This Week's Alexander Family Journey
Monday May 18 2020
If you have checked out our research page, you will see that we have listed the ancestors of Shirley J. Alexander. This past week I decided to do some work on this family. Shirley is Don's mother and her family hails from the Pike County area of Ohio. While some have done some "research" into the line, most of it has been copied from others without, you know, much sourcing. So, as you know, I can't let that fly and started working on the sources to match the names and places I find on shared trees. There hasn't been a family history written for this line that we know of, so it will be a major undertaking!
I had thought I had a "Eureka" moment finding a DAR Patriot of the name of John Alexander. I was hoping this family linked up to Don's but, alas, no such luck. I had to go through about three generations before finding that, while this man did have a son named John, he was a lawyer in Indiana. Dropping out that link leaves us with the first John Alexander we can find as John born about 1781 in York County, Pennsylvania who was married to Maria Catherine Conner. There are many John Alexander's in PA so I am currently at a loss to find anyone farther back. One of Don's cousins related that a genealogist was hired several years ago who had no luck determining which John Alexander was ours.
The thing I find interesting is the way people just willy-nilly add names to ancestry trees without checking out some basic facts. One example - a church record that was indexed as 1781. When looking at the original record, it is clear the date is 1701 - the "0" is not the same as the "8" on the subsequent pages. So this birth record can't be attached to our John although many have done just that. It is sorting through errors, as well as truths, that makes genealogy so fascinating!
John & Catherine were married in Franklin County, PA on 23 Apr 1806. We have no information on Maria Catherine's family other than she was born in Great Cove, Fulton Co, PA on 15 Feb 1779. We have a marriage record for the couple that says "Great Cove" under the notes. John and Catherine had 5 children that we know about: John, Stewart, Robert, William and Catherine. All were born in PA but married in Ohio. Since the first record we have is for John, born in 1812, it is probable that there were more children between 1806 and 1812. There is a 6-year gap between John's birth and that of Stewart. This indicates that more children were probably born during this time. I will keep on the look-out for records for these children and may find some more uncles/aunts at this level.
I had thought I had a "Eureka" moment finding a DAR Patriot of the name of John Alexander. I was hoping this family linked up to Don's but, alas, no such luck. I had to go through about three generations before finding that, while this man did have a son named John, he was a lawyer in Indiana. Dropping out that link leaves us with the first John Alexander we can find as John born about 1781 in York County, Pennsylvania who was married to Maria Catherine Conner. There are many John Alexander's in PA so I am currently at a loss to find anyone farther back. One of Don's cousins related that a genealogist was hired several years ago who had no luck determining which John Alexander was ours.
The thing I find interesting is the way people just willy-nilly add names to ancestry trees without checking out some basic facts. One example - a church record that was indexed as 1781. When looking at the original record, it is clear the date is 1701 - the "0" is not the same as the "8" on the subsequent pages. So this birth record can't be attached to our John although many have done just that. It is sorting through errors, as well as truths, that makes genealogy so fascinating!
John & Catherine were married in Franklin County, PA on 23 Apr 1806. We have no information on Maria Catherine's family other than she was born in Great Cove, Fulton Co, PA on 15 Feb 1779. We have a marriage record for the couple that says "Great Cove" under the notes. John and Catherine had 5 children that we know about: John, Stewart, Robert, William and Catherine. All were born in PA but married in Ohio. Since the first record we have is for John, born in 1812, it is probable that there were more children between 1806 and 1812. There is a 6-year gap between John's birth and that of Stewart. This indicates that more children were probably born during this time. I will keep on the look-out for records for these children and may find some more uncles/aunts at this level.