Week #7 of 52 Ancestors: Brick Wall Woman Hannah Woodman (ca. 1775-ca 1821) of Durham, NH

My lovely fan chart stops dead at 4th g-grandparents Hannah Woodman and husband William Jackson. It's quite unsightly. Hannah has been the most distant ancestor in her line on my charts since I inherited my mother's genealogical research.

How Not to Research
Over the years I've gathered a lot of information on Hannah and associates at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, the University of New Hampshire at Durham, the New England Historic and Genealogical Society, and plumbed the depths of the internet. Yet I still don't have evidence to tie Hannah to any particular Woodman family. Why? Because I didn't stumble upon any direct evidence, and I haven't TAKEN THE TIME to analyze what I have gathered. And there is still more information to gather by now--online data increases at an exponential rate, so there are bound to be more clues awaiting. And I really need to go up to New Hampshire and roll around in the records. I had an appointment at the Durham Historical Society in 2009 but had to cancel and that's the last time I tried!

What's worse, Alcatraz or writing up
research results?

After that I must lock myself in a chamber for weeks and do nothing else but analyze everything I've collected. Actually, I think I require the chamber lock-up first, then a trip to NH, then more analysis. Because as I write this I must acknowledge that my notes are scatter-y, incomplete, and verrrrry annoying. These ancient problems in my own genealogy are the worst kind and I can see why people are doing the "do-over," because it feels easier to start from scratch than to try and make sense of an inexperienced or lazy genealogist's wanderings, that inexperienced person being me 25 years ago. It's so much more fun to keep searching than to write up the results. It just is.


Setting the stage
Hannah is the mother of my ancestor, Maria/h Jackson. According to Maria (Jackson) Ellms' 29 January 1866 death record, she was 57 years, one month old at death, rendering a birth date of 29 December 1808. It gives her parents as William Jackson and Hannah Woodman and states that she and her parents were all born in Durham, New Hampshire. (1) But this is a death certificate, so as evidence of her birth it is wobbly because we do not know who provided the information about her parents. (Wobbly is a highly technical genealogical term.)

Maria may have married three times. I have found two: one to my ancestor, Nathan Colby, in Haverhill on 10 January 1841, though the record provides no parents. (2) She next married (as Mariah (Jackson) Colby) Robert Ellms in Scituate on 1 July 1856; his second marriage, her third. Presumably Mariah was the informant and she names her father as William Jackson, born Durham. No mother's names are listed in the register. She gives her own birthplace as Durham, and she is 49 which calculates to a year of birth of 1806-07. (3) But where did that first marriage take place? Was it the marriage of Mariah H. Jackson to Orin Fiske on 27 September 1830 in (not nearby) Claremont, Sullivan County that I noted from the IGI in 1999? I haven't followed up on it. Back to the chamber!

William Jackson and Hannah Woodman married on Christmas Day, 25 December 1795, both residents of Durham. No parents are listed. They were married by William Hooper, clergyman, resident of Madbury. (4) I'm satisfied that these are Mariah's parents because this marriage puts them in the right time and place, and I now have several sources listing them as a couple, and parents of my ancestor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durham,_New_Hampshire

What To Do
I need to study everyone with the surnames Jackson and Woodman in the Durham area, a daunting task. Here are just a few of the things I will work on in the chamber:

