The Identity of Elizabeth Barr, or Another Correction!

I've been doing a bit of correcting lately, so in the spirit of that I offer one more.

A Barr reseacher I was in contact with last year made me aware of the fact that a theory that I'd posited as to the identity of Elizabeth Barr of Harrison County was likely unsupported by available facts. For my theory, you can go to this post and read about it there.

(UPDATE:  View the comment below!  My original theory DOES appear to be correct.   Disregard some of the following post, but I keep it here for record's sake.)

For many years, as I said in the above referenced post, this researcher had been searching for the identity of Patrick Barr's wife. I thought that I'd found a clue for him when her name was mentioned in the witness list at William Browning's trial. I thought perhaps that Elizabeth might be Hannah (Barr) Browning's mother and Patrick's wife.

This researcher let me know that he'd taken a trip to the Harrison County (OH) Genealogical Society and poured through some old Barr files.

He told me that amongst the cases of his Barr family (several cases of his Thomas Barr - son of Patrick - and believed siblings involved in mostly food thefts: a domestic turkey, a bushel bag of apples, two geese and then there was one shirt) he had seen another slip of paper that had William Browning released from charges of Larceny.

He said he'd initially considered that Elizabeth Barr could be the children's mother based on the subpoena that I sent him, but upon further review he thought better of it. He based his opinion on two censuses of the Barr family -- the 1810 in Fayette Co., PA (with the mother in the same age category as Patrick) and the 1820 census in Harrison Co., OH (with a missing mother.) Since Elizabeth Barr was called as a witness in March 1821 for William Browning's case he said that it was highly unlikely that the Elizabeth in the subpoena was Thomas and Hannah's mother, but might be a possible second wife of Patrick or an older daughter of his.

Makes sense to me.

I did notice the phrase "released from charges of Larceny" as it pertains to William Browning. Perhaps the slip meant released as in done his time and completed all that was required of him? I don't know and I haven't seen the slip in question.

Anyway, the researcher did find a note in one of the cases and sent me the exact transcription of the paper he found. It follows:

Cadiz Township Feb this 26th 1819

Sir I hope you will be so kind as to collect my Witnesses pay into your own hand for Thos Barr 50 Elizabeth Do 50 Hanna Browning 50 Wm Browning 50
and by so doing you will obledge yours

Patrick Barr

(He said he believed the symbol before the 50 was pounds, as it was a stylized s and capital D.)

Lastly, the researcher and I got to talking about my theory that Samuel and William were brothers. He said he thought that for Samuel Browning to stand up for William Browning and assume equal responsibility of the debt owed, he would be inclined to believe them brothers and both sons of John as well, especially since they were all living in close proximity to each other.

I do wish my cousin Pat was here to share in what I believe is a slow inching toward enough circumstantial evidence to FINALLY assign a father to my Samuel. She would be so happy. I know it gives me thrills!

The Browning Series -- Part 9A, the Death of Charles Otho Browning pt 4 - Corrections

When last I wrote all those months ago, we had been discussing the death of Charles Otho Browning from a train accident in Springfield, MO. At that time I had posted a picture of where I believed was the correct location of the accident site. Since that time my cousin T. did some more research and that research was incredible! -- and intelligent! -- and proved me wrong!

Sooooo wrong! Hah!

So without further ado I will present to you HER interpretation, in HER words, of the site of Charles' accident. She has put together a .kmz file overlay showing the location. In order to use this you should go download Google Earth (which you should have anyway!) and then click on the file. It'll sworl you down into a mashup of the world of today and the world of 1889:

"This is a GoogleEarth map of the train yard in Springfield, MO using Sanborn maps from 1884-1891 to piece together a bigger picture of what the town looked like at the time of the accident. The maps are from different years but its close enough that we can get an idea of what it looked like. You can:

- zoom in close and read the descriptions on the buildings - making assumptions as to the Dr office above which drug store Charles was taken to, even the undertaker is listed on one!

- turn the overlay maps off and look at the street “today” by using the slider bar midway down on the left

- pan around any direction

- grab the little orange man on the right and “drop” him onto the street and walk the streets (of today), so to speak.

I am quite sure this is the correct location (different from the location that shows on the blog) because in the upper left corner is "Anchor Mills" and the stock yards are shown just across the tracks. The articles also mention Campbell & Boonville streets as being full of onlookers. "

For the record, I think my cousin T. is correct. Huge props to her!

As a last aside, I think this is a very creative use of Google Earth and the historical maps that are available to us as genealogists. I hope this gives someone else an idea!

Long Time No See

I want to apologize to everyone for the length of time I've spent away from my blog. I offer few excuses -- some troubling health and family issues -- but for the most part it was because I needed a break to regroup and relax. I have been in touch with a few new cousins lately and I've started to feel the genealogy bug creep up on me again. I am looking forward to the 1940 census with great excitement and I hope to pick up where I left off on my Brownings.

Here's to the continuation of my family history....