2022 WikiTree Challenge 19: We are done researching Mark Hamill's ancestors! [closed]

Question

Hello WikiTreers!

We have now finished up with WikiTree Challenge #19. We banded together to research the genealogy of American actor Mark Hamill, best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. 

Our week began on Thursday, October 6, at noon EDT (4pm UTC) and ended at noon on October 13 EDT (4pm UTC). You didn't need any particular skills to participate. Those that did happen to have experience with Canadian, Irish, or Swedish records were definitely needed.

It's was a lot of fun - we rocked this!!

See the tracking for who all participated.

Answer 1

Comment here if you break a brick wall or make a connection for Mark’s great-grandfather Hockley Thomas Hamill, or have questions or research notes on this line.

WT Branches

Connection Bounty: Connection bounty claimed & verified on this line!!!

Brick Wall Ancestor: Jane Trainor (Ireland)

Comments

Hockley and Katherine's daughter Dorothy married Frank Sewell Cowling. Frank's grandfather Fred Emerson Cowing is connected.

Also Frank was from Walsenburg, Colorado, where my 2000 Subaru once lost an alternator on I-25 while my teenaged daughter was driving. She handled it like a champ.

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I made a connection to the tree on the Hamill line by connecting the profile [[Hamill-535|William Arthur Hamill]] to his existing sister [[Hamill-541|Frances Maria Hamill]].

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Wow, congrats Chris!!

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Thank you, Mindy!

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Post-challenge tale from cousin Margaret Ballinger: Hockley's great-grandfather Josiah Atkinson died (age 82) in July during the 1849 cholera epidemic. By then over 5,000 had died in New York, where the disease arrived with ships from Europe. Josiah's wife Priscilla (née Ballinger, Hockley's great-grandmother) made out her will days later, and succumbed to the disease in September 1849.

Answer 2

Comment here if you break a brick wall or make a connection for Mark’s great-grandmother Katherine Bernadette Haggart, or have questions or research notes on this line.

WT Branches

Connection Bounty: Connection bounty claimed & verified on this line!!!

Brick Wall Ancestor: Christian (Syme) Weddal (Scotland)

Comments

Anything exciting on this branch, Guillaume? Thanks for working on it!!

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I made a connection to the tree. Katherine Haggart-23 to her father James Haggart-251 to his brother Andrew Haggart-287 to his daughter Martha Haggart-329 then to her husband Martin Corder Day-14059

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Thank you Kathy! Nice work.

Answer 3

Comment here if you break a brick wall or make a connection for Mark’s great-grandfather Frederick Albert Mumford, or have questions or research notes on this line.

WT Branches

Connection Bounty: Connection bounty claimed & verified on this line!!!

Brick Wall Ancestor: Susan Bowtell (England)

Comments

The address on Frederick A. Mumford’s civil war pension matches the address on his son’s marriage record index. His son is also mentioned in Civil War pension record along with deceased wife, Mary Harvey, and their marriage info. Not unheard of for a wife to be 8 to 10 years younger. Do you have access to Fold3? I listed his pension record as a source. I wasn’t sure if I could post images from another paid site here. The other names for parents for a Fred Mumford come from a North American history book and are for a different person not born in England.

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There is a problem someone removed Frederick Albert Mumford-1008's father, Frederick Augustine Mumford-1009 and replaced the new father, Frederick Augustus Mumford-1472 and the new mother, Sarah Cooper-37088.  I would much appreciate the guidance that you (Mindy and Hamill team) could put it back as a new father who is not the father of Frederick Albert Mumford-1008. The evidence is that Fred. Mumford-1008's father was born in England, not in Rhodes Island, United States according to the United States censuses.

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Your information is correct, Chris. Thank you for your comment.

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You are welcome!

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Mindy, could you please change Fred Mumford’s mother back to Mary Harvey instead of Sara Cooper. Sara Cooper is not the correct mother and I tried to explain this to the researcher that changed the parents. Fred Mumford’s marriage record index to Elizabeth Keating lists the names of their parents.

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It has been changed back to the correct parents

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I apologize for the trouble I have caused !

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Thank you, Kathy!  Don't worry, Dunja, anyone could make a mistake.

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I'm glad that was corrected. I see Mary has the correct name. Great collaboration!!

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Thank you Kathy. No worries, Dunja. It happens to all of us. Thank you all for your work on these lines!

Answer 4

Comment here if you break a brick wall or make a connection for Mark’s great-grandmother Elizabeth M. Keating, or have questions or research notes on this line.

WT Branches

Connection Bounty: Bounty claimed and verified on this line!!

Brick Wall Ancestor: Mary Brennan (lreland)

Comments

Elizabeth Keating was the daughter of Edward Keating (c.1826-1893) and Mary Brennan

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Not sure if I needed to list each new direct ancestor in a different post. Mary Brennan was the mother of Elizabeth Keating as listed on the Roman Catholic marriage index dated 9 Aug 1893.

