Doll Family Follow-up

I’ve already done one post about the Doll family, but I hadn’t yet received research results from the historical societies for the historical societies for Monroe and Northampton Counties in Pennsylvania. (Click on the Historical Societies tab at the top of the page for links.) 

I’ve received both packages and here’s what I got from Monroe Couty:

• A copy of a typed family tree, compiled in 1976, with my great-great grandfather, Samuel Doll, his wife Sophia Boyer, his parents, Jacob Doll and Catharine Rustine and some relevant dates for each.  Interestingly, it states Jacob was born in Montgomery County.  I’d seen both Monroe and Montgomery Counties as possible birthplaces, so this might have been one of the sources for that.

• A copy of a typed listing of marriages from the Monroe Democrat that included one of Samuel’s brothers, Charles.

• A copy of a typed transcription of the 1850 census with Jacob and his family (I already had the information from a digital image from ancestry.com.)

• A copy of typed “Doll Family Notes”, compiled in 1983, with various pieces of information from books, church records and court records.  The interesting bits I hadn’t picked up elsewhere were an indication that Jacob might have been a guardian for a relative from Ruchstein side, George Ruhstein, and notes pertaining to Catharine’s father, Friederich.  It is birth and baptism dates from the records of the Moravian Congregation at Schoeneck, PA for a son, Friederich, that indicate the Ruchsteins were living there by 1785.

• A copy of a portion of a guide to burial grounds in Monroe County that referenced a graveyard on Jacob Doll’s property, but the location has never been found, but is likely in or near Jackson Township.

And from Northampton County:

• Copies of typed transcriptions of various church records birth and/or baptism dates for Catharine and several siblings.  The new information here was her mother’s name, Maria Magdalene.

• A copy of a compilation of birth and death records with information on some of Jacob’s children and grandchildren.

• A copy of a typed transcription of records from the Hamilton Township Union Church with baptismal dates for many of Jacob’s children, but unfortunately, not my great-great-grandfather, Samuel.

• A copy of a handwritten family tree with Jacob’s birthplace shown as Montgomery County with “Monroe?” written next to it. 

• A copy of the same burial ground information that I received from Monroe.  (Monroe County was created from part of Northampton in 1836.)

• And, finally, a suggestion that I contact the Montgomery County Historical Society because they felt Jacob might have been born there.

So, I really didn’t learn much new, and the sources were pretty far from the originals, but at least they were consistent with the other sources I’d found.  And I haven’t decided when I’ll contact the Montgomery Historical Society because I’m currently researching another line that appears to have links to Montgomery County.  I might as well send it all in at once.

Oh, Boyer

One of my great-great-grandmothers was Sophia (Sophie) Boyer, born in 1826, perhaps in Monroe/Northampton County, and died in 1895 in Cameron County, PA.  I haven’t been able to build the story of her life, except that, like her daughter Catherine after her, she had over a dozen children. And I really liked her taste in girls’ names—Savanna, Emma, Angeline, and Carolina among them.

I knew nothing of her parents, but the hint of a spelling difference in the last name—Boier.  As I started my search, I pinballed around the internet with no focus for a few hours with a noticeable lack of results.  Since that wasn’t much fun, I paused to come up with a plan.  First, I continue broad searching, but using Mocavo instead of Google, where I was getting either too may or too few results.  I hadn’t had much success with Mocavo in the past, but I knew they were continuing to make enhancements, so I went there first and then planned to move to more specialized searches.

Fortunately, among the eight results from Mocavo was a book on archive.org called American Boyers, by Charles Boyer.  I found Sophia Doll as the daughter of Valentine Beyer and Barbara Mengel.  I knew this was my Sophia because the author indicated she married Samuel Doll. 

According to the author, Valentine was born about 1757 and had emigrated from Germany in 1772.  The author’s source for this information was David Singer, grandson of Valentine.  Singer reported that Valentine lived in Northampton County (part of which later became Monroe County, was a forge man, and died in Philadelphia.  Singer very likely knew his aunt, Sophie Boyer, but she had moved several counties away and had been dead 20 years by the time the book was published.

I found a Valentine Boyer in the 1820 and 1830 censuses in Northampton County and this is likely my 3x-great grandfather, but in 1830, he is listed in the range “Of 60 and under 70”.  If the 1757 birth is accurate, the census is wrong—or vice versa.  However, I’m not overly concerned about that because the location is consistent with other information.  I found three Valentine Boyers to consider, but only one had a location that made sense.  Unfortunately, as soon as I drop back to 1810, the distinction is more difficult, so I haven’t confirmed Valentine in earlier censuses.

