Profile Accuracy Theme of the Week: Brick Wall

+22 votes
2.8k views

This week's theme: Brick Wall.

To participate, simply:

  1. Choose a profile that fits this week's theme.
  2. Review and improve the accuracy of the profile.
  3. Reply with an answer below to let us know which profile you chose.

Also see: Photo Sharing Theme of the Week: Generations

in The Tree House by Eowyn Walker G2G Astronaut (2.4m points)
edited by Eowyn Walker

65 Answers

+12 votes

In order to not be smashing into my own family brick walls. I will work on Thomas Brick. He was an orphan profile and is not connected. I think he will be a good profile to work on; he was born in Ireland and was with the 1st Regiment of the New York Dragoons in the United States Civil War. I have adopted him and will work on accuracy and connecting him this week. 

by Alexis Nelson G2G6 Pilot (843k points)
That is a good idea. Good luck finding his connections.
Thank you Stacie for your comment. Getting him connected has gone fine, but there were two Thomas Bricks in the Civil War, so I stayed up late trying to get more information.
+12 votes
Hm... Perhaps I'll revisit my 3rd-great-grandmother Mary Ann Griffin Schryver Utter, whose origin & parentage remain incredibly elusive. We know she must have been of Irish heritage, but records are annoyingly inconsistent as to her birthplace & parents' names.
by Thomas Koehnline G2G6 Pilot (102k points)
I sometimes feel like I should wear a helmet when working on my 2x great grandfather, he has been a problem. Good luck.
+11 votes
My biggest brick wall is my direct paternal line - Lewerenz.

Because the house of the sexton in Schwaan in Mecklenburg burned down about 1765, I cannot find more reliable data about my 5th great grandfather Jacob Lewerenz.

He was a shoemaker in Schwaan in Mecklenburg and I will work on his profile this week.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lewerenz-25
by Dieter Lewerenz G2G Astronaut (3.1m points)
It is hard enough to find records that far back, without a fire burning records. I hope you can find something more about Jacob.
+10 votes

Well, it could take years to look at my Salsbury brick wall with a son born in Vermont in 1794 and a daughter in nearby New York in 1800.... So...

I did a couple of Wall to accompany the Brick that Alexis did. Thelma Grace Wall and an unrelated Francis Robert Wall

by Kay Knight G2G6 Pilot (593k points)
Kay, glad to know we are kindred spirits. Also we are 7th cousins once removed.
Alexis -- are you using the Bio Check app to find profiles?
Kay -- I went  to Brick, and then I went to orphaned. I still have a great deal to learn; Scott Lee just showed me how to do a find a free-space page and where I have a scratchpad this past week.
Good idea, I wish I had read her answer before I chose my profile. I hope you find some good stuff in your search.
Kay, I need to reach out to you about your Salsbury brickwall with a child in VT  and a child in NY.  We may have the same Salisbury brick wall.   That will be my topic on here, and will ask you to look it over.  Perhaps we can assist each other, rather than building other walls!
+11 votes

For this challenge, I chose a profile from Wisconsin, Family Brick Walls. I cleaned up his profile and added a new source.

Gerhard Damm

by Chandra Garrow G2G6 Mach 7 (70.1k points)
You work fast. Good job
+9 votes
Henry Hughey (1849-1894) and his relationship with the Howie family ofScotland
by David Hughey G2G Astronaut (1.7m points)
+16 votes
I will be working on a brick wall, I thought I had broken. But a new photo has surfaced that might rebuild it even stronger than before. I had my tree to at least my 3rd great grand parents, except for Dock Preston Johnson (Johnson-59628) my 2x great grandfather. I could not get past him. I knew he was born in 1862 or 1865 in South Carolina. And then a 2nd cousin told me Dock was a nick name, but my aunt said it was not. I looked for over 10 years to find him before 1900, but I couldn't. I looked for Dock, Doc, and even Murdock. I looked in South Carolina and Alabama. I could not find him on any family trees, on any genealogy site, listed with his parents. The family story was that he had a brother named Daniel and maybe a sister named Doshia that might have moved to Texas with Dock. I knew he had married Frances in 1882 in Alabama according to the 1910 census. Then I had hit a wall about his death. He was living in Henderson Co., Texas, but he died in Bastrop Co, Texas in 1918. I loving called him the thorn in my side. Then one day I came across a 1870 census with a Doctor 9yrs old. He had an older brother Daniel and another named John all of them born in South Carolina. Dock named his son John. They are living in Barbour County Alabama and they are still in Barbour County in 1880. Barbour County is right next to the County in Alabama where Francis and her family are living. In 1870 Doctor is living with his mother who is listed as a widow, and her mother is living with them, also a widow. I was getting excited. His mother's maiden name is McLeod. I have some DNA matches with McLeod's on their tree. I kept digging and found his father's name. All of the information was starting to look like I had found the right family.  And my daughter helped me with his death place. Dock, his son John, and John's daughter Eula all died in 1918. My daughter said "mom the Spanish Flu of 1918" light bulb. I don't have the death day and month for John of Dock, but I think Dock went to Bastrop because John was sick or had died. And, Dock got sick while he was there and died. Eula died from pneumonia due to influenza. I had figured it out. Then a week ago a cousin sent me a picture it is supposed to be Dock with his parents. Dock in an adult in the photo and Dock's father died before Dock was 9 yrs old. That is if I had found the right family. I wanted to cry. I am going to look at this with fresh eyes and see if the photo is miss marked or did I find the wrong family.
by Stacie Briggs G2G6 Mach 2 (29.8k points)

