Hello, everyone---
The Kosciusko Co. page on USGenwweb is just about the best I've seen, and
I've researched family from all over! (St. Joseph Co. is also great). You
Hoosiers do quite a job; you leave places like New York, Massachusetts and
California in the veritable dust!
My question is really in two parts; two families I'm researching (my uncle's
family, which comprises both):
CHARLES HAROLD TUCKER, b. 1879 (according to later censes) in Seward or
Franklin Twp., I believe. Who were his parents?
I have exhausted all of your online data, which is fabulous.
I know that the "patriarchs" of Kosciusko Co. Tuckers were Horace Tucker, and
his son, Albert, who came from Ohio in the earliest days (pre-1850).
However, I can find no evidence that my Charles Harold Tucker was from this line.
There's a Charles M. Tucker who figures prominently in the data, but he's not
the same.
There is also an Alexander Tucker, who bought a half-section land grant in
this county on 23 Sept. 1837. I don't see his name anywhere subsequently in the
censes, but he may have had a son who would have been of the age to father
Charles H. Tucker in 1879.
Another pioneer was John Tucker, age 26, b. Ohio, in the 1850 census. His
wife was from New Hampshire, and the 1870 Census lists both as from New
Hampshire. A son of theirs may have fathered Charles H. Tucker.
Other Tuckers, some from Ohio and some from Kentucky, I believe, moved in
after 1850. The 1870 census shows Calvin Tucker, 37, b. Ohio and a shoemaker,
as a possibility, and Joshua Tucker (perhaps of the Horace Tucker line), b.
abt. 1845 and a Civil War veteran, as another strong possibility.
However, there are no birth records for Charles Harold Tucker from this
county. I haven't ruled out Fulton County (the family was from near Beaver Dam),
but the Genweb resources are not as complete there. Does somebody have access
to microfilm WPA births from 1879 for Fulton County? Miami County?
CHARLES HAROLD TUCKER married one MERCY FLENAR[d] in Fulton County on 24
August 1902. They resided near Beaver Dam, in Seward Twp. My uncle, Harold
Charles Tucker (names reversed), was born there in 1909 (he lived most of his life
in Logansport, and died in 1996. I'm doing this research for the benefit of
his grandchildren).
The FLENAR[d] name is rather odd, because there have been so many spelling
variants in the local records. They also didn't appear to have been
landowners; only farm workers and tradesmen.
First there was JACOB FLENARD, b. Pennsylvania about 1812, who shows in the
1880 Census as a geezer, widowed father-in-law to Harvey Robinson, in Seward
Twp.
The children dropped the last "d" in the surname and descendants are known to
this day by the surnames FLENAR or FLENNER. After long research, I was only
able last night to connect all the Flenners, Flenars, Flennars, and even
"Fliner"s as all related to old man Jacob.
In the 19th century, you only find this name in 3 or 4 other places in the
US: Miami Co., Indiana; Buchanan Co., Michigan; and Burlington Co., New Jersey.
However, I think the origins were German/Pennsylvania Dutch, from Berks Co.,
Pennsylvania.
However, there's an off-chance that FLENARD is Canadian French, because of
the obvious spelling: it "looks" French.
Any clues here? TUCKER especially "bugs" me at the moment, because it's one
of the most common surnames in the US. If I can establish a clear line back
from 1860s Kosciusko County, Indiana, namely Charles H. Tucker's parentage, I
have at least some hope of cutting through the storm of static of those
prolific Tuckers!
You may find Charles Harold Tucker in my post to
Ancestry.com World Family
Trees. My findings of the Flenars are also there.
Thanks in advance; I've hit a brick wall, and I'll be grateful for a few
clues!
---Bob Robertson
Napa Valley, California