Breaking Down a Brick Wall: Susan Rood's Parents ~ Part 1

My New Year's Resolution for January 2025 was to spend the year working on identifying the parents of my third great grandmother, Susan (Rood) Chapin, using the Research Like a Pro process.

I succeeded! And I will share how I did in in a series of blog posts over the next several weeks.

I first shared information about this "brick wall" in 2011 with this sampler, created by my second great-grandmother, Susan Arville (Chapin) Adsit (1820-1906).

I have written several blog posts about what I previously knew about Susan Rood:

Chapin Family Sampler (November 2011)

Susan Rood's Parents  (July 2012)

Susan Rood Chapin (July 2015) 

And a few posts about her husband, Orramel Chapin:

Orramel Chapin Moving West Part 1 and Part 2 (July 2012)

Orramel Chapin-Boarding House Keeper (January 2019)

A quick summary: I knew that Susan Rood and Orramel Chapin married on September 17, 1816 (date from the sampler). Their marriage intention was recorded on August 20, 1816, in Ludlow, Massachusetts (Ludlow, Massachusetts, Town Records, Vol. 1, p. 427, Chapin-Rood marriage intention, 20 August 1816, at FamilySearch). 

Simeon Chapin in the Revolution

Simeon Chapin (another of my 5th great-grandfathers and a great-great-grandson of Deacon Samuel Chapin) was born on August 20, 1739, in Chicopee, Massachusetts. He married Lucy Doolittle in 1765.

The DAR Genealogical Research Database indicates that Simeon (DAR Ancestor# A020811) served as a captain under Captain (Ephraim) Chapin, whom I wrote about last month.

Service:  Massachusetts  Rank(s):  Lieutenant
Birth:  8-20-1739 Northfield Hampshire Co Massachusetts
Death:  5-20-1799 Springfield Hampshire Co Massachusetts
Service Source:  MA Sols & Sails, Vol 3, pp 319-320  
Service Description:  1) Second Lieutenant in Capt Chapin's Co; Capt Burt, Col Porter

 

Again, we return to the multi-volume Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War for this additional Revolutionary War Chapin ancestor.

Ephraim Chapin in the Revolution

My 5th great-grandfather, Ephraim Chapin, a great-grandson of Deacon Samuel Chapin, a founder of Springfield, Massachusetts, was born on October 28, 1729, in Springfield, Massachusetts. He married in 1755 his second cousin once removed, Jemima Chapin (a great-great-granddaughter of Deacon Samuel Chapin).

The 1924 Gilbert Chapin genealogy reports that Ephraim was a captain in the French and Indian War, and was at Ticonderoga (which doesn't quite fit the timeline of his enlistment - see below).

The DAR Genealogical Research Database indicates that Ephraim (DAR Ancestor# A020751) served as a captain under Colonel Ruggles Woodbridge. 

Service:  Massachusetts  Rank(s):  Captain
Birth:  10-29-1729 Springfield Hampshire Co Massachusetts
Death:  10-12-1805 Springfield Hampshire Co Massachusetts
Service Source:  MA Sols & Sails, Vol 3, p 310  
Service Description:  1) Col Ruggles Woodbridge, 8th Co, 1st Regt, Militia

 

I wrote about the multi-volume Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War at Stephen Lowell in the Revolution. I returned to this to find my Chapin ancestor.

There are 15 pages of men with the surname Chapin!

Resolution: Susan Rood (Again) ~ 52 Ancestors #52

I'm not a huge fan of New Year's Resolutions, but I do have a goal for 2025. I have signed up for the Research Like a Pro e-course in which I will spend a year working on a genealogical research question using the Research Like a Pro process. (The year-long e-course will be more manageable for me than their usual 9-week study group.)

Of course, my longstanding brick wall ancestor is going to be my research question: Who are the parents of Susan (Rood) Chapin, born 26 January 1799, who married Orramel Chapin on 17 September 1816, in Ludlow, Massachusetts?

I wrote about Susan in 2012 (Susan Rood's Parents), and again in 2015 (Susan Rood Chapin - A Challenging to Research Ancestor).

The key sources I have include an embroidered sampler, created by her daughter, Susan Arville Chapin, which I wrote about in 2011 (Chapin Family Sampler).

