Juneau Co., WI - Family Success Stories & Awards
How has the Juneau Co. WIGenWeb helped you with your research, or brought long-lost relatives together? I would love to hear your story and with your permission enter it on this page so please email me! Thanks!
2:22 AM, Feb. 10, 2001
I am thrilled to have just found and identified my great-great-grandfather's
sister in Juneau Co. WI!!
I was doing a search on one of my unusual surnames, GATHERCOLE, and took a look at a Wisconsin 'hit'. It was a listing of people in 'Some Pioneer Families of Wisconsin' , with Elizabeth Gathercole, wife of William Jackson (b. 1810 England) under Juneau Co. WI. I accessed the Juneau Co. website a few weeks ago and again tonight. The censuses that had been copied and posted on the site (and just updated) told me that she was indeed the sister of my ancestor as five daughters at home in 1870 in Juneau Co. were the same ones in the 1860 census in Cattaraugus Co. NY and confirmed this was the right family.
My great-great-grandfather, Edmund Gathercole, came to the US from England in November of 1853 with his wife and 7 young children. A family story told that they had intended to join his sister, Betsy, and her husband, William Jackson, in New York state, but by misunderstanding or mistake, they arrived by train in Belvidere, Illinois. At that point, Edmund had 9 cents left; they could not afford to go back to NY (where there belongings had gone), so they stayed in Illinois, helped by townspeople through that first winter. Edmund settled in nearby DeKalb County, Illinois, in a few years, where he eventually bought farm land.
Several years ago, I looked in New York for a town named Belvidere, found one, and looked in the NY 1860 census indexes for William Jackson (there were many!) in that county, then adjacent counties, where I did find William and Elizabeth and children (who matched their 1851 English census enumeration) in Cattaraugus Co. NY. But they were not there in 1870, and I did not find them in the NY 1880 or 1900 census soundex. Elizabeth had been found, briefly, then lost again! Until tonight!
I hope I will be able to contact descendants of William and Elizabeth (Gathercole) Jackson. It will be exciting to learn more about the family and to share with them my research on four earlier generations of Gathercoles. And PERHAPS they might have some clue to Elizabeth's elusive mother......
Thanks for the great web site. All the work appearing on it is certainly appreciated!
Ruth Dunlap, Mendota, Illinois
Anyway, based on research done on the net with the four county's, Juneau is tops, off we went, got the: how can I help you, let me help you, why don't you look for the name spelt, wait a minute lets check the extract of deeds to see if we can find, let me call *()*)( she he has had a lot of success, well you get the idea, just total help and support, all four counties have dynamic clerks in their register of deeds offices.
The librarians at the Elroy, Mauston, and Sparta libraries were eager to help, and in some cases went way beyond the expected and researched with us
Totally an enjoyable two weeks with so much data we will have to work for 2 months to get it organized.
A special thanks to all. Dale B. June 20, 2000
