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Researching Rohl Clinton Foster (a.k.a. Raoul F. Foster), an Orphan Train Rider

If you have questions, comments, additions or corrections, please contact me:
Clint Foster -

last edited: July 30, 2008

This document details my genealogical search for the ancestors of my paternal grandfather, Raoul F. Foster. I found this type of investigative work to be very interesting, and it was exciting to see the pieces of this puzzle come together, but those who aren't family or aren't really interested in genealogical research might find it overly verbose and kind of dry. To skip the story and get straight to the facts, you can find the results of the research by viewing Raoul's family pedigree pedigree at RootsWeb.com.
tinyurl link: http://tinyurl.com/gfcgs

My sincerest thanks go to my friend Kathleen Manuel (Hogan). Without her, this wouldn't have been accomplished, and Raoul's background would still be in the dark. The Foster family owes her a huge debt of gratitude.

For a very long time, I've felt a strong connection with my paternal grandfather, Raoul F. Foster. I barely remember him because I was only five when he died in 1969, and at that, I never got to be around the real Raoul. He had become senile from Alzheimer's or a series of strokes, and most of what I remember is visiting him in a rest home that housed some very scary old people.

Through the years it was family and friends who told me about what a friendly, caring and talented person he was. If I was ever introduced to someone I hadn't met before, they would usually smile and become a lot friendlier when they found out that I was Raoul's grandson.

Perhaps I just wanted to feel a connection with such a well-liked individual, or perhaps it was because my dad had mentioned how many of my characteristics reminded him of his own father. One very obvious reason to feel connected is that I was named after him - kind of (i.e. my full name is Raoul Clinton Foster). In fact, grandpa didn't know his full name for a very long time because he was an orphan; had actually been a rider on the Orphan Train, and only knew that he was Raoul Foster. His pronunciation of his name rhymed with the word "ball" - which I always found odd since Raoul is a Latin-based name and always pronounced with a triphthong, like "rah OOL".

Raoul F. Foster in France during WWI During World War I, after he went to France, the Army asked for his middle name, and even though he explained his situation, the Army was quite insistent that he have one. So, one day he was walking down a street in France and he saw a sign for a local jeweler or tailor named Raoul François. He was quite enamored with the French and even later told his kids that he was probably of French descent, so he adopted the name Raoul François Foster.

It was during World War II when he was already grown and had a family that he acquired his birth certificate from New York City and it listed his real name as Rohl Clinton Foster. He never adopted this name, however, and just continued to go by Raoul F. Foster. He was apparently known for telling a good tale, and in this case, he told my dad that that name couldn't possibly be correct and that the doctor who delivered him was obviously just a drunk and didn't know how to spell!

Through the years, a few family members tried to research into Raoul's past, but there was very little information to go on since he had been an orphan. This was also in a time before the Internet, so the research was much more difficult to conduct, so I decided that if the opportunity ever presented itself, I would travel to New York City to see what information I could find.

In August 1996 I was working at the University of Arkansas, and prior to making a business-related trip to New York, I sent off to the N.Y. Municipal Archives to receive a copy of my grandfather's birth certificate. Also, I was lucky enough to meet the head librarian at the University Library who had just spent the previous five years at the New York Public Library. She offered some good advice on where to do genealogical research in N.Y., but more importantly she informed me that the Children's Aid Society (C.A.S.) was the chief agency responsible for the "placing out" of orphans on the Orphan Train. I was amazed to hear that the C.A.S. still existed, so I went back to my office and called information to get their phone number. When I called, I was transferred to a fellow named Victor Remer who was the retired head of the C.A.S. and, lucky enough for me, had become their Chief Archivist. When I mentioned my quest to find any information related to my grandfather, he put me on hold for about five minutes and then returned and said, "I got him!" He had located a file that contained the actual letters written by my grandfather, plus a logbook where the C.A.S. agents had recorded their visits to see him in Nebraska where he had been placed. I practically fell out of my seat!

When I got to New York and met with Mr. Remer at the Children's Aid Society in downtown Manhattan, he spent about an hour showing me all of the various documents regarding my grandfather. Included in this information was the court document dated June 1908 that discharged Raoul from the Children's Village orphanage located in Dobb's Ferry, NY, but it also says why he was committed in the first place.

Discharge - June, 1908
39232 - Raoul Foster - Com. by Judge Olmsted on June 30, 1906 - N.P.G. (No Parental Guardianship) at the request of the S.P.C.C. (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children). Comment on commitment papers, "Exposed and neglected by his custodians - father away - step-mother in prison."

Present age: 10 yrs. Height: 4 ft. 4 in. Weight: 58 lbs. Chest at repose: 23 in. Expanded: 25 in.

Is in Lenox Cottage, Mrs. Iiles as matron and attends the 4th grade in school under Miss Kirley as teacher. Employed as shepherd boy. Visited in March, 1907 by stepmother Clara Foster of 249 Montgomery Street, Jersey City. Boy had a grandmother, Mrs. Anna Foster of 248 W. 21st Street, N.Y. City - reported dead. Boy is a volunteer.

