Sunday's Obituaries - Patrick Purcell's Sisters

In previous posts I referenced my wife's great great grandfather, Patrick Purcell.  He came to this country from Upperchurch, Tipperary, Ireland about 1850 and settled in Utica, NY.  I believe he came to the US by himself and stayed with cousins (possibly the McGraw's of Syracuse).

According to Patrick's obituary three of his sisters also came from Ireland to upstate NY.  The obituary identifies them as Mrs. John Lynch of Utica and Mrs. John Connolly and Mrs. James J Harvard both of Oneida, NY.

I wanted to research Patrick's sisters and see if that led to any clues about the Purcell family of Ireland.  Have you noticed how great it is that women were just referred to as "Mrs.” husband's name :-).   No reason to make it easy to to uncover relatives.

Finding the sisters living in Oneida proved to be difficult.  I looked extensively for any Connolly and Harvard families in the small community of Oneida.  No luck.

I did find a newspaper notice that mentions several Purcell family members attending the death of Mrs. Connolly in 1899 in Oneida.  So I did know that she died there.

A breakthrough came when I found another Ancestry.com tree which had a Connelly family living in the town of Lenox (which is near Oneida).  What I did know at the time was that Lenox became a part of Oneida a few years later.   The family in on other family tree was spelled a little differently, but that isn't unusual and did look promising. The family was identified in the 1880 census as John and Mary Connelly.

How could I know if Mary was Patrick's sister?  Luckily, I found on the findagrave website records of burials in Oneida and there it was....Mary's grave was engraved Mary Purcell Connelly.  No doubt that I had found her and that she was Patrick's sister.

Mrs. Harvard, I am less sure about.  There was no Harvard family in Oneida.  

None.

I had two hunches:  the Harvard name was wrong and the fact that Patrick’s sister may have been named Margaret.  

The name Margaret came up again and again in the Purcell family and it seemed reasonable that one of the sisters was probably named Margaret.  

One trick I use in my genealogy research is to search for potential family members living on the same street as known family members when reviewing the US census. Families used to cluster together.  I think it paid off in this case.  I found James J Howard and Mary Howard living on the same street as Mr. and Mrs. Connelly.  Howard and Harvard could easily have been mixed up in the obituary.  Hhhm...was it possible that it should have been Margaret on the census instead of Mary, but they transcribed the census record in error?  Upon review there was no error, but this still seemed to be my best lead, so I didn’t give up.

I had success, once again with findagrave.com where I found the Howard family plot in Oneida.  Guess what?  There was a grave a Margaret Howard and one for Mary as wive's of James.  It appears that Margaret was James' first wife.  Is this Margaret Patrick's sister?  I don't know for sure, but there seems to be good circumstantial evidence to support that she is Patrick's sister.

Patrick's third sister was the easiest to find and proved the most fruitful.  I found that Mrs. John Lynch was in fact, Julia Purcell Lynch.  I found her obit from when she died in 1925 at the age of 85.  Probably the most important piece of information this obit provided was the names of Julia's parents - Edward and Margaret Purcell.

The fact that their names are revealed as Edward and Margaret makes a lot of sense.  These names reoccur with many of the Purcell families descended from Patrick and his sisters.

The next step in this journey is to "jump the pond" and see what I can find from the good people of Upperchurch, Tipperary.

Stay tuned.

(Special thanks to Mary Albree Perra for providing me these great gravestone pictures)

Sunday's Obituary - Capt William White Woodbury

I have never been a huge fan of Forest Gump, but there is no disputing that genealogy research is "like a box of chocolates", because you never know what you are going to find.

I have been focusing a lot of my time researching the Armstrong line of my family living in Cape Elizabeth and Falmouth (now Portland, Maine).  I have traced the Armstrong family back to the early 1700's, but have hit a road block and I am hoping that there are some other distant relatives which will may have some information which can help me break through.

