{"id":5958,"date":"2019-07-03T12:23:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T17:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/?p=5958"},"modified":"2019-07-11T12:54:21","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T17:54:21","slug":"52-ancestors-27-second-war-of-independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/52-ancestors-27-second-war-of-independence\/","title":{"rendered":"52 Ancestors #27: Second War of Independence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"52AncestorsFB\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Week 27 Prompt:<\/strong> Independent <\/p>\n

This week\u2019s 52 Ancestors<\/a> theme is\u201dIndependent.\u201d Of course my first instinct, with it being the week of Independence Day here in the US, was to write about my American Revolutionary War ancestors. But, I\u2019ve done that already<\/a>, and really have nothing new to report. <\/p>\n

So instead, I thought I\u2019d write about one of my War of 1812 ancestors, since this is considered, by many, to be the second war of American independence. Technically, I\u2019ve also written about my War of 1812 ancestors<\/a>, but I do have some new information on one of them. <\/p>\n

In that initial post, I introduced two of my fifth great-grandfathers, Aaron Webster (1775-1823) and Robert Parks (1776-1863). I\u2019m still struggling to find records regarding their War of 1812 service, but I did find some additional details for Robert. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Captain Robert Parks, son of Robert and Elizabeth (Hall) Parks, was born 12 February 1776 in Voluntown, Connecticut.<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> He married (1) Mary \u201cPolly\u201d Wheeler Smith about 1800, likely in Cayuga County, New York.<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> She died 30 June 1844, likely in Oakland County, Michigan.<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Robert married (2) Elizabeth Irish between 1844 and 1852, likely in Michigan.<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Elizabeth died 10 September 1852, likely in Oakland County, Michigan.<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Robert died 29 June 1863 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

The date and place of Robert\u2019s death have been confirmed since last I wrote. Previously, the information came from compiled sources, but I recently found an obituary for Robert. It was published in the Grand Haven News<\/em>, although it was reprinted from the Grand Rapids Democrat<\/em> (I still have not been able to find a copy from this paper). The obituary also mentions his War of 1812 service, adding yet another source to the list. It\u2019s quite an interesting obituary, tying to both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, so I thought I\u2019d share it here: <\/p>\n

\n

Died. <\/p>\n

At the residence of Capt. Ganoe, his son-in-law, in this city, June 29th, Robert Parks, aged 87 years. <\/p>\n

Mr. Parks was born in the year that our Independence was declared, and was one of the soldiers of the war of 1812, holding a Captain\u2019s commission. The birth and death of this veteran is mournfully significant. The beautiful sunlight of a new government dawned on his natal hour; he has basked beneath its benign influence for eighty-seven years, and now retires to rest, at the set of that sun which ushered him into existence. <\/p>\n

His day has been but the diurnal round of a nation\u2019s sun. Adieu, weary old man; thou hast seen the first, the last of the noblest government the world has ever know, and which like you sprang into existence, and like you retires from the world.\u2014Grand Rapids Democrat.<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n


According to both the Parks genealogy and the American Biographical History of Eminent and Self-Made Men: Michigan<\/em> books, Robert served as a Captain in the War of 1812. I was able to confirm this using a published volume of minutes of the Council of Appointment for the State of New York. According to the minutes, he received the commission of ensign on 12 March 1810 under Captain Martin Remmington in Lieutenant Colonel John Harris\u2019s regiment for Cayuga County.<\/span>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span> He was then promoted to lieutenant on 4 February 1812 under Captain James Dixon Jr. in the same regiment.<\/span>9<\/sup><\/a><\/span> On 2 March 1814, he was promoted to captain in the 158th Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Harris.<\/span>10<\/sup><\/a><\/span> It would be interesting to know if the original minutes still exist, but the published volume will suffice for now. <\/p>\n

Having found these minutes, I have more clues to work from. I now know that the entry in the US War of 1812 Service Records, 1812-1815<\/a> database on Ancestry<\/em>, for Lieut. Robert Parks in Harris\u2019 Regiment in New York State Militia is for my guy. So acquiring that file is now on my to-do list.<\/p>\n

Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Week 27 Prompt: Independent This week\u2019s 52 Ancestors theme is\u201dIndependent.\u201d Of course my first instinct, with it being the week of Independence Day here in the US, was to write about my American Revolutionary War ancestors. But, I\u2019ve done that already, and really have nothing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,302,26],"tags":[328,399,389,397,425],"class_list":["post-5958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genblog","category-military","category-personal-research","tag-family-parks","tag-location-us-connecticut","tag-location-us-michigan","tag-location-us-new-york","tag-theme-52-ancestors","cat-25-id","cat-302-id","cat-26-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3HcLI-1y6","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5958"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5969,"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5958\/revisions\/5969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}