When I am researching my own family, I LOVE finding photos I’ve never seen and other cool bits of info. Sometimes these finds are from newspapers, census records, or immigration paperwork. Then sometimes I mention my research to a relative and they pipe up with “Oh you are looking into family history? Let me grab that photo album I never told anyone I had!”
Photo (left). This is Katarzyna Maczala, around 1899. This photo was in a small book a relative had. Judging by the fancy outfit, I think this might be a wedding photo, as she also married in 1899.
Photos (above). I found these photos (with signatures!) on naturalization papers.
On the left, Hannah Christopherson in 1932. On the right, Katarzyna Maczala in 1936.
Ok, this one is WILD. Both of my husband’s grandfathers had fathers that left their family one day and never returned. Well that is like catnip to a genealogist, so OF COURSE I started trying to find out what happened to them.
I’m going to begin with his mom’s paternal grandfather (so husband > mom > mom’s dad > MISSING MAN). I started with asking questions of whoever I could. I’m sure you are stunned but a lot of the answers I got were “Mom’s Dad never talked about that” and “No idea, he left and was never heard from again.” From there, it was to the records!
Pretty much all anyone knew was that his name was Earl Brandt, from Wisconsin, and that he disappeared.
In the 1920 census, Earl is living with his wife Josephine. BUT she is listed as the head of the household and he is listed as her husband. That is rare to the point that I have never seen it before. A woman is usually only head of the household if she’s single or a widow.
1920 US census, St Croix County, Wisconsin, population schedule, Springfield Township, p. 9-B (stamped), enumeration district (ED) 194, sheet 1-B, dwelling 178, family 182, Earl A. in the household of Josephine Brandt; accessed as "United States Census, 1920," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFKF-93S : accessed 29 April 2024, citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 2015.
The next step was the 1930 census, but he was NOT listed with the family. In fact, I have yet to find Josephine, Maxine, and Ted in the 1930 census. I did find Earl though…
1930 US census, Dodge County, Wisconsin, population schedule, City of Waupun, p. 2-A (stamped), enumeration district (ED) 0054, Institution: Wisconsin State Prison, Earl Brandt, line 7; accessed as "United States Census, 1930," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X9Q7-54B : accessed 29 April 2024, citing NARA microfilm publication T626.
The name matches, the age matches, the parents birthplaces match. It’s him. Listed as an inmate in Wisconsin State Prison.
So I went to newspapers.com and searched Wisconsin papers between 1920 and 1930 for “Earl Brandt” and got a bunch of articles.
One of the articles mentions Earl’s wife and two kids and says he is from Springfield or St Croix, which is where they lived so I am 100% that it is the correct Earl Brandt.
I did some more research and found a Wisconsin law book that calls the incident one of the first cases of Klan related violence in Wisconsin. However it also says that was the rumor and that the true motive for the crime is unknown.
Another relative requested paperwork from the funeral home that handled Earl's burial, and this gave us more information. It turns out after Earl’s conviction was pardoned for good behavior, he remarried a woman named Sophie who already had 4 children. She and Earl raised dogs and he lived until 1973 but never visited his kids or grandkids.
A few weeks later I got an email from someone with the last name Kerr, asking if I was related to Josephine Brandt. I wrote back saying ‘given your surname and Josephine question I presume you are a descendant of the man my husband’s great grandfather murdered.’ The person wrote back saying yes and we started piecing together whatever we could find! WILD!
April 29, 2024
Westchester County, Village of Port Chester death certificate no. 42516, Isaac Light, 17 July 1914; Bureau of Vital Statistics, Port Chester, New York.
So Mr. Brick Wall, Isaac Light born around 1802, likely in New York state, had a wife. In the 1850 Census, 48 year old Isaac was found with 3 children and a 39 year old woman named Hester Light. I presume Hester was his wife and I presume she was the mother of those three children, but the census of course does not list relationships to head of household in 1850.
For a while, I also presumed that Martha, Mary, and Isaac were their only children; though I eventually figured out several other children were living nearby in various other households. That’s for a future post though!
Alright, Hester in the 1860 census, no of course it’s not that easy. In 1860, Isaac is living in the same town with his son 12 year old Isaac and his wife 50 year old Esther. Is Esther the same woman as Hester? I mean, maybe? I have no records of their marriage, or of Isaac’s marriage to anyone else; Esther, Hester, or anyone.
1870 census and no more Isaac Light born around 1802 anywhere to be found in or near Westchester County, New York. Esther and Isaac Junior were living with a single 35 year old farmer named Nathaniel Hall. Esther was employed as his housekeeper, Isaac Junior as a farm laborer. The 1870 census does not record marital status so there is no way to know if Esther was widowed or divorced.
