What would you do next? (American, find, search, family tree)

[penny_in_oregon]

I have the worst brick wall known in genealogy...lol I was hoping to find out from someone with experience what would you do next. I don't want to impose or ask you to solve it, just am so stuck and banging my head against the wall.
I have an elusive Great Grandfather. I have tried every name variation, I have looked in the census with just first name and birth 1850 that was fun.
I have my great grandfather starting at 1870 and ending at his death 1912. The problem is he was born 1833 and I want to get to his siblings, parents but I cant figure out how else to search.

His name was Henry Hockery born 1833 pa. I find his wife, chloe howard hockery, my great grandmother, her daughter is my granddaughter. Elizabeth.
I follow his life with wife and children but I cant find him prior to her.
I did find obits, one for a sister Mary Fox died 1890 with his address. I am stuck with her right there her death.
I did find after staring at if for 2 years, thinking he was boarding and it turned out to be living with his sister in 1870, Catherine English-married name In the 1870 living with his sister and I tracked her maiden name thru fold3, in those 38 pages of docs she lists her maiden name Catherine Houghrey, and he is there as a witness as henry haughrey, and their sister mary haughrey as well.

I cant find henry as a haughrey. I cant find any of the sibs as a haughrey only on fold3 docs.

The kicker....In his sister Catherines sons death certificate, catherines daughter was the informer, she listed Catherine English, henrys sister, maiden name as Catherine Harrigan, I disregarded this because I had proof of the name right? I did my 23andme dna and guess what name comes as a cousin 3 times, harrigan. Now my head is spinning because I thought I broke thru the name and now this is presented to me. I cant find Catherine English death cert. on her fold3 docs its listed as she dies july 1, 1901. I was in contact with a very distant kin to Catherine on ancestry and he said she is buried in an unmarked grave with her son, Charles, the notice with the harrigan name listed as her maiden name. On henrys death certificate his parents were listed as hugh and Catherine, hugh as a hockery and Catherine as an ilone. The names don't exist. Should I ignore the harrigan name listed and the harrigan dna? So far on the dna they don't know the harrigan connection, prior to the dna I ignored the name. My goal if to find henrys life prior to marrage to chloe. I want to find the irish orgin. Thank you so much any ideas would be appreaciated so much.

[PA2UK]

Just because you have a DNA match with the name Harrigan doesn't necessarily mean it's in anyway related to the family of your brick wall. Your relation could be with another branch entirely and the name just a coincidence.

Have you tried probate records and tax records? When census records aren't available, those are generally my next port of call. You say Henry was born in PA, does that mean he lived and died there too? If his sister Catherine died in 1901 PA, there won't be any state death certificate since those began in 1906.

This is a great article about using tax records to trace people and find parent's names: Finding And Using Tax Records In Your Genealogical Research

And most PA probate records can be found here: https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1999196

Without knowing more about where these people lived I can't really give anymore advice than that, hope it helps.

[penny_in_oregon]

This clan lived and died in Pennsylvania. Henry and his children, Mary his sister, and his sister Catherine as well, she is buried in chester pa. The rest in Philadelphia. I was so shocked to see that name in my dna. Someone said its second hand information I shouldn't rely on it, the name that is. It makes me think there could be something to it because I cant find Henry prior to living with his sister in the 1870 census. I have twisted the name to a pulp, lol. I was happy to get his few obits sister, his, then his death cert at familysearch I was so excited to see his fathers name but its only as good as the informer, my grandmother. I would be surprised if she ever met his parents, I cant find there marrage docs I was hoping to make a link but that never happened either. Thank you for your reply.

[SunGrins]

You probably have done this already but...
Were they Quakers? Did he serve in the Civil War? Would they possibly be crossing the state line into Delaware or Maryland? I did a little genealogy work for a friend whose family was Delaware Quakers and they were constantly going across the state lines...back and forth. They were in Chester at least once before being asked to leave the church for some reason.

