The Berlin Family Mystery
New questions in an ongoing puzzle
I recently contacted the Allen County Public Library genealogy department with some questions. According to WorldCat, they hold the only copies1 of The Berlin Family, compiled by Reginald L. Berlin and Terry Johnson-Cooney and published by Roy Rushka. There are five volumes, and it looks like my Berlin family is in one of them. They kindly sent me scans of the relevant pages, which answered one question… but raised many, many more.
If you have the Berlin surname (or one of its variations) in your tree, maybe we can shed some light on this puzzle, and find more pieces.
In 2018, I wrote this on my other Mightier Acorns blog:
Spellchecking the John Berlin Mystery
When you sit down to solve a jigsaw puzzle, you have a few advantages working in your favor. Usually, you know that you have all of the pieces in your box. Usually, you have a picture on the box to show you what your solved puzzle should look like. Most importantly, you know that only the pieces that should fit together will fit together.
Solving a family history puzzle is the opposite of all of those things. You probably don't have all the pieces and you probably never will. The picture on the box may not have been labeled properly, and when you do find clues, they may add up to give you three or four different answers - sometimes, even the right one!
Today, I'm taking a fresh look at the family of Elizabeth Berlin, rebuilding the case I made in a post from 2016.
If you visit those two earlier blogs, you might see some flaws in my work that I missed - so if you’re interested in helping me solve this puzzle, please go take a look at them.
The Pieces
To summarize the puzzle pieces you are about to see today:
The Callin Family History - a secondary source gives us our starting point with key facts.
Rosemary’s memories - not solid evidence, but hints about Elizabeth’s heritage.
William and Elizabeth’s marriage record - confirms the marriage date and names.
The Wood County History - a secondary source with some information on Elizabeth’s parents.
The Berlin Family History - another secondary source with important clues.
The U.S. Federal Census - several primary sources that help tie the story together.
The Ashland County history - a secondary source that adds more clues, and ties some of the census records into a narrative.
The Callin Family History
According to the 1911 Callin Family History, Elizabeth Berlin is my 3rd-great-grandmother. Here's what we have to work with from the CFH:
Record of William Callin, 3rd son of John Callin, who was 2nd son of James 1st.
Born May 10, 1813, died Nov. 9, 1881, at Bowling Green, O.
Married to Elizabeth Barlene 1837 who died Nov. 14, 1903, at Bowling Green, O., aged 86 years.
The information in the CFH led us to a marriage record:
Despite the florid handwriting and odd line break, it is easy to see that "Mr. Wm. Cal-lin and Mifs Elizabeth Berlin" were married on the 29th day of Sept. in Richland County, Ohio, in 1836. (I had to crop the part of the image that showed the year, but you can see the full page if you follow this link to Ancestry.)
Notice the CFH says William married Elizabeth Barlene in 1837, and the marriage record says he married Elizabeth Berlin on 29 September 1836. The year is close enough, and the spelling of her surname suggests that a combination of pioneer illiteracy and varied pronunciation could complicate things for us. Those spelling variations might be clues to how the family pronounced their name.
Rosemary’s memories
I recently reposted Silk or Satin, a short record written by Elizabeth's granddaughter, Rosemary (the youngest daughter of George Callin, the writer of the 1911 Callin Family History) of her memories of Elizabeth after she died in 1903. It doesn’t give us a lot of clues to Elizabeth’s parentage, but it demonstrates that even Rosemary wasn't sure how to spell Elizabeth's maiden name. She titled her memoir, "Things I Have Been Told About My Grandmother, Elizabeth Berlien (Barline) Callin."
Rosemary also comments on Elizabeth learning to read when her sons went off to fight in the Civil War: “This was probably not too hard for her as those "Dotsch" are good at everything anyway.” It would seem that the family was aware of Elizabeth’s German heritage.
The Wood County history
Pages 923 and 924 of the Commemorative Historical and Biographical Record of Wood County, Ohio have a biographical sketch of my great-great-grandfather, John H. Callin, son of William and Elizabeth. The description of William says: "In 1835, he married Elizabeth, daughter of John Barlin, of Ashland..."
Since Ashland County, Ohio, did not exist in 1835, when the Wood County book says William and Elizabeth were married, the book (which was published in 1895 or 1897 depending on which edition you find), probably refers to the counties as they existed in the 1890s. Ashland County was formed in 1846 from parts of Huron, Lorain, Richland, and Wayne Counties. When the Wood County book says "Ashland," it could mean one of those other counties - most likely Richland, where William and Elizabeth were married.
The Berlin Family history
This is the new information I have acquired from Allen County Public Library. Here is the section showing Elizabeth’s parentage:
The preceding page shows the will of John’s father, named here as “John Michael” - the will of Michael Berlin was recorded in Manheim Township, York County, Pennsylvania. (Take note: York County sits “on the Maryland state line” - this will be relevant later.)
The Berlin Family History also shows that this Berlin family was German in origin. That fits with the various misspellings we see in the records, suggesting that the family spelled the name “Berlin” if they were literate and that they pronounced the name in the German manner - something like “bear-LEAN” - which clerks and census takers did their best to transcribe phonetically.
The U.S. Federal Census
Elizabeth and William are thoroughly documented in the Census; William is listed in 1840 in Milton Township, and Elizabeth and the children are listed with him by name in the subsequent records, 1850-1880. Elizabeth is also listed as living in Middleton, Wood County, with her son, John, in 1900. That record gives her date of birth as Nov 1817, which matches what the Berlin Family history states.
