The Garvins of New York

Here is a map of the Nothern New York Counties.
We will be focusing on Jefferson and St. Lawrence County.

I have been working on this dead end in my family line for almost a year now. We are researching the ancestry of Jeremiah Garvin, aka Jerry, Jeremy, Gerry. I have been able to collect several land records, his naturalization record, his marriage record and a photograph of his headstone. I have several census records that provide family clues. I am confident that he is related to the other Garvins of Jefferson and St. Lawrence county New York but the final document linking them is still evading me. I have been researching these other families that I believe to be his siblings in the hopes that I will find a link back to his family in the process. I will post here what I have found that leads me to believe that it is probable that Jerry Garvin is a brother to these other Garvins I am researching. Maybe someone out there has what I need to place the final link in the chain.

Here is some of the information I have collected on the Dr. James Garvin lateral lines:

Dr. James Garvin had a first wife, Maria Ehle who died young at age 28. I have not found any record of children for this couple.

I have attached a photo of her headstone that is in Edwardsville Cemetery in Morristown, NY. (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~stlawgen/CEMETERY/Edwardsville/Edwardsville.htm) I can only make out the words "Maria wife of" but hopefully I can obtain a better image at some point. A transcription of the headstone is recorded on the website above as "Maria, wife of James Garvin, MD; died Nov 24, 1856; AE 27 yrs"

Newspaper accounts of James Garvin's first and second marriages and his first wife's death:(http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nystlawr/1860_VR_ViTALS.htm)

Garvin, James
married in Morristown at the residence of the bride's father on Black Lake, (no date given) by Rev. Mr. Clerihew, James Garvin to Miss Maria Ehle, both of Morristown
11
June 20, 1854

Garvin, James (Dr.)
married in Edwardsville Jul. 18, 1858 by Rev. C. Francisco, Dr. James Garvin to Miss Mary Brewer, daughter of John Brewer of Edwardsville
11
Jul. 20, 1858

Garvin, Maria (Mrs.)
died of consumption in Morristown near Black Lake Nov. 24, 1856, wife of Dr. James Garvin and daughter of John and Margaret Ehle, ae 28.
11
Dec. 2, 1856

Source:
11
St. Lawrence Republican
A Tuesday paper from Ogdensburg, on microfilm at the Ogdensburg Public Library. There are only two or three missing issues for the entire decade.

__________________________________________________________

I have attached the newspaper with the obituary for John Garvin with "one brother, Dr. James Garvin of Morristown and one sister, Mrs. Jerry Carroll of Sterlingville."This is from The Northern Tribune, Gouverneur, NY Wednesday February 19, 1908.

(http://news.nnyln.net/)___________________________________________________________

I have included the death certificate for Thomas Garvin, died 1891, with the parents listed as John Garvin and Mary McCann(from the NY Department of Health). These are the same parents as Dr. James Garvin of St. Lawrence County. His obituary only listed his wife and children, no siblings. From The Watertown Herald in Watertown, Jefferson Co, NY, Saturday, August 8, 1891

(http://news.nnyln.net/)___________________________________________________________

In the 1860 US Census for Antwerp, Jefferson County, NY

Thomas Garvin is living next to Mrs. Jerry Carroll (Catherine Garvin Carroll).Living with Thomas is an elderly woman named Mary, 70yrs old from Ireland and named as Mother.

In the 1870 US Census for Philadelphia, Jefferson County, NY

We find the Jerry and Catherine Carl (Carroll) with an elderly woman named Mary Garvin living with them, age 70 from Ireland. I believe the Garvins' mother, Mary McCann Garvin, immigrated to the US with her children. Even though the age seems to be off with these two census records, I believe her to be the same woman and their mother.

(Census source: Ancestry.com)_____________________________________________________________

I have included a photo of the headstone for "Mary, wife of John Garvin, died June 9th 1870, in the 90th year of her age"In the 1970 Census she is living in Philadelphia with her daughter and it was taken in June of 1870, although the record shows it was recorded on the 28th of June and Mary had died on the 6th, I still believe this to be her headstone.

