I did finally solve one brickwall regarding the parents and siblings of my ancestor Eve Urmey. A number of years ago I ordered a partial War of 1812 Pension file, for her husband Jesse Callahan, which consisted of the Pension application and a land warrant. This provided some important information such as Eve's maiden name. The name was spelled Urma. The closest match to that name in Indiana that I could find was Urmey, which was also the maiden name of a sister-in-law of her husband Jesse Callahan. I searched for any information I could find in the records for southern Indiana; where they lived. There was only one family unit in the area at that time with that name, that of Jacob Urmey and his wife Susannah Brower, and their children. According to Jacob's will he didn't have a daughter named Eve. I assumed at that point she might have been a niece of Jacob, or her maiden name was Urma after all? When the War of 1812 project at Fold3 reached the letter C I immediately looked up Jesse Callahan's file, which was quite large due to the fact Eve had to provide affidavits proving her marriage. This file was a gold mine of information. These affidavits pointed to Jacob and Susannah once again being the most likely parents of Eve. Their daughter Catherine Urmey-Miller attended Eve's wedding. The Urmey's son Jacob was described as Eve's brother. This was pretty convincing proof to me that she belonged in that family. This proof was strong, but not conclusive because I wasn't certain if there was only one Jacob in the area at the time.
This week I found a court record which leaves no doubt that Eve was the daughter of Jacob Urmey and Susannah Brower. Eve was named as a sister of John Urmey in a court case regarding his estate. All of the other children of Jacob and Susannah were named, and are the exact names found on Jacob's, his father's, will. Here is what it says:
"After making will, John URMEY married Elizabeth HIPPLE named in will a
dower set off. She is now widow of Levi Wooden. John Q. URMEY had no
other children other than illigimate son, John Q. URMEY. He left four
brothers; Abraham URMEY of Mont. Co. Ohio, Christian URMEY of Tipp Co.
Indiana, Jacob URMEY, residence unknown, and Jonathon URMEY, died before
testate, also four sisters, Catharine, wife of Jacob MILLER, Eve, wife of
Mr. CALLAHAN, Esther, wife of Mr. CALLAHAN of Washington Co. Indiana, and
Susannah, wife of Robert Scott, both dec'd and residence unk. Exe.
court who gave balance of estate and court awarded it to widow as legal
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| Will of his Father Jacob Urmey |
Dayton Court Record: Samuel LANDIS & Jacob VANIMAN, Exectutors of John
URMEY, dec'd, vs. Levi Wooden & wife and John Q. URMEY, et al 15 Dec.
1848.
I don't know why Eve was left out of Jacob's will? I am now confident that she was his daughter. It also looks like she is the Daughter of Susannah Brower. After finding the above I felt confident enough to begin tracing her parents Jacob and Susannah's families. Looking at posted information for clues I was able to identify the parents of both Jacob and Susannah. Susannah was named in a court record in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. In 1792 the heirs of Christian Brower were named in a settlement and Susannah Urmy is described as his daughter. Christian's will was filed in 1771 and he gives his residence as Chester, Pennsylvania. A land record regarding the heirs of Christian Brower names Jacob Urmey.
Looking around Chester I found one Urmey family, and was able to place Jacob in that family. Christan Brower had come from Germany and settled in Pennsylvania in 1726. The Brower family was Mennonite. I have not researched the Urmey family enough yet, and don't know if they were also Mennonites?
A wife named Eve was mentioned in Christian Brower's will. Searching posted trees some identified her as Eve Bowman Brenneman. This made sense because Christian named step children with the surname Bowman in his will. I found the likely source for this assumption in a periodical called "Mennonite Family History". Here is the exact entry:
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A family history book for the Brenneman family is online at Heritage Quest. I found a couple of Eve Brenneman's who married Bowman men, but neither were married to my Christian? This leads me to wonder whether someone found an Eve Brenneman married to a Bowman in the Mennonite records and assumed that this was a matching piece to the puzzle? I also assumed the book could have been wrong. After looking at a map of eastern Pennsylvania I came to the conclusion it would have been unlikely that my Christian would have married a Brenneman living 50 some miles away. The closest Brenneman family to him was 12 miles away but I couldn't find an Eve in those families? The best way to approach this problem now is to do more research in the local Mennonite records. I have not been able to locate a will for a Bowman male with a wife Eve.
The fact that my ancestor was named Eve seems to support Eve as being her grandmother. It's possible that Christian too was married before? Even if we do find out what Eve's maiden name was we may not be able confirm who her children were? So this is my new brickwall.
5 comments:
How exciting that you were able to break thru one wall but darn the bad luck on running into another! So goes the genealogy game I guess. Good luck with that new brick wall!
Thanks very much Danni! Well it keeps me occupied and out of trouble :).
I nominated you for a Liebster Award on my blog! I wanted to get you some recognition for having such a great blog so check it out!
I've just started working on the Brower family, and would love to find the "real Eve" or wife of Christian Brower, also! Have you made any progress since 2013?
Sorry it took me awhile to reply Janice. Didn't get a notification?
I haven't made anymore progress. I was a DNA match to several Brenneman descendants at AncestryDNA. They no longer match me with the new algorithms? I still match them at Family Tree DNA. I do wonder if there may be a relationship? I'm still looking.
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