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Handy

Andrew Jackson Handy?

Andrew Jackson won the presidency by a landslide (both popular and electoral vote) in December of 1828 against an incumbent president. Shortly after on December 22, 1828, his wife died. Sentiment for this soon-to-be president was high, so it would be understandable when people named their newly born sons after him. Apparently, Hiram and Eliza Handy followed this practice.

Hiram and Eliza had a son born January 6, 1829. According to a notation in the *diary of Dr. Samuel Beach Bradley, physician in the Parma, NY area, this son was give the name “Andrew Jackson”.

For whatever reason, the name given at birth did not stick. It could be that the president fell out of favor with HIram and Eliza Handy or the child just didn’t look like an Andrew. Or maybe after all the sentimental hype died down, Hiram and Eliza came to their senses. Regardless of the reason, we now know that the child born January 6, 1829 and named “Andrew Jackson Handy” in the physician’s *diary became “George Handy“, father of Lida Handy Duguid.

*Alphabetic Family Groupings from 1821 – 1876
Birth Records of Dr. Samuel Beach Bradley
for Adjacent Parts of the Towns of Greece, Parma, Ogden, and Gates in Monroe County, New York
Compiled by Grace Goodell Witty from the S. B. Bradley manuscript in the Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, John M. Olin Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, for the Parma-Hilton Historical Society, Inc. 1973

Uncategorized

Sharing Stories

I learned an important lesson recently of the value in sharing stories across the family branches. Most often, we only know the history of our own branch of the tree and that can be a challenge when painting a whole picture, especially when documentation is difficult to come by.

I am pretty good at discovery, but even I need to know [of the possibility ] that something exists so I can find it. Otherwise, I don’t look for it and will probably miss it, even though it might be right in front of my eyes.

All too often, we look for things that we expect to find. It is a form of judgement, which the Ancestors continually warn me about. Expectations paint a false picture. So look for the unexpected… the multiple marriages, children before weddings, those that chose not to marry, adoptions, early childhood deaths… The possibilities of the unexpected are endless.

Tell your family stories. Tell them often. Be proud of EVERYTHING your Ancestors did… the good and not so good. Shadows are important. Contrast gives the picture dimension. Otherwise, it is just flat and boring.

 

Handy, Mayflower

John Howland Mayflower Lineage

This is the Handy lineage to the Mayflower as I currently know it.

John Howland/Elizabeth Tilley

Desire Howland
b. 1623 Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
d. October 13, 1683 Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts, USA
married 1643 Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
John Gorham
b. January 28, 1620 Benefield, Northamptonshire, England
d. February 5, 1675 Swansea, Bristol, Massachusetts, USA

Desire Gorham
b. April 2, 1644 Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
d. June 30, 1700 Yarmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts, USA
married October 7, 1661 Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts, USA
John Hawes
b. 1635 Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
d. November 11, 1701 Yarmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts, USA

Elizabeth Hawes
b. October 5, 1662 Yarmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts, USA *1657
d. 15 February 15, 1733 Edgartown, Dukes, Massachusetts, USA
married January 22, 1683 Bristol, Bristol, Rhode Island, USA
Thomas Daggett
b. 1658 Edgartown, Dukes, Massachusetts, USA
d. August 25, 1726 Edgartown, Dukes, Massachusetts, USA

Jemima Daggett
b. October 17, 1694 Edgartown, Dukes, Massachusetts, USA
d. October 20, 1732 Woodbury, Litchfield, Connecticut, USA *December 25, 1732
married 1721 Edgartown, Dukes, Massachusetts, USA
Malachi Butler
b. 1689 Edgartown, Dukes, Massachusetts, USA
d. 1770 Woodbury, Litchfield, Connecticut, USA

Thankful Butler
b. January 30, 1722/3 Edgartown, Marthas Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA
d. March 4, 1774 Woodbury, Litchfield, Connecticut, USA
married December 18, 1739 Windham, Windham, Connecticut, USA
Barzillai Handee
b. June 18, 1713 Windham, Windham, Connecticut, USA
d. November 26, 1787 Woodbury, Litchfield, Connecticut, USA

Barzillai Hendee/Handee Jr
b. November 6, 1740 Windham, Windham County, Connecticut
d.
married January 7, 1762 Woodbury, Litchfield County, Connecticut
Mary Clemons/Clemmens
b. 1742 Windham, Windham County, Connecticut, USA
d.