Stacie reading your story about researching Dock I got excited in all the right places laugh which is a high compliment to the storyteller. 

Maybe the "father" in the picture with adult Dock is a stepfather?  Very common on those days for a widow to remarry, esp with young kids.
+8 votes
I have previously worked on a brick wall and possibly got links to others in that same area. In the hope that I can confirm these are family I will add the other line. The more possible descendants in the tree the better chance of finding out if my work is correct.
by Hilary Gadsby G2G6 Pilot (313k points)
+7 votes

I could not think of an interesting brick wall for the "accuracy" challenge, so I turned to the weekly photo challenge. As I looked through my pictures, I noticed this mural. Inspiration! It is a picture of a brick wall! I had never noticed that before, because the mural is so colorful.

And I have an ancestor like that. Henry Horton died in two different places. According to one source, he died in Ohio; according to another source, he was killed by a train in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Everyone has brick wall ancestors, but who else has an ancestor who died in two different places? This is much more interesting than discovering which source is correct.

by Joyce Vander Bogart G2G6 Pilot (198k points)
If you are thinking 'interesting' right now I'm thinking Party Pizza!
Actually, Scott, it is Liberty Pizza, but it sounds good to me, too. Did you notice the door on the right? It may be an alien portal, or it may be the back door of the pizza place. You choose.
How about two headstones? Does that count? My Grandmother was widowed pretty young left with eight children. She remarried an older man. She once told me she was happiest with him. He required no children since he found himself suddenly a father to eight of them.

My Grandmother had a stone next to the 2nd husbands grave put down and paid for all ready for her passing away.

She was born in 1888 and died and died in 1994 at 106 years and 7 months. At that time she had buried 6 children.  She was living in Rochester Hills, Michigan. They decided not to bother bringing her home for her funeral and buried her next to her daughter. Her son paid to have her stone showing the death date put on both stones. Hope no one tries to puzzle that out years from now.

That’s about as close as I can come to your story.
Thanks for reading and responding to my story. Two gravestones is interesting.
+5 votes
I'm working on second great grandmother Charity Hovey Booth, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Booth-7167 , I haven't been able to trace her earlier than 1860.
by Mark Weinheimer G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)
+6 votes

I am going to work on the profile of my husband's 2x great grandfather, Joseph Butlin. He was a builder of brick walls, a stone mason. It was one of my early profiles and is rather a jumble, it should look a lot better by the end of the week.

by Gillian Loake G2G6 Mach 5 (59.0k points)
+6 votes

I'll work on the wife of a great grand uncle Frank Floyd Hibbard inventor of the Roof Framing Scale.  I'm breakin' a brick wall that I made by not connecting Uncle Frank's wife Myrtle Buckminster to our tree.  I'll also spruce up Uncle Frank's profile and bring it up to standards.

by Scott Lee G2G6 Mach 5 (59.9k points)
Myrtle Buckminster line is now connected to the WikiTree family tree with biography for her and her parents.
+6 votes

