Freeland Sisters Marry Lake Captains ~ 52 Ancestors #30

When my 4th great-grandfather David Freeland and his family immigrated from Scotland in 1821, they originally settled in Lanark, Ontario, Canada. Within ten years, he was in New Hartford, Oneida County, New York. Widowed by 1840, he likely lived with various of his children until his death in 1862 in Buffalo, New York.

In previous centuries, travel by waterway was often easier and more efficient than traveling over land. Three of David Freeland's daughters married ship captains who spent much of their lives on Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes. 

Favorite Photo: For Jack From Mama ~ 52 Ancestors #3

This week's theme for this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is "Favorite Photo."

I have many photos that I have previously shared under the Wordless Wednesday prompt. Here are a couple that I haven't previously shared.

This is a tiny envelope, about 2.5" x 3.5". On the front is written: "For Jack from Mama."

And on the back is my mother's handwriting identifying the individuals in the photos as James Hunter and Mary (Freeland) Hunter, who are my second great-grandparents. This suggests that the handwriting on the front is my second great-grandmother's, Mary (Freeland) Hunter. Inside this small envelope are four tiny pictures.

I previously shared portraits of them when they were younger.

Stories From the 1950 Census ~ Census Number 10 For Aunt Claude

My second great grand aunt, Anna Claudine Freeland, lived long enough to be enumerated in ten federal censuses!

I have previously written about Great Aunt Claudine Freeland. I have also shared her brief obituary. (She outlived her four siblings by several decades.)

Sadly, as genealogists know, the 1890 federal census didn't survive a fire in 1921, with most of the damage coming from water used to put out the fire. Following is a summary of what I have found for "Aunt Claude" in all the other federal census records.

Year      Name                                Age      Occupation            Head of Household                  
1860     Hannah E. Freeland             5            -                         her parents, James and Nancy
1870     Clara Freeland                   15         at school               her widowed mother, Nancy
1880     Claude A. Freeland            25        School Teacher     her widowed mother, Nancy
1900     Anna C. Freeland               43        School Teacher     her widowed mother, Nancy
1910     Claudie Freeland                41        School Teacher     her (unmarried) brother, William
1920     Glaudine Freeland              50        School Teacher     lodger living in a boarding house
1930     Anna Claudine Freeland    75        None                      roomer living in Orlando, Florida
1940     Claudine Freeland              85        None                     lodger living in a boarding house

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Freeland Plot at Union Dale Cemetery Pittsburgh

A continuation of my August 2017 visit to Union Dale Cemetery in Pittsburgh brings us to the Freeland plot.

There are five burials in this plot:

Sunday's Obituary ~ James J. H. Brown, d. 1912

To follow up on my post from earlier this week about using newspapers to confirm my 4th great-grandfather's death date and burial location, here is an obituary that provides a great deal of information.

"Capt. Brown's Death Hard Blow." The Buffalo Courier, 12 June 1912, online archives
(http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html): accessed 6 November 2016, page 6, columns 2-3.

Tuesday's Tip ~ Using Newspapers in Ohio and New York

I have been researching the descendants of my 4th great-grandfather, David Freeland, because I wanted to confirm that the burial record I found for David Freeland in Buffalo, New York, in February 1862, was that of my 4th great-grandfather. I am using the strategy of researching descendants not in my ancestral line to see if any more information can be found out about the common ancestor.

One daughter, Barbara Freeland, married a man with the last name of Brown and had one son, James. Several years after he died, she married Christopher Goulder. She had three sons with him and many grandchildren.

To research the family, who lived in Cleveland, Ohio, I used census records, online vital records (Births, Marriages, Deaths), FindAGrave.com, and newspapers.

The Goulder descendants have been relatively easy to research since Goulder is not a common surname.

James Brown, however, is another story. There are many James Browns out there... and I didn't know if he had stayed in Cleveland or returned to Buffalo, New York, or gone elsewhere. I also didn't have the name of his wife (or wives?) and if he had any children. Could he have died young?

The first clue to narrow down this first cousin 4x removed arrived as I was researching his half-siblings. GenealogyBank.com has digital images of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which is very useful if you have Cleveland, Ohio, ancestors, and in it I found the 1928 obituary for one of his half brothers, Harvey D. Goulder, who died without children. I also found the following notice:

"Goulder Will Filed." Cleveland Plain Dealer, 23 June 1928, online archives
(http://genealogybank.com/), page 17, column 5.

