DNA Results Help Uncover The Unusual, but Sad, Life of George W Ravell

A guest blog post by Charles K. Wilkinson, my 4th cousin.

Central Cemetery, Beverly, Massachusetts

JOHN A. RAVEL

1838 - 1915

MARGARET HIS WIFE

1843 - 1892

ABBIE F. WILKINSON

1876- 1913

Mystery: 

My DNA results identified a probable third cousin (PTC) on Ancestry.  This means that PTC and I should have common great-great grandparents.   PTC ‘s tree was quite extensive having over 66,000 people.   PTC identified seven of 8 pairs of great-great grandparents, none of which matched any of my great-great grandparents.

Observation:

PTC’s great-grandfather, for which the great-great grand-parents were not identified, was George W. Rowell.  I had a great-grandfather named John Ravell.   John Ravell had a younger brother named George W.  Ravell. 

Question: 

Could George W. Rowell and George W. Ravell be one and the same person?

Central Cemetery, Beverly, Massachusetts

1830 CHARLOTTE S. ROWELL 1914

1896 THOMAS T. STEEVES 1956

1894  ETHEL W., HIS WIFE  1982

1871  CLARENCE W. McNUTT  1926

1872 CHARLOTTE R. HIS WIFE  1950

DAUGHTERS

1897  MINERVA   1897

1891  MILDRED R. BALL 1965

Research on George W.  Ravell   

George W Ravell was born in Salem, MA to parents John and Eliza Jane (Ashby) Ravell on November 18, 1840, the 7^th of 10 children consisting of 7 girls and 3 boys.   George’s father died in an accident in 1850 when George was 9 and his mother died of consumption in 1853 when George was 13.  Four of the five oldest children, all girls, died between 1848 and 1852.  Benjamin, the second youngest offspring, died about 5 months after his mother’s death; he was living with his great-uncle and namesake Benjamin Pickering Ravell in Lynn.  (The elder Benjamin was born just 4 months before his nephew, George’s father.)  The MA 1855 census revealed the location of the 5 remaining Ravell children.    The two youngest living children, both girls, – Martha and Emeline (Emma) – lived with their older sister Ellen (Ravell) Buxton in South Danvers.   The two boys did not live with family.   John, my great-grandfather, age 17, was living with the Hood family in Danvers; George, now 15, was living with the Tyler family in Middleton.  The occupations of the heads of both of those households were shoemakers.

George Ravel married Eliza Ann Reed in South Danvers, MA in 1860.  He and Eliza were listed in the 1860 Federal Census (last name spelled Ravels).   George registered for the Civil War Draft in 1863 (last name spelled as Ravell), and was listed in the 1865 MA census with his wife and 2 children,  Benjamin P. – age 4, and Eliza E. – age 1.  In the two listings in 1860, George’s occupation was shoemaker.  In the 1863 Draft Registration and the 1865 Census, his occupation was morocco dresser[1].   The family resided in South Danvers[2] in all the above listings.  After 1865, George Ravel (Ravell) disappeared from the records, with one notable exception which will be discussed later.  His wife Eliza and 2 children appeared in the both the 1870 and 1880 Federal Censuses, residing in Peabody with Eliza’s aunt, Harriet Very.

Research on George W. Rowell:

George W. Rowell was listed in both the 1870 and 1880 Federal Censuses.  His wife was Charlotte (Steele) and they had four children born between 1869 and 1875.   The oldest, George Washington Rowell, was born in Pennsylvania and the other three in Delaware.  George’s ages, 29 and 39 respectively, were consistent with a birth-date in late 1840.   His occupation in both censuses was morocco dresser, the same as George W. Ravel.  George’s place of birth was MA, and Charlotte’s was New Brunswick.  Their 1870 residence was in Wilmington Division 28, New Castle, Delaware.   By 1880 they had moved to Beverly, MA.   There were two revealing entries in the 1880 Federal Census: 1. George was suffering from liver problems, and 2. he had been unemployed for 6 months during the census year.

