Haines of Burlington County, New Jersey

Ezra Adams (1768-1824) and Hannah Haines (1771-1824) were my fifth great grandparents. Ezra purchased several parcels of land in what is now Hamilton, Mercer County, New Jersey, but was called Nottingham, Burlington County during Ezra's life. Ezra purchased tracts from some of his siblings that were inherited from their father, Alexander Adams. When Ezra died, his seven children inherited partitions of his land. Hannah, widow of Ezra, died four months after him; however, she was not mentioned in his estate papers.

I've been trying to connect Hannah to her parents. Ancestry suggests Jacob Haines and Sarah Austin.

Hannah Haines in my family tree.
Ancestry proposed parents: Jacob Haines and Sarah Austin.

Jacob Haines and Sarah Austin were Quakers. They were disowned, thereby falling off the extensive record-keeping.

Quaker Meeting Records of Shrewbury, Monmouth County, New Jersey.
Children of Jonathan Haines and Hannah Sharp.
Jacob Haines, born August 24, 1745; married Sarah Austin.
DISOWNED.

People researched and wrote about the Haines of Burlington County. Jacob Haines and Sarah Austin had a daughter named Hannah Haines, but her birthdate was around 1787, which is later than my ancestor Hannah. Plus, this Hannah married Jonathan Austin, not Ezra Adams.

Excerpt of family history book by John Wesley Haines

I'm not writing that these books about Haines are correct about Hannah, but these are the records that Ancestry is citing for support that Hannah Haines, daughter of Jacob Haines and Sarah Austin, married Ezra Adams. People attached these records into their trees in support of the union of Hannah Haines and Ezra Adams, even though these records contradict this claim.

Jacob Haines' land holdings in Evesham, Burlington County, New Jersey were partitioned in 1799 among his five children: Rebeccah, Jacob, Jeremiah, Jonathan, and Hannah. Rebeccah's husband, Caleb Haines, was named. No husband was listed for Hannah, which is consistent with her being too young to be married in 1799 and inconsistent with my Hannah, who was already married to Ezra Adams and with children by 1799.

1799 Petition to divide real estate of Jacob Haines, late of the County of Burlington County, New Jersey.
Viewable at Ancestry.

Jacob's estate papers include a diagram of the land division. Evesham still exists as a township in Burlington County, New Jersey, but it is much smaller today than it was in 1799. These parcels of land were bordered on the east by the Rancocas Creek. I tilted the image of Jacob's land to align north upwards to line up with our modern maps.

Diagram of Jacob Haines' partitioned land.
Viewable at Ancestry.

I think I found the land! See what you think. The parcels may not be privately occupied. They are east of the Flying W Airport and Resort in Medford.

Modern map of Medford, Burlington County, New Jersey
that might coincide with Jacob Haines' land that was divided
in 1799.

Modern map showing location of the land of Jacob Haines, deceased around 1799
in Evesham (now Medford), Burlington County, New Jersey.

I'm changing Hannah Haines' name in my tree to Hannah Unknown. Her children's records mostly do not name their parents, but when Hannah is mentioned, she is "Hannah" or "Hannah Adams." I have yet to find a record of marriage for Ezra Adams to anyone in the late 1780s or early 1790s.

The other George Wiggins who died in 1848

The prior article mentioned two Cook brothers, Stephen and William, born around 1800 in Morris County, New Jersey. Their parents were Henry Cook (1776-1831) and Susannah Wiggins.

The father of Susannah was George Wiggins. He was my sixth great grandfather. I have found very little on this man. He is mentioned in books about the Cook and Peer families of Morris County.

Book by Louisa Caroline Freeman Hickerson
about Cook family of Morris County, New Jersey.
Available at the Morristown and Morris Township Library.

In 1807, George Wiggins sold land in Hanover, Morris County to John Hinchman. This deed explained how George acquired the property. He purchased it from his father, Stephen Wiggins, and this deed was recorded in 1788. This document is a great example of defining family relationships in records other than birth, marriage, and death certificates.

Deed conveying land in Hanover, Morris County, New Jersey
from George Wiggins to John Hinchman
dated March 1807.
See picture below for the enlargement of the relevant portion.

George Wiggins purchased this property in Hanover
from his father, Stephen Wiggins.
That deed was recorded in 1788.

Online trees can lead to records, or they can be entirely wrong. The latter has been my finding so far concerning George Wiggins.

