CollectionThe Ellis Herbarium — A Family Natural History
Accession No.EH-2025-001
Primary LinesEllis, Polhemus, Conard
RangeNew Amsterdam → Pennsylvania → Maryland → Ohio → Indiana
Period1654 – present
CollectorKate Ellis, Indianapolis
StatusActive collection — field research ongoing
The Ellis
Herbarium
A naturalist's approach to family history — organized not by birth order, but by the conditions that shaped each generation.
Taxonomy
The Primary Lines
Three family lines, distinct in origin, converging in the American midwest across two centuries. Each arrived carrying something different: faith, trade, land hunger, a minister's education. What they passed forward was not wealth but movement — a pattern of going west.
Line I
Ellis
Welsh–English Artisan Line
RangeWales → Maryland → Ohio → Indiana
Century1700s arrival; 1800s westward migration
OccupationShoemakers, cordwainers; skilled tradespeople
Key figureJohn Plaemus Ellis, b. Maryland 1810, d. Ohio 1877
NotesCensus takers wrote "Plaemus" — a phonetic garbling of Polhemus, the Dutch surname carried as a middle name
Line II
Polhemus
Dutch Reformed Ministerial Line
RangeNetherlands → New Amsterdam → New Jersey → Maryland
Century1654 arrival; well-documented Dutch Reformed lineage
CharacterUniversity-educated; Dutch Reformed clergy; colonial intellectual elite
Key figureRev. Johannes Theodore Polhemus, arrived New Amsterdam 1654
StatusDocumented back to 1654; connects to NJ and MD families
Line III
Conard
German–Quaker Agricultural Line
RangeCrefeld, Germany → Germantown PA → Virginia → Ohio → Indiana
Century1683 Germantown settlers; long westward migration
CharacterQuakers; landowners; community builders; morally serious
Key figureEmma Conard, married Samuel Ellis 1883
NotesOriginally "Kunders" — first Germantown Quaker meeting held in their home, 1683
Line IV
Daniels
Unresolved — Research Pending
RangeIllinois (Eleanor Daniel, born Elmwood IL, 1811)
Key figureEleanor D. Daniel; married John Plaemus Ellis 1834
Known kinFather: James Daniels; Mother: Hannah [surname unknown]
StatusOrigins untraced — no European connection yet identified
Migration Record
A History of Movement
Every generation moved west. Not fleeing — moving toward. Land, faith, trade, and the American habit of beginning again. What follows is the route, with glimpses of the world each generation actually inhabited.
1636–1654Dutch Brazil
(Pernambuco)
(Pernambuco)
Before New Amsterdam: Dutch Brazil
Polhemus does not come to New Amsterdam directly from the Netherlands. He is first sent to Dutch Brazil — the territory around Recife and Pernambuco that the Dutch West India Company seized from Portugal in 1630 and held for twenty-four years. He serves as minister there for nearly two decades, preaching to Dutch colonists in a tropical colony that no one quite knows how to govern. In 1654, the Portuguese reconquer Brazil. The Dutch are evacuated. Polhemus boards a ship — not headed home to the Netherlands, but to the other Dutch colony on the far side of the Atlantic: New Amsterdam. He arrives an experienced colonial minister, already accustomed to the frontier.
Frans Post — A Brazilian Landscape, 1650 | Oil on wood | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Public domain
Dutch Brazil, 1650 — four years before Polhemus was evacuated. Frans Post was the official painter of the Dutch Brazilian colony, recording its landscapes, its sugar mills, its strange mixture of European governance and tropical heat. Polhemus lived inside this landscape for almost two decades. When he finally sailed for New Amsterdam, he had already been a colonial minister for half his career.
Dutch Brazil, 1650 — four years before Polhemus was evacuated. Frans Post was the official painter of the Dutch Brazilian colony, recording its landscapes, its sugar mills, its strange mixture of European governance and tropical heat. Polhemus lived inside this landscape for almost two decades. When he finally sailed for New Amsterdam, he had already been a colonial minister for half his career.
Reinier Nooms (called Zeeman) — Bay with Sailing Vessels, 17th century | Etching | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Public domain
A Dutch vessel of the mid-1600s — the kind of ship that carried Polhemus from Brazil to New Amsterdam in 1654. Dutch maritime supremacy made these voyages routine for the company's employees. For Polhemus, it was his second ocean crossing. The Atlantic was, by now, familiar.
A Dutch vessel of the mid-1600s — the kind of ship that carried Polhemus from Brazil to New Amsterdam in 1654. Dutch maritime supremacy made these voyages routine for the company's employees. For Polhemus, it was his second ocean crossing. The Atlantic was, by now, familiar.
1654New Amsterdam
(now New York)
(now New York)
Rev. Polhemus Arrives at New Amsterdam
Johannes Theodore Polhemus arrives at New Amsterdam as one of only eleven Dutch Reformed ministers serving all of New Netherland — a territory stretching from Manhattan to Albany, with scattered settlements on Long Island and in New Jersey. University-educated, politically connected to the Dutch West India Company, he is part of the colonial intellectual elite — conducting services in Dutch, baptizing the children of merchants and traders, inspecting schools. His name, Latinized from the German "Polheim," marks him as a man of classical learning in a frontier colony where most people cannot sign their own name.
Nicolas Visscher I — Novi Belgii, Novaeque Angliae — Map of New Netherlands, New England, and part of Virginia, ca. 1656 | Print | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Public domain
The Dutch cartographic record of New Netherland, made just two years after Polhemus arrived. The territory he ministered across — Manhattan, Long Island, the Hudson River valley — is shown here as the Dutch understood it in 1656. Ten years later, the English would take all of it and rename it New York. But in 1654, when Polhemus stepped off his ship from Brazil, this was still New Amsterdam, still Dutch, still a company town.
The Dutch cartographic record of New Netherland, made just two years after Polhemus arrived. The territory he ministered across — Manhattan, Long Island, the Hudson River valley — is shown here as the Dutch understood it in 1656. Ten years later, the English would take all of it and rename it New York. But in 1654, when Polhemus stepped off his ship from Brazil, this was still New Amsterdam, still Dutch, still a company town.
Pieter de Hooch — The Visit, ca. 1657 | Oil on wood | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Public domain
The domestic world of the Dutch Golden Age — tiled floors, daylight through leaded windows, the unhurried pace of merchant-class life. This is the world the Polhemus family carried in memory across two oceans: the Netherlands at its most prosperous and self-assured, producing more paintings per capita than any civilization before or since.
The domestic world of the Dutch Golden Age — tiled floors, daylight through leaded windows, the unhurried pace of merchant-class life. This is the world the Polhemus family carried in memory across two oceans: the Netherlands at its most prosperous and self-assured, producing more paintings per capita than any civilization before or since.
Hendrick van Vliet — Interior of the Oude Kerk, Delft, 1660 | Oil on canvas | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Public domain
The whitewashed interior of a Dutch Reformed church — bare walls, high windows, plain wooden pews. No altars, no gilded saints. The Reformation stripped the church down to the word and the sermon. Polhemus preached in spaces like this, first in the Netherlands, then in Brazil, then in New Amsterdam, where the church was whatever building was available.
The whitewashed interior of a Dutch Reformed church — bare walls, high windows, plain wooden pews. No altars, no gilded saints. The Reformation stripped the church down to the word and the sermon. Polhemus preached in spaces like this, first in the Netherlands, then in Brazil, then in New Amsterdam, where the church was whatever building was available.
1683Germantown,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Conard Family Lands in America
The family recorded as "Kunders" — later anglicized to Conard — arrives from Crefeld, a German town near the Dutch border where Quakers had found refuge. They settle in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and the first Quaker meeting in Germantown is held in their home. They are farmers and community builders, part of William Penn's experiment in religious tolerance and fair dealing. For decades, Quakers would govern Pennsylvania without executing a single member, maintain peace with native peoples, and build a colony that attracted other dissenters from across Europe.
Winslow Homer — May-Day in the Country, 1859 | Wood engraving | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Public domain
American rural community life — the rhythms of gathering, celebration, and neighborly work that characterized Quaker settlements in Pennsylvania and across the frontier. The Conards lived inside precisely this texture of shared life, where the community was both farm and faith.
American rural community life — the rhythms of gathering, celebration, and neighborly work that characterized Quaker settlements in Pennsylvania and across the frontier. The Conards lived inside precisely this texture of shared life, where the community was both farm and faith.
American — Chest, ca. 1780 | Yellow pine, tulip poplar | Made in Pennsylvania | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Public domain
A Pennsylvania chest of the era — the kind of object a family carried with them from house to house, generation to generation. German immigrant families like the Conards brought their possessions in chests like this: Bibles, documents, clothing, the objects that said who they were when they couldn't explain themselves in English.
A Pennsylvania chest of the era — the kind of object a family carried with them from house to house, generation to generation. German immigrant families like the Conards brought their possessions in chests like this: Bibles, documents, clothing, the objects that said who they were when they couldn't explain themselves in English.
~1790sMaryland
Ellis Meets Polhemus in Maryland
Somewhere in Maryland — likely Frederick County, a crossroads for Dutch, German, and English craftsmen — a Polhemus woman marries an Ellis man. Their son, born 1810, is given "Polhemus" as a middle name to preserve the connection. By the time census takers come to record him forty years later, they write what they hear: Plaemus. The Polhemus blood becomes a spelling mystery — the Dutch ancestor visible only to someone who knows what they're looking for.
