Johannes Abel -Daniel Abel & Susan Hatfield - Genealogy Name and Location Variation Chart

I'm starting a chart that compares the variations of the Abel/Auvil name and also gives a location for a map I have planned for a future project. The purpose is for researchers to be able to see what surnames they might want to search for during different time periods or locations. hope you find this helpful. I used to keep the copy here on the blog but I moved it to my Evernote notebooks so I could easily update it. LINK HERE

Daniel Abel is Daniel Orville? an example of deciphering no-name census forms

This is an example of what to do when you are working with old census data that does not list first names of family members.

I think I found Daniel Abel on the 1830 census. He purchased land from his father-in-law in 1826 in Georges Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. In 1830 there is a man named Daniel Orville in the Georges census. I don't think there ever was a man named Daniel Orville in Fayette County, I will be looking into that but I have looked at the handwriting and it could be transcribed as Auville. but I am mostly basing it on the fact that I don't believe Daniel Orville existed and Daniel Abel is missing from 1830. And he bout property there 4 years before. The census doesn't have names. It only has numbers so I made a chart. The children don't quite work out but the adults are right on - is that Lewis Auvil? I don't know I think he is on the Randolph census for 1830. It is possible he was moving around and got caught on two census forms.

Let me know what you think.

1830 Census Daniel Orville	Daniel Abel's family in 1830
2 males 5-10 years old	William 4, Elias 6
2 males 10-15 years old	John 10, George 11, Daniel 13
1 male 20-30	Lewis Auvil 27, from 1st marriage?
1 male 50-60	Daniel - 49
2 females under 5	Katie 4, Lydia 2, Harriet 1
1 female 40-50	Susan - 41

What can we learn about Minfeld from the Probst Family?

[Auvil Genealogy] We don't know for sure where Johannes Abel came from. But we do know that his wife, Magdalena Ditlo, has many ties to a place called Minfeld, Germany. She was born in Minfeld. Her parents were both born in Minfeld. Members of her extended family were born in Minfeld. Her grandmother, Maria Elisabetha Vossellmann Fosselman, and her grandfather, Johannes Kauffmann, were both born in Minfeld.
And yet we haven't had any information passed down to our family about Minfeld. Some years ago I searched "Minfeld" and found that their is another (at least one) American family from Minfeld. The Probst Family. There isn't anything written about our links to Minfeld but there is some info online about the Probst family. There is a Probst who married a Fosselman but I don't think we have any in our direct line.
I've found two sources for information. First, a family tree "note" and I don't know who the author is. So if you know please write to me so I can attribute it correctly.

Philip Jacob Probst was a master potter by trade (as were his father and brothers) in Kandel. He left Kandel and moved across the Lauder (River) about 15 miles to Oberseebach, in Alsace, where he met Catherine (Christ?), his future wife. C'erine was a French Heugonot. They were married probably in Oberseebach, although they may have married in Minfeld before they moved to Alsace. (In 1720, Alsace was controlled by Germany, but soon thereafter reverted back to French control.) He might have also later used the name of Philippe Jacques Probst, reflecting the politics of living in French Alsace! The births of his first four children were recorded there. They were French citizens when they left for America. The first names of the three boys may have been originally intended to be Johan, but had become Jean for political reasons, prior to their departure for America. ~Brobst Family Historical Registry

(Kandel is right next to Minfeld) So this gives us an idea of the political climate of Minfeld at the time our ancestors came to America. Interesting that Philip married a Heugonot.

[The Probsts who emigrated from Switzerland some 50-100 miles northwest into the Haut-Rhin were mostly glass-makers. In fact, one of the villages in which they and other glass maker settled was named "Glasshütte"] These glass-makers had to be mobile, because of the need to follow the furnace installations near the forests (most furnaces were fueled by charcoal). ~Centre Départemental d'Histoire des Familles

OUR families from Minfeld were glassmakers! Johannes worked at a glass factory in Frederick and his (possible) sister was married "at the glassworks" in Frederick.

I have one more link for now - a story by  Bill Brobst about visiting Kandel and Minfeld. If any Auvils visit Minfeld please tell us about your trip!

If I find anything else out about Minfeld I will post it here. I'm planning on starting a penpal project when I get a little time.

Note: Probst became Brobst in America.

Researching your American Indian ancestors

The question was asked how we are going to go about trying to verify oral history that our Nancy Valentine Auvil was a Delaware Indian. So I will use this as an example for what I have learned from my other lines about this subject.

1. Male yDNA Haplogroups. One way to verify American Indian heritage is to have a DNA test on a male member of the family to determine their Haplogroup. The Haplogroup would be the same for the direct line of males in a family clear back to their origins. A Haplogroup of Q, C or R1 are the most commonly found in Native Americans. You can read more about it here. R1 is European and I believe it means that your ancestor inter-married with a European before coming to America or after. It is included here because a high percentage of Cherokee, for example are showing R1 yDNA Haplogroups. If your male DNA shows Q or C - that is a pretty clear indicator of your Indian heritage. If it is R1 it is not so clear but does not rule out Indian heritage. In our example of Nancy Valentine, the only way we would know is if we find a male in her direct line, a male with the surname Valentine, and we test his DNA. Women cannot be tested for yDNA. I don't know of any living male Valentines but we might find one! We should start looking.
2. Female DNA tests. If the Native American ancestor was female you can do an mtDNA test and if the test shows sub-Haplogroups of, A, B, C, D or X2a it would show ancestry indigenous to the Americas. Now, I am not sure if the maternal tests will work if the ancestor was more than 5 generations back. I'm not really sure. I am not an expert, I am just trying to summarize what I know here. For a starting point.
3. I have heard from people that if they have a maternal line that is too far back to show mtDNA heritage that there are test facilities that look for certain markers that Native Americans have that if you also have those markers it would verify your ancestry. I don't really know anything about this yet, but it would be an avenue to pursue if you could not find a male relative to test and your mtDNA is too diluted to show your heritage.

