DIVINING  ISABELLA                            

Author's note: There are times when significant branches of one's family tree get pushed out of sight. Sometimes it's because they are too difficult to learn about or understand. They are, however, always worth our best efforts. This is an unpolished attempt to elucidate the origins and members of one such Irish-American clan.)

                               ************

RECENTLY, in working to push back further the ancestry of the Hart and Cummins families of Mifflin and Juniata Counties, Pennsylvania, new information has come to light that may hold answers to the families' early life in America and their Irish origins. While only minimal information has been gleaned about Hart family progenitor Hugh Hart or his wife Mary Ard, some significant developments have been revealed regarding his son-in-law, DR. WILLIAM CUMMIN, and William's mother, ISABELLA (STINSON) CUMMIN.

This has largely unfolded through two sources. They are: copies received from the New York Public Library of Colonial and Revolutionary Lineages, volume 16, regarding both the Hart and Cummins families; and, further, a copy of an academic record for student William Cummin from the Royal Belfast Academical Institute, and received through the Public Records of Northern Ireland (PRONI).

Both of these, inclusive of the published family records and the original academic document, underscore a previously unknown generation. The purpose here is to analyze the information that supports these sources and to put forth a brief new genealogy for the family members, citing the circumstances and evidence available at this time. A new and provisional genealogy is compiled below.

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GENEALOGY

ISABELLA (STINSON) CUMMIN was born ca. 1777, likely in Upper Tyrone Co., Ireland, possibly near the village of Aughnacloy. She died 6 Nov 1856, in Juniata Co., Pennsylvania, aged 79, and is interred at the Adams Cemetery in Juniata Co.

She married, in Ireland, ante 1803, WILLIAM CUMMIN, SR. His birth date is unknown; he was deceased by 1825. William Cummin, Sr., is identified through the academic record of their son, Dr. William Cummin, Jr. (Royal Belfast Academical Institute), which refers to the father as "William, late of Aughnacloy, Upper Tyrone." The widow Isabella (Stinson) Cummin immigrated ca.1827 to Mifflin Co., Pennsylvania, likely via Philadelphia, with her two sons, Robert Cummin and Dr. William Cummin, Jr.

She is mentioned in the (1861) legal proceedings of her deceased brother, THOMAS STINSON (1786-1860), of whom further below.

Known Issue of William Cummin and Isabella (Stinson) Cummin:

1.) ROBERT CUMMIN, b. 16 Mar 1803, likely at Aughnacloy, Upper Tyrone Co., Ireland; d. 7 Apr 1894, likely at Walker Twp., Juniata Co., Pennsylvania. He is interred next to his mother at the Adams Cemetery. He never married.

• A naturalization record in the Court of Common Pleas, Juniata County, Pennsylvania archives states: "ROBERT CUMMIN" from County Tyrone, Ireland. Present residence: Walker Twp., Juniata Co. Age: 24 yrs., 5'6" tall, gray eyes. Occupation: Farmer. Emigrated Apr 1827. Declaration filed 4 Dec 1832." (The age is representative of the time of emigration.)

• He is mentioned in the 1846 will of his brother, Dr. William Cummin, Jr.

• He is listed as "blind" in the 1880 U.S. Federal Census Schedules of Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes for Juniata Co.

• He is listed in the 1850 census for Walker Twp. in the household of his uncle THOMAS STINSON and his second wife MARGARET BANKS WALKER (1786-1866), and again in the 1860 census in the household of the widow, "Margaret Stinson."

• He is named as administrator of his uncle Thomas Stinson's estate.

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The Stinson Connection

The relationship between ISABELLA (STINSON) CUMMIN and THOMAS STINSON is inferred by many complex 1861 Mifflin Twp., Juniata Co., Penn., court documents showing various affidavits concerning Thomas's property settlement with any known heirs also being in County Tyrone, Ireland. This document explicitly names the three brothers and five sisters of THOMAS STINSON, including a sister named "ISABELLA." It also states that Thomas Stinson emigrated to the United States in 1803. The relationship is further supported by Mifflin and Juniata census records (Isabella's son Robert Cummin living in the Stinson household) and the proximity of the Stinson and Cummin graves at the Adams Cemetery. It is most notably presented here in a Power of Attorney from Isabella's  grandson, Thomas Stinson Cummin[s], to his uncle Robert Cummin, wherein all of Isabella's grandchildren are named.     