Winslow Homer — Summer in the Country, 1869 | Wood engraving | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Public domain
Maryland countryside — the wooded farmland, small towns, and craft trades where the Ellis and Polhemus families would have moved in the same circles. A Dutch name carried into a Welsh shoemaker's family. A marriage record we haven't found yet, in a county courthouse somewhere in western Maryland.
Maryland countryside — the wooded farmland, small towns, and craft trades where the Ellis and Polhemus families would have moved in the same circles. A Dutch name carried into a Welsh shoemaker's family. A marriage record we haven't found yet, in a county courthouse somewhere in western Maryland.
1834–1877Highland County,
Ohio
Ohio
John Plaemus Ellis, Shoemaker
John marries Eleanor Daniel in December 1834 and settles in Highland County, Ohio. By 1850 the census records him as a shoemaker with $2,000 in real estate. He is not a poor immigrant. He is a skilled tradesman who owns his shop and his home. The 1850 census shows five children in the house: daughters Hannah E. (14) and Isabella F. (12), plus sons John William, Joseph Matthew, and Mary C. (1). Samuel Edward Ellis — who will carry the family name into Indiana — is not born yet. John dies on his 67th birthday, who will carry everything into Indiana. John dies on his 67th birthday, July 2, 1877, in Hillsboro, Ohio.
Thomas Cole — View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm — The Oxbow, 1836 | Oil on canvas | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Public domain
America in 1836: the sublime wilderness giving way to cultivated land. Ohio in the 1830s looked like this — half wild, half settled, the edge of everything still moving west. John Ellis arrived into exactly this landscape: fresh cleared fields, new roads, towns that didn't exist a decade before.
America in 1836: the sublime wilderness giving way to cultivated land. Ohio in the 1830s looked like this — half wild, half settled, the edge of everything still moving west. John Ellis arrived into exactly this landscape: fresh cleared fields, new roads, towns that didn't exist a decade before.
Winslow Homer — A Country Store — Getting Weighed, 1871 | Wood engraving | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Public domain
The American small town of John Ellis's era: the general store, gathered neighbors, an economy of trade and skill and reputation. A shoemaker with $3,000 in real estate was not a laborer. He was a craftsman with a shop, a clientele, and a name worth something in his community. Every pair of shoes was a contract.
The American small town of John Ellis's era: the general store, gathered neighbors, an economy of trade and skill and reputation. A shoemaker with $3,000 in real estate was not a laborer. He was a craftsman with a shop, a clientele, and a name worth something in his community. Every pair of shoes was a contract.
1861–1873Ohio & the
War
War
John William Ellis Goes to War
While his father John Plaemus is still working as a shoemaker in Highland County, the oldest son — John William Ellis, born 1842 — enlists in the Union Army. His service record has not been pulled, so we don't know his unit, his campaigns, or what he survived. What we know is that he came home. And then, in 1873, at age 31, he dies of consumption — tuberculosis — the war's long-delayed casualty. Consumption killed more Civil War veterans than combat did. Whatever the war did to his lungs, or to him, he didn't outlive it by much. He is buried in Hillsboro, Ohio, four years before his father.
Winslow Homer — The Veteran in a New Field, 1865 | Oil on canvas | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Public domain
A Union soldier, just home from the war, harvesting wheat — his military jacket discarded on the ground behind him. Homer painted this in 1865, the year the war ended. John William Ellis came home to Ohio to something like this: the fields, the work, the ordinary life he'd left. He had eight more years.
A Union soldier, just home from the war, harvesting wheat — his military jacket discarded on the ground behind him. Homer painted this in 1865, the year the war ended. John William Ellis came home to Ohio to something like this: the fields, the work, the ordinary life he'd left. He had eight more years.
Unknown — Union Soldier and Barber, 1861–65 | Tintype with applied color | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Public domain
An actual photograph from the war years — a Union soldier sitting for his portrait, the way men did before they shipped out. John William Ellis would have had a photograph like this taken. It may still exist somewhere. His service record, if it survives, is in the National Archives.
An actual photograph from the war years — a Union soldier sitting for his portrait, the way men did before they shipped out. John William Ellis would have had a photograph like this taken. It may still exist somewhere. His service record, if it survives, is in the National Archives.
Winslow Homer — Rainy Day in Camp, 1871 | Oil on canvas | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Public domain
The encampment — the long stretches of nothing between battles that were, for most soldiers, the texture of the war. Disease, boredom, bad water, close quarters. Whatever consumption eventually found in John William's lungs may have started here, in a tent in Ohio or Kentucky or Tennessee, waiting for orders that never came fast enough.
The encampment — the long stretches of nothing between battles that were, for most soldiers, the texture of the war. Disease, boredom, bad water, close quarters. Whatever consumption eventually found in John William's lungs may have started here, in a tent in Ohio or Kentucky or Tennessee, waiting for orders that never came fast enough.
1883Indiana
The Three Lines Converge
Samuel Edward Ellis — son of the Ohio shoemaker, grandson of the Maryland mystery — marries Emma Conard in 1883. In this marriage, the Dutch Reformed minister, the German Quaker farmers, and the Welsh shoemakers become one family. Their son Benjamin Conard Ellis is born 1888. The westward movement, begun in 1654 when a minister boarded a ship in the Netherlands, has stopped. Indiana is where it ends.
Winslow Homer — A Quiet Day in the Country, 1870 | Wood engraving | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Public domain
The settled American countryside — not frontier, not city, but the middle ground where the Conard and Ellis lines finally stopped moving. Indiana, 1883: a marriage, a farm, a family that has been traveling for two hundred and twenty-nine years and has, for now, arrived.
The settled American countryside — not frontier, not city, but the middle ground where the Conard and Ellis lines finally stopped moving. Indiana, 1883: a marriage, a farm, a family that has been traveling for two hundred and twenty-nine years and has, for now, arrived.
Material Record
Objects & Evidence
What things survived. Maps that show the world before the English took it. A soldier's photograph. The kind of chest a family carried across the frontier. These are not your ancestors' objects — but they are objects from their world, of their type, made in their era. Close enough to touch.
Cartography / ca. 1656
The map of New Netherland
Nicolas Visscher's map of New Netherlands, printed around 1656 — two years after Polhemus stepped off his evacuation ship from Brazil. The territory shown here: Manhattan, Long Island, the Hudson Valley, the Connecticut River. The whale in the lower left. The beaver in the upper left — the fur trade that funded the whole enterprise.
In 1664, the English fleet sailed into New Amsterdam harbor and Peter Stuyvesant surrendered without a fight. Everything on this map was renamed. New Amsterdam became New York. New Netherland became New York Colony. But the Dutch families stayed, and some of them — including descendants of the Polhemus line — stayed for generations.
Nicolas Visscher I — Novi Belgii, Novaeque Angliae nec non partis Virginiae tabula, ca. 1656 | Print | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Public domain
Specimen Catalogue
The People Register
Everyone confirmed so far — names, dates, and whatever the record actually says. Organized by line. The naming tradition alone tells a story: Conard as middle name, passed generation to generation, from a Quaker farmer's daughter through an Ohio shoemaker's family into Indiana and then Indianapolis.
Ellis Line — Paternal
Generation I
John Plaemus Ellis
Born: July 2, 1810, Maryland · Died: July 2, 1877
Married: December 10, 1834, Elenor Daniel
Occupation: Cordwainer (master shoemaker); $2,000 real estate (1850 census)
Cordwainer vs. cobbler: A critical distinction. Cobblers only repaired shoes. Cordwainers made them from scratch — from raw leather to finished shoe. Colonial governments actually prohibited cobblers from making new shoes; only trained cordwainers could. The title required 5–7 years of apprenticeship. John would have kept wooden "lasts" — custom foot molds — for repeat customers, fitting shoes to individual feet the way a tailor fits a suit.
The reputation of the trade: Shoemakers were famously literate and politically engaged. The phrase of the era held that cordwainers were known for "remarkable intelligence." Captain John Smith of Jamestown was a shoemaker. American cordwainers formed the country's first professional guilds (Boston, 1648), ran exclusive social clubs (Philadelphia's Cordwainers' Fire Company, 1760), and sent 300+ participants to the 1788 Grand Federal Procession celebrating the Constitution — a deliberate "Buy American" statement against British imports. Their patron saint was St. Crispin; October 25 was the Shoemakers' Holiday.
Economic standing: $2,000 in real estate in 1850 = approximately $65,000–100,000 today. In Europe, a craftsman of his class could not own property at this scale — the guild system and aristocratic land ownership made it structurally impossible. He did it in Ohio, in one generation.
Buried: Hillsboro, Highland County, Ohio
1850 household (census): John (39, Maryland-born), Eleanor (listed as 25 — almost certainly a census error, she was ~38), Hannah E. (14), Isabella F. (12), John W. (8), Joseph M. (6), Mary C. (1). Samuel not yet born.
Previously unknown: Hannah E. (b. ~1836) and Isabella F. (b. ~1838) are daughters not in earlier records — discovered in the 1850 census image.
