Tuesday, May 31, 2011

In Search of the Right Hall

At the 2x great level, more maternal lines are added in and there is less information and more dead ends.  At the 1x great level I could still follow the additional maternal lines back into the mid-1700s---and some even further, but now when they split for paternal/maternal lines, I’m finding it to be much more difficult to be an armchair genealogist.

Today I’m writing about the Hall family.  Margaret Hall, my great-great-grandmother, was born in 1813 in Lycoming County.  She married a fellow Lycoming Countian, Jacob Klees.  Lycoming County is filled with ancestors from my mom’s side of the family.  Many Halls appear on the 1873 map I wrote about last month, near various members of the Gortner and Klees families.

The Halls were relatively easy to find in the censuses throughout 1800s.  Margaret’s parents, were Jonathan Hall and Mary Marsh.  In addition to finding them in the census, I found them in the Family Data Collection on ancestry.com.  I wasn’t familiar with this collection and researched it a bit only to discover some controversy with it.  Still, I may have picked up some potentially useful information, including Jonathan’s birth date in 1788 and marriage year of 1812, along with his parent’s names.  I also found a transcription of an 1812 marriage announcement for Jonathan and Polly Marsh.  That was when I found out Polly is a nickname for Mary.  Funny, I never knew that before.

According to the Family Data Collection, Jonathan’s father was Richard Hall and his mother’s name was Mary.  But, I received information from the Lycoming County Historical Society that indicates his mother was Sarah Burrows. But, information from two books on archive.org, indicate Jonathan was the son of Richard Hall and Margaret Rogers.  Well, I think I have to go with the Historical Society because they have Richard Hall’s will from 1849. It lists his wife Sarah (Burroughs), his sons, Jonathan, James and Joseph, and his daughters, Elizabeth, w/o Samuel Hall and Susannah w/o William Ramsey.  I’m guessing there are several Richard Halls I should sort out.

Wish me luck.

3 comments:

  1. Hi!

    I may be able to help you! You're talking about two Jonathan's -- one, whose parents were Richard and Peggy (Rogers), and who married Polly Marsh in 1812, and one, the first one's uncle, who was the son of Richard and Sally (Burrows), who married Rachel Austin around 1780.

    Here's the line for each --

    Richard and Sarah Ann "Sally" (Burrows) Hall had at least 8 children, the youngest son being called Jonathan, born about 1764. One of Jonathan's older brothers was Richard, born in 1766 and named for his father. This Richard married Peggy Rogers in 1777 and had at least 14 children, one of whom was named Jonathan after Richard's brother. This child was born on 11 Oct 1788 in what was then Northumberland County. Jonathan married Polly Marsh in 1812 and had 14 children of his own, including Peggy, your great-grandmother, who was born on 13 Mar 1813 in Muncy Creek Township.

    Does that clear it up?

    By the way, we are cousins through our common ancestors Richard and Sarah (Burrows) Hall. I am actually descendent through their son Jonathan.

    Feel free to contact me at seh0872@gmail.com

    Kind regards,
    Scott

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    Replies
    1. There is a lot of confusion around Richard Hall who married Sara Ann Burrows. There is a great deal of on line information this Richard married Mary Mary and a Miss Compton as well. If I ever get that mystery figured out may be able to break through my brick wall. If you know anything about these multiple marriages would be greatful to know it.

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  2. I think something's wrong with the dates you've included here. Jonathan couldn't be both the youngest son born in 1764 and have an OLDER brother born in 1766. Also, according to what you've written, that brother Richard would have married Peggy when he was 11 years old. And then there's the 1849 will the Lycoming County Historical Society has which would have made the father Richard quite old if he had a son as early as 1764 (putting his birth probably no later than 1746.)

    ReplyDelete