Stuck at a Brick Wall - Portrait of Our Peter Wormuth

Brick Wall - A "brick wall" ancestor is one that you are having difficulty finding; or one who's the last in a branch where you cannot identify parents or records or follow geographically any further back.  It's where you're stuck.  Often, there are a variety of inconsistencies in information.  It becomes more and more difficult to follow an ancestor the further back in time their life was because records are fewer and more messy and there were often mistakes in records.

Peter Wormuth:  a portrait of an ancestor.  The link is to his profile @ WikiTree.

Peter Wormuth is our furthest back ancestor in our branch of that family.

There is another Peter Wormuth that we believe we are related to.  There are actually quite a few Peter Wormuths in the family.

So, I'll begin with what we think we know about Peter and try to sketch his life from beginning to end.

Peter was one of my maternal 3rd great grandfathers.

According to calculations from various censuses, Peter was born about 1788.  Where he was born is still in question.

Before 1850, only the names of the Heads of Household were recorded on the censuses.  The rest of the people in the household are recorded as male or female of various age ranges.  From 1850 on, the names of everyone in the house was recorded.

Each census also had some unique bits of information.  There are inconsistencies in census information; some people seemed to be iffy about their age, for instance.

There were federal censuses beginning in 1790 and every 10 years since.  In addition, some states had state censuses and there were special censuses in various places since before the country was established.  New York State had state censuses every 10 years on the 5th year, beginning in 1825 with a change of date with the 1885 census which was done in 1892 and back on schedule with the 1905, 1915 and 1925 when they stopped.  Censuses are expensive projects to accomplish.  This means that, for people who lived in New York, they can be followed every 5 years.

Here, I'm going to do a time line for Peter, from census data and a few other sources:

1862, May 16 - Peter died in Jeffersonville, Sullivan County, NY; from his headstone.

buried in the Wormuth family cemetery on the land that Peter owned in Callicoon, NY.  The headstone is leaning against a tree there, now broken.  We found 10 additional grave stones there but there may be more.

1860 US Census, living in Callicoon, Sullivan County, NY.

Peter Wormouth, age 72, born NY,
Grace, age 40, born England, 
James H., age 8, born NY,
Richard, age 1, born NY.

Peter's son, Joseph also appears on this census on the same page.  What we've learned that Peter either gave or sold parcels of his land to some of his sons who also lived on the original land in Callicoon.  Sons Stephen, Peter, Jr., and John on the next page of that census.

1855 New York State Census, living in Callicoon, Sullivan County, NY.

Peter, age 66, farmer, born in Montgomery County, owned his land, lived there 27 years at the time of that census, married:
Grace, his wife, age 38, born in England, lived there 6 years.
Eliza A, daughter, age 5, born in Sullivan County.
James H., son, age 2, born in Sullivan County.
Mary C., daughter, age  1, born in Sullivan County. 

1850 US Census, living in Callicoon, Sullivan County, NY.

Peter, age 60, farmer, born New York

Mary, wife, (undoubtedly Grace), age 30, born NY, 

Elizabeth, daughter, age 1 month, born NY.

1849, August 31, Sullivan Whig newspaper:  marriage listing:  Peter Wormuth of Callicoon to Grace Ramsey, widow of James Ramsey of Bethel.

NOTES:  So, we see that Peter married Grace Ramsey in 1849.  The 1850 census says that Peter's wife was named, Mary, but his wife in 1855 was Grace.  So Maybe, Grace's middle name was Mary; people often used their middle name.

According to the 1855 New York State Census, Peter was born in Montgomery County, whether that was Montgomery County, NY or Montgomery County, PA is a question.  The 1855 NYS Census column heading for Place of Birth clearly instructs the census taker to ask:  "In what county of this State, or in what other State or Foreign Country born."  Peter's place of birth on this census is recorded as Montgomery.  But, there's also a Montgomery County in Pennsylvania.  His place of birth varies on different censuses.  Peter is also 66 on this census which means that he was born between 1788 and 1789.  It means that he should be 61 on the 1850 US Census.  Had he lived until 1900, that census would have shown a closer birth date for him.

