The Slovak Yankee

Follow Friday: Passenger Lists of the 17th Century

In 2004, the NEHGS asked me to write a series of online articles on passenger lists for their website.  The articles are still there and can be read if you are a member.  Most people don't care about the background of passenger lists, they are just concerned with the lists themselves.  Although the last date on this web site is November 2007, I found it is a good quick site to check on passenger lists* to New England (and Virginia) in the 1600s.  It is called Pilgrim Ships.

**There are no such things as passenger lists for the 17th century in New England.  These lists are compilations of names from various sources: diaries, letters, writings, licenses to leave England, etc.  Many older genealogies placed people on ships much earlier than they probably arrived.  It was a cachet to be as close to the Mayflower.

The Mayflower has no passenger list either.  We know about the passengers from William Bradford's writings 30 years after the fact (his famous Mayflower Increasings).  To date, no other piece of evidence has been found to contradict his memory, which I find incredible.  However, he was cryptic and there are several mysteries that have yet to be solved as well.

New Durham Free Will Baptist Church Records

Family History Library Film #0987957, items 1 to 4 are the Free Will Baptist Church Records of New Durham, N.H. from 1780 to 1900.  They are an odd bunch of records.  Most genealogical records get better and more complete the more recent they become.  Not these.  The best records are from 1780 to 1820.  After 1820 they peter out almost completely.  The actual records are 10-20 pages of church meeting records and suddenly three pages of marriages.  Then more church meeting records and then three pages of deaths.  And so on, and so forth.  Completely random.  I wish the coverage of 1780 to 1820 were complete, but even that isn't.  However, the vast majority of records fall between those two dates.  After that there are two membership lists from the 1870s and 1890s upon which lines are drawn through members' names with the notation, died and date.

It was easy to find Benjamin York's marriage however:

 

There are some wonderful extras in this record: "Nov. 23^d this day Benjamin York of Middleton was married to  Rebekah Daughter of Abner Coffin of Rochester."  The name of the father of the bride and the places of residences are quite special.  I knew this record existed.  However, a few lines below it I found another marriage for ancestors I didn't expect to see:

[1782] Nov^r y^e 24^th this Day Ebenezer Runnals of New durham was married to Elizebath Daughter of Isaac Stanton of Midelton.

This was quite a discovery for me.  I knew this couple got married, but not that early.  I noted Ebenezer's death record in the New Durham Vital Records and based on that record and the 1850 U.S. census Ebenezer was born ca. 1765 and hence married at age 17, which is a bit young.  More likely he was born about 1762-3 and his age at death was underreported.  His parents lived to be 85 and 93 respectively and his great-grandfather also lived into his 90s.  [I've often wondered if longevity could be an added bit of evidence in making a preponderance of the evidence argument.]  In any case, the marriage record above clearly shows that Elizabeth Stanton married Ebenezer Runnels.  

Again, the "true" purpose of my looking at these records was to see death records post 1865, but there were none.

Surname Saturday: Charles Allen ca. 1623-after 7 October 1705 of Greenland, N.H.

Charles¹ ALLEN, b. say 1623 [He deposed twice with ages: In 1667 he was 40 or thereabouts and in 1683 he was 60.] He first appears in records at Portsmouth, N.H. (then Strawberry Bank) in a distribution of land in the year 1657.  He was married first to a woman about whom nothing is known, but that she was the mother of his eldest child Mary.  He married about 1667, Susanna HUGGINS, the daughter of John and Bridget (---) Huggins.  He deeds land to her prior to their marriage and in said deed mentions his daughter Mary.

He appears in many other records, the last of which is a deed for life support dated 7 October 1705 [New Hampshire Provincial Deeds 7:175].  He had six children by Susanna: Daniel, Susanna, Martha, Charles, Jude, and John.

