Author Topic: Wondering about the odds  (Read 18051 times)

Dusevoir

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Re: Wondering about the odds
« Reply #15 on: February 06, 2011, 05:06:24 PM »
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Here is a posting for that Thompson family picture Dusevoir.

What a great photo!  You are so lucky to have that.  I love their expressions or lack thereof.  I look a little like baby Charles. 

Hunt, McPherson and Hughes are 3 of my DNA matches.  McPherson is a 4th cousin and Hunt and Hughes are 5th cousins.  I have also seen the name Cunningham and Sturm, but I forgot where in my DNA people.

 

 

Old Genealogists never die - they just lose their census.

uneven

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Re: Wondering about the odds
« Reply #16 on: February 06, 2011, 06:03:36 PM »
I think the name of my blog is misleading. I can't claim any Hunts, yet. I meant it to be like a snipe hunt. You know where you waste a lot of time out in the woods looking for a mythical creature..like Levi Thompson.

I've got the Blades, Fenimores, Cliffords, Sturms, McCanns, Williamsons, Silcotts and Taylors pretty well tied up and know where they fit with the Thompsons. The Swindells and Hughes elude me still, even though I have a family tree for them. The Cunninghams are sort of a mystery and it's obvious that several generations of Cunninghams are present, so where do they fit? Where do the Mcpherson and Little come in? Are they the married children of Thompsons?

This picture is a treasure trove, but a large portion of the people in it are unknowns. What if this was a church group rather than a family reunion?

My new cousin's dad identified these people and he couldn't tell why we were related to the Fenimores and Swindells. Because Mary Fenimore is Levi Thompson's oldest (unknown to him), I don't doubt his recollection of some sort of relationship. Those Swindells must shoehorn in there somewhere.

Since Mollie Swindell in this picture is a Hughes, I believe it's through her side we're related. So I suspect her mom Mary (unknown) may be a Thompson. Of course there are a lot of Mary Thompsons in the world.

Mike Thompson from Michigan..then Indiana..then Pennsylvania and further...probably somewhere there are sheep. Call me Legion for I am many.

uneven

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Re: Wondering about the odds
« Reply #17 on: February 06, 2011, 06:42:48 PM »
I shed a tear today. I had to let the ancestry account go again. I'll probably pick it back up in a few months when things settle down.

As usual though, dropping the account always makes me look at other sources. I was searching the google book on a history of Madison county from 1820 to 1874 and noticed a paragraph on the "Christian Church". It caught my attention because in the obits for my Thompsons, I've read about the "Christian" Church. I remember it because, it's not the Baptist church or the Methodist church, but the Christian Church.

So what do you think the other options were?

Anyway, it caught my eye and it had a reference to being built in 1866 in Richland (near both Alexandria and Van Buren) and having it's first elder be Ebenezer Thompson. I ran a search on ancestry and familysearch.org and couldn't find him. Which actually gives me hope.

Now I want to flip through the 1850 and 1860 census in Richland, Madison, Indiana to see if there are mis-indexed Thompsons there. I've found several in other census lists that are labeled as Hampson or Thompon or Thampson (Recently got contacted by the family member of one correctee).

It's a tedious process, but it's the only way I found Rose A Blades.
Mike Thompson from Michigan..then Indiana..then Pennsylvania and further...probably somewhere there are sheep. Call me Legion for I am many.

Dusevoir

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Re: Wondering about the odds
« Reply #18 on: February 07, 2011, 12:30:32 PM »
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I meant it to be like a snipe hunt.


Got it..........I've got a few of those creatures as well.  At this time, I don't where my matches fit in.  I really thought my Thompson line would be easier, but there not.  The problem with a great name like Thompson, they are in most families.  I have your surnames on a sticky note so I can keep my eye open for them.

 



Old Genealogists never die - they just lose their census.

uneven

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Re: Wondering about the odds
« Reply #19 on: February 07, 2011, 03:43:48 PM »
Every time I find a new secondary name I loop through your lists of matches posted on this site. Thanks for doing that by the way. I should have mentioned Finks in my list.

I always have this feeling that the connection that gets me into some stream of Thompsons is just after the guy I know about. When I was stuck at Albert Thompson I thought his dad and mom would be the answer. Now that I'm stuck at his parents, I think his grandparents are the answer.

Right now I'm waiting for that stroke of luck so I can bumble across the record or idea that puts everything together. It sounds like a loose family structure, bad indexing,  courthouse fires and the possible paving of the Alexandria Cemetery are conspiring to keep me in the dark for a while. I don't think I'm out of tricks yet though.

mike

Mike Thompson from Michigan..then Indiana..then Pennsylvania and further...probably somewhere there are sheep. Call me Legion for I am many.

uneven

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Re: Wondering about the odds
« Reply #20 on: March 02, 2011, 09:53:12 PM »
Went through Madison county in 1850 census page by census page, found a lot of mis-indexed Thompsons as well as many other names I made suggestions for to Ancestry. Non were mine though.

I did find and correct a record for Howell D. Thompson, a more prominent Thompson in Madison. I started working my way east through high Thompson traffic areas and found a lot of families in Randolph county.

I decided to switch over to 1900. Levi was alive in 1890 in western Ohio and the Military didn't close his pension case until 1902. Maybe they closed it when he was alive? Levi's pension records contain no information about his wife and family. In 1900 his wife Rosa says she is widowed. So I assumed he died. I've been wrong about him dying before.

So I searched in Ohio for Levi Thompson born 1835 (he is listed as 34, 35 and 36 so I try them all) and found one. He's the right age, living about 100 miles east of the 1890 location in Ohio and married to a different woman. That would be a reason for me to ignore him, but I decided to look closer anyway. This Levi was married for less than 10 years. His wife (Margaret) was 10 years younger than him and had 6 children, none of whom were listed in the census. So to me it looks like a second marriage with adult children.

I asked my new cousin what he thought the odds were that Levi R-U-N-N-O-F-T and he said they were pretty good considering the male Thompsons that came after him. Also it looks like Levi's son in law ran off to Colorado in 1880 leaving his family high and dry and remarrying there...so maybe it was in the air?

It's a big leap without much evidence and it doesn't get me any closer to finding his parents but it would be nice to know what happened to him.
Mike Thompson from Michigan..then Indiana..then Pennsylvania and further...probably somewhere there are sheep. Call me Legion for I am many.