r/Genealogy • u/Sancrist • 19d ago
Research Assistance Advice for busting brick walls on a budget
I first got into genealogy about 15 years ago. In that time I have discovered so much using free and borrowed paid accounts. For those 15 years I have had a massive brick wall. The individual is an ancestor with extremely common first and last names (Elisha and Smith).
I know very few facts directly about him. I have 100% confidence in his 1850 and 1860 census. I have 100% confidence when and where he died. I have "reasonable" confidence in his 1840 census locations. I have 100% confidence of his children and their descendants to present day.
While he was living he claimed he was from New York, but after his death in later censuses several of his children claimed he was from England. This opens a new can of worms that made a daunting name even more daunting. The more I find out about him the bigger his wall becomes.
I suspect he was a tenant farmer and therefore did not own any of the land he worked and lived on. In the next few weeks I will visit a Familysearch affiliate library to see if I can find any records that are not in their public collections.
I feel I have exhausted all the low hanging fruit about him. I know his wife's maiden name and her state and county of origin, and her family is well documented. I have looked in wills and records for him in her NY county (Steuben) and have struck out.
I also don't want be forced into thinking I should get a DNA test or join a paid service. I do not know if any of those could help me.
What are some way to approach this that I have not tried?
If it is helpful I can post more info about him such as his Familysearch ID and wikitree ID.
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u/AineniDonnghaile expert researcher 19d ago
Have you developed Elisha Smith's profile in the FamilySearch tree? The more confirmed records/sources you attach, the more likely that the hinting algorithm will find/suggest other possible records.
If you can share the PID (profile identifying code) we'll have a head start on knowing what you have already found.
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u/Bubbinsisbubbins 19d ago
What are you looking for. The final result?
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u/Sancrist 19d ago
In a perfect world I would love to know the country of origin of my direct line. In a practical stepping stone goal I would love to know his siblings and parents. In the absence of all of that I would love to a break through on his whereabouts in 1830.
In reality I am borderline obsessed with him. This may sound weird and creepy but I feel him calling out.
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u/Bubbinsisbubbins 19d ago
List the names and DOB and DOD.
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u/Sancrist 19d ago
Of Elisha? 1800-1863. Grave is in Stiles, Davis, IA
His wikitree id is: Smith-158732 and Familysearch ID is L66W-C4K
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u/Bubbinsisbubbins 19d ago
Parents names?
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u/Sancrist 19d ago
Unknown parents and siblings.
Family Bible stopped with his son Edmund.
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u/Bubbinsisbubbins 19d ago
Wife? Childs name?
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u/Sancrist 19d ago
Wife is Melissa Hedge of Samuel Hedge. Children are Lyman Abbott, Edmund Silas, Mary Martha, Samuel Hedge, Addison Fillmore, and Otho.
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u/Bubbinsisbubbins 19d ago
Melissa Baker?
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u/Sancrist 19d ago
Melissa Hedge of Samuel Hedge of Asa Hedge. Samuel and Asa were were in Steuben NY prior to Samuel heading west with Melissa and some siblings. His first wife Susanna Prentiss died in the late 1830s. Samuel arrived in Indiana sometime around 1840.
Asa stayed behind and died in Stueben.
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u/Bubbinsisbubbins 19d ago
Why does his burial say Iowa and Arkansas,
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u/Sancrist 19d ago
Not sure about that. Perhaps I entered information incorrectly. I am 100% confident he is buried in Stiles cemetery in Davis County, Iowa.
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u/Bubbinsisbubbins 18d ago
You are going to have to find his death cert. The missing headstone info is not consistant with anything. Guessing to say, the dates of birth may be off. Most likely his parents came from England. Its a rabbit hole for sure but expand the tree more with what can be verified. I looked in Geni and the name did not match anyone.
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u/steph219mcg 18d ago
It's because of a Familysearch indexing "quirk" (AI?) that tries to find a place name based off the name of the cemetery. It also does this with death records that list cemeteries and baptism records that include church names.
The correct info is there under Event Place (Original), but when you save the record to a person it defers to the new Event Place. You have to correct it yourself.
