FINALLY !!! My Ancestor's War of 1812 Pension Files were Digitized and Uploaded Today

It has been a long wait. And I realize some are still waiting.

It was a really frustrating weekend because the uploads stopped last week just four names from my ancestor's name and with just six names to finish off the RIDER surname. (Yes, there are two separate files for my ancestor.) But today my wait is FINALLY over.

Finally! The Rider surname is complete for the War of 1812 Pension Files.

I am referring to the War of 1812 Pension Files on the Fold3 website. The War of 1812 Pension Files are a digitization project between the National Archives, iArchive (Fold3) owned by Ancestry.com and the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) to digitize the War of 1812 pensions files which were never microfilmed but were one of the most heavily used non-microfilmed collections according to an early press release.

This project was started in 2010 with fundraising campaign, called Preserve the Pensions, to pay for the digitization of these fragile documents. These resulting digitized records will remain free to the public indefinitely. You can see (search, explore, and look at) these records today over at Fold3 for free without signing up for anything. If you want to download a record image or file then you just need to create a free membership level account. (No credit card needed.)

Six years after its start the fundraising was completed in September 2016. In review, it looks like the first images starting with the A surnames went up in April 2011. (I detailed some progress and a personal find in a February 2014 post.) The digitization project slowly progressed though a security problem discovered elsewhere at another archive resulted in a big delay of this project's progress. The delay was not explained until much later leaving genealogists and interested parties in the dark waiting for progress. The project resumed with a "proof of concept" test using M(Moore) thru Q surnames in September 2017 and if that went well the R to Z surnames would follow.

White's Index to War of 1812 Pension Files

But after finishing the Q surnames, the project's digitization jumped to "Robertson, John" skipping the "Ra... thru Robertson's with first names before John." That is about 2,698 files. (Yes, I counted. And I noticed at least some of the later Q surnames were skipped too.) The project had been progressing from A to Z alphabetically until then. If you have access to Virgil D. White's Index to War of 1812 Pension Files (2 volumes) you can see/check the progress and work done. I have noticed some Old War (War of 1812) pension files listed in the White's book have not been digitized but I have noticed if these Old War (War of 1812) files mention a widow's claim they tend to be included in the digitization. Perhaps these "missed" files are actually part of another collection? With libraries closed at present time I do not have access to the books and their front material that might explain if more than one record collection was accessed to create the index volumes.

In September 2019 I queried FGS about this unexplained jump and was simply told in the reply email that the R surnames were targeted to be completed in January 2020. A month later I queried FGS again about this completion target when after finishing the end of the R surnames the digitization continued on with S surnames instead of going back to the beginning of the R surnames that were skipped. I did not get a reply to that November email query.

Digitization continued thru the "St Oris" surname and then stopped. It was not until the first week of February that the skipped R surnames began to s-l-o-w-l-y appear on Fold3. So just eight days before the War of 1812 pension files started to appear on Fold3 in 2011 (nine years ago), my ancestor's files were digitized and uploaded today.

For those still waiting for their ancestor's surname, I commiserate. There are a couple S surnames that I am waiting on for some collateral lines. Need I say, Patience?

Now I should state that: yes, I have seen these files before because my family ordered photocopies of them thirty years ago. I believe there is a page or two we never received despite adding the "magic words" (please send the complete file) on the top of the triplicate form we mailed in so long ago. Unfortunately it is not a "family record" page from the family bible like I found in file of Amos/Clarissa Butler. But what makes this digitization project special is that the digitized images are in color not just black and white (grey-scale) and that color can make a big difference in readability of a document. And, it just looks better.

One page we received long ago was illegible because there was writing in two directions on top of each other on the same page. With the color we can now see it is green pencil written on top of black ink. (It took a long, long time for Mom to decipher much but not all of the "green" handwriting which on a black and white photocopy appeared black.) While that particular text ended up not being vital, it could have been. Remember we need to thoroughly read and analyze everything so we do not miss any clues that may yield our answers. 

So, now we get to sit and compare the digital color images to what we transcribed from the photocopied pension packet of thirty years ago. And, of course, add some new source citations to our genealogy program.

Oh, if you have not looked at Fold3 lately there is now the option to download a whole file into one PDF document with/without index and source data. That may appeal to some rather than having to download each page of a file separately.

I have been able to write just a few posts in the last few years. Life has been busy with family and more projects. One of my To-Do/bucket list items was accomplished in the downtime from this blog. I (and a sister) became members of the National Society United States Daughters of 1812 and our ancestor Seneca Rider (whose pension files are the subject of this post) is a new ancestor for the society. This is my first lineage society membership. Any other lineal female descendants of Seneca Rider just have to prove their lineage back to one of his children. (The General Society of the War of 1812, a separate group for male descendants of those who served in the War of 1812, has its own ancestor list/database so any lineal male descendants would have to prove their lineage to Seneca and his service if he is not already an accepted ancestor per that organization's requirements.)



