Today is a great day for me. I’m moving on to the Webb family in my Family File Cleanup Project. This is a big deal because at this portion of the tree, all the research is my own. I will still have to properly source everything in a consistent way with the rest of the tree. I wasn’t so consistent with the sourcing. The great news is that I shouldn’t have any super crazy verifying to do at all. Everything from this point on is my own information, so hopefully I’m able to get this section knocked out quickly. That’s not to say that I won’t be doing a little research here and there, because I’m sure I will. For some reason, I’ve always loved researching the Webb family.

The original paragraph

I think maybe it was the mystery of them when I started. It all goes back to the paragraph written at the beginning of the tree my Grandma gave me. While there was information in the beginning to guide, most of the research was corrected and filled in when I first started and beyond. For some reason, I didn’t cite census records well, but I made sure on everything else to make citations. At least there’s that!

The original Webb oldest generation

It’s hard to see the sad pictures of Grandma’s original tree because the pages are fading. You might not be able to see that the only second generation children were those of my 3rd Great Grandfather, George Washington Webb. In my research over the years I’ve added George’s siblings, up from the known two siblings to a total of at least nine. That means the original paragraph mentioned a possible five children but I found mention of at least five more. I only wish my Grandma was still alive to share in the find. She was so set on that paragraph, but she wouldn’t have minded knowing how many more members of the family there were. Besides, I still have some mysteries she mentioned that I can search out, so I haven’t dashed all the family myths yet, just one!

First thing first, I have to say a big thank you to Jennifer over at The Erudite Genealogist. She wrote up an awesome entry giving everyone advice on what to take with you on a research trip. In fact, I’m going to be digging into the spare room closet this week and making sure I have an empty scrapbook case on wheels to get started! So again, THANK YOU!

Now that I have some great advice to follow, it’s time to break into the nitty gritty work. That work has been what has kept me from blogging. Those darn Mays ancestors are driving me crazy but I’m slowly getting them entered into my file. I found that I’m not focusing so much on finding any new directions, I’m just trying to verify what I have with the resources I currently have. When I’m not driving myself crazy there, I’m trying to set up a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to organize the research I want to do on location.

As I get my information together, I’ll keep you updated on my progress. Most likely I’ll have more questions, so I’ll probably ask those as they come. Right now I’m not sure of the exact dates of this traveling. I just know I’ll be in Upstate New York for the 4th of July weekend. The plan is to leave time after the holiday for heading to New Jersey for a little research. Plans always change though so there might be a separate trip to New Jersey needed.

I’m also going to Ohio to visit family this summer because it’s our turn to make the drive. I want to get out a little and visit the Brown County cemeteries where my Webb ancestors are buried. I’m unsure of where Reuben H Webb from Orange County, VA is buried but I hope to figure it out and visit his grave also. I know his son, my 3rd great grandfather, is buried in Kentucky in an abandoned, derelict graveyard. So I hope the same isn’t true for his father.

Reuben was living with one of his sons in 1850. I believe he died shortly after the census. The family was living in White Oak, Highland County, Ohio at the time of the census. I believe James’ wife was born and raised there. Next door to James and Reuben is Alice Webb-Bell. Alice was foreign to me until I found her son Starling living with another of her brother’s in 1880. Then as I tracked back, I found her and later found a mention of her name associated with Reuben. Acc0rding to Reuben T Webb’s biography, his father was forced to move several times after circumstances caused him to lose his property. My question would be did Reuben die in Highland County or Brown County, where the family was living in 1860? This is something I am going to try and find out before I head to Ohio.

Sorry to get off subject, I do that often. So I have several lists going, one for births, deaths, and marriages. Another for cemeteries. I’m also going to start making an obituary list. Looking at the local newspapers is something I haven’t had the opportunity to do before (Ancestry.com’s collection is severely limited), so I’ll be really excited to get to check those out.

Okay, so I thought if I took a little time to do some Webb family research, it’d be a break from the frustration of the Mays family. I was wrong. In fact, I was so wrong I might be right. After finding the treasure trove, I wanted to take another look at the information it gave for Reuben H Webb and his wife Ann Thompson. I’m not doubting the biography but there was something that stood out glaringly for me. I don’t know what to do about it. However, it kind of fits in with the fact that Reuben moved around a bit after losing the land he cleared initially.

