#52ancestors-Lucky (Fortunate)

Two times a year the West Michigan Genealogical Society hosts a bus trip to Fort Wayne, Indiana, specifically Allen County Public Library. If you don't know, ALPC is the home to the nation's largest public genealogy collection. I love this place and the bus trips. Last April, I was at there, working hard on my Canady (Cannady, Kennedy, Canada, Kanada) families.

Let me walk you through this line starting with myself:

Michelle, daughter of Allen Utter and Marilyn Boorsma 

   Marilyn, daughter of Louis Boorsma and Dorothy Louise Marlin

     Dorothy, daughter of Edgar L Marlin and Mamie L Chapman

       Mamie, daughter of Cassius W Chapman and Delle Lydia Hollowell

         Cassius, son of James Chapman and Susannah Haynes

           Susannah, daughter of Richard Haynes and Susannah Mendenhall

             Susannah, daughter of Mordecai Mendenhall and Phoebe Canady

               Phoebe, daughter of John Canady and Margaret Thonberg (Thornburgh)

                  John, son of Charles Canady and Phoebe Ann Beals 

John Canady was the person I was researching that fortunate day. Thanks to the Quaker documentation, I have many of his vital records. He was born 25 Mar 1741 in Guilford, North Carolina.  By 1744, his family moved to northern Virginia. His father was killed in the Virginia Indian War (Lord Dunmore's war) in 1745. In 1746, Phoebe Beals Canady married again, Robert Sumner. They moved to Bladen County, North Carolina in 1751 and attended Carver's Creek Monthly meeting.

( 1)  Birth,U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935

(2)  1700-1900; Collection: North Carolina Yearly Meeting Minutes

 John and and his family were living in Deep River, Rowen (Guilford) County, North Carolina. Their group was called the New Garden Quakers. It is here that he met Margaret Thornberg.  According to two different sources they married on the 10th of April 1764. 

Earlham College; Richmond, Indiana; Quaker Marriage Records; Collection: Miscellaneous Vital Records

Their children were: Phoebe, Henry, Bowater, Charles, Walter, John Jr. and Robert. 

John and Margaret stayed in North Carolina for thirty-two years.  On 29 October 1796, the Canady's were given  the necessary certificates of transfer to be admitted to the New Hope meeting in Greene County, Tennessee.  
They decided to go further into Tennessee. On 17 June 1797, they were received into the Lost Creek Monthly meeting in Jefferson County.

(3)  Meeting transfer,New Garden Monthly Meeting 

 While living in Jefferson Co. Tennessee, a young man named David, also from Jefferson county, came to stay and work for John Canady and family. The year was 1802. David's father also named John, was in debt to Canady for $40. David worked off the debt for his father. When the debt was paid David spent another six months being taught by John Canady. David could neither read or write, because he had run away from school and home at an early age. Before he came to Canady some of his early jobs were: cattle driver, teamster, farmer's helper and hatter. 
David left for a time. Then at the end of 1803, he moved back in with the Canady's. David had spend a lot of time prior to this becoming a very good shot. Here is a quote from David:

"I had by this time got to be mighty fond of the rifle, and had bought a capital one. I most generally carried her with me wherever I went, and though I had got back to the Old Quaker's to live, who was a very particular man, I would sometimes slip out and attend shooting matches where they shot for beef."

David wanted to go courting but that was difficult without a horse.  Another source states that he needed new clothes, as he had worn his only set of clothes for a full year!
  Instead of working for the needed horse and or clothes, he did some chores and traded his rifle with Bowater Canady, son of John. He got his horse in August of 1806, then went off to court a girl named Polly Finley, of Long Creek in Jefferson County.
Bowater Canady later traded off the rifle. Fortunately, the rifle is now back in the Canady family. It has a letter included from David. The letter says in part, "what a help the Old Quaker Gentleman's teaching had been to him".
  David married Polly, had children and had other adventures. He was a frontiersman, soldier, politician and a folk hero.

Portrait of David

 He was often called "King of the Wild frontier". He is the one and only, David Crockett.

 Some of John Canady's sons left Tennessee and headed north to Ohio and Indiana in the years of 1815 and 1816. In November of 1816 John and Margaret also left Tennessee, to join their sons in Indiana. John was 75 and Margaret was 72. It had to be a challenging trip for these two elderly people, especially that time of year.