Above: This document names Isabella as a sister of Thomas Stinson. It also names the other siblings in Ireland and America.

Above: This document names all of Isabella's grandchildren via her son William Cummin, Jr, as heirs to the estate of her brother Thomas Stinson. It also shows his business connections to Hugh Hart.

Above: When all the Cummin heirs of Isabella and the Stinson heirs in Ireland had to sign the sale agreement for land belonging to Thomas Stinson, deceased. 

The former generation of Stinson Siblings... are named as such and in the following order... : "...James, Robert, John, Isabella (Cummin), Sarah (Stinson), Nancy (McBride), Mary Ann, and Jane (Cumings), all deceased..." (Note: Nancy McBride was confirmed alive in 1864).

These deeds introduce us to places like Aughnacloy Parish, Clogher Parish, Glendavagh/Glenderg, Clontyfallow, and Dungannon. Places like Mullican/Mullycairn, the core ancestral homes of the Stinson family.

A record of Isabella's brother Thomas Stinson follows:

THOMAS STINSON was b.in 1786, in County Tyrone, Ireland; d. May 1860 in Walker Twp. Juniata Co., Pennsylvania, and is buried at the Adams Cemetery with his second wife, MARGARET BANKS WALKER (1786-1866). Thomas Stinson led a highly colorful and often contentious life, detailed in Robert Steuart's 1907 biography, Colonel George Steuart and his wife Margaret Harris. This book chronicles the life of Thomas's first wife, MARGARET (HARRIS) (STEUART) STINSON (1764-1824) and her first husband, George, but also pays special attention to the litigious antics and strong character of her second husband, Thomas Stinson. 

Thomas Stinson had no children by either of his two wives: first, Margaret (Harris) Steuart (1764-1824), who was twenty-two years his senior (the biography states eighteen years), or second, Margaret Banks Walker. More study of the 1861 court document is needed to fully list out all of Isabella's and Thomas's siblings' descendants and possibly push the Stinson line back further.

       

Above: Robert Steuart's 1907 biography, Colonel George Steuart and his wife Margaret Harris, p. 131, goes into much detail on the antics and shenanigans of Thomas Stinson.

Thomas Stinson is an interesting character in the genealogy of this family's past. He is clearly motivated by money and land - even in terms of romance. (He married a wealthy widow with five children) His motivations for this are uncertain as he himself died childless. He is however the glue that keeps the Stinson family alive and connected to the Cummin, Hart, and other Pennsylvania Irish clans as late as 1864 via the settlement of his estate.

2.) WILLIAM CUMMIN, M.D., was b. in 1804 in Newry, Counties Down and Armagh, Ireland; d. 7 Oct. 1846, age 42, in Liverpool, Perry County, Pennsylvania. He married, first, ante 1833, MARGARET STEEL, daughter of David Steel and Margaret Talbot Steel. She was b. 5 Dec 1796 at New Buffalo, Perry County, Pennsylvania, d. 28 May 1836; buried at Hill Church Cemetery, New Buffalo, Perry County, Pennsylvania. He married, second, likely at Perry County, Penn., MARY HART, daughter of HUGH HART and MARY ARD HART, b. 17 Oct 1804 at Academia, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, d. 1 May 1890 at Williamsport, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. She is buried at Wildwood Cemetery, Williamsport, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania.

Submitted family trees often divide the children six children of Dr. William Cummin, making it appear as if these were two individuals with separate or distinct families. All of the children (Issue 1-6) are listed as heirs of their grand-uncle, THOMAS STINSON, mentioned above, inheriting through their deceased paternal grandmother, ISABELLA (STINSON) CUMMIN.

Issue with first wife:

  1.) THOMAS STINSON CUMMIN, b.13 June 1833 at Perry County, Pennsylvania, d. 23 Jan 1889 at Marion, Marion County, Ohio. He married LAVINIA ROBINSON HART, daughter of Hugh Hart, Jr. and Prudence Robinson, and a granddaughter of HUGH HART and MARY ARD. Lavina Hart Cummin was a first cousin to her husband's half-siblings by his father's second wife, her father's sister, Mary Hart Cummin.

  2.) REBECCA CUMMIN, b. 6 Sep 1833 at Liverpool, Perry County, Pennsylvania, d. 4 Nov 1910 at Marion, Marion County, Ohio. She married 10 Oct 1861 in Marion County, Ohio, Robert J. Beatty.

