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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April Fools, Not.

Posted on April 1, 2023 by Pat Shaul

I have 19,936 individuals, 7774 families, in my database. Not one couple in that mass of Ancestor Pairs married on 1 April!

Update on the manuscript that I have been working to transcribe and update with currently available information – Hotchkiss, Lee, Munn, Tilden and Other Related Families. I believe I have determined the author based on the location and age of Horatio and Hannah Munn Lee’s grandchildren whom I determined must be the author based on the text included. Henry Waters Lee (1866-1941) seems to be the most likely candidate. Since the manuscript says it was A Project of the Farmington Genealogical Society, it means the current incarnation of that organization which was established in 1973 really has ancestry in the 1930-1940s.

#Lee #Munn #Hotchkiss #FarmingtonMichigan

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Well, this is a whole lot bigger than expected

Posted on March 13, 2023 by Pat Shaul

I had decided to go through all of my Thru Lines DNA matches on Ancestry to try to determine where each of those persons “fit” into my family. I made some progress by researching the lineages some of them posted and sending messages (via Ancestry messaging application – more on that, later). But there were a number of matches that needed more WORK! So, I went back through the diagrams (thank you Diahan Southard for the suggested method of putting the match lineages into Excel to be able to see the big picture!). Bottom line, I now have a list of 216 DNA matches to resolve.

Now 216 might seem to be a large task especially when one considers I did not go back any further than my great-great-great grandparents in Thru Lines. But the total population that Ancestry DNA now reports is 47,463 with 2,628 classified as 4th cousins or closer.

My research criteria are to only use actual documents that I will be able to cite as support to my linkage theory. These items include, birth, marriage, death records, census records, obituaries (one of my new favorites). As Dr. Deborah Abbott says in all of her lectures, when searching you need to hope the subject of your search is dead because the dead leave a better paper trail.

#ThruLines #DiahanSouthard #DeborahAbbott #DNA

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Happy Birthday, 10 Times Great Grandfather, Thomas Lawrence.

Posted on March 9, 2023 by Pat Shaul

So, on the 8th of March 1619 (404 years ago), my tenth great grandfather was born. Thomas Lawrence was just another entry in my long line of ancestors, or was he? Grandfather Lawrence has a special location in genealogy history / records. He is an approved (aka proven) gateway ancestor to the Emperor, Charles the Great (Charlemagne) of the Holy Roman Empire. Charlemagne was born in 747 and died in 814. This is the farthest back my lineage goes on any line. My tracing goes through his son, Pipin I, Richard II, Robert of Normandy (the father of William the Conqueror), down through Thomas’s line to Isaac Lawrence’s daughter, Rachel, who married John Jenks my 6th great grandfather. The line continues through my great- great-great grandmother, Esther Jenks, to my great grandmother Effie Clarissa Lee. My mother used to claim that her grandmother used to be very proud of the Lee name and helped both my mother and aunt in filling out genealogy projects for school in the 1930s. She actually created a link to the Lees of Virginia. It was those trees that I found in my grandparents’ attic at age 12 that got me hooked on genealogy. It took me years to find the actual link to the Lees of Connecticut, not Virginia. I wonder how Great Grandmother would have reacted to her line going back to Charlemagne?

That same Lee family line back through the Great Genandmother’s Grandmother Munn’s line led me to Mayflower passengers Edward and Samuel Fuller. She never knew.

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 Hotchkiss, Lee, Munn, Tilden and Other Related Families. – update

Posted on February 22, 2023 by Pat Shaul

Well, I have made it through 80 pages of the manuscript. So far, I have only a small glimpse as to how these families hang together. OK, I know the connections between the Hotchkiss, Lee, and Munn families, but I am still waiting for the Tilden link-in,

But, today, I was reviewing and transcribing the text relating to my Great-Great-Great Grandfather, Horatio Lee, and discovered a number of things. As a youth, he and some friends built a raft and sailed it down the Allegany River to the Ohio River to the Mississippi River and ended up in New Orleans. They sold the raft and got just about enough money to get back home to New York. He came to Michigan twice. The first time with his brother and his brother’s wife. They came overland in Canada. He then returned to New York, married Great Great Great Grandmother, Hannah Munn, and then took the Erie canal to Buffalo, got aboard a sailing ship and arrived in Detroit. Then, during the Toledo War, he was called up to serve by the Michigan Governor. And Toledo went to Ohio and Michigan got the Upper Peninsula – you are welcome UPers.