This was all very interesting, but the part about my grandfather having a stepmother really floored me. No one in the family had ever heard about her - no doubt because she had been imprisoned! Being an orphan, my grandfather had somewhat of an identity problem and was at times probably made to feel like a "nobody" (especially by his mother-in-law, the wife of a dentist), so having a convict for a stepmother wouldn't have helped matters. He never told anyone, but did refer to her in his letters back to the orphanage and the C.A.S.

In addition to my visit with Mr. Remer, I also went to the New York Municipal Archives on Chamber Street to search for any birth, marriage, or death records for his parents. Raoul's birth certificate legibly lists his father's name and age, but his mother's maiden name can only be made out to be something like, "Minerva Ca_stang". I was unable to find anything conclusive on his father since there were several James Fosters listed, but I did find an 1899 death certificate for a Minerva Foster that I really felt was Raoul's mother, and it listed her cause of death as typhoid fever. It also mentioned that she was interred at Greenwood. I assumed this to be the name of a cemetery, but my time in New York had run out, so I was unable to continue any research.

Since 1996 I had periodically searched Internet or Mormon LDS databases for Raoul's parents, but this has always resulted in too many matches for James Foster, or too few or limited results on Minerva Foster (Ca_stang). In late 2004 I was visiting with my friend Kathleen Manuel (Hogan) and, for whatever reason, we started talking about genealogy. She mentioned that she was heavily into genealogical research, so I told her the somewhat abbreviated story (ok, even the short story is really long) about my grandfather - how he was homeless and then picked off the streets of New York City and placed into an orphanage, and then after two years placed on the Orphan Train and sent west to eventually be taken in by Mr. and Mrs. George A. Brown of Huntley, Nebraska. She graciously offered to help me in my research, so I accepted and promised to email her Raoul's birth certificate.

After much forgetfulness, I finally sent Kathleen the birth certificate in September 2005 and within four days she replied back with a 1900 census record she had located that listed a family living in Manhattan that consisted of a widowed Anna Foster (b. May, 1840), her widowed son James Foster (b. Sep 1864), and a young child named Roland (b. Aug 1899). Some things matched and others didn’t.

Raoul’s birth certificate indicated that his father was born in New York and 34 years old in 1898, so he would have been born in either 1863 or 1864. From Minerva’s death certificate, I knew that she had died in 1899, and therefore left James widowed. From the 1908 court papers that released Raoul from the orphanage, I knew that he had a widowed grandmother named Anna Foster.

The discrepancies of course are that Raoul was never known as Roland, and he was born in August 1898, not August 1899. Kathleen theorized that maybe James was away at work on the day the census worker came to the door, and maybe Anna was senile or her memory wasn’t what it used to be. She also mentioned that most census takers of the time had very little education, and grammatical errors were quite common. I think that it’s highly likely that either Anna or the census taker just assumed that Raoul was short for Roland. As an aside, I am acquainted with a fellow that works at a local university named Roland, but he always goes by Rol (pronounced just like Raoul - "rahl").

Database queries show that there were 52 James Fosters living in New York at the time of the 1900 census. If you get rid of all those not born in NY (Raoul’s birth certificate lists his father as being born in NY) and all those with a middle initial other than "C", you are left with 22. Of that set, there were only two listed as being born around 1865. The odds of there being a widowed lady named Anna Foster, living with her widowed son James of the exact right age, who has a son with a very similar name to Rohl, just seemed too great for coincidence. I felt quite confident that this was my grandfather, great grandfather, and great, great grandmother listed in the census.

On September 27, 2005, Kathleen sent me the following email:

In 1870 in New York County I found the following household:

Caroline Stagg, 50, born NY
Mary Whittlesey, 40, born NY
Anna Foster, 30, born NY (Raoul’s grandmother ?)
James Foster, 34, born NY (grandfather ?)
James Foster, 6, born NY (father - James Clinton Foster ?)

The 1900 census indicated that James Clinton Foster's father was born in Louisiana, not NY, but often there is that kind of discrepancy between censuses. There are a lot of doctors, lawyers, etc. living in the vicinity and people with jobs like stable manager, footman, etc., but there are no occupations given for any of the above folks for some reason.

This seemed to be the same James and Anna of the 1900 census since they were both the appropriate ages. The next day Kathleen found the following:

1850 census, Eastern Half of 15th Ward in New York, August 28:

James Foster, 55, merchant, worth $90,000, born New York
Julia, 50, born NY
Margaret, 19, born NY
James, 14, born NY (age matches James, 34 above in 1870 census)
Clinton, 11, born NY
Patrick McClune, 55, coachman, born Ireland
Burnett MacDermott, 30, waiter, born Ireland
Julia Nolan, 60, born Ireland
Ann Lee, 25, born Ireland
Jane McAllister, 22, born Ireland
Margaret ?, 25, born Ireland
Charlotte Bartrow, 35, born England

I believe this might be your great, great, great grandfather and his family.

Again, the ages matched up, but the attributed $90,000 net worth was really hard to imagine. In today’s money that would be somewhere between 2 - 15 million dollars! It appears that the elder James was married to Julia and their children were Margaret, James, and Clinton, and there were assorted servants in the house.

