You never know what you will find

Posted on June 28, 2023 by Pat Shaul

I was killing time after researching on HaithiTrust for a couple of projects when I just decided to just look what I could find on some of my wife’s family names. I looked for Beggs, her grandmother’s surname and found the usual Book O’Beggs and Pages from the Early History of the West and North-West by Rev. S. R. Beggs (my wife’s first cousin, 4 times removed). Then I saw The Golden Gate Bridge at San Francisco, California, Model Study of Tower, September 13, 1933, by George E Beggs, my wife’s Grand-Uncle, who happened to be the head of the Structural Engineering Department at Princeton University. We knew he had done the study and it was the results of the study that gave to go-ahead on the project, but to find the actual report!

OK, we did buy the model of the actual test model that was used in the study (Margie standing next to the Test Model).

And, yes, Uncle George was at Princeton with that other famous guy, Albert Einstein.

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Where’s Baltzer Koontz?

Posted on June 26, 2023 by Pat Shaul

My grandmother defined the structure of her Koontz lineage from her father, C.P., to her grandfather, Ezra Peter, to her great-grandfather Peter who married Gertrude Derr.

Well, I have since found that GGGG Grandfather Peter Koontz may have been called Peter, but all of the documents, including the marriage records have his name as Baltzer Koontz. His son, Ezra Peter, has noted on his death certificate that his parents were Baltzer Koontz and Elizabeth Derr.

OK, so switch the search from Peter Koontz to Baltzer Koontz – it should have been easier with a name like Baltzer. Baltzar and Gertrude were married in Stark County, Ohio. So, how many Baltzar Koontz men could there be in Stark County, Ohio? So far, I have identified 3 more besides my ancestor with that name. Tracing through each of them has taken a lot of time. And they all are either too young, too old, or dead. So, Where are you Grandfather Baltzer (or Balthazar or Johann Balthazar or Peter Baltzer)?

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The devil is in the details

Posted on June 25, 2023 by Pat Shaul

I was busy working on the Hotchkiss, Lee, Munn, Tilden project today, copying the text information into my database and proofreading the earlier information that I had recorded. I got to a part of the text where the author listed the children of Reuben Lee and Lois Hall. At the end of the list, he added “(I think the above list more authentic coming by way of Aunt Mary Eggleston Lee). So I had to figure out who Aunt Mary was and what was the connection to the author. I found her death certificate and she was the daughter of Sarah Lee and Joseph Engliston. Mary would have been the author’s first cousin, twice removed, but probably called Aunt.

THEN, there was a signature after the comment – F Lee! Well, I had pegged Henry Waters Lee as the probable author of the manuscript and it now looks to be his brother Frank L. Lee (1860-1936). What a surprise and what a great discovery.

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Another great story found.

Posted on June 18, 2023 by Pat Shaul

While wandering back through my Munn line that I was updating from an 1914 text, I was looking at my 7 timed great-grandfather, Benjamin Munn (1683-1774) and found reference to his wife, my 7 times great-grandmother, Thankful Nims and her father Godfrey Nims. Well, how fast could I open another browser window and check HathiTrust for any mentions of Godfrey Nims (my 8 times great-grandfather)? As usual HathiTrust came through with a 1914 document titled “The Story of Godfrey Nims” as read to The Nims Family Association at Deerfield, Massachusetts on August 13, 1914. I downloaded the entire work and began to read all of the conjectures cover — stories by this member of the family; matching stories by another member of the family, conflicting facts presented all around.

So, I had no choice but to drop everything and research this bright shiny object. I was very lucky to find documented sources for filling out the essentials of Godfrey’s family beyond just his daughter, Thankful. I was able to pin down both of Godfrey’s wives and his first wife (my ancestor) and her 2 husbands, and their shared 5 children. I was able to add one generation to Mary Miller (his first wife, he was her second husband and 5 of her siblings.

Now, I will put the salt shaker next to me as I re-read The Story of Godfrey Nims and see what might be worth keeping.

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They cut the cable, so might as well process the papers on my desk.

Posted on June 17, 2023 by Pat Shaul

Yesterday, the crew that was installing a fence at our next-door neighbors’ hit the cable while drilling a fence post. No internet, no tv, no phone. Every time we went online to check email, it ate up our cell phone data allowance like it had chocolate sauce on top. So, I started to work through some of the documents and book extracts I have been collecting. I could not find where I had downloaded the entire book from the HathiTrust website for one of my items. So, I went back to look for it. I used the book title in the search. Came up with a four-volume set. Downloaded it (the title and author were the same as was on my report). Searched every one of those volumes. Not there! OK, let’s try this again. Searched and searched and got the same results. Then I noticed the new 4 volume set had the additional comment Third Edition. Back to the HathiTrust “card” catalog. Found the non-Third Edition version (Volume 4) and grabbed it. It was the right one with my Munn Family defined.

Those subtitles on books will make the difference between frustration and elation.

