Sarah Bovard Diary and the Scott County Byfields

Thanks to Jan Beasley for pointing me to the Sarah Bovard diary on Genweb.  Sarah kept a diary for several years beginning in 1859.  She mentions many of the families in the area in her diary entries.  The diary has been transcribed, annotated, and indexed so, it is a great resource in addition to being really interesting just to read.

As a side project I'm thinking of trying to map out the families in Sarah's area of Scott county.  I'd like to have a visual aid to help in placing people and families as I read through Sarah's diary entries.

BYFIELD - Four Generations -- Available Now!

The proofs have been checked and the book has been published.  It is available now on Amazon.

If you are a Byfield or have a Byfield ancestor and live in the U.S., then you are probably a descendant of Abraham Byfield and Patience Corbin.  This book is about Abraham and Patience's family from the late 1700s through the mid 1900s.

The book is 288 pages with a full index of individuals, numerous photographs and illustrations.  The price is $16.55.

Click here to go to the Amazon page.

Waiting for the Proofs

I should have proof copies of BYFIELD - Four Generations in the next week.  If everything looks good I hope to publish in early September.  The version of the book that is available here on the site is not quite the final version.  I'll update it once I'm sure everything is done.  I'll also put a link to the Amazon book page once it's up on Amazon's site.

The final edits are almost all done.  I've posted the latest PDF file of the book online here.  Feel free to download it and take a look.  It's about 15 megabytes so it will take a minute or two to download.  Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
I'm thinking that the book should be ready for publishing in the next couple of weeks.  I still need to do some final reviewing and editing.  Also, I'm still tweaking on the cover.

Progress on BYFIELD - Four Generations

I'm pretty much finished adding to the book for now.  I keep getting sidetracked -- chasing down leads on family members that are fourth and fifth generation.  I've decided that I need to stop poking around over old ground and get the book ready to publish.
I think I will end up publishing it through Amazon.  That will make it easy for anyone to find and they will make sure it is on the list for libraries to find.  It looks like it will be able to be priced around ten to fifteen dollars.  That should make it cheaper than if you tried to print the whole thing from the PDF files available on this site.
I will be updating the PDF versions available here (free download) once I am done with the final edits.  This version of the book will contain the first four generations of Byfields descended from Abraham and Patience.
So far the editing is going pretty smoothly.  I would like to be able to get this done in the next couple of months.

The First Four Generations

I'm pushing to clean up the entries for the first four generations of Byfields with Abraham and Patience as the first generation.  What I want to do is to release a version of the Byfield Book with the first four generations completed and then continue work on the fifth generation.

Children of Stella Harriet Byfield McGaughey

Stella Byfield married George McGaughey in Ohio shortly before coming to Indiana.  The censuses prior to 1850 gives evidence of some children that must have stayed in Indiana when their parents and the rest of the family moved on to Minnesota.

I've recently learned that one of these children was Catherine McGaughey.  Catherine married David Shafer prior to 1850.  She and David are listed in the 1850 census in Decatur County, Indiana.  Catherine is 18 and the couple have no children listed.  Catherine's first child, born later in 1850, is named Stella.

I'm adding Catherine's family and descendants to the book now.  There are still a couple of other children that I have listed as SonA and DaughterA.  Can anyone tell me about these children?

13. Stella Harriet Byfield. (Abraham H. Byfield-1)

Stella was born on 27 August 1798 in Ohio. She died on 13 October 1859 in Goodhue County, Minnesota at the age of 61 years, 1 month. She was the daughter of Abraham H. Byfield and Patience Corbin. She married George McGaughey on 14 May 1818 in Hamilton, Ohio.

Stella was the first of Abraham's children to marry. She married George McGaughey in 1818 while the family was still in Hamilton County, Ohio. Many genealogies of the Byfield's show that Abraham had three daughters – Stella, Harriet, and Eliza Ann. I believe that there were only two daughters – Stella and Eliza Ann. On the marriage return for Stella and George, the minister listed her as “Hetty” Byfield. Hetty is usually short for Harriet or Henrietta, so I believe Stella was probably Harriet Stella Byfield or Stella Harriet Byfield. Every record after the marriage lists her as Stella.

Stella and George moved to Indiana along with the rest of the Byfield family. They stayed in Indiana until the mid-1850s when they moved to Goodhue County in southeastern Minnesota. I believe that there were already some McGaugheys in that area or they moved there around the same time since the censuses show many McGaugheys in that area. Stella died just three or four years after the family moved to Minnesota.

Spouse: George McGaughey.

George was born in 1796 in Ohio. He died in 1883 in Arkansas at the age of 87 years. He married Stella Byfield on 14 May 1818 in Hamilton, Ohio.

George is probably the son of David McGaughey that was living in Hamilton County, Ohio around 1820. George stayed in Minnesota until just shortly before his death, when he moved to Arkansas to live with his son, Horatio.

Children of Stella Byfield and George McGaughey

131 i. Albert Edwin McGaughey. Albert Edwin was born about 1820 in Indiana. He died in 1888 in Ortonville, Big Stone County, Minnesota.

132 ii. David J McGaughey. David was born between 1 January 1823 and 28 September 1823 in Indiana. He died in August 1875 in Shelby County, Indiana.

133 iii. Samuel N McGaughey. Samuel was born in 1827 in Indiana. He died in _____________ in _____________.

134 iv. SonA McGaughey. SonA was born between 1830 and 1835 in _____________. 

135 v. Catherine R McGaughey. Catherine was born 29 December 1832 in Indiana. She died 6 January 1906 in Decatur County, Indiana.

136 vi. George C McGaughey. George C was born about 1831 in Indiana. He died in _____________ in _____________.

137 vii. DaughterA McGaughey. DaughterA was born between 1835 and 1840 in _____________. 

138 viii. Horatio M McGaughey. Horatio M was born 20 November 1836 in Franklin County, Indiana. He died 25 December 1911 in Rogers, Benton County, Arkansas.

139 ix. Mary P McGaughey. Mary P was born between 03 Jul and 28 Sep 1834 in Indiana. She died in _____________ in _____________.