I have been working on my genealogy for 25 years.
I am trying to find my gg grandmother
Ida's parents on my fathers side. Ida died in the town next to my
town, Winsted CT, in 1952, 2 years before I was born and my parents never talked
about her. Like so many young people, I never asked.
I have stories of her from my Aunt, but not any history of her life.
I went to the town hall and they had
her death entry in a ledger. Born in Philadelphia in 1858. Parents...
William Garner from Virginia and Rose Dorr from Holland. Thats it.
Working backwards, I found Ida Garner married my gg grandfather
William Klinck in Brooklyn NY in 1882.
I found their marriage
certificate, her place of birth was Philadelphia in 1858, two years
before they needed to report births to the city, so there is no birth record. Ida was in Brooklyn, NY in the 1880 census living with her uncle
James. James was born in Philadelphia in 1852. On James death
certificate in 1914, his parents are John Garner from Virginia and
Eliza Durell from Maryland.
Ida was impossible to find before 1880.
I could not find her or her parents in
Pennsylvania. So I set this aside and went back to looking for her
father William Garner's parents, John and Eliza in Virginia.
I looked for census records in Virginia
in 1850, eight years before Ida was born. I found two John and Eliza
Garners about the right ages and they both have a son William about
the right age. Which one? One was listed in Charlottesville as a
mulatto, the other in eastern Virginia. Some people on Ancestry.com think Ida Garner is this other Garner, a totally different Ida Garner... how could there be two?
Can't be the mulatto, I am as white as
can be with red hair and blue eyes, so I look at the other family.
Their future lives don't seem to match up with my Ida. I searched 1900s for the wrong Ida and found she was buried in Pennsylvania. I know my Ida was buried in my town. So Idas parents and grandparents could be the mullatos in Charlottesville.
In the meantime, I send off my saliva
to the DNA people. Sure enough I am about half English and half
German, just like I knew I was. Also 4% Irish, gg gramma Elizabeth
Fitzpatrick, and 4%... Nigerian.
Well ok. This is sad. Now I realize I
have family that went through one of the worse times in our
history... black slaves, enslaving people to work for free and
treating them like livestock. I imagine my ancestors living on a
plantation picking cotton in fields all day and not being allowed to
be free... ever. And mulatto! Meaning of course that there are a
bunch of white people in my past who took advantage of my people.
Yes, there were some marriages and love stories between the black and
whites, but my mind went to the worse.
But also, here on that 1850
Charlottesville census, was my ggg grandparents John and Eliza, free
mulattos owning property and John was listed as a barber! In 1850 and
before the Civil War. In the early 1800s there was a registry, where
free blacks would go to claim their free papers. John and Eliza were
listed in 1840 and 1850 in Ben Fords registry along with their son William. Here too was listed a description of
each, their owners and when they were given their freedom. No mention of Williams sisters Sarah or Mary.
(March 25 2026 update. I found Williams sister Mary! Mary Cordelia, named after her mothers previous slave owner, had moved to Philadelphia and married Thomas Daisy. She died soon after moving to Philadelphia, in 1860, at age 23.)
John, born in 1809, belonged to a
famous newcomer to Virginia. Isaiah Isaacs was Jewish, he immigrated
from Germany in the mid 1700s to be a merchant along with his brother
in the new territories of western Virginia. His brother David Isaacs
was a religious man and did not own slaves. Indeed, David took a
black woman for his wife and they raised 6 children together. Davids
wife was a business woman herself 22 years younger than David, only
about 16 when she had their first child. Nancy West was half white, and
did quite well, all six children are in Davids will and owned
property.
Isaiah moved from Richmond in 1800 to
Charlottesville. When Isaiah Isaacs wrote his will in 1806, he freed
his two female slaves Rachel and Polly and all their increase (children born to them during or after servitude to be freed at age 30). Polly had a daughter Matilda, a new baby born in 1806. Our John was born in 1809, he was not born yet and therefore not mentioned in the will.