Heirlooms: The Chapin Genealogy ~ 52 Ancestors #8

 

This week's theme is Heirlooms, and the heirloom I am sharing is a copy of The Chapin Genealogy compiled by Orange Chapin and published in 1862. Exploring this book about 35 years ago, I was fascinated by the fact that through my father's mother, we could trace our ancestry back to one of the founders of Springfield, Massachusetts!

It is this book that started my interest in genealogy.

The 1862 book is not under copyright and can be found online in many places including the Internet Archive, FamilySearch Books, and Ancestry.com, among others. 

However, the one that I have is an heirloom because there were slips of paper bookmarking the pages of one line from Orramel Chapin (1791-1866) back to Samuel Chapin with handwritten notes on those pages. This book has likely been handed down in my family for 125-150 years!

Deacon Samuel Chapin is noted G. G. G. G. G. Grandfather (no. 1), but the line that has been tracked in the book, he should have been noted as the note-taker's 4th great-grandfather. (Depending on which line is traced, he is also a 5th great-grandfather.)

Orramel Chapin ~ Boarding House Keeper

Because I'm still trying to determine the parents of my third great-grandmother, Susan Rood (see Susan Rood Chapin ~ A Challenging Ancestor), I am going back to look more closely at any and all records that I have for her and her family.

Since I wrote about the family's westward migration at Orramel Chapin Moving West Part 1 and Part 2, I have found a couple of additional pieces of information about Orramel Chapin, my third great-grandfather, who married Susan Rood in 1816.

I knew that he was in Hartford, Connecticut, in the 1830 U.S. census, in a household with a total of nineteen, ten of whom were men between the ages of 20 and 29. This puzzled me until I recently discovered a Hartford City Directory at Ancestry in the U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 database. It listed "Chapin, Orramel, Boarding house, front 71."

That explains the additional people counted in his household.

Hartford City Directory, for 1828 (Hartford: Ariel Ensign, 1828), p. 21;
digital images, Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2469 : accessed 22 January 2019).

By the time of the 1840 census, he was in Chicago, Illinois, with thirteen in his household including six men between the ages of 20 and 29, who didn't fit into the family as I knew it.

So Far Away ~ 52 Ancestors #22

I am participating in this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from Amy Johnson Crow. Each week has an optional writing prompt and last week's writing prompt was So Far Away.

My brick wall ancestor, third great-grandmother, Susan (Rood) Chapin, had several children. One, my second great-grandmother, Susan Arville (Chapin) Adsit, settled in Chicago, Illinois, dying there in 1906. One of the strategies to break through a brick wall is to research siblings of a known ancestor and I have done some research on Arville's siblings to see if that leads me to Susan (Rood) Chapin's death information (or possibly her parents' names).

One of her sisters continued to move further west and settled in Utah. My third great aunt, Jane Eliza Chapin, was born 14 January 1822, probably in Massachusetts. She married Hiram H. Harrison in Chicago, Illinois, on 4 March 1841. The family was in Wisconsin in 1850 and 1860 (per the U.S. Census) and in Salt Lake City, Utah, by the time of the 1880 U.S. Census. That year, Jane was enumerated in the household of one of her sons. (I have not had luck finding the family in the 1870 U.S. Census.)

Jane was not enumerated in the 1900 U.S. Census (though I did find two of her sons in Salt Lake City). Her death record reported her place of death at the 1900 home of her son, Lester.

Bezaleel (Favorite Name) ~ 52 Ancestors #6

I am participating in this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from Amy Johnson Crow. Each week has an optional writing prompt and this week's writing prompt is Favorite Name.

As I have shared before, my interest in genealogy started with my Chapin ancestry. The name of my 4th great-grandfather, Bezaleel Chapin always fascinated me, as it's an unusual name.

A quick search of the given name Bezaleel [exact spelling] in federal census records at Ancestry.com produces fewer than 30 in any given year and even fewer by the 20th century. Too bad my ancestor didn't live long enough to appear in more records.

Bezaleel Chapin was the son of Ephraim Chapin and Jemima Chapin (who were second cousins 1x removed). He was the seventh of eight children of his parents. In fact, two of his older siblings were twin boys, born in August 1764: Benjamin and Bezaleel. Benjamin survived, but the first Bezaleel died at about six weeks of age. It was common at this time for parents to name a later child after an earlier one that died.

