Sunday Search: Another Rediscovered Surname In The Revolutionary War

The Noblit surname is one that was lost to my family for well over 100 years until I started digging into this lineage. We were well aware of John Uttley, whom I have previously written about, but his parents were a bit of a mystery. It wasn’t until I found his death certificate that this new branch of the family tree was discovered. And to say that this has been an interesting journey would be an incredible understatement. But, for the time being, we are going to focus on the three generation prior to my 2nd great grandfather, John Uttley, beginning with his mother, Charlotte Noblit.

According to Charlotte’s obituary, she was the oldest living person in Manayunk at the time of her death in 1903 at the age of 93, which was not surprising given the longevity of her uncle, Dell Noblit, who exceeded the century mark. My grandfather was one of 16 children between her two marriages (first to Joseph Miller and later to John Uttley) and her father, Thomas Noblit, was noted to have served in the War of 1812. What has proven to be an invaluable tool at this point in the research process was that Charlotte was the most recent generation mentioned in John Hyndman Noblit’s book “Genealogical Collections Relating to the Families of Noblet” which also provided generations of additional information.  

Focusing more precisely on my lineal line, my next ancestral subject was Charlotte’s father, Thomas Noblit. While I was unable to find any information related to his service during the War of 1812, I did manage to find an interesting document. In 1855 Ann Pearce, Thomas Noblit’s widow, filed a Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application in which she states that Thomas Noblit, who died in 1850, served as a “private in the Revolutionary War from Chester County, Pennsylvania, and served at Chadds Ford and Battle of Brandywine commanded by Colonel Wallace, she thinks” and that he was drafted at Chester County, Pennsylvania in June 1777. While additional evidence is provided through a letter from the State Treasurer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania noting the pension that Thomas, and now Ann, was receiving, I could not find any additional information regarding his service in the war. However, his father, John Noblit, was a completely different story altogether.

Born in Middletown Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania in 1734 to Tavern and Inn Owner (The Black Horse Hotel) William Noblit and Mary Parke, the first mention of John Noblit that I found was in the depredation claims stemming from when the British Army occupied his land during the Philadelphia Campaign in September of 1777. However, there is much more information available outlining his service in Captain William Britton’s Company commanded by Colonel Oliver Spencer (also known as Spencer’s Regiment of Continental Troops) from March of 1777 until May of 1778. During his service he fought during the Battle of Brandywine and the Battle of Germantown before spending the winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge. It seems as though he returned home in the spring most likely to help his family recover from the depredations suffered in the fall and later moved to the adjacent Ridley Township in Delaware County where he died in March of 1786.

And this is just the beginning of this part of my family history as there are pages and pages of documents that have survived the centuries to tell the story of this surname. From the United States and Ireland to Great Britain and France, there is a lot that have yet to learn about this family and about this part of my heritage. But, for now, I guess I will be working on pulling together all of the aforementioned documents and additional materials for my first supplemental application for the Sons of the American Revolution. And, once approved, I will have patriots on both sides of my family.

Sunday Search: Finding French Royalty

At this point in the process, the family tree has been well documented and we know a lot more than we did just a few years ago. We can trace most of our lines back through the decades and centuries deep into the 19^th and 18^th centuries in America. However, making the leap into the countries of our heritage has been extremely difficult. While we know the places from which our families emigrated, that is pretty much were our history ends. However, there are now a few exceptions to that pattern the most prominent and well documented of which is that of the Noblit line.

You may recall previously reading about John Noblit’s service during the Revolutionary War but the family history does back much further. Not only do we have a wealth of information, thanks in large part to Quaker record keeping at the time, about his father’s life, William Noblit, but the entire family that came to the colonies in the 1720’s from Ireland. And this is only the beginning of the pre-immigration journey. As it turns out, Ireland was only a brief stop in the journey to the colonies when looking at the family history in its entirety.

Prior to the family’s brief time in Ireland, only lasting a generation or two, the Noblit name is traced back to England where the family lived for a similar duration than that in Ireland. At this point, the truly exciting leap takes place when we venture into France. It is here that we find the most documents related to the family, their place in society, and their subsequent expulsion in the late-16^th century. Yes, we are, by definition, Huguenots. These records don’t just cover a brief period of time, there are actually mentions of the Noblit/Noblet surname in documents dating back to the 12^th century.

