Tag: Winfield Warner

Genealogy

Stuck in a Rut?

Becky

Have you ever found yourself constantly trying to solve brick wall and really not getting anywhere with it? I have found myself in this situation before, normally involving Andrew Blair and Susanna Akers but this time around it’s on my mom’s side of the family with Oliver Charles Warner and trying to prove that Joel Warner and Thankful Chapin are his parents. Every new angle seems to lead to a dead end.

So I began with a simple task that did not even involve researching, it was running a report in my family tree program and finding out which relatives I needed the FamilySearch number for. And it was a good task for me to do as 12 pages of individuals and I’m halfway done. This is a task where you can feel proud if you can figure out on your own where a specific person actually lies on your tree. Sometimes I’m doing fist pumps in the air in a congratulatory way, other times I’m slapping my forehead questioning how I could have forgotten someone.

Inspiration via YouTube

I’ve also tried watching videos. Late last year I became a member of AmericanAncestors.org and along with a great website I’m slowly acclimating myself to, I find myself heading over to their YouTube page and watching videos. I opted to watch an interview they had with Brian Matthew Jordan, a history professor at Sam Houston University who is originally from Northeast Ohio. He wrote a book called “A Thousand May Fall: An Immigrant Regiment’s Civil War” about an Ohio regiment made up of German’s fighting in the Civil War. I’ll admit my mom was a nurse at his doctor’s office as a kid and she always thought it neat his love of history at such a young age, I believe as a teen he wrote a book on Franklin Pierce, simply because no one else had (that may be an overstatement, but he is one of the president’s hardly written about).

Anyhow, I digress, he mentioned in his talk about if you don’t have any information about your ancestor and what they went through during a war, in this case he was referencing the Civil War, he spoke of researching through newspapers and looking up stories in relation to the regiment that your ancestor was in, because many smaller towns received information about the war from the letters that the soldiers would send home to their loved ones. So, this is my latest endeavor, as I have not been able to obtain my pension file from the National Archives due to it being closed, I am going to search for the Company K 13th Regiment of New York Heavy Artillery that my 3rd Great Grandfather, Winfield Warner, fought in during the Civil War to obtain more information on what he faced.

The AmericanAncestors.org video from their American Inspiration series when Brian Matthew Jordan spoke about his book “A Thousand May Fall: An Immigrant Regiment’s Civil War”

Okay, so maybe my new topic to take my mind off of my brick walls is not so far away from my brick wall (Winfield Warner is the youngest son of Oliver Charles Warner), but I think it will be fascinating to delve into a period of history that I am not as familiar with (I was always more of a Revolutionary War girl myself).

You never know where inspiration can hit you. If you have an hour, watch the above video, it was really interesting. Dr. Jordan was a great speaker and really highlighted a lot of details as he has written a few books on the Civil War. And I hope to share what I find on the Company K 13th Regiment out of New York with you all soon.

Maternal Side, My Family Tree

My Gustin Family – Orienta A. Gustin

Becky

When I got up this morning and picked up my phone, FamilySearch had reminded me that today, September 6, is the birthday of my 3rd-great-grandmother, Orienta A. Gustin, and I thought, what a better day to learn more about her than her birthday?

Orienta A. Gustin was born on 6 September 1851 in Scio, New York, a town in Allegany County to Benjamin Gustin and Nancy Return Gault. Benjamin was a farmer and between 1865 and 1870 they had moved to Pennsylvania, where Orienta met and married Winfield Scott Warner, a farmer and Civil War veteran in 1869.

Orienta and Winfield settled in Sharon Township. In 1877 their oldest daughter, Mazie Lorenia was born, followed by Cymanthia Lencretia in 1881, Jeanette in 1887 and Catherine “Cassie” Belle in 1890. In 1899 Winfield died, leaving Orienta to finish raising her 2 youngest daughters solo.

Orienta Gustin Warner

Having an uncommon name like Orienta I have found an article or two in the newspapers. Below is one of my favorites about Orienta and her daughter, Jeanette (aka Nettie).

The Potter Enterprise, Thursday, February 11, 1904

As far as I can tell though, Orienta did her best to take care of her children. In 1918 when Jeanette’s husband, Thomas Bergan, fell on hard times and passed away, Orienta moved in with her to help her and get her and get her on her feet.

