Skip to main content

The Yeager & Luden Saga | Another Clue...

Source: 
Deed of Sale from Amos B. Yeager to Jacob Luden, 1855 (filed 2 April 1855), Berks County, Pennsylvania, Deed Grantor 1752-1926, page 2. Recorder of Deeds Office, City of Reading, Pennsylvania. <https://portal2.recordfusion.com/countyweb/disclaimer.do>

 
 
In my two previous posts, HERE and HERE, I outlined an intriguing family mystery from my mother's maternal line - specifically involving the LUDEN and YEAGER families of Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania.  Nutshelll summary: I have lingering paternity questions about my 3rd great-grandfather, who was born just before my 4th great-grandmother and grandfather divorced.  Until I started working on our family history, I was unaware that my 4th g-grandmother had been previously married (with two children, no less); quite a bombshell discovery.  Autosomal DNA testing is casting some doubt on my 3rd great-grandfather's paternity.  A very complicated mystery indeed!

Just last week, I spent time digging through the Berks County, Pennsylvania Recorder of Deeds online search tool.  While the results provided are indexed records (typed summaries of the actual record), it is possible to contact the office for actual copies.  Low and behold, I found a very fascinating nugget of information!

Remember in my last article that I gave a timeline for my 4th great-grandparents' divorce.  Here's a recap:

  • April 21, 1856 - Amos Bright Yeager (1808-1889) files for divorce from Sarah (Musser) Yeager (later, Luden).
  • April 22, 1856 - Sarah Musser Yeager served papers.
  • September 30, 1857 - Interrogations completed and filed.
  • June 7, 1858 - Case closed - plaintiff (Amos Yeager) pays court fees.
*My 3rd great-grandfather, Edward Musser Luden (1854-1920) is born on 9 November, 1854*

SO - let's look at the image above from the Register of Deeds.  In April of 1855, Amos Yeager sells his N 5th Street, Reading, PA home to Jacob Luden.  At this point, I am not sure exactly where he and his wife, Sarah, live until he eventually files for divorce the following year; I cannot find a record of another mortgage to determine whether or not he purchased another home.  Ironically, when Sarah and Amos divorce, she ends up living in the N 5th Street home with her new husband - Jacob Luden - and their children, including my 3rd great-grandfather.  As I mentioned in a previous post, Amos Yeager moves to the Mishler Hotel with his two children, Frederick Musser Yeager and Susan Ann Yeager.

Interesting twist, yes?

From my conversations with another researcher in Berks County, I understand that Amos Yeager sued Jacob Luden in conjunction with the divorce case whose timeline I noted above.  A separate filing. 

You'll also see on the image above that Amos sold another property to a Conrad Beidler in a Deed of Assignment in 1855 (recorded March 1856).  From what I can tell, a deed of assignment usually occurs when a person in debt (Amos Yeager, I believe) assigns a property to another party in lieu of filing for bankruptcy.  Could it be that he had some sort of underlying financial problems at the time or leading up to the divorce?

Questions, questions!
 








Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pay It Forward

A bit of joy for my Friday! Our mail delivery within our little military community here in Sicily is so.very.sloooooow.  What makes it maddening is that it can be a combination of super-fast and super-slow...so no one seems to balk at the trend of inconsistency.  Maybe I complain enough for everyone :). I'm in the middle of a few genealogical mysteries - one of them being the family origins of a Mr. Joseph W. Daly, a paternal great-grandfather of my husband.  Like most of the challenging parts of our tree, I hit a wall with Joseph a few months back and promptly put him aside when something a little more lucrative came along.  For sake of ease.  Now, we meet again.  For this one, I even consulted a few curious friends.  I felt like maybe I wasn't searching deep enough or with the right "keywords" online or in my genealogy search engines.  Some researchers have favored methodologies for searching, and I felt I needed to branch out.  One ...
11 comments
Read more

Lingering Questions...

 There is a huge, genealogical elephant in my living room.   Every so often, he nudges me with his trunk, he asks for fresh water, and bats his long eyelashes at me in hopes that I will scratch behind his giant elephant ears. My theory about family history research is that nothing is as cut and dry as it seems at first.   Dig a little deeper – search a few newspaper archives – and you’ll either make your particular research question a) more complicated, or b) exceptionally clear in a way you never expected. By the time I actually his “POST” on this article, I will most likely have re-written it several times.   This elephant is giant.   HUGE.   Effecting the way an entire branch of my family will view its identity – even its surnames.   I’m putting on kid gloves.   But most importantly – I want to outline for my extended family and my future family exactly how I arrived at my present hypothesis.   I feel deeply convicted that ...
2 comments
Read more

Chicken or Duck?

I'm feeling a little scattered these days.  Could be the breezy Fall weather - a wonderful sight after three long years in Sicily's arid climate.  Instead of olive and blood orange trees, I'm gazing out of my kitchen window appreciating our collection of hardwoods.  Leaves are everywhere, and the piles are only going to get bigger.  I am treasuring every last one. My research brain is also a bit scattered.  A little genetic genealogy over here...a little "other people's genealogy" over there.  Most of this is flat-out procrastination from dealing with the pile of photos I need to archive and the folder of newly-located probate records to transcribe.  There's also that little thing of needing to manage my household.  Oh, and clean.  And feed children :). In the meantime, I stumbled upon a snippet from the Reading Times (A Web Footed Chicken (1890, August 4).  The Reading Times , p. 1.  Retrieved from www.newspapers.com)). Sar...
3 comments
Read more