Thursday, November 13, 2014

George Taylor - Signer of DoI

As usual, geography is important in these discussions. I was reminded by my smart cousin J. about a reference on ancestry called A Frontier Village, Pre-Revolutionary Easton. This source has many references to George Taylor (1716-1781) who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence! Apparently, if all the various references are talking about the same person, George Taylor resided in both Easton (Northampton county, PA) and Bucks County, PA, as well as Greenwich township in New Jersey. The date associated with the New Jersey location is 1779.

Who was George Taylor? This source says he was born in Northern Ireland. He apparently only had one child who survived, James Taylor, and through James, five grandchildren: George, Thomas, James, Ann, and Mary. He also had 6 children with his housekeeper, all with the surname Smith: Naomi, Sarah, Rebecca, Naomi, Elizabeth, and Edward. Finally, when George Taylor died in 1781, he was buried in the Lutheran burial ground in Easton.

So does this George Taylor have any connection to our Taylor family? Probably not, mostly because his residence in our area of New Jersey did not happen until the end of his life. His son, James Taylor, died in 1775, and it might be worth knowing what became of George's grandson named George since we know there was somebody of the name George Taylor in Sussex County in the 1790s. Even so, I don't rank this candidate high on our list of possibilities.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Loder Connections

Here's another family who I think had connections to our TAYLOR family:  LODER. The possible clues include:
  • A witness to the 1792 will of George Taylor, probably a son of Jerononemus Taylor, was James Loder, who also did the inventory. I think there were two James Loder's around this time:
    • son of John Loder; this James Loder died around Oct 1792. 
    • son of William Loder who married Sarah Rae. The RAE name is curious because there was a Hunterdon County deed in 1815 from Alexander Rea, Richard Hixson, and William Taylor Jr, executors of George Rea, decd, to Daniel Potts, all of Kingwood, Hunterdeon, NJ. 
  • It should  be noted that Samuel Loder, among others, brought a court case against all the Summers which involved alot of money and which the Summers lost.  It should also be noted that Samuel Loder's wife Rachel Gardner was the sister of the wife of John Summers Jr, Jane Gardner.
  • 1822 deed, Hiles & Hixson to William Taylor, husband of Hannah Loder, daughter of James Loder (the one who died in 1792), formerly of Sussex, now of Amwell, Hunterdon, NJ
  • According to History of Sussex and Warren Counties, New Jersey: with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers by James P. Snell, published 1881, page 535, Samuel Loder was a tailor by trade - this would have been around 1833 in Belvidere. I bring this up because it's the first place I've seen the tailor profession even mentioned, especially for a family that might have associations with our TAYLORs.
So does anybody know of any other possible Taylor-Loder connections?

Friday, November 7, 2014

Different Taylor Families?

OK - it's time to take a breather!

Something about this Taylor research is reminding me of the long, painful process in my Sommer research of finally realizing there were two separate Sommer families who had significant connections to my Mann family, and even now, there isn't any evidence that those two Sommer families were in any way related. They were simply different families who happened to have the same surname. Now I'm starting to wonder if the same is not true with this Taylor research.

What do we have? Well, much of what I am postulating is based on my theory that Henry Taylor who ended up in Brookfield, Ohio with several other people who are related to my Struble-Taylor family, and who recorded a deposition that he in fact moved to Newton, Sussex, NJ with his father when he was a boy and served with Capt. George Ribble with the NJ Militia during the Revolution, that Henry Taylor might in fact have NO relation to my Barbara Taylor whatsoever. So let's just say that up front. It could be an additional utter coincidence that the land owned by Jacob Peter Struble, husband of Barbara Taylor, was located in Newton.

