I do not know why it took me so long to write this article. When I found out the news, I was so excited. There were a couple of people who helped me find this information. Also, I was given the name of a woman who was going to the very place to find records for people doing genealogy in N.J.
The story goes like this; I have a great grandmother named Capitola Grinlinton, who, according to most of our records that I have, was born in New York. The only other information on Capitola was her father's name was Robert Grinlinton. Never could I find Capitola in any census records as a child. However, I did find her as a married adult.
On her death certificate, it stated she was born in Ill. I have no idea why this was listed there, but I kept it in the back of my mind.
There was a Grinlinton family that was listed in a few census records. Robert Grinlinton and Julia Carnrike were married around Albany in 1853, I think. We followed this family around and found them in New Jersey, then in Brooklyn. But there was a strange twist in this story. There were newspaper articles telling about a Robert Grinlinton who murdered another man. There were enough articles out there that gave information on what happened. I saved some of them to my computer.
The story goes like this; Robert and his friend stopped off at what would be the equivalent of a bar. Witnesses told what they heard about this case. Someone heard Robert saying that he would not be able to stay long as one of his children was scalded by hot water. (If I heard my child was scalded by hot water, I wouldn't have stopped off anywhere!). There were three guys, Robert, a friend, and someone new to the group. Witnesses said that the men seemed to be getting along well. Robert offered the new man a job in the boiler room, someone said. Well, a little while later, the three men got drunk. The new guy beat up Robert's friend. Apparently, the new guy was going after Robert, but Robert had a knife and stabbed the men in the chest. Robert was arrested and went to jail.
The question I had all along was, is this the Robert Grinlinton who was my great great grandfather? This family ended up on Mulberry street in the slums of New York. Someone pointed out that there was a prison in that area at that time. (BTW, the final charge ended up being manslaughter in the third degree).
I continued to follow this family, where they lived and when they moved, etc. They stayed in Mulberry Bend until the late 1880s. Robert must have died and Julia moved in with the daughter who lived in New Jersey, then moved to live with her son, also named Robert, who relocated to New Jersey as well.
What I found fascinating was that the area where both the son and daughter lived in New Jersey, was very close to the place where my grandfather was christened. The name of that church was Bethel Presbyterian Church located in East Orange, New Jersey.
But, the mystery still remained. I did a good job with the help of many researchers in finding and tracing this family. But was this the actual family Capitola came from? Why did her death certificate say she was from Illinois?
The whole key to this question would be answered if I could only find the name of Capitola Grinlinton's mother. There were a few Robert Grinlintons out there. But which one was my great-great grandfather? If there were only some way I could find Capitola's mom's name. Was it Julia Carnrike? If so, we have our family.
So, the woman doing New Jersey research found the marriage certificate I desperately needed. Capitola Grinlinton was marrying George William Guth, and I believe the year was 1889.
I opened my email box one afternoon and found a reply from the woman doing research for me. I thought it was rather quick to get the answer to my question, but I opened up the email and there was the information on the marriage certificate. I looked through it slowly and gingerly. And I found what I was looking for. There it was, the name of Capitola Grinlinton's mom. It was listed as Julia Conright, which I know is just a variation of the spelling of that name. People wrote down words as they sounded.
So yes, that meant that my great great grandfather murdered someone while drunk. No one in my family ever told me about that. I doubt if my dad knew about it. It was a well kept family secret, I guess.
Concerning my great grandmother living in Illinois; we figured out that she probably went on an orphan train to Illinois. What would happen in those days is that if a family couldn't afford to take care of their children, they would send them on an orphan train, and there were families who would take the children in, and sometimes adopt them. The children learned to work on farms, many times. Some children had bad experiences though with the families they were placed with.
On the census record with the name that looks very similar to my great grandmother's there were questions where the answers were filled in. It said she was born in New York. But it said that her parents came from France. This is interesting because her parents were both from New York, but, her future in laws came from Alsace-Lorraine, which was, at that time, part of France. So that begs the question, did she know her future in laws as a child? Maybe they sponsored her, and as she got to know the family, she became acquainted with her future husband, George William Guth? Only God knows the answer. Well, they knew the answer, but since they are not here with us today, it will remain a mystery.
