Subject: Re: Merrill family Jared Merrill
Date: Fri, December 31, 2004 5:44 pm

Question: Carole Jacobs wrote:

The Merrill family has done a wonderful job here! I am hoping you have an answer for me. I have Israel Merrill (1716-1784), grandson of John Merrill of Hartford (1636-1712). Lucius Barbour says he md 1) Abigail Cadwell, & 2)Bethiah. I have a deathdate for Abigail Cadwell as 16 Nov 1745! , Hartford, CT. Where did this date come from? If it is correct, obviously Bethiah was the mother of the children born after that date, of which Jared (my line) is said to be one. I also need verification that Jared was actually a son of Israel. Barbour does not list him. Thanks much for any help you can give me.

Answer: Carole:

Israel (4) [1716-1784] did marry both Bethia (_?_) and Abigail Caldwell, but he m. Bethia first, not second.  Bethia probably d. having their only child, Lois, who was bp. 1740 May 4 [from church records]. Lois survived to m. in 1760 Abraham Humphrey.  Israel m. 2nd, Abigail Caldwell in 1741.  We have no idea where your d. date of  1745 Nov 16 came from. It is certainly not Abigail Caldwell's d. date.  It is possible that this is the d. date of Isreal and Abigail's daughter Abigail, who was bp. 1742 May 16. We have no further data on daughter Abigail.

"A Merrill Memorial" by Samuel Merrill,  more or less the "bible" on the early generations of the Merrill family, lists Abigail's b. as  5 Jan. 1722/23, daughter of  Thomas and Hannah (Francis) Caldwell. It also lists your Jared [1754-1832] as their son.  The records of the West Hartford First Congregational Church give Israel's d. as 1784 Oct 15, "of old age".  While we can't be positive this is the right Abigail, those same records list  the death of "Abigail, wid. d. 1795 Feb 9, age 72". We think this is Israel's widow.  The age certainly fits.

We hope this helps,

Howard and Jean Merrill

Subject: Re: Merrill family James Merrill
Date: Fri, December 17, 2004 11:21 pm

Question: Cathey Merrill wrote:

I married Ronald Edwin Merrill, II and have only one child, a son named after his father. I would like to give them both more information about their heritage as very little information exists within the current family. If you have any advice as to where to start, I would appreciate it.! I have this small list of names I found in a photo album: James Sherwood Merrill-1845 born in Kentucky (probably my husbands great grandfather); Mary Alice (Cole)Merrill born 1855 in either Texas or S.C. (probably his great grandmother); James Edwin Merrill born in 1892 in Texas (my husband's grandfather); Lydia O. Merrill born in 1899 in Austin,Texas. This is all I have to start with and am not sure what to do first. We never knew any of my husbands relatives on his father's side of the family.

Answer: Cathey:

We do not have any information on either of your James Merrills.  We looked in the 1850 KY census for a James ca 5 but did not find one. Neither did we find a 15 year old there in 1860. Of course they could have moved from KY shortly after his b.

We next looked in 1880 TX census for a James, b. ca 1845, but no luck. The national index of the 48 James b. 1840-50 showed none b. KY and only one living in KY, and we know he is not your James.

Since one of those listed was b. Austin in 1899, we checked what Merrills were living in Austin in 1900. Your James was not listed, and the only one there was an ex slave.  There were no James Merrills listed in TX in 1900 as heads of household.

These are some of the things we would have suggested you do, but since we had easy access to these records we tried them for you, but to no avail. Is your husbands father still living?  You need to start with what you know and work backward. Collect names, spouses, dates AND places of b., m., d.  The 1910, 20 and 30 census are available, we did not look in them, but you have to know Where to look for someone at census time.   Did the family stay around Austin? the more specific your info is, the more likely you can make a correct connection.

Sorry we couldn't be more help,

Howard and Jean Merrill

Subject: Re: Merrill family Rachel Merrill
Date: Fri, December 17, 2004 10:02 pm

Question: Burton Keeble wrote:

My other e-mail, not as reliable: bkeeble@aracnet.com I posted this on the Merrill Forum on Genweb, but you folks really do seem to have the lion's share of Merrill information. I'm looking for genealogical information on my great-great grandparents. Eben Cook was born in Kezar Falls, ME or, Parsonsfield (which is adjacent) and married a woman named Rachel Merrill, or Rachel M. Davis on August 26, 1851. It was a civil ceremony registered in Danville. Eben and Rachel moved to Lewiston, ME and had Grace Lane Cook in 1854. Grace married Clarence Hanson in Lewiston in 1875. Rachel outlived Eben and moved to Worcester, MA where she was living in 1906. Grace outlived Clarence and lived until 1943 and died in Lancaster, MA. Their daughter, Ida Winslow Hanson Fowler signed the death certificate and provided the Cook and Merrill parentage info. I hope you are able to use this information and respond to this message. Thanks in advance, -burt

