Month: November 2012

Friday Find: Hocker—Drake Marriage Announcement

Newspapers are a wonderful resource for finding not only the genealogical date, but the also the details that make a person’s life colorful.

For instance, from the marriage announcement for T.P. Drake and Alice Hocker, we find they were married at her sister’s home on 1426 Hubbard Street, Jacksonville and that the decorations included palms and cut flowers, that the bride wore “a costume of white satin trimmed with pearls and point lace,” and that “her long bridal veil was caught up with a pearl and diamond ornament.”1 We also learn that they planned to live in Florida for most of the year, but spend their summers elsewhere.

Hocker-Drake marriage

Have you found any interesting details about the lives of your ancestors from newspapers?

Kirche Russheim ~ Inside

Check out this image of the church in Russheim. This is where my Hacker ancestors would most likely have gone to church.

Don’t you hate it when stuff disappears off the web? This image is no longer available on Flickr. [edit: 5 Feb 2020]

Wordless Wednesday: A Morning Cup of Joe

Bill, Isabella, and Mims Hocker in 1946

Bill, Isabella (Smith), and Mims Hocker, 1946.

Isabella Aitken (Smith) Hocker with her son William “Bill” Hocker, Jr. and daughter Meriam “Mims” Hocker in the yard circa 1946.Bill and his family lived across the yard from his parents.

Judge William Adam Hocker’s Obituary

Judge William Adam Hocker obituary in The Evening Independent of St. Petersburg, Florida from July 20, 1918.

“Judge Hocker Dies at Ocala
Distinguished Jurist Spent Last Winter Here and Made Many Friends

The many St. Petersburg friends of Judge William Hocker will regret to learn that he died last Wednesday. Judge Hocker spent last winter at Sunnyside, with the family of Joseph E. Hamilton, 417 Fourth street north, and made many warm friends especially among the older people. He was a dignified and learned man of the old Southern school. The Ocala Star gives the following sketch of Judge Hocker’s career and family:

Judge William A. Hocker was born in Buckingham county, Virginia in 1844, and was a son of William Hocker and Susan Mildred Lewis.

He served in Fitzhugh Lee’s cavalry during the civil war. In November 1868, he was married to Gertrude Venable, and settled near Leesburg, Flas., in 1874, and moved to Ocala in 1892. He became a circuit judge for the fifth circuit in 1893 and continued to hold such office until 1901 when he was elected by the supreme court as one of its commssioners, and shortly thereafter was elected a member of the supreme court of Florida, which position he occupied for 12 years and retired a few years ago on account of failing health.

In 1909 he was married the second time to Mattie N. Glover of Roanoke, Va., who survives him. He is also survived by three children, William Hocker, of Ocala; Mrs. T. P. Drake of Yalaha, and Frederick R. Hocker, of Ocala. His eldest daughter, Mrs. C. P. Lovell, died in 1914. Eight grandchildren also survive him namely: Lieut. Charles P. Lovell, Gertrude Lovell; Elizabeth, Margaret and Lucretia Hocker; William and Trusten P. Drake Jr., and Clifton Montgomery Hocker.”1

Friday Finds: Marriage Record of Sarah Craig Buchanan

It’s funny how a record that you dismissed as irrelevant—because it did not pertain to the person you were researching—can abruptly become relevant with additional research.

I viewed the following record on ScotlandsPeople because I was hoping to find information on my ancestress Sarah Craig, wife of James Buchanan. It didn’t pertain and I set it aside. More recently, I researched Alexander Buchanan as a possible brother to my ancestor James Buchanan. The marriage record of Sarah Craig Buchanan became relevant because she was the daughter of Alexander Buchanan and his wife Elizabeth Kelly… and likely niece to James Buchanan and his wife Sarah Craig, quite likely her namesake.

1872 marriage Sarah Craig Buchanan

Marriage record for James Sands and Sarah Craig Buchanan of Cuilhill, Scotland on 12 July 1872.

Lesson learned? When there are similarities of name and place, don’t dismiss a record just because it’s obviously not the same person. Those similarities may point to a possible relationship. Niece, nephew, brother, sister—or even neighbor or best friend. Those relationships may provide clues that help you over a brick wall.

In this case, the records from the families of James and Alexander Buchanan seem to indicate that their family may have been amongst those Irish who left Ireland due to the famine in the 1840s. In their case, instead of immigrating to United States, they sought relief by going to Scotland where they became coal miners.

Jacob Huber’s Martic Township Tract

On 22 November 1717, Martin Kendig (Kendick, Kendrick, Cundigg) and John Herr (Heer) were warranted 5,000 acres in Lancaster County by the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania.1 They, in turn, transferred this land to their fellow immigrants.

Jacob Hoober 1733 land survey

Jacob Hoober 1733 survey

John Taylor surveyed 210 acres from this warrant for Jacob Huber on either 24 or 28th January 1733.2 The survey states: “Under a mistake John Taylor applied for a [Warrant] to the Secretary on the new terms wch was granted as aforesd But Jacob Hoober purchased the right of 210 as of Martin Kendrick  & John Heer part of 5,000 as granted to them & it is accordingly Returned into the Secretary’s office the — day of December 1735.” You can see the warrant here on my site.

Jacob Huber patented this tract of 210 acres on 22 October 1736.3 He had, quite likely, been living on his father, Hans Huber’s property in Earl Township prior to this purchase. He patented several adjoining tracts as well: one directly to the south in 1745 [A3], containing 48 ½ acres,4 and one to the north in 1759 [A1], containing 167 ½ acres.5

Huber/Hoover/Hoober land patents

Huber/Hoover/Hoober land patents

Jacob Hoover left 250 acres [A2 & A3] to his sons Jacob and Mathias. He also left about 150 acres in Contestoga (A1: the tract just north of this one) to his son Christian.6 A distribution from his estate was paid out to his heirs by 14 June 1765.7

Mathias Hoover quitclaimed ½ of the property left to him and his brother to Jacob on 20 November 1772.8  On 21 November 1772, Jacob and his wife Barbara sold 66 acres 40 perches from their piece of the tract to Mathias. By metes and bounds, this piece appears to be the top portion of the tract Jacob Huber patented in 1736, adjoining lands of Henry Huber, the tract willed to Christian Hoover, and Pequea Creek. Mathias took out a mortgage from Marcus Young of Martick on this 66 acres on 4 January 1773.9 Payment was acknowledged on 8 June 1776.

On 12 June 1776, Mathias and his wife Mary sold 10 acres of their land to Henry Resh/Rush.10 On 10 August 1776, Mathias and his wife Mary sold 19 acres from the 66 they’d purchased from Jacob Hoover to John Hart of Conestoga Township.11

I’m not sure about the division of the rest of the property. Jacob Huber Jr. purchased additional land, as did his son, Martin Hoover Sr. However, at least a portion of the land Jacob and Barbara Huber sold to Mathias Huber, eventually found its way back to Jacob’s descendants. In the settling of Jacob Huber’s granddaughter Elizabeth Hoover’s estate, a deed was issued for the sale of her property. This deed stated that the 113 acres being sold was part of the “same premises of which Martin Huber Sen. [her father], died seized testate” which he will to his children equally and that it was “also a part of the same premises which Jacob Hoover & wife by their Deed of Indenture bearing the date the 21st day of Nov A.D. 1772…[granted] unto Mathias Hoover.”12