William Hall (1810-1878) "52 Ancestors"

Week 38 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge is upon us. I have been trying to prepare a couple presentations for an upcoming genealogy conference. Every year I pick a different set of topics for the conference. This year I decided that I would do two talks titled "Mining the Census Records to Write Your Family Story" and "Finding Your Family in the Second Hand Store". Now I just have to do the research and prepare the slides and handouts. Looks like I will be busy for the next couple weeks/months on that. I just have to make sure that I take a break each week to prepare my blog posts.

This week I decided to write about William Hall (1810-1878), my wife's 4th great grandfather. William was born in Aberdeen, Brown County, Ohio around 1810. Aberdeen is a small town located on the Ohio River across from Maysville, Mason County, Kentucky and along Zanes's Trace. Zane's Trace was the frontier road that went from Wheeling, West Virginia to Maysville, Kentucky. The road was constructed in the late 1790s, opening up the frontier of the Northwest Territory. William's father, William Hall, immigrated from Scotland and traveled along Zane's Trace and settled at the terminus in Aberdeen.

View of Maysville, Kentucky from Aberdeen, Ohio.

On 16 June 1835, William married Jane Ann Lee (1813-1856). Their first child, Alexander William Hall, my wife's 3rd great grandfather, was born less than a year later in Aberdeen, Ohio on 25 March 1836. William and Jane had at least 10 children that we have been able to find. The children are Alexander (1836-1911), Mary (~1838-??), William (1840-1922), Luther Leach (1842-1918), Francis "Frank" (~1843-??), George (~1845-??), Lucy (~1847-??), Anna (~1850-1918), Rachel (~1852-??), and Martha (~1856-??).

The 1850 census lists the family as William (age 38), Jane (age 37), Alexander (age 13), Mary (age 12), William (age 10), Luther (age 9), Francis (age 6), George (age 4), and Lucy (age 2). William is employed as a shoemaker. Jane died after the birth of Martha and soon afterward, William remarried to Rose Ellen Love Degman on 21 February 1857 across the river in Maysville, Mason County, Kentucky.

In the 1860 census, the family had moved about a mile to the west to Ripley, Ohio, where William was employed as a boat builder. My wife has many ancestors who were involved in shipping, so this is just one more, even though William was on the Ohio River and not the oceans. William (age 50) and his wife Rosella (age 41) had a merged family. Rosella had at least five children by a previous marriage. Her children are listed in the 1860 census as Julia (age 18), Laura (age 16), James H (age 14), John P (age 12) and Sylvester (age 9). Her children were all born in Maysville, Kentucky. In addition to Rosella's children, William still had Alexander (age 25), George (age 14), Lucy (age 12), Ann (age 9), Rachel (age 7) and Martha (age 3) living in the home. That makes 11 children all at home. Alexander's occupation is listed as engineer.

William and several of his sons (William, Alex, George, and Frank), as well as Rosella's son James Degman, were serving in the Union infantry. James was serving with Co. I, 16th Reg't Kentucky Infantry. While the Halls were serving in Co. H, 12th Reg't Ohio Infantry.

Bridge connecting Maysville and Aberdeen.

During the 1870 census William is listed as "on the river". So I am guessing that he worked on the boats traveling up and down the Ohio River carrying goods. Most of the children had moved out of the house by this census. The remaining family consisted of William (age 62), Rosellen (age 52), Rachel (age 17), Martha (age 13), and Thomas (age 10).

William died on 5 April 1878 near Aberdeen, Ohio at the age of 68.