ROOTS & BRANCHES

I’ll call Brian Miller an “Internet cousin” of mine since we’ve only met virtually.

He occasionally shares information not only about family we have in common but also about other searches he makes and the hypotheses that result.

“I am researching my great-great-grandmother, Anna May (Bender) Tolbert (1868–1938),” Miller wrote recently. “Her death certificate indicates her parents as William Bender and Mary Muttspach.”

An 1870 U.S. Census listing for Chambersburg basically confirmed this for Miller and added likely siblings were Abby, Martha and John.

“I was then able to trace Anna’s family back to the 1860 U.S. Census in Mount Joy, Adams County, for her parents and two probable older siblings James and Abby,” Miller continued.

Living next door to the 1860 William Bender household is a John and Margaret Bender, whose household includes another William Bender just one year older than Miller’s. Also with them is a Harriet Wolf and Harriet’s daughter Sarah.

In 1850 for Mount Joy, Miller found John Bender and his wife Rebecca, with son William. There was no second William Bender but two Wolf families living next door (including a George Wolfe and wife Margaret). He found a marriage for Harriet Bender and Michael Wolf.

Miller had a couple of hypotheses: He thought the second William in 1860 might be a mistake by whoever gave the census taker the information. “It’s obvious that John Bender’s first wife, Rebecca must have passed before 1860 and John remarried a woman by the name of Margaret.” Miller thought that this Margaret might be the widow of George Wolf.

I agreed with him about the “one William theory,” for the exact reasons he cited..

As for Margaret and Rebecca, what he put forth was plausible. But I advised to was also possible that they’re the same woman, since there are a significant number of Pennsylvania German instances in which women born Margaret / Margaretha later are known as (or use interchangeably) the name Rebecca.

Why you ask? The thought is based on how close nicknames Becky and Peggy are pronounced with a PA German accent.

As it turned out, Miller did some additional research and found they both lived into the 1870s.

This is how genealogy often works—you put forth a hypothesis and then research at either proving it or “breaking” it.

And each time you “break” one, you get right back on the hypothesis horse and try again.

Miller’s ancestors William passed in 1879 and his wife Mary died in 1877, which is a difficult time period—too early for state-kept vital records and before more detailed obituaries came into vogue.  

But he’s still trying, one hypothesis at a time.