Can you help find the parents of Milo Allen?

Our first genealogical mystery was submitted by SLVGS member Genie Weezles. Let’s put our heads together (like a “hive mind”) and find the answer!

GOAL: Determine the parents of Milo Allen.

REQUEST: Looking for a list of suggested resources that that might help.  (Wouldn’t you know, just as I was writing this up, *this* showed up in my email… but sadly only contains information that I have added.)

BACKGROUND: Milo Allen (1814-1888) is my 3rd great grandfather, but I have no family information on him.

WHAT I KNOW/HAVE (Verified):

  • Born 18 April 1814 in New York
  • Died 25 Aug 1888, Southington, Trumbull, Ohio
  • Married Clarissa Marchant (also Merchant) 16 Feb 1841, Akron, Summit, Ohio.
  • Children:Eliza Mary Allen (1846-1912) married Orson Samuel Thompson. Remained in Trumbull County Ohio
    • Lot W. Allen (1849-) married Cordelia E. Wildman, and he moved to Nebraska.

FALSE HOPES:

Possible parents – Tryphena and Elihu Allen.  I had researched that possibility and have discovered that unfortunately, it can’t be correct.  Tryphena and Elihu’s son, Milton/Milo appears in the 1850 census still in NY when “my” Milo is already married and in Southington Ohio (since before 1850).   I suspect that Tryphena and Elihu’s son Milo may be the one who ended up dying in the Civil War in Pine Bluff Arkansas (possibly). However they are *not* the parents of Milo Allen who married Clarissa Merchant/Marchant.

HINTS:

  • After collecting the low-hanging fruit of data from 1850+ censuses, and available birth, marriage, and death certificates for known folks, I moved on to the Unknown folks. I started by mapping out things like the Allens in the 1840 census in the Ashtabula/Trumbull county area, where Milo was married and ended up residing to try to get a visual on the “possible” places he might have been in 1840.

  • My great aunt, the daughter of Milo Thompson (Milo Allen’s grandson), had in her possession a book that contained the “Minutes” of the Eaton Allen Reunions” from 1900 to about 1940.  The surnames are extremely familiar, but most of these individuals are not in my known-family database. This book has provided me with ancestors that I believe MUST be related, else how would this book have stayed in our family?  Milo Thompson did marry an Allen descendant as his second wife, but that was several years after he was noted as having attended this reunion (see mention of his daughter being born toward the bottom of the page) — therefore his connection to the Allen family had to have existed long before his second marriage. (Perhaps he met the Allen widow at a reunion?)

  • I’ve started a database extracting the names dates and events listed (though sadly lacking a lot of detail other than how much money they collected for ice cream that year).

 

  •  I created a mind map with the information gleaned from the Reunion book to better visualize these folks and their possible relationships. This has actually been EXTREMELY helpful, especially considering I can see the verified relationships and the unverified relationships.

WHERE I’M AT:

I believe that Milo is the brother of Chester and/or Edward Allen (bright yellow), who both married sisters who were daughters of Joshua Eaton, but I have yet to verify their parents of the Allen boys who could well be brothers.

MY DILEMMA:

I’ve become overwhelmed and too easily fall down rabbit holes, so to stay on task,  I really need to create a checklist of specific sources to search that may help me establish Milo’s parents.  To give you an idea of what I’m looking for, I’ll start this list with questions:

  • Are Chester Allen and Edward Allen related? Who are their parents?
  • What other records might exist pre-1840 that would document parents/children?

What should Genie do next?

Please share your research suggestions in the comments.

Thank you!