He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts:

Springfield Births, p. 246, Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, Ancestry.com.

~~~~~~~
Bezaleel Chapin Son of Ephraim Chapin
& Jemima Chapin of Springfield was born
March 21st anno Dom. 1769
~~~~~~~

How My Interest in Genealogy Got Started ~ 52 Ancestors #1

I am participating in this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from Amy Johnson Crow. (I also participated in 2015.) Each week has an optional writing prompt and I may not necessarily write about a direct ancestor, as there are so many interesting people in my extended family tree!

This week's writing prompt is "Start," and as some readers may know, my interest in genealogy started with finding the copy of Orange Chapin's The Chapin Genealogy: Containing a Very Large Proportion of the Descendants of Dea. Samuel Chapin (Northampton, Massachusetts: Metcalf & Company, 1862) in my parents' library. My father was an only child and inherited lots of great family history material from his mother.

Now this is an 1862 genealogy - a secondary source (with many errors). However, there are several "Family Record" pages at the end and they include birth, marriage, and death dates for my grandmother's family.

This is one of those end pages:

The left-hand page includes births for the following:
James M. Adsit
Spencertown, Columbia Co.
New York, Feb. 5, 1809
  [my second great-grandfather]

Arville S. Chapin
Ludlow, Massachusetts,
June 9, 1820
  [my second great-grandmother]

Florence Wheeler 1878-1883
  [my grandmother's cousin]

Charles Chapin Adsit Jr.
Chicago July 3rd, 1892
  [my great-uncle]

Elizabeth Adsit
Chicago, June 18th, 1897
  [my grandmother]

Charles McAlpin Pyle Jr.
New York, June 16, 1924
  [my father in my grandmother's handwriting]

The right-hand page includes marriages for the following:
James M. Adsit
Arville S. Chapin
Chicago, Ill. Jan 21,
1841
  [my second great-grandparents]

Ezra I. Wheeler
Belle F. Adsit
Chicago Jan 7, 1868
  [she is a second great-aunt of mine]

Charles C. Adsit
Mary B. Ashby
Louisville. Married Oct 30, 1890
  [my great-grandparents]

Charles McAlpin Pyle
Elizabeth Adsit
Chicago, March 1, 1919
  [my paternal grandparents in my grandmother's handwriting]

I have written a Surname Saturday post showing my four lines of descent from Deacon Samuel Chapin.

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Arville S. Chapin Adsit

Arville S. Chapin

Wife of

James M. Adsit

June 9, 1820 - May 6, 1906

Arville Susan Chapin was born in Massachusetts, moved with her family to Chicago in 1838 (according to her obituary), where she married James M. Adsit, and where she died.

She is buried in the Adsit family plot at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, where I visited for the first time last September.

I descend from Arville Chapin as follows:

Arville Susan Chapin

|

Charles Chapin Adsit

|

Elizabeth Adsit

|

Charles McAlpin Pyle, Jr.

|

Me

Thankful Chapin Chapin Torrey (1774-1854) - 52 Ancestors #49

Last week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small had the theme of "Thankful." I wrote about my Mayflower ancestors. However, I noticed that several other bloggers wrote about ancestors with the given name Thankful, which I thought was a great idea because I have a few in my tree.

The closest Thankful in my family tree is Thankful Chapin, born the fifth of ten children of Simeon Chapin and Lucy Doolittle. She was possibly named for her paternal grandmother, Thankful (Dickinson) Chapin, who died in 1773.

Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 (Ancestry.com).
Springfield Births, Marriages and Deaths. Record of Birth for Thankfull Chapin.

This record from Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, at ancestry.com appears to be a scan of an old book that has been taped in the middle, covering the last letter of Thankful's father's name. The transcription is:

Thankfull Chapin Daughter of Simeon [indexed as Semea and Simer in the two entries]
Chapin + Lucy Chapin of Springfield
was born July 12th anno Dom. 1774.

She married her third cousin once removed, Bezaleel Chapin, who was also born in Springfield. (I have multiple Chapins in my ancestry: see Surname Saturday ~ Chapin of Springfield.)

