The Will of George Brewer of Brunswick Co., Virginia, 1741

From the start it should be made clear that George Brewer of Brunswick County, Virginia is not related to any of the original Brouwer families of New Netherland and colonial New York and New Jersey. He lived in Brunswick Co., Virginia where he died between 1742 and 1744, and his ancestry is not known. Since the Brewer DNA Project's inception in 2006, participation in the Project has grown considerably. Today, the single largest group of Y-DNA tested participants in the Project belong to the group that has been labeled (on the Y-DNA results page) as "Lanier - Brewer" (although among us, we more often refer to it as Brewer-Lanier).

By my count, as of today, we have 58 participants assigned to the Lanier - Brewer group. Of these 58, we have received pedigrees from 39 of the participants (we would very much like to see pedigrees from the 19 who have not yet submitted one). It has also come to our attention, that of the 39 pedigrees received, none, NOT ONE, can prove an ancestry back to George Brewer, the earliest known, or I should say believed, ancestor (EBA?) for this group. For this reason Brouwer Genealogy will be devoting a handful of posts to problem of finding a verifiable pedigree for at least one of the believed genetic descendants of George Brewer. This process will start with identifying the family of George Brewer. To do that we will use the one and only known verifiable instrument suitable for that purpose - his will.

George Brewer's will is found in Brunswick County, Virginia, Will Book 2, pages 19-20. To my knowledge no copy of the original can be found online. While Family Search has been adding millions of digital images to their collection, they have not yet added probate records from Brunswick County, Virginia (just recently they did add images for Isle of Wight County Records, 1634-1951, so hopefully Brunswick Co. will be coming soon). My copy of the will comes from Diane Daniel who obtained her copy at the Brunswick County Clerk of the Courts Office in Lawrenceville, Virginia. The copy has been scanned to a PDF and is now available online - The Will of George Brewer of Brunswick Co., Virginia. Below you will find JPEG scans of the same.

George Brewer's will has been transcribed or abstracted in a few published accounts of his family and descendants. The published works, all of which contain serious errors but have been relied upon by present day descendants, will be covered in a follow up post. Here, and for now, we will simply provide a transcription of the important points in the will.

George Brewer's will is dated 13 July 1741. The document opens with "I George Brewer in the County of Brunswick Virginia being very sick and weak in body but of perfect mind..." the preamble continues and at line 15 begins the all important legacies.

"I give Devise and bequeath unto my Son William Brewer that parcel of Land whereon he now Dwelleth beginning at the branch on this side of his house and w on the South side thereof to him & his heirs forever."

"I Devise and bequeath unto my son Oliver Brewer all the rest of this Tract of Land where on I now Dwell to him and his heirs forever."

"I give Devise and bequeath unto my son Henry Brewer all that Tract of Land between Fountain Creek and Rattle Snake Creek to him and his heirs forever."

"I give Devise and bequeath unto my son Nathaniel Brewer two hundred and fifty acres of Land lying on both sides of the old Roanoak Road to him and his heirs forever."

"I give Devise and bequeath unto my Daughter Sarah Vick one hundred and fifty acres of Land lying on both sides of the old Roanoak Road aforesaid to her and the heirs of her body forever."

"I give and bequeath unto Alice* my Dearly beloved wife this Estate whereon we now Dwell together with all my household goods and Stock both within Doors and without Doors for the maintainance of all my Younger Children that it hath pleased God to give me by her during her Life or until she marry again."

"I give unto my son Lanier Brewer a young steer." **

"I give unto my son George Brewer a young steer."

"I give unto my son Nicholas Brewer a cow and calf."

"I give unto my son John Brewer a cow and calf."

"I give unto my son Howl Brewer a young horse that we call Snip and Feathers to make him a bed."

"I give unto my son Henry Brewer a young horse that we call Patrick and a gunn."

"I give unto my son Oliver Brewer a gunn."

"I give unto my son Nathaniel Brewer a gunn."

"It is my true will intent and pleasure that when my wife die or marry again that my personal estate together with all my household goods and stock both within Doors and without Doors maybe equally divided among my younger children that hath pleased God to give me by her."

"And Lastly I do hereby Constitute make and ordain my Dearly beloved wife Alice my Exctx and my son Hoel Brewer my Excor of this my Last will and Testament..."

