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!