GOULDER WILL FILED
Admiralty Lawyer Leaves $580,000 in Bonds and Real Estate.
  An estate of $500,000 worth of stocks and bonds and $80,000 worth of real estate was left by Harvey D. Goulder, nationally known admiralty law expert, who died last week, it was learned yesterday when his will was filed by probate.
  Heirs named in an affidavit filed with the will were two brothers, Charles Goulder, 81, of 1261 Parkwod [sic] Drive N. E., and Robert Goulder, 76, of 2826 Coleridge Road, Cleveland Heights, and the four children of a half brother, James J. H. Brown. [emphasis mine.]
  Terms of the will cannot be made public until it has been probated by Probate Judge George S. Addams. The executor is the Central National Bank. Goulder died June 14 at his home 2806 Coleridge Road, after a twelve-day illness.

Oswald Freeland ~ 1851 Passport Application

As I shared in my previous post about my 4th great grandfather, David Freeland, a fifth cousin of mine shared a privately published family history that indicated that he had one child born after emigrating from Scotland with his wife and older children.

According to the book, son Oswald Freeland was born in Canada after the family arrived there in 1821.

The only document I have found that mentions him by name is an 1851 U.S. Passport application (referenced in the family history). This is the oldest passport application I have in my family database.

NARA Series: Passport Applications, 1795-1905; Roll #37: 23 may 1851-30 Sep 1851. Record for Oswald S. Freeland, 1851.

David Freeland, 4th Great Grandfather in 1830 U.S. Census

Almost three years ago, I connected with a fifth cousin via Ancestry because we share David Freeland as a common fourth great grandfather. (Her tree had a death date for his wife and I wondered what the source was.) This cousin shared some information about David that she had obtained from a privately published family history about another ancestral line. (This genealogy is not a Freeland family genealogy.)

Recently, she shared images of the two pages that mention the Freelands. The Freeland family information came from an interview of Barbara Elizabeth Curtis Rubins (1840-1929), a first cousin 4x removed of mine and my fifth cousin's 2nd great grandmother. She mentions her grandparents, David Freeland and Barbara Fullerton Arrold [sic: should be Arroll], and the six children that she knew of: Barbara, Anna, James, Mary, Margaret and Oswald. The older five were born in Govan, Scotland (which I had found at FamilySearch.org and blogged about at Tuesday's Tip ~ Scotland, Births, Baptisms, and Marriages) and the youngest was born in Canada (and I didn't know about him).

Additionally, she reported that, after living for five years about five miles from LaChine Rapids, Quebec, Canada, they moved to Utica, New York. This is new information to me. (My ancestor, James Freeland, ended up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.)

Since I knew they immigrated from Scotland in 1821, this statement implies that they moved to Utica, New York, about 1826, and I should find David Freeland in the 1830 U.S. Census. When I did a search for David Freeland in Utica, Oneida County, New York, in this census, the first result was for David Garland in New Hartford, Oneida County. (This is a town southwest of Utica.)

I took a look and third from the bottom was David Freeland with handwriting that was indexed as Garland:

Source: 1830 U.S. census, Oneida County, New York, population schedule, New Hartford, p. 55 (handwritten), line 25, David Freeland; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com): accessed 10 October 2016); citing NARA microfilm publication M19, roll 99.

David Freeland ~ 4th Great Grandfather

I wrote about David Freeland three years ago in my Surname Saturday post for my Freeland line.

He brought his family to Canada from Scotland in 1821. Later, David Freeland and many of his family members ended up in Great Lakes states (New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois).

What I didn't know when I wrote the Surname Saturday post were the names of all David's children and when and where he and they died.

A few months after I wrote the Surname Saturday post, I found that FamilySearch.org has indexed some records for Scotland. (See Tuesday's Tip ~ Scotland, Births, Baptisms, and Marriages.) So now I know that David Freeland was born on February 14, 1783, in Glasgow, Scotland, and that he married Barbara Fullerton Arroll on July 30, 1809, at Govan, Scotland. He had six children, all born in Govan, Scotland:
Barbara (1809-1887)
Anna (1812-1889)
James (1814-1863)
Charles (1816-????)
Mary (1818-1903)
Margaret (1820-????)
And a seventh, Oswald, born about 1823, in Canada.