Death Record for George W. Ravel, alias Rowel:

The Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, Bridgewater Deaths for 1887 gave the death record for ‘George Ravel, alias Rowel’.   He died at the Bridgewater State Farm[3], the cause of death was ‘insane’, and place of burial was ‘Salem’.  As was common in most records of the past, there were certain discrepancies: he was recorded as single, as having been born in Beverly, his parents were listed as ‘Jake and Eliza’ instead of John and Eliza, and his age was given as 47, not 46.  These could have been recording errors or intentional misinformation by either George or whoever was responsible for him.  Without doubt, this is our George W. Ravell, alias George W. Rowell.

Charlotte Steele:

Charlotte Steele’s death record, filled out by her daughter, Charlotte Steele McNutt in January 1915 gives useful information about Charlotte, the widow of George W. Rowell.  Charlotte was born in St John’s, New Brunswick on Nov. 26 1830 of parents Joseph Steele and Charlotte Jackson, both born in New Brunswick.   How did George, as a married man, meet Charlotte Steele?  One first suspects as logical that George might have been on duty down south during the Civil War when he met Charlotte Steele.  The records provide a very plausible, quite different,  explanation.  In June of 1868, George’s youngest sister, Emma, married John Steele, Jr.  John emigrated from New Brunswick in 1862 according to the 1900 Federal census.  The 1861 Canadian census listed John, age 14, his parents John and Charlotte, and siblings Charlotte, age 30, and Christopher, age 7, living in St. Andrews, New Brunswick.  Emma’s marriage to John Steele took place approximately 2 years before George W. Rowell and Charlotte were living in Delaware with an 11 month old son.  Circumstances between George and Charlotte in MA in 1868 appeared to have forced them to make a decision to flee rather than stay and face the consequences of their actions.

Comments:

If Charlotte’s father was indeed Joseph, and not John, she possibly was the half sibling of John, Jr. and Christopher.  I have found no evidence of a certificate of marriage for George W. Rowell and Charlotte Steele.  Charlotte was 10 years older than George and, while ‘married’ to George, lied about her age.  In the 1870 Census she was listed as 33, not 39; in 1880 she was listed as 45, not 49.

George’s parents were John Ravell and Eliza Jane Ashby.  His father John Ravell's parentage is not well documented, but the similarity of given family names point strongly to John being the grandson of Adam Ravell and Elizabeth Pickering of Salem; he was possibly the son of their son John, or the illegitimate son of one of their younger daughters.  Eliza Ashby's brother Nathanial (born the same year as the Prophet Joseph Smith) became a Mormon, and travelled west with a large group.  The Ashbys have a rich history as shipwrights in Salem, MA.

---

[1] "Morocco" was a type of goat skin leather that was much lighter in weight than what had been typically used in shoe manufacturing.. The "dresser" was the person who actually tanned or softened the leather.

[2] South Danvers separated from Danvers and incorporated as a town on May 18, 1855.  The name was changed to Peabody, after George Peabody, on April 30, 1868.

[3] The Bridgewater State Farm was one of three state Almshouses that cared for the ‘Sick Poor’ of Massachusetts. Bridgewater existed as an Almshouse from 1854-1887, at which time it was called a State Farm.  Later it evolved into Bridgewater State Hospital for the care of the insane. 

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Charles K. Wilkinson and Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "DNA Results Help Uncover The Unusual, but Sad, Life of George W Ravell", Nutfield Genealogy,  posted September 7, 2015 ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/09/dna-results-help-uncover-unusual-but.html : accessed [access date]). 

Caroline Wilkinson, Simmons College Class of 1907

Caroline May Wilkinson

Candidate for a degree

Born at Laconia, New Hampshire, December 7, 1883

Attended Laconia High School

Address:  Laconia, New Hampshire

"As merry as the day is long"

CAROLINE WILKINSON

Caroline loves all library work,

Its methods she's made her own.

She catalogs and classifies and verifies each tome;

She enters noes on neat P. slips,

Sher arranges them by sub-heads;

And then, to make them seem more real,

She gives them a title page.

What a treasure trove can be found in college and university records!  My own daughter graduated twice from Simmons College in Boston.  I knew that Caroline May Wilkinson had graduated from Simmons with a library degree.  It is still one of the top schools in the North East for Library and Information Science.  The archivist at the Simmons library found these pages from the 1907 Simmons Yearbook and mailed them to me.  Have you tried looking for school records for your ancestors?