©2020 All Rights Reserved, goneresearching. All text and photos in this post are copyrighted & owned by me (goneresearching) unless indicated otherwise. No republication (commercial or non-commercial) without prior permission. You may share (tell others) of this blog as long as you give credit and link to this site (not by downloading or copying any post). Thank you.

FultonHistory.com Tip/Reminder for Finding Newspaper Dates and Page Numbers

One of my favorite digitized newspaper websites is the FultonHistory.com website which if you do not know is run by just one very competent man, Tom Tryniski. Though a little quirky, FultonHistory has digitized, searchable newspapers mostly for New York but there are some for Pennsylvania, a few other states and even Canada; and the site is free but you can donate to support the site. Seven years ago FultonHistory enabled me to track down an entire collateral branch of my family from the late 1700s up to the early 1900s.

At that time I guess I was more into the fun part of genealogy ... the researching and the chase for answers. I entered the names, information and some source information into my genealogy program at the time to keep track of things as I went but did not do the sourcing as we do nowadays. From just two probate ads (one of which I learned of from a mailing list post mentioning a familiar name) I ended up tracing all the descendants of ten of eleven children using the newspapers and other traditional genealogy records. Two additional probate ads found a year or so later on FultonHistory solved the eleventh child whose line I followed to modern day and all I had prior to work with was "married a southern woman and went south." (Remember always go back and re-do searches to see if something new has been added since your last visit.)

For the last year I have been slowly getting "past found" information into my current genealogy program with proper citation. One step of this process is making sure my digital files are named properly which for me means they follow a standard naming pattern — one that works for me.

And so I find myself now revisiting those hundreds of PDF files saved at the time of that great 2010 research adventure. Many of the files have most of the components of how I wish to name a newspaper page/clipping file but these components are not necessarily in the order I finally decided works best for me.

Newspapers with file names
not following my final newspaper name format of
publicationdateNewspaperName_p#_LastNameFirst 

That said, there are many that are missing the publication date and/or page number. Some of this missing information is due to me working too fast and not insuring I included it while sometimes the information is really missing from the saved page. Simply opening each file confirms each file's situation. In this case, it was about 50 percent my fault; 50 percent just not there. Honestly, I was not looking forward to figuring out publication dates and/or page numbers for those 50 percent not there files that I could not resolve just by opening the file.

If you have never taken a look at the help page for FultonHistory.com I strongly suggest you do. Besides an explanation of the site, there are a plethora of search tips to help you. One search tip in particular has helped me greatly with the task of revisiting my many PDF files to determine the publication date and page number. While Tom does have a video of how to do this, here is how I applied the tip to my task at hand.

Since I have a large number of files to go through, I opened FultonHistory in two browser tabs. The first browser tab is to re-locate the newspaper page(s) I'm working with by either searching for a single result or multiple results for a person. The second browser tab is to perform a second search to bring up all files for a specific newspaper/year(s) so that I can easily move to the page(s) earlier in an issue to locate the missing information.

A search to find back a specific search result.

For this example, in the first browser tab I did a search for "Harvey Marvin" 1845 and then looked for the result in the New York NY Tribune to find back the search result for a previously saved file. I thought of writing this post after I had worked on these files for a while so I do not have a screen capture of the file name from back in 2010. If I recall correctly the file name had a bunch of percent symbols in it but I could make out the paper name, a year and luckily I had added the person/subject to the end of the file name.

Now to do Tom's trick. He has named each newspaper page with a standardized wording and numbered each page sequentially starting with the first page of the first issue available for the year to the last page of the last issue available for each year. The standardized wording may indicate a specific year or range of years. Having done this it is possible for us to do a search for a specific paper and time period. But putting in a paper name and a specific year does not usually work on this site.

Copy the PDF file name for your search result match.

So for this example, I copy the PDF file name New York NY Tribune 1845 June - Oct Grayscale - 0085.pdf for the page result I sought.

Search 2 in the second browser window using the file name
in quotes but without the file number and file extension.

PDF files in sequential order.

Over in the second browser tab in the FultonHistory search query panel, I type a quote mark then paste the newspaper page file name just copied, delete the file number and file extension from the copied file name (0085.pdf) and then type a quote mark. Thus I end up with "New York NY Tribune 1845 June - Oct Grayscale - " in the query box. This is the standardized wording for this batch of newspaper pages. Then in the search options below the query box, I change Sort type from "hits" which I think is the default to "name" before clicking the search button. Doing this last step produces a results list in sequential order starting with the lowest number file and the newspaper pages in order of how they appeared from the beginning of the time period to the end of the time period covered.

