John and Lydia Spracklin Expand Their Land Holdings 1835!

John Spracklin expanded his holdings to the Town of Amity in Pike Township. Amity is in the very southeastern corner of Pike.  Pike Township is in the north middle part of Knox Co.,  The lots are in Section 21 which is the very corner of Pike.  I drove right by there when I was traveling there in 2011.  I don’t think it is a recognized town anymore and when I was trying to find out more about it I would get other Amity’s in other locations, so be careful.

Knox County Twp map after 1848

1st Deed:  He purchased lots from a William Allison and wife from Wayne Twp. on 14 December 1835:

2nd Deed:  John Spracklin purchased Lot 55 from a Marvin M. Miner of Miller Twp. on 23, December, 1835.

4X

William Allison & wife Wayne Twp., &Marvin M. Miner, Miller Twp., both Knox Co.

John Spracklin

1st Deed: Dec. 14, 1835,Rec’dJan. 1, 18362nd Deed Rec. Jan 1, 1836; Dec 23, 1835

#314043 FHL# Deeds v. C-P, 1835-1836

O, pg. Deed #1 – 527 (Not 557 or 577) and Deed #2 – 528

1st Deed = Lots 25, 26, 27, 28, 29  ($38.00)2nd Deed:  Lot 55 ($15.00)See Description below

Town of Amity, Knox Co., Ohio, Betsey Allison, wife of  Wm.  Witnesses:  Samuel & Sarah Bryant. Samuel Bryant is J.P.Summary of the land description:

4a.  …a certain piece or parcel of land lying and being in the Town of Amity, Pike Township containing near one quarter of an acre each butted and bounded as follows to wit:  They are Lots No. 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 and the said lots lies on the South East side of Jackson Street or Wooster road, they are four rods in front and eight rods back and contain near one quarter of an acre each they run back the East ally bearing in the North West quarter of section twenty one Township eight Range 12 and for a more particular description reverence can be had to the plat of said Town.

4b.  …a certain piece or parcel of land lying and being in the Town of Amity containing one Town Lot No. 55 on East butted and bounded as follows to wit East wide of Vanburin Street four rods in front and Eight back and contains near on quarter of an Acre it being in the North West quarter of section twenty one Township eight Range twelve and for a more particular description of said lot reference can be had to the plat of said Town.

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“Levi, Sure Got Around!”

Back in June 2003, I traveled to Boston and Plymouth, Massachusetts.  My husband had a conference to attend,  We reserved a condo on Cape Cod.  I wanted to do some research at the Mayflower Library in Plymouth.  This library is in the Annex behind the large Mayflower House.  If you want to do research, the Mayflower Library in Plymouth has a great collection of New England titles that you might want to study.  I was just learning about New England research at the time so it was wonderful to have them all in one location.  Later you can take a tour of the house museum which is lovely and the docent is very helpful and knowledgeable. 

Mayflower Museum

The Mayflower Library

This is the link to the library page.  They have a panorama of the library and it is just like I remember:  http://www.themayflowersociety.com/library  Their hours are short so check the link carefully.  As I recall I had a cold and yet I did my research anyway from 10 to 3 pm, as I recall.

Later in the trip we moved up to Boston for the conference and I visited the Boston Public Library.  It is awesome and a little intimidating.  Here is the link to their genealogical resources:  http://www.bpl.org/research/socsci/genealogy.htm  It seemed like I wandered a long ways through the library to find the room with the genealogical stacks.  You do have to plan in advance if you wish to order other  items. 

Of course, if you are in Boston you have to go to the New England Historic and Genealogical Society (NEHGS) and visit all the floors for some really quality research time:  http://www.americanancestors.org/home.html   Take one of the tours offer in Boston with the costumed tour guide, it is well worth it.  I think it is called “Freedom Trail.”

NEHG Society Entrance

At the NEHGS, I requested from the Special Collections to see the donated papers of Paul H. Goss.  Among his papers was a letter written by Flora Osborn to Paul H. Goss regarding her ancestor Levi Goss.  Flora and Paul corresponded with each other over the course of several years in the 1930′s and 1940′s till her death in 1951.  They were both researching the Goss lines and shared their findings.

The letter that Flora wrote was on the Keziah Cooley Goss Chapter D.A.R. stationary of which Flora was a founding member, regent and registrar at various times.  

“ANN ARBOR, MICH, 1339 S State St, April 13 1948

Paul Goss & Family

Dear Cousins:

I was at the Detroit Genealogical Soc. Saturday and heard this man give a lecture, and when he was through he came and sat by me and as his talk was about early movement of people from Canada to Michigan.