But still, Henry Taylor is more of a lead than we have for Barbara herself, so maybe it's still worth trying to understand who Henry Taylor was. The possibilities seem to be either:
  • Henry was the son of Jerononemus Taylor who, seemingly, moved from Bucks County, PA to Sussex County, NJ in the 1760s. Jerononemus died in Sussex county in 1792 and left the mill in Mansfield, Sussex, NJ to his son Henry. In 1804, there was a Sussex deed that involved Henry Taylor of Mansfield and Jane his wife. There have so far been no other records of a Henry Taylor found in Sussex County. He did show up in the 1820, 1830, 1840, and 1850 census' of Brookfield, Trumbull, Ohio. It should be noted that Brookfield-Henry also had a son named Henry, supposedly born in 1804 in New Jersey.
  • Henry Taylor was related to Joseph Taylor found in Newton, Sussex, NJ in the 1793 tax lists, remembering that Newton was the specific place mentioned in the deposition that Henry gave regarding his life in Sussex County. In addition, there was also a Hunterdon deed that not only described Joseph Taylor and Martha his wife as being of Bucks County, PA but which also placed Joseph in Sussex County in 1804. This Joseph Taylor was apparently born around 1760, while Henry was born about 1757 - thus my conjecture that they might have been brothers, although their father, whoever the man who relocated to Sussex from Bucks, is still unknown. However, we do know with some certainty that this Joseph Taylor was a Quaker, and by virtue of the Hunterdon deed, he along with other Taylor names of interest seem to have ties to Hunterdon County, NJ.
Here you can see why I start to speculate that perhaps there were two different Taylor families in Sussex County in 1800? Everything I read so far about Jerononemus and his wife is that they were of German ancestry, while it appears that the ancestry of Joseph Taylor might have come by way of Virginia and been English. We can associate Joseph Taylor with Bucks County, but what about Jerononemus? Truthfully, Jerononemus could have come from anywhere. Maybe the next step is to see if there is any documentation that ties Jerononemus Taylor and his wife to any other place.

So let me finish by saying that the whole Henry Taylor association I have made could still be wrong. WrongWrongWrong. The circumstantial evidence of his ties to Brookfield, Ohio and Sussex, New Jersey is strong, but not conclusive. We are back to what we know about Barbara Taylor - that she was married to Jacob Peter Struble and they lived in Newton, NJ, and that at least two of their children as well as other Struble relations relocated to Brookfield, Trumbull, Ohio.

And this might be as good a time as any to remind myself that all brick walls will some day fall....

Jerononemus!

Don't ask me why it has taken me so long to see the most obvious evidence. Here is a will abstract that clearly pertains to our research question:

1791, Aug. 25. Taylor, Jerononemus, of Sussex Co.; will of. Wife, Else Catharina, to remain in house and be maintained by son, Henry. Oldest son, Jacob, £225, to be paid by son, Henry. Son, George, place in Mansfield-Woodhouse, Sussex Co., where he now lives. Son, Henry, plantation whereon I now live. Son, William, the mill, in Mansfield-Woodhouse, now in his possession. Grandchild, Catharina Rush, £10. Wife, 2 cows and choice of movables; remainder to be sold and divided among children. Executors — son Jacob, and friend, Jacob Nendling. Witnesses — Samuel Coleman, William Cole, Nicholas Labrourgh. Proved Feb. 25, 1792. Lib. 34, p. 158. 1791, Sept. 27. Inventory, £98.14.3, made by Nicholas Labrourgh and William Cole. File 541S.

So this is rather amazing! This abstract helps us to account for several names in the 1793 tax list of Mansfield twp: Henry, Jacob, and William. And who was the grandchild, Catherine Rush? So many good questions!
  • First, there's the name Jerononemus. I'm inclined to think the name spelling was more like Jeronemus, which seems to have Dutch origins.
  • Next, there's the son named Henry. Given the group of names in Mansfield in the 1793 tax list, it's reasonable to think that the Henry in 1793 Mansfield was the son of Jerononemus. But was Mansfield-Henry the same Henry Taylor who served in the NJ Militia and subsequently moved to Brookfield, Ohio? If he is, then according to his own deposition, he was born in Bucks County, PA, which is where Jerononemus and Else Catharina must also have resided at one point. And then who was the Henry Taylor in Hardiston in the 1793 tax list? Was Hardiston-Henry the Henry Taylor Jr. who later married Elizabeth Oliver in 1801?
  • As for the other sons of Jerononemus:
    • The oldest son, Jacob, is presumably the one who married Mary Bray in 1807. Strangely, however, there are many internet family trees that have Jacob Taylor-husband-of-Mary-Bray born in 1745 (which makes sense) but married and having kids by 1778. Jacob Taylor's marriage to Mary Bray is specifically listed as 15 Feb 1778, but there is no source for that date, nor any explanation why there is Sussex County marriage record for Jacob Taylor and Mary Bray in 1807. It should be noted that Jacob Taylor and Mary Bray are recorded as being the parents of a Jeromus Taylor (1784-1869), which does suggest that this Jacob Taylor could have been the son of Jerononemus.
    • As for George Taylor, another will abstract was located dated 21 Apr 1792 for a George Taylor of Oxford, Sussex, NJ. His administrator was the widow, Anne Taylor. Since there is no George Taylor listed in the 1793 tax lists, I am guessing that George Taylor, son of Jerononemus, died shortly after his father in 1792.
    • Then there's William Taylor, who was already operating the mill in Mansfield. This is probably NOT the William Taylor who married Mary Swallow in Amwell, Hunterdon, NJ in 1768, though to be fair, the dates still do not preclude him from being in Sussex county in 1793. Or was William-son-of-Jerononemus the William Taylor associated with Jacob Shoemaker of Sussex, mentioned in the previous post? That William Taylor had a wife named Mary, and sons named William, George, James S. and Jabez G. as well the daughter Sophia who married Jacob Shoemaker.
Well, as excited as I was to find Jerononemus Taylor, I'm afraid we only have more inconclusive evidence to add to the growing pile. We have lots of clues but so far there is no obvious way these pieces are fitting together....