After locating your page, easily move to earlier pages in the issue.

Now I locate the specific page file I want which if you remember was 0085. And as you can see in the image I can now easily select the prior page in that specific paper and learn the page I had saved was page two of that issue. You only have to move pages forward (or backward) far enough to where you can read the information (publication date or page number) and determine what would be your page's missing data.

If the article in your page result was continued on the next page, you simply copy the PDF file name to the search query box and change the file number to the next number, for example change 0085 to 0086 to easily get the following page.

With the missing information now found, I can then adjust my file name to include all the information I require for my newspaper page/clipping file names. Which is the publication date in numbers meaning Year Month Day so 1845 June 24 as 18450624 immediately followed by the newspaper name with an underscore p# underscore for the page number followed immediately by LastnameFirst or the subject of the article. So my revised file name is 18450625NewYorkTribune_p2_MarvinHarvey.pdf in this case and I now have details preserved for my source citation.

The revised file name with all information present.

Using the two browser tabs I think helps whether you are searching for the first time or trying to relocate previous finds. The first tab preserves your initial search results so you do not have to keep repeating the same search to move on in the results list while the second tab lets you take a moment to find that pesky missing information like page numbers.

There is an alternative method, manually finding the newspaper on a list and then scrolling thru pages of files to locate your page but I found those pages harder to read due to the type used on the graphics and on the subsequent pages with the file names. Thus this method seemed slower to use.

So do take some time to look over that help page because it can help. And do go back and repeat searches you have done in the past to see what has been added since. And, of course, try this tip.

Oh, those initial two probate ads I located that turned out to be a goldmine? I did that search again the other day and discovered a newspaper page added sometime in the last seven years which reported that probate was said to be the largest number of relatives to be cited in a single probate in the history of that county's probates. I believe it. And no there was not a great fortune to be had by those relatives. Supposedly it took just three years to get to the final settlement. Her uncle's probate (those other two probate ads I found about a year later) still was not settled at that time and he died about thirty years prior to her. And again there was no great fortune. Well, for them I mean because for me ... goldmine.

Hopefully you are not discounting those collateral relatives in your research, especially those with no direct (spouse or children) heirs, because they can be goldmines of information. 


©2017 All Rights Reserved, goneresearching. All text and photos in this post are copyrighted & owned by me (goneresearching) unless indicated otherwise. No republication (commercial or non-commercial) without prior permission. You may share (tell others) of this blog as long as you give credit and link to this site (not by downloading or copying any post). Thank you.

Intriguing DNA Match May Be First Lead Regarding Anne Rider Hazzard ... Maybe

An Intriguing DNA Match ... Maybe

It has been way too long since I have been able to post anything here. Life's commitments elsewhere shrunk my genealogy time which was often spent on genealogy group things not my own. Resolutions don't appear to work for me so I'm just going to try harder at the things I want to do.

After spending four days upgrading a family member's laptop from Vista to Windows 7, I decided I had earned some goof off time. While reviewing our DNA matches the other week an intriguing match gave me an excuse to follow a bright shiny object to see where it might lead. It may or may not pay off later.

I say bright shiny object because normally with a DNA match I do more diligent work DNA-wise before diving into the genealogy when I don't see a common ancestor in the match's attached tree or a known person also in my tree. But in this case it was too intriguing to just simply note the possibility and revisit it later.

Back in the 1990s we were stuck on one of Dad's third great grandfathers. Eventually we learned Seneca Rider, who was living in Madoc Township, Hastings, Ontario, Canada, in the mid 1800s, was from Albany County, New York, but we could not find any clues to his parents. On a visit to the Archives of Ontario we finally found a Rider family connection but still had no idea which Rider son was Seneca's father. There were a handful to choose from and about half were not researched by anyone. I had a gut feeling about one Rider son but "gut feelings" don't really count as proof. It took few more years and a visit to the Albany County Hall of Records and the Surrogate's Office to find a will with the answers ... and more questions, of course.

From the will we learned Seneca's parents were Samuel Rider and his "wife" (there's the first new question) and he had siblings Anne Rider, Joel Rider and David Rider. Researching Joel and David was easy; most done that night in the hotel via internet. Researching Samuel had its ups and downs. We are still no where with determining who was Seneca's mother -- we don't even have a first name! The only other thing we learned about Anne (our second new question) came from Joel's probate administration in 1856 ... "children of Ann Hazzard (supposed to be dead) also next of Kin." The 1911 fire in Albany destroyed or water damaged a lot of historical records including probate records thus the loose papers for both Samuel and Joel's probates do not exist.

