Ancestor Birthday – July 22 – Peninah Parker 1781-1857

It was a few days ago, on 22 Dec 2017, when I wrote about Nathan Nicholson, my 4^th gt-grandfather. His wife was Peninah Parker. When I checked her entry on my website, I discovered I had neglected to enter her birth information there, so it didn't show on my calendar of birthdays. So I am trying to correct my oversight today. Also I didn't make a post yesterday on Christmas Day, so plan to catch up tomorrow by transcribing 2 pages of Peninah's father's will.

Peninah was born into a family which became Quakers before she was born. From the wills of her parents, John and Jael (Peel) Parker, their oldest son, John, was born before they had become Quakers, so his birth was not listed on this list of children from the Sutton's Creek Monthly Meeting in Perquimans County North Carolina.

As I wrote a few days ago Peninah married Nathan Nicholson on 16 May 1799. This means that she had not yet reached her 18^th birthday. She and Nathan had 8 known children. After her husband died about 1824 she remained in North Carolina with her younger children until 1832 when she moved to Indiana. Other of the Quakers from that area also moved there. She and the 3 youngest children, Mary, George and Nathan Parker, were first at Milford Monthly Meeting in Wayne County. The next year, 1833, they were listed as members of Duck Creek Monthly Meeting in Henry County. When her son George was married in 1835, her residence was listed as Rush County. She and her children were shown as charter members of Walnut Ridge Monthly Meeting in Rush County when it was set off from Duck Creek in 1836. She remained a member there for over 20 years before she died 18 Sep 1857 and was buried at Walnut Ridge.

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.

Ancestor Birthday - January 24th - Benjamin Albertson 1826-1908

Benjamin is my 2nd great-grandfather. He was born in 1826 in Perquimans County, North Carolina, which is in the northeastern corner of the state, which I visited in 1996. He was the son of Nathan Albertson and Phariby Nicholson. I wrote about Nathan on the 5th of January post.

Benjamin, while still a child, traveled with his parents and extended family going north in the 1830's to Rush County Indiana. He was still living with his parents when they moved to Hancock County Indiana in 1837. The family were charter members of the Quaker Walnut Ridge Monthly Meeting. It was at the Westland Meeting House on 26 November 18, 1847, that he married Sabina Marsh. Her family had also been Quakers for a number of years coming from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio before arriving in Indiana. In 1852 Benjamin and Sabina and their two small sons, Nathan and William, were granted certificates from Walnut Ridge to transfer to Westfield Monthly Meeting in Hamilton County, Indiana, but Benjamin's family had already moved westward to that area because they were counted there in the 1850 census. In 1855, the family moved again, going farther west into Hardin County, Iowa. By the 1880 census they went across the county line and were living in Marshall County, Iowa.

A family history of Bejamins's gt-grandmother's family, Genealogy of the Bell Family: A Record of the Decendants of Lancelot Bell which was published in 1907, lists Sabina's death as 4 Oct 1897, so Benjamin was now a widower. He apparently moved with his daughter's family as they are in Jericho Springs, Cedar County, Missouri by the 1900 census. When and where Benjamin died is a mystery I haven't yet solved. Other researchers have listed the date as 23 Feb 1908, but I have not seen their documentation for this. This date would not contradict the family history publlshed in 1907 as it does not give any death information for him.

Although Benjamin owned land and worked as a farmer, he also worked as woodworker, being listed in the 1850 census as a wagonmaker and as a carpenter in 1870, 1880 and 1900.

Benjamin was one of nine children, having seven brothers and one sister. I find it interesting that Benjamin and Sabina had only one daughter along with four sons. Then their oldest son, my ancestor Nathan Elias Albertson, had only one daughter and four sons. So in my direct line there were three generations where there was just one daughter. Do you suppose those girls were given special attention in their families?

See Benjamin on my website:http://www.joanneskelton.com/p9.htm#i208

Ancestor Birthday - January 5th - Nathan Albertson 1801-1883

Nathan is my 3rd great-grandfather. He was born in 1801 in Perquimans County, North Carolina, whic is in the northeastern corner of the state. I was privileged to visit that area in 1996. The Albertsons had lived in that area for over a century as Nathan's 3rd great-grandfather Albert settled a land grant there in 1694.

By the time Nathan was ten, his mother had died, as his father, Benjamin Albertson, remarried in 1811, to a widow, Margaret (Bagley) Nixon, with three children from her previous marriage. Nathan gained a half-brother William in about 1814. Nathan's father had died before October 1824, when Nathan married Phariby Nicholson in a Quaker ceremony at Suttons Creek Monthly Meeting. Nathan's step-mother, Margaret Albertson's name was listed as one of the witnesses.

Nathan and Phariby followed the trend of Quakers moving north in the 1830's and purchased government land in Rush County Indiana in 1834. They continued moving, buying land in Hancock County Indiana in 1837 and then in 1855 buying land in Hardin County, Iowa. By the 1880 census Nathan and Phariby were living with their son Benjamin's family in Marshall County, Iowa.

A family history (Genealogy of the Bell Family: A Record of the Decendants of Lancelot Bell ) gives Nathan's death date as 12 January 1883. Benjamin's family is listed on the 1885 Nebraska state census with Phariby in their household.

See Nathan on my website:http://www.joanneskelton.com/p9.htm#i215