Defining a Patriot

Three years ago I wrote a post concerning all of my ancestors and where they were during the Revolution.

My ancestor David Van Every served a few months in the New York Militia, but he became a United Empire Loyalist like his father. And since there is no indication that his father's loyalties were ever in doubt, it might be fair to wonder if those few months in the New York Militia were entirely patriotic. He did have uncles and cousins serving patriotically, so it's possible, and there is some evidence he may have signed  up for the militia honestly, which I will go into in another post, but there is enough doubt I knew I would feel uncomfortable using that service to claim descent from a Patriot.

I hadn't completely given up hope of finding a truly Patriotic ancestor, but figured the only branches would be the ancestors of my maternal great great grandmother, Sarah Hartley Denyer. Born around 1836, I'd have to research back to her grandparents and great grandparents.

I was plugging in some surnames into the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) databases recently for fun, and found a different ancestor, my fifth great grandfather, Mark Fretz.

FRETZ, MARCK  Ancestor #: A042599
Service: PENNSYLVANIA Rank: PRIVATE
Birth: 12- -1750 BEDMINSTER TWP BUCKS CO PENNSYLVANIA
Death: 2-24-1840 NEW BRITAIN TWP BUCKS CO PENNSYLVANIA
Service Description: 1) CAPT HENRY DARROCH, LCOL WILLIAM ROBERTS
2) 3RD BATT, BUCKS CO, MILITIA

As I wrote back in 2012, I had not found any evidence that my Mennonite Fretz ancestors had violated their dedication to pacifism. But the entry on the DAR database suggested Mar(c)k Fretz had served in the militia. So I went looking for other sources and found this (Revolutionary War Military Abstract Card File, Pennsylvania State Archives):

It appears Mark Fretz paid fines for the privilege of not actively serving in the militia. If I am reading the card correctly, and if the abstract from the original record is correct, in 1780 he paid 600 pounds, which would have been a significant amount in 1780.

Here is DAR's definition of "Acceptable Service" (SAR uses the same definition.)

• Signers of the Declaration of Independence
• Military Service...
• Civil Service...
• Patriotic Service, which includes:...
• Furnishing a substitute for military service...

So my ancestor, Mark Fretz, would be considered a Patriot under that definition. I am proud of his dedication to his religious principles, however, he didn't serve in the militia.

While I would like to find an ancestor who was an active Patriot, since the Daughters and Sons of the American Revolution organizations accept those pacifists who paid the fines as suitable ancestors, I wouldn't feel bad about using Mark Fretz for that purpose. Becoming a member of the Sons isn't on my high list of priorities right now, though I realize some kin might feel different. So the question arises: Could I, or a cousin, prove descent from Mark Fretz to the satisfaction of their guidelines?

The 'proof' cited in my database relies heavily on: A Brief History of John and Christian Fretz and a Complete Genealogical Family Register With Biographies of their Descendants from the Earliest Available Records to the Present Time – by Rev A.J. Fretz of Milton N.J. copyright 1890. Mennonite Publishing Co. Elkhart, Indiana. pp. 326-333. [read the transcribed text here]

My great-grandparents, Melvin and Margaret Jane (Denyer) Van Every appear in the genealogy, along with their first three children. I am confident I can prove up to there with vital records. However, looking at the guidelines on the lineage society websites, they rarely accept family history publications that don't contain source annotations. Regardless of how accurate I may feel the work to be, it isn't annotated. So, removing it as a source, what other sources are there?

They are likely to accept the lineage information provided within the testimony to the Dawes Commission. (The Dawes Commission rejected their claims to be of Choctaw descent, but not their testimony of how they were all related to each other.) My grandmother is mentioned in the testimony, as she was born a few months prior. My second great grandmother, Sarah (Hartley) Denyer is also mentioned. She died two years prior to the testimony, but her brother testified. I have a copy of the 1854 marriage certificate for Sarah Hartley and Ebenezer Denyer.

