03 July 2019

John Van Frank - proof of parentage

So if you've read genealogical information on the internet, you may have been wondering how a genealogical researcher would go about finding an ancestor's parents.


I don't know about other researchers on the "internet", but I follow the genealogical community's rigid documentation principles.  In order to prove one generation to the next, you have to evaluate the evidence.  You must have one primary source or three secondary sources to proof parentage.  A primary source is one that was created at the time of the event.  A secondary source is a statement of knowledge who was not witness to the event.  Secondary sources are more likely to have errors in them, therefore the genealogical standards require three secondary sources, if there is no primary source.

So let's put these genealogical standards to work about proving the that John Van Frank and Harriet Whipple were the parents of their 6 children: (John and Harriet were my 3rd great grandparents)

1)  Charles Phillip b 11 June 1833;
2)  David Brainerd b 05 Jan 1835;
3)  Edward Payson b 30 Sept 1837;
4)  James Dennis b 06 Feb 1839;
5)  Hannah Maria b  28 Oct 1842;
6)  Mary Elizabeth b 11 Feb 1849;

Birth records were not required to be kept at the state level until 1907.   So there are no primary birth records.  Sometimes there are birth records kept by churches, but I have not found any for this family.   In the case of this family, we are fortunate to have recorded wills by John, which listed their children and heirs at law.

Child 1 - Charles Phillip:
1 primary source:  in father John's will dated 20 July 1882, Charles P. VanFrank is listed as child and heir at law.
2) secondary source:  listed as a son in father John's obituary in 1882; 
3) secondary source: listed in the household of John and Harriet in 1850.  He is listed as a male, but there is no relationship to head of household in these years.
4) secondary source: listed as son Charles P. as published in the History of Elkhart County, Indiana in 1881.






Child 2 - David Brainerd
3 secondary sources:
1)  not listed in father John's will dated 20 July 1882, therefore died before that date.
2)  not listed as a son in father John's obituary in 1882;
3)  His tombstone says "David B, son of J & H Van Frank" .  Tombstone is in the Van Frank family plot. 
4)  Listed in the household of John and Harriet in 1850 and 1860.  He is listed as a male, but there is no relationship to head of household in these years.
5)  Died serving in the 88th Indiana Infantry in the Civil War in 1862.  Therefore there are no future census or other records. 
6) secondary source: listed as son David B., deceased, as published in the History of Elkhart County, Indiana in 1881. 




Child 3 - Edward Payon
2 secondary sources:
1)  not listed in father John's will dated 20 July 1882, therefore died before that date.
2)  not listed as a son in father John's obituary in 1882;
3)  His tombstone says "Edward P. son of John and Harriet VanFrank.   Died March 1, 1838. aged 5 months and 1 day."  Tombstone is in the VanFrank family plot.
4) secondary source: listed as son Edward P. , deceased, as published in the History of Elkhart County, Indiana in 1881. 



Child 4 - James Dennis
1 primary source - in father John's will dated 20 July 1882, James D. VanFrank is listed as child and heir at law.
2) secondary source:  listed as a son in father John's obituary in 1882;  
3) secondary source: listed in the household of John and Harriet in 1850, 1860 and 1870.  He is listed as a male, but there is no relationship to head of household in these years.
4) secondary source: death certificate lists father as John VanFrank, mother unknown.  Informant was Charles Walley, relationship unknown to James.
5) secondary source: listed as son James D. as published in the History of Elkhart County, Indiana in 1881. 

Child 5  - Hannah Maria
1 primary sources -  in father John's will dated 20 July 1882, Hannah is listed as daughter of John Van Frank, but deceased.  Then the will goes on to list her heirs at law, her children, as John, Lawrence and Jesse. 
2)  secondary source:  not listed as a daughter in father John's obituary in 1882;
3)  secondary source: listed in the household of John and Harriet in 1850, 1860 and 1870.  She is listed as a female, but there is no relationship to head of household in these years.
4)  secondary source: tombstone has no indication of her parents inscribed on it. However the marker is in the VanFrank family plot.
5) secondary source: listed as daughter Hannah Maria, now Mrs. John A. Hogan,  as published in the History of Elkhart County, Indiana in 1881. 



Child 6 - Mary Elizabeth 
3 secondary sources:
1)  not listed in father John's will dated 20 July 1882, therefore died before that date.
2)  not listed as a daughter in father John's obituary in 1882;
3)  listed in the household of John and Harriet in 1850.  She is listed as a female, but there is no relationship to head of household in these years.
4)  His tombstone says "Mary E. daughter of John  & Harriet VanFrank.   Died July 21, 1851  aged 2 yrs 7 mos 10 days."  Tombstone is in the VanFrank family plot.
5) secondary source: listed as daughter Mary Elizabeth. , deceased,  as published in the History of Elkhart County, Indiana in 1881.