So the grand total of what we know about Anne Rider Hazzard is: born sometime prior to 1790 in Dutchess County, New York; her husband was a Hazzard whose first name is unknown to us; she had children whose names and sex are unknown; her place of residence is unknown to us; and she was possibly deceased before 1856. This grand total of knowledge has not changed since it was learned.

We usually keep an eye out for our various surnames while researching because you never know what scrap of information might help in the future. So throughout the years I have investigated possibilities for Anne, primarily in New York, but nothing had panned out to be our Anne. One interesting fact we've always been aware of is that grandpa Seneca is buried in Hazzard's Corners Cemetery in Madoc Township. We had wondered could it be a relation but peaking around that Hazzard family did not pan out any clues at the time either. (This was mostly done in the beginning days of genealogy on the internet.)

So if you got a DNA match to a Hazzard or should I say the "Joseph Hazzard" of Hazzard's Corners wouldn't you chase the "bright shiny object" too? Just in case.

I started with the Ontario census to refresh my memory of Joseph Hazzard, his wife Elsy Lloyd and his family. By his birth year 1797 and birth place United States (mostly) he could be a candidate for being a child of my "aunt" Anne Rider Hazzard.

Next came a review of online trees. I don't trust the vast majority of online trees to be correct but reviewing what is out there should be done to be thorough. After playing around with the search parameters for just a tree search at Ancestry.com, I determined that I saw the most "appropriate" trees using:  Joseph with exact checked; Hazzard; 1797 birth year exact; spouse of last name Lloyd. This returned 43 public trees and 14 private trees. Of the 43, four results had a different wife; 26 had the right wife but no parents; and 13 had the right wife but gave him parents Rowland Hazzard (born Rhode Island and died Dutchess Co., NY) and Mary Pease/Peace. Though I was a little concerned by these parents I continued on knowing there are a lot of errors in online trees. In this case the majority of trees did not have parents listed. Of the 14 private trees, all I could see was they matched the search parameters Joseph Hazzard born 1797.

I then moved onto Ontario Vital Records and Michigan Vital Records where most of the trees indicated some of his children lived. My main focus was on death and marriage records for the information provided regarding the birth places of Joseph and wife Elsy's children and the birth location of Joseph provided either by a child when marrying or the child's informant upon death.

Joseph Hazzard appears to have gotten away without a death certificate/record of his own. Though that was disappointing it likely would not have answered the question of his parents since it was not always asked for the certificates. From these various vital records Joseph's children birth places varied: Fredericksburg, Addington, Madoc, and the generic Canada. From these various vital records Joseph's birth place was given as: New York, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania.

Since no one could agree on an answer for Joseph's birth I then looked at this from another angle: who was this Rowland Hazzard? Taking a closer look I saw he died in Dutchess County, New York, and left a will. Much of his property mentioned was in other states. He did have a son Joseph but there was no indication from the will of where Joseph was residing. So then I sought out any published genealogies on the Hazzard family.

That brought me to the Internet Archive and the digitized version of "The Hazzard Family of Rhode Island 1635-1894" by Caroline E. Robinson. On pages 77 and 78 Rowland Hazard and wife Mary Peace are detailed showing their connection to Rhode Island and that Rowland died in Dutchess County, New York. Their son Joseph is described as Joseph Peace Hazard born 17 Feb. 1807 in Burlington, New Jersey, and that the family removed to Bristol, Pennsylvania, afterwards. The author also states that their son Joseph Peace Hazard toured Europe in 1856 and that he spent much time abroad until 1879. Joseph Peace Hazard's death is noted as being at the residence of his brother Rowland G. Hazard in Peacedale, Rhode Island.

Based on dates and locations, it is pretty clear the Joseph Hazzard of Madoc, Hastings, Ontario, Canada, is not the son of Rowland Hazard and Mary Peace. A check of original records would further confirm this.

Published genealogies are derivative sources and vary greatly in quality even when they do include sources. When you use them always realize that you still have to do your genealogy work and look at original records or images of those original records like microfilm and digital images.

Having eliminated the "Are Rowland and Mary his parents?" question I turned back to Joseph Hazard and locating earlier documents or signs of earlier documents. The early 1800s for what was Upper Canada now Ontario is a sort of "black hole" for genealogists. For what little is available, much of it is not online though some has been indexed/abstracted/transcribed and published.