I have researched Nathaniel Hall and his family up and down every branch of their family tree and I cannot find connections to Esther or Isaac Light. I was so sure he was going to be the connection to who Esther’s birth family was, but nada.
From there, I moved on to researching Mary, Martha, and Isaac Junior hoping to find birth, marriage, or death records that listed their parents. Starting with Isaac because he is my direct ancestor, I ordered his death certificate from the city of Port Chester, New York. So much cool information!
But “Maiden name of mother: unknown, birthplace of mother: unknown.”
Same goes for his sister Martha’s death certificate. Her father was listed as “Light” and mother was “unknown.”
A DNA Clue
Around this time, my dad’s AncestryDNA results came in. I filtered and categorized them for a while, eventually realizing that 3 of my dad’s 4 paternal great grandparents were Irish, the 4th one that was not Irish was Isaac Junior.
Then I had a pool of my father’s DNA matches left that were related to him via Isaac Junior. This meant those people had the DNA of Isaac 1802, Esther/Hester, or both of them. By grouping up DNA matches via the “matches in common” tool on Ancestry, then comparing their family trees with those of matches I already knew my dad’s connection to, I was able to pull out groups of people until what was left was likely related to my dad via the Esther/Hester line.
Looking through those matches and their trees, several of the highest matches (40-50cM, still not too big) were descended from the See family. A few descended from a woman named Jane See, others from her sister Adaline See. Research into the See family led me to those same 1850, 60, and 70 censuses again, this time to find Jane and Adaline. In 1850, Adaline and family are on the page right before Isaac, Hester and company. Isaac and Hester live next door to an Able See. Jane and family are one town over, where one of Isaac and Esther’s heretofore unknown children live!
Eventually I found an article from The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society’s Record titled “The See Family of Calais, France and the Manor of Philipsburgh” that mentioned Jane and Adaline:
Hill, Glenna (See). "The See Family of Calais, France and the Manor of Philipsburg." New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. 114 (1983), Issue 2, pages 92–98, Issue 3, pages 156–163, and Issue 4, pages 202–212.
Adaline and Jane had an older sister named Hester! I’ve yet to find another candidate for this Hester, other than my suspect. So this article, the DNA matches, and a few other coincidences are the closest to proof I have that Hester Light was born Hester See, to parents Abraham See and Sarah Lane.
March 6, 2024
1850 U.S. census, Westchester County, New York, population schedule, Mount Pleasant, p. 604, dwelling 4034, family 4244, Isaac Light household, line 38; image, FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MCQC-CW2 : accessed 24 Sept 2023); citing NARA microfilm M653.
This (left) is the 1860 US census for the town of Mount Pleasant, Westchester County, New York. This little guy right at the bottom, 12 year old Isaac Light? He was my 2nd great grandfather. I have all sorts of records from his life. I have his death certificate. I have a church document from when he married my 2nd great grandmother. I have him located in every census that was taken during his lifespan. He is mentioned in his children’s marriage records, in obituaries and the probate packets of a sibling.
What I do not have, is any direct evidence of his parentage! But he is still not my brick wall because he is most likely the child of Isaac Light and Esther _____, the two adults in the 1860 household. He also appears with them in the 1850 census; same town, proper ages, with two older sisters. This, in addition to various other evidence made me comfortable concluding that Isaac Light Senior and his wife Esther were my 3rd great grandparents.
The story of figuring out who Esther was and where she came from is for another blog post.
This is about my brick wall, Isaac Light, a “farm laborer” that was born around 1802.
That might honestly be all I KNOW about him. I presume he was born in New York, as I have no evidence of him ever having resided anywhere else. What I do have is his presence in Mount Pleasant, Westchester County, New York in the 1830, 1840, 1850, and 1860 censuses; and an oblique reference to him in his wife’s obituary (“In Pleasantville. Died. October 2, Mrs. Esther, widow of Isaac Light, aged 56 years”).
I don’t even know when he died! He just stopped existing, and by the 1870 census his wife Esther and son Isaac were living and working in the household of someone named Nathaniel Hall. I’ve researched Hall’s family to the moon and back and haven’t found any connections other than “also lived in Mount Pleasant.”
So part of this blog will be documenting my continuing research trying to break down this wall and figure out who Isaac Light’s parents were.
I have my dad’s DNA matches, I have some candidates, I have multiple books on Light genealogy. We will see where it all leads me.
But I also want to share some of the crazy stories I’ve uncovered in my own family and that of my husband! No matter how boring you think your family is, there are going to be some crazy stories out there you have never heard because “we just don’t talk about that.”
September 24, 2023