Thursday, November 6, 2014

The Shoemaker Connection

As noted in previous posts about exploring Taylor connections in Sussex County, NJ, there is the matter of a certain William Taylor of Amwell, Hunterdon, NJ and his apparent association with a Jacob Shoemaker of Oxford, Sussex, New Jersey. Thanks to a source simply titled The Michael Shoemaker Book (available on ancestry), the connection has become somewhat clearer!

First, recall that there were two places where the Shoemaker-Taylor connection appeared:
  • An 1822 Sussex County deed between the entire family of John Summers, Esq. to Jacob Shoemaker of Oxford and William Taylor of Amwell.
  • The 1826 will of William Taylor of Amwell where all his estate was to be divided among four Taylors, William, George, James S., and Jabez G. (presumed by me to be his sons) and Jacob Shoemaker of Sussex County. The relationships are not explicitly stated in the will.
Now to the news provided in the newly discovered source. The Michael Shoemaker Book identifies Jacob Shoemaker as having moved some time prior to 1790 to Oxford, Sussex, NJ from Bethlehem, Northampton, PA with his parents (Peter and Elizabeth Magdalena (Maur) Schumacher) where he married Sophia, daughter of William and Mary Taylor of Raritan Twp, Hunterdon, NJ. The Shoemaker couple lived in Oxford, and Jacob dealt extensively in NJ farmlands, and "with his brother-in-law, William Taylor, bought the Taylor homestead in Raritan Twp., NJ for $8,400."

It is entirely worth noting that Raritan twp. was formed in 1838 from portions of the now defunct Amwell Twp.

This connection between the two families explains alot, especially the deed and the will we found. But there's more. More reading of this new source tells us that William Taylor had a son named George (also named in William's will), who is referred to in the source as Capt. George Taylor because of his military service. Well, Capt. George Taylor married Sarah Shoemaker, the daughter of another related Shumacher family in Northamption County, PA. George had quite an interesting life, living in various places in PA before moving with his family in 1823 to Oakland County, MI. There George Taylor died in 1841, and his wife Sarah remarried to Nathan Smith. She died in 1849. She is noted as having been "short with dark hair and spoke a broken English".

So what does all this tell us?
  • The connection of Jacob Shoemaker and William Taylor to the Summers family could be utter coincidence, but that connection is nevertheless NOT trivial. By 1825, Margaret Struble, the daughter of JP Struble and Barbara Taylor, married Peter Dodder, and in 1833, Ernest Mann III, the great nephew of John Summers, would marry Margaret Rush. And by the 1840s, both the Dodder's and the Mann's were in Oakland County, Michigan from where our modern family descends.
  • The Schumacher family belonged to the Reformed Church of Easton, PA, and since members of that family married into the Taylors, or at least some branch of Taylors, I tend to think they shared the same religion. Which is to say that perhaps THIS Taylor family was not Quaker as we've been wondering.
  • At least one member of this Taylor branch also migrated to Oakland County, Michigan, although admittedly the townships where this branch settled are not the same as the townships where our family is known to have settled.
It would seem that the main question remains:  Was THIS Taylor family related to our Barbara Taylor?

More to come!