John² ALLEN, born say 1685, died before 10 August 1749.  He married about 1716, Mary³ BURNHAM, daughter of Samuel² (Robert¹) and Mary (---) Burnham of Durham, N.H.  She was born ca. 1689 and died before 10 July 1777.  John's birth year is arrived at by the fact that he was "not of age" in 1705, and therefore less that 21.  However, his mother has a known birth date of 6 September 1640 [Hampton, N.H., VRs, I:555], so he can't be born much later than her being 45 years old.  Likewise, Mary's birth year is derived from the average of her age at marriage (say 22) and her being 45 at the birth of her last child in 1729. The dates of her children's baptisms are from the Rev. Hugh Adams' records in Durham, N.H. reprinted in the New England Historical & Genealogical Register.

John lived in Durham from ca. 1717 to 1734 when he moved to Rochester.  He was dead by the time of a deed dated 10 August 1749, where Stephen Berrey, Jun^r and Mary Berrey, the wife of Stephen Berrey Jun^r of Rochester yeoman for the sum of 25 pounds paid by our brother William Allen of the abovesaid town, yeoman, quit claim all right to the sixth part of one hundred acres of land in Rochester aforesaid it being the estate of our father John Allen deceased which he died seized of Intestate.  [Strafford County Deeds 3:15].  This deed was recorded on 10 July 1777, some 28 years later.  I hypothesize that the length of time was because Mary (Burnham) Allen was still alive.  She doesn't relinquish her dower rights on the 1749 deed which notes that there are six children of John².  She probably lives with one of the them and then after her death, the deeds can be filed.

John and Mary (Burham) Allen had: William, Bridget, Nathan, Mary, Abigail, and Martha.  Their daughter Mary was baptized on 9 September 1724.  Her age at death was 92 years, 5 months, and 10 days on 22 July 1816 [New Durham Town Records (new p. 419, old p. 70) as reprinted New Hampshire Genealogical Record 11 (1994):170], giving her a birth date of 12 February 1724.  It is likely that date is off somewhat and that she was born more towards late August, early September of 1724.  She married Stephen⁴ (Stephen³ William^2-1) BERRY.

Additional Sources:

• "Charles Allen and Some of His Descendants" by Frank W. Allen, New England Historical & Genealogical Register 56 (1902):26-27.  This work was concurrently published as a monograph under the title, Charles Allen of Porstmouth, N.H., 1657 and Some of His Descendants (Boston, Mass.: David Clapp & Son, 1902).
• Genealogical Dictionary of Me. and N.H., p. 62.
• Descendants of William Berry of Rockingham County, NH for Four Generations: Book Three: William Berry and Jane ____ of Strawberry Bank by June Berry (The Author, Kearns, UT, 1993).
• Ancestry of Charles Stinson Pillsbury & John Sargent Pillsbury by Mary Lovering Holman (2 vols., 1938) [Burnham Family].

Hicks, Carman, and Starr

John Hicks married three times.  His first wife was Herodias Long, by whom he had two children.  His second wife was Rachel, the widow of Thomas Starr of Charlestown, Mass.  His third wife was Florence, the widow of John Carman of Hempstead, Long Island.

Through his fist wife, he had Thomas Hicks, from whom Michael descends twice (see below).  His second wife was the widow of Thomas Starr, the son of Comfort and Elizabeth (Watts) Starr, who are my ancestors.  Thus, Michael's ancestor married the widowed sister-in-law of one of my ancestors.  John's third wife Florence is also Michael's ancestor twice over by her first marriage to John Carman.  Michael's maternal grandmother was Nell⁹ Carmon (sic) daughter of James M.⁸ (George Joshua⁷, Joshua⁶, Joseph Henry⁵, Caleb⁴, James³, Caleb², John¹) and Elizabeth J. (Hall) Carmon.  The wife of Joseph Henry⁵ Carman was Mary Carman Larue, a first cousin and granddaughter of the Rev. James³ Carman.

John¹ Hicks m. Herodias Long; Rachel (---) Starr; Florence (---) Carman.
Thomas² Hicks ca. 1642-1741/2 married first Mary Butler, then Mary Doughty.  My his first marriage:
Thomas³ Hicks ca. 1667-ca. 1712 m. Deborah Whitehead
Hannah⁴ Hicks b. ca. 1703 m. William Stevenson.  Hannah had a brother:
Augustine⁴ Hicks ca. 1707 m. Jane Latham
Robert⁵ Stevenson m. Hannah⁵ Hicks on 15 September 1770.  They were first cousins and dismissed from the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting on 25 January 1771 for marrying as first cousins. [Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy by William Wade Hinshaw (Edwards Brothers, Ann Arbor, MI, 1938) 2:548].  Their daughter:
Jane⁶ Stevenson married Jacob Clarkson and were Michael's 4th great-grandparents.   All of this gets combined in the marriage of Michael's maternal grandparents; he the Hicks descendant, she the Carman descendant.