Raoul used to tell the story that when he was homeless, he remembered a rich uncle coming to pick him up in a really elaborate coach and taking him to his home for awhile. For whatever reason, the rich uncle didn’t keep him and he ended up back on the streets. I wondered if this Clinton Foster listed in the census was perhaps his rich granduncle.

On October 9, Kathleen emailed me that she had located a 1910 census record listing a 47 year old James Foster residing in a place called the NYC Home for Aged & Infirm (known prior to 1907 as the Kings County Almshouse) located in Brooklyn, New York. It occurred to me that Raoul had told his children that he remembered his father either being very sick or beaten-up, and that they had taken him away. Perhaps they took him to this place to recuperate? It seemed quite possible, so we started searching for any records related to this almshouse.

In addition to searching for any info on James Foster, Kathleen prompted me to research Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn since I had seen mention of that cemetery on Minerva’s death certificate when I visited New York in 1996. I found their Web site and phone number, so I called on October 11, and spoke with their chief genealogist, Theresa LaBianca. She searched and found Minerva Foster in their database, and then made the observation that she was the only Foster in that particular plot. This was actually what I had guessed at, so I asked her if the other people buried next to her had a last name that began with "C" - to which she said, "Yes." I was ecstatic! I knew that the cemetery wouldn’t divulge too much information since they wanted people to pay for any research, but I started going on about how excited I was and that I was going to immediately send a check and then after a bunch of my rambling, she blurted out, "It’s Carstang!"

On October 22, 2005, I finally received the packet of info from Green-Wood. I quickly scanned through the various documents to find Minerva’s burial record and finally saw what I had been searching for for so long. At the time of her burial, someone had made the notation on her record - "Said to be Wilhelmina Minerva Carstang." All of my previous searches had been for "Minerva" - it never occurred to me that she might have had a different first name.

Included in the packet of info was a bunch of information regarding the other Carstang family members buried in the same plot: William, Susan, William Jr., Julia, Joseph B., Joseph D., and so on. I quickly emailed the list to Kathleen, who then responded with results from several censuses. Matching individuals with those in the cemetery, we were able to piece together that Minerva was the daughter of William Carstang, Jr. (b. 12 Nov 1840) and Julia Miller (b. 27 Jul 1842). She had two older brothers and one younger sister: William C. (b. 1866), Frank E. (b. 29 Aug 1868), and Ella (b. ~1875). Minerva’s paternal grandparents were William Carstang (b. 05 Dec 1813) and Susan Brown (b. 02 Oct 1817). One really interesting note is that Kathleen found an 1880 census that records the family name as Carstien and William, Jr.’s parents (William & Susan) are listed as both being from Baden, Germany. In addition, Minerva apparently went by a nickname - Minna - no doubt, short for Wilhelmina.

New York City Home for Aged & Infirm Meanwhile, after searching the Internet for quite sometime, I found that admission records for various New York almshouses had been microfilmed and were on file and available for loan from the New York State Archives. At the University of Virginia Alderman Library I arranged for an interlibrary loan and finally received 10 reels of microfilm on December 21.

These reels spanned the time frame of 1900 to 1910, and each reel contained the admission records for approximately 1500 patients. They weren’t indexed, so the only way to find James Foster was to look at every single record. I started researching during the Christmas break and was good for only one reel a day. Watching record after record go by was so unbelievably hypnotic that it was all I could do to stay awake!

On the third reel, I did find a James Foster that was listed, but his date of birth was off by at least seven years, so I had to keep looking. At the end of reel number four, I found out that the years 1904 - 1906 were missing - the very years that I thought I would find my James! Although I was really disappointed, I kept on looking through the reels, but I never found him. So, unless something else turns up, there’s no way of knowing whether he was ever admitted.

At the same time, I had still been searching for something related to the Carstang family. Kathleen had found that Joseph D. Carstang (Raoul’s 1st cousin once removed) was quite a prominent figure with The Boy Scouts of America in Staten Island and was instrumental in creating the Order of the Arrow.

On January 27, 2006, Kathleen emailed that she had found more information about the rich James Foster married to Julia in the 1850 census:

I've been working on an angle for several weeks that I got some info on today. I ordered a death record on Clinton Foster who died in NYC in 1915 at the age of 77.

I believe this is the Clinton Foster who in 1850 was living in NYC in the eastern half of Ward 15 as follows:

James Foster,55, merchant, born NY, real estate worth $90,000 (!)
Julia, 50
Margaret, 19
James, 14
Clinton, 11

There are also a coachman and a waiter living there along with five other adult Irish and English immigrants who are probably other servants in the household. The 14 year old James could be Raoul's grandfather.

I just noticed this time around that in the same census there is a James A. Foster and a Clinton W. Foster, 14 and 11, recorded at a boarding school in Ossining, Westchester County, NY, who are probably these same boys. That would fit with their wealth status, which ties in to the story about an uncle (who might even be this Clinton Foster) having wealth.

Anyway, I had found on ancestry.com that several people had shown a Clinton Foster from NY with parents James Foster, Jr. and Ann Eliza Clinton, and Ann Clinton's genealogy was traced quite far back by some of them, although James Foster's was not. I emailed all of these people to see if possibly Ann had died before 1850 and Julia was a second wife and not the mother of Margaret, James, and Clinton, and if perhaps their mother was Ann Eliza Clinton, but I didn't hear back from any of them. In the 1850 census there are no relationships shown, and even in the later ones the word "son" means in relation to the head of household only, and he may not be the son of the wife.

