Mappy Monday: Hoffman Land in Woodland Township

The first land owned by Henry and Jacob Hoffman in Illinois was in Derinda Township in southern Jo Daviess County, the northwest corner of the state. Jacob later moved just south to Woodland Township, Carroll County. I wrote earlier about Jacob and the likelihood that he died between 1900 and 1903 when his grandsons, Henry and Jacob Benz, filed paperwork on his land. The Hoffman's brother-in-law, Jacob Blumhardt, husband of their sister Margaret, bought neighboring land in part mortgaged to Henry. When Blumhardt disappeared, Henry eventually got it through a sheriff's sale. I like a pair of landownership maps available from books published in 1893 when the Hoffmans were alive and later in 1908 after their deaths. Jacob Hoffman's land is then owned by Henry Benz, et al. Blumhardt's land that went to Henry Hoffman is then owned by David Burke who was in the process of buying it when Henry died. Also, David is the person with whom widower Jacob Hoffman was enumerated in the 1900 census. The maps tie all these facts together in a nice visual package. The maps were located in libraries, but these digital versions are courtesy of Ancestry.com. Click on any of the maps to see larger versions.

NW Woodland Township - 1893

NW Woodland Township - 1908

Mappy Monday: Snohomish County, Washington, homestead of John B. Kelly

I think I could get to really like this Monday map theme as I really love maps and also find they can shed much light on our families and their past. I wrote earlier about Aaron H. Kelly, son of John B. and Louise (Hoffman) Kelly. John B D. Kelly was born in New Brunswick, Canada about 1851. I've found him recently at the FamilySearch Beta site in the 1851 and 1871 census of Canada. In 1886 he was in the state of Washington, a long way from the Canadian Maritimes. He filed his Declaration of Intent to become a U.S. citizen and days later filed a homestead claim on 160 acres on the southern edge of Snohomish County. His son Aaron apparently kept the property, running it as a dairy farm. By 1947 Aaron was a deputy sheriff and his address was Woodinville according to the Everett city directory that year. Everett is the county seat and where he must have worked. A current search for Woodinville shows it as a town in King County, home of Seattle and Redmond. It borders the land of the homestead. That land in a current map looks totally developed. The post office there must have been his mailing address. Here is a map showing the homestead location and modern boundaries and towns.

This is a composite of two maps, one from Snohomish County and another of the town of Woodinville in King County, Washington. I have colored in the section where the homestead was located and further colored its parts. The map has the land description written on it. Be sure to click on the map to see it larger.