We also have the following records that may give us more information about her parents:
1830: Mannheim Township, York County, PA - John Barling is listed as head of household. His age is given as “40-49” putting his date of birth between 1781 and 1790. His wife would be between “30-39” and their household included one male “10-14” (possibly William), one female “10-14” (Elizabeth, perhaps), and two females “5-9” (could be Catharine and Mehrill).
1840: Mifflin, Richland County, OH - John Barlean is listed as the head of household. Mifflin is located in the southwest corner of Richland County; Milton Township is in the center-north of the county. The Barlean household is enumerated as having one male between ages 50 and 59 (presumably John, putting his birthdate between 1781 and 1790), one female between 50 and 59, and one female between 15 and 19 (possibly Catharine).
In 1850 and 1860, people named John and Mary Barlin were listed in Hoaglin, Van Wert County, Ohio; in both records, their household includes a girl named Elizabeth Barlin, born about 1848. It is unclear whether this couple is the same John and Mary Berlin who would be our Elizabeth Berlin’s parents - their birth dates do seem to match what we observed in the other records.
1870: Vermillion, Ashland County, Ohio - 83-year-old John Barlean and his wife, Mary A (age 79), are listed in the Young household. The head of that household is Catherine Young, 50 years old, and born in Pennsylvania - a match to the Catherine named in The Berlin Family.
The Ashland County History
Catherine's eldest son, Samuel, is featured in a biographical sketch in A. J. Baughman's History of Ashland County, Ohio, published in 1909, which says (emphases are mine):
He is a son of Michael and Katharine (Berlean) Young, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania as were the paternal grandparents, Mathias and Mary Young. ... The maternal grandparents of our subject were John and Mary Ann Berlean, who were likewise born in the Keystone state and died in Ashland county. ...John Berlean served his country in the war of 1812 and was at Baltimore during the hostilities there. The Berlean homestead, upon which the mother of our subject was born, was situated in Pennsylvania on the Maryland state line.
...Michael Young ...accompanied his parents on their removal to Mifflin township about 1829 and Katherine Berlean arrived about a year later [apparently after the 1830 census]. They were married here and became residents of Mifflin township, taking up their abode on a farm within its borders immediately after their marriage and remaining there until called to their final rest.
So, despite the 1850 and 1860 census records posing some problems, I think it’s safe to say we have successfully tied Elizabeth Berlin to the right parents, and to her sister, Catherine (Berlin) Young. We still don’t know for certain when John and Mary died, but this collection of evidence suggests they died between 1870 and 1880 in Ashland County, Ohio.
Questions
Who is that other John Berlin?
A lot of researchers who have this family in their online trees attach an extensive pension record for another John Berlin who fought in the War of 1812. If you have access to Fold3.com, you should be able to view it here. It gives a lot of information that doesn’t match our family; this John Berlin married his first wife, Anna Coy, who died about 1829, then married his second wife, Catherine Landis (or Landes) in about 1831 in Columbiana County, Ohio. Notably, this family also lived in Van Wert County, Ohio, in the 1850s, which overlaps with the 1850 and 1860 records we discussed above. So, John and Catherine Berlin would have lived in Van Wert County at about the same time John and Mary Barlin appeared in Hoaglin. However, I have not yet found John and Catherine in the census for Van Wert County. This is why I’m reluctant to include the records for John and Mary in my timeline.
This other John Berlin (Catherine’s husband) is the one who died in Stark County, Ohio, in 1874; so if you see his FindAGrave memorial attached to our John Berlin, that is a mistake. We have not yet found a record, but our evidence says John and Mary Berlin died after 1870 in Ashland County.
What do we know about our John Berlin’s service in the War of 1812?
Short answer: very little. There are records of men named John Berlin in the muster rolls of two other Pennsylvania companies, but all I have found is their names. One is a private listed in “Hill’s Regiment” (no further information) and the other is a private in Findlay's Battalion, Pennsylvania Vols. Those muster rolls have no dates, no personal info - and no obvious clues. (I’ve looked in Ancestry, Fold3, and Googled extensively, but I’m sure there are sources I haven’t found, yet.)
What we know is that there are at least three different men named John Berlin who served in that war - and the one from our Berlin Family history does not match what we know about the man who married Catherine Landis. We also don’t know which of these other two men was the son of Jacob Berlin and Eva Carbaugh described in the Westmoreland County history (which I discussed in the 2018 “Spellchecking the John Berlin Mystery” post).
Who was Maria Schierly?
There is no clear evidence that tells us when Maria Schierly married John Berlin and no clear information about her birth or death. Other researchers have attached German birth records to her, and while I can’t rule out that possibility, the evidence suggests she was born in Pennsylvania. Of course, the records I discuss here assume that she is the same “Mary Barlin” we see in the Census records and histories of Wood and Ashland counties. She might not be.
She is most likely the mother of the four children named in The Berlin Family, but until we find more evidence, that’s all I can say.
For now. Let’s see what another year of research brings.
To clarify: ACPL has the only library copies I’ve been able to locate. My 3rd cousin, John Callin, has a copy of the volume with Elizabeth’s family, but I haven’t been able to get a full copy of the five-volume set for myself.