 (4) Deaths, U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935 [

The entire Canady family settled near a town called Economy. Many other Tennessee Quakers also came to that area. There meeting house was called Whitewater later to be changed to New Garden.
There were so many Quakers there that they eventually created a new meeting house in 1820 called Springfield. The meeting house was also the school and John Canady was its first teacher. 

Margaret died the 12th of March 1818 and John died the 3rd of March 1830.  He died at age 88 years 10 months and 26 days. He is buried at the west Grove Meeting House Burial grounds in Wayne County, Indiana.
It was fortunate for my "old quaker" that David Crockett came to their family for a time. As David grew in fame, the Canady's could take some pride in the fact that they helped him get his start.
It was especially fortunate for David Crockett to have met my Canadys. They provided for him financially, materially and with his education. Because of the lessons with John Canady, David was able to achieve much and also write his own biography, which includes a chapter on his time with John Canady.
It was fortunate for me to locate this information and add this remarkable story to my family tree.



1 US Quaker Meeting Records, Guilford College; Greensboro, North Carolina; Men's Minutes, 1783-1800; Collection: North Carolina Yearly Meeting Minutes
2 Guilford College; Greensboro, North Carolina; Men's Minutes, 1754-1775; Collection: North Carolina Yearly Meeting Minutes
3, 4 Earlham College; Richmond, Indiana; Men's Minutes, 1815-1829; Collection: Indiana Yearly Meeting Minutes

A couple of other links :
https://www.facebook.com/notes/rockcastle-laurel-pulaski-and-surrounding-counties-in-kentucky/john-canaday-1741-1830-includes-davy-crockett-bio-sketch/303642886384289/

https://www.billputman.com/Charlescanaday.pdf

#52ancestor- Strong Woman

This week's topic is "Strong Woman" and the person who came to mind from my family tree is Mary Chilton. Mary is the daughter of James, son of Lyonel, son of Richard, all from Canterbury, England.1
You may have never heard of Mary, but she was a brave strong girl with an important place in history. Mary was a passenger on the ship Mayflower.

When the Mayflower arrived in Plymouth 9 November 1620, it had been on the water for sixty-six days.There were 102 passengers on this ship which normally carried cargo like wine and cloth. There were also about 30 crew members on board as well

Plymouth Rock

Just so you can see how big the rock is

   Of the passengers about one third were Puritan separatist.The separatists wanted to break away from the Church of England. They wanted to be able to worship and live the way they believed. In order to accomplish this they left England to live in the more tolerant atmosphere of Leiden, Netherlands. Although they could worship freely, the separatists were only able to get the lowest paying jobs in this land so their children were also put to work to make ends meet. Another concern they had was that they noticed their children were assimilating and absorbing the culture around them, and thus losing their identity. They saw potential for freedom and economic improvement in the the Virginia Colony. 

• Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor, by William Halsall,1882 
•  Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA

  Their trip started aboard the Speedwell, taking them to England to meet up with the second ship, the Mayflower. The Speedwell proved to be a leaky vessel and after some miles out to sea, they had to turn back. This delayed their departure and pushed them into autumn's western gales which made for a miserable voyage. Because of the continually crashing waves, there was damage to a structural support timber. The passengers had to help the ship's carpenter repair the beam with a mechanical device called a jackscrew which was brought along for building their new homes. The jackscrew kept the ship together, barely.
  Besides the delays in departure, crashing waves and breaking ships, the separatists also dealt with food shortages and illnesses like coughs, colds, fever, pneumonia and scurvy.
The rough seas also kept them from getting to the area of land near the Hudson River in what was then part of the Virginia Colony. They were forced to stay near Plymouth in Cape Cod.

  Mary was just 13 years old when she, her father James Chilton, and mother Susanna arrived in the new world. She was the youngest of eight children and the only one to come with her parents. 
  Mary's father, James, was probably the oldest person on the Mayflower voyage. On 11 Nov 1620, James and others signed the Mayflower Compact. 

Page from William Bradford's 'Of Plimoth Plantation' containing the text of the Mayflower Compact 

  On 8 Dec 1620 just a few weeks after signing the Compact, James died, still on board the Mayflower, which was anchored off Provincetown Harbor. Mary's mother also died a short time later, probably in January 1621, leaving Mary orphaned in a strange, cold, and hostile new land.

