Surname Saturday - Bodine

The first Bodine in my tree is Eliza Bodine (1815-1855). It is not clear where Eliza was born, some records state New Jersey and another source states Niles, New York. At some point, Eliza and her family migrated to Ohio as she married James Cutler October 16, 1840 in Plymouth, Richland County, Ohio. The couple had four children: Bertha (b. December 28, 1841), Robert Ervin (b. March 3, 1846), Mary Eliza (b. April 23, 1853), and Martin Reed (b. March 22, 1855). The large gaps between children lead me to believe that there were others that did not survive to adulthood. My line descends through Bertha.

Eliza Bodine Cutler's headstone, located in Pioneer Rest Cemetery, Richland County, Ohio.

Eliza Bodine Cutler died October 24, 1855. She is the first Bodine in my line and for all intents and purposes, the last. As part of my genealogy goals for 2012 I chose the Bodine line as one to research further. Many months ago I received a copy of the Genealogy and History of the Branch of the Bodine Family Founded by John Bodine, A Soldier of the Revolutionary War and a pioneer of the State of New Jersey, written by Maude Cutler Scholfield, a very distant cousin. This manuscript traces the Bodine line from my 3rd Great-grandmother's generation (Bertha) back to a Jean le Baudain, living in France during the 14th century. There is a nice bibliography to the manuscript and I have no doubt that Mrs. Scholfield did meticulous research, but I must always carve my own path. Utilizing her information as a starting point I will be looking to find proof of Eliza's birthplace, her parents and then more branches from there.

Ms. Scholfield's book states that Eliza was born in Niles, New York and that her parents were Peter Bodine and Susan Ervin. (Note that one of Eliza's children bears the middle name of "Ervin"). I found that Niles, New York is in Cayuga County. In a Google search I found the Cayuga County Historian's Office website which lists a "Family File" for the surname Bodine. I have already sent a request for a copy of the file. We'll see if I can track anything more down on the Bodines. Take that, genealogy goal.

The "Perhaps" ancestor begets a "Perhaps" ancestor

You may remember that I have many "Perhaps" ancestors in my tree. These are the ancestors that may or may not be in my line, as I may or may not have conclusive proof...we are "perhaps" related. In my post here I wrote about a particularly curious "perhaps" ancestor: Robert Cutler. Robert is perhaps the brother of my proved ancestor, James Cutler. I know that James lived in Richland County, Ohio in the mid-1800s and that he immigrated from England. I found Robert Cutler, also from England, in the same county at the same time. Too much coincidence for this researcher, but I could find no proof of their connection. I did, however, find a story online about Robert Cutler stating that he was from Wheatacre Parish, Norfolk, England. Again, without any proof I let this lead lie.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago when I finally received a terrific genealogy prize that I have been waiting impatiently for. Many months ago I stumbled upon a holding at the Wichita State University Libraries, you can read more about that find here and here. A couple of days ago I received a copy of "Genealogy and History of the Branch of the Bodine Family Founded by John Bodine, A soldier of the Revolutionary War and a pioneer of the state of N. J." written by Maude Cutler Scholfield. Yes, there is Cutler again. Ms. Scholfield happened to write not only about the Bodine line but there were snippets in the copies about the Cutlers, to include the following:

"A letter addressed to my grandfather, James Cutler, and authored by his mother, Sarah Cutler, his sister Esther, (both of whom lived at Wheatacre) and a married sister, Sarah Hayward, living in Beccles, England), postmarked April 11, 1842, is in my possession, given me by my mother Mary Cutler Myers. Using the information in this letter as a lead I visited Beccles in August of 1961 and learned that Wheatacre is a small hamlet across the river in Norfolk County where All Saints Church is located. From records kept there I learned that James Cutler was born on the nearby "Church Farm", owned by his parents, Robert and Sarah Wrinch Cutler, and who are buried in the All Saints Church yard. These facts were verified by my niece, Marie Morrill Johnston and her husband Bruce, who visited Beccles, Wheatacre, and All Saints Church later on. Arthur L. Myers"

This addendum alone was well worth the wait of the document. Not only did the author have a letter in hand written to James Cutler, he also knew James' mother's and sisters' names and the location they wrote from. And as if that weren't enough he had researched that family in England and found them. ARE YOU SERIOUS? I ask you, does it get any better than this? Yes, yes it does.

Armed with a location and numerous names I then began to research for records of Wheatacre-All Saints parish. This is the first time I have done records research in England so I wasn't sure of the best place to start which always leads me to a Google search. I searched for "Wheatacre Norfolk Records" and low and behold the first link was to the FamilySearch Wiki (a glorious resource of which I will laud the accolades of in another post). The Wheatacre wiki page has a photo of the church and a little more information. It also states "This parish does not appear on Record Search as no microfilm for the parish is held." Good to know, but I would not be deterred. Someone had to have transcriptions of records from the area. I once again headed to Google and opted to widen my search parameters. I searched for "Norfolk England Parish Records" and once again my Mormon friends came through: another link to the FamilySearch wiki, this time to "England, Norfolk, Church of England Bishops’ Transcripts."  This page includes a link to 210, 055 images of Bishop records for the Diocese of Norfolk. The database includes images from 1685-1941, and while not complete or indexed, with a little effort you can find what you are looking for:

James Cutler's birth record (1815), from Wheatacre-All Saints Parish Records, Norfolk, England

Robert Cutler's birth record (1807), from Wheatacre-All Saints Parish Records, Norfolk, England

James Cutler had a brother named Robert. The dates all fit the records I have found in America for the pair. I have now converted Robert Cutler from a "perhaps" ancestor to flesh and blood. Hooray! Of course, in the process of proving the relationship between James and Robert I opened many new "perhaps" avenues in Wheatacre. Their mother, Sarah, is listed as nee Wrinch. I can find only one record of a Wrinch (other than Sarah) in the Wheatacre records and that is a burial record for one William Wrinch, aged 75, died 1808. Is he her father or grandfather? Perhaps.

