Showing posts with label Bishop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bishop. Show all posts

Saturday, December 28, 2024

Kip's Castle and Another Bishop

Kip's Castle is a large mansion lying in Verona and Montclair in Essex County, New Jersey. It is remarkable because it was built in the style of a Norman castle, atop First Mountain, with spectacular views of the New York City skyline. The mansion is 9,000 square feet and sits atop eleven acres of land.


I visited in December of 2024. My pictures will not do this marvel justice, so here is a video from YouTube.


Before the castle became part of the Essex County Park System, various people and businesses occupied the structure.

The original occupants were Frederic Ellsworth Kip (1862-1938) and his wife, Charlotte Bishop Williams (1864-1926). They were married in New York City in 1884. They had one son, Ruloff Frederic Kip (1887-1953)

Marriage record page 1
Frederick Ellsworth Kip and Charlotte Bishop Williams
married October 15, 1884 in Manhattan, New York

Marriage record page 2
Frederick Ellsworth Kip and Charlotte Bishop Williams
married October 15, 1884 in Manhattan, New York

Historic vital records for New York City are available online.

By 1910, the family had moved into their new castle, as reflected in the 1910 census, at Crestmount Road in Montclair (now Crestmont Road in Verona). With Frederic and Charlotte was their son, Ruloff, age 22, and Charlotte's maternal aunt, Julia Bishop Ford (1837-1921). Four servants also were listed in this household.


In the 1915 state census, this home was listed at a different address, 66 Highland Avenue. This is still the same structure. Entrances are on Crestmont Road and Highland Avenue.


The property of Kip's Castle touches two streets-
Crestmont Road in Verona and Highland Avenue in Montclair.
This is a modern-day map.


Charlotte's middle name, Bishop, caught my attention. I figured this could be a surname, and since I have Bishop ancestors, I delved into Charlotte's ancestry.

The parents of Charlotte Bishop Williams were Charlotte Louisa Ford (1841-1897) and William White Williams (1838-1893). Charlotte and her parents are buried in Cedar Lawn Cemetery in Paterson, Passaic County, New Jersey.

Charlotte's maternal grandmother was a Bishop- Mary Polly (1807-1867), married to Alfred Ford (1805-1866). They were buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Morristown.

In August 2024 I visited Evergreen Cemetery to visit the resting place of my fourth great grandfather, Reuben Bishop (1805-1856). Transcriptions of stones are available at the Morristown and Morris Township Library. The cemetery, however, will not provide information.

Mary Polly Bishop was a daughter of Susannah Scofield (1773-1852) and William Bishop (1768-1844). This couple and some of their children were buried at First Presbyterian Churchyard, Morristown. They were from Stamford, Fairfield County, Connecticut and moved to Morristown, New Jersey probably in the 1820s.

Bishop family plot
First Presbyterian Churchyard
Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey
Photographed October 20, 2016 by J Lutter



Am I related to William Bishop and Susan Scofield? I do not know yet. I have not found a connection, other than residence in Morristown. 

Monday, October 7, 2024

The Unknown Origins of Ruben Bishop 1805-1856

Who are the parents of Reuben Levy Bishop, my fourth great grandfather? He died in Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey in 1856, age 52.


In the prior post I demonstrated why the father of Reuben is likely not Stratton Bishop (1760-1823) of Bridgeton in Cumberland County, New Jersey.

Reuben Bishop married Susan C Bell in the 1830s. Her parents were John Bell and Jane Bockoven- according to her 1881 marriage record to Edward deGroot.

From this union five children have been identified:

1. Mary Jane Bishop, born about 1836, died in 1910. Married Edward Skinner in 1854.

2. Emma Louisa Bishop, born about 1839, died in 1888. Married Silas Totten in 1856.

3. Julia Bishop, born about 1841, died in 1902. Married George Joseph Ward and William Condon.

4. William Reuben Bishop (my third great grandfather), born about 1842, died in 1915. Married Susan Jane Marsh.

5. George F Bishop, born in 1848, died 1919. Married Mary E Frances Garrabrant.


In the 1840 census, "Rheubin" Bishop was enumerated in Morris Township, Morris County, New Jersey. Two adults, one male and one female, resided with two female children under age 5. These were probably Mary Jane, born around 1836, and Emma Louisa, born around 1839. 