Suspect family tree of George Wiggins

Most trees have George's death in the year 1848. Their sources are other trees. This is not helpful.

After digging through many trees, I found two sources for this date.

The first source is a gravestone.

Picture of a blurry gravestone
attributed to George Wiggins of Morris County, New Jersey

This is a blurry picture of a gravestone, location not indicated. This is not a link within the Find A Grave database at Ancestry.

Over at Find A Grave, I found this memorial page. This stone marks the burial place in New Hampshire for a child named George A Wiggin. In other words, not a grown man named George Wiggins who lived in New Jersey.

Find A Grave memorial page
George A Wiggin died September 4, 1848, age 1 year, 9 months, 21 days.

The other source for the year of death 1848 is this entry in the Ancestry database called "New Jersey, U.S., Deaths and Burials Index, 1798-1971."

Entry for George Wiggins, died November 1848
Database at Ancestry

This is an older database that existed prior to the publication of ledger books of deaths; as such, they do not link to the relevant page in the ledger book. But- these entries trace back to a variety of sources, not only the official ledger books.

To obtain the exact book and page number for this death in the ledger books, I searched for George Wiggins in the index at the website of the New Jersey State Archives. Nothing.

Index of deaths for New Jersey 1848-1878
at the website of the New Jersey State Archives

Remembering that the title of this database indicates that the records begin in 1798, prior to the 1848 start date of New Jersey's death ledgers, I looked at the entry again. A film number was included, 542528. This film number appears in the catalog of FamilySearch for an index of events recorded in newspapers from Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey.

FamilySearch catalog for film 542528
Vital statistics index from Trenton newspapers, 1800-1900

This film is not viewable outside a family history center; however, Trenton newspapers are available online at GenealogyBank (not a free site). This entry at Ancestry for George Wiggins refers to a newspaper article about his MURDER. Elijah Gray allegedly struck George with a gun stock in Salem. This is in Salem County, New Jersey, on the Delaware River and not close to Morris County. Plus, the men are described as "colored," and my ancestor George Wiggins was not.

Newspaper article about the murder of George Wiggins
of Salem, New Jersey in November 1848

These two hints at Ancestry were blindly accepted by many family tree creators without examining the underlying records. This has resulted in numerous trees with the unsubstantiated year of death as 1848 for the George Wiggins of Morris County.

At this point in my research, I can only determine that George Wiggins died sometime after conveying property in 1807.

Question: Where can I find this earlier deed dated 1788? The collection of deeds at FamilySearch (New Jersey, Wills and Deeds, ca. 1700s-2017) starts around 1790 for Morris County. I searched without success for this deed at the website of the New Jersey State Archives in their database of Early Land Records, 1650-1900s.

Family Tree Repair: Hiley VanDerHoof 1803-1888

I was excited to find this family tree with additional details about my fourth great grandmother, Elizabeth Vanderhoof (1799-1878). Then I realized the creator combined Elizabeth with Hiley Vanderhoof (1803-1888). These were two different women living in Morris County, New Jersey in the 1800s.

One of the red flags on this tree is that the person died in 1878,
but was enumerated in the 1880 federal census.

Hiley was spelled differently in various records. "Hiler" is a surname in the area. I do not know if this is the source of Hiley's first name.

• Hyla on her 1823 marriage record to William Cook
• Hiley in census entries
• Hylia on her death certificate
• Hila on her gravestone

Hiley and Elizabeth were two different people. They were probably sisters. They married two Cook brothers.

Family tree of Hiley and Elizabeth
as daughters of Jacob Vanderhoof (1772-1847) and Ann Hopler (1772-1841).

Two Cook brothers marrying two Vanderhoof sisters.
Stephen and William were sons of Henry Cook (1776-1831) and Susannah Wiggins (1780-18xx).

Hiley and William married in 1823 in Morris County, New Jersey. These record books were digitized and are viewable at FamilySearch. Names of parents are not provided in these entries.

Whole page of marriages circa 1823 in Morris County, New Jersey.

Close view of the line for the marriage of William Cook and Hyla Vanderhoof,
"both of Morris County." February 22, 1823 by Reverend John Ford.

Hiley's first appearance in the census is in 1850 in Rockaway, Morris County. Her husband, William Cook, is not listed with her and is presumably deceased. In her household is Jacob Cook, age 26, married within the year. Sarah Cook, age 20, married within the year. William Cook, age 11. Sarah was probably Jacob's wife and not a daughter of Hiley and William. She is not with Jacob in the 1860 census and presumably died between 1850 and 1860.