After revoking any and all previous wills, George Brewer signs with his mark, a G. The witnesses are recorded as Duglas Powell, ?? (possibly Wm or Mr) Shaw, John Norwood.

The will was presented to the Court held at Brunswick County on "2d day of Augt 1744," by Alice Brewer and Howell Brewer the Executors.

*It should be noted that the handwriting in the original the letters l and d, when in small case are stunted (for lack of a better word). The letter, l, in particular can be mistaken for the letter, r (ex: Alice has been transcribed as "Arice" by others).

**the last word "steer" is not at all clear but it is what has been transcribed in earlier accounts, so we will continue with until it is demonstrated to have been something else.

A description of George Brewer's family and an analysis of his Will, will be undertaken in a forthcoming post.

George Brewer's Will (image 1)

George Brewer's Will (image 2)

George Brewer's Will (image 3)

George Brewer's Will (image 4)

A great deal of thanks goes out to Diane Daniel for providing the photocopies of the original will. The original pages are large, seventeen inches long and about ten inches wide. There were two original pages. To accommodate scanning such large pages on a scanner with a "normal" bed (11" x 8 1/2") each page was divided into two. From two original pages we have four scanned images and there is a slight overlap between the first and second images and between the third and fourth images.

Correction: Dec. 17, 2014, Third paragraph, sixth line, "Lawrenceville, North Carolina" in original post corrected to Lawrenceville, Virginia.

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How I Use Family Search to Find a Specific Record

Family Search, which can trace it's origins back to the creation of the Genealogical Society of Utah in 1894, is a website dedicated to preserving and sharing the worlds largest collection of genealogical and historical records. Over the course of just the past through years the Family Search online collection of records and indexes has grown to include tens of millions of records, images and index entries. This has been a terrific boon to genealogy researchers that is made even more valuable because access is free.

The large number of records, and the fact that many of them are not indexed or included in search results, can make using the website a bit daunting. I have heard from more than a few who have become discouraged when using the site. Although the method I use to navigate and locate a possible record of interest might seem to some to be a bit too much work, my high rate of success with it (i.e. finding what I was looking for) makes it worth while.

Generally, the way someone might approach using the Family Search website is to begin at the main page and then choose one of the categories they find under the Search button, say for example, "Records" which when selected opens up the Search Historical Records page. For an example, say I'm looking for John Brewer in Hancock County, Georgia. On that Search Historical Records page, I'd enter his name in the appropriate spaces and I'd add in the "Restrict records by location" section, "United States" and then "Georgia." Note that this does not let me narrow down to the county level. What I end up with is a display of a little less than 3000 entries. For those who are just starting a search for John Brewer in Hancock County, Georgia, this may be a fine place to start. You can play around with the various filters on the side bar and hopefully narrow down and find some entries for the specific John Brewer you are looking for. But, say you had a specific record in mind that you wished to locate. In my case, I wanted to locate the images for the 1802 will of John Brewer of Hancock County, Georgia. There is a direct way to locate this record. Here is how I went about doing it.

I start at the main page. 

Select "Search" then "Records" which takes me to Search Historical Records.

Scroll down to the map "Research by Location" and click on the area of the U.S. This brings up a pop-up window from which you select the state to research. Chose Georgia, which changes the window, then select "Start Searching in Georgia" which takes you to the main page for Georgia records and indexes.

If you scroll down you will see a list of database collections related to Georgia. Under the heading "Georgia Image Only Historical Records" there are a number of collections that have not been indexed and cannot be searched. But you can browse through them.

Scroll down and under the sub-heading "Probate & Court" click on Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990 which opens up the Georgia Probate Records page.

Now click on "Browse Through 2,280,204 Images" which leads to a list of the counties in Georgia.

Chose the County you wish to browse in. Choosing Hancock opens up the page for Hancock County.

Scroll through the list of Record Types to find "Wills and Administration Records 1794-1807 vol A-4A", click on that and arrive at the first image of a digital version of the original microfilm made by, or submitted to, the Genealogical Society of Utah some years back. [Recall, I went into this search with a specific type of record (a will) and a known year (1802) in mind].

