Morris Miners

Although married to Ellis Greenhalgh (Greenalch) by the time she immigrated, my 3x great-grandmother, Esther, was the first of our Morris line to come to the US.  Esther was born in 1828 in Burtonhead, Cheshire, England.  She and her family were in the US by the 1870 census and she was in Cameron County, PA, widowed and remarried by the 1880 census.  I haven’t been able to confirm the immigration date or port of entry, but family stories suggest it was in the mid-1860s.  Her brother, John, also immigrated to the US and lived in Cameron County by 1880 and had moved to a nearby county by the 1900 census.

I have little else to go on except that her parents were Welsh and that after her marriage, the family moved to Germany for a time, looking for work.  Her son, John, was known as “Dutch” because he was born, around 1860, in Germany, or rather Prussia as recorded in the 1861 English census.  However, by the time he was in the US, he reported his birthplace as England.  Looking at the 1861 census, because it records birthplace, it seems the family must have moved frequently, probably looking for work, because the children were all born in different locations.  They were miners, so that skill must have transferred easily within Great Britain, over to Germany, and finally, to the Pennsylvania mining areas. 

I’ll continue to look for material that will help me build a more complete story of Esther’s life in the US, but, really, the next big step will be trying to locate records in England and Wales.  I’m holding off on that for a bit.  I’ve got way too much in the US to work on right now.

Mystery Monday--96, 97, 100, 107, or 114 years old, but who’s counting?

I don’t normally spend much time off my direct line research, but it’s sometimes useful when you encounter dead ends.  I’ve been struggling with some of the details of the Morris line, and there was a sibling who might lead me to some clues. 

My grandmother’s notes indicated her great-uncle, John Morris, was born in 1848, supposedly in Wales, and died at age 103 in 1941 in Clearfield, PA.  Okay, so math wasn’t her thing.  It still let me know he was pretty old when he died.  I found four US census records (1880, 1900, 1910 & 1930) for John, putting his birth year at 1833, 1844, 1843 and 1840, respectively.  The earliest I'm still looking for is 1870 (supposedly he emigrated in 1865) and the latest is 1920.  At Find-A-Grave, the photo of his headstone had 1839-1940. Currently, I'm also on the hunt for his naturalization record.

I thought his age might generate enough interest for newspaper coverage.  Using Genealogy Bank, I found three AP articles (from Seattle, Omaha, Springfield, MA). 

From the Seattle Daily Times, April 27, 1940: 

Death Takes Man, 114

 Clearfield, Pa.,  Saturday, July 27   (AP)

John Morris, whose relatives said he was born 114 years ago during the administration of John Quincy Adams, sixth president, died yesterday.  A former Pennsylvania mine inspector, he was known as “First Aid” Morris because of his interest in first aid work.

I suppose it’s possible John was born in 1826.  After all, his sister, my 3x great-grandmother, was born in 1828.  It just doesn’t seem likely to me.  And I was hoping for more clues.  Unfortunately, the local or regional newspapers that are likely to carry more details don’t seem to have been digitized, but I'm still looking.   (As an aside, I find I am disappointed with Genealogy Bank.  I think it’s good for some researchers, but it just hasn’t been a very cost-effective resource for me.)

But who’s counting?  Well, I am.  I always liked math.