Maria Winegard, Smashing a Brick Wall

     Most of us have lots of female ancestors without maiden names. That is one thing I like about researching my Dutch and Flemish ancestors - the woman keeps her maiden name for life. I think we should all do that. Imagine how much easier it would be on all us genealogists if we didn’t have to scramble to find a woman’s maiden name and birth family. 

     I had one such female ancestor, Charity Winegard. Charity married Reuben Van Camp about 1854. Since this family was Methodist, outside the official church, the Church of England, they were probably married by the Methodist minister in South Mountain, Ontario. He would have reported the marriage to the Eastern District office and it would have been copied into the marriage register.(On my to-do list!) The Winegard family was enumerated in the 1851 Census of Canada in Mountain Township, Dundas, Upper Canada. The family consisted of the following:

         

          John Winegard, carpenter, age 50, born in

            United States, Episcopal Methodist

          Mariah, age 44, born Canada

          Charity, age 18, born Canada

          Abraham, age 17, carpenter, born Canada

          Amy, age 15, born Canada

          Polly, age 13, born Canada

          Mary J., age 11, born Canada

          Mathias, age 7, born Canada

          Isaac, age 4, born Canada

     I got a hint on one of the message boards that Mariah was a Barkley (or Barclay). So I went to the Web and looked at family trees to see if I could find a Maria Barkley married to a John Winegard. Bingo, a plethora of family trees showing a family for Maria. According to the consensus, Maria (or Anna Maria) was the daughter of Mathias Barkley and Margaret Cook (or Kock). This sounds good. Maria named one of her sons Mathias. I was able to find an 1830 US Census return for John Winegard living in Westerlo, Albany, New York. In this household were 1 male under 5, 1 male 30-39, 1 female under 5, 1 female 20-29. So it looks like there were at least 2 children older than Charity.

     This opened up the whole Barkley clan. Matthias’ father was Heinrich Adam Barkley, born in Baden-Wuerttenberg, Germany. His father was Eberhard Buercklin. Eberhard came to Philadelphis in the 1750’s with his wife and 6 sons, He moved to the Rensselaer plantation in the Albany, New York area and farmed there until his death on 1788. His wife died in 1797. Three more sons were born in New York. According to some reports, all but one of these sons were Loyalists and fought with the British. One son, Michael, served in the New York militia and received a pension from the US government in the 1830’s. I know that Andrew, Christian, Everhart and Peter Barkley all received land in Canada for their service from the British government.  After the end of the war, all sons went back to Albany and were enumerated in the 1790 census. I think they went back to support their parents and did not permanently move to Canada until after 1800.

     Heinrich (or Henry) died in Albany about 1800. Two of his sons moved to Canada but did not apply for any land as a child of a Loyalist so I am not sure if Henry served in a Loyalist regiment or not. (More things on my to-do list.) Mathias and his wife, Margaret, had 13 children. The first 3, Jacob, Johan and Anna Maria (my direct ancestress) were born in the United States and the rest in Canada. So this family moved sometime between December 1808 and January 1811. The Winegard family followed them but not until after April 1841. All of the Winegard children from Charity through Mary, stated many times that they were born in the United States and specified New York on various US Censuses.

     John Winegard died in 1858 and I was lucky enough to find that his wife remarried in 1860. There was an index only record of the marriage on Ancestry. I believe it can be found in Eastern District Marriage Registers since in the 1861 Census of Canada, Maria and her new husband, William Taylor, state that they belong to the Church of Scotland. In this record, Maria says she was born in the United States and that her parents are Matthew and Margaret Barkley. I think I have some good evidence that I am climbing the right family tree.

Ellen Wilson

Ellen Wilson is another of my brick walls. She is one of my second great grandmothers. She was born in Ireland and immigrated to Canada as a young girl. What I know about her was hand written on the top of a typed pedigree chart. This was part of my father’s collection of family stuff. It said that Ellen came to Canada at the age of 12. She was from Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. The trip took 6 weeks. When they arrived in Canada, they settled on Concession VII, lot 5 in Edwardsburg.

