shadow of a sister

So my questions really are about Robert's family. Robert, born in 1796, in Ireland, youngest of seven, at least six of whom also born in Ireland, was with most of his family in Cecil County Maryland, where his father John and Geneva Jane Crawford Wallace brought the family in 1797. The famiy had connections in Pennsylvania; in fact, when John first came over he'd been in Carlisle, near Harrisburg, with his brothers and possibly a cousin who had been born there.

Pennsylvania was filling up with Wallaces and that's why, when the family moved up into Pennsylvania, it can be doubtful that it was really them. Robert, at the age of 16, enlisted in the War of 1812 but ended up in New Castle and Wallace Run, which is near there, in northwest PA. John married a PA woman and moved just across the border in Ohio where he farmed. Three sisters were just plain lost until yesterday, and the big question: what happened to John and Geneva Jane themselves? John is reported to have died in 1810, with no place given, Geneva Jane lived to a hundred (dying in 1844), no place given. They were already in their fifties when they came over. I try to do some geographical reasoning.

The sister I found, who could be the clue to everything, was Jane, who was born in 1786 in Ireland, would have been 13 when they arrived in Cecil County, and seems to have married a man, Robert Caldwell, and died in 1879. Robert Caldwell seems to have grown up in Washington County (southwest of Pittsburgh), but moved to Armstrong County (northeast of Pittsburgh) where they lived and died. They were farmers, and had one son, Samuel Smiley Caldwell, but that's very suspicious because that name belongs to other people in the area. I am not entirely sure of what I found.

Another suspicious thing is that Hopewell township, Wash County, was full of other Wallaces, which could either be a reason for Cecil County Wallaces to move there/visit there, or could have been a reason that this Jane is not ours. How do we prove that she is? If we just run with the possibilities, maybe we'll find more proof down the road.

The alleged child Samuel was born in 1831, which would have made her 45, and I find that suspicious too, though not impossible. Her father dies in 1810; they move up to Wash County or Wallace Run (where Geneva Jane had a sister); she meets this farmer and has a son but the farm is out east of the city a ways. I guess that's possible but I'm still looking.

Still to be found are Mary, Adeline, and one other brother, besides the oldest brother William, who seems to have been born in 1774 or 1772. There are many Williams who could have fit the bill. That William would have been at least 23 when they made the passage and may not have come at all, or may have been born here and already integrated into the Wallaces of the Carlisle area.

One thing I'll say is that it was pretty easy for a Jane Wallace or a Mary Wallace to be in Pennsylvania at that time, marry and fit into the woodwork, with no one really knowing where they came from or who their family was. Although the pioneers kept track themselves, some of what they knew never found its way onto Ancestry.com; some of what they knew is "private," which means I'll only get it, if at all, with more extensive digging. Still it's interesting to see these early settlers of the Pittsburgh area.

One feature of the pioneer era was that lots of people had no assurance of survival. For example, if John died in 1810, Geneva Jane, Mary, Jane, and Adeline were endangered. Robert too, at 13, was in trouble. One would expect them to find their relatives and join them, as they could be helpful but most of all would need help themselves. The cousin Hugh up in Pennsylvania, Carlisle or perhaps New Castle, where he may have died, was at least assured of survival, having a Revolutionary War pension. So one of my guesses is that the family went up there, with some staying with Hugh, and some perhaps staying in Wallace Run (where Geneva Jane's sister lived), or staying in one, ending up in the other. Another working theory is that they simply went back to Ireland, where Geneva Jane's familyl had a place and a consistent income from the sea. And where we would never know if there was an extra Jane, Mary or Adeline around. Some, with lack of any other trail, have said that John and Geneva Jane died in Cecil County, but I don't buy it. There would be a better trail for the kids if that had happened.