Here's an update on the brick wall that is my 2nd great-grandmother, Domenica Gullohttps://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2021/04/52-ancestors-week-15-brick-wall.html

by Chris Ferraiolo G2G6 Pilot (756k points)
+5 votes
This week I worked on [[Anna "Annie" Hamernik formerly Musil aka Mastny|Musil-216]] https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Musil-216 When I first located her through family on FamilySearch multiple people were confused with her and Antonia Hamernik Victorin Kacin Vitek.  From what I finally sorted  out from all of the records. Anna's maiden name was Musil. She originally married Charles Mastny. However, after Charles died Anna married Joseph Hamernik.  Antonia was Joseph's sister. It appears that Helen Vlasta was most likely definitely Antonia's daughter. However, Helen Vlasta sometimes went by Hamernik and sometimes went by Kacin and her marriage record states that Antonia's husband Frank Kacin was Helen's father. However, Helen was born 12 Jul 1916 and Antonia and Frank were married 02 May 1916. Also, to add to the confusion Helen was living with Anna and Joseph instead of her mother Antonia or Frank Kacin and was listed as Helen Kacin in the 1920 census record. So far, I have only added Anna to WikiTree.  I will work on adding everyone else at a later time. Sorry. I am still relatively new to WikiTree and don't know how to have Anna's name be a link to her WikiTree ID.
by Carrie Pau G2G6 (8.3k points)

You almost have it ...

In an open comment box, Click the symbol that looks like a chain ... it will take you to the screen where you an add the URL (http://...Musil-216) and then choose what you want to call the link ... ie, Anna "Annie" Hamernik formerly Musil aka Mastny

When you save your work, her name should function as a link to her profile page.

Following these steps I got Annie.

Thank you. So much to learn still. However, I love how it all works once you figure it out.
+5 votes

Joseph Shearin - WikiTree Profile
 Is my brick wall,I have that he came from Ireland  to Virginia,then North Carolina,Was the first of the Shearin's in North Carolina.Would like to know how he got here and who his wife may have been.

by Teresa Davis G2G6 Mach 6 (62.1k points)
edited by Teresa Davis
+5 votes
Hmm My brick is my 3rd great grandfather Jesse Freeman Jackson. I can’t find anything on him before 1850. I know he was born in Georgia in 1825 and sometime he moved to Alabama. The first census I find him in is in Fayette county Alabama living with the Jefferies in 1850. I don’t know who his parents are or if he had siblings. In the census it states that his father was born in Virginia and mother in Georgia. I don’t know what else to do to find out more about him before 1850. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you
by Kathy Cacciatore G2G Crew (700 points)
+5 votes

I was ready with a completely different response when I read an aside in an answer above, by Kay K.  She said something to the effect that it would be pointless to try to break down my own brickwall with Salsbury, with a child born in VT in 1794 and another in NY.   That rang about four bells for me, so Salisbury will be my focus in improving profiles this week, and the focus of this answer.

When I started this journey in genealogy, I knew we had a double mystery with the Salisbury family from Scituate RI.   There are a lot of Salisburys who are very well documented, and then there are the ones who aren't.  Part of that is the usual lack of records from certain parts of colonial America, and part of that is a phenomenon unique to RI.  They had lots and lots and lots of kids.  They had rigid naming patterns. They had great bibles that got lost and indifferent central vital records.  And they married cousins.  I mean literal first cousins.  They aren't alone in this, and anyone familiar with Jewish endogamy will know the story there also.  Roger Williams essentially led a colony of castouts to a promised land called Rhode Island.  They had to marry their cousins.  Everybody around them was their cousin, after a couple of generations. By the 5th and 6th generation, they had to move away.  You can say there wasn't enough land for all of them, but that isn't the only reason.  Fortunately, this brought new blood into the gene pool.  Except they moved away together too to remain within their unique churches, whether Baptist or Quaker.  So now maybe second and third cousin marriage were the norm.  I'll say that is an improvement.  

The incorrect assumption I had when I began my study was that two Kimball brothers from RI, married two Salisbury sisters,  Azuba and Freelove,, and moved to Pownal VT, which is on the border of MA and NY.  I was able to disprove that the two Salisbury girls were sisters. Azuba Salisbury's line https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Salisbury-963is now proven (but can be improved), with the help of the estate documents of her father, Thomas Salisbury and a brother in Stillwater NY.  (Kay, take note.)  I think I am on the track of finding Freelove Salisbury https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Salisbury-974 and suspect she is a cousin of her sister in law.  Besides the two Kimball brothers marrying two Salisbury girls, one of the Kimball sisters married a Jonathan Salisbury.  I suspect Freelove to be his undocumented sister. 