So here is where things get a bit confusing. Trying to track what became of Isaiahs slaves after he died before they would come of age to be free, Polly, Rachael and their their children born after Isaiahs death, lived with Isaiahs son Hays or his daughter Fanny or possible David and Nancy West Isaacs. In a ledger from 1808 in Charlottesville, a John Garner, older than my John, rented a house from an Isaacs, probably Isaiahs brother David who was in charge of the estate till Hays came of age. John also rented Polly. Rachel had five children whose last name became Isaacs. Polly had 3 children, William, Matilda and John, Matilda and John were named Garner. William became William Cook.
Pollys son John did receive his freed papers in 1840 at the age of 30. He probably lived with David Isaacs and Isaiahs son, Hays until age 30 when he married Eliza. There is a deed in 1824 that states that Hays sold 11 slaves to Daniel Keith. This included the children of Polly and Rachel. My John is on that list at age 14. so perhaps he lived with Daniel Keith until he turned 30.
John Garner (1809) bought his house and
barber shop in Fredericksville, a part of Charlottesville, in 1844,
four years after his freed papers. He purchased the house and 1 1/2 acre lot on Main Street for $600 from Fontaine Wells. Fontaine Wells had rented out Johns brother William and there was a court case where William filed against Fontaine. Wiliam became free again, but relationships may have mended as Fountaine did sell him a property.
John Garner, probably a white man, rented a house from David and Hays. Polly, Johns mother, was also rented. This John Garner could be the father of my John. Rachel and Polly had no last names recorded.
Many freed slaves stayed on with the slave owners family after they
were free. It looks like the Isaacs treated their slaves well and
many blacks had nowhere to go at that time once freed. John and Eliza
were married before 1833 when son William was born. William was born
near Stauton VA, in Augusta County according to his military papers.
There were several freed black settlements near Stauton, but I cant
find a reference to our family there yet.
(March 25th 2026 update. I have found Pollys mother! Lucy. Lucy and Rachel, another of Isaiahs slaves, were owned by Jacob Cohen and Isaiah when they were business partners in Richmond VA. In 1791 Isaiah emacipated Lucy. In 1792, Jacob and Isaiah divided their slaves. Lucy and her child Polly were given to Isaiah. Isaiah moved to Charlottesville by 1800. Lucy was not in Isaiahs will. I assume she may have died or been living with another family member. Isaiah was fond of keeping his slaves together. Lucy would have been born about 1740 so would have been 60 at the time of Isaiahs will.)
In the 1700s, Maryland and Virginia was
opening up to English for planting larger amounts of tobacco. Indentured servants and
black slaves from England, Bahamas and Africa where needed to grow
and process the tobacco. The Isaacs and people like Thomas Jefferson,
were prominent land owners in Richmond and then Charlottesville. The
Isaac brothers were merchants, and our John may not be picking
and processing tobacco, but maybe working in the warehouses and other
household chores. Harriet Tubman worked on a tabacco plantation in Maryland around the same time.
Eliza... remember Eliza? Eliza was born
in 1808 into slavery in the Darrell family in Maryland. In 1817,
Eliza, her sister Rose and mother Ida, were given by Phillip Durell
to his daughter Cordelia. Cordelia married a baptist minister Daniel
Davis in Charlottesville. The Durells, sometimes spelled Darrell,
came from Maryland but had holdings in Virginia. There are county
books of property deeds in hard to read script. Slaves were property
and transactions were often written into deeds. I cant find more
about their mother Ida, but Rose and Ida probably stayed as slaves
and it looks like Rose may have been traded off to James Williams in
1824 at age 14 to pay off a debt.
Eliza was given her freedom by Rev
Davis when her mistress Cordelia died in 1828. Eliza would have been
20. She probably stayed on with one of Cordelia's two sons in
Charlottesville until she married John Garner. A freed slave in the
early 1800s had nowhere to go. They would likely stay with their
owners family than go into an unknown area, especially if their
owners treated them well and respected the fact they were free to go.
Eliza married John and they may have moved to the Stauton area. Why
John became a barber is another speculation. He may have been
just good at cutting Isaiah and his sons hair and so son David may
have set his up as a barber, loaning John the money for his home and
shop till John could pay for the building himself in 1844.
