15 March 2011

Watching for Names, Migration Chains, Etc.


I don't normally post things that are this "half-baked," but there are several lessons here and one of these days I'll fill in the details and make a Casefile Clues article out of at least part of this.


The History of Bedford, Somerset, and Fulton Counties, Pennsylvania, on page 376 has a biography of Thomas Chaney. I've been using this biography, combined with an analysis I did of Thomas Chaney's pre-1850 census entries for an upcoming article.
In my preliminary work, I've been trying to find these chidlren of Thomas Chaney in various census records. Some success...and some failure.
A Google search turned up a reference on the Coshocton County, Ohio, Genweb site from Justice of the Peace James Shores (http://coshoctonohio.pa-roots.com/justicepeaceshore.html):

"James Rampley vs. Corbin Treadway, & Daniel Crow, surety: Suit brought to recover $14.72, dated 1 October 1842. Thomas Treadway gave Thomas Sharpless his note. Paid in full."
The Crow last name struck my fancy as it was the married last name of one of Thomas Chaney's daughters. The James Rampley in the 1842 suit was the husband of Thomas Chaney's daughter Elizabeth. I got to wondering.
A search on Ancestry.com for Daniel Crow did not immediately reveal a wife with the right first name. I'm still looking. But what was interesting is that Daniel Crow was apparently born in Pennsylvania, was in Coshocton County, Ohio, along with James Rampley.
And, according to the tree submission at Ancestry.com (which needs to be doublechecked), Daniel Crow lived in Walker Township, Hancock County, Illinois, after he lived in Coshocton County, Ohio.
And that's the same township where James Rampley settled when he came to Illinois.
Migration chains---always be on the lookout for migration chains. I have a lot of work to do on the children of Thomas Chaney, but I was reminded that if some of them "disappear" I need to be looking near where other children of his settled.
Lots of work to be done before this one appears in Casefile Clues, but always be on the watch for migration patterns.