[PA2UK]

Since they lived in PA, you might want to also consider seeing what the Historical Society of Pennsylvania has on them. But I would do that after looking for probates and tax records and exhausting all other offline resources because research by mail at the HSP is expensive: https://www.hsp.org/collections/libr...search-by-mail

[penny_in_oregon]

I am not sure what a probate could give me other then for his wife chloe. They lived in the same house for over 25 yrs and that whole time he used his hockery name. I Would never be able to afford a search from the historical society, I would take a train from Oregon to pa and it would be cheaper. Well, I don't think a professional genealogist would even be able to solve this one. Thanks for the ideas though. I thought I would try on here, there hasn't been one person who can help with this, a lot of people have peeked but no answers. Thanks anyways.

[hymnsinger]

Do you have an Ancestry account?

Name: Henry Hockery
Birth Date: 1833
Birth Place: Phila, PA
Death Date: 30 May 1912
Death Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Age at Death: 79
Burial Date: 1 Jun 1912
Burial Place: Philadelphia Pennsylvania
Gender: Male
Race: White
Occupation: Plasterer
Residence: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Marital Status: Married
Father: Hugh Hockery
Father's Birth Place: Ireland
Mother: Catherine Ilone
Mother's Birth Place: Ireland
FHL Film Number: 1421327

I also found an application for Sons of the American Revolution:

Name: Henry Hockery
Birth Date: 15 May 1834
Death Date: 15 Jun 1913
SAR Membership: 70268
Role: Ancestor
Application Date: 6 May 1948
Spouse: Chloe A Howard
Children: Elizabeth Hockery

[susankate]

Originally Posted by penny_in_oregon

I am not sure what a probate could give me other then for his wife chloe. They lived in the same house for over 25 yrs and that whole time he used his hockery name. I Would never be able to afford a search from the historical society, I would take a train from Oregon to pa and it would be cheaper. Well, I don't think a professional genealogist would even be able to solve this one. Thanks for the ideas though. I thought I would try on here, there hasn't been one person who can help with this, a lot of people have peeked but no answers. Thanks anyways.

Your "problem" is that you've done such a good job yourself

I don't really have any ideas. I note that the surname for the 1900 census was incorrectly transcribed (as Hockesy rather than Hockery) but judging from your previous posts and elsewhere, you obviously already figured that.

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3....-21?cc=1325221

In any case, it was nice to see a census with the names of all Henry and Chloe's children's names on it as well as their occupations.

Also, I don't know if you've seen this website where a couple of pages are dedicated to your great aunt Mary's daughter Genevieve Angione and which includes 4 photos of Chloe Howard Hockery:

Genevieve

Anyway, good luck in your search. I note because Henry was born in Pennsylvania in the 1830s and his sister in 1818, his parents would have emigrated before the potato famine. I wonder if there is a way to check from the Irish end. As you point out thought, the name was probably spelt differently and there are lots of different combinations that it could be. You poor thing.

Just a couple of questions. Henry was quite a bit older than Chloe, do you think he might have been married before? Also Mary is 15 year older than Henry, perhaps she is a half sister or maybe even his mother biologically but sister legally? Who knows.

[historyfan]

PAHRC | Home Henry was buried as a Catholic. You need find local parish records. Catholic records are typically very thorough. I would begin here.

The best ways I have found to trace people are through their property ownership--deed transfers, wills-probate will list any posssible heirs, religious ceremonies & church records(births, christenings, baptisms, confirmations, banns posted, marriages, deaths), military service, taxes--poll tax for voting & property taxes, naturalization records, travel /passport/ship manifests and by tracing all known family members/associates.

I have also had good luck reading old newspapers and old community histories.

[penny_in_oregon]

Thank you very much for all your time looking at this. I found a few newspaper articles on henry, nothing to help with his name prior to hockery. I was trying to find chloe and henrys marriage record thru churches but I have no idea what city that would have even been in struck out. I also struck out on trying to find henrys birth records. I have my family tree, I have his burial. For some that would be enough but for me I want to find the irish orgin. I was blessed to have talked to Joseph hockerys only child, she is in her 80's and sadly she had no family information and even sadder she never had any contact with any of josephs family or even chloe josephs mother. She did say that she was told years ago that there was a connection to Margaret Haughrey, the bread lady, she married a Charles haughrey but I found no link at all.

Thank you all again very much. I really appreciate all of your help, really.