An updated HUFFORD FAMILY HISTORY book?

Over the years, Hufford family genealogists would speak now and again about publishing an updated edition of the 1909 HUFFORD FAMILY HISTORY that was so ably edited and published by Franklin Pierce Hoffert. Twenty or thirty years ago it sounded like a plausible goal.  Now, in the digital age, it seems unlikely that there ever would be a hard-copy update. The cost would be prohibitive.

However, my goal from the start has been an update, with corrections. Until I come up with a better digital format, here’s my offering:
https://gw.geneanet.org/alicebeard

It’s a free site.

That link should open to a list of descendants of Christian HOFFARTH

It is a long list. It is given in one of the standard styles used by genealogists. It may take a bit of figuring for you to understand. The descendants list begins with Christian’s 17 children, listed A thru Q. The first seven (A thru G) are listed under Christian’s first wife (Elizabeth KEIM). The next ten children (H thru Q) are listed under Christian’s second wife (Anna Catharine.)

Then the children of child A are listed, and so on. For example, my great-great-grandmother Elizabeth HUFFORD (1844-1921) is GBHA  with this system. That means that she descends from Christian’s child “G,” and from G’s child “B,” and from B’s child “H,” and from H’s child “A.”

It’s not perfect, but it puts the information out there for all. The database that you’ll find at that link was created by downloading in gedcom format the massive tree that I maintain at ancestry.com. Then, I uploaded the gedcom file at geneanet. The information you’ll find there is the best I had at the time of the upload.

If you pair the info that you’ll find at the above link with the “Reader’s Guide to the HUFFORD FAMILY HISTORY: 1729 – 1909” that I prepared a few years back, you will have a good start to an updated and corrected version of the 1909 book. Here’s the reader’s guide.

As with all genealogical research, my conclusions have been based on the best available information. I apologize in advance for any errors or omissions. Genealogical research involves ongoing puzzle piecing. I’m doing my best, but I’m not perfect. 😀

610 S. 11th St., Tacoma, Washington

610 S. 11th St., Tacoma, Washington.

That address reached across 107 years to prove a HUFFORD descendant.

Page 61 of the 1909 HUFFORD FAMILY HISTORY has information about Hannah HUFFORD, born 4-Oct-1845 in Indiana.  (Hannah was the daughter of John Hufford b. 1814, who was the son of Abraham b. 1788, who was the son of Casper b. 1762, who was the son of immigrant Christian b. 1716.)  Hannah married John ROOT and had six children.  After Hannah died in 1877, John, their surviving five children, and John’s new wife moved to Osawkie, Jefferson Co., Kansas, where they are found on the 1880 census.

Here is Hannah’s findagrave page:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=42408308

Hannah Hufford and John Root’s 2nd child was Elizabeth ROOT, b. 1864. Information for Elizabeth is on page 61 of the 1909 book.  It says exactly this:

No. 2. ELIZABETH ROOT.
Born January 28, 1864, near Rossville, Ind.
Husband, SAMUEL FISHER.
Married February 27, 1882.
Occupation, farmer.
Church, Advent.
FAMILY.
1. Clarence.
2. Ida.
Children married. No records.
Tacoma, Wash., 610 S. 11th St.

The “No. 2” before Elizabeth’s name referred to her being the 2nd child of her parents.

In 1870, Elizabeth was with her parents and siblings in Clinton Co., Indiana.

In 1880, Elizabeth was with her father, siblings, step-mother, and step-sisters in Osawkie, Jefferson Co., Kansas.

On February 27, 1882, there was a marriage between Elizabeth ROOT and Samuel FISHEL in Holt Co., Missouri.  Note that the surname was FisheL, not FisheR. The “r” is a goof made by the man who put together the HUFFORD FAMILY HISTORY.

On March 1. 1895, 26-year-old Elizabeth FISHEL (b. Indiana) was in Ozawkie, Jefferson Co., Kansas, with 10-yr-old John C. FISHEL (b. Missouri) and 7-yr-old Ida FISHEL (b. Kansas). No husband was present.

In May 1910, John Clarence FISHEL, age 27, b. Kansas, applied for a job with the Northern Pacific Railway Company. He listed his address as 610 S. 11th, Tacoma, Washington. He listed his mother as “Mrs. Bittie SWING,” of 610 S. 11th St., Tacoma.”  He said he was married and that his wife lived at the same address.

