You might be wondering who the Hammells are. That’s because I have never mentioned them before! They are new to you and me. That means I’ve added another surname to my direct family tree. This is really exciting! It’s always exciting to go back another generation but it’s even better when you can rediscover a female line. To get you familiar with where the Hammells will come in. I’m giving a little tree as a hint on where they fall into the family.
The last time I posted about this family was way longer than I realized. In 2017, I was working on figuring out what happened with the four Parkin children. I’m still trying to find some records that might help me learn exactly what happened with the children. I contacted the Orange Orphan Society, who said they no longer hold records for the orphanage as they are now a foundation who assists non-profits and not the actual orphanage.
I also asked the New Jersey Archives, and they do not have records for that orphanage or the Newark one. The archives was also concerned I might run into some privacy issues when trying to research. Needless to say, this will require more learning about the available records sets before I take another shot at that.
Where do we go from there?
Well, there is still so many question marks surrounding the Featherston daughters and their parents. So my next step was to search newspapers on the Newark Public Library website. If you have any kind of Essex County, New Jersey research, this website is a godsend. The years between 1904 and 1919 are missing from the New Jersey death indexes. Which happen to be the ones I am most in need of. This means finding obituaries or anything that can narrow my search down is a big deal. Once I have at least a small window, I can send to the archives for a record search.
I found news of William Featherston’s death by chance, searching for mentions of Parkin. It gave a new address for Jennie Featherston-Parkin in 1901. My last known mention of her is the 1900 US Census. There she was living at 568 Orange Street. Just down from her mother at 578 Orange Street. At the time of the 1900 US Census Jennie’s mother listed herself as widowed. Looks like William didn’t pass away until January of 1901. Looking at the articles it seems they were separated at the time of his death. So with these articles, I’ve gotten the date needed to send away for a death certificate for William. I also have a new address to search for Jennie in the 1905 New Jersey census. Hoping to get more information about her. Remember in 1905, Jennie was missing from the census and 3 of her children were living in an orphanage. Their father was living with his mother with the fourth child, but Jennie was missing from the household.
*Note: I do have William’s death certificate now but as it has no information regarding the Hammells, I am not posting it on this entry. The certificate does confirm the new address for Jennie though.
How does this say anything about the Hammells and who they are?
I’m glad you asked. I am showing the thought patterns that I had for getting one more generation back. Once I realized that the family was announcing things in the paper, I got more creative with my search terms. Trying to pick up every piece of information I could think of. Sometimes you do generic searches and think to yourself, well my family just wasn’t in the newspaper. How can you really be sure though. You can’t.
This image shows the events I’ve recorded for Jennie Featherston-Parkin’s mother, Jennie. So many Jennie’s I know.
Looking at the 1900 US Census entry for her had some interesting results. You can see a son Charles Fetherstone listed for her. Not impossible of course. However, we already know that Jennie had 3 daughters and her children born, children living columns match that. One line down from Charles is Sadie, the middle daughter. If you look at her marital status, it lists her as widowed and having 1 child with 1 child living. So let’s dig deeper into Charles and see if we can’t figure out what was going on with him.
Charles
Oh. So we have Sadie Featherstone as the mother of Chas. Jas. Acker. Sadie is interchangeable with Sarah/Sallie, so this is a good sign that we are on the right track. You are probably thinking to yourself, you should look for a marriage between Charles Acker and Sadie Featherstone!
I’m right on top of that Rose!
Sadie Featherstone. ✅
William Featherstone. Born in England. ✅
Jennie Hammell… Oh that’s new!
If you were wondering if I plugged that name into the newspaper website to search… I sure did!
Oh dear. We have a Jennie Nagle now. We have a new address of 46 Hunterdon Street. She is the wife of the deceased William Nagle?? William Featherston? I’m confused.😂
Let’s check out some census information to see what it will tell us about Charles Acker, Sadie, and Jennie. We might as well look up this new address as well and see what happens.
At that address, 46 Hunterdon Street, in 1915 and 1920 we have Anna/Jennie Nagel/Nagle living with her grandson, Charles Acker. In 1915, they have no relationships provided but in the 1920 census, he is listed as grandson. All this is fitting for Jennie Hammell/Featherston/Nagel to be the same person. We just need to something to bridge the gap between names.
I will say this. It never gets old does it. Seeing it come together in records. It doesn’t always happen like this. You can’t always just hop from one vital record to the other. When it does though. It’s amazing.
So now we have potential parents names for Jennie as well. I am still looking for her marriage to William Featherston and any birth records for her children. Those are elusive still.
Jennie’s final record. I’m know that something must have happened to Sadie, as she is not listed in the census with her son or mother after 1900. Whether she re-married or she passed away is still not known at this time. I will have to do some more looking for those answers.
I’m Not Done Yet
So now we know that Jennie Hammell, Jennie Featherstone/Featherston, and Jennie Nagel/Nagle are the same woman. So lets see if we can’t find some more information about that third daughter.
Here we have Carrie Jenneta “Nettie” Fetherston getting married in 1900. Her address of 578 Orange Street fits right in with known family information and we also have Hammell listed as her mother’s maiden name.
Where does this leave that family tree we started with?
We’ve added quite a bit to it with plenty more left to work on. I have a few more findings for the Hammells but I’ll save that for another day.