This week's prompt is "oldest story." The oldest story I could think of was of the history of the Bellinger family in America. Mildred Bellinger Strand wrote down her family history. She wrote of how when she was 16, she asked her grandfather, David Bellinger, about his family and the Bellingers. She wrote down what he told her. Mainly, that the original Bellinger came to America around the time of the American Revolution and was one of three brothers. They all separated and never saw each other again. She also listed David's father and mother and his aunts and uncles. I used this information when I started building my family tree. Mildred was very accurate with names and places. My research seems to indicate that the first Bellinger came over in the early 1700's. The family was part of the Palatine Germans invited to the American colonies by Queen Anne. There were Bellinger brothers and fathers and sons. The Bellinger name is all over the Hudson and Mohawk Valley area.
Our particular Bellinger is Oliver. Mildred did a great job in listing Oliver's brothers and sisters. She wrote that while Oliver moved his family to Michigan, the rest of his family stayed in Ohio. This is only partially true.
While I was filling out the Bellinger branch of the tree, I noted how Oliver Bellinger had married Margaret "Almyra" Jones in Cuyahoga, Ohio. The Bellingers had moved there from New York. The Jones family had moved there from New York, and before that had lived in Massachusetts. Oliver then moved his family to Michigan and ended up in Allegan. After filling out Oliver's branch of the Bellinger tree I decided to see what happened to his brothers and sisters. This is where the story gets interesting.
I started with Oliver's older sister, Parmelia. She married a man named William Jones in Ohio, and then moved to Michigan also. Next, his older brother Adam married a Lydia Jones in Ohio. They, too, moved to Michigan. Then, his sister Laura married Jefferson Jones in Ohio. They, too, came to Michigan. I began to see a pattern.
First, yes, Oliver had other brothers and sisters come to Michigan. That wasn't a surprise. What really surprised me was the recurrance of the last name "Jones." Jones is a popular name, but what are the odds that 4 brothers and sisters would all marry people with the last name of "Jones"? I did some more research and it turns out that William, Lydia, Jefferson and Almyria were all brothers and sisters too. 4 brothers and sisters of one family married 4 brothers and sisters of another family. Cuyahoga, Ohio must've been one small area in the 1820's and 1830's. :)
I looked into the Jones family and the parents were William Jones and Chloe Sprague. Both parents came from Massachusetts and go back pretty far. At least to the early 1700's. In the Plymouth, Mass area. The Sprague line goes back to Ireland. I haven't researched the Jones line all the way back yet, but I would expect it to go back to England. This family definitely needs some further research. They must've been close neighbors or friends. Especially for 4 siblings from each family to marry each other. Unfortunately records from Cuyahoga in the 1830's are hard to come by.
There is one further twist to this story. While filling in the information for the children of these unions, all first cousins to our David Bellinger, I found something interesting, and weird. Parmelia and William had a daughter named Adline. When she was a widow at the age of 63 she remarried. She married a man named Philip Bellinger. THAT'S interesting I thought. She happened to meet a man with the same last name as her mother's family. Well, turns out Philip Bellinger was the son of Adam Bellinger and his wife Lydia Jones. Philip and Adline were double first cousins. All 4 of their parents were brothers and sisters. Genetically, they were about as close as half siblings. Adline was 63 and Philip was 66. This was in 1903, Mount Pleasant, Michigan. When the marriage application was filled out, Philip's parents were correctly listed. Adline's mother was listed as "unknown" and her father was listed as William Sprague, instead of William Jones. "Sprague" was her grandmother's maternal name. It looks like they were trying to hide their relationship. Maybe not. I would definitely love to have more information on this relationship. They both had children from their first marriages. I haven't researched them. I guess the Bellingers are just like the royal families of Europe. :)
Marriage application of Philip Bellinger and Adline Jones Hicks.
