Thursday, July 24, 2014
Lair, Lehr, Layer.
After looking at a lot of records tonight, I am betting their name really was Lair or the like, because I keep seeing it spelled not only as Lair, but as Layer. Which makes me wonder what their ethnicity was. German? French? English? I always assumed English, maybe Irish, wish a name like Lear. But if it is Lair or Lehr, then that makes me learn towards German. And there were German Lear families in Jessamine County area. Hmmmmmm. Now the question is, do any of the German Lear families come from Virginia before Kentucky?
Henry Lear and Massey Pond.
One day I am going to find out that William Lear is the son of Henry Lear and Massey Pond and I am going to feel like I wasted years. But hey, you have to know for sure. I am just not convinced now. I am open to it, but not convinced.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
It's A Flop
Well, I e-mailed the Jessamine County Historical Society. They sent me what the had on William Lears, mostly in Garrard County, and even checked Jessamine County wills for me to no avail. So far, nadda. Next I have to check with Garrard County Historical Society, if there is one, and see what they have in the way of wills. Oh, and I sent Jessamine County Historical Society my application and membership fee. A lovely person there was very helpful for me.
In the meantime, I have worked on my ancestor Jeremiah Bentley. I have seen a lot of naysayers who said that my ancestor, Mary Ann Bentley, was not Jeremiah's daughter. I have also seen his service at Valley Forge questioned. However, I recently found the transcript of a letter from another of Jeremiah's daughters mentioning Mary's son, Robert Bailey, so I feel that we can pretty certainly rule her as his daughter. Also, I found Jeremiah's actual service record (not just his pension testimony), and he is indeed on the muster rolls at Valley Forge, and there are notes that he was in the Yellow Springs hospital for a lot of the time. Pretty neat stuff. I have a lot of DNA matches on autosomal tests with descendants of other children of Jeremiah. Glad that he is my ancestor. He was a cool dude.
In the meantime, I have worked on my ancestor Jeremiah Bentley. I have seen a lot of naysayers who said that my ancestor, Mary Ann Bentley, was not Jeremiah's daughter. I have also seen his service at Valley Forge questioned. However, I recently found the transcript of a letter from another of Jeremiah's daughters mentioning Mary's son, Robert Bailey, so I feel that we can pretty certainly rule her as his daughter. Also, I found Jeremiah's actual service record (not just his pension testimony), and he is indeed on the muster rolls at Valley Forge, and there are notes that he was in the Yellow Springs hospital for a lot of the time. Pretty neat stuff. I have a lot of DNA matches on autosomal tests with descendants of other children of Jeremiah. Glad that he is my ancestor. He was a cool dude.
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Jessamine County Historical Society
I got a reply back from my query to the Jessamine County Historical Society about my William Lear. They had a William B. Lear and wife Tabitha on the 1860 and 1870 census in Garrard County, KY. The fact that they were alive in 1860 and 1870 would suggest they are not my William Lear's father, although that is not for certain. They did, however, have 3 unmarried daughters, two definitely old enough to be considered spinsters. However, two of those daughters died in the 1870s, which might be a bit early to be the spinster sisters William claimed to have seen when he went back to KY later in life. I would think later in life would not mean within 10 years of having left KY. We shall see how this pans out.
Jesse Lear d. 1872
I would like to look more into the Jesse Lear who died in 1872. He is the one who lived in Jessamine at some point who is a Garrard County Lear who is related to John Lear of Culpepper, VA. That's a mouthful, huh? Anyway, he died in (or his will was probated in) 1872. IF this is the case, it would stand to reason that if my William Lear was descended from him, he would be listed in this will. Hear me out on why.
William fought in the Civil War for Kentucky. When he got home, his Unionist family told him if he liked the South so much he should move there. So he did. To Shreveport, Louisiana. If he were listed in this will/estate, he would be listed as William Lear of Louisiana, Shreveport, or maybe an unknown location, since I am not sure how much he kept up with the family at that exact point in time, although he did have communication with them later on in life.
