Hiram Rude of Volney, Oswego, New York is my third-great-grandfather. He was born abt. 1831, m. 6 March 1850 in Volney, Oswego, New York to Fanny CALKINS, and d. 20 July 1863 in a skirmish near Tarboro, Edgecomb, North Carolina, where he was serving with the 12th New York Cavalry. He was father to Mary Alleda, Norman Hebron, Mina Sophronia, Thomas Albert, and Lizzie Louisa. (Source of dates and names above come primarily from affidavits from his Civil War pension file, a copy of which I own and have scanned into PDF format).

The problem is Hiram's parentage. The received wisdom is that his father's name was Nelson Rude, but I honestly do not recall the source of this information. There was a Nelson Rude living in Volney, Oswego, New York in 1840 who would have been about the right age to have a son and had a son aged 5-10 (which would have fit Hiram's estimated birth date from the 1850 census). However, that's hardly proof, as Nelson Rude appears to disappear after this.

When Fanny Rude filed for a widow's pension and pension for her children, she needed to file several affidavits establishing her marriage and children as legal and legitimate. I noticed that many of these were signed by two people: Levi Rude and Mary Barrett, including one stating they were witnesses to her marriage to Hiram Rude. Although I read the file carefully and their relationship was not mentioned, it stood to reason that Levi Rude, at least, was a relative. I also figured Mary Barrett might have been a married sister either to Fanny or to Hiram, although she could have just as easily been totally unrelated.

Levi, however, was more promising and I tracked him down through the records, eventually obtaining his death certificate. It showed him as having been born 9 Jun 1837 in Volney, to Joseph Rude and Mary King. I checked the census records and found that in 1840, Joseph Rude (Rood) was listed as having had two boys, one under 5 (which would have been Levi) and one 5-10. Again, is this Hiram? Again, inconclusive. The 1850 census shows Joseph Rude, born abt 1801 in Massachusetts, with children Levi and Alvira.

Quite by accident I stumbled on a strong possibility for the identity of the mysterious Mary Barrett. Looking through the excellent site fultonhistory.com, I found a notice in the 21 August 1894 edition of the Oswego Daily Times about the aged "Mrs. Barrett" having died the day before in the home of her brother Levi. I am sending for her death certificate as well to see if this is the mysterious Mary.

So at present, I am entertaining two possibilities:

1. Hiram Rude is actually the son of Joseph Rude and Mary King, and brother to Levi and "Mrs. Barrett".

2. Hiram Rude is actually the son of Nelson Rude as I'd heard before. Joseph Rude and Nelson Rude were related, possibly brothers, and thus Hiram and Levi were first cousins.

Of course, there is also the possibility that they are not related at all and it's just wild chance that two unrelated families named Rude ended up in the same place and witnessed one another's weddings -- but I'm going with the thought that this is all suggestive.

I'm not entirely sure how I can prove any of this at this point, but has anyone done any research where they have run into the names "Joseph Rude" and "Mary King"?

...Barb