52.7: Valentine; Mary Ann Valentine Hilyard Neely

This post is part of a project called "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" created by Amy Johnson Crow.

The prompt this week is "Valentine". I actually have ancestors with the surname Valentine, and I blogged about the reluctant immigrant, Barnabas Valentine, a few years ago.

One thing I like about the 52 Ancestors project is that it is making me write about things that I don't feel are "ready." Usually when I blog, I have a fairly complete story to tell on a topic I have researched. Here, I am gathering up what I know about someone and presenting what I have. I hope it will produce some leads.

Today, with the Valentine prompt, I will tell you what I know about the granddaughter of the above mentioned Barnabus Valentine. She was my 3x great-grandmother, Mary Ann Valentine. I have a bit of information on her, but so many more questions that I have been unable to answer.

Mary Ann was the daughter of Barnabus Valentine's son John Valentine and Agnes Neeley.  Both John and Agnes, who went by the nickname Nancy, were married previously and left widowed. They were married 15 Oct 1818 in Fairfield County, Ohio. They each had one son from their first marriages.

John Valentine married Nancy McCrory (nee Neeley)
Fairfield County, Ohio Marriage Book 1800-1836, page 165

If the information on her gravestone is correct, John and Nancy Valentine had their first daughter Mary Ann on 13 Mar 1819, five months after their marriage. This was most certainly in Fairfield County, Ohio, as that was where the couple was married as well as where they were living in the 1820 census. As a side note, I would like to point out that before writing this blog post, I had Mary Ann's birthdate as 13 AUG 1819 in my database, but no source. A careful look at the gravestone gave me what I suspect is a more accurate date, and one I can at least point to a source for.

Shortly after her 10th birthday, Mary Ann's father John Valentine died, on 20 Jun 1829.  This left Nancy Valentine with seven children to raise, the oldest being her stepson age 16, down to a daughter only nine months old. Nancy never remarried, and I'm sure she had a difficult, work-worn life.  Her story will be for another post, however.

About 1838, a family moved in near the Valentines in Rush Creek township of Fairfield County, Ohio by the name of Hilyard. Thomas and Elizabeth (Haught) Hilyard came from Fayette County, Pennsylvania. I believe at the time they moved they had 17 children with them. Their oldest son was already married, and some children were not yet born.  I imagine a match was welcome from both families.

Jeremiah Hilyard married Mary Ann Valentine on 14 Mar 1839 in Fairfield County, Ohio.

Jeremiah Hillyard married Mary Ann Valentine
Fairfield County, Ohio Marriage Book 1835-1869, page 100

The couple is listed adjacent to Nancy Valentine on the 1840 census of Fairfield County, so they may have initially lived with or near her. I believe they stayed in the area for about 10 years before moving west to Allen County, Ohio. Although Jeremiah purchased land in Allen County on 30 Mar 1850, the family was still located in Fairfield County at the time of the census on 30 Aug 1850.

1850 Fairfield County, Ohio Federal Census, Auburn Township, p. 410B
Full image found on Ancestry.com

Jeremiah Hilyard died a few years later, on 2 Apr 1855, at the age of 37. The widow Mary Ann was 35.  Just like her mother before her, she had seven surviving children (having lost a girl a few years earlier), and was now living on a farm over 100 miles from her mother and other family.

However, Mary Ann did not follow in the footsteps of her mother Nancy by remaining a widow and raising the kids on her own. Nine months after the death of Jeremiah Hilyard, Mary Ann remarried to what still strikes me as a surprising choice.

Mary Ann Valentine Hilyard, age 36, married Samuel Neely, age about 18 (I don't know his exact birthday).  While it was certainly not uncommon to remarry at that time, and sometimes quickly after a spouse's death,  it was usually a man to a younger, and sometimes much younger, woman. This is one aspect of Mary Ann I have so many questions about.  Was this a love match? How did they meet? What were they thinking?? 

Here is the family in 1860:

1860 Allen County, Ohio Federal Census, Amanda Township, p. 146
Full image found on Ancestry.com

Samuel is listed as the head of household, but Mary Ann owned the land (the "1500" refers to the value of her real estate). The others in the house are Mary Ann's children; she and Samuel did not seem to have had children together.