1840 United States Federal Census
Morris Township, Morris County, New Jersey

In 1850, Reuben Bishop was enumerated in Morris Township with his wife, Susan Bell, and all five of their children.

Reuben Bishop, age 8, is William Reuben Bishop


Register of Marriages and Deaths, Morris County, New Jersey, 1848-1867.
Volume Z.

When Reuben Bishop died in 1856, New Jersey was not issuing individual certificates. A record of his death was entered as a single line in a ledger book. (This ledger book, Volume Z, appears at Ancestry in the collection titled New Jersey, U.S., Death Index, 1848-1878, 1901-2017.) His occupation was listed as Hostler. This was someone who either tended to horses or transported cargo.

His birthplace could hold the best clue. Reuben was born in "one of the Eastern States." Hmm. So not New Jersey? We will return to this.

Places of burial are not listed on this page in the death ledger. A cemetery is also omitted from the death notice in the local paper. A possible match is in Evergreen Cemetery in Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey.

findagrave.com/memorial/173374681/

The date of death is off by one day. Curiously, the burial date was years later in 1873.

I called and visited Evergreen Cemetery. The records, if any exist, cannot be shown to me. The staff did kindly bring me to this site in Section O. There is no marker for Rueben Bishop.

Site of burial of "Rueben" Bishop in 1873, next to Jane Totten.
Evergreen Cemetery, Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey.
The grounds are beautifully maintained with historical and military sections throughout.
The records, however, are not available to the public.

I wrote to the creator and manager of this memorial on Find A Grave, but have yet to receive responses. How did this person access this record? Where was Reuben from 1856, when he died, until 1873, when he was buried at this location? (I submitted updates to other memorials managed by this person. The changes were made on September 14, 2024. Thus, someone is monitoring the account.)

Materials for Evergreen Cemetery are available for in-person use at the Morristown and Morris Township Library in the Caroline Rose Foster North Jersey History and Genealogy Center. Among the items are maps, section maps, transcriptions of gravestones, and published books.

Section map of Evergreen Cemetery, Morristown, New Jersey
available at the Morristown and Morris Township Library



Section O map, Evergreen Cemetery, Morristown, New Jersey.
Ruben Bishop owned plot 53.


What is lacking in these materials are records of burials. They might only be at Evergreen Cemetery, which forbids access. Because Rueben Bishop has no stone, he does not appear in the transcriptions of stones.

I need to know where he was originally buried. This could reveal family connections. Why was he moved to (or within) Evergreen Cemetery in 1876?



Two other Bishops, William and Reuben, lived in Morris County.

1- William Bishop (1768-1844) and his wife, Susan Scofield (1773-1852), were buried at First Presbyterian Churchyard in Morristown. They were from Connecticut.

Bishop family grave at First Presbyterian Churchyard,
Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey.


William Bishop and Susannah Scofield married March 31, 1796
in Stamford, Fairfield County, Connecticut.
Transcription.
Collection at Ancestry

Was my Reuben from Connecticut also? Is this why his death record listed his birth as "one of the Eastern States?"

My Reuben named a son William.


2- An earlier Reuben Bishop of Morris County.

In 1829 Reuben Bishop sold property in Chatham to Vincent Boisaubin and Dr Henry Prentiss Green.


Reuben Bishop appeared on an 1814 tax list in Chatham. He owned one horse.




3- Levi Bishop and family were enumerated in the 1855 New Jersey State census in Chatham. Only heads of household are named. In this residence were an adult male and female, two female children, and two male children.

I wonder if this is my Reuben Levy Bishop listed by his middle name.





Next research strategies:

---Continue searching for records in Morris County and neighboring counties in New Jersey.

