John S. Surges vs. John P. Surges
While searching on Ancestry's website for my 2nd great grandfather on my mom's side I found many family trees that had my 2GGF as a John P Surges that lived in the Troy area west of Joliet, IL. However, I soon discovered through collecting additional information that he and his wife lived in the Elwood area south of Joliet. This along with a search for another grandmother led me to be very cautious when accepting information from others' trees. So, finding corroborating information is essential in ensuring you have the correct ancestors identified.
Corroborating information can be family stories, family bibles, news articles, legal documents, DNA matches etc.. Here is the corroborating information I used in this instance.
I found newspaper clippings about his wife, Wilhelmina's, death that started me down this new path:
These two articles had several hints for me to follow that helped me to confirm that my John was the John of Elwood not Troy:
John is dead already in 1909 since she is the wife of the late John Surges
There is an address in Joliet
The names of her children: Catherine Sing, Henrietta Hey, John Peter, Joseph, Elizabeth and Marie
This 1900 census also confirmed that she was a widow and the names of her children:
I was able to track John and Wilhelmina's children through news articles and legal documents confirming a location on the south side of Joliet and Elwood area. Once I confirmed these children I was able to review others' trees for descendants of these children.
This snippet from Hattie's story also indicates that he is J.S. Surges not John P. Surges
This article about a card party has children Joseph, his future wife Louise Fries, Elizabeth, and her future husband William Block. The location of the party is four miles south of town (Joliet).
Elizabeth's obituary confirms that John and Mina (Wilhelmina) were pioneer farmers of Elwood area and the other children.
All of this information indicates that the Surges family spent their lives in Joliet/Elwood area not the Troy area.
I have also been able to confirm my connection to these Surges' through my DNA matches that are descendants of these same Surges'.
Here is Wilhelmina's death certificate you can see how at first they named her Mrs. John Surges. I have not been unable to locate his death certificate even after visiting Will County records in person. Perhaps he died in a different county.
I walked the cemetery where John & Wilhelmina are interned and spoke with the diocese that manages that cemetery and received exact directions to their gravesites. I was hoping that the grave markers would indicate the date of death and confirm his date of birth - however, this is what they looked like:
I have found the St John the Baptist, Joliet, IL death register which indicates his date of death and date of burial.
So, all this is to say, be careful when saving information from others' trees. Following information based on documents, DNA and other collaborating information is vital to building an accurate family tree.
Happy searching!!!
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