Family Tree Repair: Hyser and Preston

While working on a branch of my Hyser family, I noticed that online family trees had a different year and place of death for Adelaide Hyser, wife of Sherwood Preston.  Adelaide was a sister of my father's 3rd great grandfather, Louman Hyser (1826-1895).

In the 1855 New York State census, Adelaide and husband lived in Catskill, Greene County, with two children.  In the 1860 federal census, Adelaide was living with her father and three children, minus the husband, in Catskill.  Adelaide relocated to Jersey City after the 1870 census.

My source for Adelaide's death was from a compiled genealogy of the Rockefeller family.  In this work, Adelaide died in Jersey City, [Hudson County], New Jersey on February 6, 1907.

Online trees had the year of death as 1908.  Places included Jersey City, Union Hill in Morris County, and Union Hill in Hudson County.

The source for this date and these places of death was from an application by Irving Sherwood Preston (a great grandson of Adelaide) to join the Sons of the American Revolution under the patriot Simon Rockefeller.  In viewing the actual application [database at Ancestry.com], you can see that the date given for Adelaide's death was February 6, 1908, but no place of death was given.

The compiled genealogy and the SAR application are both derivative sources with questionable reliability.  I needed the actual death certificate.  Fortunately, I copied many years of Preston deaths because I am a Preston descendant on my mother's side of the family.  The last Preston in my line was Anna Preston (1890-1921).  I have not found a relation between my great grandmother Anna Preston and Adelaide Hyser's husband Sherwood Preston.

According to the death certificate, Adelaide M Preston, daughter of Peter Hyzer and Ella [Fritz], died in Jersey City on February 6, 1908.

Her obituary appeared in the newspaper Jersey Journal, viewable at GenealogyBank.com (pay site).  A textual search for "Preston" did not yield this result.  I searched by date.

Burial was in Catskill.  Adelaide's father, brother, and other family members were buried at Catskill Village Cemetery.  I don't see a grave listing for Adelaide online.

You are not done! Compiled genealogies.

Compiled genealogies can be great.  Finding ONE of your lines does not mean that you are done with researching, though.  You have infinite number of other lines to research, as well as the lines not covered in the book.  You also need to research every piece of information in the compiled genealogy for accuracy.  Sloppy and inaccurate genealogies harm other researchers as the information is perpetuated over the years and across the internet.

Let's look at The Transactions of the Rockefeller Family Association by Henry Oscar Rockefeller mentioned a few posts back.  How much of my genealogy is in the book?  I have a diagram to illustrate.

The blue and pink entries inside the red enclosure are my direct ancestors in this particular compiled genealogy.  The book is a great resource, but would not lead me to conclude that no further research is needed.  Look at all of my other ancestors who are left untouched, naturally because they have nothing to do with the Rockefellers of Germantown, New York.

This is my most recent direct ancestor mentioned in the book.  Using this information, I found a record of her second marriage to James Miller in Jersey City on the date mentioned.  I have not found a record of her first marriage.  I suspect another marriage in 1898, which is not mentioned in the book, nor are her children by these marriages mentioned in the book.  Plus, the parents of spouses are omitted, understandably so, but they need researching also!

A kind soul tipped me off that Annie Hyser was married again in Albany in 1898.
See why genealogists prefer to look themselves?

Having a date of remarriage significantly narrows down the possible years of death for the first spouse.  A visit to Catskill Village Cemetery in New York located the graves of Annie Hyser, her siblings, and parents, as well as a possible match for her husband, William H Cumming, died 1882.

Is this William H Cumming 1856-1882 the William H Cummins who married Annie Hyser in 1877?
The compiled genealogy does not tell us.
Catskill Village Cemetery, Catskill, Greene County, New York

These compiled genealogies are just another part of your research.

DNA Matching: Autosomal versus Y-DNA

When my DNA results produce matches at 23andMe, I look at two factors to try to figure out the most recent common ancestor, or the source of the little identical segments of DNA.  The first source is common surnames and the second is common geographical areas.  Both options pose their own problems, but you need to try some path to make the match.  Surnames change over the generations.  People move around, from state to state and continent to continent.  Someone may not uncover all areas that their ancestor called home.  Autosomal DNA testing reveals the little segments of DNA that you still carry from your distant ancestors.  Some other descendants of these same ancestors still carry the same segments, producing a "match."  The trick is identifying which ancestor or ancestors you have in common with your genetic match.

I have a few matches where I can't say for sure that we have uncovered the common ancestor, but we seem to have good leads.  One is the surname Rockefeller.  Henry Oscar Rockefeller compiled a family genealogy in the early 1900s, focusing mainly on this line, the immigrant Diell Rockefeller (died New York 1769), but also discussed some of the other Rockefeller lines in the area.  I descend from Diell Rockefeller through my father's mother.  At 23andMe, we both match a man who is descended from another immigrant, Johann Peter Rockefeller (died New Jersey about 1766).

The Transactions of the Rockefeller Family Association by Henry Oscar Rockefeller, 1910.
[Viewable through Google Books or Ancestry.com]
A line descended from Diell Rockefeller merged with a line descended from Johann Peter Rockefeller.
My line descends from Diell's son Simon [red] through another daughter, Margaret.
Our genetic "Distant Cousin" descends from Johann Peter's son Peter [blue] through another son, Henry.

23andMe.com
Autosomal DNA comparison of the descendant ("Distant Cousin") of Johann Peter Rockefeller to my father and me.
We match on a small segment of Chromosome 12.

It is not known if Johann Peter and Diell were related.  Does the above DNA comparison show that the two Rockefeller immigrants Johann Peter and Diell were related?  Not necessarily.  We could have other ancestors in common that we do not know about that are causing the match.

The DNA testing that could show if both Rockefeller immigrants were related is Y-DNA testing.  Direct male descendants of both men could compare their Y chromosomes.  The Y chromosome is passed almost unchanged from father to son and then to his son as so on down the line of descent.  Neither my father nor our "Distant Cousin" here can participate in such a test because the last Rockefeller in both of their lines was a female, hence breaking the Y chromosome inheritance.