The Scottish emigration record (Directory of Scottish Settlers in North America, 1625-1825. by David Dobson, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co. Vol. 5. 1985)) suggests that David left Scotland and arrived in Canada with his wife, one son and four daughters. Charles must have died young, which would leave James, Barbara, Anna, Mary and Margaret traveling with their parents to the New World.

Because of a scrap of paper with a rudimentary family tree, I have married surnames for three of the four daughters, but I don't know what happened to Margaret.

I had found David in the 1850 U.S. Census living with his son, James, in Pittsburgh. By the time of the 1860 U.S. Census, David was living with his daughter and son-in-law, Mary and Frederick Wolf(e), in Buffalo. He was 77 years old and since I couldn't find him with any family in the 1870 U.S. Census, I assumed he died between 1860 and 1870. When I discovered that there is an 1865 New York State Census, and he was not listed, that narrowed my search for his death date.

Once again, Facebook has proved to be a useful resource, specifically, the group for the Western New York Genealogical Society (WNYGS), which I joined last spring. I shared my query about David Freeland, and got a helpful response: Freeland is not a common name in Buffalo, and there is a burial record for David Freeland on February 25, 1862, in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo.

Recently, these burial records have been digitized and made available at the website for Forest Lawn Cemetery. (See the search page at Locate a Loved One.)

Searching for David Freeland, I found a burial record. The record is on one line over two pages and the transcription is below with my notes in [square brackets].

Name: Freeland, David
Place of Birth: left blank
Place of Death: Buffalo
Time of Death: Feby 20, 1862
Married or not: left blank

Mary Freeland Hunter - 52 Ancestors #52

To complete the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small,  I will share what I know about my second great grandmother, Mary Freeland.

Mary Freeland was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, on February 11, 1850, according to family papers. Both the 1850 U.S. Census and the 1900 U.S. Census indicate a birth month of February 1850.

Mary Freeland Hunter

Mary was the oldest of five children of James Freeland, a plumber, and Nancy Rainey. As far as I can tell, she was the only one to marry and have children.

Before marrying, Mary worked as a dress maker (according to the 1870 U.S. Census).

At the age of 21, Mary married James Hunter on April 13, 1871. They went on to have ten children, listed here. One of her sons predeceased her, dying at the age of nine in 1889, and another lived to be 102 years old, dying in 1984!

Sunday's Obituary ~ Anna Claudine Freeland, 1952

More about my second great grand aunt, Anna Claudine Freeland.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 15, 1952, page 31, news.google.com

Miss Anna Freeland

Miss Anna Claudine Freeland, 97, of 4716 Bayard St. [Pittsburgh], died at her home yesterday [June 14, 1952] from pneumonia contracted after a fall two weeks ago.
  Miss Freeland was born in Old Allegheny Dec. 11, 1854. She taught in grade schools in Allegheny and later Pittsburgh for many years.
  She is survived by two nephew, J. R. (Jack) Hunter, of Pittsburgh, and Chester A. Freeland [sic] of Morgantown, W. Va.
  Funeral arrangements are being made by H. Samson's, 537 Neville St., Oakland.

My comments:
Those who were of "Old Allegheny" were very proud of it and always made mention of it.

The two nephews listed are sons of her sister, Mary (Freeland) Hunter, her only sibling to have children. Mary and her husband James Hunter were parents to ten children, so "Aunt Claude" outlived eight of those ten nephews and nieces, including my great-grandfather, Percy Earle Hunter, who died in 1935.

Nephew Jack Hunter lived to be 102, dying in 1984.

What is not mentioned is that she was also survived by several great nephews and great nieces, my grandmother and her sisters included, and great-great nephews and great-great nieces, including my mother and her sisters.

Although I don't know the exact date, it was this spring of 1952 that my mother graduated from high school.

Great Aunt Claude Freeland

Anna Claudine Freeland fascinated me because my mother remembers meeting "Aunt Claude" when she was a child in the early 1940s. She also was found by several different names in the federal census records. She is my mother's great grand aunt and my second great grand aunt.