I asked him about Inn’s on the Tames etc. and he said who are you trying to find and get records of, and I told him Levi Goss, and he said I know a lot about him or about the inn etc. so here it is.

Now where did he live when my grandmother was born and Mary Goss, b. 3-16-1823. If he was in Canada in 1831-1835 after that he was in Lenawee Co. Mich. and in 1812 he was in Niagara County, N.Y. served in the War of 1812, Sept 12 to Oct 16 1812, and his father was in Washington County, Ohio. Levi sure got around.

Now I was to go to Washington and be a guest part of the time to a Mrs. Cameron who went into the D.A.R. on Nathaniel Goss and in Mayflower Society via William White, but her husband is sick and she cannot attend much of the time, and I would not go with him sick and the lady who was to go with me is sick so what I stay at home. Are you coming east, if so try to attend the Cooley reunion in Illinois?

I am as well as usual and will take a trip somewhere soon.

Best wishes

Flora Osborn”

Letters like this give clues regarding our ancestors.  Thanks to Flora, we now know the movements of Levi Goss and we can follow her leads.   This letter also gives clues and insight into the people who did the research years ago and what their interests were, in this case Flora was very much involved with DAR and Mayflower. 

Flora is my cousin and she is much closer to me in the lineage to Solomon Goss and Olive Scott Goss.  Her great-grandfather Levi Goss is a brother to Lydia, my ancestor, whom I will discuss shortly.  Flora and I are 3rd cousins twice removed according to my Legacy database Relationship Calculator.  Our common ancestors are Solomon Goss and Olive Scott.

Flora mentions the Tames.  She is referring to the Thames river near Chatham, Ontario to the west of Lake Ontario and east of Lake St. Clair.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_River_(Ontario). 

As for who Mrs.  Cameron is, I will let you figure that out.  You could try the DAR Library search for Ancestor or Member and see what you find.  See the right side bar for this blog and find the New England Links.

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Reflecting On My Travels!

It has been a busy year.  I have traveled to Massachusetts and Connecticut in search of Goss history and just recently finished the trip to Ohio again in search of more Goss history.  I am very pleased that my trips have been of great help to others and I hope that it will open doors to their research. I have made several friends and contacts along the way and I am grateful for their help and their willingness to share that knowledge. 

My trip binders for Ohio are organized and I can now get the research sourced.  I had accumulated too much and had to make two binders for this trip.  As I work my way through it will be consolidated.

Ohio Trip Binders

I enjoyed both my adventures and really like Massachusetts.  I also like Connecticut but find some aspects of it a bit odd like their genealogical rules about accessing records.  I like being able to get someplace quickly and these two states qualify.  I found Ohio very different from my concept of that state.  It was pretty and reminded me of home.  It was not as industrial as I had expected but then I was not really in the bigger towns except Columbus and only brushing by Cleveland and Akron.  

The goal of this blog is to discuss the genealogy of Solomon Goss and his ancestors in the Goss family and the allied families that my line connects to such as Spracklin, Delano, Keller, Barclay and more.  It is now time to turn to a more involved and detail study of these families which covers what I do know, what I have learned from my travels and what I still don’t know!  I have more cemetery photographs to share from both trips and will be getting to that soon. 

Come join me!  There are several ways to contribute.  You can subscribe to this blog and receive copies of the newly published posts, leave a comment, and click the “like” for this post. If you have a great deal of information to share I am open to having you being a contributing author.  You can also contact me is through the Compiler page at the top of this blog.  

If you would like to visit other blogs of mine check out the right side of this blog and the “Blogs I Like” section.  There is method to the madness of several blogs and there will be some cross posting and references to my other blogs.  The Goss connect to the Spracklins and the Spracklins connect to the Kellers which leads to the Delanos.  The Spracklins also connect to the Barclays and the Barclay’s connect to the McDonald/MacDonalds. 

The header photograph is of the Ohio River in Marietta and every time I look at it my heart jumps with joy or I pause and marvel that I finally visited that area of Ohio. 

As an end to my trip to Ohio but the beginning of more posts to follow, I leave you with a few more visions of Ohio!

The Ohio River at Marietta

 

 

 

The Muskingum River

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Ohio Bound: The Goss Family Story Continues!

My trip to Ohio is almost here!   Here is a bit of a quick review of why I am off to Ohio!

The story of the Goss family started in Boston or what was called Muddy River (Roxbury) in the mid 1600′s.   Philip Goss settled there and married 1st Hannah Hopkins and 2nd Mary Prescott.  He migrated to Lancaster purchased land from Joseph Rowlandson 1687 and settled there.  He is buried in the Old Settler’s Burial Ground in Lancaster.