You see, on FamilySearch.org it has in two separate databases that Reuben Webb married Ann Thompson on 15 Feb 1806. Why my original family file says 1805, I’ll never be able to tell you. That’s how crazy my file is.

I was very excited to see the top result pop up. It’s a new database added at the end of March. It has the original microfilmed images that were used for indexing in the first place! So I quickly clicked it. The only problem is I can’t find the marriage anywhere on that page. I even paged back to 1805 to see if it was there. Still not there. So if the marriage isn’t on that page, the question needs to be asked. Where did this record of the marriage come from? Does this point to an error?

Once again I’m left with more questions then answers. You can bet I will go through these page by page if it means finding my ancestor. My only thing is, the biography of their son says they were married in Kentucky. So which version is true? I thought actually seeing the record would alleviate my confusion. That obviously hasn’t worked for me yet!

Edit: I checked my records. The 1805 date came from the Ancestry.com Ohio Marriages, 1803-1900 database.

I was a little blocked about what to write about next on the blog. Then Ancestry.com released new Civil War documents!

In the Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865 database, I found both Reuben Thompson Webb and his sons Reuben Horace and James A! Unfortunately, I’m still finding no proof that Reuben’s brother James ever served in the Civil War. Hopefully this changes soon. The family legend says that he died of injuries and gave his death date as September of 1863. Maybe this just means that I haven’t found him in the records yet. I’m still looking!

Back when I started to search my family history, I was given a copy of the tree by my grandmother. I’m sorry, I think I’ve said this 8 million times. I’ll try not to repeat myself so much. In the front of the tree, there was a little paragraph that started out explaining about our Webb line.

James F, Vincent, and George Washington Webb were three of five known children who were orphaned at an early age by the death of both parents. There may have been other children. Upon the death of their parents, they were taken in by various families and were reared to adulthood on that basis. There is no information on the other two children. James lived in Brown County, Ohio and died at an early age from Civil War wounds. Vincent moved to Romney, Tippecanoe County, Indiana. George lived generally in Brown and Clermont Counties of Ohio and Pendleton County, Kentucky Court House records reveal that he owned land in that county. By some Accounts and by an entry in Congressional Record, George Washington Webb is credited with discovering white burley tobacco. The family legend of their having one fourth American Indian blood has not been confirmed.

Okay, so that’s what I started with. I eventually found out Vincent Webb was actually Reuben Thompson Webb. George and James’ information is mostly correct. However, they were NOT orphaned at an early age. As of 1850 their father, Reuben H Webb was alive and living with James and his young family in Highland County, Ohio.

Eventually I even found the names of two more children in an online tree, Alice and Nathaniel. I couldn’t find any documentation for Nathaniel at the time, but I did find Alice. So I was up to four out of five children! Not bad!

Sunday night, I was doing some random Google searches. I ended up typing in Reuben Webb, Tippecanoe IN. I knew he was in the Civil War and lost his eye. I knew he was in Tippecanoe for at least 50 to 60 years. I figured if I was going to find anything out about the parents, it would be from him because it surely didn’t come from my Gr-Gr-Great Grandfather George Washington Webb. Little did I know, I struck a goldmine. My search resulted in a biography written as part of a compilation of biographies to outline the history of many Indiana counties. The book is called, Biographical History of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren, and Pulaski Counties, Indiana. Reuben T’s biography appears on pages 319-322 of Volume 1. It was published by Lewis Publishing Company and can be found on Amazon and Google Books.

The biography transcript was removed because I don’t want to violate copyrights. I finally managed to get the main page to load, so I’ve removed the transcript from the blog because it says no reproductions are allowed on the web in any part.

The biography was originally published in 1899! The full transcript can be found here. So this was written while Reuben Thompson Webb was still living. Not only that but it gives a huge background on the Webb families. Now all I have to do is back it up with records. I’m going to slowly gather these but this biography blew the little paragraph out of the water.