Who are Susanna Clingerman's parents? Part 1

This is a post about one of my brick walls in my father's family.  Susanna ___ Clingerman was born the 20th of February 1798 in Pennsylvania, and died the 13th of April 1861 in Bedford County, PA.  She is my 4th great-grandmother.  Unfortunately her parentage is uncertain.

Susanna married Philip Clingerman (1800 - 1881) in about 1829.  They had four children together,
   (1) Elizabeth Ann Clingerman (1830 - 1897)
   (2) Lewis Clingerman (1832 - 1884)
   (3) Mary Clingerman (1834 - ?)
   (4) Philip Clingerman (1846 - 1861)

Philip's parentage is well established in the history books as John Frederick Clingerman and his wife Catherine (although her parentage is also unknown).  They were Palatine Germans.  Knowing Philip's, I decided to move ahead and try to find Susanna's.  I checked both of their obituaries, I checked to see if there were any existing church records (hint, there weren't, apparently the Brethren didn't think it necessary), and I checked numerous will records from surrounding households.  One (David Buck) had a daughter named Susanna, however he died in 1816 so she was unmarried at the time.  It seemed like a possibility, but I still needed proof.

In the intervening time, I also checked death records.  In PA, the state has death records from 1906 to the present day, and prior to that, each individual county has death records from roughly 1893 to 1905.  Because parents are generally listed on the state records, I went ahead and ordered Elizabeth Clingerman Shuss's death record from 1897 (my 3rd great-grandmother).  The results: "no parents listed".  Needless to say I was bummed to say the least.

After my strikeout with Elizabeth, I decided to go through the rest of her siblings.  Unfortunately, as I soon learned, they all died relatively young.  Lewis died in 1884, and Philip died in 1861.  I was left with Mary.  But, in tracing her I got caught in a case of mistaken online identity.  This happens more than people realize (a very good lesson in why you can use others' research as a starting point, but always find your own supporting documents).  At first I was excited to learn that Mary Clingerman Morse had died in 1916 in Pennsylvania.  This gave me hope I would be able to solve the mystery of Susanna's parentage.  So I ordered Mary's death certificate, and impatiently patiently waited for it to come in the mail.  When I received it however, I was thrown back when it stated that her parents were "Peter Clingerman" and "Mary Smith".  I soon realized my Mary had been mistakenly identified by numerous online researchers as her cousin Mary Morse.  The hunt continued.

After striking out with the death certificate, I pushed forward and found Philip Clingerman's will in 1881.  In it he mentions his three children: Elizabeth Shuss, Lewis Clingerman, and (wait for it) Mary McDaniel, wife of J.N. McDaniel.  The hunt was back on!  J.N. I soon found out was a preacher, and he and Mary had had two children.  The first, Susan Margaret, was born in 1861 and died in 1895 soon after her first child was born.  The second was Linnie.  Then, as quickly as I found them, they disappeared on me.  Soon after Philip's death in 1881, as it turned out, the family picked up and moved first to Nebraska, and then to Oregon where J.N. would later die in 1890.  The hunt was still on for Mary.  What had happened to her?  Did she outlive J.N.?  Unfortunately, the answer was no, I don't believe she did.  There was no mention of her in his obituary.  I was at a dead end.


Part 2 will be coming soon!