Estate Sale Genealogy

Last Saturday I had the eerie experience of going to what could almost have been my own future estate sale: it was mostly genealogy and classic movies. Sadly for the person who had passed, but happily for me, the genealogical materials were literally being given away. Most of the books were either obsolete or not within my areas of interest, but I did find one book I desired. When I asked the price, they said, "You can have it." In the free box I found a box of old CD-ROMs from Ancestry, Family Tree Maker, and more. Although I suspected they were probably obsolete, I grabbed the whole box to look through at home.

When I got home, as expected, the software CD-ROMs were too old for my operating system, but I discovered that most of the CDs in the box were actually photo CDs, containing many scans from someone's old photo album. And one was actually an audio CD, containing a digitization of a wire recording made in the 1950s!

Well, you know that I can't throw out someone's genealogical documents, especially when there are so many clues to help me connect them to the correct family. Although it did not occur to me until it was too late that I should have taken note of the address of the sale to help identify the former owner of the documents, many of the photos are named, and a few of the CDs even contain family trees. Perhaps (and hopefully!) I will discover that all of these are already shared in places such as the FamilySearch tree, WikiTree, and Geni. If that is the case, I won't need to worry so much. But until I can be sure that they are available to those who have an interest, I will slowly comb through.

Sunday's Obituary: Mr. Mohney

One of my favorite finds during my most recent access to Newspapers.com is also one of the most enigmatic. I am taking liberties in applying the term "obituary" to this article, but... it's my blog and I can do what I want. And I'm dying to write about this one. (No pun intended.)

Clarion County.--A Mr. Mohney, who resided near Reimersburg, was kicked in the stomach by a horse from the effects of which he died in less than twenty-four hours. He was walking along conversing with a person on horseback, when to avoid the worst part of the road he crossed over behind the horse when the animal kicked him. He suffered most excrutiatingly [sic] until death came to his relief. Truly "in the midst of life we are in death."

Why do I find this article so compelling? It doesn't even record Mr. Mohney's first name. It was originally clipped by another user, who titled the clipping "Adam Mohney Death," but I have yet to locate any substantiating documents for that name.

Even so, the article supplies so many intriguing possibilities, and may even be a clue to my most recent brick wall. Most of my family lines can be solidly traced back several generations, but the parents of my great-grandfather John S. Brosius seemingly appeared out of nowhere in 1852. In that year, my great-great-grandfather Adam Brocius purchased 50 acres in South Shenango township, Crawford county, Pennsylvania. Before then, my Brosius line is a mystery.

Adam Brocius' wife is remembered in my family as Margrette Mooney, but the surnames of numerous DNA matches suggest that her surname was actually Mohney. However, I have thus far been unable to discover exactly how she ties into the Mohney family. So the mere coincidence of the surname Mohney is not enough to attract more than cursory interest in this article.

The surname Mohney combined with a kick of a horse causing death is clear reason for interest, though. As I have mentioned in at least one previous post, there is an oral history within the Brosius family of a grandfather dying by being kicked by a mule. Who the grandfather was who died in that way is inconsistent, depending upon the storyteller, sometimes being John S. Brosius himself and sometimes his father Adam Brocius. So it seems entirely possible that the victim wasn't either of them at all, but perhaps the story is a mangled remembrance of the death of Margrette Mohney's father, or at least someone in her line.

Her parentage has not yet been determined, so it could be that this Mr. Mohney is her long-lost father. Naturally, proving such an optimistic hypothesis will take a great deal of additional research, but it gives me a starting place. I am reasonably certain that Adam Brocius and Margrette Mohney moved to South Shenango from elsewhere in Pennsylvania, but both surnames are surprisingly common in that part of the country during the appropriate time period, so any hint of a starting place is greatly appreciated.

Mr. Mohney's death took place in 1858, when Adam and Margrette Brocius would have been a young married couple. No indication of Mr. Mohney's age is given in the article, so it is not impossible that he was of the right age to be Margrette's father. The location of his residence and death is in Clarion county, which is not far from Crawford county, sitting to the southeast, with only Venango county dividing the two. Even in those days, it would have been a reasonable distance to migrate while still remaining near enough to occasionally visit family for special occasions.

So now my task is laid before me. I need to build out Mr. Mohney's family tree, and see if I can discover if he connects in any way to Margrette Mohney. If not her father, perhaps he is her brother or an uncle. Or perhaps this is just another wild goose chase.

Sources:

"Pennsylvania Items: Clarion County," Raftsman's Journal, 6 Jan 1858, p. 2, col. 3; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 18 Feb 2023).

Crawford, Pennsylvania, Deeds Xeroxed by Gloria Brosius and sent to Amber Brosius, John Ralston to Adam Brocius, 30 Nov 1852; Crawford County Office of the Clerk of Courts, Meadville.