Got a new alert from FamilySearch today and It pleased me that it was a female ancestor. And not just any female ancestor, but one from my departed father’s side. My great-great grandmother Jane - or ‘Jenny’ as she is often listed in records - Dilley’s birthday is today. August 16th is two days after my first born twin daughters and makes another Leo to add to the celebrations that fill this month with eternal sunshine. Jane is the mother of my grandfather’s mother, Lydia Cornelia Price (1880). My father says Lydia (pronounced Līda) “spoiled him” as her first grandson. Coincidentally my dad’s father is also a Leo (August 12!). Can you see how easy it is for me to dilly-dally my days away with family history insights?!
While for some it feels like an indulgence and perhaps an escape from one type of mundane, modern day stress to another type of the mundane busyness- clicking through hints and old records- I find it very illuminating as to why I even exist and am where I am today. I feel like I am uncovering others from my story- my unique history- who are actually very present with me and who get a huge kick out of getting my attention for a few minutes. And those minutes have now turned into an hour! Oh my! But, boy did I learn new tidbits, even corrected errors and added some things in that span of time! I learned that (ready for my list?) Jane was born in Oldwick (then ’New Germantown’) and her father was a “boot & shoemaker”. My younger sister and I loved the German folktale of The Elves and the Shoemaker as kids and this connection makes me smile. Their residence was right next to a “hotel keeper” so it seems that it would have been on or near a main drag. I know this main drag because I grew up near here and would ride my bike around this area and later drive to look at the historic buildings, one of which has been turned into the Tewksbury public library (see old photo below - it's now red). And I love libraries! So I have lots of memories in and through the land of my ancestors before I even recognized how rich and deep it was ALL AROUND ME. My mother’s side has lots of history in Tewksbury township but thanks to Jane Dilley and her FamilySearch page of attached sources (1870 & 1880 US Censuses) I now realize that my father’s side has a rich history here too (photo above is Oldwick in 1900). In fact, a really valuable realization I had was how important it really was for members of my family to migrate westward out of New Jersey and marry non-Hunterdon-Somerset county natives! It would only have gotten more convoluted and difficult not to inbreed if we had stayed here! Fortunately my brother, who actually still does live in the area, married a girl from England. Oh and my sister did marry a New Jersian but his family wasn’t deep Jersey. So as much as I love my connection to this bucolic pre and post-Colonial quaintness and will always consider Hunterdon county home, pioneering west, I humbly realize, was also part of my destiny.
Other “aha” moments were found in my unique ability to clarify some records and attach them to their proper relative There are not many who would know that there were no “Alpauchs” in New Jersey. Rather they were “AlpauGHs”! My first grade teacher was a Ms. Alpaugh who became Mrs. Cummings and she was the best! And of course that surname shows up in my lines as well here and there. That fact used to surprise me but few things do anymore when it comes to family history in my former neck of the beautiful NJ woods. The spelling edit allowed me to attach a census record to Jane's grandson, Russell Alpaugh, who lived with them for a time after his mother Eva passed when he was around 13.
Oh, and one last comment of interest with the Dilley family...some of the records show children of Dilleys having the surname Dalley. At first, after looking into the Dilley name more I found that Dalley is a common alternate in UK circles, along with dropping the double ‘l’s’ after either vowel. But what I really needed to do was slow down and look at the records more closely. FamilySearch has a feature where you can look at your tree in Descendancy format, seeing descendants of one common ancestor. From there you can chose to see record hints pop to the right of each descendant's name. What was really going on with my family was that a third time great aunt, Rebecca DILLey, married a John DALLy. So a bunch of descendants appeared who were Dalleys. The Dalleys were not an alternate rendering of Dilley. Rebecca just married a DALLEY. I had a friend in elementary school whose last name was Daly. She taught me how to appreciate and love pickles by showing me tiny cucumbers in her garden that they turned into (dill) pickles! At that age I never knew one came from the other! For some reason that experience and insight made them more tasty from there on out. I bet she and I are long lost cousins somehow...