Susan Rood Chapin - A Challenging to Research Ancestor - 52 Ancestors #30

For this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, the theme is Challenging: It’s a good time to take a look at another challenging-to-research ancestor.

I wrote about this ancestor three years ago, and she is still a challenging ancestor to research, so I thought I'd share what I know about third great grandmother, Susan Rood, again, and share some possible strategies for future research.

The challenging questions are: (1) where was she born and who are her parents and (2) when and where did she die?

Susan Rood was born on January 26, 1799, according to the embroidered sampler that her daughter, twelve-year-old Susan Arville Chapin (1820-1906) created in 1832.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Deacon Samuel Chapin

Here I am with my 8th great-grandfather, Deacon Samuel Chapin. (See my Surname Saturday post for the lineage.) Thanks to my husband for taking the photograph.

This sculpture, The Puritan, is by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and is in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Thankful Thursday ~ Massachusetts Records

In doing research for my Chapin post, I realized that I know the names and most of the dates for all sixteen of my third great-grandfather's second great-grandparents!

I am thankful for the availability of online primary sources for Massachusetts, which are plentiful. I find information at AmericanAncestors.org, Ancestry.com, and FamilySearch.org (enter Massachusetts in the Filter by collection name box). Where else have you found online records for Massachusetts?

The above fan chart for Orramel Chapin was created in Family Tree Maker 2 for Mac.

Surname Saturday ~ Chapin of Springfield, Massachusetts

Devon, England
Wikimedia Commons

My immigrant Chapin ancestor is Samuel Chapin. He was one of the early settlers of Springfield, Massachusetts, found in records there by 1642, and a great deal can be found about him online. (See Wikipedia, for example.)

He was baptized in Paignton, Devon, England in 1598. He married Cicely Penny in 1623 in England and they had seven children, five born in England, one born in Roxbury, Massachusetts and the last born in Springfield.

He was prominent in Springfield, serving as Selectman, Magistrate, and Deacon. He died in Springfield in November 1675. His widow, Cicely died in February 1682.

I am descended from three of Samuel Chapin's children: Henry, born in 1630, Japhet, born in 1642 in Roxbury, and Hannah, born in 1644 in Springfield. I am descended from his son, Japhet, in two ways, so I guess you can say I descend four ways from Deacon Samuel Chapin.

Springfield, Hampden County
Wikimedia Commons

Generation 2: Henry Chapin (1630-1718) married Bethia Cooley (1643-1711) in 1664 and had six children. I descend from their youngest child.

Generation 3: Benjamin Chapin (1682-1756) married Hannah Colton (1688-1739) in 1704 and had twelve children. I descend from their second youngest child.

Generation 4: Ephraim Chapin (1729-1805) married his second cousin, once removed, Jemima Chapin (1735-1804) in 1755, whose parents were second cousins (see below for these lines). They had eight children. I descend from their second youngest child. Ephraim served in the Revolutionary War.

Generation 5: Bezaleel Chapin (1769-1812) married his third cousin, once removed, Thankful Chapin (1774-1854) in 1790 (see below for her line). They had six children and I descend from their oldest son.

Generation 6: Orramel Chapin (1791-1866) married Susan Rood (1799-????) in 1816. I have written about them before: see Moving West Part 1 and Moving West Part 2. Orramel's parents were both Chapins; three of Orramel's grandparents were Chapins, and of his eight great-grandparents, four were descended from Deacon Samuel.

Generation 7: Susan Arville Chapin (1820-1906)
Generation 8: Charles Chapin Adsit (1853-1931)
Generation 9: Elizabeth Adsit (1897-1983)
Generation 10: Charles McAlpin Pyle (1924-1993)
Generation 11: Me

Orramel Chapin Moving West Part 2

This is a continuation of the tracing of my third great grandparents as they migrated westward during the nineteenth century. See Part 1 here.

Port Washington, Dist. No. 15, Port Washington, Washington County, Wisconsin, is where I find the Chapin family in the 1850 U.S. Federal Census, and now we get to see the names of all the others in the household, as well as some occupations.

