April 2012

Well, I managed to get this month’s postings updated on the 1st of the month. Not too bad, considering that it’s the end of tax season.

As I said in last month’s post, I’ve been concentrating my research on Roy and Sophia’s parents and their descendants. I did run across a couple of interesting facts that I didn’t realize before, so I thought I would share.

Roy’s father was Beeley Blanchford Pendleton. Beeley was born on Deer Island, New Brunswick, Canada, 13, Dec 1824. His parents were John Fleming Pendleton and Mahitable Gardner. John F and Mahitable had eight other children beside Beeley, all of whom were born on Deer Island: John Gilkey Pendleton (b 1817), Mahitable (b 1819), James (b 1821), Salome (b 1827), Elmira (b 1830), Mary Anna (b 1838), Emeline (b 1841) and Sarah, who died in infancy.

John Fleming Pendleton died in 1843 and Mahitable died in 1844.

Beeley’s older brother, John, married Mary Jane Laughton in 1842. They had a son, Enoch, who was born 1, Jul 1843 and who died 6 days later and another son, Lewis, who was born 4, Sep 1844.

Sometime between 1845 and 1850, Beeley and John and Mary Jane all moved to Cleveland, Ohio.

The first thing I didn’t know before was that Beeley lived for a time in Cleveland. He shows up on the 1850 US Census as living there with his brother, John. So, my December, 2010 Quiz was wrong: Beeley lived in at least 7 places.

Another interesting thing is that, apparently, John G, his wife, Mary Jane, and Beeley took the youngest sisters, Mary Anna (Ann) and Emeline, with them to Ohio and raised them as their own children. In fact, Emeline was only three years older than John’s surviving son, Lewis. Remember, however, that by 1855, Beeley was living in Wisconsin, as that was the year he married Catherine Newkirk. It is likely, then, that John G and Mary Jane were more responsible for taking the sisters in than was Beeley.

Finally, John G and Mary Jane had five more children: Sarah (b 1846), Wellington (b 1848), Josephine (b 1851), William (b 1853) and Susanna (b 1855). Sarah and Wellington both died in February, 1850 and Josephine died in October, 1855. I have no idea where the name "Wellington" came from, but Beeley and Catherine used that for Roy’s middle name. Was Wellington a favorite nephew of Beeley? We will never know for sure.

To me, it sounds like the family ties were quite strong.

I’ll post more information as I find it…

Keep in touch!