While the earliest mentions are scarce but beginning in the 16^th century there are volumes of documents that have been found. What is especially fascinating, and tremendously useful, when tracing our family back is that some of these documents are patents of nobility. While I can’t confidently trace back to the earliest of mentions in the annals of history, I can, with documentation, trace back well into the 16^th century and can, with relative certainty, state the fact that we are descendants of French nobility. This was a surprise to me but one that I am eager to explore further. Who knows, maybe one day I will be able to stay at the old family homestead in the Anjou region of France.

Sunday Search: Putting The Pieces Together

Picture taken during my visit to Leverington Cemetery in 2003. 

In recent months I have made a little bit of progress on the family tree tracing back a number of lines a couple of generations and finding out a few additional details of some of my ancestors. One line that I keep coming back to lately is that of my great great grandfather, John Uttley. While I never knew much about this line growing up (and I still kick myself for not talking to my grandmother about genealogy when she was alive), there has been a lot of progress made in finding out some of the details.

Last year, through online research, reading through a variety of books, sorting through brief mentions in the local newspaper, and calling various city offices, I was able to piece together a few facts about John Uttley and his career in the Philadelphia Police Department. It wasn’t much but I was able to find out that he was appointed to the police force by Mayor Stokley on May 6, 1876 and assigned badge #596. After over five decades on duty, he retired from the force in 1931 having reached the rank of Sergeant. Because the official records for the police department have long since been destroyed, this is all of the information that I could find on the career of the man who helped raise my grandmother.

The same record that provided me with his retirement year, his death certificate, also listed some very important information… the names of his parents. While I am still search for additional information on the Uttley line, his mother’s tree proved to be more fruitful. John Uttely obviously got his longevity from his mother, Charlotte Noblitt (also found at Noblit, Noblett, and Noblet), as they both died as nonagenarians. In fact, according to her obituary, she was believed to be the oldest living resident in Manayunk at the time of her death at age 93 in 1903.

While death certificates in 1903 don’t provide the same valuable information as later official forms, her obituary did offer some additional leaves as her father, Thomas Noblitt, was mentioned as having served in the War of 1812. This is always great information to find so, with those new details I started looking for his pension application. Days of searching and nothing was found. Could it be that the information in the obituary was wrong?

This happens more often than people realize, when obituaries are written, especially those authored by non-family members, there are assumptions made. Maybe Thomas was older than the reporter realized. Maybe it he wasn’t in the War of 1812. Once I made this adjustment to my search criteria, I found the answers I was looking for. The pension application and supporting documents from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania confirmed his service in the Revolutionary War. Charlotte was actually conceived later in life long after Thomas Noblitt’s military service… longevity it obviously part of the Noblitt legacy.

Recently, I also made an interesting discovery to expand the branches out further in this line. While attempting to learn more about this line I came across a book, Genealogical Collections Relating to the Families of Noblet, published in 1906 by John Hyndman Noblit. The surname was close enough that I had to take a look inside these digital pages and found that this was our family. Not only does the book contain the basic information that you would find in any family tree but it also has reproductions of the actual documents from the countries where the name was once prevalent. While it doesn’t have everything, it has given me a lot more information to sort through, digest, and add to this part of my family history. And, just think, this all started with a desire to learn more about a single leaf.

What’s In A Name?

One of the hardest if not the hardest decision that my wife and I have had to make was when we had to come up with a name for our son. We went back and forth countless times and consulted more books and websites than I can recall each time writing down anything that appealed to us. We couldn't decide between choosing a traditional Jewish name and those names that can be found in our extensive family trees. After we each wrote a few options down we would share with one another. This eliminated many of the options. More still were eliminated when we considered the names of some of our young relatives.

After several months going back and forth we had a few options both of first names and middle names, Jewish names and family names, some that we both really liked and others that had a certain amount of indifference with one or both of us. About a week before our son arrived we sat down and looked at the options that we both liked. We played around with the names switching between first and middle as well as family and non-family names. We also considered some of the surnames on my wife’s side for the middle name… after all it has worked for me.  

I guess there were about 5 first and 5 middle names that it came down to. Not being able to figure out what exactly fit our son we both took turns just saying them out load to see what sounded right. This is when we notice something very special. Each time we read the names our son decided to cast his vote. It didn’t matter whose voice, he consistently kicked, punched, or head butted when we would say each name… one first and one middle. Not many parents can say that their son chose his own name but we can.

