breakthrough on Sarah Ann Newman Miller's parents

Well, after posting the previous post, I thought maybe I'd switch from looking at the Jervis side and try my hand at the Miller/Newman side. I'm so glad I did because I now finally have proof of what I slowly came to realize to be true...after first rejecting it, then investigating, then believing, then knowing but needing proof...this breakthrough in my genealogy has only taken me at least 15-20 years to accomplish.

So, what is the find that is literally making me feel a bit berserk?

Brooklyn Eagle
Thursday, July 28, 1887
Page: 3
Section: none

NEWMAN--On July 27, Mrs. Hannah Newman, aged 76.
     Funeral services at the residence of her son in law, Mr. John H. Miller, 685A Hancock st, Brooklyn, N.Y., on Friday, July 29th, at 2 P.M.



Those few words her son in law, Mr. John H. Miller bring such joy to my heart.

The journey:

I knew from info given to me 35 years ago by relatives that my 2nd great grandmother, Sarah Ann Newman, married my 2nd great grandfather, John H. Miller. According to an article, Sarah's parents were named Hannah and Thomas Newman.

As I hunted for her parents in the 1850 census in New York before the days of the internet using book indexes in the Salt Lake library, I came across only one Sarah Newman that was the right age (20) in the right place (Brooklyn), but the father's name was William, not Thomas, and the mother's name was Anna, not Hannah. But there was a brother named Thomas along with sisters Mary Jane, Frances, and Catherine. My Sarah named 2 of her daughters Mary Jane and Frances (and Caroline and Emma...none were named Catherine and her son was named Charles, not Thomas).

I ordered my Sarah's death certificate a while back. It listed her father as ------- Newman and her mother as Hannah Westover. So I now had a maiden name for her mother, but it didn't help with the father.

Thanks to the internet, Ancestry.com, and familysearch.org, I tracked William and Anna and family and discovered that in all other census records, Anna's name was Hannah! William was not to been seen again...I guessed he died in between the 1850 and 1860 census and I have found a record of a William Newman dying in 1858, but the records kept at that time didn't help me identify him as the William I was seeking.

I discovered that "the other" Sarah's sister Frances had a son named Charles O. Latimer around 1866...my Sarah had a son she named Charles Latimer Miller in April of 1866.

So, how to prove it all. I finally tried to track "the other" Sarah's siblings to find their death certificates to see if their mother's name was Hannah Westover...but I couldn't find out when any of them died. Their names were too common and there were too many choices.

One day I was looking at the New York state census and discovered that next door to "the other" Sarah's sister Mary was living a Ferdinand Allen and his family...the same Ferdinand who later became Sarah's son-in-law (after his wife passed away). So I "knew" William and Anna were my 3rd great grandparents. But I needed proof.

I spent 4 hours recently in the Salt Lake Family History Library looking at reel after reel after reel of Brooklyn death records (I believe I looked at 27 reels) looking for any Hannah Newmans.

I was afraid there'd be too many, but I only found 2 and one was the wrong age. The other record was so faded I almost couldn't read it (but considering the next 2 records were so faded as to be totally illegible, I'll take the highly faded one). I wasn't sure of the age (70? 76?) or death date (except the 1887 part) but I could read the death certificate number. I ordered it and it came the other day.

The info didn't confirm or refute anything, however, but it did list a cemetery...a misspelled cemetery that took me a bit to figure out what it was. I tried contacting them (Cypress Hills) through their website, but as of yet, I haven't heard from them.

This afternoon, I took that death date and went to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle site where I found the above obituary proving my Sarah and "the other" Sarah are one and the same. Proof.


Big sigh.


Now to tackle John Henry Miller's parents... [and I found them...click here to see their info]

new discoveries--sharing photos with dropbox.com and looking at online newspaper sources

Mary Jo, my father's cousin whom I have never met, introduced me to dropbox.com where you can share files with anyone...even yourself (from one computer to another). We shared some photos last week and it's been wonderful. She gave me some photos of hers and was able to identify some of the people in mine.

For example, the following photo--which for some reason I have always loved--now has a name or two attached. The laughing woman holding the baby that I have been drawn to is one of my grandma's sisters...which is what I suspected, but didn't know for sure. I present my great aunt Edna Meigs Strong:

My other find, with the help of one of my genealogy email lists, is a link to a site where you can search some digitized old newspapers for genealogical information. I am working on the descendants of Joel and Elizabeth (Smith) Jervis and have been able to fill in some names and dates. I especially love finding obituaries. I knew such things were out there...I had stumbled upon the Brooklyn Daily Eagle database once...but now I have the link to another site and it's at the top of my web page here, so I won't misplace it.

Good stuff.