I've been doing a little work on my latest mystery: the existence of Sunderlands on both sides of my family, and efforts to discover if there is a relationship between these maternal and paternal Sunderlands.
Convinced that it would be wisest to pursue my maternal Sunderlands, I reviewed my documented information on them, going back about four generations. I had only two little tidbits about N. S. Sunderland, and thought it a safe assumption that it would be futile to look him up anywhere. But tonight, I thought, "Oh, why not? Let me see if I can find anything on N. S. Sunderland, the one mentioned on my father's side." N. S. Sunderland is mentioned in passing in a letter my great-great-granduncle Major Wellman Packard wrote to his friend and legal colleague Abraham Lincoln early in 1860. Wellman Packard mentioned that his brother-in-law, Sunderland, had been in Ohio, and recently returned to Illinois, and heard in Ohio some enthusiasm for the idea that Lincoln should run for President.
So I had some location information for N. S. Sunderland -- Ohio and Illinois. Wellman Packard, and several of his siblings, lived in Bloomington, Illinois. So I started there, in McLean County, where Bloomington is, with the 1860 census. And there he was, not in Bloomington, but in Towanda, which is not very far from Bloomington. I did a general search on Ancestry, and found quite a list of possible sources: a Civil War draft registration record, a marriage record between N. S. and Rachel Harris. More census records; several of 'em. An extensive and very informative obituary. Land purchase records. With maps.
N. S. was born in Ohio; I now have the place and the date. I'm pretty sure this is the N. S. Sunderland mentioned in Wellman Packard's letter. He is the only N. S. Sunderland in McLean County in 1860. He had a farm in Towanda, 375 highly productive acres. He had four horses, four donkeys, 3 milch cows (cows giving milk), 3 other cattle (type unspecified), and 18 swine. His livestock was valued at $1,200, which in 2023 dollars, would be $21,837.89. His farm, exclusive of livestock or crops, was valued at $11,000, or $200,180.65 in 2023 dollars. Not bad!
According to the 1860 census agricultural schedule, N. S. grew wheat (1700 bushels in 1860), Indian corn (1000 bushels), Irish potatoes (50 bushels), barley (200 bushels), and 30 tons of hay. Unfortunately, there is no valuation of these crops. He was prosperous.
I have the information, and have made notes on legal pad or on forms I use to gather preliminary information on people who may or may not be related. Now to determine how N. S. Sunderland was Wellman Packard's brother-in-law. I haven't yet found a sister of Wellman's married to anyone named Sunderland. I'm going to have to look at Rachel Harris's siblings, providing I find her verifiable in census records. And I need to bone up on middle-19th-Century notions of what constituted a "brother-in-law. Was that term used as loosely as "cousin" has been in some regions? Then to investigate whether there actually is any kinship between N. S. Sunderland's family and my mother's Sunderlands. My mother's people were from Indiana, so the possibility is there. And maybe I should make a wild assumption now and then. Never know what I might find.
7 comments:
I agree that sometimes the "oh what the heck" attitude to research is rewarded. I found two cabinet cards picturing my hub's GGM and GGGM at the Oklahoma Historical Society that way, as well as a GGM's listing in the 1880 Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent schedule, enumerated in an asylum. In both cases, I just thought I would enter names in a search box just to see. You just never know what you might find. I'm not saying be willy-nilly in one's research, but there is a place for the "Hail Mary" pass once in a while, in addition to thoughtful, reasoned research.
@Nancy Gilbride Casey - Absolutely one must, in the main, be scrupulous in research, following the Genealogical Proof Standard and not just go off "willy-nilly" as a common practice. It is only occasionally I go on a hunch or even a dare, and take a stab at just seeing if there is anything there. I haven't reached the goal line yet. I may be on the 50-yard-line, which means there's lots of reasonably exhaustive research to do yet. Or, as one wag has put it, "reasonably exhausting" research! That, too. Thank you for your comment, and for reading my blog entry.
Sunderlands on both sides of the family tree? Definitely worth investigating. Maybe coincidence but possibly not, so I agree with your pursuit of this possibility.
Could be a coincidence, but you never know! Definitley worth checking into. Happy hunting! :)
It's always worth investigating people connected with your family. Great work on N. S. I hope you are able to determine if there is a connection between the two sides.
"Oh, what the heck" is the battle cry of the genealogist :-) I've found lots of family history detail that way! One thought on the brother-in-law issue, perhaps Wellman Packard was married to a sister of N.S.?
@Molly of Molly's Canopy -- The answer was: sisters. I tend to overthink things. Here's the info on the relationship: Looking for Complexity in all the Wrong Places.
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