Breaking Down the Thompson Brick
Wall
I
started researching my family history about 1974. Thompson is my
maiden name and it was one of the first names I tried to research.
It was also my first dead end and first frustration. After a little
more than thirty years of picking up small pieces of information,
I finally found the key. Little did I realize that I had found the
key many years ago I just did not have the correct door to use the
key with.
For
those thirty years I could not find my Thompson family beyond my great-great-grandfather,
Sherlock Andrew Thompson. The surname of Thompson is on the list
of the top ten most common names and this made research a bit more difficult
While my great-great-grandfather had the most unusual first name
of Sherlock, I found that he usually used Andrew, or sometimes his
initials S.A.
The
earliest record I had for Andrew Thompson was the 1850 census for Steuben
County, New York. Unfortunately, Sherlock Andrew Thompson was not
found with his parents Since Mary Davison, spelled Davinson in the
census, was not that much older than Andrew Thompson, I thought perhaps
she might be a sister Alva and Mary Davison were followed in the
in1860 and 1870 censuse.s They resided in Pennsylvania until the
1880 census when they returned to New York The Davisons never had
any children so there were no clues to be found there I thought
that David Davison, at age 71 years, was probably Alva’s father.
Because
Andrew Thompson was only sixteen years old I searched the Steuben County
guardianship records, but had no success. Also searched were the
estate records for Thompson But, because of the common surname,
I could not be sure I had the correct family.
The
next record for Sherlock Andrew was the 1855 New York State census for
Steuben County. Now Andrew Thompson is residing in the Town of Bradford,
and he is still a single man. A marriage certificate owned by another
descendant of Andrew Thompson’s shows that he married Hannah Marilla Buckingham,
25 November 1855, in Bradford, New York.
In
the 1860 census of Steuben County, New York, Andrew Thompson is living
in Savona, Steuben County By the mid 1860’s the family will move
to Branch County, Michigan Andrew and Hannah had a daughter, Harriett,
born in September 1867 in Bronson,
Branch County, Michigan Both Harriett and her mother, Hannah, died
in Bronson, in 1869.
On
19 June 1872 Sherlock A. Thompson married a second time to Anna Eliza Hickman.
At eighteen years of age, Anna was twenty years younger than her husband
who was thirty-eight years old. He was a widower with three young children
and was soon to be a widower with four young children. Anna had one
child, my great-grandfather, Elvin Daniel Thompson, born 5 May 1873, in
Bronson, Michigan. Anna Thompson died 5 September 1873 in Bronson. She
was eight days short of her nineteenth birthday. The mention of her
death in a Coldwater, Michigan newspaper said she died from typhoid fever.
The death records for Branch County states she died from childbirth Since
Elvin was four months old, I have often wondered if her death was perhaps
a combination of both.
For
thirty years this was almost all I knew about Sherlock Andrew Thompson.
Then in early 2007 I had an idea.
The
genealogy on-line subscription site, Ancestry.com, has developed indexes
for all of the Federal censuses. Since Sherlock Andrew Thompson was
born in 1834, the 1840 census is the first he will appear in. The
1855 New York State census told me he was born in Steuben County, New York.
So I asked for all Thompsons, or the different spelling variations of the
name, in Steuben County, in 1840. I then proceeded to look at all
the names given on the list, looking for any Thompson who had a male in
the age 5-10 column. One name immediately stood out from the rest.
What
made Comfort Thompson so interesting was the fact that just one name above
his was Sherlock Andrews. It seemed to be too much of a coincidence
that my great-great-grandfather was named Sherlock Andrew Thompson. Comfort
Thompson had a young male in the correct age column. Was this my
Sherlock Andrew Thompson? A check of the 1850 census showed that
Comfort Thompson was not in Steuben County nor even in the state of New
York. Sherlock Andrews was about the same age as Comfort Thompson. Did
Comfort name a son after a brother-in-law? Information was found
about Sherlock Andrews and his siblings. He did not have a sister
who married a Thompson.
A
few months after this discovery I was on my annual trip to the Family History
Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. I looked into Steuben County deed
records, wills, estate records, and guardianships for information on Comfort
Thompson. Nothing was found and I thought this was the usual dead
end research that was typical of the Thompson name. But this time
I kept trying different avenues of research.
