Genealogy research is not for the faint of heart. One must have grit, determination and be of sound constitution to spend the hours often required to break through brick walls. My particular brick wall has been nearly 35 years in duration, and while not yet solved, it is getting close to toppling.
For three decades I’ve been searching for Simpsons, the paternal lineage of my beloved grandmother, Goldie Mae (Simpson) Uphouse Edwards. She knew very little of her father’s roots; he talked scarcely of his family she said, but even if he had, she was only a child then. He died when she was just 17.
Ernest Loren Simpson was the father of my grandmother, and with cousin collaboration pre-dating the internet, I was furnished with the following transcribed document listing Ernest’s grandparents:[1]
John M Simpson
18 Feb., 1793-14 Aug., 1859
Charlotte M. Simpson (Bornan)
17 Jan., 1802 –
At the National Archives I was able to find the Simpsons with the use of soundexed microfilm (remember, this was a decade prior to Ancestry.com and popular home use of the internet), which led me to the following enumeration:[2]
George & Achsa [Sisco] Simpson with known children Martin and Susan, along with Achsa’s younger sister, Emily Sisco. And……Magul Simpson with wife Charlotte and son Ralph.
Magul: what an odd name, I thought. For the better part of twenty years I believed that to be John Simpson’s middle name. And that assumption was a huge part of my brick wall.
Exhausting research interests on my other family lines, in 2018 I began in earnest to dig up what I could find on the Simpsons. I challenged what I thought I knew and took a fresh look at the information I had. I tried other search tactics, including searching for Charlotte Simpson instead of John, and there it was:
MAYEL Simpson, head of household, with Charlotte Simpson.
A lightbulb moment came when I realized that Ernest’s brother, veterinary surgeon George M. Simpson was NOT George Maxel Simpson as I had misread on his death certificate. He was actually George Mayel Simpson, having been given the same middle name as his grandfather.
Definitely on the right track.
I found some other documents, newspaper articles and other censuses which I’ll list below, but the real revelation happened last year with FamilySearch lab’s incredible use of AI to search the text of un-indexed records. Playing around one evening I typed in “Mayel Simpson” and was rewarded with the following document:
To William Haywood Administrator of Elisabeth Grapes or Rider estate. Please to pay to Elisha Webster the bearer the sum that is coming to me out of her estate and this shall be your discharge from me. Brunswick [Vermont] August 2d 1849.
Charlotte Simpson
Mayel Simpson
WOWEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!
A major breakthrough, all because of a unique middle name and AI technology! Yay!!
This note was part of the probate file of Elisabeth (Schoff) Grapes Ryder, the previously unknown grandmother of Charlotte. Another page in the file clarified the relationships:
Elisabeth (Schoff) was the widow of Philip Grapes. She later married Peter Ryder, whom she also survived. Elisabeth (Schoff) Grapes Ryder had three children, per the above document:
- Dolly [Grapes] Smith
- Betsey [Grapes] Moulton
- Jacob Grapes
Because Betsey had pre-deceased her mother, the probate file lists her children, heirs to the estate, and among them is Charlotte, a resident of “Lawrence [illegible] NY”.[3]
So what does Charlotte’s parentage have to do with John Mayel Simpson’s own family? Hang tight.
While AI is helpful, it’s definitely not perfect. Armed with a new location for Charlotte’s family (Brunswick, Essex County, Vermont, where the probate listed her grandmother’s residence), I perused the digitized microfilm for the town of Brunswick and was rewarded with the marriage record for John Mayel and Charlotte:[4]
Be it remembered that at Brunswick State & County aforesaid on the 12th day of January 1818 that John M. Morse and Charlott Moulton both of Brunswick [were] duly joined in marriage by Thomas G French, Justice Peace
Now it all makes sense.
Combining DNA with my genealogy research, I’ve seen an overwhelming number of DNA matches with the surname MORSE in their family trees. I’ve also confirmed the paper trail in this post with genetics, and have DNA matches with the expected amount of centimorgans to descendants of Elisabeth (Schoff) Grapes Ryder.
So while I do know that John Mayel Simpson is actual John Mayel MORSE, what is unknown is what prompted the name change.
I also do not know if Charlotte was really descended from a Moulton on her paternal side, or if she is truly a Bornan, and raised by Nathaniel Moulton, the only male in town at the time and who has documentation supporting he is at least the father of Charlotte’s siblings named in the probate documents.
