| My Success Story: |
“A SEARCH FOR SARAH”
By: Ralph E. Tewksbury
A search for Sarah’s roots is a three-year odyssey that has led down many dead end roads. Sarah is Sarah Ann Smith who was born in New York State in 1839. She was the wife of Asahel Adams Tewksbury born 24 June 1836 in Boston, Summit County Ohio. Asahel and Sarah Ann are my great-grandparents. Their son Orville, b: 6 Sept. 1857, was the father of my father, Merrill Asahel Tewksbury b: 31 July 1898.
Any genealogist will tell you that searching for any person with a “Smith” surname is an unenviable task. There were, and are, many millions of Smiths. The most popular name for new female daughters in Smith families appears to have been Sarah. This complicated things tremendously. After two years of researching several Smith families I had determined that the only Sarah Ann Smith alive in NY during the 1850 census was a 12 year old Sarah Ann Smith living in the household of Elisha Cooper. I knew that Sarah had married Asahel in Wayland, Allegan County MI. How did she get there? Did she migrate with the Cooper family to Michigan? Was she just visiting the Coopers when the censuses was taken and still have her family someplace else in NY? There were 32 other Sarah Ann Smiths in NY in 1850; could I have an incorrect birth date for Sarah? If Sarah lived with the Coopers how is it possible for me to find out who her parents were? After all the object to doing research is to search back as many generations as possible. My goal is to go back to the immigrant ancestors. I couldn’t do that if Sarah wasn’t listed with her parents in census records. The 1850 U.S. census is the first one that identifies all members of the household, regardless of their relationship. When the census first began in 1790 and every 10 years thereafter, until 1850, only the complete name of the head of the household is given. The names of the spouse or children are not recorded, only their age groupings by sex. As you can see going back beyond 1850 is tough and to search for a Smith makes the search nearly impossible.
I had researched Elisha Cooper in the 1860 census for Michigan. I wanted to get some sense of where they might have lived. There were three families of the same name but the names of the children didn’t match the NY census records of 1850. Had Sarah Ann go to Michigan alone? Not too likely. I looked for Sarah in the 1850 census index for Michigan out of desperation, no luck.
It took me almost three years and still no leads among all the Smith families I had researched. I had come to a stone wall in my research.
I had looked for a death record for Sarah. She had died when my grandfather was 17, on 26 Feb. 1874, at age 34. She lived in Blendon, near Holland, in Ottawa County when she died. Her birthing pattern suggests that she may have died while giving birth. There was no death record filed for Sarah nor are there any cemetery record that tell where she is buried. I also researched Allegan County and state records in Lansing. Not finding her death records is unusual but it has been “researched to death”, pun intended. Her final resting-place is unknown. It’s possible that she was buried on the farm where they lived and her death went unreported.
A break came in the search during the spring of 1998. Using my computer to correspond with people on the Internet, I have often found people researching the same surname. These connections can become very valuable resources. It was to prove valuable in my “: Search for Sarah”.
I had posted a query with the Allegan County “rootsweb”. I subscribed to the “Smith” roots site where all people researching a particular name can post an inquiry with details of their search object. Someone in Allegan County had been researching the 1880 census records of Allegan County. He sent me an e-mail message stating that he noticed that my name was Tewksbury and I was searching “Smiths”. He said that he had seen a Tewksbury that had been adopted by a Smith family while researching his Smith ancestors. When I got the message a chill came over me. I was certain that this was the break that I had been waiting on for three years!
I rented a copy of the microfilm for the 1880 Allegan census from the local Mormon Library. When it arrived I went to their LDS Family History Center to view the film. When I found the page, identified by my new Internet friend, I was again chilled by what I had found. It showed that Milo and Julia Smith had adopted Arthur A. Tewksbury
Arthur was only two when his mother died. He evidently was brought into the Smith home because of his tender age. He had older sisters, Clara 15 and Alice 13, but they had their hands full; there were 7 children in the house between the ages 2-15. It had to be a sad home on the farm in Blendon that cold February day of 1874 when Sarah Ann died.
I went on to search other census records, this time concentrating on Milo. I thought that Milo was probably related to Sarah Ann, maybe a younger brother, I hoped that he was anyway, it would make finding Sarah’s parents a lot easier. I thought wow! After three years “My search for Sarah” was finally making some progress.