Can I connect Ebenezer Denyer with Mark Fretz with acceptable records? The answer lies in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Ebenezer was born there, as was his mother, Elizabeth (Sliver) Denyer, grandmother Barbara (Fretz) Sliver, and his great-grandfather, Mark Fretz. [His mother and grandmother both died in Texas, which would be helpful in proving that he is the same Ebenezer Denyer.] There is a good chance it could be done.

Thoughts on July 1 and July 4

As July 1st (Canadian Independence Day) and July 4th (US Independence Day) approaches, I once again find myself thinking about my Colonial ancestry.

I have several maternal ancestors who arrived on this continent prior to the American Revolution.

[I indicate my web-based sources for the information below, though for most I am relying on the poorly cited research of others.]

1) The Betts and the Stoughtons

My eighth great grandparents, Richard Betts and Joanna Chamberlain were married in Ipswich, Massachusetts Bay Colony - in 1648. It is thought Joanna arrived by 1635, and Richard mid-1640s. [source source]. Joanna Chamberlain was the daughter of Elizabeth Stoughton and Richard Chamberlain, and the granddaughter of Rev Thomas and Katherine Stoughton.

2) Hortons and Langtons

9th great grandparents, Barnabas Horton and Mary Langton are said to have immigrated c. 1630 on the ship "Swallow." [source] - Living in Massachusetts and Connecticut prior to settling in Southold, Long Island.

3) Hallocks

Barnabas Horton's son, Caleb, married Abigail Hallock. Abigail's father, William Hallock, likely arrived in Southold, Long Island ca. 1640. [source]

4) Van Everys

Brothers Myndert and Carsten Frederickse (sons of Frederick Van Iveren) likely immigrated to New Amsterdam in the 1640s or 1650s, with Myndert marrying Catharina Burger (Burghart) in New Amsterdam in 1656. [source]. Most of the descendants of Myndert and Carsten took the surname of either Van Every or Van Avery. Myndert was my 8th great grandfather.

5) Swayzes and Kinges

John Sweezey [Swayze], another eighth great grandfather, immigrated prior to 1650. [source]. He married Catherine Kinge in 1650 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts. He settled in Suffolk, Long Island.

Catherine emigrated with her father, William, prior to 1635

They settled at Salem, Massachusetts. He was admitted a freeman there May 25, 1636. He had grants of land of forty acres on Jeffrey's Creek, now Manchester-by-the-Sea; thirty acres at Royal-side at the head of Bass river, now Beverly, and he located his homestead there. He was a grand juror in 1637. He was a member of the First church at Salem, but in 1637 joined the Antinomians and came under the ban of the Salem authorities. He was requested to sever his connection with the new church or have his arms taken away from him. He remained with the new faith and gave up his gun to Lieutenant Danforth. Later he was banished for a time for sheltering the persecuted Quakers. [source]

6) Rosenbergers and Fretzes

Henry Rosenberger (1685-1745) left Germany and arrived in Franconia, Pennsylvania prior to 1729.

Hans (Weaver John) Fretz (1704-1772) left Alsace, Germany and arrived in Bucks County, Pennsylvania approximately 1720.

Their children, Mark Fretz and Elizabeth Rosenberger, were married on May 11, 1773. [source]

[The above list revised from a post I wrote last year]

***

As for ancestors alive between 1775-1789, the Swayzes and Van Everys ended up Loyalists, and fled to Canada afterwards. The Fretzes and Rosenbergers were Pennsylvania Mennonites, and I've found no evidence that they violated their commitment to peace and took either side.

I still had some Denyer ancestors living in England at the time, though I'm unsure if any were Redcoats.

My paternal ancestors, and half my maternal ancestors were all situated in Eastern and Central Europe (Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Transylvania) and were likely mostly oblivious to the war. Of course, the Polish general, Casimir Pulaski, 'Father of the American Cavalry,' came from Warka, Poland, as did my Newmark ancestors.

I have one branch I haven't yet researched far enough to ascertain where they were in the 18th century, and that is the ancestors of my maternal great great granmother, Sarah (Hartley) Denyer.  So there is still some hope I may someday find a truly Patriotic ancestor.

