First, I want to give credit and thanks to folks at familysearch.org. Not only have they been methodically digitizing most of their massive microfilm collections thus making them freely available online, but now they have introduced Experiments run by FamilySearch Labs. I've been using the Full Text Search experiment for a couple years now, and find it a real game changer. I think of all the hours I spent at the library trying to even read the indexes, and now poof, machine reading of all of it. Astounding by itself, but this kind of technology takes research to another level by revealing unindexed names (or other search strings) buried in the texts.
Incredibly, this new Full Text Search has been made available for most if not all of the deeds and probate records for each state, two of the most valuable record groups for finding our ancestors. From the comfort of my home, all I need to do on a rainy day is play with this new search engine using the names and places I know so well, and quite often I'm able to find a few things I hadn't found before. Things like a transcription of a genealogy recorded in a bible found in an antique store in Walled Lake, Michigan. That record has been sitting among the Oakland County films all this time, and I just never found it because my life isn't long enough to pick through every hay stack.....
So now to this recently discovered bible genealogy. This Gillespie genealogy is included in a collection called "Bible and Family Records of Pioneers of Highland and Hartland Townships, Oakland County, Michigan, Volume 2" indexed and compiled by several chapters of the Michigan DAR in 1957. I would never have any reason to search in this collection for Gillespies, and yet here was recorded a Gillespie family group:
- James Gillespie, born 25 Mar 1789
- Elizabeth Gillespie, born 22 May 1793
- Mary Ann Gillespie, born 26 May 1812
- Isabelle Gillespie, born 25 Oct 1813
- Alexander Gillespie, born 20 Mar 1815
- Thomas Gillespie, born 8 Jul 1816
- John Gillespie, born 2 May 1818
- James Gillespie, born 2 Dec 1819
- Elizabeth, Gillespie, born 22 Sep 1821
There is also a column to the right of each name listing the age of that person when they died.
You have to imagine me staring at this family group for quite some time because my brain couldn't quite grasp seeing all these names listed together as a family. Fifteen years ago I was just discovering my 2nd great granduncle, James H Gillespie, somebody whose life was not included in the Gillespie Family Record written by Edith Gillespie in 1966. James H. Gillespie married Belle Greer and they ended up spending much of their lives in Colorado where they also died. When I went to get their death certificates, I learned that Belle Greer's mother was Isabelle Gillespie, a name found nowhere else in my family history. Thus, many of the posts in this blog are about me trying to understand who Isabelle Gillespie was, as well as a handful of other Gillespies in early Oakland County, Michigan who didn't fit into my family history, names that include James, Mary Ann (Sloat), and Thomas. And now here are all these names in one place.
But do the names in the bible genealogy align with what we know of my mystery Gillespies in early Oakland County? I believe they do for these reasons:
- White Lake, where Thomas Gillespie Jr lived, is pretty close to Walled Lake where the bible was found.
- The birth dates in the bible for Mary Ann, Isabelle, and Thomas are all the exact birth dates found on records or gravestones in Michigan!
- The death certificates for Mary Ann Gillespie Sloat and Thomas Gillespie both list their father's name as James.
- The Michigan gravestone for a James Gillespie who died in 1866 at the age of 46 has always been a mystery, but now the bible genealogy has a James Gillespie whose birth year could finally let us know who he was.
- When Thomas Gillespie Sr. was declared incompetent in 1855, Henry Sloat, spouse of Mary Ann Gillespie, became Thomas' guardian, and the other interested parties noted in the case were most likely the niece and nephew mentioned: Isabella Greer and Thomas Gillespie Jr.
And finally, knowing that my Gillespie relations came to Michigan via Orange County, New York, having arrived there around the War of 1812, I have long pondered the 1820 census enumerating a family group of a James Gillespie in Fishkill, NY. In looking at that census now, the enumeration of that family group fits this bible family group exactly. Likewise, the 1830 census of James Gillespie in Newburgh, NY could be the same person previously enumerated in Fishkill, although the wife had probably died and James was living with an older daughter as well as the youngest.
So all of this is exciting, but I'm stumped about the death notations in the bible genealogy -- none of the ages listed match the ages determined by known death dates of some the people on this list, specifically Mary Ann, Isabelle, and Thomas. We have to wonder if there was a transcription mistake, and if not that, then what other explanation for incorrect ages at death? That's an open question.
Meanwhile, I've been juggling my family tree around trying to understand how two Gillespie brothers, specifically Thomas Gillespie Sr. and James Gillespie of the bible genealogy, can be related to my ancestor, John Gillespie, and the daughters from his first marriage who emigrated from Armagh first to NY and then to MI. Given the various vital dates, I surmise that my ancestor, John, had a brother, one whose name is currently unknown. Thomas Gillespie Sr. and James Gillespie of the bible genealogy were sons of my John Gillespie's brother. Sounds messy when I write about this over 200 years later, but it was actually simple. Family groups were large and tended to stick together once the decision was made to travel across the world with no idea what lies ahead.
So if this hypothesis is right:
- Thomas Gillespie Sr. married his first cousin Nancy Gillespie after the death of her first husband, Robert Greer.
- Isabelle Gillespie married her second cousin, John Greer, John being the son of James Greer and Jane Gillespie, daughter of my John Gillespie.
- When James H. Gillespie married Belle Greer, he was marrying his 1/2 first cousin once removed.