---Research these Bishop families in Connecticut.

---Mine the DNA matches



Sunday, October 6, 2024

Stratton Bishop, father of Reuben, died 1823

Reuben Levy Bishop was my fourth great grandfather. He died in Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey in 1856 at the age of 52.

I have found no documentation about his possible parents.

A father of Reuben Bishop is suggested at Ancestry: Stratton Bishop, who lived in Bridgeton, Cumberland County, New Jersey from about 1760 until 1823, when his will was proven.

Family tree showing Reuben Bishop with possible father named Stratton Bishop.
Possible ancestors appear in yellow boxes in family trees at Ancestry.


In Stratton's will, he left a life estate to his wife, Lydia. He left land in Bridgeton to his two daughters, Ruth, wife of Samuel Souders, and Lorana (1781-1863), wife of Hosea Nichols (1780-1849).

He also left land to the son of his son Reuben, "if he returns from Europe," and the two sons of his other son, John. The first names of these grandsons were not provided in Stratton's will.

Viewable at FamilySearch.org


I do not think that Reuben, the son of Stratton Bishop, is the same person as my fourth great grandfather, Reuben Levy Bishop.

My Reuben was born around 1804/1805. He was likely not old enough to have a son in 1823.

I have not been able to trace the sons of Stratton Bishop, but his daughters appeared in other records, from which we can glean their birth years. Lorana and Ruth were born in the 1780s. We do not know if Stratton's sons were from a subsequent marriage, but they were both old enough to have their own children when Stratton wrote his will. This makes it unlikely that Stratton's sons Reuben and John were born past 1800.

Stratton and Lydia have memorial pages on Find A Grave
at the First Baptist Church Cemetery in Bridgeton, Cumberland County, New Jersey.


Typed transcripts of Cohansey Baptist Church are viewable on Ancestry. Stratton Bishop died March 14, 1823. Lydia, his wife, died a few months later in October, thus ending her life estate and freeing the land to transfer to the grandsons- subject to the ten year time limit extended to Reuben's unnamed son to return from Europe and assert his claim.

"I give and bequeath the said house and lot of land above described at the decease of my wife in the manner following viz to the son of Reuben Bishop my oldest son the back half part of said lot provided he shall within ten years from the death of my said wife come to this country he being at this time in Europe and take possession of the same but if he shall neglect so to take possession of the said premises then it is my will and I do order that the beforementioned back half part of said lot shall go to the sons of my son John Bishop to be equally divided between them share and share alike."


Three of Stratton's grandsons, John, Henry, and Stratton Bishop, inherited the property. A guardian, Daniel M Woodruff, was appointed in 1831 after an action was brought by their uncle, Hosea Nichols. They were under the age of fourteen.

In a deed dated June 5, 1832, their guardian, Daniel M Woodruff, sold the property to Hosea Nichols. It is not clarified if they are sons of Reuben, John, or both. These are probably children of John, not Reuben because of the exception noted in the wording: "subject however to the lawful claim of --- Bishop, if any he has of in or to the same . . ." Most unfortunately this other grandson is not named. It would seem that this grandson of Stratton Bishop either remained in Europe during the ten years following Lydia's death, or he was unaware that he needed to reach out to the Orphan's Court in Cumberland County, New Jersey.

The land conveyed in 1832 is the same piece of land described in Stratton Bishop's will in 1823. There was no division to convey the "back half part" to Reuben's son, residing in Europe.

Sketch of Stratton Bishop's land described in wills and deeds.
1 chain = 100 links = 66 feet


On the west side of Cohansey Creek and bounded as followeth:

Beginning on the south side of main street at the North west corner of Philip Souders lot
thence bounding on the same South twenty degrees west five chains to a corner
thence bounding on George Burgins lot North sixty nine degrees and fifty minutes west fifty seven links to a corner
thence north twenty degrees east four chains and sixty two links to a corner
thence south sixty nine degrees and fifty minutes east seven links to a corner
thence north twenty degrees east thirty eight links to main street aforesaid
thence bounding thereon south sixty nine degrees and fifty minutes east fifty links to the place of beginning containing forty four perches and seventeen hundredths of a square perch of land.


