52 Ancestors Week 48: Troublemaker

 From Chris Ferraiolo:

Lawbreakers. Ne'er-do-wells. No one's family tree is completely full of "goody two-shoes". Do you even have "ye Olde Florida Man" in your tree? A troublemaker could even refer to someone you've had trouble researching! Share their stories and be creative!

Yeah. We knew that was coming.

  If someone were to tell me that their family tree was perfect and filled with people who were flawless, I'd have my doubts. I'm sorry. The number one rule in genealogy for me is to never put people on high pedestals. Not even your ancestors. People often forget that our ancestors were human like you and me. They had their faults and foilbles. Some may have been pretty dastardly and that's putting it mildly. Some may have legit been awesome people. You never know. Sometimes you just have to let the records speak for themselves if you've never met the person or heard stories. In my case, I have one ancestor who was probably a both a troublemaker AND someone who was a bit hard to research.

    Meet Elias Felker, my 4th great-grandfather and man who does not have a clear paper trail. One look at his Wikitree page and you'll see that he was a bit of a troublemaker, too. He was married to a woman named Polly Brock as evidenced by records in the state of New Hampshire. However, while he was married to Polly he got a woman named Martha Smart pregnant with my 3rd great-grandfather, Jeremiah.

    If this sounds like one of those old daytime soap operas to you, you're not wrong because from that point on things take a sharp turn into crazy town. While researching Elias, the only things I was able to find on him was a court document where Martha's father, Jeremiah Smart, petitioned the court for custody of the baby. Oh and it turns out that my third great-grandfather was named after him. Something tells me that Elias probably wasn't a saint. Then again it's hard to say who was a saint because it takes two to tango. It's all hearsay because we weren't there and records are hard to come by. I feel like asking Reddit's "Am I the ***hole?" about this case! It'd be interesting for sure! I wonder if they'd even look at a case from the 1830s!

    Records for Elias are really hard to come by. I'm not joking. Over the years, I've managed to scrounge up bits and pieces of his life. I've even enlisted the aid of my friend and fellow Wikitreer Laura and we only found very few sources including:

* His marriage to Polly.

* His appearance in the 1840 census.

* Rockingham county probate file.

* His Find a Grave page.

That's about it. Though, if you dig a little deeper, you might find a War of 1812 pension file for the guy. It's hard to say if it was really him or not. I haven't added it to his WikiTree page because it's a little too suspect for me. The best I could do is mention it as a research note.

   Elias's death at the age of twenty-six was also mentioned in the pages of the New Hamphsire Gazette on Tuesday May 7th, 1844. If he was twenty-six in 1844, that means he was born around 1818. The War of 1812 was over by then. So, how could Elias have been involved? Was he secretly a Time Lord and he just regenerated in 1818 after being mortally wounded?! Doubtful. Very doubtful.

    The marriage to Polly took place in 1820. So, either the newspaper misprinted his age or some other craziness is going on here. It's hard to say at this point without concrete proof. For now I have Elias's birth year as around 1800 because of these timey wimey conflicts.

    I was only able to link Elias to Jeremiah due to the probate file. Laura was able to link Elias to his parents thanks to deductive reasoning and the fact that Jerrry's wife, Elizabeth put down his grandfather Joseph Felker as his father on his death certificate in 1918. Oof. Methinks they didn't have that good of a relationship. To add insult to injury, he wasn't even mentioned on their marriage certificate from 1863. Double oof.

   I wish I could say that there was DNA evidence linking me to directly to Elias. DNA on that front has unfortunately come up empty. No other direct descendants of his appear to have tested. However! All is not lost, true believers! 

Oh, so we're doing the DNA tango again?

    This is my mother's Thruline on Ancestry for Elias's father, Joseph Felker. Joseph also had a son named David. What I need to do here is follow the paper trail and see if it connects to that 5th cousin once removed. Thankfully, it's all on FamilySearch and it appears to be correct. Good thing records in Vermont are so thorough. Wow. A New Hampshire native says something nice about Vermont. Scary.

    Sadly, I don't match WS and that's to be expected because WS matches my mother at 14 cMs across 1 segment. It's still a decent amount to prove a connection and the paper trail to WS is made out of solid steel. No loopholes. David only has that dashed box because I haven't gotten around to adding him to my tree. Maybe I should remedy that, huh?

    I'm betting that if I were to have my great-aunt Elaine do a DNA test, WS here would show up as a match and would probably be a fourth cousin once removed. It's a gamble. Let's be honest. Thrulines are only as good as other peoples trees. But, the paper trail to WS is airtight thanks to records in Vermont. She may not have to test as 14 cMs is fine for me. Would I like her to? Oh, yes! In the end, it's up to her and I don't feel like pushing my ninteysomething great-aunt into something she doesn't want to do. That wouldn't be cool.

Who the heck is Mary Perkins?

    Elias seems to be a troublemaker in death as well as in life because there isn't much to find. He only left a few bits and pieces of information behind. Was he really involved in the War of 1812? I have no idea. I will keep an eye out for more information. Was he a scoundrel? Guys, he cheated on his wife in the 1830s. What do you think? Think I'm a bit harsh? Maybe. 

    At least I was able to prove my connection to him and his parents thanks to DNA evidence and good old fashioned traditional DNA. I just wish that there were more nuggets to find. All I have to go on are crumbs. You guys know I want more than just crumbs. I want the whole sub! I don't think I'm asking for much!

    Elias was a bit of a puzzle for me to solve and thankfully I had Laura's help in solving it. I also had help from a few other people and they too only found bits and pieces. Whatever else is out there is probably locked away in a secret vault waiting to be digitized. Here's hoping one of Elias's other descendants does a DNA test. That would be amazing. For now all I can do is play the waiting game and see what other records this troublemaker had out there in the world. At least we know one thing. Elias is definite proof that no one was ever perfect. 

See ya next time!