***

Poem: A Toast to the First and the Fourth of July

Religion and Genealogy

Etiquette tells us to avoid discussion of Politics and Religion. However, a family historian's role is to research and tell the life stories of ancestors, and their collateral kin. Religion and Politics often play a central role in those life stories. Defenestration of the core beliefs our ancestors held goes against the entire purpose of our pursuit.

[Defenestration is the act of throwing someone or something out of a window. The term was coined around the time of two incidents in Prague Castle in the years 1419 and 1618. The first was politically-motivated, and the second was religiously motivated. So the word is appropriate for several reasons.]

I'll leave Politics for a different day. Today, I'd like to discuss religion, as today is Shavuot on the Jewish calendar - the holiday commemorating the handing down of the Torah on Mt. Sinai.

It's possible one or two readers, who know me and my family only through this blog, may have been slightly confused by combinations of blog posts which have hinted at an obvious diversity present in my ancestry that isn't present in every family. My paternal ancestry is Jewish as far back as anyone knows. My mother's paternal ancestry is Jewish as far back as anyone knows. My mother's maternal ancestry, however, contains Puritans, Mennonites, Methodists, Lutherans, Choctaws and Cherokee. [The last two are unproven, though I have no doubts from the testimony provided in front of The Dawes Commission, that my Hartley ancestors believed they had fairly recent Native American blood.]

If I talk about my ancestry, I could say it is 75% Jewish, and 25% a mixture of Christian and Native American religions. However, that is my ancestry. I, personally, am 100% Jewish. Just as I am 100% American, even though my non-Native American ancestry comes from all over Eastern and Western Europe. I had a small problem with the title of the genealogy series NBC recently imported from England (Who Do You Think You Are). I know who I am. I am interested in finding out more concerning my ancestors, but that won't change my identity.

How do I handle my diverse ancestry in my research?

How should I handle it?  I am equally interested in the tombstones of my second great grandfather, Moshe Leyb Cruvant (1857-1911), and my more distant ancestor, Barnabas Horton (1600-1680), despite their disparate beliefs.



Many of my ancestors of various religious faiths arrived in America, fleeing from religious persecution. Brothers Myndert (1636-1706) and Carsten Frederickse (1638-1688) helped found the first Lutheran church in Albany, New Netherland. Israel Swayze (1753-1844) hosted Methodist church meetings in his Beaverdams, Ontario home. Rev. Henry Rosenberger (1725-1809) was a Mennonite minister in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. While all of different religious faiths, religion played a central role in each of their lives.  Just as it does mine, though perhaps to a slightly less degree. 

In my Jewish family history research I wasn't too surprised when I uncovered a handful of variations on Sholom Aleichem's heartbreaking story of Tevye and his daughter, Chava - intermarriages that led to a severing of family ties. These occurred primarily among children of those who immigrated between 1880-1900. Later intermarriages didn't lead to the same result. What did surprise me was the discovery of a hint of something in the distant past of one branch of my maternal grandmother's tree.

At the end of his introduction to A Genealogical Record of the Descendants of Henry Rosenberger of Franconia, Montgomery Co. Pa; Together with Historical and Biographical Sketches (1906) author, Rev. Abraham James Fretz, writes,

"Note. — There is no doubt that Henry Rosenberger, Sr., of Franconia. was the pioneer emigrant, and that he in common with other Mennonites fled from Germany on account of religious persecution. Of the earlier history of the family...we know nothing. We have seen Rosenbergers direct from Austria and Germany and one Rosenberg from Prussia. One of the former from Austria claimed to be of an old Austrian Rosenberger stock, and were Jews. The last mentioned Rosenberg, from Prussia, was also a Jew."

Fretz appears to have conducted a 'surname study' and interviewed anybody he could find with the Rosenberger name, doing his best to connect anyone he could. He may have been unable to connect these Jewish branches, but felt obliged to indicate they existed, and let the family draw their own conclusions. Any historical 'tribal ties', though, may be too far in the past for research to uncover.

Religion in general has long fascinated me.  In college I took several courses studying Eastern religions, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and Native American theology.  Since I am confident nothing I find in my research will change my own beliefs, there is no reason for me to fear researching the beliefs of my ancestors.  On the contrary, learning 'what made them tick' helps me to better understand who they were.  In short, when I research my ancestors, I throw nothing out of the window.