  3.) MARGARET "Maggie" CUMMIN,  b. 16 Nov 1835 at Liverpool, Perry County, Pennsylvania, d. 25 Aug 1919 at Marion, Marion County, Ohio. She married on 10 Oct 1861 in Marion County, Ohio, John E. Leonard, the same day as her older sister Rebecca.

Issue with second wife:

  4.) HUGH HART CUMMIN, b. 25 May 1841 at Liverpool, Perry County, Pennsylvania, d. 12 Aug 1889 at Cresson Springs, Cambria County, Pennsylvania. He married, 24 Jun 1869, at Williamsport, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, Charlotte White.

  5.) MARY A. CUMMIN, b. 1 Jun 1842 at Liverpool, Perry County, Pennsylvania, d. 30 Dec 1931 at Williamsport, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. She married, 15 Oct 1874, at Montgomery County, Ohio, Henry Watson.

  6.) ROBERT IRVIN CUMMIN, b. 7 Jul 1845 at Liverpool, Perry County, Pennsylvania, d. 30 Aug 1907 at Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio. He married, 15 Jun 1881 at Meadville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, ELLEN PEARSON CURCH, daughter of Gaylord Church and his wife Ann Bevan Pearson. Ellen Pearson Church was a descendant of Mayflower passenger John Howland through her father. He is listed as a minor at the time of the settlement of the estate of his uncle, Thomas Stinson, and under the guardianship of a presumed maternal uncle, Joseph Hart.

Conclusion: 

This attempt successfully established the origins of this Irish-American clan by definitively confirming the Stinson connection, identifying Isabella (Stinson) Cummin as a sister to the prominent Thomas Stinson of Juniata County. 

Key documentation, including the Royal Belfast Academical Institute record and the 1861 estate settlement, has pushed the family line back to William Cummin, Sr., of Aughnacloy, Upper Tyrone, and confirmed Isabella had eight siblings—James, Robert, John, Sarah, Nancy, Mary Ann, and Jane. These findings resolve previous genealogical ambiguities. Moving forward, the focus must shift more to the Stinson family in Ireland.

Future research should prioritize locating the parents of this large sibling group by utilizing the names of Isabella's seven brothers and sisters to search surviving Irish records (parish registers, land, and taxation records) within County Tyrone, seeking to anchor the Stinson origins one generation further back. Note on Orthography: Given the prevalence of the single 'n' spelling (Cummin) in the earliest primary sources, this spelling is maintained in the genealogy, although the variant Cummins (with 's') appears in some later records and public references, a common occurrence in Irish-American families.

Sources Consulted:

Archival and Print Sources

• Juniata County, Pennsylvania. Court of Common Pleas. Naturalization Record for Robert Cummin, 4 Dec 1832.

• Juniata County, Pennsylvania. Court Documents (1861). Affidavits and Power of Attorney regarding the Estate Settlement of Thomas Stinson.

• New York Public Library. Colonial and Revolutionary Lineages of America. Vol. 16. New York: American Historical Society, Inc.

• Public Records of Northern Ireland (PRONI). Academic Record for William Cummin, Royal Belfast Academical Institute.

• Steuart, Robert S. Colonel George Steuart and his wife Margaret Harris. Philadelphia: Allen, Lane & Scott, 1907.

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Digital Resources

FamilySearch. (Specific documents pertaining to the original Thomas Stinson proceedings, as cited in the text). The last image needs to be cited correctly from FamilySearch. 

• Citation for the above images: "Mifflintown, Juniata, Pennsylvania, United States records," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSNP-S3WS-K?view=fullText : Nov 30, 2025), images 154 and 157 of 281; Juniata County (Pennsylvania). Recorder of Deeds. Image Group Number: 008085582

• FindAGrave.com. (Information referenced for burial details of Thomas Stinson and family members at Adams Cemetery).

 Six Ways to Sunday 

~ A TALE OF GENETIC DISTILLATIONS 

        

(Author's note: This has been bugging the crap out of me for nearly two years now. It was time I got to work and at least attempted to figure it out. Please forgive the charts. Please forgive my use of AI, and please forgive the prose. Peace out.)

                                                               **********                   

As always, genetically, unedited. 

