The Other Side of the Family

 

Trying to piece together the story of an ancestor—especially a brick wall ancestor—can be challenging. Thankfully, in the case of my mother-in-law's third great-grandfather Simon Rinehart, we have a court document outlining not only the names of each of his children, but their connection to each specific one of his two wives.

So far, I've examined the children of Simon's first—albeit unfortunately unidentified—wife, as they would be full siblings of my mother-in-law's direct line ancestor. I've managed to trace the lines of all but one of the children from that first marriage: Martha, wife of Jacob Fordyce of Greene County, Pennsylvania; Mary, wife of Robert Smith of Hocking County, Ohio; Thomas, who along with his wife Hannah and their several children, migrated to Perry County, Ohio, as had Simon his father; and Sarah, wife of James Gordon, our direct line.

As for that one remaining child from the first marriage, Samuel, it was unclear from the court record whether he had migrated to Perry County along with the others in his immediate family, or had remained in Pennsylvania. Complicating that research is the fact that there are others in this extended Rinehart family possessing the same given names. I am concerned that our Samuel may have been confused with another Rinehart by the same name, and want to proceed carefully by sorting out the extended family.

There are, however, several others of Simon's children whom I'd like to research, in the hopes that someone in at least one branch of that family may have some knowledge of information I'm lacking. Some of the simplest details are missing from both sides of Simon's family—like the maiden name of each wife—but chances are a bit better for finding such information on the younger branch of that Rinehart family, so I'll take a few days to review what I can find on this family from the second wife.

As before, the easiest descendants to research are those daughters for whom we already have the court record stating the name of the woman's husband. From the younger family, the only one with a husband named in the court records for Simon Rinehart was his daughter Cassa, wife of Isaac Brown.

Granted, Brown is a common surname almost as frustrating to research as Smith, but in Cassa's case, it wasn't hard to find Isaac. The couple, along with their many children, were listed in Perry County for both the 1850 and the 1860 census.

That, however, was the end of the family's residence close to their siblings in Perry County. By the time of the 1870 census, Isaac and Cassa had moved their family to Wood County, Ohio, settling in the village of Tontogany. The family apparently remained there until Cassa's death in 1885, and her husband's death following, two weeks afterwards.

I can't help but wonder, now that I've read through the pages upon pages of family strife documented in Perry County court records, whether the Brown family felt the need to move far from the disputing Rinehart siblings. We read those reports, separated from the strife by well over a century, but those family members lived through the turmoil, day after day.