LINSEY-MILLER: The Almira Miller - Oscar Linsey Whiteside County Records Drama

Whiteside County, Illinois

Last month, a few days after my mom died, I hit the road for a little genealogy mystery solving in
Whiteside County, Illinois, about four hours from home. I was generally, well, completely disappointed with the results of the trip.

This couple connects to people in my tree a couple different ways, as things tend to go. I'm just talking about one connection point today.

William Miller (1789-bef.1840) from England married Lorraine Fountaine (1793-1881) and lived in upstate New York. William died and Lorraine traveled with the children to Ohio, Indiana, and on to Illinois. There are a lot of blank moments. They arrived in Whiteside County in Illinois. Peace Macomber Linsey and her children, including Oscar, left Washington County, New York and also ended up there as well.

William and Lorraine's son, Edrick Miller (1816-1868) married Eleanor Flavel (1820-1880). 

Their oldest child, Almira Elizabeth Miller (1839-1924) married Oscar Linsey (1836-1916) in 1854. In about 1859, they had a son, James (or John) Franklin Linsey.

Peace Macomber seems to have died in Whiteside County - but may not have. She died in about 1884. Lorraine Fountaine, I believe died in Iowa. I am going to go to the Linn County Courthouse to suss that out imminently. I received a call this week from the sexton of the Prophetsville and Portland township cemeteries. The bad news was as I thought - there are many lost/broken stones and burials that cannot be identified. Another dead end on the burials. This would apply to Peace Macomber.

I have always believed Almira Elizabeth Miller died young as I had not found a trace of her when I first started this, but have since learned she and Oscar divorced (of course there are no records) and she remarried to Calvin Jerome Bunnell in 1866, had four more children, and died in Oregon in 1924!

So, to the things I learned on my trip. Whiteside County is deeply rural. No big towns anywhere around. The courthouse was a total bust. Here's why. Illinois didn't capture any births, deaths, or marriages, unless it was voluntary, until 1916. There are a smattering of pre-1916 records, but not a one for any of the family who moved to this area. After 1916, these certificates were required and recorded, but this is long after what I needed to find. 

I knew that the Dorathy family (who were the children and grandchildren of Oscar's sister Sarah Linsey) were long-time residents in this area. The early generations of Dorathy's were buried at the Sandy Town Cemetery in Portland Township. The folks at the courthouse hadn't even heard of the cemetery. It is home to the remains of about forty people and many of them are Dorathy's. Eureka!  There has to be a record of who is buried in all the area cemeteries (Prophetstown and Portland Townships were really of interest).

I got the name of the person responsible for the Sandy Town Cemetery from the courthouse folks. I was given both an address and a phone number. I drove forthwith to that address, which I assumed was a township office - but no, it was her house. She was a bit surprised about my showing up on her doorstep, but was as helpful as she could be. She didn't really know who kept the records of the burials, she just sold people plots in the cemeteries. She didn't know where Sandy Town Cemetery was. I have a couple leads, but nothing so far.

I also poured over the plat maps with owners available from 1872 and 1896 and don't see any of them. So not land owners, I guess? No answers thus far, but I will update if I get any.

The one good thing that happened out of this is I nailed down information on Oscar & Almira's son, who is listed as James, John, or Franklin depending on the document. I found he and his second wife buried up in Tripp County, South Dakota.  Twice widowed, he died at 93 in 1952.

Going to need to get busy and get to the Linn County Courthouse!

LINSEY FAMILY: Owen Dorathy & Sarah Lindsey

Owen Dorathy & Sarah Lindsey Family

Much of the history of my Lindsey/Linsey relatives is still a mystery. The immigrant was reportedly Harvey Lindsey, who has been reported to have been from Ireland or England (or possibly Scotland). He married Peace Macomber and had an unknown number of children.  This was ascertained from death certificates for what were the two known children, Oscar Linsey and his sister Mary Lindsey. 

Through the miracle of DNA, about a year ago, another connection popped up. Sarah Lindsey. it turns out, was the older sister of Oscar and Mary. The story fit neatly together on all fronts, including that her family also traveled from Chautaqua County, New York to Whiteside County in Illinois. 

After recently locating the 1830 Census for Harvey in Washington County, New York, I was able to confirm an, as to yet unnamed, daughter born between Sarah and Mary born between 1825 and 1830.

Born in 1821, in Washington County to Harvey and Peace, Sarah was most likely the oldest or one of the oldest children of the couple. Sarah married Owen Dorathy (an altered form of Dougherty) around 1840 in New York. The couple lived in Ellington in Chautauqua County. Owen was born in County Cork, Ireland in 1815 and emigrated to the US in 1835.

The couple relocated to Whiteside County, Illinois between 1856-1857, settling in the area near Portland. Their post office was the Spring Hill post office. By the time they'd arrived, they already had six of their final count of eight children. The Dorathy's farmed.

While the Dorathy's remained in Whiteside County (until today, in fact), Sarah's younger brother Oscar, my 2GG, moved his family to Benton County, Iowa, near Vinton. Mary, the only other sibling I know about, lived in Whiteside County for most of her life, but died in Vinton, most likely because her brother was there.