Today I received the death record and, in fact, Clinton Foster's parents are shown there as James Foster and Anna Clinton. I think this is pretty significant.

Ann Clinton's mother I believe was a DeWitt, and there is a connection to Governor DeWitt "Father of the Erie Canal" Clinton of New York. He and Ann both descend from a Clinton who came over from County Longford in Ireland but whose family was originally from England. Some of Ann's ancestry is traced back to the 1100s.

I had noticed before that there was a Clinton Foster born 1840 (close enough) with wife Margaret and stepson William Turrell in the 1880 census living in Danbury, CT. Clinton was only 40 but shown as unemployed (independently wealthy?)

Then in 1900 he and Margaret are still in Danbury, CT, living with Margaret's single sister Rebecca Dibble, and he is selling life insurance.

The death record says he was a life long resident of New York City, but also that he was buried in Wooster Cemetery in Danbury, CT. That cemetery has a website with a few names listed, and you might possibly get some info from them. But Margaret, his wife, was from Connecticut and her family had been in Danbury for some time, so I suspect he's buried next to her (she predeceased him) and there may not be any Fosters nearby. He may have moved back to New York after her death to live with relatives or something.

I found this all quite interesting, but I didn’t really expect much to come from it. I felt it was too much to hope for that Kathleen had actually found some of my paternal ancestors, and to tie into this line, we had to find that the 14 year old James in this census was in fact the father of my great grandfather, James Clinton Foster. It really seemed pretty farfetched, but it was also very tempting since Ann Eliza Clinton was from such a rich, well-known family - the genealogical research back to about 1100 had already been done! So, Kathleen persisted and then came up with this bit of information:

This is really fascinating. This was the great grandfather of Ann Eliza Clinton. I hope this is your family -- there is lots more information:

Name: Charles CLINTON, Col.
Birth: 1690 in Co. Longford, Corbay, Ireland
Death: 19 Nov 1773 in Little Britain, New York
Fact 1: 20 May 1729 Emigrated from Ireland and settled Little Britain in Ulster (Orange County)
Fact 2: He was a judge, militia officer, surveyor, and land speculator.
After the death of his father, Charles leased his estate to the Earl of Granard for 99 years, chartered a vessel and came to America in 1729 with his family, relatives and many friends. They purchased land in Orange Co. then called Ulster. They renamed the place 'Little Britain."

Charles Clinton, the only son of James, was born in the County of Longford, in Ireland, in 1690. He resolved in 1729 to emigrate to British America and having persuaded a number of his friends and relatives to join him, he chartered a ship, for the purpose of conveying his colony to Philadelphia. The name of this 'good vessel or ship', was the 'George and Anne', of Dublin, burthen about ninety tons, and was chartered by Charles Clinton, George Lille, Robert Frazer, William Hamilton, and Thomas Dunlop, for themselves and sixty five others.

On the 20th of May, the ship left Ireland. After being at sea for some time, it was discovered that the captain had formed a design of starving his passengers to death, either with the view to obtain their property or to deter emigration. Several of the passengers actually died, among whom were a son and daughter of Mr. Clinton. In this awful situation it was proposed by the passengers to seize the captain and commit the navigation of the vessel to Mr. Clinton, who was an excellent mathematician; but with the officers of the ship refusing to co-operate with them, they were deterred from this proceeding from the apprehension of incurring the charge of piracy."

They were finally compelled to commute with the captain for their lives by paying a large sum of money; who, accordingly, landed them at Cape Cod on the 4th of October. Mr. Clinton and his friends continued in that part of the country until the spring of 1731, when they removed to the county of Ulster, in the province of New York, and formed a flourishing settlement called Little Britain. Here he devoted to agriculture and occasionally acted as a land surveyor. He was soon appointed a justice of the peace, and a judge of the county of Ulster.

In 1756, he was appointed by the governor, Sir Charles Hardy, Lieutenant Colonel of the second regiment of militia for the county of Ulster. On the 24th of March, 1756, he was appointed a lieutenant-colonel of one of the battalions of the regiment in the province of New York, of which Oliver Delancy was colonel. In this capacity he acted under the command of General Bradstreet, as the captain of Fort Frontenac.

When George Clinton, the father of Sir Henry Clinton, was installed governor of the province in 1753, an intimacy took place between him and Mr. Clinton, inconsequence of which, and their distant consanguinity, the latter was earnestly solicited by his namesake to accept a lucrative and distinguished office, which overture he promptly declined, preferring the charms of retirement and the cultivation of literature to the cares of public life.

Mr. Clinton's wife was Elizabeth Denniston, a relative of one of his fellow emigrants. She was a woman of great excellence and of highly cultivated mind, as appears by one or more of her letters now in my possession. By her he had four sons born in this country: Alexander, born April 17th, 1732. He was educated at Princeton, New Jersey, and practiced until his death, as a physician. He died unmarried, in March, 1753. Charles was born 20th of July, 1734, and died unmarried, April 30th, 1791. He was also a physician and a surgeon in the army which took Havana, in the Island of Cuba. Colonel Charles Clinton died at his place in Ulster County on the 19th day of November, 1773, in his 83rd year. By his will he made provision for the family graveyard, that now exists in Little Britain and directed that his executors should procure a suitable (marker) to lay over his grave, 'whereon I would have the time of my death, my age and coat-of-arms cut, I hope says he 'that they will indulge me in this last piece of vanity.'