His first name is one that runs throughout both sides of my family. When looking throughout the tree I see it across many branches with various surnames in tow: Teaford, Hallman, Uttley, Redcross, Cooke, Clapsaddle, Ardis, Noblit, and a few others. It runs throughout the generations and it has always been a family name. In addition to the recent significance and honor that the name carries it was also the name of my great great grandfather Uttley, a member of the Philadelphia Police Department for over 50 years, who raised my grandmother after her parents divorced. My 5^th great grandfather Redcross, member of the Monacan Nation and Revolutionary War soldier. My great grandfather Hallman who served in WWI. My 5^th great grandfather Noblit, one of the early residents of Middletown Township in Delaware County who saw much of his property seized during the Revolution.

With our son selecting his first name from my side his middle name had to be one of significance in my wife’s family. Thankfully our son agreed and chose a name which, according to what I have been told is the name of the last in a long line of Rabbis on my wife’s side. My wife’s great grandfather Greenburg may have passed nearly a decade before she was born but his legacy still lives to this day. Born in Romania and having come to the United States around the turn of the 20^th century as a child, he supported his family the best he could and raised my wife’s grandmother whom she still misses. In the end, our son chose names from the men who raised both of our grandmothers to which we were very close. He also made picking a Hebrew name really easy. 

So some many see it and wonder how we came up with the name and we have been asked that many times over. We did consider the origins of the names (which did seem to fit our son) but the family meaning behind them is far more significant. While we have both given the short answer during the course of conversations, now you have the full story behind the name. Our son has a part of each of us, myself and my wife, but more importantly he carries with him a long family history on both sides of which he can be proud and all he has to do to remember that is look at his own name.

Sunday Search: SAR Update

During the latter part of this past January, I finally sat down and pulled together my application and supplementary material to submit to the local chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. Since that time there have been many rounds of updates, revisions, and completing additional applications (and securing the appropriate documentation) for other family members. In all, five applications have now been submitted with more on the way once these initial memberships are approved. All of this work has been done while in direct contact with the state registrar who has been a tremendous asset throughout the process.

While it will still be approximately another two months before we hear back from the National Headquarters regarding our applications, I have remained quite busy during the wait pulling together the list of supplementary applications that I will be completing once my membership is approved. While this initial lineage is a line that is found on my father’s side, the next set of documents will be those from my mother’s side of the family. The hope is that I will have the information available to those family members who are interested in joining regardless of which side with whom I am speaking.

So, over the next year or two, I will be delving into the other lines that I have discovered thus far in my research. While there are many that I will be able to prove I am certain that there are some that are either incorrect or for which there is insufficient supporting documentation. However, I won’t find out until I am able to focus on each of the patriots below. While I am only confident about the first three I am sure that there will be endeavors that prove to be fruitful. So, here you go, this is the list of the patriots to whom I will be tracing my lineage:

• John Noblit, Private, 7^th Battalion, Chester County Militia; Suffered depredation.
• Thomas Noblit, Private, Chester County Militia, survived Battles of Chadds Ford and Brandywine.
• Jacob Duffordt, Virginia Patriotic Service, Provided supplies to the Continental Army
• Peter Rough/Rauch, 2^nd Battalion, Northampton County Pennsylvania Militia
• John Snider/Snyder, Corporal, Flying Camp Maryland Militia; Wounded at White Plains.
• George Michael Wilfong / Wildtfang, Virginia Patriotic Service, Paid Supply Tax
• John Cook, Private, Logan County Virginia Militia
• David Riggin, 2^nd Delaware Regiment
• Richard Payton Bailey, 15^th Virginia Regiment
• Robert Stinson, Massachusetts Patriotic Service, Committee to Produce Soldiers
• George Clapsaddle, Franklin County Pennsylvania Militia
• Johann David Von Nida, Virginia Patriotic Service, Paid Supply Tax
• Frederick Boyer, Philadelphia County Militia
• Thomas Brown, Private in Virginia Militia
• John Beverly, North Carolina Patriotic Service, Paid For Services
• William Terry, 3^rd and 5^th Virginia regiments
• Jacob Gery, 6^th Battalion, Philadelphia County Militia
• John Philip Mumbauer, Private, Bucks County Pennsylvania Infantry
• Johann Andreas Dressler (Andrew Tressler), 2^nd Battalion, Berks County Militia
• Johan Heinrich (Henry) Myers, 5^th Battalion, Lancaster County Pennsylvania Militia
• John Philip Negley, Private in Gray’s Pennsylvania Regiment
• John Norbeck, 1^st Battalion, Berks County Pennsylvania Militia
• John Phillip Young, 6^th Battalion, Philadelphia County Militia
• Rufus Cone, 7^th and 17^th Connecticut Regiments; Taken prisoner at the Battle of Long Island; Died aboard the prison ship off the coast.  
• George Philip Royer, 4^th Battalion, Philadelphia County Militia
• George Walker, Cumberland County Pennsylvania Militia
• Matthias Kerlin, Pennsylvania Patriotic Service, Paid Supply Tax
• John Sheaff, Private, 6^th Battalion, Chester County Pennsylvania Militia
• Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, Pennsylvania Patriotic Service, Representative to Continental Congress
• Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg, Pennsylvania Patriotic Service, Patriot Minister

