Info on a George Martin?

Question

I am looking for information on a George Martin who is my paternal grandmother's father. He was married to my great grandmother Sarah Bird and lived in the Chatham/Madison/Florham Park area in Morris County, NJ. He left his family when my grandmother was young and possibly went to Ohio. I do not have a birth date and death date so I cannot create a profile in WikiTree. Thanks!

Comments

Does Sarah Bird have a profile here? If so, please provide a link.

---

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bird-12869

---

My George Martin is George Winfield Martin born in MO. His wife was Jessie Mae (Westdyke) Martin. both born 1893.

Answer 1

I think i see Sarah, boarding with the Bonnells, in this 1900 Census:

https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/7507274?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a2253476b3148484a4745426f567351707a784f63572f6950756d73437a5276652f6e6e6e43742f57395574453d222c22746f6b656e5f76657273696f6e223a225632227d

She says she is married, but the husband is not present on the census.  She has two little kids, George and Mary.  She says she is born in England.  This matches well with the Sarah who later was enumerated with Edward Brown, who adopted Sarah's children, one of whom later married Philip Groh's ancestor.

Comments

That would be my Ancestry account. When he was a young boy my father was told that his grandfather George Martin was killed in an accident. Much later in life he was told by one of his aunts that it was not true. Instead he left his family when my grandmother was young and moved away, possibly to Ohio. Sarah Bird did have a son with George Martin named George Martin. Sarah Bird later married Edward Brown who adopted Mary and the younger George and gave them his surname. Other than the census it's all stories without documentation.

---

I'm not going by, nor linking to, your Ancestry tree, Phil, nor your cousins' trees.  That is a link to the 1900 census, and this family is visible on every subsequent census. There is a lot of info to be gleaned from census returns!

---

You must be a real pro at this! I started my trees in multiple systems about 7-8 years ago but took a hiatus because it became overwhelming. Now that I'm retired, I'm back at it but I'm still a novice. Thanks again!

---

Welcome back!

Answer 2

Because of her connection to the Bonnell family, this might be her in 1895.  (spelling was not that enumerator's strongest suit)

Name: Sarah A Burd
Sex: Female
Age: 20 years to 60 years
Birth Year (Estimated): from 1835 to 1875
Birthplace: Foreign
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 1895
Event Place: Green Village, Chatham, Morris, New Jersey, United States
Event Place (Original): Chatham Township, Greenvillage, Morris, New Jersey, United States
Household Identifier: 383
Line Number: 1804
Page: 62
 

Household	Role	Sex	Age	Birthplace
Eli Bonnel		M	20 years to 60 years	Native
Catharine Cooper		F	60	Foreign
Catharine Bonnel		F	20 years to 60 years	Native
George Barton		M	5	Native
Mary Barton		F	5	Native

Digital Folder Number: 008039040
Microfilm Number: 000888685
Image Number: 00113

Citing this Record
"New Jersey State Census, 1895," , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QL8B-D76T : 9 August 2022), Sarah A Burd in household of Eli Bonnel, Chatham Township, Morris, New Jersey, United States; citing p. 62, household , line #, Department of State, Trenton; FHL microfilm .

Comments

What would you need from me to help you with this?

---

I saw that in one of the censuses, Sarah had a date for her naturalization.  Have you found that naturalization certificate or any paperwork for that process?  Sometimes there is really good info there.

Don't give up too soon on Sarah A Burd with the Bonnell's:  notice the two little kids, George and Mary Barton.  If you say Martin with a cold or stuffy nose, it will come out like Barton.  

To have the right Sarah, George and Mary (all with the last name Martin) with Eli Bonnell's family in 1900, and to have a Sarah Burd (born not in the US) and a George and Mary Barton with the same Bonnell family just 5 years earlier makes it something to keep on the table.

Following the Bonnell family around for a while might lead us to George Martin, if they were all part of a group that knew each other.

---

do you have any DNA matches that you can't otherwise account for who have Martin or Bird in their family trees? Or have a recent background in England?

---

it would be cool if we could find Sarah and Edward Brown's marriage registration.  Even more cool if it records their parents' names.  I've gone from not caring at all about subsequent marriages which aren't in my biological line to really appreciating subsequent marriages because usually the later in time the marriage took place, the more info the registrar would ask for!

