Monthly Archives: October 2016

John Hall, son of Amos Hall, married Huldah Hall, not Huldah Williams

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In 1883, the Rev. David B. Hall published The Halls of New England; an enormous undertaking and a book that continues today to be the go to book for Hall genealogy. While there is a great deal of accurate information in this book, it is not without errors, and unfortunately those errors continue to be published in new family trees every day. Why? It must be because the genealogical information in this book is presumed to be accurate without performing the individual research for primary records that is absolutely necessary when documenting our ancestors. As family historians or professional genealogists we must always document what is found in a reference book with primary sources. Reference books should become our main source only when primary records do not exist.

I wanted to document the marriage of John Hall, son of Amos (Jonathan, Samuel, Edward Hall of Rehoboth) to Huldah Williams. In the Halls of NE book, page 620, Family 112, the following is written:

John Hall b. Nov. 15, 1745; was a farmer in Raynham Centre; member of the Congregational Church; removed to Rochester, Mass. and thence to Wilton, Me., where he d. Feb. 8, 1830, ae 84; m., January 1, 1770, Huldah Williams, of Raynham (5th from Richard), b. Jan. 1741, d. Dec. 26, 1804, ae. 64 years.

The only Huldah Williams that I have found in any records was born September 28, 1750 to Edmund and Lydia Williams. I cannot find a Huldah Hall in either Massachusetts or Maine who died in 1804. I realize that the Taunton, Massachusetts fire destroyed primary records and I also realize that an 1804 headstone might be long gone….but, no one seems to have anything out there on the Huldah Williams who, according to the Halls of NE book, married John Hall.

In the Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, Ancestry.com, 2011 a record is found for the marriage of John Hall to Huldah HALL in 1770 (no month or day given) in Raynham, Massachusetts, but there is no marriage record found for John Hall and Huldah Williams on January 1, 1770.

There is no record found for Huldah Williams born January 1741 BUT there is a record for Huldah HALL born January 18, 1740/41 to Philip and Huldah (Leonard) Hall in the Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988.

In my research, I came across another record of interest, also found in the Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 database. This record caught my attention because it appears to be an attempt to reconstruct the vital records for the Philip and Huldah (Leonard) Hall family that were lost in the Taunton fire. It gives names of children, birth dates, and death dates, death of Huldah, marriage of Philip to Hannah Leach, as well as Philip’s death date and at the bottom of the first page this entry is included:

John Hall son of Amos Hall and his wife Abigail was born Novr ye 16th 1745 on Sabbath Day. The names of the children of John Hall and Hulda his wife

Amasa their first son born August 12th 1771 on Monday

Keilah their second son born April 18th 1774 on Monday.

The top portion of the next page completes the entries for Philip and Huldah Hall’s family with the marriage of John Gardner to their daughter, Phebe in 1766, along with the births of their children and their death dates.

Is it merely a coincidence that John Hall and his wife Hulda are thrown into the middle of entries for the family of Philip and Huldah Hall? After all, John Hall is from a different, unrelated Hall family than Philip is. I don’t think so. I think this is a huge clue, however, there is nothing written into this document to confirm that suspicion.

Philip Hall died in Raynham, Massachusetts on 2 January 1764. In the Mayflower Deeds and Probates, 1600-1850 database, in the record for the Estate of Philip Hall, Huldah is named as the eldest daughter and Phebe as the 2nd daughter. This entry indicates that both daughters were single at the time of Philip’s death and at the time the inventory of his estate was taken.

