Jake Fletcher's Genealogy Project

Original Baptismal Records of the Oliver Family

Jake Fletcher — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 18:49:30 +0000

Thanks to Professor Bryan Lamkin for conducting this research while he is on his tour of Europe. Now I would like to share these fascinating records with you.

These are the original baptismal records of my 3rd great-grandfather John Oliver, and his brother Denis James Oliver.

John Oliver, baptised April 2nd 1826, to Bartholomew Oliverand Catherine Mannion

Denis James Oliver, baptised July 25 1823 to Bartholomew Oliver and Catherine Mannion

Here’s a picture of where the Oliver’s approximately lived in Galway! Very cool stuff, would like to thank Bryan again for sharing this with me and letting me share it with all of you.

Diary of Katherine Connor

Jake Fletcher — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 04:48:56 +0000

I have been given permission to post this incredible piece of my family history and for that matter, a small slice of our nation’s history. My cousin scanned the entire diary of Katherine (Connor) Oliver, my 2nd great-grandmother, which she gave to her children in 1931. The diary is a biography and provides many anecdotes of her travels, Here it is for the world to see. Enjoy!

Diary of Katherine Connor

Finally connected back to Germany

Jake Fletcher — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 17:28:57 +0000

Got a great email the other day from a fleischhauer cousin in germany who found my blog and confirmed that the fleischhauer family was originally from Hanover, Germany! here is the website that he directed me that i think he created

http://www.fleischauer.homepage.t-online.de/index.htm

guess i will be using a lot of google translate

Research Brick Wall: 2nd Great-Grandmother Lizzie Williams

Jake Fletcher — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:56:02 +0000

My 2nd Great-Grandmother Lizzie Williams has been my biggest brick wall to date. I need to find her birth and death dates and identify her parents. I am posting this because I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions. So far I’ve struck out on everything. A lot of my research has come pretty easy up until this point.

According to the Fletcher Family Records, Elizabeth Maria Williams was born 12 Feb 1862 and died 27 Jan 1951 in Madera, California. There is no primary documentation of these dates[1]. I have her marriage record where Maria Elizabeth “Lizzie” Williams married Wallace E Freeman on 05 Feb 1890 in Spokane Falls, Spokane, Washington[2]. I searched the 1892 Lincoln County Census on the US GenWeb site for Lincoln County and found Wallace and Elizabeth Freeman. Elizabeth Freeman was 20 years old and born in Illinois[3]. This is the only documentation of them. I searched the transcriptions of the 1902 Lincoln County Census and found no record of them. In 1910, Wallace Freeman is found living in Lemoore, Kings County, California and is listed as divorced[4]. According to Family Lore, Lizzie ran off with a priest! I have not been able to find a record of Wallace and/or Lizzie in the 1900 US Federal Census. I searched the Lincoln County GenWeb Site Weddings of Lincoln County Pioneers and found no record of Maria Elizabeth Williams. I searched the California Death Index, 1940-1997 for a Maria Elizabeth who died 27 Jan 1951 in Madera, California. I found no record that matched the information I had. I searched the 1880 US Federal Census for Maria Elizabeth Williams born 1872 in Illinois and found a record of Elizabeth M Williams born 1872 in Illinois living in Bedford, Wayne County, Illinois[5]. Her father was named John N Williams and was born in Kentucky in 1838. In the Fletcher Family Records, I have a record of discharge for a John N Williams who served in the Kentucky Fifth Volunteers during the Civil War and was discharged 14Sept 1864. The record said he was 22 years old and born in Anderson County, Kentucky. This is a possible match, but more research needs to be done. The next step is to find the divorce record of Wallace Freeman and Maria Elizabeth Williams. I sent a query to the Lincoln County Washington Clerk since it is their last known residence.

Curiously enough, I have all of these photos of the Williams Family but I cannot identify them. Hopefully I can break through this wall.

[1] Margarette Elizabeth Freeman, Freeman Family Cards, Privately Held in the Fletcher Family Archives

[2] Marriage Certificate of Wallace E. Freeman and Marie Elizabeth Willaims, 5 February 1890, Spokane Falls, Spokane County, Washington, Copy in Possession of Author.

[3]1892 Lincoln County, Washington Census, database online, Lincoln County, Washington Gen Web.

[4] 1910 United States Federal Census, Lenmoore, Kings County, California, roll 79, Enumeration District 180, page 7A.

[5] 1880 US Federal Census, Bedford, Wayne County, Illinois, roll 257, ED 141, page 2.

Blog Published in TIARA Newsletter

Jake Fletcher — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 15:55:53 +0000

After a day of volunteer work down at the TIARA (The Irish Ancestral Research Association) in Newton, I received a copy of my newsletter, which had an excerpt of my blog in it. It was an article written on their Galway Networking Event and I submitted to them a blog post I did on the event.

