One Thing Leads to Another continued

In the process of adding what I knew about the VanGosbecks to my Tucker FamilySearch.org tree on Saturday, my eye caught the name Hosmer. What? I didn’t think I had that name in my family tree. When I finished with the VanGosbecks, I went over to the Cleveland/Hosner line and sure enough, someone (s) had changed the name of Isaac Hosner to Hosmer. Not only that, they changed the name of each one of his ten children!

My first reaction was – what are they doing messing with my family? Then I realized that maybe there was something I missed, and where did the name Hosner originate?

I am fortunate to have a copy of the handwritten journal of Adaline Cleveland Hosner (1809-1882). I also have a copy of the typed transcription of her journal, as well as a copy of The Pioneer Clevelands, from the Journal of Adaline Cleveland Hosner and the family records preserved by her granddaughter Mrs. Jessie Agard (my great-grandmother).

There still could be a mistake in transcription that has been carried forward, so I was thankful I could refer to the original document covering the years 1838-7 August 1882. The handwritten copy was difficult to read, so I went to the transcribed version and went through line by line hoping I would come across the last name of Adaline’s husband. I finally found where she called him by last name, but the fear remained that it was transcribed that way for clarification and that when I got to the primary source, Adaline would refer to him as “husband,” or Mr. H.

But that was not the case. On page 29 (transcriptionist number) of the primary document, Adaline mentions her husband as “Hosner.” This name appears a second time because she is writing about her husband suing his neighbor for allegedly poisoning their horse and she takes a third person approach.

So I had my proof of the spelling of the name Hosner. I had to then change each one of the entries back to Hosner (from Hosmer) and explain each time why I thought it was correct.

One of Adaline and Isaac’s children, Ervin, changed their family name to Hausner, so that name runs through this family line. And there may be a line that eventually changed their name to Hosmer and I am excited to learn about them. BUT, they should NOT be changing the original name that is clearly Hosner.