• I need to go through my chicken-scratch notes from the Family History Library and duly note every record searched and whether I found anything. I got too busy and never followed up after two research trips. That is just stupid, but it was unavoidable.
• Of course I have reviewed the town histories and the published literature on the Woodmans, most written a hundred or more years ago, with little in the way of source citation, even if seemingly well researched. I can use those to help me reconstruct nearby families, and thoroughly review and note all of the Hannahs that were not married off, of which I think here are only a couple. Then of course, I'd have to corroborate everything.
• Oh sure, I've gazed at census, but haven't systematically reviewed the Woodmans in the area. They are many! Even pre-1850 census can provide indirect evidence if we really delve. Can you say Excel?
• I've examined published vital records as well as town records for both William and Hannah's births and deaths in both Massachusetts/Maine and New Hampshire, to no avail. Of course I've searched online and at NEHGS in any original records I could find. I would hope to locate some church records on my trip north, but have read that there are't many.
• I've followed possible children of William and Hannah Jackson and turned up an infant son of William Jackson who died in 1797 in Dover, but this provides me with no additional clues, just something for the inevitable timeline. Baby steps! Another potential son is William W. Jackson whose death record gives William and Hannah (Woodman) Jackson as parents.
• Land records are an obvious place to search yet I've noted nothing in my database. Because I haven't approached this systematically. I will retrace my steps in that regard. Land records are found at the county level in New Hampshire.
• In Strafford County Probate I found an administration for the estate of William Jackson, blacksmith, with wife Hannah serving as administratrix. And Hannah's estate was probated in 1821, with Moses Woodman as administrator. Is Moses related? How?
• At the University of New Hampshire I pored over Durham town records and extracted mention of all nearby Woodmans (a nefarious lot), but haven't had a chance to compile and thoroughly analyze. 
• Make a timeline!

Once I get my ducks in a row I will visit:

• New Hampshire State Archives
• New Hampshire State Historical Society
• New Hampshire State Library
• Strafford County Register of Land
• Durham Historical Society

Hopefully someday I will be able to attach Hannah to her parents. I'm pretty sure she had a hard life. It's the least I can do for her.

"Women as Scribes Throughout History," Exploring Feminisms Blog,
http://exploringfeminisms.com

Notes

1. "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910" (online subscription database linked to digital images), Scituate, Deaths, Maria (Jackson) Ellms, 29 January 1866, 193:331; AmericanAncestors.org (http://www.americanancestors.org : accessed 20 February 2015).

2. "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910," Haverhill, Marriages, Nathan Colby and Mariah Jackson, 10 January 1841, 2:179; AmericanAncestors.org (http://www.americanancestors.org : accessed 20 February 2015); image of the published volume from the "Official Series."

3.  "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910," Scituate, Marriages, Maria Colby and Robert Ellms, 1 July 1856, 100:325; AmericanAncestors.org (http://www.americanancestors.org : accessed 20 February 2015).

4. "New Hampshire Vital Statistics to 1900," Durham, Strafford, Marriages: Jackson to Jenkins, n. 148, William Jackson and Hannah Woodman, 25 December 1795; New England Historic and Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts, mf #F33 N454, viewed 9 February 2002.

I'm Ancestor Approved!

A pleasant way to finish up the year 2010 was being notified that I've received the “Ancestor Approved" award from Kelly (Coghan) Holderbaum, author of Sunny Ancestry (http://sunnyancestry.blogspot.com/). Thank you, Kelly! I hadn't read Kelly's blog before, and am glad to have discovered it, it's really good!

The “Ancestor Approved Award” was created by Leslie Ann of "Ancestors Live Here" in March 2010, and has been passed along to many genealogical bloggers. Recipients are asked to make a list of ten things they have learned about their ancestors that have humbled, surprised, or enlightened them. Then they are to pass on the award to ten other bloggers who are doing their ancestors proud. 

Being a professional genie and all, I'd like to extend the criteria for the "Things I've Learned" list to include clients' ancestors as well!

1. I had a hard time letting go of Cotton Kimball as the father of Elizabeth Kimball wife of Nicholas Colby of Haverhill. Cotton has some great people in his line, especially fearless Hannah Duston, of scalping fame. But this year I replaced him with John and Mary (Kimball) Kimball, so now I have twice as many Kimballs as I thought.

2. I've learned how to say no when asked to help with volunteer activities. I already do too much and though I want to help all of the societies to which I belong, there just ain't enough of me to go around! To remedy this dilemma I just switch around from society to society. This is good for networking, also.

