Kathryn Smith

Ancestors

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Kathryn Smith [send private message]

(Note that these category pages are for geographic areas that I have a connection to through my ancestors.)

Please pardon the mess! Under construction!!

If THIS page looks in decent shape, then please pardon the other messy pages that I'm profile manager for!!! I'm trying to make things look nice -- adding photos, biographies, and cleaning up the messes left behind by GEDCOM imports while working my way UP the tree. As always in all things genealogical, this is a work-in-progress.

Surname List (All 32 Great-great-great grandparents!)

The names below are links to the profile page of my closest relative of that surname -- no closer than my great-grandparents though!

(Father's side)

BARBER (Hunterdon Co., NJ) Eva C. (Barber) Smith

HOFFMAN/HUFFMAN (Hunterdon Co., NJ. -- My brick wall, Catharine Reed, married twice - once to a HOffman and once to an HUffman! I'm descended from the HOffman, but of course there are more records related to the HUFFMAN and his ancestors and descendants!) Elizabeth (Huffman) Naylor

LANTERMAN (Warren Co., NJ) Sarah Catherine (Lanterman) Meyers

MEYERS (Bucks Co., PA < Warren Co. and Hunterdon Co., NJ) Alberta (Meyers) Suydam

NAYLOR (South Jersey(?) < Hunterdon Co., NJ) Emma Jane (Naylor) Sherwood

POLHEMUS (Somerset Co., NJ) Mary Disborough (Polhemus) Wyckoff

PRIEST (Middlesex Co., NJ) Catherine (Priest) Suydam

ROSECRANS (Unsure of exact spelling. This family lived in or near Albany County, New York in the 1860's. I know virtually nothing about this line, except the surname and general location.) Mother of John Frederick Sherwood

SHERWOOD (Albany Co., NY < Hunterdon Co., NJ) Edith May (Sherwood) Smith

SMITH (Bucks Co., PA < Hunterdon Co., NJ) Charles Austin Smith

SMITH (a different line -- Knowlton, Warren Co., NJ) Elizabeth (Smith) Lanterman

SNOVER (Warren Co., NJ) Margaret Ann (Snover) Lanterman

SUYDAM (Somerset Co., NJ < Brooklyn, NY) Robert Mildred Suydam

WEISEL (Bucks Co., PA < Warren Co., NJ) Mary Jane (Weisel) Meyers

WILLIAMS (Bucks Co., PA) Ann Eliza (Williams) Smith

WYCKOFF (Somerset Co., NJ < Fulton Co., IL) Jane H. "Jennie" (Wyckoff) Suydam

(Mother's side) -- I'm not actively researching these lines, but my mother may be. These families were mostly in Hunterdon County, NJ; Bucks County, PA; and Washington County, ME in the 1800's.

BUTLER (Hunterdon Co., NJ < Bucks Co., PA) Rachel (Butler) Conover

CONOVER (Bucks Co., PA < Hunterdon Co., NJ) Hilda Gertrude (Conover) Holcombe

HARCOURT (Hunterdon Co., NJ < Mercer Co., NJ) Mary (Harcourt) Payran

HART (Cornwall, Eng. < Mercer Co., NJ) Elizabeth Jane (Hart) Payran

HOLCOMBE (Bucks Co., PA < Hunterdon Co., NJ) William Lester Holcombe

HOUSEWORTH (Bucks Co., PA) Hannah Mariah (Houseworth) Swartz

ISBELL (Cornwall, Eng. < Mercer Co., NJ) Elizabeth (Isbell) Hart

JONES (Washington Co., ME) Caroline Lewis (Jones) Thaxter

KITCHEN/KITCHIN (Hunterdon Co., NJ) Alice (Kitchen) Holcombe

PAYRAN** (Philadelphia, PA < Mercer Co., NJ) Fannie Olivia (Payran) Thompson

SCHOPPE (Washington Co., ME) Annie Beal (Schoppe) Thompson

STACKHOUSE (Bucks Co., PA < Hunterdon Co., NJ) Amanda Catharine (Stackhouse) Holcombe

SWARTZ (Bucks Co., PA) Maggie (Swartz) Conover

THAXTER (Washington Co., ME) Sophia Gleason (Thaxter) Thompson

THOMPSON (Washington Co., ME) George Lewis Thompson

**A line of particular interest to my mother. The immigrant ancestors were French Huguenots, and my mother has LOTS of information on this line of the family! She has traced them back to our immigrant ancestor, Etienne Payran's birthplace in Mariendorf, Hesse Kassel, Germany and also has traced many of said Stephen Payran's descendants in the US!

