52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 31 – July 29 - August 4, 2024
End of the Line
We all have them, we all spend time searching for them, but many of us cannot complete their family tree stories. Of course I mean "End of the Line" ancestors. They are very akin to those perplexing “brick wall” ancestors. Or, it may mean an ancestor with "no issue" or "no children." For the purposes of this blog post I will concentrate on an ancestor of which I have not been able to ascertain any further familial information.
An easy way to identify end of line ancestors, although I am sure that you readily know who these difficult-to-research ancestors are without my guidance, there may be some that you have forgotten about or who you haven’t looked their information lately. Here’s my tip: Use a family tree Fan Chart of your own making or one that you may utilize in a genealogical program. They all have them now. If you have color coded the families, you can begin with a recent ancestor and choose the fan chart option. The Fan chart will easily populate and you will quickly notice the empty spaces or “holes” in your family tree chart. You can then choose the one ancestor about whom you want to conduct more research.
My paternal 2nd great-grandmother as I think she may have appeared in the 1850s
The ancestor whom I am most obsessed with discovering information about is my paternal 2nd great-grandmother. Her given name was Catharine or Catherine, and her marriage surname was McGhee. However, her surname at birth has remained a puzzle to me.
Here’s what I do know, she was born sometime around the year 1816 according to her recorded age of 34 years on the 1850 U.S. Federal Census for Dunstable Township, Clinton County, Pennsylvania on 20 November 1850. She was a white female married to James McGhee, a white male, my paternal 2nd great-grandfather, and the mother of five children, four boys and one girl, between the ages of nine and one years old. Her children’s names were William, Amanda, Sam’l (Samuel), Joseph, and Ross (Isaac was his first given name) who was my great-grandfather. The census enumerator lists everyone in the family as having been born in Pennsylvania. Her husband, James’ occupation was listed as shoemaker.
I also know, according to my paternal grandmother, Ruth McGhee Allen, or through possible family lore, that the McGhee family supposedly moved from “somewhere in the southern United States” at sometime during our ancestral family history.
Some of the facts that I did uncover led to these questions: 1.) Were James and Catharine actually born in Pennsylvania? 2.) Were Catharine and James married in Pennsylvania or another state around the year 1840? 3.) Were any of the close neighbors of the McGhees from Catharine’s family?
I have researched the name James McGhee from the years 1817, presuming that is the year that he was born according to his age on the 1850 census. Several James McGhees have popped up but none that I can be remotely certain was my paternal 2nd great-grandfather.
I have also researched marriages from the years 1835 to 1842 in Pennsylvania and in U.S, states further south searching for a James McGhee and have not found any that would fit into that time period. So far, a brick wall on that question.
Utilizing the FAN (family, associates, and neighbors) approach to my research, searching in the same township and county in Pennsylvania in which they lived in 1850, it seems unlikely that any of those people were Catharine’s relatives. The FAN approach to ancestry can take quite a bit of research time. It is also named "cluster research."
The common surname of McGhee is usually identified being of Scottish ancestry. So, I began with names on the same page of the 1850 census that may give me a hint to Scottish ancestry. I also focused on German surnames as I know from my DNA analysis that I have at least 29% German ancestry and it comes from my paternal side.
The surname of Wise and along with other German surnames did appear several times, in fact most of the adult enumerated residents in Dunstable Township were recorded as having been born in Pennsylvania or were first generation German immigrants themselves. There were two families of which the heads were from Ireland, two from England, one from Connecticut, and one from New York. All of the heads of the families were either tradesmen or farmers, one was a tavern keeper, and one was a clergyman. The farmers also seemed to have the most wealth in the township due to personal real estate ownership. The McGhees did not have any real estate value recorded in column 8 (the value of real estate owned) of the 1860 U.S. Federal census.
All except one of the heads of family residents were between the ages of mid-fifties to mid-twenties. Could one or more of the adults have been among Catharine’s relatives? It is possible. However, none were originally from the southern United States. I took the extra time and researched the names and families of each of the residents, yet I came up empty.
A poor farming family before the U.S. Civil War
My assumption is that the McGhees were a poor family, living and possibly renting a home on the land of a local farmer. James’ occupation was shoemaker. The occupation of shoemaker probably provided a steady, yet meager, income as new shoes were difficult and expensive to obtain. Shoes, especially those of a farmer, were required and probably repaired often. Children’s shoes were usually repaired and passed down to younger siblings.