Answer: Burt:

We don't have record of a Rachel Merrill m. to an Eben Cook. We looked in the 1850 ME census for Rachels. There are only 5 and only two are unmarried, and one of those is 49, too old to be having children. That leaves only one possible candidate, a 16 year old boarding, with her sister(?), Susan, 18, in Lewiston, probably working in a mill. We are pretty sure that these two girls are the daughters of  Jacob (7) and Rachel Stevens, also living in Lewiston in 1850.  Jacob and Rachel's daughter Rachel was b. Lewiston 1833 June 1.  Jacob (7)'s lineage is Abner (6), Benjamin (5), John (4), Nathan (3), Abel (2), immigrant Nathaniel (1). More details are available.

Just to make sure Rachel was not a Merrill girl formerly m. to a Davis and later widowed, we checked the some 57 Davis men in our database, but none of them had m. a Rachel Merrill.

We looked in the 1880 census for both Eben and Rachel Cook, but did not find them. We were trying to confirm Rachel's age as b. ca 1833.

We don't know if this Rachel, d/o Jacob and Rachel is the the one that m. your Eben Cook or not, but Danville, where the civil m. took place, is only about 5 mi from Lewiston.

Hope this helps,

Howard and Jean Merrill

Subject: Re: Merrill family James Gilman Merrill
Date: Mon, December 13, 2004 2:05 pm

Question: Maureen N. Harbourt wrote:

My brother recently completed renovation of the Merrill house [circa 1896] in the Springfield historic district of Duval Co., FL (Jacksonville). Looking for ancestry of James Eugene Merrill (b. abt 1854 in Georgetown Co., SC) who was the builder/owner and his father, James Gilman Merri! ll (b. abt 1824 Massachusetts. James Gilman Merrill was the founder of what is now the Merrill-Stevens Ships - built steamships in the 1880s/90,s and now builds yachts. He came from Massachusetts to S.C. at least by 1853 and married a SC girl, "Sarah E.". They lived in Georgetown Co. SC until abt 1867 and then moved to jacksonville, FL. James Gilman Merrill and Sarah E. had these children: James Eugene (abt1854) , William G. (abt1856), Sarah e. (abt1858), Alexander ((abt1860), Sally (abt 1863), Joanna (abt. 1868), Nelly (abt. 1870), George (abt1874) - may have been 1 more. With the name gilman as a middle name, I thought James gilman may be a grandson of John Merrill and Abigail gilman. Note: on the 1860 and 1870 census, James' birthplace is spelled out as "Massachusetts". On 1880 ithe index says Maine, but may have been misindexed. Another clue: On the 1860 us census, there is also a Shepherd Daggett family from Massachusetts living in Georgetown SC, with son thom! as Daggett who is an engineer and another son a machinist. James G. M errill first is listed as "overseer" in 1860 cenus, but later is listed as a blacksmith and his son James E. as a machinist and later a shipbuilder. Do you know parentage of James Gilman Merrill?

Answer: Maureen:

You are correct in that James Gilman Merrill's middle name came from the female side of the family, but it wasn't Abigail as you suspected. James Gilman (7) was b. 1825 Sept 22 in Acton, York Co, ME, son of James (6) and Joanna Gilman. His lineage was James (6), Levi (5), James (4), Thomas (3), Abel (2), immigrant Nathaniel (1).  More Details are available.

We will attach James Gilman's family group sheet.  Please let us know if it comes through ok. This is the first time we have used the pdf format, but it should eliminate problems we have had with large families in trying to scrunch a two page fgs into one.

Are you related to James Eugene Merrill?  Or did your brother purchase the house and you are interested in the prior owners.

We are trying to database the Merrill/Merrell surname nationwide from the original immigrants right down to the present day for all the immigrant lines. So far we have over 60,000 Merrill males, plus their wives and daughters in our database, but we estimate that there are well over 100,000 so we have a long way to go, and we need and appreciate all the help we can get, particularly with the later generations. We use this database strictly to try and help folks trace their Merrill roots. Be assured that no info on living individuals will become internet accessible. We would be interested in any info you have on the Merrill surname descendants of James Gilman (7) down to the present.

We write the query column for the MERRILL NEWSLETTER published by Lil Hall Welch. Check out the Newsletter homepage at <www.merrill.org/genealogy/tmn>

Howard and Jean Merrill