Wilkinson Genealogy

Generation 1: Samuel Wilkinson, born about 1722 and died about 1795 in Deerfield or Epping, New Hampshire.  He was a Revolutionary War soldier under Brigadier General John Glover.  A deed with his name was found in the Rockingham County records dated 1796. He is a possible son or relative of Thomas Wilkinson (abt 1690 - before 1739) of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Generation 2: Benning Wilkinson, born about 1764 "of Epping", and died 20 October 1851 in Center Harbor, New Hampshire; married on 4 December 1786 in Northwood, New Hampshire to Deborah Langley, born 17 July 1765 in Nottingham, New Hampshire, died 20 August 1845 in Center Harbor. Benning also served in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.  Twelve Children.

Generation 3. Bradbury Wilkinson, born 19 April 1793 in Allenstown, New Hampshire, and died 22 November 1851 in Campton, New Hampshire; married on 23 January 1820 in New Hampton, New Hampshire to Hannah Huckins, daughter of James Huckins and Dorcas Bickford, born 22 January 1796 in New Hampton, and died 17 February 1882 in Plymouth, New Hampshire.  Six children.

Generation 4. George Henry Wilkinson, born 26 May 1837 in Campton, died 3 May 1899 in Laconia; married first to Mary A. Wilkinson, daughter of Jacob R. Wilkinson and Leah A. Rundlett, his first cousin, on 29 November 1862 in Gilford, New Hampshire.  No children.  Married second to Elizabeth A. Tyler, daughter of James Tyler and Clara Damon, on 28 October 1878 in Laconia.  She was born on 23 April 1846 in Canaan, New Hampshire, and died on 14 October 1912 in Laconia.  George and Elizabeth had four children.

Generation 5. Caroline May Wilkinson, born 7 December 1884 in Laconia, died 30 June 1973 in Brockton, Massachusetts; married on 31 March 1913 in Newton, Massachusetts to William I. Carleton, son of Harvey Percy Carleton and Annie Barker McIntire.  He had a filling station in East Bridgewater, and  the family resided at 44 Plymouth Street.  Two children: Harvey W. and David T.  

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Sources:

Notes of the Wilkinson Family, by Mrs. B. J. Wilkinson, 1940, from the Tuck Library, New Hampshire Historical Society

Simmons College Senior Book 1907, Simmons College Archives, 300 The Fenway, Boston, Massachusetts

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Amanuensis Monday - A letter from 1867

Catherine Y. Lee was the daughter of Laura Williams Jones and John Lee of Boston. She was born about 1835 and married Lorenzo Virgil Morse on 2 March 1857 in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Laura is the sister to my 4x great grandmother Catherine Plummer (Jones) Younger, and the Kate (Catherine) who wrote the letter is probably her namesake. I'd love to find a document that tells me what her middle initial "Y" stood for.

Kate wrote this letter to her Aunt Mary (Jones) Dominis in Hawaii, and it is obvious she had never met Mary. Because they had never met, she gives a great deal of genealogical information, much to my delight! The Morse’s were very successful grocers in Omaha, Nebraska, and I found much information about Mr. L. V. Morse in the city directories, newspapers and other sources.

You can see that Kate kept the family tradition of naming her own daughters after her mother's sisters.  Here she has named her daughters Annie and Mary, and later another daughter Kittie (Catherine) was born about 1875.   Before I found this letter in the Hawaii archives, I thought that Mary Dominis was the only family member to leave Boston.  Now I have found this and other letters that show how the family scattered across the United States.  This letter also describes the hardships the family faced during the Civil War.  It is quite a bit of American history!