The name: "Plaemus" is the census taker's phonetic rendering of Polhemus — the Dutch surname carried as a middle name from a Maryland marriage not yet found.
Note: Died on his 67th birthday — born July 2, died July 2.
Married: December 10, 1834, Elenor Daniel
Occupation: Cordwainer (master shoemaker); $2,000 real estate (1850 census)
Cordwainer vs. cobbler: A critical distinction. Cobblers only repaired shoes. Cordwainers made them from scratch — from raw leather to finished shoe. Colonial governments actually prohibited cobblers from making new shoes; only trained cordwainers could. The title required 5–7 years of apprenticeship. John would have kept wooden "lasts" — custom foot molds — for repeat customers, fitting shoes to individual feet the way a tailor fits a suit.
The reputation of the trade: Shoemakers were famously literate and politically engaged. The phrase of the era held that cordwainers were known for "remarkable intelligence." Captain John Smith of Jamestown was a shoemaker. American cordwainers formed the country's first professional guilds (Boston, 1648), ran exclusive social clubs (Philadelphia's Cordwainers' Fire Company, 1760), and sent 300+ participants to the 1788 Grand Federal Procession celebrating the Constitution — a deliberate "Buy American" statement against British imports. Their patron saint was St. Crispin; October 25 was the Shoemakers' Holiday.
Economic standing: $2,000 in real estate in 1850 = approximately $65,000–100,000 today. In Europe, a craftsman of his class could not own property at this scale — the guild system and aristocratic land ownership made it structurally impossible. He did it in Ohio, in one generation.
Buried: Hillsboro, Highland County, Ohio
1850 household (census): John (39, Maryland-born), Eleanor (listed as 25 — almost certainly a census error, she was ~38), Hannah E. (14), Isabella F. (12), John W. (8), Joseph M. (6), Mary C. (1). Samuel not yet born.
Previously unknown: Hannah E. (b. ~1836) and Isabella F. (b. ~1838) are daughters not in earlier records — discovered in the 1850 census image.
The name: "Plaemus" is the census taker's phonetic rendering of Polhemus — the Dutch surname carried as a middle name from a Maryland marriage not yet found.
Note: Died on his 67th birthday — born July 2, died July 2.
Generation I
Eleanor D. Daniel Ellis
Born: October 1, 1811, Elmwood, Illinois
Died: December 13, 1886, Ohio (age 75, "old age")
Parents: James Daniels & Hannah [surname unknown]
Buried: Highland County, Ohio (Cemetery C, Section 99)
Note: Born in Illinois — unusual for this era; her family must have been early Illinois settlers. The Daniels line is completely untraced. Source: Highland County cemetery records PDF.
Died: December 13, 1886, Ohio (age 75, "old age")
Parents: James Daniels & Hannah [surname unknown]
Buried: Highland County, Ohio (Cemetery C, Section 99)
Note: Born in Illinois — unusual for this era; her family must have been early Illinois settlers. The Daniels line is completely untraced. Source: Highland County cemetery records PDF.
Generation II — oldest son
John William Ellis
Born: December 29, 1842 · Died: December 29, 1873
Parents: John Plaemus & Eleanor Daniel
Married: Anna McKibben
Service: Civil War veteran, Union Army
Cause of death: Consumption (tuberculosis), age 31
Buried: Hillsboro, Highland County, Ohio
Note: Died on his 31st birthday, four years before his father. Service record not yet pulled from National Archives.
Parents: John Plaemus & Eleanor Daniel
Married: Anna McKibben
Service: Civil War veteran, Union Army
Cause of death: Consumption (tuberculosis), age 31
Buried: Hillsboro, Highland County, Ohio
Note: Died on his 31st birthday, four years before his father. Service record not yet pulled from National Archives.
Generation II — discovered in 1850 census
Hannah E. Ellis & Isabella F. Ellis
Hannah E. Ellis: age 14 in the 1850 census, born approximately 1836
Isabella F. Ellis: age 12 in the 1850 census, born approximately 1838
Parents: John Plaemus & Eleanor Daniel Ellis
Note: These two daughters were entirely unknown until the 1850 census image was reviewed. Nothing further has been found about them — no marriages, no later census appearances, no death records yet located. They were older than John William Ellis and would have been adults during the Civil War years. Their stories are a complete blank, waiting.
Isabella F. Ellis: age 12 in the 1850 census, born approximately 1838
Parents: John Plaemus & Eleanor Daniel Ellis
Note: These two daughters were entirely unknown until the 1850 census image was reviewed. Nothing further has been found about them — no marriages, no later census appearances, no death records yet located. They were older than John William Ellis and would have been adults during the Civil War years. Their stories are a complete blank, waiting.
Generation II — third son
Samuel Edward Ellis
Born: 1857, Highland County, Ohio
Died: April 2, 1931, Peoria, Illinois (age 74; buried Peoria)
Married: September 24, 1883, Emma Conard, Highland County, Ohio
Migration: Ohio → Peoria, Illinois (in Peoria City Township by 1900)
Children: Mary (1884), Eleanor (1886), Benjamin Conard (1888), Anna (1890), John Otway (~1892), William Edward (1895) — "at least 3 sons and 3 daughters" per FamilySearch
Note: Born in the same Highland County, Ohio as Emma Conard — they were very likely neighbors or community members before marrying. His parents remain the critical open question. FamilySearch shows 12 sources attached to his record; Ancestry shows him in 72 family trees.
Died: April 2, 1931, Peoria, Illinois (age 74; buried Peoria)
Married: September 24, 1883, Emma Conard, Highland County, Ohio
Migration: Ohio → Peoria, Illinois (in Peoria City Township by 1900)
Children: Mary (1884), Eleanor (1886), Benjamin Conard (1888), Anna (1890), John Otway (~1892), William Edward (1895) — "at least 3 sons and 3 daughters" per FamilySearch
Note: Born in the same Highland County, Ohio as Emma Conard — they were very likely neighbors or community members before marrying. His parents remain the critical open question. FamilySearch shows 12 sources attached to his record; Ancestry shows him in 72 family trees.
Generation II — convergence point
Emma Conard Ellis
Born: January 5, 1857, Highland County, Ohio
Died: November 30, 1927, Peoria, Illinois
Buried: Peoria, Peoria County, Illinois
Parents: Benjamin Conard (1810–1902) & Elizabeth Conard née Hussey (1818–1913)
Married: September 24, 1883, Samuel Edward Ellis
Note: She is the reason the Conard name lives on. Her maiden name became her son's middle name, her grandson's middle name, and eventually her great-great-grandson's first name (your brother). Ancestry now shows a grave photograph for Emma Ellis — a headstone marked "ELLIS."
Died: November 30, 1927, Peoria, Illinois
Buried: Peoria, Peoria County, Illinois
Parents: Benjamin Conard (1810–1902) & Elizabeth Conard née Hussey (1818–1913)
Married: September 24, 1883, Samuel Edward Ellis
Note: She is the reason the Conard name lives on. Her maiden name became her son's middle name, her grandson's middle name, and eventually her great-great-grandson's first name (your brother). Ancestry now shows a grave photograph for Emma Ellis — a headstone marked "ELLIS."
Generation III — the name carrier
Benjamin Conard Ellis
Born: 1888 · Died: 1960
Parents: Samuel Edward & Emma Conard Ellis
Married: Hazel Slater Ellis (1891–1946)
Hazel's parents: William O. Slater (1864–1910) & Ida Mary Schmitt (1869–1945)
Son: Jack Conard Ellis (b. 1918, Peoria — one tree shows 1919)
Note: The "Conard" middle name tradition begins here — Emma's maiden name becoming her son's middle name. The pattern holds for two more generations.
Parents: Samuel Edward & Emma Conard Ellis
Married: Hazel Slater Ellis (1891–1946)
Hazel's parents: William O. Slater (1864–1910) & Ida Mary Schmitt (1869–1945)
Son: Jack Conard Ellis (b. 1918, Peoria — one tree shows 1919)
Note: The "Conard" middle name tradition begins here — Emma's maiden name becoming her son's middle name. The pattern holds for two more generations.
Generation IV
Jack Conard Ellis
Born: 1918 (one tree shows 1919), Peoria, Illinois
Died: August 9, 2006
Parents: Benjamin Conard Ellis (1888–1960) & Hazel Slater Ellis (1891–1946)
Sibling: Phyllis A. Ellis
Married: September 1, 1945, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Peoria
Spouse: Margaret Lyall Day (January 24, 1921 – November 9, 2012)
Children: Dr. John C. Ellis (b. 1949), Dr. Richard L. "Dick" Ellis (b. 1951), Nancy Jane O'Brien (Living), Scott Robert Ellis (1955–1961)
Note on Scott: Scott Robert Ellis died in 1961 at approximately six years old — a child's death in the middle of the family's story, recorded now only as dates.
Died: August 9, 2006
Parents: Benjamin Conard Ellis (1888–1960) & Hazel Slater Ellis (1891–1946)
Sibling: Phyllis A. Ellis
Married: September 1, 1945, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Peoria
Spouse: Margaret Lyall Day (January 24, 1921 – November 9, 2012)
Children: Dr. John C. Ellis (b. 1949), Dr. Richard L. "Dick" Ellis (b. 1951), Nancy Jane O'Brien (Living), Scott Robert Ellis (1955–1961)
Note on Scott: Scott Robert Ellis died in 1961 at approximately six years old — a child's death in the middle of the family's story, recorded now only as dates.
