Genealogists reach conclusions based on evidence. Those conclusions get tested over time as more evidence surfaces. Yesterday’s conclusion may no longer fit today’s evidence.
This case involves a man named Matthew VanAmburg, who appeared to be an early settler of Michigan Territory, by at least 1830.1 He was my fifth-great-grandfather.
As a baby genealogist, I collected names — like everyone does. I collected his name and his wife’s, a woman named Harriet Hubbard, as the parents of a direct-line ancestor named John Nelson VanAmburg. It honestly didn’t move much further than that until recent research sessions, when I got a good reminder in revisiting conclusions.
When to Revise Your Genealogy Conclusions
When I recently took another look at Matthew and Harriet, I found a derivative source stating that the couple had married in 1840.2 This presented a bit of an issue for my research. The man I had linked to them as a son, John Nelson, had been born 13 July 1820.3 His birth a full 20 years before the marriage raised obvious questions about whether Harriet was John Nelson’s mother. Both of these sources were derivative, meaning the were records made from other records. Derivative records do provide information, and sometimes answer a research question, but should be treated as an invitation to dig further.
I took another look at that 1830 census (an image of which begins this post). U.S. Census documents prior to 1850 list only the name of the head of the household. Other occupants are represented by hash marks in columns denoting their age range. Matthew’s household in 1830 had four hashes:
- A boy between 5 and 10 years old
- A male adult between ages 30 and 40
- A girl under five years old
- A female adult between the ages of 20 and 30
The boy was consistent with the age of my John Nelson ancestor. We can presume the adult male was probably the named Matthew VanAmburg. That left the girl, potentially a sister to John Nelson I had not yet identified, and the female adult, born between about 1800 and 1810. If that adult female was the mother of John Nelson born in 1820, we could probably limit that timeframe to about 1800-1805 (reasoning that she would have probably been at least 15 when she married).
Harriet appeared as the presumed wife of Matthew in the 1850 U.S. census.4 We can infer her birth year from that document as about 1797, a little earlier than 1800-1805. The woman represented by the hash mark in 1830 could still be Harriet, but a three to eight year age difference between the two documents was notable.
My research question became: Was Harriet the mother of John Nelson? Or was his mother an unknown, slightly younger first wife to Matthew?
Genealogy Conclusions Are Always Open to Revision
In Michigan and many other areas during the 19th century, property records for a male ancestor may mention his spouse. Knowing that, I turned to FamilySearch and their vast collection of land-related records. It didn’t take long to track down a land sale involving Matthew and a man I suspected to be his father.5 It described the two parties as “Matthew Vanamburgh and Ruth Vanamburgh of Farmington in the County of Oakland and Territory of Michigan” and “Henry Vanamburgh” of the same. The date was 14 April 1828.
At the end of the document, “Ruth Vanamburgh the wife of the said Matthew” was given a separate “dower interview.” At the time, a wife would have had right to a portion of her husband’s property as a way to ensure her livelihood should the husband die. When he sold property during his lifetime, the dower interview was conducted to ensure she was not coerced into the sale.
This original land record provided primary evidence for an earlier wife of Matthew. I couldn’t yet say that Ruth was John Nelson’s mother, but I could say she was more likely his mother than Harriet.
This research session started with an inconsistency turned up by a newly found marriage record. It ended with Harriet Hubbard potentially losing her status as a straight-line ancestor. As always, more research was called for, but at least I had a new name to go on.
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- United States (U.S.), 1830 Census, Oakland County, Michigan Territory, population schedule, page 74, line 6, Matthew Vanamburgh household; imaged, “United States, Census, 1830,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9YY1-XJ4 : accessed 15 July 2026) > Michigan Territory > Oakland > Not Stated, image 6 of 63; citing National Archives and Records Administration. ↩︎
- “Calhoun, Michigan, United States records,” imaged, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BL-6Q4X-W : accessed 15 July 2026) > Image Group no. 007727326, image 451 of 706. ↩︎
- Kent County, Michigan Cemetery Records, Vol. 10, 1942, Ada, Cascade, Vergennes, Lowell and Bowne Twps., Sophie De Marsac Cammpau Chapter, D.A.R., p. 57, Cascade Cemetery (G.S.1), Cascade Township, “Record taken June 16, 1925,” transcriptions of grave markers, alphabetized, markers of early VanAmburgs; imaged, “Kent County cemetery records: Vol. 9-12 Miscellaneous townships,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C342-1J2P : accessed 15 June 2025) > Film no. 008621254, image 337 of 1,180; citing the National Library of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Washington, D.C., microfilmed 4 May 1971. ↩︎
- U.S. 1850 Census, Kent County, Michigan, population schedule, Paris, page 489, dwelling 1,190, family 1,190, lines 38-42, Matthew VanAmberg household; imaged, “United States Census, 1850,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6G14-W8R : accessed 13 July 2026) > Michigan > Kent > Paris, image 4 of 13; citing National Archives and Records Administration. ↩︎
- Oakland County, Record of Deeds, vol. 1, 1821-27, p. 244-245, “Matthew Vanamburgh and Ruth Vanamburgh of Farmington” to “Henry Vanamburgh of Farmington,” received and recorded 14 April 1828, purchase of E½ of the SE¼ of Section 23, T1N R8E (about 80 acres in the Novi area, 42.46740° N, 83.45929° W); imaged, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C37F-3S2Q-7 : accessed 14 July 2026) > Film # 008190344, images 559-260 of 852; citing Oakland County Courthouse, Michigan. ↩︎