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Too Many Directions, Too Little Time, Too Many Bright Shiny Objects

Posted on January 27, 2023 by Pat Shaul

I have been trying to keep up my research into the validity of Ancestry’s Thru lines app, but it has taken many different directions and many lines to explore. On the upside, I have been successful in identifying a few of my DNA matches and placing them properly in my database. Some I am close to but they have made one or two generations above them private and each of those could be one of many siblings on each level. So, messages have been sent and hope will rise if anyone responds.

I have also been working on a manuscript I found in the Farmington, Oakland County Michigan library titled Hotchkiss, Lee, Munn, Tilden and Other Related Families. There is no author named. It does include the one-line notation: A project of The Farmington Genealogical Society of which I am a member. I have asked the longest serving members if they have any recollection of the manuscript. Nope, none. They referred me on to the Librarian who came up with the same response. The manuscript has entries going back to the 1600s. So, I have created a new tree in Ancestry and am building each noted person and relationships into that tree and use Ancestry to look up documents that either support or refute the assertions. This is very interesting as I am getting into ship passenger lists from the 1620s, and 1630s to verify those claims. More to come later.

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New Project — Research Based on Ancestry Thru-Lines

Posted on January 17, 2023 by Pat Shaul

OK, first, it the THRU Lines not TRUE lines. The connections may be real or not. There needs to be an investigation as to whether the descendants of a known forbearer are documented with citations, not just a guess by a potential cousin.

I have followed a number of suggestions on how to break out the various lineages in Excel and to be able to then see a picture of what is known and what needs to be proven.

Today, I started with one of my maternal lines — lineage for my grandmother’s uncle’s descendants. I had previously tried to contact one of my distant cousins and there was no reply (unfortunately this is the norm for DNA inquiries). Well, today I sent a note to what appears to be her sister. Within an hour, I got a reply with information that meshed with my citation documentation. This may have been a third cousin, twice removed, but I chalk it up as a success! Just the incentive needed to keep working the project.

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1 January 2023

Posted on January 1, 2023 by Pat Shaul

It appears that the first day of the year was a big day for my ancestors to get married – 26 couples appeared on my app that screens my genealogy database for events for the specific date. The first couple listed were Nicholas Bonham and Hannah Fuller in 1658. Hannah was my 10th great aunt, the daughter of Samuel Fuller and Jane Lothrop, my 10th great grandparents. It also appears on that date that my great-great grandparents wed – Wilhelm Gotthardt Gaertner [aka William G Gardner] and Mary Ann Cummings in Hartford, Connecticut on this date in 1862. Mary Ann was William’s second wife; his first wife died in 1861. He went on to marry another Mary (divorced her} and a Margaret (she outlived him and collected his Civil War Pension). Yes, he wed 4 times.

A number of my relatives (16) ruined the New Year’s Eve partying be their parents by being born on the 1st. I wonder if any of them were the first born in their city/town/village. The first on the list was Elizabeth Jenks, my first cousin, 8 times removed, who was born in 1697. Second on the list was my 6th great grandfather, Thomas Morey, who arrived 314 years ago in Bristol, Rhode Island.

Eleven of my database inhabitants apparently decided the year was not that promising and departed this mortal coil.

I am planning on exploring the next 364 days of 2023 and see what it can provide.

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BSO = Down the Rabbit Hole.

Posted on November 3, 2022 by Pat Shaul

This week, I got into the current issue of the New England Historic and Genealogical Register. I had planned on scanning the Table of Contents, realizing there was nothing of immediate interest and putting it aside. Well there was a Bright Shiny Object in that issue (and since I had not a very good job of scanning the prior issue, there was part 1 in that issue). The article was Samuel and Abigail (Sprague) Call of Charlestown, Massachusetts, and Nova Scotia. My 11 times great grandfather was Trisram Sprague of Dorset, England. I jumped down the Rabbit Hole to see if and how I was related to Abigail Sprague. Well 3 days later I have amassed all kinds of new Sprague family information and have determined that Cousin Abigail is my 3C8R! But, the Rabbit Hole has turned into a giant sink hole as I am now fully occupied with the Sprague Lineage.

My 9th great grandfather arrived in Salem, Massachusetts in 1629 and married Millicent Eames in 1635. And so it will continue as long as I can see some daylight above the rim of the hole and more Bright Shiny Objects calling to be dug out of the mine.

The Sprague Line marries into my Jenks Line and that becomes a whole other Rabbit Hole.

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