I have not found records on my Reuben Levy Bishop that indicate any ties to Europe. Aside from the name Reuben, the only other similarity is that Reuben Levy Bishop's son, George (1848-1919), named a daughter Lorena (1880-1973).

Thus I do not see, at this point, that Reuben Levy Bishop of Morris County is the same Reuben Bishop, son of Stratton Bishop, of Cumberland County.

The hunt for the parents of Reuben Levy Bishop continues.


Monday, June 6, 2022

Locating the Death Certificate of Jennie Bishop in 1957

My great great grandmother, Minnie Caroline Bishop (1866-1910), had a sister named Jennie Maud Bishop (1878-1957). They were buried in the same plot and share a gravestone at Evergreen Cemetery in Hillside, Union County, New Jersey. (The cemetery stretches across the Township of Hillside and the City of Elizabeth. This grave lies in Hillside.)

Gravestone at Evergreen Cemetery in Hillside, New Jersey.
Children of William Reuben Bishop and Susan Jane Marsh.
Transcription:
William F. January 19, 1973 - March 20, 1895.
Mabel E. September 3, 1868 - April 17, 1907.
Minnie E. Wife of Charles E Cook. February 19, 1866 - March 25, 1910.
Jennie Maud. 1878 - 1957.

Evergreen Cemetery's records are available for viewing.

Picture of plot listing at Evergreen Cemetery owned by William R Bishop.
William F Bishop, age 22, buried March 24, 1895.
Mabel E Bishop, age 37, buried April 21, 1907.
Minnie Caroline Cook [nee Bishop], age 44, buried March 28, 1910.
William Bishop, age 72, buried April 29, 1915.
Susan Jane Bishop [nee Marsh], age 83, buried January 21, 1932.
Eugene T Bishop, age 60, buried May 4, 1936.
Miss Jennie M Bishop, age 74, buried July 5, 1957.
Lafon Allen Foster, age 57, buried March 7, 1964.
Bessie Foster [nee Gulick], age 54, buried March 7, 1964.
Bessie Gulick [nee Bishop], age 85, buried June 9, 1972.

When the 1957 death certificates became available at the New Jersey State Archives, I looked for Jennie Maud Bishop's record. She was buried in July 5, 1957. The index for death records has an entry for Jennie J Bishop, died in August of 1957. Close and worth a look. (Note: if you cannot travel to the Archives, you can request a copy from the Department of Health, but the cause of death will be blocked. Although the Archives holds the record, it is not authorize to release it via mail because it is too recent.)

New Jersey index of deaths
Available online at Ancestry.com or NewJerseyDeathIndex.com

Good that I did look at this death certificate. This is not my Jennie. This is the record for Jennie Josephine Bishop, born Tier, wife of John Michael Bishop. She was born in Jersey City in 1884. She died in Long Branch on August 4, 1957 and was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington.

Death certificate of Jennie Josephine Bishop.
Born June 15, 1884 in Jersey City.
Died August 4, 1957 in Long Branch, Monmouth County, New Jersey.

I remembered how I recently found a death record in Florida for a great great great grandmother. I checked Florida's death index. A possible match for Jennie appeared.

Online Florida death index at Ancestry.com

The turnaround time for a record request is only a few weeks and the cost is a mere $5. (Go Florida!)

This is the death record for my great great grandaunt, Jennie Bishop. She died on July 2, 1957, age 74, in Daytona Beach, Volusia County, Florida. She had uterine cancer.

Death certificate of Jennie Maud Bishop.
Born October 25, 1882 in Newark, New Jersey.
Died July 2, 1957 in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Although Jennie's death certificate has her date of birth as 1882, this cannot be. Jennie was enumerated in the 1880 census as age 2.

