from the Huron County Courthouse.  I knew they were sending me the Estate papers for Susan Gurley.  I never dreamed I would get a huge answer to my last post when I opened the package!  33 pages of wonderfulness!  Apparently there was a dispute about which will was the true last living testament of Susan Gurley.  I actually love it when there are problems in the past because it gives us more information for the future!  They had to list all of her 'closest kin' and because she wasn't married, she didn't have children and her parents had passed away they had to list her four living siblings!  This is what they listed Thomas Gurley, Olena, Ohio; James Gurley, Macon, Missouri; Matilda Hurlbut, Jasper, Michigan; and Maria Hurlbut, San Diego, California.  Did you notice where James was listed as being from?!!  This wonderful document proved that I had at last found James.  I was so excited.  So, for all of you that want to know, we have cousins in Missouri!

Hurlbut family in 1870

I finally found the Hurlbut family in 1870!  I was so excited!  I was also excited to see that I was right about uncle Frank's sisters also living with the family.  Here is a link to the census record:

James Hurlbut family in 1870 Census

It lists James, Marie, Kate, Nettie (Antoinette), Frank and Jenny.  I am almost 100% sure that Jenny was Aunt Margaret.  Her middle name was Jane and I wonder if they called her Janey and the census worker heard 'Jenny'.  She was only one years old and that would pretty much fit with Aunt Margaret's birth date.

So, we still haven't found James' first wife Caroline or their youngest daughter Caroline.  Uugh.  What I did find was James' mother Almira with a girl names Nellie Hurlbut living with her in the 1870 census.  I don't know if this another granddaughter of her's or not, but the age of Nellie fits pretty good with Caroline's birthdate.  I am wondering if Caroline had a middle name that gave her the nickname Nellie.  I still can't find her past 1870, so I we will see what I we can find!  All of this makes me think that something tragic must have happened to the mother, Caroline.  Where did she go?  Did she die?  Still no sign of her!

James Gurley

I would love for some great feedback on some research I have found on James Gurley.  James was Grandma Hurlbut's brother.  He is the only one in the family that I haven't been able to find after he left home.  He was last seen with his family in the 1850 census.  After many searches, I am hoping we may have found him.  Tell me what you think!

The wonderful genealogist I hired found a court record and real estate deeds that had the name of James Gurley on them.  The story is that James loaned some money to a man named Charles Page and the money was suppose to have been paid back in 6 months.  It never happened.  So, James took him to court to get his money back.  The court took some land from Charles and gave it to James as payment.  I have the transaction deeds for the land.  On the deeds it lists him James Gurley and his wife as Jane L. of Lucas County, Ohio.  However, all the transactions were done in Norwalk, Huron, Ohio.  If you will remember, the Gurley family lived in Huron County, Ohio.  Lucas county was a neighboring county.  So...this is where my research picked up.  Could this be our James Gurley?  The county for the transactions is right, but he lived in Lucas County.  So, I thought I would start a search for this particular James and see where it took me.  I found James and Jane on the 1860 census in Toledo, Lucas, Ohio.  Their last name was spelled Gerly.  Surely this was just either a transcription error or an error on the part of the census worker.  After finding this, I found the family on ancestry.com.  In the family tree that someone had put on there, James and Jane Gurley had a daughter named Alice that was born in August 1860 in Norwalk, Huron, Ohio!  This was during the court proceedings and the land transactions.  I found that interesting, but I have never been able to prove it.  I can't find her birth record anywhere!  I am having the genealogist search for it.  The other strange thing is that on the census record it lists Jane as being born in Ohio, but James in New York!  We know that James was born in Ireland, so this made me curious to what was going on.  James, Jane and Alice moved to Macon County, Missouri shortly after 1860.  I found James' Civil War registration in 1863 in Macon County, Missouri.  I then found the family in the 1870 and 1880 censuses.  All the the censuses listed James as being born in New York.  But....the Civil War registration said he was born in Ireland! Eureka!  If this is our James, I think he was embarrassed by the fact that he was from Ireland.  Many people back then were looked down upon if they were Irish.  They weren't very well respected.  I wonder if he just didn't want anyone to know and since they lived a year in New York before going to Ohio maybe he decided to pick New York as his birthplace.  I haven't been able to find anything else on his wife.  I assume her maiden name starts with the letter L, but I don't know for sure.  Alice went on to marry a man named Mark Nelson and have a nice size family.

