Brickwalls

A little Mystery Solved

/ Chiara / Leave a comment

It has been a hot minute since I posted last and life has been busy but I have been plugging away with research.

I have been trying to bust down some walls because I would like to file papers for more patriots in the DAR. My patriots are usually through the daughters line or a new child of a patriot or even a new patriot by filing these papers it opens lines for other women to join the DAR.

I have been working on a Patriot for my Daughter through her Dad’s line which is nice that she can honor her Nana that way. Ephraim Bass from North Carolina will be her first patriot on that side. I have been learning about North Carolina research.

I have no more fairly easy patriots after I file my new Patriot David Weatherwax which I am in the process of shoring up. This week I have been deep in the land records of New York State and today I hit pay dirt. Let me start with the mystery I solved.

Obadiah Coolidge is my 4X-Great Grandfather. He is the presumed Child of Josiah Coolidge and Mary Jones and was presumably born in 1760 in Bolton, MA. It is presumed he married Sarah Knowlton, daughter of Benjamin Knowlton and Phebe Wright. There aren’t a whole lot of papers to back this up hence the word presumed. Anyway, I have paper documentation beginning in 1788 where he married a Sarah Knowlton in Vermont. I can follow him through the census and tax records into Jay, Essex County, NY. I could never figure out when he died as there is no tombstone in the cemetery where his wife Sarah is buried. I know he was alive until 1839 when his daughter, Hannah Coolidge’s will was probated.

Well today as I was probing around in those Essex County Deed books, oh and it isn’t like I wasn’t in them before but I could never find any land records well today I found Obadiah selling a piece of land and then I found this gem.

This is attached to a transaction about a parcel of land that took place in about 1815 which was issued by Martin Van Buren then the Attorney General of New York State. I honestly didn’t understand a lot of it but this section is from my 3rd Great Grandfather Benjamin Knowlton Coolidge and states Obadiah Coolidge was deceased as of June 1845.

I was going to go more into another cool thing I found today but my head hurts and I need to figure a way to tell you all about it in a cohesive way and about the next thing I am going to be looking for.

Anyway I am a bit happier today because of what I found.

52 Ancestors – Week 6 – Social Media

/ Chiara / Leave a comment

Yep another post today. This one is for week 6 of the 52 Ancestors challenge being hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. The topic is social media.

Social Media is a great tool to use in genealogy and I love connecting with family. Those of you who have been following for a while know that I love the <a href="http://&lt;!– wp:paragraph –> <p>Social Media is a great tool to use in genealogy and I love connecting with family. Those of you who have been following for a while know that I love the </p> NYS Historical Newspaper website. I have discovered so much about my ancestors and newspapers were an integral part of life back in the day.

I have discovered so many vital facts about my family from where my great grandparents were married in 1890.

to this query looking for the siblings of Jassiel Preston. I need to remember to look into this query and see what I can find out even if it is from the 1920s.

to this week finding the obituaries for my 2X Great Grandmother Ella Mayo Stewart. This first one appeared in the Plattsburgh Papers.

This second one is the obituary that appeared in the Massena, NY paper in the neighboring county where she actually died and is much more in depth.

I have been trying to break down the brick wall of who were the parents of Ella’s mother Jane A. West? I will break down my hypothesis in a future post. I think DNA is going to be crucial in deducting this so I am going to have to figure it out.

So back in the day, newspapers were the Facebook of the time. Also you can always hit me up on my social media if you want to connect.

52 Ancestors – Week 1- I’d like to meet

/ Chiara / Leave a comment

Yes I am going to attempt it yet again. Life seems a bit calmer at the moment and this is something I want and need to do for me. So here we go with prompt number 1 which is who would I like to meet and boy this is going to be super hard to pick just one so I am going to go with my top 3 or 5 and they will be in no random order.

  1. Sarah Larkin Beardsley my 2 times great grandmother. I have written about her extensively in previous blog posts and I feel a great kinship with her.
  2. Minerva Winchester Beardsley, my 3 times great grandmother. She lived from 1823 until 1843. She is the mother of my 2X great grandfather Leslie Winchester Beardsley. I would love to know who here parents were.
  3. David Weatherwax – My 4 times great grandfather. I would love to hear about his Revolutionary War experience and to ask where he is buried.
  4. Micheleangelo Moro and Chiara Ludivico my 2 times great grandparents on my Dad’s side. I would love to hear about why they came to America and then left and returned to Italy and if they had more children than the 2 I have found and any history they would share.

and lastly I would like to meet John Stewart (1755 – 1835). This is as far back as I have gotten my Stewart line. I believe they are originally from Scotland but I haven’t been able to go further than John and his wife Isabelle Armstrong in County Monaghan, Ireland. I would love to know if this line is truly from Scotland. There is a lot of family story but who knows.

Ruth Morgan Larkin – Where are the documents?

/ Chiara / Leave a comment

Ruth Morgan Larkin is my 3X-great grandmother. She is the mother of my beloved Sarah Larkin Beardsley and the wife of Benjamin Wood Larkin.

I can not tell you much about her as she only shows up in records once and it is on the 1850 Census of Morristown, St. Lawrence County, New York. She is with her husband Benjamin and daughters Sarah and Julia.

1850 Census of Morristown, St. Lawrence Co, NY

If you notice the name right under them and the last one on the page it is Reuben Morgan. I have hypothesized that Ruth’s parent’s are Reuben Morgan and Sally Parsons even though their is no paper trail. She would not appear in his will as she died in approximately 1856 and Reuben died in 1862.

I do have some DNA matches that seem to support my parentage theory of who Ruth’s parents are.

This is my ThruLines profile for Ruth Morgan. The 11 matches are all from my great-grandparents children.

This next thru-lines image is from both my Mom and I and links some of the descendants of Reuben Morgan. I have just begun to go through these hints to ensure I am indeed related to these DNA cousins through Morgan as I have discovered that the Larkin and Morgan family has a couple sets of double cousins.

My Thrulines for Reuben Morgan

My Mom’s Thrulines hints.

I like Thrulines for the hints it provides and I am hopeful that I will find the elusive piece of paper someday to prove that Ruth is indeed Reuben Morgan and Sally Parsons daughter.

This is my ThruLine for Sally Parsons

I sometimes wonder the courage it must of taken Ruth to leave her home in Clinton County and head west with her husband. Her life must not of been easy and she left 5 daughters in Minnesota without a mother. I think it is part of the reason Sarah Larkin Beardsley is my favorite because she overcame so much to become a doctor at a time that wasn’t the norm for women.