Comments to noarweb@mtnhome.com. Updated 14 May 1997.
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What a wonderful name! My maternal grandfather -- Enness Barr Shiras. If ever there was a "suspicious" name, genealogically speaking, this had to be it. But it would take over fifteen years, much research, and the help of many people before the mystery of just how he got this name was solved.
In reviewing my first piece on the Shiras family written in 1977, I note that I knew only that in the 1820 Cincinnati census there were heads of families named William Barr and John Ennis, and speculated that there was a relationship. (The Shiras family had been in Cincinnati before moving to Kansas, then Arkansas.) Shortly thereafter, I learned from my mother, Ellen, that a Miss Enness, maybe named Ellen or Eleanor, was the wife of a Shiras ancestor, although I didn't have his first name. I sporadically, but not at all systematically, searched for the Enness and Barr surnames over the years, but had no luck.
In the late 1980's I began producing a newsletter for about 125 Shiras descendants I had found. (I had managed to discover my Shiras line in the ten intervening years and knew now that Ellen Enness was my great-great-grandmother.) One of these Shiras descendants, Eleanor, sent a photocopy of the family Bible records of her branch of the family. Written on the inside cover was the inscription, "Rachel Ellison Shiras. This bible was presented to me by my mother, Rachel Enniss Ellison September 1872." Here was one of the mystery names! It was in the wrong branch of the family, but surely there must be a connection! Subsequent information provided by Eleanor and Henrietta, another Shiras-Ellison descendant, revealed that Rachel (Enniss) Ellison was the daughter of "Judge Ennes" of Cincinnati.
In the spring of 1990, I visited Eleanor and she showed me a beautiful old portrait of her step-great-great-grandmother, my real great-great-grandmother, Ellen Enness. She was the step- mother-in-law of Rachel Means (Ellison) Shiras, whose Bible record is mentioned above. Finally, my Ellen Enness was a real person, although I still didn't know exactly how she "fit" with the rest of the "Enniss/Enness family. (Unquestionably, the finest gift anyone was ever given was the gift of that portrait to me by Eleanor in 1992. It is my greatest treasure.)
Back to the Table of ContentsOn that same trip, I also visited Madeleine, who had previously shared Bible records from her branch of the family. She allowed me to look at the Bible, and I found the following notation, near but not in the entries of family births, marriages and deaths: "Barr -- On Monday, Jan. 26, 1863. Mrs. Mary Barr, widow of the late Major William Barr, in the 80th year of her age." And here was Grandaddy Shiras' middle name! But who was she, and how was she connected? Nearby in Madeleine's Bible was found a poem entitled "Lines written on the death of Mrs. Susan Enness," with the notes, "Mrs. Susan Enness departed this life, June 4th 1826, on Sabbath afternoon at four o'clock; after a lingering illness, which she bore with christian fortitude and patience. She died happy, with a strong confidence in the Savior of sinners. -- Copied by Anna E. Ellison, granddaughter of Mrs. Susan Enness. January 29th 1865." Here was the Enness name again -- and this time I knew who Anna E. Ellison was! An Ellison genealogy [Robert Henry Nixon, Nixon-Ellison Genealogy (Cincinnati: Privately printed, 1970; page 121] sent by Henrietta had shown that she was the sister of Rachel (Ellison) Shiras. Anna, the oldest, and Rachel, the youngest, also had a middle sister, Susan. And I knew where her name came from! But who was Mary Barr? And who was the Anna Barr, daughter of Samuel, that Mr. Nixon's genealogy showed was the mother of Rachel (Enniss) Ellison's husband, Andrew Barr Ellison?
Now I knew that both the Ennesses and the Barrs were related to one line of Shirases. And I knew that I had an Enness in my line, also. But still the question of exact identities and relationships remained. My Ellen Enness must be related to these Ennesses and Barrs, but how? Could Ellen and Rachel be sisters? They were close enough in age for this to be the case. How would I ever prove it?
The next step was the 1850 Cincinnati census. In that, I found Ellen Enness living with a Spencer family (John, his wife Susan, their sons William and Thomas, and daughter, Mary). Well, I thought, Ellen must have been a maid or governess. But in just a matter of minutes, when my brain kicked in, I realized that here was a coincidence too great to ignore. Not only were the names Susan and Mary represented, but there was a Thomas Spencer. Why was that such a great coincidence? Because I remembered that Great-uncle Tom Shiras' full name was Thomas Spencer Shiras! Surely Ellen's grandson wouldn't be named after someone who was the child of his grandmother's employer. There had to be more to it than that. I was sure that this Susan had to be related somehow. [Her age in 1850 was given as 36, while Ellen's was 34. Was she a sister of Ellen, as I speculated regarding Rachel (Enness) Ellison?] Also in the 1820 Cincinnati census is John B. Enness in a household consisting of: 1 male under 10; 2 males 16- 25; 3 females under 10; 1 female 10-16; and 2 females 16-25. According to her tombstone at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ellen was born in 1815 (photo sent by Henrietta); cemetery records show that Ellen's father was John B. Ennes.