16 June 2019

The Van Frank Family, part 1 - origins

One of our family tree branches goes back and connects with the Van Frank Family.  Here's how it goes:

If we start with my grandfather, Hubert Deal Hagan, here's what our family tree would look like:


I've not really spent a lot of time researching beyond John Van Frank, so the focus of these next few blog posts will be to explore the Van Frank/Van Vranken family.  In this blog post, I'd like to explore the origins of the Van Frank family.  The next few blog posts will then go back to each of our ancestors and review the documents that I've assembled about each ancestor.

Origins of the Van Frank Name:

In millenia past, people used to only go by a first name.  As the human race became more populated, there became a need to differentiate people in the same area.  Then as there became more Johns, or more Peters, or more Williams, there needed to be another name added.  So in some early European records that I've seen, you would start to see, for example, John, son of William.   Or John Sr. and John Jr.  Then when that started not to work because there were too many Johns, they would add a surname that reflected the town they lived in or their occuaption.  So you might start to see John Black, meaning John, the Blacksmith.

The surname Vranken came from the town of "Frankenburg".  In the Dutch language, "van" means "from". So when our ancestors took the name of "Van Vranken", that meant they were "of" the town of Frankenburg".

From my research, I know that our ancestor Philip Van Frank (1769-1838) had changed his name from Van Vranken to Van Frank.    Van Frank was definitely a more "americanized" form of his last name.

Immigration of the VanVrankens

Our immigrant ancestor was Claes Gerritsen.  He was born in Frankenburg, Germany sometime between 1600 and 1625.  Because of the Thirty Years' War and Frankenburg lying in the path of the warfare, Claes left his homeland and went 200 miles down the river Rhine to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.   By 1640, he had left and immigrated to America.  (Remember that the first settlement in America was Jamestown in 1607 and the Mayflower with the Pilgrims sailed in 1620).

Claes' had two known sons, Ryckert and Gerrit.   It doesn't seem as though Claes' or his sons actually went by Van Vranken surname until the grandson Gerrit Ryckertse Van Franken.   I'll dig into this more in later blogs.

Family Movement in America

So the immigrant Claes Gerritsen was in Rensselaerwyck in 1640 in the Colony of New Netherland (which was later very eastern New York).  The next 4 or 5 generations stayed in this area, which included Albany and Schenectady.  It wasn't until the Philip Van Frank (1769-1838) generation that several of the family group decided to move west.  Many of them ended up in Elkhart County, Indiana.

Early Religion

This family were members of the Reformed Protestant Dutch church for many generations.   Family historians have been very fortunate in this regard because the Reformed Dutch church kept meticulous records, way earlier than colonial and later state records were mandated.


In the next blog post, I'll start with our earliest known Van Frank ancestor, John Van Frank.  I'll write about his life and family.  Each blog post thereafter will go back, generation by generation and we'll just see what we see!

08 June 2019

Interesting Crego Ancestors, Part 2


Interesting/famous/immigrant Crego ancestors – Part 2

I have two different online genealogical websites:

1 1)  One is my toast.net website that I have to program and upload myself.  I haven't updated it in years;
2  2)  The other is hosted by rootsweb/ancestry.  I upload my genealogy database and it is put in a format that's easy to navigate.  The advantage to using this system is that ALL my data is here - not just what I purposely wrote up and recapped. 

So that being said, as a way of presenting my information, here are several more interesting Crego ancestors:

Some more interesting Crego ancestors

8)Thomas Swartwout, Revolutionary War soldier.  Born in 1756 in New York.  Most notable about his military service is that he was with the Company of Rangers who guarded the Continental Congress starting in April 1776 for a period of 6 months.  It is possible he may have guarded the Congress while they were working on the Declaration of Independence.


9) Major Andrew Hill, Revolutionary War soldier. Born in 1732 in New York.  Major in the Dutchess County New York Militia.


10) Lemuel Backus Jennings, westward traveler, farmer.  Born in 1767 in Connecticut.  About 1788, he travelled west and was the first settler in Geneseo New York.    Eventually moved farther west into Michigan with one of his children and died there in 1851.


11)  Joseph White Jennings, son of Lemuel Backus Jennings.  Born in 1811 in Geneseo New York.  Moved west into Michigan.  Wife died young, probably in childbirth.  According to his obituary, he drank a lot.  He was shot and killed on July 4, 1869 by his son-in-law.


12) Seaton Flint, born in 1826 in Clapton, England.  Immigrated to the US in 1851 and landed in New York.  Somehow moved west into Hillsdale County, Michigan. Married Emily McLouth.  Farmer.  Died in 1908.


13)  John McLouth, born in 1758 in Massachusetts.  Served for 23 months in the American Revolution as a private.  One time he was a sergeant.  Twice he enlisted as a fifer.  Died in 1820 in New York.


Hagan ancestors that I know about, but haven't done a lot of original research:


*Swartout Family – The origins of the Swartwout Family are Dutch.  Our immigrant ancestor was Roeloff Swartwout who was born in 1634 in Amsterdam, Holland. 

