I May Be On To Something Here

 (You may want to read the original post on this subject.  It’s over on my Random Ramblins’ blog.  I posted it before I started this blog).

As a youngster I was quite shy.  I had a grand total of one date while I was in high school.  In fact, you couldn’t really call it a date.  A girl that I had known since I was 5 was a member of the homecoming court during our senior year and her boyfriend had to have an emergency appendectomy two days before the homecoming dance.  I think his appendix had ruptured, but I don’t really recall.  Her hall locker was close to mine and I heard her tell one of her girlfriends that now she had no one to go with and didn’t want to go alone.  She needed someone to escort her to the homecoming court presentation.  I gallantly offered my services, and she accepted.  So not really a date, more of a stand in. 

I really haven’t improved in being able to start a conversation or just be natural with folks I don’t know. I suck at small talk and unless I’m in a situation, such as a job, I will not start a conversation with people I don’t know. 

All that to say that I went out of my way to contact a DNA match out of the blue back in July of this year.  Email conversations, to me at least, are easier to handle since I’m not face-to-face.  A person can choose not to reply to a message, and it doesn’t seem to bother me.   And when it comes to contacting a person on the various genealogy sites, more often than not I don’t get a reply.  So, it isn’t really rejection.  More like apathy on the other person.  I choose to contact this particular person because she had taken the time to upload her DNA results to multiple repositories, as I have, and we appeared to be a close match.  As a bonus, she matched folks that I knew were on my paternal side. And I’m struggling mightily with my Campbell research.  Lo and behold – she answered.  Once, I assured her that I was NOT a stalker, we have been in steady email contact ever since. 

The key to this whole adventure was in one of her early emails; “I do know that on my dad’s mother’s side, I believe that my Great Grandmother was a Campbell.”  Not much to go on, but I saw that glimmer of hope.  Her family had a story of a Campbell in the tree.  That was all I needed.

I built a quick test tree in my software of choice, FamilyTree Maker, with just the basics from her public family tree.  Going no father back than her grandparents.  The I let the interwebs do its thing.  FamilySearch (FS) is very nice FREE website that has searchable records just like the paid sites.  They also have family trees that are searchable.  And just like any user contributed family tree, their trees can be full of errors.  I found a match via FS that listed what I hoped was her family.  If it was the correct family, and if I could verify the information, then just as her family history claimed, her great grandmother (her father’s mother’s mother) would be Catherine Campbell.

My DNA match (I’ll just call her cousin – it’s a bit more personal), so my cousin, knew that the family we were looking at lived in Centre County. Pennsylvania.  Same as mine.  This match at FS showed them in Centre County as well.  Hmmm… This looks interesting.  My great grandfather, Samuel W. Campbell, lived in Centre County, and had a sister Catherine, whose age was right for a match. 

Problem was, by my records, this Catherine was married to a McKinley, not a Heverly.  So, something was off.  Looking back over the sources for this Catherine, I noticed that the death certificate I had assigned to her listed different parents.  Obviously, this was a problem.  As I mentioned in the post linked at the top, I found that the Catherine Campbell that married into the McKinley family was not my 2x great aunt.  That meant I could set out to prove, or disapprove, that “my” Catherine Campbell was my cousin’s great grandmother.  The biggest issue turned out to be her name.  I found a marriage record for the correct gentleman, but the brides name was Kate Campbell.  Naturally, no information on her parents was on the record.  It’s usually not that easy!  But Kate is a known sobriquet for Catherine, so I didn’t discard it.  

Marriage license for James Heverly and Kate Campbell

 I also found the death certificate for my cousin’s great aunt that lists Catherine Campbell as the mother, and the correct great grandfather.  It was looking better, but not confirmed. 

Janette Heverly Tyson's death certificate showing Catherine Campbell as mother.

My cousin and I continued to research this couple, but we didn’t find a whole lot more for documentation.  The just by chance, she sent me a picture of the great aunt we had the death certificate for, with my cousin’s dad and his sister.  The family story was that the picture was taken on Pike street in Milesburg, PA.  That made bells go off in my head, but I couldn’t remember why Pike street sounded familiar.

That was back in August of this year.  Fast forward to early this week.  While researching my last post, it came to me why Pike street was so familiar.  My great grandfather (Samuel W.) and his family are also listed as living on Pike street in the 1910 and 1920 census records.  And both families can be found in the 1890 “Centre Lines” publication, in Milesburg Borough, that publication does not give any addresses or other means of locating the families within the township.  The 1900 census doesn’t have any street names listed either, but both families are listed as in Boggs Township.  So, we can definitely say they were neighbors.

I fired off an email to the wonderful folks at the Pennsylvania Room of the Centre County Library.  The amazing team has answered several questions for me, so I thought they would know of any online resources to see historical maps of Centre County.  I was hoping that I could at least find the basic area that I was researching.  I was just lucky enough to catch Erin Hicks, one of the assistants in the PA Room, just before she closed up shop for the weekend.  She sent me a link to the “Digital Map Drawer” on the Penn State website.  I think I found more than a simple map of the county.

Below is a cut out of the Atlas of Centre County Pennsylvania: From Actual Surveys.  This is the lower left corner of the survey for Milesburg, so, the south west corner of the map.  In the 1870 census, the Heverly family is listed in Boggs Township, Milesburg Borough, while my Campbell family is in Snyder Township, Blair County.  According to an 1870 map of Pennsylvania, the two townships were not that far apart.  But what I found that just about blew my mind, is well, shown here.

Nichols, Beach and A. Pomeroy, & Co. Atlas of Centre County, Pennsylvania: From Actual Surveys. Philadelphia: A. Pomeroy & Co., 1874. "Atlas of Centre County, Pennsylvania: from actual surveys".<https://collection1.libraries.psu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/maps1/id/25509> (14 Nov 2020).

The street is Turnpike, on the west side of the street is a home for J. Everly and almost right across the street is a home for W. Campbell.  Everly shows up quite often in place of Heverly in many records.  “W” is my great grandfather’s middle initial. It’s quite possible that by 1910 Turnpike had been shortened to just Pike street.  Also shown on the map, is Curtis & Linn.  It’s the property just south of W. Campbell’s property and, my great grandfather, Samuel W.’s obituary mentioned that he had been employed there.  Could this just be where my cousin and mine families meet and married?  Not complete proof, but add in the census records, the death certificates, the marriage license, and DNA matches to this cousin and another cousin of hers, I have to say that I’m about 99% sure. 

The Campbell house in Milesburg, PA, on Pike Street.

As the tree diagram shows, coming from my  2x great grandparents, James And Ann Elizabeth (McCauley) Campbell, my line goes through their son, Samuel W. and Eleanor (Taylor) Campbell, and the two cousins I match through their daughter, Catherine and James Heverly. 

But I will ask again; if any more experienced genealogy folks think my logic is in error, please let me know.  I am anything but an expert when it comes to interpreting records.  Plus, there is a good bit of bias on my side to make this match.  Fresh and unbiased eyes are always welcome.  My tree on Ancestry is public, so feel free to look it over and leave comments.  You do need an account on Ancestry, but the do have free limited access accounts.  My profile is brucelcampbell.  

Peace,
B

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