Charlottesville is a small town in the
north western part of Virginia. Known for its farmland and well to do
people from Richmond like Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson lived
about five miles from the center of town and our Johns barber shop in
Charlottesville. Thomas Jefferson knew all the other gentlemen
farmers in the area. Those farmers children intermarried and all knew
and dealt with Jefferson and his slaves. John and Eliza probably
worked together in the fields, houses and shops and with Jeffersons
slaves. Isaac sold goods to Jefferson.
John and Eliza had two daughters
younger than William. The sisters have been hard to track. Women
married and changed their names and church records are scarce. Many
times slaves took on the name of their new owners and sometimes
changed their complete name as the new owners chose. Mary and Sarah
were not on the Ben Fords Registry in 1840, perhaps church records
would reveal what happened to them. Sarah was born in 1841. They probably would be
members of the local Baptist church. Records may be on file at the
University of Virginia.
Up until the 1840s, blacks and whites
lived a sort of coexistence. Not that slavery is ever good, but it
seems my ancestors were not treated too badly. Then came the
separation. Northern states wanted to free their slaves, southern
states had become more and more dependent on the hard labor that the
slaves were forced to endure every day from dawn to dusk. Some were
beaten and abused, but all were at the whim of their masters as to
where they could go, who to marry. The threat of being sold to
another plantation or owner was a reality for them and their
children.
Slaves were beginning to run away to
the north. Slave owners fought to get them back as they were valuable
property and would change the Souths livelihood and lifestyle. Slave
catchers and rewards for runaways got more heated.
John, Eliza and their children were
in danger. Yes, they had freedom papers, but that could always be
ignored and they feared for their lives. They sold their home in
Charlottesville and headed to the free state of Pennsylvania in 1853.
In the recent movie, Harriet,
Harriet Tubman helps slaves escape to the north. Many end up in
Philadelphia where blacks and whites were free and worked together.
Not always without conflicts, but Eliza and John settled into the old
section and opened a new barber shop.
In those days of
the 1800s, barbers were considered a lowly occupation. Most barbers
were black until the turn of the next century when white men became
barbers too. I found the 1860 census, (Garner is listed on ancestry as
Gumer), John and Eliza were living with sons William and James,
Williams wife Rose, and their son George and daughter Eliza. Eliza
was born in 1858. This is why Ida was hard to find. I think her
birth name was Eliza, Named Eliza for her grandmother and her middle
name Ida for her great grandmother, the Durrell slave. Two Eliza's
in the same house would be confusing, so little Eliza became little
Ida. Brother George I cannot find in any further records. There was
also a daughter Mary born in 1860 that I have not found.
Gramma Eliza died in 1862 in
Philadelphia and was buried in Mount Moriah cemetery in Philadelphia. She was listed as a widow, so John must have died but his death and
grave has not been found. That was the same year William enlisted in
the war between the states. William joined a special unit called
Zouaves d'Afrique.
He was discharged as white. Previously, on the old free black
registrations in Virginia, the whole family were described as "brite"
mulattoes. Watered down their black pigments over the generations so
that in Philadelphia they became known as white. Times were difficult
for blacks. Why they chose to be known as white was probably a
difficult decision. They gave up their culture and became new
personas to make sure their future generations, like me, were
accepted.
William Garner's troupe in the Civil War.... is he in this photo?
William married a white girl in 1854.
Rose Dorr was born in Holland or Netherlands on two sources, but her
parents were from Baden in Germany. Her parents, uncles and aunts had
moved to Philadelphia years before and owned bakeries. They lived in
the same area as the Garners in the old section. The Garners lived at
213 Pine Street. William had become a barber too. William was only
23 when he joined the army, with three small children. William left
them and his bride and went to fight for the freedom of the people
from whence he came.
Much information was found in Williams
war records. I had found an index card for Ada Garner Klinck applying
for pension compensation on her fathers war injuries. I sent to
Washington DC for the file which contained much information about
William and the family.