Ancestral "Hot Spots"

Many of my ancestors lived in the following areas in the 1800's:

Hunterdon County, New Jersey

Stockton**

Delaware Township

Lambertville

Warren County, New Jersey

Belvidere**

Knowlton

Blairstown

Somerset County, New Jersey

Six Mile Run

Middlebush

Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Tinicum

Erwinna

Nockamixon

Buckingham

**See category pages for the starred locations.**

I'm concentrating on my father's side of the family while my mother (another amateur genealogist) works on her side. (It's working well for us although I'm getting to know my father's side of the tree MUCH better than the other half of my tree!) I've inherited all of the genealogical research that my mother conducted several decades ago including some death certificates, lots of handwritten family group sheets, some interview notes, a 1979 audio recording of my paternal great-grandmother's cousin, a small collection of funeral cards (all from the early 1900's in the area of Stockton, NJ -- no clue if the deceased were ALL relatives), and evidence of several generations of pack-rats in the family! Thankfully, my mother conducted several extensive, informal interviews with my paternal grandmother, who was an incredible source of knowledge about both her family and her husband's family. (She was also the person who got my mother in touch with her late mother-in-law's cousin, for which we are all forever grateful!) Now, I'm trying to transfer all of the papers, photos, detritus, etc. to a digital format while still researching new leads.

Nagging Brick Walls (or slowly-crumbling brick walls)

Note: Eventually, I'll put links here to the profile pages of these ancestors. I may move these details to the individual profile pages, but they're staying here at least until I get more biographies written and cleaning up done. (Ugh! What a mess!!!!)

The names at the top of the list are lines that I've been working on more recently. If someone's at the bottom of the list, then I probably haven't been working on them in awhile. (Note: This is the equivalent of me talking aloud and compiling information for analysis. If you're able to contribute anything, have a theory, or want to ask a question, please do!! All contributions are welcome.)

WARNING! I am NOT known for my brevity!!

Elizabeth (Smith) Lanterman

Before I got distracted by Wiki Tree, this was the line that I was actively researching. I've been trying to untangle the mess of Smiths that were in the Knowlton/Blairstown area of Warren County, New Jersey circa 1850-1860. (Yikes!)

Elizabeth's husband, George Snover Lanterman was of strictly German descent. There was a well-established German community in the area with lots of intermarriage between German families such as Snover, Lanterman, Wintermute, etc. Since these surnames are already in my family tree anyway, I've begun tracking the LARGE Snover and Lanterman extended families (especially since there were several Snovers who also married Smiths.)

In the 1860 census in Knowlton, Warren, NJ, Elizabeth and George Lanterman were living next-door to a Peter S. Smith, his probable wife and children, and a George Smith whom I believe is Elizabeth and Peter's father! I know where all of these people are buried (and I believe that I even have the right Smith's graves identified!) However, I'm lacking some sort of birth and/or baptismal record for Elizabeth. I originally suspected that she would have been baptized in the Knowlton Presbyterian church, and I know that there are records for that church going back to sometime in the 1700's. However, now I suspect that there might NOT be any baptismal or birth record for her. The state of New Jersey did not require birth records at the time of her birth, and it is possible that she was not baptized as a child. (I have not looked for a baptismal record for her as an adult. If she was baptized as an adult, it would probably also have been in this same church.)

I have no clue of who Elizabeth's mother might have been (unless her father was George AND said George was the same George Smith buried next to his wife Margaretta in Knowlton Presbyterian Church cemetery!) -- Nevertheless, I'm fairly certain that Elizabeth's mother was deceased by 1850. I had been hoping that Elizabeth's parents names were recorded on some paperwork, somewhere, related to her marriage. However, I think I've seen about three different sources (marriage registers, etc.) on Family Search, and NONE of them have her parents' names on them!!!

I'm hoping that my next visit (yet-to-be-planned) to the Rutgers University archives will help. (Especially since I've been actively researching this line and know more now than I did the last time I was there!) Still, I think that my best bet is to get my hands on a copy of her obituary in the Belvidere, NJ newspaper. I'm hoping that it gives some information about her parents and siblings, not just her late husband and surviving children and grandchildren. (I can hope, can't I?)

John Meyers

There were LOTS of Meyers living in Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1849 when John Meyers married Mary Jane Weisel. They were married across the river in Hunterdon County, NJ, but I CANNOT find their marriage recorded in any of the NJ or NJ County Marriage Indexes! I found a report of their marriage in The Hunterdon County Democrat, but it only gives their names (slightly misspelled, making it hard to find even THIS), date and location of the marriage, name of the pastor, and their residence. It does NOT give the names of John Meyers parents!

I've calculated John Meyers' birth date based on his age at death and date of death (which were engraved on his tombstone.) From the censuses, I know that he was born in Pennsylvania. Otherwise, I know nothing of his life before marriage.

