Now that you've got it, what are you going to do with it?

Ever wonder, after gathering all sorts of documentary evidence, what you really were going to do with it? Ever look at it and wonder, what does this all mean? That’s where analysis comes in. And there are various ways you can analyze documents.

Take census information – please. All right, that’s my Henny Youngman reference for the day (and if you don’t know who Henny Youngman was, you are post 20^th century). You can file your census data on each family away on a census extract form and say, “All right, I have grandpa Jones and his family in Boise in the 1910 census.” Well, big deal.

What about grandpa Jones’s siblings? What about their kids? What can all that tell you? And where else might the census information you extract and analyze lead you?

I happen to have a group in my father’s line who all migrated out of Canada after the family spent two generations there. My fourth great-grandfather Richards Packard took the family line into Canada on an ever-northward peregrination from Massachusetts in search of land, which he found and settled near Lake Memphremagog (that’s a handful to type) in an area of Quebec known as the Eastern Townships. The family stayed there for a couple generations, then about three-fourths of the offspring of John Allen Packard, Richards Packard’s son, went back to the U.S. I call it a “retro-migration.” They spread out at first, but somehow, by about 1870, all ended up in Bloomington, Illinois.

What I did, to see if I could find out anything about this migration, was that I took the U.S. census data from 1850 through 1870 on the brothers and on brothers-in-law Joseph Monroe (married to Mary Frances Packard) and George Monroe (married to Emeline Packard). Joseph and George were brothers, who hailed from the same area in Canada as their wives and their brothers-in-law. The earliest any of these individuals show up in U.S. censuses is 1850.

One clue to where these folks had been prior to the 1870 census, by which time they had all made it to Bloomington, was children’s birthplaces. Thus I found out that before coming to Bloomington, Matthew Hale Packard, my great-great grandfather, had spent time in the state of New York, his daughter and his younger son having been born there. His older son, my great-grandfather Oscar Merry Packard, was born in Canada.

The 12-year-old daughter of Thaddeus Bullock Packard had been born in New York as well (the state, not the city, in all instances here). So he, too, had made another stop on the way from Canada to Illinois.

Francis A. (“Frank”) Packard possibly did not make another stop between Canada and Illinois, for both his children, ages 12 and 4, had been born in Illinois, as had the three children of William B. Packard (children aged 11, 8, and 1). Likewise, Major Wellman Packard (Major being his first name, not a military rank) shows children born in Illinois, ages 11 and 4, so possibly he, too, came directly to Illinois from Canada.

Charles R. Packard, a doctor by profession, was in Massachusetts prior to migrating to Illinois, as his 7-year-old daughter had been born there, according to the 1870 census.

As for the Monroe brothers, all of their children, ranging in age from 14 to 23, were born in Canada, indicating they may have come directly to Illinois. Indeed, George Monroe may have shown up in Illinois, in Pike County, prior to the Civil War, for he is enumerated there, alone, as a lodger in a boarding house, in the 1860 census. That may have been a scouting mission before bringing his family down from Canada.

This knowledge can lead to other documents. By knowing where these brothers were in which censuses, I tracked down Civil War service records from the states of New York and Illinois, producing muster lists and compiled records. Thaddeus Packard left New York earlier than Matthew Hale did. Matthew did his Civil War service in two different New York regiments of cavalry; Thaddeus served from Illinois, as did William B. Packard.

>Matthew arrived in Bloomington about 1867. Knowing he had been in New York possibly as early as 1860 or even 1850, I looked at New York censuses, and sure enough, he and his family were in Chautauqua County, and were enumerated there in Harmony Township in the 1850 U.S. census and in the 1855 state census. As my great-grandfather, his older son Oscar Merry Packard, was born in Canada (possibly in Hamilton, Ontario) in 1848, I can bracket when Matthew Hale Packard brought the family to New York, and I also know they left the state after the Civil War.

Charles R. Packard having spent time in Massachusetts, and being a doctor by profession, leads me to wonder if I should look in the records of the Harvard Medical School for the possibility that he attended there. That’s on the to-do list.

I suppose the most interesting document I have come across is a letter at the Library of Congress, which is digitized as part of the American Memory project at the Library. It is a letter from Major Wellman Packard, who was a lawyer, to a friend who was another Illinois lawyer – Abraham Lincoln. The letter is dated 22 February 1860, and in it Wellman Packard reports of endorsements of “Old Abe” for president. Therefore, I can be sure that M. Wellman Packard was in Illinois in February of 1860 and possibly quite earlier.

And that’s where some of the information you find in the census can lead you, if you sit down and look at it and think about it in new ways.

Sources:

Richards Packard and Sarah Coats Packard, widow, Revolutionary War, Application for Pension, W21886, Records of the Veterans Administration, Record Group 15, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

Matthew Hale Packard, Company L, 15^th New York Cavalry, Service Record, New York State Archive Microfilm Roll 767, page 1199.

Matthew Hale Packard, Company L, 2^nd New York Provisional Cavalry, Compiled Union Service Records, Civil War Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, Record Group 94, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

William B. Packard, Muster and Descriptive Roll of Company C, 5^th Cavalry Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, RS201.020. Illinois State Archives, Springfield, Illinois.

Thadeus [sic] B. Packard, Muster and Descriptive Roll of Company C, 5^th Cavalry Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, RS201.020. Illinois State Archives, Springfield, Illinois.

Major W. Packard to Abraham Lincoln, Wednesday, February 22, 1860 (Florville’s Taxes), The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Series 1: General Correspondence, 1833-1916. Library of Congress.

William Gaston household, 1860 U.S. Census of Population, Barry Township, Pike County, Illinois, dwelling 395, family 395, National Archives Microfilm Publication M653, Roll 219, page 787. This was a hotel in which George Monroe was staying.

Matthew Packard household, 1850 U.S. Census of Population, Harmony Township, Chautauqua County, New York, dwelling 27, family 28, National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, Roll 484, page 229.

Anderson, Helen T., Chautuqua County 1855 Census index (and extracts; manuscript), LDS Family History Library Microfilm Number 1597653, Item 16: Harmony Township, page 60.

Matthew H. Packard household, 1860 U.S. Census of Population, Harmony Township, Chautauqua County, New York, dwelling 605, family 602, National Archives Microfilm Publication M653, Roll 731, page 71.

1870 Censuses:

Charles R. Packard household, 1870 U.S. Census of Population, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, dwelling 457, family 468, National Archives Microfilm Publication M593, Roll 258, page 98A.

Joseph Monroe Household, 1870 U.S. Census of Population, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, dwelling 1120, family 1170, National Archives Microfilm Publication M593, Roll 258, page 144B.

Major W. Packard household, 1870 U.S. Census of Population, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, dwelling 1119, family 1169, National Archives Microfilm Publication M593, Roll 258, page 157

George Monroe household, 1870 U.S. Census of Population, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, dwelling 1925, family 1984, National Archives Microfilm Publication M593, Roll 258, page 197A.

William B. Packard household, 1870 U.S. Census of Population, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, dwelling 1121, family 1171, National Archives Microfilm Publication M593, Roll 258, page 157/158.

Thaddeus Packard household, 1870 U.S. Census of Population, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, dwelling 1098, family 1124, National Archives Microfilm Publication M593, Roll 258, page 143.

Frank A. Packard household, 1870 U.S. Census of Population, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, dwelling 987, family 1016, National Archives Microfilm Publication M593, Roll 258, page 136.

Matthew Packard household, 1870 U.S. Census of Population, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, dwelling 1114, family 1164, National Archives Microfilm Publication M593, Roll 258, page 144/145.