However, in the meantime, I have been researching Betsey Woodbury Dyer Armstrong's family.  I have multiple post on Betsey Woodbury Dyer Armstrong including:  Betsey Armstrong Probate Mystery, Armstrong Family Land Division - 1897, The Armstrongs and Woodburys of Cape Elizabeth.   

Betsey Woodbury was born Nov 16 1787.  Her parents were Israel Woodbury and Anna White Woodbury.  She married her first husband, William Dyer, Sept 27, 1804.  She was only 16.  They had at least three children:  Woodbury, Benjamin and William Dyer.  Her husband, William, died sometime between 1813-1817.  On Nov 1, 1817, she married her second husband, John Armstrong.  They had at least eight children:  Simon, Mary, Eben, Lucy, John B, Israel, Arthur and George.

Betsey had at least 9 siblings:  Hugh, Jane, Lucy, William, Christina, Jonas, Israel, John and Anna.  I will be making more blog posts on Betsey's mother family as they have some historical significance and some very interesting stories.

Today's post is about Betsey's brother, Captain William White Woodbury.  He died April 29, 1861.

Those of you who have researched in Maine, you know how rare it is to find any significant obituaries prior to 1900.  It is typical to find a death notice that says little more than the name and date of someone who has died.  So I was very excited to uncover such an information rich obituary for Captain Woodbury.  

I have transcribed it below:

Woodbury, William, Portland, April 29 at 90.  He arose on Monday morning at his usual hour and partly dressed himself; in two hours after, he was dead.  Capt. Woodbury was a descendant of John Woodbury, one of the Cape Ann company, who went to that place with Roger Conant in 1624; he afterwards settled in Beverly, Mass., from which the immediate ancestor of our deceased friend, Joshua Woodbury, came to Falmouth in 1727, and settled at Cape Elizabeth.  The parents of the deceased were Israel Woodbury and Ann, dau. of William, and dau. of Rev. John White of Gloucester, Cape Ann.  He was born on the old White farm near Simonton's Cove, at Cape Elizabeth, Oct. 2, 1772 (Maine records show DOB as Aug 4, 1772).  The Whites were ancient settlers at Cape Elizabeth; they occupied farms there previous to the Indian war, in which one was killed, and their land descended from their family to present day.  Capt Woodbury was long a successful shipmaster; afterward, he engaged in commercial pursuits on shore; was a prime mover in establishing the Marine Railway, incorporated in 1826;  he conducted it near thirty years, until it closed its affairs.  He was many years President of the Marine Society, and twenty-seven years President of the Merchants Bank of Portland, holding the office at the time of his death, and having been a Director from its incorporation in 1825.  He married in 1798 (Maine records show Nov 17, 1797), Mary, dau. of Capt William Hoole, who went to Portland from Boston just previous to the Revolution, which whom he has happily lived more than sixty-three years, and by whom he leaves one son and five daughters.  She survives to lament her faithful and long-cherished companion.  Capt W. was a man of most determined will, of sound judgement, of great discernment, and inflexible integrity. 

One of the great benefits of this obituary for my research was that I was trying to confirm that Betsey's mother Anna or Ann White was related to Rev John White of Gloucester.  This obituary was able to confirm this for me.  In addition, since the obituary was written at the time of his death, that I can have a high level of confidence in its accuracy.

The fact that I can confirm my lineage to Rev John White opens up some very interesting genealogy. More on that to come in future posts.

Obituary Source:New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol 15 (1861) pg 287

Mystery Monday - Uncovering Patrick Purcell's Irish Origins

My mother-in-law knew that her great grandfather, Patrick Purcell, was from Ireland, but didn't know where in Ireland.  She asked me if I could find out anything about his Irish origins.

I started my research back in 2011 and was able to uncover his obituary from June 1894.    The newspaper clipping is hard to read, so I have transcribed it below.

