Another Hole in the Brick Wall - William Lee Porter and 7 new siblings

I've mentioned several times that I really felt that William Lee Porter is the son of my Great Great Grandfather, William Porter.

I recently asked a researcher in Knox County, Ohio to look at the land records and anything else he could find on my ancestor, William Porter. He hit the jackpot! Not only do these documents link William Lee Porter to Great Great Grandpa William, but also to seven additional children. As mentioned in another Hole in the Brick Wall post, I had thought that a Sally Ann Porter Simmons was one of William's daughters. That turns out to be true. However, I had also posted that I thought a Phoeba Ann Porter Storrs was his daughter, but this is not the case. I had recently identified a male whom I thought might be William's son. My assumption was correct.

So now I have the following children: Nancy Porter, Sally Ann Porter, William Lee Porter, Harriet Porter, Alfred Porter, Cordelia Porter, Lorenzo Porter, Phebe Rosella Porter, Orrin Clinton Porter, and the two children from William's marriage to Catherine: Leander Porter and Francis Porter. Of these children I have been able to find all but Alfred Porter.

In addition to the above relationships I now know that Great Great Grandpa William died about 1862. Nice!

Hole in the Brick Wall, Part 2

In "Hole in the Brick Wall, Part 1" I wrote about some of the things I've done to try to find my 2nd great grandfather, William Porter, before he came to Knox County, Ohio. I knew that his son from a previous marriage, Orrin Clinton Porter, was born in New York, and another suspected son, William Lee Porter, was also born in New York. I decided that was the place to start looking for him.

Having found a William Porter family living in Chautauqua County, New York in 1820 and 1830 that I could not eliminate I decided to see if I could find a little more information about this family. It should be known that all my research into this family so far has been online, primarily on Ancestry.Com, and not all information has been verified to my standards. Since I'm only gathering information for further research just in case this family turns out to be mine I don't feel the need to have original records at this point.

I found what appear to be two daughters of this William Porter. One, Sally Ann Porter, was born about 1818. She married Ziba Simmons on 4 Aug 1835 in Mayville, Chautauqua, New York. This couple is found in both the 1850 and 1860 census records in Chautauqua, New York. In 1870 Ziba Simmons is living with a new wife, Betsey. I do not see Sally Ann Simmons in the 1870 federal census, but she is found as a divorced woman in the 1880 federal census living in Chautauqua, Chautauqua, New York. Sally Ann and Ziba Simmons had at least the following children: Isaac Simmons, b. 1835; Obed/Obia, b. abt 1841; Lorenzo, b. abt 1839; Phoeba/Phebe, b. abt 1847.

The second woman, Phoeba Ann Porter, was born about 1820 in New York. She married Nelson Colmar Storrs 1 Sep 1938 in Ripley Township, Huron, Ohio. This couple is found in the 1880 census in Winterset, Madison, Iowa. Most of the children listed in this census were born in Ohio. Nelson was a sailor who gave up the sea to become a minister. They moved to Iowa in the early 1850s after having lived in Illinois and Ohio. They had at least three children: Melisa M. Storrs Wagor, b. 1841 Ohio; Miles L. Storrs; Eugene Storrs, b. 16 Nov 1844 Ripley Township, Huron, Ohio.

About three weeks ago I had ordered the complete Civil War service records from NARA for my William's son, Orrin Clinton Porter. I have Orrin fairly well documented but had not been able to obtain a county of birth in New York for him. Every document just said place of birth as "New York".  Big state.  It was time to start expanding my search on Orrin, so I ordered the service records, holding breath and crossing fingers that it would have his county of birth somewhere in the records.

Yesterday I received the CD containing Orrin's complete service records. Was I nervous? Yes, but I remained calm as I ripped the strip from the cardboard envelope. Loaded the CD. Yep, this was the record for Orrin Clinton Porter. Page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4, page 5, nothing new. Page 6 contained Orrin's re-enlistment papers that he signed while in Vicksburg, Mississippi, dated 10 Dec 1863. And it was there that I saw "I Orrin C Porter born in Chautauqua Co in the state of New York aged twenty five years..." Definitely a happy dance time!

Now I have a place to start some serious research for William Porter's New York family.

Hole in the Brick Wall, Part 1

In my post "Introducing the Porter Family of Knox County, Ohio" I stated that one of my brick walls was the location of William Porter's residence (where he came from) before he migrated to Knox County,  Ohio in the early 1800s. In the 1850 federal census it lists William as having been born in Connecticut, and in the 1860 federal census it lists William as having been born in New York. Since I have established that a son, Orrin Clinton Porter, was born in New York, I know that William at least lived in New York before coming to Ohio. But where?

William Porter is a fairly common name so I have found a lot of men with that name living in New York prior to 1840, which is when I've first found William living in Harrison Township, Knox, Ohio. This would take some time if I didn't try to narrow the field right from the start.

 First I considered migration patterns. Where in New York would it be easier to travel to Ohio during the early 1800s? I looked at the history of the Erie Canal and found that it was completed in 1825, and it's path ran through Oneida County, New York. In 1830 I found one William Porter living in Hartford, Oneida, New York and another that lived in Augusta, Oneida, New York. Both these Williams fit the family dynamics for this time period. I also found a couple history snippets about the Porters in Augusta,  Oneida County which stated that they had originally came from Connecticut. That looked good! Further investigation found that the William Porter in Augusta had died in 1841. The other William Porter is still found in Oneida County in 1840.

So next step was to create a list of William Porters, born about 1794, living in New York in 1830. I chose 1830 first because I felt there would have been at least one son, aged 5 to 9. I base this upon the assumption that a William Lee Porter (1821-1878) who is found in Pleasant Township, Knox, Ohio is also the son of my William Porter.  Each record was examined to see if the family unit fit mine. I don't remember how many William Porters I discounted but I finally found one living in Chautauqua County, New York who looked good. At that time the family looked like this: two males 0-4; one male 5-9; one male 30-39; one female 0-4; one female 5-9; two females 10-14, one female 30-39.  I also found this family in the 1820 census. At that time the family consisted of one male 26-44, two females 0-9, and one female 16-25. This family is not found in this area in 1840. I looked at FindAGrave and did not find any graves listed for this family. I know that FindAGrave does not contain every grave in a given area, but I used this as another way of not discounting this family at this time.

Tomorrow I wll continue this investigation and how at least a hole was finally made in this brick wall.