Now that I knew that Milo was living in Hopkins in Wayland County in 1880 it gave me a place to start looking for Sarah’s parents. I searched the census indexes at the Grand Rapids Library in August of 1998 and found Milo again in the 1860 indexes that told me where he was enumerated. This time Milo was in Wayland. I got the film from the library archives and went to the page indicated in the index. Milo was found, at age 15 in the Household of Polly and Calvin M. Smith, his parents. In the household were also his 4 brothers and a sister. Sarah Ann wouldn’t be in the household in 1860 of course, she was married in 1856 in Wayland. I thought “they lived in Wayland and Asahel & Sara were married in Wayland. This must be the right Smith family!” I couldn’t be sure of course until I could find Sarah in the same households as Milo. I had already looked at the 1850 NY census records and couldn’t find the right 11-12 yr. old Sarah out of the 32 listed there, except for one. I had thought that our Sarah came to Michigan with the NY Elisha Cooper family because I found the Coopers again in Allegan Co. Mi.
I looked again for Milo in the 1850 Michigan Index. I found the family living in Girard, Branch Co., Mi. When I looked at the roll of microfilm I found what I had been looking for. Sarah was also listed with Milo as the Child of Calvin M. Smith, age 38 and his wife Polly 36. The census stated that Calvin and some of his children were born in New York while Polly was listed as being born in Vermont. A big sigh of relief came over me. My quest for Sarah’s roots was finally over! It was time to celebrate.
Out of curiosity I looked in the 1840 Mi census and found Calvin with three children and a female of the age to be his spouse. All the ages of these Girard Township residents matched. Sarah, Warren and Calvin Jr.. They all were born in NY according to the census. They were in Michigan in 1840. This tells us that Sarah Ann was one year old in 1840 and that they came to Michigan in late 1839 or early 1840, before the census was taken. This was only two years after Michigan attained statehood in 1837.
Our Smith ancestors were surely Michigan pioneers in the truest sense.
To try and determine whom Calvin and Polly’s parents were I went to Allegan and obtained copies of their death certificates. Michigan certificates have a space that identifies who the parents are of the deceased. For both Polly and Calvin the spaces were blank. Another dead end!
Now that I knew that they died in Allegan ,and when, I could try and find out where they were buried. I went to the Allegan Library and found that they were buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Allegan, not far from Aunt Vera Tewksbury’s grave. We looked for the grave but didn’t find it: being a week-end there was no Sextant on duty so there was no help available. The grave is supposed to be near the Arbor St. gate, on the right. The main entrance is on Western St. If anyone should go there and find the graves I’d appreciate a photo of Polly & Calvin’s headstone.
The focus has changed but the search for the final detail goes on and may hopefully be solved. Who were the immigrant Smiths? When did they come to America? Where in New York did Calvin come from and where in Vermont was Polly born? Most travel was by water whenever possible during the early 1800’s. There were no roads, no trains. Land travel consisted of following Indian trails and enlarging the path to make room for ox-drawn wagons. All the land in Eastern America consisted of thick forests, Lakes, Rivers and mosquito infested swamps. Water was always the easiest route. For the Smith family their journey to Michigan. Was comparatively easy. The Erie Canal that ran the length of New York was completed in 1828. At that time it was only 4-8 ft. wide and 4 ft. deep. It could handle the small packet boats that were pulled by mule, horse or oxen along the towpath. Sometimes large canoes were used. If you look at a map where Vermont and New York you will see that a series of lakes and rivers connect to the canal that is still in use today. It has since been widened to 30 ft. and 12 ft. deep and is used primarily by pleasure boaters. Polly, Calvin and the three children undoubtedly traveled by packet boat, or most likely by canoe, along the 400 miles of canal to Buffalo where they probably boarded a steamer to cross Lake Erie. They may have landed at Toledo Ohio and bought a cart and oxen to carry their furniture and belongings for their trip half way across Southern Michigan to Girard in Branch County. On 10 October 1839 he applied to U.S. Bureau of Land Management for 80 acres of land. Before the homesteaders received their patents witnesses had to testify that the homesteader had actually lived on the land, and those purchasing the land were issued receipts.. These documents are on file in the National Archives. I have requested copies of the documents.
The trip across the mosquito infected swamps that existed during that time made the trip difficult and dangerous because of the numerous wolves, bears and lions that existed in Michigan at the time of their journey. Malaria was very prevalent, Polly Smith died from it during the late 1800’s.
I’ll be looking for the parents of Polly and Calvin next. Now I have two more lines to research, Calvin’s and Polly’s. It’s a never-ending search, at least until I find all our immigrant ancestors. I’ll search the state border where New York and Vermont meet, in the Lake Champlain/Lake George area near Fort Ticonderoga, where our ancestor David Norris fought against the British during the Revolutionary War in 1778.
THE END
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