1850 census. Rockaway, Morris County, New Jersey

William Cook married Sarah J Anderson (1845-1928) in 1862.

Elizabeth died in 1878. She was buried with her husband, Stephen Cook, in the small Cook Cemetery in Denville. The few remaining stones are nestled on the grounds of the Rockaway River Country Club Golf Course.

Find A Grave memorial page for Elizabeth Vanderhoof (1799-1878),
wife of Stephen Cook (1797-1853)

Hiley was buried at the Rockaway Valley United Methodist Church Cemetery in Boonton. The year is incorrect on the stone. She died in 1888, not 1886. The death certificate is below.

Find A Grave memorial page for Hila Vanderhoof (1803-1888),
wife of William Cook

Death certificate of Hylia Cook
died June 16, 1888 in Rockaway Valley.
Father- Jacob Vanderhoff.

I have not found a death certificate for Elizabeth Vanderhoof Cook in 1878.

Elizabeth Vanderhoof and Hiley Vanderhoof were two distinct people, contrary to the online trees floating around.

Mary (1822-1861), Not a Daughter of Jacob Vanderhoof and Ann Hopler

Beware of blindly accepting published family trees!

Jacob Vanderhoof (1772-1847) and Ann Hopler (1772-1841) lived and died in Morris County, New Jersey. This couple produced thousands of descendants, myself included. As a consequence, they are found in lots of online family trees. Vanderhoof and variant spellings were common in New York and New Jersey in the 1700s and 1800s, resulting in many different people having similar first and last names living within miles of one another. The few written records that survive lack details that would help distinguish one person from another of the same name.

The result is lots of trees that merge different people into one, or criss-cross the lines.

As of this writing, I have not sorted all of the men named Jacob Vanderhoof. I'll produce articles as I figure out children, record sets, or locations.

A tree appeared with Jacob, Ann, and sixteen children. I explored this tree because I was curious about the sources about their daughter, Elizabeth (1799-1878). The picture for Elizabeth is that of a young woman. Elizabeth was well-past her youth when cameras and photographs were invented, so this cannot be her.

Tree of Jacob Vanderhoof, Ann Elizabeth Hopler, and sixteen children

I looked at the youngest offered child, Mary, born in 1822, when her mother was fifty. The only source is another family tree. This will not suffice.

Source for the life of Mary Vanderhoof is another tree

In 1848, Mary Vanderhoof and J K Odell married in Sussex County, New Jersey. This was just before state-wide registry was required; however, the event was recorded at the county level and can be viewed online. From this record we see that the bride was described as "of Wantage." This is in Sussex County, about thirty miles northwest of Rockaway Valley in Morris County, where Jacob Vanderhoof and and Ann Hopler had resided before their deaths.

March 30, 1848. Mr J K Odell of Hardiston to Miss Mary Vanderhoof of Wantage.
Sussex County, New Jersey Marriages 1828-1853

On October 30, 1861 Mary Odel died in Vernon, Sussex County. This record is also available online. State-wide registration was in the form of ledger books at this time. The cause of death was consumption, or tuberculosis. Her parents were Jacob and Elizabeth Vanderhoof.

Mary Odell has a memorial page at Find A Grave, along with a photograph of the stone. She was buried at Deckertown Union Cemetery in Wantage.

Mary Vanderhuff Odell (1823-1861)
Memorial page at Find A Grave

The above-mentioned sources don't help us definitively rule Mary in or out as a daughter of Jacob Vanderhoof and Ann Hopler. Without visiting this cemetery in person, we can check for other Vanderhoofs buried there.

We find Jacob A Vanderhuff (1791-1870) and Elizabeth Swan (1793-1870) listed in the same cemetery as Mary. They seem more likely to be her parents. (Yes, Mary is listed as their daughter at Find A Grave. This is because I requested this change after finding and reviewing documents.)

Jacob A Vanderhuff (1791-1870)
Memorial page at Find A Grave

Elizabeth Swan Vanderhuff (1793-1870)
Memorial page at Find A Grave

The will of Jacob A Vanderhuff is viewable online. He left his estate to his living children and to three of his grandchildren, "children of John K Odell and my daughter Mary, now deceased."

Will of Jacob A Vanderhuff of Vernon, Sussex County, New Jersey.
Proved August 17, 1870.

This helps chip away at one bit of inaccuracy in the Vanderhoof tree. More to come.

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