Edit: I now have a suspicion of who John Meyers' parents were, but I have more circumstantial evidence than anything else! I found a Bucks County Will for the man whom I believe to be his father that seems to name the children in order with a John Meyers at the top of the list. (In the 1850 census, ALL of these other children are in their parents household, except for John.) However, there is nothing to conclusively prove that he's MY John Meyers! I have a digital image of the burial registry for Belvidere, NJ that I believe records the death of MY John Meyers and gives his parents names. However, there are inconsistencies with his age at death and date of death. This does, however, give his parents names -- which I was initially reading as Sarah and Martha, then Saul and Martha, and I now think are Sam'l and Martha. I still need to get my hands on John Meyers obituary from the Belvidere newspaper. If I'm right about who his parents were, then both his mother and several siblings were still living (and even in the same general geographical area of NJ) at the time of his death! With any luck, there will be more genealogical info there.

John Frederick Sherwood --

Born Abt. May 1853 - Greene or Albany Co., NY

Died 25 Feb 1907 - Jersey City, Hudson, NJ

I've worked HARD cracking this brick wall, and it's almost crumbled! Previously, his life before marriage was a mystery to me, largely hindered by incorrect information on his death certificate about his parents' names. (They were definitely NOT Frederick and Mary...Not unless he was adopted!) My paternal grandmother told my mother that he was "of the Westerlo, New York Sherwoods." This was probably information gleaned from her mother-in-law, as her husband never knew his maternal grandfather. (John F. Sherwood died before my grandfather was born.)

I'm fairly confident that I've correctly identified his parents, siblings, and grandparents. However, I'm delaying the addition of all of these relatives here because of a lack of definitive proof. I'm looking for a marriage record of his parents (probably in or near Albany County, New York) and a birth/christening record for him (same location.)

Edward Naylor --

Yes, he fought in the Civil War. However, I know NOTHING about his life before his marriage to Elizabeth Huffman -- except that he was born in New Jersey in 1818. When interviewed in 1979, his last surviving grandchild (my great-grandmother's cousin, Lillian) thought that his family was from South Jersey. However, she never knew any of his siblings or heard about his other family members. (Granted, her grandfather died about thirty years before she was born!) I've "heard rumors" of who his parents were and when/where they were married, but that's about it. There were other Naylor families in Delaware Township, but I can't tell to which ones (if any) he was related.

Henrietta (Warford) Barber --

Her death certificate gives her parents names as "David and Mary Ann Warford." I believe that this is David (van) Rensellear (sp?) Warford and Mary Ann Cowell. I found a book of Warford (and related families) genealogy at the Hunterdon County Historical Society. It had a list of David and Mary Ann (Cowell) Warford's POSSIBLE children -- but no Henrietta! (If she belonged to this family, she probably was their oldest child. Note that I also CANNOT find her in the 1850 census before her marriage to Charles D. Barber.)

Cultural Heritage

The majority of my ancestors were of German, Dutch, and/or English descent.

My primary Smith line is comprised (mostly) of birthright Quakers who followed this religion from about 1720 (if not earlier) to about 1870. These Quaker Smiths mostly stayed in Bucks County, Pennsylvania for about a hundred and fifty years, so it's much easier to find the Smiths I'm looking for than it might otherwise be. (Yes, the Quakers were well-known for their record-keeping, but working on Smith family genealogy tends to be daunting nonetheless!) Also, I seem to be descended from a long line of "packrats." I have in my possession (unfortunately in not-so-great-condition) George Smith's 1804 Smith Family Bible! (I believe that he was given this Bible when he married in 1804.) Birth records, etc. are mostly related to his descendants through Jonas, John Williams, and Charles Austin's lines.) So, if you think that you might be related to the Smiths of Tinicum and Buckingham, PA circa 1804, give me a shout. There were some VERY interesting Smiths (and Smith descendants) who were active in the abolitionist movement of the 1850's, several who were involved in educational reform, and a female Smith who was both an early female physician AND a pioneer settler of Topeka, Kansas!

A Good, Old-Fashioned Mystery

(Some of those nagging questions/mysteries that arise from genealogical research) I plan to add most questions (such as "Why did this person move here?") to the appropriate profile pages. These are more general mysteries that may be related to a potentially good lead.

The wedding guest-lists for the two Suydam weddings in the early 1900's in Brooklyn, NY (Have I identified the correct Mrs. Cortelyou and Harold Cortelyou? Are there any other Suydam relatives on those lists?)

The correspondence list, probably from Jane (Wyckoff) Suydam, (especially the "Mary Smith" and "Mrs. Janet Suydam" mysteries)

Sources

• First-hand information. Entered by Kathryn Smith at registration.