Parkin – Moore-Mays Genealogy

Update to the Parkin Children

Posted on 07-Jun-2017 by Kathleen

I have a breaking genealogy update for you! This is less than an hour old for me. I was so excited, I just had to share it.

The Parkin Children in 1905

This is an update to the entry I wrote about the Parkin Children in 1905. I concluded that entry by assuming the three youngest Parkin children were living in an Orphan’s home but couldn’t be sure. I did go the long way around to that answer. This afternoon, I was reading my Facebook groups and a helpful member posted that the images were now available on FamilySearch to everyone. Well, alright then, let me put down my lunch and go look, STAT!

Finding Them Again

The great news is I was able to just go right to the transcription from before. The images were already digitized on FamilySearch, just not viewable outside a research center.

“New Jersey State Census, 1905,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1928107 : accessed 07 June 2017), entry for Orange Orphan Society; citing film no. 1688595, image 641, family 78.

From the image, I can definitely say the children were living in the Orange Orphan Society in 1905. I believe they fudged Hazel’s age to get her in since children 10 and under only were allowed. Hazel would have been 10, maybe even close to 11 at the time.

Excuse Us but you were in the middle of a Do-Over? Bright Shiny Object Distracted you?

Well, technically yes. However, I had already done the Parkin children in my Do-Over so technically, I don’t feel bad! Actually, I will go back for everyone that I have a 1905 New Jersey State Census citation for and update their information. Since the database now has images, the citation has to be written slightly different to include the fact that there is an online image.

…

What is it? You definitely want to say something else.

Okay, so if I’m being completely honest, and I try to always do that… Okay, I looked up the father of the Parkin children. I was curious, I jumped ahead. Even though technically he’s further down on my Do-Over list. I know you guys will agree with me it was okay to jump ahead a little bit.

“New Jersey State Census, 1905,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1928107 : accessed 10 May 2017), entry for Ann Parkin household; citing film no. 1688600, image 339, family 857.

Guys, I think the oldest Parkin child, Anna M. Parkin, might have lived to at least 1905! There at the last entry of the Parkin household is May Parkin, born May 1893. Anna Parkin only showed up on the 1900 US census for me so far, but in that census her birth date was listed as May 1892. This could be her with her father, uncle and grandmother in 1905. How exciting! There might yet be a lost branch of the Parkin family tree.

Parkin Children in 1905

Posted on 08-May-2017 by Kathleen

One of the things I’ve been trying to do with my Genealogy Do-Over is to fill in blanks I missed before. One of those big blanks is the state census records. For my Mom’s side, I’m not even sure if there were state censuses taken in Rural Kentucky or Virginia. I’m going to look and be sure though. My Dad’s side is much easier because I know New York and New Jersey had state censuses. This week I’m going to highlight what I would have missed if I didn’t look at the 1905 New Jersey State Census.

We have to start in 1900

The above screenshot shows the Parkin family in the 1900 United States Census. Your eyes don’t deceive you, the census shows them as the John Walter household. This is the family though, and it took me years to find them under John’s middle name instead of his surname. Here you can see all 4 children with their parents. We have Anna who is the oldest, Hazel and Jennie who are close in age and the youngest Walter who is just under a year old.

The family is living in Newark, New Jersey at the time of the census. John’s family is living nearby in East Orange, New Jersey. Jennie’s family is unknown to me at the time. In the 1880 Census the family was living in Baltimore, Maryland but I have found no sign of them after that.

The 1905 Census

I first started looking for the Parkin family in 1905 by searching for them by name. This family is filled with very common names, except for one. That one unique name is Hazel. Hazel is the reason for most of my finds in this family. If it wasn’t for Hazel, I might not have looked twice at the following record.

Notice my caption says alleged. I can’t be sure that these are my Parkin children. First off, I’m not looking at the actual record, just a transcription. Second, the ages are a bit off. I don’t have a place of birth and there are no relationship indicators. This is probably one of the most sparse records I’ve ever looked at.

I was curious on how to figure out what was happening here, but I didn’t know where to start. Like anything else you do, you have to start with what you have in front of you.

I took the name at the top of the household and tried to search for it in both 1900 and 1910 to see if Sarah and Henry were at the same place. My thinking was that if they were running a children’s home, they might have been listed as doing it in another census. I couldn’t find them in either census year by using the index search and I didn’t know where to start on a page by page search.

My next step was to see if I could find them listed in the city directories for 1905 because that would give me an address. That was the one place I was positive they were. The transcription gives no other information but I had another option. Using the information in the citation, I did a catalog search for the film number on FamilySearch to see what else I could find out.

