Week 4 already. As I was finishing my final ProGen assignment this week, I decided since Beverly Beardsley (1815-1898) was fresh in my mind he would be the perfect subject for this week’s prompt.
Beverly Beardsley was born 15 February 1815 in Chesterfield, Essex County, New York and died 19 December 1898 in Ausable, Clinton County, New York. He spent the majority of his life on the Essex / Clinton County Borders.
Courtesy of NYS Historic Newspapers
He lived in the towns of Chesterfield and Black Brook during his life and farmed for the majority of his life. He is buried in the Old Clintonville Cemetery in Clintonville, New York with his two wives, Minerva Winchester Beardsley (1823 – 1843) and Bestsey Blake Beardsley (1807 – 1887).
Beardsley Tombstone in the Old Clintonville Cemetery.
Beverly Beardsley is the topic of my final ProGen assignment this week, so I thought it was fitting that he was my first Tombstone Tuesday topic.
He is buried in the Old Clintonville Cemetery in the same plot as his son, Leslie Winchester Beardsley and my beloved Sarah Larkin Beardsley, MD.
Beverley Beardsley lived in the Clintonville area all his life. He was married first to Minerva Winchester (1823-1843) and then to Betsey Blake (1807? – 1887).
According to his obituary, Beverly Beardsley will be missed at the revivals. I love little facts like that. I will expand more on Beverly Beardsley once this assignment is over.
When I think of Adventure, I think of my Grandpa’s sister Olive. Olive Witherwax was born 19 February 1895 in Peru, Clinton County, New York. She was older than my Grandpa by 15 years. Sadly I don’t think my Grandpa new his sister Olive very well as she died when he was 10 years old.
Olive married Henry Rogers in Saratoga Springs in August 1916, she was 21 and he was 29. He was a Railroad Conductor.
Henry Rogers enlisted in the Army during World War I and was sent overseas.’
In 1919 Olive applied for a passport application to visit Henry in Germany. For a girl originally from rural New York and then a suburb of Schenectady, New York this must of been a grand adventure. I love old passport applications, especially when there is a picture.
Olive Witherwax Rogers made it to Germany to see Henry but sadly passed away on 20 October 1920 in Cobelenz, Germany. Her obituary appeared in The United States Army and Navy Journal and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces, Volume 58, Part 1.
She is buried in the family plot in the Niskayuna Reformed Church Cemetery in Niskayuna, NY.
Olive and Henry Rogers had no children and it strikes me as tragic that her grand adventure wasn’t really very grand.
I could right about several sister sets right now but I am going to go back to my Larkin Line, since I am continually enthralled with my Sarah Larkin Beardsley.
If you remember I started this genealogy hobby with my maternal grandparents and the Larkin family is through my Grandpa. The story goes that Sarah was one of three sisters and the other two were Lucy and Johanna. I have no clue where this story came from and my Grandpa was the youngest child and his mom died when he was fifteen.
So I take up the quest to find out about the sisters and for years it was a dead end. We then stumbled across Lucy Larkin Thompson in Valley Falls. I actually found her because of the DAR Lineage Books but it took us on a research trip and My grandparents and I met a delightful librarian who in turn sent us to either a lawyer or accountant who was Lucy’s paper boy. I seriously wish I could remember the stories he told us about her.
Fast Forward to about 2001 or 2002 when I took genealogy back in full force and I discover a Grandson of Lucy’s but unfortunately he did not have anything to share with me, though he did mention a family story of Lucy having a baby on a train in Jonesville, Michigan. Jonesville was where Sarah practiced medicine.
I did know that Sarah had a sister Julia as she appears on the 1850 census with her and their parents Benjamin Wood Larkin and Ruth Morgan Larkin, in St. Lawrence County, New York.
It wasn’t until quite recently no more than 5 years ago. That I stumbled across this gem from the Minnesota Territorial Census in 1857.
1857 Minnesota Territorial Census for Fillmore County
I was seriously in shock finding this as I really wasn’t sure what happened to Benjamin and I do not have lots of information on him or Ruth. Sadly from this I am kind of thinking Ruth died in childbirth or shortly after the birth of Little Ruth and Benjamin married Margaret right after as George is Margaret’s son.
So now I have all these sister’s to find of Sarah and Lucy and I have no clue really where to look. I do know in 1860 Sarah is living with her grandparents and uncle in New York and last night I did find a FindaGrave entry for sweet little Ruth.