Philip Hall’s (identified in Halls of NE as being a descendant of George Hall of Taunton); (Hall DNA Project Family 024) widow, Hannah (Keith) Leach Hall marries Jonathan Hall (a brother to Amos [father of the subject John Hall]; Hall DNA Project Family 006) in April 1764. It would be reasonable to assume that with this marriage Philip’s unmarried daughter, Huldah was living in the Jonathan Hall home after his marriage to Hannah, the same as her unmarried children by Benjamin Leach. Jonathan’s son, Seth, married Hannah’s daughter, Diadamia Leach in 1769, so would it not be possible that Jonathan’s nephew might have married Philip Hall’s daughter, Huldah? Seems almost too much a coincidence that according to Halls of NE, Huldah Williams was born January 1741 and the only Huldah born about the same time in Bristol County, Massachusetts was Huldah Hall, born January 18, 1740/41; and that Huldah Williams married John Hall January 1, 1770 and the only record to be found is for the marriage of Huldah Hall to John Hall in 1770. In other words, Huldah Williams cannot be documented in available records. But so far everything has been theory based on coincidences; can anything with substance be found? The record for the Estate of Philip Hall mentioned a division. Are there records of that division and will they help? There are, indeed!

A deed naming the legal owners of all lands that were set off to Hannah Hall as her right of dower clearly settles the question of who John Hall, son of Amos (Jonathan, Samuel, Edward) DNA Family 006 married and thereby corrects the erroneous statement that David B. Hall made in his Halls of New England book, that John Hall, son of Amos Hall, married Huldah Williams. Finally, a primary source was found.

Bristol County Deeds, Book 74, page 310, dated November 14, 1794, recorded February 5, 1796

Know all Men by these presents that we ISAAC HALL yeoman, JOHN HALL yeoman and HULDAH his wife, JOHN WILLIAMS yeoman and SILENCE his wife, and SETH HALL yeoman, all of Raynham, County of Bristol, being now ye legal owners in fee simple of all the lands that were set off to HANNAH HALL, the late widow of PHILLIP HALL late of Raynham decd – as her right of dower in said estate, said land lying and being in Raynham……..

Isaac Hall is the son of Philip and Hannah (Keith) Leach Hall.

John Williams married Silence Hall, daughter of Philip and Huldah (Leonard) Hall.

John Hall, son of Amos Hall, married Huldah Hall, daughter of Philip and Huldah (Leonard) Hall.

Seth Hall, son of Jonathan Hall (Jonathan, Samuel, Edward) and Hannah (Keith) Leach Hall’s third husband, married Diadamia Leach, daughter of Hannah (Keith) Leach Hall Hall and her first husband, Benjamin Leach.

The entire deed can be fully (and freely) viewed on the FamilySearch.org web site here.

Now when we look back at that earlier record that appeared to reconstruct the vital records for the family of Philip and Huldah (Leonard) Hall, finding John Hall, son of Amos, and his wife “Hulda”  in that record makes perfect sense.

Previously Missing Children of Elijah A. and Chloe (Keith) Hall: Romeo E. Hall and Eliza Hall, Westmoreland, Cheshire, New Hampshire

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While working the last few months on bringing down and documenting the descendants of Seth and Diadamia (Leach) Hall, Seth being a sibling of our 3rd great grandfather, Silas Leonard Hall, I requested photos on Find A Grave for Gaius Hall, a son of Seth’s and for Edwin Hall, a grandson of Seth’s, and son of Joshua and Anna (Brockway) Hall, buried in North Cemetery, Westmoreland, Cheshire, New Hampshire.

A few days ago I received an email letting me know that the photo request had been fulfilled and that same message also gave me important information on other Hall burials that were all together in that particular row.  All of the names on the headstones were familiar and belonged in this particular Hall family, as buried in the row along with Seth and Diadamia were two of their sons and their wives: Gaius and his first wife Esther and second wife, Lucinda; Elijah and his wife Chloe; Edwin mentioned above and 2 Hall infants. Three burials were not familiar at all: Romeo Hall (died 1872) and his wife, Mary (1819-1870) and Eliza Hall (died 1864). Who in the world are Romeo and Eliza Hall? I didn’t have either one in my database. Curiosity, of course, got me searching for information.

