Clues, Wherever They May Go, I Will Follow

As I mentioned in Monday’s post, I found clues hiding in Everett Gaskill’s Civil War pension file.  I love clues.

From that file I learned that Everett had moved from New York to Pennsylvania in 1868 and that he had gotten married in New York.  That seems like such a small bit of information, doesn’t it?

It’s when it was added to the mix of what I already knew that things started percolating.  From other search results, I knew that in 1870, his future wife was living with her parents in New York and I knew they had married in 1871.  But, I hadn’t found Everett in the 1870 census.  Now, with the new information, I figured he was most likely in Emporium, PA in 1870, so I made another stab at a census search.  I found a John Gashill, right age of 25 and right birthplace of New York, living with a Norman Whitmore at the home of Chester Eldred, both of these men also from New York.

That Whitmore name surely was connected to a family history book I had and to a previous bit of census information.  Included in some of my mom’s family records I acquired was the Genealogy of the Whittemore Family and had come across the name Whittemore in the 1860 census when Everett was recorded at a neighbor's home--Whittemore.  I asked my mom about the Whittemores last year when I first looked at the book.  I didn't see any immediate family connection,  She only knew that the families were close and didn’t know of a specific connection.  At one point I thought about putting the book on ebay for some Whittemore researcher to find, but I decided to wait, just in case I found the connection.

After the name popped up in this 1870 connection with a possible Gaskill, I decided to pull out the book to see if I could find Norman and to see where that might lead me.  As I scanned the book, before discovering any Norman, another name under the heading of ISAAC WHITTEMORE BRANCH jumped out at me—Isaac’s wife, Jane Ditmars.  I had a great-great-grandmother by the name of Ellen Ditmars (Everett’s mother-in-law), so I slowed down to read that section.  

It listed Jane and followed with the names of their children.  In the very first of line of the text, it said her mother and father were George and Charity Ditmars.  They were my 3x great-grandparents! Jane was Ellen’s sister.  There followed a brief explanation of George and Charity as aging parents moving to be with one of their children in Michigan.  I had wondered about that during my Ditmars research.


Then came the text of an 1851 letter from George and Charity to Jane.  There was nothing surprising in the letter; just a newsy, family update.  It was just great to rediscover it and recognize it for what it was, happening so soon after my Ditmars exploration.  I’m sure I saw it when I began family research last year.  I just didn’t know who they were at the time.  This book is definitely NOT going to ebay.

After all that excitement, I went back to finding Norman in the book.  And I did.  He was the above-mentioned Isaac Whittemore’s nephew, just a few years older than Everett.  There was even a note mentioning that Norman had moved to Emporium, PA.  Interestingly, Norman had a half-sister and also a wife by the name of Perna, and much later, Everett named a daughter Perna—my grandmother.  In reviewing the 1860 census again, I noted Norman Whitmore lived six houses from where Everett Gaskill’s family lived.  And on that the day of the census I finally realized Everett was actually at Norman’s brother’s house, halfway between Everett's home and Norman's.

I’m not sure I’ll ever have proof that the John Gashill in the 1870 census was actually Everett Gaskill.  But I am comfortable agreeing with my mom that the families were “close”, even though Norman and Everett had no blood relationship.  The connection was that they were both nephews of Jane Ditmars Whittemore--Everett was the son of her sister and Norman was the son of her brother-in-law.  I don’t know where that falls on a relationship chart and, in the end, I’m not sure it matters.


I do find myself wondering if Norman might have sent this postcard to Everett.

Military Monday-Gaskill Civil War Files

After a few speed bumps, and following some advice from Heather Rojo, I  received Everett Gaskill’s Compiled Military Service Record and his pension file from NARA.

The CMSR confirmed the basics of what I found online, but it did have more detail.  He received a bounty payment of $100 for a one-year enlistment.  He only served about 6 months because the War ended.  He mustered out at Fort Berry, VA, not even six miles from where I currently live.

His pension file had much more information.  Now I know why everyone gets so excited when they get these records. 

The first thing I noticed is that he had some difficulty getting his pension approved, but maybe every applicant had to go through the same thing.  He was rejected once after an application in August 1912, but then in January 1913, notarized paperwork was submitted and a tracing of his signature was furnished by the War Department.  He was approved for a pension of $15 per month.  Then again in July 1915, he resubmitted paperwork, perhaps to get an increase, because there followed an approval for an increase to $18 per month, effective July 1915. 

I’m sure it’s the applications that get everyone so excited.    It confirms his birth and marriage places and dates, the name of his wife, Mary E. Hinds, and indicated she died in 1897. It also had the names and birth dates of his children.  Additionally, it indicated there was no official or church record of his marriage--the certificate was lost in a fire.  No point in searching for that!  It confirmed Mary Etta had not been previously married.  It also gave the specific date, March 12, 1868, he moved from Owego, NY to Emporium, PA, meaning he was in Emporium for three years before his marriage back in New York.  I originally thought Everett followed the Hinds family to Emporium, but it seems to be the reverse—his in-laws followed them to Emporium. 

The final piece of information confirmed by the file was his death date of December 16, 1916.  He must have been paid quarterly as there was a notice of a returned check for $54 dated March 4, 1917.  The check was returned by the Postmaster with the information that he had died.

One thing I wasn’t able to confirm was whether or not he was a drummer boy.  The age of 19 seems old for that role, so I was hoping for a clue.  One clue that did come out of this led me to a peripheral story I’ll post on Thursday.

Seeing all this genealogical information made me sad that my great-great grandfather, Erastus Murray, was rejected after enlistment and never served in the Civil War.  When I think what I would have learned from pension papers to enable me to get past that brick wall in my research, well….

Treasure Chest Thursday: I say-Come in out of the rain.

I found this treasure while finishing up the last sorting of my mom's photo albums and scrapbooks.  It's a postcard sent Sept. 4, 1905 to my great-grandfather, Everett Gaskill with his photo as the image.  I wish I knew who sent it.  They both must have had a good sense of humor.

Civil War Ancestors-One Young, One Old(ish)

Because April 12 is the the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War at Ft. Sumter, I'm sure the media this week will be covering the topic. To mark the occasion in my own manner, I decided to take a look at ancestry.com to see if there was anything new.  Neither a paternal great-great-grandfather, Erastus Murray, and a maternal great-grandfather, Everett Gaskill, both of whom were Union soldiers during the Civil War, show up in the online Compiled Service Records.  I'm crossing my fingers that the records I'd already requested from NARA will bear fruit. 


But I was excited that I found some new information on Erastus and Everett. In this new information, it was physical descriptions that caught my attention: 


Erastus had brown eyes, grey hair, was dark complected and was 5' 9-1/2" tall.  It also said he was 45, so he probably lied to join.  Census records over the years show he was born around 1811-1812, making him 52 or 53. And I was excited to see another source stating his place of birth as Cayuga County, but I'm still not convinced that's where he was born. 


Everett had blue eyes, light hair, had a fair complexion, and was 5' 5-1/2" tall. He was 19.

Original data: Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts of New York State Volunteers, United States Sharpshooters, and United States Colored Troops [ca. 1861-1900]. (microfilm, 1185 rolls).Albany, New York: New York State Archives.

This collection contains abstracts compiled from original muster rolls for New York State infantry units involved in the Civil War. The records have personal enlistment information and military service, as well as regiment engagements.  A New York state law passed in 1863 required a record be made and preserved with pertinent information of every New Yorker who had volunteered for service. In 1876, New York authorized funds to copy the muster-out rolls, which is where this collection came from.