An Ancestor Found: An Update On The Research Into My Oswalt Acestors

As I mentioned previously, I worked on my genealogy when I had some free time, and I will briefly discuss some of the findings I made for one branch.  Interestingly, I had not expected to make any progress on my Oswalt ancestors this past year, but that is what happened!

At the end of June 2012, FamilySearch put images of the probate records for many of Pennsylvania's counties online. Some of Huntingdon County's Will Books and Orphan's Court records were included in this database, and that July, I decided to look through these images to see if I could uncover any new information on my Huntingdon County ancestors. Previously, I had only examined the Will Books for Oswalt/Oswald surnames and examined the Orphan Court Records for my ancestor, Benjamin Oswalt/d by ordering the microfilmed records held by the Family History Library. As you may remember from a previous post, Benjamin's probate records did not mention the names of his heirs apart from his wife, Mary, and son, John. I re-looked at the probate records for Benjamin again, but I did not uncover anything that I had not found before. After that disappointment, I decided to look at the probate and orphan court records for an Adam Oswalt/Oswald who had died in Huntingdon County in the late-1830s. Previously, I had only examined the notation in the Will Book, which only mentioned the names of the court-appointed administrators of Adam's estate; however, when I decided to see if the Orphan Court had any additional probate records, I uncovered a mini-goldmine of information. Previously, I had dismissed the idea of examining the Orphan Court records for Adam because I had not obtained any new information from the records on Benjamin's probate.

I had always suspected from an examination of the 1820 and 1830 censuses and tax records for Huntingdon County that his Adam Oswalt and my ancestor, Benjamin, were related in some way, possibly as father and son; however, I had not been able to confirm my suspicion. The Orphan Court records confirmed my suspicion, and also gave the names of Benjamin's living siblings and Adam's widow, who I presume to Benjamin's mother.

From the Orphan Court records, I learned that Adam Oswald had owned land in Hopewell Township, and that he had at least seven children. Adam apparently either died in 1837 or 1838, and his children sold their father's land. Adam's widow, Mary, probably died around 1848, as five of Adam's children did not receive their shares of the land sale until that year, and the delay probably had to do with Mary's dower's right  in her husband's land. (Of course, I need to check the laws for that period to make sure that my assumption is correct.)

So far, the known children (in no particular order of age) of Adam Oswalt (d. 1837-1838) and Mary ? are:

• Benjamin Oswalt (d. 1861) - eldest son (I do not know who Adam and Mary's firstborn is yet.)
• Eve Oswalt wife of William States
• Adam Oswalt - youngest son (He lived in Blair County.)
• Margaret Oswalt wife of Jonathan Rough
• Catherine Oswalt wife of John Fry
• Elizabeth Oswalt widow of Jonathan Snyder
• Mary Oswalt wife of Samuel Weight (sic) 

Since looking at the probate records, I've made some more progress, but I will write about those findings in another post. If you have any additional information on this family, questions or comments please feel free to leave a comment or contact me at jess_history at yahoo dot com. Thanks!