The real challenge in addressing last week’s theme “Challenge”
was narrowing down the possibilities. It seems every line in my family comes
with a set of problems making it difficult to trace who married whom, where
they lived, how many children they had, and what became of them. Unlike my
family, my husband’s family is EASY to study. Why?
They stayed put.
Once the Mathias clan arrived in Pennsylvania from Germany and then wandered down into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, they stayed put.
John Tobias Mathias obtained land in what is now Hardy
County, West Virginia in 1791. The house that he built remained in the Mathias family
from 1794 to 1974.
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| Mathias Homestead 1989 Mathias, Hardy County, West Virginia |
Their neighbors stayed put in Hardy County, too. In every
census I can expect to find the families of the spouses right nearby - the Kohnes,
the Delawders, the Strawdermans, the Wetzels, the Haltermans, the Dellingers,
the Bashores, the Bowmans, the Sees. Those names are still the family names in
Hardy County today.
They left good records.
John Tobias Mathias did not make it into the few census
records he should have been in, but he was on the tax list and his will is
online complete with a name of his wife, names of his four children, and names
of his grandchildren. Thank-you, John Mathias, for making it easy to find the
right family.
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| Will of John Tobias Mathias just one of the many Mathias wills online |
His children, grandchildren, and greats all managed to
make it into every census they should have been in. If anyone is missing, I
haven’t detected such.
Most left wills available online. Even the poorest of the
poor who had little to leave wrote down their wishes.
They have readable tombstones.
The Mathias clan and Kohne clan erected fine tombstones. Descendants
have been good about photographing them and uploading memorials to Findagrave.
 |
| Peter Kohne |
What more could we ask of an ancestor? (except maybe to
label old photos!)
Amy Johnson Crow continues to challenge genealogy
bloggers and non-bloggers alike to think about our ancestors and share a story
or photo about them. The challenge is “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.”
Wendy
© 2019, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.
Just think though of all the adventures your family have had by moving around so much! It probably helped shape you to be the person you are today. Though keeping better records might have been something they didn't see the need to do. I often wonder when I think of some states people decide to move to and then raise a family in and wonder why they chose it. Sometimes I would imagine of their own decisions, some where they could find a job and then they planted themselves there content. I kind of liked all the moving hubby and me did. We got to see a lot of new different areas and really get to know the areas. Not just visit them.
ReplyDeletebetty
Not just a homestead but a whole TOWN named Mathias? Now that is cool!
ReplyDeleteHow great to have a clan of family members settling and leaving such good records!
ReplyDelete