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Kettle of fish has turned into a bucket of …

Posted on May 29, 2023 by Pat Shaul

For some reason, I was just surfing on MyHeritage and decided to search for my great-great-great grandfather, Peter Koontz, the father of Ezra Peter Koontz. At least that was the story my grandmother had told me and she did not know about “Peter’s people”. I already had found that Gpa Peter used the name Baltzer Koontz when he married Elizabeth Derr on 22 June 1832. But searching for either Peter or Baltzer turned up Johann Balthasar Koontz who married Elizabeth Derr.

I had earlier tried to find an English equivalent for Baltzer and the nearest name was Peter. Now there was Johann Balthasar — Balthasar / Baltzer have a phonetic equalness. And the German tradition of naming all the male children Johann and using their call name to keep them apart made sense that he went by what we would assume was his middle name.

So, I now have 3 major research papers under way, along with the 3 books I am trying to research.

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A Fine Kettle of Fish …

Posted on May 28, 2023 by Pat Shaul

Not really anything fishy, it is just that I am getting dug in deaper and deaper into research projects. I was working on my Hotchkiss, Lee, Munn, Tilden project when I got to the part of the manuscript which is the end of the author’s Waters lineage. The text that followed was that he could not find any information on the ancestor other than his name as the father of Hezekiah Waters. So, I picked up the challenge, and created yet another research project titled, Who was Israel Waters. I have just started to do some looking and the status is pretty much as it was in the 1940s, not much. YET!

My other post about getting the book of the plat maps for Farmington Township where my GGG Grandfather, Horatio Lee, began to make an appearance in 1825 got a surpise. Also in Farmington Township, almost on the other side from Horatio’s land, was property assigned to Warham Lee. That is a name that has not shown up in any of my previous research. So, another spin-off project titled, Who was Warham Lee.

Then, of course, as I was researching the Hotchkiss … book, some of the sources I was pulling together to confirm information looked like they should also provide information on some of my other lines. And, of course, they did. I am not taking my “free” weekend to catch up my primary genealogy database from these newly found works. Today, was spent working on the Lane family that came to America in the 1630s. As I was working the information, I realized I was able to link one of the members to my Eames line that all I knew about the woman was that her married name was Lane. The two pieces of information connected an open end! Tomorrow I am going into the Lothrop family who arrived in the 1620s (just after the Mayflower voyages) and married into my Fuller ancestor.

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What a great find!

Posted on May 17, 2023 by Pat Shaul

Last night I was at the Farmington (Oakland Co, Michigan) Genealogy Society meeting where I picked up a couple of books offered from the bequest collection of Peter J. Schaldenbrand. See my most recent books tab for the full list.

The book in question is Land Owners Maps of Historical Farmington Township, Vol 1, 1822-1830 by Peter J, Schaldenbrand. Above is the hand drawn and labeled plat map for 1827. The lower left corner of Section 24 shows the 80 acres of land owned by Horatio Lee, my Great-Great-Great-Grandfather. In addition, it is noted that he held that parcel since 1825!

Also on this map, in section 8 & 9, I find Joseph Munn, the brother of Horatio’s wife, Hannah.

By 1830, section 24 has been fully allocated and Horatio is still there.

What is not covered is the actual town of Farmington where Horatio’s father, William Lee and mother Mary Summers Lee resided and William was the shoemaker for the village.

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Tea Time?

Posted on May 15, 2023 by Pat Shaul

The New England Historical and Genealogical Society (NEHGR) – has started a new project called Boston Tea Party Participants. I started to look at the entries for known surnames that I was sure would have been in North America at that time. A result of my inquiry for the Sprague surname (see Sprague Project) was Samuel Sprague (1753-1844). I dropped everything and decided to see if he might be in my project database. He was not there. Luckily, I have a number of volumes on the Sprague family and have been able to connect him to my Tristram Sprague ancestor (my 11th Great-Grandfather, Samuel’s 4th Great-Grandfather).

My third cousin, 7 times removed, helped dump the tea in Boston Harbor!

Vintage illustration features the Boston Tea Party, a political protest that occurred on December 16, 1773, at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. American colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing “taxation without representation,” dumped 342 chests of British tea into the harbor. The event was the first major act of defiance to British rule over the colonists and a significant event that led to the American Revolution.
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Old, But Still in Use

Posted on April 20, 2023 by Pat Shaul

I have been working on my Hotchkiss, Lee, Munn, Tilden, and Other Related Families project and am now in the process of going back and adding in the author’s text. I had previously gone through the work and built the lineage into Family Tree Maker to understand what was being said.

In entering the text, I reacted to some of the situations that were called out in the text. Some of the ones were specific – Savage’s Genealogical Dictionary, Vol III, p 75 and another was more generic – History of Guilford.

I looked at my bookshelf and see the four-volume set of A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England by James Savage. OK, so I pulled Vol III and looked on page 75 and found the exact citation mentioned in the text which was written almost 90 years ago.

I also found History of Guilford, Conn. by Hon. Ralph D Smith on another of my shelves and there on page 194 was the item referenced. I will be adding the full quotation into my finished version.

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