Catherine Grimes Ancestors

I've already done a lot for the descendants of Catherine Grimes Bennett Wellman, but little for her ancestors. As expected, others have done the heavy lifting, and the most significant ancestry chain is through her mother, Elizabeth Spears Grimes. The line goes back to the early 1500s with John Gentry, born about 1510. Another path links back to England in the 15th century, with relationships including the royal family and the family of Anne Boleyn.

Her father's line, Samuel B. Grimes seems to be a brick wall for most researchers, with his parents,  Leonard Grimes and his wife Jan Vandeveer, the only known ancestors. However, there is a lot of research on the Van Der Veer name, and I'm hoping I can find a solid link somewhere from that information.

There also seems to be some confusion about the spouse of Samuel B. Grimes. Christina Pearson's
Descendants of William M. Bennett contains the quote

It appears that the families of William and Rebecca Pittman Bennett and Samuel and Susan Goble Grimes were very close. Six of William and Rebecca's sons married six of Samuel and Susan's daughters.

However, Christina's own Ancestors of Christina Marie Wise Brown indicates a different descendancy with Samuel and Elizabeth Spears being spouses, and Sarah being their daughter, born in 1821. I suspect the 1821 date is supposed to be 1811.

Elledge Family Tree also indicates that Elizabeth Spears was Samuel B. Grimes' spouse with an 1815 marriage date. Susan Goble is listed as a second spouse, but no marriage date is listed.

Sarah "Sally" Grimes is shown as having been born in 1811, and all others born after 1819, so Susan may have been his first wife.

The Family group sheet for Samuel Grimes and Susan Goble on Yatesville indicates only Sarah and Dicey Grimes. Sarah married James Bennett, Dicey married Alonzo Bennett, both sons of William M. Bennett. But Susan Goble is listed as having been born about 1800. In 1811, she would have only been 11 years old.

Kendall-Paul Family Lines has a John Grimes as a son of Samuel and Susan, with a birth in 1819.

Elizabeth Hammond Bennett

Elizabeth Hammond Bennett (as well as her husband William H. Bennett) have been somewhat difficult to document accurately. I've seen documents that place Elizabeth's birth anywhere between 1841 to 1849, and William's birth typically about 1852-1854, Census figures from 1870 show an eight year discrepancy in their ages (Elizabeth 25, William 17) and if accurate makes 1845 her birth year.

In the 1870 Census, Elizabeth in not shown in the household of Elijah Hammond, which is consistent with her  1869 marriage.

However, the 1900 Census, which indicates only Samuel at home, has her birth recorded as August 1843. Samuel's is listed as November 1876, which is accurate compared to other known data. Since the census was taken June 1 - 21, 1900, this is prior to Samuel and Hattie's marriage on 8/15/1900.

WPA Death Index contains an entry

142	Bennett, Elizabeth, Died 1933, age 92 years.	BK-6
	Pin Hook Cemetery, Syria, Indiana.

Doing the math, this reference would be 1841.

In the cemetery book at Syria Cemetery,

BENNETT, Elizabeth b. 31 Aug. 1843 d. 26 Nov. 1933 Wife of William; Daughter of Elizabeth Hammond Bennett. It is also noted in the cemetery book that, although she is buried there, there is no stone.

In the 1850 census, Elizabeth is listed as age "1" on June 1, 1850 (enumerated July 29, 1850). If August is considered her birth month, then 1848 is her birth year. If they were giving approximate age, the 1849 could be the year.

Mary is listed as age 7, which might be an 1843 birth. Pure speculation: is this maybe our Elizabeth, perhaps "Mary Elizabeth"? Makes some of the math work. And one of her daughters is Mary Elizabeth Bennett.

Sent this message to Bonnie Gay Christensen

Bonnie,

I believe these two separate entries in your database are actually the same person.

Nancy Crook: http://awt.ancestrylibrary.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=gayfamilyfile&id=I189238&ti=5542

Nancy S. Cook: http://awt.ancestrylibrary.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=gayfamilyfile&id=I091212&ti=5542

Nancy was my wife's great-great-grandmother. However, the association between the two Nancy entries is by deductive reasoning (support by other Internet searches), and not supported by any documents in my possession.

With this post, I'm going to finally start documenting some of the genealogy research I've been doing, at least as far as logging it when it happens. So far, the bulk has been on the Bennett family, and it's all posted at Family Tree - Bennett. I'm thinking about creating a new site for it, which should be pretty easy to do.

Today I made some significant inroads into the ancestry of Elizabeth Hammond Bennett. There's a lot of misinformation and inaccuracies that I will be wading though, and hope to zero in on something that is an approximation of reality.

I e-mailed two potential family contacts, coincidentally both named Terry. First was Terry L. Linthicum, whose "Linthicums from North Carolina" web site links in Elizabeth Hammonds.

The send is Terry Bigler, who has information on Elizabeth's ancestors at "Ancestors of Bobbie Ann Howard".

I also listened to several podcasts about genealogy.

They say Tom Waits is an acquired taste. I'm not sure I'll ever acquire it.

Rockford Holiday Inn - finally booked.

It's a lazy day. After my nap, I intend to rest until it's time to go to bed.

When life gives you eggs, make egg salad.

Today's Sacramento Bee mentions that Ethel and Todd Rundgren will appear at Mondavi Center in Davis, CA on November 3.