Backing up a bit, William Lear appears on the 1850 census with the family of Henry Lear and Massey Pond. Cool, William is Henry's son right? Not necessarily. He is listed in an odd way on the census, like he is in Henry's household, but not his child. Henry and several children are listed in order of descending age, followed by William Lear, Hebron Lair, and Lucy Lair, in descending order, separate from the other children. As if they are living with Henry, but are not his children. If that makes sense. I will post a screen shot later. Granted, it could just be the census taker was sloppy. Massey is listed separate from Henry in this census in the household above him. This could be the result of sloppy work. It could also be that they were separated. "Separated in the 1800s?!?!?! That didn't happen!" you say. But indeed it did. A member of my half-brother's family was divorced in the 1800s. Likewise, one of my ancestors got pregnant before she was married, had the baby, and lived at home with her father. She appeared on the census with the baby father's last name and the baby in the household of her father and the father of the baby in the household of his father. I thought the census taker messed up. There was no hint from family that the first child was born out of wedlock. However, marriage records show that they just were not married yet, and a forthcoming cousin admitted that she was pregnant and had the baby and had to wait to see if he would marry her. He did. But it just goes to show that what looked like an error on the part of a census taker was actually an error in family lore, I guess you would call it.
That being said, it is most likely that William's parents were dead by 1850. Given the youngest child was 3-years-old (if I remember correctly off the top of my head, which is all I have with Ancestry on the fritz), his parents died between 1847-1850. If his parents were dead by 1850, then when Jesse died in 1872, if he were descended from Jesse, he would be listed as an heir to Jesse's estate. See where I am going with this? Because I have a tendency to ramble. He would be listed as an heir by virtue of his parents not being alive to inherit. Unless Jesse was his father. Then he would be an heir by virtue of being Jesse's child.
The only cases where this could prove false would be 1) If there is another generation in there. As in, Jesse is his great-grandparent and not his parent or his grandfather. I need to do the math and see if this is possible, but it seems to me that it could be. Although given that situation in other parts of my family, I would think William would then be in the care of his grandparents, if they were living, rather than Henry Lear. But that is not always the case. 2) If William was disinherited. Which is also possible. His family was angry he served with the Confederate Army and told him he should move South, according to what he told family anyway. So it is possible that in a fit, they disinherited him. However, in other parts of my family, there was still a paper trail when this happened, or they were somewhat disinherited through the will itself by leaving them a penny or something of the sort. Also, William served side-by-side with Joseph R. Lear, who remained in Nicholasville long afterwards. It would seem if it was that bad of an offense, Joseph would have been disinherited as well.
That being said, this would not tell me who William's father was (unless that will DOES state that William was an heir, but I would think that would have come to light by now), but it could at least eliminate one group of Lears from the Lear infinity pool.
What do YOU think?
William fought in the Civil War for Kentucky. When he got home, his Unionist family told him if he liked the South so much he should move there. So he did. To Shreveport, Louisiana. If he were listed in this will/estate, he would be listed as William Lear of Louisiana, Shreveport, or maybe an unknown location, since I am not sure how much he kept up with the family at that exact point in time, although he did have communication with them later on in life.
Backing up a bit, William Lear appears on the 1850 census with the family of Henry Lear and Massey Pond. Cool, William is Henry's son right? Not necessarily. He is listed in an odd way on the census, like he is in Henry's household, but not his child. Henry and several children are listed in order of descending age, followed by William Lear, Hebron Lair, and Lucy Lair, in descending order, separate from the other children. As if they are living with Henry, but are not his children. If that makes sense. I will post a screen shot later. Granted, it could just be the census taker was sloppy. Massey is listed separate from Henry in this census in the household above him. This could be the result of sloppy work. It could also be that they were separated. "Separated in the 1800s?!?!?! That didn't happen!" you say. But indeed it did. A member of my half-brother's family was divorced in the 1800s. Likewise, one of my ancestors got pregnant before she was married, had the baby, and lived at home with her father. She appeared on the census with the baby father's last name and the baby in the household of her father and the father of the baby in the household of his father. I thought the census taker messed up. There was no hint from family that the first child was born out of wedlock. However, marriage records show that they just were not married yet, and a forthcoming cousin admitted that she was pregnant and had the baby and had to wait to see if he would marry her. He did. But it just goes to show that what looked like an error on the part of a census taker was actually an error in family lore, I guess you would call it.
