Possible Wrong Info Based On Census And other Data

George W. White

According to the 1850 Census there is a a William E White and a Nancy White on

the census. However, when you look up the Jubilee Singers on Google, the parents

are different for George Leonard White. How can I pick the right one and have them

in my tree?

RaniM

Hi @George W. White, Without specifically knowing what you found via your google search it's impossible to assess that information definitively. But after doing a little digging I think i understand your issue. The confusion seems to lie in the middle initial of George Leonard White's father's name. William B White vs William E White.

George Leonard White (G9WB-S49) appears as the son of William B White (MDLW-BB9) and Nancy Leonard. Which, after doing a quick search myself, records seem to pretty definitively agree is correct. However, the issue lies with the PID of his father, William B White. That PID has been conflated with William E White (G9WY-4S5). Both resided in New York, both were married to women named Nancy and both had a son named George. (George R White (G83P-BJY) was the son of William E White).

Both families appear in the 1850 Census as well as subsequent census records. Cross-referencing census records in cases like this is a good way to differentiate different families from one another.

A good number of William E Whites's children have been attached to William B White's family. I've gone ahead and amended the erroneously attributed children so they appear in the correct family (again per census records). There are no immediately obvious indicators that the two families were related. Hope that helps.

George W. White

So what do I have to do to correct my tree? I'm not sure what to do or how to do it.

I'm still pretty new at this stuff.

So I need to get rid of William E White (G9WY-4S5) and replace him with William B White (MDLW-BB9)?

Do I also have to get rid of Nancy C White (GVKK-XFC)? and replace her with Nancy Leonard?

Can you show me a text representation of what my tree should look like?

Thank you very very much for your help.

I've found Google information that shows a George Leonard White founded the Jubilee Singers.

I'm not sure if that is correct.

I'm looking at it right now and it shows the following:

William E White G9WY-4S5 3rd Great Grandfather (Your info says William B White (MDLW-BB9)

George R White G9WB-S49 2nd Great Grandfather (My tree says G83P-BJY)

https://www.newspapers.com/image/276684022/?article=f3892102-1a5c-4130-96f3-939ac25ce2d4&focus=0.73141855,0.57239586,0.84739,0.6436229&xid=3355
FRED WHITE Watkins Glen--Funeral services for Fred White, who died Tuesday, Oct. 15, 1935,
will be conducted at the Royce funeral parlors Friday at 10:30 a. m. by the Rev. Guyon Golding
of St. James Episcopal Church. Burial will be in Glenwood Cemetery.
The George R. and Harriet Coe White, he was born Jan. 18, 1872.
Surviving are his wife, Harriett, and a son, George, of Union City, N. J.

Fred S White GSPQ-TB8 1st Great Grandfather

George W. White Sr L2HY-631 Grandfather

George W White Sr
The deceased was born Tuesday, September 23, 1902 and was living in the state of
New Jersey when they applied for Social Security benefits.
George W White Sr died September 10, 1988 at the age of 85 years, 11 months and 17 days.

George White LV45-GNJ Father

George W White LV45-GZT Me

RaniM

Short answer, you don’t need to do anything to correct your tree. I made the adjustments to detangle the two families from one another already. Certainly don’t remove William E White and Nancy C White. They are where they need to be (and appear correctly in your tree).

George Leonard White (of the Jubilee Singers) is not part of your immediate family tree and may be no relation at all. His father was William B White. They are where they need to be. William B White is a different person to your g-g-g grandfather.

There’s always a bit of a learning curve when you’re starting out and you’ve definitely come to the right place with any questions. Looking at the work you’ve been doing on the tree it seems like you’re very much on the right track.

I’m on my phone right now, so it’s tricky for me to look at the pedigree you’ve referenced above in the tree, but if you can bear with me until I’m on my computer tomorrow, I’d be very happy to give you a more detailed explanation, if you feel that would be helpful.

George W. White

Thank you. I do know a few things based on an obituary a New York historian sent me.

The problem is, I can't seem to find anything on a Nancy Minturn anywhere.

and I can't find anything further back than 1850.

Again, thank you for your help, I won't make any changes until I hear from you.

Here is George R White's obituary, I typed it up from a scan sent to me by the Watkins Glen

historical society.

DEAtH CLAIMS AN-OTHER CIVIL WAR VET-ERAN, Watkins EXPRESS,March 29, 1922.
Death claimed another of ouraged and well known citizens last Sunday afternoon, March 26, 1922, when George R.
White passed from this life. He was a builder and con-tractor during his long,active life and was very thorough in his
work. Whatever he did was well done and he lived up to the motto: "What is worth doing at all is worth doing well."
Many well known buildings in Watkins and vicinity were built under his supervision and bear witness to his skill and abil-
ity. Among them may be men-tioned the Glen Springs, which he remodeled into the Sanito- rium; the Hoyt residence, now
the home of Warren W.Chute;the H.B. Hathaway house, now oc-cupied by William M. Lef-ingwell; the Durland block; the
VerNooy block; the George Nor-man house; the Lawrence Memo-ial Chapel at Cayuta Lake; the Catholic Church at Ovid; Starkey
Seminary; and many buildings at Ithaca, both on the Cornell cam-pus and in the city. Mr. White was born in the
town of Caroline, Tompkins County,May 11, 1837 the fourth of ten children born to Rev. Wil-iam E, and Nancy Minturn
White.
When a young boy, his par-ents moved to Watkins, where the remainder of his long life has been spent.
On August 9, 1869 he united in marriage to Miss Charlotte Simmons. To them was born one son, Fred S. White. Mrs. White's
death occured on March 22, 1888. On December 18, 1890, he was married to Miss Amanda Leonard who survives.
The funeral service was held on Wednesday afternoon in St. James Episcopal Church of which the deceased was a vestry-
man for many years. The bearers were the four nephews: Herbert, Horace and Percy White and George Coon.