If you add in the application already submitted tracing back to John Redcross that makes for 31 ancestors that I will be researching. In addition to the history interest and family history that will certainly be uncovered during this endeavor, there is also a much more practical reason for not settling and submitting as many supplementary applications as I possibly can… verification. Many of the aforementioned names are recent discoveries and while there are many lines which I am confident that they are correct, there are some where the generational connections are tenuous at best.

However, overall, by submitting each of these lines and the supporting documents, I am able to have the research certified by and independent third party, the Sons of the American Revolution. In those instances where they are able to verify my findings, the family history just got that much stronger. All of the sudden, those branches which have been withering for decades, are once again vibrant and proving to be some of the more colorful contributors to the family foliage. And, just think, we will be able to pass this down to future generations and nearly ensure that our family history is not forgotten.

Sunday Search: Documentation For My Supplemental Application

Ever since I received the letter from the Sons of the American Revolution saying that my application was accepted (actually, our applications), I have been working on my first supplemental application. As I have previously outlined, the first application was tracing back the Redcross line on my dad’s side of the family and now I am weaving my way through my mom’s side. It should be no surprise that the line that I am using for this application is tracing back to John Noblit.  

In addition to the previous difficulties tracing what was a line unbeknownst to us until recently, there was also the task of pulling together some of the documentation for recent generations. Surprisingly, there has been a lot of material uncovered and some tremendous recourses discovered which leaves little doubt about the family line prior to the 1940’s. Not including myself, the recent work has been in pulling together the documentation for the recent generations. Just last weekend, I finally got those last few items that I need to complete my second mountain of paperwork.

I have known about my grandfather’s Masonic Bible for most of my life and I knew that my grandmother would pull it out every once in a while not necessarily for what was written on the pages but to remember the family members represented by the scraps of paper between the pages. That being said, I had never taken the opportunity to sit down with my grandmother or my mom to really see what was contained within the blue covers. When my mom gave the Bible to me last weekend, I couldn’t help by start paging through the chapters and examining the documents that continue to buckle the cover.

There were certainly some interesting pieces of paper floating loosely between the pages containing names, marriages, birth and death dates, and some clippings from others moments in my grandmothers life including a photo from the local paper and a small clipping announcing a party for my grandparents’ 25^th wedding anniversary. Of course, bound deep within the pages of the book is something that I had been looking for… my grandparents’ wedding certificate from 1940. In the subsequent pages I found not only the births of my mom and her siblings in my grandmother’s handwriting but also some of the deaths in the family from the time they were married through the passing of my uncles.

It is a unique opportunity to use this family record in my most recent SAR application and it is also an honor to be entrusted with the history contained in its pages. It is not only a connection to my family history as a whole but a real, tactile, connection to my grandmother and my grandfather. In both regards, I consider myself a caretaker of the family history and I hope to preserve not just the pages that have been passed down but also the documents that have been discovered over the years so that we are never again in a position to forget. 

Sunday Search: Membership Approved!