So...what do you think?  I have requested the obituary for James from the Macon County Library.  I can't wait to see what it will tell me.  I figure that even if it doesn't say much, maybe with his death date I can get a death certificate for him.  I don't know what else to do.  Send me your thoughts and suggestions!  I would love for this to be a fun search for all of us!  By the way, almost all the documents of James list him as James D. Gurley.  I don't know what the D stands for, but I keep hoping it would be related to his mother's maiden name.

One brick at a time

I have considered Thomas and Jane Gurley my biggest brick wall in research.  I have been searching for so long for their parents and also Jane's maiden name.  Well, I think I may have taken one brick out of the wall yesterday!  I joined a group on facebook for Londonderry Ireland Research.  That is where Marie Gurley Hurlbut was born in 1836.  So, I posted a little information about her to see if anyone had any ideas on how to find her birth record.  I got the best reply ever!  A lady asked me if her parents were Thomas and Jane Gurley in Bronson, Huron, Ohio.  Of course I answered back with an excited YES!  She then told me that she a transcription of an obituary for Jane Gurley in the Londonderry Sentinel (the local newspaper).  It states that Jane Gurley died in 1868 in Bronson, Huron, Ohio and that her husband was Thomas Gurley of Ardnamoghill, County Donegal! So, after many years of research, we now know exactly where Thomas was from!  Yay!  The lady that posted the message to me actually lives there!  She says she has a lot going on this month, but next month she will see if she can make a copy of the obituary for me and also do some research to see if she can find anything else on the family!  I am so excited!!  Cross your fingers that she finds something wonderful for us!

Family Heirlooms

I have been having the best time getting to know cousins Linda and Janice.  Linda sent me some pictures the other day of items in her china cabinet that belonged to our ancestors.  The first one is of a small teacup that was part of a set of dishes belonging to Grandma Gurley!  It is around 200 years old!  Her sweet grandmother wrote a note to go along with the cup that described who it belonged to.  I love that.  Here are a few of the pictures she sent me:

These next pictures are of a glass slipper that is very old, too, and looks to be used for advertising for S. D. Sollers Fine Shoes. We don't know exactly who it belonged to, but we think it was probably Great Aunt Margaret who was Grandma Vera's sister.  She never married and was the only one in the family who really had any money.  She also loved to have nice things to wear.  It would make sense that she was given this glass slipper as a preferred customer of S. D. Sollers Fine Shoes.  

I can hardly wait to see what else she has!  I love getting fun, new things from our wonderful relatives!  If anyone else has anything they would be willing to share with us/me, I would love it!  

James Isaac Hurlbut

I have decided to try and find more information on Grandpa Hurlbut.  I noticed on his Find A Grave memorial that his birth date is wrong and his death date isn't complete.  In fact, I have never seen his full death date anywhere!  So...I decided to see what I could find.  Here is a link to his memorial: James Hurlbut on Findagrave.com. 

I received a new package from the genealogist I hired in Ohio.  In the package was a newpaper page he had found that included James Hurlbut's obituary.  Yay!  Here is what it said:

 

I wanted to verify his death date, so I contacted the Mountain View Cemetery to see if they had his burial records.  They didn't have them, but they were able to verify his correct death date.   So...September 30, 1888 was when he died of Typhoid Fever.  I am trying to verify the fact that he died at home in San Diego.  It seems correct so I am going to try and request his death certificate.  I hope they have it! 

Now if we could just find his first wife and figure out what happened to her!

Budding Genealogists!

Every evening and a lot of time during the day I find myself curled up on the couch doing family history work on my laptop.  I guess I must have rubbed off onto my two little girls.  This is how I found them this morning:

I wish I could put a genealogy program on their little computers to get them started young! Hum...  I just thought they were so adorable and wanted to capture the moment.

Information from Professional Genealogist

I have been anxiously awaiting the mail to arrive for the past few days!  I was waiting for the package from the professional genealogist that I hired.  Well, it finally arrived today with so much fun stuff!  He didn't uncover too much, but he found a few things that were pleasant surprises!  First was a copy of a picture of the Thomas Gurley Home in Bronson, Ohio.  Here is a copy of the picture:

He told me the picture was taken in 1898 and that he assumed the woman standing on the front porch was Aura Gurley.  I think he was correct.  Her husband had died the year before and the girls were still teenagers at this point.  What a fun find!  

