Fold3

I subscribed to another fee-based site, Fold3.  I paid $39.95 for one year as a special deal for subscribers to Ancestry.com..  The site has lots of American military records and I have several Colonial lines, so I decided to give it a try.  I started with a safe search:  locate a pension file for Elizabeth Duryea, wife of Joseph Henley, widowed during the Civil War.  I found the record quickly- 33 pages of names, dates, and places!!!

By age 28, Elizabeth Henley was widowed by the Civil War and had two minor children.  Two other children died early.
Her mother and sister wrote certifications for her application, though their relations are not identified.
I hope that their support made her life easier.  She did not remarry.

The tidbit of information that I was not expecting was that Joseph B. Henley was not this man's original name.  He was Joseph H. Jones when the couple married in New York City in 1854.  This explains why I had not uncovered a marriage record and could not locate Joseph Henley in the 1850 census.  The record was silent as to the reason for the name change.

Excerpt from one of the certifications.

Elizabeth's application for a widow's pension was approved.  She received $8 per month plus $2 per minor child.  She collected for 38 years.

Marriage, marriage, marriage

In researching the Bishops of Burlington County, New Jersey, I came across a marriage for William R Bishop in 1860 to Mary Lee at the State's online index.

Search results for a marriage between William Bishop and Mary Lee.
Online index 1848-1878 available for free from The New Jersey State Archives.

I wondered if this was the same marriage, recorded three times, or an error in the index, or something else.  I obtained the original ledger entries from Trenton.  (If you are unable to visit Trenton, you can write to the Archives or order the microfilm through your local FamilySearch Center.)

I located the three recordings and it does indeed appear that this was the same marriage recorded in three separate locations in Burlington County.  I do not know why the marriage was recorded thrice.  Names of parents are provided in two of the recordings, giving possible leads on people born in the early 1800s- from a record made in 1860.  (The year in the index is correct, as this index is not the same index available through FamilySearch or Ancestry.)

Book C2, page 190.
Marriage of William R Bishop to Mary L Lee, 16 February 1860,
recorded in Northampton, Burlington County, New Jersey.
Parents are merely listed by their surnames.

Book C2, page 241.
Marriage of William R Bishop to Mary L Lee, 16 February 1860,
recorded in Burlington, Burlington County, New Jersey.
Parents are listed as William and Eliza R Bishop and Samuel and Jane C Lee.

Book C2, page 194.
Marriage of William R Bishop to Mary Louisa Lee, 16 February 1860,
recorded in Westhampton, Burlington County, New Jersey.
Parents are listed as William and Mary Bishop and Samuel and Jane Lee..

Saint Patrick's Day

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY!

Another Indexing Project

The Italian Genealogical Group is sponsering another indexing project.  Volunteers are creating a name index for naturalization petitions filed in the United States District Court in Newark, New Jersey.  The district includes not just Essex County, but also Bergen, Hudson, Morris, Passaic, Union, Sussex, and parts of Middlesex.  The years of the petitions range from the 1920s through the 1980s.  I am indexing about 1000 cards of last names that start with M.

New Jersey Naturalization Petition card for James Joseph Maguire, 1929.

Birth Certificate of Twins

I am slowly processing the birth certificates I copied last week in Trenton.  I have one birth certificate for twins born in 1878 in Newark.  They did not get individual birth certificates.  They are also not named on the certificate, which was not unusual.  Based on the 1880 census, their names were Catharine and William.

New Jersey birth certificate for Bossard twins, born 29 June 1878.
Volume 1, Place 36 (Newark, Essex County).
Note that the months are in German.

1880 United States Federal Census, 123 Howard Street, Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.
The unnamed twins ended up being called William and Catharine.