In a post about my third great-grandmother, Nancy (Rainey) Freeland, I listed her children as:
Mary (1850-1902) - my second great-grandmother and the only one to marry and have children, listed here.
William (1854-1918)
Anna Claudine (1854-1952)
Edward (1858-1877) - twin
Emma (1858-1893) - twin

Census records show the following for my second great grand aunt:
Year      Name                          Age     Occupation            Head of Household
1860     Hannah E. Freeland      5            -                         her parents, James and Nancy
1870     Clara Freeland            15         at school               her widowed mother, Nancy
1880     Claude A. Freeland     25        School Teacher     her widowed mother, Nancy
1900     Anna C. Freeland        43        School Teacher     her widowed mother, Nancy

Aunt Claude

In 1904, I find Claude A. Freeland in a Pittsburgh City Directory living at 3623 Perrysville Avenue in Allegheny. This is the house that her sister's son, Percy Hunter, lived in for a couple of decades. See a photo of the house here and photos of people in front of the house here. The image here is of Aunt Claude in one of the photos.

By 1910, her mother had died, and "Claudie Freeland" was living with her unmarried brother, William, who was a conductor on the railroad. She is 41 [!] years old and a School Teacher.

By 1920, her brother William had died and "Glaudine Frieland," age 50, was a lodger in a boardinghouse and was still a teacher. (Actually, her age was about 65 so she was probably about to retire.)

In all of these censuses so far, she is living in Allegheny City, which became the North Side of Pittsburgh in 1907.

In 1930, I find Anna Claudine Freeland as a 75-year-old "Roomer" in Orlando, Florida. With her birthplace as Pennsylvania, her father's birthplace as Scotland, and her mother's birthplace as Ireland, I'm sure this is my second great grand aunt. No occupation is listed. I wonder why she was enumerated in Florida in this U.S. Federal Census? Was she living there or just visiting?

In 1940, Claudine Freeland, age 85, is back in Pittsburgh as one of ten lodgers in a lodging house, no occupation listed. Interestingly, three of the other lodgers are teachers. I find it interesting to see that after she retires from teaching, she is willing to share her real age with the census takers.

And when the 1950 U.S. Census becomes available in 2022, I will be able to find her again, as she didn't die until June 14, 1952 about six months shy of her 98th birthday.

She was enumerated in ten U.S. Federal Censuses! I can only show eight, as the 1890 U.S. Census was destroyed after suffering damage in a fire and the 1950 U.S. Census is not yet available.

Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1963 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014),
Death Certificate No. 48672 / 4229. Record for Anna Claudine Freeland, died 14 June 1952.

Sadly, Aunt Claude died of an accident. The cause of death on her death certificate is listed as: "Hypostatic Pneumonia due to fracture of right hip caused by fall to floor." It is from her death certificate that I finally confirm her full name: Anna Claudine Freeland, and her date of birth: December 11, 1854. Both parents' names are accurately listed: James Freeland and Nancy Rainey. The informant, Samuel Knox Hunter, Jr. is a great-nephew (son of her sister Mary's son). She had the fall on June 5 and died eleven days later.

Along with so many members of my grandmother's immediate ancestors and extended family, Great Aunt Claude is buried at Uniondale Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. See her FindAGrave memorial here.

Civil War Blogpost Challenge ~ Military Monday

For Bill West's Civil War Blogpost Challenge, I looked at my database to see which of my ancestors might have fought in the U.S. Civil War (150 years ago). I find that I can't add much more to what I have already shared about the service of my ancestors in the Civil War.

~~~~~~

My maternal grandmother's ancestors were in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. I have written about my second great grand uncle, James M. Lysle, who died in Virginia, serving for the 63rd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. I share his picture here again. His youngest brother, George Lysle, my second great-grandfather, was born in 1845, possibly too young to serve, but working in a coal company, perhaps he provided help in the war effort in other ways.

There were a few other Alstons and Lysles (great-uncles and/or distant cousins) who served from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania, Veterans Burial Cards, 1777-1999, at Ancestry.com, is a good resource to determine Civil War service. I do not find my third great grandfather, James Freeland, who died on March 1, 1863, at about age 48, according to his gravestone (see his FindAGrave memorial) or my third great-grandfather, Samuel Hunter, who also died in 1863 at about age 49, in this database, or in Civil War records at Fold3.com, so it appears that they may not have fought, but perhaps served in other ways.

~~~~~~~

My maternal grandfather's father's family was in Maine (see second great-grandfather Henry Copeland's draft information here). It looks like he was exempted from service.