Patrick Purcell died early early this morning at 675 Bleeker Street, after an illness of nearly a year's duration.  About a year ago, Mr. Purcell lost his wife, and since that time has gradually failed until death relieved him of his sufferings.  The decreased was born in County Tipperary, Ireland 64 years ago.  In 1850 he came to America and has since made Utica his home.  Here in the city where he spent the major portion of his life his friends were legion.  For over 20 years he was in the employ of the of the Central Railroad, held the position of inspector on the Erie Canal for four year and janitor at the Government Building under President Cleveland's first administration and for two seasons helped to operate the Hotel Street lift bridge.  Besides he was several times elected to ward offices,  among which was the first Assessor of the Eighth Ward.  He was a Jeffersonian Democrat, devoted to his party, and no form was more important to the voters on election day than his.  A zealous Catholic, he was always identified with anything that had for its object the advancement of the interests of St. John's Church, of which he had been a lifelong member.  He was actively identified with the St. Vincent DePaul Society and distributed its charities.  He was charter member of the Utica Lodge, K of H.
Mr. Purcell is survived by his two sons, John F and Patrick W., three daughters, Margaret, Helen and Julia Purcell and three sisters, Mrs. John Connolly and Mrs. James J Harvard of Oneida and Mrs. John Lynch of Utica.

Patrick had been born in 1830 in Tipperary, Ireland.  Fantastic!  Unfortunately, finding out that someone was born in Tipperary, is similar to finding out that they were born inn Massachusetts.  Lots of cities and towns to choose from as the possible birthplace.  On top of that, Patrick Purcell was not a rare name.

I have to admit, I essentially gave up.  I was satisfied that I had found the region of Ireland the Purcell family had originated.

A year later I was googling (we all do it), Patrick Purcell and his wife, Bridget Dunbar.  An interested results came up from a messageboard on a website called "Purcell Family of America" which was posted on Oct. 13, 2009:

Searching family of Patrick Purcell b.12 Dec 1830 Thurles Parish, Upper Church, County Tipperary Ireland. He came to Utica NY. At age 22 he married Brigit Dunbar who also came from Ireland. She was b. 10 Sept 1831 in Connert, County Leitrim. Any connections out there?

I don't know how I had missed this before, but there was no question that this was the Patrick Purcell and Bridget Dunbar that I had been researching.  I thought of replying to the message post, but since it was about 3 years old, I thought it was unlikely that the original poster would be monitoring the board to see if there were any responses.  I reached out to the webmaster of the sight and explained that I was trying to track down the poster.  He was able to provide me a copy of the posters email address.  Only problem was, the email was old and was no longer active.

But, I don't give up that easy.  

I googled the old email address and was able to find the physical address of the original poster.  From there I went to one of those websites where you get get someone's phone number for $1.99.  I found the poster was named Mary and I gave her a call.  After a few awkward minutes, she warmed up to me when she realized I wasn't trying to sell her anything and she told me that she had posted for a friend and that it was her friend that was my wife's relative.

She was able to confirm with me that Patrick was from Thurles, Upper Church, Tipperary, Ireland, something I would have never discovered on my own.  But probably the greatest discovery was for my mother-in-law, because Mary's friend was an unknown second cousin.  She was a few years older than my mother-in-law and they had both grown up living a few miles from each other, but the families had grown apart over the years and they didn't have any interaction.

My mother-in-law has often stated how much she wished she had more family, so the discovery of a cousin was a welcome surprise.  She and Patty connected and compared stories on their family experiences.

I think they will stay in touch.

Genealogy has a way of connecting us to past and even to present family members.

Next post:  "Patrick Purcell's Sisters".

Workday Wednesday - Patrick Purcell, A Very Well Connected Night Watchman

My wife's 2nd Great Grandfather, Patrick Purcell, lived in Utica, NY.  He was born in Ireland and arrived in Utica as a young man around 1850.  He was the first of the Purcell family to come to the US.

He lived to be 63.

His last job before he died was as night watchman at the US Post Office in Utica.  Patrick was a Democrat and lost his job as the night watchman after Benjamin Harrison (Republican) became President.  President Harrison took office in March 1899, but Patrick didn't lose his job until December 1899.