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Confiscated Lands

I'm surprised that it has taken this long for me to run across this topic. As mentioned in a previous post, I ran across several deeds involving "forfeited lands" and at first I couldn't quite understand what was meant. Then I realized that Loyalist property was being sold both in the effort to get Loyalists to leave and never come back, and to help raise money for the Revolution - which it did. Here is a link  with some description of the history.

There is also a wonderful website that lists the names of those in New Jersey who had their lands confiscated. Of the counties and names listed, the only Taylor name to appear is that of Joseph Taylor from Hunterdon county. Wouldn't we like to know more about him?

Also mentioned in both Somerset and Sussex counties for confiscated lands is Oliver Delancey, who was named in the one of the Sussex deeds involving John Taylor! Oliver Delancey was a brigadier general for the Loyalist army. All his lands were confiscated in 1779, and in 1783 he returned to England where he died in 1785.

Taylor's in Early Sussex

First, let's talk about Newton (New Town) Twp. in Sussex County, New Jersey, which was mentioned specifically in the affidavit of Henry Taylor as the place where his father moved from Bucks County, PA, probably some time in the 1760s. We should here make note that Newton township is now a defunct twp. which was located in northwest NJ. It was established in 1751 and dissolved in 1864. The area today spans territory in three present-day counties: Morris, Sussex, and Warren.

With that said, here are the records that give us some accounting of Taylors from 1793-1820(??) in Sussex county, New Jersey:

1793 Tax List

There were several Taylors in several townships, but there was only one Taylor found in the 1793 tax list of Newton, and that person was Joseph Taylor, probably the Joseph Taylor mentioned in my previous post who has been (for now) passed over as a father of Barbara Taylor.

Theoretically, we should also be able to account for Henry Taylor, since in 1793 he would have been 35 years old. The tax lists show:

Hardiston Township (this is a township that would later be formed from part of the to-be-defunct Newton Twp)

TAYLOR, Charles
TAYLOR, Henry

Mansfield Township - it should be noted that Mansfield is directly east of Oxford twp. where so many of our other relations lived. And of course Summers, Longstreet, and Wandling are all names also found in our family tree.  This would be closest to Greenwich.

SUMMERS, John
LONGSTREET, Aron

TAYLOR, Henry
TAYLOR, Jacob
TAYLOR, John
TAYLOR, William

WANDLING, Adam
WANDLING, John

Marriages in Sussex, NJ

25 Jul 1797, John Taylor + Rhoda Carter
29 Jan 1801, Henry Jr. Taylor + Elizabeth Oliver
6 Jul 1801, William Williams + Ann Taylor
28 Mar 1802, Jacob Struble + Barbary Taylor
8 May 1803, Isaac Bassett + Mary Taylor
3 Apr 1805, William Taylor + Susanah Rhodes
1 Jun 1807, Daniel Shoemaker + Polly Taylor
15 Feb 1807, Jacob Taylor + Mary Bray
19 Aug 1809, Thomas Norman + Sarah Taylor

This is probably as good a place as any to point out that there was a Henry Taylor Sr. and a Henry Taylor Jr. They both appear in the 1793 Tax lists, although which man is in which twp. is hard to say.

Deeds

Besides the deeds previously mentioned in my post DNA Clues & Hunterdon County, NJ, here are some additional Taylor deeds in Sussex, New Jersey (this is not a comprehensive list, but a selection of those that caught my attention as pertains to my family research).

  • The earliest Sussex deed I could find with the Taylor name was 1 May 1775 between Robert Taylor, Esq. of Hunterdon County, NJ and Daniel Vliet of the same place. Apparently the land in question had been indentured and defaulted, involving the names LEWIS and MERRITT, and the sheriff of Sussex county had been directed to auction property to pay debts, and Robert Taylor (by way of Charles Stewart) was the highest bidder, which he was then selling to Daniel Vliet. NOTE: If I read the estate records in Hunterdon county correctly, Robert Taylor (originally Tyler) died in 1821 and he was from Londonderry, Ireland. 
  • In 1789, the government agent named Joseph Gaston who was in charge of selling "forfeited estates" (more on this subject in a later post), in particular Sussex land previously owned by General Oliver Delancey, conveyed 154 acres in Hardiston Twp in Sussex County to John Taylor for 66 pounds.
  • In 1794, John Taylor of Readington, Hunterdon, NJ & Lydia his wife sold to Jonathan Paul of Germantown, PHL, PA, a parcel of land 'being at the Minisinks' in the county of Sussex, which I think was over 1000 acres and which was described in the deed in a rather long list of "forfeited estates". 
  • In 1804, there was a deed between Henry Taylor of Mansfield and Jane his wife selling land in Mansfield to John Ulp of Greenwich.  What's interesting about this is that the brother of Jacob Peter Struble (who married Barbara Taylor), namely George P. Struble, served under Capt. Jacob Ulp from Brookfield, OH. This appears to be yet another link between this Henry Taylor and the Struble family.
What conclusions from this evidence? There can still only be guesswork. Even though Henry Taylor of Mansfield would appear to be the Sr. who eventually went to Brookfield, OH, Henry Taylor in Hardiston was closer to what was once Newton. And who was Charles Taylor? We have seen the names John, Jacob, and William Taylor in other contexts, but who was Charles?  