That being said, it is most likely that William's parents were dead by 1850. Given the youngest child was 3-years-old (if I remember correctly off the top of my head, which is all I have with Ancestry on the fritz), his parents died between 1847-1850. If his parents were dead by 1850, then when Jesse died in 1872, if he were descended from Jesse, he would be listed as an heir to Jesse's estate. See where I am going with this? Because I have a tendency to ramble. He would be listed as an heir by virtue of his parents not being alive to inherit. Unless Jesse was his father. Then he would be an heir by virtue of being Jesse's child.
The only cases where this could prove false would be 1) If there is another generation in there. As in, Jesse is his great-grandparent and not his parent or his grandfather. I need to do the math and see if this is possible, but it seems to me that it could be. Although given that situation in other parts of my family, I would think William would then be in the care of his grandparents, if they were living, rather than Henry Lear. But that is not always the case. 2) If William was disinherited. Which is also possible. His family was angry he served with the Confederate Army and told him he should move South, according to what he told family anyway. So it is possible that in a fit, they disinherited him. However, in other parts of my family, there was still a paper trail when this happened, or they were somewhat disinherited through the will itself by leaving them a penny or something of the sort. Also, William served side-by-side with Joseph R. Lear, who remained in Nicholasville long afterwards. It would seem if it was that bad of an offense, Joseph would have been disinherited as well.
That being said, this would not tell me who William's father was (unless that will DOES state that William was an heir, but I would think that would have come to light by now), but it could at least eliminate one group of Lears from the Lear infinity pool.
What do YOU think?
Saturday, June 21, 2014
My Eyes...THEY BLEED
I have read about various William Lears and about John Lear of Culpepper, VA tonight until my eyes bleed. However, I like to think I made progress. A lot of this information comes from websites connected to the Lear Family DNA Project page. And I will create a much more coherent post with links tomorrow or Monday (in the mean time, I believe this is the research of Robert Strong), so stay tuned. This is what I found, in a nutshell, mostly do I do not forget. There was a John Lear in Culpepper, VA, not to be confused with a Col. John Lear of the Revolutionary War and his family in VA. John has been genetically connected to the Garrard County, KY, Lears. They descend from John, they just do not know how, but they speculate William Lear of Garrard County who died in 1807, was the youngest son of John, Sr, or the oldest son of his son, John, Jr.
William Lear of Garrard County had a son named Jesse Lear. And Jesse moved to...wait for it...wait for it...Jessamine County, Kentucky! The birth place of my beloved William Bronson Lear. Now, Jesse had a son named William F. Lear, who, from what I can tell, not much is known about, but it is speculated he married later in Lincoln County, Kentucky. So we may not be descended from Jesse and his son, William. However, it does go to show that the Garrard County Lears did go to Jessamine County (which I figured, since the two are close together, and may have been part of one another at some point, I have not checked that), and are most likely the family of my William Lear (there's that phrase again!). So I THINK (mostly guessing, not to DAR standards or anything, which I try to ask myself when proving anything) that my William Lear at least comes from the John Lear of Culpepper, VA. Nothing to prove that AT ALL. But that is what I think.
That's progress, right?
William Lear of Garrard County had a son named Jesse Lear. And Jesse moved to...wait for it...wait for it...Jessamine County, Kentucky! The birth place of my beloved William Bronson Lear. Now, Jesse had a son named William F. Lear, who, from what I can tell, not much is known about, but it is speculated he married later in Lincoln County, Kentucky. So we may not be descended from Jesse and his son, William. However, it does go to show that the Garrard County Lears did go to Jessamine County (which I figured, since the two are close together, and may have been part of one another at some point, I have not checked that), and are most likely the family of my William Lear (there's that phrase again!). So I THINK (mostly guessing, not to DAR standards or anything, which I try to ask myself when proving anything) that my William Lear at least comes from the John Lear of Culpepper, VA. Nothing to prove that AT ALL. But that is what I think.