William was wounded in his right foot
in the battle of Pettersburg, Virginia. He was sent home as an
invalid in 1865. Three years later, his wife Rose died. Little son
George if still alive, would have been 8 years old, Eliza Ida 7 and
Mary 5. Still cannot find them on 1870 census. Perhaps they all lived
with Rose's family? William would be a single father and his parents
John and Eliza were gone. His army disability was $6 per month. James
as mentioned turned out to be a baker himself, so perhaps they lived
with Roses family. Still searching.
Also on Williams pension file, 23 pages
of information, I found William was born in Augusta County Virginia
in 1833. The area near Staunton had several free black communities. I
cannot find a mention of John and Elizas marriage yet. The birth
certificate of little daughter Mary was in Williams file. Rose was
mentioned in the file, her marriage to William in Philadelphia in
1854 and her death in 1868 at age 30.
Cannot find when, why and where she died and is buried. Church
records in Philly may help. They were probably Baptists in the old
section of Philly.
In 1872 William was admitted to
Bellveue Hospital in Manhattan. He had gotten a "disease of the
lungs" while in service and died at the hospital. He was buried
in an unmarked grave on Harts Island. He was only 39. How and when
the family moved to Brooklyn NY is still a mystery.
So Ida and William Klinck were married
in Brooklyn in 1882. Ida was 24 and had been living with uncle James.
They raised five children in Brooklyn. William was a coach and sign
painter. Their first son, David, died as an infant and is buried in
Brooklyn. In 1900, the family moved to Torrington CT. William got a
job with a local painting company. Their children, Elizabeth,
Francis, Charles, Nellie, and Emma all grew up in Torrington, married
and stayed in Connecticut. William and Ida had two more children, George and
William. William junior, born in 1901, died tragically by falling
off a raft at the old mill site on Water Street in Torrington.
His friend tried to save him but were unsuccessful and and William
drowned at age 16. William Klink Sr died in 1912 from kidney failure at
age 64 in Bridgeport, CT. Ida remarried. Son George never married and
Ida and George lived together after her second husband, George Wilcox
died in Winsted CT. Ida died in 1952 at the age of 94.
Ida's daughter, Nellie Klink was my father Richard
Britton's, mother. Nellie had married John Britton, 22 years older
than herself. John had a first wife who died leaving him with 5 children. Nellie at age 21, took on raising the surviving 5 of Johns
6 children and had 8 more children with John. My dad was number 14 of
Johns children, the youngest born in 1927. Johns oldest son married
Nellies older sister Elizabeth.
On August 8 2025, I came across John Banks blog about a Civil War historians finding a bullet on a battlefield. In the bullet was carved the initials WLG. William L. Garner. Here is excerpts from John Banks and Richard Clems story....
https://john-banks.blogspot.com/
"A
murderous encounter the previous week at Gettysburg had thinned the
ranks of the 114th Pennsylvania Volunteers. While glowing campfires
slowly died, the boys from Philadelphia tried to erase from their
minds and souls that bloody ordeal in the “Peach Orchard.” Today,
not a sign remains to indicate these battle-weary warriors bivouacked
on the ground in Maryland. However, one member of the 114th
Pennsylvania left evidence underground that the camp did indeed
exist.
On
a beautiful Indian summer afternoon in 1986, the author and his
brother, Don, searched for Civil War relics with metal detectors. The
farm we searched was camped on by units of the Union III Corps of the
Army of the Potomac during their pursuit of the Rebels after
Gettysburg. In earlier years, the nearby intersection in this area of
southern Washington County, Md., was called Jones’ Crossroads by
locals.
Warm,
sunny hours had proven favorable as our relic pouches bulged with
bullets, buttons and various Civil War artifacts. With shadows
lengthening, we decided to call it a day and take one final sweep
across the old campsite. As we were about to finish, Don headed in my
direction with an outstretched hand and a smile on his face. This
could mean only one thing: He had dug a “keeper!”
"At
first, I thought it was just another bullet," Don explained.
"But after a closer look, I could see something carved on it."