The enigma of the "Perhaps" ancestor

I have a title for many ancestors in my tree: the "Perhaps" ancestor. This title is awarded to those ancestors that may or may not actually be related to me and that I may or may not have any substantial information on. These "Perhaps" ancestors really drive me crazy because I just can't bring myself to coin them full-fledged ancestors without better proof.

One such ancestor is Robert Cutler. Robert may belong to my Cutler line, that first appears in America around the 1850s in Richland County, Ohio. My known ancestor is James Cutler, but I have not been able to find much on him, other than a few census records that indicate his birth in England in 1815. Knowing that James Cutler immigrated from England, I did a search for arrivals to the United States born in 1815. I came across the manifest below, which indicates that a Robert, James and Bartha (?) Cutler arrived in May 1833 on a ship named Eliza.

The age fits James, and the closeness in ages of the other two leads me to believe they were related in some fashion, perhaps brothers or cousins. I call this the "perhaps" manifest. So I looked for a Robert Cutler in Richland County, Ohio...and eureka, there was one! Also from England, I might add. I can only find this Robert on the 1850 census in Ohio. I also found a declaration of intent for a Robert Cutler in Richland County in 1859; it states that he immigrated in May 1834. That is pretty close to the "perhaps" manifest I found. The 1850 census I found states that Robert is married to Esther and has one daughter, Sarah.

In searching for more records on my "perhaps" Robert, I come across a death record from Morrow County, Ohio. It lists the following information:
Name: Cutler, Robert
Birth Place: Wheatacre Parrish, Norfolk co., England
Birth Date: Aug 1808
Spouse: Esther Evarts
Marriage Date: 1837
Marriage Location: Belleville, OH
Children: Sarah
Death Date: After 1880
Death Location: Morrow co., OH
Other Notes: Spent his twenties as a bookkeeper on the Chiswick estate in St Thomas, Jamaica/ became absolutely disgusted with the slavery system

Belleville, Ohio, their place of marriage is in Richland County, Ohio. And Esther's maiden name, Evarts, also appears in Richland County. The information and many of the dates fit my "perhaps" Robert. Could this Robert Cutler be related to my James Cutler? If they are indeed brothers, was James born in Wheatacre Parrish as well? Perhaps.

To Meet Tuesday...or rather brick wall breakthrough

I would love to meet Bertha Cutler Kuhn, my 3rd great-grandmother. She was born in Plymouth, Richland County, Ohio on December 28, 1841. Bertha is one of those relatives that I know just enough about to be dangerous. As I have written in a previous post, I was blessed enough to have a letter written by Bertha to her husband during the Civil War. This link made me feel a certain connection to Bertha as I have also been at home with a small child while my husband was at war. But this was all I had.

Bertha's obituary lists her maiden name as Cutler and her birthplace as Plymouth, Ohio. I found her on the 1850 census in Richland County, Ohio. She lived with her father, James, her mother, Eliza, and her brother, Robert. Today as I was preparing to write about why I would like to meet Bertha, I decided to try and find out more about her parents, as they have been one of my brick walls. I have a copy of her brother Robert's obituary which states his mother was Eliza Bodine of Richland County, Ohio. But I have been unable to track more about this family. I cannot even find a death date for James Cutler.

To try to "backdoor" my research I decided to look for more information on a third sibling: Mary Cutler. Mary was born in 1853 according to my research. But I lose track of her after her listing at age 17 on the 1870 census. At that time she is still living with her father in Richland County. On Ancestry.com there is a link to a family tree for Mary. That tree states that her husband was Milton H. Myers. I have no idea if this information is accurate, as it is not sourced. So, I take a cautious step and look for information on Milton, hoping to find a connection back to Mary, and ultimately back to the Cutler family. On FindAGrave.com I find headstones for both Mary and Milton. The headstone states that Milton was a member of the 110th Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic (a fraternal organization of Civil War Veterans).

With this information in hand I turned back to Google. I now searched for Milton Myers and Civil War and wonders upon wonders a link to the Wichita State University Special Collections page came up. They have in their archives a collection of documents from Milton Myers: Milton H. Myers Collection of Civil War Documents. The collection includes documents collected by Milton Myers during his time as a sergeant with the 110th O.V.I. The Special Collections branch of the library has included a list of all the items in the collection, and as I browsed through it I was especially piqued by what was in Box 1, file folder 12: "Photocopy of the "Genealogy and History of the Branch of the Bodine Family Founded by John Bodine: A soldier of the Revolutionary War and a pioneer of the State of New Jersey." It was written and compiled by Maude Cutler Scholfield. This work tells the genealogy and history of Milton H. Myers' wife, Mary Eliza Cutler."

Here we have Cutler and Bodine in the same area. I was floored and realized this could be a roundabout way through my brick wall. Needless to say, I have contacted the library to determine if I may be able to get a copy of some of the files in the archive. I still want to meet Bertha Cutler, but now I have a whole different set of things I would ask her!