Where are you Harry Hill? You frustrate me to no end! I know you're there. Couldn't you have left a few more bread crumbs about where you came from and where your parents came from? That would have been so helpful. Don't get me wrong. I'm so grateful for what I DO have. But I want to know where your family came from in Ireland. Is that too much to ask?? I'm going to find you. And your family. I'm good at puzzles and I was good at "Where's Waldo?" You are my modern-day Waldo. Blended in with all the other Harry (Henry) Hill's out there. But I will find you. There will be a distinction. You will finally stand out. And that day I will shout, "There's Waldo!"
Yeah so as you can see from above, I am frustrated. I am trying to locate my 2nd Great-grandfather, Harry Hill in New York. Which is proving to be an arduous task. I have no link to an area in New York. I assume it was New York City. I don't see the family moving out of the city unless they had a reason. But I have no proof. I have written about Harry Hill before, as he is my Immigrant Ancestor. Now that is not entirely true as he was born in New York. BUT both of his parents were from Ireland. So while he didn't immigrate, he is full-blooded Irish.
I am still trying to trace some leads here in St. Louis to hopefully help me narrow down my search in New York. Until I get a response though, I am forging on. I have begun my research in New York. I have located a Harry Hill in New York City in the 1870 US Federal Census that matches the age of my Harry Hill. But that's all that matches. So I have no proof it is him. There are a few Harry Hill's in New York City in 1870, so I need to narrow it down. Which will include tracing ALL the Harry Hills I find to rule them out. Oh boy... this is going to be a long process.
- He was born in New York (multiple sources back this up)
- His birth date is approximately 24 May 1845 (based on age from Death Certificate; 53 years, 6 months, 9 days)
- At the time of his death, he was a painter; owned his own business for years. In keeping with that, he could have worked in trades related to this (Laborer)
- Came to St. Louis around 1877 (according to info on Death Certificate)
- His parents immigrated to New York before 1845 (based on age from Death Certificate)
- He was married at Holy Ghost Evangelical Church in 1879 (a German Protestant Church, not a catholic church)
Knowing this information will help me narrow down and eliminate other Harry Hills. That's the best way to try to find someone. Eliminate who they can not be based on what you already know to be true. So let's get started.
Beginning Research in New York
Thanks to a friend in the Genealogy Addicts Anonymous Facebook group, I have access to New York City Directories. So I started with those. I looked up all Harry Hills from 1869 to 1880. Since we know that Harry Hill came to St. Louis around 1877, we can eliminate Harry Hills that were at the same address past that year. I included all the way up to 1880 as I don't have a guarantee the year he came to St. Louis. But since he was married in 1879 in St. Louis, we know he was definitely there around that time. Also, City Directories are taken a year before and released a year after. So an 1880 City Directory includes people who lived in the city from the year before.
So I began looking up all the Harry Hills from each year. While looking those up, I noticed a few repeat entries from year to year. Except they were listed under "Henry" instead of "Harry". Oh, this complicates things. So I also looked up all the Henry Hills that were listed in the city directories as well.
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1873/1874 NY City Directory Source: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/ |
1874/1875 NY City Directory Source: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/ |
I created tables in my research log notes to organize and coordinate my research. Once I went through those city directories, I color coordinated similiar entries from the different years based on the same information.
As you can see, I have crossed through a few names. Those are people I've already ruled out. After I listed out all the entries and color coordinated the matching people, I went to the 1870 Census and looked up all the Harry & Henry Hills I could find. Then I worked on matching up those in the census to the city directories. I used the same color for the entries in the 1870 census as I did for the city directories.
Based on some criteria, I was able to rule out a few more people. But I still have a few options that I just can not rule out officially. The next step will be looking further back to the 1860 US Federal Census. Harry will be 15 and he might be living with parents. But going back will hopefully help me eliminate more options.
This might take a while and it might be the long way of going, but I don't know what else to do. As I said before, tracing the others is the best way to rule out who is not your ancestor. I've used that technique before when tracing my Helfrich line. But I was researching in a familiar area at that time. I have not researched in New York before. Plus this will only work as long as the family stayed in New York City. I don't see a quick end in sight, but I'm not done researching yet.
This is just the beginning...
Stay tuned for more updates on my research about Harry Hill.
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