That's progress, right?
You Know There Are Too Many William Lears When...
You know there are too many William Lears when every genealogy website posting about a William Lear starts with, "MY William Lear..." Oye. I do it, too. There are just so darn many of them. While I got sidetracked researching my Lee Smith last night after some new information came to light, I am back on William's trail. I am reading some information on the family in Kentucky that I believe he may be related to. I also hope to contact Robert Strong of the Lear DNA project.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Finding Maxie Smith
Also, I have to admit I have been a little distracted with my great-grandfather, Maxie Smith. Maxie appears to have been a vampire. I got distracted one day looking for records for him. I am not even sure what caused the distraction. But next thing I knew, I was knee deep in naval ship records from WWII on Fold3.com. Through those, I was able to piece together a large portion of his life month-by-month.
Vampire. Right. You are probably still caught up on that comment. Maxie was born in 1926. He lied about his age and signed up for the Navy shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor in WWII, at the ripe old age of 15-years-old. Maxie came from a family of drinkers (ok, outright alcoholics) and I am sure being in the Navy at such a young age did not help things. He served in the Navy two separate times, and if a photo I have is to be believed, in the Army (although I cannot find army records and I am starting to wonder if he got kicked out of the Navy the second time for stealing some soldier's uniform and taking his photo in it, but that's a different story). In the end, he ended up out of the Navy and working as a civilian seaman on civilian ships. In 1957, he went to Puerto Rico, spent all of his money on alcohol, missed his ship, and ended up living as a transient on the streets of Puerto Rico until he caught pneumonia and died at the old age of 31-years-old.
Enter the vampire scenario. We have no death certificate for him. The description of his body did not match his description. The family was not allowed to open the casket. And in the end all we have is a letter from another homeless man informing us that Maxie had died. That's it. Add to that the fact that Maxie's father has no death certificate (in 1958, when there were indeed death certificates) and his wife has a death certificate, but no burial record, despite us knowing where she was buried, and I have concluded that they were vampires. That's the only reasonable explanation, right?
And I love Maxie. I never met him. He was an alcoholic. He died long before I was born. I don't know why I love him so much. But I do. So I tend to get on streaks where I madly search for records on him, death, Navy, Army, arrests (yes, arrests), anything.
And that is another reason I have not posted about the Lears in a while.
Vampire. Right. You are probably still caught up on that comment. Maxie was born in 1926. He lied about his age and signed up for the Navy shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor in WWII, at the ripe old age of 15-years-old. Maxie came from a family of drinkers (ok, outright alcoholics) and I am sure being in the Navy at such a young age did not help things. He served in the Navy two separate times, and if a photo I have is to be believed, in the Army (although I cannot find army records and I am starting to wonder if he got kicked out of the Navy the second time for stealing some soldier's uniform and taking his photo in it, but that's a different story). In the end, he ended up out of the Navy and working as a civilian seaman on civilian ships. In 1957, he went to Puerto Rico, spent all of his money on alcohol, missed his ship, and ended up living as a transient on the streets of Puerto Rico until he caught pneumonia and died at the old age of 31-years-old.
Enter the vampire scenario. We have no death certificate for him. The description of his body did not match his description. The family was not allowed to open the casket. And in the end all we have is a letter from another homeless man informing us that Maxie had died. That's it. Add to that the fact that Maxie's father has no death certificate (in 1958, when there were indeed death certificates) and his wife has a death certificate, but no burial record, despite us knowing where she was buried, and I have concluded that they were vampires. That's the only reasonable explanation, right?
And I love Maxie. I never met him. He was an alcoholic. He died long before I was born. I don't know why I love him so much. But I do. So I tend to get on streaks where I madly search for records on him, death, Navy, Army, arrests (yes, arrests), anything.
