A bit of my own family history . . .
It's common to hit a brickwall when looking for ancestors. In researching my maternal ancestors, about 18 months ago I had nearly given up the search past one of my 5th great grandfathers. I'm stubborn though and could not seem to leave it alone. I finally had a breakthrough and it revealed something unexpected.
My 2nd Great Grandmother' is Jeannie Tozer. It's documented as Tozer, Tozeer, Toser, Fozer, Foser, and even Fouser. Her father also has various spellings of his surname and it makes research difficult. Coming from a small town has advantages though. Sometimes it's a bit easier to verify data because there aren't many people with the same last name in the town or county.
Jeannie's father, Robert, was where I ran in a brickwall because he is not documented as living in Michigan at anytime and finding him was very difficult.
It's important to remember that researching ancestors can often be an educated guess. So, here's my best guess based on documented facts -
1872 - Jeannie's father, Robert, arrives from Witney, England to the US and makes his home in Ohio.
Abt. 1873 - Jeannie's parents, Robert and Hannah are married. (I cannot find a marriage cert, so this is an educated guess based on when Jennie was born.)
1874 - Jeannie Tozer was born in Michigan to Robert and Hannah.
1876 - Robert is married to his second wife, Urania in Ohio.
1880 - In the 1880 census, Jeannie and her mother are listed as living with Hannah's parents. Hannah is documented as "divorced". (I cannot locate a divorce cert.)
1880 - Robert is listed as living in Ohio with his 2nd wife and children.
1882 - Hannah remarried and had several children with her 2nd husband. I've documented this side of the famiy back to around 1780.
1898 - Jeannie's marriage certificate lists her father as Robert Tozeer.
1915 - Jeannie's marriage certifiate to her 2nd husband lists her father as Robert Toser.
1949 - Jeannie's Death certificate lists her father as Robert Tozer.
Based on the information above, I found a Robert Tozer with the same birth year and birth location as Jeannie's father. I suspect what happened is Robert and Hannah married in Michigan, had Jeannie, divorced soon after, and Robert returned to Ohio.
If I am correct and this is the same Robert Tozer, he came from England to Ohio because he had family in that area. They owned a distribution company for the family wool blanket manufacturing company about 45 minutes away from where Robert lived in Ohio.
Where does this lead? If the facts are accurate, Robert's mother Alice Early comes from a family who owned and made wool blankets in Witney, England for 300 years. Between 1669 - 1969, The Early family owned and operated several mills and factories which made high end wool blankets. I found a few vintage Early blankets for sale online.
The family is well documented, which made it easy for me to trace them back to my 11th Great-Grandfather living in Witney in 1606.
If interested, you can learn a bit more here: http://www.witneyblanketstory.org.uk/WBP.asp?navigationPage=Makers
Source: ancestry.com, Bernard Smith originally shared this on 28 Sep 2014
Source: ancestry.com, bncaldwell45originally shared this on9 Feb 2021
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