The children's birth places though varied gave indication of where Joseph and Elsy were prior to residing in Madoc. So my search began there with websites focusing on Hastings County, Lennox and Addington County, Prince Edward County and The Bay of Quinte. Very little information was found though I did learn he owned land in Thurlow Township, Hastings, Ontario, from about 1822 to 1823. I did see that there is another Hazzard family that was Friends (Quaker) in Prince Edward County but there appears to be no connection between the two families. Also, a "Jacob Hazzard" is mentioned as among the first settlers of Madoc Township, The name (no other details) appears in the same list of people mentioned in two books. As of right now a search (primarily internet) of any possible parents of Joseph has come up with no solid leads.

Then I turned to a newer online resource that takes a little getting used to how to work with it. At the Library and Archives of Canada (LAC) website under Genealogy and Family History are a variety of databases and digitized microfilm of original documents. Under the Land category are several databases including the Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865. Now a lot of genealogists hear land petition in Canada and think United Empire Loyalist but these petitions do not just cover loyalists or the sons and daughters of loyalists. There were a variety of regulations over the years so these petitions not only include loyalist related petitions but also petitions of military and civilian settlers.

I have used this land petitions database before and found much success with it but Hazzard was not a surname I had checked before. A check Upper Canada Land Petitions Search Engine for Hazzard produced just two results: one for a Joseph Hazzard with the place Thurlow and one for a Elsy Hazzard/Lloyd with the place Madoc. A check for Hazard produced four results: a Thomas Hazard of King; Henry Hazard of Sherington and two for Lot Hazard of Murray. (No connection between the Joseph Hazzard I seek and these last three Hazard men has been found as of yet.)

For many of the digitized collections at LAC, the one thing to note is that the search database is separate from the digitized images. So rather than clicking a link in the results table you have to use information in the results table to manually locate (aka browse) for the images on another webpage containing the digitized microfilm rolls. I find it easier to use the archived pages of the Upper Canada Land Petitions microfilm then getting the similar page to come up on the new LAC website.

What did the petition of Joseph Hazzard -- yes, it is our guy -- say? The petition for Joseph Hazzard was enlightening but did not fully answer the question of his parents identity.

Library & Archives Canada

digital film# c-2045, image 00471
135
To His Honors
Samuel Smith Esquire Administrator administering the Government of the Province of Upper Canada and ___ and ___ and ___ In Council

The Petition of Joseph Hazzard now of the Township of Thurlow, yeoman, Humbly Showeth,
That Your Petitioner was born in the State of the New York, that he has resided in this Province about twenty three years, that his Father is dead, that is Mother is alive, that he is the only son now alive of their issue, that he had a Brother who served in the Glengarry Fencibles, that the said Brother was Killed in action with the Enemy at Fort George on the 27th of May 1813, that your Petitioner obtained a certificate from L.Colonel Battersby who commanded that Regiment which stated that your Petitioner's Brother was killed as above stated, that your Petitioner applied to Sir F. P. Robinson to obtain the Land to which his Brother would have been entitled had he survived the War, that Sir F. P. Robinson promised to send the said Certificate to York

digital film# c-2045, image 00471

135a

Library & Archives Canada

that he has not since seen the said certificate nor can he learn where it is, that he is now desirous of obtaining an order for one hundred acres of land to be located in the name of his deceased Brother James Hazzard, which may be hereafter claimed by his Heirs, that your Petitioner has taken the Oath of Allegiance required by law and has never received any land or order for land from the Crown.

Wherefore your Petitioner prays that your Honor will be please to order to have located one hundred acres of land in the name of his deceased Brother to be claimed by his heirs.

As Petitioner will ever pray

Joseph Hazzard

York

27th March 1820

Library & Archives Canada

digital film# c-2045, image 00471

135b

[center fold]

H 13 no. 135

The Petition of Joseph Hazzard for Land in the name of his deceased Brother

[?]

Entered in Land Book [?] Office page 474

29th Oct. 1823

The Surveyor General is requested to report here the information of the Honorable Executive Council By Command

[hard to read signature]

It does not appear that the Petitioner's Brother James Hazzard ever received any land.

[left fold]

5 Nov. 1823

recommended for 100 acres

Recommended that on Location of 100 acres be made to be claimed before the commission to ascertain the title to land by the Heir of James Hazzard a deceased soldier J.B. P.[?].

Order issued 10th Nov. 1823

[right fold]

Land as a soldier of the late Glengarry Fencibles

Thos. Ridout

S. Gene. [not sure if signature or title]

Sgd.[?] 29 Oct 1823

Another Petitioner for [?] of [?]

