Basically, we need to get caught up on some reading esp. regarding Germanic-speaking ancestors and so we're doing that now (late June 2013). Soon enough we'll be back to working on the websites.
We were excited to hear about Hasenclever's ironworks in New Jersey, famous and long-lived...this brought hundreds of skilled German workers to 50,000 acres in the Ramapo Mountains. And of course, there were the glassmakers using the fine Jersey sand in Southern Jersey cranking out "Wistarware." But the dates of these ventures alone do not make this a sure connection with our German Foxes. We still have plenty of information gathering to do about them as Americans before we can gander some guesses on why they came here.
We're reading A GENEALOGIST'S GUIDE TO DISCOVERING YOUR GERMANIC ANCESTORS which'll put some hair on your chest so to speak. The authors, Anderson and Thode are relentlessly measured in their encouragement and can sound downright strict about not following any fantasy. Pragmatism and time-efficiency are the hallmarks of the research they are demanding. Expelling common and false stereotypes about "Dutch" and "Germans" is definitely central to their mission and this works for us since we are not meandering some countryside savoring brews and snacks. We're on a mission too, with a budget smaller than copy costs. Tribes to kirchensprengel, electors to inheritance, causes of emigration to counter-reformation...we're surveying the landscape so that we can prove to be educated as well as motivated here in Mama's Quilt.
Yes...Tunkers or tinkers, we're open to finding out of our Fuchs.
Meanwhile we've been trying to collect what we can of Grandmother Matilda.
The simple story...
IN the 1850 US Census for Perry Township we find John and Metilda Delana with Elizabeth (21), Pishna (18), and Margaret (17) in a household with William and Elizabeth Fox. John, Metilda, and Elizabeth cannot read or write. John's a farmer but he has no savings/investments that add up to "personal estate value." On the next page of the Census we find more Delana in that household (dwelling #67, family#67)...Thomas (14), Meriah (13), Sarah (11 and "dumb"/could've been a speech impediment or some vocal chord damage), William (9), John (7), Jane (3) and Isaac is the one year old. That seven year old John is OUR John Jr. who grows up and marries Rebecca BLAKER. Thomas, Meriah, Sarah, William and John Jr. are attending school. All were born in Pennsylvania.
We heard from the John Conklin Papers (he was a grandson of John and Matilda that the Calverts (Matilda's biological family) came to Green County from Maryland.
We find John and Matilda in July of 1870 over in Wayne Township (also in Greene County). With them in #258/282 is only Malissa Delany. John Delany is aged 60 and a laborer. His personal worth is $300. Matilda is keeping house and Malissa is only 15. All were born in Pennsylvania and all are literate. They have no parentage of foreign birth so we should be able to find their folks as we step back further a generation.
In 1874, John Delaney, Sr. (Matilda's husband) dies over in West Virginia. It's his son (Isaac) who reports the death but the day and month of 1874 has only a marking in it. Same with the entry for his parents, no names but it indicates they were born in Pennsylvania.
There are, apparently, civilian Confederate papers recorded under both the names Dulany and Calvert (which we believe is Matilda's maiden name per Conklin's vertical file information). But we can't see too much about those papers via familysearch.
Certainly the John Delany who died in 1874, Monongalia County, is the age of the John married to Matilda and Matilda is listed as his "consort of."
Also, his death in 1874 would be the reason why we find Matilda as head of house in Battelle Township (US Census 1880) with son Isaac (age 28) and daughter Malissa (age 23) and grand-daughter Adda J. (our grandmother Ida Mae's sister).
Son John Dulany (Jr.) at that point (1880) is with wife Rebecca and children Thomas A. and Ida M., ages four and two.
John and Matilda seem to have been more mobile than a lot of our other ancestors at that time.
