Uncovering a Productive Paper Trail

William Walling of Keyport, Monmouth County, New Jersey died 31 July 1870.  An obituary provided an interesting tidbit that he was "the largest property holder at Keyport."

Trenton State Gazette
9 August 1870
GenealogyBank.com

Now that New Jersey probate records are readily accessed online, I have a lot of work ahead of me, sorting through his estate transactions, which took over 26 years to finalize.



Monmouth County, New Jersey
Surrogate's Proceedings Index

Also of interest was a newspaper article run just four days before William Walling died.  He was physically digging a well as he constructed a store on the corner of Broad and Front streets.

Trenton State Gazette, Trenton, New Jersey
27 July 1870
GenealogyBank.com

Wondering if the building was completed and if it still stood, I again wandered online and found the structure, called Walling Hall at some point, now housing McDonagh's Pub at 2 West Front Street, Keyport.

Keyport Online
"Village History"
Walling Hall

William Walling appears to have left behind quite a paper trail for us to follow . . .

Finding Parents

The Wallings of Monmouth County, New Jersey are an interwoven bunch that I am trying to sort.  Of particular interest at this point is proving the parentage of William Walling, who died in 1870 (the second entry in the Estate Index below).  The Monmouth County Genealogy Society publishes a newsletter, The Monmouth Connection.  The September 2012 Newsletter provided a transcribed will for William Walling, written in 1823 and proved in 1824.  I looked for the original will at Family Search in the New Jersey Probate collection.  The digitized collection is not named-indexed yet, so you need to browse through the images to locate a usable index.




Estate Index for Monmouth County, New Jersey.
I am sorting the Wallings.  William was a popular name among the Wallings of Monmouth County.
The first entry is the transcribed will that I noticed in The Monmouth Connection.



Proceedings Index.
William Walling, 1824, is file number 27096 from the Estate Index.
His will is in Volume B, page 396.
Monmouth County, New Jersey

Will of William Walling, signed 3 December 1823, Volume B, page 396.
Monmouth County, New Jersey.

From the will, we learn that this William Walling had a wife named Rebecca.  He had children under the age of 21 and he had at least three sons whom he named as executors: Isaac, Amos, and William.  It is possible that this William Walling (died 1824) and Rebecca were the parents of William Walling who died in 1870.  We need more records before we can be certain.

The transcribed wills in The Monmouth Connection contained additional numbers not in the Surrogate's index.  William Walling's will was number 9571M.  I browsed through other images of wills organized by number and not volume and located the original will and inventory.



Will and Inventory filed as 9571M
Monmouth County, New Jersey



Inventory of property of William Walling in 1824.
He had $16 in cash and an assortment of household items.
His most valuable asset was firewood.



Accounts owing to William Walling 1824
Several of these people are related in more than one way.

DNA Matching: Mystery Second or Third Cousin

My third cousin, R.S., has a new closer cousin in his DNA matches at 23andMe.  They share 1.37% over four segments.  They are likely second or third cousins, though the prediction of the site is second through fourth cousins.

Second cousins share a pair of great grandparents, while third cousins share great great grandparents.

Let's hope that this person responds to my request to communicate.  Absent an adoption or non-paternal event, we should be able to figure out the connection.

Relative Finder top genetic matches for my third cousin, R.S. at 23andMe.
This mystery person could be a closer match than my father and R.S.