Syrenias (Cyrenus) Handy · son of Barzillai Handy Jr and Mary Clemons
b. April 13, 1764 · Winchester, Litchfield County, Connecticut
d. before May 16, 1823 · Parma, Monroe County, New York, USA
married
Nancy ______
b
d.

Hiram Handy
b. Abt. 1796 · Colebrook, Litchfield, Connecticut, USA
d. 1862 · Steuben, Indiana, USA · Will written February 20, 1860 · Proved March 11, 1862
married
Eliza Spencer
b. Abt. 1796 · Rhode Island
d. 1857 · Steuben County, Indiana, USA

George Handy
b. January 6, 1829 · Parma, Monroe County, New York, USA
d. November 1, 1918 · Ray, Branch County, Michigan, USA
married (1) October 15, 1851 · Steuben County, Indiana, USA
Eliza Hathaway · daughter of David P Hathaway, MD and Elizabeth Bennett
b. circa 1831 · Pennsylvania, USA
d. September 20, 1858 · Steuben County, Indiana, USA
married (2) March 9, 1859
Martha Brown · daughter of Jonas Wyman Brown and Rebecca Peckham
b. October 18, 1835 · Chenango County, New York, USA
d. November 24, 1896 · Clear Lake, Steuben, Indiana, USA

Eliza (Lida) R Handy
b. August 5, 1861 · Ray, Steuben County, Indiana, USA
d. April 12, 1947 · Branch County, Michigan, USA
married December 27, 1882 · Steuben, Steuben County, Indiana, USA
Wilson J Duguid · son of John Warren Duguid and Helen Stewart
b. December 21, 1853 · Ray, Steuben County, Indiana, USA
d. August 12, 1930 · Ray, Steuben County, Indiana, USA

Martha Beulah Duguid
b. January 11, 1897 · Fremont, Steuben County, Indiana, USA
d. January 15, 1993 · Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan, USA
married (1) December 16, 1916 · Steuben County, Indiana, USA
Clayton Cecil Straw
b. April 15, 1895 · Fremont, Steuben County, Indiana, USA
d. March 6, 1969 · Reading, Hillsdale County, Michigan, USA
married (2) 1974 · California, Branch County, Michigan, USA
Howard Burl Harris
b. March 30, 1893 · Bronson, Branch County, Michigan, USA
d. May 29, 1978 · Coldwater, Branch County, Michigan, USA

Clayton Straw Lineage

Handy, Mayflower

The Search for the Mayflower

The Ancestral line of Martha Beulah Duguid Straw Harris goes back to the Mayflower through her mother, Eliza (Lida) Handy. We can follow the path via family spoken/written history and a few documents and that will be acceptable by most family members. It gets rather complicated, though, when trying to join the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.

The Mayflower Society requires that the line be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. They want DOCUMENTATION. Ideally, they want birth, marriage, and death records of each descendant and their spouse(s). It is fairly easy to obtain those documents from the last three generations, but not always. Recording of births was not compulsory until the latter 1800’s, and even then, many births were simply not recorded. This was especially true in rural areas and home births.*

The more DOCUMENTATION to prove the existence of an Ancestor, the better the chances of the Mayflower Society accepting them. This requires some intense research to find DOCUMENTATION. It can take years before the Society is happy and accepts the line.

Knowing this, I started doing some preliminary work on the Handy lineage back to John Howland while waiting for progress on my own Mayflower lineage. Proving this Handy line also adds the Mayflower Ancestors of John’s wife, Elizabeth Tilley and her parents. What I have found so far has been surprising.

~ The most exciting find was Hiram Handy‘s Last Will and Testament. In it, he names his two sons, Cyrus and George. He also specifically names his grandchildren by his [deceased] daughter. Those children were Lester Rosecrants and [what looks like] Amy Lorissa Merrill. Hiram’s daughter, Mary Mahaly, married Charles Merrill in December 1858. It is not known if Mary was previously married to a Rosecrants or if the child was born out of marriage. I find no evidence (yet) of Mary using the last name of Rosecrants.

~ George Handy‘s first wife was Eliza Hathaway. I found her on an 1850 census living with her parents in Steuben County, Indiana. The names of her parents were David P Hathaway (MD) and Elizabeth (Bennett). The census also gives her place of birth as Pennsylvania and approximate year of birth as 1831. The Handy family had close ties with the Hathaway family through the years.

