a nest of first cousins ...

... arises from the research mentioned in the last post. In some ways it was a relief to get back into New England research and its abundance of vital records. The Locke family settled early in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and birth, death and marriage records are accessible online through the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

It turns out that not only is Cherry Shattuck related (by marriage) to William Adams but she is also related to her husband. Probably the easiest way to lay this out is by starting with the common ancestor, Josiah Locke, born in 1753 at Woburn in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and his wife Elizabeth Richardson, whom he married 27 Dec 1775 in Woburn. This Josiah died 5 August 1811 and is listed in the Middlesex County probate index as Case #14248.

Josiah and Elizabeth had at least three children: Sarah born in 1777 and married Shadrach Shattuck; Josiah born in 1779 and married Susanna Frost; and Asa born in 1781 and married Lucy Wyman. This younger Josiah drowned in 1818 and is also listed in the Middlesex probate index, Case #14249. The index does not list anything for an Asa Locke until 1884. These probate files including #41380 for Varnum Shattuck and a guardianship file for Cherry Locke (#14250) which should be researched but are not readily accessible to me.

And now comes the cousin generation: 1) Sarah Locke and Shadrach Shattuck had Varnum Preston Shattuck who married Cherry below; 2) Josiah Locke and Susanna Frost had Cherry Adams Locke who married Varnum above; and 3) Asa Locke and Lucy Wyman had Lucy Gardner Locke who married William Adams who bought Cherry's interests in what appears to be Locke properties.

I can not help but think about Cherry's life. Born in 1807, her father dies suddenly, drowning in 1818 when she is just eleven years old. In 1826 she marries her first cousin, Varnum Preston Shattuck, and their life seems to include a lot of moving around. They are in New York City by 1833, at a different address there in 1836, in Indiana (and possibly Michigan) around 1840, back in New York City in 1842, and in Texas by 1846. Her husband dies off in Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1847. She remarries about 1849 and he dies apparently within the next ten years as she is listed in the 1860 census with just her two sons Varnum and Charles.

Although she has ten children, six of them die in childhood. Of the remaining four, at least three of them predecease her. In 1870, she is living alone in Galveston. Her son Charles is her only remaining child and although not yet found in the 1870 census records he is advertising his business as a grocer and drygoods merchant as late as October of 1871. At this point my knowledge and research fails. Did she outlive them all?

a clue from a deed ...

is making me crazy. Among papers handed down in my father's family is a deed dated 6 June 1848 in which Cherry A Shattuck of Galveston, Texas, sells her interest in some properties in Middlesex County, Massachuseets, to William Adams of West Cambridge in that county: one undivided third part of half a dwelling house, a shed & part of a barn ... also one third part of one other lot of land containing about one acre known as the Well Piece ... also one third part of another lot of land called the Peach Orchard ... also one seventh part of a lot known as the Mountain Lot containing about fourteen acres.

There is a note along the side of the deed that it was recorded in Cambridge, Middlesex County, in Deed Book 555, Page 102, on 17 January 1849. This William Adams is almost certainly my great great grandfather (1821-1905). His first wife (and current at the time of the deed) was Lucy Gardener Locke, daughter of Asa Locke and Lucy Wyman. Lucy (Locke) Adams died 24 April 1866 of diptheria and a couple of years later, William married Emma Isadora Stanton, my great great grandfather.

First question is how does Cherry fit in? Is she definitely a Locke? If so, whose daughter is she? If not, what is her maiden name? ... and how did she end up all the way in Galveston, Texas, by 1848?

In the 1850 census of Galveston we have a John Robinson, aged 50, a merchant born in Scotland, with his aparent wife Cherry A Robinson, aged 37, born in Massachuestts. Living with them are V P Shattuck aged 22, a merchant clerk, born in Massachusetts; Josephine Shattuck, aged 16, born in New York; Sarah S Shattuck, aged 10, born in Indiana; Charles T Shattuck, aged 9, born in New York; and Francis L Shattuck, aged 7, also born in New York. This appears to be the Cherry we seek with a second husband and five children by her first husband who is presumably deceased.

Although the 1850 census indicates Cherry was born about 1813, the 1860 census gives her age as 58, thus born about 1802, and the 1870 census as age 60, born circa 1810. She has yet to be found in later years nor has a death record been found. The New England Historic Genealogical Society shows the marriage of Cherry Locke of Woburn to Varnum P Shattuck of Charlestown on 30 December 1826. Their records also show a Cherry Adams Locke born 13 January 1807 in Woburn to Josiah Locke Jr and his wife Susanna. If this is the correct Cherry, then she would be an aunt to William Adams' wife.

