Henry Goulty (1804-1876) and Mary Mortar (1804-1866).
My 3rd great-grand uncle and aunt.
Henry Goulty was born on the 22 May 1804 and baptised on the 27th in Woodbastwick parish church, Norfolk. His parents were Charles Goulty and Rebecca Lock.
He grew up in the village and married Mary Mortar at St James with Pockthorpe Church in Norwich on 26 March 1826. She hailed from Stokesby in Norfolk and was born on 24 May 1804. I’ve not been able to track the family down in the 1841 census but they resurfaced in the village of Limpenhoe, Norfolk, in 1851 when Henry worked as a carter. Judging by the birth records of their children, which describe him as a labourer, the couple had lived in the village for much of their married life.
In 1853 Henry and his son Benjamin sailed with about 400 others to the USA from London on the Red Swallowtail line’s Sir Robert Peel to start a new life. Arriving in New York on 4 June, he was described as a farmer but his age was given as 46 – a few years younger than it was in reality. Despite this, other details about him and the family members who joined him in the US lead me to believe that I have the right man. There is no record of his wife Mary travelling to the USA with him or at any other time but a death record puts her in the country.
The family settled initially in Missouri and Illinois, which was being settled in the main by German and Irish immigrants, and several of Henry’s children served in the American Civil War that raged between 1861 and 1865. Henry took up farming in Clark County, in the far north-east of Missouri close to the borders with Iowa and Illinois. Mary died there on 21 July 1866 and was buried at Fairmont Cemetery but 66-year-old Henry crops up in the 1870 US Federal Census living in Washington township, Clark County, with his housekeeper daughter Sarah Ann and baby Arthur Goulty. It’s possible that Arthur was Sarah’s illegitimate child. Henry’s real estate was valued at $800 and his other effects at $400. He died intestate on 29 August 1877 and was buried at Fairmont Cemetery. His daughter Sarah Ann was appointed administrator of his estate.
Henry and Mary Goulty had children in Norfolk, many of whom went to live in the USA. I had earlier confused a Henry and Mary Goulty living in Ranworth with my ancestor but they turned out to be a different couple.
- James Goulty was born in 1832 in the village of Cantley, Norfolk. He emigrated to the USA in 1853 according to naturalisation papers from Hancock County, Illinois, in 1960. But he then lived in Missouri, marrying Susannah Green of Kentucky in Clark in 1862. In the same year his name was included on the Civil War draft registration documents for Clark County but it’s unlikely that he served. During the conflict he got involved, through the British Consul, in a long-running and turbulent dispute with a Colonel Moore of the 21st Missouri Regiment, who James claimed had made off with a valuable stud horse worth $1,000 that belonged to him. This was after Moore had arrested him in Illinois and accused him of being in the Confederate Army. He spent 11 days in confinement before being released, after the charges were found to be false. The Union Provost Marshals’ Papers include details of the charges, witnesses who testified to Goulty’s good character and the subsequent investigation but I’ve yet to find a conclusion to the case. He crops up as a farm labourer with his wife and child in the 1870 census at Fairmont in Clark County, Missouri, but I’ve not been able to locate him after this. His son was working as a farm labourer in Iowa according to the 1880 census.
- Henry Goulty was born in 1835 in Limpenhoe, Norfolk. He too travelled to the US and became a farmer, living in Hancock County, Illinois. He served with the Union Army in the 2nd Illinois Cavalry during the civil war but died of an unspecified disease at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on 1 June 1864.
- George Goulty was born around 1837 in Limpenhoe, Norfolk, although I’ve yet to find a baptism record. He appears in the village in the 1851 census but then emigrated to the USA. Like his brother Henry he lived in Hancock County, Illinois, and he also served in the 2nd Illinois Cavalry in the American Civil War. His service records list him as a blacksmith and farrier but he was invalided out on 5 March 1865, apparently suffering from chronic diarrhoea. He went on to marry widow Cindia McNealy (nee Cass), who was born in 1929 in Ohio. They had a family and George became a farmer in Clark County, Missouri. He died in 1921, his wife in 1912.
- Benjamin Goulty was born in 1839 in Limpenhoe, Norfolk, and is shown in the records travelling to the US with his father in 1853. Initially he was a stone mason but later became a farmer. He married Virginia Darr from Missouri in 1860 and had a daughter. Virginia died in 1880 and in 1881 Benjamin married Ohio native Clara Foster and lived variously in Illinois, Pleasantdale in Kansas and Bates County, Missouri. He was buried there in 1924. His will named his sister Sarah as his sole beneficiary. Clara had died in 1919.
- Harriet Goulty was born in 1841 in Limpenhoe. It’s unclear what happened to her.
- John Goulty. Born in 1844 in Limpenhoe, John travelled to the USA and became a farmer. He lived in Mercer County, Illinois, and served for a short time with the 9th Illinois Cavalry in 1865. One document suggests he deserted on 1 August. I’m unsure what happened to him after this although he may have had a child, Arthur Jason Goulty.
- Sarah Goulty was born in Limpenhoe in 1846 and emigrated to America, for several years living with her father in Clark County, Missouri. By 1880, she was working as a housekeeper in Knox County. In 1908 Sarah married widower Ralph Reamer in Edina, Knox County, Missouri. He died in 1916. She died in 1930 and was buried in Cedar County, Iowa.
- David Goulty. He appears in Limpenhoe on the 1851 census aged two but then I can find no trace of him. There’s no baptism record either.
- Mary Ann Goulty. The 1851 census suggests she was born in 1850 in Limpenhoe but there is no record to prove it. She also went to the USA, married German-born farmer Jacob Smith and lived in Clark County, Missouri. He died in 1890 and Mary Ann settled in Knox County. She died in 1939 and was buried there.
Sources: BMDs, census and other records at Ancestry.co.uk, Familysearch.co.uk and Findmypast.co.uk. Records at Norfolk Family History Society