genealogy break through--eureka!

I am so stinkin' ecstatic right now. I've been working on family history lately and just now I found my gold.

I finally have proof of what I slowly came to realize to be true...after first rejecting it, then investigating, then believing, then knowing but needing proof...this breakthrough in my genealogy has only taken me at least 15-20 years to accomplish.

So, what is the find that is literally making me feel a bit berserk?

Brooklyn Eagle
Thursday, July 28, 1887
Page: 3
Section: none

NEWMAN--On July 27, Mrs. Hannah Newman, aged 76.
     Funeral services at the residence of her son in law, Mr. John H. Miller, 685A Hancock st, Brooklyn, N.Y., on Friday, July 29th, at 2 P.M.



Those few words her son in law, Mr. John H. Miller bring such joy to my heart.

You know what's kind of interesting? Last Thursday night Glen and I went to the temple with his parents and we did the names of 4 people from this family (father William and son Thomas and sisters Catherine and Frances--plus a brother-in-law). Maybe they were guiding me from the other side.


The journey (since Glen isn't here to share my story and I need to let it out, so here it goes):

I knew from info given to me 35 years ago by relatives that my 2nd great grandmother, Sarah Ann Newman, married my 2nd great grandfather, John H. Miller. According to an article, Sarah's parents were named Hannah and Thomas Newman.

As I hunted for her parents in the 1850 census in New York before the days of the internet using book indexes in the Salt Lake library, I came across only one Sarah Newman that was the right age (20) in the right place (Brooklyn), but the father's name was William, not Thomas, and the mother's name was Anna, not Hannah. But there was a brother named Thomas along with sisters Mary Jane, Frances, and Catherine. My Sarah named 2 of her daughters Mary Jane and Frances (and Caroline and Emma...none were named Catherine and her son was named Charles, not Thomas).

I ordered my Sarah's death certificate a while back. It listed her father as ------- Newman and her mother as Hannah Westover. So I now had a maiden name for her mother, but it didn't help with the father.


Thanks to the internet, Ancestry.com, and familysearch.org, I tracked William and Anna and family and discovered that in all other census records, Anna's name was Hannah! William was not to been seen again...I guessed he died in between the 1850 and 1860 census and I have found a record of a William Newman dying in 1857, I think it was, but the records kept at that time didn't help me identify him as the William I was seeking.

I discovered that "the other" Sarah's sister Frances had a son named Charles O. Latimer around 1866...my Sarah had a son she named Charles Latimer Miller in April of 1866.

So, how to prove it all. I finally tried to track "the other" Sarah's siblings to find their death certificates to see if their mother's name was Hannah Westover...but I couldn't find out when any of them died. Their names were too common and there were too many choices.

One day I was looking at the New York state census and discovered that next door to "the other" Sarah's sister Mary was living a Ferdinand Allen and his family...the same Ferdinand who later became Sarah's son-in-law (after his wife passed away). So I "knew" William and Anna were my 3rd great grandparents. But I needed proof.

I spent 4 hours recently in the Salt Lake Family History Library looking at reel after reel after reel of Brooklyn death records (I believe I looked at 27 reels) looking for any Hannah Newmans. (someone needs to invent and/or install viewers in Salt Lake that don't need my arm to go around 100,000,000 times to wind and rewind films, by the way).

I was afraid there'd be too many, but I only found 2 and one was the wrong age. The other record was so faded I almost couldn't read it (but considering the next 2 records were so faded as to be totally illegible, I'll take the highly faded one). I wasn't sure of the age (70? 76?) or death date (except the 1887 part) but I could read the death certificate number. I ordered it and it came the other day. Best $18.50 I've ever spent. Turns out this Friday will be the 125th anniversary of her death.

The info didn't confirm or refute anything, however, but it did list a cemetery...a misspelled cemetery that took me a bit to figure out what it was. I tried contacting them (Cypress Hills) through their website, but as of yet, I haven't heard from them.

This afternoon, I took that death date and went to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle site where I found the above obituary proving my Sarah and "the other" Sarah are one and the same. Proof. I'm so happy!


Now, John H. Miller's death certificate lists his father as John Miller of Staten Island and his mother as Hannah V. Miller of Long Island. Do you know how many John Miller's there were back then? Too many. I hope to find more on John Henry Miller, though.

And I want to figure out when William and Hannah came to America (and who their parents were, of course)...did they marry in England and then come here, or meet here after immigrating? Genealogy never ends. You fill in one blank, and 2 more are now begging to be filled in.

good stuff.