I also took the time to research the surnames of McGee and McGhie, of which James’ surname may have morphed from or into. My paternal grandmother, Ruth, was also adamant about the McGhee spelling with the “h.”
Turning to the 1840 U.S. Census, I found a census from Haines Township, close to Dunstable
Township, where a head of household was recorded as James McGhee. There were two males, one between twenty and thirty years of age and one male between thirty and forty years of age residing in the home. No female resident was recorded as living in the home who would have been between the years of fifteen and twenty years of age as Catharine would have been at that time.
I did find a Catherine McGhee listed as a member in the First Church of Christ in Lock Haven, Clinton County, Pennsylvania, a town close to Haines Township, as being baptized in the church on 28 January 1866 and then excluded from membership on 16 February 1867. I have doubts as to whether this was my 2nd great-grandmother, Catharine as I have found no other records pertaining to her between the 1850 and 1860 U.S. Federal Census.
As of the 1860 census I have not found any Catharine, or Catherine, McGhee who would be of the approximate age of my Catharine. In fact, in that census Ross (or Isaac) was recorded as being eleven years old and living with a family with the surname "Thompson" in Lamar Township, Clinton County, Pennsylvania. His state of birth was recorded as Pennsylvania, he was attending school, and had no occupation. My question relating to this discovery was: Why was Ross was living apart from his family and where were his parents, James and Catharine.
I looked further into where the McGhee siblings were residing in 1860 and found Joseph McGhee living with a family having the surname of Mader in Allison Township, Clinton County, Pennsylvania, a township near to Haines Township, and as having the occupation of plasterer. He was listed as being eighteen years of age (an exaggeration of his real age) and having been born in Pennsylvania. This probably was another one of the McGhee siblings. But again, where were the parents James and Catharine?
I found no Amanda McGhee, b. 1843, in any U.S. Federal Census after 1860. No James McGhee or Catharine McGhee was found in the 1860 census. I did find William S. McGhee in censuses after 1860 but it led me to find no information about Catharine.
Cannons in line from the U.S. Civil War
I do know that Isaac Ross, his brothers, and most probably his father, James, served in the Union Army beginning in about 1861. It is interesting to note that Isaac and two of his brothers enlisted under false pretenses, all three of them having lied about their ages as they were really too young to serve in the Union Army. This was a common occurrence at the time of enlistment. It seemed that the person I assume was his father James, also lied about his age. He would have been 44 years in 1861 and listed his age at enlistment as 39 years. But, sadly, still no record of Catharine or Amanda was found in and around the year 1860.
The genealogical techniques that I employed in my search for Catharine’s surname were:
1. Creating a timeline – I began with her approximate birthdate and ended with her assumed death date and added everything I knew about her in between, which, unfortunately was not much. I put her lifespan into a historical perspective, especially the years surrounding the U. S. Civil War. I checked into county histories, but to no avail.
2. Knowing her name, her husband’s name, and her children’s names – I used different spellings of Catharine (Catherine) and different spellings of her marriage surname.
3. Asking around – I have corresponded with various people on Ancestry.com. Unfortunately, none of the owners of the family trees in which Catharine McGhee appeared had any further information.
4. Exploring records – as evidenced in the paragraphs before this list I did check for birth, christening, marriage, death, and cemetery records. In addition, I scanned social, religious groups, and historical groups for any information. It was as if she did not exist after the year of 1860.
5. Investigating her associates – using the FAN (Family Associates and Neighbors) method, I still came up with no viable leads.
And so, Catharine or Catherine McGhee’s birth surname and her ancestral family will remain a mystery to me for now. Alas, such is the case in many a family tree.
Searching for information about a "missing ancestor"
As in all genealogy searches, other digital records or new databases may pop up in the near or far future, or, if I have the occasion to visit a central Pennsylvania historical society I will search in their records for her. As for now, I will continue to monitor her marriage surname, her husband’s information, and her children’s information.
Unfortunately women ancestors' surnames are often difficult to discover. Sadly, Catharine McGhee is currently one of my “end of line” ancestors.
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