Isn't it strange how research just leads to more questions?

Joseph Taylor and Martha Canby

At first, my number one candidates for the parents of my Barbara Taylor were Joseph Taylor and Martha Canby. Here is a summary of the evidence I have explored pertaining to them:
  • According to a Canby genealogy compiled by Janis Kerr Arnold (published 1981, updated 1992), Martha Canby married Joseph Taylor in 1788 at the Upper Makefield Monthly Meeting in Bucks County, PA. It further states that Joseph Taylor was the son of William Taylor, and the Taylor family were members of the Falls Monthly Meeting. The Falls Monthly Meeting records state that Joseph, wife Martha, and two children, Sarah and Banner, were granted a certificate to the Wrightstown Monthly Meeting in 1803.
  • The 1793 tax list Newton, Sussex, NJ lists Joseph Taylor. Recall that Newton is the place where the father of Henry Taylor relocated from Bucks County, PA.
  • Four Sussex County deeds seem to pertain to this Joseph Taylor:
    • 1800 - Andrew Malick to Joseph Taylor of Greenwich, $1500 for land in Greenwich
    • 1802 - Joseph Taylor of Greenwich and Martha his wife sold to Carpenter
    • 1804 - Joseph Taylor and Martha his wife of Whites, Bucks, PA to George Gresler of Durham, Bucks, PA, involving land in Alexandria Twp, Hunterdon, NJ. The end of this deed has a declaration by a judge in Sussex who states that Joseph Taylor came before him to sign the deed! This would seem to indicate that Joseph was actually residing in Sussex, NJ rather than Bucks, PA. [As an additional side note to this record, there is/was no Whites township in Bucks county, PA. At first I thought it was the clerk's mistake and what was meant was White Twp in Sussex, but that township was not formed until much, much later. Instead, I now think the clerk meant to write WRIGHTSTOWN Twp in Bucks, PA, which is a place we know was associated with this Joseph Taylor.]
    • 1817 - Joseph Taylor, some dispute (I think) with John DeCamp of Morris County over boundaries of land in Byram twp in Sussex. I'm not entirely sure who prevailed!
All of this looks very promising, except for one niggling detail - the dates. If Joseph and Martha were married in 1788, they were probably not the parents of Barbara Taylor who married JP Struble in 1802. I suppose it's possible that Barbara could have been 14 when she married, and maybe that's why she outlived Mr. Struble for so long. But still....

In any case, I have so far not found any birth or death records that apply to either Joseph or Martha. Supposedly he was born around 1760, so that would not make him the father of Henry Taylor who moved to Sussex.  More likely, Joseph and Henry Taylor were brothers. And what became of Joseph and Martha? Did they move back to PA from NJ, or did they stay in NJ? What happened to their land in Greenwich?

No shortage of questions, but it seems that we might still be looking for a different Taylor who moved from Bucks to Sussex who could qualify as Barbara's father. Now the name William Taylor floats back to the top!

The Question of Quakers

So far all the Germans in my colonial research have been Lutheran, but this new research is starting to open a different door to the question of Quakers. Why do I say that? Well if I am to consider the possibility that my Taylor line came from Bucks County, PA, most of the documentation I have found so far comes from Quaker Monthly Meeting records, specifically the Falls and Wrightstown Monthly Meetings in Bucks County, PA, and the Kingwood Monthly Meeting in Hunterdon, New Jersey.