Sam Neely enlisted in the Civil War. In fact, he fought in the same regiment and company as his step-son Thomas Hilyard (only two years his junior):  the 81st Ohio Volunteer Infantry, company E. You can read some about Thomas Hilyard's Civil War service in this blog post. Very little is known of Samuel after this. According to service records, Sam enlisted on 1 Sep 1861 and mustered out 10 Sep 1864, serving his three-year term. The only other record I have found for him is in his mother's will dated 1866, she leaves him one dollar. There's another question: what happened to Samuel Neely?

By the 1870 census, Mary Ann had taken back the surname of Hilyard. I never would have found her before the advent of digitized/indexed censuses. She was living in Fawn River Township, St. Joseph County, Michigan with three of her sons. Another son, John, lived in the same area with his wife.

1870 St. Joseph County, Michigan Federal Census Fawn River Township, p. 106A
Full image found on Ancestry.com

Why did they go to Michigan? What brought them back?

By 1880, Mary Ann, now using the surname Neely and marked as being a widow, was back in Ohio. She is listed in her own household, but the two previous entries are for her sons John and Ephraim and their families.

1880 Allen County, Ohio Federal Census Amanda Township, p. 3
Full image found on Ancestry.com 

Why Neely? Was she really widowed?

The only other record I have found for Mary Ann is her gravestone. She shares a stone with her first husband, Jeremiah Hilyard. 

Gravestone of Jeremiah and Mary Ann Valentine Hilyard
Allentown Cemetery in Allen County, Ohio

Mary Ann's side of the stone
Died Sept. 13, 1888; age 69 YRS 6 MO

Because of the stone having both Jeremiah and Mary Ann on it, plus a poem about mother and father, I feel it was placed after Mary Ann's death, not Jeremiah's three decades prior.

And that's all I have on Mary Ann Valentine Hilyard Neely. Two marriage records, four census records, and a gravestone. And questions. So many questions. I'll leave you with a picture said to be Mary Ann's oldest daughter, Nancy Ann Hilyard. It was shared to Ancestry by user Dennis Kendall, and I so appreciate it. Perhaps Nancy took after her mother:

Nancy May Hilyard (1842-1877)
who married Joseph Brenneman

Writing a Research Report; or the Story of How We Didn't Really Find Out Anything, Part Two

We only spent a short while at the Allen County Museum as time was running short. I wish we had more time to really look it over. One exhibit we did stop to look at was this:

An original Conestoga wagon; perhaps the Hilyards used a similar one on their trip from Pennsylvania to Ohio

Informational placard

Once we were home, I recorded all the information in my research report as follows:

FINDINGS:

1. LAND RECORDS--Abstract Records: if you have the physical description of property, you can follow all the transactions for it on one page. Jeremiah Sr.'s land is found under

           NE Quarter, Section 22, Township 3 South, Range 5 East
a. The deed I had without a source was from the State of Ohio to Jeremiah Hillyard. This is found in Book 60, p. 195. The deed is dated 30 Mar 1850, but was not recorded until 12 Feb 1890. WHY THEN?
b. The next transaction for the land was from the Adminstrator of Jeremiah Hilyard (Jr., though it doesn't specify this) to John Hilyard dated 28 Feb 1878, recorded 11 Mar 1878.
Detail: Joseph Brenneman was the administrator of Jeremiah Hilyard Jr. Joseph was married to Jeremiah Jr.'s sister Nancy. Jeremiah Jr. was entitled to 1/7 of the land, which seems to have never been probated. Jeremiah Jr.'s administrator sold the estate's undivided share to John Hilyard so he could proceed with Jr.'s probate.
c. Noah Hilyard and wife Lorena granted a quit claim deed to John Hilyard for his 1/7 part of the land. Deed dated 2 Jan 1878, recorded 4 Mar 1878.
d. Next, the Auditor of Allen County granted the land to John Hilyard, deed dated 5 Aug 1879, recorded 6 Aug 1879.
Detail: the property had delinquent taxes, interest, and penalties for 1874, simple taxes for 1875, and is listed for taxation under the name Jerry Hillyard (38 acres). The land was advertised for sale. Peter Remlinger bid $15.87 (the amount due on the property), and paid this to the treasurer. More than two years elapsed and the land was not redeemed by Remlinger. John Hilyard produced the certificate of sale duly assigned to him along with a survey of the land. The auditor of Allen County granted the land to John Hilyard on 5 Aug 1879.
e. Sidney Hilyard (widow of John) deeded a quit claim to John's children Phoebe Baumgardner, Laura Bowers, Ira Hilyard, John M. Hilyard, and Clarence C. Hilyard. Deed dated 14 Feb 1914, recorded 28 Apr 1914.

