Family Connections: Elwood/Ellwood-Holmes, Washington County, PA & Guernsey County, OH

I am fascinated by the way the lives of our ancestors and their neighbors and associates were intertwined. What a thrill it is to dig through the layers of information in the various records and uncover a previously unsuspected family connection!

My ancestor Eliza Ellwood was married twice. She lived with her first husband, William Holmes, in Millwood Township, Guernsey County, Ohio. They had five children. Of these, Mary Ellen Holmes, the oldest, apparently had a son, William P. Holmes, although I have found no evidence that she ever married. By 1870, Mary Ellen's mother, Eliza, had been married a second time to Daniel K. Hall and either was widowed or divorced. Eliza Hall was living with her second-oldest daughter, Nancy Ann Bane, and her husband, James Henry Bane, in East Bethlehem Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania. Enumerated on that census two households away were Eliza's daughter, Mary "Homes" and her small son, William. (Relationships weren't stated on this early census, of course; this knowledge is from additional research.)

Mary was living in the household of John C. Moore and his apparent wife, Susannah. Coincidentally - or not? - also in the Moore household was 9-year-old John Elwood. Did John Elwood have a family connection to Mary Ellen Holmes, whose mother was an Elwood/Ellwood? Did he have a family connection to the Moores, with whom he was living? Did Mary Ellen Holmes have a family connection to the Moores? The answer is, perhaps.

Further research uncovered a first marriage for Susannah, née Susannah Cecelia Beall, to a John Elwood. The younger John, John Lawrence, apparently was their son and therefore John C. Moore's step-son. So John Elwood did have a family connection to the Moores.

If the first husband of Susannah Moore were the brother of Eliza (Elwood) Holmes Hall, then in 1870, Mary Ellen Holmes and her young son were living in the household of her aunt by marriage.  In 1880, Mary Ellen was living in the household of Frank Hastings and working as a servant. But her son, William, remained in the household of the Moores and was identified as John Moore's adopted son. Perhaps these associations were simply the result of a close-knit neighborhood, but perhaps there was a family tie.

Eliza Elwood was born circa 1822 and John Elwood, first husband of Susannah Cecelia Beall, was born circa 1828, both in Ohio. They were contemporaries. In 1850, John was living in the household of a William Elwood, who was old enough to have been his father. Eliza was already married to her first husband, William Holmes. However, one piece of contradictory evidence exists - a biography in a county history of a son of William Elwood by his second marriage names Williams's children from both marriages and does not include reference to Eliza or John. But more research remains to be done before this question can be put to rest.