Additional sources:

• The Ancestry and Posterity of Matthew Clarkson 1664-1702 compiled by J. Robert T. Craine and edited by Harry W. Hazard (published by Craine, 1971).
• Thomas Stevenson of London, England and His Descendants by John R. Stevenson (Hiram Edmund Deats, Flemington, NJ, 1902).
• Colonial Families of Long Island, New York and Connecticut by Herbert F. Seversmith (Washington DC, 1939-58) 3:1325.
• Daniel Whitehead and Some of His Descendants" by C.B. Curtis NYGBR 33 (1902):101-2.
• The Fields of Flushing, Long Island" by George McCracken NEHGR 113 (1959):197-211.
• History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield by Donald Lines Jacobus (Fairfield, CT, 1930) [Butler family].
• Hicksite Quakers get their name from this family.

Herodias (Long) (Hicks) (Gardiner) Porter ca. 1623-ca. 1722

I mentioned Herodias briefly in this posting. Most women in colonial America left few records.  Not she.  Not only did she leave records, she was centuries ahead of her time. 

To read more about her, I suggest two articles:

"John and Harwood Hicks" by Josephine C. Frost, New York Genealogical & Biographical Record 70 (1939):116.  This has her testimony for her divorce from John Hicks dated 3 December 1643.  [He severely beat her.]

"The Parentage of George Gardiner of Newport, R.I." by G. Andrews Moriarty, The American Genealogist 21:191-200. This includes her testimony when seeking a separation from George Gardiner, dated 3 May 1665, which includes the fact that she married at age 13 and sent off to New England with John Hicks immediately thereafter.

Herodias had two children by John Hicks and then divorced him.  She lived with and never married George Gardiner, with whom she had seven children.  After her separation from him, she married John Porter, one of the most influential men in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.  She then had him deed great chunks of his land to her Gardiner children!  She was an ardent Quaker and was whipped for such in Boston on 11 3 mo. (May) 1658 [unlike Mary Dyer, she must have heeded the law and stayed out of Massachusetts thereafter].  And she lived to be nearly 100 years old.

Divorce at that time was only done by legislation, so both times her case was heard by the Rhode Island General Assembly and granted by them and signed by the Governor.  It should be noted that John Hicks was granted a separate divorce in 1655 from New Amsterdam, having moved to Long Island.

Her story would be a story of strength and courage today.  It's unbelievable in 17th century New England.  Not surprisingly Herodias even has a Facebook Page!

Michael descends from her twice through her son Thomas.  However, the inter-relationships are so tangled, it will take another posting to explain them.

Publishing a Genealogy Book

There are many different types of genealogy books.  I have no idea what it's like to self publish any book.  Nor do I have any idea what it's like to publish a family history book, an all-my-ancestors book, or a single-name study.  Although for the last one I have some idea having written extensive articles on the Pinkhams and Yeatons.  I can't believe it would be fun.

In 2006 upon our return to Massachusetts I decided in lieu of a job to compile a book I had wanted to see for a long time.  In 1997 I had written an article for the 75th anniversary of TAG on the state of genealogical research from a librarian's perspective.  In this article I said that what was needed was a reference book that indexed all-my-ancestor books as well as journal articles and other compendia.  PERSI didn't do it.  Library catalogs didn't do it.  In 2006 I did it.  I actually rather like my book.  Those in the know, regard it highly which pleases me.  However, it was a painful experience and a truly disappointing one as well.

