52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 19 – Mother's Day

I skipped week 18, but here is week 19 – Mother's Day.

All the females in my family tree have this one thing in common. They were all mothers. Also they were all grandmothers. I like this photo shared with me by my cousin, Robert Bond, of my 2^nd gt-grandmother, Huldah (Hayes) Bond, showing her with 5 of her grandchildren. It was taken about 1901 and I believe the grandchildren were, beginning at the left corner and going clockwise around her: Lela Bond, daughter of Charles; Lawrence Bond, son of Melvin; Leland Bond, son of Harvey; Guy Bond, son of Melvin and Bessie Bond, daughter of Charles.

Another thing that all the women on my family tree have in common is that they are all daughters. But for some of them I have been unable to establish who they are the daughter of. On my website, www.joanneskelton.com, I have a menu item named “special people.” In that category is a section called “earliest ancestors.” In that long list are a number of women without any identified parents.

Last year I discovered that even if I had recorded parents for an ancestor, maybe I did not have good documentation for that connection. One of my Bond cousins was attempting to join the DAR through an ancestor of Huldah's mother and the documentation was not enough to connect Huldah to her parents.

Why did I believe that Huldah was the daughter of Seth Hayes and Lydia Jewett?

• I had a published family history, Little Otter to Lost River, about Huldah's mother-in-law's family and on page 69 it stated “Solomon Bond...was married to Huldah Hayes,...daughter of Seth and Lydia Jewett Hayes...”
• I had a booklet compiled for the Bond family reunion in 1963 which stated they were her parents.
• The Genealogical Material in Oregon Donation Land Claims, Supplement to Volume I, Volume V, stated on page 45, “BOND, Solomon, ….m Huldah Hayes, dau of Seth and Lydia Jewell Hayes.”
• I had a photocopy of a family history of the Hayes family which stated Huldah was the daughter of Seth and Lydia.
• I had a copy of the Geauga County Ohio marriage record for Seth and Lydia.

But the DAR wanted better documentation showing Huldah was their daughter.

What were the obstacles for finding this?

• Her parents were Methodist so it was unlikely that church records documenting her birth could be found.
• Huldah was married in 1842, so she never appeared by name in the household of her parents on a census.
• The marriage record from 1842 in Iowa did not name parents.
• Huldah was born in Ohio in 1827, which was about 30 years before Ohio even enacted a law for birth registration.
• Although an abstract for early wills in Linn County Oregon where Seth died showed an heir as Huldah Boyd, a probable misreading for the name Bond, the original will record seems to have been lost.

What did I do? I made a trip to the Linn County Courthouse and requested a search for any probate records for Seth Hayes. I was so thankful when they telephoned me and said that a file had been found and I could have it emailed to me for just $3.00. Of course I paid it gratefully. When it arrived I was so glad to find that Huldah was among the heirs and did receive money from her father's estate. I shared this for the DAR application and now my cousin is a member.

I am confident that Huldah was the daughter of Seth and Lydia.