Category Archives: Dead Ends

Look Family

My wife has a great grandmother named Frances Look.  She was born in about 1849 in Wisconsin or possibly in England.  I believe her parents were Robert Look and Mary (possibly Martyn).  Frances (age 2) and her parents (Robert-age 36 and M A-age 25) and a silbing, E. A. (age 4) are in the 1850 census for Eagle, Waukesha, Wisconsin.  They are all listed with a birthplace of England.  I have been able to find only one tidbit on what happened to the rest of her family.   There is a Jacob Look listed in the Mortality Schedules for 1850 as having died in Waukesha county Wisconsin in May 1850 at 1 month of age.  I have an assumption that he may have been Frances’ younger brother.

Frances then shows up with the Martin (Martyn) family in 1860 in Lindon, Sheboygan, Wisconsin.  The Martin family consists of Emanuel (age 59), Elisabeth (age 40) and James (age 18).  There is no indication of how they are related to Frances.  They are all listed as having been born in England, but now Frances is listed as having been born in Wisconsin.  The Martyns may be related to the Looks, they may be friends who immigrated from England with the Looks, or they may be unrelated people who took in Frances when something happened to the rest of her family.

By 1870 Frances had married David Underhill, a civil war veteran, and they were living in Lyndon, Sheboygan, Wisconsin with one son, Edward.  I know of no further connection with the Martyn’s except that her son Harry listed Frances’ maiden name as Martin when he got married.  (The other son, Edward,  listed her maiden name as Look).  The Martyn family later moved to Pittsfield, Brown, Wisconsin, where Immanuel (1800-1880), Elizabeth (1810-1885), and James Lodge Martyn (1842-1924) are all buried.

I am looking for information on two things:

First, what happened to Frances’ family?  1850 in Southeast Wisconsin was wilderness.  There could have been deaths from illness, from accidents, from conflicts with Native Americans.  I have no clue at this time.

Second, who where the Looks? Look is a very difficult name to do research on.  It is both a common English name and a common English word.  I can find some Robert Looks in England but not with enough information to connect them with our family.

If any of this connects with anyone else’s research or historical or family information I would be grateful if you would contact me.

Dead Ends

I have been successful in tracing most of our family lines at least back to the generation that “jumped the pond.”  For a few lines I have pretty solid information back to the early 1700’s, the 1600’s, and even beyond.  However, as is the case with anyone doing ancestry work there are always brickwalls to work on.  Here is a list of the closest deadends in my ancestry research.  These are the brick walls for which I would most appreciate any help from others.

Great Great Grandmother –  Rose Ann or Rosanne McCarty, born 14 Sep 1814 in Loudoun county Virginia, died 23 Mar 1863 in McConnelsville, Morgan, Ohio. She married Fenton Ethell (1816-1891) on 18 Aug 1836 in Fauquier county Virginia.  I have been unable to find any leads on her parents.

Great Great Grandparents – Johnathon G Miller (1834-1922) and Barbara (Wappes?) (1841-1913).  I tentatively have his parents as Eli Miller (1804-1886) and Catherine Eva Whistler (1814-1897), and her parents as Casper Wappes (1793-1865) and Margaret (1786-1873), but my documentation is very weak.

my wife’s Great Great Grandparents – Nicholus Mueller and Barbara Bastian, parents of Magdalena Mueller (1859-1923).

3rd Great Grandparents – the parents of Anna Margaretha Philippi (1805-1870):  Peter Phillipi and Maria Caspers.  I have their names but no other helpful information.

3rd Great Grandmother – Amelia Schoenen (1825-1886) who married Nicholas Peter Kuhl (1827-1919).  I beleive her father may have been Peter Schoenen (1799-1860) but I have no other information on him or his wife.

my wife’s 3rd Great Grandfather – Andre Schuver (1778-1850), Wiesviller, Moselle, Lorraine, France.  There were Schuvers in Wiesviller from the 1600’s onward but I have not been able to make the connection with Andre.