Evidence for the various children of Sam Mulholland sr and his wife Jane Bullock has gradually accumulated from multiple sources. Genealogical proof can be a challenge in early Michigan history when few records were kept and even fewer survived. Further, Sam and Jane were illiterate, using an X for signing their names. Many stories and evidence for the extended Washtenaw Mulholland clan are elsewhere on this blog.
This is a tale of how DNA may tell us what missing documents may not. It is as yet hypothesized as a single DNA match is not enough. The tale is posted here in hopes others may supplement what is now suspected.
The Documentary Evidence for a Connection
The single documentary source suggesting that Sam and Jane Mulholland had another daughter is a marriage record from 1833. The nuptials of Pheba Mulholand and William Cargill are recorded in the first county marriage register:
Territory of Michigan, Washtenaw County. Be it remembered that on the second day of September Eighteen hundred & third three that the marriage of William Cargill and Pheba Mulholand was solemnized before me, one of the Justices of the Peace in and for the said county of Washtenaw, E. Munday.
Except for this entry, not one solid piece of documentary evidence has been found for the couple, including any clear link to the Sam Mulholland family. Only conjecture suggested she is related, given that the extended family arrived in 1833 and they seem to be the only Mulhollands in Washtenaw County at the time. Further, a daughter old enough to marry in 1833 would be just the right age to fill the gap between James and Sam jr, a rather long period for there to have been no children. Earlier genealogists made this assumption, and it remains a reasonable one, though until now very hypothetical even if reasonable.
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| Marriage register for Washtenaw County, 1833 |
Desperately Seeking Phebe
As any genealogist will tell you, finding females is far more difficult in times past than finding males. Most official records only recorded the names of white men who owned property, were able to vote, headed the family, and gave their names to a spouse so female maiden names were lost. Until 1850, census records for Michigan had no names except male heads-of-household. Official birth and death records were not required in Michigan until 1867 and even then were less than complete until the 20th century. No regular church records were kept in most early Michigan communities, with many rural churches sharing a traveling clergyman.
In the case of Phebe Mulholland, the first line of search is to follow her husband. William Cargill seems to have left little trace. Like her Mulholland brothers, a William Cargill appears as a petitioner to Congress for road improvements in Michigan in 1833 suggesting this is the man Phebe married. The petition may indicate a link to the family although petitioner William did not sign with the others from Washtenaw County. But beyond the petition and the marriage register, William cannot be found after 1833. Searches for varied spellings (some family historians gave the name as Carlisle or Carroll) did not reveal the couple in later years, even beyond the boundaries of the state. As shown by marriages for sisters Eliza and Jane, misspelled husband names can be a problem in finding these women.
So what happened to the Cargills? One might just assume bad record keeping has kept them hidden. But other directions are possible which have been noted by genealogists seeking women who were invisible from official record keeping.
One option is that both William and Phebe died young in one of the many epidemics that swept the countryside in those days. With no formal recordings of deaths, and no formal cemeteries in Superior Township, they were quietly buried and lost to history.
But another option when women disappear is a quite different story. Because of early deaths, both men and women found new spouses and many families show multiple marriages because of the demands for labor to raise families and manage the many chores of farming. Daily life did not favor singles. Widows or widowers remarried soon after the death of a spouse or had to find lodging with their siblings. A widow who remarries can be hard to find when there are no records of marriages, and those that exist do not show other family members.
Could Phebe have remarried after a tragic early death of William?
OMG, another Phebe?
With online records, it has become easier to look more broadly at possible family connections. One of the reasons for a more extensive search for Phebe was finding other lost sisters who had been uncertain because early records from Washtenaw County had been misleading. Names were misspelled and dates uncertain for this early period, and in one case only deed records were the needed link.
With so few Mulhollands (and other similar spellings) in Michigan in the early 1800s, there are few individuals to trace in depth. With my retirement in the mid 2010s, I had the opportunity to spend more time on research and actually found a Phebe Mulholland of the right age and in the right places. At the time, I posted her story online in hopes others could supplement what was known, but after years of no further revelations, I removed the extended story as too speculative. Yes, it appeared that Phebe had remarried and was living only a short distance from her sister Sarah in Genesee County, Michigan. But no, records just did not provide the needed support.
DNA to the Rescue
Retirement has provided the time to learn more about DNA genealogy, at the same time online databases for DNA have expanded to include more people. For the first time, I found a link that was more than speculation based on age and place. A match to a descendant of Phebe, and no other known links to my family! Yes, I did a happy dance although I realize that one link for such an early ancestor is still weak. So once again, I am posting the documentary story for what happened to the missing Phebe, and hoping that future DNA evidence will emerge to strengthen the connection. At present, the DNA evidence was found in the Ancestry DNA database for a single linkage between my father and a descendant of Phebe. Limited evidence but a start that remains worth further examination.
