Sybil Burt (c.1785 – prob 1840s), maiden name unknown, was my 4th-great-grandmother, being the husband of Jedediah Burt and mother of Elijah Burt. There is limited record of her existence, and despite considerable effort I have been unable to find her origins.

Records

Her marriage to Jedediah on 1804-07-04 is in Shelburne, Vermont town records, the earliest evidence of her. This page also has a list of her children born up through 1824.

Census records of Essex, Vermont, which provide counts by age range, are available for 1830 and 1840 for Jedediah’s household:

The oldest female each year is presumably Sybil. In the 1850 census of Essex, Jedediah is listed without a wife, only with his sons Allen and Ozear, and Allen’s wife and son.^⟮3⟯ These two sons are presumably the children in 1840.

Thus we suppose that Sybil was born in the 1780s and died in the 1840s.

Family

Jedediah and Sybil had eleven recorded children. I have tried to chase them all down as part of researching Sybil, since marriage and death records often include parents’ names, including the mother’s maiden name. These children spread out to many jurisdictions, so there are many opportunities. So far, however, this project has borne no fruit, as detailed here:

• Levater (1805-02-18 – after 1852). He married Abigail Jones and moved to Olmsted Falls, Ohio. He had a son Albert T. (1852-08-17 – 1937-02-04)^⟮4⟯, but I can find no further record of Levater, and Ohio death records don’t appear to exist for the needed time frame. Albert’s death certificate does not even provide his father’s forename, only “Burt”.
• Berintha (1808-01-03 – 1879-04-06). She married Truman Blood and died in Napoleon, Michigan. Her death record lists her parents as “Jedediah and Sybil Best”, the surname an obvious error for Burt, but with no maiden name for her mother.
• Elijah (1809-01-17 – 1885-03-18), my ancestor. His death record in Monkton, Vermont lists no parents.
• Berilla (* 1810-03-28). She married Ephraim Morris on 1830-10-12 in Shelburne, but I can find no further record of her existence (nor his).
  

  Buel Burt^{⟮5⟯Find a Grave memorial for Buel Burt}
• Abijah (* 1813-12-05), twin. I can find no record of his existence beyond his birth. I almost wonder if the twin claim was in error and there was only Abigail.
• Abigail (1813-12-05 – 1890-07-19), twin. She married Eldad Parsons and died in Larchland, Illinois. I ordered a copy of her death record from the county in 2020, but it had almost no information, indeed not listing even Abigail’s maiden name.^{⟮6⟯Find a Grave memorial for Abigail (Burt) Parsons}
• Ozear Buel (1815-06-30 – 1894-05-11), later known only as Buel. He married Sanara Place and died in Westfield, Massachusetts. In the space for his parents, it simply says “not given”.
• Oramel (1817-03-13 – 1887-11-02). He died in Williston, Vermont, apparently never married. His death records list his parents’ forenames but no maiden name.
• Jerusha (* 1819-10-02). I can find no record of her existence beyond her birth.
• Olive (1821-06-27 – 1889-10-27). She married Joseph W. Wheeler and died in Monmouth, Iowa. I used the Family History Center remote access service in 2021 to get a copy of her death record, but it had no useful information.
• Allen (1824-04-11 – 1891-03-30). His wife was probably Jane C. Folly, and he is buried in Crown Point, New York. I attempted to order a copy of his death record from New York in 2015, but they said they had no such record.

Comparing with the 1830 census tallies, and discounting Berintha who married around 1827, it largely matches up, except for a missing male. Most likely, Abijah died young or moved elsewhere before 1830, although under that theory Ozear was counted as 15 and Berilla as under 20, a plausible inaccuracy. Another scenario is that Ozear was not living with the family then and Abijah was. Small errors on census records are not uncommon so they should not be relied on too heavily.

A poor house application by Allen in 1881 states that he had 4 brothers and 5 sisters.^{⟮7⟯New York State Archives; Albany, New York; Census of Inmates in Almshouses and Poorhouses, 1875-1921; Series: A1978; Reel: A1978:34; Record Number: 344} It is not clear if this was intended to count only those living, but if so, his information is certainly out of date. As a full count, it is one short, but would again be accommodated by discounting Abijah, who thus either didn’t exist or died so young that Allen did not consider him.

Sybil Allen?

One intriguing candidate is Sybil Allen (* 1787-08-02), daughter of Elisha and Anna (Gibbs) Allen. She was born in Sudbury, Vermont. The evidence that she is my Sybil is sparse and circumstantial:

• The birth year fits, and I have found no further record of Sybil Allen.
• Two of Jedediah and Sybil’s children were named Elijah and Allen. Elisha’s name was sometimes written Elijah.
• There is some indication that the Allen family moved to Chittenden County, near Shelburne.
• The name Gibbs appears in some relevant DNA matches, but I have not connected them to Anna, so this is weak.
• Elisha and Anna’s son Elisha moved to southern Michigan (Coldwater), not far from where Berintha died. Perhaps she moved there with her uncle?

So, this is at best an educated guess. Birth records don’t exist for many places, and it may be that Sybil’s birth is simply not recorded.

DNA

I have autosomal DNA matches to descendants of both Abigail and Berintha.

Other

Others have wrongly identified her with Sybil Stanley (1837–1885), who married Azro Burt. This Sybil is roughly 50 years younger than my Sybil and so is clearly not the same person.

See

• Find a Grave memorial
• Family in Shelburne town records; Abigail is oddly absent from this list, but present on another transcript.

Footnotes

1. ↑ https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XH5F-MF2
2. ↑ https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHRB-31F
3. ↑ https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MC2C-G92
4. ↑ https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XZ2X-785
5. ↑ Find a Grave memorial for Buel Burt
6. ↑ Find a Grave memorial for Abigail (Burt) Parsons
7. ↑ New York State Archives; Albany, New York; Census of Inmates in Almshouses and Poorhouses, 1875-1921; Series: A1978; Reel: A1978:34; Record Number: 344