1870 Mortality Schedule for Leroy, Coffey County, Kansas

Peche Harrison Imel (husband of both Julia Ann Byfield and Jeanette Byfield) and his father Henry Imel moved from Illinois to the area around Leroy in Coffey County, Kansas sometime in the late 1860s.

The mortality schedule for the 1870 census lists Peche's father, Henry Imel (listed as Emil) as having died of old age in February of 1870 at the age of 88 which would put his birth year at around 1782.  He was born in Virginia.  He is listed as married so it's possible his wife is still in the area in 1870.

Louis Imel (listed as Emil) died in April of 1870 of "intermittent fever" and is listed as one year old so his birth year was around 1869.  This is probably the twin brother to Louisa Imel, daughter of Peche Imel and Julia Ann Byfield.  There is a stone for Louis in the Veteto Cemetery near Leroy, Kansas.

Mary Imel, another daughter of Peche Imel and Julia Ann Byfield, died in February of 1870 of "brain fever".  She was born about 1865 in Illinois.  She is also buried in the Veteto Cemetery.

More about Reuben Merriweather

Reuben Merriweather (1743-1794), who held Abraham Byfield's indenture contract for three years, was a lawyer and wealthy land owner in Maryland.  His plantation, known as "Round about Hills" was over 1000 acres.  In the 1790 census listed 47 people in the Merriweather household, 38 of which were listed as slaves.  Both slaves and indentured servants were listed as slaves in the 1790 census so it's hard to know how these were divided, but we do know that in 1788 at least one of that number would have been the indentured servant, Abraham Byfield.

Reuben Merriweather was an ancestor of  C. W. Post and is mentioned in the genealogical suplement ot the book C. W. Post: the hour and the man by Nettie Leitch Major.

From The Record of Nicholas Meriwether of Wales and Descendants in Virginia and Maryland 1631-1899 by William Ridgely Griffith:
Reuben Meriwether of “Roundabout Hills” Anne Arundel Co., now Howard Co., Md. (the oldest child to live beyond infancy), was the son of Capt. Nicholas4 Meriwether and wife Frances (Morton) of Goochland Co., Va. He was an Attorney at Law, and a prominent character in the stirring days that preceded and during the American Revolution, first in Virginia and afterwards in Maryland. He was a signer with
Richard Henry Lee, George Washington and 114 other leading men of Virginia, in Convention assembled at Leeds, Westmoreland Co., on Feb. 27, 1766, of the first public association in this country for resistence to the “Stamp Act.” He was Attorney for Lord Baltimore’s heirs, and their interests being greater in Maryland than in Virginia, he moved to Maryland in 1771, at which time he was 28 years of age. The old homestead of “Roundabout Hills” patented November 15, 1743, is located on the county road from Cooksville to Roxbury Mills and is in one of the most beautiful sections of the State of Maryland.

The Brig Greyhound

Photo of brig type ship
by Lance Woodward

A brig named Greyhound, captained by Allen, was involved in the Greenwich, New Jersey, Tea Burning that happened December 22, 1774.  I wonder if this is the same brig Greyhound that delivered Abraham Byfield to Baltimore in 1786?  I don't know how many brig type ships named Greyhound may have been around during the years prior to and after the Revolution.

Tracing Abraham in Ireland

In July of 1788, Robert Brett posted a message in the Maryland Journal responding to an earlier advertisement posted by Reuben Merriweather.  In this post he says that he visited the Brig Greyhound in port during July of 1786 and met Abraham Byfield on the ship.  He says that he spoke with him because Abraham had come from the same area of Ireland where Robert Brett had once resided and they had some friends in common.

From this we can speculate several things.  First, Abraham's indenture contract must have been for three years as these posts are two years after his arrival and Reuben Merriweather claims that Abraham has a year of his indenture to complete.  Second, if we can determine where Robert Brett came from in Ireland then Abraham probably came from the same place as they knew some of the same people.

I've not found a newspaper notice of the Greyhound's arrival at Baltimore in July of 1786, but I did find a notice of a Greyhound captained by Maxwell that arrived from Dublin in November of 1785.  If this is the same Greyhound then Abraham may have also sailed from Dublin - not that that helps us determine where he had been living.

Brett's posting also mentions that Abraham asked him to forward a letter to Timothy Lanahan who had been on the ship with Abraham.  Wouldn't you love to see that letter!

I'm thinking that some investigation into Robert Brett and Timothy Lanahan might be in order.  This might yield some clues about Abraham's residence in Ireland.  That could lead to other records to research.

Pisgah Cemetery Mystery Byfield

Over the years I've built up quite a list of Mystery Byfields.  These are Byfields that I can't attach to a family without something else to build on.  Here's one:

Who is the P M Byfield b: 26 jan 1854 d: 21 apr 1932 that is buried at the Pisgah Cemetery in Jefferson County, Indiana?  The other four Byfields buried there are family of George Washington Byfield son of Francis Marion Byfield.

This person should show up in a number of censuses.   With the specific birth and death dates given, they should match up fairly easily but I've had no luck.

The Draft Version for Review

Okay, I've got the draft version of the book "The Descendants of Abraham Byfield and Patience Corbin" available for review as a PDF file at http://paulcarpenter.endoftheinternet.org/ByfieldBook.pdf so feel free to take a look.  It's got an ugly green watermark on every page warning that it's a draft copy and not for publication.  I still need to get a bunch of permissions for photos and such before I can actually publish.

If you see a picture that you own the original of, please send me a note at byfieldbook@gmail.com giving me permission to use it.  If you have pictures you can contribute (I know that you do!) please send me a scan.  I've grabbed a number of images from peoples trees on Ancestry and I'm finding it difficult to contact them for permission to use the image in the book.

What this blog is about.

On the Muscatatuck by T. C. Steele

My name is Paul Carpenter.  I've been researching my family history for many years.  One branch of my family is the Byfields.  As I researched that branch over the years it became apparent that nearly every Byfield in the United States had come from a common ancestor -- Abraham Byfield.

About a year ago I decided to start researching the Byfield line with the intention of assembling a reference book covering the Byfield family in the United States.  Starting with Abraham H Byfield, who came to America from Ireland as an indentured servant in the 1780s, I've been working the tree outward.  Three generations are pretty much complete.

A lot of the fourth generation work has been done for the George Washington Byfield, Horatio Byfield, and Massia Byfield branches.  There is still a lot of fourth generation work to do on the Stella Harriet Byfield, Holmes Byfield, Andrew G Byfield, Vincent Byfield, and Eliza Ann Byfield branches.

My intention with this blog is to allow other Byfield family researchers to see what I'm up to and to provide me with some input and feedback.  I'll be posting a link to a current copy of the working draft for others to view.  I'm not looking to make any money from this project.  I just want to provide a good reference work for anyone that is part of the Byfield tree.  Once the book is complete, I'll probably make print copies available at cost from bookpatch.com or amazon.com.  I will have an electronic version (probably PDF) for anyone to download freely.

I'm going to add a little introductory material to the draft before I post the link but, I should have that done in the next few days.