Now it was just a matter of scrolling through this page by page by page to you find the record you want. In this case I got lucky. I figured since the books start in the year 1794 and John's file was in 1798, I would be wasting a lot of time just flipping through pages one at a time getting through the years 1794 to 1798. So, instead, I took a guess and first went to image 200 of the 580 images in this one film (by entering the number 200 in the little image no. box and hitting enter). What I  saw was that the record at image 200 was dated 1798, telling me I was close to what I was looking for, and so I then started browsing page by page until I found John Brewer at image 223.

In many cases the bound will books, and similar court records and deed books have indexes either at the beginning or end of each bound volume. Some single films will contain multiple volumes so the indexes themselves will have to be searched for in much the same way I searched for John Brewer's will above. Some locations may even have indexes bound separately and found on a separate digitized film. In the case of Hancock County, Georgia, however, there were no indexes at all. In addition the images in the Georgia Probate Records collection have not been indexed by Family Search volunteers. Therefore, this record would have never been found using the broad search engine the website has created.

Family Search does have a Help page dedicated to questions regarding their Search feature. It is recommended as a source to help you locate the records you are looking for.

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A Need to Correct the Correction on the Death Date of Isaac Marshall Deline

Earlier this month I posted "Correction on the Death Date for Isaac Marshall Deline." The correction was premature, and after gathering more facts, the correction needs to be reversed. Isaac Marshall Deline, a descendant of Adam Brouwer, did in fact die on 27 December 1894 in Nordhoff, Ventura County, California. There were not two men of the same name who served during the Civil War with Co. K of the Illinois Infantry's 100th Regiment, there was but one. The husbands of Nancy Adair and Lottie Greenfield were not two different men named Isaac Marshall Deline. They were the same man.

Evidence for the above is found in the Civil War Pension File of Isaac M. Deline. There were three applications made, and yesterday I received 100 pages of a total of 135 from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, D. C.

The evidence that prompted the original correction posted on November 4th seemed sound at the time. Records for an Isaac M. Deline, or Isaac Deline, were found simultaneously in two different locations on the 1870 and 1880 U. S. census records. It appeared that one Isaac was found in Joliet, Illinois with wife Nancy and two children, George and Alvira Deline. A second Isaac was found first in Arapahoe Co., Colorado (1870) and then in Amador Co., California (1880). In addition, a Marshall I. Deline is found in the Joliet, Illinois City Directory in 1884, while also in 1884, Isaac M. Deline was on the voter rolls in Los Angeles, California. The Isaac in Joliet is known to have been married to Nancy Adair and the couple had son George Deline born in 1858 and daughter Alvira G. Deline born about 1860 (age 3 mos. on the 1860 U. S. census at Joliet). It is also known that the Isaac in California was married to Lottie Greenlief and had two children with her, a daughter Charlotte May Deline born in 1888, and a son Frank Deline born in 1889. Clearly there has to be two different men here, right?

Wrong.

It seemed a bit suspicious that both of these Isaac Delines were born in New York, in about 1831 or 1832, and had both served with the Illinois 100th, Co. K. It seemed even more unusual that Nancy (Adair) Deline and her two children are both buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Joliet, while their husband and father, Isaac Deline, is not. Still, the other facts pointed to two different men. This conflict is what prompted the need to order and examine the Civil War pension file for Isaac M. Deline.

There were three separate applications made for a pension. The first was by Isaac himself dated 24 June 1890 (no. 783876) from California. The second was by his widow, Nancy Deline, dated 9 Feb 1895 and filed in Illinois (no. 608527). The third was by the "contested widow" Lottie Deline, date 5 Mar 1895 in California.

 

Isaac M. Deline Civil War Pension Index Card (NARA via Ancestry.com)

The file of all three applications clarifies the story of Isaac M. Deline. It includes affidavits and depositions from a number of persons including Isaac's son George, both widows, and others who knew them. Included is an affidavit from Thomas Edgar of Kileel, Co. Down, Ireland, who attests to Nancy's origins and her immigration from that town to New York. For those interested, I've placed what was received (100 of 135 pages) from NARA, online. (Feel free to download the PDF).

