Tag: AncestryDNA

I’ve been busy this year creating trees for my presumed Schneider matches on AncestryDNA, trying to identify our common ancestors. Success has been hit or miss, but I had one recently that caused some initial consternation.

In building a tree for a match I traced their line back to a Henry Bender of Tuscarawas County, Ohio. Henry died in 1833, leaving a widow and children. Online family trees identified this Henry as the son of Conrad Bender and his wife Susanna of Menallen Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania, born 25 March 1787. The problem, however, was that according to information I’ve found, Conrad’s son remained in Menallen Township his whole life and died there in 1863. 

I’ve got Schneider cluster DNA matches that trace back to both this Tuscarawas County Henry (d. 1833) and the Adams County Henry (d. 1863). So, both of them are descendants of Jacob Bender and his wife Eva Catharina Schneider. Which one was the son of Conrad Bender?

Identifying Henry

The first thing I wanted to do was verify whatever information I could on Henry (d.1833), but specifically any information that would place him in Menallen Township. The online trees showed baptisms for two of his children—Johannes and Mariane—in Adams County.  FamilySearch shows Johannes was baptized at Benders Reformed Church in Butler (was Menallen) Township on 12 February 1809¹ and Mariane was baptized at Arendtsville Lutheran and Reformed Church on 19 April 1819.² So, it’s likely that this Henry was in Menallen Township, at a minimum between 1809 and 1819. There were also baptisms for children of a Henry and Catharina, a Henry and Elisabeth, and a Henry and Magdalena. 

Census Records

There were three Henry Benders enumerated in the 1820 United States Federal census for the township. One of them was aged 45+ (born <1775),³ the other two aged 26-44 (born 1776-1794).⁴ The elder Henry was most likely Henry Bender (1762-1843), son of Jacob Bender and Eva Catharina Schneider. Of the other two, one was most likely the son of Conrad and the other one a son of one of Conrad’s brothers.

Looking earlier, since we know that Henry (d. 1833) was in Ohio in 1830 (aged 40-50),⁵ we find two Henry Benders in Menallen in 1810⁶ and one in 1800.⁷ The elder Henry was enumerated as aged 45+ (born <1765) in 1810 and 26-44 (born 1756-1774) in 1800, the younger as 26-44 (born 1766-1784) in 1810. Henry (d. 1833) had son John in 1809 while as far as I know Henry (d. 1863) had his first child in 1821. 

So that means that Henry (d. 1833) was likely the younger Henry in the 1810 census—since he was already married and having children—and one of the younger Henrys in the 1820 census. Reconciling the ages from all these census records, we find that the mystery Henry was born about 1780-1784. This puts his birth prior to that of Conrad’s son Henry. But since census ages can be unreliable, I can’t conclude Henry wasn’t Conrad’s son from this information.

Tax Records

Most people wouldn’t expect to find parentage information in tax records. And they’d be correct in the majority of cases. However, without deeds—and I totally struck out with deeds for these Benders—tax records can show the transfer of property from person to person. Since this often happens within families, it can provide important clues to determine parentage.

In this case, the tax records were very illuminating. The closest tax assessment to the 1820 census was for 1821. There are four entries that include the name “Henry Bender”:⁸

• Henry Bender Jr. (taxed on 336 acres, 2 horses, 2 cows)
• Henry Bender of C (taxed on 3 horses, 2 cows)
• Henry & Jacob Bender (taxed on 125 acres and 25 acres)
• Henry Bender (taxed on 160 acres, 25 acres, 4 horses, 5 cows)

Only the first two are necessary to answer the question at hand.⁹

Following the tax records backwards and forwards, I found the Henry Jr. with the 336 acres in 1809.¹⁰ He may have been the Henry Bender in 1805 listed with the single men, but with the notation “mared.”¹¹ He was also listed in the 1822, 1823, 1824, and 1825 tax assessments. ¹² The 1824 tax assessment includes the notation “sold to George Newcomer & Hannah Bender.”¹³

The Henry Bender of C was most likely the son of Conrad. He was taxed on 140 acres in 1823.¹⁴  Jacob Bender of C was taxed on 134 acres.¹⁵ Put the two together and you have the 274 acres that Conrad was taxed on in 1821.¹⁶ And we know from Conrad’s will that he did, indeed, have two sons: Henry and Jacob.¹⁷

This Henry was consistently listed in the tax records for the township through 1833 where I stopped examining the records.¹⁸

Henry, Son of Conrad

Conrad’s son Henry was born 25 March 1787 and died 10 August 1863 and was buried in Bendersville Cemetery.¹⁹ He was most likely the Henry Bender who purchased the land that become Bendersville from William Sadler in 1819.²⁰

Henry (d. 1833)

So, who was the mystery Henry’s father? 

The tax records seem to indicate that his father was Conrad’s brother Johannes. Those 446 acres Henry was taxed on in 1809? John Bender was taxed on 150 acres, 446 acres, and 20 acres in 1806.²¹ In 1809, he was taxed on only the 150 acres and 20 acres.²² The 446 acres was crossed out with the notation “mad over to his son” written next to it. Therefore, we can infer that “Henry Jun” was his son.

Furthermore, according to his last will and testament, John Bender did have a son named Henry.²³ Although he left his real estate property to sons John and Jacob, Henry is mentioned in the will. John left Henry £150 to be distributed as £50 per year from 1823 through 1825. And it is after 1825 that presumably this Henry is no longer found in the Menallen Township tax record.

And there we have it. The Henry Bender who died in Ohio in 1833 was the son of Johannes and Catharina Bender of Menallen Township and first cousin of Henry Bender, son of Conrad, who died in Menallen Township in 1863.