Adam Hill Family Group

What We Know About This Family

Noteworthy

This family group page represents the only information known about this ancestor. If you have any further information, please contact me.

An Overview of Their Lives

The Hill name first came to light when researching Joseph Henderson, the husband of Catharine MacDonald. Two of their children were given "Hill" as their middle name. At that time, we did not know that Joseph's mother was Ann Hill. Looking for clues as to her identity and with arduous research of the newspapers of the day, we discovered that Joseph had testified in the trial of George Twitchell, the son-in-law of the widow of a man named Samuel Hill. Twitchell had murdered Mary E. Hill, and the event with its trial was widely covered. Several articles printed Joseph's testimony, in which he identified himself as Mary's agent, a role he assumed after Samuel's death. As it turned out, three and possibly four of Joseph's children were named for people in the Hill family: Mary Ann Hill (his sister who died young); James Hill, Mary Wertz (Wertz was the maiden name of Samuel's wife); and Samuel Henderson (Samuel could have been named for Joseph's uncle Samuel and/or his cousin Samuel Ruggles). Obviously, the family was important to Joseph Henderson, but we assumed originally they were just good friends.

The discovery that Joseph's mother was Ann Hill occurred with the Google availability of a Genealogy excerpt about the family written in 1899. Recognizing the Hill name, we went back to the newspaper archives and found two newly found articles that identified Joseph as 1) a relative, and then as 2) the "nephew" of Samuel Hill. We started doing more research about him and learned several things:

• Samuel Hill was born about two years before Ann, so they were of the same generation, making him an uncle to Joseph and not a great uncle. He was therefore Ann's brother;
• Samuel's death certificate states that his father's name was Adam Hill, his mother "Hill" (not much help there); and
• In his will, which was witnessed by Joseph Henderson (who also received his body for burial), Samuel named the daughters of his brother, Robert, as his heirs. Their names were Ann Hill and Sarah Vanarsdalen (misspelled as "Vandersdale" by the newspaper that printed the will after Mary Hill's murder).

The 1860 census showed the presence of four persons of two generations named Hill living with Samuel and his wife, but their relationship was not defined. Ann and Sarah were popular names in the Hill family.

What Else We Need to Learn

The goal of this project is to trace every line of ancestry to the arrival of its first immigrant to America. The basic information of each couple is considered complete when we know the dates of birth, marriage, and death for both spouses. their parents names (or whether they were the immigrant), and the child or children in our ancestry line.

The research on this family is not complete. We are looking for the name of Adam Hill's wife, where and when both of them were born and died, and the names of any other children.