Monday, September 8, 2014

52 Ancestors - #36 Jane Elizabeth Wilkins -Where Are All Her People?



Where are all Jane’s people and who are they?

I have known for some time that her parents were John Wilkins and Elizabeth Kelly and that they had emigrated from England. I know that Jane was born in New York State in April of 1838.

I have recently found a John and Elizabeth Wilkins who arrived in the Port of New York from England on June 21, 1831. Their ages fit my John and Elizabeth. In the 1850 Census Jane is listed as fourteen years old and living with her father age 51 and mother age 56. They are living in Evans, Erie County, New York. My recent search has also found additional family members of Jane. In the 1855 New York Census Jane is 17 and living with her older sister Lucinda who is 23, Lucinda’s husband Henry Bean and their one year old son John S. Bean. Also in the 1855 New York Census Jane’s parents John and Elizabeth have their daughter Mary Ann Johnson and her two year old son John Johnson living with them along with a three year old grandson Benjamin Wilkins. They are all in Evans, Erie County, New York. In the 1860 Census grandson Benjamin is still living with his grandparents John and Elizabeth Wilkins.

Jane Wilkins married George Riches in about 1855 in New York. George and Jane’s daughter Elizabeth was born in 1857 and Anna Jane was born July 9, 1861. Their third daughter, my great grandmother, Martha Matilda or Mattie, as she was known, was born in New York State on February 17, 1863.

Sometime after 1863, the Riches family moved from New York and was living in Waterville, Pepin, Wisconsin where their daughter Olive was born in 1867 (possibly July 28th.)  George and Jane’s first son Edward Thomas Riches was born July 28, 1872. There was also another son George Bell born on June 20, 1875 at Round Hill, Pepin County, Wisconsin who died just before he was three years old on March 26, 1878 of diphtheria.

In June 1880 the Riches family was still living in Waterville, Pepin, Wisconsin and George is working as a farm laborer.  At that time, George’s 82 year old father-in-law John Wilkins was living with them. Twelve year old Olive and eight year old Edward are still at home while the daughters, Elizabeth, Anna, and Mattie are all married.

On August 23, 1889, 17 year old son Edward Thomas Riches married Mary (Maime) Gongia. George and Jane’s daughter Olive died after the birth of her third child in 1890.

Members of the Riches family then moved to Washington State from Wisconsin. Anna Jane, her husband Charles Atkinson and family, and Edward and his wife Mary and family settled in Elma, Washington some time before June 18, 1900. On June 20, 1900 George and Jane are living in Mentor, Clark, Wisconsin and their late daughter Olive’s three children are living with them while their father works out of town.

Sometime between June 20, 1900 and July 12, 1903, George and Jane also moved out to Washington with Olive’s husband William Patton and their three children. Mattie and her husband JT followed his father James out to Washington State and settled in the Jackson Prairie/Mary’s Corner area of Lewis County on a farm in 1903.

George Riches died July 12, 1903 in Rayville, Chehalis County (now Grays Harbor County), Washington from complications due to bad kidneys. George was 68 years old. He is buried at the Oddfellows Cemetery in Elma, Grays Harbor, Washington.

Jane remarried on September 24, 1908 to Barton Koontz of Chehalis and was living in Elma, Grays Harbor County, when she died on July 6, 1911. Jane was 72.

So where are all Jane’s people and who are they? I did end up finding two sisters Lucinda and Mary Ann. Her nephew Benjamin may lead to a brother. I have not been able to find anything more about the sisters or their children. I can find nothing more about Elizabeth Kelly and her family or John Wilkins family.


Great great great grandparents: John Wilkins/Elizabeth Kelly

Great great grandparents: Jane Wilkins/George Riches

Great grandparents: Martha Matilda Riches/Jefferson Thomas Graves

Grandparents: Effa Belle Graves/Alva Ashbury Tucker

Parents: E. Rosalie Tucker/Lionell Burris Mitchell

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