Need help connecting children to fathers!

Question

I'm following an Ancestry tree of ancestors, and I'm trying to be sure the people are actually connected. However, I'm having a REALLY hard time locating any records that give me any information, prior to 1850.

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Here's what I have so far:

My confirmed (said to be adopted) grandfather, James Walter Younger, born around 1889, died 13 Oct 1940, married to Ethel Jane Stanley. 1900 census shows him with parents B W and Emily S Younger, along with siblings Wm S, Lizzie, and Joseph S and boarder Newton J Younger who appears to be the child of William Younger (James' grandfather if this connection is true).

My potential great-grandfather, Berry W Younger, born about 1849, found in 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, and 1900 censuses. 1850 census shows him with parents William and Elizabeth Younger and siblings Josiah A, Mary A, John, and William T Younger.

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I'm trying to connect him to the RIGHT William & Elizabeth. The only one I could really find was William Younger, born about 1816 and died about 1878, who was married to Elizabeth Dougherty, but I can't seem to find any confirmation this is the right parent group since prior censuses only had numbers of family members, not names. Now, after I connect Berry and William to each other, I need to connect William to his father.

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Listed is Henry Younger, born about 1801 and died about 1829, who married Ruth Gatch. I also can't find any confirmation on this group due to prior censuses only having numbers. If I can connect William and Henry, I then need to connect Henry to HIS purported father, who is notable for being an ancestor of the Younger/Dalton Gangs.

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Henry's purported father is Joshua Logan Younger, and he's already here on WikiTree.

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The only connection I've been able to find other than the Ancestry tree links, is that they all were born, married, died, or buried in Kentucky, most in Bullitt. So it's possible, I just can't find anything proving a connection.

Answer 1

Adding the censuses to his profile would really help so we don't have to go fishing for them to help you out! On that note, did you notice his father is listed as a blacksmith? William Younger was indeed a blacksmith. He moved to Illinois with his family and was still a blacksmith, in 1870, unless this is a different William (again, having sources to look at would help!).

1850: "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M65K-L5L : 12 April 2016), William Younger in household of Samuel C Stroud, Pulaski county, part of, Pulaski, Kentucky, United States; citing family 438, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

1860: "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MX46-NMV : 13 December 2017), William Younger, 1860.

Daughter Mary's marriage (gives Elizabeth's surname as Dougherty): "Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N3N3-33Y : 8 March 2018), William Younger in entry for Mary A. Dixon, 19 Feb 1925; Public Board of Health, Archives, Springfield; FHL microfilm 1,487,771.

Daughter Susan's birth (gives Elizabeth's surname as Dougherty): Ancestry.com. Kentucky, Birth Records, 1847-1911 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Kentucky. Kentucky Birth, Marriage and Death Records – Microfilm (1852-1910). Microfilm rolls #994027-994058. Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, Frankfort, Kentucky.

Grave: Find A Grave.

You definitely are looking at William Younger and Elizabeth Dougherty. Getting their lines back further is another ordeal altogether, but you can safely make each of these people a profile with sources.

Comments

So sorry, my kids decided sleep was bad for the day, so I've been doing my research all day around their needs LOL. I'm staying up to finish that, so I'll add what I can find now.

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Also, thank you so much for that information :)

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No problem, sorry if I came off tert! I like helping people but having to dive to get sources that are mentioned in a question but not on their profile is a little bit of a personal pet peeve. I have no idea how you could get the ancestors for William Younger and Elizabeth Dougherty at this point, you might have to hit up local historians or see if you can find books on the genealogy for their origin counties and towns.

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No worries, I should have done that, you're right. I'm slowly working through the ancestors to move over sources from Ancestry. Once I've got that done, I can try to link to the sources on family search. I'm still figuring out my work flow and so I'm not very fast at the moment (here). I am quick on Ancestry LOL. I've got the ancestors for William and Elizabeth, but SOURCING them properly is where I'm struggling LOL. Like 20 people on several sites all seem to agree who the ancestors are, but I can't find sources anywhere. I'll just have to keep digging I guess ;)

Answer 2

Yes, without those census years without the family being listed aren't much help.

Sometimes I take the census data, say an 1830 or 1840 and make notes about how many boys or girls there were for each age group. If say, a family has a boy in the 10-15 year age group in a year and you can match it up to some other information, you can gather some good clues to point you in a direction for some actual evidence.

Comments

Good idea, thank you. I wasn't really sure how to handle those years.