So this week I will do another deep dive into Scituate RI, for my Kimball, Salisbury, Babcock families, and will try to better document what I have found about them.  It will improve the one world tree, and if I can't find the connection, maybe someone else will.

by Carolyn Adams G2G6 Mach 9 (90.8k points)
edited by Carolyn Adams

Carolyn,

The right age to be aunts. See my research notes on https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Salsbury-255 and https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Salsbury-254

Kay, two places that may be of help to you.  Pompey NY and Canojaharie NY.  Both of these were growing and were in the migration trail from southern Vermont.  If I were you I would take a good look at the early HOH censuses for those two places.  I see a ref to Castleton VT.  There is a Nathan Salsbury who died in Gorham Ohio in 1937, age 83, with a father named Nathan Salsbury b Rutland VT and mother Hannah Hale b NY.  Rutland and Castleton are close together.
+5 votes
My “brick wall” is Ward-227. Major John Ward of Albemarle, Virginia abt 1720-1816. I’ve tried for many years to find his father and mother and I think a few others have as well to no avail.
by James Ward G2G Crew (590 points)
+6 votes

My biggest Brick Wall is the parents (and sibling) of William Benjamin Nolen (Nolan).  Here is the family story that I have never been able to find proof of:

From our Nolen Facebook page: John Nolen February 27, 2010 · Where we came from...

William was born about 1864.

William Benjamin Nolen born Sept. 1864 Cook Co., Illinois died 1900 Sabogla, Calhoun Co., Mississippi There is little known about William. The 1900 census reported his father was born in Ireland and his mother born in Scotland. According to JW Nolen, Williams father was killed when he was 7 years old. His wife threw hot coffee in his face and it got into his lungs, he died as a result of this. The mother was imprisoned for manslaughter. These events took place in Chicago, Cook County, Ill.There was a sister (name unknown) who was taken in by an aunt in Virginia. William was raised by a Mr. Whitson. At some point after the Chicago fire, Mr. Whitson brought him to Miss. When William was 18, Mr. Whitson sold him 160 acres of land in Yellow Bushy Bottom in Sabogla, Miss. It was here that he married and had all his children. William died in 1900 of Pneumonia. At some point after this, the family moved to Arkansas. William married Gertrude Abigale Hammock who was the daughter of Felix Hammock and Mary Doolittle of Calhoun County, Miss. They had the following children...Sherman Nolen born Nov. 11, 1889 in Sabogla, Calhoun, Miss. and died Nov 20, 1965 in St. Louis, Mo. Buried Mounds Cem., Lil Bourne, Mo. Granville Patrick Nolen, born Apr 10, 1891 in Sabogla, Calhoun, Ms. Wilburn Lee Nolen, born Mar 20,1893 in Calhoun Co., Ms and died Apr 20, 1905 in Sabogla, Calhoun Co.,Ms Was killed in a hunting accident by Sherman. Betsy Ann (Bessie) Nolen born Jan 7, 1895. Mary Catherine (Mammie) Nolen born Oct. 3, 1897. John Sterling Nolen born Apr 12, 1900 in Sabogla, Calhoun Ms died May 4, 1972 in Lil Bourne, New Madrid Co., Mo. This is the man we all lovingly called " Pa "

This says his mother threw coffee on his father. The story I got long ago was boiling water. We believe she threw some type of hot liquid on him. Recently found a date of 6/27/1868 for possible Fathers Death in Chicago, Cook, IL, still investigating??? 

As you can see this is a big mystery for all of the family researching our ancestors.  I would love to be the one to break the wall.  Any suggestions/help appreciated.

by Tammy Hinkle G2G1 (2.0k points)
+5 votes
My brick wall is my 2xgreat grandfather James Saw (Saw-28) who also went by the surname Ware (or Wear or Weir). He was born about 1830 but the age he gives on the census returns and for his second marriage is inconsistent. Also on the census he gives his place of birth as Oxford, Wiltshire or Brasted, Kent. No father's name appears for either of his marriages. As he usually gave his surname as Saw for marriages and the births of his children and usually used the name Ware (or variation) on census returns I assume his true surname was Saw (or some similar name) but he was known by the name Ware (or variant) as he was brought up by a Ware family or maybe his mother married a Mr Ware or even that his father's surname was Ware but his mother was not married to him and her surname was Saw. But these are just guesses.
by Elizabeth Back G2G2 (2.5k points)

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