Morris Dorathy & Lydia Besse

The Dorathy's were a very well regarded family in the county and in the coming generations were very involved in civic activities and the Methodist church. While that is true, they aren't a particularly interesting group, leading fairly routine recorded lives, much like the lives of Sarah's brother Oscar's family in Iowa. Here is a brief summary of the children of the Dorathy's:

Morris Dorathy: Born 04 Dec 1842/Ellington, Chautaqua, New York (some reports say Cattaraugus County); Died: 10 Apr 1930, Portland, Whiteside, Illinois. Married: Lydia Rose Besse, 12 Nov 1970 in Whiteside County. They had six children. Morris served in the Civil War, with the 75th Illinois Infantry. He served for three years, seeing action Perrysville, Stone River, Lookout Mountain, and Missionary Ridge. He was also on the front lines of the Atlantic Campaign. He was discharged in 1865. He was a member of the Modern Woodsmen, the Grand Army of the Republic (a Civil War veteran's organization), and the Masons.

Dennis Dorathy: Born 04 Nov 1844, Ellington, Chautaqua, New York. Died 04 Jan 1922 in Fremont, Dodge County, Nebraska. Married: Charlotte Dickerson, 10 Nov 1867 in Henry County, Illinois. The couple was the only Dorathy who continued west during this time. The couple moved to Nebraska around 1870, but possibly prior. The couple owned a couple of different farms in the North Bend area, but after the death of his wife in 1913, Dennis moved to Fremont where he died after developing a cold
which sounds like turned into pneumonia. The couple had two children.

Charles Dorothy

Charles Dorathy: Born 25 Apr 1846, Ellington, Chautauqua, New York. Died 07 May 1937, Maywood, Cook County, Illinois. Married: Never married. Charles Dorathy was the last Whiteside County Civil War veteran when he died at age 91. He served with Company B, 140th Illinois Infantry Volunteers from 1863 to 1865. He farmed his entire life. The last few years of his life he suffered from illness and resided in the veteran's hospital in Cook County until his death.

William Dorathy: Born 09 Mar 1851, Ellington, Chautauqua, New York. Died 24 Mar 1924 in Portland, Whiteside, Illinois. Married: Clementine Toms, 21 Dec 1876, Whiteside County, Illinois. The couple had four children. After farming for many years, the couple moved to Prophetstown. Mrs. Dorathy died in 1940 after a heart attack at her son Bruce's home outside of Prophetstown.

William Dorathy

Catherine "Katie" Dorathy: Born Aug 1852, Ellington, Chautauqua, New York. Died 08 Feb 1875,

Prophetstown, Whiteside, Illinois. Married: George Erastus Breckenridge, 22 Jan 1869, Whiteside County, Illinois. George was also a farmer. The young couple had two children before Katie's premature death. George remarried Nancy Agnes Allen in 1876 and the couple raised his two children and their two children before George's death in 1910 in Red Eye, Wadena County, Minnesota.

Mary Ann Dorathy: Born 24 Mar 1956, Ellington, Chautauqua, New York. Died 02 Jun 1934, Portland, Whiteside, Illinois. Married: Cecil Fuller, 28 May 1973, Whiteside County, Illinois. Cecil was a farm laborer. The couple did not have any children. She was a Methodist and an honorary member of the Portland Club.

Lee Watson Dorathy

Frank Dorathy: Born 18 Oct 1858, Whiteside County, Illinois. Died 03 Apr 1895, Whiteside, Illinois. Married: Christina Catherine "Katie" Kelly, 04 Jul 1882, Whiteside County, Illinois. He worked as a farm laborer during his short life. The couple had no children.

Lee Watson Dorathy: Born 18 Jun 1861, Whiteside County, Illinois. Died 16 May 1932, Whiteside County, Illinois. Married: Lydia Rawson, 29  Jun 1887, Whiteside County, Illinois. The couple had two children. 

While not a lot was gleaned from researching this family, I was struck by one thing - the dour expressions of Sarah and several of her children, were exactly the same expression shared by my own antecedents!

Ancestry DNA and Mystery Solving

I think that many of us, who do this maddening thing, watch at least one of those Ancestry shows on TV. I like Dr. Gates' PBS show best, but they also clearly have a giant staff of paid and trained scientists and genealogists combing through records all over the world on their behalf. I'd like to be famous for just a short bit so I'd be invited on and he'd get some of my own questions answered.

DNA connections keep getting better and better on Ancestry.com. ThruLinesTM, now in Beta, is proving to be quite interesting. Of course, it all depends on how accurate your fellow researchers are, and that has proven to be iffy at best, but I have been able to go down at least two paths I couldn't get down before and at least form a hypothesis where I could not before.

It's also proven connections to specific families where I was not sure, or had nothing to cite to make the connection. I'm sure that will give others license to just accept the information at its face and run with it, which will further screw up sorting it out, but I hope not.

One of my discoveries this month was a definitive connection to Sarah Anne Lindsey, child of

Sarah Anne Lindsey Dorathy
(in a classic Lindsey/Linsey look)

Harvey Lindsey and Peace Macumber/Macomber. They lived in New York state and were the parents of my 2GG Oscar Lindsey who pioneered by way of Indiana to Whiteside County, Illinois, and then to Benton County, Iowa. I knew Oscar had an unmarried sister, but was not aware he had at least one other sister, Sarah, who married a Dougherty (later Dorathy) and had a gigantic family who stayed in the Whiteside area and another group of whom moved to Nebraska. It was quite exciting.

Because of DNA, I know I am related to that group and can make the connection at last. It also brings me to my next questions - because of the age difference between Sarah (who was likely one of the older children of Harvey and Peace) and Oscar (likely one of the younger). Are there more siblings out there we don't know about? I'm betting there are and time will tell. I just hate waiting.

What about you? What's been your big discovery this month?