O. Chapin, age 59, born in Massachusetts, works as a Forwarder. Relationships to head of household are not indicated (this doesn't happen until the 1880 U.S. Federal Census), but based on other research, relationships are as follows:

O. (Orramel) Chapin is the Head of Household

Susan Chapin, age 51, born in Massachusetts is Wife

H. H. Harrison, age 39, born in N.Y. is Son-In-Law and is also a Forwarder

Jane E. Harrison, age 27, born in Massachusetts, is Daughter

Alfred R. Chapin, age 25, born in Connecticut, is Son and works as a Clerk

Sarah H. Chapin, age 16, born in N.Y. is Daughter-In-Law, who married Alfred that summer 1850 (yes, at age 16)

Henry Harrison, age 4, born in Illinois, Grandson (Jane and H. H.'s son)

Lena Hamit, age 15, born in Germany is perhaps a servant.

I don't show it in this image, but William and Sarah Toogood are listed just above O. Chapin. I believe that they are Sarah H. (Toogood) Chapin's parents.

Orramel Chapin Moving West Part 1

Orramel Chapin (1791 - 1866) is my 3rd great grandfather. HIS 3rd great grandfather was Deacon Samuel Chapin (1598 - 1675), a prominent early settler of Springfield, Massachusetts, who has an entry on Wikipedia. With basic records, mostly census records from Ancestry.com, I'm able to track his westward migration.

Orramel's birth is recorded in the Springfield Vital Records:

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Town Vital Collections, 1620-1988 [database online].
Original data: Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records.
Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook). Image 766.