Also traced — Emma's siblings
Samuel's other children
Samuel and Emma had six children total:
Mary (b. 1884, m. Henry Lottman 1917, d. 1960)
Eleanor (b. 1886, m. Harry Morgan, d. 1980)
Anna (b. 1890, m. Church Todd c. 1910, d. 1952)
John Otway (b. ~1892, m. Grace Truitt c. 1913)
William Edward (b. 1895, m. Marie Allton c. 1918)
These are your great-great-grand-aunts and uncles.
Mary (b. 1884, m. Henry Lottman 1917, d. 1960)
Eleanor (b. 1886, m. Harry Morgan, d. 1980)
Anna (b. 1890, m. Church Todd c. 1910, d. 1952)
John Otway (b. ~1892, m. Grace Truitt c. 1913)
William Edward (b. 1895, m. Marie Allton c. 1918)
These are your great-great-grand-aunts and uncles.
Polhemus Line — The Dutch Root of "Plaemus"
The Polhemus family is one of the best-documented Dutch lines in colonial America — traceable through church registers back to 1654. Their name lives on in the Ellis family only as a single phonetic misspelling: "Plaemus," written by a census taker in Ohio in 1850. Behind that misspelling is one of the most remarkable family origin stories in American history.
1654 — The Founder
Rev. Johannes Theodore Polhemus
Arrived: New Amsterdam (New York City), 1654
Origin: Netherlands, ordained Dutch Reformed minister
Role: One of only eleven Dutch Reformed ministers serving all of New Netherland
Languages: Dutch, Latin, and increasingly English — mastery of multiple languages was required for ordination and expected of all Dutch Reformed clergy
The name: Born with the family name Polheim (from the German/Dutch meaning roughly "house by the marsh or pool"). He Latinized it to Polhemus when he entered holy orders — a standard practice for university-educated clergy in the 1600s, signaling learning and religious vocation. The Latin ending made the name feel authoritative, classical, permanent.
Why he came: He did not come from the Netherlands directly. He had been serving as a minister to the Dutch colony in Brazil — specifically in Recife (Dutch Pernambuco), the sugar-rich colony the Dutch West India Company held for decades. In 1654, Portugal reconquered the colony after a long siege. The Dutch residents — including Rev. Polhemus — were given ships and expelled. His ship landed in New Amsterdam. He came to New York not as a planned immigrant but as a refugee from a fallen colony. He had already crossed the Atlantic twice.
His authority: As one of only eleven ministers in all of New Netherland, he held enormous religious and civic standing. Dutch Reformed ministers worked closely with the colonial government — Director-General Peter Stuyvesant was a church member. Polhemus performed baptisms, officiated marriages, maintained congregational records, trained other clergy, and traveled circuits to inspect schools. His records are the reason the family line is traceable at all.
Descendants: The Polhemus family spread through New York and New Jersey over the following generations before some branches migrated south into Pennsylvania and Maryland, where a Polhemus woman married into the Ellis family circa 1780s–1790s.
Origin: Netherlands, ordained Dutch Reformed minister
Role: One of only eleven Dutch Reformed ministers serving all of New Netherland
Languages: Dutch, Latin, and increasingly English — mastery of multiple languages was required for ordination and expected of all Dutch Reformed clergy
The name: Born with the family name Polheim (from the German/Dutch meaning roughly "house by the marsh or pool"). He Latinized it to Polhemus when he entered holy orders — a standard practice for university-educated clergy in the 1600s, signaling learning and religious vocation. The Latin ending made the name feel authoritative, classical, permanent.
Why he came: He did not come from the Netherlands directly. He had been serving as a minister to the Dutch colony in Brazil — specifically in Recife (Dutch Pernambuco), the sugar-rich colony the Dutch West India Company held for decades. In 1654, Portugal reconquered the colony after a long siege. The Dutch residents — including Rev. Polhemus — were given ships and expelled. His ship landed in New Amsterdam. He came to New York not as a planned immigrant but as a refugee from a fallen colony. He had already crossed the Atlantic twice.
His authority: As one of only eleven ministers in all of New Netherland, he held enormous religious and civic standing. Dutch Reformed ministers worked closely with the colonial government — Director-General Peter Stuyvesant was a church member. Polhemus performed baptisms, officiated marriages, maintained congregational records, trained other clergy, and traveled circuits to inspect schools. His records are the reason the family line is traceable at all.
Descendants: The Polhemus family spread through New York and New Jersey over the following generations before some branches migrated south into Pennsylvania and Maryland, where a Polhemus woman married into the Ellis family circa 1780s–1790s.
The Brazil Chapter — A Forgotten World
Dutch Brazil, 1630–1654
The Dutch West India Company seized northeastern Brazil from Portugal in 1630 and held it for 24 years. At its height, Dutch Brazil — centered in Recife — was a remarkably cosmopolitan colony: home to Dutch Calvinists, Sephardic Jews expelled from Europe, enslaved Africans, Portuguese colonists, and indigenous peoples. It was governed at its peak by Johan Maurits van Nassau, who brought scientists, artists, and intellectuals to document the New World. Rev. Polhemus served this Dutch congregation.
When Portugal retook the colony in 1654, Dutch residents were given passage out. Many sailed to New Amsterdam — among them, according to some accounts, the first Jewish community in North America (who petitioned Peter Stuyvesant for the right to stay). Polhemus arrived in this same wave. The fall of Dutch Brazil is the reason the minister who became your ancestor landed in New York.
When Portugal retook the colony in 1654, Dutch residents were given passage out. Many sailed to New Amsterdam — among them, according to some accounts, the first Jewish community in North America (who petitioned Peter Stuyvesant for the right to stay). Polhemus arrived in this same wave. The fall of Dutch Brazil is the reason the minister who became your ancestor landed in New York.
Dutch Reformed — What the Church Was
The Institution Behind the Name
The Dutch Reformed Church (formally: the Reformed Church in America) was the official religion of New Amsterdam and the backbone of Dutch colonial culture. Ministers were university-trained — typically at Leiden or Utrecht — and held one of the highest social positions in the colony. They were expected to be theologians, administrators, record-keepers, and community judges.
Conducted services in Dutch until 1764 — over a century after the British took New Amsterdam and renamed it New York, the Dutch Reformed Church held its services in Dutch. Language was a form of cultural survival.
1766: The Dutch Reformed Church founded Queen's College in New Jersey — now Rutgers University. The Polhemus line is directly connected to one of the oldest universities in America, through the denomination that founded it.
Records: Because ministers like Polhemus kept meticulous baptismal, marriage, and burial records — sent back to Amsterdam for safekeeping — the Dutch colonial lines are among the best-documented of any early American family. The Polhemus family genealogy can be traced back to 1654 with confidence.
Conducted services in Dutch until 1764 — over a century after the British took New Amsterdam and renamed it New York, the Dutch Reformed Church held its services in Dutch. Language was a form of cultural survival.
1766: The Dutch Reformed Church founded Queen's College in New Jersey — now Rutgers University. The Polhemus line is directly connected to one of the oldest universities in America, through the denomination that founded it.
Records: Because ministers like Polhemus kept meticulous baptismal, marriage, and burial records — sent back to Amsterdam for safekeeping — the Dutch colonial lines are among the best-documented of any early American family. The Polhemus family genealogy can be traced back to 1654 with confidence.
The Unnamed Woman — Research Target
The Polhemus Woman Who Married Ellis
Sometime around 1785–1800, a woman from the Polhemus family — probably living in Maryland, possibly descended from the New York/New Jersey Polhemus branches that migrated south — married a man named Ellis. Their son was named John, with "Polhemus" given as a middle name to preserve the connection. A census taker would later write that name as "Plaemus."
Her name has not been found. She is currently known only through her son's middle name. The Polhemus family is well-documented in New York and New Jersey; the task is tracing those branches into Maryland. Frederick County, Maryland — a hub of Dutch, German, and English craftsmen in the late 1700s — is the most likely search area.
Note on spelling variants: The same family name appears in records as Polhemus, Polhamus, Polemus, Polhemius, Polheymus, and — in your ancestor's case — Plaemus. All the same family.
Her name has not been found. She is currently known only through her son's middle name. The Polhemus family is well-documented in New York and New Jersey; the task is tracing those branches into Maryland. Frederick County, Maryland — a hub of Dutch, German, and English craftsmen in the late 1700s — is the most likely search area.
Note on spelling variants: The same family name appears in records as Polhemus, Polhamus, Polemus, Polhemius, Polheymus, and — in your ancestor's case — Plaemus. All the same family.
Conard Line — Through Emma
1683 — The Original Settlers
Dennis Conrad (Kunders)
Origin: Crefeld, Germany (near Dutch border)
Arrived: Germantown, Pennsylvania, 1683
Significance: First Quaker meeting in Germantown held in his home
Religion: Quaker (Religious Society of Friends)
Note: The original spelling was Kunders, later anglicized to Conrad/Conard. The family's records are well-documented through conardfamilyhistory.com going back to this generation.