Where do I click?

In the comments to my Disaster post, Thomas MacEntee of Thomas 2.0 suggested I research old newspaper articles to see if there were cholera or typhoid outbreaks in Texas and Pennsylvania in 1840. I haven't found the answer to that question yet, but that did inspire me to search some of the old newspaper resources online for my Sliver ancestors.

I haven't focused much on this branch before. Even though I don't know the parents of, or much of anything about, my fourth great grandfather, John Sliver, I've focused my research elsewhere. There's been a lot of research done on the family tree of his wife (Barbara Fretz), so it wasn't as if the tree completely stops there, and I think I partially had the concern that I'd experience the same problems I had with my Denyer relatives in searching newspaper articles. Optical Character Recognition by its nature has to be a little fuzzy, and as Denyer and Denver are easily confused, so would Sliver and Silver.

But I knew his daugther, Elizabeth Sliver, was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and that she married William Denyer in Baltimore, Maryland, before they headed South to Texas. So I knew where to expect the articles to be. And the search turned out better than I expected.

At GenealogyBank, I found in several issues of the Baltimore Patriot, "lists of letters" left in the Post Office, like the one above. The Slivers (Parents John and Barbara, along with daughter Elizabeth) appeared a few times from 1818-1820. I wanted to know where to click to view the letter, but apparently that feature isn't operational yet.

While it's just a name in a list, it does place them in Baltimore. Elizabeth married William Denyer in Baltimore in 1821. None of the brief biographies I'd read in family histories mentioned that the Sliver family had definitively moved there from Pennsylvania. I knew William Denyer also spent time in Bucks County, so Elizabeth and William might have gone to Baltimore on their own.

I know Elizabeth's mother, Barbara, joined Elizabeth and William on their journey south, as she died in Texas, though I don't know when and where John died. It could have been at either endpoint, or on the journey inbetween.

I also turned up an 1851 obituary for an Abraham Sliver in Baltimore. I'm not sure if he's related or not, but in the 1810 census there is an Abram, John and a Henry Sliver in the same village in Bucks County, all with small children. Siblings? Cousins? Happenstance? It's not clear.

But I do have a sliver of more data.

This post is a DISASTER!

This post is written for the 77th Carnival of Genealogy

As human beings, our very existence is proof of the survival skills, faith, or just plain luck our ancestors possessed in order to persevere through millennia of disasters: epidemics, wars, pestilences, famines, accidents, and acts of nature.

Tell about a disaster that one or more of your ancestors lived through. Did they survive a hurricane, flood, tornado, train wreck, sinking ship, plague, genocide, explosion, mine collapse, or some other terrible event? How did they survive? Research the details of the disaster and explain how it affected your ancestor (guilt, fear, faith, gratitude, etc.), your family's history, and even yourself!

I have relatives who survived (and others who didn't survive) genocide, but my ancestors managed to get out of Europe before World War II. There are no disasters I am currently certain any non-living ancestors directly experienced. (I exclude War, and the Great Depression, though there may be a strong argument to include the latter.)

However, there were two great cyclones/tornadoes in the St. Louis area which have been written up as noteworthy disasters, and I had ancestors living in the St. Louis area at the time. The question is how much they were impacted.

The Great Cyclone of 1896
[image from NOAA's National Weather Service]

"The 'Cyclone of 1896' has been described as the single most deadly event that hit the St. Louis area in recorded history."

Over 250 dead, over 150 missing, over 1000 injured.





The St. Louis Cyclone
Words by Ren. Shields, 1868-1913
Music by George Evans, 1870-1915

In the city of St. Louis on a busy afternoon,
Just before the ev'ning shades began to fall,
The streets were filled with people who were home from toil,
No danger seemed to threaten them at all;
Each one was smiling gay as they strolled along the way,
The world to them had never looked so bright,
When a cyclone with a roar down the streets and byways tore,
Leaving sorrow and destruction there that night.