On June 17^th my family, being descendants of Private John Redcross who served in the Amherst County Militia, was officially approved for membership in the Sons of the American Revolution. The wait is finally over and years of genealogical research has now been verified. A lineage that was absent from our tree only a decade ago is now ingrained in our collective identity. An identity that now consists of Monacan blood and a history of patriotism that traces back to the founding of this country including our participation at the Battle of Yorktown (more about this story in a future post). There is no longer a question or beginning our statements with “I think” or “we believe”, now we can respond with certainty and clarity. Now we know.

This is the first of many applications that I will be submitting to verify various lines of my family history. In fact, I am nearing the end of completing my second application (first supplemental application) this time tracing back to Private John Noblit on my mother’s side of the family. Like the first, this is a lineage which we were unaware of until only a couple of years ago. With little information having been passed down in the family, much of what I have found over the last decade, including this discovery, was forgotten but now can no longer be considered lost.

While I am uncertain as to the order of subsequent applications there are many lines which I need to investigate further. Of the dozens and dozens of possibilities it will all come down to a simple process of proceeding with the one which holds the most promise and, more importantly, the most documentation. It will be a lifelong project that will never be “complete” and I am okay with that as each application, each patriotic line that is verified, strengthens the roots of our family tree.

There will be many applications that will be submitted but it is this approval that means the most. This is the first step to that lifelong process and is something that I am proud to pass down to my son. We are part of a greater history of this country and our family, like many others past and present, can now make the honest claim that we helped to form and shape this nation. This is the next step in our continued effort to strengthen our ties with our heritage which was started decades ago when those initial family lines were revealed to many of us. This is our history and we can never again allow it to be forgotten. This is an important part ensuring that we will always remember.

Sunday Search: Who’s Next?

With the first supplemental application nearly done it is time to start looking through the family tree to see which line I will be submitting next. Now that the “easy” ones have been documented, all of the other options are going to require some more work. That being said, now that I have traced one ancestor on my father’s side and one on my mother’s side, I can at least look at all possibilities without having to limit my options. With that in mind, I have to look and see what information I do have and how likely it will be to find the supporting documentation I need for the additional lines.

Looking back at the list I compiled in March, there are certain things that still need to be worked on for each of the ancestors listed. While we have already submitted documentation for the Redcross and Noblit lines, there are still twenty eight (28) other names on that list. However, from that list, I have at least narrowed the selection down to a few ancestors where the mysteries are minimal and acquiring the documentation is realistic pursuit given my limited time at the moment.  

Jacob Duffordt, Virginia Patriotic Service, Provided supplies to the Continental Army. We have the documentation of him paying the supply tax as well as, what I believe to be his service in one of the Flying Camps. Additionally, I have all marriage certificates and other documentation going back to his grandson, my 4^th great grandfather Jacob Teaford, whom I wrote about in May regarding his service at Norfolk during the War of 1812. The issue with this line is that we aren’t 100% certain as to the identity of this Jacob’s mother. It is a mystery that the family has been working on for decades but I believe that I am making some headway.

This is likely the next supplemental application that I will be completing but there are other patriots in the family that I will be researching at the same time including:

• Johann David Von Nida, Virginia Patriotic Service, Paid Supply Tax
• Frederick Boyer, Philadelphia County Militia
• John Snider/Snyder, Corporal, Flying Camp Maryland Militia; Wounded at White Plains.
• George Michael Wilfong / Wildtfang, Virginia Patriotic Service, Paid Supply Tax
• John Cook, Private, Logan County Virginia Militia
• William Terry, 3rd and 5th Virginia regiments
• John Philip Mumbauer, Private, Bucks County Pennsylvania Infantry
• John Norbeck, 1st Battalion, Berks County Pennsylvania Militia
• John Phillip Young, 6th Battalion, Philadelphia County Militia
• Rufus Cone, 7th and 17th Connecticut Regiments; Taken prisoner at the Battle of Long Island; Died aboard the prison ship off the coast
• Matthias Kerlin, Pennsylvania Patriotic Service, Paid Supply Tax

Again, all have their small gaps in the documentation but I am confident in tracing these names and we will eventually be able to verify them. The real question for me is whether we will be able to trace back through the Muhlenberg line as this requires my research on one generation to be supported through documentation as the maiden name is the one that I have traced. This will require a considerable amount of effort which is why it will be worked on in the future, after a number of other patriots have been proven. That being said, I welcome any information on the Muhlenberg family tree to get things started.