What I know about Sarah Catherine HAROLD

Sarah Catherine Herold is my second great grandmother on my mother's father's side of the family. She was born on June 22, 1854 in Kanawha County Virginia, which is now WV. She was the third child of Dabney (sometimes referred to as Daniel) Herold and Nancy Griffith. There is also the question about the spelling of the last name. Could it be Herald? I have not seen it this way on any document but then again I do not have a document written by Sarah herself.

According to the 1900 census she married Joseph Leftwich Chandler in 1874. They were married for at least 44 years as both died after 1930 and before 1940. They had eight children together between 1875 and 1892. One being Dabney Chandler named after Sarah's father and another being my great grandmother, mentioned before, Wealthy Susan Chandler.

According to the census records the family lived in Kanawha Co. WV, Colcord to be specific, until 1900 where they moved to Scott, Boone Co. WV and then back to Kanawha Co. in 1910 to the town of Washington and finally ending up in Gripp Mountain in 1920.The couple spent their final years living with their son Dabney and his wife Bessie in Washington WV.

What I know about Anson PRESTON

This post should be titled what I think I know about Anson Preston. It has been hard to find documents other than the census to prove the facts in my fourth great grandfathers life. So lets go over what I do actually know from the census forms.

Lets start in the 1850 census. Here we find Anson and his wife Stella (Estella Wheeler) and their 6 children including my third great grandmother Adeline, love that name, and it looks like a twin sister Angelina (it doesn't look like she makes it to the 1860's), living in Herman, St. Lawrence, New York. Anson is listed as a laborer age 49 and his wife is 31. He was born in NY and she in NH and it looks like they did not own property.

Moving backwards I can find Anson in the 1840's still in Hermon, St. Lawrence, New York and looking at the tick marks and comparing them with what I know from the 1850 census I can see some discrepancies.  There is one tick mark for male under 5 and that would be Alvah, one for male 30-39 and that would be Anson, one for female 20-29 - Stella. Now there are two marks for female under 5 and one would be Mary but the other does not match up to the 1850 census so it could be a child that died. There is also a mystery male child age 10-14 that is not listed in the 1850 and that could be by that time he has moved out and on with his own life or died.

From here I back tracked one more decade and there is an Anson Preston married with one child inthe 1830 census in DeKalb, St. Lawrence, NY. This information matches up with Anson, Stella and unnamed older son. However in this census both adult male and female are between the ages of 20 and 29. This doesn't match up for Stella who from all other census records is about 20 years younger. I am thinking they lied, gasp!

Ok, lets jump forward a bit to 1860. They have now moved their family from New York to Ohio. The town of Findlay in Hancock County to be exact. Here Anson is 60 and Stella is 42. He does not have a profession listed and the value of his estate is $50.

I have to pause here a minute and look at Stella. She would have been born around 1818 according to this census. Her first child was born about 1836 and she would have been about 18 which is totally plausible. However, somewhere out there in cloud genealogy her marriage to Anson is listed as being held in 1830 which would make her 11. If that is true why did it take them 6 years to have their first child? Just seems odd and I cannot find a marriage certificate as of yet. I am thinking it might be more like they got married when she was 16 or 17 and then had Alvah when she was 18. Anywho, it requires more research.

In 1870 and 1880 they are still in Findlay, Ohio. Stella dies in 1885 and Anson dies in 1991. What I do not know is who his parents are. Again it is floating around that his father is Jacob Preston, born in CT and died in NY but again proof is lacking. If you are related to Anson and have some proof on his parentage I would be super ecstatic if you would share. I really hope he is the son of Jacob Preston as that would lead me back to Ann Alcock who was tried as a witch back in Salem and died in prison waiting trial.