In case you are still skeptical, here are the additional list of documents in which John M. Simpson AKA John M. Morse is called Mayel Simpson:
- October 1839, paid for services by town of Black Brook, Clinton Co, NY.[5] (Note that the obituary of his son, Wallace R. Simpson, places John M. Morse/Simpson in this location; the obituary states Wallace was born May in Au Sable Forks, New York, a little town adjacent to Black Brook with boundaries in both Clinton and Essex counties.[6]
- 1840 US Census, Black Brook, Clinton Co., NY[7]
- January 1841, paid for services by town of Black Brook, Clinton Co., NY[8]
- October 1843 session of the Clinton Co., NY court of common pleas as witness in case of Mattoon vs. Perrier
- 1845 NY State Census, Fort Covington, Franklin Co., NY (enumerated immediately prior to his wife’s grandfather, Asa Wilson)[9]
- October 1847 lease of land, Joseph Tyler of Lawrence to Mayel Simpson of Fort Covington[10]
- 1850 US Census, Hopkinton, St. Lawrence Co, NY (enumerated immediately after son and daughter-in-law, George W. and Achsa (Sisco) Simpson; head of household with wife Charlotte and son [Wallace] Ralph)[11]
- 1854 lease of land, James Weir of Edward, St. Lawrence Co., NY to Mayel Simpson of Wilna, Jefferson Co., NY and wife Mary C. Simpson[12]
- 1855 NY State Census, Brownsville, Jefferson Co., NY, enumerated with wife Charlotte and presumed daughter-in-law, Mary (Sturtevant) Simpson with grandchildren Charlotte and Cornelia Simpson[13]
- April 1855 sale of land, Mayal Simpson and Sharlott his wife of Pamelia, Jefferson Co, NY to Samuel Keyes of Wilna
[1] Transcription sent to Winnifred Sisco 30 June 1993 by Michelle Whiting, the 2nd great granddaughter of John Mayel Simpson.
[2] 1850 U.S. Census, Saint Lawrence County, New York, population schedule, Hopkinton, p. 326B, dwelling 252, family 262, Mayel and Charlotte Simpson with son Ralph. NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 591.
[3] Residence in that town is confirmed by St. Lawrence Co., NY deed 40B:320 dated 1 October 1847 in which Mayel Simpson leases land in Lawrence from Joseph Tyler.
[4] “Vermont, Essex, Brunswick Town and vital records, 1796-1888,” browsable images, FamilySearch.org, citing Brunswick, Essex Co., VT, microfilmed records. FHL microfilm no. 889278.
[5] “Report of the Acts and Doings of the board of Supervisors,” Plattsburgh (New York) Republican, 30 November 1839, payables for town of Black Brook with Mayell Simpson; images online, New York State Historic Newspapers (http://www.nyshistoricnewspapers.org : accessed 25 June 2022).
[6] “DIED,” obituary, Humboldt County (Iowa) Independent, 18 July 1901, Wallace R. Simpson; online images, NewspaperArchive (http://www.newspaperarchive.com : accessed 20 March 2022).
[7] 1840 U.S. Census, Clinton County, New York, population schedule, Black Brook, p. 198, line 9, Mayell Simpson; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 December 2018); NARA microfilm publication M704, roll 276.
[8] “Town Accounts – Black Brook,” Plattsburgh (New York) Republican, 8 January 1841, 1840 payables; images online, New York State Historic Newspapers (http://www.nyshistoricnewspapers.org : images online 20 May 2023).
[9] “NewYorkRoots.org,” database, Library of Congress, Internet Archive (https://web.archive.org/web/20150905052231/http://www.newyorkroots.org/: accessed 25 June 2022), entry for Mayel Simpson.
[10] St. Lawrence Co., NY deed 40B:320 dated 1 October 1847 in which Mayel Simpson leases land in Lawrence from Joseph Tyler.
[11] 1850 U.S. Census, Saint Lawrence County, New York, population schedule, Hopkinton, p. 326B, dwelling 252, family 262, Mayel and Charlotte Simpson with son Ralph. NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 591.
[12] “United States, New York Land Records, 1630-1975,” database with images, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org: accessed 23 July 2022), Mayel and Mary C. Simpson to James Weir, 15 November 1854, St. Lawrence County, NY deed 49B:331.
[13] 1855 NY State Census, Jefferson County, New York; population schedule, Brownville, n.n., household 1, Mayel and Charlotte Simpson with Mary, Charlotte and Cornelia; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 February 2025).