2. PROBATE RECORDS--We felt a double check of Jeremiah Jr. probate packet was needed. It ordered Jeremiah Sr.'s land to be sold to get Jr.'s 1/7 interest in it subject to the dower of Mary Neeley (Sr.'s widow). Dates on outside of packet note where all items are recorded.

**We found as we worked that a timeline would be useful. I outlined the bare bones of what we knew and we added to it over the day.

• 1850--Jeremiah Sr. purchased land
• 1850--Jeremiah Jr. born
• 1855--Jeremiah Sr. died
• 1856--Mary Ann married Samuel Neeley
• 1878--Jeremiah Jr. died before Feb. 28th, 1878
• 1888--Mary Ann died

The original scribbled timeline

Tidied-up timeline written on the drive home

Now, what did all this mean:

ANALYSIS:  When Jeremiah Hilyard Sr. died, his estate was inherited in 7 equal parts. His heirs would be: son Thomas, daughter Nancy Brenneman, son David, son John, son Jeremiah Jr., son Noah, and son Ephraim. Widow Mary Ann had her dower right. There has been NO RECORD of the estate found so far other than what is shown in the these land transactions. We have examined the General Index of Estates, Administrators Bonds, and Guardianships, and have found nothing for Jeremiah Sr.

Now, with my original goal in mind, what did we learn?

CONCLUSION: There is still insufficient evidence to prove Jeremiah Hilyard Sr. is the father of Thomas Hilyard.

Insert sad trumpet sound: wah wah.  But that isn't the end of the project. We had to look over what we had found, pulling out names and dates, facts, figures, and brainstorm what else we could check into. The last section of my report is this list:

FURTHER STEPS TO RESEARCH:

1. Delinquent tax sale should be advertised in newspaper: FOUND! But property was advertised in 1865??
2. Research the tax records
3. Find original land records from State of Ohio
4. Research all the references on Jeremiah Jr.'s estate packet
5. Are there any records of Mary Ann and her sons' time in Michigan?
6. Make a new timeline with as much information as possible: STARTED
7. Are there divorce records for Samuel and Mary Ann?
8. Scour probate records. Possibly not indexed??
9. Find info on Samuel Neeley; who are his parents, what happened to him?  FOUND: Parents Thomas and Mary Neeley. Thomas died in 1847; Mary died in 1874. She left Samuel $1 in her will dated 1866.
10. Find John Hilyard's survey of land from 1879 land transaction
11. Who is Peter Remlinger? FOUND: He lived in Milan, Ohio (near Lake Erie) but had a sister, Mrs. William Hedrick, in Delphos (Allen County). Born 1840 in France, died 1897 in Milan, Ohio. Living in Wyandot County, Ohio in 1860. Maybe Huron County, Ohio in 1880.

As you can see from the final section, we have already started working on the further steps, and that they have led to even more questions.

I hope you can see the value in writing out something like this report to help solidify and clarity what you have, what you find, and what your next steps should be.

Blog reader Laura Mattingly submitted her thoughts on the poem on Jeremiah and Mary Ann Hilyard's gravestone from the previous post:

"Forever Father and Mother dear
  you are not dead but sleeping here."

Looking at this along with the photo, I propose the first word might be "Farewell" instead of "Forever".