And that is another reason I have not posted about the Lears in a while.
So Many Lears, So Little Time...
No, really. There are so many Lears I need to research right now and find out if they are related to my William Lear, yet I have so little time on my hands. I have two small children, I am still unpacking 5 months after a move, and I run a small Etsy shop that I would love to make just enough money on to pay on my student loans (hey, why not check out www.etsy.com/shop/tarahtypes while you are at it?). I have been swamped lately. Add to that the DDOS attack on Ancestry.com, Fold3.com, Findagrave.com, and Rootsweb.com, and I have not got much done lately. Yes, I realize they are not the end all of genealogy research. However, they are the easiest for me to use when I have two toddlers, cannot travel much, and have to do genealogy while I am nursing a squirming 9-month-old. Hopefully I have something more tonight.
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Too Many Lears?
I am not sure if I went from the problem of not enough Lears to too many Lears, or if there have always been too many Lears. It is worth noting that on one census, William's family's last name is listed as Lair. As I was browsing a book of wills in Jessamine County up until 1826 (so likely not quite useful to me) I found a Moses Lair. Add one more to the "Possible Direct Ancestors List."
Conrad Lear
Today I found a pensioner named Conrad Lear, who it seems served in VA under Washington and moved to KY later on (although I have not read the entire file yet, so I am going off of the first few pages). Please let me be descended from Conrad Lear. What a cool name.
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Enough Lears To Go Around
As I was looking through more pension records today on Fold3.com, I came across, in the pension file of a William Lear, a request for information on Jessie, Tobias, John, and William Lear of Virginia. I have a feeling ONE of these Lears is an ancestor to my William, probably a grandfather to him. The only reason I say this is we know my William's father came from Virginia. And it is likely that my William's ancestor was a Revolutionary War veteran given that land grants for service were given in that area in Kentucky. Is it a sure thing? No. I am not saying that at all. It is just a hunch, and sometimes, when you have been searching for someone for ten years, all you have to go off of is a hunch and their life in historical context.
Problem? Chances are Jessie, Tobias, John, and William all had kids named William. And All of their adult children likely had kids named William. And thus we have a dozen William Lears of varying ages in Kentucky.
Problem? Chances are Jessie, Tobias, John, and William all had kids named William. And All of their adult children likely had kids named William. And thus we have a dozen William Lears of varying ages in Kentucky.
Drive Me Mad
One day, the William Lear mystery will drive me mad. I always feel like I am on the verge of some great breakthrough. That I am right on the edge of discovering who his parents were. And that feeling is almost constant. It is like it is right within my grasp, but I just cannot quite grab a hold of it. And it is constant. Yet I never find that one piece of information. I just hit all around it. I find William Lears who could be his father, who lived nearby in KY and are the right age. I find William Lears born and died in VA who could be his grandfather. I find Revolutionary War pensions that I just know are related to my William, yet I can't make that definitive connection. And with every new piece of information I find, a million more questions arise. And I just never quite get an answer. And I am not the only one looking. I have cousins who have spent as many years, if not more, looking than I have. I have aunts, long gone, who were William's granddaughters who were looking after he died. Yet I just cannot find who his parents were. If I had the money, I would hire someone in Jessamine County to search for me, to see if there is a succession for a William and Bessie Lear. Or maybe guardianship papers placing him in someone else's care. Or even succession papers for Henry Lear, who William lived with as a child. It is possible that William is his child. But it is equally, if not more likely, that he is not Henry's child, but maybe his nephew. Always so close, yet so very far.
When my husband was applying for jobs after retiring from the military, one was at Fort Knox, KY, and I almost wanted him to get it and stay there for a couple of years JUST so I could binge on researching William Lear.
When my husband was applying for jobs after retiring from the military, one was at Fort Knox, KY, and I almost wanted him to get it and stay there for a couple of years JUST so I could binge on researching William Lear.
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
William Lear and Bessie Pound = Jesse Lear and Betsey Brown?