Ruth K. Larkin FindaGrave Memorial. This is the same cemetery her Larkin Grandparents are buried in.
So once I finish my little project on the children of Emanuel Beardsley. I am thinking these Larkin sisters and what happened to their father Benjamin Larkin may be my next project. I would also love to know where poor Ruth Morgan Larkin is buried.
I feel sorry for these sisters as they were left motherless at quite a young age and then I think they must of been dispersed amongst relatives but that is conjecture on my part but I do this research for the stories I can find out.
Week 27’s prompt was supposed to go up around Independence Day and it was suggested to write about a relative who fought in the American Revolution. IF you have read for a while you will know that I am a proud member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
I knew I had relatives who fought in the Revolution since about 1998 or so but did not join until 2016. Life and such got in the way and it was a lot of work. Plus I am glad I waited because I wouldn’t of been a member of the wonderful Increase Carpenter Chapter, I am a part of.
I joined in 2016 under my 5X Great-Grandfather Lorin Nehemiah Larkin. I chose him because he was the easiest as my other known patriot at the time was not in they system. Lorin Larkin was a Private and served in 3 different states, Connecticut, Vermont and Massachusetts. He was born in Stratford, CT in 1755 and died in Beekmantown, NY in 1845.
I have 2 other supplemental patriots to date one being Bezaleel Wood. I have written about him before. He served for Massachusets as a Private. He is also a 5X Great-Grandfather of mine. He was born in Lunenburg, MA and died in Plattsburgh, NY. I have been blessed to visit his grave in the Baker Burial Ground. He is also the patriot that 2 of my aunt’s joined under.
My last supplemental that was approved was for Timothy Bolton, my 5X Great-Grandfather. Timothy was a private from Massachusetts. He died in Windham County Vermont.
Having relatives who served in the revolution makes you want to fight for what this country was founded for. The right to be free. I have other patriots I am trying to prove an that silly AIR (additional information requested) on Benjamin Knowlton who served in New Hampshire but that is proving tricky. One of the reasons, I like to file the supplementals is to open lines to other potential members. I am up to about 8 patriots that are in the system and I really should prove my new patriot David Weatherwax. Maybe this year.
Also my daughter is getting ready to be a dual Children of American Revolution and Daughters of the American Revolution, which is pretty good for a girl who is majoring in Museum Studies and American History. After she is in I am going to work on a few supplementals for her as she also has patriots on her Dad’s side, which will mean a whole new area of research for me, the south.
So it seems like when life gets busy the blog is the first thing I let go. Oh well I am only behind 8 weeks or so.
I had my first taste of researching in cemeteries back in my preteen years, I was probably 11 or 12. I spent summers with my grandparents in Clinton County and my grandma was bit by the genealogy bug. We would spend a lot of time going to different cemeteries in Clinton and Essex Counties. I remember vividly even heading down to Rensselaer County and Valley Falls. My grandparents had a great way about them of getting people to tell them stories.
Until this day I still find outdoor cemeteries to be insanely peaceful. One of my favorite cemeteries is the Baker Burying Ground in Clinton County, NY. One of my Revolutionary War Patriots is buried there. Bezaleel Wood.
Cemetery stones and plots tell so much about families and can give you hints into their life and status. I have recently started visiting cemeteries here in NYC. I do not have huge amounts of Family buried here but my husband does and I have started researching his family in the past few years. I also took pictures of my Sister-in-laws family and boy that stone shocked me. I am excited to visit a couple cemeteries in Brooklyn and find the various relatives of my husband.
So I have decided my goal by the end of July is to be caught up on the 52 ancestors challenge. I am about 8 weeks behind which isn’t too bad. Especially since June is such a blur.
Week 18’s prompt was all about a Road Trip. While I am sure my ancestors traveled. I recently went on a road trip to Clinton and Essex Counties in upstate New York. This trip was primarily to say goodbye to my Aunt Sheila but did also involve some genealogy.
I visited the Central Cemetery in Jay, NY where I was looking for my Sarah Knowlton Coolidge and the skies opened up on me so I did not find her, sadly.
I also visited an old favorite of mine Gilliland Cemetery on the Lake Shore Road and I finally was able to visit with my Beloved 2X great grandmother – Sarah Larkin Beardsley.