If we follow the pattern of Peter's age from those censuses, Peter should appear on an 1840 US census, age 50.

1840 US Census, living in Liberty, Sullivan County, NY. (Callicoon was formed from Liberty in 1842, so they were living in the same place).  This is a very difficult census to read; very faded.

Peter Wormuth, age 50-60, 
one male, 10-15,
2 males, 15-20,
2 males, 20-30
wife, 50-60; this was before he married Grace,
1 female, 10-15,
1 female 15-20,
1 female, 20-30.

1830 US Census, living in Liberty, Sullivan County, NY.

Peter Womurth, age 30-40, 

one male under 5,

2 males, 5-10,

1 male, 10-15,

1 male, 15-20,

wife, age 30-40,

1 female under 5,

2 females, 5-10.

Then things get interesting and confusing.  The 1855 census says Peter and his family lived on his land in Callicoon/Liberty for 27 years.  Assuming that's accurate, that meant they lived there since about 1828.  Assuming Peter began his own family in his 20s, that would be in the 1820s, but where.  

There is no 1825 NYS census found for Sullivan County.  Peter would have been 30 on the 1820 US Census.

The 1820 US census has no headings to indicate what the data means but forms have been created to clarify that (columns to identify individuals:

Name    Males    Males    Males    Males    Males    Males    Females    Females    Females    Females    

             under 10    10-16    16-18    16-26    26-45    45 up    und 10        10-16        16-26        26-45

                                                                                                 Females

                                                                                                    45 up

1820 US Census, living in Bainbridge, Chenango County, NY?

Peter Wormuth, age 45 or older, (is this our Peter's father?)

2 or 3 males, 10-16,

wife?, age 26-45,

1 female, 10-16.

and, next page, below:

Peter Wormouth, age 26-45, (is this our Peter?)

2 males, 10-16,

wife?, age 16-26,

1 female, 10-16.

Then, nothing.  But, there are name variants...:  Wormuth, Wormouth, Wormoeth, Warmuth, Warmouth, Warmoeth, Wermuth, Wermouth, Wormwood, Wolgemuth, Wohlgemuth, etc.  There are quite a lot of variations of the spelling because there weren't formalized spelling rules until the mid-1800s; and spelling varied depending on the original language:  English, German, Polish, etc.

The next census would be 1810. Peter would have been about 20 then.  He might have started his own family by then or he might have still been with this parents.  There are hundreds of possibilities, just in the State of New York.  Here are a few:

1810 US Census:

Mathew Wormwood, living in Johnstown, Montgomery County, NY, age 45 and older, with a son age 16-35.

Peter Wormwood, living in Canajoharie, Montgomery County, NY, age 45 and older, with a son age 16-25.

I found one Wormwood in 1810 in Pennsylvania but he didn't have a son the right age and he wasn't the right age.

Were either of these our Peter's father?  We don't know.

So, assuming Peter was born around 1788/1789, he would have appeared on the 1790 US census as a "free white male under 16 years." which is one of the headings on that census; and it would show that after the name of his father, whoever that may be.

This is where I stop - for now.

Discoveries and New Questions

 In July 2025, several members of the family were able to locate and visit the Wormuth Family Cemetery in Sullivan County, New York.

There, lo and behold, was the, now broken, headstone of Peter Wormuth that we had previously thought was in the Harvard Cemetery.

The cemetery is on private land and I, for one, will not divulge the exact location out of respect for the current owners.  I did contact the owners requesting that members of the family be given permission to clean up and maintain the cemetery.  I have not had an answer from them.

Some of the brush has been cleared revealing at least 10 additional stones scattered among the brush.  We did clean Peter's headstone and there is talk of repairing it.  It would be nice to clear the rest of the brush and install a small barrier around the cemetery so that the stones are protected from damage.

We're on hold at the moment.  But, I have updated the page for the cemetery @ WikiTree.  We may be able to determine some of the family members who are buried in the cemetery.  There are already 3 names that have been added to the page; the link above will take you there.

