We'll Be Back

Our recent trip to Ellicottville prompted me to take another look at our connections there.  This is where our Nevins family in America took root.  I can say this with fair confidence now that I have some new information about John Nevins, Mom's great grandfather.  I don't think it's a small coincidence in the cosmic genealogy world that Dad took a job in Ellicottville and lived there himself for a while but that's already been covered!

When I undertook a review of the Nevins/Ellicottville research, I found a document that shed new light and re-invigorated by research efforts. 

This is a copy of a page from the Cattaragus County/Ellicottville Draft Registration for the US Civil War as of July 1 1863.  You will see a John Nevins listed at the very top of the page as a 30 year old single farmer born in Canada.  This may seem like a small piece of information, but for my research, it broke through a bit of a brick wall that I'd been banging my head against for several years.  I feel quite certain this is "our" John and it places him in Ellicottville in 1863.  I knew he married Julia Fisher in 1866 somewhere in New York, and now I feel quite certain they married in Cattaraugus County.  Placing a person in a location within a time period is a very critical piece of genealogical information.  I am quite thrilled.  You may stop yawning now.

I do not believe John actually enlisted.  There were a number of draft registrations for Union soldiers--1863 was the first.  John appears to be a Class 1 which makes it seem as though he could have enlisted and served.  Each county had a quota of men to provide for service but it appears he was not called to enlist nor did he choose to enlist.  I may yet find that he did indeed serve but perhaps from another location.  We saw this with Grampie Brown (he enlisted from Wisconsin when his home was in Buffalo NY) and presume it is related to the enlistment bounties paid.  Counties or regions tried to "up the ante" with their required numbers by offering a bounty for enlistment and it was not uncommon for potential soldiers to shop around their services to obtain the better bounty money.  Substitutes could also be "bought" for a drafted solider so this is another possibility for John though I believe it unlikely that a farmer would be able to pay for a substitute.  OK, done with the history lesson for this post.

On to the Fishers.  My attention to Ellicottville Nevins must also include the Fishers.  Julia Fisher Nevins had a brother Christopher who also lived in the Ellicottville area.  I was reviewing holes in my research and noticed that his family needed some attention from me.  Christopher had 6 children and I decided to concentrate on the males since it's a little easier to track them down.  This decision led me to a very odd, sad story that I thought you'd like to hear.

Christopher's oldest son Mathew married Catherine Simons and had a child Eveline May born April 22 1896 in Ellicottville according to church records.  This family lived in Ohio in the 1900 census and I was unable to find them after that which was weird because of the young child and their fairly easy names.  I couldn't let that go and kept looking finally finding the following:

Evelyn Mae Fisher, 7 years old, died of cold and exposure on a street corner in Spokane Washington in 1904.  Her last residence was listed as Elk British Columbia.  This haunts me.  How did this happen?  I've gotten no further in this story line but it feels a little bit liking I'm taking a commercial break on the Who Do You Think You Are? show.  We'll be back after the following messages from our sponsors.