Back to the Table of ContentsI compiled everything I knew about the families involved and came up with the following outline:
1. Enness Barr Shiras, my grandfather, was the son of Charles Enness Shiras.
2. Charles Enness Shiras was the son of William M. Shiras and his second wife, Ellen Enness.
3. Ellen Enness was the daughter of John B. Ennes.
4. Peter Shiras, the half-brother of Charles Enness Shiras, was the son of William M. Shiras and his first wife, Elizabeth Rodgers.
5. Peter Shiras married Rachel Means Ellison.
6. Rachel Means Ellison was the daughter of Andrew Barr Ellison and his wife, Rachel Enniss. Her sisters were Susan and Anna.
7. Andrew Barr Ellison was the son of John Ellison and Anna Barr. Two of his brothers were William Barr Ellison and Samuel Barr Ellison.
8. Anna Barr was the daughter of Samuel Barr.
9. Rachel Enniss was the daughter of "Judge Ennes" of Cincinnati.
It was then that it seemed that my research had to come to an end. We were moving overseas -- or rather, to the middle of the sea. In September of 1990, my husband was transferred to Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, halfway between Hawaii and Australia. No libraries for two thousand miles. But if I went dormant, as far as family history was concerned, my "genealogy angel" was watching over me. Her name was Henrietta.
One of the early discoveries Henrietta made was the gravestone of Susan Enness in the Old Presbyterian Cemetery in Manchester, Adams County, Ohio. The inscription read, "Susan, Wife of John B. Enness and Daughter of Mary and Wm. Barr Died 4th June 1826 aged 31 years." This was the best clue we had so far, apart from the similarity of names, that Ellen and Rachel were really sisters. (We knew from the Spring Grove Cemetery records that Ellen's father's name was John B. Enness; we knew from the Ellison genealogy that Rachel's father was Judge Ennes; and we knew from the poem that Susan was the grandmother of Rachel's daughter, Anna.) Another stone Henrietta found read
Here also were Mary and William Barr. But something surely was wrong -- Mary Barr was 79 when she died in 1863. That meant she was born about 1784. Susan, according to her tombstone, was born about 1795. Much too early to be the daughter of this Mary and Major William Barr. So, while the Ennesses were almost cleared up, the Barrs were still somewhat muddled.
On one of her trips back to Manchester, where her Ellison ancestors had lived, Henrietta met Mary Frances, also an Ellison descendant. Mary Frances had taken on the responsibility of cleaning out and selling the old Ellison home in Manchester, preparatory to the sale to settle an estate, and had found a certified copy of the probate documents, including the will, of John B. Enness. Here, at last, was the documentary proof for which we had been waiting. In his will, John had named his daughter Ellen Enness and son-in-law, Andrew Barr Ellison, who we knew was the husband of Rachel (Enness) Ellison. Other probate records named Rachel herself, not just her husband.
Probate on John B. Enness' will was begun on 15 December 1865. Andrew B. Ellison declined to act as executor. He also stated that Charles Enness was dead, and recommended that John Ellison of Manchester be appointed executor, which was done.
Henrietta's next step was to hire a researcher in Cincinnati, Carol. What treasures she was able to find!
Carol gave us the date of the marriage of Ellen Enness and William M. Shiras. She gave us Ellen's date and place of death, her funeral notice, and a copy of her will and other probate papers from Cincinnati.
On the Barr line, she gave us the cemetery records from the William Barr plot in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, and it was those records that began to clear up the mystery of William and Mary Barr. Those records showed that there were two couples named William and Mary Barr. The elder William and Mary were the parents of the younger Mary, who was the wife of the younger William, the son of Samuel and Margaret Barr. Was this the same Samuel who was the father of Anna (Barr) Ellison of Adams County, Ohio, Rachel (Enness) Ellison's mother-in-law? Many questions were answered by these records, but more were created. Just who were all these people?
Soon the questions were answered. The greatest treasure Carol sent was a photocopy of a small book from The Cincinnati Historical Society entitled Memoir of Mrs. Mary Barr (Cincinnati: Printed for Private Distribution by the Cincinnati Gazette Company Print, January 1863). This little memorial book, which can be accessed from the Table of Contents page, was typical of those printed at the time of death of people of some means, whose heirs were able to afford the expense. If they exist for any ancestor, they can be very valuable, genealogically speaking -- and this truly was. This memoir gave the names of the brothers and sisters of the elder William Barr, his wife's maiden name and their marriage date, and a list of their surviving children with birth and death dates and names of spouses. A particularly special paragraph named, as a brother of the elder William, Samuel Barr. It told of his wife, Margaret Robinson, and named their children, including Anne, who married John Ellison.
There were other documents sent by both Henrietta and Carol, which will be used as documentation in the following genealogy, as well as information subsequently found in Pennsylvania by this compiler. But it must be noted, and noted well, that without the help of Eleanor, Madeleine, Mary Frances, and my "genealogy angel" Henrietta, the mystery of the name of Enness Barr Shiras would never have been solved. This paper is almost entirely a compilation of the information provided by these ladies and Carol. My deepest appreciation to them all.
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