When Sarah married Edward, she may have given some parents' names that would help locate her in England, as well as helping verify the marriage to George Martin if we ever find it

---

Have you done any 'bucketing' of your matches on Ancestry?  The colour-coding feature helps with that, and making 'buckets' of matches that match each other really helps you see where to focus your efforts to find the common ancestors....for George and Sarah, you are looking for two group of matches that match your father's side of the family but aren't matching the Groh and Behre relatives.  It is helpful that there is a geographical divide as well.

---

Unfortunately, I didn't see either marriage record for Sarah in the NJ Archives Marriage Index, which goes through Dec 1900. 

I added some sources and the beginning of a narrative to the profile. 

---

I don’t recall seeing this on Ancestry. Is it new? I have to renew my Ancestry subscription first. I’ll do that later this week and will stay in touch with my progress. Thanks again!

---

The marriage indices 1848-1900 are searchable on the State Archives of New Jersey website. 1848-1878 is now on Ancestry but 1878-1900 are not.  Reclaim the Records acquired the marriage indices 1901-2016, you can browse the lists by last name. Familysearch has some of these indexed as well, but there won't be parents' names in the index, you need the actual cert for that.

The Archives sells copies of certificates, or you can make an appointment to go in person and look at the microfilm. 

---

Thank you!

---

I couldn't find any marriage for Sarah during the logical years. I looked through what Reclaim the Records had and only found one (no listing under Martin) that could be her marriage to Edward but the date is later than assumed. It only gives the year, 1902. Daughter Lucy was 9 years old when the 1910 census was taken so a marriage of 1900-1901 would be assumed. Here's the citation if anyone wants to use it. [https://archive.org/details/NJ_Marriage_Index_Brides_1901-1903_A-K/page/n77/mode/1up New Jersey Marriage Index (Brides) - 1901-1903 - Surnames A-K] Page 77 of 561. Bride Sarah Bird, Groom Edward Brown married 1902. State file number 542 15564. Reclaim The Records.

Answer 3

All we know about George Sr. is that his first child was born in 1893 and according to his kids' entries on the 1900 census, he was born in New Jersey.  

So we can assume his DOB was before say 1875.  I looked for a George Martin in Morris County in 1880, but there's only one--George E. Martin--and I don't think he's the same guy (unless he went on to marry someone else in 1900, which would be interesting). 

That leaves us with just 58 guys named George Martin living in NJ in 1880. If it were me, I would research every one of them just in case, see whether they left the state or what happened. 

How do you know his name was also George, by the way?  Is that family lore or does his name appear on a death/marriage certificate of his children?  I saw on Familysearch the New York marriage of George Jr. (as "George Brown" where he says his father was the second husband, and names his mother Sarah "Birt").

Records you could locate or order that would help

* birth cert of George (Martin) Brown, death cert

* birth cert of Mary (Martin) Brown, marriage cert, death cert

Also, the death cert of Sarah (Bird) (Martin) Brown would name her parents if known to the informant.  Is the death and grave record I added to her profile the correct one? 

There are a couple Morris County newspapers on newspapers.com and I see your grandmother's wedding announcement in there and also mentions of men named George Martin.  Maybe he never left town. 

Comments

Thanks for all of this info! It will take me some time and getting some subscriptions to go through it. I’ll keep you posted.

All the information that I have on George Martin Sr and Jr, and Sarah Bird are word of mouth from my father. The only information that he had on Jr is that he was born in Madison, NJ.

---

Since Sarah was born somewhere between 1862 and 1870 (if i remember correctly from the different sources i saw last night), probably George is the same age or slightly older...so probably born before 1875.

There is a George Marion Martin in the area born 1850 who also died in 1850, so it wasn't him,

I agree that a good way to proceed would be to develop the family trees of the 58 George Martins in the area.  That would also be useful when Philip finds Martins in the family trees of his DNA matches.  He will get a sense of which family or families they seem to cluster into.

---

I saw the tree you made, Shirlea!  The only George Martin that came up in Morris County in 1880 was this one born June 1868: https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/12650258/person/12749220811/facts. Lots of other Martins in the county, one Martin family in Chatham even.

This is one of those "if only we had the 1890 census...." mysteries.