Today I would like to tell you about Fanny Smith and the challenges I met while researching. I do not know Fanny’s birthdate but guess she was born sometime between 1783 and 1790 since her own parents, Henry Conkling Smith and Julia Vail, married March 9, 1783, in Goshen, Orange County, New York.
The 1790 federal census placed the family in Goshen. Henry Conkling Smith was often called Conkling Smith in documents, and this is how I found him in the 1790 census. The family consisted of six members: three males and three females. The males were Henry Conkling Smith, his eldest son Gilbert born in 1785, along with another male under the age of sixteen. The three females included Julia (Vail) Smith, daughter Fanny, and an unknown female.
By 1800, the Smith family had relocated to the Town of Deer Park in Orange County by the time the federal census was recorded.
Conkling Home in 1800 Deer Park, Orange County, New York:
1 Free White Males under 10 years: Son Caleb born ca 1799.
2 Free White Males of sixteen
and under 26: Son Gilbert and unknown male
1 Free White Males of twenty-six
and under 45: Father Henry Conkling Smith
3 Free White Females
under 10 years: Christian/Christinna,
Dolly and unknown girl
1 Free White Females
of ten and under 16: This could have been Fanny.
1 Free White Females
of sixteen and under 26: Or this could be Fanny.
1 Free White Females
of 26 and under 45: Mother Julia Vail
Smith
Fanny married David Penney November 14, 1805, according to Edwin Tanjore Corwin’s book, ‘The Corwin Genealogy in the United States’, published in 1872. David Penney’s mother was a Corwin. Just so you know, this genealogy did not cite sources, and I cannot say I am convinced the marriage date is accurate.
I am also assuming Fanny and David wed in Orange County, New York. Since Fanny married David Penney in 1805, I looked for her with her husband in the 1810 federal census. It was disappointing when I was not able to distinguish Fanny’s husband, David Penney, from his father David Penney.
It was not until 1820 that I located David Penny Junior in the 1820 Wallkill, Orange County, New York federal census.
Name David Penney Junior
Enumeration Date 7 Aug 1820
Home in 1820 (City,
County, State) Wallkill, Orange, New
York, USA
1 Free White Persons -
Males - Under 10 Perhaps this is
Lewis Penny. David lived in Lewis Penny's household in 1850.
1 Free White Persons -
Males - 26 thru 44 David Penny
3 Free White Persons -
Females - Under 10 Esther and Abigail are David and Fanny's
documented daughters. 3rd female unknown
1 Free White Persons -
Females - 10 thru 15 unknown
1 Free White Persons -
Females - 26 thru 44 Fanny (Smith)
Penny
1 Number of Persons -
Engaged in Agriculture David Penny
5 Free White Persons -
Under 16 Esther and Abigail; possibly Lewis Penny
and two others
2 Free White Persons -
Over 25 Parents
7 Total Free White
Persons
7 Total All Persons -
White, Slaves, Colored, Other
The Penney family was enumerated in the 1825 New York State Census in Calhoun, Orange County, New York—two males and six females. Fanny was counted as the one married female under the age of 45 years. One unmarried female between the age of sixteen and forty-five lived in the home. Four unmarried females under sixteen years old were part of the household. Two males rounded out the David Penny residence.
I could not tell whether the 1830 census entry I found for David Penney in Calhoun was Junior or Senior.
The 1835 New York State Census recorded David Penney’s family in Mount Hope, Orange County, New York. He was not called Junior, but I know it to be so because his father died in 1834. That same year David and Fanny Penny mortgaged their land to Samuel Seward in Orange County, New York.
David acquired land in Virgil, Cortland County, New York in 1839. He later sold the land, but Fanny was not named in the document. An1841 deed began, “David Penney of Virgil County of Cortland of State of New York and his wife of the first part and Augustus E Hibbard of the Town County & State aforesaid of the second part …”. Was this Fanny or a later wife?
Fanny qualified as my Overlooked Ancestor in my Jan. 24, 2025, blogpost. You can view it here. And today she again makes her presence in the challenging category.
