SNGF : 3rd Most Recent Unknown Ancestor

Randy Seaver's challenge for this week:

1) Who is your TMRUA - your Third Most Recent Unknown Ancestor? This is the person with the third lowest number in your Pedigree Chart or Ahnentafel List that you have not identified a last name for, or a first name if you know a surname but not a first name. 

2) Have you looked at your research files for this unknown person recently? Why don't you scan it again just to see if there's something you have missed? 

3) What online or offline resources might you search that might help identify your TMRUA?

4) Tell us about him or her, and your answers to 2) and 3) above, in a blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a comment on Facebook or Google Plus. 

So, first post since June. Long time no blog.

My third most recent unknown ancestor would be #40, the father of my great-great-grandfather John Kain. As far as I know, John was born in Armagh, Northern Ireland. I still need to verify that by tracking down his St. Louis marriage record and other information that might give me insight into his parents and where he came from. I also have a David Kain in a census record showing him on the Clinton Co., IA farm of John Kain's sister-in-law (widow of John's wife's possible brother). David Kain might be a brother of John and the only record I have of him is the census record. It's a clue that might help trace back to John's parents.

Dictionary Word of the Day

Here's the Dictionary.com Word of the Day:

agnate: a relative whose connection is traceable exclusively through males.

That's a new one to me and very much a genealogical word. Not sure how useful it is. How often do I need to refer to my dad's brothers or their sons? Or my dad's uncles on his father's side and their sons? We all share an X chromosome so it may be useful for genetic genealogy.

Census Sunday: Joseph Huigens family in the 1940 US Census

Here is my transcription of the census entry for my father's family from the 1940 US Census. This was his second appearance in the US Census.

State: NE
County: Sheridan
Township, or other division of county: Rushville pct
S. D. No. 5
E.D. No. 81-26

Location
1. Street, avenue, road, etc.
2. House number (in cities and towns)

Household Data
3. Number of Household: 88
4. Home owned or rented: R
5. Value of home (if owned) or monthly rental (if rented): 8
6. Does this household live on a farm? Yes

7. Name of person:	Higgins, Joseph A*	Higgins, Julia M	Higgins, Arnold F	Higgins, Lawrence J	Higgins, Rita	Higgins, Bernice M	Higgins, Joseph A
8. Relationship of this person to head of household:	Head	Wife	Son	Son	Daughter	Daughter	Son
9. Sex:	M	F	M	M	F	F	M
10. Color or Race:	W	W	W	W	W	W	W
11. Age at last birthday:	49	45	23	22	21	18	13
12. Marital Status:	M	M	S	S	S	S	S
13. Attended school or college any time since March 1, 1940:	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
14. Highest grade of school  completed:	H2	8	H4	7	H4	H3	6
15. Place of birth:	Nebraska	Nebraska	Nebraska	Nebraska	Nebraska	Nebraska	Nebraska
16. Citizenship of foreign born:
17. Residence on 1 April, 1935 - City or town:	Same house	Same house	Same house	Same house	Same house	Same house	Same house
18. Residence on 1 April, 1935 - County:
19. Residence on 1 April, 1935 - State or foreign country:
20. On a farm?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
21. Was this person AT WORK for pay or profit in private or nonemergency Gov't. work during week of March 24-30? (Yes or No):	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
22. If not, was he at work on, or assigned to, public EMERGENCY WORK (WPA, NYA, CCC, etc.) during -week of March 24-30? (Yes or No):	-	No	Yes	-	-	No
23. If neither at work nor assigned to public emergency work. ("No" in Cols. 21 and 22), Was this person SEEKING WORK?(Yes or No):	-	No	-	-	-	No
24. If not seeking work, did he HAVE A JOB, business, etc.? (Yes or No):	-	No	-	-	-	No
25. Indicate whether engaged in home house-work (H), in school (S), unable to work (U), or other (Ot):	-	H	-	-	-	S
26. Number of hours worked during week of March 24-30, 1940:	60			60	50
27. Duration of unemployment up to March 30, 1940 - in weeks:			52
28. Occupation: Trade, profession, or particular kind of work, as frame spinner, salesman, rivet heater ,music teacher:	farmer		CCC painter	carpenter helper	waitress
29. Industry: Industry or business, as cotton mill, retail grocery, farm, shipyard, public school:	on farm		building constr	building consruction	restaurant
30. Class of worker:	OA	NP	GW	PW	PW	NP
31. Number of weeks worked in 1939 (Equivalent full-time weeks):	52	52	46	30	28	12
32, Income in 1939 (12 months ended December 31, 1939): Amount of money wages or salary received (including commissions):	0	0	230	225	80
33. Did this person receive income of $50 or more from sources other than money wages or salary (Yes or No):	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
34. Number of farm schedule:	63

Source citation: 

1940 U.S. census, Sheridan County, Nebraska,  Rushville pct , population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 81-26, Sheet No. 5B, household 88, line 47, Joseph Higgins; digital image, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census (Beta) [database on-line, accessed 5-Aug-2012]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.

