The Slovak Yankee

Polly B. Learned Possibilities

Well whether Polly was a Daniels or a Dudley, I have probably now named her father in the two listings of Daniels and Dudleys in the 1790 census in N.H.  But that's over 50 possibilities.  I've ruled out several, but truly there's only one way to prove her parentage.  I would have to find a will by her father that named her as Polly Learned.  In 40 years of genealogy I have never found a will to prove parentage.  I've found deeds that do it, but never wills.  My ancestors almost never left wills.  That's a rich person's business.

So we are left with the few clues as to Polly's existence as to her beginnings.  The Learned Genealogy claims she was a Dudley.  She names a child Josiah Dudley Learned.  She was born in 1787 and doesn't marry until 10 December 1818 when she was 31.  That's awfully late for a first marriage, but certainly believable for a second marriage.

But all we know is her name was Daniels on two separate marriage records.  She is in the 1850 U.S. census for Maine but disappears thereafter.  There is no death record for her.  Her husband and two children end up in Holliston/Hopkinton Massachusetts which is the area the Daniels family is from.  Efforts to attach her to two Dudley families have failed. 

If she married a Daniels first there were no children by that marriage.  We know she had six children successfully with Amos Learned.  How short was her first marriage?

She is a mystery.  She is the only New England ancestor I have that must have provable New England roots that I can't trace.  I've traced everybody else.  It amazes me that I can find the parents of my Slovak ancestors born in 1787 but not Polly's.  Oh well.

 

Dudleys in the 1790 N.H. Federal Census

So, if Polly Learned was a Dudley (like the Learned Genealogy alleges and she names a child Josiah Dudley Learned), then this is the list of the likely culprits.  But this list is by no means complete.  Nahum Dudley doesn't appear in the 1790 census and must be living with his father-in-law Samuel Howe in Westmoreland, N.H.  I've already eliminated him.

1. Bailey 1-2-4 Fisherfield
2. Daniel 1-0-2 Newport
3. Daniel Jr. 1-1-4 Newport
4. Daniel 2-1-5 Barnstead
5. David 1-1-1 Charlestown
6. Ezra 1-1-1 Newport
7. Gilman 1-1-2 Raymond
8. Hobart 1-1-1 New Hampton
9. Jacob 1-0-1 Andover
10. James 2-1-3 Unity
11. James 1-0-2 Raymond
12. Jeremiah 1-0-2 New Hampton
13. John 1-1-3 Charlestown
14. John 1-0-6 Newport
15. John 1-2-2 Andover
16. John 1-3-2 Brentwood
17. John 2-1-2 Raymond
18. John 1-2-4 Gilmanton
19. Jonathan 1-0-0 Protectworth
20. Joseph Jr. 1-1-4 Raymond
21. Joseph 3-1-3 Raymond
22. Josiah 2-2-5 Newport
23. Josiah 2-2-4 Brentwood
24. Mary 0-1-4 Brentwood
25. Moses 1-2-2 Raymond
26. Nicholas 4-0-2 Barnstead
27. Stephen 1-0-2 Andover
28. Stephen 2-1-4 Gilmanton
29. Stephen 1-1-3 New Durham
30. Trueworthy 1-0-3 Pembroke
31. Winthrop 1-3-4 Brentwood

And surely misspelled:

    32. Dudy, Eliphalet 2-4-3 Northwood

    33. Duddy, Nicholas 1-1-3 Northwood

So immediately we can eliminate Daniel and Daniel, Jr. of Newport, David, Ezra, Hobart, Jacob, John of Newport, Jonathan, and both Josiahs as I have already researched that family or they don't have enough women in their households.

Note that there are 33 Dudleys v. 29 Daniels in New Hampshire in 1790.  Most of these Dudleys descend from Gov. Thomas Dudley through his son the Rev. Samuel Dudley.  The last two Dudleys I researched were from the other two Dudley families: Francis and William.

 

 

Addition to Ancestors of American Presidents: Ancestry of Joe Biden

The ancestry of Joe Biden was done in 2008 by the late William Addams Reitwiesner.  It still appears on his website here.  Joe doesn't connect to any other president to date.  He has some Irish ancestry (his mother was a Finnegan) and some 17th century Maryland ancestry from his father.  He does connect to Harry Elkins Widener, the namesake of the Widener Library at Harvard where I once worked.

 

McDaniels Families of New Hampshire 1790

One thought that has always occurred to me regarding Polly Learned is that perhaps she's not a Daniels but a McDaniels.  Could that be?  She marries Amos Learned who is half New England Yankee and half Scots-Irish.  Amos's father Benjamin Learned was of British stock who emigrated in the 1630s in all lines, but his mother Margaret Swan was the granddaughter of Irish immigrants of the 1720s.  Could Polly have married someone like that?

There are five McDaniels families in the NH 1790 census:

1. Daniel 1-1-3 Nottingham, Rockingham co.
2. John 2-1-6 Pembroke, Rockingham co.
3. Widow Lydia 0-2-3 Pembroke, Rockingham co.
4. Neal(s) 1-3-2 Richmond, Cheshire co.
5. Nehemiah 1-0-2 Pembroke, Rockingham co.

Clearly the Pembroke McDaniels are one family.  Nehemiah is the father and John is his son and Widow Lydia his daughter-in-law.  Neal is in Cheshire co. but no google search yields information on him.  So nothing pops out from this line of inquiry.

