Brick Walls - John W Rhodes
tracy — Tue, 01/03/2006 - 19:40
Much of my father's side of the family is very hard to research. A multitude of reasons exist for this state of affairs, but the main reasons are these: New York did not keep vital records until the 1880s and many of the family members were very poor.
One of the most interesting brickwalls, though, is my great-great-grandfather, John W Rhodes, of Plattekill, Ulster County, New York. After finding my great-grandmother, Irene Rhodes, in the 1880 census, I traced her father, John W, through the census years. One pattern stood out to me, John always lived near or with Jonah and Abigail Rhodes. I assumed that these two might be his parents but I did not have proof of this relationship since before 1880 the federal census did not specify relationships between members of a household and he did not live with them in 1880.
Two events proved this assumption wrong. The first was finding John, Jonah, and Abigail in the 1855 New York State Census, which does specify familial relationships. In this census, Jonah was listed as the head of the household, Abigail is listed as his sister, and John as his nephew. In addition to the census, I found John's death register entry which lists his parents as John W Smith and Phebe Rhodes.
Using this new information, I searched the family trees on Ancestry.com and found that among the children Jeriah Rhodes and Sophronia Ayers were a Jonah, Abigail, and Phebe, and that the dates of birth for Jonah and Abigail matched with their ages in the census.
I really wish I could connect Jeriah to Phebe to John as it would prove a line of descent which would go all the way back to Zachariah Rhodes of Rhode Island.
