PRALL: Sticking with the same family as the past two days, Aaron and Cornelius Prall are today's focus. It took roughly five years to prove that all of Aaron's offspring were really his. Aaron's widow, Mary left a will dated 20 September 1760. Mary named her eldest son James, son Benjamin and daughters Elizabeth and Jemima. An Edward Prall transcribed and witnessed the will. No mention was made of Cornelius Prall, believed to be Aaron and Mary's son as well.
Based on Mary's will, she and Aaron were assigned just four children. The Cornelius Prall in question had become two people among some Prall researchers. Cornelius Prall had died in 1813, but his estate wasn't settled until 1819, thus the dual identity. The two Corneliuses had spouses and children assigned to them.
Unraveling Cornelius' story was a matter of following the paperwork related to the estate. It took the nearly six years to settle and divide the estate. Complicating matters was the fact that Cornelius had been married three times. Eventually, the correct nine children of Cornelius and 1st wife, Rebecca [Garrison] were identified. A couple of the children were new additions to the Prall family, not having appeared in anyone's research at the time.
That left proving that Cornelius was Aaron's son. Back in the early '90s, I had two very dedicated long-distance research buddies, Betty Gerlack and Berniece Cowan, also researching the Aaron line. [This was back in the olden days of telephone and postal communication.] A package arrived one day with copies of several documents. One had a sticky note with "read this one first." The paper was a court case identifying Cornelius Prall as the son of Aaron!
Deeds in which James Prall deeded to brother Cornelius the land that would be his share of the family estate were also included. Cornelius had not been named in his mother's will because he had already received his inheritance.
Other documents that we uncovered proved the family group. Cornelius and several of James' children were named heirs to the estate of Edward Prall and Cornelius was named as an heir to Benjamin Prall. Sample of Edward Prall's handwriting from later documents matched that of Mary's will.
The issue of Aaron and Mary Prall: James, Cornelius, Edward, Elizabeth, Benjamin and Jemima.
Aaron's date of death had been a mystery. We knew he predeceased Mary, but that was it. The last record of Aaron in the Hunterdon Courts was on 9 March 1757. He was to provide for the well-being for one year of one John Carr and to be reimbursed for expenses. On 18 October 1757, James Prall deeded land to Cornelius. This narrowed Aaron's death to a seven month period.
Three family mysteries resolved. Two 100%, Aaron was Cornelius Prall's father and Cornelius' family had been identified. The other, close. Aaron's death had been narrowed to a seven month period.
That court case identifying Cornelius as Aaron's son? It now appears in a book of compiled records for Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Sigh! [I will admit seeing the copy of the document in hand beats seeing a transcription in a book!]
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