God, I do hope this post will make sense.

We all know I have written about this before. It's about the how and why of a DNA match to a stranger that has led us both (I believe) on a remarkable journey of discovery. From babies switched in mid-America hospitals in the 1940s (yeah, not us!) to the hallowed halls of lineage societies, and even up until a few days ago, when between the two of us we identified the family jeweler and silversmith, it's been a wild journey getting to know "Cousin Dan." 

Reputed to be some combination of half-third cousin or fourth cousin per the algorithm, it's been a genetic tie that makes little to no sense. On the outside (and believe me, all of this makes my head hurt from my lack of knowledge), this would mean that Dan and I share a common set of third great-grandparents, or at least one. So I figured with only thirty-two third great-grandparents to comb through, initially I felt that "getting through the thirty-two" couldn't be all that difficult to find the ancestor (or culprit) in common. However, I combed and combed, looking for some genealogical crossover event to no avail. I looked at Quaker mishaps. I followed geographical migrations out of New England and the Mid-Atlantic that led, well, not where I needed them to. It didn't make sense.

The question remained: Just who is Cousin Dan?

Okay, I know, I know, Dan is Dan, and I'm me, and a big "whatever" to the genetic mix. But, still, it's nagged at me.

In the back of my mind, though, it came back to me that I have seen (at least on paper) how and where Dan and I are related in what they used to call a manner of "Six-ways-to-Sunday." In other words, and at least per family trees, I knew that we had a lot of common ancestors. I wasn't sure exactly how many, and I knew that they (the ancestors) went way back in time, but still, it got me wondering, just how many of them were there exactly?  

 So I counted. And I counted. And I counted until I got to fourteen and stopped.

Could it be that Cousin Dan and I share fourteen ancestors in common? (And that is a conservative estimate.) 

But before I get into all of that, I thought I'd list out those fourteen ancestors that Cousin Dan and I do have (at least on paper). Now I haven't vetted each of these lines. They are largely gleaned from published sources, but all of them feel at least anecdotally correct in that there is a paper trail leading from any one of them forward to me or to Dan.

Now there is a lot of information here.  I have done my best to chart it as accurately and to make it as easy to read as possible. I doubt that I have been all that successful. I've done my best to list the shared ancestor in common (by couple), the degree of relationship for either myself (JR) or (DW), the nearest line of decent through that couple, whether or not the relationship to either Dan or myself falls on our maternal or paternal side, and also the nearest family line at the "end or the tail." 

Because there are so many and so much information, I had originally shown this information as one contiguous chart. However, I want it to make as much sense as possible, so I have broken the chart up into several pieces of our "shared ancestors," hoping for a clearer view or intake result for the reader.

(Good luck, Jeff.)

I have also interlaced some textual images of these ancestors' lives to break up the monotony of the chart. 

I very much appreciate your patience. I hope the "key categories" will make sense. 

As I did this though, it caused me to postulate (gotta love that word) a question: 

If one shares a plethora of "ancestors in common" with someone else, albeit distant (eighth to eleventh great-grandparents' distance), was it possible that these two individuals had each inherited enough small pieces of DNA that they could resemble fourth cousins or closer simply by volume?

Am I even saying that correctly?

   

             

I don't know the answer to the question.

 Of course, I posited the question to AI, "who," patronizingly explained to me why I was correct in my assumption. I argued with the AI a bit that it was excluding any "false positives" while it (the AI) painted some picture of distant DNA running down some fluvial river to illustrate why I was correct in my assumption. Correct in my assumption that shared DNA with multiple distant ancestors may cause the algorithm to think that the cumulative effect resembles fourth cousins.

 Still, pretty AI pictures really don't do it for me.

 (Even with as much as I believe I am right.)

Note: There is an error in the chart below. Walter Palmer's children, Hannah, Nehemiah, and Gershom, are all by his 2nd second wife, Rebecca Short.

Paperwork wise, this journey to identify my common connection to "Cousin Dan" appears to quickly reveal that the DNA algorithm's prediction of a "fourth cousin" was a statistical mirage.

Instead of finding a single set of the normal shared third Great-Grandparents expected for fourth cousins, my research into published sources uncovered ten distinct ancestral paths (I think that's right!) that Dan and I share, with our closest common ancestors being our eighth great-grandparents:

 William Buckman and Elizabeth Wilson. :)

Cheers to Bill and Liz!

