I figured it wouldn’t be too difficult to catch up with week 2 of #52ancestors! I’ll most likely be posting the next one on the weekend as well. I tend to do most of my research on the weekends; lounging on the couch while my kids and husband play video games! They’ve been enjoying Zelda lately! Since this one is all about a challenge; I thought I’d go with one of my more frustrating surnames; King.

It wasn’t until last July when I finally located my Great-Grandmother’s obituary, that I could definitively connect her with her parents and siblings. Previously to this, I had her mother’s obituary, which has her listed with her fourth husband’s name… BUT my Great-Great Grandmother’s second husband’s name… just happens to be, you guessed it, King. My Great-Grandmother’s step-father’s obituary does have her listed as a child, along with both her full and half-siblings, but her name at the time was that of her third husband, which I haven’t been able to find very much information on this time in her life at all! The multiple marriages and the timing of them really has made it difficult!

Mary Catherine Garlitz, my 2nd Great-Grandmother, was first married to David King. His parents, my 3rd Great-Grandparents, were John King, born around 1806 with death unknown; and, Christena Francis, born April 1834 in Pennsylvania, and passed away on March 15th, 1906, in Upper Tyrone, Fayette, Pennsylvania. I have the 1870 and 1880 censuses that have John, Christena, and their children listed.

Of course there’s the 1890 frustration! And then, according to the 1900 census, Christena is widowed and living with her son Joseph, his wife, and their family of two children; along with her son John, brother to Joseph. She’s listed as having nine children, with seven of them living. However, I only have been able to find information on six of them. The Garlitz line also has it’s own set of challenges, but we’ll save that for another day!

So here’s where the challenge has comes about. There are “Potential Father/Mother” hints on Ancestry that has John’s parents as Samuel King and Hannah Missimer. While I have looked into the censuses of the Westmoreland and Fayette counties rather extensively, I haven’t really been able to associate a paper trail without it being rather speculative. Trying to locate newspaper articles leads to an endless amount of frustration! Seriously, there’s a LOT of John King’s in the area, AND there’s some other clues that have parts of the family relocating to Ohio! However, since I have my DNA matches, I DO have matches to other’s that have Samuel and Hannah in their trees on both Ancestry and MyHeritage! I haven’t gathered all the matches to the trees yet, but I am hoping to narrow this line down with the help of DNAPainter! If I can figure this out; it may potentially open up 5 more generations leading me back to Ireland and England!

Now there’s kinda a part 2 as well.. and that’s my own personal goal/challenge! Which is… to hopefully *fingers crossed* join the Associated Daughters of Early American Witches before the end of the year! According to the website; “The Purpose of the Society is: – to search for and preserve the names of those accused of witchery in that portion of Colonial America now the United States of America; – to locate the living female descendants of all witches who were accused in the American colonies prior to published records of same.”. I think that in itself is fantastic! But can I just say that the swag is pretty awesome looking too!!

I hope you’ve enjoyed one of my many tree challenges! If you have King’s in your tree, or Garlitz, or ties to Fayette and Westmoreland counties; I’d love to see if we can make a connection! Email me any questions or comments!! Hope you had a great weekend!

Spirited Searching and Many Blessings!!
Andi