To see the original post, click here .
To see the newsletter in which I was published, click here .

TIARA Website, click here .

Happy New Year Everyone

Land Records in Norwich, Vermont

Jake Fletcher — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:21:48 +0000

Last weekend, my dad and I drove up to Norwich, Vermont to look at some land records I had found in the index which i ordered from the Family History Library. It was a beautiful day and was a 2 hour drive up to the town hall in Norwich, VT. I already had the page numbers, so I just went into the vault to look at the land records. Overall, there were no major breakthroughs and everything in terms of land transactions back in that period were pretty standard. However, every record helps and it better shows the Freeman connection to the Waterman/Bartlett families that I am related to.

The first record I found was the one I was most excited about. It was a deed from Gershom Bartlett to Elisha Freeman. Gershom Bartlett is most likely Elisha’s father-in-law, but I need proof! The land transaction was made March 4 1776, a year after he married Lucy Bartlett. Elisha said he lived in Hanover, NH across the Connecticut River. It involved a parcel on the Northeast Corner in the Samuel Waterman estate, son of Daniel Waterman and town selectman. The Watermans settled in the Pompanoosuc District (infact there is Waterman cemetery up there which I need to check out next time!) The record does not mention Elisha being married to Lucy or her name at all.

Source: Norwich, Vermont Deeds, 1: 27.

Through all of these land records, I was able to track this parcel of land and how it was handled by Elisha. It was involved with a man named Abijah Wheeler. Here are citations for the land records:

Norwich, Vermont Deeds, 2:168.

Norwich, Vermont Deeds, 2: 203.

Norwich, Vermont Deeds 2:241.

These records were recorded with the latest date being 1803, so I can say with assurance that Elisha Freeman was alive up until this point.

I then looked at land record of Elisha’s son, David Freeman. I wanted to use land records to determine when he left Norwich for Westville, New York. The latest one was a deed from David Freeman to William Swett?, dated 18 Oct 1831. He was noted as living in Westville, so based on the records he moved between 1830 and 1831. He sold land also to Thomas Emerson in 1830. However, in that same year he was deeded land from Seth Hall and Israel Pierce. Why did he get all of this land before he left?

Source: Norwich, Vermont Deeds, 7:168.

David Freeman had many land records with his name. I will need to do more analyzing to pick up more clues, perhaps a trip to the NEHGS would help.

For fun, here are some pictures of my trip up to Norwich and Hanover, including Dartmouth College. My ancestors gave land to this school, scholarship maybe?

An Old Inn in Norwich

Me hard at work in Norwich Town Clerk office.

Pictures of the Quad on Dartmouth College.

A Day at Kings Point

Jake Fletcher — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 04:04:32 +0000

For my dad’s birthday we drove down to the Merchant Marine Academy on Kings Point in Long Island. We went to the Merchant Marine Museum. Lots of interesting history and ship models. We had lunch at the Seafarer’s Restaurant and then went to the Library to try and find any information on my grandfather Robert Fletcher. He graduated from Kings Point in 1943 and went into Naval Service soon after.We found out that the academy was not active until 1944, so my grandfather was actually trained at sea.

The archivist only had Kings point yearbooks back until 1944, so no luck there. We found more information on the ships he served on, the USS Ajax (AR-6) and USS Delta (AR-9).

The Ajax was in the pacific campaingn, repairing ships through the Hollandia strikes and for the Marianas Campaign. Late in August of 1944, a huge case of dystentery broke out and the ship was quarantined for some time. After that, the ship continued her work at Ulithi in support of operations in Phillipines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.

USS Ajax (AR-6)

The Delta, a leading ship amongst it’s class, was involved with repairing ships at Oran, Algeria, Bizerte, Tunisia, and in Italy, to send crafts back home. My grandfather was a Lieutenant on these ships.

USS Delta (AR-9) courtesy of navsource.org

We went searching for a couple houses as well

196-14-112th Ave, St. Albans, Queens this is the house my grandfather lived in as a kid. There are letters my grandfather sent back to this home as a kid, very treasured aritifact.

89-36 187th Place, Queens. House that my 2nd great-grandfather lived in. Looks like it may have been rebuilt or repainted.

A great day overall. I plan on researching the ship logs of these ships to find any mention of my grandfather, a record of his service would be of great importance to me. Hope you enjoy the pics!

College Credit for my Blog

Jake Fletcher — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:03:03 +0000

I would just like to mention that my blog and all my genealogical research has paid off as college credit. I’m using it as Life Experience Credit at Fitchburg State College. As proof of my credit, i actually published my blog using blog2print.com, it came out really nice and is a nice product!

i would like to thank everyone for all the support and encouragement

Galway Networking Event

Jake Fletcher — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:55:50 +0000

Today I drove down to the TIARA (The Irish Ancestral Research Association Office) in Newton, MA to participate in a networking for those researching in Galway County, Ireland. I was most concerned with researching the Oliver Family of Galway City. The purpose of the networking was so people could get a chance to exchange resources and perhaps find some info for other people

I did not make any major breakthroughs today, but I found lots of good information. Due to the poor record keeping of Irish Catholics, many genealogists spend a lot of time research the surname in a particular area to get information and thats the strategy i started to pursue today. Caryln Cox, who hosted this event, already found stuff for me before the meeting. She bought the Griffith’s valuations maps from 1855 the Claddagh Village in Galway where she found some Olivers.