The birthplaces of the children indicate that Varnum & Cherry went from Massachusetts to New York, were in Indiana around 1840, and then back to New York for at least the first half of the 1840's. Around 1840, Varnum became embroiled in financial difficulties and with others was sued in New York Chancery Court. Legal notices found through GenealogyBank say in  1839 that he was a resident of Michigan and in 1840, of Indiana.

In June 1845 a Varnum P Shattuck is recruited by the Third Infantry, Regular Army, as a "supernumerary recuited on detachment." This recruitment seems to have ended up at Camp Wilkins (aka Fort Jesup) in Louisiana. This could be either the father (age 39-40) or the son, but the son was 16, 17 at the most and a bit young to enlist. Also found at GenealogyBank was a listing from the New York Evening Post of 8 July 1847, stating [died] "at Vera Cruz of yellow fever, Mr. Varnum P. Shattuck, aged 42 years, late of Chrlestown, Massachusetts."

That this is the father is supported by a listing in the Middlesex probate records for a Varnum P. Shattuck, case file 41380 in 1849 giving his late residence as Galveston, Texas. The younger Varnum is with his mother and stepfather in 1850 and with his mother in 1860.

Texas marriage records on FamilySearch show that the daughter Josephine married 2 Jan 1855 in Galveston to a John Howard. Her sister Sarah also married a John Howard in Galveston on 3 November 1857. At this time it is not known if the John Howards are one and the same or separate individuals. John, a merchant aged 35, and Sarah Howard are found in 1860 Galveston with a 2 year old child aged 2.

Clearly there is more to search although I have about tapped out the online stuff. FindAGrave provided the death of the younger Varnum (1 January 1868) and a few other minor details have been located. One of the more important items is probably the actual case file for Varnum in the Middlesex probate records.

You can see how obsessed I get ... this is a possible relative of a first wife of my direct line and I have already spent 3-4 days on it!! Certainly some of this was not as easy as it reads here. The 1860 census information in particular was tricky as the enumerator messed it up significantly, listing Cherry and her two sons as: C Robsterr, age 58; B Scott, age 30; and Chas Scott, age 18 instead of C(herry) Robinson and V(arnum) Shattuck and Chas Shattuck ... arrrggghh!!!

serendipity strikes again ...

... and as usual eats up hours of time. This time I was testing out the search engine that fold3 is working on and tossing in whatever family names came to mind. One of my favorites to throw in is the given name Hatevil. As you can imagine it is not a common name so I don't get buried in results when I use it. The name goes way back into early New England and is attached to a handful of surnames mostly if not all connected to Hatevil Nutter.

But I digress. I had already limited my search area to Revolutionary War and up pops a dozen or so results, many of them being official papers signed and/or attested to by Hatevil Knight, a town official and a son of my direct ancestor Joseph Knight and his wife Elizabeth Nutter, and brother to my direct line, Susanna Knight who married John Stanton.

Among the results is one referencing page/image 18 in the pension of Edward Rollins, a name I recognize as fitting into the family. When I check my database, sure enough, there's Edward, who it turns out is a half brother to Hatevil and Susanna Knight as their mother had first been married to Edward Rollins Sr. The statement brings up some information I had not previously known and reads as follows:

I Hatevil Knight of Rochester in the county of Strafford and State of New Hampshire aged seventy eight years, depose and say that I was acquainted with Edward Rollins late of said Rochester deceased. That he was a Soldier in the Revolution at different times and that afterwards he was married to Miss Anna Wentworth of this Town. That he the said Edward Rollins died in this Town twenty seven years ago and that afterwards his widow the aforesaid Anna married with John Stanton and that the said John Stanton died more than ten years ago and that she the said Anna has remained a widow ever since the death of the said John Stanton. That she has always been a reputable person to me well known.

The statement is signed by Hatevil Knight and is dated 7 July 1843 in Rochester. I had not previously followed this Edward Rollins and never particularly looked for a pension or even for any service in the Revolution (shame on me!). I had him listed with his birth and death date and that was it. Although I knew about his mother's two marriages, I was unaware of his marriage to Anna Wentworth nor her subsequent marriage to a John Stanton.

After much poking around on various internet resources including Ancestry, NEHGS, USGenWeb and Find-A-Grave as well as digging through the rest of Edward Rollins' pension, I have determined that Edward Rollins married Anna Wentworth 15 December 1778 and married John Stanton 17 February 1822. John died 6 April 1828 at Brookfield. In a statement dated 4 March 1847 in Rollins' pension application, it is said that Anna has lived in Charleston, Penobscot County, Maine, for 10 or 11 years and previous to that in Rochester, Strafford County, New Hampshire.