He did not Survive the War

Upper Canada Land Petitions, 1783-1865, database index and images. Library and Archives of Canada website citing Upper Canada Land Petitions, "H" Bundle 13, 1821-1823 (RG 1, L3, vol. 230(a)), microfilm c-2045, digital images 00471-00473
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/006003-119.02-e.php?q3=2470&sqn=471&tt=950&q2=29&interval=&PHPSESSID=477mhpge8jbjrb0h0he82d0101

So from this document with Joseph Hazzard's signature dated 27 March 1820 we learn in this own words that Joseph Hazzard was born in the state of New York; his father is dead by 1820; his mother is alive as of 1820; he had one brother James Hazzard who died in the War of 1812; and that Joseph was brought to Upper Canada 23 years prior or sometime shortly after his birth in 1797.

This provides further proof that Joseph Hazzard who resided and died in Madoc Township, Hastings, Ontario, was not a son of Rowland Hazzard who died in 1835. It does not prove any relationship to my Anne Rider Hazzard but it does not rule out a relationship either. I sincerely hope that no one runs out and puts Anne Rider as the mother of this Joseph Hazzard after reading this post. We have not found proof of his parents yet. We have just found clues to direct our search. (You can, however, remove Rowland and Mary as his parents.)

From Elsy Lloyd Hazzard's land petition dated 15 October 1834 we learn that she is the daughter of George Henry Lloyd late of the township of Fredericksburgh of Midland District a U.S. Loyalist; she is married; is requesting 200 acres of land as a daughter of a Loyalist; that James Nelson Lloyd (no relationship stated) made oath that Elsy was who she said she is; that Elsy was living in Madoc Township by 1834; her father is deceased; and that both Elsy Hazzard and James Lloyd could not write their names. Joseph, Elsy's husband, is not specifically mentioned in this petition. By the way, Elsy Lloyd Hazzard's first name has be found spelled Elcy, Elcey and Elsie in various documents. I have used Elsy the earliest spelling which appears in her land petition.

From here I investigated what I could regarding Joseph's brother James Hazzard for any possible leads to their parents. I was able to confirm his military service which had the notation of first being thought a prisoner of war and then acknowledged as deceased. Nothing further can be learned at this point because the regiment's records are located in London, England. There is a book on the regiment which was added to my Research To Do List for when I get to a library that has it in its holdings. (None are close by to me.) I hope it can provide further information about James Hazzard.

So where do I go from here?

Well, if I want to continue to pursue this lead I will need to add to my Research To Do List any published books for the areas and time frames I am dealing with that look like they might have potential. I am most likely to find these books at larger libraries like a state library/archive or a destination library like the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I will need to review any photocopies from resources that I have already looked at to see if I have any previous notes that now might make sense. I will also need to look at land and probate records starting with the abstract indexes for Hastings County and Lennox And Addington County in Ontario. These land and probate records are on microfilm and can be rented from the familysearch.org website to view at a local Family History Center at a Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ Church. (You don't have to be Mormon to use a Family History Center.)

But I also have work to do DNA-wise. This match only appears on one of three possible tests I manage. I would be more confident of the match had it appeared on at least two of our tests. But the match appears at both AncestryDNA and Family Tree DNA and it is a closer match than it should be -- possibly due to endogamy though I still have to rule out that it is just by chance.

What ever happens it was a nice diversion to "goof off" and knock the dust off my genealogy searching.

©2016, goneresearching. All text and photos in this post are copyrighted & owned by me (goneresearching) unless indicated otherwise. No republication (commercial or non-commercial) without prior permission. You may share (tell others) of this blog as long as you give credit and link to this site (not by downloading or copying any post). Thank you. 

Troublesome Tombstone Tamed: Determining the Death Date of 5th Great Grandpa John Dunham

The row with the tombstones for John Dunham's family.

Old tombstones have their positive and negative sides. (And I don’t mean their fronts and backs.) On the positive side – they exist! On the negative side – they can be very worn with age from the elements (or accidents or vandals) which can make reading them difficult and photographing them challenging. With the internet and various gravesite/tombstone-focused websites, today it is quite likely you do not have to leave your couch/chair to see a desired tombstone.

But sometimes you just have to visit the darn thing in person if you really want learn the answer you seek.

Just such a case was the tombstone of my 5th Great Grandfather John Dunham. He is buried in the Quaker Cemetery in the town of Orchard Park (formerly East Hamburgh), Erie County, New York. The problem with his tombstone is that the death year is hard to read and has been that way for a long time.

I first came across a tombstone reading of his resting place in October 2000 on a website for Erie County, New York, Cemeteries.(1) The researcher who did the reading was quite honest rather than arbitrarily picking a death year. It could be one of three years: 1846, 1812 or 1816.

Frustrating? Yes. Not knowing which death year was correct makes a big difference in this case because his tombstone is one that gives the age at death rather than a specific birth date. Change the death year and it changes the birth year and … who you might be dealing with.