I also looked for immigration records to try to verify the year Valentine arrived.  On ancestry.com, I found two Valentine Beyers, one arriving in 1774 and one in 1792.  I also found a reference to a Valentine Bayer Oath of Allegiance in 1777.  It’s possible that that all of these could be my Valentine Beyer, but there are lots of pieces missing in this puzzle.  And I’m a little skeptical of the 1757 birth year.  Not that it can’t happen, but Valentine would have been 69 when Sophie was born.  If he was, his wife Barbara, must have been much younger than him.  I hope I’ll be able to track down some more compelling evidence in the coming weeks.

All DOLL-ed up

It isn’t just that the surname Doll happens to be a very common noun, or that it's an abbreviation for US currency, that make internet searches daunting.  It’s also that there is a tremendous amount of information online about two specific Doll generations of interest to me; useful, but with one problem—source citation.  There’s a person who has posted volumes of records in Doll genealogy message boards and mail lists over the last decade, but it’s frustrating because the items are in many, many threads in a random, almost stream-of-consciousness, style, with sources implied rather than cited.  I sense there was legitimate research, but it was presented without clear citations and without logical organization, so I don’t know that there was.  It’s been hard for me--someone who is primarily an armchair genealogist—to think the information might be valid, but not usable for anything other than clues.  It stopped me in my tracks for awhile.

Our family lore has it that the Doll family came from Holland or Denmark and that they came to Stroudsburg, PA in Sullivan County and then went to Salt Run, Cameron County.  Well, oops, first problem--Stroudsburg is in Monroe County.  But, regardless, all is yet to be proven.  I’ve got a lot of work cut out for me.  But I know enough to get started.

One of my paternal great-grandmothers was Catharine Doll.  Or Katharine.  Or Katherine.  Sigh.  In 1882, her marriage certificate has Katharine, but it also misspelled my grandfather’s last name.  I looked at census records to see if there was a consistent spelling.   It looked like Catharine was the most common, so, for now, that’s what I’m using for my records.  That difficulty is just the tip of the iceberg for the Doll line.

Catharine died in 1928 and is buried in Newton Cemetery in Emporium, PA.  She shares a headstone with her husband, Albert Murray, who died in 1909.  I went to the 1920 census, but couldn’t find her.  I finally searched for all Murrays in Emporium, PA.  Still no luck, but I spotted several of her younger children so I went to the original image.  And there was Catharine with a second husband, Albert Neil, along with the Murray children listed as Albert’s step-children.  Huh?   I’ve never heard a word ever about a second marriage.  They always referred to her as Mother Murray.  I even asked my mom and she was as surprised as me--my dad never mentioned it.  And I couldn’t find a definitive census record for Albert Neil in 1910 or 1930, so I’ll just have to let that part of the story go…for now. 

Catharine was born in 1868 in Cameron County.  Wait a minute…let me pull out that marriage certificate again.  Married in 1882?  Phew, 14 years old when she married Albert Murray.  They had 13 children (plus a miscarriage of twins).  Catharine was almost 16 when her first child was born, 37 when her last was born, and 39 when her husband died. Yikes, what a life. I have a photo of her that appears to be from the 1920s.  That would mean she was in her fifties.  She looks like she’s about 80.  Now I know why.

For a wedding gift, Catharine's father, Samuel, gave his daughter a solid wooden rolling pin carved from a tree in their backyard in Cameron County.  (I inherited it and last year I gave it to a niece.)  The census reveals that the Dolls moved to Cameron County from Monroe County sometime between 1870 and 1880 (maybe with a stop in Sullivan County along the way??).  Samuel Doll was born in 1821 in Monroe County, PA.  He and his wife Sophie Boyer, married in Monroe County, and had a large family.  Catharine had at least 12 siblings, maybe as many as 13.

In 1840, Samuel was living with his father Jacob Doll, who was born in 1781.  A brief biographical sketch of Jacob can be found in the Commemorative Biographical Record of Northeastern Pennsylvania, published by J.H. Beers & Co., but I sure would like to uncover some church records, wills or something to provide confirmation.  At any rate, the information states that Jacob was born in Monroe County, formerly part of Northampton County, grew up there, and became a shoemaker.  He married Catherine  Ruthstine of Monroe and daughter of Frederick Ruthstine (Ruchstein).

There are many family researchers out there working on the puzzle of Jacob’s parents, but nothing has been found.  There were many older Dolls in the area, but none have known links to Jacob.  I believe I’ve tracked him in the census back to 1810.  Over the years he lived in Jackson Township, and Chestnuthill, both in Monroe County and Pocono and Hamilton in Northampton County.  I’ve just sent research request letters to the county historical organizations to see if I can get any of the documents I would so like to see.  Meanwhile, I’ll pause to take a breather on the Dolls.  For me, it seems to help to take breaks and come back with fresh eyes.