1880 federal census. 29 Cross Street, Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.
Wm R Bishop, age 37; locomotive engineer.
Susan, wife, age 32.
Minnie, daughter, age 14.
Mabel, daughter, age 11.
Emma, daughter, age 9.
Willie, son, age 7.
Eugene, son, age 5.
Jennie, daughter, age 2.
Georgie, daughter, age 8 months.

Jennie's sister, my great great grandmother Minnie, also died of uterine cancer, but at an earlier age. Jennie was the informant on that record.

Death certificate of Minnie Caroline Cook, born Bishop.
Born February 19, 1866 in Newark.
Died March 25, 1910 at 224 North 3rd Street, Newark.

Why did Jennie move to Florida? Was she staying with any family? I have not found a marriage record for her.


Sunday, October 7, 2018

Photograph from 100 Years Ago

A cousin surfaced in the DNA database at 23andMe and kindly shared a picture of my great great great grandmother, Susan Jane Marsh.

This picture was probably taken around 1910.
The child, Bessie Gulick, was born May 19, 1908 in East Orange, Essex County, New Jersey.
Susan Jane Marsh married William Reuben Bishop.
My line descends from their daughter, Minnie Caroline Bishop.
The newly discovered cousin descends from another daughter, Bessie, pictured above.

The bearer of this century-old image is a second cousin, once removed of my father. Their common ancestors were William Reuben Bishop (1842-1915) and Susan Jane Marsh (1848-1932).





The shared DNA ranges from 49 centimorgans to 105 centimorgans among my father and his three siblings. This is within the expected amount for second cousins, once removed.




Two of the segments can be attributed to the parents of Susan Jane Marsh: Eliakim Marsh (1816-1881) or Susan Long (1819-1882). How do I know this? Because of the DNA test of a descendant of Susan's sister, Elizabeth Marsh (1835-1914).

The rest of the segments can belong to either William Bishop or Susan Marsh. The relationships of the other DNA matches on these segments will demonstrate the origins of the segments.



Sunday, June 3, 2018

Enhanced Photographs

This tip is from a FaceBook group for New York City Genealogy. (Great resources for research are on FaceBook.)

FamilySearch.org may have better versions of passport photographs than Ancestry.com's database, so check it out. Sometimes these pictures are the only available images of a deceased relative.

In the example below, the image on the right is a passport photo of Eugene Totten Bishop from Ancestry. The application was signed in 1918. On the left is the same image from Family Search, revealing more detail.

Eugene Totten Bishop (1876-1936) was my father's great granduncle.
He was born in Newark, New Jersey to William Reuben Bishop and Susan Jane Marsh.
I have not found a marriage or children for him.
He died in Newark and is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Hillside, New Jersey.

Eugene resembles a man in a Bishop photo album I acquired from eBay years ago. I do not know if this is my family or not.




Friday, December 30, 2016

Susan Bell and her Marriages

A DNA match of my father's contacted me.  She and my father share a small segment of DNA.  The relation could be anywhere from a third cousin to very distant.  She is adopted and without a tree.  The shared segment is on an unassigned area of my father's genome, meaning that the ancestral source is unknown for this piece of my father's DNA.

Recently a closer match appeared for her with shared DNA in the second to fourth cousin range.  All three people- my father, the DNA cousin, and her new close match- all match one another on this original small segment.  This new DNA match has a robust family tree with roots in New Jersey.

The idea is that if the connection between my father and this new DNA match can be identified, then the adopted DNA cousin will have a narrow branch to work with for her connection to us.

Spoiler alert:  This mystery has not been solved (yet).

In viewing this other person's family tree, the surname Sayre popped out.  My father's third great grandparents were Reuben Bishop (1805-1856) and Susan.  Reuben died in Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey.  Susan remarried to Enos Littel Whitehead (1804 - 1880) in 1860, a few months after the federal census.

