Eliza (Sornberger) Pierce Sanford and her Descendants Part 1

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Introduction

Figure 1
1860 Mortality Schedule Berkshire County, Massachusetts [1]
 

Tragedy struck the Sanford household of Great Barrington, Berkshire County, Massachusetts in the fall of 1859 when three members of the family all died of typhoid fever. Louisa, age four, died in September, after an illness of forty days. Eliza, a forty-four-year-old married woman, died in October, after an illness of thirty days. And in November, Julia C., age seventeen, died after an illness of thirty-five days. A note in the margin of the mortality schedule, a special census recording everyone who died in the year preceding the 1860 census, identifies them as mother and daughters. [2]

Figure 2
John F. Sanford family in the 1860 Census [3]

The remaining members of the Sanford family were enumerated in the 1860 census at Great Barrington a few months later. John F. Sanford, a forty-eight-year-old merchant, headed the household. Living with him were five people with the last name Sanford, Aurora, a sixty-nine-year-old widow, Mary, a forty-seven-year-old spinster, two boys, John, age fourteen, and Willie, age seven, and Frederick T., a forty-five-year-old merchant. Also living in the household were Lizzie Pierce, an eighteen-year-old spinster, Fanny Prime, a thirty-year-old Irish servant, Aurora Isabell, a thirty-seven-year-old wife, and Tommy Isabell, a six-year-old boy. [4]

Figure 3
John F. Sanford Family in 1855 [5]

Just five years earlier, the family had a very different composition. John, then age forty-six, headed a household that included Eliza Sanford, age thirty-eight, Mary E. Sanford, age eighteen, Emma I. Sanford, age sixteen, Elizabeth Pierce, age thirteen, Julia C. Sanford, age thirteen, John L. Sanford, age nine and William H. Sanford, age three. [6]

Figure 4
Sornberger Family in 1850 [7]

And five years before that, in 1850, Eliza and Lizzie Pierce were living in Hillsdale, Columbia County, New York. Betsy Sornberger, age sixty-two, headed a household that included four other Sornbergers - George, age forty-two, Emmaline, age twenty-nine, John, age eighty-two, and Uriah, age sixty-two. [8]

Taken together, these records highlight the fluid nature of families and households in the middle of the nineteenth century. When a spouse died, the surviving spouse often remarried within a few years, especially if there were young children. Aging parents, and unmarried siblings, often lived in the household of married siblings. Widowed women with young children often returned home to live with their parents if they did not remarry. The lives of  Eliza (Sornberger) Pierce Sanford, her daughter Lizzie (Pierce) Seeley, and Lizzie’s children show how families came together and disbursed through marriages, deaths, divorce, and remarriages in nineteenth-century New York and Massachusetts.



1. 1860 U.S. Census, Massachusetts, Berkshire County, Great Barrington, Mortality Schedule, page 2, lines 9-11, Sanford family; Ancestry.com, image 8 of 17.

2. 1860 U.S. Census, Mortality Schedule, Sanford family. See note 1.

3. 1860 U.S. Census, Massachusetts, Berkshire County, Great Barrington, page 82, lines 4-13, dwelling 632, John F. Sanford family; Ancestry.com, image 47 of 97.

4. 1860 U.S. Census, John F. Sanford family. See note 3. Eliza’s daughter Elizabeth (born 1842) was known as Lizzie throughout her life. For consistency purposes, she will be referred to as Lizzie in the text, and Elizabeth in notes if that is how she is listed in the record.

 5. 1855 Census, Massachusetts, Berkshire County, Great Barrington, line 12-19, dwelling 173, John F. Sanford household; Ancestry.com  image 43 of 44.

6. 1855 Census, Massachusetts, John F. Sanford household. See note 5.

 7. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Columbia County, Hillsdale, page 660 (handwritten), lines 33-39, Betsy Sornborger household; FamilySearch.org, DGS 008955187, image 29 of 53. The last name Sornberger was spelled in  many varying ways in the 1800s. For consistency, the name will be spelled Sornberger in the text, spelling from the document will be reflected in the citations.

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