Darkness was setting in too fast to figure out the tiny letters, so
we headed for the pickup truck. That evening we soaked the bullet in
water, and after a light cleaning with a soft toothbrush, letters and
numbers surfaced: "H / W. L. G. / 114 P.V."
Using
imagination and common sense, we came to the conclusion what these
small letters represented. First, the “H” at the top of the
carving stood for “Company H.” Next, the letters “W.L.G.”
were the initials of some soldier’s first, middle and last name.
And finally, “114 P.V.” stood for the “114th Pennsylvania
Volunteers.” Apparently, more than a century before a Civil War
soldier had taken a pocket knife or some other sharp object and cut
the nose and bottom ring off a standard .58-caliber bullet. He then
continued to carve his company’s letter, his own initials and
abbreviation of his regiment on the flattened remaining nose of the
bullet. This was no easy task considering the surface being carved
was the size of an aspirin. This veteran must have had better than
20-20 vision."
"So
let’s return to Nov. 22, 1986, when my brother and I stood
scratching our heads and wondering about the soldier who carved the
bullet. With two great clues to start our research -- the letter of
the soldier’s company and name of his regiment --a trip to
Gettysburg was planned. The library at the Gettysburg National
Military Park produced a copy of the History
of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-5.
The large volume contains in order every regiment from the Keystone
State that served in the Civil War. Each regiment is broken down into
companies listed in alphabetical order. Pages became blurred as we
nervously, anxiously fumbled through the heavy book until a finger
landed on the 114th Pennsylvania Volunteers. In a matter of seconds,
the only name listed in Company H that matched those carved on the
bullet leaped from the page – “William L. Garner.” We had found
our bullet carver from the past."
"Private
Garner was on sick leave from January-April 1863, but recovered and
was present at the Battle of Chancellorsville that May. Near the
Chancellor house, the 114th and 105th Pennsylvania charged a
fortified Rebel position but were driven back to the entrenchments
with the loss of 173 killed and wounded. In the same engagement,
Colonel Charles Collis was reported wounded, although some records
claim he contracted typhoid fever. Whatever the case, Collis was
recuperating and missed the Gettysburg Campaign. "
"The
114th Pennsylvania regiment passed through its worst trials in spring
and summer 1863 at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. In 1864, with
Collis back commanding the battle-tested brigade, the Zouaves
continued reducing their numbers in action at Wapping Heights,
Kelley’s Ford, Auburn, Mine Run, Guiney’s Station and
Rappahannock Station. Private Garner survived those engagements, but
luck ran out for the red-legged veteran from Philadelphia.
On
a clear, warm Sunday in the final month of hostilities, Garner made
his last charge during General Ulysses Grant’s assault against the
enemy’s strong works at Petersburg, Va. A surgeon’s report listed
his condition as, “ . . . disabled resulting from a gun shot wound
in the right foot received in action at Petersburg, Virginia, April
2, 1865.” Just seven days after Garner fell in battle, Lee
surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House,
officially ending the war. With the Confederates' surrender, the
114th Pennsylvania marched to Arlington Heights, opposite Washington,
where it was mustered out of service May 29, 1865. The War Between
the States was over, but for William Garner the battle for life was
just beginning. "
"On
April 10, 1865, the day after Lee’s surrender, Garner was admitted
to U.S. General Hospital in Philadelphia. Later that month, he was
transferred to McClellan U.S. Hospital in the same city. His health
continued to deteriorate after being shuttled from one hospital to
another. To make matters worse, in 1868, while still in the hospital,
his wife died. Four years later, on Aug. 7, 1872, William L.
Garner died in Belleme Hospital in New York. He was 39. The
cause of death was “… disease of lungs and wounds
contracted in the service.” Without mother or father, what would
happen to Ida, the Garner’s 12-year-old daughter?
Exactly 24
years to the day -- April 2, 1889 -- that Garner was wounded at
Petersburg, Ida Garner Klinck applied for a military pension as the
daughter of William L. Garner. The 30-year-old woman who
appeared before the deputy clerk of the Supreme Court of New York
gave her address as Brooklyn, Kings County, N.Y. Seventeen years
later, she applied again for a pension, writing the
following:
