Oh boy, Brick walls are frustrating! They often take years to resolve, and once resolved they often lead to another brick wall…or it may completely open up a new long genealogical line. Over the years, I have run headlong into several brick walls, and two took me about twenty years to find the answers.
Abigail (Butler) Hubbard is my 4x’s great-grandmother. She was the wife of Rev. Zaddock Hubbard. They came from Middletown, Connecticut, moved to Lenox, Massachusetts and finally to Moretown, Vermont. Two pieces of paper I found in Zaddock’s autobiography had Abigail’s birth date on them, as well as those of Zaddock and their children. Only problem was one listed Abigail’s birthdate as May 6, 1773 and the other had her birthdate as May 6, 1768. The Barber Collection had the baptism of an Abigail Butler in Middletown, but it listed her birthdate as May 6, 1774! Was this a clue? Was she possibly the daughter of Dorney Houghton Butler and his wife Mindwell Clark? Research on this line did not yield any answers, and I searched for years! There were no Butler friends or family that traveled with the Hubbards as they moved around New England, and there were no clues in the names Zaddock and Abigail chose for their children. Then about five years ago, Ancestry.com added “Connecticut Wills and Probate Records, 1609-1999” to their databases. Although Dorney did not leave a will, there was an administration of estate for Mindwell Butler’s, and lo and behold Abigail, wife of Zaddock Hubbard is mentioned in the estate! And just like that my brick wall was knocked down! Solving the mystery of Abigail (Butler) Hubbard ultimately took patience, because the answer was hiding in a document, I just had to wait for it to come online.
Solving the brick wall of another ancestor took perseverance and a lot of research. Mary [?] Simons, is my husband’s 3x’s great grandmother. She was the wife of Charles Rodney Simons, and as a young married couple, they came to Sacramento, California from Ohio in the late 1800s. The family knew very little about Mary and early research on my part did not produce any answers. Then a third cousin put up on his Ancestry family tree two scanned pages from the Simons family Bible. These pages gave me Mary’s maiden name (Bassett), the name of her first husband (James Malonee), and a notation that their daughter, Carrie Malonee, was born in Kirtland, Ohio.
Although this information did not immediately knock down the brick wall, it did give a place to begin searching – Kirtland Ohio. Looking for Mary Malonee and her baby daughter in the 1870 US federal census, a Mary & Carrie Malong (the “g” zoomed-in, is a “y”), was found in Kirtland. Taking a chance, I searched for a Mary Bassett in the 1850 US federal census, and a Mary “Balseth” (Bassett) was found with her parents, Harmon & Maria and a brother Oliver in Kirtland. Harmon, I love unusual names! Checking to see if another transcription error befell this family, a Google search for “Harmon Bassett” found a marriage record for Oliver Harmon Bassett and Marina Prior. A further Google search for this couple led to an online Bassett family tree listing tons of credible sources. However, this Bassett tree did not know what happened to Mary or her mother Marina.
Following Marina Bassett led to the discovery several remarriages. Her second husband was Leonard Rich. Leonard & Marina Rich’s family are in Kirtland (OH) in the 1860 census, and it indicated a third child, Sarah, from her pervious marriage to Oliver Harmon Bassett. Next marriage for Marina Rich was to Simeon Hall, then Marina Hall married Green Parker, and a Marina Parker’s death record is recorded as August 11, 1891 in Mentor, Ohio. (It should be noted the deaths of all Marina’s husbands can be found online, supporting the timeline of her marriages.) An old family story about a possible relationship to a James Flood, is the lynch pin in proving that Marina Prior is Mary’s mother, because Marina shares a cemetery plot with her daughter, Sarah (Bassett) Flood, and her husband, James Flood.
All of these informational pieces of Mary Ellen (Bassett) Malonee-Simons mother’s life come together to break down this brick wall. So if you are struggling with a brick wall, do not give up. You never know if the answer will be handed to you or through dogged research you find the answer yourself!
Laurie L. Kearney 