January 28, 2008

I sent an email to my mother's cousin Tonie, the daughter of Albert Heath to see if she remembers her parents or grandparents mentioning anything about Jane Shay or an Indian connection. I also inquired about old pictures she may have. A few years back when her father passed away, she took a box that contained old pictures of our ancestors. Some of the pictures were from Emaline's side and some from George's side. She even mentioned once about there being a civil war picture of William A. Heath. I thought that would be neat if I was able to obtain a scanned copy of a few ancestors from the Heath side to send to your family. I am still waiting to hear back from Tonie.

I also called Uncle Justin to let him know I was in touch with the Seeley family. He seemed very interested in the reunion. He was raised by his grandparents so he remembers seeing the Seeley family a lot as a child. Unfortunately he doesn't remember much of what was said of our ancestors when he was a child.

I will try and take a look at the 1900 census showing Mary Shay on the Cherokee Nation Indian Territory. I think that is a good lead there. I noticed through the census records that many of the Shays that did make it to Missouri were Irish Immigrants. I believe for a Mary Shay to be mixed in with the Cherokees is probably more than a coincidence and she is probably not one of these Irish Immigrants but partly Cherokee. She is most likely the older sister of our Jane Shay.

I do not think that the death certificate for a James J Shay who died in St. Louis, Missouri is connected to us, even though his father was born in Albany, NY. I don't think we had anyone make it out that far but still since we do not know too much on the Shays...anything could be possible. The more I look into the Shays from NJ the less I feel they were the reason Jane made it to Potter County, PA. By the 1880s...anyone with a connection were probably second to third cousins. Also her parent's died young and being that communication back then was harder...no telephones or email...Jane probably would not know of distant cousins on that level. Also Jane would probably have to have her grandparents, aunts, uncles and first cousins deceased or out of the picture if she did track down distant second/third cousins.

My theory is that Jane might have become a servant to a family that moved to the Potter area or her sister could have married and moved to the area. It may just be a coincidence that she happen to have a surname Shay...where there happened to be a big family of Shays.

I would be interested to see what your aunts and uncle remember. Also Daniel Shay's descendants may very well provide a few clues to James Shay. I feel he could very well be a son of Daniel Shay. I found the few trees that have a James Shay from Ohio born about 1838, son of Daniel Shay. There is not a trace of him in his adult years...could be our James Shay.

I'll keep you posted when Tonie gets back to me and I look forward to Bobby's recollections of everything. I'll talk to you later.

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I spent much of yesterday reviewing death certificates for the year 1910 - hoping to find some Shays from Kentucky and get a couple of leads there.

I also found a couple of other listings for the Blodgett Cemetery. In the Withrow plot there is a Mary E with the same birth date as Mary E Shay. I thought that Frank D. Withrow may have married Mary but it doesn't look as if this is panning out. Then there was a Nancy S Bransom in Scott County but this appears to be someone other than Nancy Shay.

I'm hoping the one of the descendants of Rebecca Jane Peal will respond to my emails. I found her death certificate and will send you a copy (if I didn't already).