52 Ancestors 2019 – 5 – At the Library – William Marsh

When I was beginning my genealogy research over 30 years ago I learned that almost one-fourth of my ancestry came from Quakers as my paternal grandfather was born into a Quaker family. My second cousin shared with me his findings about our Quaker ancestors. The local genealogical society library (Cottage Grove, Oregon) had books with Quaker information, so I used them to compare to my cousin's research. The local genealogical library had the 6 volume set of books: Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy by William Wade Hinshaw. Later I learned that Mr. Hinshaw was a distant cousin of mine.

On the aunts and uncles birthday calendar for this week, I found my 2^nd gt-grandmother, Sabina (Marsh) Albertson's brother. William Marsh was born either on 25 January 1816 from Ohio records or 1 February 1817 from Indiana records. His parents were Elias and Edith (Townsend) Marsh. This was in Columbiana County, Ohio, apparently in the part of Columbiana County which later became Carrol County, since records in Indiana show the latter as his birthplace.

I was able to find the Marsh family in Volume IV, Ohio, of the Hinshaw books. The books are arranged by the local meetings and Elias and Edith were reported married at the New Garden Monthly Meeting located in Columbiana County on the 17^th day of the 7^th month in 1810. Then in 1822 they and their children, including Willliam, were granted a certificate to transfer to the Sandy Spring Meeting, which was also in Columbiana County. The Sandy Spring records show the birthdates of Elias and Edith and their 8 children, including William. This record shows the January 1816 date.

It was a dozen years later, 1834, when Elias's family moved to Indiana. My local library at that time did not have the Indiana records, as Hinshaw's books do not include Indiana. However, there was a set of 7 books of Indiana Quaker records edited by Willard Heiss. The genealogy society in Eugene (about 20 miles from me) did have these books in their library, so I took a trip there.

The Elias Marsh family were granted a certificate to Duck Creek Monthly Meeting in Henry County. Indiana. They were probably among the members who were included at Walnut Ridge Monthly Meeting of Rush County, when it was set off from Duck Creek in 1836. Elias' family is named with birthdates in the Walnut Ridge minutes. It is there that the February 1817 date is used.

I found it interesting that the only birthdates which differed between the two listings are my 2^nd gt-grandmother Sabina and this uncle William. But it also made me remember that published information can be incorrect and you need to find as many pieces of evidence as you can. Still sometimes you will not know which one is correct.

It was at the Walnut Ridge meeting that William married Martha Ann Chappell on 21 December 1836. William and Martha had six children: Thomas, Edith, William, Elias, Margaret and Benjamin, who are all named in the Indiana book. Note that I did a post about one of these children in 2017: https://joannesgenealogyresearch.blogspot.com/2017/06/quaker-cousins-elias-t-marsh-1848-1926.html.  The Walnut Ridge record also lists the death of William on 12 October 1861, stating he was buried at Westland Meeting. This meeting house was in Blue River Township in Hancock County, Indiana.

So, even if I cannot be positive about William's birthdate, I do appreciate all the information that I was able to find about him “at the library.”

Quaker Cousins - Elias T. Marsh - 1848 - 1926

Walnut Ridge Monthly Meeting, Rush County, Indiana

Again I plan to post about some of my great-grandfather Nathan Elias Albertson's first cousins (my first cousins three times removed.) I posted about cousins from his father's side in the early part of May 2017. Now I want to post about cousins from his mother's side of the family.

Elias T. Marsh was the son of Jesse and Catherine (Osborn) Marsh. Jesse was a brother of Sabina (Marsh) Albertson. Catherine was a step-sister to Jesse, since her widowed mother Margaret married his widowed father Elias. Apparently Elias T. was named for his grandfather, Elias Marsh and his great-grandfather, Elias Marsh. Elias T. had a first cousin named Elias J. Marsh (son of William and Martha (Chappell) Marsh who was born a little over a year before Elias T. You also can notice that my great-grandfather shares the name Elias as his middle name.

Elias T. was born 5 Jan 1848 in Hancock County, Indiana. When the census of 1850 was taken on the 22nd of July in Blue River Township in Hancock County, Elias was enumerated as Elias Thomas Marsh, age 2, in the household of Jesse and Catherine. Also in the household was his 9 month old sister Margaret and his grandparents Elias and Margaret. I wonder if they had a problem knowing which Elias they were talking about. But that problem would have gone away in about 1855 when Jesse and his family moved to Hardin County Iowa.

When they took the 1860 census there in July, Jesse and Catherine's household now included 5 children: Elias, Margaret, George, Mary and John. Jesse's sister Sabina and her family lived next door. Nathan Elias was about a year younger than Elias and 3 years older than George, plus Nathan Elias had 2 younger brothers, William and Jesse. I wonder if these boys who were siblings and cousins found activities to do together.

When Elias T. was almost 19, on 15 Dec 1866, he married Fanny Lavina Hickman. Sometime between 1880 and 1900 Elias and Fanny and their children moved to Adams County, Iowa. They lived there until Fanny died in 1924 and Elias died 26 Mar 1926. They were both buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Adams County.