The other place I visited was the Clinton County Surrogate’s Court. What a fun trip that was and I have so many documents to transcribe. I haven’t even started but I have also started using Family Search to get the wills that go with the probate packets I have so I can better interpret the data.
This is going to be a long process to get all the facts together but I know in the end I will be a better genealogist for it.
Sadly I did not hit the Essex County Surrogates Court so there may be another Road Trip in my future as I have a few probate records from there I am looking for.
Today was a beautiful service and send off for my Aunt Sheila. There were many stories told and many memories shared, The service was lovely and the perfect length. It was AWESOME.
I want to give a huge shout out to my Aunt Shari who took care of arranging it all, including have the stone cleaned.
This is probably one of my favorite pictures I took of Uncle Dale, Steve and Tony. It is funny how the years go by the stories get funnier.
RIP Aunt Sheila, I will always remember the days I spent washing your dishes and my little play kitchen made of cement blocks at the side of your house.
Today I had a plan. I wanted to visit the Clinton County Surrogates Court. This was vitally important as I didn’t make it to Essex County yesterday. I really want to go there now.
I prepped for my trip by perusing the Family Search Catalog and I had the list of names, dates of death if I could find them and when their papers were filed. I had a list of 13 names and 7 of them were must sees.
I started with Jehiel Beardsley and worked my way down the list. Beverly Beardsley, Leslie W. Beardsley.
The employee of the courthouse was kind enough to let me use my phone to scan the documents as I didn’t need a physical copy. When all is done I probably have close to 500 documents in my possession. The next step is to begin to review them and transcribe them for my records.
One of the Wills and probate I looked at was for David Weatherwax. The Will is almost 200 years old. Crazy to think that.
I can’t wait to review Joseph Stewart’s probate because his Executor quit in the middle. I hope to find that whole story out.
The one probate I didn’t copy was Daniel A. Weatherwax. His probate was huge as there were minor children when he died. I am not actively researching him and I know it is here. My Mom and I were there for almost 3 hours. It will probably take me over 30 hours to read everything I scanned. I am a happy girl.
After lunch, my Mom and I went on a little cemetery jaunt. We went to Gilliland Cemetery over on 9 and next to Uncle Calvin’s House. Didn’t really find anything new. Then we headed to Clintonville and I finally saw where Dr. Sarah Beardsley is buried. This cemetery was quite large and is still in use.
After The Clintonville Cemetery we went to another cemetery called Riverview and then we hit Evergreen in Keeseville. I will probably hit that one again another time. We were tired by the time we hit Evergreen and I had a bit of a chill.
Tomorrow will be emotional but it was a good day. I may attempt to hit one more cemetery in the afternoon but then again I may just enjoy my family and make some memories.
Being in the cemeteries with my mom brought back some memories of days gone by. I hope they are smiling down on us.
I am on a solo trip in Clinton County, New York this weekend. We are saying goodbye to my Aunt Sheila. I had plans to stop at the Essex County offices today but it didn’t happen.
I took a trip to Central Cemetery in Jay. I wanted to try and find the grave of Sarah Knowlton Coolidge. I wrote about her a couple days ago in my Brick Wall post. Well I got to the cemetery and was walking around when the skies decided to open up and rain down.
She is here somewhere but in the rain I couldn’t find her and I didn’t want to chance getting sick. I did walk around for a few minutes and I did speak to her and told her she wasn’t forgotten and any guidance she could give me I would take. She died back in 1832.
After getting back to my car. The rains opened up even more.
It was time to make my way to Plattsburgh, where I am staying this weekend. I was following my GPS and passed by the offices of the Black Brook and this is where I got the feeling I wasn’t alone. I went through this little road and I had the feeling of Deja Vu and not being alone and being guided. All of a sudden I was crying and couldn’t tell you why. I know this is going to be an emotional weekend with the family together sharing memories. This feeling carried me all the way until I hit the Harkness Methodist Church. Then I had a lifting feeling and as I passed the Harkness Cemetery I was more at ease and feeling more like me.
I know it was the memories of days gone by and those who have gone before me carrying me. I have had family in these parts since the 1790s, almost 230 years.
Tomorrow I am heading to the Clinton County Court House to see what I can find. I have a list of 13 probate records I would like to look at but if I have to narrow it down. There are 7 that are most important. Also hoping to hit up the Clintonville Cemetery but we shall see.
I have tissues for the weekend and hopefully my ancestors will guide me this weekend.
Decoding the Family Tree 