 

 

Was Polly Learned really a Daniels?

Well, after researching the Daniels men in the 1790 census, which were 29 in number, we could eliminate 10 right away and another seven who lived in Strafford County.  That leaves 12 possibilities.  Many lived far away from Dublin like Exeter and Portsmouth.  Others lived further afield in Canterbury, Pembroke, Wakefield and Sandown.

Only the three brothers of Keene, Addington, Aaron and Reuben seem real possibilities.  Aaron Daniels died in 1841 in Ohio.  Reuben Daniels died in 1823 in New York.  Addington was alive to 1841 as well.  If any of these men left a will naming a daughter Mary/Polly Learned, my search is over.  But I think that would be known.

I'm afraid the mystery of Polly B. Daniels Learned is one I will never solve.  But I made many more successes with my genealogy that this one brick wall.

 

The Daniels Family of Strafford County, New Hampshire

In the 1790 U.S. census there are several Daniels in and around Barrington:

Clement of Barrington

David of Madbury

Dodavah of Barrington

Eliphalet of Durham

Joseph of Barrington

Joseph, Jr. of Barrington

Pelatiah of Barrington

These seven men are all from the same family.  I have encountered this family before when researching my Pinkham article.  Several Daniels females marry Pinkham males.  I tried at that time to piece this Daniels family together but alas, no one has done any work on them.  The History of Durham doesn't include them in volume two.  The Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire gives the beginning of the family in the 17th century and shows them all are descendants of Joseph of Durham. 

In any case, I don't believe that Polly went from Strafford County to Cheshire County to marry, so this family is hardly likely.

In addition: Hannah Daniels m. ca. 1760 Samuel Pinkham

Richard Pinkham m. 24 June 1793 in Madbury, Susan Daniels

Abigail Pinkham m. ca. 1785 Samuel Daniels

Martha Pinkham m. June 1789 in Madbury, Reuben Daniels

 

Increase Daniels of Westmoreland, New Hampshire

The last of the Cheshire County residents surnamed Daniels.  Increase is the brother of John Daniels of Chesterfield and therefore a son of John Daniels and Margaret Boyce.  Increase has a very good online presence and there's no room for a daughter Mary/Polly born 1787.

That is all the Daniels in Cheshire County where Polly Daniels gets married.  Of course she could be from another county.  The three brother Aaron, Addington, and Reuben all move to New York State and die.  So a search of their probates might be called for.

 

John Daniels of Chesterfield, New Hampshire

Another Cheshire County resident is John Daniels of Chesterfield.  He died eventually in Plainfield, N.H. and was the son of another John Daniels and Margaret Boyce.  Both of his parents have traceable ancestry.  He is also given a wife that was either Zipporah Allen or Pierce.   There even seems to be a treatment of him in the Register but google books doesn't include more than one page of the treatment.  I gave up my members in the NEHGS so I can't double check the article.

Also a contender, we would need to find his probate in 1833 and see if he mentions a daughter Mary or Polly Learned or Leonard.

 

 

Moses Daniels of Alstead, New Hampshire

Another Cheshire County resident in 1790 is Moses Daniels in the town of Alstead.  A check into him shows a birth year of 1768 making him only 21 in 1787 Polly's birth.  Possible but unlikely.  Another online source shows his marriage in Alstead on 12 October 1787.  So we can eliminate Moses as a potential father.  He descends from the same Daniels family as Addinton, Aaron and Reuben Daniels.

 

Aaron, Addington, and Reuben Daniels of Keene, New Hampshire

The top three candidates for father of Polly B. Daniels Learned are all brothers who moved to Keene from Massachusetts.  Of course Polly names her children Amos (after her husband), Louisa, Calvin Sanger, Jesse (after her husband's brother), Josiah Dudley, and Abiah Russell.  No help for identifying her parents.

Aaron, Addington and Reuben are all potential fathers but none have a daughter named Mary/Polly, although lists of their children may be incomplete.  I traced out their ancestry and it is mostly Norfolk County, Massachusetts, an ancestry I lack (I have Plymouth, Suffolk, Middlesex, and Essex ancestry).  If true it would connect me to the Adams family of presidential fame.

1. Aaron (1765-1841), Addington (1751-1841) or Reuben Daniels (1746-1823)
2. Samuel Daniels, Jr. 1720-1809
3. Hannah Hill 1725-1819
4. Samuel Daniels 1693-1788
5. Experience Adams 1696-1731
6. Ephraim Hill 1688-1760
7. Hannah Sheffield 1693-1783
8. Joseph Daniels, Jr.
9. Bethia Breck
10. Peter Adams, Jr.
11. Experience Cooke
12. Samuel Hill
13. Hannah Twitchell
14. William Sheffield, Jr.
15. Hannah Bullard
16. Joseph Daniels
17. Mary Fairbanks
18. Thomas Breck
19. Mary Ann Hill
20. Peter Adams
21. Rachel Newcomb
22. Walter Cooke
23. Catherine Brenton
24. John Hill
25. Hannah Parmelee
26. Benjamin Twitchell
27. Mary Riggs
28. William Sheffield
29. Mary Webb
30. Benjamin Bullard
31. Martha Pigg