A death certificate for Susan Whitehead, died September 9, 1890 in Plainfield, Union County, New Jersey, provided her parents as Abner or Asher Ayers and Sarah.  No marriage record was located for Susan Ayers to Reuben Bishop.  After seeing Sayre in the family tree of the DNA cousin, I thought that maybe the name could be Sayre, not Ayers, and reviewed Susan.







Reviewing the records on Susan, I realized that I had no other records revealing her full name.  Her marriage record to Enos L Whitehead in Newark on September 7, 1860 did not include the names of the parents for the bride or groom.





Enos Littel Whitehead died February 2, 1880 in Newark, right before the 1880 census.

The obituary for the Susan Whitehead who died in 1890 gave her husband's name as Frazee Whitehead.  I was not too concerned.  Next to this obituary was an advertisement for Marsh and Ayers.  Susan's son, William Reuben Bishop, married Susan Jane Marsh.  Clearly the right path, yes?


No.  In seeking Susan and Enos Whitehead in the 1870 census, I found Susan and Frazee Whitehead.  Maybe Enos used the name Frazee?  Expanding the search into other census years produced a couple named Susan and Frazee Whitehead, who lived for decades in Plainfield, not Morristown or Newark.

So the death certificate for Susan Whitehead, died 1890 in Plainfield, was for Susan Ayers, wife of Frazee Whitehead, and not for my Susan, wife of Reuben Bishop and Enos Whitehead.




A visit to Evergreen Cemetery in Elizabeth, Union County, New Jersey produced the record of the plot of Enos Whitehead.  No Susan.


Buried in Evergreen Cemetery are Susan and Reuben Bishop's son, William Reuben Bishop (1843-1915), William's wife, Susan Jane Marsh (1848-1932), and Susan's parents, Eliakim Marsh (1816-1881) and Susan Long (1819-1882).  Somehow I noticed Eliakim's worn stone.  He is buried near Enos Whitehead.  I could not find a marker for Enos on this trip.



So what happened to my Susan and who were her parents?  I made a list of all her children to locate their marriage and death records in the New Jersey State Archives in hopes that Susan's name was included in one of these records.


In the meantime, I googled Susan and Enos.  I found a blurb about Susan C Bishop in the History of the First Presbyterian Church, Morristown, New Jersey.  A third husband was named:  E P DeGroot.


Mary Jane Bishop (born about 1836 in New Jersey) was a daughter of Susan C Bell and Reuben Bishop.



The online marriage index at FamilySearch.org listed a marriage between Edward P DeGroot and Susan C Bell on February 14, 1880 in Newark.  Enos died February 2, 1880, making Susan eligible to remarry, though the year could have been 1881 because this index can be off by one year.





The record is housed at the New Jersey State Archives.  Susan C Bell married Edward P Degroot on February 14, 1881 (not 1880) in Newark.  Susan's parents were listed as John Bell and Jane Bockover.



Using the name Susan DeGroot, a death certificate was located.  Susan died March 1, 1888 in Newark.  Burial was at Fairmount Cemetery in Newark.  Note that the names of her parents are not on the death record.  If she had not remarried in 1881, the names of her parents may not have ever been known.



Susan's estate was probated in Morris County, New Jersey, which is not online at FamilySearch.org like the other twenty counties.  A trip to the courthouse provided documentation that Susan DeGroot was the mother of the Bishop children:

1- William R[euben] Bishop
2- Mary (wife of Edward Skinner)
3- Emma (wife of Silas Totten)
4- Julia (wife of George Ward)
5- George Bishop





A trip Fairmount Cemetery in Newark, New Jersey provided Susan's burial records.  She was buried in the plot of her daughter, Julia Bishop(1842-1902), wife of George Ward (1837-1889) and later William Condon.  The plot was purchased in 1866 for the burial of Ida C Ward (1859-1866), the six year old daughter of Julia Bishop and George Ward.



Susan has no marker.  There are stones for eight of the fourteen people buried in this plot.




Susan Bell's ancestral branch can be expanded with the revelation of her parents' names.  This may or may not be the branch in common with the DNA cousins, but each possibility must be explored.