Tonight I made the striking realization that an ancestor on my mother's side lived in Nicholasville, KY, the same town as William Lear, who is on my father's side. Somehow, I never noticed this before. I was just reading my ancestor, Jacob Grindstaff's, pension file and saw Nicholasville and it stuck. I imagine because I did not find William's exact birth place until after I had taken a break from searching for my Grindstaffs. This got me thinking, since Kentucky was a place many Revolutionary War veterans got land, maybe William Lear's father, or more likely, grandfather, served in the revolution.
I started searching on Fold3.com for William Lears in Revolutionary War pensions, because my William's death certificate lists his parents as William Lear and Bessie Pound of Virginia. According to very reliable sources in the family, Bessie was Native American. The stories I have heard say she was "the same tribe as Pocahontas, but NOT related to her." Seeming to back this up is the story that around 1911, William got a letter from the government (presumably the Bureau of Indian Affairs) that he was entitled to land in Oklahoma (Indian Territory at the time) and that he had to move there to claim it, and if he failed to move there, he would be giving up his rights to any Indian benefits and his name would be struck from the rolls. William decided given his advanced age that he was not moving to Oklahoma alone for some land. Thank you, William.
Tonight, as I searched on Fold3, I found a William Lear born in VA (too old to be William's father) and married to a Hannah Bailey (William had a daughter named Hannah). According to the usually flawed, but sometimes useful, ancestry.com member trees, this William was related to a Lear family who went to Gerard County, Kentucky. One son was Jesse Lear, who was married to a Betsey Brown. Could it be that Jesse, who is the right age to be William Lear's father, was in fact his father? And someone mistook Betsey Brown for Bessie Pound?
I started searching on Fold3.com for William Lears in Revolutionary War pensions, because my William's death certificate lists his parents as William Lear and Bessie Pound of Virginia. According to very reliable sources in the family, Bessie was Native American. The stories I have heard say she was "the same tribe as Pocahontas, but NOT related to her." Seeming to back this up is the story that around 1911, William got a letter from the government (presumably the Bureau of Indian Affairs) that he was entitled to land in Oklahoma (Indian Territory at the time) and that he had to move there to claim it, and if he failed to move there, he would be giving up his rights to any Indian benefits and his name would be struck from the rolls. William decided given his advanced age that he was not moving to Oklahoma alone for some land. Thank you, William.
Tonight, as I searched on Fold3, I found a William Lear born in VA (too old to be William's father) and married to a Hannah Bailey (William had a daughter named Hannah). According to the usually flawed, but sometimes useful, ancestry.com member trees, this William was related to a Lear family who went to Gerard County, Kentucky. One son was Jesse Lear, who was married to a Betsey Brown. Could it be that Jesse, who is the right age to be William Lear's father, was in fact his father? And someone mistook Betsey Brown for Bessie Pound?
Here I Am
This is a highly informal blog. More of a stream-of-conscious recording of my genealogy exploits in relation to William Bronson Lear. William Bronson Lear was my great great grandfather. Born in Kentucky in 1840, he joined Morgan's Raiders during the Civil War, was held prisoner at Camp Douglas, survived, was shunned by his family, moved to Louisiana, married a beautiful young woman named Nancy King, had ten children, lost is wife in child birth, and now rests in a peaceful cemetery in rural North Louisiana. For many years I have searched for information on William. He has always been one of my more intriguing ancestors even before I knew much about it. Something with the accepted facts about him and is family have just never sat right with me. So here I sit, night after night, day after day, and year after year, searching for William Lear. And as I go along the way I have ideas strike me, evidence suggest something, and perhaps people give me hints. And while I keep a binder full of information on William, I do not always record every thought. Sometimes I forget ideas and only remember years later. So I thought I would start this little blog to record everything concerning William so I can reference later, and so anyone else searching for this elusive ancestor may find information and possibly share information (I know he had a family Bible that went to one of his daughters when he died, and I would LOVE to find that). It will be informal, maybe just a sentence or two. And well, that is all I have to say about that.
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