The sad, mixed-up Warner Family Fiasco...

What a mess the Warmer family history is...This photo has been mislabeled by someone in the Hackett family (i.e. descendants of LaFrancis Hackett and Susannah Warner). The photo is not a Hackett Five Generation photo, but a Warner Five Generation photo. The man in the middle is Samuel Warner and the lady to his left is his daughter, Susannah Warner Hackett, my great great grandmother. He is holding her great granddaughter. One of her seven daughters stands behind Samuel's right shoulder and Susannah's granddaughter stands Susannah Warner Hackett and her father, Samuel Warner.

Now why do I call the Warner family line in my ancestry a fiasco? Because it comes from Samuel Warner above. Look at his death certificate below:

The information listed for his parents is inconsistent to what I have known and researched. Who is this Samuel Warner and Lovina Burk listed here? My research has shown me that Samuel Warner (1812-1905)'s parents were Chauncey Warner and Annah Warner of Waterbury, Connecticut. (The Samuel Warner listed as father of Samual Warner my ggg great grandfather is a mistake of memory by the person completing on Samuel Warner's death certificate above).

My source of information to begin research is from my great grandfather, Samual Hayes Hackett:

(l-r: Lolo Pomeroy Hackett (1880-1917), Theo Fay Hackett (1902-1993), Samuel Hayes Hackett (1876-1965)

Samual Hayes Hackett had written down, or told my mother, Judith Leola Hackett Brooks, that his great grandfather was Chauncey Warner, the father of Samuel Warner above in the Five Generation photo. Twenty one years ago I found this Chauncey Warner as a early settler to Lorain County from Waterbury, Connecticut in 1807. He was with the first group of settlers to Columbia Township, Lorain County. This information can be found in the book: "History of Lorain County, Ohio, with illustrations & biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers." published in 1879 on page 147 which reads: "In September, 1807, a company numbering thirty-three persons, left Waterbury, Connecticut, for this township. They were...Chauncey Warner."

In doing research of Waterbury, CT, records I found this Chauncey Warner to be the son of Ard Warner and the line goes back to the immigrant John Warner from England in the early 1640s. What I didn't realize at the time was that there were two Chauncey Warners from Waterbury, CT!

Based on my great grandfather, Sam Hackett's written family history, I accepted Chauncey Warner son of Ard Warner as my ancestor. Sam Hackett had written down Chauncey Warner's date of birth as 1787 and actually Chauncey Warner was born in 1785, so it was pretty convincing to me that I'd found the right Chauncey Warner. This was in 1988 when I made my second trip to the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana (this is the second largest genealogical library in the US (the largest being the Latter Day Saints Genealogy Collection in Salt Lake City, Utah).

Please bear with my in this discourse on this mixed-up family line of the Warners...

In doing more research on the Warners coming to Lorain County from Connecticut, I located a resource (name forgotten) that listed Chauncey Warner came to Ohio with his cousin, Justus Warner (who lated settled in Medina County, Ohio) and that they had married sisters, Urania and Annah Warner, daughters of David Warner who was descended from the same immigrant John Warner line in Connecticut. Here's where I found that there were TWO Chauncey Warners from Waterbury Connecticut (discovered about in 1993) and that when going back to a resource I had on marriages and births for Waterbury, CT, I found that yes, Chauncey Warner was married to Annah Warner (cousins marrying, shocking!!) and I redid my Warner genealogy to drop Chauncey Warner, son of Ard Warner, Chauncey's wife unknown, and linked my line to Chauncey Warner and Annah Warner. This Chauncey Warner, married to Annah Warner, was born in 1770 and is the son of Elijah Warner, another descendant of the immigrant John Warner.

I found a record that Chauncey Warner married Annah Warner in 1793, in a small town close to Waterbury, CT. , and thus I linked my family to these two persons for nearly 20 years. If it hadn't been for the death certificate of Samuel Warner (1812-1905) above, I'd still be certain of my Warner antecedents. And it is has been in the last six weeks that I have been trying to correct the mistakes based on my faulty genealogy research from the above death certificate. In doing this new research on the my Warner genealogy, I located a resource over the internet, titled, "Litchfield and Morris Inscriptions" by Charles Thomas Payne, about the towns of Litchfield and Morris, Connecticut and on page 173, I found the following information:

"p. 173

Annah Warner / relict of Chauncey Warner, Esq. / died July 12, 1857 / aged 84

and also,

In memory of Chauncey Warner who died Feb. 1st 1849, age 79"

Based on this information Chauncey Warner and his wife, Annah Warner never came to Ohio, but remained in Connecticut all their lives! With this discovery I must take out the family lines from the Chauncey Warner and Annah Warner families and some of these family lines include: Harrison, Fenn, Hikcox, Sutliffe, Plumpton/Plympton, Brocketts, and Upson. It grieves me woefully when I realize I am losing these lines full of very historical characters.

I'm going to close this post on the wrecked Warner line with another photo of my ggg grandfather, Samuel Warner, (1812-1905) and his wife, Amanda Reed, (1818-1890).

Where this photo was taken, I cannot tell. Amanda is wearing a dress that seems to be from the 1880s. Her daughter, Susannah Warner Hackett, at the top of this post in the Five Generation Photo, looks very much like Amanda Reed Warner. There is a wall tent behind Samuel and Amanda Warner, and they're wearing some type of ribbons, perhaps they attended a religious revival, very popular in the 19th century.