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Genealogy -- Digging for My Roots

Since being bitten by the genealogy bug in January of 1999, I've collected some information on the following lines in my family (thanks in large part to the research done by lots of other family members):
    -- Hugh Bay (wife: Margaret ?Hamilton). He was in Westmoreland Co., PA in the late 1700s, then moved to Bourbon Co., KY and then to the St. Louis area of MO.
    -- Mary Hamilton, wife of Hugh Bay's son Robert. What I've found so far (from research done by others) is that Mary's line goes back to James Bell of
Scotland.
    --John Henry Otke, Jr. He is part of a German family that settled in Clinton Co., IL in the early 1800s. One of the Otke girls, Mary A. Otke, married a man named John Hamilton, bringing in possibly a second line of Hamiltons to this side of my family.
    -- Edmund Hunt (wife unknown, though some claim she was Dorcas Oxenbridge). He came to Duxbury, MA from England in the 1630s.
    -- Soren Valentine Kalsem (wife: Serena G. Strohm). He was born in Norway and came to Mahaska Co., IA prior to his marriage in 1861.

A HAMILTON MYSTERY: Some genealogy members of my family have been trying for years to find the parents of John Hamilton, husband of Mary A. Otke. John was born 1 Apr 1839 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co., PA. Family legend states that his father died when John was around 18 months old. Afterwards, his mother traveled with John on horseback to Illinois. According to the story, John's mother died when he was around 5 years old. She probably remarried prior to her death. John doesn't turn up on any records in Illinois (that we've found so far) until he enlists in the Civil War in Carlyle, Clinton Co., IL in 1861. He married Mary Otke after his tours of duty (he enlisted twice) and he then begins to appear on census records for Clinton Co, IL (starting in 1870) and in Missouri. He died in Carthage, Jasper Co., MO in 1922. A theory at this point is that John's mother remarried in PA prior to going to IL -- that would have been a dangerous trip for a woman and a young child to make alone. A great uncle recently told me that John Hamilton never talked about his family, but that he did say he was never in an orphanage. This great uncle also said that John might have been in the Belleville (St. Clair Co.), IL area -- "he left Belleville because he couldn't stand his stepfather, and he went to work for the man whose daughter he ended up marrying." That implies that he was working for John Henry Otke, Jr., father of Mary Otke. John isn't listed on the 1860 census for Clinton County, however, so whether he was indeed with the Otke family remains a mystery at this time.

Does this sound like anyone's John Hamilton? I would LOVE to hear from you if you can connect to him. Here are some facts about John:

John Hamilton
    b. 1 Apr 1839, Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co., PA
    d. 1 Feb 1922, Carthage, Jasper Co., MO
m. Mary A. Otke, 21 Apr 1868 in Aviston, Clinton Co., IL
    b. 2 Jun 1849, Breese Twp., Clinton Co., IL
    d. 16 Jul 1929, Carthage, Jasper Co., MO

Children of John Hamilton and Mary A. Otke:
    John Henry Hamilton (died as infant)
    Bernadina H. Hamilton
    Gerhard "George" Hamilton (my great grandfather)
    Anna Rose Hamilton
    Henry Emil "Ame" Hamilton
    Catherine Hamilton (died as an infant)
    John Henry Hamilton

Please email me if you think you connect to this line, or if you'd like more information about the people I have. I'd love to swap information with anyone who connects!

To see the names of some of my ancestors, check out the following:

BAY Ancestors HUNT Ancestors

Some of my information came from the following sources:

Chester Johnson's web page (BAY family)

Rick Saunder's web page (BAY family)

The Hunt List (HUNT family)

Conover Family Genealogy (Hunt family)

Davis Stockton of Virginia, Second Edition, by Leona Irene Smith Johnson and Winfred Broadus Smith (self published, 1975)

Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, 1789-1873 (images at http://memory.loc.gov)

Howell County, Missouri: Post Offices, Postmasters and Their Communities, Vol. 1-5, by Gerald and Charlotte Groves (published by authors, 1989)

A Brief Corrected Genealogy of Captain Ziba Hunt (1746-1820) of Duxbury, MA, Newent, CT, New Lebanon, NY, Edinburg, NY, et. al. by Mitchell J. Hunt (manuscript, September 1994)

A History of the Town of Duxbury, Massachusetts, with Genealogical Registers, by Justin Winsor; web page image by Frederick H. Kunchick, Jr. (1998, 1999; Boston: 1849)

History of Harrison County, Iowa: Its People, Industries and Institutions, by Hon. Charles W. Hunt (my great grandfather) and Will L. Clark (Indianapolis, IN: B.F. Bowen & Company, Inc., 1915; photoreproduced by Higginson Book Co., Salem, MA, 1999)

Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Volume Eighteen, Part I, Richard Warren, compiled by Robert S. Wakefield, F.A.S.G. (Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendents, 1999)

Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Volume Eighteen, Part II, Richard Warren, compiled by Robert S. Wakefield, F.A.S.G. (Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendents, 1999)

Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Volume Sixteen, Part I, Family of John Alden, compiled by Esther Littleford Woodworth-Barnes, edited by Alicia Crane Williams (Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendents, 1999)

Partridge Genealogy: Descendants of George Partridge of Duxbury, Massachusetts, by George Henry Partridge, privately printed (Norwood, MA: The Plimpton Press, 1915)

Last update: 18 June 2000