Breaking Down A Brick Wall

I decided yesterday that since it was Sunday and I had time I was going to work on some genealogy. I didn't start out looking to break down a brick wall, I went into my grandson Alex's genealogy to see which of his ancestors lived in Willington, CT. He is buying his first home and it is in the town of Willington. I thought it was a happy coincidence. 

I found that ancestors who lived there and then found the brick wall. Her name was Elizabeth Barber. She married William Vinton on Nov 29, 1849, in East Windsor, CT. I have tried every way I can think of to find her parents up until now, I have had no luck. Today, I went to the Barbour collection on Ancestry and looked at the town of East Windsor. I looked at all the Barbers and three of them I noticed stated that they were of East Windsor. One of them was Anson Barber. I thought maybe it would be easier to follow a male than a female. 

By searching Anson I found that he was mentioned in a North American Family Histories 1500-2000. It listed him as the son of Chauncey Barber and Elizabeth Sadd. Of course, I had no reason to suspect that Anson and Elizabeth were siblings. With the name Chauncey Barber, I went searching again and found A Will and Probate record from 1868. I went looking at the records. He named Anson as his executor and there among the bequests was one for his daughter, Elizabeth A. Vinton. 

Chauncy Barber House East Windsor CT

Trying to find the parents of females can be quite a challenge. Not everyone has a will but it is one of the best ways to discover the identity of these mysterious females. This discovery led to many more and back to the founders of Windsor CT. 

If you have brick walls, and I know you do, walk away for a while and then come back with fresh ideas. If I hadn't decided to follow Anson, I would have never discovered Elizabeth and all of her amazing ancestors. 

It helps to consider all the possibilities and to think outside the box. You don't want to go down a rabbit hole but sometimes it leads to an amazing discovery. 

Website review: FreeReg.org.uk

Free Reg is one of the best websites I have ever found for looking up information on ancestors from England. It is a volunteer project that is taking the church registers and digitalizing them. You can volunteer to help them. Of course, as with all things of this type, there are some really bad interpretations of names. It would be ideal if each parish was transcribed by someone who was aware of the family names to be found in that parish. But this isn't a perfect world. Not all parishes have been done, not by a long shot but if you get lucky, a parish that your family lived in for hundreds of years may be present. 

You can search in a variety of different ways, you just need to play with the site for a bit. I was very happy with all the information I could find. Some things still haven't turned up but I am optimistic that as time goes on and more parishes get entered, more and more information will turn up. You can also print out the information you find. 

All in all, this is an excellent research tool and I highly recommend that you give Free Reg.org.uk

Book Review: Pioneers of Massachusetts 1620-1650 by Charles Henry Pope

This book was copyrighted in 1900 by Charles Henry Pope. It has become one of my favorite genealogy books. If you are looking for biographical information, this is not the right book for you but if you want to make a connection between your ancestor and perhaps their father, this book can be very valuable. 

Some pioneers in this book will have lots of information, others will have one line and others won't be mentioned at all which is very frustrating. 

The book is alphabetic by surname. So if you are looking for a common name like Smith, it may include pages (7) of Smiths and with a name like John, 17 separate entries. This can be very confusing, it certainly helps if you know what town your ancestor lived in, by looking at the names of the children perhaps listed in a will, you may be able to narrow down the possible candidates. 

Here is a sample of what you may find. 

Gowing, Gowen 
Robert, Dedham a manservant, adm chh. (5)1639; propr. Dec 23, 1640. Rem. to Wenham before 1651. He m. 31 (8)1644 Elizabeth Brock: ch. John b. 13 (9) 1645, Elizabeth bap (2) 1647, Hannah Bapt 21 (12) 1648/49.

Robert, Wenham, petitioned the Gen Court 23 May 1650.

You will need to familiarize yourself with all the common abbreviations that are used on these listings. 

Keep in mind that these dates are given in the old style, what that means is the first day of the year is March 25 instead of January 1. So if a date is listed as the first month it is April, not January. 