  A Chilton family story states that Mary was the first European woman to come ashore at Plymouth.  It has neither been proved or disproved. Another version says that she was the first woman to step on Plymouth Rock and yet another says she jumped out of the landing boat and waded into shore. Whether true or not Mary was for sure one of the first women to touch New England. 2

The Landing of the Pilgrims, painted in 1877 by Henry Bacon and showing Mary Chilton landing on Plymouth Rock, is on exhibit at Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth Massachusetts

  Mary was one of eleven minor aged girls on the Mayflower. Nine of them survived the first year at Plymouth Rock. They, including my Mary, would have been present at the famous first Thanksgiving in 1621!
As a side note, only 4 out of the 14 adult women survived the first year.

  The young and healthy people of the colony were probably the caregivers to all the people who suffered and died that first winter at Plymouth. Mary dealt with many difficult things in her first months alone in New England.
  A year after the Pilgrims arrived a second ship came to Plymouth. It was the called the Fortune and was much smaller than the previous ship. On it was a brother of Mayflower passenger and future governor Edward Winslow. The new arrival's name was John Winslow. He would become Mary's husband sometime in the years between July 1623 and May 1627. Mary would have been 16 - 20 years old.
 Three years later after arriving in Plymouth, Mary received her parents share of land between the Alden and Standish plots. She had most likely been living in one of these two households, prior to marrying John Winslow.

Plimoth Plantation living museum, Plymouth, Massachusetts

  John and Mary Chilton Winslow had ten children; John, Susanna, Mary, Edward, Sarah, Samuel, Joseph, Isaac, an unnamed child who died young, and Benjamin.
 Benjamin was born in 12 August,1653. Sometime after that event, the John Winslow family moved to Boston. Mary was one of the first women, if not the very first woman, to live in Boston.
 On 16 Jun 1671, they had their church membership transferred from Plymouth to Boston's third Church (Old South Church).

Old South Church, Stenograph circa 1875, Boston Public Library

No one knows where they first lived when they came to Boston, but in 1671 John bought  for 500 pounds in New England silver money "the Mansion or dwelling-house of the Late Antipas Voice with the gardens wood-yard and Backside as it is scituate lying and being in Boston aforesaid as it is nowe fenced in And is fronting & Facing to the Lane going to mr John Jolliffes."  
   John Winslow became one of the wealthiest merchants in Boston. He and Mary lived in the house in Boston until their deaths.This house on Spring Lane is gone now. 
   John died in the spring of 1674 and bequeathed Mary their dwelling house, gardens, yards, all household goods and £400 sterling.
  Mary died before 11 July 1674, when her will was proved. She and Elizabeth Tilley are the only two female Mayflower passengers who made out wills. 


She made a life for herself in Plymouth and Boston, but not before she endured many trials and heartbreaks. I am proud of the courage and strength of this female ancestor.

 John and Mary are  buried here at Kings Chapel in Boston.  There are many other notable figures buried here

My family line:
James Chilton m. Susanna Last Name Unknown, had Mary
Mary Chilton m. John Winslow, had Susan 
Susan Winslow m. Robert Latham, had Hannah
Hannah Lathan  m. Joseph Washburn Jr., had Rebecca
Rebecca Washburn m. David Johnson, had David Johnson Jr.
David Johnson Jr. m. Parnell Packard, had Mary Johnson
Mary Johnson m. Isaac George, had Orpha George
Orpha George m. Daniel Green, had Horace Green
Horace Green m. Drusilla Hopkins, had Frances Ada Green
Frances Ada Green m. Allen Miles Hopkins, had Lucina Ada Hopkins
Lucina Ada Hopkins m. Fremont Floyd Utter, had Earl Howard Utter
Earl Howard Utter m. Dorothy May DeArmond, had my father

 1 The Mayflower and Her Passengers By Caleb H. Johnson, Page 115

 2 Chilton's Title to Celebrity by Charles Thornton Libby

#52ancestors - Will

Will was the topic to write about this week. I took a different look at the word Will.

This is a picture us on a boat crossing the Sea of Galilee.

My daughter Haley and I  went on a trip to Israel November 23 - December 2 , 2017. We traveled with a group of people we did not know, but by the end of nine days they felt like family. 
One day we were having a picnic near Mount Gilboa and Haley wanted something to do. So I gave her my phone and sent her around to snap some photos of the groups eating lunch. I posted the pictures to face book. That's where this story starts.

And this is a picture of the Wilderness of Judea, where Jesus spent 40 days. 

This was a photo I posted of a few people from our group. Kathy V on the left in navy, Husband Henry in aqua next to her and daughter Lori in aqua across from Henry.

