I'm interrupting the story of Alfred Moehlman today to participate in the 52 Ancestors Challenge 2015 that is sponsored by No Story Too Small blog. I'm going to attempt to participate each week. "Fresh Start" was the prompt for this week.
My father had done research back in the 60’s and 70’s. Most of it was done by talking with relatives. He had pages and pages on aunts, uncles, and cousins and all their descendants. But all he knew about his grandfather was that he was born in 1851 in Pike county, Indiana and died in 1911, also in Pike county. In 1870 he was living in the household of Leright and Sara (Davis) Houchin, although he was not in their household in the 1860 census. And of course, there is no relationship shown in this census. It is curious that Leright junior is not listed in age order of the older children and there are two other children with different last names in the household.
Leright was married to Martha Emmaline Adkins in 1872 and they had 11 children.
Family stories about Leright were varied. Many though that the senior Leright was his father. They said he Leright had given him land. They also suggested that perhaps he was illegitimate. Dad never thought that was true, but he really didn’t have evidence either way. In the 80’s he gave me all the information to put into the computer. And it remained that way for another 10 years.
Then when more and more documents came online I took the opportunity for a fresh start. I decided to research the older Leright. He was buried in the Davis Cemetery in Pike county and in that same cemetery is a stone for J. Houchin that died Nov 1851 and says son of L & S Houchin. Since this child wasn't listed in the 1850 census (youngest child was Theodore age 8 months) it was fairly certain that the younger Leright’s mother was not Sarah wife of the senior Leright..
So I started looking at other members of senior Leright’s family. His parents were Jesse and Elizabeth (Clifford) Houchin and they were in Pike county in the 1860 census.
And there is a Leyright living with them. Spelling is different but not a big deal. Age is right at 9 for being born in 1951. If he were illegitimate he may be living with his grandparents. But who was his mother and where was she. But the strange thing is that there is another young child, Jasper age 6, also in the household. Who is he? I couldn't find him in the 1870 census. Jesse and Elizabeth had both died by that time. Jesse and Elizabeth were in the 1850 census. They were in Pike county, no children in the household, and living next to their son Chesterfield, his wife Nancy and their two children Harrison age 3 and David age 1.
I really wasn't getting very far in finding the parents of Leright. Then the wonderful genealogy community came through. Ancestry’s MyFamily.com (Ancestry discontinued this last year) had a very active Houchin page. It was through a new-found cousin on that site that I learned that Chesterfield and Nancy (Smith) Houchin were the parents of Leright. Happy dance!
Nancy had died the same day her fourth son Jasper was born in Oct 1853. I’m sure Chesterfield’s parents helped him with the four children since they lived next door. Chesterfield remarried 18 months later, but then died in 1859 of pneumonia. So that is how the two youngest, Leright and Jasper, came to live with their grandparents in 1860. After the grandparents death Leright moved in with his UNCLE Leright, his older brother David Johnson was living with his Aunt Lieumara (Houchin) Huffman. Still have not located where Harrison or Jasper were, but I did find that Jasper died in 1870. I had a fresh start in my research, Leright however had to completely restart several times in his early life - losing his mother when he was only 2 years old, his father at age 8, and both of his grandparents were gone by the time was 14. It was his namesake Uncle that took him in and raised him until his marriage in 1872.
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