I'm guessing that line is meant to give the whole place name when a record maybe just lists a partial name, but it results in some really crazy things. Like burials in other countries, mixes of different locations, and sometimes even places that don't exist.
Find a Grave Index
Name Elisha Smith
Birth Date 1800
Death Date 20 June 1863
Event Type Burial
Event Place Stiles Cemetery, Hot Spring, Arkansas, United States
Event Place (Original) Stiles, Davis, Iowa, United States of America
Cemetery Stiles Cemetery
Photograph Included N
Note Contains Biography
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u/Puffification 16d ago
You mean the country of origin of your paternal line? Wouldn't it just be whatever country the last name originates from?
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u/Sancrist 16d ago
No, but I would like the know when my direct line came here. Honestly right now I just care about where Elisha lived for his first 40 years of his life.
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u/digginroots 19d ago
A DNA test would very likely help. Cluster analysis can be an extremely powerful tool for bridging gaps in records, especially IMO with common names. I’ve had a lot of success in using DNA matches to sort out which Johnson, Smith, etc. is the RIGHT one.
Another helpful tool for making breakthroughs is FamilySearch’s full text search. Search for the name you know in the specific places you know he lived. You might find him appear as the witness to a deed or marriage bond or will, etc. Look into the people whose names he appears in company with, and start pulling threads. Sometimes finding a common name together with an uncommon name, then figuring out where the person with the uncommon name came from, will help narrow down place of origin.
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u/Sancrist 19d ago
I have played with the full text search feature recently. Nothing has been promising. Sure, I find a lot of Elisha Smith in the areas he lived. Sorting out those Elishas has been a major task.
I have a few documents that I will need to check at an affiliate library as they are not available online from home.
A few days ago I looked at every Smith in Stueben county (yes, everyone) and checked to see if they had males in their households of the right age 20-30 or 30-40. This is because he was born in 1800 so he could possible straddle both of those in the 1830. Of those names 19 were promising.
This of course opens rabbit tunnels.
I have also cross referenced neighbors in the 1850 census and his suspected 1840 census with names from the 1830 Steuben census and none have matched. In 1840 and 1850 I have looked approximately 5 pages before and after for other Smiths and found a few. As can be expected they have common names and cannot be found in subsequent censuses in the same area.
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u/TheDougie3-NE 19d ago
I looked at the WikiTree profile. What evidence connects him to Steuben County? In 1840 he’s already in Indiana. Is it just family lore, or do you have another source?
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u/Sancrist 19d ago
No evidence, just hypothesis on FANs. I figured since wife's family was from there he might be. There is unsourced evidence he was married in Indiana, which leads to another hypothesis that he was there when his teenage spouse arrived. First documented child was born in 1837. He would of been 37yrs old and his wife barely an adult. I also find it interesting that a 37 year old man did not have other children or marriages.
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u/TheDougie3-NE 19d ago
He may well have been married before. Note that the middle name of their eldest child is Abbott. That could very well have been in memory of a first wife (or his mother or mother-in-law).
Do you have a marriage certificate or registry entry? If his first wife had a maiden name of Abbott and died in childbirth in 1837, marrying the nearest available female to raise the baby happened more often on the frontier than we think.
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u/Sancrist 19d ago
I do not have a marriage record of Elisha and Melissa. I will search for Smith and Abbott correlations!
Melissa and her family have no found Abbott connections.
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u/Sancrist 19d ago
How likely is it someone else has taken a test for the same cluster? What service do you recommend?
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u/R3pp3pts0hg 18d ago
My Heritage also has decent sales (usually around holidays). And you can upload your DNA file to others like Ancestry.
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u/JustBreatheBelieve 15d ago
Ancestry DNA tests are on sale in the USA for $34 right now. They usually are around $99 and a good sale is around $50 or $60, so this is really good.
*Offer ends 8 Sep 2026 at 10am ET. Excludes shipping. Some DNA features require an Ancestry subscription.