The second wonderful piece of information that found was so fun!  He found a son that was born to James and Marie Hurlbut!!  A long lost brother to grandma Vera!  He was only 3 months old when died and was their first child.  He was born and died in 1866.  His name was Thomas Gurley Hurlbut.  Wonderful surprise!   I have a copy of his obituary.  

Third piece of information he found was the possible marriages of Kate and Antoinette (Nettie) Hurlbut.  They were the daughters of Grandpa James from his first marriage to Caroline Carter.  They are also Uncle Frank's sisters.  So fun!!  It says that Kate was married to a Frank Shotten and Nettie to Henry Moshier.  These are added to my future research to do list!  I do have the marriage records for both of them.  Now I just need to prove that it is them!

Nettie Gurley

I didn't worry too much about Nettie Gurley.  It looked like she married a nice man, had two children and lived happily.  Boy was I wrong.  First, here is her marriage record to Richard Manahan. Notice that she was pretty young when she married, but her mother is the one who gave permission for her to marry.

I had seen this death certificate before, but I didn't think it was her because it says that she died in Toledo instead of in Norwalk.  I finally decided to take a closer look at it when I found it again.  It also says that she was divorced which I thought was incorrect.  I had to do some much further research to determine what had happened.

I finally found a newspaper article from 1927 that states their divorce.  I had started looking at 1927 because that was how long it said she had been at the Toledo State Hospital.  Yes, the Toledo State Hospital is a mental institution.  I was very curious about a lot of things.  The divorce happened in the early part of 1927 and by the end of 1927 she was sent by court order to the hospital.  I was feeling pretty bad for her.  I ordered the court records for the divorce and received them in the mail.  If anyone wants a copy of them, let me know.  It states that Richard filed for divorce because Nettie was a neglectful from her duties as a mother and wife.  She would go out and spend money and ignore her family.  It never states Nettie's side of the story because she failed to show up for court.  Apparently she was having a pretty difficult time and eventually was sent to the hospital where she died.

Gertrude Gurley's second marriage

I just found out a new piece of information from the story I told you yesterday.  Gertie did marry a very old man by the name of Sylvester Lynn.  He died 8 years after they were married.  I found an exerpt from Gertie's death record that said she died with the last name of Lynn in 1960 so I assumed that she never married again.  WRONG!  Not only did she marry again, one year after Sylvester died, but she married Sylvester's son!  His name was Lurenzo Lynn.  Crazy!  I hope that someday I can get this all right! LOL!  Here is the marriage certificate for Gertrude and Lurenzo.

Very busy life!  What do you think about all of this? I would love to hear feedback!

Aura and Gertie Gurley

Another interesting find.  Let me see if I can help you understand this one!  Okay, so Thomas Gurley had a son by the name of Thomas.  He married a woman by the name of Aura Eldridge.  Thomas was the one who took over the farm when his father passed away.  They had two daughters.  Nettie and Gertrude.  Nettie is the one the professional genealogist told me about when I talked to him the other day.  Nettie married a man by the name of Richard Manahan and had two sons.  Gertrude, the younger sister, was still living with her parents when her father passed away.  In the 1900 census you find Aura and Gertrude (Gertie)  living together and a man by the name of Sylvester Lynn who is listed as a boarder.  Here is the census record:

Aura ended up getting sick in April of 1909 and passing away on the 19th of April.  Gertie and Sylvester got a marriage license on the 18th and were married on the 27th.  Only 8 days after her mother died!  If you look closely at the age of Sylvester and Gertie in 1900, you see how far apart they were in age!  It lists Sylvester as being 59 and Gertie as 22.  On their marriage record it lists Sylvester as 70 and Gertie as 33.  This is their marriage record:

This is Aura's death certificate:

I can only begin to imagine how Gertie felt when her mother was sick and about to die.  She was going to be left all alone in the world.  I wonder if she felt that marrying Sylvester was a way to protect herself or to just not be alone.  Or, did she truly love him?  It makes me wonder with everything happening so fast and at the same time.  Especially with their age differences.  I would love to hear what everyone else thinks.  As a side note, Sylvester was married before to a lady by the name of Sarah.

