Re: Charles James Dewey & Sarah M. Barber
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In reply to:
Charles James Dewey & Sarah M. Barber
Jacob Thorn 4/05/10
I was recently sent back to the drawing board. For years, I have been claiming that my ancestor Sarah Barber was the daughter of John Barber and Prudence Kenyon and this had been accepted as fact by the Barber and Kenyon researchers. After I got an email requesting proof of this, I reviewed my files and found that Sarah Barber, age 30 and unmarried was living in 1850 in Peoria County, Illinois with her parents John Barber, of Carlisle, Schoharie County, New York and Prudence Kenyon, also of Carlisle, Schoharie County, New York. I know from my family records, including the Charles J Dewey obituary, that Charles J. Dewey and Sarah M. Barber were married in Feb 1844 and settled in Savanah, Wayne County, New York. I had never been able to find Charles and Sarah in the 1850 census. Using a different source than Ancestry, I found a Chas D Dewey in Savanah, Wayne County New York. His age is listed as 30 although he was in fact 36 in Oct of 1850 when the census was taken. His wife Sarah is listed as 24 although we know she was 32 at that time. Correct ages are given for Ellen, age 4 and Frances age 2. Curiously, Martha shows us as 5/12 years old although my family records indicate that she was born in December 1850. One of the things that misled me was the Dewey Genealogy. Charles James Dewey is no. 1774 in that book which is available free on line. It says he married Feb 22 1840 to Sally Barber, daughter ofJohn of Carlisle. It gives correct names and marriages for the rest of the Dewey children. It has the correct date of death for Albert Dewey but incorrectly claims that he was killed by a runaway horse. We are only aware of one John Barber of Carlisle and he had a daughter Sarah, his first child, born shortly before the taking of the 1820 Schoharie County census. At that time, he had one female child under 10 and no male child under 10 in his household. The 1820 Schoharie County census had three Barber's in it. John of Carlisle, his father William Barber also of Carlisle and Isaac Barber. Isaac had twelve children but no Sarah or Sally is among them. So we are back to square one not knowing the identity of our Sarah Barber's parents. According to the 1880 Census, Sarah was born in New York, her father in New York and her mother in Rhode Island. Jeff Ward