Genealogical Serendipity How I Found the Maiden Name of One Many Times Great Grandmother While Trying to Find Another's

Kris Hocker on 13 May 2015

Recently, I was going through Dauphin County Orphans Court books researching those of a specific surname, hoping to locate clues to the family of one of my many times great grandmothers. The information I have for her is sketchy and gives her name as the same as her mother-in-law’s. So, I’d really like to create some clarity around the identities of these two women.

While the records didn’t yield anything, I kept seeing a familiar name in nearby records. When my 5x great grandfather, Michael Krehl, died in 1818, the administrator of his estate was named John Steiley.1 So, when I kept seeing the Stehley surname crop up again and again, my interest was piqued.

Jacob Stehley of Harrisburg died intestate in Nov 1793, leaving a widow Elizabeth, three young children, and property in Harrisburg.2 George Stehley, “eldest son and heir at law of Jacob Stehley late of Harrisburg… Brewer,” petitioned the court for an inquest to partition his father’s property in 1800.3 His petition named the seven children of Jacob Stehley: George, “Margaret, Wilhelmina the wife of Michael Krehl, John, Martin, Philip and Elizabeth (now decd).” John, Philip, and Martin were yet minors under the age of 21.

Because I have so little information on the family currently, it’s possible that Elizabeth was a second wife, and therefore not Wilhelmina’s birth mother. So, I haven’t yet added her in as such. As I gather more information—hopefully including a marriage date for Jacob and Elizabeth—I’ll be able to build a more complete picture of this family. Jacob is now one of the earliest of my ancestors to live in Harrisburg. He purchased his Front Street property for £120 on 15 Jun 1791.4 (The Hocker boys bought land there in 1785.)

Following up on the Stehley name gave me the maiden name of my 5x great grandmother, Wilhelmina (Stehley) Krehl, and presumably the names of my 6x great grandparents, Jacob and Elizabeth (___) Stehley.

Footnotes

  1. Michael Krehl estate, Order of Sale, dated 29 Jun 1819, “Pennsylvania Probate Records, 1683-1994,” digital image, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org/ : accessed 16 Mar 2013); citing Dauphin County Orphans County Book E:134, Dauphin County Clerk of the Orphans Court, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. ↩
  2. Jacob Stehley, Order Writ, dated 17 Dec 1796, “Pennsylvania Probate Records, 1683-1994,” digital image, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org/ : accessed 10 May 2015); citing Dauphin County Orphans County Book B:18, Dauphin County Clerk of the Orphans Court, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. ↩
  3. Jacob Stehley, Inquest for Partition, “Pennsylvania Probate Records, 1683-1994,” digital image, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org/ : accessed 10 May 2015); citing Dauphin County Orphans County Book B:165, Dauphin County Clerk of the Orphans Court, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. ↩
  4. Luther Reily Kelker, History of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Publishing Company, 1907), Volume 1, page 511; online, Google Books (https://books.google.com : accessed 13 May 2015). ↩

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, "Genealogical Serendipity How I Found the Maiden Name of One Many Times Great Grandmother While Trying to Find Another's," A Pennsylvania Dutch Genealogy, the genealogy & family research site of Kris Hocker, modified 1 May 2017 (https://www.krishocker.com/genealogical-serendipity/ : accessed 29 Apr 2024).

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