In essence, I believe that the genealogical truth is that we (Dan and I) are genetic cousins fourteen times over, with the closest documented connection dating back over 300 years. 

This overwhelming volume of shared distant ancestry is the key to the mystery, proving that the DNA match is real,

... but the relationship label is misleading.

Remember: Per AI there are fourteen lines here with ten distinct genetic paths.

The reason these distant lines show up as such a strong match is a phenomenon known as "Genetic Distillation" or "Pedigree Pile-Up." The DNA testing software at Ancestry.com measures only about the total amount of shared DNA, measured in centimorgans (cM). 

While a single tenth cousin relationship is like a small, isolated stream, it has a near-zero chance of passing down a detectable segment of DNA; BUT having ten+ separate opportunities to inherit DNA from a common ancestral pool fundamentally changes the statistics. 

(Or so says AI and a couple of cited sources below)

These many tiny, individual segments—too small to register on their own—add together.

I gotta say, I still find it pretty amazing (?) marvelous (?) don't you?

This cumulative effect is what pushes our total shared "cM" count into the range that the algorithm is programmed to label Dan and me as: "Likely fourth cousins." 

Therefore, our genetic connection is the literal sum of centuries of shared heritage. 

I "postulate" that this research provides somewhat definitive proof: the Ancestry.com DNA test measured the volume of shared genetics, and my chart documented the 10+ sources of that volume.

     

       

Frankly, it's like the connections just don't stop.

Okay, that's all well and good, and that was fun, BUT, just who are these people in relation to Dan or me? It's interesting that "the folks" presented here on Dan's mother's side are related to my father, and the folks on Dan's biological father's side are related to my mother. They are almost like mirrored halves. I wonder if this holds true genetically?  

(Well, Old Dan got the better halves...lol) 

There are no cross-overs, i.e, where we have a relationship that is both paternal and maternal for us both at the same time.

Curious too, is our ancestor mutual Walter Palmer (with Dan's four lines of descent from Walter), has two individual lines down to Dan, with one being one for his mom and one for his father's biological father. 

I found it cool that there are also a couple of multi-generational relationships here, as with the Thomas Brown and the Henry Collins families, that extended the connections to Dan and me even further. It was interesting for me personally that Dan is related to three of my four grandparents, so I wondered why not the fourth? 

Hmmmm...

In the end, I get that this is all fairly useless information. It does (or at least I hope it will) clarify Ancestry's algorithm in that it is likely adding the cumulative DNA together for its causal relationship, or that this appears to be the case.

Very curious.

Kinda brings new meaning to the whole word "cousin," huh?

And on that note, I suppose I should close for now.

But before I go...

Remember Cousin Dan, "Dan" is just "DNA" re-arranged. lol. ✌

Wink!

IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN, 

AND IN THE PILGRIM SPIRIT OF THIS THANKSGIVING SEASON, I GIVE THANKS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE COME BEFORE US.

Notes and Queries: Is the statistical illusion a real thing?

Yes, the statistical illusion described in the post—known as Pedigree Pile-Up or Genetic Distillation—is a real and well-documented phenomenon in genetic genealogy.

The core concept is entirely correct: a DNA testing service may assign you and a match a "close" label (like 4th cousin) based on the total amount of shared DNA, even if the closest shared ancestor is actually many generations further back.

What It Is: Pedigree Pile-Up

The phenomenon is most commonly referred to by genealogists as Pedigree Pile-Up or Stacked Ancestry. The blog post's term, "Genetic Distillation," refers to the same cumulative effect.

The Mechanism

This "illusion" occurs because DNA testing algorithms measure only one thing: the total amount of shared DNA, typically expressed in centimorgans (cM).

1. Distant Ancestry: For very distant relatives (e.g., 8th or 10th cousins), the probability of inheriting a single, detectable segment of DNA from that common ancestor is close to zero.

2. Cumulative Effect: If you and your match share many distinct ancestral couples, the math changes. Each shared distant couple provides a tiny, independent chance to pass down a fragment of DNA.

3. The "Pile-Up": When you accumulate 10, 14, or even more tiny, trace segments from multiple distant lines, their total combined length (cM) can be high enough to cross the testing company's threshold for a closer relationship, such as a 4th or 5th cousin. The shared DNA is real, but the predicted relationship label is a statistical average based on the total cM, not the most recent common ancestor.

