The Mysterious Harriett N. (Wortman) Crippen

A Wortman family researcher contacted me recently about Harriett N. (Wortman) Crippen. This “cousin” has worked hard, for years, trying to learn more about Harriett who was born abt 1833-1836, presumably to Jeremiah Clark Wortman and Phebe Brundage. That couple had four children (assuming Harriet is their first). The others are: Marilda J. (Wortman) Mitchell, Frances (Wortman) Covert, and Mary (Wortman) Thorpe.

Jeremiah Clark Wortman died in 1845, the same year Mary was born. Harriett married Jackson H. Crippen in September 1850. That same year widow Phebe (Brundage) Wortman married Lewis Halsey Wortman (not a brother; cousin?).

The Crippens had a daughter, Flora who died in 1892. Flora married Herman Cornell and had three children.

My “cousin” wants to confirm that Harriett N. Wortman is the daughter of Jeremiah Clark and Phebe (Brundage) Wortman.

A Baby Genealogist Grows Up – Part I

I started to seriously research the various lines of my family in 1997. One of those lines was of my great-grandmother Laura (Wortman) Hardenbrook.  At the time an Internet search brought me to the Wortman line “documented” by a fellow researcher. I contacted him and he sent me the family chart which starts with William Wortman b: bef 1810 up through my grandmother Maude Emma (Hardenbrook) Agard.

The Wortmans of Jacksonville, NY

This was great! I copied the information from the chart into my Word document and started researching William and Mary (Gordon) Wortman’s eleven children. That was all well and good until this weekend, when I revisited this family line and found I had no valid citations as to how these lines are connected. When I was a baby genealogist, I had taken what another researcher had done (without citations of how he proved this family line) and had thought it gospel.

I have to start again – a genealogy do-over – and carefully trace this family line back through the census and then into books and archives to see if my Wortman line indeed goes back to the family of William and Mary C. (Gordon) Wortman, who I believe came to Upstate New York from New Jersey. This revelation was discouraging, but on the bright side, it forced me to pull out my original binder and read what I had written many years ago.

The good news – My Binder

My large 3 ring binder holds write-ups on my various family lines. I was pleased to see that I had a nice title page, a beautifully written introduction (featuring the genealogical lines that were united when my parents were married in 1941), a table of contents (organized starting with the earliest arrival of Rev. John Lowthropp in Barnstable, MA in mid-1600s to my Nunn/Doyle side arriving New York City late 1800s), disclaimer page, family and social history time line. Somewhere I have a medical history chart started as well. I will have to find that and include. My binder has separation tabs for each family line, some chapters have family charts, some have a draft index, and I have an overall draft index at the end.

I’m Encouraged

Although discouraged by the state of my Wortman family research, I am encouraged by what I have accomplished overall in writing my family history book. I have finished monographs on my Hardenbrook and Nunn lines. I've been working on the Tucker family, and now, of course, I'll have to add the Wortmans to my to-do list.

New Resources

What I love about genealogy is I keep learning new things, and I know I will never be done. Whether you are just starting or a seasoned researcher, take advantage of two new books: Genealogy Basics in 30 Minutes by Shannon Combs-Bennett and Planning a Future for Your Family’s Past by Marian Burk Wood. Both books are well written and reasonably priced. Both books found on Amazon.

Part 2 of this blog will discuss file folders, indexing, and decisions I have to make for the next steps. In the meantime, I wish you happy researching.  

Happy New Year

Now that I have posted my modest genealogy goals for 2014, in the light of a new year I face the harsh reality of those mysteries and stubborn brick walls that continue to haunt me.  At the top of the list is the Nunn family.

Of German descent Joseph and Catherina Kurz Nunn had ten children. With the parents both gone by June 1900, all but one of the children were placed in St. Joseph’s Home, Peekskill, NY.  It remains a mystery as to the adult lives of my grandfather’s siblings, Emma Nunn Dorn, Emilie, Joseph, Katie and George, and last but not least the eldest child, Elizabeth Nunn Siebert and descendents of her oldest child, Regina Siebert Eberhard. Followers may remember (or maybe not) that three years ago a comment was made on my blog from Martha Eberhard, wife of Gerard, one of Regina’s sons. I was thrilled. I immediately responded, but never heard another word and had no other way to contact her.  From an emotional high, as time passed with no word, I was devastated.  I don’t know what happened, though I suspect some family crisis intervened, or the family does not want to be found. If I could have 30 minutes with one person from history, it would be with Elizabeth Nunn Seibert. She holds the key to what happened to this family. Her story is amazing.

Of Irish descent are the Conlons and Doyles.  They, too, are a difficult bunch, living in a small Manhattan apartment with any number of “cousins” moving in and out.  Patrick and Maggie Conlon Doyle had six children, only two that lived.  My grandmother was one, but what happened to her sister Winnie? I never heard her mention a sister.

I have ignored my Wortman family line over the past several years.  It is time to focus on that line again.

So, my modest to-do list for 2014 isn’t so very modest at all. I have a lot of work to do. I had better get at it.  

The Willow Creek Evaporator - 1904

As genealogists it is only natural to wonder how our ancestors met.  Until I read the following article from the Ithaca Daily News I suspected my great-grandparents, Enos Hardenbrook and Laura Wortman probably met at the Jacksonville (NY) Community Church or at one of the Grange suppers. I now understand they could have gotten to know each other working at “The Evaporator.”

Willow Creek, October 20, 1904 - Davis, Vann & Boit Employ Large Force – 180 Bushels of Apples Dried Daily

The firm of Davis, Vann & Boit opened its evaporator. One hundred and eighty bushels of apples are peeled and dried daily. They have employed Mr. and Mrs. Lee Cleveland, Elmer Kimpland, Miss Myrtle Brink and Mr. and Mrs. E.R. Boit of Wolcott, Frank Dell of Corning, George Manning, Enos Hardenbrook, Mrs. N. Simpson, the Misses Minerva Taylor and Laura Wortman of Jacksonville and Harry Onan of this place.

Enos and Laura were married June 8, 1905 at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Jacksonville, NY by the Reverend M. J. Owen.

Many thanks to the Old Fulton NY Post Cards website for continuing to add newspaper articles that help us learn about the day-to-day lives of our ancestors.