Lately, I’ve been poking around with genealogy again, as I have on and off over the past 11 years.
In researching my mother’s line, I have long been perturbed by the Hylers. It’s a small section that I know very little about, but I continue to look around and see what I can dig up.
It goes back to my 5x great grandfather, Anthony V. Hyler, who was born in New Jersey about 1794. He was a shoemaker by trade. His wife is unknown, and she died sometime before the 1850 census. They moved to Ohio and Kentucky, moving back and forth between the two states. In 1830, they lived in Mason County, Kentucky, and in 1840 they were in Lewis, Ohio. Anthony was living with his children in the 10th ward of Cincinnati, Ohio in 1850.
I’ve been able to identify 4 children through census records, though there may have been more that either died or moved out before 1850.
Ellen Hyler (my 4x great-grandmother, born August 1824, died 28 January 1901) married Richard Thomas Kirton in 1854.
Jeremiah Hyler (born 1828 in Kentucky, died 1891 in Cincinnati, Ohio), married Mary Ann Ralphy in 1850. I’ve yet to identify any children they had.
Albert Hyler, born in 1834 in Ohio. I have found little about him, though there is an Albert Hyler who joined the US Army on 9 December 1852, as an Albert Hyler born in Ohio is in a Register of enlistments. In that enlistment, his civilian profession is listed as “shoemaker,” so this lends more circumstantial evidence. After that, the trail is unclear.
Ann Maria Hyler, born in 1840 in Ohio. She married Napoleon Marshall and they had 7 known children.
It is not surprising that Richard Kirton was also a shoemaker. It was probably this trade that brought him into contact with the Hylers. Ellen and Richard had 2 sons, Nelson and Sidney, Nelson being my 3x great grandfather, and a shoemaker as well. He was the last shoemaker in the line as far as I can tell, as Nelson’s son, Newton, became a train engineer.
There still lies more possibilities along the Hyler line. One interesting potential connection could be Adam Hyler (originally Huyler, or Hiler), a New Jersey whale boat captain of German descent who preyed on the English as a pirate during the Revolutionary War. He could possibly have been Anthony’s grandfather. There’s also a James Hyler, born about 1795 who could possibly have been Anthony’s brother. Sadly, New Jersey records from the end of the 18th century are sparse.
So, the hunt continues…