I have accumulated several documents from Canada that relate to Ellen. The first was a copy of the marriage record. Eleanor Wilson and Daniel Baldwin were married on the 3rd day of January 1833 in Mountain after the publishing of banns. Witnesses were Samuel Gainsey and James Nettleton. Signed by Ezra Healy, minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The couple settled on Concession IV, Lot 18 in Mountain Township, Dundas County, Upper Canada (Ontario was not in existence yet) and started a family. Ellen was a farmer’s wife and I am sure worked hard all day long.

She was enumerated with her family in the Canadian censuses in 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1881. By 1881, farming duties had been assumed by their youngest son, William, my great grandfather, and Daniel and Ellen were able to enjoy their grandchildren. Ellen died on 16 February 1891 at age 83. Her death was duly registered by her daughter, Sarah Van Camp. She was buried with her husband and a beautiful tombstone was erected by the family. The information on the tombstone agrees with the information on her death certificate.

From the information I have, I calculate she was born about 1808 and she came to Canada about 1820. This was a time that the waves of immigrants were just beginning. The Napoleonic Wars ended in June 1815 and a period of economic hardship followed. The market for grain collapsed because there were no more large armies to feed. At the same time, blights hit the Irish crops several years in a row so yields were down significantly. The ads for cheap land in Canada must have been appealing. All it took was the price of a ticket on a sailing vessel and you could be off to your new life.

The fact that we have a township, concession and lot number where Ellen and her family settled makes looking up land records very easy. Edwardsburg Township in Grenville County was one of the first ones surveyed and settled by soldiers in Jessup’s Corps after the American Revolution. So there should be records in Grenville County, now Leeds and Grenville County, dating back to the original crown land grant. I decided to see if I could determine if Wilsons lived on this lot in the mid 19th century. McGill University has digitized old county maps that have the landholder’s name printed on them. You can access their database at http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas/. The 1861 atlas for Grenville County showed an N. Wilson on lot 5, concession VII. I went to the Canadian census for 1861 and located a record for Newburk Wilson living in Edwardsburg with a wife and seven children. Wow! Could this be Ellen’s brother, or cousin?

I ordered the film for Grenville County land records indexed by concession and lot from the Family History Library. I was disappointed to find that the first entry for anyone named Wilson occurred in 1910 when Newbuck Wilson’s son John Wilson, granted land to his son Royal Wilson. So by 1910 John Wilson owned at least the East one half of the East one half of Lot 5 (about 50 acres) if he was able to transfer it. How did he become the owner? There are no transactions listed any earlier. This is not too unusual since in the nineteenth century no one considered it important to register a sale until they themselves were going to sell it. Often you will find a sale registered in say 1851 but the date on the document was 1820. I tried to find the film where Book U transactions were filmed so I could look at the actual document but I could not find any film entry listing Book U. So that’s where I stand. Sometimes genealogy can be very frustrating. Sigh!

Wyngaart Family of the Hudson River Valley

The Wyngaart’s were part of the early Dutch migration to New Netherlands. The new world patriarch, Lucas Gerritse Wyngaart was in the Albany area by 1658 when his first son was born. He and his wife, Anna Janse Van Hoesen had at least 6 children born in the Hudson River Valley. They first settled at Kinderhook and later moved up river to Albany. Here is my working tree for this family as I know it. Please note that most of these facts are unproved and may not stand the test of time. Baptisms have been verified in Reformed Dutch Church records.

Generation I

 Lucas Gerritse Wyngaart born say 1630, married Anna Janse Van Hoesen (born say 1638) about 1657 and had the following children.