Thank You FamilySearch for your Catalog

FamilySearch’s catalog is one of my favorite resources. You can drill down exactly where every piece of information you are looking at came from. You might not always like it or understand it, but the information is there. I might have had to search all the city directories before hitting the right town if I just looked at what I saw in the transcription. It was great to see that only a few towns were listed for this film number and one jumped out at me. I knew that John’s family lived in East Orange and so I thought that would be a perfect starting point. Truthfully, I was glad not to see Newark listed. Newark is a big city and I wasn’t looking forward to looking for a needle in that haystack!

Orange Directories

Looking at the city directory, I was able to see a Mrs. S. T. Horton was a matron at 197 Harrison, East Orange. There was also a Henry B. Horton who was an attendant at 197 Harrison. Yes! More information, but I still don’t know what this place was. The first thing I like to do when I reach the end of where my known information drops off is turn to my friend Google. Lucky for me, I found out that at one time 197 Harrison Street was the Orange Orphan Home. This information was found on numerous Message Boards on Ancestry.com’s forums. There was lots of talk from people whose relatives had worked there and others who lived there.

Google Books even has a 1921 copy of the American Medical Directory. There I found an entry for the Orange Orphan Home, which was established in 1854. None of this tells me why the Parkin children were living at the home in 1905, especially given their father was alive and living with his mother in 1910. Their mother doesn’t appear with the family again in census records, so I assume she must have passed away between 1900 and 1905. Also, the oldest child Anna Parkin was last spotted on that 1900 US Census also, so I fear that something happened to her also.

Conclusion and Plans

This information would be unknown to me if I hadn’t looked at the 1905 State Census. In 1910 the children were living with family members. Jane and Walter were living with their grandmother and Hazel was living with an Aunt. In 1920, Hazel was married and her brother and sister were living with her. Jane/Jennie married my Great-Grandfather Clifford Redford in 1923 and I’m still looking for what happened with Walter. I have no record of him after the 1930 US Census.

My plans are to find the death records for John Walter Parkin and his wife. Without a clearer date for their death, it might take a few tries to get them. I’m hoping that the more I work the Genealogy Do-Over on this family, maybe I’ll pick up some more information to help me out. My current strategy of starting from me and working backwards means that I still have plenty of family members that Anna might have been living with.

I’ll be sure to keep you informed!

Wedding Wednesday: Clifford Redford and Jane Parkin

Posted on 03-May-2017 by Kathleen

My other paternal Great-Grandparents

Sometimes I get caught up in the fact that my Grandpa Moore’s mother and father were great record keepers. It’s easy to forget that there are plenty more great-grandparents to go around, they just didn’t leave as much extra documentation. They didn’t leave me empty handed though!

I was able to order an “official” marriage certificate for Clifford and Jane because of this family heirloom. It lets me know that Clifford and Jane were married in Newark on December 1, 1923. Edith McKane and Walter Parkin were serving as witnesses. They were the siblings of the couple.

Guests

There were also a small, but important group of guests at the wedding. I recognize most of these names as family members. The great thing is that this family heirloom backs up the official record. This family record was passed down in the family, and the official record also has Edith McKane and Walter Parkin listed with addresses. It shows Herbert Redford as the father of Clifford.

The sad part of this record is that it does not show Clifford’s mother Sadie or Jane’s parents John and Jennie Parkin. I still have to find their death certificates but Sadie died in 1922. Jennie Featherson-Parkin died between 1900 and 1905. John Walter Parkin died between 1905 and 1910. The last two I only know because their children were living in what looks to be a children’s home in the 1905 New Jersey Census.

The Official Record

Here’s the original certificate that I was able to order. I was able to get tons of information from this record, all because I started with that family record.

Wedding Wednesday is a daily blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers.com.

When to Change the Spelling on a Name?

Posted on 09-May-2016 by Kathleen

One of the problems I still struggle with is when to change a spelling for one of my families. Usually it’s not an issue. 90% of my families stay pretty consistent. There is that other 10% though. My latest example being the Featherson/Featherston family.

I first became aware of the Feathersons on my great-grandparents marriage certificate.

0284-CliffordHerbertRedford-MR — New Jersey Office of Vital Statistics & Registry, marriage certificate 4422 (1923), Redford-Parkin; New Jersey Department of Health, Trenton

My 2x great-grandmother’s maiden name on this record shows Jennie Featherson. Now in indexes, it usually comes up as Peatherson just like Sutcliffe usually comes up as Putcliffe. I really believe that is an F on this record.