In short, the story of Isaac Marshall Deline and his double life goes as follows. Isaac, a son of Isaac Deline and Sally Bovee, was born in Orleans County, New York (either at Yates or Ridgeway). I have two dates of birth, one 23 March 1831, supposedly from a family record. The second, 21 March 1832, possibly calculated from his age at death. Sometime between 1832 and 1840, Isaac's father moved the family to Lenawee County, Michigan. According to his cousin, Henry Bovee, Isaac "went east" in about 1850. Isaac is not found on the 1850 U. S. census in his father's family in Dover, Lenawee Co., Michigan. It is found in the pension file (page 37 of the PDF placed online) that Isaac had military service from 18 October 1852 to 22 December 1852, but the location and specifics of the service are not given. Apparently, he was in New York City, and was a ship carpenter's mate (page 67). Nancy Adair, a daughter of Alexander Adair of Kilkeel, Co. Down, Ireland, came to New York about this time, possibly with her brother, or perhaps to live with her brother who was already in New York (page 7). She was not married when she immigrated, and Thomas Edgar, the despondent, says she was "about 30 years old." Nancy was married to Isaac on 23 January 1854 at the Second Methodist Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, at the corner of York and Gold Streets (page 28). Repeated testimony, and a search of the court records in San Francisco, California which found no record, state that Isaac and Nancy were never legally divorced. In 1855 the couple can be found on the New York State census in Brooklyn's Fifth Ward. In 1860 they are found in Joliet, Illinois with George, age 2, and Alvira, age 3/12 (3 mos.). Isaac is age 28 born in New York, while Nancy's age is also given as 28, born in Ireland.

Isaac Deline, mistakenly recorded as Issac N. Deline in the Adjutant General's report, enlisted with Co. K, Illinois 100th Regt. on 3 July 1862, mustered in on 30 August 1862 he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant, as Isaac M. Deline on 1 Jan 1863. He resigned on 29 May 1863, the reason being, "domestic affairs" (page 70). In his Declaration for an Invalid Pension (page 71), Isaac states that he was discharged at Murfreesboro, Tennesee on 25 June 1863. He had been injured in a fall upon a rock on a very dark night, which caused a "running sore" (ulcer) above his left ankle which caused him trouble ever since. Isaac was granted $12 a month beginning 2 March 1891 (page 77).

In 1870 the four, Isaac (age 36), Nancy (age 40), George (age 12) and Alvira (age 10) are again found in Joliet, Illinois. The date on the census sheet is 8 June 1870. In the same year, on a sheet dated 12 July, Isaac is enumerated in Arapahoe County, Colorado, age 36, born in New York, a carpenter. Seven, apparently unrelated men ages ranging from 22 to 55, are recorded in the household. In her affidavits Nancy states that Isaac went west "about 1870." One affidavit states that he was having financial troubles in Illinois before leaving. His son George stated that they first heard of Isaac in Denver, Colorado and that he went to California in 1877 and was further found in Santa Clara County (page 89 which is a summation). As mentioned above, Isaac's name is enumerated in 1880 both in Joliet and in Township 3, Amador Co., California. From Nancy's affidavits it appears that once Isaac left in 1870, he never returned, so it appears that in 1880 and in the following years with regards to his name appearing in the Joliet City Directory, that Nancy was simply giving his name to the enumerator and to those who published the directory. She states that she had one correspondence with Isaac in 1887 or 1888. She then did not hear of him, or his where-a-bouts until 1893 or 1894 when he was found in Ventura County, California. Isaac is found on the California Great Registers (voter rolls) in 1876 (San Francisco), 1880 (Volcano, Amador Co.), 1884 (Los Angeles) and 1888 (Ojai, Ventura Co.). Simultaneously, he is still listed in the Joliet City Directory in the years 1884 through 1889/90.

Lottie Deline, in her application, states that she knew Isaac for about two years before they were married on 12 September 1887 (page 90). She was under the assumption that Isaac's first wife was deceased. She was not, and Isaac was well aware of that fact when he married Lottie. The realization that Isaac had two families seems to have come to light only after Isaac's death (see the letter of 9 March 1896 from John A. Milligan to Mrs. I. M. Deline of Joliet, pages 46-49 in the pension file). As mentioned above, Isaac and Lottie had two children who were only about ages 5 and 6 when Isaac died. Lottie mentions them in her application. Nancy had provided a letter from the pastor of the Second Methodist Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, attesting to their marriage in 1854, while Lottie apparently only had her own word. In the summery (page 92) favor is given to Nancy for the claim of being Isaac Deline's widow (Nancy and Isaac were never legally divorced and Nancy never remarried). Nancy received a widow's pension of $8 a month beginning 9 February 1895. Her last payment was 4 January 1900, and it was dropped 27 March 1900 due to her death.

