As a genealogist I'm not above looking gift horses in the mouth. There are two critical diarists in New Hampshire whose entries have helped me. Joseph Tate was the schoolmaster of Somersworth, N.H. and kept a diary with all Somersworth families information from 1740 to 1778. The original is at the NEHGS Library in Boston and was reprinted in the New England Historical Genealogical Register in volumes 73 and 74. One entry reads " Mr. Jno. Cromwel of Dover Dy'd on Saturday, May ye 11th 1776 & Lydia his wife dy'd on Monday May 13, 1776. Both Buried in One Grave." That's the only source for their deaths. However, couldn't Master Tate note Lydia's maiden name? Just one more line "she was the daughter of X."
The second man was Enoch Hayes Place. His diary was published as Journal of Enoch Hayes Place 1810-1865 transcribed by William E. Wentworth (NEHGS, Boston, 1998, in 2 vols.). He's important because he was the nephew of my ancestor Moses Hayes. Enoch's diary provides the death dates of both Moses and his first wife, my ancestor Anna Coffin, as follows: “went this pm to the funeral of Uncle Moses Hayes’ wife” (11 May 1812). Her parentage is still circumstantial, so it would have been nice as well if a line were included about her father. So even though I've found the death dates of four of my ancestors, I'm still not satisfied. I want more!
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