New York Research

52 Ancestors – Week 46 – Poor Man

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I am still playing catch-up and I am determined to finish all 52 weeks of this project. Though I am thinking for next year I want to do some ancestor profiles here on the blog. I have found this to be a rewarding experience.

This prompt was very hard for me. Poor Man. Most of the people in the tree were simple farmers in upstate NY or immigrants to the United states from places like Ireland, Germany or Italy. They came here for the promise of a better life.

If I was going to pick one person out of the whole tree who I think was Poor. I might choose my husbands 2X great-grandparents Neils Osborne and his wife Bergetti Netlander Osborne.

I have vital statistics for them but no real stories to share. One thing that leads me to believe they were poor as on the census records they are listed as living in a tenement. Bergetti and Neils never lived in a house and Neils worked as a grocery clerk and then as a longshoreman. They had one son who lived to adulthood though the census records show that she had 2 children and only 1 lived to adulthood. To me their existence just has such a tragic cast to it.

52 Ancestors – Week 45 – Rich Man

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This was an interesting topic. Wealth comes in many forms. Land, money, knowledge. I will be honest the men in the family do not always speak to my soul. The women though I tend to have a strong affinity to several of them.

One of the lines I am often drawn to is my Larkin Line. I think it all stems from the time I spent researching Sarah Larkin Beardsley, MD. The Larkin line was quite prominent in Beekmantown, NY and they descend from my original DAR patriot Lorin Nehemiah Larkin.

My Line is Lorin Nehemiah Larking > John Larkin > Benjamin Wood Larkin > Sarah Larkin > Minerva Beardsley > Earl Witherwax > Mom and Me.

If I went through my tree I would have to say the Richest Man in it would have to be Sarah Larkin Beardsley’s brother-in-law James Thompson. James Thompson owned a mill in Valley Falls, NY and his second wife Lucy Elmora Larkin was Sarah’s sister. I don’t know much about James but he and Lucy had one son Leslie who was born in Jonesville, MI where Sarah was practicing medicine. James Thompson also put up a bond when Sarah Larkin Beardsley died in April of 1886.

I find Lucy Larkin Thompson to be much more interesting as she was a prominent woman involved with the Suffrage movement and I was so pleased to find this blog post.

I love learning about woman who make a difference. So while James Thompson was financially stable, I think Lucy’s wealth came from having convictions and not caring that she was stepping on toes.

52 Ancestors – Week 39 – Maps

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I will be totally honest here until the past week or so I really did not use many maps in my research. I have recently fell in love with Locality Guides and part of creating a Locality Guide is to show different sources.

Since a lot of my research is in Essex County, NY aka the Black Hole of genealogy in my family, this was the first Locality Guide I created and I came across this gem of a map on the Library of Congress website.

essex county NY historical map

Maps really put things into perspective and make the research a living and breathing organism in my mind. It brings the names to life when I see where they were.

The next locality guide I am going to work on is for Clinton County New York. I have been lazy in these as I feel that since I had been there and did so much research there, I knew everything and you know, what I have discovered some amazing sources.

Here is the Clinton County Map I grabbed from the Library of Congress site but sometimes you can find maps in the county archives or state archives. Somewhere I have a hand drawn map of the land my Weatherwax family owned in Peru and it is fabulous to look at.

Clinton County Historical Map

I am on a research roll lately and am grateful that I discovered the importance of having maps in my research.

Sometimes Rabbit Holes can be profitable

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I have done a deep dive into the world of genetic genealogy and spent a huge amount of the past weekend messaging matches and hoping for responses. Low and behold one of those responses led me down a path tonight.

It didn’t take me too long to figure out whee she belonged in my tree but I also knew these families had a habit of intermarrying and was it possible they were on both sides. Still not 100% sure on that which lead me down this path and following census records as back as far as I could.

Then I said let me run the name Heman Preston in the Northern New York Newspaper site. You know I love my newspapers. Well, look at what I found.

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courtesy of the Northern NY Library Network.

THis little gem appeared in the September 28, 1933 issue of the Adirondack Record. You see the name Abner Preston. My 4th Great Grandfather is Abner Preston who married Delia Hudson. My 5th Great Grandfather is Abner Preston who married Sarah “Sally”  Sawyer and the son of my 6th Great Grandfather. I need to get some tighter links and I am hoping this little gem just might help me break through a wall or two.

Wish me luck on hopefully breaking through the wall as this would finally give me a Revolutionary War Patriot on my Grandma’s side and would open up another line for my family.

