The Children of Elisha and Catherine Shipman

Yesterday, 7 Apr 2017, I wrote about Elisha Shipman. Today I want to give my conclusions about who his children were.

Using the information from the 1837 letter writer from Ashtabula County Ohio, one of Elisha's children was Joseph Lester Shipman. Joseph's birthdate has been given as 25 Jan 1808. So he should have been in Elisha's household for the 1820 census. However Elisha is found in Lyme, New London County, Connecticut with 1 male age 26-44, 1 female age 26-44 and 3 females under 10. The adults fit, but Joseph is not there. I still believe Joseph is a son and could be living with some relative or working for someone.

What about the 3 females under 10? I believe we can identify them, even though their ages are a little bit off: Mehitable, born about 1809/10, Philena born 1811 and Zeriah born about 1814.

Mehitable was married to Alexander Wright. By 1850 Elisha and Catherine are living with them in Leroy District, Lake County, Ohio. Mehitable and Alexander were still there in the 1860 census, but by 1870 Alexander is in Chikaming, Berrien County Michigan and Mehitable is on the mortality schedule there with a death date of Aug 1869. It is interesting that Joseph's son Joshua Rodney Shipman was in Chikaming on the 1860 census, but had moved to Mercer County Illinois by 1865.

Philena was married to George Chase and in 1850 they were living next door to Joseph Lester Shipman and his family in Cherry Valley Township, Ashtabula County, Ohio. Philena and George were in Berrien County Michigan in 1860 and in 1870. By 1880 Philena is living with her son James in Mercer County Illinois.

Zeriah was married to George Mather. She seems to be the one child who remained in Connecticut. George is listed in the 1840 census in Lyme, New London County, Connecticut with a female in the household the right age to the Zeriah. They are still there in 1850 and are in Old Lyme (formed from Lyme) in 1860 when Elisha and Catherine are living with them. They are in Old Lyme in the 1870 census and Zeriah (listed as Lotta) was living with her son in East Lyme in the 1880 census.

The family seemed to move around, but there are some common places: Lyme, New London County, Connecticut; Ashtabula County, Ohio; Lake County, Ohio; Berrien County, Michigan; and Mercer County, Illinois.   

Ancestor Birthday - April 6th - Elisha Shipman 1788 - 1863

Here is another one of my 4th great-grandfathers, Elisha Shipman. I have already posted about his son, Joseph L. Shipman, on 25 Jan 2017 and his mother, Margery Avery, on 11 Jan 2017. Now it is Elisha's turn. Of course Elisha didn't get to have his turn on his birthday because April 6th was one of those two ancestor days and Elisha came in second.

When I was first starting to research the Shipman family, an Ohio cousin provided copies from a family history book, The Shipman Family in America, published in 1962 by the Shipman Historical Society. This book included my family: my father Lester Albertson, grandmother Lucie Smalley Albertson, great-grandmother Rosa Ella Shipman Smalley, 2nd great-grandfather Joshua Rodney Shipman, 3rd great-grandfather Joseph Lester Shipman, and it included a 4th great-grandfather, Elijah Shipman, the son of Abner and Margery (Avery) Shipman. It stated that Elijah, born 22 Apr 1785, had "Served from Connecticut in the Revolutionary War, Moved from Connecticut to Ashtabula County, Ohio, and Married Catherine________." Since the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, I should have been more cautious about this information. I had found Joseph Lester Shipman in Ashtabula County, but I couldn't find a record of Elijah being there. I only found 3 Shipmans from the early days: Amos, Elisha and Nathaniel. Then my cousin, Beverly Frain, again came to my rescue. A Connecticut researcher had found a letter written from Ashtabula County in 1837 where the writer noted "Mary Cary is married to Josep Shipman Elisha Shipman son." Now I could research the correct brother. I should have known. I have taught enough Sunday School and Vacation Bible School classes to realize that people are always getting those two Old Testament prophets, Elijah and Elisha, confused.

Elisha did marry someone named Catherine, as she is there with him on both the 1850 census in Lake County, Ohio, and again on 1860 census in New London County, Connecticut. They went against the norm and moved west from Connecticut to Ohio and then went back to Connecticut. It is believed that Catherine died in Connecticut in 1860. I looked for the record and still haven't found it, but I did find the record for Elisha when he died in East Lyme, Connecticut, 8 Mar 1863.

Tomorrow I will try to give my conclusions about Elisha's children.

Posted 7 Apr 2017

Ancestor Birthday - January 25th - Joseph L. Shipman 1807-1893

Today I am writing about my 3rd great-grandfather, Joseph Lester Shipman, in relation to my 2017 genealogy goals (as posted on 2 Jan 2017).

Review. In checking him on my website, I found it told of his birth on 25 Jan 1807 in Old Lyme, New London County, Connecticut, the son of Elisha and Catherine Shipman. There was his marriage to Mary Carey (or McCreary) on 16 Feb 1837 in Ashtabula County, Ohio. The information from the 1850 census was there as well as his death on 30 Sep 1893 in Tuscola County, Michigan with burial in Moreland Cemetery. Only my 2nd great-grandfather, Joshua Rodney Shipman, was shown as his child. I believe this information was basically correct, but so much was lacking. There were more censuses to be entered. I remembered that his first wife had died and he had a second wife and a number of other children.

Organize. I had collected a fair amount of information on the Shipman family, particularly with help from other researchers. But, it was pretty much all in one big pile. So I divided most of it into four sections: (1) Joseph Lester, (2) his son Joshua Rodney, (3) Joseph's father Elisha and (4) Joseph's grandfather Abner, with the other children of each in their section. This led me to do more research on the family.

Write. Well, since you are reading this, I have done that.

Enter. This is the step that still has much to be done. I have found the census entries for Joseph in Ohio in 1860 and in Michigan in 1870 and 1880. There is his 2nd marriage to Huldah Jane (with a very difficult to read surname on the marriage record) and 8 more children.

Digitize. So far I have saved digital copies of his two marriage records from the Ashtabula County marriage books as found on familysearch.org. Again much more needs to be done on this goal also.

But that's what goals are for, to help us see what needs to be done and give us the incentive to do it.

Posted 25 Jan 2017

Ancestor Birthday - January 11th - Margery Avery 1757-

When did Margery (Avery) Shipman die?

I believe I know when my 5th great-grandmother, Margery Avery, the daughter of Nathaniel Avery and Mary Wickwire, was born. Looking at the microfilm for the Lyme Connecticut town records I found her born 11 Jan 1757. She also is listed in the town records for Lyme when she married Abner Shipman on 20 Oct 1779. The birthdates for their 13 children are recorded in the Lyme records.

But when did Margery die? The website Find A Grave has a page for her, but without a death date. There is a photograph of a tombstone from Woodlawn Cemetery, Lincklaen, Chenango County, New York. It is a stone with both her husband Abner and her names. It has birth and death dates for him, but only a birthdate for her. The tombstone appears to be much newer than the 1832 death date for Abner, so may have been erected later by one of the descendants.

I've found Margery's birth, marriage and births of her children in 3 different published family histories: Avery, Wickwire and Shipman. None of them gives death information for her.

Maybe the US census could help give a clue. The census listings for Abner show a female of about the correct age in 1790 and 1800 in New London County, Connecticut and 1810 and 1820 in Chenango County, New York. So far I have not been able to locate either of them in the 1830 census. Thus I may use a death date of "after 1820" and continue looking.

See Margery on my website:http://www.joanneskelton.com/p96.htm#i2377