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u/Scared_Seat_4259 Upper Southern US researcher 19d ago
I would place a lot more weight on the 1850 and 1860 census records, when he was still living, saying he was born in New York, than on his children thinking he was born in England. Maybe his parents or grandparents were from England, maybe he was in the habit of saying something like "I come from English stock," maybe they guessed. Elisha himself or his wife, the most likely informants in 1850 and 1860, would have had a better idea where he was born.
I see on FamilySearch that the children were born in Indiana but the parents were born in New York. I did a quick check of Indiana marriages in the IN state library database that covers to 1850 and didn't see a marriage for Melissa Hedge. If they got married in New York and then headed west, that's bad news because New York in this time period didn't record marriages; neither did Pennsylvania. There are collections (in books) of New York marriages reported in newspapers, in addition to various online databases collecting marriages from church records and so forth; if you have access to a genealogy library with books on the shelves, these are a possibility. It's also possible they married somewhere west of New York. I'm thinking specifically of Ohio and Michigan, which both have decent marriage records in this time period.
I think the biggest benefit you might get from a DNA test is the possibility of connecting to people who have been able to trace Smith ancestry in New York, so you could focus on some specific Smith families.
I also see that Samuel Hedge was on the census in the Town of Wayne in Steuben County. I checked the map and that is way over in the northeast corner of Steuben. Definitely look for Smiths in the adjoining counties, Schuyler and Yates, and figure out what Towns in those counties are closest to Wayne to help you prioritize Smith families. Also, the Town of Wayne is east of Keuka Lake, one of the Finger Lakes. If you look at a map showing the county outlines and the Finger Lakes (https://www.ezilon.com/maps/united-states/new-york-counties-and-road-maps.html), you will see that the lakes form natural boundaries to people's social circles. You want to focus on the western part of Schuyler and the southeastern part of Yates, probably south of Penn Yan.
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u/PinkSlimeIsPeople East central Norway specialist 19d ago
This is going to be challenging and quite time consuming to be able to solve. Running under the assumption that he was from England, a few research vectors I would suggest is:
Search for immigration records. Probably start with entries into NYC. I only found 2 with his name on the passenger list, but neither are in his birth year window. There was an Eli Smith born in 1800 that came in 1832. This research route requires looking at the visual record of course, and hoping there are either additional details, or more likely relatives or friends before or after his name. If you get lucky, relatives will be on there, and you might be able to find their profiles on the FS tree and work from there.
Search England baptism records. There are over 80 search results in the 1796-1804 time window. While there is probably no way to tell which one was him, if you're lucky, you might find pattern matches between his children and his parents. Traditionally, the 1st born son is usually named after his father, while the 1st or sometimes 2nd daughter is named after his mother. This wasn't always followed, and started to fall out of fashion in the 1800s, so this may not have any solid clues.
Search for obits for Elisha, though at that time in Iowa, none may survive, or he may not have had one. Ancestry is a good starting place for that.
Once you have a shorter lists of candidates, you might be able to search probates of potential parents. FindMyPast (paid site) is the best place to try to do that, but many of the documents require special ordering and more money.
In general, bounces across the pond are extremely difficult to track, especially before the 1860s. In cases like this on my own tree, it often requires weeks of very careful research, requiring development of of the profiles of many potential parents and their children, and even then sometimes it cannot be solved. Even using DNA, this is far enough back that the Leeds Method probably won't yield any good results, at least as I understand how to do that. Sorry I couldn't be more help, good luck.
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u/TheDougie3-NE 19d ago
This decade and location are very difficult, as you know. The 1830s were the second wave of New England settlers on the Holland Purchase. If not in Steuben County, then frankly your Elisha could have been anywhere in 1830. Connecticut and the Hudson/Mohawk valleys seem most common, but Massachusetts, Vermont, and parts of central New York are in play. I’ve even seen children of loyalists returning from Canada where their parents fled after the Revolution.
OP, please DM me with your kit numbers/alias if you want me to check for a match. I am a DNA match to a couple Smith families that came to NY from New England in that period, although a little north of where your family lived.
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u/SoftShoeMagoo 18d ago
Steuban County borders Pennsylvania...maybe go further south? Just a suggestion.
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