The Slovak Yankee

Yeaton Donation

Last week I donated six large notebooks of information on the Yeaton family to the manuscripts division of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.  These notebooks were copies of the research of the late Vinton Yeaton.  Mr. Yeaton spent many years researching the Yeaton family and copied his research into a series of notebooks which he had meticulously indexed.  These notebooks were photocopied by others and one set was given to me.  That set is now at the NEHGS.

I didn't use the notebooks much.  Mr. Yeaton relied heavily on vital records, gravestones and secondary works, such as town histories and genealogies.  His work was also heavily concentrated on post 1800 Yeatons and I was primarily interested in pre-1800 Yeatons.  So, it was never a match for my research.  He also didn't know how to properly abstract a deed, although he gets points for having tried.  

So, if are researching Yeatons, this is another place to search.  I'm not sure how long the acquisition process will be for this.  I had thought I might someday do a Yeaton genealogy book, but that seems less likely as time goes on.

Fortune Yeaton ca. 1770 (?) - After 1800 of N.H. and Maine

When I was writing my article on the Yeaton family of New Hampshire, I felt it was my job to prove relationships between the various generations of Yeatons.  I used primary source records to do that.  In the case of Moses³ (Philip² Richard¹) born ca. 1730, died at Somersworth shortly before 12 November 1783 [Strafford Co. Probate], I had some wonderful material.  Master Tate, the schoolmaster of Somerswoth, noted the children of Moses in his diary [NEHGR 73 (1919):311-12].  I did deed work and discovered the maiden name of Moses' wife as Alice Legro. [NHPD 99:332]. I noted only that he was a successful trader and amassed quite a fortune in his short lifetime (over £1200).  

Moses did not leave will, but his estate was administered.  I never bothered to look at his inventory list.  I had everything I needed.  However, after reading Luckie's plea for people to publish such inventory lists, when they held slaves, I went back to Dover, N.H. to copy the inventory list dated March 1784 [Stafford Co., N.H. Probate 2:69]:

A few observations.  He is called a negro boy Fortain (sic) worth £30.  He is listed after personal property such as clothes and household items which appear on the preceding page, and after the animal livestock.  In fact, he is listed with two swine.  Then comes Moses's house and various land holdings.  Fortune Yeaton married on 11 December 1788 to Jane Wise of Berwick [Berwick, Me. VRs.].  He is enumerated in the 1800 census in Cumberland Co., Maine as a free black heading a household of four persons. Given that Fortune was called a boy in 1784 and married in 1788, we can tentatively say he born ca. 1770.

Interestingly, Master Tate reports on 13 September 1770, "One of Lieut. Moses Yeaton's Barns part full of hay was Burnt Down, Suppos'd to be set on fire by his Negro Wench, Violet."  Was Violet Fortune's mother?  Moses purchased Violet on 14 December 1762 from Joseph Pattinson of Newington.  The bill of sale also included a boy named Grigg and the total cost was £1155.  Was Grigg Fortune?  Was his named changed?  The full account is here.  Either way, only Fortune is listed in Moses Yeaton's estate papers.  

In any case, here's a digital Internet trail for this family.  

Submission for the Carnival of African-American Genealogy: March 19th: Restore My Name--Slave Records and Genealogy Research.

Why Bother Publishing?

I've recently received a comment to this post on my brick wall Deborah (---) Wallis.  Some of this information was augmented in this post on the genealogical proof of Deborah's proposed granddaughter, Mary Chamberlain Wallis.

I've written two serialized and large articles on New Hampshire families.  I would like to say that the effort was worth it, but I would be lying.  I spent over 10 years on or off researching the Yeaton family and producing these two articles:

• Who Were the Parents of Hopley Yeaton, New Hampshire Genealogical Record, Vol. 20 (2003):49-56.
• A Chronological Framework for the Yeaton Family of Newcastle, NH, New Hampshire Genealogical Record, Vol. 21 (2004):27-40, 65-76, 113-21, 170-81. Corrections/Additions at NHGR 22 (2005): 67.

I was not paid, but did it because no one had done a decent Yeaton genealogy and one person had published a dreadful, incorrect, and incompetent Yeaton genealogy.  I don't even want to think about how much I spent to do the two articles (not counting my time).  Likewise, I spent closer to twenty years on or off to produce this article on the Pinkhams:

• The Pinkhams of Strafford County, New Hampshire, New Hampshire Genealogical Record, Vol. 22 (2005):1-7, 63-67, 115-25, 164-71, 23 (2006):27-76.

Within the last week someone posted on Genforum (Pinkham Family forum) about Abijah's parents which prompted me to do my posting.  These two events have left me wondering why bother publishing?  What is the point?  No one reads your work.  The commenter is a genealogist in New Hampshire who runs this rather impressive town-level genealogical site on Epsom.  Are you telling me he doesn't subscribe to the New Hampshire Genealogical Record?  Well, I guess not since his Yeatons in Epsom have not been affected by my article.

Last year I ran several google search results on journal penetration on the web and it was clear that only a very small minority of genealogists read scholarly journals.  All of which brings me back to the Wallis family of New Hampshire.  It was to be my third such project.  Very much like the first two families with the exception that there was absolutely no genealogy done for them at all.  None.  Zero.  Nada.  I have a mountain of information I've been collecting for the last ten years on them.  I've even started to write them up, but I've stopped, because: why bother?

This family is going to be as difficult as the Yeatons, if not more so.  I've already had to re-assemble one other family that descends from them: the Scaggels/Scadgels in order to place certain people in the proper place in the Wallis family.  In any case, the kind commenter has sent me things I've had in my files for 10-15  years at least.  You see when I say Brick Wall, I mean it.  Other people, sorry to say, not so much.  

So, there used to be a point to publishing your work.  However, having done it so many times, I can't find the energy anymore for such a sisyphean task. I'm at the end of writing up the first two (three at some points) generations of the Barrows family.  And I'm ready to punt on this one too--after ten pages so far and 82 footnotes.  Again, way too hard.  No pay, long hours, no one reads or cares, and it's hardly feeding the world now is it? 

New Sharon Yeatons in 1860, Part II

These two census returns are consecutive (pages 35 and 36) and they show two households of Yeatons.  Albion K.P. is living next door to his father Philip.  This concludes my series on the New Sharon Yeatons.

Naomi Yeaton c. 1803-1850

This is the last of my pictures of the New Sharon, Me. Yeatons.

Albion K.P. Yeaton 1823-1911 and wife Marietta (Shaw)

Another son of Philip and Patience (Bowley) Yeaton.  He married Marietta Shaw on November 19, 1845 at Wilton, Maine.  Her gravestone and their child Carrie are below the fold.

Addison Yeaton 1821-1865

Son of Philip and Patience (Bowley) Yeaton.

Tombstone Tuesday: Philip Yeaton ca. 1773-1863

Unlike his brother John, whose wife shares his gravestone, Philips' wife Patience (Bowley) has a separate gravestone (below the fold).  They were married on March 31, 1801 at Farmington, Maine.

New Sharon Yeatons in 1860

This is why I've grouped those gravestones as the family of John and Temperance.  In the 1860 you can find Thomas, with wife Hannah and living in the same house are his widowed mother Temperance, brother John H., sister Lucy, and niece Emily J. Rollins.  The other New Sharon family of Philip Yeaton, starts tomorrow.

Emily (Yeaton) Rollin ca. 1808-1881