Being married to a historian is very helpful! And knowing history can help us slow us down and keep us from jumping to conclusions. Let me tell me what happened this week.
But, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Investigating Land Transactions
Over the past several weeks I have been scattershotting my genealogical research, meaning that I have been trying to collect as much information about all lines of my family settled in Washtenaw County. As a result, I went through the Washtenaw County Deeds on-line (thank you Washtenaw county for having them digitized and available!).
[A side note—Please learn from my mistake, when you find the actual record and you see something that is barely legible, it’s not because of a bad scan or poor quality of image, it’s because there is a pay wall and before you can truly read it and download, you need to pay $1.20 per page. But that $1.20/page allows you to download, print, and forever keep it!]
I have about 50 pages of downloaded deeds across three surnames (Bailey, Orcutt, and Tubbs) and across nearly 100 years (1827-1923). Each deed is 1 or 2 pages, so that’s a lot of transactions. Most of the transactions are from one family member to another as farm land is shifted from one generation to another. But these also include original purchases in the area–some from the US Government through the Bureau of Land Management.
I haven’t fully digested all of the pages or even figured out where the land was located, but I have taken note of the names. One of the names was Volney Chapin and because it seemed odd to me, I had never heard the name Volney, it stuck with me.
Bentley Historical Library–Geddes and Randall Collection
Yesterday, I was back to the Bentley, searching through the correspondence in the Geddes and Randall Collection (Call Number02155 Aa 2). This is an amazing collection and I appreciate Sarah Geddes Randall very much and whoever donated her collection to the library should be given kudos!
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
Last week when I was there, I focused on Sarah’s photo albums. Her lovely husband, William T. Randall (brother to my great-great-grandmother Frances Eliza Randall) gifted her beautiful leather bound photo albums (one in 1863 and 1871) where she stored photos of her extended family! They are filled with amazing photos, but unfortunately most are not identified. It might take my lifetime to do that.
Fortunately, though, a page of photos included one that I recognized–Samuel Obed Tubbss–with 3 of his wife, Frances Eliza Randall. (Look to my June 12th blog–You Win Some, you Lose Some for more about Frances). It was exciting to find 2 new-to-me photos of Frances that further confirms that these photos ARE of Frances and not her originally thought to be mother-in-law. There are quite a few photos of some much older people and I’m thinking that I *might* just identify Frances’ parents (Timothy Randall and Julia Ann Chapin) at some point.
.jpeg) |
| Samuel Obed Tubbs & Frances Eliza Randall |
Additionally, this is probably a collection that I will come back to because it is so rich with lots of letters to and from William T. Randall and his wife, Sarah Geddes Randall. (William is the brother to my great-great-grandmother Frances Eliza Randall). Among the letters I found one that was to the Will Randall family that references Aunt Frank, who I’m thinking is “my” Frances. In this letter, they reference a Julia, who I believe was referencing Frances and Will’s mother, Julia Ann Chapin. When I saw the Chapin, I went to my Ancestry family tree. When I looked at Julia’s group sheet, I saw “Volney Chapin” among the siblings. Wait? Hadn’t I seen that name recently?
Family Connection or Coincidence?
When I originally saw the Deed from Volney Chapin to George D. Bailey, I didn’t even think about Chapin being a surname in my family tree. When it dawned on me that they might have been related, I took a closer look at my tree. My great-grandparents, Cora Viola Orcutt and C. Walter Tubbs families had both settled in (or around) Ann Arbor, but it would be surprising to me if their families were aware of each other and did business with one another. Jim did remind me that Ann Arbor (the whole of Washtenaw County) was not the huge metropolis that it is now so it’s very possible that people did business with one another without being related to one another!
.jpeg)
As I drew out the family tree, while both members of the Deed transaction are related to me, they aren’t really related to each other. Volney Chapin (1803-1869) is the great-uncle to C. Walter Tubbs and he sold the property to C. Walter’s wife’s grandfather, about 30 years before the two were born. These families, unlike my Italian side, have no “wreaths” in the family tree and are not related. It turns out that Volney (among other things) was a prospector with land and bought and sold to tens if not hundreds of people. It’s just a coincidence.
Who and what is Volney Chapin?
As I was trying to figure out who Volney Chapin the seller of the land was, I did a lot of research into the name Volney Chapin. The first Volney Chapin that came up, as it turns out, was the son of Volney Chapin (1803-1869) who was the brother of Julia Ann. This Volney Chapin died at age 37 of consumption, born in 1835 and died in 1872. When I read his original death record, this is where I thought I read “slave dealer”. I gasped and sat back and then told Jim.
He was like, “Wait, what year was this?” 1872. “No, it can’t be, that’s already 9 years after the Emancipation Proclamation.” Well, weren’t there still people who might have been engaged in the illegal market? “Where was this?” he asked. Michigan. “No, the Northwest Ordinance in 1787, of which Michigan was part of, outlawed slavery in the territory. Although there might have been enslaved people’s living in Michigan, by 1837 there were none.”
Okay, well what is it, if it is not “slave dealer”? Keep researching. I looked to another version of his death certificate and someone had transcribed it to be “stone dealer”. Hmmm. I *guess* if the “l” wasn’t crossed as a t and the “v” looks like an “n” and the “o” loop makes it look like an “a”?
I looked further, the 1870 Census, he is listed as “Cooper Manufacturer”. Maybe you know what a Cooper manufacturer is, but Jim needed to tell me it’s a barrel maker. In the 1860 Census, he was a “Master Cooper”.
Although feeling more comfortable that he had a legitimate job and one that didn't involve selling people, I was still wondering what this word could have been, because I don’t think it was “stone”.
As I continued to search, I came across an amazing biographical account written in the History of Washtenaw County in 1881 (see my blog from May 11th on Genealogy Angels to learn more about these great resources!) about Volney Chapin, the father. In it, I found what I was missing!
There it was on page 285, Volney Sr. was engaged in a business Jones, Chapin & Co. which was a “stave and coopering business”! Jim said, “of course, that’s what the slats of the barrels are called!”
He was a STAVE DEALER!!
This was just another strong reminder to me that historical context and multiple sources of information are so very important in this work. We sometimes see what we are sensitized to see and not what actually is.
No comments:
Post a Comment