Wednesday, March 21, 2018

This week's #52Ancestors/52Weeks: Huldah B. SMITH, 1783-1831, New York

For this week's post, I've chosen Huldah B. SMITH, the 3rd great-grandmother of my ex-husband's lines, 4th for our children, 5th great-grandmother for our grandchildren.

Huldah SMITH was born 15 August 1783, in Addison Vermont, of unknown parents. This information was found in several online family trees, as well as on headstones in Olin Cemetery, Canton NY.
As is common with women ancestors, Huldah left very little trace during her rather short life. The marriage card for Vermont marriages lists the bride, groom, date and place, plus the Justice of the Peace, Henry Smith. That makes me wonder if Huldah is a relative of the JP. More clues to use in researching her family in Vermont.


On December 25th, 1806, Huldah married [Deacon] Joseph Mitchell OLIN, son of Caleb OLIN & Freelove MITCHELL. The couple moved shortly afterwards to Canton, St Lawrence county in New York state, where all their 9 children were born. Apparently Joseph was very active in the Canton First Baptist church [see on right], and I would assume his wife would have a supporting role. Many women were quite active in Church events and activities, but not likely to be mentioned by name back in the early 1800s.

Huldah and Joseph had the following children, all born in Canton NY - note the surnames showing marriages to brothers/sisters or cousins:
   1.  Joseph Mitchell [jr.], b. 6 Oct, 1807, d. 11 Oct 1855, bur. Olin Cemetery, Canton NY; m. Jan 1, 1832 to Mary Barrett, 1813-1883
   2.  Mary, ancestor, b. 20 Jan 1809, d. 18 Aug 1872 Norris IL; m. Dec 25,
            1825 to Calvin HEALY, 1807-1881; 7 known children
   3.  George Smith, b. 11 Apr 1811, d. 22 Jun 1906; m. Jan 1, 1833 to Fanny
             M. Barrett, 1815-1893
   4.  Charlotte, b. 18 Jan 1815, d. 22 Oct 1844 Morley, NY; m. Aug 14, 1837
             to Charles E. Barrett, 1811-1892
   5.  Asa W., b. 1 Jan 1818, d. 16 Jan 1865; m. Feb 6, 1838 to Harriet Hila Day,
             1817-1842
   6.  James M., b. 1 Oct 1820; m. Oct 10, 1848 in Hopkinton, NY to Elizabeth
             Abbott
   7.  Elmina, b. 20 May 1822, d. 16 Dec 1887 Minneapolis MN; m. Dec 8, 1840
             to Martin Smith, 1813-1872 Wisconsin
   8.  Sarah, b. 25 Jul 1824, d. Wisconsin; m. Nov 17, 1844 to Edward R. Smith
             1819-1874 Wisconsin
   9.  Daniel Alpheus, b. 3 Jun 1826; m. Jul 5, 1850 in Madrid NY to Sarah S.
             Sweet, 1829-1851 Wisconsin.

As the Territories opened up for land, a number of the younger OLIN married children moved to Illinois and Wisconsin, as seen above. They would have had family moving and settling with them, as the Smiths and Barretts were related. There are several unusual names in this family, such as #7 Elmina, and #9 Daniel Alpheus. I still need to do more research on name patterns in the OLIN family, and I do so wish I could research the SMITH family as well!

Another oddity is that all the boys appear to have middle names, but none of the girls do. Middle names were not particularly common until a bit later in the 1800s.

Huldah died fairly young, aged 48, on Feb 7, 1831, and her headstone slab can still be seen in the OLIN Cemetery in Canton, NY. Next to her slab is a small obelisk marking Joseph's burial place. I have  not seen any records indicating what caused her death.

Joseph married soon after Huldah's death, to Hebsibah "Seba" B. Andrews, [1817-1868]. Again, I have not researched thoroughly for her parents or other family members. Censuses show her born in Vermont, which is where the OLIN family lived.

Hebsibah and Joseph had at least two children:
  10.  Huldah, b. abt 1834 [common to name after deceased]
  11.  Edwin, b. abt 1835

The OLIN/SMITH ancestral couple descend down to early New England immigrant families HEALY [bef 1640] and RICE [1632] families by the 1900s.

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If these are your ancestors, I am happy to share what little I have on these ancestors. And if there are errors, please do let me know, via calewis at telus dot net, or in the Comments below. I appreciate the opportunity to correct any issues in my family trees.

Blogger - or my computer - is still not letting me "reply" to your comments, for some unknown reason. If I don't reply to your Comment, please know that I'm totally thrilled you came to read my post and commented!  You truly make my day.

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Welcome!

Family, friends, and others - I hope you enjoy these pages about our ancestors and their lives. Genealogy has become somewhat of an obsession, more than a hobby, and definitely a wonderful mystery to dig into and discover. Enjoy my writing, and contact me at celia.winky at gmail dot com if you have anything to add to the stories. ... Celia Lewis