For the longest time my brick wall was my Sarah Larkin Beardsley. It is probably why I still look for information about her quite often. For me it is more that adding names and dates to a tree. It is about collecting the stories of their lives. I seriously wish I had paid more attention when the stories were being shared. I am eternally grateful for those summers I spent with my grandparents going to cemeteries and the library. I am grateful for remembering what I do remember about the stories.

Now I have several brick wall ancestors I am working on. Sarah Knowlton Coolidge. I have written about her before and how I am trying to clear up an AIR (DAR term for Additional Information Required). I have a birthdate with parents but it doesn’t coincide with the date on her tombstone. There are several unsourced genealogies out there with parents and a husband but I need a marriage and link to her father that isn’t purely circumstantial. I am actually going to try and stop at the Jay Cemetery this upcoming weekend to see if Sarah will give me some clues into her parentage and possibly her marriage.

Next we have Mary Shaver (Schaffer) Weatherwax. I am trying to find out when she died and possibly where she is buried. I have her alive until around 1880 but then poof she is gone. Also I need to connect her to her parents but that is proving tricky in the early 1800s in Clinton/Essex County, NY though there is a reference to a George Shaver who discovered iron ore in Clintonville.

Notice a trend that my brick walls tend to be women. Here is another one poor Minerva Winchester Beardsley. Poor Minerva lived a short life approximately 1823-1843. So before names on a census. Only thing I have is her son Leslie Winchester Beardsley’s Death Certificate naming her. Again I can only find reference to one Winchester family in the Clinton/Essex County area a Moses Winchester. He is on the 1830 census but not much else is out there.

I have been working on putting together research plans and stopping by the Jay Central Cemetery to speak to Sarah Knowlton Coolidge and then to the Old Clintonville Cemetery to speak to Minerva Winchester Beardsley. I want them to know the are not forgotten and just maybe they will lead me on this search to find out more about them and their lives. Maybe I can piece more of their stories together.