This was turning into a really interesting story, and only got better. Charles’ two sons, James and George, would go on to become quite famous Americans.

James Clinton DeWitt Clinton
James Clinton (Ann Eliza’s grandfather) was a brigadier general (later a major general) during the American Revolutionary War, and his 1779 expedition down the Susquehanna River, where he met up with General John Sullivan, was detailed in James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Pioneers. In 1781, his brigade had joined forces with George Washington at Yorktown.

In addition, James was also the father of DeWitt Clinton - governor of New York and known as the "Father of the Erie Canal". Also, DeWitt ran as the 1812 Federalist candidate for President of the United States, but he lost to James Madison.

George Clinton George Clinton was also a general, but is better remembered as the first and longest-serving governor of New York and as Vice-President of the United States under both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

About this time too, Kathleen found some more information that cleared up the relationship between James Foster, Jr., Julia Foster, and Ann Eliza Foster (Clinton).

I found this on the web. It is a transcription of marriage notices of "leading New York families":

MARRIED (1849) On Saturday, the 1st inst., at Ellerslie (Throgs Neck) the residence of Henry Overing, Esq., by the Rev. Charles D. Jackson, James Foster, Jr., to Julia Clinton Tallmadge.

It doesn't look like Ann Eliza Clinton had a sister named Julia, but it may have been a cousin or a widowed sister-in-law or some other relation.

Sounds like they got married at the grand estate of some New York lawyer.

This same page that I sent you before reveals that George Clinton (not the former Vice President) was the brother of Ann Eliza's father Charles, and Julia Matilda Clinton was his daughter. She married George Tallmadge and then James Foster, Jr. So, Ann Eliza and Julia were first cousins.

It turns out that George Clinton Tallmadge was a second cousin to both Julia and Ann. Whew. Also, he was the grandson of George Clinton, Vice President of the U.S. from 1805 to 1812 under Jefferson and Madison. Apparently he died in office. That would make you a great, great, great, great, great grandnephew of a vice president.

The Henry Overing, Esq., at whose mansion James Foster, Jr. and Julia Matilda Clinton Tallmadge got married in 1849, was Julia's brother-in-law, married to her sister Mary.

Also, the portrait of George Clinton I sent you was donated by George Clinton Tallmadge.

In addition, Kathleen had been searching www.italiangen.org (which isn’t exclusive to Italians) for death certificates for James Clinton Foster and his mother Anna Foster. With what little information that we had, Kathleen sent off for a particular James Foster that died in 1915 and an Anna Foster that died in 1907. I, in turn, sent off for the records of a James Foster that died in 1913.

On February 21, I got the death certificate that I had ordered, but it was the wrong James. This particular individual was born in England, was a chef, and married to a Jennie B. Foster. However, on February 24, Kathleen received the death record for Anna Foster and it looked very promising.

Hi Clint,

I received the death record of Anna Foster just now. It says her parents were John and Caroline Stagg, and Caroline Stagg was who Anna, James, and James Jr. were living with in NY in the 1870 census if you recall:

Caroline Stagg, 50; Mary Whittlesey, 40; Anna Foster, 30; James Foster, 34; James Foster, 6; Maria Daly, 30, housemaid, born Ireland

Everyone except Maria Daly was born in NY and no one else is shown as having any employment. The next door neighbors have a coachman and a footman, just like in Cinderella.

She died January 9, 1907 at the age of 68 at Bellevue Hospital of general arteriosclerosis, myocarditis and nephritis. Just general system shutdown, it sounds like.

Her former residence is shown as 242 W. 25th St. but it says she had only resided there for 4 days, 7 hours, and 46 minutes before her death. Could that be the address of the hospital?

She was buried at Greenwood Cemetery on January 13, 1907.

Then I found this in the 1850 census:

Benjamin Stagg, 61, merchant, born NY; Anna Stagg, 59, born NJ; Caroline Stagg, 33, born NY; Anna Stagg, 12, born NY;

In addition there were four Irish or Canadian servant women in their twenties and thirties in the household -- fairly wealthy people.

Also, five people have info as follows up on ancestry.com:

John Town Stagg, born 9/25/1807, parents Abraham Stagg and Rachel Town, was married to Caroline Town and they had a daughter, Annaka Stoutenburg Stagg b. 5/30/1838. Annaka (Anna?) was married to Col. James Foster and had a son named James Foster.

Benjamin Stagg was the brother of John Town Stagg and apparently he and his wife took Caroline and Anna in after the death of John Town Stagg [1]. Anna Foster's paternal grandmother was Anneke Stoutenburg, and the Stoutenburg family has been traced back to this guy:

William S. van Oldenbarneveldt, Lord of Stoutenburg
b: 12 NOV 1590 in Gravenhage (The Hague),Netherlands
d: 10 JUL 1639 in Brussels, Belgium

Note: William was "Heer van Stoutenburg" or Lord of Stoutenburg through his grandmother, Deliana van Weede, Lady of Stoutenburg. The van Weedes were the line from Wouter van Amersfoort that were in charge of the family estate.