-------------------------------------

Dear Aunt,

Doubtless you will be
greatly surprised to receive a letter
from one of your nieces who never
seen you, but I have had a very
great desire to see both you and
cousin John and to hear from you.
I am your sister Laura’s daughter
Kate. Was married eight years since
to Mr. L. V. Morse of Massachusetts.
We have had two children, one named
Mary who died four years ago, our
little girl living is nearly three years
and a half, her name is Annie.
You perceive we have kept up the
family names.
My husband is in the
grocery business in this city.
Omaha is the capitol of Nebraska
and is situated on the western side
of the Missouri River, number fifteen
thousand inhabitants and is increas-
ing in wealth and population very fast.
We have three national banks,
churches of every denomination and
some fine first class hotels and last
but not least it is the terminus


of the great Union Pacific Railroad
of which doubtless you are aware
extends to California now. The
track is laid to Summit, Cal.
The first “China Mail” passed over this
Route last week. Now you see, I
Feel, Aunt, quite near you as it
Is only two thousand miles from
Omaha to California.
We have been from Massachusetts
Over two years, and I have not
seen one of the family since.


When we first married we went
to Tennesee, and intended to make
that our permanent home, but the
War, which broke out in ’62 shooed
us from home, we left all, and
came away penniless, leaving fifteen
thousand dollars there because my
husband would not desert the
Union. I need not describe to you
Our flight or its consequences.
You often hear from William, no
Doubt, and know a good deal about us all.
And my dear Aunt, I hope you
will at least answer my letter and
though we know nothing of each
other personally let us establish
 relationship by our letters. I
wish you would send me you photo
graph and we will return the com
-pliments. I forgot to tell you, I am
at present, preceptress in our finest


school in Omaha.
Write us all about your country
and how you live, to be sure we
read all this in journals but we
cannot rely upon the statements.
A letter from you would give me
the greatest pleasure. My husband
joins with me in love to you
and our cousin. I hope this
will find you enjoying the greatest
of blessings, good health, and
may a speedy answer be returned.

From you aff[ectionate] Niece

Kate L. Morse

P.S. When you write
Omaha, Douglass Co.,
Nebraska

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Please see my blog post http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/08/amanuensis-monday-1870-letter-from.html for an 1870 letter from Laura Williams (Jones) Lee to her sister Mary (Jones) Dominis in Hawaii. 

Source for the letter: Hawaii State Archives, Queen Liliuokalani Collection, M-93, Box 11, Folder 91, Letter from Kate Lee Morse to Mary Dominis, December 1867.

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Amanuensis Monday- A 1870 letter from Massachusetts to Hawaii

This letter was such a genealogical treasure! It is one of the many letters from relative in the Boston area written to Mary Dominis in Honolulu. I found it amongst the boxes of letters in the Hawaii State Archives, but only recently transcribed this gem. At the time this was written, Laura was almost sixty years old, and she hadn’t seen her sister for over twenty five years.


------------------------
Bridgewater Sept 10 1870

My Dear Sister,

Perhaps you have got out
of patience waiting an answer to your very
kind letter that I received some time ago
and I was surprised when I took up your
letter to see the date and to think I have
neglected it so long! Well I hope you will
excuse me this time for I am always so
busy this time a year that I do think
of much else but my work.
I suppose you have seen Mr. Treadway before
this time since his return and he has told
just how I look what sort of a place
Bridgewater is. I hope you have got well over
your sickness and enjoying good health.
I think your old cook must have been
pretty faithfull to have served you so
long and his wife to take such good care
of you and your house. It would be pretty
hard finding such ones this way I guess

------
they like their Mistress pretty well to
stay with her so long! You say you are
puzzled to know about my girls. You remem
ber I had three girls, the oldest was named
Laura Agnes she has always been called
Agnes she married a man by the name of
Wheeler he is a hard working man, she
has got a excellent husband. She has five
children four girls and a boy. Her oldest girl named Laura
is eighteen year old in March the next named Ellen is 16 in April
the next named Katie is 11 years old next month now the boy named Robert
is 8 years old the next the youngest her name is Mary is two years
My next girl was named Catharine we call
her Kate she is married to a man by
the name of Morse they live out west in Omaha Neb
Her husband keeps a store there, she has one
girl her name is Anna 7 years old you have the picture of her
They are doing very well out their she has got
A good husband also. My next girl was named
Mary Ann she died when she was 10 years old
Then I had three boys, William, John, Thomas,
John Boy has been with me since his