Of Isaac's four children, it appears that only his son Frank (by his second wife, Lottie) had descendants. While George married, later in life, he did not appear to have had children. Neither of Isaac's daughters, Alvira (first wife) or Charlotte May (second wife) married. Alvira is buried with her mother in Oakwood Cemetery, Joliet, Illinois. George is buried there as well. Charlotte May, or simply May Deline, died in 1974. Lottie (a common nickname for Charlotte) died in 1916. Both are buried, along with Isaac in Nordhoff Cemetery, Ojai, California. Frank Deline died in 1949 and is buried in Los Angeles National Cemetery. Frank's wife was Clara D. Archer, and they had two daughters, Florence and Alta.

As mentioned, only 100 of the 135 pages of Isaac's pension file were received. Some affidavits are difficult to read and it is suggested that those who have a greater interest in this story download the PDF so that they can spend more time examining it. Research conducted at Ancestry.com can be found in this small "tree," although a subscription will be needed by those who wish to access the details within the sources cited. The page for "Lieut. Isaac Marshall Deline" at Find A Grave provides some more information, some of which I have not been able to verify.

And so the correction of November 4, 2014, stands corrected.

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Elias Brewer and Mary Cadwallder Marriage Record

The marriage of Elias Brewer and Mary Cadwallder is recorded in the Friends Westland Monthly Meeting minutes, 1785-1811. The record, which is no. 14 in the image below, was recorded under the date of 28 March 1790. The Westland Meeting was located in Washington County, Pennsylvania.

Elias Brewer - Mary Cadwallder Marriage (via Ancestry.com)

 This record was only recently found using Ancestry.com, and it adds some new information.

Elias Brewer's ancestry is not known. He is believed to be, and most likely is, a descendant of Jan Brouwer of Flatlands, Long Island. We have not yet had a direct male descendant of Elias Brewer come forward to undergo Y-DNA testing, which would confirm or disprove this belief, but we do have the Y-DNA test results of a descendant of David Brewer (kit #163954), who is believed to be Elias Brewer's brother (see this chart which assumes that David is a son of Derck Brouwer, which also has not been proved). David Brewer and Elias Brewer are both found on the 1800 U. S. census at Redstone, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, which was the location of a Friends (Quaker) Meeting at that time. The given name, Elias, is also a strong indication that this Elias Brewer is a descendant of Jan Brouwer of Flatlands, as that given name was very common in the early generations of Jan Brouwer's descendants through his son Derck Brouwer who's wife was Hannah Daws, a daughter of Elias Daws.

The new information is found in the very first sentence which states that Elias Brewer was a widower. We had previously known that Elias Brewer was married to Mary Cadwallder, and eight children have been identified for them. That Elias had an earlier marriage adds some new possibilities in our attempt to place other unplaced descendants of Jan Brouwer. Some who have had descendants participate in the Brewer DNA Project with Y-DNA testing can be found here.

Late in 1805 Elias, still living in Fayette Co., Pennsylvania, was granted land by the Steubenville, Ohio land office (section 6, township 11, range 7). This was Short Creek in Harrison Co., Ohio and Elias was discharged from the Friends Meeting there in August of 1807. He is believed to have moved to Belmont Co., Ohio in 1813, and on the 1820 U. S. census he is found at Perry, Tuscarawas Co., Ohio. Eventually, Elias moved to Washington Co., Indiana, where he died in October 1842 in his 87th year (he is buried in the Old Smedley Cemetery). Assuming that his age at death is correct, we have that Elias was born about 1755. This would place him at about age 35 when he married, as a widower, Mary Cadwalder in 1790. His marriage at this rather late age does leave plenty of room for Elias to have had a long marriage to a previous wife. This, in turn, leads to the possibility that Elias had children by that first wife who have not yet been identified.

