Well 7 years has gone by and DANG, I can't believe I haven't updated the blog with a new post... so forgive the rustyness but here goes!
Most genealogists are familiar with the 1850, 1860, 1870 Census Records are like... LOADS of great information, but none of them list family relationships like Head, wife, son, daughter, brother/sister in law... those familial relationships.
I've seen this many times where someone is listed on the above named Census' and automatically they assume it's a child... as in this document. Here we find Benjamin and Mary with George W. listed as age 22 and Hannah Ann as age 23.
NOW looking at it, I think I should have questioned why Hannah was listed AFTER George. USUALLY enumerators were to put the children on the Census listed in order of their age... and if the ages are not in order, then there's a clue. As in for the above document Hannah is shown as a year older than George, by the instructions give to enumerators... she should have been listed just above him, not below him!
Most trees on Ancestry.com and on FamilySearch list Hannah Ann as a daughter to Benjamin and Mary
WELL...
imagine my surprise when I come across this document below on FamilySearch in the "labs" section after searching with AI in the Deeds documents. I have not determined when George Washington Featherby left Pennsylvania to move to Illinois, but at least in 1857 {date of this document} he was in Pennsylvania to settle some land sales. He had already married Sarah Schoonmaker on 17 Oct 1853, though she isn't mentioned in this document:
Yes, Hannah Ann is insane {and has been for 4 years... later in document, it says she is unable to transact business} and it lists her as "HIS WIFE"!! Also clearly it states that Mercy Ann and George are Mary's ONLY heirs!
So now I have to got to Ancestry.com to change my main tree and the other research tree containing this family, add new documents as proof, then go to FamilySearcy.com and "FIX" the relationships created there... and then to help others, I messaged about 4 or 5 others who have Hannah Ann as a daughter of Benjamin & Mary in their trees as well. Ughhh, and I'm not sure, but I may be the one who accidently mislead others by putting her in my trees and on FamilySearch as a daughter instead of a wife!
I need to be more careful!!! But at least this new document has shed some light on Hannah Ann's place in the family.
Now to find out when they were married... no luck yet, though the family WAS Quaker and it should have appeared in the awesome records Quakers keep. I'll keep at it.
Also no indication when a divorce was obtained... but I'm assuming sometime before October 1853 as that's the date of his second marriage.
I LOVE documents... it makes PROOF so much better!