William became Captain of Cavalry and governor of the fortress Bergen op Zoom. After the death of his father Johan (unlawfully beheaded), all the family property was confiscated, and he was deprived of his governorship and captaincy. When the war resumed, he was not allowed to serve. Being reduced from a high station to obscurity did not sit well with him. Brooding, William swore to avenge the death of his father and blamed all their troubles on Maurice, the Stadtholder. William was the instigator of a plot to assassinate Maurice.

The plot was discovered. Only William and van der Duissen, the husband of his cousin, E1ias Barneveld escaped. William escaped to Rotterdam and then to Brussels where he lived under the protection of Archduchess Isabella. His wife would have nothing more to do with him and the dishonor he brought upon the family.

William eventually became a Catholic and served as a Captain of Cavalry in the service of the Spanish. It is unknown if there were other children than Pieter von Stoutenburg.

Johan van Oldenbarneveldt William’s relatives:
Father: Johan van Oldenbarneveldt
b: 14 Sep 1547 in Utrecht, Netherlands
Mother: Maria van Utrecht
b: 1553 in Utrecht, Netherlands
Wife: Walburg van Marnix
b: 1596 in Brussels, Belgium
Children: Pieter van Stoutenburg

Related Web sites on Dutch history and Oldenbarneveldt:
http://www.geerts.com/holland/holland-repiblicans.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_van_Oldenbarnevelt

A lot of the different pieces of this particular family line were coming together, but there was still nothing that connected my great grandfather James Clinton Foster as being the son of James A. Foster and Anna Foster (Stagg). I started wondering more about the 1900 census that had Anna, son James, and his son Roland, so Kathleen sent exactly what she had found:

Anna Foster, b. May 1840, 60, widowed, 4 children, one still alive, born NY, parents born NY;
James Foster, son, b. Sept. 1864, 35, widowed, born NY, father born LA, mother born NY, reporter;
Roland Foster, son, b. Aug. 1899, 11/12, born NY, parents born NY

(Note that it shows Anna as having had 4 children.) Kathleen next sent this:

I don't know how I missed this, or exactly what it means:

1880 census for Manhattan, Washington Place:

James Foster, 36, gentleman, born Louisiana, parents born NY;
Anna Foster, 30, at home, born NY, parents born NY;
Charles Foster, 7/12, born NY, father born Louisiana, mother born NY

They are living in a hotel run by a French woman named Julia Claremont. The ages are way off, and James Clinton is not present, but he was 16 and might have been living elsewhere. Of course, the interesting thing is that James was born in Louisiana. Charles could have been one of the children who died before 1900.

Looking at Anna Foster’s death certificate, Kathleen saw that she had been buried at Green-Wood, just like Minerva, so we started doing a little detective work by searching the Green-Wood Web database for all the Fosters and Staggs that had the same plot number, and sure enough, lots of familiar names (i.e. several Fosters and Staggs) starting popping up. From Kathleen on March 3:

I went through and looked at all the Fosters buried in the same plot with Annie, James, etc., and I did find two more graves:

Carrie S. Foster, d. 6/15/1878
Chas. T. Foster, d. 9/6/1881

Charles T. Foster could be the 7 month old Charles in the 1880 census and the ages of James and Annie could just be completely wrong. I've seen worse than that. Then Carrie could be a child who was born and then died sometime between the 1870 and the 1880 censuses so she didn't appear in either one of them. You add in the misnamed John Stagg Foster (the cemetery lists him as James S. Foster) who died in 1874 and there you have the three children who died by 1900.

I am excited about this and really starting to believe we're on the right track. When I can, I'll go over to U.Va. again and see if I can find obits on Carrie and Charles.

The thing is, Charles could really be the missing link and the key to this whole thing if he is one of the dead children. He appears in the 1880 census in which James is shown as being born in Louisiana, and if he's in that Greenwood plot then that 1880 family is part of the whole Foster/Stagg/Clinton thing. Then the fact that your James in 1900 is shown as having a father born in Louisiana, I think would really tie the whole thing together and pretty much prove that the 1900 family is the same as the group at Greenwood. I just don't have any doubt that the 1900 census is your family.

Later on, Kathleen went to the U.Va. Library and located these news items

NY Times, Monday, 3/12/1888

On Saturday, March 10, 1888, James A. Foster, son of the late James Foster, Jr., at his residence, 263 W. 11th St., aged 52 years.

Funeral services at Grace Church, Broadway and 10th St., on Tuesday, March 13 at 1 o'clock. Members of Society Sons of Revolution, Lafayette Lodge, No. 64. F. and A.M. Friends and relatives are respectfully invited to attend.

(This indicated James Foster could trace himself back to a Revolutionary War soldier.)

NY Times, Sunday, July 26, 1874

On Friday evening, July 24, 1874, JOHN STAGG, infant son of James and Annie S. Foster, aged 8 months and 24 days.