CHORUS
Many hearts are aching,
Many homes forsaken,
Many lov'd ones gone forevermore;
Wives and mothers weeping,
At the harvest death is reaping,
As it travels on its way from door to door.

Rest of song (NB: midi auto-plays)

My paternal Cruvant, Feinstein and Blatt ancestors were all in St. Louis in 1896. However, the path of the cyclone is described as hitting the Southwest portion of the city, and my ancestors were in the central corridor at the time.

The Tornado of 1927
[image from NOAA's National Weather Service]

Between 72-79 killed, over 550 injured. This tornado struck the central parts of St. Louis City. However, I think my ancestors had moved west of the city by then.

In addition to all four branches of my paternal ancestry, my maternal grandmother, Myrtle Van Every, was in town. The divorce proceedings from her brief marriage in California to Dale Ridgely had been filed a month earlier, and according to her employment records from the US Post Office, she had resumed her job on Sept 26th. The cyclone hit on Sept 29th.

While I'm not certain what impact these natural disasters had on my ancestors, I also have an inverse situation. There may have been a disaster that killed three of my ancestors, but I am unable to identify it.

• My fifth great grandfather, Mark Fretz, lived from December 1750 to Feb 24, 1840.
• His daughter, my fourth great grandmother, Barbara Fretz Sliver, lived from April 21, 1775 to June 10, 1840.
• Her daughter, my third great grandmother, Elizabeth Sliver Denyer, lived from Feb 20, 1798 to Aug 10, 1840.

The latter two are recorded in family histories as having died in Texas, while their father/grandfather is likewise recorded as having died in Pennsylvania. It could easily be happenstance, but three generations dying in the same year seems suspicious to me.

Ebenezer Denyer (1828-1872)

I signed up for a 3-day free trial of Footnote this weekend. There was a 28-page dossier on my Civil War ancestor, Ebenezer Denyer, which I wished to download.

Turns out he was a regimental teamster, and a "Regimental Return" form was filled out for him on an almost monthly basis, so a lot of the pages are repetitive.

However, there was one "Descriptive List and Account of Pay and Clothing" (see left) It contains a physical description of Ebenezer. Blue eyes, dark hair, dark complexion. He appears to have been a mutant, as he had five feet, and was only 10 inches tall. (There may be another way to read that.)

The form also mentions that he was captured at the Battle of Vicksburg, and paroled on July 7th. Another form says he was captured on July 4th, and the Wikipedia article confirms that was when the surrender occurred. So he was a PoW for 3 days. (I am not a Civil War buff, so while I vaguely recalled that the Battle of Vicksburg was one of the important battles I had to memorize in high school, I had to look it up to find the details.)

So how well does the documentation match up with the brief bio that appears in: A Brief History of John and Christian Fretz and a Complete Genealogical Family Register With Biographies of their Descendants from the Earliest Available Records to the Present Time – by Rev A.J. Fretz of Milton N.J. copyright 1890. Mennonite Publishing Co. Elkhart, Indiana. pp. 326-333.

This is the Civil War info:

he joined the 2nd, Texas Company Volunteers, mustered at Marcos, Hays County, in the summer of 1861, and served throughout the war in the Confederate service. He was taken prisoner at Vicksburgh, Mississippi, was exchanged, and laid in the hospital at Galveston until the close of the war.

Company is correct. He actually enlisted on June 12, 1862. The "Second Company" itself wasn't formed until September of 1861. There's a Regimental Return form filled out for every month from March 1864 until April 1865 identifying him as a teamster, so I don't think he was in the hospital until the close of war, unless there were teams of horses for him to drive through the corridors of the hospital. However, the 'Descriptive List' says he was paroled by 'the medical authorities', so maybe from July 1863-March 1864, which is a significant amount of time. On the other hand, there are no hospital forms in the dossier -- I'm not sure if those would have been kept separate or not.

One thing I am curious about the Fretz history is who submitted the information for Ebenezer's family. Rev Fretz supposedly began researching for the book in 1872, which is when Ebenezer died. His brother Samuel, and sister-in-law were both deceased too. He had one sister, Elizabeth, and one brother, William, who may have submitted the information. His wife Sarah is another possibility. That's the biggest problem with the book - there are very few citations.