The following article appeared in The Utica Sunday Tribune, December 8, 1899.

Changes in the Government Office
Patrick Purcell the veteran night watch man of the Government Building, has been relieved from his duties.  His place has been filled by the appointment of Daniel Brietenatein, one of the janitors of the building.  No complaint was found against Mr. Purcell in regard to his work.  For everyone connected with the Government Building knew that the white haired night guardian was most conscientious in the performance of his duties.  Being on duty for several years, his face had become familiar to many who frequent the postoffice at night.  But "Pat" was a democrat, and somehow or other, ---well, it isn't necessary to say any more on that point, suffice it to state that he has received official notification of his removal.  From another source it was learned the removal was based on the fact that the Government is trying to reduce expenses and the change was therefore made.  Mr. Breitenatein went on duty last night.  It is rumored that in a few days another removal and appointment will be made in the custodian's department.

I was fascinated that the firing of a night watchman was newsworthy.  Of course, it wasn't, but what become clear was that Patrick Purcell was a very well connected night watchman.   He had been active in local politics for years.  He served as delegate to annual Democratic Conventions representing the Eighth Ward of Utica.  I don't know if he was a Ward Boss, but must have had a significant position within the local Democratic Party and had some influence.  So as he grew older, there was no retirement, but he was able to secure a job as a night watchman in a federal building.  This would have been a fairly easy job and great for an older person.

I bet he contacted the newspaper and had a sympathetic ear from people that had known him for years, hence the newspaper article as a sort of slight protest to his being removed.

Patrick must have known how politics worked, probably better than most.  In the 1800's politics were run by the "spoils system" which meant that the winning party essentially controlled all the government jobs.  When a new party took over all the government employees were removed to make way for new employees who were connected to the winning party.  When the new party won, long lines of supporters would show up at government offices looking for jobs.  

In fact, President Garfield was assassinated in 1881 by Charles Guiteau who had been one of his active supporters and a man who believed his contributions to Garfield's election made him owed an ambassadorship.  He was turned down many times for the position and became disgruntled and shot the President.  It was after President Garfield's assassination that the spoils system started to break down and was finally eliminated for all but very senior government positions.


Here is a snippet of an article which shows Patrick Purcell as a critical vote in eliminating a $10,000 clause from a local budget.  He must have been a a significant player in local Utica politics.


So, Patrick wouldn't have been surprised, when his job was offered to a Republican.

Next Post, "Uncovering Patrick Purcell's Irish Origins".

Surname Saturday - Calling all Zembkos

Franciszek Zembko (1933)

Czekam aby połączyć się z członków rodziny Zembko na całym świecie. Proszę o kontakt, jeśli są związane z rodziną Zembko z Polski.

Proszę napisz do mnie klikając na ten link.

Tłumaczenie na język polski poniżej

My wife's father's family is named Zembko. The Zembko surname is very rare in Poland and the United States.  I can't be sure of the accuracy, but I found a website which claimed that you could type in a Polish surname and it will provide you areas on a map of Poland where that surname is present. According to this website, there are less than 100 people in all of Poland with the last name of Zembko. It shows the majority of Zembkos in Poland live in the area near Bialystok.

In the United States, I am aware of only two families with the Zembko surname. One originated from Zembkos who settled in New Britain, Connecticut (I have not been in contact with them) and the Zembko family who settled in Nassau County (Long Island), New York. It is almost certain that these two families are related, but I am not aware of anyone successfully linking them.

The patriarch of the Nassau County NY Zembkos is Franciszek "Frank" Zembko. My research suggests (but is not certain) that Franciszek Zembko was probably born is a small town named Złotoria, Poland, near Bialystok, between 1882-1885. At that time, this region of Poland was under Russian control and the Russians made it difficult for the Polish people. One family story which has been handed down indicates that Franciszek's parents (names unknown), were thrown down a well by Russians as a way of intimidating the local townspeople.