  After the picture was posted my mom's cousin Harry DB left me a comment. He said the lady on left was a relative of my mom through her aunt,Katherine Boorsma. The next morning, I eagerly asked the Kathy V. about her relatives and sure enough ,we were related! Kathy said she was the granddaughter of Katherine (Catherine) Gritter Boorsma and that Katherine had married Ed Boorsma  My mom was a Boorsma and I remember she had an uncle Ed. I was thrilled...finding family from Michigan, while while on our trip in Israel. How cool is that!

After returning home, I started to dig into this connection. Katherine Gritter had indeed married my mom's Uncle Ed Boorsma, December 31, 1952 in Kent County Michigan.

                         With special thanks to cousin Jennifer BK, I have pictures to share.

Aunt Katherine & Uncle Ed

From left: Margaret Bont Boorsma, Aunt Katherine, Uncle Ed and John (Jan Jans)  Boorsma. 

 But Uncle Ed wasn't a Boorsma by blood. He was a Westra. His mother Margaret Bont had been married to,and divorced from man named Adrian Westra and he was Uncle Ed's birth father. Two years later, when Uncle Ed was four, Margaret would marry John Boorsma. John became Ed's father, but I am unsure if Ed was adopted legally.

So it looked like my connection to Kathy, from the Israel trip, was not a true Boorsma family connection but a marriage connection.
  I found that Katherine had first been married to a man named Arthur Gritter and they had eight children together. I could find the family in the 1930 and 1940 census but they were not listed in anymore records after that. I assume they were divorced because of Aunt Katherine's marriage to Uncle Ed. Arthur died in Kent County Michigan in 1982, so he was still around the area.

I looked at this second marriage record and saw the names of Katherine's father and mother. I remember my mom telling me about an Uncle Pete and Aunt Minnie. Things were starting to come together then I found this:

Minnie Boersma caught my eye. The  surname spelling was a little off, but I had seen that different spelling before.When I clicked on Minnie it listed her birthday as "about 1879" which gave me a date to work with. Back on Ancestry, I found this record.

 U.S., Dutch Christian Reformed Church Vital Records, 1856-1970, Archive at Calvin College 

This helped a lot. I knew my great grandfather Jan Jans (John) Boorsma's vital information including his parents Jan Jans II and Tryntje. I also had heard my mom talk about an Uncle Louie from Detroit. Here they were all three siblings listed in the Alpine Ave. Christian Reformed Church records. Minnie has her full dutch name listed as Willemke and the year of her birth is December 6 1878, very close to "about 1879".  

Left is Lieuwe Jan Boorsma, Jan Jans Boorsma II, Willemke (Minnie) Boorsma Dryer and Jan Jans (John) Boorsma

                                                              Immigration Record 

Jan II and the boys came to America August 16, 1886. Willemke came two years later to join her father and brothers.

 From left : Willemke "Minnie" Boorsma, Gerritt Kuipers, Lieuwe Jan Boorsma I, (Aunt) Boujke Boorsma Kuipers, Jan Jans (John) Boorsma III 

It turns out that Kathy V, her daughter Lori B., grandson Brady and I are related through parents, Jan Jan and wife  Tryntje plus the sibling ancestors, John Jan Jans Boorsma and Willemke Boorsma.  Not only did our Israel group feel like family, Kathy and I  discovered  we were actual family.

PS. An interesting side note, In the 1900 census of Pete and Minnie J Dryer, minnie's brother Louie then 18 is living with them and Katherine, age 4 months is listed as Trina. Because of naming patterns, I believe Katherine Dryer  was named after her grandmother Tryntje Kracht. Which also means Kathy V is named for her grandmother and great great grandmother!

Source Citation Year: 1900; Census Place: Grand Rapids Ward 5, Kent, Michigan; Page: 1; Enumeration District: 0061

#52Ancestors-Heirloom

My Heirlooms

This is a Summer Girls #2 cast iron stove with the patent date of December 26 '93 (1893). My father gave this stove to me. He said it came from his grandparents home. They were Freemont Floyd Utter,1886 - 1940 and Lucina Ada Hopkins 1890 -1955.

 The little windows are made of isinglass.

These are two tea towels that my grandma hand embroidered. Her name was Dorothy Louise Marlin Boorsma 1913 - 2003. They were made circa 1945. When grandma died, we had to sort through some of her things. We found these towels. No one really wanted them except me, so now they have new life on my  kitchen wall.
(One has slipped a little, I will have to fix that)

Also handed down from my mother, is my Grandma Dorothy Boorsma's wedding ring and her art deco watch. Dorothy Marlin married Louis Boorsma July 1931.