Anna Wentworth Rollins Stanton died in Corinth, Penobscot County, Maine, 6 September 1854, and is buried in the Paine Cemetery in nearby Charleston. In spite of scrolling page by page through both the Charleston and Corinth sections of the 1850 census of Penobscot County, I have not located Anna. I did find what appears to be her son Anthony. Another son Stephen appears in the pension file but his tombstone in the Paine Cemetery states that he died in 1847 at the age of 66 years, 4 months, so he is not found in 1850 of course. Sure wish I had checked that before spending a considerable amount of time looking for him in the census!

Anna's second husband John Stanton is most likely part of my Stanton family as all the Stantons in early Strafford County appear to be one family. It is possible that she is the second wife of my direct line John Stanton but there may be other cousins to the line to be found that could fit.

Well, I certainly have learned to look deeper in the collateral lines, even half-brothers may have something to add to the family story.

the death of Jonathan Stone...

In 1856, Sybil Adams applied for a pension based on her father's Revolutionary War service, stating that she is the only surviving daughter and heir of Jonathan & Mary Stone. Sybil states,

"My father lived at TempletonMass. He enlisted and went and left his family consisting of his wife and 3 children in a log house in the Wilderness. I was the oldest and was 7 yrs ... the land was sold ... the children had to be put out and suffered a great deal the youngest was 3 years old when his father was killed."

Jonathan appears to have enlisted at the very beginning, 27 April 1775, signing up for 3 months 12 days. Along with others he signed a receipt for advance pay on 8 Jun 1775. He was a private in Captain Joel Fletcher's Company of Colonel Ephraim Doolittle's Regiment which was at Bunker Hill. The company was at Winter Hill, Charlestown, Massachusetts, in October and December of 1775. By September of 1776 he was in New York at the Battle of Harlem Heights.

Nathan Stone son of Seth Stone who was brother to Jonathan Stone states he has no direct knowledge of the death of Jonathan Stone except that which he has been told by his father and others:

"which was that he was killed on the retreat at the time of the Battle of White Plains at or near a place called Harlem in New York. The news was brought to his wife and friends by a Mr. Fillmore who stated he was shot through both knees by grape shot and he (Fillmore) and others helped him into a barn and left him after [putt]ing some rum into his canteen which was all the assistance he could render."

Nathan's sister Abigail Stone Stratton and Sybil herself give similar accounts of Jonathan's death. There are other bits of genealogical data in this pension file: Jonathan md Mary Gates 29 Oct 1765 in Worcester and they had three children, Sybil, Nabby and Samuel. Sybil was sent to live with Seth Stone's family in West Cambridge until she later married Joel Adams, Nabby married Thomas Grey and Samuel died a few years before the pension application was filed.

Jonathan seems to have been an ordinary sort of fellow, trying to build a life for himself and his young family on the frontier. Along comes the War for Independence and he promptly signs up, whatever his motivation or, probably, combination of motives. The advance pay probably went mostly to his wife and children and off he marched. A few months in camp at the fort on Winter Hill and then eventually to end up shot in the knees at Harlem Heights and the battle of White Plains. On the run from the British what else could his comrades do but leave him with what comfort they could provide in the shelter of a barn, probably difficult for them as well as Jonathan.

And imagine the wife and three young children in the cabin in the wilderness, perhaps months of not knowing. Then along comes the neighbor with the report of his death and life is turned upside down, the land is sold, the children sent off to other homes. Mary Gates Stone is said not to have married again, remaining a widow until her death in Northboro, Worcestor County, Massachusetts, on 2nd December 1839.

The Vital Records of Shrewsbury Massachusetts list Jonathan Stone died 15 Sep 1776, buried at Shrewsbury: Jonathan Stone [Jr] wounded 15 Sep 1776 at the Evacuation of New York, supposed to have died soon after. [Leg broken and captured by the British.]

Reading this pension gave me chills and I will never see a movie or television show about the Revolution (or other early American wars) in the same way nor see the pieces of genealogy information add up to a similar scene without seeing it in my mind and my heart.

Are there bits of your genealogy research that made a profound difference to you?

eeney meeney miney mo...

... my brain is turning inside out! In 1699, Evert Bancker and his wife Elizabeth Abeel had a son Willem. Sometime after 1710, they had a son Johannes. The two brothers, more than ten years apart in age, married sisters. In 1726, Willem married Annatje Veeder and some years later, Johannes married Annatje's sister Magdalena, both daughters of Gerrit Symonse Veeder and his wife Catrina Otten.