Frank arrived at Ellis Island in April 1901, the passenger list record indicates he was coming to live with his brother-in-law in Mineola, NY, but I am unable to decipher the name on the record.  I have included a reproduction.  Any ideas?  Something...Gonsb or Gonsbly...really no idea.

Franciszek found work as a gardener on one of the many multi-million dollar luxury estates in Locust Valley, NY. He lived in Glen Cove, NY which was very close to where he found employment.

In 1906, he married Bronislawa "Bessie" Bartosiewicz at St Hedwig Polish Roman Catholic Church in Floral Park, NY.  They had 7children: Benjamin, Jean, Chester, Walter, Regina, Henry, Thaddeus. All born in Glen Cove and Locust Valley, NY.

Frank Zembko died in 1935.

I am not aware of any communication between the family and any relatives back in Poland, but there was probably some correspondance.

If you have a connection to the Zembko family from Poland and now live in the United States, Poland or anywhere else in the world, please contact me.  I would love to hear what you know about the family history and where you are now. If I get enough interest, maybe I can create a global website for the Zembko family.

You can email me by clicking here. 


In Polish:

Mojej żony ojca rodzina nazywa Zembko. Nazwisko Zembko jest bardzo rzadkie w Polsce i Stanach Zjednoczonych. I nie możemy być pewni dokładności, ale znalazłem stronę internetową, która twierdziła, że ​​można wpisać polskiego nazwiska i będzie dostarczać Wam obszary na mapie Polski, gdzie, że nazwisko jest obecna. Według tej strony, jest mniej niż 100 osób w całej Polsce z nazwiskiem Zembko. To pokazuje, że większość Zembkos w Polsce mieszkają w okolicy, nieopodal Białegostoku.

W Stanach Zjednoczonych, zdaję sobie sprawę z zaledwie dwóch rodzin z nazwiskiem Zembko. Jeden pochodzi z Zembkos którzy osiedlili się w New Britain, Connecticut (nie byłem w kontakcie z nich) i rodziny Zembko którzy osiedlili się w Nassau County (Long Island), New York. Jest niemal pewne, że te dwie rodziny są ze sobą powiązane, ale nie jestem świadomy ktoś z powodzeniem łącząc je.

Patriarcha Nassau County NY Zembkos jest Franciszek "Frank" Zembko. Moje badania wskazują (ale nie jest pewne), że Franciszek Zembko urodził się prawdopodobnie to małe miasteczko o nazwie Złotoria, Polska, niedaleko Białegostoku, pomiędzy 1882-1885. W tym czasie ten region Polski był pod kontrolą Rosji i Rosjan utrudnia Polacy. Jedna rodzina opowieść, która była przekazywana wskazuje, że Franciszka rodzice (imiona nieznane), zostały rzucone w dół studni przez Rosjan jako sposób zastraszenia lokalnego 
Frank przybył na Ellis Island w kwietniu 1901 roku, zapis listy pasażerów wynika, że ​​zbliża się żyć ze swoim bratem-in-law w Mineola, Nowy Jork, ale nie jestem w stanie rozszyfrować nazwy na płycie. Mam włączone reprodukcję. Jakieś pomysły?
Franciszek znalazł pracę jako ogrodnik w jednej z wielu luksusowych posiadłości milionerów w Locust Valley, Nowy Jork. Żył w Glen Cove, Nowy Jork, który był bardzo blisko miejsca, gdzie znalazł zatrudnienie.
W 1906 roku ożenił się Bronisławy "Bessie" Bartosiewicza na św Jadwigi Polskiego Rzymsko-Katolickiego Kościoła w Floral Park, NY. Mieli X7children: Benjamin, Jean, Chester, Walter, Regina, Henryk, Tadeusz. Wszystko urodził się w Glen Cove i Locust Valley, Nowy Jork.

Frank Zembko zmarł w 1935 roku.