We would like to find a direct male descendant of Elias Brewer who is willing to join the Brewer DNA Project and take a Y-DNA test so that the belief that Elias is a descendant of Jan Brouwer can be confirmed (or rejected). Assuming that Elias is in fact a descendant, and assuming that he is in fact a brother of David Brewer (b. 1762, m. Euphema Warner), it is probable that Elias is a great-great grandson of Jan Brouwer, and is a grandson of Elias Brouwer and Helena Willemse. The fact that Elias was a widower in 1790, at the age of about 35, opens up the possibility that he may have been previously married for as many as fifteen years, and may have had as many as seven or eight children previous to 1790 who have not been identified. Considering the number of unplaced persons named Brewer who are found in the early 1800s in locations like Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois and in the midwest in general, perhaps some of them can eventually be traced to Elias Brewer and his first wife.

The Brewer DNA Project would love to hear from any descendants of Elias Brewer.

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Correcting Confusion Over Two Men Named Abraham Losee

A couple of months ago James Hamstra brought to my attention an error in the Brouwer Genealogy Database regarding two contemporaneous men named Abraham Losee. The error has been in published sources for some time now, but was corrected in a later published source just a few years ago, however, this correction had escaped me until Jim pointed it out. It may well have escaped others.

The error is a confusion of the spouses of two men, both named Abraham Losee, both of whom were born at about the same time. The first is Abraham Losee, born 1742, and shown in the current edition (16 May 2014) as a son of Abraham Losee (1715-1766) and Anna Dorland, and shown to have married Sarah Hegeman (and later Charity Tompkins). The source for these statements was Barbara A. Barth, The Dorland Enigma Solved, A revision of the Dorland Genealogy (Sandisfield, Mass.: Diane Barth Swartz, 2007), page 304. I suspect that Barth's source may have been, Seversmith, Herbert Furman. Colonial Families of Long Island, New York and Connecticut: Being the Ancestry and Kindred of Herbert Furman Seversmith (Four Vols.). Washington: n.pub., 1939, page 1,871, which makes this same claim.

The second man in this confusion named Abraham Losee was also born about 1742, he married on 18 May 1764 (Presbyterian Church, Rumbout, Dutchess Co., New York) Neeltje Viele, and had previously been stated to be a son of Laurens Losee and Rachel de Lange (McConnville, Howard A., "The Parmentier (Palmatier) Family of New York State". FHL film #1440501. Salt Lake City: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah (2001), April 1998, page 10).

Very simply, reverse the parents of the two Abraham Losees mentioned above. Abraham, the son of Abraham Losee and Anna Dorland was the Abraham Losee who married Neeltje Viele. And, Abraham Losee, the son of Laurens Losee and Rachel de Lange, was the Abraham Losee who married Sarah Hegeman (he is stated to have later married Charity Tompkins, however, I have yet to find confirming evidence for this claim).

The two men, now in their correct placements, can be found on this chart of Descendants of Jan Corneliszen (de Zeeuw, Losee, Losey, Loosije, etc.). They are highlighted and are found on pages 3 and 5.*

This post began with acknowledging Jim Hamstra for bringing this to my attention. He pointed out that a correction for the placement of the Abraham Losee who married Sarah Hegeman is found in  Doherty, Frank J. The Settlers of the Beekman Patent. Vol. 8. (Pleasant Valley, NY: Frank J. Doherty, 2005), page 248. At this page, in a footnote for no. 20 Abraham A. Losee (son of Abraham Losee and Anna Dorland), the author states: "We have seen several genealogies on the Losee family that claim this man married Sarah Hegeman but sponsors to baptisms prove Abraham A. Losee married Neeltje Velie." In his e-mail to me, Jim stated that he had to agree with this assessment. After having researched the families myself, I'd say that I have to agree as well.

*Sources for this chart are wide ranging and include various published church records, probate records, and compiled genealogies. It is not complete, and there may be errors. Many of those on this chart are not found in the Brouwer Genealogy Database. The large Losee family is rather difficult to research during the colonial period, and to my knowledge no complete genealogy of the family, meeting present day research standards, has been published. Jim Hamstra's work on the Losee family can be found online at We Relate. Neeltje Viele (Velie) is a daughter of Meindert Viele and Rebekka Parmentier/Palmatier.

