S.L. Ashley sketch

From "History of Ashtabula County" by Large, 1924, Page 1071-1072

"S.L. Ashley"

S.L. Ashley, progressive farmer and stockman of Morgan twp. and the owner of 325 acres of well improved land, is a native of Ashtabula Co.  He was born in Richmond Twp., Feb 16, 1852 and is a son of Elkanah and Sarah Ashley.
Elkanah Ashley was born in Richmond Twp., and was a leading farmer of Ashtabula Co., during his life.  There were three children born to Mr. and Mrs. Ashley; Elkanah Uezell, Sarah L., and S.L., the subject of this sketch.
S.L. Ashley was reared on his father's farm and attended the district schools of Richmond Twp.  He has lived on his present farm in Morgan Twp. (Forman Rd) for 27 years.  He is well known throughout the county as a dairy farmer and is breeder of registered stock exclusively.
On June 6, 1874, Mr. Ashley was married to Miss Sarah French, who was born in PA.  To this union 6 children were born as follows;
Solomon B., b. Aug 12, 1876 lives in Kingsville, Ohio;
Maude Park, born July 23, 1879 lives at Ashtabula and has 6 children, Ora, Ward, Hubert, Kenneth, Lawrence, Paul
Claude Bliss b. Oct 15 1883 lives in Morgan twp. and has 6 children; Lloyd, George, Zae, Berdette, Walter, Elva
Floyd b. Dec 18, 1895 lives at home and has 4 children Miriam, Lucille, Robert, Solomon
Florence b. Dec. 18, 1895 married Mr. Roth and have 2 children, Louise and Donald;
one child died in infancy
In politics Mr. Ashley is identified with the Republican Party.  He is an excellent citizen and is widely known in Ashtabula, Co.

Marriage record for Edward and Ethel

Ethel Marvin and Edward Connolly applied for a marriage license on 26 October 1886, and were married before Justice of the Peace C.T. Sunbury in Richmond, Ashtabula, OH, nearly a month later on 21 November 1886.

The mystery of Ethel deepens

On a recent trip to Ashtabula county I visited Dorset Cemetery, where Ethel M. Marvin's husband (Edward F Connolly) and all three children are buried.  I had a hunch, and wanted to see in person how the graves were situated.  You see, I found a listing for an Ethel M. Hough, who was born in July 1870, the same month and year as Ethel M. Marvin Connolly. Which I thought was odd.  I could find no other Ethel M with anywhere near the same birth year anywhere near Ashtabula county in the databases.  So I wanted to see where exactly this Ethel was buried.

This is what I found:

Ethel M. Hough buried right next to Elizabeth Ann Connolly, who is Ethel M. Marvin's oldest child.  Which is a mighty strange coincidence. Edward died in 1918, so it's possible Ethel remarried, though I'd think she'd be buried with either husband, and not solo.

On my next trip, finding more clues will be a top priority.

Photo of Elizabeth Connolly, 1926

Elizabeth Ann Connolly in 1926

This is my grandmother's grandmother Elizabeth Ann Connolly (mother of Clara Alice Tompkins and daughter of Ethel Marvin). The photo is dated 1926, making her 39 years old, married 19 years. Taken outside their farmhouse in Lenox, Ohio.

Lloyd pedigree screenshot

This is a quick screen capture of Lloyd Bliss Ashley pedigree chart on my computer (click to see larger). I do have more names beyond what's shown, but the software would only let me capture four generations.

Clara pedigree screenshot

This is a quick screen capture of Clara Alice Tompkins pedigree chart on my computer (click to see larger). hat's shown is what I have.



Yesterday I found scans of the original ship manifest for the Philadelphia, the ship Humphrey and Mary Tompkins came over on from England in 1842. I saved images of all seven pages of it to my computer so I can analyze it later. I was so excited! I'll share those soon!

Intro

Another blog? Yeah. I'd originally thought to incorporate some bits of my research into my personal blog, Will Write for Chocolate, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to create a repository of information, where cousins, aunts, uncles, etc., could find/share/and contribute. In this blog I'll focus mostly on my grandmother's side of the family, including but not limited to the above-mentioned Ethel.

My grandmother's death (and the 'Who Do You Think You Are?' show on television, I confess) rekindled my active interest in the detective work of seeking out ancestors. One of the interests my grandmother and I shared was family history. When she was still fairly sharp-minded and spent only her winters in Texas, we would compare notes on new things we'd learned over the summer. I had an Ancestry.com membership, so I was able to go searching for a paper trail when she brought me a new name.

And I am definitely a paper trail person. Hearsay and family stories are good as starting points, but I'm interested in the evidence, the documents, the photos. I have a huge folder on my hard drive full of census images, obituary clips, headstone photos, death certificates, etc.

Who is Ethel? (Title explained): Ethel is my great-great-great grandmother, or my grandmother's great-grandmother. She's the lady in the blog header. I believe her maiden name was Marvin (according to daughter Elizabeth's obituary), but I can find no record of her before she married Edward F. Connolly. She represents one of my numerous genealogical dead ends that I hope to one day get past.

I've got quite a bit of research compiled already, and I'll share what I have here. So if you're related to Lloyd Bliss Ashley or Clara Alice Tompkins (my grandmother's parents), give me a shout in the comments. If you're interested in my research (or would like to contribute/help), please give me a shout AND subscribe!