Orrimal Chapin Son of Bezaliel Cha-

pin and Thankful Chapin was born

April 5th Anno Domini 1791

FamilySearch.org has an index of the marriage record of Orimel Chapin and Susan Rood on August 20, 1816, in Ludlow, Massachusetts, but there is no image, so I'll need to order that FHL microfilm to confirm the details and see if there is any additional information in that marriage record. (This doesn't agree with the marriage date on their daughter's family sampler.)

~~~~~~

In 1820 (with an enumeration date of August 7), Orromel Chapin is found in Ludlow, Hampden County, Massachusetts, living next to Elijah Torrey, his widowed mother's second husband.

U.S. Federal Census records before the 1850 Census only listed the head of household and categorized the number of people living in that household by age. If a researcher knows the family well, an educated guess can be made as to who is being referenced by the numbers. My educated guesses below are [in square brackets]. The numbers in this census record indicate that the make up of the Orramel Chapin family is:

One male under the age of ten [oldest son, Orson]
One male between the ages of 26 - 45 [Orramel]
One female under the age of ten [oldest daughter, Susan Arville]
One female between the ages of 16 - 26 [wife Susan (Rood)] - She is the brick wall I blogged about previously.

The mark to the far right indicates that Orromel Chapin is a "person engaged in agriculture," that is, a farmer.

Mystery Monday ~ Susan Rood's Parents

The brick wall that has stumped me for a long time is my third great grandmother, Susan Rood, b. 1799. I am summarizing what I know about here as a public research log.

The embroidered sampler that twelve-year-old Susan Arville Chapin (1820 - 1906) created in 1832 shows her mother's maiden name of Susan Rood, and her birthdate of January 26, 1799. It also shows her marriage date of September 17, 1816, to Orramel Chapin, for whom I've found information.

Orramel Chapin is descended from Deacon Samuel Chapin, who helped found the city of Springfield, Massachusetts. Samuel Chapin has thousands of descendants and a few genealogies have been written, trying to keep track of all those descendants.

The Chapin Genealogy, published in 1862 by Orange Chapin, is an early compiled genealogy and it contains many errors. The copy that has been passed down in my family has all kinds of handwritten notes, correcting dates. Following image is from page 125 of the book which can be found at the Internet Archive.

It notes that Orramel Chapin "m. Sept. 1815, Susan Rood, dau. of Joseph Rood, formerly of Ludlow, Mass." This marriage and bride's father "fact" is what is often found in online trees. Assuming the  handmade sampler is correct, the marriage date in this published genealogy is incorrect, so it's very possible the bride's father's name is incorrect. I also haven't had luck finding a record of this marriage in Massachusetts records (which are generally pretty good.)

More recently, I explored Hampshire County probate records on microfilm at the New England Historic Genealogical Society and, in a nutshell, entries for Joseph Rood of Ludlow from 1806-1808 indicate his wife is Paulina and his minor children are Joseph and Paulina - no Susan.

Periodically, I enter Susan Rood and Joseph Rood into search engines at AmericanAncestors.org, FamilySearch.org, and other websites, but haven't found anything that confirms the name of Susan's parents. There are Rood families in Connecticut and in New York, as well as Massachusetts, and I'm not sure how they are related.

The Chapin book of genealogical data, with brief biographical sketches, of the descendants of Deacon Samuel Chapin, published in 1924 by Gilbert W. Chapin indicates that Susan Rood was of Sangerfield (Oneida County), New York.

Location of Oneida County
Courtesy FamilySearch.org Wiki

I recently received a reply to an old query of mine on a rootsweb message board from a Rood researcher who has been exploring the Sangerfield, New York Rood family. My next step is to learn about Oneida County, New York resources.

I wonder how Susan Rood and Orramel Chapin met and decided to marry if he was born in Springfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, and she was born in Sangerfield, Oneida County, New York.

Amanuensis Monday ~ Death Certificate for Arville Chapin Adsit

An Amanuensis is a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin – some we never met – others we see a time in their life before we knew them.

Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1878-1922 (index and images, FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org, from Illinois Department of Public Health, Division of Vital Records, Springfield, Illinois, accessed May 2011),
Record for Arville S. Chapin, died 6 May 1906, citing Death Records FHL microfilm 1,239,733
[note: indexed as Arville S. Chafini Ad...]

The handwritten entries are in blue:

Bureau of Vital Statistics.

Department of Health: City of Chicago.

Undertaker's Report of Death.

  1. Name of Deceased (in full): Mrs. Arville S. Chapin Adsit
  2. Sex: M [sic: s/b F]   Color: W
  3. Place of Birth: Mass.   Father's Birthplace: N.Y.   Mother's Birthplace: Mass.
  4. Age: 85 Years 11 Months - Days
  5. Lived in Illinois 65 Years, in Chicago: 65 Years
  6. Died on the 6th Day of May 1906 at about 3:45 A.M.
  7. Widowed.   Occupation: None
  8. Place of Death: 400 Dearborn Ave   Ward: 21st
  9. Place of Burial: Graceland
      Date of Burial: May 8, 1906
      Hour: 2:30 P.M.
10. Undertaker: C. H. Jordan + Co.  Address: 14 E. Madison St.   Tel. C1604   License No. 51

Physician's Certificate of Cause of Death

Immediate and Determining: Hypostatic Pneumonia   Duration of Cause: 6 Days
Contributing Cause or Complication: Cerebral Haemorrhage, arteriosclerosis  Duration of Cause: 8 months, 14 Days

1906 Chicago Directory, p. 2909, Fold3.com

(Signature:) Jas. Murray Washburn
Address: 15 Bellevue Place   Tel.: North823


Previous posts about this second great grandmother of mine can be found at:
Matrilineal Monday
Sunday's Obituary
Wordless Wednesday
Chapin Family Sampler
And you can see her gravestone in Graceland Cemetery at Find A Grave.

Sunday's Obituary ~ Arville Chapin Adsit

From Chicago Daily Tribune, May 7, 1906.

Obituary.

  MRS. ARVILLE CHAPIN ADSIT, 85 years old, widow of James M. Adsit, who for the fifty years prior to 1894, the year of his death, conducted a private banking business in Chicago, died yesterday at the family residence, 400 Dearborn avenue. Her health had been failing since last September. She was born in Ludlow, Mass., and with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Orville Chapin, came to Chicago in 1838. She was married to Mr. Adsit in 1841. Five children are living. They are Charles C. Adsit, James M. Adsit, Mrs. Isabel M. Wheeler, Miss Carrie Adsit, and Miss Jeanie Adsit. The funeral will be at the residence at 2:30 o'clock tomorrow afternoon.

 ~~~

More about Arville Chapin can be found at this Matrilineal Monday post. I have also posted a photograph of her labeled Grandma Adsit.

Sunday's Obituary is a daily blogging prompt from Geneabloggers, the genealogy community’s resource for blogging. It is used by many genealogy bloggers to help them tell stories of their ancestors.