Historical footnote — the first anti-slavery petition in America: In 1688, German Quakers in Germantown — the community Dennis Conrad/Kunders helped found five years earlier — signed the Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery: the first formal protest against slavery in American history, written in German and presented to the Monthly Meeting. It argued that enslaving people violated the Golden Rule. The Meeting tabled it (it was too radical for the time), but the document survived. It was rediscovered in 1844. Your ancestor lived in and helped build the community that produced it.
Arrived: Germantown, Pennsylvania, 1683
Significance: First Quaker meeting in Germantown held in his home
Religion: Quaker (Religious Society of Friends)
Note: The original spelling was Kunders, later anglicized to Conrad/Conard. The family's records are well-documented through conardfamilyhistory.com going back to this generation.
Historical footnote — the first anti-slavery petition in America: In 1688, German Quakers in Germantown — the community Dennis Conrad/Kunders helped found five years earlier — signed the Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery: the first formal protest against slavery in American history, written in German and presented to the Monthly Meeting. It argued that enslaving people violated the Golden Rule. The Meeting tabled it (it was too radical for the time), but the document survived. It was rediscovered in 1844. Your ancestor lived in and helped build the community that produced it.
Confirmed — early 1800s
Benjamin Conard
Born: September 14, 1810, New London, Pennsylvania
Died: November 7, 1902, Highland County, Ohio (age 92)
Buried: Penn, Ohio
Spouse: Elizabeth Hussey (1818–1913)
Daughter: Emma Conard (January 5, 1857)
Migration: New London PA → Highland County OH (before 1857)
Parents: Unconfirmed — Ancestry hint suggests Cornelius Conard (1764–1838) as father and Susanna Chalfant (1775–1862) as mother. These appear as "Potential" matches in Ancestry's tree hints; the LifeStory page currently shows "Unknown father / Unknown mother," meaning no one has confirmed or attached them yet. Given the timing and location — a Conard family in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Quaker community — the hint is plausible and worth pursuing. The New London Monthly Meeting records in Chester County PA are the place to look.
Note: Kate's 3rd great-grandfather per Ancestry. He lived to 92 — an extraordinary lifespan for the era, when average life expectancy (accounting for child mortality) was around 40, and reaching 60 was considered old age. Quaker communities had noticeably higher longevity, attributed to their temperance, plain diet, mutual aid networks, and lower stress from conflict avoidance. Benjamin's wife Elizabeth outlived him by 11 years, dying at approximately 95.
Quaker farmer standing: Pennsylvania and Ohio Quaker farmers were described by contemporaries as the "middling sort" — landowning, self-sufficient, community-respected, and morally authoritative. William Penn described Pennsylvania as "the Best Poor Man's Country": a place where an industrious farmer could own land, feed his family, and have standing in his community regardless of birth. The Quakers' reputation for absolute honesty made them preferred trading partners. Their Meeting Houses were the center of social life, dispute resolution, and welfare distribution. They cared for their own orphans, elderly, and poor — a parallel government of sorts.
Died: November 7, 1902, Highland County, Ohio (age 92)
Buried: Penn, Ohio
Spouse: Elizabeth Hussey (1818–1913)
Daughter: Emma Conard (January 5, 1857)
Migration: New London PA → Highland County OH (before 1857)
Parents: Unconfirmed — Ancestry hint suggests Cornelius Conard (1764–1838) as father and Susanna Chalfant (1775–1862) as mother. These appear as "Potential" matches in Ancestry's tree hints; the LifeStory page currently shows "Unknown father / Unknown mother," meaning no one has confirmed or attached them yet. Given the timing and location — a Conard family in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Quaker community — the hint is plausible and worth pursuing. The New London Monthly Meeting records in Chester County PA are the place to look.
Note: Kate's 3rd great-grandfather per Ancestry. He lived to 92 — an extraordinary lifespan for the era, when average life expectancy (accounting for child mortality) was around 40, and reaching 60 was considered old age. Quaker communities had noticeably higher longevity, attributed to their temperance, plain diet, mutual aid networks, and lower stress from conflict avoidance. Benjamin's wife Elizabeth outlived him by 11 years, dying at approximately 95.
Quaker farmer standing: Pennsylvania and Ohio Quaker farmers were described by contemporaries as the "middling sort" — landowning, self-sufficient, community-respected, and morally authoritative. William Penn described Pennsylvania as "the Best Poor Man's Country": a place where an industrious farmer could own land, feed his family, and have standing in his community regardless of birth. The Quakers' reputation for absolute honesty made them preferred trading partners. Their Meeting Houses were the center of social life, dispute resolution, and welfare distribution. They cared for their own orphans, elderly, and poor — a parallel government of sorts.
Confirmed — early 1800s
Elizabeth Hussey Conard
Born: 1818 · Died: 1913 (age ~95)
Married: Benjamin Conard
Daughter: Emma Conard (b. 1857)
Potential father (Ancestry): Stephen H. Hussey (1775–1842) — flagged as "Potential" in Ancestry. The Hussey family was a documented New England Quaker line, which would fit the pattern perfectly — a Quaker woman marrying into the Conard Quaker family.
Note: If Stephen H. Hussey is confirmed, this opens a Hussey line worth tracing — New England Quaker families are exceptionally well-documented. Elizabeth lived to roughly 95, dying eleven years after her husband.
Married: Benjamin Conard
Daughter: Emma Conard (b. 1857)
Potential father (Ancestry): Stephen H. Hussey (1775–1842) — flagged as "Potential" in Ancestry. The Hussey family was a documented New England Quaker line, which would fit the pattern perfectly — a Quaker woman marrying into the Conard Quaker family.
Note: If Stephen H. Hussey is confirmed, this opens a Hussey line worth tracing — New England Quaker families are exceptionally well-documented. Elizabeth lived to roughly 95, dying eleven years after her husband.
Possible connection — unverified & separate from Peggy's line
Rev. Frank E. Day & A. Lilly Conard
Note first: Margaret "Peggy" Day's parents are confirmed as William Lyall Day (1891–1966) and Nellie Day née Robilliard (1891–1978). Peggy is Lyall's daughter, not Frank Day's.
Separately, a Day–Conard marriage exists in the record: A. Lilly Conard (b. August 31, 1875) married Rev. Frank E. Day (August 25, 1894). Their documented children: Lilly Ann June (1895, died infant), Morris McCabe Day (b. April 12, 1900, m. Edna M. Burgett June 5, 1924), Harold Conard Day (b. 1903, died in childhood). Source: conardfamilyhistory.com.
Whether William Lyall Day is related to Rev. Frank E. Day — as a brother, cousin, or son — is entirely unverified speculation. It would be a notable coincidence if both "Day" men were unrelated, but coincidences happen. This requires direct research to confirm or rule out.
Separately, a Day–Conard marriage exists in the record: A. Lilly Conard (b. August 31, 1875) married Rev. Frank E. Day (August 25, 1894). Their documented children: Lilly Ann June (1895, died infant), Morris McCabe Day (b. April 12, 1900, m. Edna M. Burgett June 5, 1924), Harold Conard Day (b. 1903, died in childhood). Source: conardfamilyhistory.com.
Whether William Lyall Day is related to Rev. Frank E. Day — as a brother, cousin, or son — is entirely unverified speculation. It would be a notable coincidence if both "Day" men were unrelated, but coincidences happen. This requires direct research to confirm or rule out.
Day Line — Maternal (Grandmother's Side)
Confirmed
Margaret Lyall Day Ellis
Born: January 24, 1921, Peoria, Illinois
Died: November 9, 2012
Middle name: Lyall — named after her father, William Lyall Day
Parents: William Lyall Day (1891–1966) & Nellie Robilliard Day (1891–1978)
Siblings: Nancy Day (1925–2017), Dora Lucile Day, Sally Day (b. 1932)
Education: Manual High School, Peoria, graduated 1938
Work: Retail/office, 1938–1945
Married: Jack Conard Ellis, September 1, 1945, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Peoria
Family story: Spent time in a western state with her father during childhood/teen years; father had difficulty maintaining steady employment. Exact state unknown.
Died: November 9, 2012
Middle name: Lyall — named after her father, William Lyall Day
Parents: William Lyall Day (1891–1966) & Nellie Robilliard Day (1891–1978)
Siblings: Nancy Day (1925–2017), Dora Lucile Day, Sally Day (b. 1932)
Education: Manual High School, Peoria, graduated 1938
Work: Retail/office, 1938–1945
Married: Jack Conard Ellis, September 1, 1945, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Peoria
Family story: Spent time in a western state with her father during childhood/teen years; father had difficulty maintaining steady employment. Exact state unknown.
Confirmed — father of Peggy
William Lyall Day
Born: 1891 · Died: 1966
Spouse: Nellie Robilliard (b. 1891, d. 1978)
Daughter: Margaret Lyall Day (b. 1921) — named after him
Parents: William Worthy Day II (1869–1926) & Marian Inez Chambers (1873–1937)
Known: Took Peggy with him to a western state during her childhood/teen years (~mid-1930s); had difficulty maintaining steady employment; described as having a fiery temper
Note: The "Lyall" name passed from him to his daughter Margaret as her middle name. His father was "William Worthy Day II" — a named line going back further.