Descendents of William Denyer and Elizabeth Sliver

I included a poem by an ancestor a few posts ago which I found in a Fretz Family History book published in 1890. I have now entered the 7 pages from the book that pertain directly to the descendents of William Denyer and Elizabeth Sliver, and since much of the information isn't available anywhere else online, I created a page for it on my website.

There is a lot of good story information in the text, and since it was published in 1890, most of the information probably came directly from the individual, or a sibling/child. It's probably as trustworthy as first-person narration usually is. (Which means some of the story might be slightly exaggerated, but the general details are probably accurate, as are the dates.)

The one consistent alteration I made to the text is that I spelled out abbreviations. (I think the only exception I made were a few titles like Dr. and Rev. since it is rare that they are spelled out as titles.) The author over-abbreviated to conserve space, which is completely understandable, but space isn't an issue online, and I feel it is easier to read without abbreviations.

"Mother" by Ida Green

Yesterday I found a copy of Fretz Family History in the St. Louis Public Library. It was published in 1890 by Rev AJ Fretz, who published several family histories centered around families that settled originally in the Bucks County Pennsylvania area. I knew that my great-great grandfather, the Confederate soldier, would be mentioned in the book, but I was interested in finding information about his siblings. Little did I expect to find a poem written by Ida Green (nee Denyer), his niece, and the first cousin of my great-grandmother. The text of the family history is fully within the public domain, so I have no issues with reprinting it here.

I might take a few issues with meter, and modern political correctness, but I feel it’s wonderful a poem that clearly came from her heart has survived the generations through Rev AJ Fretz’s genealogical work, and encourages me on my own research and story gathering. (All the family history referenced in the poem are given dates and details in the bio that accompanies it.)

Mother

Mother! Ah, how oft that name
Our loving hearts have thrilled,
It soothes to rest in hours of pain,
Though death her pulse has stilled.

In life we were her constant care;
And often while we slept,
She o’er bent in silent prayer,
While Indians through our barley crept.

They had her loved companion slain,
Disguised in white-men’s clothes.
Whom he mistook for neighboring friends,
Till they had strung their bows.

And then upon that April morn,
When death his frame had chilled,
She stood beside that lifeless form,
Her heart with anguish filled.

And when we laid him in the tomb,
And sadly turned away,
Our mother knew that she alone,
Must guard us night and day.

Nor did she through those years of grief
E’er murmur or repine,
But sought in prayer that sweet relief
Which true believers find.

And when consumption seized her child,
The first that God had given,
She closed in death those eyes so mild,
And said, “We’ll meet in heaven.”

One year elapsed, then mother left,
To join the host above,
And four small children were bereft
Of either parents’ love.

And now those loved ones round the throne
Are beckoning us away;
Dear brothers, sisters, kindred ones,
Let us the call obey.

Yes! Let us follow in the path
This noble woman trod;
Perform our duty here on earth,
But lean upon our God.

Santa Maria, Texas, Oct 8, 1889.

How much do I trust the research of others

This is a question I am facing. For example: My family can trace their roots back to a person named Ebenezer Denyer in Texas. We know he was a Confederate Soldier as we have a letter from his granddaughter, to the government asking for confirmation from their records, and their positive response.

According to a record at Family Search, Ebenezer's parents are William Denyer and Elizabeth Sliver. Which is as far as FamilySearch goes. However on Rootsweb there's a long descendency from Henry Rosenberger of Franconia. A Mennonite born in Germany around 1685. One line of the descendency ends at William and Elizabeth. Apparently all the information in this descendency comes from a book published in 1906 by an AJ Fretz. But I don't know AJ Fretz. I don't have the book. How much do I trust it?

I don't know the individual who entered the data at FamilySearch either so I don't know that Ebenezer's parents are William and Elizabeth. However, the county in Texas where Ebenezer got married does have the certificate, which might possibly contain some confirmation on that score; We'll see.

But it doesn't really answer my question. I downloaded the gedcom, and the Register, and told my mother she probably has a Mennonite minister as a direct ancestor. But I felt the need to insert the 'probably.'