If I find out more I will post it here. I just wanted to make a little Native American Heritage 101 post.

A short history of Auvil research.

If you are new to Auvil genealogy maybe I should do a little round-up for you so you know who came before you.

The first I knew about Auvil genealogy is when Ida Wheeler, granddaughter of Llewellyn Auvil, gave some xeroxed copies of family trees to my grandmother Jean (Rutherford) Auvil and Jean showed them to us. Ida knew Jinx Hartung, granddaughter of Josephine Annette Auvil. Jinx wrote the Auvil Lines newsletter and as far as I know did most of the pain-staking, dusty book, micro-fiche in dark library basement research that forms the basis of what we know about the Auvils. Whenever we can we have noted that a certain clue or document was found by Jinx (or anyone else).
When the Internet was new I put up everything I had been given by Jinx up at a website called Auvil.com. After some years really struggling as a widowed mom, I didn't see the priority (financially) of maintaining the website any longer and  fortunately Jolene Uyehara Auvil uploaded all the files to a free website so we don't have to be concerned with annual fees anymore. You can see it all here: Forest for the Trees (Thanks Jo!)
At about this time Don Auvil, son of Simeon Hannibal Auvil, compiled his research into a self-published book. I don't know if that book is available for purchase but I will find out and post the info here.
There are many more people who were doing research in that era and Jo made a great list that she included at the Forest site, I will quote her here.

This part of our site stands in appreciation to and is made possible by Catherine [dee] Auvil and the diligent, tireless Auvil genealogists who contributed to the former Auvil.com website: Dennis Auvil, Don Auvil, Carla Cegielski, Geneva Jinx Hartung, Nicholas Sturm, Larry Duane Spessert, Stan Galperson, April Matthews, Mary Elizabeth Auvil, Barbara Warden, Bob A. White, Charles William Auvil, Jr., Gene Auville, Nancy Rogers, Vicki Haas, to name just a few.

(I should note here that I began using my middle name  mostly for genealogy reasons. Catherine is a common name and if there is a Catherine Auvil in the future who is interested in Auvil genealogy I hope that she uses her middle name so we can distinguish between us. I hope all the John, Don and Mary Auvils in the future do the same!)
Currently we are all meeting at the Facebook Auvil Genealogy Group. If you are not into Facebook I sympathize! But it is the best thing we have found to work for us right now. Please join us there.

We are now discussing genealogy in the Appalachian Heritage Group at Facebook.

Links for all our discussion groups
Now who is currently researching the Auvil family tree? I will try to gather that information and post it here.

Methias Auville Mystery!

I was studying this census entry for Susan (Hatfield) Auville because I wondered who that Susan Kyser is - I found out and I will write in another post - but then I stumbled on a mystery - who was this Methias Auville?? Obviously he must be a grandson of Susan, but who were his parents and why is he living with her and what became of him?? So I entered his name in a search and nothing came up for a match to any Auville parents and he seems to just drop off the map. But there was ONE curious search result - In 1860 there is a young boy, Matth Oval, born in Virginia in about 1844, an inmate of the House of Refuge (jail or reformatory) in Pennsylvania for larceny!

Because I think that 90% of all Ovals and Anvils are really mis-spelled Auvils I think he may be our Methias Auville.

One clue I have searching the House of Refuge is that I found a message board post for the Edward Owen that is next in the census list after Matth. His descendant says that he was a soldier in the Civil War just the next year. Could our Methias be a soldier - under any odd spelling? We have to find out if there are any Ovals or Anvils in the Civil War. The post says that Edward enlisted in the 61st Pennsylvania Volunteers. Are there any Auvils studying the Civil War right now?

Marriage of David Nestor and Elizabeth Cox

I was looking for the marriage record of David Nestor and Elizabeth Cox, married in Randolph County, Virginia in 1812 and I found this entry - David Unreadable (Keter) and Elizabeth Cocks Randolph County 1812. Cox is often spelled Cocks so that is no problem. But I think this Keter is our David Nestor - one reason is I don't think there was a David Keter.
I'm not really sure what this document is because it doesn't really look like 1812 writing - it looks like it was a transcription of an earlier document. I wish I could see the original document. Here is the full page if you would like to see it.

Who owns the Agnes Tazewell Tizah-nee (Bailey) Cline daguerreotype?

Who owns this daguerreotype of Agnes Tazewell Tizah-nee (Bailey) Cline and scanned it for the Internet? I'd like to ask them if we could use it for our *Nikitie group.

*Nikitie Group: We have a study group for all the people who are descended from the Longhunters who inter-married with the Shawnee, Cherokee, Powhatan and other tribes and lived in a place called Indian, Virginia from about 1700 to present day. If you are a descendant or you would like to study this group please join here: Nikitie Group