Relatively Speaking Blog

Hunting for one’s foremothers can prove challenging in the United States, where a woman usually takes her husband’s surname when she marries. If she marries more than once, she becomes further removed from her initial surname. Early records might even list her only as Mrs. Smith or Widow Smith additionally distancing her from her original identity. Then generations that follow often confuse their maternal ancestor’s birth names as evidenced by records, like death certificates, that have muddled a mother’s maiden name.

In 19^th century America, a female had fewer rights than men for owning property or conducting her own business and often needed a man to assist her. When she transferred land, created a will or even administered her husband’s estate, she would often turn to someone she trusted, like a brother, cousin, son or father to aid her in the matter. Finding documents created by women, especially young women or widows, can aid us in identifying our female ancestor’s lineage, if we closely observe the names of the people mentioned and include them in our research.

Following this thinking, last spring I ventured to track my 3^rd great grandmother, Sarah, for whom I had only a handful of facts. I had established the following:

• 1830—listed in census as head of the household between 30 and 40 years of age, with a boy and a girl both 0-5 years of age. Her husband Jonas Swank had died shortly before.
• 1831—she bought land from Daniel Grafius in Penn township, Lycoming county, PA.
• 1860—listed in census, age 62, with husband, James Harding, 67, and a Harriet J. Morris, age 8.
• 1869—a will for Sarah Harding went to probate; it mentioned Mary A. Swank, married to Christian Swank; Henry Swank, her son; Charlotte Toland, married to David W. Phillips; Jerusha Toland. Witnesses were Thos. G. Downing and James Taylor.

I had found these various items over the years, and I chose to begin with the names on the will. I knew about Henry and Mary Ann, but who were the other people? I put a query about Sarah and the names in her will in a genealogy newsletter. A distant cousin, Freda, replied with interest in finding out more about our common ancestor Sarah, which generated a flurry of emails between us as we investigated online resources and repositories for clues on Sarah.

Freda was successful in connecting some of the names I had with each other: another David Phillips married Elizabeth Taylor, daughter of James Taylor; Mary Ann Morris (perhaps a relative of the Morris child in Sarah’s house in 1860) married Thomas Downing. Although we were finding some information on these folks, we still hadn’t found how they, or Charlotte and Jerusha were related to Sarah.

Looking at the federal census for 1830, Sarah was in Penn Township, Lycoming County. Listed above her was a Samuel Morris, found to be Mary Ann Morris’ grandfather. Jumping to 1860, Sarah had married James Harding and was living in Davidson Township, Sullivan County, which borders Penn Township in Lycoming. On one side was her daughter Mary Ann Swank, and on the other side was a Jonathan Phillips. Other names of interest on the pages were James Taylor, David Phillips with wife Elizabeth, and a few other Phillips families. But where was Sarah in 1840 and 1850?

Freda combed the 1850 census for Davidson Township, finding James Harding, Solomon Swank, Christian Swank, Thomas Harding, and a number of Phillips households. With her perseverance she came upon an exciting find. Living beside Jonathan Phillips and a few doors away from Christian and Mary Ann Swank was the following family: Sarah Lalands; 52; Henry, 21; Sharlette, 11; Joshua, 11.  Census takers are known to have made errors enumerating; this surely was our Sarah, with her son Henry and Charlotte and Jerusha, who must be her daughters from another marriage! Going back to 1840 in Davidson Township, there is Solomon Swank, James Taylor, James Harding, Griffith Phillips father-in-law to Elizabeth Taylor Phillips and then David L. Leland!

Suddenly I noticed this surname, or a variation of it, on other documents. A death certificate for Peter Green Swank listed his parents as Christian Swank and Sarah Laland.  Mary Ann Swank, Sarah’s daughter, was the mother, so it appears Peter’s son listed his great-grandmother Sarah (and her second married name), instead of his grandmother Mary Ann as his father’s mother. I found a death certificate for Jerusha Dubler in 1911, father unknown, mother Sarah Ann Layland.  About 1852 in Davidson Township, James Harding was selling land that was bounded by property of Sarah Layland.  In the 1900 census in Davidson Township Jarusia and Jacob Dubler are living a few doors from Peter G. Swank (mentioned above) and a Lloyd Lailand. My autumn trip to Sullivan County confirmed that Charlotte’s and Jerusha’s surname definitely is Laland in Sarah’s probate papers, not Toland as the recorder wrote it.

On that trip, however, I wasn’t able to find any concrete evidence that put everything neatly in its place or gave any clear clues about Sarah’s parentage. We accept that Sarah married a Mr. Leland, probably David, sometime after 1831 and had Charlotte and Jerusha. Jerusha married Jacob Dubler and lived most of her life in Lycoming or the surrounding counties. Charlotte and husband David Phillips moved to St. Joseph Michigan, and he died in 1867; Charlotte might have married a Henry Adams and died in Washington state.

Together, my new found cousin and I have assembled a number of leads about Sarah and the associates listed in her will. Although some of the absolute evidence is lacking, we have located enough fragments to piece together a few details about her life, as mentioned above. With more digging, maybe we will someday be able to resolve those now unanswered questions like: Who was Daniel Grafius who sold her land? What was the relationship between Sarah, Thomas Downing and James Taylor? Who was the Morris child living with her in 1860? Is Sarah related in any way to Samuel Morris? Who are Sarah’s parents and what is her mother’s maiden name? Stay tuned. The search for Sarah continues.