~ According to many lineages and a publication by Lee S. Duguid, Eliza (Lida) Handy married James Renwick Wilson Duguid. Except when searching for DOCUMENTATION, Lida’s husband is always named ‘Wilson’ … or in later years, ‘Wilson J’. I have not found any document with ‘James Renwick Wilson’. (I am still searching for the elusive birth record). An extremely popular habit among those during this time period, especially in Indiana, was calling a child by their middle name rather than their first name. This led to many switching the order of the names in their adult years. In this case, J____ Wilson became Wilson J. I hypothosize that the J stood for James. So his given name would have been James Wilson. Where did the Renwick come from?

James’ father, John Warren Duguid, had a brother James. This brother had a son, James Renwick, who went by ‘Renwick’ in his later years. It is my belief that the names of the two cousins were blended into one by mistake of later generations.

Newspapers.com has 614 listings for Wilson Duguid between the years of 1850-1940, most of them for the Wilson Duguid living in Steuben County. There is only one listing for James Renwick Wilson Duguid… his obituary. It would seem that someone gave Wilson that moniker in death. As such, unless a birth record is found with the name ‘James Renwick Wilson Duguid’, the Mayflower Society is not going to accept that as his name.

The Mayflower Society has an approved line from John Howland to Jemima Daggett/Malachi Butler. I can find documentation for their daughter’s marriage to Barzillai Handee and Barzillai Handee, Jr to Mary Clemmons. Of course, there is always that one troublesome child in a family… Cyrenius/Sarenas Handy/Hendee seemes to be problematic, and not just his lineage… but I will persevere.

August 9, 1777 Woodbury, Connecticut Advertisement in The Connecticut Journal, Issue 512

* In our current generation, it is fairly easy to register a birth. One goes into the government facilty, fills out the paperwork, and leaves with a certificate. They don’t even want to see evidence of a child. I had considered registering the two children that seemed to take up residence in our home… ‘I don’t know’ and ‘Not me’. With all the trouble they caused, at least we would have had a tax deduction.
On the other hand, to obtain a death certificate, there has to be evidence of a body or a court declaration of death. It seems to me that a death certificate is more proof of the existence of a person than a birth certificate, at least in Genealogy.

Skeletons

What Child is This?

This mystery opens up with a general search on Ancestry.com for Elisha L Fisher. A birth record for a child, born in 1908, Daviess County, Indiana, comes up with Elisha L Fisher listed as father. It would be easy to disregard this document because nowhere in the known family history has a child by this name been recorded. Investigating the birth record further shows some interesting things. The occupation of Elisha is given as school teacher who was born in Indiana. Our Elisha L. Fisher was a school teacher born in Indiana. Our Elisha was born one county over from Daviess County and while there are other Elisha Fishers in Indiana during this time period, none of them have the middle initial ‘L’, none of them were school teachers, and none of them were living in this area. One could conclude that the father listed in this birth record is our Elisha L. Fisher. Elizabeth Dillon is listed in the 1910 census as living in Madison Township, Daviess County… a very short distance from Bogard Township, Daviess County where the child was born. Except that the mother is not Elizabeth Dillon and the birth is recorded as illegitimate.

Charles Howard Fisher was born December 2, 1908 to Elisha L Fisher and Martha Wilkey. Martha, age 21, was a domestic residing in Bogard Township. Elisha’s whereabouts was unknown at time of birth. Martha and Charles are listed in the 1910 census, both using the last name of Wilkey. Martha married Timothy Critchlow shortly after the census was taken and Timothy adopted Charles, giving him the last name of ‘Critchlow’. Martha and Timothy spent the majority of their marriage living in Topeka, Kansas.

Many questions arise from this discovery. Did Elisha Fisher know of his son and if he did, did he willingly give him up for adoption? Did Martha Wilkey just put Elisha’s name on the birth record knowing he wasn’t around to dispute it, just so it wasn’t left blank? We may never know the entire story or the circumstances surrounding the birth of Charles Howard Fisher Critchlow, as all the pertinent members have gone to their graves and the information they held, with them. Anything that comes out now is second-hand or hearsay. It is not ours to judge. The past is what it is. Heal and move forward.

**I have been in contact with the family of Charles Howard Critchlow’s son, Garry. They agree that given the birth record information and the known information they have, our Elisha L Fisher is probably Charles’ birth father. If at some point in the future their curiosity gets the better of them and they want to know without a doubt, then they can be tested for DNA. Two of our family members have already been tested that a potential match could be made. In the meantime…

we have been given the gift of more family.