During an email exchange in 2001, another researcher gave another reading of the tombstone with a death year of 1816.(2) Though, to be honest, we don’t know if it was her personal reading of the tombstone or another person’s reading because we didn't think to ask at the time.

Find-A-Grave Memorial Page

In December of 2009, a Find-A-Grave memorial page was created for John Dunham’s tombstone.(3, 3revised) Again, the entry gave the death year as 1816. Though I'm not positive, I think this was the page creator's reading since this person added a photograph of the tombstone also. Due to the photo being lower resolution and small in size, it could provide no solution to the death year problem regardless of who was looking at the photo.

But after studying this photo for some time, I was able to note a few things. Besides being worn in the location of the death year, the exaggerated thick/thin of the serif font used for the carving contributes to making this tombstone hard to read. I also could not help to think that a stone carver skilled enough to hand-carve the name in such a tight arc would not likely leave a large gap between the 8 and 6 if the number was a 1. But the space would be of an appropriate size if the number was a worn 4.

 Chart of Various Readings of John Dunham's Tombstone

Date of Reading	2000 Oct 17 (or earlier)	2001 Jan 29	2009 Dec 16	2009 Dec 16
Source/Reader	Partial Cemetery Reading by Leo J Katharine M. Koop with additional names by Mrs. Kritzer posted on Erie County, NY, Cemeteries website (1)	by Sue Kulp (researcher) in her email correspondence (no indication if this was her personal reading or another’s) (2)	Find A Grave Memorial Page Entry created by Mary Kester Rude (3)	Find A Grave Memorial Page photograph by Mary Kester Rude [note: my reading of this photograph at the time found]
Name	John Dunham	John Dunham	John Dunham	John Dunham
Date of Death	23 Jan 1846 or 12 or 1816	1/23/1816	22 Jan 1816	23d 1st mo. 1846 or 1816
Age at Death	91 yrs 2 mo 9 da lot #31	91-2-9	Not filled in	91 y’rs 2 mo 9 d’s

 

Now at the time I spotted the tombstone reading in 2000 I really was not sure if this John Dunham was my direct ancestor. He was one of two suspects but he was the one my gut said was the correct one. So as you do research looking for proof, you collect things and hang on to them … just in case. And you look at alternate records for the answers you seek.

In this John Dunham’s case:

• the Quaker meeting records yielded no answer what so ever to his death year; 
• there is no civil death record because New York did not start keeping civil records until much later; 
• a search of probate records resulted in no records found for him; 
• a search of land records resulted in no records found for him; 
• a search of census showed no entry for him as head of his own household and no corresponding tick mark in the right age bracket in his son’s household except for the year 1840. 

So I suspected the year 1846 was the correct death year BUT it was at best circumstantial. At a standstill, I researched elsewhere and on other parts of my family tree.

A few years ago as hard-to-access, original records started to be digitized, I was finally able to put some of the “stubborn” family pieces together. Though my evidence is still circumstantial in my link between the fourth and fifth generation, it is a well-researched and analyzed conclusion that as of this August includes some DNA evidence.

My research again lead me back to John Dunham buried in the Quaker Cemetery and the unanswered question of the death year carved into that tombstone.

What was I to do? Answer: Take a road trip to the grave to see it for myself and, hopefully, arrive at a decisive answer.

Since I knew the tombstone was hard to read, I came more prepared than I would for one of my typical cemetery visits. I decided that if I could not make a decisive reading either by simply reading/observing the carving in its natural state or by using plain water sprayed onto the carving, then if the tombstone was not flaking or deteriorating I would try two alternate methods: making an aluminum foil impression and/or a wax rubbing. (See my post on tombstone reading methods for more details, tips and do's and don'ts.)

An aluminum foil impression is done by placing a sheet of foil on the carved surface. Then a clean, soft, fluffy brush (like a makeup brush) is used to gently impress the carving onto the foil. Usually, this puts less stress on the surface of the tombstone than a traditional wax rubbing because far less pressure is needed to make the impression. The downside is that the foil rubbing is fragile and saving it for posterity can be difficult. But viewing/photographing the foil on the tombstone can greatly aid in reading the carvings. Viewing/photographing at different angles and even shining/bouncing light at different angles against the foil while taking pictures can further help you. (See my post on tombstone reading methods for more details, tips and do's and don't.)

