Estacaille Family History Pages 

Have I found my Gould ancestors?

When I first started this genealogy adventure, I didn’t know anything on this branch beyond my 2nd great-grandmother Jessie Grace (need Hosmer) Boyd.

Finding Boyd information has been fairly easy as there is a fair amount of newspaper clippings from North Dakota and these relatives were well known in the area of Jamestown.  Digging into these clippings eventually gave me hints for finding data on my 3rd great-grandparents. 

It was a bit of a head scratch at first as I found info pointing to 3rd great-grandfather having been married twice,  the data leading to discovery of his first family in Pennsylvania before discovering his second wife, my branch growing old in North Dakota.  But, thanks to various US records I’ve been able to piece his history together back to abt 1860.

As for 3rd great-grandmother, Frances Lane, she’s been more of an enigma. No surprise as she is a female ancestor, and if you’ve done any research for great-grandmothers and their female relatives, you know what it is like.  Focusing on the tri-counties of Bradford, Tioga & Chemung in Pennsylvania (big shout out for Joyce Tice’s Tri-County Genealogy website which has been filled with helpful history) I’ve found a 1880 census that looks to be for Frances (listed as Frankie), and her sister Dora + Dora’s first husband, all in Athens, Bradford county.

Before 1880, a bit harder to find Dora and Frances as the only facts I had were from that census & are notorious for not being correct to birth years & locations.  This one states that they were born in New York state, as were their parents. Frankie was age 26 yrs (abt. 1854) and Dora age 29 yrs (abt. 1851). I later found cemetery records for Dora list her as born in 1855, Frances in 1854.

Earlier census records led me in the direction of a Lane family in the Nichols, Tioga area in 1850 & 1865 and Sheshequin, Bradford in 1860.  If I’ve found the right family, as DNA suggests at this point, then the 1855 birth date for Dora is wrong as she is listed in the 1850 at age 4 months, named Medora. Both Medora & Frank are in the 1860 census.

Now that I’m investigating possible Gould links, I’ve found some around Nichols too.

The Gould line may wrap itself back through my tree a second time as my mystery great-grandfather Vanderport/Vanderpool may also be showing a Gould/Johnson cousin marriage in that branch of the tree.  If you want to read more about my adventures into Vanderpoel branches, check out this post on some of what I’ve found.