George Washington Black 1804-1874 Ohio, married Sarah Cherry, help appreciated.

[Mousetaco77]

My father died of pancreatic cancer last year (6 weeks from diagnosis to death), which catalyzed my quest to figure out who we are and where we came from. Though I've made lots of progress, I've reached a major brick wall on my father's patriarchal line—the line I so desperately long to establish.

I've thoroughly traced my line back to my 4th great-grandfather, George Washington Black, who was born in Virginia and lived in Ohio throughout his life. His wife, Sarah Ann Cherry, was born in Pennsylvania. Their marriage is well established and I'm including the records in the included link.

George was born in 1804 and died in 1874, while his wife, went on to around 1880. Though census and descendant information is plentiful and easy to establish, I cannot find any birth/death records / info for George or Sarah, and even more tragic: not a shred of evidence linking them to any parents. I desperately want to follow this family to the beginning of line—to discover our origins in the new world—but I'm thoroughly stumped. I'm including a link with all of the visual evidence/clues I've found, and would greatly appreciate any assistance/information you may be able to offer. Thank you so much.

I've spent weeks combing newspapers, scouring the web for Ohio histories, and have even emailed a few courthouses / historical societies, but they haven't responded.

My surname is particularly frustrating for basic internet searches, because "Black" typically throws me into a loop of African American / slave genealogy research. Not to mention our first president! An amalgam of the two is also something I have to deal with. Searching: ( "George W. Black" -slave -black -african -president ) is helpful when using basic search engines.

Link to what I've found below. Thanks so much!

Link: https://imgur.com/gallery/uDWCtcS

[Mousetaco77]

I will note that there is a George Black on an immigrant ship manifest from Ireland, but this George is a printer, rather than a farmer. Additionally I'm quite sure it's not him because on census info, he states that he was born in Virginia.

I've spent many hundreds of hours trying to break through this stonewall.

[PhotoFamily]

For those looking for record links thru FamilySearch, here is G W Black's FamilyTree link, with links to census records and few more.
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pe...urces/LHZY-R7L

Mousetaco77
If you aren't a FamilySearch member, you may join for "free".
There is someone who has created a "collaborate" note on the profile, who likely has "Black" as a surname. Perhaps that person is a good contact.
In 1850, his birthplace is recorded as Ohio, but in subsequent it is Virginia, so I agree that it is likely to be VA.
The marriage recorded Sarah's given name as Sally - some people don't realize that Sally is a nickname for Sarah.

FS wiki page about records/resources in Mercer Co, OH
https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki...Ohio_Genealogy

1850 - Concord Township, Highland, Ohio Farmer
1860 - Union Township, Clinton monthly laborer, no real estate
1870 - Dublin Township, Mercer farm laborer, no real estate (Thomas Black is listed just above him on the page, and does have real estate).

One of the recommended ways for researching is to track land ownership, so the last two censuses seem to indicate that there's no land records there. "Farmer" in the 1850 might mean he had land there, making a search there a possibility.

Death certificates in this era were hit and miss. Not all locations had a civil registration system, and even then not everyone reported.

It's crazy to map those locations in google maps - not sure this link will work (alternatively, you could plug it in yourself)
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Unio...d40.692393!3e0

One pursuit to consider is newspapers (I'll see what I can find) - small towns loved obituaries to fill space and attract readers.

Oh, and - this might be an excellent use of genetic genealogy - both "autosomal" (usual progression: AncestryDNA and port results to Gedmatch, familytreeDNA, and MyHeritage; insufficient results, test again at 23andme) but if that's not enough, consider testing Y-DNA.

[Mousetaco77]

Thanks so much for the reply, Photofamily. I spent a couple of weeks hitting newspapers.com pretty heavily and found lots of good information on the son, Thomas Lewis. He got 160 acres in the Oklahoma Land Run and was a well-respected farmer in Stroud, OK. I found MANY newspaper articles on him.

Additionally, Sarah's final census appearance shows her living with her son, Jefferson Black in 1880, Dublin, Mercer, Ohio. I was sure to find some kind of obit or death notice pertaining to her, but haven't found it yet.

Oh George and Sarah, must you be so elusive??

[PhotoFamily]

Mercer Co, OH public library has this genealogy page, which lists resources and also has an email for requesting research assistance

https://mercerlibrary.org/info/genealogyroom/

of note is their microfilm collection, which includes newspapers

https://mercerlibrary.org/info/genealogyroom/microfilmcollection/

At least one might be of use in your search
Mercer County Standard - November 3, 1870 to December 26, 1925
a few other newspapers might be pertinent

another resource that they have includes Court Records. George seemed to have some accumulated dollars (from the 1870 census, I think?) and perhaps he had an estate that went thru probate.


I don't have access to online archive newspaper subscription sites. The two big ones that I can think of are Newspapers.com (indexed on Ancestry) and GenealogyBank.

Another common technique is to research each of the children and especially recovering any obit they might have. Sometimes (only sometimes) there may be a referral to a parent's origin.

There are also county histories that may include write-ups of your peeps. The problem that I see - your peeps don't seem to have been long-term, well-known community members, which would have attracted the writers. IMO, these were written for publishing houses as a way to sell books, and they wanted to write up those that either would attract buyers, or the spotlighted persons would buy them for themselves.

[PhotoFamily]

Additionally, Sarah's final census appearance shows her living with her son, Jefferson Black in 1880, Dublin, Mercer, Ohio. I was sure to find some kind of obit or death notice pertaining to her, but haven't found it yet.

Kinda bugs me that they were so eager to move around. Do you have multiple sightings of Thomas between the 1880 and 1900 censuses? It would be interesting to try to figure out where Sarah/Sally died, tho Mercer Co seems likely. And - just because she was with Thomas in 1880, doesn't mean she didn't move to another house after that.

Tracing each child - for instance, their daughter is on FindAGrave
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/.../mary-e-dysert

Finding her obit might provides details of her siblings, maybe even her parents. I doubt there's info about the Blacks in the Huffman/Dysert entry, but ... leave no stone unturned...
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...=0&single=true

There are many newspapers that are not online, or are on small or obscure sites. The big ones are worth looking at, but not the final word on the existence/absence of an obit.

Also - keep an eye on names children are given. Lewis may have been the name of a friend or cousin or brother - or it may have been the maiden name of George's mother or grandmother. I know a woman who has an extensive family, surname Lewis, in western VA, some of which became West Virginia.

The Civil War. Even tho they were in Ohio, it probably reverberated with them.

[PhotoFamily]

two of the county histories for Mercer OH - I didn't find your peeps in a quick search

https://archive.org/search?query=History+of+Mercer+County%2C+Ohio

Have you looked for similar county histories for where he died in OK?

[PhotoFamily]

encountered this book?
Stroud, 100 years, 1892-1992

Statement of Responsibility:
sponsored by the Stroud Chamber of Commerce, Stroud Centennial History Book Committee

https://www.familysearch.org/search/...tory%20Library

or connected with any family members that remained in Stroud or that area? Moving often means the loss of family records :(

[Mousetaco77]

Thank you for all the info. I have tried most of those sources, and I am aware of the Stroud history book. My grandma (different side of the family) still lives there. I'm going tomorrow to see if she has this book.

I've combed through most of the children's available history also. There's gotta be something I'm missing. 1880 wasn't so long ago. These people must have some kind of historical record linking them to their parents.