Charlotte Debolt was my fifth great-grandmother, and someone I’m still
getting to know. Information has been hard to come by, particularly
concerning her relationship with her husband, and discovering the
identity of her parents. Charlotte was married to Daniel Debolt, a man
about fifteen years her senior. They were the parents of seven
children, at least that I’ve been able to identify so far. The 1820 and
1830 censuses find them in Licking county, Ohio, and in 1840, Charlotte
is still there and identified as “head of household.” Daniel seems to
spend the remainder of his life in the households of two of his
children, but not again with Charlotte. Charlotte and several of her
children removed to Peoria county, Illinois, where she passed away in
1851 and is buried in Princeville cemetery.
There’s certainly more to learn about Charlotte’s relationship with her
husband, but I may be asking for too much. However, I may be having
some luck in identifying her parents. I found a Charlotte Debolt listed
in an index to abstracted wills in Washington county, Ohio. She was
listed as an heir of Patrick Burnsides. My bubble was burst, however,
when I saw that this Charlotte's husband was named William. But
something kept bothering me, so I decided to see review my documentation
of Charlotte.
Charlotte was born in New Jersey about 1790. I did find a Patrick
Burnsides in Essex county, New Jersey in a tax list dated 1793, which of
course, doesn’t prove much. In 1830, when Daniel and Charlotte lived
in Licking county, Ohio, they lived next to a William Burnsides –
perhaps a coincidence. I decided to go ahead and order the probate file
for Patrick Burnsides from Washington County. Sure enough, right off
the bat Charlotte is mentioned with her husband, William Debolt.
However, further into the probate file Charlotte is mentioned again,
this time with her husband named as “Daniel” DeBolt! Also listed among
the heirs was William Burnsides... the same William Burnsides who lived
next to Daniel and Charlotte in 1830? Hmmm....
This is not exactly ironclad proof, but I’d say I probably have the
right father for Charlotte, at long last. Now, if I could just figure
out why she and Daniel parted…
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