This effect is particularly common among people whose ancestors came from the same small, geographically isolated communities over centuries, leading to a high degree of endogamy (marrying within a local group).

Querry:

But if the chance of inheriting from such distant ancestors is near on zero how can this be true?

The Lottery of DNA Inheritance

While the average chance of inheriting DNA from a single ancestor drops very quickly, the actual inheritance is a random process called recombination.

1. The Low Chance is for a Single Ancestor

It is absolutely true that the expected amount of DNA inherited from an 8th great-grandparent is extremely tiny—on average, around 0.003% of your total DNA. This means the probability of passing down a single, detectable DNA segment (usually defined as 7 centimorgans or more by most testing companies) is indeed near zero.

The Power of the "Pile-Up"

The illusion becomes reality when you factor in the cumulative effect of sharing multiple distant ancestors, which is what the blog post referred to as Pedigree Pile-Up (or Genetic Distillation).

2. The Many "Tickets"

Think of inheriting a DNA segment from an ancestor as winning a lottery.

• The chance of winning with one ticket (one distant ancestor) is near zero.

• However, if you and your match share 10 to 14 different sets of distant ancestors (as the author did with Cousin Dan), you are both essentially buying 10 to 14 separate lottery tickets from the same ancestor pool.

3. Cumulative Shared DNA (cM)

Even though any single segment you inherit from one distant ancestor might be too small to be recorded, the key is that these tiny, individually insignificant fragments add together.

When you sum up 14 or more of these minuscule segments shared across multiple distinct ancestral lines, the total centimorgans shared can reach a level—such as 20 cM to 50 cM—that the testing algorithm interprets as a much closer relationship, like a 4th or 5th cousin.

The DNA is real, but the relationship label is misleading, as it's generated by the total volume of shared centimorgans from many distant sources, not a single recent source.

Sources: (1) Bettinger, Blaine T. "The Shared cM Project—Version 5.0 (March 2024)." The Genetic Genealogist. Last modified March 2024.

              (2) International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG). "Endogamy." ISOGG Wiki.

 All Hart               

(Author's note: Family history can be a journey. This post deals with a particular Anglo-Irish line of my cousin Dan Wells, and a couple of his ancestors I met along the way.)

As always, unapologetically, unedited.

There are times in genealogy when I simply become lost. Not in the usual sense of "lost." No, it's more like falling into an abyss of obsession, or one of those Through the Looking Glass moments of family history. It's here where some old ghost calls out to me across time and says, "Do you think you could tell my story too?" In response to such a beguiling query, I am then quite hooked. From there, I'm all in - and endeavoring to know and understand just who this man or woman was. 

                   

                                               

I can't tell you why. It just happens. Beware the old genealogist awaking ghosts.    

This week, that's been the case with a couple of Irishmen, "and theirs." It started out simply enough - that is, with me trying to push a line out to the furthest limit, and pushing it out to one Irishman in particular, a Mr. Hugh Hart. From there, the line moved onto Hugh's daughter, Mary Hart, and then bled over into Mary's husband, Dr. William Cummin, of whom further. I don't know what it was about Hugh Hart that caught my eye. Was it that he was an Irish immigrant to America arriving well ahead of schedule of the usual Irish immigration and who arrived in the mid to late 1700s, or was it the startling bequests to his family contained in his will, I can't say. 

Indeed, there is so much about Hugh Hart that has called me back to ask, just who was this guy?

Then there is a rumor of his poetry. Frickn' poetry?!?! Egads!

Really, just a wisp of a rumor about Hugh Hart's beautiful poems, which has surely been an intoxicating idea for any reasonable person or some wannabe genealogist like me to fall victim to. Yet it was hard for me to picture this guy, Hugh Hart. How was it that I was encountering a very wealthy Irish immigrant poet in late eighteenth-century Pennsylvania Society?

What had brought him here? How? Why?        

The accounts of Hugh are few, save for the airy recollections of his children or grandchildren or the notices of his civic-mindedness in the newspapers. I kept asking myself, What was the source of his fortunes? 

Okay, so I was a little curious. It's the nature of the beast.