My maternal grandfather's mother's family was in Chicago. I wrote about what I could find about second great-grandfather Samuel S. Greeley's service (building sewers) here.

~~~~~~~

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Pittsburgh Burials at Uniondale Cemetery

As I have been learning where my ancestors are buried and entering memorials for them at Find A Grave, I recently realized that not only are all four of my maternal grandmother's grandparents buried at Uniondale Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but all eight of her great-grandparents are buried there as well. (Uniondale Cemetery, at 2200 Brighton Road, is located in the North Side, previously known as Allegheny City.)

In addition, there are many extended family members buried in these family lots.

I created a chart in Family Tree Maker showing the burial locations for these four generations of my maternal grandmother's family. I now see why my mother feels such a connection to Pittsburgh, although she hasn't lived there in decades.

To see their Find A Grave memorials, scroll to the very bottom of this page, where I have a Find A Grave Search box, and enter the surname of the family member whose memorial you would like to see.

Tuesday's Tip ~ Scotland, Births, Baptisms, and Marriages

I have been working on my maternal Scottish ancestry recently (Freeland and Alston) and I wanted to know where in Scotland David Freeland and John Alston came from. I visited the website for the National Library of Scotland and on its home page, there was a suggestion that records could be found at FamilySearch.org. On the search page, I clicked on United Kingdom and Ireland and found that when I filtered for Scotland, the following indexes were available to search:
Scotland, Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950 and Scotland, Marriages, 1561-1910.

In searching for James and David Freeland, I was able to find that James Freeland was born on May 6, 1814, in Govan, Lanark, Scotland, to David Freeland and Barbara Fullarton Arroll. With that information, I adjusted my search to capture the births for ALL the children of David Freeland and Barbara Fullerton Arroll.

I then found David Freeland and Barbara Fullerton Arrol were married on July 30, 1809, in Govan, Lanark, Scotland.

Mary Freeland Wolfe Family

The handwritten family tree for the Freeland family that I shared in October (smaller image at right) provides all kinds of information, even though it doesn't look like it at first.

The tree shows that the third child of Barbara Fullerton and David Freeland, Mary Freeland, married ____ Wolf. As I noted in the Freeland Surname Saturday post, I found 77-year-old David Freeland in the 1860 U.S. Census in Buffalo, New York, household of his daughter, Mary Wolf, her husband, Frederick Wolf (a Lake Captain), and their two children, Oswald and Charlotte.

I wanted to find out more about this Wolf family.

City Directories for Buffalo, New York, are found at Fold3.com for the years between 1861-1870 except for 1869. I found Fred/Frederick Wolf/Wolfe in most of them as a Captain, Lake Captain, or Sailor.

In the 1870 U.S. Federal Census in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, I found Fred Wolf, wife Mary Wolf, and children Lottie (age 21) and Ida Wolf (age 9). Fred Wolf is a "Lake Sailor."

Detail from 1870 U.S. Census for Fred Wolf family

I have not found son Oswald in the 1870 census, but I found him in the 1880 U.S. Census in Chicago, Illinois.

Detail from 1880 U.S. Census for Oswold F. Wolf family

Oswald (or Oswold) is now in Chicago, as a bookkeeper, with his two sisters, Charlotte and Ida, and his widowed mother, Mary. In later records, I find that surname is more often found as Wolfe.

I then explored Chicago City Directories at Fold3.com, finding Oswald F. Wolfe as a bookkeeper in most years between 1871 and 1880, and Frederick Wolfe as a seaman, mariner, or shipmaster in most years until 1878. At FamilySearch.org, I found the death of Frederick Wolfe on March 3, 1879, in the Illinois Cook County Deaths, 1878-1922, a name index. I then found other Wolfe family members in this death index, including wife Mary (Freeland) Wolfe (d. 1903), daughter Charlotte Wolfe (d. 1920) and son Oswald Freeland Wolfe (d. 1923). I have confirmed that the family, including Ida Wolfe (d. 1915), is buried at Rosehill Cemetery. It doesn't appear that there are any descendants.