Thomas Gurley's Will

Fun times today!  I got a message on facebook that new Ohio records had been added to the Family Search website!  I thought I would go ahead and take a look and see what was there.  And what did I find?  Thomas Gurley's Will!  Yeah!  I love finding these kinds of documents.  So fun!  My biggest surprise was that he left some money to his Grand daughter Margaret Jane Hurlbut.  That was Grandma Vera's sister.  He left the money to Margaret when she was only a few years old, but she wouldn't get it until she was 18!  Grandma Vera wasn't born yet. He left something to every one of his children.  I loved seeing that.

Professional Genealogist

I have cold chills!  I just got off the phone with a professional genealogist in Norwalk, Ohio.  I have finally decided it was time to get some help with these wonderful ancestors.  I don't want to spend too much time, but I am so excited to see what he can find.  However, this is what he told me when I talked to him.  He told me that his grandmother who was 99 when she died  knew the Gurley's who lived in Bronson!  That's us!  He says the farmland is still there and he could show me right where it was!  The buildings have all burned down, but he has actually been there!  She also told stories about Nettie Gurley.  She was Thomas and Jane's granddaughter!  Her father was Thomas Jr.  I am so excited to see what he can find!!!  I will let you all know as soon as I hear anything!

Frank Hurlbut's Death Certificate

I was so excited to get mail today!  I had found in a California Index what I thought was Frank Hurlbut's (Uncle to Grandma Vera) death date.  I ordered a death certificate and it came in the mail today!  I was so glad to see that the information I had was correct and now I even have his birth date!  Yay!  I so often documents that tell me nothing new, so I was glad to get this!!  It even proves that his mother was Caroline Carter.  Now to get into some deeper research and see what I can find.  I wish I could afford to take a trip to Ohio!!  Would anyone like to go with me when I do?  :)  I am attaching a copy of the death certificate.  I love family history!  Oh, by the way, it states that he died of Carcinoma of Ileum.  Anyone want to take a stab at what that means?  I had to look it up.  The Ileum is the last section of the small intestines.  Poor Frank, that sounds so painful.  I did note that Grandma Vera was the one to give the information on the record.  I wish she was still around so I could ask her more questions!

Henry LeGrand Hurlbut

Did you read the previous post with the link to the Hurlbut genealogy? On that same page at the very top you will see that Henry LeGrand Hurlbut married Matilda Gurley! This was his second marriage as well. Matilda was grandma Marie's oldest sister. So....they married brothers! Sound familiar? It sure reminded me of my grandma and her sister and how they married brothers as well. It must run in the family! I was just really glad to see that they both married into a great family. If you read the Hurlbut genealogy starting at the beginning and follow our line, you will find a great history. Our first Hurlbut ancestor in America arrived in 1635 on a small vessel with his military group. It consisted of his commanding officer, the officers wife, a female servent and 11 soldiers. Our ancestor was Thomas Hurlbut and was one of those soldiers. They were sent to the new land to establish the Connecticut fort, which they did. During the time they were there, Thomas was shot by an indian. The arrow went through his thigh. He survived and we are all glad that he did! Read the story in the book to get all the facts. It's a really interesting story. Our grandfather, James, is often referred to as Isaac which was his middle name. His father was Henry Hurlbut. He was married to Almira Jennings. They were both from Connecticut and were married there. In fact, several of their children were born there. The British in 1779 caused many of the lands to be destroyed by fire in Connecticut. Included in this was Norwalk, Connecticut where they were from. As compensation, they were given land in Ohio. The land was called the firelands. Henry came to Ohio in 1818 to find and establish a part of this land. Eventually it was called Norwalk, Ohio. The family joined him there and in 1825 our grandfather, James, was born. This was the same location where our Gurley ancestors would settle in 1838. You can read a history of the firelands at this link: FIRELANDS HISTORY