In 1922 when Cymanthia came down with cancer living in California, it was Orienta who travelled across the country to first care for her daughter and assist with her grandson’s. Orienta eventually moved to Akron, Ohio where Mazie and Jeanette both lived.

Orienta Gustin Warner with who I believe are her grandchildren Harold Stone, Margaret Wagner & Leila Wagner circa 1919

Orienta Gustin Warner passed away on December 23, 1928 at the home of her daughter, Mazie, in Akron, Ohio. She passed away from Brights Disease, which is Nephritis of the Kidneys, and Myocarditis. She was 77 years old. She was buried in Sharon Center Cemetery in Potter County with her husband.

When I see these photos of Orienta, she appears to be a no-nonsense woman who loves her family. I am so grateful to be descended from such strong women, as her daughter Mazie, my 2nd-great-grandmother was the same way.

Genealogy

Land Documents in Genealogical Research

Becky

Some of the earliest, largest, and most complete types of genealogical records used in research are land documents. Along with showing legal proof of ownership, land records provide a plethora of information such as:

  • a person’s age
  • name of their spouse
  • their heir’s
  • their parent’s, relatives, and neighbors
  • location of where they previously lived
  • occupation
  • military services
  • if they were a naturalized citizen
  • if the land was acquired from the government

If land was acquired from the government, it is called a grant. This can be found on all levels of the government: federal, state, and county.

If land has been acquired from another person, it is a deed.

Deed Indexes

There are 2-different types of indexes to look up land records of your ancestors, direct and indirect.

  • A direct index has you searching by the grantor, or the seller of the land.
  • An indirect index has you searching by the grantee, or the buyer of the land.

Both indexes include the warranty, deed, quit claim, trust, description of the property, date of the sale, recordings and page number of the sale. An important tip is that surnames are often lumped together and are not found alphabetically. For example you may find a grouping of Smith’s on the S page in the beginning of the index with the name Saunders listed well after.

Below is a Direct Index from Potter County, Pennsylvania. Though you do not see any other “W” last names, you can see how the entire sheet is filled with Warner’s. Many of these are my relatives, with Winfield and Orienta Warner being my 3rd-Great-Grandparents.

This Direct Index for Potter County, Pennsylvania was downloaded from FamilySearch.org.

Where to Find

Land records can be found using the FamilySearch Wiki, Google, Ancestry, USGenWeb, and sometimes records can be found online through the county governments (I know this is the case for several counties in Pennsylvania). Just remember it is important to search for the documents where the land was at the time of the sale. If your tract of land was originally done in Bedford County, Pennsylvania in 1835, but today it is found in Blair County, Pennsylvania, you will need to look in Bedford County for the documents.

What to Find

You never know what other bit of information you may find within your land document:

  • Livestock brands
  • Apprentice papers
  • Liens
  • Adoptions
  • Value of the land
  • County Changes
  • Sale or Manumission of Slaves
  • Tax lists
  • Wills
  • Power of Attorney
  • Deed of gifts

Below is a lawful agreement of a land sale from David Ritchey to my 3rd-Great-Grandparents, George Ritchey and his wife, Anna (Annie) Cypher. I like how the paperwork includes a drawing of the land in question and the neighbors and relatives surrounding the area.

The digital copies above were provided to me by the Bedford County Courthouse, Bedford, Pennsylvania.

When you are looking at older records, reading the handwriting can be a challenge. Sometimes you may need to get a feel of the older handwriting and possibly do some analysis to figure out all that is being said. Sometimes you will get lucky and some of your documents may be from the same time period and you may get the same person doing more than one.

This was just a brief glimpse at what all goes into land documents. The types of measurements and such are all different wherever you go, from state to state and country to country. (States tend to be grouped with states that earned their statehood at the same time, for example, the 13 original colonies have similar measurement methods).

To discover if your ancestor received bounties from the government for military service you can go to the Bureau of Land Management’s General Land Office Records Automation Website (https://glorecords.blm.gov/default.aspx). Not only does it give you information on what the website provides but you can search for your ancestor’s land documents as well.

*Much of the above information were noted from the following resources: FamilySearch.org, the Bureau of Land Management, and Family Tree Magazine online.