There are no birth, marriage or death records for Romeo E. Hall and no birth or death records for Eliza Hall.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of early 1800 births in Westmoreland, New Hampshire that there are no records for and death and marriage records are spotty at best.  I searched for family trees on Ancestry, as well as on FamilySearch and I found 3 public trees on Ancestry for which two have Romeo’s father as unknown and his mother as the Eliza Hall mentioned above, born abt. 1802. Based on Romeo’s birth year this would mean that Eliza would have been about 15 years old when he was born, not unheard of, but I wasn’t buying it. The family trees also had that Romeo E. Hall married Mary Wyman (1819-1870) and they had 2 sons, Elton Augustus Hall (1842-1922) and John Wesley Hall b. 1854, this information seems to be accurate based on documents.

Next I went to the census. The 1850 census for Westmoreland  has Romeo E. Hall, 33; Mrs. R.E., 30; Elton, 7; Chloe, 74; Eliza, 48; all born in NH except Chloe who is born in Mass. Romeo is living in between Seth Chandler Hall and Gaius K. Hall. Seth C. and Gaius K. are sons of Gaius and Lucinda (Balch) Hall.

Chloe, age 74, in the home; that caught my eye. She certainly fits as the widow of Elijah Augustus Hall (son of Seth and Diadiama) who died in 1847. Could Romeo have been the son of Elijah Augustus and Chloe (he did name a son Elton Augustus) and his widowed mother is now living in his home?  Could Eliza be, instead of Romeo’s mother, an older sister and daughter of Elijah and Chloe? Possible since Elijah and Chloe were married in 1795.

I went to my database and checked marriage dates and the birth years of children for Gaius Hall and Joshua Hall, in addition to Elijah Augustus Hall and found that either Romeo or Eliza could fit with one but not with the other family for Gaius and Joshua, but both could fit with Elijah Augustus and Chloe as the parents, so then I went to the 1800 through 1840 census for Elijah A. Hall and what I found is that several children are missing from the vital records for Elijah Augustus and Chloe (Keith) Hall; two sons, one that I can now confidently claim to be Romeo E. Hall and at least 3 or 4 daughters, one that I am now comfortable naming as Eliza, born 1801/02, died 1864. The other daughters and one son continue to remain a mystery.

I then started looking at Elton Augustus Hall. Other than being able to document him as the son of Romeo E. Hall, I hadn’t found anything that gave his ancestry beyond his father, until yesterday when I found a bio for Elton A. Hall in the Biographical Review: biographical sketches of leading citizens of Cumberland County, Maine, published 1896, p.587. Elton was the assistant superintendent of the Maine Central Railroad. The bio went on to give some ancestral clues and it fortunately contained what I was so hoping to find:

Mr. Hall’s paternal grandfather, Elijah A. Hall, was a pioneer settler of Westmoreland, N.H., where he was industriously engaged for many years as a tiller of the soil, and where his children,including Romeo E. Hall, the father of Elton, was born.

Generally when using secondary sources, I take the information with a grain of salt until I can prove the statements with primary sources. In this case, there are no primary sources and this book is the only source that I have found so far that identifies Romeo E. Hall as the son of Elijah A. Hall of Westmoreland, New Hampshire. Being the immediate family of Elton A. Hall, I would trust that he knew who his grandfather was.

So what we have learned is that in addition to Elijah A. and Chloe (Keith) Hall’s already documented sons, Horatio Nelson and Camillus, we can add a third son, Romeo E. Hall, and even though there is no documentation other than the fact that a daughter of her age existed in the censuses, and that she is buried in the same plot as Romeo and his wife, and Elijah and Chloe, I am confident that we can also add Eliza as a daughter.

Had it not been for a very thoughtful person who photographed the headstones in North Cemetery in Westmoreland, Cheshire County, New Hampshire and went above and beyond by adding the additional information, it is hard to know how much longer it might have taken to even begin to identify additional children of Elijah Augustus and Chloe (Keith) Hall, for which there apparently are no vital records.