A wax rubbing involves placing a sheet of paper, cloth or Pellon interfacing (not the iron-on version) over the carved surface. Once the material is secure, colored wax is gently rubbed over the material sitting on top of the carved surface to transfer the impression. Wax, be it a cake of tombstone wax or a child’s thick width crayon, is more durable than other materials sometimes mentioned. With this method you need to use a gentle touch and be sure not to leave wax marks on the stone. Testing on a non-tombstone surface is advised to ensure there is no bleed-through of the wax through the paper/material that can damage a tombstone. (See my post on tombstone reading methods for more details, tips and do's and don't.)

As it would turn out, John Dunham’s tombstone sits under a tree which is part of the reason why it does not photograph well no matter the time of day. But the stone itself is very worn in the area on the death year. A reading by simple observation and photographs of this scenario did not result in a decisive answer. Applying plain water using a clean spray bottle to the carved area and photographs of this scenario also did not yield a decisive answer.

Plain water sprayed on carving.

Natural, nothing done to stone.

So after studying the tombstone for any loose/flaking stone or other signs of a weak surface and finding none, I made an aluminum foil impression using lightweight foil and a clean, soft brush. The result? At first I wasn’t sure (was I seeing what I wanted?) but upon reviewing the photographs I saw the answer: 1846.

An Aluminum Foil Impression makes the carving readable.

Additional tweaking of the image in PhotoShop further confirmed this.

Posterization added to photo.

Extra Contrast added to photo.

Since the stone surface was not weak or in danger, I proceeded to make a tombstone rubbing using Pellon interfacing and wax. This also brought the answer to the surface: 1846.

Pellon Interfacing and wax rubbing.

So now I have my answer, the tombstone reads:

John Dunham
DIED
23 d. 1st mo. 1846
AE. 91y’rs. 2 mo.
& 9 d’s.

And, that would make his birth date: 14 November 1754

Thanks Mary at Find-A-Grave for transferring John Dunham's memorial page to me. I have now updated his page.

Now, it would not be a road trip without something humorous happening or possibly happening to us.

We made several aluminum foil impressions at various cemeteries during this trip. Rather than throw them out, I stacked them in the trunk on top of the luggage. While at the international border waiting in line, I expressed to my passengers a concern that had just popped up in my head: If we get searched, we may have some explaining to do about the "odd" tin-foil pile in the trunk. "Well, you see officer, we're genealogists ..." Thankfully, no explanation was necessary at any of our crossings.

And remember that odd box from my second post? That box never made it to recycling. So now the "tombstone box" is holding the stack of tombstone foil impressions brought home from this trip. (I wonder if I "misplace" the box with some of the tin foil impressions in the attic if some future homeowner might discover it and an interest in family history?)

Finally, no this post does not answer my August 6th post, I've Gone Researching ... More to Follow. Though this cemetery visit is from the same trip, that answer to August 6th will be coming soon.


Note: Since some cemeteries and localities have banned tombstone rubbings to protect fragile tombstones, remember to check with each cemetery to make sure rubbings are permitted.


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Sources
1 K., Kathy M., Erie County, New York Cemeteries Past and Present. (http://wnyroots.tripod.com/ : accessed 17 October 2000), “Quaker Cemetery Town of Orchard Park, Erie County, New York,” partial listing (date not stated) by Leo J. and Katharine M. Kopp with additional names listing by Mrs. Kritzer, Jewett-Holmwood Rd., Orchard Park, NY

2 Sue Kulp, New York ([email address] for private use), to (private), e-mail, 29 January 2001, “Re: John Dunham research,” Dunham Correspondence file, Dunham Research Files, Genealogy; privately held files by (private), ([email] and residence for private use.)

3 Find A Grave, Find A Grave, database and images, digital images (www.findagrave.com), memorial page for John Dunham (unknown - 1816), Find A Grave Memorial no. 45537622, citing Quaker Cemetery, Orchard Park, Erie County, New York; the entry created by Mary Kester Rude with photos submitted by Mary Kester Rude and Donna Casey. John Dunham DIED 23 d. 1 mo. 18?6 AE/ ?1 y'rs. 2 mo. & 9 d's. [note: tombstone photo is hard to read in areas, not sure of the years at death] Quaker Cemetery (Route 62, south of Eden Valley Bridge, on west side of road.).

3revised Find A Grave, Find A Grave, database and images, digital images (www.findagrave.com), memorial page for John Dunham (unknown - 1846), Find A Grave Memorial no. 45537622, citing Quaker Cemetery, Orchard Park, Erie County, New York; the entry maintained by goneresearching, originally created by Mary Kester Rude with photos submitted by Mary Kester Rude Donna Casey and goneresearching. John Dunham DIED 23 d 1st mo. 1846 AE. 91 y'rs. 2 mo. & 9 d's. Quaker Cemetery (Route 62, south of Eden Valley Bridge, on west side of road.)