Jean - thank you for your email. Other than an obituaries for Royal's
daughters, I have little on the family, except what I have compiled from the
online sources. I've order death certificates and some more newspaper
articles and have really enjoyed reading about what others have compiled on
the families.
I am frustrated with figuring out the the grandparents and great-grandparents
of Elisha and Royal. I know their father is Elisha (5/17/1769) and was
married to Abigail Tibbetts and that the families removed from Maine to
Shelby in the 1820s. Anything past that is a mystery and I have been
confused with the information I do find. I ended up starting a 'dummy'
family tree' file for the Mayhews using the Charles Banks information and
other data I have found in various researches. After about 3000 individuals,
I have a few clues, but nothing that works out perfectly. I just started
using the rootsweb mailing lists and have really enjoyed reading all the
information available from other researchers.
Yesterday I received the information on the family burial plot in Crown Hill
Cemetery and have been organizing that data, analyzing the Mayhew families
buried in the entire cemetery. I had ordered additional information on Royal
Mayhew, just to try their look-up service, but received much more than I had
expected. I am ready to order some more.
Do you know if there is a William K. Deacon in the family? This person is
buried in a corner (so were 2 other spouses) so I am assuming that this is a
spouse of a daughter, but have no clue. The Indianapolis Newspaper search
sight doesn't have anything listed, but this death date is 1898, so that
would be expected.
I haven't reviewed my Shelby County information that I have accumulated, but
is John C. Walker from the Shelby County area or the Indianapolis area?
Also, I haven't found much on Elisha Mayhew and just started looking at the
census data to see if I could find anything on children. Hannah C.
Huntington was Lucia Huntington's sister. I haven't found a burial for her
at Crown Hill (I am so glad I put all the data into an Excel program! makes
it so much easier to search for a specific name). Nor do I have Elisha's,
but I need to research the website one more time. I've been concentrating on
the lineage between Elisha, Sr. and Governor Thomas Mayhew, a direct line,
according to Elvira Mayhew Smith, daughter of Royal Mayhew.
Interesting that your great-great grandfather was a minister. A few days
ago, I noticed that in several Mayhew funerals and a wedding, a Benjamin F.
Foster officiated. When I tried to find him in the census data and through
Ancestry.com. I came up with a Benjamin F. Watson who was a "Universal
Minister" according to census data. I think he was from Ohio. Anyway, a
daughter of Royal Mayhew, Harriet Mayhew (twin of Caroline), was married by
this minister to Robert Watson. Robert's younger brother had a middle name
of Foster (born 3 years before wedding). Royal and his wife, Lucia's
funerals were done by B. F. Foster. We were hoping that Foster was a family
name as the Watson line stops end with Robert Watson's father.
Did the families you are researching stay in Indiana? Almost every family
I'm working on went through Indiana at one point. Half of them were in
Indianapolis at times. It gets very confusing trying to use the brain
instead of the computer/paper data.
Sorry to ramble on. I really appreciate your email. Any information or
guidance as to how to figure out the gaps and mysteries I have would be
greatly appreciated. Thanks! Have a nice weekend. Lynne Bennett