Tomstone Tuesday: Gotcha! Union Brick Cemetery Bricks Collapse

Don't you just hate it when you think you are on the right track in the race to find those elusive family members of old, and then the proverbial brick wall looms up high before you?  It seems like the research just comes crashing to a halt.

I think I've managed to climb over one brick wall with circumstantial evidence.

Thomas HUNNEWELL was the son of William HUNNEWELL (abt 1730-1813) and Alice COLLIER of Sussex Co, NJ.  He is mentioned in his brother, William HONEYWELL's, Revolutionary War Pension application.

In the pension application, William states he was born in Knowlton, Sussex, NJ, Dec 1,1759.  He was drafted 1778 into the Militia for three months.  The company was formed in Knowlton.  At the end of this service, he traveled towards "....home as far as the Moravian Settlement called Hope, in Sussex County, where he met his father who informed him that his older brother Thomas HONEYWELL, was drafted.....".

From this statement, we can infer Thomas was born before 1759.  Remember this.

Thomas is again mentioned in the will of his father, William.  The will was written in 1791, but not proved until 1813.  So, Thomas is alive in 1791.

William Jr and John, the brothers of Thomas, remove to Luzerne Co, PA before 1810.  There is no mention of Thomas here.  The only Thomas mentioned in Luzerne Co is the son of William of the pension file.

While looking around Sussex County flanked by my new buddy Jan, she told me she had transcribed some old cemeteries of Sussex and placed them online.  So away I went to search.

Bingo!  There resting peacefully in Union Brick Cemetery, which is located between Hope and Blairstown, Warren, NJ is T. HUNNEYWELL, d. May 27, 1800, aged 43.5.1.

So that makes this T. HUNNEYWELL born around Dec 1756.  The right age, the right place, the right name and the only HUNNEYWELL/HUNNEWELL/HONEYWELL family in the county makes me think I've found Uncle Thomas.

To further cement this thought, I will need to find the actual probate records of papa William which were filed in 1813 to see if they mention the demise of Thomas and whether he had any issue or not.

Ahh genealogy. Revving the old engines to race for the next lead!  Oh, did I mention that my new buddy Jan had two grandpas that flanked my grandpa when they appeared in 1777 to sign their Oaths of Allegiance?  Yep, tis found right there in the official records of old.  Pretty cool to think she is assisting me now some 230 years later.  Guess the family friends can survive that long!

©2013 AS Eldredge