Nie znam żadnej komunikacji między rodziną i wszelkich krewnych z powrotem w Polsce, ale nie było prawdopodobnie niektóre komunikacji.

Jeśli masz połączenie z rodziny Zembko z Polski, a obecnie mieszkają w Stanach Zjednoczonych, Polsce czy 
gdziekolwiek indziej na świecie, proszę o kontakt. Chciałbym usłyszeć, co wiesz o historii rodziny i gdzie jesteś teraz.

Jeśli dostanę tyle zainteresowanie, może uda mi się stworzyć globalną stronę internetową dla rodziny Zembko.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Gula Compiled Genealogy

When I run into a family genealogy roadblock, I always say, “There is someone out there or some document which has the answer, I just need to find it!”    Time and again, I have been proven right.  I have kept digging and either found a document or connected with someone (usually a distant relative)  who has the answer!

My blog has turned out to be a great source of finding relatives, too.   A little over a month ago, Kathy Kasich Gallagher, found my website and connected with me.   Kathy is my 2^nd cousin once removed (not even sure what that means), but it meant that I wasn’t aware of her existence (or she mine), prior to her finding my website.

I reached out to her and we started an email correspondence regarding our shared ancestors, Fedor Gula and Marina (Mary) Bybel Gula.  Kathy had recently visited the ancestral home of the Gula family, Wolowiec, Poland.

I am very lucky to have connected with Kathy.  She shared with me a Gula family genealogy that my great aunt, Rosella Gula Higgins Ficklin had compiled in 1995.  Rosella has since passed away, but not before sharing copies of her research with several family members.   

Based on this compiled genealogy I wanted to share information about Fedor and Marina Bybel Gula.

Fedor and Marina (Mary) Bybel Gula were born in the small village of Wolowiec, in present day southern Poland.   At that time there were only about 700 residents, there are much less today.  At the time of their birth, Wolowiec was  part of Austrian controlled Galicia.    The records suggest they were poor subsistence farmers.

Fedor and Mary Bybel had 9 children (3 died in infancy all born in Wolowiec  (The Russian spelled Wolowiec as Volovice):

• Rose (b. March 11, 1895 d. February 4, 1976 – Shelton, CT)
• Metro Haluschak m. 1913
• Anna (b. February 1,1874 d. May 5, 1925 – Hillsboro, IL)
• Dymtro Pregon m. June 6, 1903
• Andrew (died in infancy)
• Anastasia(No record of Anastasia)
• Peter (He came to the US, but returned to Europe and is believed to have died in WW I)
• George (b. March 18, 1889 d .May 21, 1967 – Scottdale, PA)
• Mary Korba m. July 31, 1915
• John (b. December 18, 1895 d. April 19, 1968 – Scottdale, PA)
• Mary Demnovich m. June 11,1924
• Rosalie (died in infancy)
• Mary (died in infancy)

Just the first of many future posts to come on the Gula family.   This is a picture of my great grandparents:  George Gula and Mary Korba Gula of Scottdale, PA.

Please email me if you are related to the Gula family.  


I am happy to share with you any info that I have on the family.

Mystery Monday - Betsey Armstrong Probate Mystery

My great aunt has written up a short history of the Armstrong family.  One of the more interesting items was that she stated that the Armstrong's had received their original land grant in Cape Elizabeth, Maine from the King of France back in 1747.  She stated that she had seen the original land grant document, but it was destroyed by accident in a fire.

It is likely that the land grant was issued by the King of England as Maine was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1747.  This is prior to the colonies winning their independence from England, which would mean all deeds would have stated that they were grants issued in the name of the King of England.  At this time the King of England used a title which stated he was King of England, Scotland, Ireland and France.  So I could see where some confusion may have occurred.

Another mystery has been the fact that my 3rd great grandmother, Betsey Woodbury Armstrong died April 26, 1876, but the Will land division wasn't executed until 1897.  The explanation for the long period between her death and resolution of her estate was blamed on the fact that the Will needed to be probated in England for some reason.   This is what I have been told as the reason why it took over 20 years to complete probate.