Below is the posting I removed earlier based on the documentary records, but now can argue more strongly as correct based on DNA evidence.
How many Mulhollands are there in Michigan?
A tantalizing possibility is that the Pheba Mulholland Cargill from the marriage register was not lost, but remarried. From surviving records, Mulhollands in Michigan before about 1840 seem to come only from three families: the Superior Mulhollands related to Sam sr, the Monroe Mulhollands in the Daniel Mulholand family, and by about 1840, Steele Mulholland who settled in Ann Arbor.
So when a Phebe Mulholland appears about 1835, there is at least a possibility that she is the same one from the marriage record. What if her husband died not long after the marriage and she found another husband? And what if this newly identified Phebe is the right age, although admittedly her name is hardly unique so a leap of faith is required for this to be the true story. Even more tantalizing is the fact her sister Sarah settled in Genesee County with her husband, William Sissins. How convenient to find Phebe Mulholland just at the right time in Michigan records! And if she followed in the footsteps of her sisters, it is no surprise that her family moved away from Washtenaw County where only the Mulholland sons settled for the long term.
The following story is accurate in terms of a Phebe Mulholland who lived in Michigan and is the right age. While there is documentation of her name and age, as yet there is no documentary evidence that clearly links her to the Washtenaw family.
Phebe Mulholland Barber of Genesee County
Henry Barber, born about 1808 in Ireland, was married to Phebe Mulholland, also born in Ireland about the same year. With their oldest son born in 1836 in Michigan, a good guess is they married about 1835 in the state. The family first appears in 1850, when the census shows them living in Genesee County with son Robert, age 15, and six daughters ages one to twelve. Based on census records, the family added one additional daughter in 1853. A 1916 history of Genesee County indicates Henry Barber had settled in the eastern part of Mount Morris Township by 1839 not long after the initial settlers about 1833-34 (although the formal organization of the township did not happen until 1850). A Henry Barlow appears in Genesee County in the 1840 census with household members of the right age to be the Barber family, possibly name misspelled.
Henry Barber grist mill in Mt. Morris, 1873
Henry was a very prosperous farmer and enterpreneur, paying taxes on land in sections 2 and 3 in 1844 and section 1, 2 and 3 in 1855. He accumulated lands and businesses estimated at $35,000 by 1870, including the local steam-powered grain mill in Mount Morris. According to the 1873 Bradstreet report, Henry's mill business was rated "superior business credit and ability, and in excellent credit." Henry served as township treasurer in 1860, 1867, and 1871.
Henry and Phebe lived out their lives in the Mt. Morris area of Genesee County, and son Robert remained there throughout his life as well. By contrast, the daughters married and some moved West, with daughters Emeline Barber Warner, Melissa Sarah Barber Ingersoll, and Eliza Barber Woodin all ending in California. The others settled in nearby Flint.
Where the family lived before 1839 is uncertain, as is their arrival from Ireland other than the fact all their children were born in Michigan from at least 1836 onward. Intriguing but inconclusive is an older Henry Barber in Superior Township in 1840, and a Henry Barber from the same county who was an original land patent purchaser in Handy Township, Livingston County in the same section as James and John Mulholland. Could this be Henry's family? Given inaccuracies in the early census records and lack of names for family members other than the head-of-household, the connection is unclear.
Phebe’s maiden name is known from death records for her children. Robert’s death record shows his parents as Henry Barber and Phebe Mulholland. Daughter Lucy Barber Milner is shown as the child of Henry Barber and Phebe McHolland (a common misspelling of Mulholland). Census records from 1850, 1860, and 1870 consistently show Phebe’s birth date of about 1808 or 1809 in Ireland, at least potentially possible for the person who was married in 1833, and fits neatly in the gap between Sam sr.’s sons.
Phebe Mulholland Barber’s death and burial are unknown, but her husband appears alone in the 1880 census at age 71 and is not again in records after this date. It is probable they are buried on the farm where they spent their lives in Mt. Morris Township in graves no longer remembered (the Mt. Morris cemetery was not established until 1878). But perhaps Phebe Mulholland Barber will yet reveal the secret of her family connections to other Mulhollands and our family tree in some yet unfound cache of records.
Note: this posting has been revised multiple times as different evidence has come to light to suggest new directions. With a single DNA link it remains a hypothesis, even if a good one. The current posting is from January 2023. Documentation for the Barber-Mulholland family is in my family tree on Ancestry. Would love to hear from you if you have suggestions!