This locket was my mothers. Her mother, Dorothy Boorsma gave it to her, and now I own it. Those two pictures in it are of Dorothy.

 In this picture is my mother's (Marilyn Boorsma) toy jacks she used to play with as a little girl, in the 1940's.

In the same picture, is a sweet little cupid jewelry box that my father bought for me, when I was a little girl. He often had to be gone for the whole week for his work. Several times, he brought home little gifts for me and my brother. It is still a special little treasure!

                                                                                       

This is my baby bracelet that was put on me by the nurses at Blodgett Hospital, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. My mother took it to a jeweler and had the beads restrung on this wire bracelet, after the original string disintegrated.                                                                         

                                                                                           

#52ancestors- Valentine

  This weeks topic is Valentine, but I am changing it to Valentines. Valentine Whitman and Valentine Whitman Jr., are two of my very early Rhode Island ancestors.

  Valentine Whitman Sr. was born in England.His father may have been John Wightman, who was the son of  Edward Wightman. Edward, Valentine Sr. grandfather, has the distinction of being last person in England who was burned at the stake for heresy.
 Valentine Sr. immigrated to the American colonies by 1648, supposedly six years before his father and brothers would arrive to New Port, Rhode Island.
For some reason, Valentine started spelling his surname Whitman as opposed the original spelling of Wightman.
  Valentine could speak the local indian language, so he became an interpreter. He assisted in communications between the local Indians and early settlers, as well as helping with transactions of the land companies of Connecticut and Massachusetts in 1658.
   In 1660, Valentine witnessed a contract between a indian chief called Ninigret and the United Colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, New Haven and Hartford.
He was an industrious person serving in the rolls of:

• Surveyor of Highways, 1656
• Commissioner in the General Court of Commissions for Rhode Island,18 May, 1658,
• Jury duty, 1657 - 1661
• Rhode Island Militia, King Philip's war,14 Aug 1676 

  He married a Mary ,that some think is Mary Aldrich, daughter of George Aldrich and Catharine Seald, but for right now we have no verification of that.

  They had 9 Children: Mary who married John Inman, Elizabeth, Susanna who married James Ballou, Deborah who married Joseph Smith, Alice, Hannah, Esther who married John Steere, Grace and Valentin Jr. who married Sarah Bartlett
Valentine Sr. made some land purchases:
Jan. 28, 1655, he bought a parcel of meadow and 25 acres of upland of Robert Coles at Mashapaug
 Aug. 27,1656, of John Greene, Sen., a house lot lying between the lot of William Harris on the north and Edward Manton on the south, which was confirmed by Philipa Greene, widow of John, May 13, 1659.
  He was admitted a freeman of Providence, May 18, 1658. His name is also attached to an agreement, dated October 18, 1654, between the United Colonies and Ninegret, and upon the list of those who stayed in Providence through Phillip’s war.
  Valentine Sr. made his last will and testament on 13 Jan 1701 and on 11 Mar, 1701 his will was proven in court.

  From the Narragansett Historical Register Vol 2, page 297,  His death is thus recorded : “ Valentine Whittman Senior, of this Towne of Providence died the 26‘11 day of January 1701 about the breakeing of ye day or a little before, as his Son Valentine Whittman Gives an account.”

  Valentine Whitman Jr. was born on 25 Aug 1668. He married 12 Dec 1694, Sarah Bartlett, daughter of John Bartlett and Sarah Aldrich. Their children were Sarah, John, Henry, Abiah, Robert, Benjamin, Noah and two or three more children.

  *Their son John and his wife Sarah Sprague are my ancestors. Sarah was the daughter of Anthony Sprague,who was the son of Elizabeth Bartlett and who was the daughter of Mary Warren, the eldest daughter of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren. 

  Valentine Whitman Jr., and a group of men, met in his home on 17 Mar 1730, The meeting was to organize their future town, later to be named Smithfield, Rhode Island.

