Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Close But No Cigar

Hello!  I am alive.  Keeping up three blogs is a lot of work.  Obviously, I've let this one go a bit.  But you know me- I never stop researching.

I really do love to help others with their genealogy, and though I've been so happy to help some of the people at the Van Sickle group at Ancestry.com,  it's been SO FRUSTRATING to have found nothing further on my own family line.  And so several months back, I ordered yet another record- the marriage record of my gggg-grandparents, William Van Sickle and Rachel Jones. 


Argh- it is only an index!!  I had this information all ready.  Oh well, another dead end... or maybe not...

FamilySearch recently has released Ohio County Marriage Record images to the public.  On their Ohio marriage page, it says, "During the early 1900s, counties began using preprinted register books, with only two entries per page."  Cincinnati's courthouses have been plagued by fire over the decades, the last one [to my knowledge] happened in the late 1800's.  The image above, written in the 1900's style [not to mention 1900's penmanship] recorded an event that happened in 1818.  Could it be that the original marriage record has survived and is housed somewhere in Cincinnati?? 

Of course, if I'm lucky enough to find a copy of the original record, there is no guarantee that there is any more information listed on the document.  In fact, an example of an original marriage record from 1817 is on the FamilySearch site.  No additional types of information is listed on the example.  Still, I won't let that stop me from trying to get a copy of the original document.

I'm really stumped on this line.  Private researchers I've hired have turned up nothing, and unless I miraculously wake up in Cincinnati or Salt Lake, I may have to put a big ol' stop sign up on the end of my Van Sickle tree.

If you're looking for a genealogical challenge, I sure have one for you.  Please, if you have any advice for me on how to find the ancestry of William Van Sickle, I'd appreciate it greatly.

William Van Sickle
Born:  Unknown
Died:  Unknown,though likely before 1830
Married:  29 January 1818, Cincinnati
Spouse:  Rachel Jones; she married Mr. Nehemiah Blake circa 1830
Siblings:  Unknown
Parents:  Unknown
Census Location/Information:  Unknown

2 comments:

Fi said...

Keep at it. I come up against so many dead ends. I really wish I'd spoken to my parents more about their family histories. Still, the information is out there somewhere.

All the best with your research.

Jeannie said...

Thank you so much for the encouraging words. I've spent too much energy not to keep trying. I put this man aside for a while, usually when my head is about to explode, then come back to him again when I get a wild hair.

I think almost everyone's answers are in Salt Lake. I'd love to get there one day and spend a week or two on my dead ends.