Rhode Island

Another state in which I have no family ties, however, my husband does.  Hubby’s third great-grandfather, William Lindsey lived in Smithfield, Providence Rhode Island, for a time before relocating to Illinois by 1860.

I don’t really know a whole lot about William, his wife Hannah, or their children.  It looked as though two of their known children were born in Rhode Island, so I though I’d check out the various records and indexes on FamilySearch to see what I could dig up.

While the birth index was a bust, I tried the marriage index and found an index entry for an Emma Lindsey (father William) and a Matilda Lindsey (father William).  Both marriages occurred in Smithfield within three days of one another, and both women married men with the surname Northup, who appear to be brothers (father for both is listed as Sylvester).  Matilda married Charles F, and Emma married Nathaniel C.  The woman married in 1849 and would be about the right age to fill the large gap I have for William and Hannah’s children.  This would also explain why there was no mention of Emma or Matilda in the 1850 census household of William.  This is of course not to say that either are the daughter of the William in question, but it is highly suspect and worth investigating further.

The connection to Emma and William is even stronger, given that an Emma and Nathaniel are buried in the same cemetery in Knox County, Illinois, as William, Hannah, and their son John.  Although William and Hannah have moved to Illinois by the 1860 census, Emma and Nathaniel are still in Rhode Island.  I was unable to find them in subsequent censuses in the short time I searched to write this Rhode Island post.  And it was quite a coincidence that I even found them listed in the Knox County cemetery (I guess having Ancestry link to Find A Grave in their search is kind of a good thing!).

Certainly more research needs to be conducted.  But in just a little over an hour, I was able to find a few additional clues that might help put this family together and may have just added additional children that were previously unknown.  Only more research will tell.

Genealogy By the States is a theme created by Jim Sanders over at the Hidden Genealogy Nuggets blog.