Funeral services at the parents' residence, Tompkins av., New Brighton, on Monday morning at 12 o'clock. The relatives and friends of the family are respectfully invited to attend.

NY Times, Tuesday, Sep. 6, 1881

FOSTER -- On Sunday, Sept. 4, CHARLES TOWN, youngest son of James and Anna Foster, aged 23 months. Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend funeral services at residence of R. P. Purdy, No. 41 East 22d-st., Tuesday, at 3 PM.

NY Times, Saturday, June 15, 1878

FOSTER -- On the 13th, CARRIE STAGG, only daughter of James and Annie S. Foster, aged 20 months. Relatives and friends of the family are respectfully invited to attend the funeral from the St. Julian Hotel, Washington place, on Saturday, the 15th, at 2 PM.

This doesn't add much, but I did find the obit for James Foster, Sr. in the NY Evening Post. I didn't realize that U.Va. has that paper back to 1833. The NY Times only goes back to 1851. That's good to know:

At Jamaica, L.I., on Saturday night, the 15th instant, JAMES FOSTER, in the 82d year of his age.

(This jibes with the fact that the 1900 census says Anna Foster had four children and only one of them was living. One more tiny shred that fits in with the Green-Wood Fosters. Can you find out if there are two more children of Annie and James Foster buried there?)

Kathleen was really dedicated to this research, and on March 4, she sent a wonderful email titled, "PAY DIRT, PAY DIRT!"

OH MY GOD! I just basically stumbled on this doing the most basic Google search you can imagine! Ann Eliza is in there along with James Foster, Jr., his parents, and I think pretty much all his sibs! James, JR. and Ann Eliza Foster (Clinton) also lost three young children, and one was named JAMES CLINTON FOSTER!

Prospect Hill Cemetery
http://www.prospectcemeteryassociation.org/Inscriptions.htm

This was definitely the right James, Jr. and Ann Eliza and it looks like James Jr.’s parents and siblings as well. Here’s the interment list condensed to just Fosters:

Jacob Foster, born Jamaica, May 19, 1787, died in Brooklyn, March 17, 1858.

Emeline Foster, daughter of James and Sarah Foster, an exemplary and most dearly beloved sister. She died Jan. 24, 1870, in her 65th year.

James Foster died July 15, 1843, in his 82nd year.

Sarah Foster, wife of James Foster, died Jan. 20, 1848 in her 82nd year.

Abraham Foster, son of James and Sarah Foster, died June 13, 1801. Age 3 years and 19 days.

William R. Foster son of James and Sarah Foster died Dec. 2, 1794. Age 6 months and 3 days.

James Foster, Jr. born Dec. 20, 1791, died Oct. 25, 1854.

Elizabeth Clinton Foster, daughter of James and Ann Foster, born Nov. 20, 18(?), died Oct. 18(?).

Jane Elizabeth Foster, daughter of James and Ann Foster, born May 17, 1825, died Aug. 11, 1829.

James Clinton Foster, son of James and Ann Foster, born Aug. 3, 1823, died July 3, 1824. (this was not Raoul’s father)

Joana Foster, wife of Jacob Foster, died Feb. 1823, in her 75th year.

Margaret Foster (Hutton), wife of Jacob Foster, born Lisbon, Feb. 2, 1793, died Brooklyn, July 17, 1838.

Ann Eliza Foster (Clinton), daughter of Charles Clinton and wife of James Foster, Jr. died June 14, 1845. (No age)

Jane Carter (Foster), wife of Robert Carter and daughter of James Foster, died Feb. 21, 1824. Age 58 years.

On March 17, Kathleen finally received the death certificate for a James Foster that died in 1915 and it seemed to be a good match for being Raoul’s father, James Clinton Foster. Her email:

I got the death record today and it does indicate that James Foster was a "special officer". Didn't you tell me Raoul said he was a policeman? Here's what the rest of it says:

Manhattan
Bellevue Hospital
James Foster
Male
White
Married
Died February 3, 1915
Age 50
Special Officer
Born US
Life resident of NY
Father James Foster, born US
Mother Anna Stagg, born US
Former residence: 309 W. 22 St.
Admitted to Bellevue Jan. 17, 1915
Cause: extravasation of urine (non-traumatic)
Contributing: stricture of urethra, arteriosclerosis
Dr. H. Wellington, surgeon
Greenwood Cemetery
Philip Voelcker, undertaker, 336 S. 86th St.
Buried 2/6/1915

I wonder if he was still married to Clara, or if he had divorced her and possibly remarried?

Several things stood out:

This all seemed to be drawing closer and closer to being my family line, so on March 21, I sent off to Green-Wood Cemetery for the full heirship of Anna Foster (actually listed at Green-Wood as "Annie", interment: 1/13/1907, lot: 4721, section: 92).

Finally, on April 24, 2006, I received the information from Green-Wood and one of the death records included the information, "...said to be James Clinton Foster." It was him! This had to be my great grandfather!

There were other records including death/burial information for James Clinton’s father, James A., along with the information about his deceased brothers and sister (John Stagg Foster, Charles Town Foster, and Carrie Stagg Foster).

