My third great uncle James B. Parker headed west to California from Wisconsin about 1860. I’ve tracked he and his wife in the census from San Joaquin Township near Sacramento in 1860, to San Buenaventura, Santa Barbara County in 1870, to Compton in 1880. James Parker died in 1895 in Lemon, near Los Angeles.
But at the time he died, his wife was named Harriet. His wife when he left Wisconsin was Ellen. So what happened to her? At this point, I don’t know.
In an effort to find out, today I researched her family. Often times, the obituaries for siblings will mention their family. Or a will will give the status of possible heirs. Or other researchers will have found information that I don’t have.
The Saint Patrick’s parish (Biddulph, Ontario) marriage record for Ellen Neagle gives her date of marriage to James Parker as 8 Jun 1857.
I found an 1851 Canada Census record that matched in nearby Usborne township, Huron County. There Ellen Neagle lived with her father John Neagle, and siblings James, Thomas, Catherine, Mary and John. From that, I was able to quickly find information to establish their marriages, entries in later Canadian censuses, and dates of death. My evidence would in no way be strong enough to satisfy the Genealogical Proof Standard, but I don’t need it to be. I just need clues from their obituaries, wills, other researchers, etc.
This is what I turned up:
| Husband: | First Names John |
Surname Neagle |
| Born: | abt 1798 | Ireland |
| Married: | unknown | |
| Died: | unknown |
| Wife: | First Names Catherine |
Surname Condon |
| Born: | unknown | |
| Died: | unknown | |
Children:
| Name | Birth | Death | Spouse |
| James Nagle | 8 Dec 1826 Ireland |
25 Feb 1902 Perth, Ontario, Canada |
|
| Thomas Nagle | 28 Mar 1828 Cork, Ireland |
31 Jan 1905 Perth, Ontario, Canada |
|
| Catherine Nagle | abt 1832 Ireland |
2 Nov 1902 London, Middlesex, Ontario, Canada |
Thomas Casey |
| Mary Nagle | abt Sep 1834 Ireland |
17 Nov 1918 London, Middlesex, Ontario, Canada |
John Hagarty |
| Ellen Nagle | abt 1836 Ireland |
James Parker | |
| John Nagle | abt 1837 Ireland |
12 Nov 1902 Perth, Ontario, Canada |
Every single one of them died in Ontario, so I don’t have easy access to obituaries or wills. Additionally, every other public tree on Ancestry (as well as the ones I could find on the web) don’t include Ellen. No one else has a clue either.
The exercise isn’t worthless though. Perhaps someday I will have better access to Canadian records, or other families will post their information, or search for them and stumble cross this post. Over time, I get a fair number of people who contact me about what I post here. So hopefully that will continue with this, and I’ll get some clues as to what happened to Ellen.