SNGF on July 19 Took Me Down a Rabbit Hole Searching for Abel Armitage

Randy Seaver offered a fun activity (fun and easy, depending on the ancestor) for last week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (SNGF) on July 19.  

1. FamilySearch Full-Text Search continues to add databases and searchable images to their collections.  This is a gold mine, especially of land, probate and court records.
2. Pick one or two of your ancestors and see what you can find on FamilySearch Full-Text Search about them.

Yes, Fun! I thought.  I'll look for my second-great-grandfather Abel Armitage (who disappears after about 1881).  This is a search I periodically repeat but had not yet searched on FS's Full-Text Search.  Surely something will turn up this time!

I already knew Abel's birth (1821) and marriage (1847) information; the names of his daughters by his first wife; his approximate immigration date (1864); and where he lived after he arrived (Steubenville, Jefferson, Ohio).  And I knew he was a coal miner in both England and the U.S.  Abel and family are in the 1870 and 1880 U.S. Census with the latter indicating that he'd been unemployed for 8 months and was disabled.  

I also knew that Abel and his wife Ann had sued the city of Steubenville.  Details that I already know from City Council records can be found here, in a previous post. 

The three major facts I'd like to learn about Abel are 
  1.  when he died
  2.  where he died, and
  3.  where he was buried.
And then I'll want to know how he died, who paid for his burial, etc., etc., etc.

I suspected this fun activity could lead me down a rabbit hole again, but no matter, I went to Full-Text Search anyway.  My find this time was this, below (from Steubenville City Council Proceedings, Miscellaneous Records January 1876-March 1882, both image and volume page 403.  Image and volume page 400 give the date as May 10, 1881) which can be viewed here.

Be it ordained by the counsel of the City of Steubenville that there be and hereby is appropriate[d] out of the monies in the Treasury not otherwise appropriate[d] the following Sums of money to the following named here after named namely...
             Abel Armitage   [$] 207.84

I conclude from this that Abel was likely still alive in May, 1881, though it's possible he had already died.

But why I can't I find him?  My thoughts about what might have happened to Abel after 1881 and why I can't find evidence of ran along these lines:

• Did he die in a coal mine accident?  If so, in Ohio?  Or in West Virginia?  Or in Pennsylvania?  Those three states "meet" along the Ohio River.  As a coal miner, he could have moved to any of them.  I know both Pennsylvania and West Virginia had coal mines.  But he might not have died in a coal mine accident. 
• After collecting $207.84 from the Steubenville City Council, might he have moved back to England?  Of course that took me to websites to check on the cost of travel from Ohio to England, via train, then ship, between 1881 and 1910.  He would have had enough money, unless he owed more than half of it to the lawyer.  I did a brief search to see if there was an Abel Armitage living in Durham or West Yorkshire, England, after 1881.  I didn't see him yet.
• What about the pronunciation of his name?  Would it sound like it's written?  Ar-ma-tage?  Or might a British speaker silence the "r" and pronounce it Amitage,, or Amidage, or even Ammatage?  So I had to see if I could learn how the British might pronounce it.  Turns out it is pronounced in a variety of ways, including with a nearly silent "r."  Pronunciation could affect how the name is spelled in U.S. English, which means I need to search for a variety of spellings in records.
• And then there are spelling/misspelling variations in records, such as Harmitage, Amitadge, Armetage, Armittage, etc.  I had to look up those variations, too.

While this rabbit hole didn't take me to more records for Abel Armitage, I have ideas of places to continue my search now.

1. I should find out the location of mines near the Ohio River in all three states.
2. I should look for a death record and probate and property records in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, specifically the counties that had coal mines.
3. I should do a more in-depth search of records in England, especially in the counties where I knew he lived.  Abel Armitage is not a common name, but it's more common in England than one would think.
4. My searches need to be broader in the spelling of the last name, in the time range, and in possible locations. 

Where, oh where could Abel have gone, and where could he have died, and is there a record to find?

Thank you, Randy, for a week's worth of genealogy fun going down a rabbit hole.  It's good to think more thoroughly about possibilities for ancestors.  My searches this week didn't lead to Abel's end, but I'm not giving up yet!

Do you have ancestors from the 1800s that you're unable to find?

If any of you readers have suggestions for me, I'd be thrilled to read them.  Thank you.

—Nancy.

Copyright © 2025 Nancy Messier.  All Rights Reserved. 
Do not copy or use any content from this blog without written permission from the owner. 
.