And further, did he publish or leave behind The Lost Poems of Hugh Hart, still gathering dust on some backwater Philadelphia bookshelf? Can't you just see it? Leather-bound and sitting on some dusty antiquarian's shelf? I simply must have a copy. I've searched local library catalogs and archives in Philadelphia/Belfast for any possible poetry attributed to Hugh Hart with no success. Perhaps it was a family joke, or his poems exist only in the forgotten letters of his children...

I can only say that I wish I knew more. 

But my ability to research over and beyond the pond into the scarred and scattered depths of Scots-Irish ancestry is limited. I guess I don't speak the language. The only thing I can do about Hugh Hart is to record his life as best as I can, to notate it, and yes, to stumble.

But I do see you, Hugh Hart. I do hear you. 

Truly, though, old ghost, you simply gotta speak up a little louder.    

    (1816)  

                     

                        (1811)

Most of Hugh's life is gleaned from County Histories, obits, and biographies, and certainly not from any vital records. I find no immigration record or marriage record, though his 1795 marriage to Mary Ard is anecdotally well recorded. Still, you get to me, Hugh Hart. You are such a curious man with all your "poetic to-do" and all your seemingly great Irish wealth. 

You are such a curious man with all your unclaimed letters at the post office. 

Had you absconded with something that did not belong to you, Hugh Hart? Did you leave a family behind or rob your King and Queen?

For shame! lol.

                                 (1795)

I just cannot fathom who you were, old man. Show yourself, Hugh Hart.             

That you loved your daughter, Mary Hart, seems quite evident in your will. You seem to have wanted her to have the best of everything, and if I read the will correctly, perhaps even the lioness's share of your fortune. This tells me that you must have vetted her suitors, or, at least, in understanding your absence or future demise, compelled your sons and brothers to do so for you. 

You left her (in today's money equating to) over $50,000 in 1836. This amount was in addition to your other bequests. 

Not exactly a potato farmer fleeing famine, eh, Hugh Hart? 

Did you acquiesce lightly or grumble when she accepted the offer that she should marry the widower Dr. William Cummin, lately graduated from the Belfast Institute? Mary was beautiful. Why did she entertain this widower? You must have missed notating or thought it irrelevant (wherever you were) that he was, after all, a doctor. You must have wondered about him, though, that Dr. William Cummin, or taken in letters you tried to ignore from Your Family of Harts sent from the old country on his behalf. Did you live long enough to see your Mary consider this upstart? I have to check. You must have wondered what Dr. William Cummin could possibly know about life in America. He'd arrived so many years after you had. Did you live long enough to see her betrothed?  

Did the good doctor even read proper Irish poetry? 

Was he adept enough to appreciate Swift, or was he an acolyte of that debauched Goldsmith? 

It's been so hard to say.

                                                                     II.

The story of Hugh Hart may remain a riddle, but his legacy flowed directly into the life of his daughter, Mary, and the man she chose: the promising, but short-lived, Dr. William Cummin.

Of Dr. William Cummin, I will admit, I have been a bit enraptured too. He strikes off a branch of the Harts with vigor, quickly assembling in his own industry a dynasty of well-wishing late nineteenth-century Main Line Pennsylvanians. However, fate wasn't necessarily going to be kind to Dr. Cummin, and hence to poor young Mary Hart. Could you have known, Hugh Hart, that your son-in-law would die at the tender age of forty-two and leave your Mary with three children from his previous wife, the beleaguered Margaret Steele, and three by your Mary? 

               

Yes, there has seemed to be as much to know about the good Dr. William Cummin as there has been about his father-in-law, the elusive Hugh Hart. 

   

                            (1890)

So...I decided I had to get down to it a bit.

That is, I decided that I needed to dissect what records there were about Dr. Cummin to see if I could get a better idea of who he was during his short life. 

Some of my research here is ongoing, as my emailed queries haven't been answered just yet. 

      

     (1846)

I started out with his education, that is or Dr. William Cummin. It says that he was educated at the Belfast Institute, and so, believing that an ancient school like this must surely contain some record of his attendance, I contacted them. Unwittingly, I contacted Queen's University Belfast, believing it to be one and the same as the Belfast Institute. They replied that they took over collegiate-level learning in 1845 from what would have been called the "Belfast Institute" and referred me back in time to the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, which predates them. These folks were quick and kind in their reply, too, but sent me packing, and referred me on to the PRONI (sounds like a disease) and said that "some of their older records had been moved here 15+ years ago..." This is the "Public Records of Northern Ireland," and the website landscape is hard. The academic era I am looking for is likely the 1820s-1830s. It's anybody's guess what they might still have. Still, to know the good Dr., and on behalf of my new friend Hugh Hart, I gotta try.