Burial Information:
Mary Garvin
Date of Death: ** 06-09-1870
Age: 90y
Spouse: John Garvin
Inscription: Mary, wife of John Garvin, died June 9th 1870, in the 90th year of her age
Cemetery (name/alt/alt): Savage-Varley Cemetery / Sterlingville (Catholic)
Village: Fort Drum
Town / County: Philadelphia, Jefferson County
Photo Number: 252-083 (available by email)
Burial ID: 57953

(http://www.nnygenealogy.com/pages/cemetery/cemetery.php)__________________________________________________________________

I have included the headstones of:

Dr. James Garvin, Pine Hill Cemetery, Morristown, NY

Jerry and Catherine Garvin Carroll and children in Sterlingville Village, Fort Drum, Jefferson, NY

____________________________________________________________

Our Ancestor, Jerry Garvin md Margaret Adderley and they are living next to Thomas Garvin in the 1870 US Census of Antwerp, Jefferson Co. NY. He immigrated the same year as John Garvin (according to John's obituary and Jerry Garvin's naturalization record). There is also another Garvin living near them in the 1870 census. A Margaret Garvin from Ireland with two laborers which in another census are listed as her sons. From headstones I have found I believe this Margaret may be the widow of Patrick Garvin who is buried in the same cemetery as Mary McCann Garvin and died soon after immigrating to the US (died 1853). I have collected several news articles on the Garvins in Jefferson and St. Lawrence county and some land records for Jerry Garvin. I believe that there is enough circumstantial evidence to assume Jerry is another brother in this family and I am progressing in my research along the Dr. James Garvin line in hopes of finding a link to him and thus to his ancestry in Ireland. If anyone has information that could help me, I would appreciate it. I would also like a historical document stating the parents of Dr. James Garvin. I found a short bio written about him that listed his parents but I have been unable to find where I put it or to find it again on line. I may eventually order his death certificate too if I can't find it.

These are some of the Garvins and Garvin relations that I have records on. I hope to post all of the records I have collected and what they tell me as I can get to it.

Here is a summary of some of their information and relationships:

Jeremiah Garvin: An Irish immigrant that arrived in New York in 1848 and settled in Antwerp, Jefferson County, New York. Lived with the William Adderley family and worked as a minor. Married their daughter Margaret Adderley and became a farmer. They had nine children together and the youngest was an infant when he died in Jefferson County in 1873. (marriage record from St. Mary's Church Marriage Records and the land records I have for Jerry were supplied from Jefferson County).

Thomas Garvin: A brother to Dr. James Garvin, born in Ireland, who immigrated and settled in Jefferson County, New York. He married a woman named Catherine also from Ireland and he worked as a farmer here until his death in 1891. His obituary says he was 75 yrs when he died, had been a resident of Antwerp for many years and left a wife and four daughters. See references to him above for more data and sources.

Dr. James Garvin: An Irish immigrant of Kings County that arrived in New York 1848. He studied medicine with a local doctor, Dr. William Robinson, in Antwerp, Jefferson County before moving to Woodstock, VT to attend medical school and graduated in 1853. He then moved to Morristown, St. Lawrence, NY (a neighboring county of Jefferson) and set up practice. He was married twice and raised a family with his second wife, his first wife having died early in their marriage. He resided in St. Lawrence county until his death in 1913. (from The History of St. Lawrence County available on ancestry.com)

John Garvin: A brother to Dr. James Garvin. His obituary lists Dr. Garvin as his surviving brother as well as Mrs. Jerry Carroll as his surviving sister. It also says that John died at age 82, in 1908, was one of the oldest and best known citizens of Antwerp, immigrated from Ireland to America in 1848 and is survived also by his widow and three children. See above reference for the obituary.

Catherine Garvin Carroll: Listed as a sister to Dr. James Garvin in the obituary for John Garvin of Antwerp. She is found living next her brother Thomas Garvin and mother Mary in the 1860 census in Antwerp and in the 1870 census in Philadelphia, Jefferson County, Mary Garvin is living with her family. I have not researched the Carrolls yet.

Mary McCann Garvin: Mother to Thomas, James, John and Catherine all of Ireland and settled in either Jefferson or St. Lawrence County New York. Probable mother to Jerry Garvin, but no link has been found yet. Born in Ireland and buried in Philadelphia, Jefferson Co., NY. Her headstone is pictured above.