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Correction on the Date of Death for Isaac Marshall Deline

Isaac Marshall Deline, a son of Isaac Deline (1806-1888) and Sally Bovee (1808-1849), is a great-great-great grandson of Adam Brouwer of Gowanus, Long Island. The current edition (16 May 2014) of the Brouwer Genealogy Database shows him with the date of death of 27 December 1894. As pointed out by Mary Tim Baggott, this date is incorrect for this Isaac Marshall Deline. She wrote me via e-mail:

"I have been researching the two Isaac Marshall Delines, assigned the same death dates in online sources, as well as very similar birth dates, and often considered to be one person. I suspect that the death date given in your Brouwer Genealogy belongs to the "other" Isaac Marshall Deline, if so, it would be an error of your source, the 1991 Pioneer Families of Michigan.

The "other" Isaac Marshall Deline settled in Ventura County, CA. He is listed in the California Great Registers in 1876 (SF), 1884 (LA), and 1888 (Ventura County), which can be found at familysearch.org. Ventura County Genealogical Society volunteers have extracted or transcribed local records to come up with a death date for him of 27 Dec 1894. I have written to them asking what their sources were.  http://www.venturacogensoc.org/cpage.php?pt=45

The identity of these two men is further complicated by their both having been carpenters and both having served in Company K of the 100th Illinois Infantry during the Civil War. Their federal records are filed under one name as if they were one person, so their records should be viewed at the state level: http://www.ilsos.gov/isaveterans/civilmustersrch.jsp.

Your Isaac can be found in the 1860 & 1880 censuses with his wife Nancy and children George & Alvira in Joliet, IL, listed as Isaac Deline, & J. Marshell Deline, respectively. I am told he is listed there in 1870 as Isaac M. Dilmore. However this doesn't come up at familysearch, but likely would at ancestry, to which I don't subscribe."

As pointed out by Mary Tim Baggott, the Isaac Marshall Deline of interest to us was living in Joliet, Illinois in 1860, 1870 and 1880. In 1870, the "other" Isaac Deline was in Arapahoe, Colorado Territory. He evidently made his way to California and was there by 1876 when he appears on the Great Register. The two Isaac Delines in 1870:

Isaac M. Deline, Joliet IL, 1870 U.S. Census (NARA via Ancestry.com)

Isaac Deline, Arapahoe Co., Colorodo, 1870 U.S. Census (NARA via Ancestry.com)

 Isaac Marshall Deline of Joliet, Illinois is also found in the Joliet, Illinois City Directory in the years 1884 (as Marshall I. Deline), 1885, 1887, 1888, 1889-1890. His occupation is carpenter and in 1885 he lived at 140 Mississippi Ave., while in the subsequent years lived at 218 Mississippi Ave. In 1895, "Mrs. I. M. Deline," is listed in the Joliet City Directory while Isaac M. Deline's name is not found. My guess is that Isaac M. Deline died in 1890, 1891 or 1892. Isaac's daughter, Alvira G. Deline, is listed in the Joliet City Directory beginning in 1884, as a teacher. Isaac's son, George Deline, is found beginning with the 1889-1890 Directory. (Search at Ancestry.com, Joliet, Illinois Directories, 1884-1892, images not available).

Isaac Marshall Deline's wife was Nancy Adair, who according to the census records was born about 1830/31 in Ireland. In a follow up e-mail, Mary Tim Baggott points out that a transcript of Nancy's death notice can be found online at an Illinois GenWeb page.

As mentioned above, the "other" Isaac Deline, the one who did die on 27 December 1894, was born in New York, was in Colorado in 1870, and in California by 1876. A beginning search point for those interested in this Isaac Deline might be with his page at Find A Grave.

With his date of death corrected, it may also be necessary to correct the date of birth currently seen on the Brouwer Genealogy Database (28 March 1831 at Ridgeway, Orleans Co., New York). The source for this date was the same Pioneer Families of Michigan that gave the incorrect death date, so there may be reason to question the accuracy. I'd note that the Find A Grave page for Isaac Deline of California, gives him a date of birth of 21 March 1832, also in Orleans County, New York. As Mary pointed out, the birth dates for each of the Isaac Delines were very close.

Thanks again to Mary Tim Baggott for bringing the error regarding Isaac Marshall Deline's death to my attention. Should anyone have any additional info to add, please use the comment option below to do so.

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