Ancestry Magazine

Who would imagine that the confusion in your family research is the result of the deliberate white lies of your ancestor?

Hard as it may be to believe, our ancestors weren’t always truthful about the information they supplied to clerks, enumerators, and other record makers. Some people told little lies that may have been inconsequential to them at the time, but now wreak havoc for their genealogist descendants.

Have you ever noticed that your great-great-grandmother only aged four years between 1870 and 1880? She could have suffered from the same age vanity that some women do today, or she possibly had no idea what her age was because she didn’t know her birthdate. The age discrepancies on census records may present dilemmas, but a discerning researcher can often narrow down the birthdate using other records.

What if you have no idea that your ancestor lied? If your great-grandfather presents the same information, record after record, why wouldn’t you believe him? In the case of my great-grandfather William Presley, I believed he was born in New Jersey, or at least in the United States somewhere. (The chart on the following page shows the types of records I have searched and the birth place that is shown for William in each record.)

The census records found for William’s father James, his mother Mary, and his older brother James all indicate they were born in Ireland. According to the 1860 census, William’s younger sister Elizabeth, however, was born in New Jersey.

Perhaps the family emigrated from Ireland between the birth of James in 1840 and the birth of William in 1845. There are many families that clearly have one or more children born in the native country and others born in the United States after the family immigrated. Passenger lists of the Presley family’s voyage have not yet been found.

Unfortunately, the James Presley family has not been found on the 1850 U.S. census, nor has William or his brother James been found on the 1860 U.S. census. Searches have been exhaustive, using many spelling variants.

Birth records begin in New Jersey in May 1848, so a birth record for William in New Jersey, if it existed, could not be found. Bible records for the family only list William’s birthdate, and both Bibles were printed years after his birth.

William’s death record apparently doesn’t exist, either on the state or local level, although he died in 1893, well after the state’s holdings for death certificates began in 1848. Limited death notices have been found in neighboring towns to Long Branch, where he lived and died, but the Long Branch paper that would most certainly have had an obituary on him no longer exists. William was a prominent carpenter in the area and died suddenly at age forty-eight, so his passing would not have gone unnoticed in a relatively small town.

For a long time, I was content with the fact that William was born in New Jersey. Why not? All records indicated that was the case. Then one day I decided to look for the naturalization record for William’s father. I found it easily enough by searching the “Union County Declarations of Intentions 1860—1866” and the “Union County Naturalization Papers, 1868—1870” on microfilm at the Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City.

To make photocopies of documents at the FHL, you need to take both reels of the microfilm to the microfilm copiers in another room. To save time, the film should be at the spot where the record is that you need to copy. But when I went to photocopy the naturalization record of William’s father, I put the microfilm in the photocopier and the image that came up on the screen was not for James Presley. Instead, it was for a William Presley.

At first I turned the film back to James’ record, which immediatel y preceded the one for William. It didn’t register right away that two Presleys were adjacent to each other in these records which were filed on the same day. When it dawned on me that this William was probably my great-grandfather, I was dumbfounded.

Why would he need to be naturalized if he was already a citizen? Well, the answer is obvious. In fact, the naturalization certificate for William is different than that for James. In the first place, the witness for James was an unknown man, but the witness for William was his father James. James’ papers said he was a citizen of Great Britain and Ireland. William’s papers, however, state that he was a native of Ireland.

These differences can be explained by a basic understanding of naturalization laws. William entered the country as a minor and was therefore not required to file a declaration of intention. And since he entered as a minor, his naturalization certificate is one used for minors. He became a citizen when his father became a citizen, which lends more credence to the witness James being William’s father.

So, if I hadn’t accidentally found the naturalization certificate for William, I would have gone on believing he had been born in New Jersey. Instead, the quest became complicated by having to find where in Ireland the Presleys came from. Since none of William’s records even indicated he was from Ireland, I had to expand the search to his siblings and his parents to find a birthplace.

The records of James, the father, were not helpful. His death record states that he was born in England, but this information could have been provided by William, who was apparently in denial about his Irish heritage. William’s mother, Mary, died in 1863, according to cemetery records, but no death record has been found for her yet. No other records, aside from the previously mentioned census records, have yet been found for either of William’s parents.

It was William’s b rother James who finally yielded the answer to this puzzle. When James died in 1917, his wife Eliza was the informant for his death certificate. Apparently James was not ashamed to be known as Irish, and had filled his wife in on his background. She indicated that he was born in Belfast and that his parents’ names were James Presley and Mary Hanna. The birthplace and the mother’s maiden name were two new tidbits of information that would ultimately lead me to William’s baptism record—in Belfast!

Civil registration of births in Ireland didn’t start until 1864, so finding a record of William’s birth was unlikely. But knowing that the family worshiped in the Episcopalian Church while in the United States gave me hope that I would find William’s baptism in the Church of Ireland records.

During my visit to Belfast last fall, I started with the largest Church of Ireland congregation in Belfast, St. Anne’s. I had William’s birthdate—28 May 1845—from Bible records and from his funeral card so I started looking at the baptisms from that date forward. I was quickly rewarded with William’s baptism record dated 8 June 1845. It indicated that his parents were James Presley and Mary Hanna, the same parents listed for his brother James on his death certificate.

Unfortunately, despite diligent searching, I have been unable to find a baptism record for William’s brother James, or a marriage record for his parents. But I now know where my great-grandfather was really born, even if he never wanted to admit it.

I can only imagine that being labeled Irish was a stigma that William was unwilling to bear in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. At the time, the Irish were considered third-class citizens and were accused of taking jobs away from native-born Americans.

If William came to the United States as an infant or a very young child, he probably didn’t have an Irish accent and could get away with his deception. His brother James was five years older and had already developed an Irish accent that would have been more difficult to hide. At the first opportunity available, William became a naturalized citizen. This happened before he met his future wife, who would never have known he was born in Ireland if he never got around to telling her.

Family lore acknowledged that my Presley ancestors were from Northern Ireland, but until the discovery of William’s baptismal certificate, I didn’t know how close that connection was. This experience was another reminder to me to be cautious of the records we gather on our ancestors. If there’s an obvious hole that can’t be explained, it is best to gather records on siblings and others that may be able to lead you to the truth.

Elizabeth Kelley Kerstens, CGRS, CGL, is the managing editor of Genealogical Computing and a frequent contributor to Ancestry Magazine.