Looking up our family name
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Mike Ewing
Oct 11, 2009, 3:19:35 AM10/11/09
to ewingfamily...@googlegroups.com
Hello,
My name is Michael David Ewing, Jr. I am from Indianapolis, Indiana, living in West Terre Haute, Indiana now. All of the family I know is all from Indianapolis and I would like to learn more of my family name and where we came from. All I really know is my Grandfathers name was James Ewing. I think he died in early 1983 or 1984. He married Ruth Storey, and they had 6 children, Linda Ewing Squires, Michael Ewing, Sr, Rose Ewing Watson, Mark Ewing, Sr., Diane Ewing Redmand, and Patricia Ewing. I know he grew up in Indy or at least I'm pretty sure. He had a brother Carl Ewing. And thats where the trsail ends. I'm just curios as to where the trail leads.
Thank you,
Michael Ewing Jr.
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My name is Michael David Ewing, Jr. I am from Indianapolis, Indiana, living in West Terre Haute, Indiana now. All of the family I know is all from Indianapolis and I would like to learn more of my family name and where we came from. All I really know is my Grandfathers name was James Ewing. I think he died in early 1983 or 1984. He married Ruth Storey, and they had 6 children, Linda Ewing Squires, Michael Ewing, Sr, Rose Ewing Watson, Mark Ewing, Sr., Diane Ewing Redmand, and Patricia Ewing. I know he grew up in Indy or at least I'm pretty sure. He had a brother Carl Ewing. And thats where the trsail ends. I'm just curios as to where the trail leads.
Thank you,
Michael Ewing Jr.
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David Ewing
Oct 11, 2009, 7:02:38 PM10/11/09
to Mike Ewing, ewingfamily...@googlegroups.com
Hi, Mike.
Nice to hear from you. It sounds like you are new to genealogy. Just for fun, I did a quick search of the Social Security Death Index and found a James Ewing (SSN 310-16-5762) who died in January 1984 in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana. He was born 12 Sep 1924, so would have been only 59 when he died. His Social Security card was issued in Indiana sometime prior to 1951. Next, I had a look at the most recent federal census that is available, which is the census of 1930. Searching for James Ewing born about 1924 turned up hundreds, so I just looked at Indiana. There were seven James, Jamie or Jimmy Ewings in Indiana in 1930 that were about the right age, one of them in Indianapolis. I had a look at him.
Jimmy Ewing was living in the home of his grandfather, Bonaparte Ewing, age 83. Also living there were
Next, I searched for Bonaparte Ewing on the website of the Ewing Family Association, but did not find him. I earlier had searched for Ruth Storey (often it is easier to find the spouse when you are searching through hundreds of Ewings) but also did not find her. Then I searched the 1870 census for Bonaparte Ewing born about 1847 (1930 - 83) in Indiana and turned up only John B Ewing and N B Ewing. I tried looking for Bonaparte Ewings of any age anywhere in the country in 1870 next, but found none--lots of initial "B"s, but no Bonaparte. In the 1880 census, I did find a Bonaparte Ewing of about the right age living in Indiana with his parents, Charles and Ann, but their places of birth are shown as New York and Indiana, respectively, which does not match what we found above. We don't want to write this off hastily, though, census documents often have errors. I stumbled through several more census years looking for Bonaparte and wasn't doing too well, so I started looking for Elmer O. Ewing born about 1897. Bingo.
In the 1910 census, I found Elmer O. Ewing, age 13, born in Illinois, living with his parents "Nacoleon B" Ewing (the original census document clearly show that his name was Napoleon Bonaparte and it was just indexed wrong), Lucy J. Ewing, two more of their children and two unrelated people. Napoleon was a harness maker. This made me realize that the "N B Ewing" I had found in the 1870 census was probably Napoleon Bonaparte Ewing, so I went back there. N B Ewing was age 22--about the right age. He and a man named Homer Ewing, age 51, both farmers, were living in the household of a 67 year-old woman named Elizabeth Duffy in Brownstone, Jackson County, Indiana. Also living in the household was a 25 year-old woman named Kate Holt. Relationships among these people are not specified. All were born in Indiana. Is Homer Ewing the father of Napoleon Bonaparte Ewing? In 1880, there was an N B Ewing, age 32, was single and living with his divorced 35 year-old sister, M. Denton and her three children in La Clede, Fayette County, Illinois. The 1890 census was lost in a fire. I have not had much luck with the 1900 census.
The 1920 census shows a Elmer Ewing, age 23, living in the household of his parents-in-law, Theodore and Sussanah Cusson in Indianapolis Ward 2, Marion County, Indiana and his wife, Lula P., age 19. Also living there was their 15 month-old son, Norman R. Ewing, which makes it fairly clearly this was your great grandfather and his wife, who is later referred to as Lucy J.--who knows what the name discrepancy is about?
Hoo-boy. I have ended up spending more time than I intended on this, and I have not even exhausted the census information, or looked at the service records or marriage records that are available on-line. But it looks like in an hour and a half, I have been able to find your grandfather's father, grandfather and perhaps even great grandfather. To really nail this down will involve some fascinating trips to court houses, searching for wills, deeds and such, but I hope you catch the bug and do it.
