Ham and Muttonchops: For real, this time

Please note: this blog is a sequential narrative. To start at the beginning, click on "Blog Archive" on the right and select the entry at the very bottom "Jennie Louise Van Buren...or was she?" or click here.

It was time to face the cold, hard facts: Jennie Louise Van Buren was not adopted by President Martin Van Buren. It was time to debunk that family story and get down to the truth.

I decided to revisit Rule Number One (start with what you know) for real this time. I knew I had my grandfather's notes somewhere. I definitely needed to revisit those. I also had notes from a third cousin, once removed, named Debi Ham. Debi is descended from Arthur Tappan Ham's brother, Marion, and has been doing genealogy much longer than I have.

Marion Ham (my third great-uncle) on the steps.
His wife, Mary Louise Jenkins Ham, sitting in the chair.
Arthur Tappan Ham (my second great-grandfather) standing behind her.
(ca. early 1900s)

I just love this picture. Marion has such a warm expression on his face, while Mary is looking away, smiling. Arthur is looking straight at the camera with his characteristically serious face. Who was behind the camera? Could it have been Jennie?

In any case, while Debi Ham is not descended from Jennie, she had gathered a lot of information from my grandfather while he was still alive, and from her great-aunt Marcia Ham Rightmire, who was Jennie's niece by marriage, and Marion's daughter.

Marcia Ham Rightmire, (ca. early 1920s)

I also asked my mother to gather anything she could find in her boxes of family memorabilia.

After an initial inventory, I revised my original list. It now looked something like this:

~~adopted by Martin Van Buren~~ (Who started this rumor, and why? So much for the muttonchops!)
~~was a hostess for the Van Buren family~~ (How, in God's name, did this rumor make it all the way to the year 2014?)
biological father may have been blind
biological father's last name may have been Sly, Sligh or Sleigh
biological mother died when Jennie was young
Jennie married my 2nd great-grandfather, Arthur Tappan Ham, sometime before 1880 (when their son, George Walter Ham, was born)
Jennie may have been born in New York, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Ohio or Wisconsin
The Ham family always thought that Arthur had married beneath him
Jennie went to live with distant relatives, the Van Burens, after her mother's death
Jennie and Arthur may have been married in Buffalo, NY
Jennie's mother's maiden name may have been Avery

Well! This list gave me more to work with, but the long litany of possible birthplaces made me want to bang my head against the wall. At least Jennie had limited the options to the eastern part of the country. I had that going for me!

Possible places of birth for Jennie

Even though it seemed an impossible task, I decided to look for birth records first. Missouri and Wisconsin were mentioned only in my grandfather's notes, and nowhere else. I decided to tentatively rule those 2 states out, while keeping them in the back of my mind (and notes). I knew that several census records in the 1900s listed Illinois as Jennie's place of birth, so I decided to start there. Sadly, Illinois did not provide much help, as birth records were not kept until 1877, a full 20 years after Jennie's birth.

https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Illinois_Vital_Records

A search in the 1860 US Federal Census for Illinois did not yield anything, neither for Van Buren, nor for Sly. I decided to put Illinois on the back burner, as well.

Moving eastward, my attention shifted to Michigan. While birth records were kept a little earlier (1867), they still didn't go back as far as I needed. The 1860 census search in Michigan did produce one significant hit, however:

"Jennie Sly born 1857 in Wisconsin, living in Minnesota in 1860. Father: Andrew B Sly, born in New York. Mother: Hannah Sly, born in England. Jennie had 1 older and 2 younger brothers."
(Year: 1860; Census Place: Concord, Dodge, Minnesota; Roll: M653_568; Page: 755; Image: 294; Family History Library Film: 803568)

Gosh, this sure looked promising! Father born in New York! Jennie was the right age and was born in Wisconsin, one of the 6 possible birthplaces my notes had generated! My heart started to beat a little faster. Was Jennie born in Wisconsin, after all?

However, one thing bothered me: If Jennie had 3 brothers, surely we would have heard some little snippet about them? None of the anecdotes about Jennie ever hinted at siblings. Nevertheless, I dove into researching this Jennie Sly.

It was a complete bust. This Jennie, contrary to my Jennie, was well-documented throughout her early life, and was clearly of no relation to me. Michigan and Wisconsin were both shelved for now.

This left me with the two most likely candidates: New York and Ohio.

New and improved map of possible birth places

Now we were in business! Both of these options made sense: Family lore pointed to New York, and Ohio was a place I knew Jennie had lived for sure, after marrying Arthur. Bingo! With newfound energy, I dove into the task at hand: find a birth record or 1860 census record of a Jennie Sly or Van Buren in New York or Ohio. Should be simple, right?

No.

I spent weeks looking for Jennie in New York and Ohio. There were many possible candidates, and I faithfully (or foolishly) pursued each one of them. I found nothing worth writing home about, nor writing in a blog about. Frustrated and exhausted, I decided to abandon this avenue of research and went back to my list. It now looked like this:

~~adopted by Martin Van Buren~~ (Who started this rumor, and why? So much for the muttonchops!)
~~was a hostess for the Van Buren family~~ (How, in God's name, did this rumor make it all the way to the year 2014?)
biological father may have been blind
biological father's last name may have been Sly, Sligh or Sleigh
biological mother died when Jennie was young
Jennie married my 2nd great-grandfather, Arthur Tappan Ham, sometime before 1880 (when their son, George Walter Ham, was born)
Jennie may have been born in New York, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Ohio or Wisconsin (For Pete's sake! I CAN'T DEAL WITH THIS ONE RIGHT NOW!!!!!)
The Ham family always thought that Arthur had married beneath him
Jennie went to live with distant relatives, the Van Burens, after her mother's death
Jennie and Arthur may have been married in Buffalo, NY
Jennie's mother's maiden name may have been Avery

And my map looked like this:

Jennie was not born anywhere!

I desperately needed a break from Jennie for a while. It's ironic that she seemed to have the same effect on people when she was alive. Her husband, Arthur, called her "The Old Battleaxe" and one reason her daughter, Edith, may have become such a fabulous violinist, was because she spent hours as a girl practicing in her studio. Did she do this to get away from Jennie, or to improve her fiddling? I suspect it was both.