Maternal Side, My Family Tree

My Warner Family – Mazie

Becky

As most of the world is resigned to stay home and be in isolation, I finally have found my genealogy groove. And though I normally try to partake in Amy Johnson Crow’s fabulous challenge 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks, I find myself struggling with the recent week’s prompts.  So I think I’ll focus on a specific surname in my family, and I’ve chosen the Warner’s (I suddenly have the Animaniac’s theme going through my head, if you have never watched this outstanding cartoon brought to us by Steven Spielberg you really should, I discovered it in college and it is one of the greatest animated shows ever, if I do say so myself). I figure this can be the first of many tributes to my Warner clan and could possibly get me to find out more about them.

Mazie Lorenia Warner

The last of my line of Warner’s was my great-great-grandmother Mazie Lorenia Warner.  I know I’ve spoken of Mazie before because she is one of my favorite relatives on my mother’s side of the family.  She was born on 21 July 1877 to Winfield Warner and his wife, Orienta Gustin in Potter County, Pennsylvania. She had 3-sisters: Cymanthia Lencretia, Jeanette, and Catherine “Cassie” Belle.

MazieWarnerSig
Mazie Lorenia Warner – no idea when this was taken (another project!)

Mazie was one of my first successfully solved puzzles.  Just getting her name correct was one of my first obstacles as every document I found seemed to be something different – Mazie, Magie, Daysa (still trying to figure that last one out), but then my mom clarified it all for me (she was going off memory as Mazie passed away 2 years before my mom was born).

Mazie married my great-great-grandfather, Arthur James Dunbar on 2 Jan 1894.  To this marriage came 4-children with the 3-girls surviving: Myrtle Iona, Merle Winfield (he passed away at 8 months), Ina Mae and Mildred Laura (she is my great-grandmother).

On 18 Dec 1912 Arthur died of polio (adult onset).  A few years later Mazie married a second time to Samuel Randol, in 1916 they moved to Ohio and this is how this portion of my family settled in Akron. Oddly enough the area of Akron where they settled is not far at all from where I live with my own family.

Mazie and Samuel had a son, Richard LeHoty, but he passed away when he was 5-months old.

Because my library (Akron Summit County Public Library) has digitized the local city directories, I have been able to follow where Mazie and Samuel lived from 1916 until Mazie passed away in 1945.  Mazie has come across as a loving soul, always taking her daughters in when their marriages failed (or at least that is how I assume her to be as my own great-grandmother returned home more than once and Mazie even let her and her third husband live with them for a bit when they first got married while I assume they saved up for a house – I have nothing to confirm these stories because my mother, grandmother and great-grandmother have all passed).

At one point in time Samuel and Mazie ran a store on Howard Street, and I believe it was called SJ Randol’s according to the 1924 city directory, and back in the 1920’s Howard Street was the place to be.  According to a lady my parents’ were guardian’s of, Clara Mueller, she claimed that you could find things at the shops on Howard Street that you couldn’t find anywhere else.

SJRandol Store
SJ Randol Store, circa 1924

Samuel passed away on 16 Oct 1938 in Decatur, Illinois. He was a truck driver and wasn’t feeling well and passed away after he had been “ill for a week over a complication of diseases” according to the 17 Oct 1938 edition of the Decatur Herald.  This made me sad to learn of Samuel’s death. The 1937 City Directory is the first where my great-grandmother, her husband and my grandmother finally moved into their own home, which gave Mazie and Samuel basically 1-2 years to finally enjoy life together.

Mazie continued to live alone until 1943 where she moved in to her old house which is where her daughter, Ina lived with her second husband, Ralph, and her daughter, Almeda. She passed away there on 19 May 1945.

080-MazieWarnerRandol-BobBergen-ThelmaBessieBergan
Mazie and her nephew, Bob Bergan, and his wife, Thelma Bessie circa 1942.

I drive down Howard Street every day when I go to and from work and I look to the spot where the store stood that Mazie and Samuel ran.  I look to the abandoned lot with just a very slight portion of a brick wall standing that would most likely been the back of their store, and wonder what it would have been like to know her, if she ever looks down on me and is happy to know that I am making sure my family doesn’t forget her and her legacy.