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Hi Dawn. The system will keep track of who you add, so you don't have to list them. If you aren't in Discord, though, it may help others know where you are working.

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Thank you, Mindy!

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Edward „Ned“ Keating has a brother, John, who emigrated to Australia and died in Victoria.

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Awesome! Great work!

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I made a connection to the tree on this line through Elizabeth's Sister's line..... I connected new profile Terry-9218 to her existing father's profile Terry-4269

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Thank you, Donna!

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Nice work Dawn, Dunja, and Donna. Hey, I see a trend here!! Lady D's

Answer 5

Comment here if you break a brick wall or make a connection for Mark’s great-grandfather Sven Johnson, or have questions or research notes on this line.

WT Branches

Connection Bounty: Connection bounty claimed & verified on this line!!!

Brick Wall Ancestor: Bengta Månsdotter (Sweden) Solved!!!

Comments

Thank you Dunja, Axel, Jeffrey, & Marta for your work on these lines!! They are looking great!

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With Axel's help, we got Bengta some parents and tied her into a further 5 generations back.

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WooHoo!! Nice collaboration!

Answer 6

Comment here if you break a brick wall or make a connection for Mark’s great-grandmother Hanna Josephine Peterson, or have questions or research notes on this line.

WT Branches

Connection Bounty: Bounty claimed and verified on this line!!

Brick Wall Ancestor: Joen Pehrsson (Sweden) Solved!!!

Comments

I connected new profile Walton-10754 to his existing father Walton-5681 for a new connection on this line.

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Congratulations on another bounty, Donna!! And thanks for your work on these branches!

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Added Pehr Jönsson as the father of Joen Pehrsson

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I added a new connection to the tree from this line by connecting new profile Sanford-6011 to his existing father's profile Sanford-5412,

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Nice work, Donna!!

Answer 7

Comment here if you break a brick wall or make a connection for Mark’s great-grandfather Edward Alonzo Rhodes, or have questions or research notes on this line.

WT Branches

Connection Bounty: Bounty claimed, waiting to be verified

Brick Wall Ancestor: Avilda (Maynard) Rhodes (United States)

Comments

Effie Alexander (Hull) Rhodes was Edward's wife, and she is the one with the mysterious origins.

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Filled in Cdn. census data for Edward's son Eugene, and created grandson Edward L. Rhodes, born 1916 in Saskatchewan.  No death records for the Cdn. descendants though; public records won't be available, so these need newspaper obituary searches.  Nothing in FAG.

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Ooh, have you found Effie's origin yet? I know that was a confounding one. Has someone searched obits for you yet? If not, I can take a look.

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According to the death notice I just found via Edward's personnel file (omg, it really is his Permanent Record) she's Avilda M(aynard?) Carr, who remarried Eugene Embury and raised lots of other people's kids.

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Nice sleuthing, Celia!

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Connection: Edward's first cousin Franklin Grove has a son Ora and daughter-in-law Clara Belle Amidon who were already connected. They are from an unsourced tree so I'm adding source records now.

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Maria (Frick) Rhodes had a duplicate with a lot of family members already on WT, so she's merged now.  Also some additional proof of the Rhodes family was found, so we're pretty solid on that and building out the siblings and other family members.

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Nice work, Karen! Let me know when it is sourced.

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2nd connection: Eloise Rhodes-4391 > stepdaughter Opal Edith Pugh-5251 > her husband Luther Spencer Haight-1618 > his mother Imogene Whitehead-7043 > her mother Imogene Steele-12521 > her father Amzi hart Steele-12522 and his father Salmon Steele-8265

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I connected the Rhodes family to an existing person:

Catherine (Rhodes)Shafer->Mariah (Shafer)Jones->Maude (Jones)Coldren-Reuben Coldren->Nehemiah Coldren Jr->Nehemiah Coldren Sr- Existing profile Jacob Coldren Coldren-128

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Mindy, I was able to add sources to the connection path. Thanks!

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Another Rhodes connection made through Mary Ann (Shafer) Lucas's husband Harvey Venning Lucas Lucas-12898 . His parents were already on WikiTree and his mother traces back to a couple of Mayflower Pilgrims.

Answer 8

Comment here if you break a brick wall or make a connection for Mark’s great-grandmother Effie Alexander Hull, or have questions or research notes on this line.

WT Branches

Connection Bounty:

Brick Wall Ancestor: John Alexander (Scotland)

Comments

It sounds like these lines are keeping you busy, Joanna and Celia. Nice work!!