Hurlbut Genealogy

A few months ago I came across a genealogy of the Hurlbut's in the United States. I was so excited! Here is a link to the book. I found it on books.google.com. HURLBUT GENEALOGY This link should bring you to the page that shows our grandfather, James Isaac Hurlbut. The first thing you should notice is that it lists his wife as Caroline Carter! I was a bit taken back by this until I remembered a key piece of information. In the 1880 census, James and Marie had a child living with them by the name of Frank. This was James' son from his first marriage and was the well known half brother to our grandmother Vera and her sister Margaret! So this took me on a search for the marriage between James and Caroline. The only thing I could find was a 1860 census where they were living together in Norwalk, Ohio and had four children. There names were Kate, Antoinette, Frank and Caroline. So....Frank had three sisters! I have yet to figure out what happened to Caroline and the daughters. I am trying to determine if they divorced and the girls stayed with their mother while Frank stayed with his father. Or if Caroline died and the girls went to live with relatives. This is still a research problem I haven't solved yet. I am attaching a copy of the 1860 census. Also, James and grandmother Marie were married in 1865, so something happened in those 5 years. I can't wait to find out what that would be!


 

Passenger List for the Gurley Family

Back in November I came across the passenger list with the Gurley family listed! I was so excited and I am sure I yelled! I had searched through countless lists and finally found it on ancestry.com. The best part about finding was that I found out there were two more children! Matilda and Eliza Jane were the oldest children of Thomas Gurley and what I would later find out is that they had married before I found the names of the family in the 1850 census. The list is kind of difficult to read. Their ship, the Scotland, sailed from Londonderry, Ireland to Liverpool, England and then to New York arriving on June 17, 1836. If you remember that Marie was born in January of 1836 you can see that she was just a small infant when the family traveled. They stayed in New York a year or two and then settled in Bronson, Huron County, Ohio where they lived for many many years. Both Thomas and Jane both died there. It was very rare for entire family to sail together at that time. Many times a father would go first to start a living and then send for the rest of the family. The Gurley's came all together and there were 9 of them! I wonder if maybe they were wealthy or well to do.

Thomas and Jane Gurley's Headstones

This is Thomas and Jane's headstones. You can find them by going to www.findagrave.com and then searching for them in the Huron County, Ohio cemetery lookup.

Thomas and Jane Gurley's Death Records

 My next step was to find Jane and Thomas Gurley's death records. I first found their obituaries which told me next to nothing! The next thing I requested from Ohio was their official birth certificates. After hoping and crossing my fingers, they finally arrived in the mail. They still didn't tell me much. Ugh! I am posting them for you to see. I love having them and use them as a verification for their death dates, but I was really hoping to find parents names or Jane's maiden name.

 This is a transcription of the 1880 Census for the Hurlbut Family in Norwalk, Huron, Ohio. Note that Marie was only listed as 'M'. M. Jane Hurlbut was Margaret Jane Hurlbut. L.M. Hurlbut is actually Vera Matilda Hurlbut. There is also a Frank Hurlbut listed as a son, an Almila Lewis and a Margaret Gurley. Frank is James' son from his first marriage. He is often mentioned in the family stories as their half-brother. Almila Lewis is actually Almira. She is James' mother! Margaret Gurley is Marie's older sister! So fun!

James Hurlbut's family

I have been trying to save a 1880 census that shows the family of James and Marie Hurlbut. I find it, but when I click on it it is the wrong picture! Crazy!!! Anyway, I wanted to share with everyone what I found about James Hurlbut. Our great grandfather! Here is what is on the census: James I. Hurlbut age 53 - Head M. Hurlbut age 43 - Wife Frank Hurlbut age 26 - Son M Jane Hurlbut age 13 - Daughter L M Hurlbut age 8 - Daughter Almila Lewis age 84 - Widowed Margaret Gurley - 46 - Single Crazy that there were two people that wasn't their immediate family. So...I tried to figure out who Almila Lewis is. It took me awhile, but I finally figured it out! I wondered if it was James' mother, but she had a different last name. So I decided to research it out. Here is what I finally found out....Almila is actually spelled Almira. She was actually James' mother! James' father died and she remarried making her last name Lewis. Her second husband died and that was why she was living with James and his family. Also, I figured out that the I. for James middle name was Isaac. I found out that Almira was James' mother by finding her marriage information for her second marriage which listed her name at that time as Almira Hurlbut. So, I went further and finally found the family on www.rootsweb.com. Almira's maiden name was Jennings. James father is Henry Hurlbut. Yay! I found the rest of their children as well. They had James listed among the family as Isaac Hurlbut so it was kind of difficult to find before. When I entered all the new family information into Family Search so I could do all the temple work. When I did that, I found that it was already all in the system but they didn't have James listed as one of the children. So...I added James as a child and had him sealed to his parents. Everything else was already done. The Hurlbut line goes back 1640 in Connecticut. If you want to see it....go to www.familysearch.org and you will be able to see it all! I was excited to find all that. It looks like the Hurlbut line was one of the first families in the United States. I can't wait to try and see what I can find on them!!