This is an entirely new topic for me, so please excuse me while I try to learn more about it! Here are a few high-level facts which I think are true:
  • The Quaker religion was started by an Englishman named George Fox, generally around 1652.
  • George Fox and William Penn visited the Rhine valley in Germany in 1677 and they invited several families to join them in the "Holy Experiment" that would be Pennsylvania. In 1682, 13 Quaker families sailed to Philadelphia and founded Germantown.
  • Generally speaking, Quakers had no preacher, they allowed women to speak in their meetings, they were anti-slavery, and they often would not take any oath of allegiance, not because they were not willing to give their allegiance, but because they would not swear. It seems they were widely persecuted in New England as well as some other colonies, including Virginia. 
All of this is foreign to me, especially after now researching for several years about my German relations who were distinctly Lutheran. So that got me wondering about what it might have been like to be Quaker in early Sussex County, New Jersey. Imagine my complete surprise to find that a Quaker meeting house was erected near Scott's Mountain around 1753 by Samuel Smith who lived in Greenwich and who petitioned the meeting in Kingwood, Hunterdon, NJ to start his own meeting house! See this link  for a picture and more details.

So wowee. It looks to me like being Quaker in Sussex County, New Jersey in the mid- to late- 18th century was a possibility. This all gets more interesting by the minute!

The Taylor Name

One of the first things we need to consider in researching our Taylor family is their origin. Here are the possibilities as I see them so far:

  • They were English, which is to say British. Family trees that hook into Charles Taylor and wife Barbary from Orange County, Virginia seem to suggest that family was British. (And by the way, I am so far NOT ready to spend time trying to connect my Taylor line to the Charles Taylor story - there are much bigger questions closer in time to my Sussex County family to answer first.) But were English Taylor's Loyalists? That is a different question for a different post.
  • They were Irish.  I've seen a couple cases already where the name TYLER became TAYLOR.
  • They were German. Considering just how much German lineage is in this part of my family tree, it would "fit" better if the Taylor family had German origins. Here is some information to keep in mind about the Taylor name:

The Schneider surname was generally adopted by one who made outer garments; a tailor. From the the German verb schneiden, meaning "to cut."

SCHNIEDER is another German variant spelling, while SNYDER, SNIDER, and SNEIDER are Dutch spellings of this common surname. The spelling SCHNYDER is often of Swiss origin. ZNAIDER is a similar Polish variant. SCHNEIDER is similar to the common English surname TAYLOR.

However, so far I have seen no indication of occupations associated with any Taylor family other than perhaps farming. And it seems hard to think that any Snyder family got off the boat and immediately changed their surname to Taylor, although I suppose it's possible. The only connection I have found so far between any Snyder and Taylor was in one 1818 deed in Sussex county that involved George Snyder late of Greenwich, where heirs listed included MYERS, SNYDER, HAUP, CUTZ, RYMAN, SUTTON, RANDALL and Samuel TAYLOR. Interesting, eh?

DNA Clues & Hunterdon County, NJ

Happily I have a third cousin who is the best genealogy research buddy ever. Also happily, she is good at things that I am not good at, and the subject of DNA matching is one such topic. Cousin J. had written to me earlier this year to say that we increasingly seem to have Taylor connections through a family called SWALLOW. Specifically, Mary Swallow, daugther of Jacob Swallow, married William Taylor in Amwell, Hunterdon, New Jersey in 1768. Many internet trees name this William Taylor as the father of our Barbara Taylor. So now in addition to looking for clues in Bucks county, PA (home of Henry Taylor who moved to Sussex, NJ during the Revolution), we're also looking at another new place: Hunterdon county, New Jersey.

So here's what I found in probate records in Hunterdon county, NJ on my recent trip to SLC. Note that there were plenty of Taylors in Hunterdon county, but here are the ones that seemed to pertain to anybody named William Taylor:
  • In 1806, William Taylor wrote his will, mentions his dear wife Mary, and sons Mahlon, Jacob, John, Samuel, and daughters Mary (single) and Catherine, wife of Henry Vandolah. When Mary of Amwell subsequently wrote her will in 1818, it mentioned her daughters Catherine Vandolah, Mary Wilson, and son Jacob. Note there is no mention of a daughter Barbara.
  • In 1815, Alexander Rea, Richard Hixson, and William Taylor Jr, all of Kingwood, Hunterdon, NJ, executors of the estate of George Rea, deceased, sold property to Daniel Potts, also of Kingwood.
  • In 1826, a William Taylor of Amwell wrote his will which I believe was proved in 1838 (this needs checking). It also mentions a wife named Mary, and then lists five executors to split his estate: Jacob Shumaker and Taylors (presumed by me to be sons): William, George, James S., Jabez G. Again, there is no mention of any Barbara. However, it is worth mentioning that there was at least one significant deed in Sussex county in 1822 that involved the entire Summers family (of our family tree) conveying property to William Taylor of Amwell, Hunterdon, NJ and Jacob Shoemaker of Oxford Twp. for $15,000! This would seem to suggest that this William Taylor definitely had ties to Sussex county!
Which of these William Taylor's was the husband of Mary Swallow?  Hmmmm.