At the beginning of October 2025, Les Wormuth and later he and his sister, Lorraine, met me in Montgomery County, New York, to do some Wormuth research.  One of the censuses indicated that our Peter Wormuth was born in Montgomery County.  We want to identify his parents and birthplace; he was born about 1788.

There are some very good collections of documents and historic texts at various locations in Montgomery County and there has been a lot of Wormuths and Wormwoods who have lived there.

While we were unsuccessful in finding out Peter Wormuth, there were lots of records of lots of other Wormuths that will become part of the larger Wormuth One-Name Study.

Les is off to Kansas to visit family for the winter with ideas of what the next steps should be to find our Peter's parents which we will work on when he returns.  It was nice to meet Lorraine and we're in touch.  She's interested in family photos so I will be sending some to her.  Les and Lorraine are from a branch of the family through Dora and Richard Wormuth and, until recently, didn't know much about the family history but are enthusiastic.  It's very nice to have some family members to work with on the research.

There are more variants spellings of the family surname than I originally expected including many that are apparently just spelling differences that occurred before there were established English spelling rules.  One of the oddest, for me, is Wolgemuth which has it's own handful of variations.  I could not figure out how you can get to Wormuth from Wolgemuth and vice versa so, before we started on our research trek, I asked the question @ WikiTree where they have a process for asking such questions.  What I was told is that the names are not the same; they are derived from two different plants.

So, I've decided that I will be dropping Wolgemuth and those like surnames from the Study.  However, there are clear instance where Wolgemuth and Wormuth are used interchangeably for the same person.  I guess they didn't know the difference between the two plants or the names either.  So, I will include individuals identified both as Wolgemuth and Wormuth; just as I'm including the several people who have both surnames, Wormuth and Wormwood.  It's a little messy but doable.

So, we continue.  Les will be focused on our Peter Wormuth and while I will do the same, I will be more focused on the larger family and many, many people with the names that we may or may not be related to.  It is not the purpose of a One-Name Study, to follow family lines, but to find and record all instances of the surname and whatever other discoveries can be made about all those people.

Decisions, decisions

 I've decided to remove the Wolgemuth and similar surnames from the Study after a friendly and forgiving of my laziness cohort @ WikiTree answered my question about the relationship between the Wormuth/Wormwood surnames and Wolgemuth.  The difference is, of course, the derivation; they're derived from the name of different wild plants.

While I've seen Wolgemuth used interchangeably with Wormuth, they are different names with different derivations so I'm dropping the former.  It will lightening the workload a bit.

Wormuth and Wormwood, however, are both names for Artemesia, also called wormwood and several individuals were known by both names.

I started a study of the US Censuses searching for variant spellings of Wormuth.  I have a lot more work to do (I'm only into the 1820 census) but I have discovered that:  

-- the Wormuths in Montgomery County, New York were scattered throughout the county;

-- there were Wormuths in Maine;

-- there were Wormuths in Ohio;

-- there were Wormuths in Pennsylvania.

In addition, as with most surnames, there are a scattering of Wormuths in various other states.

Doing this study will make it possible for me to follow certain individuals to see if there were definite migration trails.

It does not appear that the Wormuths were Palatines, but they married some Palatines.  I'm a member of the Palatine Migration Project @ WikiTree.  The Palatines came to this continent in 1710 and spread out from two settlements on opposite sides of the Hudson River.  The Project has a variety of listings of the Palatines who arrived on the 10 ships that survived the trip.  There are no Wormuths among those lists.

A Peter Wormuth, in Montgomery County, married Anna Fehling/Failing whose father, Henry, was among those who arrived.

So, the Wormuths arrived around the same time or pre-dated the Palatine arrival, as far as I can tell.

Wormuth Rock, Cherry Valley, NY

Our branch's furthest back ancestor, Peter Wormuth, was shown on one census to have been born in Montgomery County.  We will be visiting Montgomery County, New York, shortly to see if we can find evidence of him there.

However, since there were Wormuths in Pennsylvania, there is also a Montgomery County, PA, and I will have to investigate that possibility.

And, so it continues.