Once I had her maiden name, I tried searching for her in a census. I knew then that Jane Parkin was born in 1896 and since the 1890 census is gone I have to go father back than I would normally like. I tried searching in the 1885 New Jersey State Census and came up with nothing after trying many spellings. That leaves the 1880 Census. I should also note that I found John Walter Parkin, his wife Jennie, and their 4 children in the 1900 census. That means I have an estimated birth date of Jan/June 1875 in Pennsylvania.

William Featherston, 1880 Census — 1880 U.S. census, population schedule, Baltimore County, Maryland. Baltimore city, enumeration district (ED) 33, p. 546-A, dwelling 94, family 106, William Featherston; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 Apr 2016); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T9, roll 498.

I was a little surprised to find my closest match living in Baltimore, Maryland in 1880. It might seem like a jump, but putting together the evidence, maybe not so much. Jennie Featherston is about 5 years old and born in Pennsylvania. Her mother was born in New Jersey as were her parents. This is a nice fit, but how can I prove this is my Jennie? Featherston and Featherson are close enough. Then I got an idea to check a city directory. I thought maybe if I found William Featherston/Featherson in the city directory and his name was spelled without the T, then that would help my case.

William Featherston, 1882 — John W. Woods, Baltimore City Directory, 1882: 289; digital images, Ancestry http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 Apr 2016.

Strange enough, I couldn’t find him in 1880, but kept checking and finally found him in an 1882 Baltimore City Directory. It looks like the T is still sticking to his name though. This means I need more records, and more instances to compare. So I sent away for the marriage certificate of Jennie Featherson and John Walter Parkin.

0310-JohnWParkin-MR — New Jersey State Archives, marriage certificate (1891), Parkin-Featherson; New Jersey Division of Archives & Records Management.

Well, this 1891 marriage certificate just confuses me more. Here I have Jennie Featherson, born in Philadelphia, USA (NEW CLUE!), her father is listed as William Featherson and her mother as Jennie with no maiden name. That doesn’t exactly help my case either, since the 1880 Census of William Featherston has a wife named Anna. I just have more questions. Are these the same families? Are they different families? Is Anna a second wife and Jennie a first wife? There is a gap between William Featherston’s second and third child, plus a change in location. That could be a gap where his wife died. It was about this time where I remembered that I had Jennie and John Parkin in 1900 with their four children and it should list the birthplaces of her parents.

John Parkin, 1900 — 1900 U.S. census, population schedule, Essex County, New Jersey. Newark Ward 11, enumeration district (ED) 113, sheet 12-A, p. 12-A, dwelling 172, family 248, John Walter; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 Apr 2016); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T623, roll 966.

Please forgive the surname on this record, the family is listed as having a surname of Walter, which is John’s middle name. If I pay attention to just Jennie though, I notice her father was born in England and her mother in New Jersey. Okay, so my 1880 Census couple the Featherston’s might still be a fit. Also notice that Jennie named her first-born daughter Anna.

It’s at this point that I realized I’m going to need more records than what I now have. Really, I could always use more records. Before I could decide to add this couple into my tree as Jennie’s parents, I just needed a little more. I went to FamilySearch.org and checked their catalog. They’ve had so much added recently, I thought I might try to see what they have.

It turns out they have a Philadelphia City Births collection! Just what I needed… I guess. There is a perfect fit for Featherston, if my 2x great grandmother’s name was Anne. However, if you look over my previous records, they could use Anne or Jennie as a nickname of the other name. Or maybe they are still 2 different families.

It also doesn’t help that between 1900 and the 1905 New Jersey State Census, I lose my 2x great grandmother Jennie. I am assuming she died because John is living with his mother and their children are living in what looks like a children’s home. By 1910, John is also gone and the kids bounce around a lot. The Featherstons and Feathersons both disappear as well. It is obvious more research is needed.

If this turns out to be the right family it is surely enough evidence to change the name in my database from Featherson to Featherston. The question I have though, is how much evidence do you wait for before changing the spelling of a name in your database? Except for the two marriage records, all other spellings of the family name is Featherston. Yet, the more solid resources, vital records, give the name as Featherson.

William Richard Parkin

Posted on 06-May-2016 by Kathleen

October 9, 1841

William Richard Parkin was born in Sheffield, England to parents, John and Mary Parkin.

December 19, 1841

William was baptized at St. Peter & St. Paul Cathedral in Sheffield, England.

Note: I know this only from a parish index, so I need to see the actual record for more information.