Here is Fred S White's obituary:

FRED WHITE Watkins Glen--Funeral services for Fred White, who died Tuesday, Oct. 15, 1935,
will be conducted at the Royce funeral parlors Friday at 10:30 a. m. by the Rev. Guyon Golding
of St. James Episcopal Church. Burial will be in Glenwood Cemetery.
The George R. and Harriet Coe White, he was born Jan. 18, 1872.

Surviving are his wife, Harriett, and a son, George, of Union City, N. J.

Here is his son's my grandfather:

George W White Sr

The deceased was born Tuesday, September 23, 1902 and was living in the state of New Jersey when they applied for Social Security benefits.

George W White Sr died September 10, 1988 at the age of 85 years, 11 months and 17 days.

Here are other things I've found:

https://archive.org/details/referencebusines01chil/page/354/mode/1up
WATKINS VILLAGE Page 354
WHITE, CHARLES W., b 1842 ex-sheriff of Schuyler Co.,
and contractor and builder, office over Hurd & Brown's
Franklin, h Fifth n Franklin
White Fred S., 1871, son of George R., student, bds with his father
WHITE GEORGE R. b 1837, contractor and builder, Franklin, residence 36 Sixth
White Henry, b 1853, carpenter, bds Lakeview ave. facing Second
WHite Herbert L., b 1873, carpenter, bds Lakeview ave. facing Second
White Horace L., b 1840 in Caroline, contractor carpenter and builder,
shops on Franklin, h Lakeview ave. facing second

RaniM

Hi again, Sorry for the delay in following up. I did start going through the information you shared and looking at your tree but I ran out of time to write a response. I've gone through everything you attached now and I don't see any issues. I think finding the other White family perhaps muddled you a bit is all, but the actual work you've done looks good.

Your direct pedigree looks to me exactly as you've put it:

1st gen: William E White (G9WY-4S5) m. Nancy C* (GVKK-XFC)

2nd gen: George R White (G83P-BJY) m. Charlotte C Simmons** (G83P-TS4)

3rd gen: Fred S White (GSPQ-TB8) m. Hattie Coe*** (GSPQ-VV1)

I haven't gone through further, your working looks sound to that point and you are best placed to know the veracity of those more recent generations.

*I've removed "White" as Nancy's surname as it's her married name and replaced it with "Minton". As you say, the newspaper articles would suggest her maiden name is "Minton" (spelt differently in her son's obit). Here is William S Minton (GL2F-JGK) who is mentioned as her husband's brother-in-law. I've connected he and Nancy in the tree via a placeholder father. You would want to try and verify this though as it's not a primary source relationship at this point.

Finding Nancy's obituary could shed light on her origins.

** The main thing here is that Charlotte was not a "Simmons" but actually a "Simonson" you can see this via census records were her mother is living with her and George after they are married and from there Charlotte can be traced back through earlier census records. You'll see I've attached those to her profile, adjusted her name and added her family to the tree. This kind of name mix up occurring long after the individual has died is not uncommon.

*** The obit for Fred you have above says "The [words missing] George R. and Harriet Coe White, he was born Jan. 18, 1872." Not clear if this is a transcription error or an original typo confusing the mother and wife without seeing the original. You may want to check that.

The articles and obituaries are a great source of information. You can add them to profiles under the collaboration tab in the notes section, so they are easy to find. You can see I did that for both William E and George R. William E's was incomplete so you may want to add the rest by clicking the edit pencil. If you have original images you can also upload them to the memories tab if you want.

I also added the index entry for William E's probate record and another land record. There are a lot of unindexed records in the catalogue you may want to look through to see what you can find, it's time consuming but can sometimes pay dividends.

I've added the 1840 and 1830 census records to WIlliam as well. William E and Nancy C have possible missing children from the tree. George R's obit says he was the 4th of ten children but it's unclear if that means of ten surviving children. At the moment he is the third child in the tree from that generation. Also the 1840 Census lists 6 children in the household and the 1830 lists 3. It's impossible to say if they all were "White" children or there were individuals from outside the family staying in the household. It's also possible the current listed birthdates of some of the known children are a bit off as they are taken from later census records and not baptisms. But from all that you can at least deduce that William E and Nancy C were married prior to 1830.

A lot to digest there. I hope that clarifies things for you and gives you some more to look into. All the best in your research.

George W. White

Thank you. I will have to take time to go through things slowly. :)

I'm currently going back through my notes to see if I have everything. I've been

contacting New Jersey to see what else I can learn.