Surname Saturday - 97: Clark

This week I'm skipping from 79: Kuepper to 97: Clark. Surnames 81 through 95 would be my eight Irish great-great-great-great-grandmothers. I'm still collecting info on my four Irish great-great-grandparents in America before attempting to cross the pond with those lines.

1. Kevin Joseph HUIGENS

2. Joseph Anthony HUIGENS
3. Shirley Ann OGDEN

6. Emery Julius OGDEN (b. 9 Sept 1896 in Elk Point, Union Co., SD, USA, m. 19 Mar 1929 in Gordon, Sheridan Co., NE, USA, d. 8 Apr 1984 in Martin, Bennett Co., SD, USA)
7. Esther Louise JOHNSON (b. 23 Feb 1902 in Milan, Rock Island Co., IL, USA, d. 24 Mar 1984 in Rapid City, Pennington Co., SD, USA)

12. William Fredrick OGDEN (b. 10 Oct 1871 in Simcoe, Norfolk Co., Ontario, Canada, m. 25 Jan. 1895 in Elk Point, Union Co., SD, USA, d. 19 May 1951 in Platteville, Grant Co., WI, USA)
13. Mary Elizabeth HERREN (b. 22 Dec 1873 in Batavia, Scott Twp., Sheboygan Co., WI, USA, d. 14 Nov 1938 in Mission, Todd Co., SD, USA)

24. James Robert OGDEN (b. 9 Feb 1836 in New Brunswick, Canada, m. 12 Nov 1861 in Grey Co., Ontario, Canada, d. 6 Aug 1910 in Rapid City, Pennington Co., SD, USA)
25. Hannah GIBBON (b. 10 Feb 1837 in Chinguacousy, Peel Co., Ontario, Canada, d. 18 Apr 1927 in Denby, Shannon Co., SD, USA)

48. Robert OGDEN (b. abt 1807 in New Brunswick, Canada, m. 13 Jan 1825 in Kings Co., New Brunswick, Canada, d. 26 Jan 1892 in Bruce Co., Ontario, Canada)
49. Frances Amelia MORRELL (b. abt 1809 in Canada, d. 1881)

96. Jonathon OGDEN (b. 1748 in NY, m1. before 1794 to Millie Whitlock in ?, m2. 20 Oct 1801 to Mary Clark in Gagetown, Queens Co., New Brunswick, Canada, d. 14 Nov 1845 in Greenwich, Kings Co., New Brunswick, Canada)
97. Mary CLARK (b. 1765 in ?, d. Aug 1846 in Greenwich, Kings Co., New Brunswick, Canada)

It was the second marriage for both Jonathan and Mary. Her first husband was James Edward Toole with whom she had four children. 

Camp Security

Dick Eastman had a post today about the preservation of Camp Security, a Revolutionary War POW camp in York County, PA, just east of the town of York. A recent aerial image of the camp is here. I had read that my 4xgreat-grandfather, Johann Peter Strayer of Dover, York Co., PA had been a POW guard during the Revolutionary War. This article prompted me to investigate if this was the prison camp at which he had served.

A Google search for "peter strayer guard" turned up a Google Newspaper archive article from the Gettysburg Times of 24 Sept 1987. It states "Peter Strayer was in the American Rev. on Capt. Samuel Fuller's payroll, and was a guard at Camp Security, in 1781. Pa. Archives Vol 2 page 810 Sixth Series."

I am so glad that the author of the article, Harold Ditzler, provided a source citation for his assertion. Another Google search led me to a Wikipedia article on the Pennsylvania Archives with a link to the Google Books location for every volume. A few clicks and I was on page 810 of Volume 2 of the Sixth Series, where I found the second page of a muster roll for Sept 1781 listing Peter Strayer, who began serving on 15 Aug 1781.  He is listed as being "on guard" in the "Causualities" [sic] column. The heading of the muster roll on page 809 states that they were guarding "the Convention Prisinon [sic] at Camp Security."

I wanted to cite this book and realized I didn't know how to cite an on-line book. I know how to cite a book and I know how to cite an web site, but this was my first try at citing a book I accessed on-line. Since I had recently downloaded the 2nd edition of "Evidence Explained" from evidenceexplained.com, I popped it open to see what the expert had to say.

Basically what Elizabeth Shown Mills says for Reprints: Image Editions is to cite first the book (without publisher or place of publication), then the location of the image. She gives examples for a book on CD/DVD or on microfilm, but not for a web site. So here is my attempt at a citation regarding my ancestor's service.

Montgomery, Thomas Lynch. 1906. [Muster rolls, etc., 1743-1787], 809-810. Google Books (//http://books.google.com/books?id=ED4OAAAAIAAJ : accessed 15 May 2012.)

 I took the book citation straight from WorldCat, so that has to be right, even if I think it needs to provide information about the series of which it is a volume. I tried to follow the format for citing a website given in EE as best I could. At the very least, it's provides a trail for someone else to verify and evaluate my assertion that Peter Strayer was a guard at Camp Security during the Revolutionary War.

So that's one maternal line fighting for independence and one (Ogden) fighting for the Crown and heading for Canada when they lost.