To find your ancestors, add or subtract a letter

I've been so stumped with the Phillips and the Valentine trees. What it's taken to find them is to look for Philips and Vallentines. Or find a sibling (if you know of one) and start tracing through them.

Today has been a banner day! I found so many things by searching through the pilot.familysearch.org site.
I entered "Lois" and "Valentine" ('my' Kate's older sister). Bingo! The search looked for "Vallentine". Yes, two l's. The 1850 census finally 'showed' up! Buffalo, Ward 5, Erie Co., New York

I finally saw the census where the mother Cathrine (as spelled by the recorder) was still alive. She is two years younger than William. He was b ~1812, Catherine b ~1814. Bonus: her mother was living with them: Elisabeth Mee, 74 yrs, b~1776. There were two children listed I didn't know of previously: Henry, 14 yrs, b~1836 and Martha, 10 yrs, b~1840.  Also, an Eliza Bramley, age 20, b NY was living with them. No relationship listed and she doesn't appear to be their servant.

Wait! Above the William Valentine family were two 'lone' Vallentine children: Albert, 6 yrs and Hellen, 3 yrs. [The recorder had a penchant for doubling l's, obviously!] I went to the previous page and discovered another Vallentine family. George, 40 yrs, is two years old than 'my' William, 38 yrs. Both born in England. The similarities convinced me that these are brothers. Entering that information into ancestry.com means I have potential parents and a birthplace for William through member connect. George's parents are listed as Thomas Valentine (1776-1830) and Elizabeth Barnes (1778-1809). But Elizabeth's death precedes 'my' George's birth. Hmm. Still I enter the birthplace in pilot.search and discover Thomas and Sarah had a son William in Essendon, Hertfordshire, England. So now I know where William was born, his birthday 15 Nov 1812, and that he is the younger half-brother of George!

Still not done! The clue about Katherine Mee Valentine's mother being Elisabeth Mee revealed hints about the Mee Tree. Another ancestry.com member had listed 'my' Katherine as b 29 Mar 1815 at Stanton under Bardon, Leicestershire, England. And parents' names! Her father is William Mee, 1779-1845 and Elizabeth Frost, b 16 Dec 1777. William and Elizabeth Mee, both born in England, had nine children and now I know their names, too! Oldest to youngest, add two years to each birth year: John b1800, Thomas, Sarah, Elizabeth, William, Joseph, Ann, Katherine (b 1815), Mary, b 1817.

I put newly found older female sibling Martha Valentine into the search engine. Martha M(ee?) Valentine married John C Burns on 30 July 1863 in Hamilton, Butler, Ohio. They returned to Buffalo, NY and they were living there in 1870. I found 'my' Kate there. She was living with her sister and brother-in-law, and listed as a 'domestic servant'!! The rest of Kate's family had moved west to Davenport, Iowa. I guess she wasn't ready to move west yet. Maybe she was engaged to Francis V Phillips and just waiting to get married?  Martha Valentine Burns had a daughter Mabel b 1872 who would have been 'my' Kate's cousin. Now I know who Mabel Burns is. If UPS ever delivers the missing box that was shipped in April, I can identify her!

So now I've gone back another generation for both Katherine Mee's parents and William Valentine's parents! More English roots!