My mom and I were talking recently about how we were stalled out in our research. In frustration, and a bit of free time (which seems to be hard to come by these days), I was determined to find any kind of a breakthrough I could. I chose a family we hadn't worked on in a while - the Tanners. Now this family is kind of funny for us because for 3 or 4 generations we have absolutely nothing on the wives of the Tanner ancestors, maiden names - yes, parentage - no. So, I decided to pursue my grandma Dinah (Elwell) Tanner, mostly because I have always loved her name!
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| Dinah Elwell stone |
Since I had exhausted Ancestry.com's databases, I did a basic Google search - nothing new. My back up is always
Google Books. So, I typed in "Aaron Tanner, Dinah, Tompkins County, New York" (where they originated from) - BINGO! It brought up a journal for the Montoyne family that basically said that Dinah had a sister Melissa who married John Montoyne. Melissa went from Tompkins County and settled in Tioga County, Pennsylvania which is where Aaron and Dinah last resided as well. Too cool! So, I went back to Ancestry to enter in my new info. While I was there, I was reminded that Aaron and Dinah had a daughter named Melissa. Ok, there's a name from the Elwell family. Then I got to thinking, my ggg-grandpa Ebenezer E. Tanner (Aaron & Dinah's son) was not named after someone on the Tanner side that I could see. I had always assumed that his middle name was Elwell, but now the origin of his first name got me to thinking. So, I typed in a basic Google search of "Ebenezer Elwell, Tompkins County, New York". Paydirt! There was an Ebenezer Elwell who had been involved in the Revolutionary War that died in Tompkins County! On further examination of the previously mentioned journal on the Montoyne family, it speculated that Ebenezer Elwell was the father of Dinah & Melissa. Cool thing about Ebenezer Elwell is that he served with the Connecticut regiments in the Revolution and was at Valley Forge that horrible winter. I can't wait to find out more about him!
Don't ever discount the benefits of a Google search. It has aided me once before in discovering a family mystery. My hubby's ggg-aunt had done some family history and had written down that his ggggg-grandpa, Moses Thompson, had died while out in a snowstorm - that's it, no dates, just that tidbit. So, I had his daughter's death dates and I could approximate his dates and location, but could never find anything. Once on a whim, I typed in a search of "Moses Thompson" "Beaver County, Pennsylvania" and found a death notice for
him! It explained the circumstances of his death in the snow and gave a date. From there I was able to find out his wife's maiden name!
In short, genealogy doesn't have to be hard (although we can make it that way). You don't have to buy expensive subscriptions (although they do help immensely at times!). You just have to be clever and use the info at hand. Sometimes the answer is almost right under your nose:)