~~~~~~~

Mary Freeland Wolf

Two years ago, I shared some old photographs of Hunter and Freeland family members. There is handwriting on the back of the photos noting "Mrs. Wolf" and "Lottie Wolf." At that time, I did not know who they were. I now know that elderly Mrs. Wolf in the photos is Mary Freeland Wolf, born in Scotland around 1816-1819. Mary Wolf would have been around 80 years old when she and her daughter, Lottie, visited her sister-in-law, Nancy (Rainey) Freeland in Pittsburgh. (Nancy's husband and Mary Wolf's brother, James Freeland, died in about 1863.)

Charlotte Wolf

Lottie Wolf is Charlotte Wolf, born in 1849 in Buffalo, New York. She would have been first cousin to my second great-grandmother, Mary (Freeland) Hunter, whose pictures can be seen in a post from November 2011.

Lottie is my first cousin 4x removed.

I am thrilled that I was able to figure out who Mrs. Wolf and Lottie Wolf were in these pictures.

Treasure Chest Thursday ~ Handwritten Freeland Family Tree

In my family collection of ephemera, I have the following 8.5" by 11" piece of paper showing pieces of the Freeland family tree.

This is one of my sources for my Freeland line that I wrote about in the last Surname Saturday post. Near the left, you can make out Helen Copeland, who is my grandmother (though Copeland is her married name).

Note in the upper-right-hand corner, written sideways is "David Freeland came over in 1821 on ship David" which helped me find the immigration record that I noted in my Surname Saturday post.

Surname Saturday ~ Freeland of Scotland and Allegheny, Pennsylvania

Lanarkshire, Scotland

My immigrant Freeland ancestor is David Freeland, who arrived in Canada from Scotland in 1821 with his family.

As I have been working on this Surname Saturday post, I have been finding out much more about this branch of my family, which I will share in upcoming blog posts.

The image at right is from page 96 of A Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to Canada before Confederation, by Donald Whyte (Toronto: Ontario Genealogical Society. Volume 2, 1995. 435p.). If I interpret this entry correctly, David Freeland was from Lanarkshire, Scotland. He (with his wife and five children) came to Quebec, Canada, on the ship, David of London, arriving on 19 May 1821. They left from Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland, in association with an emigration society and they settled in Lanark Township, Lanark County, Ontario. The code of ICS refers to Immigration: Canada from Scotland with a description of "Selected records in the Ontario Department of Public Records and Archives [now the Archives of Ontario], 77 Grenville Street, Queen's Park, Toronto, M7A 2K9. Reel 154."

Lanark Township, Ontario

Wikipedia has a brief entry for Lanark, Ontario, (in addition to newly incorporated (1993) Lanark Highlands Township, Ontario) noting that it was founded in 1820 by Scottish immigrants who named it after Lanark, Scotland. Textiles was one of its major industries.

I found the reference for this book in an index (U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s) on Ancestry.com, and then looked at a copy of of the book at the NEHGS Library, where I scanned the above page. Ancestry.com has another index: Canadian Immigrant Records, Part Two which provides additional information about David Freeland's family: that his wife was age 28 and that the family included: "male child age 7; female children ages 8.5, 3, 9, 11."

Update as of October, 2016: David and his family, had moved south to the United States during the 1820s, living in New Hartford, Oneida County, New York, by the time of the 1830 U.S. Census.

In the 1850 U.S. Census, I find David Freeland, occupation Weaver, in the household of his son, James, in Allegheny, Pennsylvania.

U.S. Federal Census. Year: 1850; Census Place: Allegheny Ward 2, Allegheny, Pennsylvania;
Roll: M432_744; Page: 76B; Lines 7-10: Record for James Freeland family

In the 1860 U.S. Census, I find David Freeland in the Buffalo, New York, household of his daughter, Mary Wolf, her husband, Frederick Wolf (a Lake Captain), and their two children, Oswald and Charlotte.

U.S. Federal Census. Year: 1860; Census Place: Buffalo Ward 5, Erie, New York; Roll: M653_746;
Page: 810 (140); Lines 30-34: Record for Frederick Wolf family including David Freeland

I couldn't find a David Freeland in the 1840 U.S. Census that seemed to fit my David Freeland. (The 1840 census is not an every-name census, and doesn't include as much detailed information as later census records.) However, I did find an entry for "Freder. Wolf" in Buffalo, New York, which included two males of the appropriate ages to be Frederick and his father-in-law, David, and one female of the appropriate age to be Frederick's wife, Mary (Freeland) Wolf. If this is the same Frederick Wolf, it appears that David Freeland's wife died by 1840.