In checking deeds in Hunterdon county, the following seemed applicable to a William Taylor, but neither seems to have had a wife named Mary:
  • several deeds involving William F. Taylor and Margareta wife of Lebanon, Hunterdon, NJ
  • 1817 deed involving William Taylor of Kingwood, Hunterdon, NJ and wife Elizabeth, land sold to Peter Sigler of Oxford, NJ, land was in Kingwood. This one is significant to us because of
    • Oxford, NJ is the NJ township where so many of our relations came from
    • Peter Sigler is in our family tree, born about 1730, wife Elizabeth, they had a daughter named Margaret who married Jacob RUSH, and these two are our 5th g-grandparents in another line that also made its way to Michigan
And now just for fun, I checked (again) the deeds in Sussex County. In 1822, George Hiles, James Hiles, and Daniel Hixon, who were variously connected to the estate of James Loder who died in 1792, transferred their part of the Loder estate - 232 acres in Oxford Twp. - to William Taylor, the husband of one of James Loder's daughters, Hannah.  William is noted as being "formerly of Sussex County, now of Amwell, Hunterdon, New Jersey." Holy cow. Are we now looking at yet a third William Taylor in Amwell? Or perhaps Hannah Loder died and William remarried to Mary Somebody? Probably the William Taylor who was connected to Shoemaker in Oxford?

So there stands what little research I've done about a William Taylor from Hunterdon county, NJ. I might guess that the man who wrote his will in 1806 was the William Taylor who married Mary Swallow, but I don't see any of their relations in our family tree, so maybe one of William Taylor's siblings is the father of our Barbara, but who were they? On the other hand, the other William Taylor who was associated with Jacob Shoemaker definitely did seem to have ties to Sussex County. Either way, the question remains how William Taylor/Mary Swallow DNA might connect to our family tree - perhaps it's one of those things that "snuck" into our line somewhere else along the way....

Are we confused yet?  I think we need to find and evaluate more evidence before the jury can even begin deliberations!

Taylor Connections

The first question is obvious: Who Was Barbara Taylor?

In answer to this question, we know very little. We don't have a birth record nor even any census record that would help us estimate her birth year, although most genealogies estimate her birth year was around 1771. We do have a marriage record between Mr. Jacob Struble and Miss Barbary Taylor in Sussex, New Jersey on 28 Mar 1802. According to the estate division of Jacob's property in Newton, NJ after his death in Nov. 1835, his children were Abraham, Mary (Smith), Margaret (Dodder), Peter, Elizabeth, and William. It should also be noted that Jacob's estate included the dower for the widow, Barbara Struble. To my mind, this evidence indicates that Barbara was still alive in 1835, and thus did not die nor could she have been buried in Brookfield, Trumbull, Ohio in 1818 as so many internet family trees indicate.  There is furthermore a deed in Sussex county in 1853 which involves the sheriff and a long list of Struble names, including that of Barbara Ann Struble. So theoretically, our Barbara was still alive as late as 1853!

So where to go when there's nowhere to go? As we already know from previous research, the census records from 1800-1820 in New Jersey were somehow destroyed and it's crazy how difficult that makes our research. That leaves marriage records, probate records, and deeds, all of which do indeed hold some excellent clues, which I will get to later. But the bigger clue, for me, came in understanding the big picture of the whole family. At least two of Barbara's sons and their families moved to Brookfield, Trumbull, Ohio in the 1830s and several other Struble relations also ended up there, namely families of her husband's siblings (George Struble and Mary Struble Waldorf and possibly others).