------
Father died, he was five years old then he
is now twenty! He is a clerk in William’s
store. Thomas is a shoe maker lives in a
town called Abington, he has a wife and
two children he has to work pretty hard to
get a living and not much at that
So here is the name of my family. Agnes’s
husband has been very miserable for over 8
months so that he has not been able to work
and the two oldest girls has been to work in
a Tack factory this summer and helped
support the family now their father think he
will be able to go to work soon if he can get
any to do it is awfull dull times here for a man to
get a living, I have not heard from Sister
Agnes nor the Snellings this summer for I
seldom go down to Boston and I do not hear
anything unless I do go their you ask if Agnes
is so very poor I will tell you what I
think but never ?? it to no one, they like
to live pretty genteel and the boy dresses very
nice and like for Aggy to dress the same

------
and when I was their last they told me Aggie
earned eleven dollars a week when she worked
steady they pay a great deal about four
hundred a year and Agnes will live in a
nice house! Well Mr. Hart does no
work all winter, only in the house and
Agnes does only the work of ther family
and they are sorely depending on the boy
unless Mr. Hart saves anything in summer.
He has good pay, that is all I know about them
You would not think they was poor to see
them! So now judge for yourself but for
the love of money do not even hint one word
that I write you for I find that Agnes is kind
of jealous now that you write to me. You
known Agnes always had a good way of pleading
poverty. I never tell how poor I am for William
provides me a good comfortable home but I feel
that I should work when I can get it to do, for
I dislike to go to him every time I want money
Although he never would refuse me. Anna his wife
sends her very best love to you and your family and
ays she would like to come and make you a visit if she
could get William started but his business is all he thinks
of

------

He also sends lots of love to you all.
I suppose John’s wife Lydia has lost her grand
Mother, I believe I see her death in the paper
Queen Dowager what was the matter
with her did she die of old age? Does John
think of coming this way this fall
You must excuse the girls sending you their
pictures this time as they have such a hard
time this summer they will not be so put
to it for money if their father gets to work
I have a picture of William I will send
you he has been a promised me a better
one to send you, but his promise is like pye
crust made to brake This is pretty good of him
You see I have wrote you a good long
letter for waiting so long hopeing this will
find you enjoying the best of health also
John and his wife my very best love to them
Also a great deal for yourself!
With much love from all my family

From you affect[ionate] Sister
L. W. Lee, Bridgewater
Plymouth County

--------------

In this letter I learned the following new facts.

• Confirmed that Laura Williams (Jones) Lee was the sister to Mary Lambert (Jones) Dominis.

• Confirmed the names of Laura’s six children.

• One of Laura’s daughters was named Catharine Y. Lee. Could she be named for her sister, Catharine (Jones) Younger? (Catharine was my 4x great grandmother)

• Confirmed naming patterns in the Jones family. The six sisters were Sarah, Catharine, Mary, Laura, Ann Marie and Agnes- all repeated in the grandchildren and nieces, except for the name Ellen and one Mary Ann (not Ann Marie).

• The Hart, Morse and Wheeler families were all found in the 1870 and 1880 censuses of Massachusetts. Previously, I only knew of the son William Lee, the publisher of Queen Lili’uokalani’s autobiography “business is all he thinks of”. The other son Thomas Lee was also found in the 1870 census. Son John Lee is still a mystery, he lives with mother Laura in 1870 and then I cannot trace him (yet) in the 1880 census.

• In the Wheeler family (daughter Laura Agnes Lee), she named her daughters Laura, Ellen, Kate and Mary – all Jones sister names but Ellen

• Was Ellen named for another relative?

• Laura included a nice mention of Lydia (Lili’uokalani) as Mary’s daughter-in-law

• Who is Mr. Treadway?

Source for the letter: Hawaii State Archives, Queen Liliuokalani Collection, M-93, Box 11, Folder 91, Letter from Laura W. Lee to Mary Dominis, 10 September 1870.

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Amanuensis Monday-  A 1870  letter from Massachusetts to Hawaii", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 23, 2014, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/08/amanuensis-monday-1870-letter-from.html: accessed [access date]).