Writing a Research Report; or the Story of How We Didn't Really Find Out Anything, Part One

Poem from Jeremiah and Mary Ann Hilyard's gravestone, digitally enhanced; what do you think it says?

Last month I met with a local registrar from the Daughters of the American Revolution, a service organization made up of women who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution. I have about a dozen ancestors I could use to sign up, but I want to join under my ancestor Thomas Hilyard, who is not currently listed as one of their patriots. To do this, I have to show he served in the Revolution. This isn't a problem; I showed her my documentation and she said that part would be easy.

, 

Then comes the hard part. To qualify, I have to prove each link in my line from me back to Thomas; proof that one generation came from the previous one. From me, that is seven generations back.

Base of Jeremiah and Mary Ann Hilyard's gravestone

With birth and death records, I was easily able to go back four generations. Then a little snag. Or maybe a large one, as it turns out. I needed to prove that Thomas Hilyard (of the Civil War) was indeed the son of Jeremiah and Mary Ann (Valentine) Hilyard. I know he is. But my personal conviction doesn't withstand the scrutiny of the DAR.

Jeremiah Hilyard gravestone full-length

So, how could I prove it? No birth or death records exist from that far back. No obviously available will. A trip to Allen County, Ohio was in order. I called my cousin and partner-in-genealogy-crime and we set a date. Allen County, Ohio is a three hour drive for me, so we were able to plan a day trip, but organization was important to make best use of our time. I decided to use a more formal format and create a research report.

I know it might sound pretty stuffy to make a report, but I can tell you from experience, it is a great way to get organized and stay focused. I have looked back on reports I wrote from 10 or more years ago, and can't believe how much of the content I had forgotten. I thanked my younger self for taking the time to write.

I'll show you the sections of the report here, with some commentary on my thought process.

GOAL:  Prove Jeremiah Hilyard is the father of Thomas Hilyard.

1850 Census Allen County, Ohio; unfortunately it does not specify relationships.

This is important to maintaining focus. When you get started looking at an index for your ancestor, and all of a sudden see another familiar name, you have to remind yourself of your goal. Stay focused!!

In the next section, I tried to identify all the facts I already had going into the trip. This is to keep from duplicating efforts I've already made, and to show me where there are gaps that I might be able to fill in with my research.

WHAT WAS KNOWN BEFORE STARTING:

1. Jeremiah Hilyard married Mary Ann Valentine on March 14, 1839, in Fairfield County, Ohio. 
2. Jeremiah Hilyard is in the 1840 Federal Census for Fairfield County, Ohio.
3. Jeremiah and Mary Ann Hilyard are in the 1850 census for Allen County, Ohio with a child living with them named Thomas of the right age to be mine.
4. Jeremiah Hilyard died in 1855.
5. Mary Ann Valentine Hilyard married Samuel Neely in 1856.
6. Samuel and Mary Ann Neely are in the 1860 census in Allen County, Ohio. There is a "T" Hillard of the correct age in the household.
7. I had a deed for Jeremiah Hilyard purchasing land in Allen County from the State of Ohio in 1850 but it has no source information on it.

It isn't much. Three census records, two marriage records, and an unsourced deed. No wonder the DAR would scoff at that!

Next, what did we want to accomplish on the trip? Time was limited so we needed to make sure to visit the most important places first. Paramount was a trip to the courthouse, so that was stop number 1. There, we needed to check land records, to see if there was any record of Jeremiah's land being divided among his heirs after his death. Also, I needed a source for the deed that I already had. In addition, we wanted to see the probate records "in person". We were fortunate in that Allen County, Ohio probate records are available online at Ancestry.com. But it's nice to see the originals, and just make sure we weren't missing something.

Before any trip, you need to do some homework. Learn as much about the area and facilities as you can before you go. For this trip, I checked out Allen County's local government site, got their business hours, and made sure they weren't closed the day we planned to go. While googling, I found several pages relating to Allen County genealogy. Browsing through these, I found reference to the Allen County Museum, which included a research library. I was able to email the librarian from their website and let her know we were planning to visit and what families we were interested in. She wrote back, informing me they had family files on all my surnames of interest, and looked forward to seeing us.