Spouse: Nellie Robilliard (b. 1891, d. 1978)
Daughter: Margaret Lyall Day (b. 1921) — named after him
Parents: William Worthy Day II (1869–1926) & Marian Inez Chambers (1873–1937)
Known: Took Peggy with him to a western state during her childhood/teen years (~mid-1930s); had difficulty maintaining steady employment; described as having a fiery temper
Note: The "Lyall" name passed from him to his daughter Margaret as her middle name. His father was "William Worthy Day II" — a named line going back further.
Confirmed — mother of Peggy
Nellie Robilliard Day
Born: 1891 · Died: 1978
Married: William Lyall Day
Daughter: Margaret Lyall Day (b. 1921)
Parents: Walter H. Robilliard MD (1861–1931) & Eudora Joetta Hauser (1866–1944)
Father was a physician: Walter H. Robilliard held a medical degree — Nellie came from a professional family. This gives the Robilliard line additional documentation to search (medical licensing boards, hospital directories, professional registers).
Name origin: "Robilliard" remains likely French Huguenot or Swiss Protestant. Searching Walter H. Robilliard MD in medical records should surface his birthplace and origins quickly.
Married: William Lyall Day
Daughter: Margaret Lyall Day (b. 1921)
Parents: Walter H. Robilliard MD (1861–1931) & Eudora Joetta Hauser (1866–1944)
Father was a physician: Walter H. Robilliard held a medical degree — Nellie came from a professional family. This gives the Robilliard line additional documentation to search (medical licensing boards, hospital directories, professional registers).
Name origin: "Robilliard" remains likely French Huguenot or Swiss Protestant. Searching Walter H. Robilliard MD in medical records should surface his birthplace and origins quickly.
Unresolved
Rev. Frank E. Day & A. Lilly Conard
Married August 25, 1894. Frank was a minister; Lilly was born a Conard. Their documented children: Morris McCabe Day (1900), Harold Conard Day (1903, died in childhood). Margaret's father Lyall may be Frank's brother, son, or unrelated — the connection is not yet confirmed. Morris McCabe Day (m. Edna M. Burgett 1924) had daughters Dorothy (b. 1925) and Elizabeth Ann (b. 1928). Source: conardfamilyhistory.com.
Potential Ancestors — Ancestry Flagged, Unconfirmed
These names appear in the Ancestry tree with "Potential" markers — meaning Ancestry's algorithm suggests them as likely matches, but they haven't been confirmed through primary source research. Treat as leads, not facts.
Potential — Benjamin Conard's father
Cornelius Conard
Dates: 1764–1838
If confirmed: Benjamin's father; would place the Conard line solidly in Pennsylvania through the Revolutionary War era — Cornelius was born 1764, meaning he lived through the Revolution as a young man.
Verify via: Chester County Pennsylvania Quaker records; New London Meeting birth records; conardfamilyhistory.com descendants list.
If confirmed: Benjamin's father; would place the Conard line solidly in Pennsylvania through the Revolutionary War era — Cornelius was born 1764, meaning he lived through the Revolution as a young man.
Verify via: Chester County Pennsylvania Quaker records; New London Meeting birth records; conardfamilyhistory.com descendants list.
Potential — Benjamin Conard's mother
Susanna Chalfant
Dates: 1775–1862
If confirmed: Benjamin's mother; the Chalfant name is itself a documented Quaker family of English origin in Chester County Pennsylvania.
Verify via: Chester County deeds, wills, and Quaker meeting records. Haverford College Quaker Collection.
If confirmed: Benjamin's mother; the Chalfant name is itself a documented Quaker family of English origin in Chester County Pennsylvania.
Verify via: Chester County deeds, wills, and Quaker meeting records. Haverford College Quaker Collection.
Potential — Elizabeth Hussey's father
Stephen H. Hussey
Dates: 1775–1842
If confirmed: Elizabeth Conard's father; the Hussey family was a prominent New England and Mid-Atlantic Quaker line. "Hussey" as a surname traces to Nantucket and Rhode Island Quaker communities — this could open a well-documented New England line going back to the 1600s.
Verify via: FamilySearch Hussey records; Nantucket Historical Association; Rhode Island Quaker records.
If confirmed: Elizabeth Conard's father; the Hussey family was a prominent New England and Mid-Atlantic Quaker line. "Hussey" as a surname traces to Nantucket and Rhode Island Quaker communities — this could open a well-documented New England line going back to the 1600s.
Verify via: FamilySearch Hussey records; Nantucket Historical Association; Rhode Island Quaker records.
Potential — Samuel Ellis's mother's side
Ida Mary Schmitt
Context: Appears in the Ancestry tree as a "Potential" match connected to Samuel Edward Ellis's side. A German surname — "Schmitt" is the German form of Smith (blacksmith). If confirmed, this would add a German immigrant line to the Ellis family, alongside the Dutch (Polhemus) and Welsh/English origins.
Verify via: Highland County Ohio records; 1850–1860 census for Schmitt households.
Verify via: Highland County Ohio records; 1850–1860 census for Schmitt households.
The Naming Tradition
Emma Conard married Samuel Ellis in 1883, and her maiden name — Conard — became her son's middle name. Benjamin Conard Ellis (1889). His son: Jack Conard Ellis (1918). Four generations carrying the same word forward, each one a small act of remembrance for a Quaker farmer from New London, Pennsylvania, who lived to 92 and was buried in Penn, Ohio. And then your brother: Benjamin Conard Ellis, Indianapolis — the name returned to its beginning.
Endicott Line — Sheryn's People
Sheryn's side of the family, arriving into the story through her marriage to John C. Ellis. The Seitz branch shows German immigrant ancestry; the Endicott name itself has deep American roots. Listed here for completeness.
Sheryn's parents — Kate's grandparents
Charles E. Endicott & Donna M. Seitz Endicott
Charles E. Endicott: born May 13, 1928; died 2003 (per one tree; another shows living)
Donna M. Endicott: born June 14, 1929; died November 30, 2004
Donna's maiden name: Seitz — confirmed on the handwritten family tree and her personal records. Walter Harold Seitz was her father.
Address: 1211 Short Drive, Pekin, Illinois
Children: Charles Jr. (b. September 5, 1948), Sheryn E. (b. October 17, 1949, m. Dr. John C. Ellis), Jamie/James C. Endicott (b. June 29, 1963)
Note on John C. Ellis: Donna's personal records list Sheryn's husband as "John M.D." — your father John C. Ellis held a medical degree.
Donna M. Endicott: born June 14, 1929; died November 30, 2004
Donna's maiden name: Seitz — confirmed on the handwritten family tree and her personal records. Walter Harold Seitz was her father.
Address: 1211 Short Drive, Pekin, Illinois
Children: Charles Jr. (b. September 5, 1948), Sheryn E. (b. October 17, 1949, m. Dr. John C. Ellis), Jamie/James C. Endicott (b. June 29, 1963)
Note on John C. Ellis: Donna's personal records list Sheryn's husband as "John M.D." — your father John C. Ellis held a medical degree.
Charles's parents
Troy C.E. Endicott & Elizabeth L. Heflin
Troy C.E. Endicott: no dates visible
Elizabeth L. Heflin: 1905–1978
Troy's parents: Samuel G.W. Endicott (1863–1941) & Nancy Allenton Hicks (1866–1931)
Elizabeth's parents: Melvin Curtis Heflin & [unknown]
Elizabeth L. Heflin: 1905–1978
Troy's parents: Samuel G.W. Endicott (1863–1941) & Nancy Allenton Hicks (1866–1931)
Elizabeth's parents: Melvin Curtis Heflin & [unknown]
Shelby C. Endicott — Troy's sibling
Shelby C. Endicott (1906–1986)
Appears in the Ancestry tree as a sibling generation to Troy. Also visible: Bertha M. Williams (1895–1988) and Julia F. Karnes (1890–1977) in connected positions — likely spouses or siblings in the Endicott/Endicott-adjacent network.
Samuel G.W. Endicott's parents — 3rd great-grandparents
Samuel C. Endicott & Mary Jane Stallings
Samuel C. Endicott: 1826–1900
Mary Jane Stallings: 1832–1913
Samuel's mother: Elizabeth Swanson (1795–1878) — a 4th great-grandparent, appearing in the tree without a confirmed father listed
Mary Jane Stallings: 1832–1913
Samuel's mother: Elizabeth Swanson (1795–1878) — a 4th great-grandparent, appearing in the tree without a confirmed father listed
Donna's parents
Walter Harold Seitz & Leona Pearl Reid
Walter Harold Seitz: 1906–1951 (died young, age ~45)
Leona Pearl Reid: 1910–1990
Walter's parents: Frederick C. Seitz (1871–1951) & Minnie Albrecht (1877–1943)
Leona's parents: James Reid (1877–1954) & Eva L. Whitwam Reid (1886–1954)
Leona Pearl Reid: 1910–1990
Walter's parents: Frederick C. Seitz (1871–1951) & Minnie Albrecht (1877–1943)
Leona's parents: James Reid (1877–1954) & Eva L. Whitwam Reid (1886–1954)
Seitz 3rd great-grandparents — German immigrants
Frederick Seitz & Sophia Meir
Frederick Seitz: 1842–1916
Sophia Meir: 1845–1929
Photographs of both appear in the Ancestry tree — actual 19th century portrait photographs. Both names are solidly German. Frederick and Sophia were likely born in Germany or to German immigrant parents in America, arriving in the mid-1800s wave of German immigration. "Meir" is a common German Jewish and German Protestant surname.