Now, particularly in isolated areas, it is not unusual for a pair of siblings to marry another pair of siblings. The difficulty here is that researchers can't seem to agree on which of these pairs is the father of Thomas Brouwer Bancker born about 1729 (or perhaps a bit later) and married in 1754 to Annatje Mabie and this is one of my direct lines!

Pearson in his First Settlers in Schenectady lists Johannes and Magdalena as Thomas' parents but Howard Banker in The Bancker Genealogy lists his parents as Willem and Annatje. I started to lean towards Willem and Annatjje because Thomas named his first daughter Annatje but then realized duh! his wife was named Annatje so there went that scrap of thought.

The Vader Genealogy (Veeder family) states that Thomas was baptized 8 Dec 1729, in the Bancker Genealogy it is given as born 8 Dec 1729. Confusion between baptismal and birth dates is common in Dutch Colonial research but generally speaking baptismal dates are close to the birth date so Thomas was probably born towards the end of 1729. Now, Willem is certainly old enough to have a son in 1729 and had married Annatje 17 Dec 1726. Johannes on the other hand is perhaps 18 or 19, old enough yes but customarily most men were into their 20's when they had children. The date of his marriage to Magdalena is unknown.

Willem's children are listed with clear birth/baptismal dates and there is a gap that just fits Thomas. Johannes's two known children, Elisabeth and Gerrit, are listed in 1735 and 1737, a big gap from 1729. Willem and Annatje "feel" right but there is absolutely nothing I have found YET (notice the smidge of hopefulness) to truly indicate one or the other. Perhaps someone will find Thomas' baptismal record and it may list parents???

Have you had any knotty problem in your research that made you crazy and gave you headaches? Did you ever get it solved?

revolutionary thoughts...

... have been obsessing my brain for the last couple of days. A couple of days ago I pulled up a couple of Revolutionary War pensions on footnote.com for brothers to my direct line, Elijah and Charles Stanton. Both, as I am used to for my New England (paternal) ancestry, spent most of their time well away from their homes for months or years at a time.

But then I went chasing after RW pensions for my early New York (maternal) ancestry primarily in the Mohawk Valley around Schenectady and west of there. For the most part these men were in the State Militia and were called up for mere days or weeks at a time and not too far from home so their pensions are full of detailed listings, such as this one from the pension of Frederick Vedder, who was enrolled as First Sgt in Captain Outhout's company (summarized):

• September 1779 ordered out to Stone Arabia, three weeks


• October 1779 marched to Caghnawaga, three weeks


• 22 May 1780 ordered to Caghnawaga "at the time the family of the Fishers were murdered" for another three weeks


• 1780 to Fort Hunter for two weeks


• 1780 "when Canajoharie was destroyed he was at that place to repel the enemy on an expedition of two weeks"


• 1780 marched to the Fort Clyde, two weeks


• Oct 1780 an expedition to Ballston, 8 days


• 1781 stationed at Claus Vielies Pass or the Rifts about four miles west of the City of Schenectady from 1 Aug to 1 Nov, 3 months


• 1781 summer, expedition to Beaver Dam in pursuit of Tories, 3 days


• and undated, an expedition from Schenectady to Currysbush

Other pensions for men from this general area are much the same in that they have lengthy lists of assorted short expeditions within the area. What caught my attention though was that not only were these men from my families but the places they fought or protected were also the homes of ancestors, siblings or cousins of my lines.

The Mohawk Valley area of New York State was not a good place to be during the Revolutionary War. Some of those still living there were hidden enemies, Tories who had not declared themselves and left. The area was subject to raids out of Canada by the British and the Indians, often aided by these hidden enemies.

Vedder refers to the murders of the Fisher family, or Visscher family. These are more cousins of my family, there at Caughnawaga (multiple spelling variations on that place!!), the place was later called Fonda, the home of many of my blood.

Not that there weren't other areas of the country equally terrifying but I visualize all these homes and farms and ordinary everyday people living with the possibly of war in their front yard everyday for several years. When you hear someone come up the road, are they friend or enemy or an enemy posing as friend? The sounds in the night are they just the wind or the dog on the porch or are they coming to burn the house down?

Do you ever place your ancestors in history like this? In what I call small history, not the major battles and events but the little stuff?

another digression ...

Although I have always had a tendency to digress well into collateral lines, the growth of internet records has encouraged this wandering off into unrelated byways. One of these is Helen Fairchild so first allow me to set up the connection to my family. My maternal grandmother Lois Kellogg's maternal grandfather was Edward Payson Willson, a native of Dutchess County, New York, probably named after Edward Payson, an important and well known pastor in the early 1800's.