March 30, 1851

John Parkin‘s household was recorded in the 1851 England census. The family is living in Ashton Under Lyne. John Parkin is record as being a brushmaker and 33 years old. His birthplace is listed as Sheffield. John’s wife Mary is recorded as being 34 years old and her birthplace it Retford, Nottinghamshire, England. William Richard Parkin is recorded as being 9 years old and going to school. This census also lists his birth place as Sheffield.

Note: It is a little funny that William Richard Parkin’s mother might be born in Retford, England and then his grand-daughter will marry a man with the last name Redford.

about 1860

William Richard Parkin joins the British Army. I counted back from his discharge papers. It listed his time of service as 11 years and 70 days at least.

April 24, 1864

William Richard Parkin marries Ann Maltis in Hampton parish, Middlesex county, England. W. Ballard and Ellen Geary are witnesses. William lists his residence as Hampton Court and Ann lists hers as Surbiton. His father is listed as John Parkins, brushmaker and hers is listed as William Maltis, carter. Marriage Record

between 1863 and 1865

My 2nd great grandfather, John Walter Parkin, is born in Cheshire, England. I am still tracking down his birth registration. The only reason I know it might be in Cheshire is because of the 1871 England Census. I will just have to pony up and get each record that is close until I find the right one. 😉

April 1870

William‘s second child and only daughter, Mary Ann Parkin, is born in Kingston, Surrey, England.

April 2, 1871

The 1871 England Census is taken. Ann Maltis-Parkin is recorded living with her parents and her twin sister Elizabeth in Kingston, Surrey, England. Her children John Walter Parkin and Mary Ann Parkin are also living there. William is not listed in the household.

May 16, 1872

William is discharged from the 12th Lancers. I don’t quite understand the record I found in the Chelsea Pensioner Discharge book, but I know he was a private, and most likely in the 244th Regiment. His date of application was May 6, 1872, and date of authority May 9, 1872. His character is listed as Fair. His amount of service towards G.C. Pay and Pension is 6 years, 9 days. His amount of service towards completion of limited engagement was 11 years, 70 days. I will be researching what all this means in the future.

October 4, 1872

William‘s third child, William Maltis Parkin, is born. His birth is registered in Chorlton district, Lancashire, England. John and Mary Parkin were living in Chorlton at the time.

December 29, 1872

William and Ann’s son William is baptized in the Cathedral and Parish Church of Manchester, England.

October 6, 1874

William, aboard The Republic, arrives in New York City at Castle Garden. He lists his age as 33 and his occupation as laborer. Passenger List

December 1874

William‘s fourth child, Joseph B. Parkin, is born in England. There are too many Joseph Parkin birth registrations for me to know which one is his. For this purpose, I used his estimated birth from the 1900 United States Census.

July 26, 1875

Ann Maltis-Parkin, John Walter Parkin, Mary Ann Parkin, William Maltis Parkin, and Joseph Parkin arrive in New York City at Castle Garden. They arrived on The Republic, the same ship William arrived on the previous year..

June 14, 1880

William R Parkin and his wife Ann are counted in the 1880 United States Census. They are living in East Orange, Essex County, New Jersey on Sterling Street. William is working in a sand paper factory. Living in the house are 4 children, John Walter Parkin, Mary A Parkin, William M Parkin, and Joseph Parkin. All kids are listed as being born in England.

August 2, 1881

William Richard Parkin dies in Bloomfield, New Jersey at the age of 39. According to his death certificate he was sick for about a year. He was also sick with bronchitis, but his cause of death is listed as phthisis pulmonalis or Tuberculosis. He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery.

1885

In 1885 New Jersey took a state census. This is the first census of any kind since William’s death. In Newark’s 11th Ward, we find Ann and the four children with a bit of a surprise.

In this record we have Ann and the four children I am sure about. The surprise though is the two girls at the bottom. Mary Parkin and Jane Parkin. When I click on them it gives their age as four and under. I think I’m going to have to take some serious time to analyze this record, maybe even see if I can order it from the Archives. Ann always gave her number of children as 4 living, 4 born, so these two girls are a mystery to me, especially since it didn’t seem that William Richard Parkin had any siblings.

Records to Find:

William Richard Parkin‘s birth and baptismal records. Sheffield has an index online, but I need to see the real record.
John Walter Parkin‘s birth record, maybe baptismal too.
William in 1861 and 1871. He could have traveled with the military, so I will have to look deeper into those records.
Joseph Parkin birth record.
Any birth, marriage or death records for Mary and Jane Parkin to see who their parents are.

Records to Order:

Mary Ann Parkin‘s birth record. Kingston, Surrey, England.
William Maltis Parkin‘s birth record. Chorlton, Lancashire, England.
The 1885 New Jersey State Census record for Ann Parkin.