Wavetops: Josephine Plumsted (1848-1921)

Rescued from obscurity

Before we begin: I’ve been struggling to make these Wavetops posts work the way I wanted them to work - so I’m taking a slightly different approach. Instead of pointing at the “top” and talking about the work that still needs to be done, I’m going to start at the “bottom” and work my way up. Surf’s Up, Cousins!

John Jackson Tuttle (1872-1963) was my 2nd-great-grandfather - one of My Sixteen, of course - and for many years, I looked past the questions I should have had about who his parents were so I could focus on earlier generations. So I only recently thought to dig in and ask myself: “What do I know about John Tuttle’s mother?”

WikiTree Ancestor chart for John Jackson Tuttle (1872-1963)

As you can see from this chart, John’s father was a great-grandson of my Hessian soldier ancestor, Leopold Zindle. Sadly, finding records for the folks on this chart has been difficult. My usual tricks seem to be failing me, partly, because the Tuttle family was so prominent in Morris County, New Jersey, and my particular ancestor, Samuel Tuttle, was not as prominent as some of his cousins. The books that mention Leopold Zindle made vague references to the “prominent Tuttle family” without going into any detail. The Samuel Tuttle that does get mentioned in some of the local history books is the Rev. Samuel Tuttle who lived in Rockaway Township, and not the bloomer from the steel plant.

After a while, it occurred to me that I was neglecting John’s mother, who I knew as “Avena” from the few documents I had when I started. I’m pretty sure that “Avena” was probably a nickname for “Josephina” but I didn’t find anything at first, searching for those two variations. Then I found a marriage record for "J.A. Plumsted" and "E.A. Tuttle" that set me on the right course.

Despite having a name to work with, I still had to wring the information I wanted from the databases. Normally, once I have a name and a few dates and places, I can tease what I want out of very fuzzy results. But THIS family was not going to make it easy. They wanted to hide!

I started with the common assumption that their marriage record from 30 Mar 1870 in Roxbury, Morris County, New Jersey, indicated that the bride was probably from Morris County. I didn’t find a Plumsted family in Morris County in 1860 that had a girl named Josephine or Avena (or any reasonable variation) the right age. I couldn’t find a Plumstead family in 1850 at all, but I did find something interesting in 1870.

There is a Plumstead family listed in Roxbury in 1870. Succasunna is listed as their nearest post office, which caught my attention because John Tuttle’s marriage was recorded at Succasunna in 1891.) This family consisted of^[24]:

• Joseph Plumstead - age 49

• Abbey Plumstead - 42

• Emma Plumstead - 18

• Joseph Plumstead - 15

• Mary Plumstead - 7

Joseph, Abbey, and Emma matched three people in the 1860 record I had already ruled out^[22]:

• Jos Plumstead - age 40

• Abba Plumstead - 35

• Jas A Plumstead - 16

• Harriet Plumstead - 14

• Adrian Plumstead - 11

• Emma Plumstead - 8

• Joshua Plumstead - 6

• Clarrisa Plumstead - 63

Okay, so the ages are a bit off for Abba/Abbey, but Jos/Joseph is close enough and Emma is dead on. Joseph/Joshua could be an easy mistake - but I need more information. That’s when I took another look at the 1850 records and found this family in Jefferson, Morris County:^[21]

• Joseph Bumplin - 29

• Abagal Bumplin - 26

• James Bumplin - 5

• Harriet Bumplin - 3

• Josephine Bumplin - 1

While Josephine does not appear, at first, to be listed with the other children, James/Jas and Harriet match - and then there is a son named "Adrian" listed who is the age Josephine should be in this record. Adrian Plumsted does not appear in any other records related to this family. And if the family told the census taker her name was “Avena”… I can see how mistakes added up.

With those pieces in place, I was able to assemble the rest of Josephine’s biography, and move one more branch up the Plumstead tree to a new wavetop:

Joseph Plumstead (1820 - 1876)

And so the adventure continues…

If you are particularly interested in the Plumstead family of Morris County, New Jersey, drop a note!