Philip Goss of Roxbury & Lancaster

His son Capt. Philip Goss and wife Judith Hayward Goss moved to Brookfield and lived their lives in that area.  They are buried in the Old Indian Burial Ground in West Brookfield. 

Capt. Philip and Judith Goss 2011

Philip and Judith’s son Philip (III) married Keziah Cooley and it is not clear how or where he is buried but there is an estate file for him in 1742 in the Worcester County Records as well as for the Philip Gosses mentioned above I & II.  Keziah and Philip (III) had a son name Philip which I call number 4 (IV) in order to keep him straight from other Philips.  He migrated to Simsbury or rather North Granby, then to Granville and next to Becket.  He didn’t stop there heading for the area around Wilkes-Barre which we know as Lucerne County, Pennsylvania.  It is a long and sad story what happened in Pennsylvania because it was considered part of Connecticut for a long time.  Many of the descendants of Philip Goss IV stayed in Pennsylvania but several of them did not and they migrated to Ohio. 

My up and coming trip to Ohio next week will delve into the history of those Goss ancestors that migrated to Ohio.  So basically I started with Pennsylvania and wrote about my trip there in Pennsylvania Wanderings and then I went to Massachusetts Meanderings and wrote about my travels there (see side bar Blogs I like).    

Ebenezer Goss went to Portage County, Ohio about 1804.  Ebenezer is a younger brother to my Solomon Goss, my 4th great-grandfather, who migrated to Ohio first to what is now the Dayton, Ohio (1796) area and then to Marietta, Ohio in Washington County and was there about 1798.  Nathaniel Goss another brother to Solomon and Ebenezer had a son name John who migrated to Ohio and settled near Ebenezer.  Just recently someone emailed me about Sewards (Seawards) in Ohio and I realized that some of the Enos and Sarah Goss Seward family migrated to Ohio and beyond. 

Here are two sources that you need to read if you are not familiar with this line of the Goss family.  They are downloadable from the Family History Library and more. 

Paul H. Goss – Goss Family 

The chart below is based on one of Paul H. Goss’ (Rev. Paul H. Goss or Paul Henry Goss) manuscript in which he discusses sources. 

First Generation: PHILIP (1) GOSS, the Immigrant Ancestor of Roxbury and Lancaster, Massachusetts 1652 to 1698
Married 1st, Hannah Hopkins about 1675	Married 2nd Mary Prescott m 29 March 1690
2nd Generation
PHILIP (2) GOSS 1676 to 1747 Married Judith Hayward m 30 Aug. 1699	JOHN (2) GOSS b. 1/20/1693, died about 1745 Married Mary Woods m 9 Nov. 1711
3rd Generation
PHILIP (3) GOSS b about 1700 and died 1742 Brookfield, MA Married Keziah Cooley m 25 Nov. 1723	PHILIP (3) GOSS, b. circa 1720 at Lancaster,MA. Died 17 Apr. 1804 in Winchester, NH Married Hannah Ball m 12 May 1748
4th Generation
**PHILIP (4) GOSS, “of BROOKFIELD” b. 18 Nov. 1724 died 9 Nov. 1778 Married Mary Kendall of Lancaster 7 Jun 1744 Left Brookfield for Simsbury (North Granby), Granville, Becket and then to Luzerne Co., Pennsylvania.	PHILIP (4) GOSS, of Montague,Massachusetts. b. 17 Oct 1757, died 23 Jun 1840 in Montague, Franklin, Massachusetts Married Esther Gale 23 Sep 1779 Winchester, NH
5th Generation
PHILIP (5) GOSS, Jr., Harveyville, Pennsylvania b. 12 Aug 1746 died 25 Oct. 1833 in PA Married Hannah Darby unknown	PHILIP (5) LAMPSON GOSS of Brighton,Ohio married twice died in 1878.

Elbert Garrett Goss – Descendants of Philip Goss of Lancaster, MA 1650  This discusses the descendants of John Goss the 1/2 brother and son of Philip Goss and Mary (Prescott) Goss.  His family is featured in the 2nd column.  

There is another recently published book by David Goss – Abel Goss of Lower Waterford, that further digs into the John Goss line and where the descendants that went to New Hampshire migrated too. 

These sources are not all the sources for these Goss family lines.  They are just the beginning.  It is confusing for there are a  lot of “Philip Goss” names in the family lines.  Be advised that there are other Goss lines in New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania and in the southern states that are not our line.  I refer you to Paul H. Goss’ manuscript cited above for clues and a start. 