So I've written off to the Great Halls of Belfast's Public Records in high hopes that they will take pity on an old man's inquiry. My electronic reply is that it will take them twenty business days from yesterday to "process" my request. 

One never knows what might show up. It is a bit like kismet, that is, genealogy. As they say, Stranger Things...

Still, I have to wonder, what brought you here, Dr. William Cummin? What is a letter from the Harts? What was the draw to leave the relative comforts of Belfast or Londonderry, Ireland, for a life in Londonderry, Pennsylvania? 

What did the Harts promise you?

In the meantime, it's been a bit less than dope in my learning much more about you, dear Dr. Cummin - that is, as I have scoured the web in search of "Dr. William Cummin" to see what might be revealed about our Belfast boy - and usurper of the daughter of Hugh Hart.

Oddly enough, I find mention of our boy William, and indeed mention of his father-in-law, the indomitable Hugh, together in volume sixteen, and mentioned in these other clippings of your life pictured below.

Did someone know something, or make up something along the way? 

    

Indeed, in the volume below:

However, wouldn't you know it, volume sixteen is still under its 1951 copyright and harder than "Holy Hart" to get at. The Google snippets imply wonderful things like "Royal Irish Pedigrees" next to "Cummin-Hart" and imply at least a decent fabrication of royal lines. Are they true or not? Aye, they certainly will make for some fun reading - if only one can get at them. 

It seems for now they will have to remain a part of Hugh, and part of William, and most assuredly a part of the no "tell-tale-hart." 

Crazy. You can't even buy a copy; it is so out of print.

    

A cousin of President Adams?

I mean, how could one not want to see these forgotten or forbidden pages? A delicious ancestry. Would or will those pages within prove to be a bust? In my spare time, I may go back and delve into what little clues there are among the snippets, but in the meantime, I have written away to the Mid-Continent Genealogical Library for copies of the applicable pages. I can't get my hopes up too high here...tracing the Cummin line back to the folks shown below would be a Herculean task. Still, why not see what they have to say? Perhaps some mid-century modern socialite may have revealed some hidden genealogy gems as yet unverified.

   

 Above: Winifred Cummin Westfall 

Whose mother was (quite curiously) Lavinia "Hart" who married Thomas Stinson Cummin - and likely the contributor of the pedigree to the Colonial and Revolutionary Lineages...

Apparently, Harts and Cummins were naturally betrothed even a century or so later.

Perhaps contained in all that Hart-Cummin chapter, there will be a clue as to The Lost Poems of Hugh Hart.

Aye, Hugh, I did not forget ye!

       

John "The Red" Comyn

In the meantime... There is the curious tale of the Cummin family (Comyn) and John "The Red" Comyn and the dastardly (?), brave (?), arrogant (?) Robert the Bruce. I mean, this is right out of the late Middle Ages, and abounds with murder and intrigue. Good stuff - in retrospect anyway. (Nasty business between the Comyns and the Bruces if you ask me...)

Is this what the old times will choose to reveal? To link up the Hart/Cummin line to John "The Red?" It remains to be seen as we wait for word from Belfast about William's academic records, and as we attempt to glean what we can about Hugh Hart.

I have to say that this is an interesting section in Dan's family tree. 

Heck, they've even made a few of the classics about these folks along the way. Stay tuned, though, this post is somewhat fluid, and I will add back into this blog post what answers come out of Belfast, or are contained in the pages of Colonial and Revolutionary Lineages, that is, if they, the Great Genealogical Gods, choose to favor me.

And, of course, if Hugh Hart and the good doctor truly want the story told.

🕊     

PostScript #1: Word received today that the Mid-Continent Genealogy Library does not have "volume sixteen" of the series above... they are referring me to the NYPL.  

New York??? Pray I don't get lost. 

PostScript #2: The NYPL was great to work with. The volume (16) of Colonial and Revolutionary Lineages is stored off-site, but they say they will scan the applicable chapters and email scans to me in two weeks. How awesome is that? 

PostScript #3: Copies of the pages from Colonial and Revolutionary Lineages arrived today. They have some additional information - but not much. Now we wait for something from Belfast.