Week 21: Brick Wall

Are you out there somewhere, Alfred Cartwright?

One consistently frustrating brick wall I've bumped into over the years is that of my 2x great-grandfather Alfred Cartwright.  Here's what little I do know about him from one U.S. Census and several marriage records:

 1.  His inferred birth year was around 1822.

 2.  His birth place was New York.

 3.  He and Mary Ann Nelson registered to marry on 25 Jan 1857 in La Grange, IN.

 4.  He and Mary Ann Nelson were married on 11 Feb 1847 in La Grange, IN.

 5.  He was a farmer living in Washington Township, Starke County, IN on 30 Jul 1870 when the 

Census was taken.

 6.  Their children were William Cyrus (b. 1848); Francis Irvin (b. 1851); Oscar (b. 1855), Martin

(b. 1863); Walter (b. 1867) my great-grandfather; Urias (b. 1869); Laura (b. 1872); Amy Lillian

(b. 1873)

 7.  There are some pretty big gaps between some of the births, so there may have been other children who died at birth or at a young age.

 8.  At the time of the 1870 Census Alfred's real estate value was estimated at $1200 and his personal property was estimated at $250.

 9.  There are tick marks in the columns for Cannot Read and Cannot Write.

La Grange County is on the northern border of Indiana, one county away from Ohio.  Starke County is south and west by about 50 miles. 

There was a man named Alfred Deforest Cartwright whose records keep popping up but it's not my Alfred.  Interestingly, Alfred Deforest Cartwright was also born in New York, also about 1822 but he was living in California in the 1870s. He's not my Alfred.

I'm not going to give up on you, Alfred!