Meanwhile, if you want to find out more about the deep origins of the Ewing name, go to
http://www.ewingfamilyassociation.org/Project_RRoom_ArtsReps_SurnameOrigins.html
and start reading the articles there--I suggest you begin with the second one, but don't get bogged down there. My personal favorite is the third one, maybe because it is one I wrote!
And if you really want to start having fun, join the Ewing Surname Y-DNA Project. Read about it first by going to http://www.ewingfamilyassociation.org/DNA_Project/index_Y-DNA.html. And while you are at it, join the Ewing Family Association, so you can help make information like this available to other Ewings interested in the history of their ancestors.
David Neal Ewing
Chancellor of the Ewing Family Association
Nice to hear from you. It sounds like you are new to genealogy. Just for fun, I did a quick search of the Social Security Death Index and found a James Ewing (SSN 310-16-5762) who died in January 1984 in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana. He was born 12 Sep 1924, so would have been only 59 when he died. His Social Security card was issued in Indiana sometime prior to 1951. Next, I had a look at the most recent federal census that is available, which is the census of 1930. Searching for James Ewing born about 1924 turned up hundreds, so I just looked at Indiana. There were seven James, Jamie or Jimmy Ewings in Indiana in 1930 that were about the right age, one of them in Indianapolis. I had a look at him.
Jimmy Ewing was living in the home of his grandfather, Bonaparte Ewing, age 83. Also living there were
- Bonaparte's wife, Lucy J. Ewing, who was 63
- Bonaparte's son, Elmer O. Ewing, who was 33
- Bonaparte's daughter-in-law, Edna Ewing, who was 22
- and Bonaparte's three grandson's, Norman age 11, Jimmy age 5 and Carl age 7 months.
Next, I searched for Bonaparte Ewing on the website of the Ewing Family Association, but did not find him. I earlier had searched for Ruth Storey (often it is easier to find the spouse when you are searching through hundreds of Ewings) but also did not find her. Then I searched the 1870 census for Bonaparte Ewing born about 1847 (1930 - 83) in Indiana and turned up only John B Ewing and N B Ewing. I tried looking for Bonaparte Ewings of any age anywhere in the country in 1870 next, but found none--lots of initial "B"s, but no Bonaparte. In the 1880 census, I did find a Bonaparte Ewing of about the right age living in Indiana with his parents, Charles and Ann, but their places of birth are shown as New York and Indiana, respectively, which does not match what we found above. We don't want to write this off hastily, though, census documents often have errors. I stumbled through several more census years looking for Bonaparte and wasn't doing too well, so I started looking for Elmer O. Ewing born about 1897. Bingo.
In the 1910 census, I found Elmer O. Ewing, age 13, born in Illinois, living with his parents "Nacoleon B" Ewing (the original census document clearly show that his name was Napoleon Bonaparte and it was just indexed wrong), Lucy J. Ewing, two more of their children and two unrelated people. Napoleon was a harness maker. This made me realize that the "N B Ewing" I had found in the 1870 census was probably Napoleon Bonaparte Ewing, so I went back there. N B Ewing was age 22--about the right age. He and a man named Homer Ewing, age 51, both farmers, were living in the household of a 67 year-old woman named Elizabeth Duffy in Brownstone, Jackson County, Indiana. Also living in the household was a 25 year-old woman named Kate Holt. Relationships among these people are not specified. All were born in Indiana. Is Homer Ewing the father of Napoleon Bonaparte Ewing? In 1880, there was an N B Ewing, age 32, was single and living with his divorced 35 year-old sister, M. Denton and her three children in La Clede, Fayette County, Illinois. The 1890 census was lost in a fire. I have not had much luck with the 1900 census.
The 1920 census shows a Elmer Ewing, age 23, living in the household of his parents-in-law, Theodore and Sussanah Cusson in Indianapolis Ward 2, Marion County, Indiana and his wife, Lula P., age 19. Also living there was their 15 month-old son, Norman R. Ewing, which makes it fairly clearly this was your great grandfather and his wife, who is later referred to as Lucy J.--who knows what the name discrepancy is about?
Hoo-boy. I have ended up spending more time than I intended on this, and I have not even exhausted the census information, or looked at the service records or marriage records that are available on-line. But it looks like in an hour and a half, I have been able to find your grandfather's father, grandfather and perhaps even great grandfather. To really nail this down will involve some fascinating trips to court houses, searching for wills, deeds and such, but I hope you catch the bug and do it.
Meanwhile, if you want to find out more about the deep origins of the Ewing name, go to
http://www.ewingfamilyassociation.org/Project_RRoom_ArtsReps_SurnameOrigins.html
and start reading the articles there--I suggest you begin with the second one, but don't get bogged down there. My personal favorite is the third one, maybe because it is one I wrote!
And if you really want to start having fun, join the Ewing Surname Y-DNA Project. Read about it first by going to http://www.ewingfamilyassociation.org/DNA_Project/index_Y-DNA.html. And while you are at it, join the Ewing Family Association, so you can help make information like this available to other Ewings interested in the history of their ancestors.
David Neal Ewing
Chancellor of the Ewing Family Association
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