Sophia Meir: 1845–1929
Photographs of both appear in the Ancestry tree — actual 19th century portrait photographs. Both names are solidly German. Frederick and Sophia were likely born in Germany or to German immigrant parents in America, arriving in the mid-1800s wave of German immigration. "Meir" is a common German Jewish and German Protestant surname.
Research Field Guide
The Research Map
Where to look next. Specific resources, specific search strategies, and the open questions with the best chance of resolution. Organized by priority.
SOURCES ALREADY FOUND
Cemetery Records — Found
Highland County Cemetery Records PDF
The source that confirmed John and Eleanor Ellis's cemetery entries, Eleanor's birthplace in Elmwood IL, her parents James & Hannah Daniels, and John William Ellis's Civil War service and death by consumption. A critical primary source.
hillcem.weebly.com — Person File E →
hillcem.weebly.com — Person File E →
Conard Family History Site — Found
conardfamilyhistory.com
The site that documented the Conard line from 1683 Germantown settlers through to the Day–Conard marriage (A. Lilly Conard marrying Rev. Frank E. Day in 1894) and their descendants. Source of the Morris McCabe Day family information. Highly detailed descendants list.
conardfamilyhistory.com/descendants →
conardfamilyhistory.com/descendants →
Family Resource — Available
Aunt Nancy & Uncle Dick's Ancestry Tree
Dick and Nancy almost certainly have the full Ellis family tree already traced on Ancestry.com, including Samuel Edward Ellis's parentage (the critical missing link), and potentially the Lyall Day and Robilliard lines. One phone call may answer every question in this document. Their research almost certainly goes further back than this herbarium currently reaches.
PRIORITY SEARCHES — IN ORDER
1. Samuel Edward Ellis's parents (Highland County Ohio, 1853)
This is the most important open question. Samuel was born in Highland County, Ohio in 1853 — in the same county where Emma Conard was born. His parents were likely established Ohio families.
Search on FamilySearch (free): 1860 and 1870 Ohio census, Highland County. Look for a household with a boy named Samuel Ellis born ~1853. The head of household is your great-great-great-grandparent.
FamilySearch — Samuel Ellis Ohio 1860 census →
Search on FamilySearch (free): 1860 and 1870 Ohio census, Highland County. Look for a household with a boy named Samuel Ellis born ~1853. The head of household is your great-great-great-grandparent.
FamilySearch — Samuel Ellis Ohio 1860 census →
2. The Maryland Ellis–Polhemus marriage (~1780s–1790s)
The marriage of a Polhemus woman to an Ellis man in Maryland — the event that produced John "Plaemus" Ellis in 1810. Frederick County, Maryland is the most likely location.
Search: Maryland State Archives, Frederick County marriage records, 1780–1800. Also search for Ellis families in the 1800 Maryland census — any household with a son born ~1810 named Ellis is a candidate.
Maryland State Archives →
FamilySearch — Frederick County Maryland records →
Search: Maryland State Archives, Frederick County marriage records, 1780–1800. Also search for Ellis families in the 1800 Maryland census — any household with a son born ~1810 named Ellis is a candidate.
Maryland State Archives →
FamilySearch — Frederick County Maryland records →
3. Nellie Robilliard — the unusual name
"Robilliard" is a rare surname — likely French Huguenot or Swiss in origin. Rare names are actually easier to search because there are fewer false matches. This line could open French Protestant ancestry going back to the 1685 Edict of Fontainebleau, when Louis XIV expelled Protestants from France.
Search: FamilySearch for Robilliard in Illinois, Indiana, and neighboring states. Ancestry.com. WikiTree. The name's distinctiveness makes this potentially the fastest open question to resolve.
FamilySearch — Robilliard Illinois →
Search: FamilySearch for Robilliard in Illinois, Indiana, and neighboring states. Ancestry.com. WikiTree. The name's distinctiveness makes this potentially the fastest open question to resolve.
FamilySearch — Robilliard Illinois →
4. William Lyall Day — birthplace and parents (1891–1966) — RESOLVED
Ancestry now confirms William Lyall Day lived 1891–1966. Born 1891, died 1966 — he lived to 75. Nellie was also born 1891 and died 1978. The open questions are now his birthplace, his parents, and which western state he took Peggy to in the 1930s. The 1920 census (he'd be ~29) should show his birthplace field.
Search: FamilySearch 1920 census — "Lyall Day," Illinois. Then 1930 — same, but also check western states if not found in Illinois. His given name is unusual enough that false matches are rare.
FamilySearch — Lyall Day Illinois →
Search: FamilySearch 1920 census — "Lyall Day," Illinois. Then 1930 — same, but also check western states if not found in Illinois. His given name is unusual enough that false matches are rare.
FamilySearch — Lyall Day Illinois →
5. John William Ellis's Civil War service record
The National Archives holds Union Army service records and pension files. John William Ellis, born December 29, 1842, died December 29, 1873 of consumption — a Civil War veteran from Highland County, Ohio. His unit and campaigns are unknown. A pension file, if one exists, would name his widow Anna McKibben and might contain a physical description and enlistment date.
Fold3 — Civil War Union Service Records (paid) →
National Archives — Civil War Union Records →
Fold3 — Civil War Union Service Records (paid) →
National Archives — Civil War Union Records →
6. Benjamin Conard's parents (New London, Pennsylvania, 1810)
Benjamin Conard was born September 14, 1810, in New London, Pennsylvania — a Quaker community in Chester County. Quaker records are exceptionally well-preserved. The Monthly Meeting records for the New London Meeting would likely have his birth record and his parents' names. Chester County has well-digitized records.
FamilySearch — Chester County PA Quaker records →
Haverford College Quaker Collection (primary Quaker archive) →
FamilySearch — Chester County PA Quaker records →
Haverford College Quaker Collection (primary Quaker archive) →
FREE RESOURCES
FamilySearch.org
Free. Largest free genealogy database. Includes census records 1790–1940, vital records, church records. Required for any serious research. Create a free account, then search for individuals by name, year, and location. For this family: start with 1850–1880 Ohio census for Ellis/Conard households.
familysearch.org →
familysearch.org →
Illinois State Archives
Free death record search for Illinois deaths. Useful for Samuel Edward Ellis (d. 1931 Peoria), Emma Conard Ellis (d. 1927 Peoria), and Benjamin Conard Ellis (d. 1960). Death records often list parents' names.
Illinois State Archives death search →
Illinois State Archives death search →
Peoria County Genealogical Society
Local society with access to Peoria-specific records not digitized elsewhere. Useful for the Peoria-based generations (Samuel, Emma, Benjamin, Jack). May have city directories, church records, and local newspaper obituaries.
peoriacountygenealogy.org →
peoriacountygenealogy.org →
WikiTree — Conard Family
Free collaborative genealogy. The Conard family has an active presence on WikiTree going back to the 1683 Germantown settlers. Searching "Conard" on WikiTree will surface documented family connections that may include your specific line.
wikitree.com/genealogy/CONARD →
wikitree.com/genealogy/CONARD →
Peoria Public Library — Local History
The Peoria library's local history and genealogy department holds city directories, newspaper archives, and Peoria-specific collections. Useful for the Peoria generations. Can be accessed remotely in some cases.
peoriapubliclibrary.org →
peoriapubliclibrary.org →
FamilySearch — Highland County Ohio
Direct link to Highland County, Ohio records on FamilySearch — the county where John Plaemus Ellis lived and died, where Samuel was born, where Emma Conard grew up, and where the Ellis and Conard families intersected.
FamilySearch — Highland County Ohio →
FamilySearch — Highland County Ohio →
Archival Note
What the Record Keeps
Archives are not neutral. What survives says as much about power and institution as it does about people. The Quakers kept meticulous records, which is why we can trace the Conard line with confidence. The shoemaker's life is largely invisible, caught only in a census line and a graveyard.
On Archives & Erasure
The church that kept the record
Dutch Reformed churches were systematic record-keepers — baptisms, marriages, burials, congregational rolls — because they understood documentation as a form of faithfulness. The Polhemus line is well-documented precisely because the Dutch Reformed church was literate and institutional. Every baptism Polhemus performed in New Amsterdam was written down.
The shoemaker left no such trail. What we know of John Plaemus Ellis comes from census takers who couldn't spell his name, a cemetery database, and a marriage record. The rest is silence — not absence, but erasure by ordinary inattention.
Pieter Jansz. Saenredam — Interior of the Sint-Pieterskerk, 's-Hertogenbosch, 1632 | Oil on panel | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Public domain
Quaker Records
Monthly Meeting Minutes
The Religious Society of Friends kept meticulous records of births, marriages, deaths, and membership. These are the Conard line's gift to the researcher — decades of clear documentation available through FamilySearch.
Church Records
Dutch Reformed Registers
The Dutch Reformed Church documented baptisms and marriages in New Amsterdam and New Jersey from 1639 onward. The Polhemus line is accessible through these registers — one of the few well-documented Dutch colonial families in America.
Federal Census
1820–1880 Schedules
John Plaemus Ellis appears in the 1850 Ohio census: age 40, shoemaker, $3,000 real estate. The census taker wrote "Plaemus" — a phonetic rendering of "Polhemus" that concealed the Dutch ancestry for generations. Census records are full of such accidental erasures.