Take note: That is the same address as listed in the 1909 HUFFORD FAMILY HISTORY for Elizabeth ROOT.

The 1910 census of Tacoma, Pierce Co., Washington, lists “Elizabeth SWING,” age 44, b. Pennsylvania, as head of household with 25-yr-old “J.C. FISHEL” (b. Missouri) and 21-yr-old “Elizabeth FISHEL” (b. Wisconsin, parents b. Wisconsin). That listing itself has errors, and the indexing of the listing also has errors.  You must look at the original, to see “J.C.” And, you must look at the original and do some thinking to realize that “J.C.” and the 21-yr-old Elizabeth were husband and wife; both were noted as married, and each reported having been married for two years. Also, altho 21-yr-old Elizabeth is noted as “daughter” rather than “daughter-in-law,” that would make so sense because both of her parents were reported as born in Wisconsin.  J.C. was working as a “trainman” for the railroad. The address appears to be immediately next to Eleventh St.; perhaps they had moved around the corner, or (more likely) the census taker made another error with the listing.

As to what happened to Elizabeth after that 1910 census listing, I’ve yet to solve that puzzle.  However, the exact address match between the 1909 book and the May 1910 job application for John Clarence Fishel proves that the woman on the 1910 census was Elizabeth Root, b. 1864 near Rossville, Indiana.

Elizabeth’s daughter Ida married Millard Elmer ROWAN and had seven children: Floyd E., Clarence H., Dorothy Elizabeth, Herbert B., Claude C., Juanita Doris, and Elmer. Ida died January 17, 1938, in Skagit Co., Washington, under her married name “Ida ROWAN.”

Elizabeth’s son John is harder to track. John’s wife of 1910 is on the 1920 census in Nekoosa, Wood Co., Wisconsin, with their daughter (Gladys I. Fishel, b. abt 1912, in Oregon) and with her parents and brother. Because of that, we learn that John’s wife Elizabeth was Elizabeth Joslin DAY, b. 1888, the daughter of Robert DAY and Sophia Ann JOSLIN. Elizabeth’s Wisconsin birth record gives her exact birth date; that birth date reveals that Elizabeth died October 30, 1954, in Orange Co., California, under the married name Elizabeth J. HART. With that, we can find her on the 1930 and 1940 census with husband #2 William HART in Orange Co., California. With her in 1930 was daughter Gladys Irene (a Hufford descendant), married to Frederick STORY, along with Gladys’ daughter Betty Lou STORY, born in 1929 in California.

After John’s marriage to Elizabeth Day fell apart, there is no definite match that I have found for him. There are claims that he moved to California and had another two children, but the signatures between the two men do not match. However, that 610 S. 11th St. address allows us to determine the last name of Elizabeth’s husband – Fishel, rather than Fisher – and it allows us to find the seven children of Elizabeth’s daughter Ida and one child of Elizabeth’s son John.

Elizabeth’s husband Samuel FISHEL was the brother of Elizabeth’s sister Sarah’s husband Frank. The two brothers — Samuel and Frank — were with their parents in Osawkie, Jefferson Co., Kansas, in 1870. This likely is the findagrave page for Elizabeth’s husband Samuel:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=34875480

NOTA BENE:
As difficult as it can be to track some of these old dead folks, one of the problems is defeating incorrect information that is the result of sloppy “researchers” following “green leafs” offered up by ancestry.com. Then, once one fool adds the incorrect information to his/her tree at ancestry, that inaccuracy so often is accepted and repeated by other lazy “researchers” and fools. [Please insert a big “sigh” here.] As a consequence, several are claiming that Elizabeth ROOT (b. 28-Jan-1864 near Rossville, Clinton Co., IN, dau. of John K. ROOT and Hannah HUFFORD, with info on page 61 of the 1909 HUFFORD FAMILY HISTORY) is the same woman who died in 1939 and was buried in Prospect Hill Cemetery, York Co., Pennsylvania. No! That is 100% wrong, as shown by the death certificate for the woman who died in 1939 in Pennsylvania. The woman who died in 1939 in York Co., Pennsylvania, was born Elizabeth WARNER, in York Co., Pennsylvania, the daughter of John WARNER and Catharine GREEN. She married James W. FISHEL.

PAGE NOTE: Elizabeth Root (daughter of Hannah Hufford) is on page 61 of the 1909 HUFFORD FAMILY HISTORY.