                                                 Valentine Whitman Jr. home Circa 1937

Valentine's home is called a Stone ender. This is a unique style of Rhode Island architecture that developed in the 17th century where one wall in a house is made up of a large stone chimney.The large farmhouse was built around 1694 and is the second oldest surviving building in Rhode Island
.
Valentine Whitman, Jr. House, Great Road & Meetinghouse Road, Lime Rock, Providence County, RI

Valentine Jr. died on 26 Aug 1750, Smithfield, Providence County, Rhode Island and is buried in the Whitman-Mowry Cemetery, Lincoln, Providence County, Rhode Island

#52ancestors-Favorite name

In talking about the writing prompt "favorite name",with my husband, he reminded me about the name Foster. And I am glad he did.
 My Foster surname had become a favorite middle name for three of my male ancestors and one sibling.The first Foster in my tree is Eleanor Foster, also know as Ellen. She was born 22 February 1794 in Virginia. Married John DeArmond 21 August 1817 and died 23 Apr 1859.

Their marriage was performed by John's uncle, King DeArmond. King also married a Sarah Foster to John A George. Could Sarah be Eleanor's sister?

Ohio, County Marriage Records, 1774-1993

1850; Census Place: Division 10, Berrien, Michigan; Roll: M432_346; Page: 194B; Image: 386

Eleanor Foster DeArmond Grave

John and Eleanor's son, William DeArmond, married Clarissa Brown. And their son was named Camlin Foster DeArmond.  

 I have written about Camlin in a previous post linked here :#52ancesters-Start

Camlin (pictured above) married Clytie Agnes Harris and they had several girls, one of whom was my grandmother Dorothy May DeArmond.

The picture above shows my grandparents (Dorothy May DeArmond and Earl Howard Utter) newly married, I assume.  The were married on 21 June 1929 in Steuben County, Indiana.

Allen Foster Utter

Earl and Dorothy had three boys, Earl Jr., Allen, and Gordon. My dad's,(pictured above) full name was Allen Foster Utter. I assume he was named after his grandpa Camlin Foster DeArmond.

My dad married my mom,on July 25, 1958 and had first (me), Michelle Lynne and my brother with the middle name of Allen, and third...

Christopher Foster Utter

23 Sept 1965- 11 Feb 1966

 My brother Christopher Foster was born with with more rare form of spina bifida. My mom describes it as looking like a little blister with a white cord. A few days later he would show signs of also having hydrocephalus. 

At eleven days old he had surgery to cover up his open spine and at eighteen days old he had surgery to install a Holter valve for the excess fluid on his brain.

 According to my mom the valve was the size of a car fuse and had plastic where the glass would be. The valve (Spitz-Holter shunt) was implanted behind his ear with a tube to his brain to collect the fluid. The opposite end of the valve had a tube to a main vein to take the fluid to his heart for dispersal and removal. My mom had to push on the valve to move the fluid from Christopher's brain to a vein.

 Because he kept growing he was producing more spinal fluid, so he had his third surgery just before Christmas to repair the valve.

Sadly, Christopher's spinal defect was in the center of his back and as he grew that repaired area stretched from top and bottom. His little spine severed and he passed away. My mom didn't get much time with her little boy, what with him in and out of hospitals and two older children at home needing care. And the after affects of this family trauma would span many years for her.

Today as I finished up writing this story, I took a closer look at the dates and amazingly this is the exact day my brother Christopher died, fifty-two years ago.

 After Christopher died and some years later, my parents had two more boys with the middle name of Allen.
Christopher Foster was the only and is the last Foster in our family, but maybe another generation will pick up the name and use it again.

#52ancestors- In the Census

 I have come to my senses or rather census on who to write about this week. Her name is Maranda. Maranda is my mysterious ancestor. I know next to nothing about her. I wish that was not the case. 

Maranda married Miles Hodges. You can see the couple, twice on my tree. Two of their children Benjamin and Delilah are also also shown circled in red and if you follow to the left you will end at Earl Utter, he is my grandfather. You can see that Maranda and Miles are doubly important to my research.

I have not been able to find out a whole lot about Miles but Maranda is worse. I do not know when or where she was born, married or died. I don't have one single family clue, and do not no her last name. She was either born in New York or Vermont. I cannot make any connections through their children's first and middle names. I do not have any bible information and stories. As far as I can tell she is only listed 3 times in her whole life. The 1850, 1860 and 1870 census. So sad really. I thought because she is important to me, I would dedicate this week to her.

1830 Census  Butler, Wayne, New York. Miles (bottom line) is listed but only a tic mark for Maranda.

1850 Census Dallas, Clinton, Michigan. Maranda is listed as being born in New York here.

 1860 Census, Bloomer, Montcalm Michigan. She is listed as being born in Vermont on this census.

1870 Census Bloomer, Montcalm, Michigan. They list Vermont as birth place again.

I will keep working on her from time to time. Maybe someday i'll have a breakthrough.