Third time's the charm

In my last Blog post, One for all and Four in One, I explored an unusual headstone in Manchester, England. It turned out that "Nellie" (Ellen Walton 1865-1894) , whose name is listed on the headstone in Manchester, with her father, husband and sister, is actually buried in New York.

I was very excited to find the church record from St. Peters Episcopal church in Manhattan naming her final resting place as "Evergreen". A quick internet search revealed the most likely cemetery to be The Evergreens Cemetery in Brooklyn.

1884 Burial Record of Ellen "Nellie" Walton

According to their web page:   https://www.theevergreenscemetery.org

"The Evergreens Cemetery, a historic cemetery in the 'rural' style, was incorporated in 1849 and covers 225 acres... Visitors can explore the landscape, designed by Andrew Jackson Downing, and see the great variety of architectural styles represented in the mausoleums and grave markers. The Victorian Gothic Chapel was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis in 1849/1850. The Evergreens Cemetery is on the National Register of Historic Places."

In addition to some beautiful photographs of the cemetery, there was a helpful link to request help...which I did. They responded quickly with the following information:

I was able to find Ellen Walton, buried on November 19, 1894. She is buried in the section of Pleasant Hill, grave #6753. Below is the following information that was recorded at the time of her burial: Age: 29; Place of death: 327 West 25th Street; Cause of death: Peritonitis; Please see the map attached.

Map showing Burial Location of Ellen Walton

I had received this while researching the previous blog and included some of the information in my description of Ellen. I also created a new Find-a-Grave entry so I could request a photograph of her headstone.

Within 10 days I received the requested photograph of Ellen's grave in Evergreens Cemetery in Brooklyn. Thinking I could finally wrap up this investigation, I was shocked when I opened the file!

1884 Headstone for Ellen Walton in Evergreen's Cemetery, Brooklyn

closeup of 1884 Headstone for Ellen Walton in Evergreen's Cemetery, Brooklyn

Not only did I find Ellen, but now I had two more WALTON'S to track down!


Ironically, Ellen's birth date is blank here in Brooklyn. For the record, she was born on February 26, 1865 In Cheddleton, Staffordshire, England to Joseph Walton (1832-1900) and Mary Lyndoe (1824-1870). She died in Manhattan, New York on November 17, 1884 of Peritonitis, an infection most likely caused during childbirth.  So we can confirm her death date of 1884 is correct.

Poor lass! Over in in Manchester, her death date is as blank as her grave is.

Will the real Charles Walton Please stand up!

It didn't take me long to realize there are A  LOT of Charles Walton's in the various branches of "our" Walton family, not to mention how many Charles Waltons in general pop up on Ancestry.com.

I went back to our friends at the Evergreens and they kindly sent me the following details from their records:

Charles Walton, burial date 6/5/1954 was 77 years old and passed away at 48-82 Park Avenue.

Hannah Walton, burial date 12/31/1966 was 83 years old and passed away at Yonkers General Hospital.

Here we go again...another mystery.

Checking my extensive family tree archives, I found a number of possible candidates named Charles Walton, but I did not immediately find an exact match. Now I had to try to figure out which Charles to zero in on. My closest candidate; although incomplete; there was a mismatch for the birth date,He had several possible wives and had no previously documented death date. The good news was that I had really never done any detailed investigation on this Charles, so essentially none of the data was trustworthy anyway at this point in my investigation.

Looking more closely at the data I had received from the Cemetery, I noticed a minor error! If Charles was 77 when he died in 1954, then simple math tells me he was born in 1878 NOT 1881 like his headstones says. I have learned from experience that just because it is "carved in stone", doesn't mean it's right! (See "Grave Matters". It turns out George Walton has the wrong Birth date on his headstone!)

Checking Hanna' age, if she was 83 in 1966 when she died, she would indeed have been born in 1883, so that is, at least, mathematically accurate.

SO Who is the best Charles candidate?

Since Charles Walton is buried with Ellen Walton, It can be assumed that there is some relationship between them and she has plenty of close relations named Charles. Let's take a minute to investigate the most likely of them.

1)  Ellen has a brother named Charles Walton (1860-1872?) but his birth date is too early and it has not been established that he immigrated to New York. Some Family Trees place his death around 1872, which would indicate he died young and never married. More investigation is needed for this Charles but he isn't a likely Candidate.

2) Ellen's uncle Charles (1837-?), the brother of her father Joseph (1832-1900) was, like his nephew above, born too early and for this reason he is an unlikely candidate.

3) Ellen's cousin Charles (1874-1954) is the son of her father's brother John (1830-1890). This Charles was the youngest brother of my great-grandfather George (1864-1910) and Edwin (1865-1929), who was Ellen's Husband.

4) A quick trip down the family tree reveals multiple sons, grandsons, great-grandson, etc, named Charles Walton. These later generations are either too young or otherwise accounted for and are not good candidates.

I therefore think the best candidate is Charles Walton #3, the younger brother of Ellen's husband Edwin.

To start with, he is the Only Charles Walton with a wife named Hanna, but... there may have been an earlier wife named Mary...and certain dates don't seem to correlate, at least at first glance.

The only way to know for sure who is buried here with Ellen...is to dig a little deeper!