*Hill Family – The origins of the Hill Family are Dutch.  Our immigrant ancestor was Anthony Hill who came to New York from Holland about 1720.


28 May 2019

Interesting Crego ancestors, part 1


Interesting/famous/immigrant Crego ancestors
I have two different online genealogical websites:

1)     One is my toast.net website that I have to program and upload myself.  I haven't updated it in years;
      2)   The other is hosted by rootsweb/ancestry.  I upload my genealogy database and it is put in a format that's easy to navigate.  The advantage to using this system is that ALL my data is here - not just what I purposely wrote up and recapped. 

So that being said, as a way of presenting my information, here are several interesting Crego ancestors:

Some interesting Crego ancestors

1)  Richard J Crego, Farmer, politican.  Moved with family from New York into Jackson County, Michigan as one of the original settlers in 1831.   Successful farmer, served as a township representative for many years and eventually became a Michigan state senator.  I believe he was one of the founders of the Republican party in Jackson County in the 1850’s.  He tragically died in 1872 at age 53 (after outliving 3 wives) from typhoid fever.  He left 5 young children, who had to be taken in by relatives.



2) Richard Crego,  father of Richard J. Crego..
Before moving west to Michigan in 1831, Richard and his entire family lived in Erie County, New York.  Richard was a Private in the War of 1812.



 3)Nathaniel Gallop.  Served in the Revolutionary War as a Private, for various lengths of services, at various places and under various captains.  He was never given a pension because none of his various services could be proven by existing documentation at the time.



4)Joshua Reed, Served in the Revolutionary War as a minuteman in the Massachusetts militia.



5)Edward Sheldon, born in Michigan in 1836. Clerk in a store..  But also seems to have been an entrepreneur and land speculator.  We know at least he had land in Texas and that a Sheldon, North Dakota was named after him because he was one of the largest land purchasers of that town. At one point, he owned a creamery.  In the 1900 census, his occupation was described as “capitalist”.  




6)Newton Sheldon, born in New York in 1810.  Farmer. Politican.  Was active in the Washtenaw County Michigan Agricultural Society.  He was one of the original officers/secretary of the Washtenaw Mutual Insurance Company..  Was also a justice of the peace, township supervisor, county clerk, and in the state legislature at various times.




7)Eli Riggs, born in New York in 1802.  Farmer.  Was one of our many ancestors whose family was in the east coast, gradually moved west into new York, then across lake erie and into Michigan. 



Hagan ancestors that I know about, but haven't done a lot of original research:

Crego Family -  The origins of the Crego Family are Dutch.  After emigrating to the English colonies across the ocean, they were in New Amsterdam.  They were also members of the Reformed Dutch Church, who kept very good genealogical records.

*Sheldon Family – The origins of the Sheldon Family are English.  Our immigrant ancestor was Isaac Sheldon, who married 2nd Mehitable Gunn.  Here’s a website that explains some of his history:  http://josfamilyhistory.com/htm/nickel/griffin/sheldon/sheldon-isaac-1.htm

(to be continued) 


27 April 2019

More interesting Hagan ancestors - part 2


Interesting/famous/immigrant Hagan ancestors - 2

I have two different online genealogical websites:

1  1)  One is my toast.net website that I have to program and upload myself.  I haven't updated it in years;
2  2)  The other is hosted by rootsweb/ancestry.  I upload my genealogy database and it is put in a format that's easy to navigate.  The advantage to using this system is that ALL my data is here - not just what I purposely wrote up and recapped. 

So that being said, as a way of presenting my information, here are several interesting hagan/crego ancestors:

Some more interesting Hagan ancestors

1)  Asahel Bacus Parker, Baptist Circuit Rider.  Moved with family from New York, then into Ohio, where he met his wife.  Then on to Indiana, then into St. Joseph County, Michigan.   His wife died in 1861 and he in 1862 in a carriage accident. 
.


2) Cephas and Cyrus Parker, twin sons of Asahel Bacus Parker and Hepsey Ann Johnson.  Our written family history had stated that they fought against each other in the civil war.  After much research and collaborating with other researchers, we have determined that they both, in fact, fought in the Civil War for the Union Army.  Cephas stayed in Cass County Michigan for the rest of his life.  But for some reason, Cyrus ended up in Tennessee and married there.  In fact, his widow applied for a pension, based on his union service.



 3)Daniel H. Johnson.  Father of Hepsey Ann Johnson, who married Asahel Bacus Parker.  Daniel.  He married Anna North in Connecticut and moved to Ohio.  In fact, they were settlers into Ohio around 1809.  Ohio had just become a state in 1803.  Daniel fought in the War of 1812.  A published local history by his granddaughter states that while Daniel was off at war, his wife, Anna, slept with a pitchfork at the head of the bed to protect their family from the Indians.




Hagan ancestors that I know about, but haven't done a lot of original research:

Caleb Johnson.  Father of Daniel H. Johnson.  Born in 1745 in Middlesex County, Connecticut.  Served in the Revolutionary War in the Connecticut line for 2 years.