I noticed that n0.91 is not an actual house, but a huge plot of land. Perhaps he was involved in some sort of tenant on a farm, I will have to find out more about this.

I transcribed the griffith’s valuations for these Olivers:

No. 60 Patrick Oliver, Immediate Lessor: Henry Gratton, House, 10 shillings

n0. 91, Patrick Oliver, Lessor: Henry Gratton, House, 15 shillings

No. 112 John Oliver, Henry Gratton, House, 15 shillings

No. 196, Francis Oliver, Lord Dunsandle, House, 12 shillings

Source: James R . Reilly, Griffith’s Valuations of Ireland, County Galway, Rahoon Parish, (Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co. 2000).

Next we spent some time talking about our research goals and then looked for other sources that Carlyn brought, the one that garnered the most interest were the Galway Roots publications. I found no article on the Olivers, which was unfortunate because an article would have been a goldmine.

I spent some time looking at other books that were provided, the TIARA has a nice little collection of books. In the book Vanishing Galway I found a map of the Claddagh village in Galway before it was demolished in 1930 with the surnames of each house owner, Oliver appears a number of times mostly and pretty close to each other.

Source: Peadar O’Dowd, Vanishing Galway, (Galway: Peadar O’Dowd and RTC Galway, 1987).

I searched in other books, particularly Families of County Galway Ireland , which mentions only one Oliver, Dudley Oliver, who was mentioned as being found in the parish of Addergoole, Union of Tuam, in the Valuation of Tenements in the 19th century.

I also searched for Mannin/Mannion as a Catherine Mannin/Mannion married my 4th great-grandfather, Bartholomew Oliver. They had a lot more information on this surname.On the HyMany familes, the earliest mention of the family is in 1135 at the battle of Mongarch. The O’Mannin family lived in the Sodhan, a large territory in the Tiaquin Barony and were also noted living in Menlaugh-Mannin, near Castle Blakeney at Menlough, in the parish of Killascobe. The family lost all its property in the English Civil War. Mannin/Mannion is a very common name in County Galway. On google books, I found a book on landed gentry of Ireland, and found the Oliver Family of Drogheda.

John Oliver of Drogheda, gent. had

2. Christopher of Droghead, who d. in 1686. He m. Mary, dau. of William Prise of Drogheda, gent. and had:

3. Anna Oliver, b. in 1686

Source: John O’ Hunt, The Irish and Anglo-Irish Gentry: When Cromwell came to Ireland or A Supplement of Irish Pedigrees, vol. 1, (Bowie: Heritage Books, 2001).

Source: Micheal C. O’Loughlin, Families of County Galway Ireland, (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation, 1998).

I told Carlyn about Capt. Bartholomew Oliver and the St. John Crash off of Cohasset Bay in Cape Cod. She directed me to two TIARA Articles on the Crash. One of them mentions that Captain Oliver, who was never mentioned by first name in records (mostly true) may be of Lettermullen, which I learned was a small island off the coast of Connemarra, County Galway. I also found me another little tidbit, in the book Mayors of Galway City, 1485-2001, mayor Fintin Coogan was welcomed to the city Menlo Park, California after which my ancestor Denis J. Oliver named from Menlo, Ireland.

Source: Daniel Wadsworth, “A Shipwreck On Our Shores,” TIARA Newsletter Vol. 8 No. 3 (Summer 1991).

William Henry, Role of Honour: The Mayors of Galway City, 1485-2001, (Galway: Galway City Council, 2002), 137.

Connecting With Swedish Cousins

Jake Fletcher — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:02:08 +0000

After the lectures I attended, I went home to check out some of the resources I learned about, one of them being the DIS Society website. The DIS society contains user-submitted family trees, and I begin searching for individuals in my tree, I searched for my great-grand uncle Axel Leonard Isaksson and got a result from the family tree of Ann Wieck. I sent her a query and she responded that she was only related to him by her cousin’s marriage. I searched more individuals though, and found my 2nd great-grandfather, Johan August Petterson, was in her tree too and that she is related to me by blood, Johan is her 2nd cousin 3 times removed. She’s related to most of the people of Goteryd, Hamneda, and Pjetteryd, where my Swedish ancestors are from. We exchanged family tree info and she has my ancestors back to Jon Jonsson of Goteryd from the 17th century, with documented research. This has proven to be an exciting connection.