I am currently supposed to be working on a research report for my ProGen class that I really need to have about 90% done before we leave to take C to college on Wednesday. I am really not that great editing on a computer. So I guess you could say that could be challenging but I decided to talk about a couple of challenging relatives.

You all know about my Quest to connect Sarah Knowlton Coolidge to her father Benjamin Knowlton so I won’t go into that one but I do have a couple of others I can talk about.

Let’s Start with Immanuel Beardsley, the topic of my ProGen Research Report.

I can start by saying his name is actually Emanuel. He is the Brother of my 4th Great-Grandfather Beverley Beardsley. Before starting the research which I am still analyzing I did not know much but I am learning quite a bit about him. One of the reasons I tackled this project is because I believe he is married to the sister of Beverley Beardsley’s wife Ada Curtis. The other thing I learned is I am going to have to seriously start focusing on DNA as Ancestry’s Thru Lines has lots of interesting family hints that I had kind of thought but it looks like DNA may be confirming so paper and DNA is going to be fun.

Also I thought if I did more research on the extended lines of the Beardsley family, I just might find out more about what this branch was doing during the Revolutionary War. AS Jehiel Beardsley the father was brother to Rev. John Beardsley who was a noted loyalist. So I would like to know if Jehiel was a Loyalist or a Patriot. Morbid curiosity on my part.

Another Challenging relative of mine is Ruth Morgan.

Ruth Morgan is my beloved Sarah Larkin Beardsley’s mother. Those parent’s listed here are just a hypothesis on my part but it seems that Ancestry ThruLines is showing DNA matches to other Children of Reuben Morgan and I do know that Morgan moved to St. Lawrence County, NY around the same time as Benjamin Larkin and Ruth in 1850. He is listed on the census right next door. If I can prove that Reuben and Sally are Ruth’s parents, it would open up 2 more Revolutionary War patriots and expand the lines. One of the challenges of this line is I have Ruth dying in 1856 and look at all those daughters and I only know what happened to Lucy Larkin.

Moving on to my wonderful Preston Line.

I am trying to connect Abner Preston born in 1863 to Abial Preston a Revolutionary War Patriot. Both of the Abner’s died in Essex County, NY and you know how I have said Essex County, NY is the black hole of research for me. See all those blue dots on the tree though. It is saying I have DNA matches in those lines. One of the great things I have done is tested my Mom and 2 of her siblings so that is helping me get back so far with DNA matches.

I would also love to get all the paperwork tying Sarah “Sally” Sawyer to her parents and in turn her mother to her parents as this would give me a female patriot in Hannah Bartlett Kelly.

I love proving new patriot ancestors as a lot of mine are by children of patriots not in the database and that in turn opens new lines for people to join the DAR. One of the reasons I am passionate about the DAR is it brings history alive for me but also I love the service and preservation that the DAR encourages.

I could go on all day about challenging relatives like my husbands Great Grandfather Henry Bass or my Dad’s Italian relatives. Actually the Italian Relatives are challenging because of naming patterns and my inability to read Italian but I am going to methodically breakdown those challenging lines and once I get the Research Report on Emanuel Beardsley done, I will share what I have found.