Wrapping up Loose Ends

 

When the close of a month approaches, it's time to gather up the loose ends still remaining untied after weeks of struggling with the month's appointed research target. Since June was the month to focus on my mother-in-law's third great-grandfather Simon Rinehart, I can easily say there were several loose ends to attend to. Today and tomorrow, we'll see what remains—and what can be noted and carried forward for the next time I tackle this brick wall ancestor.

The most significant discovery this month was finding the two court records in Perry County, Ohio,  outlining which of Simon's children belonged to each of his two wives. I am just now reorganizing those two sets of descendants in my mother-in-law's family tree. With that done, I can see how his children's dates of birth seem to align in a much more reasonable fashion with the second court record than what we were left with after Simon's will had been contested.

The result now leaves me with only three children descending from Simon's first—and unnamed—wife. Though I still can't properly identify his son Samuel—there may be a name twin back in Greene County, Pennsylvania, Simon's supposed origin—it appears all three of those children were born prior to 1800. 

As for the children of Simon's second wife, Anna, the oldest was born about 1803. This date becomes the place marker suggesting a possible wedding date for Simon's second bride, as well as a latest possible year of death for the unnamed first wife, back in Greene County—each far earlier than I had previously anticipated.

Finding any records in Greene County, however, has still been a challenge. There are simply too many Rineharts in that county—especially name twins—to make it easy to find the right ones. However, for one of Simon's daughters—Nancy, who married an Ankrom back in Pennsylvania—it may be possible to identify a likely candidate from the 1830 census onward.

What about Simon's supposed time spent in Kentucky? After all, his oldest daughter—Sarah, my mother-in-law's direct line ancestor—was said to have been born there, possibly in Bracken County. If Simon did live there for a while, it would have been before 1800. Sarah was said to have been born in Kentucky in 1795.

Looking at county records from FamilySearch.org's Full Text search, I can find a Simon "Rineheart" mentioned in Bracken County records in 1798 and 1799. Whether this detail will be key in finding Simon's first wife, I can't yet say—if, indeed, we even have the right Simon Rinehart and the right Kentucky county.

For now, though this month's exercise didn't result in the goal I was seeking of identifying Simon's parents, I did manage to get a clearer picture of who belonged in his immediate family. Tomorrow, we'll take stock of what we accomplished, and where we need to go from here for the next time I tackle this one of my Twelve Most Wanted from my mother-in-law's family lines.