Follow Up on Isaac and Leah Sperling

In the post Isaac and Leah Sperling, I tried to understand whether they were siblings or cousins. I have enough information now to sort out the problem, which is complicated by the repeated use of first names in the family. A family tree at Ancestry.com provided me with the reference to the document that seems to make it all clear as mud. Below is the portion of the transcript available to me.

"Isaac Sperling, son of John Sperling and his second wife Catharine, resided in North Brunswick Township, Middlesex county. He was a Revolutionary soldier, serving in the Second Regiment, Middlesex County Militia, of which his future father-in-law John Gilliland was a lieutenant and his future brother-in-law Daniel Gilliland was a first sergeant. Elizabeth Gilliland Sperling was the daughter of John Gilliland and Leah Sperling. Isaac and Leah were first cousins. Isaac and Elizabeth were married in October of 1787, according to the pension papers.

This record (number 3078 of the GSNJ collection) consists of one page torn from a Bible and filed with pension application W6159. The entries, which appear to be all in..."

Being familiar with the script on the documents of the time, I am thankful to whoever read the originals and wrote out this summary for us. Big dollop of gratitude for that.

Now to put this information together with the rest of the family tree. If I strip an ahnentafel down to just those parts required to identify the individuals in the reference above, I construct the following,

1 Jan Michiel Sperlingh (German immigrant) m. Geertje Pieters
+2 Daniel m. Elizabeth unk
++3 Leah (b.1740) m. John Gilliland
+++ 4 Elizabeth (b.1767) m. Isaac Sperling (b.1759)
+++ 4 Leah (b. 1781) m. Abraham Sperling (b. 1759)
+2 Leah (b.1709)
+2 Petrus
+2 John m. 2nd wife Catherine
++3 Isaac (b.1759) m. Elizabeth Gilliland (b. 1767)
++3 Abraham (b.1759) m. Leah Gilliland (b.1781)

What I have done with the colors is show where an individual's presence is repeated. Isaac (b.1759) and Leah (b. 1740) are 1st cousins, as explained in the reference above. Isaac then married Leah's daughter. The same relationships are repeated with Abraham (b.1759). He is Leah (b.1740)'s first cousin, and he marries her daughter, Leah (b.1781).

Notes: 1. I list both Isaac and Abraham as b.1759, but those are baptismal dates, and there's no reason to believe they are twins. 2. I list Jan and Geertje's daughter Leah as born 1709, but I don't know the actual date, only that this is the earliest assumption, since that is the year her parents were married. 3. I don't know the birth order of Jan and Geertje's children, but placing John after Daniel makes sense to explain the 19 year gap in the age of first cousins. Other than that, their birth order is strictly random at this point.

1813 Abraham Sperling Will

In a post labeled John Michael Sparling in NJ, I provided a list of occurrences of this name and its variations.  The last item on the list was as follows:

1813. John Michael Sperling serves as a witness to the will of Abraham Sperling. John Gilliland Sperling is Abraham's son mentioned in the will. Location: North Brunswick, Middlesex, NJ

Very recently, I have been convinced that there were three generations of John (Jan, Johannes) Michael (Michiel, Magiel) Sparling (Sperling).  Take your pick of spellings.  The first one, Jan Michiel Sperlingh, was an immigrant from Saxony (Germany).  He was a clerk and often called upon to witness legal papers.  He had a son, John, who I believe was also Jan Michiel, who also had a son, Jan Michiel, in various spellings.

The issue with the 1813 will is to determine which of these Johns was witness to Abraham Sperling's will and to identify each of the individuals mentioned.  I think, using age as a criterion, that we can eliminate the first two generations, Jan M., born no later than 1690-ish (?), and Jan M., born no later than 1730-ish (?).  The most likely candidate is Jan M., born 1756, and Abraham's brother.  

I identify the brother, Abraham, by the mention of his son, John Gilliland Sperling.  This confirms him as the Abraham Sperling, b. 1759 at Six Mile Run, son of John Sperling and Catherine, who married Leah Gilliland (1781-1835).