When I had been considering that Barbara died in Brookfield, Ohio in 1818, and I realized that her children did not move there until the 1830s, I couldn't help but wonder WHY would she have been in Brookfield, Ohio, and the only answer I could come up with was that she went to visit one of her own Taylor relations. Now remember that I have since determined (at least in my mind) that Barbara did NOT die in Brookfield, Ohio in 1818, but the exercise of wondering why she might have gone to Ohio in 1818 lead to my best clue. It caused me to search for TAYLOR in Brookfield, Trumbull, Ohio prior to 1830. And whose name appears prominently in the census' of Brookfield from 1820-1850? Somebody named Henry Taylor.

The next question is equally obvious: Who was Henry Taylor?

Well, according to his own Revolutionary pension affidavit recorded in Trumbull county, Ohio in 1832, Henry was born in Bucks county, PA, moved to Newton, Sussex, New Jersey when he was a boy with his father where he served during the Revolution. According to his affidavit, he later moved to Brookfield, Ohio around 1817 where he had lived since. It's hard not to notice the names of Struble and Waldorf (Waldruff) near that of Henry Taylor on the same census sheets of Brookfield. It is subsequently not hard to start wondering if Henry Taylor might not have some connection to my Barbara Taylor.

Note: It's worth noting there was another, younger, Henry Taylor in Trumbull County. He did not live in Brookfield, but in Warren twp. and later Bazetta twp. His father was Samuel and he came from Maryland - a blacksmith - who ended up living in Newton Falls. See Trumbull County History.

Getting back to our Taylor connections, it gets better still. It turns out that Henry's sister, Rebecca Drake of Washington county, PA, went to court in 1832 and recorded a deposition regarding her memories of living in Newton, Sussex, NJ, and her brother Henry Taylor serving with the NJ militia. So now we have to ask Who was Rebecca Drake?

I could not find Rebecca Drake in Washington county, PA, but in the 1830 census of Mt. Pleasant, Washington, PA, there was a Henry Drake with a 60-70-year-old female in his household, which could be about the right age for a sister of Henry? Unfortunately, I don't find Henry Drake in Washington county, Ohio in 1840, but curiously in West Bethlehem, Washington, PA, there was a Mary Drake (40-50) with 7 very little kids, and living next door to her is Margaret Taylor (30-40), who has three others in their 20s in her household. A connection? We'll have to hold that thought for now. Meanwhile, still looking for Henry Drake, who shows up in Brookfield, Trumbull, Ohio in 1840? Henry Drake, age 43, born in New York (or New Jersey?), married with children, but also with an older female in his household. In the 1850 census, that older female, if she is the same person seen in 1840, is identified as Rebecca Fry! aka Rebecca Drake? aka Rebecca Taylor?

It's much too soon to reach for any definitive conclusions here. But these are all potentially viable clues in my opinion. Henry Taylor was born in Bucks county, PA and moved to Newton, Sussex, NJ which is exactly the place where Jacob Peter Struble lived with his wife, Barbara Taylor. We know that Henry had a sister named Rebecca, and that Henry ended up in Brookfield, Trumbull, Ohio, where several others in the immediate Struble family, including two of Barbara Taylor Struble's children, also moved. It seems at least possible there are some family connections going on here.

But who was Henry Taylor to our Barbara Taylor Struble? If Henry was born in 1758 and Barbara was born around 1770, then Henry was probably not Barbara's father, but perhaps he could have been her uncle. Stay tuned.

Comments are always welcome.

Introducing My Struble-Taylor Family

I descend from a bunch of Michiganders, and as it turns out, those who did not slip across from Canada were Germans who came by way of colonial Pennsylvania and New Jersey. This would be the case with my 3rd g-grandparents, Peter Dodder and Margaret Struble, who arrived in Michigan from New Jersey in the early 1830s. The Dodder line has been pretty thoroughly researched, and so I have turned my attention finally to the Struble line. The Struble's came from Odernheim in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany around 1748, and there are many, many of us Struble descendants scattered around the U.S. at this point. I'd love nothing more than to either find or pull together a definitive genealogy on this family line. In the meantime, this blog will certainly focus that effort on the family of my 4th g-grandparents, Jacob Peter Struble (abt 1770-1835) and his wife Barbara Taylor (dates unsure).

And to be clear, it's really the TAYLOR line that is my next longest-standing brick wall. Taylor is such a common name for that time period, and certainly nobody seems sure where this particular Taylor line came from, although I'm already beginning to develop some theories. Let's just say that the places under investigation include: Bucks and Washington counties, PA; Sussex and Hunterdon counties, NJ; and Trumbull county, OH.

This ought to be fun.