In his early twenties, E.P., as he was usually known, headed west as many young men did and landed in Leavenworth, Kansas where he began the foundations of Great Western Manufacturing which still exists there today. The first few years he focused on his business, living either at the foundry itself or in boarding houses. Perhaps it was his 30th birthday in 1862 that set his mind to thinking of marriage and family as on 18 October 1863, shortly before his 31st birthday, he married Helen Fairchild.

Helen Fairchild was born 21 August 1837, perhaps in Ulster County, New York. As a girl the family moved west, first to Cincinnati in Hamilton County, Ohio, and then to Leavenworth. I have a reference that there was a deed or other instrument from Edward Payson Willson to Helen five days before their marriage but I have yet to locate the deed itself although I am quite curious as to what it included.

Early in my research on E.P. Willson I found this first marriage and then her 1864 death notice, "Died this morning, July 6th, at 6 o'clock, of consumption, Helen, wife of E.P. Willson and daughter of William Fairchild, Esq." At that point I left it and moved on to other research.

Several years laterI was researching the Willson family's burials there in Leavenworth including obtaining the lot and interment records from the cemetery office, not just the tombstone information. It was here that I learned that the lot was jointly owned with E.P. Willson using the north half and William Fairchild using the south half.

I also discovered that although there were 6 stones in the Willson plot, there were actually 7 burials, the seventh being Helen Julie Willson died 18 June 1864 of "debility" age 9 days. So the mother possibly already weakened by her consumption had delivered the child, possibly too early, and both had soon died.

All this fits in with the usual in family research but then I noticed that in the adjoining Fairchild plot, there were only four headstones but there were nine burials. The stones were for Helen's parents, William and Barbara (Hunt) Fairchild and for her brother DeForrest and his wife Josie. But, who were the other five people buried in that plot? The cemetery records give us Marietta Mildrum age 37 in 1875, Helen Fairchild, age 18 in 1884, William Edmund Pierce, age 19 in 1888, Edwin DeForest Pierce, age 15 in 1889, and Claudius B Pierce, age 73 in 1902.

From here the research took off into the Fairchild family ultimately going back another couple of generations and into Helen's siblings. The last four were fairly easy:

Helen Fairchild was the only daughter of DeForest and Josie (Creter) Fairchild. Obviously named for her aunt Helen Fairchild Willson who had died the year before, she was born 23 Dec 1865 in Leavenworth, dying there of consumption on 31 August 1884.

William Edmund Pierce and Edwin Deforest Pierce were sons of Helen's sister Mary and her husband, Claudius Buchanan Pierce. William died 31 Oct 1888 of spinal miningitis [sic]. Edwin (who had a twin brother Edward), drowned 14 Feb 1889. I have yet to have the opportunity to pursue newspaper research to find out how he drowned.

Claudius B Pierce was husband to Mary Fairchild and father to the two above boys. He died of a fever in 1902 in nearby Kansas City, Missouri. His wife, ten years younger than he, did not die until 1932 and is buried in Alta Mesa, California.

The fifth unmarked burial was a bit more difficult. Helen's father was William Fairchild, whose father was Benjamin. Among Benjamin's other children was a daughter Maria who married Andrew Mildrum. About 1838, they had a daughter Marietta in Hunter, Greene County, New York. This is the Marietta Mildrum who died of consumption 3 Mar 1875 in Leavenworth at the home of her uncle William Fairchild.

Four years later, E.P. Willson married Olive Sinks, sister of Tiffin Sinks who had also come early to Leavenworth to make his fortune. Tiffin was a doctor and pharmacist as well as an investor and civic figure. He never married and is buried in the Willson plot. E.P. and Olive had four children, one being Martha Ann, their oldest, who died in 1872 of "congestion of the spine." She is also buried in the Willson plot, as are E.P. and Olive.

The Willsons had three more children, all surviving into adulthood: Hiram (1874-1948), Lida (my great grandmother, 1877-1959), and Olive (1881-1960). This last married Thomas Logan Rithie and it is their second son, James Logan Ritchie, dying shortly after his first birthday, who fills the final grave in the Willson plot.

Well, this was intended to be more about the Fairchilds but has digressed itself into more of a discussion of the unmarked graves in the two plots .. oh well, that was probably the cause of the original digression anyway. One final small note, Helen Fairchild Willson and her daughter Helen Julie were originally buried at Greenwood Cemetery and were moved to the Mount Muncie plot 23 April 1867.

At least unlike some of my digressions, the Fairchilds left descendents although not poor Helen.