Cemetery Records
Hillsboro, Ohio
The gravestone database confirmed John's death date — July 2, 1877, his 67th birthday — and listed his sons with their parentage. Cemetery records often preserve family structure that no other document kept.
Land Records
Highland County, Ohio
The $3,000 real estate value in the 1850 census implies deed records exist in Highland County. Land records can name sellers, neighbors, and sometimes parents — a next research step that might surface John's Maryland origins.
What Didn't Survive
The Maryland Marriage
The Ellis–Polhemus marriage in Maryland — the single event that explains everything about the name "Plaemus" — has not been found. Maryland records for this period are incomplete. It may be in a county courthouse, a church register, or nowhere at all.
Historical Context
The World They Lived In
The facts behind the names. Each ancestor moved through a world with specific textures — what houses looked like, what work required, what historical events were unfolding around the kitchen table. These are the details that turn a family tree into a family story.
THE DUTCH LINE — NEW AMSTERDAM, 1654
Housing — New Amsterdam, 1650s
Stepped gables on the East River
Dutch houses in New Amsterdam followed the architecture of the Netherlands: narrow brick homes with stepped or curved gable ends facing the street, large windows to admit light, and steep roofs suited to the Dutch climate. The settlement was small — a few hundred houses clustered around Fort Amsterdam at the tip of Manhattan — but densely cosmopolitan. By 1650, 18 languages were spoken on its streets. Rev. Polhemus would have preached in a simple wooden church, later replaced with stone. Ministers lived in congregation-provided housing, typically the most respectable address available.
Daily Life — A Minister's World
What Rev. Polhemus actually did each day
Dutch Reformed ministers had a dense and varied professional life. Sunday sermons were the public anchor, but the week was filled with: baptismal visits to households (recording every name and date), catechism instruction for youth, dispute mediation (the church functioned as a court for congregational conflicts), school inspections (ministers supervised the colony's schoolmasters), and correspondence with church authorities in Amsterdam. Ministers traveled by horse or boat to outlying farms and communities — Long Island, New Jersey, up the Hudson. Polhemus had already done this in Brazil, in a climate and language far harder than New York.
Historical Event — 1664
The British Take New Amsterdam
Ten years after Polhemus arrived, the British fleet sailed into New Amsterdam's harbor and demanded surrender. Peter Stuyvesant wanted to fight. The colonists refused — they negotiated, and the British took the city without firing a shot, renaming it New York. The Dutch Reformed Church survived the transition: the British allowed it to continue, services remained in Dutch, and Polhemus and his successors continued their work. The church conducted services in Dutch until 1764 — a century after the British takeover — a quiet act of cultural persistence.
THE QUAKER LINE — GERMANTOWN & OHIO, 1683–1902
Housing — Quaker Pennsylvania, 1680s–1700s
Plain houses, plain lives
German Quaker settlers in Germantown built simple stone or timber houses — two rooms on the main floor, sleeping loft above, a large hearth for cooking and heat. No decorative carving, no ornament: Quaker theology held that beauty was a distraction from God. The Meeting House was similarly plain: whitewashed walls, wooden benches, no altar, no stained glass, no music. Dress was "plain" — broad-brimmed hats for men, bonnets and simple gray or brown cloth for women. Buttons were sometimes considered ostentatious; hooks and eyes were used instead.
1688 — The First Anti-Slavery Petition
Your ancestors' community, five years after arrival
In February 1688, the German Quakers of Germantown — the same community Dennis Conrad/Kunders helped found in 1683 — wrote and signed the first formal protest against slavery in American history. Written in German, it argued that enslaving people was incompatible with the Golden Rule and with Quaker belief in the divine light in every person. The Meeting tabled it; it was too radical. The document was lost, then rediscovered in 1844. It is now housed at Haverford College. Your ancestor lived among the people who wrote it, five years after helping settle the same ground.
Daily Life — Ohio Quaker Farm, 1840s–1880s
Benjamin Conard's world in Highland County
By the time Benjamin Conard was farming in Highland County, Ohio, the Quaker community had developed a reputation for unusually prosperous and orderly farms. Visitors frequently commented on it: fields well-fenced, barns in good repair, livestock well-fed, families literate. Wheat and corn were the main crops; livestock — hogs, cattle, draft horses — were essential. Women worked alongside men, and Quaker women had far more legal and social standing than was typical: they could speak in Meeting, own property, and conduct business. Their children were educated at Quaker-run schools. Benjamin lived to 92; his wife Elizabeth to approximately 95. Two people born in 1810 and 1818, dying in 1902 and 1913 respectively — they outlived almost everyone around them, crossing from the era of wooden plows to the era of automobiles.
THE SHOEMAKER LINE — MARYLAND & OHIO, 1810–1877
Housing — Hillsboro, Ohio, 1850
A shoemaker's house and shop
In 1850, $2,000 in real estate in Highland County, Ohio would have purchased a comfortable frame house with a separate workshop or a shop built into the front room. Hillsboro was a county seat — a small but established town with a courthouse, several churches, and a commercial street. A cordwainer of standing would have his shop on the main street or attached to his home, a small showroom of finished shoes and a workroom in the back with his lasts, tools, and the smell of leather and wax. He likely employed an apprentice or journeyman. The family — seven people in 1850 — lived in four or five rooms.
The Craft — What Cordwaining Required
Five to seven years of apprenticeship
A cordwainer's training began in the early teens, typically as an apprentice in a master's shop. The apprentice learned to: select and cut leather hides (choosing the right thickness for soles vs. uppers), carve and maintain wooden lasts (the foot-shaped molds kept for each customer), shape and sew uppers using thick waxed thread and a curved awl, attach soles using wooden pegs or hand stitching, and finish shoes with edge-trimming and polishing. Each pair was essentially bespoke. A skilled cordwainer might produce two or three pairs per week. John Plaemus Ellis would have known the feet of his customers the way a dentist knows their patients' mouths — intimately, functionally, by the specific shape of the arch.
Historical Event — The Civil War, 1861–1865
The Ellis family in the war years
John Plaemus Ellis would have been 51 when the war began — too old to enlist. But his oldest son John William Ellis served in the Union Army. Highland County, Ohio sent thousands of men. The county was staunchly pro-Union; its congressman had helped found the Republican Party. John Plaemus watched his son leave for the war, then watched him come home — and then watched him die of consumption in 1873, four years before John Plaemus himself died in 1877. The tuberculosis that killed John William was rampant in army camps; many soldiers who survived combat came home infected. A shoemaker's shop in a county seat was also a community gathering place; John Plaemus would have known almost every man who left and the news of every one who didn't return.
Open Questions
Field Notes
Good genealogical research generates more questions than it answers. What follows is the current list — the gaps, the mysteries, the things worth finding if they can be found.
What does "Plaemus" actually mean?
The 1850 census spelling "Plaemus" is almost certainly a phonetic rendering of "Polhemus" — a Dutch surname from "Polheim," meaning roughly "house by the marsh." Census takers wrote what they heard. Someone said "Polhemus" with a particular accent, and the enumerator wrote "Plaemus." This single misspelling is the clue that connects the Ohio shoemaker to 1654 New Amsterdam and Rev. Johannes Polhemus — one of only eleven Dutch Reformed ministers in all of New Netherland.
Who was the Polhemus woman who married into the Ellis line?
Somewhere in Maryland, around the 1780s or 1790s, a woman from the Polhemus family married an Ellis man, and their son was given "Polhemus" as a middle name to preserve the connection. Her name has not been found. She exists in the record only as a phonetic echo — the word "Plaemus" written by a census taker in 1850, forty years after her son's birth. Her first name, her parents, her birth year: none of it is documented. The Polhemus family is well-documented back to 1654 through New York and New Jersey church records; tracing that line south into Maryland is the research path. Frederick County, Maryland — a hub of Dutch, German, and English craftsmen — is the most likely place to start looking.
Where did Eleanor Daniel come from?
Eleanor D. Daniel was born 1811 in Elmwood, Illinois, and married John Plaemus Ellis in 1834. Her father was James Daniels; her mother's name is unknown. The Daniels line has no European connection traced yet. It is a missing branch — and one worth finding, since Eleanor is where the Indiana line actually begins.
What happened to John William Ellis?
John William Ellis, Samuel's older brother, was a Civil War veteran. He died of consumption in 1873 at age 31. His military service record has not been pulled. A Civil War service record might reveal what unit, where he was stationed, what battles he survived — before tuberculosis found him in the years after the war.
What is this for?
Not a database. Not a proof of lineage. The goal is a written family history — narrative, essayistic, comfortable with uncertainty. A document that can be read, not just searched. The Ellis Herbarium is an organizational structure and a way of thinking: each family line as a specimen, each generation as a growth condition, each gap in the record as a legitimate finding. The actual writing comes later.
COLLECTOR'S NOTE
Three hundred and seventy years of movement. Dutch ministers and German Quakers and Welsh shoemakers, all ending up in the same county in Indiana. They didn't know each other was coming. They didn't know they'd converge. But the records suggest it was almost inevitable — that everyone moving west eventually stops in the same place, and their children marry, and the whole complicated story becomes one family's story.