1. Jan Michiel Sperlingh (immigrant from Germany) m. Geertje Pieters

+2.  Jan Michiel Sperling (John) m. 2nd wife Catherine

++3. Jan Michiel Sperling (Johannis Magiel) b.1756, Six Mile Run, NJ

++3. Abraham Sperling b.1759, Six Mile Run, NJ, d. 1815, m. Leah Gilliland (1781-1835)

+++4. John Gilliland Sperling b. 1800

I believe this is how the generations look when stripped to the essentials and that the last three names on this list are the names on the 1813 reference (above) to Abraham's will.

Where Are the Wicked Folk Buried?

'Tell me, grey-haired sexton,' said I,
'Where in the field are the wicked folk laid?
I have wandered the quiet old graveyard through,
And studied the epitaphs, old and new,
But on monument, obelisk, pillar, or stone,
I read no evil that men have done.'


The old sexton stood by a grave newly made,
With his chin on his hand, his hand on a spade:
'Who is the judge when the soul takes its flight?
Who is the judge 'twixt the wrong and the right?
Which of us mortals shall dare to say
That our neighbour was wicked who died to-day?'


'In our journey through life, the farther we speed,
The better we learn that humility's need
Is charity's spirit that prompts us to find
Rather virtue than vice in the lives of our kind.'


'Therefore good deeds we record on these stones;
The evil men do, let it rest with their bones'
I have laboured as sexton this many a year,
But I never have buried a bad man here.'


-- From "Journal of the Association for the
Preservation of the Memorials of the
Dead in Ireland," Vol. 2, Part 1 (1895)

How Many Relatives Do You Have?

1 You

2 Parents

4 Grandparents

8 Great Grandparents

16 GG Grandparents

32 GGG Grandparents

64 GGGG Grandparents

128 GGGGG Grandparents

256 GGGGGG Grandparents

512 GGGGGGG Grandparents

1,024 GGGGGGGG Grandparents

2,048 GGGGGGGGG Grandparents

4,096 GGGGGGGGGG Grandparents

8,192 GGGGGGGGGGG Grandparents

16,184 GGGGGGGGGGGG Grandparents

32,768 GGGGGGGGGGGGG Grandparents

65,536 GGGGGGGGGGGGGG Grandparents

131,072 GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG Grandparents

262,144 GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG Grandparents

524,288 GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG Grandparents

1,048,576 GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG Grandparents

Elusive Ancestor

Elusive Ancestor

I went searching for an ancestor. I cannot find him still.
He moved around from place to place and did not leave a will.
He married where a courthouse burned. He mended all his fences.
He avoided any man who came to take the Census.

He always kept his luggage packed, this man who had no fame.
And every 20 years or so, this rascal changed his name.
His parents came from Europe. They should be on some list
Of passengers to the U.S., but somehow they got missed.

And no one else in this world is searching for this man.
So, I play genea-solitaire to find him if I can.
I'm told he's buried in a plot, with a tombstone he was blessed;
but the weather took engraving, and some vandals took the rest.

He died before the county clerks decided to keep records.
No Family Bible has emerged, in spite of all my efforts.
To top it off this ancestor, who caused me many a frown,
Just to give me one more pain, betrothed a girl named BROWN!

--Merrell Kenworthy

Tracking the Wife of George Sparling (mother of Moses C. Sparling)

Moses C. Sparling had a brother named Edward, also known as Ned.  Ned married into a big family, the Krutsinger's, so there is quite a bit of info on them, which I used in this case to make an elimination.

In 1840, there is an elderly woman between age 80 and 89 living with Ned in  North East, Orange, Indiana.  I assume she was either Ned's mom or his mother-in-law.  Since I had information for his mother-in-law, I was able to eliminate her because she died in 1830.  If she had lived, she would have only been 65 anyway.

That leaves me to believe that the elderly woman in the 1840 census is Ned's mother, which means she was born between 1760 and 1769.  That works alright for the wife of George Sparling, born in 1752, died in 1837, which would have left Ned's mom a widow in 1840.  This elderly woman doesn't appear with Ned on the 1850 census, and a quick look at census records for her other children did not turn up any grandparents in residence, so I assume she has died in the interim between '40 and '50, and that is how I am going to list her at Ancestry.com.

I currently list her name as Tabitha Fleming, but I don't have any reason except for family trees to base that on, so the name is only a guess at this point.