3. When working as a consulting genealogist at Ancestors Roadshows, etc., I've learned that most people don't have questions they want to ask me. Almost everyone simply wants to tell me what they've done and who their ancestors were. A little validation of their research techniques goes a long way! 

4. Tom Jones (Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D., CG, CGL) taught me that just because you write as you go along doesn't mean you're not going to have to write the whole danged thing over again because of something you discover towards the end of your journey. One little piece of evidence can make you have to reorganize the presentation of your data, and if you don't do it, you're not able to prove your point effectively. Thank you, Tom! 

5. I keep thinking of a trip we took to England when I was 6 months pregnant and my eldest child was 18 months old. The flight was delayed, he got completely hyped from being overtired and cried (screamed) his way across the Atlantic Ocean. We were mortified at the horrible experience we were providing for our dagger-eyed fellow passengers. We were seated in the middle of the 5-seat row and the hostesses totally ignored us, even when he threw up while we were landing. This took all of 18 hours from start to finish, I had my husband and good friend to help, and still I think of the trauma! Recently, I was researching a lady from the Azores who came over with her 2-year old and a 9-month old in 1907 by ship. Who knows if she may have been pregnant? I keep thinking of her now and being awfully glad we were able to fly to England rather than take a ship! What a whiner I am!

6. I've learned that it is much better to just hand over a not-quite ready gedcom file to a friend than to make her wait another ten years because I've almost discovered something else. This is humbling.

7. It makes me feel centered and calm to study the past. Researching ancestors and reading about the history of countless localities has an effect on you after a while. You see patterns in behavior, in the ways that people react to certain situations and it makes you feel like the past is not so distant. You feel like you can predict the outcome of so many events based on whether or not people are paying attention to the past.

8. Plenty of people know very, very little about their ancestors, even as close as their own grandparents. Most people cannot name their eight great-grandparents. While not beneficial to those people, it is good for the professional genealogist because it brings more clients our way, but more important, gives us the gift of telling people about their own families and seeing their happiness as a result. I love this!

9. Having a family reunion is a great way to get the entire extended family interested in genealogy. It brings out photos (Essie, I haven't forgotten your album!), introduces people with different political beliefs, or from different parts of the country to the concept that they have much in common with each other, starting with 99 percent of their ancestors, and makes for great deviled egg consumption!

My nephew John Kemmett, cousin, Esther (page) Klaiber
and brother Tim FitzGerald
Barnes Family Reunion 2010

10. Twentieth century research is tough! The completely new dimension of dealing with live people is introduced and suddenly we have to be conscious of people's feelings and sensitivities! This is scary, but worthwhile in that we get to bring families together!

Blogger awards are a great way to get to know my fellow bloggers because they usually have a requirement that you pass along the admiration, so below you will find my top ten favorite blogs. The challenge lies in winnowing down my list to just ten. I just can't believe how many great writers there are out there! And how fascinating the variation in people's approaches to genealogy. Some of them encourage me by their own dogged research, others keep me up to date on technological issues,  a few make me want to call them and enjoy a loooooong cup of coffee together discussing life and ancestors, and the rest are just plain entertaining! I hope you enjoy them all as much as I do!  I hereby pass the "Ancestors Approved" award to the following geneabloggers (in no particular order)!

1. Heather Rojo's Nutfield Genealogy

2. Bill West's West in New England

3. Marian Pierre-Louis's Marian's Root & Rambles

4. Anne Morddel's The French Genealogy Blog

5. Paula Stuart-Warren's Paula's Genealogical Eclectica

6. Mel Wolfgang's Mnemosyne's Magic

7. Stefania [unknown]'s L'origine della famiglia Basaba

8. Miriam Robbins' AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors

9. Susan Petersen's Long Lost Relatives

10. Caitlin GD Hopkins' Vast Public Indifference