I thought that this would be the end of my search, but there was still the slightest bit of doubt in my mind that this might not be my James Clinton Foster. I really thought that it was, but just not 100% sure. The cornerstone of this whole search was based on a birth certificate that my grandfather had received from the state of New York during World War II, and that was what listed his name as Rohl, not Raoul. What if that birth certificate was for someone completely different and my grandfather’s name really was Raoul?

With all this information that we had a amassed, I wanted to put it up on the Web in hopes that some lost family member might see it and respond. So, I posted my GEDCOM pedigree file to RootsWeb.com: http://tinyurl.com/gfcgs

Out of the blue, on June 18, I received the following email from Ms. Jane Sanderman Mason:

Clint,

I just came across your website on rootsweb.com: "Rohl Clinton Foster - Ancestors & Descendants". I have a question, do you have any record, family story, etc. re James C. Foster marrying a second time in 1905?

I have a mystery I am trying to unravel. My great Uncle, Phineas Calligan, had a daughter, Clara M., born in Maine c. 1874. By mid 1880s Uncle Phin moved to Washington state where he lived the remainder of his life dying at 101. The family knew Phin's wife died about the time he moved west. According to my uncle the daughter never was seen out here and he assumed she died young.

Last week I was idly looking for Calligans in the Mormon Church familysearch.org website and came across an entry for Clara M., daughter of Phineas, born in Maine and her marriage to James C. Foster on 28 Nov 1905 in Manhattan. What a shock! The entry indicates the parents of James were James and Anna S. Foster. The source of the information is not indicated which means it probably was submitted by a church patron.

This started me looking and I discovered your website. Did you ever hear rumor of this? If so, any idea of what happened to Clara? Hopefully you will be able to shed a little light on this.

Bingo! I was thrilled to finally know something more about my grandfather’s mysterious stepmother, and it didn’t take me long to realize that this was the key link that would tie everything together.

There were some things I knew for certain from my 1996 trip to New York.

Now, with this letter from Ms. Mason, I had the link between a lady named Clara marrying a James C. Foster in New York in the right time frame, and whose parents were James and Anna S. Foster!

So, the birth certificate was correct and Raoul F. Foster, my grandfather, really was Rohl Clinton Foster born in 1898 in New York City. He went through such a terrible time in his childhood. After losing both his parents, he was homeless and then institutionalized in an orphanage for two years, and then he was shipped off to Nebraska to be raised by a couple of old people out in the middle of nowhere - all by the time he was 10 years old.

It is certainly a testament to his strength of character that Raoul was able to rise above all that and become such a wonderful husband and father and a valued member of his community. I do wish I could have known him. I would like to share the information I have found out about his ancestors. I would like to validate his intuition that not only was he part French, but he was also descended from royalty! Subsequent research showed family links to the Plantagenet kings of England and William the Conqueror! But, maybe he really did know subconsciously that he was descended from kings since he named my dad, LeRoy - French for "The King".

Conclusion

It’s not surprising that it is the wealthy, socially prominent families that are the easiest to trace. For this genealogy, the Clinton family line is the most documented since so many Clintons were prominent in European history down through the ages. Also, the line of the Stoutenburgs (van Oldenbarneveldt) has been well documented because of the role they played in the history of the Netherlands.

I was only able to trace the Foster line back to James Foster, Jr. (b.20 Dec 1791) for certain, but it is quite probable that his father and mother were James & Sarah Foster (resp. b. ~1761 & ~1766) from the Prospect Hill Cemetery listing. James, Jr. was the one that Kathleen first found in the 1850 census which listed him as being worth $90,000 and, from the research that both Kathleen and I did, it’s pretty certain that he had made his money in the shipping industry - namely, bringing immigrants from Ireland to America. There was even a ship named The James Foster, Jr.

It’s through the Stoutenburg connection that my Foster family line is connected (although very loosely!) with the Roosevelts of New York. Raoul’s grandmother’s full maiden name was most probably "Annaka Stoutenburg Stagg". Her 2nd great granduncle was Pieter van Stoutenburg who was also the 7th great grandfather of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (First Lady of the U.S. from 1933-1945).

Raoul’s paternal great grandmother was Ann Eliza Clinton, daughter of Charles Clinton and granddaughter of James Clinton the Revolutionary War brigadier general. It’s through this Clinton connection that I am able to trace the Foster lineage back to numerous historical figures. The Clintons are descended from a high-ranking Norman family who lived near Tancarville, Normandy, France circa 1000 A.D. One individual, Raoul (by some accounts called Ralph) de Tancarville was Chamberlain to William of Normandy (a.k.a. William the Conqueror). After William defeated Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 A.D. and became King of England, he rewarded his followers with land (usually evicting the previous English landowners). The lands known variously as Clinton or Clifton or Climpton were given to the de Tancarville family, and eventually Raoul de Tancarville’s descendant’s started using the surname "de Clinton" (i.e. of Clinton) instead of de Tancarville.

Famous and/or interesting ancestors and their relationship to Raoul F. Foster:
NOTE: each person's name is linked to Wikipedia, the pedigree icon links to Raoul's pedigree tree.

References & Corrections

  1. a The correct Benjamin Stagg was probably John Town Stagg's uncle who was born 11 Feb 1787 - not his brother, as stated, who was born 18 Dec 1811.