Edited 5/29/2013
I found the 1880 census record!  Here it is:

Hopeing to find the Passenger lists and Immigration papers

If any of you really read Marie's death certificate you will see that it lists her birthplace as Ohio. I have always been told and seen it written as Londonderry, Ireland. I believe this was just an error that was made when the death certificate as written. I have still never found a birth record for Marie or any of the Gurley children. I thought that if I could find their immigration/passenger list maybe I could determine where they were born and if any of the children were actually born in Ohio. The census record of 1850 states they were all born in Ireland. That was a big help to me. I thought that maybe if I found the parent's death records it might give me more information on their parents or where they lived. Crazy of me to think it would give me much information!! Their obituaries said nothing more than their death date and who their spouse was. Nothing more. It didn't even give me Jane's maiden name! I was very disappointed. Every record I requested from Ohio had very minimal information. I do have deeds, death records, marriage records for a few of the children and their obituaries. Not much to go on! If anyone would like copies of any of this information, let me know! I will email it to you.

1850 Census Record with the Gurley Family

This was the first record I could find that I thought might be the right Gurley family. I was still not sure because Marie was listed as Mariah, but everything else fit perfectly! They lived in the right area, the father's name was Thomas Gurley and they had a daughter who could be Marie born in the right year. I was so nervous to declare this as the right family for the longest time. After much prayer and thoughts, I finally decided to continue on with this family as the right one. Back in those days the census records were done with the census worker writing the information as the family told the them the information. Nothing was verified and many time names were written as they were 'heard' rather than how they were really spelled. So, I have determined this is the right family. After deciding this and finding other documents, I am about 99% sure this them! There were no other Gurley's living in the area at that time. So...now I had Marie as a child with her parents as Thomas and Jane Gurley! So exciting! The census record also lists 4 other children. Thomas, James, Margaret, Susanna and of course Marie as Mariah. There is also an 1860 census that shows Marie as Maria which is closer to the right name, but the record is very hard to read.

Marie Hurlbut Death Certificate

This is Marie Gurley Hurlbut's death certificate. Note that her father is listed as Thos Hurley. I'm sure the Hurley is a misprint that should be Gurley. Thos is a shortened version of Thomas. I wish that it had her mother's name listed!

Marie Gurley's Beginning information

My first search started with a pedigree chart I received from Aunt for my High School graduation. It has been a wonderful resource to me! Thank you!!! My research started with Grandma's mother, Vera Matilda Hurlbut. I knew that she was born in Norwalk, Warren, Ohio in 1874. Here is her information: Vera Matilda Hurlbut Born 25 Jul 1874 in Norwalk, Warren Ohio Died 12 Dec 1939 in Pasadena, Los Angeles, California Married David Edward Harshorn on 4 Sep 1897 in Pasadena, Los Angeles California This much we have all known to be true. It's with her parents that my research really began. Her parents were James Isaac Hurlbut and Marie Gurley. I began with her Mother, Marie Gurley. She was born in Londonderry, Ireland on January 6, 1836. From her death certificate (which I found on www.familysearch.org) I learned that her Father's name was Thos Gurley (even though it says Hurley!) Thos is a shortened version of the name Thomas. So that is where I began! If you login to www.familysearch.org, click on Family Tree, and then find Marie Gurley on your tree you will see that I have attached her death certificate to her name. Let me know if you would like me to email a copy to you!


 

Margaret Lucille Hartshorn

As a few of you might know, I have spent the last few years trying to find more of our wonderful ancestors on Grandma's line. I have found a few and I continue to search for more! I thought it might be fun for some of you if I share my research and findings with you! Let me know if you know of any other family members who would like to be invited to the blog. I want to keep it private for just our family to see.