I do not know when David Freeland died, but possibly sometime between 1860 and 1870. UPDATE: He died in 1862 in Buffalo, New York.

The names of his children that I do know include James, Barbara, Mary and Anna. I descend from his son James.

Generation 2:
James Freeland was born in Scotland sometime between 1815 and 1821. He married Nancy Rainey, whom I have written about, as she is one of my long-lived female ancestors. I have also written about James previously, as he was a plumber in the 1850 and 1860 census.

There are two men with the name of James Freeland who served in Union forces from Pennsylvania in the Civil War and it is possible that one of them is "my" James, but again, I need to do more research on that. He died about 1863, based on the family's listing in Pittsburgh City Directories in the 1860s.

They had at least five children, born between 1850 and 1858. Mary (b. 1850), William (b. 1854), Claudine (b. 1855), Edward, Emma (twins, b. 1858). In the post about Nancy Rainey Freeland, I shared several census records and city directory images showing.

I descend from their daughter Mary who I believe is the oldest.

Tuesday's Tip ~ Pittsburgh City Directories

Historical City Directories can be useful in family history research and I enjoy browsing them. Different city directories are found at different websites.

For the city of Pittsburgh (and its North Side, formerly Allegheny City), historical City Directories can be found at a website offered by the University of Pittsburgh at Historic Pittsburgh.

I haven't fully explored this site, but you can find a range of dates of historic Pittsburgh City Directories at Historic Pittsburgh City Directories.

I used these directories to narrow down the date of death of one of my 3rd great grandfathers, James Freeland. In the Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities 1861-1862, James Freeland, plumber, is at the corner of Beaver and Geyer's [Avenue?] in Allegheny:

~~~~~

In Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities 1862-1863, James Freeland is at 29 Ohio, with his home at 187 Beaver in Allegheny:

~~~~~

In Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities 1863/1864, Nancy Freeland is listed as the widow of James, at the address of 187 Beaver, in Allegheny:

This narrows down James Freeland's date of death to sometime in 1863. There were a couple of James Freelands from Pennsylvania who served in the Civil War, but I have yet to determine if one of them is my 3rd great-grandfather.

As I noted in yesterday's post about his wife, Nancy (Rainey) Freeland, I also used this same method to determine the year of her death as 1903.

Matrilineal Monday ~ Nancy Rainey Freeland

I have written about long-lived maternal ancestors before. One third great-grandmother, Nancy (Rainey) Freeland, who died about 1903 was well into her 80's, if not 90 when she died. She outlived her husband by over 40 years.

Determining her birth date from census records is a challenge, as most of them indicate a different birth year.

In the 1900 U.S. Census, Nancy Freeland lives at 1415 Buena Vista Street in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania with two unmarried children.

This census record says that she was born in December 1813, is 86 years old and a widow. She was mother of 7 [?] children, of whom three are still living. (I'm only sure of five of these children-see below.) She was born in Ireland (and her parents were born in Ireland). She immigrated in 1831, and has been living in the United States for 69 years. She (as well as the others in the household) can read, write, and speak English, and she rents her home.

Her household includes her son, William J. Freeland, who was born in August 1854, age 45 years. His occupation is "Conductor R R" and he was not out of work in the prior twelve months.

Also in the home is her daughter, Anna C., born in February 1857, age 43 years, and a schoolteacher. She was out of work for 10 months in the prior year.

There is also a 23-year-old Pennsylvania-born servant, Myrtle Kniess.

~~~~~~~

Twenty years earlier, in 1880, the U.S. Federal Census shows widowed Nancy Freeland living at 87 Buena Vista Street in Allegheny with three unmarried children.

In this census record, Nancy is listed at 65 years old, implying a birth year of about 1815. She has a mark in the column indicating she is a widow and her occupation is "Keeping House."

Her son William J. is 27 years old (born about 1853) and works as "R.R. Brakeman. One daughter is listed as Claude A., age 25 (born about 1855) and a School Teacher. I have long puzzled about whether Claude A. in 1880 is Anna C. in 1900, and I am pretty sure they are the same person. (I have found many names for this third great aunt.) A younger daughter, Emma, is 22 (born about 1858) and also a School Teacher. I lose track of Emma after this census, so she either married, thus changing her surname, or died.

And here are the Freelands as listed in the Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1880:

~~~~~~~