     1. Gerrit Lucas born about 1658, m. Sara Harmense Visscher 4 Nov 1694 in Albany

     2. Elizabeth born 1663 in Kinderhook, New York, m Dirck Jansz Goes (or Hoes)

     3. Johannes Lucas, born about 1675, m. Susanne Wendel 25 Apr 1695 in Albany

     4. Jacobus Lucas, born about 1675(2)

     5. Margaret (also called Maria)born Feb 1685 in Albany, m.Emanuel Classe Van Schaick in Albany

     6. Lucas, born 1686 in Albany

Generation 2

 Jacobus Lucas Wyngaart m. Marritje Quackenbosch on 3 Nov 1700 in Albany

     1. Anna baptized 11 May 1701 in Albany

     2. Johannes born  30 May 1703, m. Maria Hayser 17 Nov 1725 in Albany

     3. Abraham, bap. 29 Jul 1705 in Albany(3)

     4. Machteld, born 28 Jan 1707 in Albany, m. Petrus Hilton about 1750

     5. Gerrit Lucasse, bap 27 Oct 1710 in Albany

     6. Christina, bap. 17 May 1719 in Albany

     7. Lucas, bap. 30 Nov 1721 in Albany, d. 7 Dec 1754 in Albany, m. Catarina Van Aalstyne 5 Jan 1753 in Albany

Generation 3

 Abraham m. (1) Elizabeth Van Franken(1706-1733) on 13 Dec 1729 in Albany and (2) Elizabeth Van Aalstyne on 11 Aug 1737 in Albany

     1. Maria, b. 1731, m. Isaac Truax (or Truex or Truen) on 16 Jun 1750 in Albany

     2. Elizabeth, born 22 May 1738 in Albany

     3. Peter, bap. 16 Aug 1741 in Albany(4)

Generation 4

 Peter married Annatje Seiboroe about 1765

     1. Peter, may be son baptized in 1770 in Schodack, Rensselaer, New York

     2. Abraham, bap. 21 Apr 1771 in Schodack

     3. Nicholas, born about 1775, d. 21 Jul 1738 n Rensselaerville, Green, New York(5)

     4. Richard, Bap 10 Jan 1778 in Coxsackie, Greene, New York, died after 1880 in Seward, Schohharie, New York, m. Charity ____

     5. Jacobus, Bap. 3 Oct 1784 in Coxsackie

Generation 5

 Nicholas m. Marritje Fraser about 1797

     1. Peter, b. 4 July 1798 in Albany, d. 23 Jul 1858 in Williamsburg, Dundas, Ontario, Canada

     2. John, b.10 Oct 1801 in Coxsackie, d. 3 Sep 1858 in Mountain, Dundas, Ontario, Canada(6)

     3. Abraham, b.6 Oct 1806

     I decided to survey the census records from 1810-1850 to see if I could place any of these men. I found a total of 17 different Wyngaart households, in Greene, Albany and Schoharie counties between 1810 and 1850. Of those 18, I could identify 5 as individuals from my tree.

NAME	BIRTH YEAR from CENSUS	WHERE LIVED	YEAR of CENSUS	LIKELY FATHER
Abraham	1770-1780	Westerlo, Albany	1840	Peter
Nicholas	1775 or earlier	Sharon, Schoharie	1820	Peter
Richard	1782	Seward, Schoharie	1850	Peter
Abraham, Jr.	1807	Westerlo, Albany	1850	Abraham
John	1800-1810	Westerlo, Albany	1830	Abraham

I was able to identify 3 of Peter’s sons and 2 of Abraham’s. Just to make things interesting, in the late 1700’s, the name was anglicized to Winegard. But I have also seen Wingard and Weingard. It is also indexed as Winegar.

     What about those 12 I couldn’t place? One was a woman, Charity Winegard, born between 1776 and 1794 (1820 Census). Men included James, born 1786, Peter J. Born 1791, Peter D. Born 1805, John born 1800, Nicholas born 1802, Daniel born 1812, William born 1821, Alexander born 1828, Solomon born 1807. All of these individuals were in the 1850 census as well as earlier. The last 2 are George born between 1800 and 1810 and James born between 1810 and 1820. Both of these individuals were found in only the 1840 census.

     What next? I would like to see if I can add any daughters to these households and see if I can identify fathers for my 11 unidentified men. I think I need to FAN (Family, Associates, Neighors) out and see if I can identify wives and daughters. I have listed no daughters in generations 4 and 5. Church records should help here particularly with sponsors at baptisms. I know a whole lot more now than I did a few months ago but still have a challenge ahead.