I recently found Betsey's Will which was proved November 7, 1877, which appears to shed some light on this family mystery.

Betsey Armstrong's Will states the following:

First:  I give and bequeath all my property real-or-estate or personal, to my son George P. Armstrong, in order that its income may be applied by the means below named, that may be used for his subsistence and comfort which on account of his infirmities of body and mind, I fear cannot be well provided for by his own labor.

Second:  My will is that upon the death of said George, what then remains of my property shall be distributed among my own legal heirs and Mary Sawyer of Chelsea, Massachusetts, if said Mary is then living, giving said Mary a distributed share equal to that of my heirs in the nearest degree of kindred.

Thirdly:  I hereby institute and appoint Ebenezer (Eben) Armstrong of Portland and Israel Armstrong of Cape Elizabeth, who are my sons, (and in case of their non-acceptance, death, resignation or incapacity to hold and exercise the trust, then my other sons, John and Arthur or such kind and discreet persons as the Judge of Probate may appoint if said John and Arthur do not act) Executors of this my last Will and Testament and appoint them as trustee to hold, manage, or invest said property or estate, during the life of said, George, for his benefit and to apply its income for his subsistence and comfort in the manner most likely to be for his permanent advantage, and if said income is not sufficient for subsistence and comfort to spend the principal part of said property as may be prudent for his comfort and benefit.

As you can see above, Betsey Armstrong's Will is predominantly focused on providing for the support of George P Armstrong.  My research has uncovered that it appears that George had some form of mental retardation.  He must have not had the capacity to take care of himself and his mother was very concerned what would happen to him after her death.  Betsey died in 1876 and it appears that George continued to live in the family home with his brother, John B Armstrong (according to the 1880 US Census).

George P. Armstrong died September 16, 1884.  He was only 51 years old.

I have to say from reading the Betsey's Will it isn't entirely clear how her estate should be distributed.  It seems reasonable to imply that there should be an equal distribution of the assets to all of her children, plus an equal share to Mary Sawyer (Israel Armstrong's wife).  So there may have been some questions about how it should be executed.   This would be something the named executors would need to work out.  Eben and Israel were named executors.  However, Eben died March 18, 1884 and Israel had moved with his family to Salem, NH.  Salem is about 90 miles from Portland, Maine.  What today is only an 1 hour and 30 minute drive probably would have taken at least a whole days travel in the 1880s.  At that time there were no cars and no highways.  This may have impacted his ability to act as  executor.   His wife, Mary Sawyer Armstrong, had passed away in 1875.  

My 2nd great grandfather, John B Armstrong, became the executor of the estate.

It is important to note that Betsey Woodbury Armstrong had been married prior to her marriage to John Armstrong.  She had been married to William Dyer.  Together they had at least three children:  Woodbury Dryer, Benjamin and William.  Only Benjamin was still alive in 1884.  Benjamin is not mentioned in the Will, but he is one of Betsey's sons and may have contested the Will if the executors may have been reluctant to provide him an equal share.  Also, the land that Betsey references has been in the Armstrong family for over 100 years and none of the land was from the Dyer family. It is almost certain had Betsey's husband, John Armstrong, outlived her, that none of the Dyer children would have been included in distribution of the family lands.

The theory of a contested Will seems to be the most likely reason for the delay in the final distribution of the estate.  The final property distribution took place in 1897 and is the subject of my post "Armstrong Family Land Division - 1897".  

Check out that post for the final details.

When conducting this research around land records and probate records on the Armstrong family, I found an invaluable online resource, the Cumberland County Registry of Deeds Online.  They have records from 1855 to present day, with original records available for viewing online by clicking on the "view images" tab.  If you have relatives who lived in Cumberland County, Maine this is a great source for more information about them and their land transactions and possibly find a copy of their Wills.