Lastly, time permitting, I wanted to visit the Allentown Cemetery and obtain some better photographs of headstones, and pay my respects. So, this was how the itinerary looked:

PLAN: Travel to Allen County, Ohio to research the family

1. Land records
2. Probate records
3. Allen County Museum for family files
4. Allentown Cemetery to obtain better photos of stones

We were off!

First stop was the County Recorders office, where the staff was most helpful. We were allowed to search the computerized indices and pull books without asking for permission.

We easily located the source of the deed I had in my records already, obtaining the book and page number.  From this deed, I had the physical description of the property. With this, you can look up the property in what are called Tract Books, and follow the chain from one property owner to the next for any given piece of land. This can be very helpful!

Abstract Record Book 30, Amanda Township Tract Book

In a nutshell, the land Jeremiah Hilyard Sr. purchased from the state of Ohio eventually passed down to his son John, then to John's children in 1914. Importantly, we found two references to the property describing an "undivided 1/7 share" in it. This would indicate that when Jeremiah died, he had seven heirs, plus his widow who had  her dower right. This follows with what I knew, that Jeremiah had seven children who survived to adulthood. 

But the problem still existed: why was there never any probate record to show this division of his property?  Grrr. We checked and doubled checked every index to probate records we could find. All references to Jeremiah Hilyard were actually to the son of our subject, Jeremiah Jr. Even though he left no will, he had a neat and tidy, properly administered probate following his untimely death at age 27.

As for looking over probate at the courthouse, we asked and were permitted to see Jeremiah Jr.'s estate packet. I had all the information from it, but again, it's meaningful to me to handle these old documents.

Our work at the courthouse was done, so we moved on to the Allen County Museum's library. What an enticing rat's nest! There was a main reading room that looked like a proper library, but in the back--oh my! Shelves, filing cabinets, no seeming rhyme or reason to anything, and a librarian that could lay her hands on anything in there without having to consult a computer or book of any kind.  As wonderful as it was, we found nothing new there either. The Hilyard folder was full of old correspondence that had my name all over it. I had written to a researcher in the early 1990s, and all of her old files had found their way to this spot. Reunited with my own letters, over 20 years later.

Next time, what we found and where do we go from there.

A Valentine's Tale

One of my family names is Valentine. I didn't know this when I started out in research, but was able to discover it along way. Unable to do much with that line, I set it aside, until a wonderful cousin happened on an old website of mine and saw the name. He offered up years of his research to me, taking my Valentines back two more very important generations, and skipping over the ocean to Ireland.

My cousin, Thad Taylor, most generously shared his research with me, and has also made it available online. You can read all of this in much greater detail on his website, and I give him full credit for all you read here.

In honor of Valentine's Day, I want to tell you about my ancestor, Barnabas Valentine. He was born in 1757, and lived with his family in northern Ireland. The family business was weaving and bleaching linen, and as a youngster Barnabas had the job of making spools for the linen. He would take a little boat out and collect elder branches to make the spools.

Click here for a Linen Bleaching Green, courtesy of the National Library of Ireland on Flickr

Large-scale bleaching green from the Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum

One day when Barnabas was 14, he took a friend with him to collect materials. They were enticed onto a large ship to take a look around. Of course they wanted to see it, and before they realized it, had been kidnapped.  I don't know if the sailors wanted the boys for labor on board, or more likely to sell as indentured servants in America.

The story goes that Barnabas' friend didn't survive the journey. Being healthy and strong, Barnabas persevered and was able to jump overboard when he sighted land. He seems to have indentured himself to a minister, and at age 20 he joined the army to fight in the American Revolution. He was involved in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, and Paoli, and several smaller skirmishes.

He lived for several years in Pennsylvania, then moved to Ohio in 1819. Barnabas Valentine died July 14th, 1831 at the age of 74.  He was the father of ten children; great-grandfather of Thomas Hilyard, my Civil War ancestor; and my fifth great-grandfather.

There is, of course, so much more to his story. I just wanted to share with you how one of my bloodlines arrived here in America and made up a part of me.