Durkins: The oldest daughter of Jerry Garvin and Margaret Adderley, Mary Ann, married Joseph Durkin, a Canadian immigrant, in New York. They settled in Park City, Utah as did some of Mary Ann's brothers. Those that came to Park City worked in the mines. I have several news articles from The Park Record (available through Utah Digital Newspapers) on these families that settled here and their descendants.

Adderleys: A family from England that settled in Jefferson County, New York. The oldest daughter of William and Ann Adderley, Margaret, married Jerry Garvin in Ogdensburg, St. Lawrence, New York on 30 April 1850 in St. Mary's Church. Margaret lived in Jefferson County until her death in 1899. I have the probate record for William Adderley Sr. that discusses the distribution of his assets and lists the married names of his daughters and has his son as executor. There is a sister of Margaret, Mary Adderley who married a Gorman, but I have also found a headstone for a Mary Adderley of about the same age and in the area who married a Garvin. I do not how these individuals tie in and who they are exactly. I have the film number for Wm Adderley's will, but have not looked it up yet. (FHL US/CAN film # 895396 the probate record was supplied by Jefferson County)

Alternate Surname Spellings

"Why can't I find my Ancestor's Records?" Have you tried alternate surname spellings? Here are four different records for the same Lindeman family spelled four different ways.

Using Alternate Surname Spellings for your Ancestor can open up a world of records that may not otherwise be found. Being flexible on locations, dates, spellings, and using nicknames or looking for them among relatives can all be useful in finding those missing records. Here is a presentation I put together using Kimberly Powell's outline posted on genealogy.about.com titled Top 10 Search Tips for Finding Alternate Surname Spellings and Variations. Click on this lesson link for tips, examples and other helpful websites that can guide you in your search.

Using Alternate Surname Spellings

Remember--click on the slide to advance the lesson, not on the arrows. Use it just like a PowerPoint presentation.

Another problem I have been having in locating Ancestors by the way their name is spelled is in the digital newspaper collections. OCR or Optical Character Recognition is an amazing new technology being used to index records. Rather than having a human read every page of every paper being digitized to create a searchable index, this technology allows it to be done in a single scan. Characters are recognized and "translated" into searchable text. In essence, the computer can now do the reading and searching for us in seconds, directing us to the exact page and location on that page that has the Surname we are looking for. Amazing, Wonderful, and saves us hours and even days. Read more on OCR

Unfortunately, this system does err at times, especially if the text being scanned is unclear, distorted, or incomplete. For example:
Utah Digitized Newspapers OCR does not read the surname Renstrom for some reason.
When I search this name I get three records, two of them are about the same article and the third is not a relation, yet I have found several more Renstroms in this same database. Why are they not indexed? Probably for the reasons listed above and possibly that the text is often too small to make out this particular letter combination correctly.
This article lists the name Renstrom several times clearly and was found in this database, yet I did not locate this article under Renstrom. I do not know what this name is indexed as, if I did I could type that in and hopefully find more records, but it is likely that it is indexed differently each time.

In the Northern New York Historical Newspaper Collection I am finding it difficult to find a particular family that I know was in the area at the time and should have news articles about them. Here is an example of a mis-indexed name from this database.
Click on this image to see a larger view. This has a wonderful example of incomplete letters confusing the OCR. Notice the top search result on the left and the enlarged image on the right. You will see on the right that the first name mentioned here in the newspaper image is Mrs. John D. Robillard. On the left you will see the OCR indexed this name as JuiiU D. Uobiliarti. Your eyes can fill in the blanks of the incomplete letters to a name that makes sense, yet the computer cannot or did not in this case. I searched the name "Dr. James Garvin" whose name you will see listed next in this news article. Fortunately, the Robillards are a relation and I was able to obtain this record on them despite the index error. I would never guess Uobiliarti as an alternate spelling to search.
Another example is in the next search result. This is an obituary for John Garvin, but I couldn't find it under John. You will notice in the image how a portion of the O is missing in the name John. Look at the word Obituary at the top. It has bled so much that it is difficult to make out. As humans using logic and context clues we are able to decipher it just fine, but not the computer. Luckily I was able to locate this obituary, once again through Dr. James Garvin. This article gave me the connection between these two that I was hoping for and told me of another sister that I did not know about.

Just because a name is not in the index does not mean the information is not there. Use relatives, dates and locations where you think you may find them. It will take a little more digging on your part, but the fruits of your labors will be well worth it.