I
discovered that a Comfort Thompson appears in the 1850 Branch County, Michigan
census. This was suspicious. Comfort Thompson disappears from
Steuben County, New York and a Comfort Thompson, about the same age, appears
in the very county where Sherlock Andrew Thompson moves about fifteen years
later. It has been my experience that moves across many states to
a new residence usually means that another family member lives in the new
location. I knew that Sherlock’s first wife, Hannah Buckingham, did
not have any family living in Branch County, Michigan. There were
too many Thompsons in Branch County, and the name is too common to determine
if they were Sherlock’s relatives. I still did not give up in my
quest for further information like I had done in the past. Then,
in a New York county that I would have never considered researching for
my Thompson family, I found a vital piece of information.
Someone
had transcribed biographies from the History & Directory of Yates
County, New York,
Volume II, by Stafford C. Cleveland, published in 1873, and placed them
on the internet.
Here
was the door that my key unopened. I knew I had finally broken down
the thirty year old dead end when I saw the sentence: “Comfort married
Ruth, daughter of David Davison of Reading, and now lives in Michigan.” My
key was that long ago found 1850 census
record from the Town of Orange, Steuben County, New York where my Sherlock
Andrew Thompson was living with Alva and David Davison. Sherlock
was not living with his sister, but with his uncle and grandfather. Comfort
Thompson of Steuben County, New York was indeed the Comfort Thompson in
Branch County, Michigan. At the time of this book’s publication in
1873 Comfort Thompson was still living. Whoever gave this Thompson
biography for publication knew that Comfort Thompson was still living because
the information states, “now lives in Michigan”, present tense,
not past tense.
Why
did this Thompson family biography appear in a Yates County, New York history?
Yates County was formed in 1823 Part of the Town of Reading, Steuben County,
where the Thompsons settled, was split off, given to Yates County, and
renamed Starkey. In 1854 the Towns of Reading, Tyrone, and Orange
were taken from Steuben County and given to the new county of Schuyler.
This separated even further the Town of Starkey from it’s parent county
of Steuben. I would have never thought of looking into Yates County.
Comfort
had moved to Macon Township, Lenawee County, Michigan before 1845. Ruth
(Davison) Thompson died around 1844-45 in Lenawee County for Comfort married
secondly the widow Amelia (Miller) Combs in Lenawee County. Their
daughter, Anna Amelia, was born in 1846, in Macon Township, Lenawee County.
Research on the Davison family has shown that David Davison had two brothers
who moved to Michigan, with one residing in Macon Township, Lenawee County
Perhaps that is why Comfort moved to the same location.
Research
done in April 2008 has turned up probate court papers in Branch County
that connect Sherlock Andrew Thompson to Comfort Thompson. One of
Comfort’s daughters, Harriett, in 1877, filed in Branch County Probate
Court to have her father declared non compos mentis, not competent mentally.
Several witnesses were subpoenaed to testify. Among these witnesses were
family members including Andrew Thompson. The case was dismissed
so I believe the family came to a settlement out of court.
The
Thompson biography from Yates County, New York told me that Comfort’s parents
were David Thompson and Hannah Meeker. It does not state where the
Thompsons had come from, but I suspected it was Connecticut
because from the 1850 to 1880 censuses. Comfort Thompson always states
he was born in Connecticut.
First,
I found David Thompson in the 1810 census in the Town of Reading, Steuben
County. I noticed that living not too far away was an Edmund Thompson.
I thought perhaps Edmund could be a brother, but with the common name of
Thompson I could not be too sure.
The
Thompson biography told me that the family had moved to Steuben County
in 1803. For the 1800 census I tried looking in Connecticut for David
Thompson. There were only about 5-6 David Thompsons in the state
so I started looking at each one.
When I
looked at the David Thompson who resided in Kent, Connecticut I knew I
had the correct person. There was the Edmund Thompson who was in
Steuben County with David Thompson
in the 1810 census. An Eliezer Thompson, a much older man, was living
next to David and Edmond. My thought was that Eliezer was a good
candidate for their father.
Further
research into Eliezer Thompson showed that he did have sons named David
and Edmond. There was also a daughter named Chloe who married Jesse
Dains. This confirmed the information found in the Thompson biography
in Yates County, where it states that David Thompson had a sister named
Chloe who married Jesse Dains.
Eliezer
Thompson was the son of Daniel Thompson and his second wife Ruth Hopkins.
From Daniel Thompson the family tree stretches back another two generations
in Connecticut to Thomas Thompson who married Anne Welles. Anne’s
father was Governor Thomas Wells, colonial governor of Connecticut in 1655
and 1658.
With
my discovery of a long line of Connecticut Thompsons there is more work
to be done. But now my maiden name does not end abruptly after only
four generations from me. With the discovery of Comfort Thompson
and his ancestors I have doubled my Thompson family line and now have the
pleasure of adding the wives’ families to my own.
The
work continues.
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