 

52 Ancestors – Week 36- School Days

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This was a fun one as I hit up the US School Yearbook Collection on Ancestry and the gems it brought up. Sadly there were no pictures of me in my 1989 Senior Year glory or of Gerard in his Senior Year Glory.

I did find pictures of my Mom though through High School and her college pictures. Along with Gerard’s Dad from Saint Francis Prep when it was still in Brooklyn.

You have got to love these. I can’t wait to see more as they hit online. Though I am sure there are some in my family who hope their pictures never come to light.

52 Ancestors – Week 31- Brothers

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I truly believe that our ancestors reach out to us and speak to us. I have been doing a lot of research on my Beardsley/Curtis Lines.

I have been working on an assignment for ProGen but I am also trying to link back to another Revolutionary War Patriot, Eldad Curtis. It is tough going because after the Revolution these lines moved around a lot. Also so far I have found 3 wives for Eldad.

So when I received an assignment in ProGen to transcribe a will and develop a Research Plan. I decided Emanuel Beardsley would be perfect he is a brother to my Beverly Beardsley and I had done no real research on him. Let’s be honest it took me for ever to sort out the mystery of the Beverley Beardsleys and Ancestry is still full of errors as some trees have him living to be like 120 years old.

Anyway I digress, the theme this week is brothers and I have been a bit obsessed. It all stems from this passage in the History of Clinton and Franklin Counties.

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So this passage has so much information and needs more but it was a huge diving off point for me. I love families that use familial names but also hate it because it creates a mess.

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So I have been studying these families and expanding them in hopes to go back further as you never know who is related. It is also fun to go back and hear names my grandpa talked about. I think this is the branch of the family they went to see as I truly believe his mother Minerva was bounced between these relatives as I never find her anywhere with her parents.

My Beverley Beardsley married and Ada Curtis in Wells Vermont. She was the daughter of Eldad Curtis and Clotilda Weeks or Meeks. Well I also discovered that an Immanuel Beardsley married an Astilda or Clotilda Curtis. So I am trying to piece this all together and I have DNA that shoes a connection but I really want more.

So my project for my research report has been the birth order of Emanuel’s Children named in his will and that has been interesting and has me doing a Deep Dive into DNA and that is not something I am very good at so I am looking for a crash course in it and am very happy for Ancestry ThruLines which is giving me places to go look for traditional research.

So today’s question does anyone have any good DNA webinars for dummies???

52 Ancestors – Week 25 – Earliest

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This one is an interesting one as I know there are branches that came a little after the Mayflower. (I am still looking for that elusive Mayflower ancestor.)

Then I have my Witherwax line that came in 1710 from Germany with approximately 700 families.

But for the sake it f this prompt I am going to talk about my Dad’s family. My earliest relative is his great- grandfather who came in 1878 from Italy. His name was Michelangelo Moro and he came with 2 children Domenico Moro, my Dad’s grandfather and a daughter Teresa. There was a woman with them on the ship’s manifest but’s am not sure who she is. Her name is listed as Chiara Dito——-a.

We didn’t think the family came to much later but we were pleasantly surprised. I need put together a research plan for this line along with some research questions.

Italian research intimidates me so I want to expand my horizons and become more proficient in it.

52 Ancestors – Week 20 – Military

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I have always been proud of the Military members of my family. Though I didn’t know any of them personally, until my cousin Steve joined the Navy, prior to that the only member of the military I knew was my Uncle Leslie but he died in 1971 a few weeks after I was born.

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Through the years, I have found out my 2X Great Grandfathers Leslie Beardsley and Peter Shumway both served in the Civil War. One from Clinton County and One from Essex County here in New York State.

I have a couple of War of 1812 veterans but I am waiting to see those pension files, the only one I have confirmed is John Larkin which brings us to the American Revolution. I have 3 ancestors I have proven my direct lineage to Lorin Nehemiah Larkin, Bezaleel Wood and Timothy Bolton. I also have a few others I am working on Benjamin Knowlton who I wrote about in a previous entry, David Weatherwax and I would love to tie myself to Abiel Preston as it would also give me a patriot on my grandma’s side of the family and it would open up a couple other patriots.

As I head to the Daughters of the American Revolution Continental Congress this week, maybe I will be able to solve some of these mysteries.

I believe it takes a special person to serve in the military and am honored that so many people whether they are my relatives or not have answered that call.

52 Ancestors – Week 18 – Road Trip

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Successful Day…

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.