Wednesday, November 20, 2013

HAS "FATHER-1780-1847" COLEMAN BEEN FOUND?

It is a good possibility.  My cousin retired and now has some free time and she started up with the elusive Coleman search.   There was a difference of about ten years between Mother and Father.   In our ancestor, Michael Coleman's Bible that is how his parents were listed (as Mother and Father ), along with the years of their births and deaths.  This proved to be very difficult.

We both had found and evaluated Thomas Coleman, living in Warriors Mark Township, Huntingdon County PA.  His wife is in the category that would show the differences in age.   Then my cousin found a tree on Ancestry with the name of Thomas Coleman,  it was found on an online tree on Ancestry.  The owner had the exact years of his birth and death.

She also had the name of Thomas Coleman, daughter and husband.   It had been my theory that after Thomas wife died in 1831 he went to live with a daughter, it appears that this is so.  I also found a tombstone with his dates in an abandoned cemetery in Indiana County PA.   Also the daughter, Rachel Coleman Mitchell and her husband William Mitchell are also listed in the same cemetery.

A trip to the cemetery is now in order as well as a trip to Indiana County, PA, Historical Society.  A quick perusal of their holdings indicate that there is a Coleman file as well as a Mitchell file.  It is only about an hour drive from my home.   That will be on the agenda for this fall/winter.

I never made it to the cemetery, but I know where it is located.   It is through a private yard and up a large hill or mini mountain.   The Indiana County Historical Society and Indiana County Courthouse did not yield any information on Thomas except the fact he was buried in Cramer Cemetery.  It is not yet an "exhaustive" search.    I am thinking Cambria County next..