**My interest and focus on the family of Philip Goss and Mary Kendall Goss who died in Huntington Township, Luzerne Co., Pennsylvania.  See the chart above 1st column Philip #4.  Philip and Mary had:  Sarah m. Enos Seward, Philip Goss Jr. m. Hannah Darby, Experience Goss, Nathaniel Goss married Hannah Scott, Comfort Goss, David Goss, Solomon Goss m. Olive Scott,  Mary Goss, Ebenezer Goss who marred Bede Blakeslee.  

The Spracklins married into the Solomon Goss family.  I will visit those family history sites near Mount Vernon and Kenton, Ohio where the Spracklin’s settled.   Daniel D. Spracklin (son of John and Lydia Spracklin a daughter of Solomon and Olive) married Elizabeth Keller in 1853.  Elizabeth’s mother was a Delano.   I will visit Morrow, Franklin and Knox County again and see if I cannot learn more about the Delano and Keller families.   

As I stated, this blog will cover the highlights of my trip to Ohio this August (wow it is almost here!) and not be a travelogue – day-to-day!  I will however, as I always do, journal the trip and take lots of pictures.   Information from this trip will be discussed in future posts.

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Previous Travels: In Search of Family History!

Traveling to a family history location is very important to me.   So, I have made a big effort to go to as many family history locations as I can manage! 

In April 2011, I traveled to Massachusetts and Connecticut to go in search of Goss and Barclay ancestors.  I described my experiences on that trip in the blog:  Massachusetts Meanderings and More!!  I visited cities like Brookfield, Lancaster, Becket, Granville and more.   I studied the graves at several cemeteries like the Old Indian Cemetery in Brookfield where Capt. Philip Goss and Judith (Hayward) Goss are buried.  They are Solomon’s great great grandparents. 

Old Indian Cemetery, West Brookfield, MA 2011

Going further back to 2008,  I traveled to Pennsylvania and shared that experience in the blog:  Pennsylvania Wanderings…!   That blog was about my trip to the Wilkes-Barre and Luzerne County area where Philip Goss and Mary (Kendall) Goss settled.  That blog is a bit old and some links are broken but rather than fix those links I left them alone.  The blog still has good information such as pictures of the towns, historical sites and cemeteries that are part of the Goss history. 

Forty Fort - Nothing is left of the old fort

The recent trip to Massachusetts is where the Goss family came from in Massachusetts, and the Pennsylvania trip was where my line of the Goss family went to.   One day I will return to Boston and head west and see if I cannot dig further into the family history.  

There are many more trips taken to search for family history that I did not blog about. 

In June of 2003 I traveled with my husband to Plymouth, Massachusetts and visited the Mayflower Society Museum and Library and  I spent four lovely days researching sources in the  Library behind the big house.  I even managed the research although I had a cold.  During this same trip, we traveled to Boston so my husband could attend a conference there.  I took the opportunity to visit the New England Historic and Genealogical Library and the Boston Public Library where I found more sources and information. 

The Mayflower Society House, Plymouth, MA

I have traveled on three separate occasions to the DAR Library in Washington D.C.  The first in 2000, the second in 2008 and recently in 2011.  I shared the 2011 experience in the Massachusetts blog and a little of my experience in 2008 in the Pennsylvania blog.   I spent a great deal of time searching sources when I was at this library. 

D.A.R. 2008

There have been several trips to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City where there are many sources to study and discover.  I have been there in the hot summer and during a snow storm.  The Family History Library is going through a major change and within the next 10 years they should have digitized their collection.  A lot of sources are being posted online that can be accessed from home while others are only accessed there at the library. 

In August of 2007, the Federation of Genealogical Society and APG were having a conference in Fort Wayne.  I knew I had to go and visit the Allen County Library.  They had just opened up the brand new library.  The curious creature that I am, I realized that Ohio was only two hours to the east with Michigan about the same.  I did not blog that trip but I will share some highlights in this blog.  This trip was in search of Spracklin, Goss, Delano and Keller family history. 

The header photo of this blog is the Lee Cemetery in Hardin County, Ohio where Peter and Elizabeth “Betty” (Andrews) Spracklin and some of their children rest.

All the repositories that I have mentioned are excellent facilities to do research on the Goss family and more.  I have had some great discoveries and some disappointments but I am glad I had these opportunities.  I have been blessed to have the chance to travel a great deal in search of my family history!

I am not done yet, I am off to Ohio for the second time in August 2011.  I will share some of my experiences in this blog.

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