This has become my go-to book for early Massachusetts ancestors. Not that it is error free, it is not to be considered a primary source even though primary sources were used in its creation. Having said that, it has broken down a few brick walls for me and it was well worth the $29.95 price tag. 

I purchased it online at the New England Historical Genealogical Society along with several other books of a similar type. They offer a great selection of books and I have to be very careful about looking on their website since I can spend a small fortune. 

Website review: Find My Past

I am a firm believer in spending as little money as possible to find the information you need to expand your family history. I don't like to be forced to pay a monthly fee to get that information. Having said that, if you don't want to chase down your English roots the way I did by actually going to the source in England, Find My Past is a great option. 

I do not have a subscription at the moment but after doing a few quick searches on their site I felt as if it would be a very good idea to have one. I searched for a couple of ancestors who are dead ends for me in England and got results that I could tell by the limited information given to me, would be helpful. To actually see the documents I would need to pay or work really hard during the 14 day trial period. 

If you have ancestors in England or Ireland, it is worth your while to at least take a look and do a free search to see if they have records that would be of help. You can find parish records, census, newspaper and more. Some of the records they have are exclusive to them which is what makes Find My Past so appealing. 

The search results will make you want to buy a subscription. For $14.95 a month or $129 a year you can have access to the basic information that they have, parish records, census, and emigration records. If you want more, such as newspapers, military, wills and institutional records you will need to go for the Ultimate subscription which costs $19.95 a month or $179 a year.  Only you know which makes more sense to you but I think it is certainly worth at least a one-month membership to see if you can find some of the information you are looking for. 

I used Find My Past myself for free searching and was able to see a lot of excellent information and if you are willing to accept just the year and not see the original documents, you can get plenty of free info. 

NERGC Update

If you plan to attend the NERGC Conference in Manchester NewHampshire April 3-6 you have one more day to get the early bird rate which will save you $30. Early Bird registration ends on February 28th. 

See you there!!

Conference website

Planning a visit to the National Archives

Many records are not available on the local level. An in-person visit to the National Archives may be what you need to do. While the main branch is located in Washington, D.C. there are other branches which may be more convenient.  

National Archive Branches are located in

• Washington, DC
• College Park, MD
  Atlanta, GA
• Boston, MA
• Chicago, IL
• Denver, CO
• Fort Worth, TX
• Kansas City, MO
• New York City, NY
• Philadelphia, PA
• Riverside, CA
• St. Louis, MO
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA

Not every branch will have all records, it is important that you check before you visit what records are available at each branch. You can use the National Archives Catalog to determine where the records you want are located. Also check the times when the archives are open, each branch has different hours. 

When you arrive at the branch you plan to visit you will need to fill out call slips so that the records you want to view can be pulled. Arrive as early in the day as possible and try to avoid the weekends. I speak from experience when I say, if you are driving any distance you should probably plan on an overnight visit. Getting and working with the records is likely to take longer than you anticipate. You don't want to rush through things and if you are like me, one visit won't even be enough. 

I did my research and even though the archives in Pittsfield was closer and much easier to get to, I had to go to the one in Waltham, Ma. (Boston). I was wanting to look for naturalization records and ship records and these were in Waltham. 

Staff is available for questions and are very helpful at least in Waltham they are. I now need to go another route to look for my father-in-law's naturalization and it will not be at Waltham since he wasn't a resident of Connecticut in those days. 

What types of records can you hope to find?

Military service records, naturalization records, immigration records, ship manifests, passenger lists, land records, court records, fugitive slave records and a whole lot more. 

NERGC 2019

Registration has now opened for the 2019 NERGC in Manchester, New Hampshire April 3-6.  If you haven't made your hotel reservation yet, the Doubletree Hotel is filling up fast and you may have to use the Hilton Garden Inn. Some of the tracks have a limited number of spaces so if you have very specific things you are looking for, it is imperative that you register as quickly as possible. 

And yes, I have already registered.  Follow the link and register and I look forward to seeing you there.