Wandering Around The Family Tree

Lizzie (Pierce) Seeley (1842-1878) Lizzie Pierce lived with an ever-changing group of family members as she grew up. After her father’s death just a month before her second birthday, she likely moved to Hillsdale and lived with her mother’s extended family. In the early 1850s, her family’s household changed again after her grandfather Uriah died in September 1850, followed in 1852 when first her Aunt Emmeline married a neighbor, William Leonard Johnson, and her Uncle George married Harriet N. Osborn, who likely was Lizzie’s first cousin, the daughter of her father’s sister Betsy.  [67]   And then, her mother married John Farnham Stanford, giving Lizzie five step-siblings, and a half sister, Louisa, born in 1856. After the deaths of her mother, half-sister Louisa, and stepsister Julia, Lizzie continued to live in her stepfather John Sanford’s houshold. In the spring of 1860, John’s household included, John, age forty-eight, his step-daughter Lizzie Pierce, age eighteen, ...

Widowhood and Second Marriage for Eliza Like many other young widows with children, Eliza, and her two-year-old daughter Lizzie, returned to her parents’ home in Hillsdale . [45]  In 1850, four generations of the Sornberger family lived together. The older family members were Eliza ’s parents Uriah, and Betsy, both aged sixty-two, and her eighty-two-year-old grandfather John. Eliza, age thirty-four, her siblings George, age thirty-two and Emmeline, age twenty-nine, and Eliza’s eight-year-old daughter, Lizzie, completed the household.[46]  But the extended family was not together for long. Eliza ’s father, Uriah died on 17 September 1850, presumably in Hillsdale.[47]  Her sister, Emmeline married William Leonard Johnson on 12 September 1852, and their first child Ida was born in 1853 .[48]  Her brother George married Harriet N. Osborn in Washtenaw, Michigan on 19 October 1852, and their first child Mary, was born in about 1853 in Columbia County, New York.[49] ...

  Eliza’s First Marriage Like many young women, Eliza married a man from her local community when she was in her mid-twenties. Unfortunately, her marriage lasted only a few years due to the early death of her husband Levi Pierce. They were married in Hillsdale on 15 June 1841 by Rev. Mr. White.[21]  Levi was probably the son of Joel and Margaret Pierce of Hillsdale. His likely previous wife Sarah had died on 7 May 1839. [22]  Levi and Eliza ’s only child, Lizzie, was born in Rochester on 16 May 1842. [23] Figure 5. Pierce & Osborn Ad Wayne Sentinel. 22 December 1841 [24] Levi was a merchant with the firm Pierce & Osborn, a dry-goods merchant located at One Main Street Bridge in Rochester. [25]  They advertised a wide range of goods available from their store including carpets, fabrics, piano and table covers, floor cloths, buttons, silks, ribbons, gloves, and hosiery. [26]  They were in business as early as 11 June 1840, when they ...

 Eliza (Sornberger) Pierce Sanford (1816-1859) Eliza Sornberger grew up in Egremont, Berkshire County, Massachusetts and Hillsdale, Columbia County, New York. She was born on 28 April 1816 in Egremont. At the time of her birth, her family in Egremont included her parents Uriah and Betsey (Cole) Sornberger, her paternal grandparents, John and Deborah (Rau) Sornberger, her great-grandfather Frederick Sornberger, her older brother, Edward, and her likely aunt Elizabeth and uncle Ransom. [9] The Sornberger family lived in Egremont until about 1830, where Eliza’s father and grandfather likely operated a sawmill. [10]  Her father Uriah was active in politics, he was elected to two terms in the Massachusetts State Legislature beginning in 1826. [11] While in Egremont, the Sornberger family grew and contracted through births, marriages, and deaths. Eliza’s grandfather died a few months after her birth on 14 July 1816 at the age of eighty-four. [12]  Her b...

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, Aur...