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Vermont records indicate a marriage between Hiram Hull and Nancy Hull on November 6, 1814 in Bennington, Vermont. Michigan death records indicate Nancy died 4 Oct 1882. Find a Grave indicates both Hiram and Nancy are buried In Ingersoll, Oxford County  Municipality, Ontario in Canada. Grave marker indicates Hiram died 20 Jan 1853. Vermont, Michigan and Ontario, Canada seem to match?

commented 1 day ago by Joe Wilkes 

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Excellent research done on Hiram Hull.  We have a much better picture now of where he started out and how he wound up in Oxford County, Canada West, now Ontario, Canada.

BTW, I used to drive through Ingersoll, Ontario every time I went to visit my mother, after she retired to St. Marys, Ontario, another smaller town just north of there.  At the time, I had no idea how many relatives of mine were buried in the St. Marys Cemetery.  I am not sure my mother knew that either.

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Good work on Margaret Burns, Celia.  A find like this is usually a lot of good luck, especially when a surname is misspelled, like "Elexander".

I have searched Ancestry.ca for a birth record, but struck out -- also noted under Research notes.

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Isn't that crazy, Joanna? You start researching your ancestors and suddenly recognize a number of names in a cemetery.

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Yes, Mindy.  And recognizing a name, to find a record or location by accident, is testament to a still prodigious memory.  Long live the memory!

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Since there were a number of John Alexanders from Scotland in Canada, I don't know that we will find his birth family unless we find a marriage record in Canada with his parents' names on it.  I struck out on Ancestry.ca on the weekend.  John Alexander may be our Brick Wall for Effie Alexander Rhodes.

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I made a new connection to the tree on this line by adding new profile Helliwell-234 to his existing father's profile Helliwell-114

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Ooh, that is rough Joanna!

Way to go Donna!!

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It looks like Donna made a connection yesterday. Another one is that Effie's niece Ethelyn Allen has a sister-in-law Anna (Gallagher) McCabe whose son-in-law Cecil Alsup was added in 2018. I'll spruce up his profile. 

Answer 9

Sign me up!

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Mark and I are 18th cousins twice removed.

Our common ancestor is Gwenllian (Gwilym) ferch Gwilym (abt.1361-1455)

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Mark is 22 degrees from me : 4 branches (9-7-3-4)

• Branch 1: Hamill (1) → Johnson (1) → Rhodes (1) → Hull (6)
• Branch 2: Richmond (2) → Worden (2) → Matteson (1) → Sperry (2)
• Branch 3: Hazelrigg (3)
• Branch 4: Quigley (2) → Buch (2)

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48 Hours Later

Mark is 21 degrees from me : 3 branches (4-11-7)

• Branch 1: Hamill (1) → Johnson (1) → Rhodes (2)
• Branch 2: Pugh (1) → Greer (10)
• Branch 3: Spurlock (1) → Baker (4) → Gray (1) → Buch (1)

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6 Days Later

Mark is 19 degrees from me : 3 branches (12-3-5)

• Branch 1: Hamill (1) → Johnson (1) → Rhodes (3) → Frick (4) → Brubaker (3)
• Branch 2: Hoy (2) → Kiehl (1)
• Branch 3: Quigley (3) → Buch (2)

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End of Week

Mark and I are 17th cousins once removed.

Our common ancestor is Alice (Coggeshall) Tyrrell (1382-1422).

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Comments

You've got it Tommy!

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Tommy, it is a relief to see that you didn't lose your connection just because we discovered Effie Rhodes wasn't born a Hull.  Since we moved her from Hull to Alexander/Burns, there may be a host of people who have lost that connection.

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Mine went from 10th cousin to 16th.  Though a couple of the people added today have existing trees, so we'll have to see if that shifts anything again.

Answer 10

Sign me up, please.

Comments

Great Feargal. Thanks!!

Answer 11

Sign me up. I may be able to help on the Swedish side.

Comments

Great Jeffrey. Welcome to the challenge!! I hope you can join us in Discord.

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I've been lurking on Discord watching the challenge chat for previous challenges so may actually chat this time!

Answer 12

Count me in, please! az :)

Comments

Great Azure. Thanks!!

Answer 13

Sign me up. Not sure what I can do. But, let's do this!

Comments

Great Chris! Thanks!!

Answer 14

I knew I had seen those ancestors before while working on the Kevin Bacon challenge. Kevin Bacon and Mark Hamill are 5th cousins once removed.

Comments

Are you joining us Margaret? I hope so!

Answer 15

Sounds like fun! Let's do it!

Comments

Great Matthew. Welcome to the challenge!! I hope you can join us in Discord.

Answer 16

I would like to help.

Comments

Great Michelle! Thanks!!

Answer 17

Sing me up y'all!

Comments

Great Robert! Thanks!!

Answer 18

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HOW CAN I NOT?!?

Comments

I was hoping you'd say that!

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Great Steven! Thanks!!

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I mean, I might be biased. ;)

Answer 19

Sign me up please, will do what i can.

Comments

Great Jennifer! Thanks!!

Answer 20

What's the question?

Comments

Do you want to join us in researching Mark's ancestors starting October 6th?