I never actually counted the hours I spent researching the book and thank God, I didn't.  I'm sure that I ended up working for much, much less than minimum wage.  I'd be appalled if I knew the precise figure.  I made up my mind to not go back further than 1980 because I didn't want older works to be in the index.  I was afraid I would index some article or book that had been proven wrong.  Thus the years covered were articles and books published from 1980-2005.  That may have been a mistake.  Certainly, now I would have probably gone back to 1950 so there would be continuity from Donald Lines Jacobus (who did such a work) and my work.  My work overlapped the book by Meredith Colket (who went to 1985), but his work was for the Founders and Patriots Society and their focus was too narrow to include the amount of people who came over in the early 17th century.  I realize now that you can't kill bad genealogy.  It's on the Internet and will live forever, so every researcher for him- or herself.

I did the work and I wanted a few things "my way."  One was: I wanted a reasonably priced book in soft cover.  The NEHGS has a bad habit of publishing everything in hard cover at a starting cost of $40+ per volume (and many times more than that).  My last purchase of the Great Migration series was $60+.  So, I got my soft cover and price of $19.95.  I thought that was important.

Next I wanted a title that reflected what I thought the book was.  Sadly, the NEHGS gave that title to a collection of Gary Boyd Roberts essays: The Best Genealogical Sources in Print.  That's certainly what my book was, but it was too late.  I was then advised not to use the word index in the title.  I'm not certain if that was a mistake or not.  The title ended up as New Englanders of the 1600s, with the subtitle: A Guide to Genealogical Research Published Between 1980 and 2005.  I'm not sure if that was correct or not either.

Certainly, I should have done the marketing myself and that was my fault.  I allowed the NEHGS to do that, because I thought they knew what they were doing.  Certainly I would have given review copies to all the journals I indexed, and I don't think that was done, since the work was reviewed in only four journals.  I also would have tried to place it in librarians' journals as well, because it did (and does) have a use for historians as well as genealogists.  These things were not done.

So, as of this date, I think the sales of the book is somewhere slightly past 2,000 copies, which I'm told is good in genealogical standards.  It was reprinted five times, the last time in 2009.  It was not at all what I had hoped.  Don't get me wrong.  I was thinking J.K. Rowling or Dan Brown.  However, the membership of the NEHGS was/is 20,000 to 25,000 members.  I was hoping that 25-50% of them would buy this book.  According to WorldCat only 83 libraries have this book.  There must be more than 83 genealogical society libraries, historical society libraries and public libraries than that.  

So, I had hoped back then to sell about enough to reel in $10,000 and then write the next book.  I had in mind something that indexed all the vital records contained in New England journals.  Then I would do for New York what I had for New England, and so forth southward through the original 13 colonies.  I thought that over time I would be able to earn a living wage when enough books were going at the same time.  However, to date, I have yet to hit my original goal [that's four years of waiting].  Thus, I'm working again.  During the last two years of unemployment as many times as I tried to compile another book, I just couldn't do it.  It was too much work for too little payoff.  That's how I saw myself working in genealogy.  Writing.  I never liked doing other people's genealogy.  I'm not sure why.  But I enjoyed writing articles and compiling that book.  

Now the next problem will be what to do about a second edition.  That threshold is likely after 2011 when the last volume of Great Migration will have been published.  But will I? Is it worth it?  I don't know.  It will be exceedingly more difficult if I have a full time job this time.  On the other hand, the pressure will be off.   I can't help thinking that the Internet has killed off genealogical book publishing.  More than a few (and I would think more than half) of so-called genealogists want their ancestry for free or for little money.  I've read these things in rootsweb postings years ago.  I thought that making the book a reasonably priced book would be the way to go and start a trend.  Wrong on both counts!  

In any case, someday I probably will do is write an all-my-ancestor genealogy, but privately print only a dozen copies or so for immediate family members.  My original research is already published in 30+ articles now [all of which I did on my own dime with no renumeration, as all scholars do.]  It's the question of what to do with this thing that exists now.  I wanted to be a professional genealogical writer and am no longer.  What responsibility do I have to this work?

New England Marriage and Death Records

As a general observation, I wanted to note that 19th century death records in New England seem to follow this pattern.  Up to 1870 (or so) parents are seldom given, with the exception of Massachusetts starting in 1850.  However, even there up to the year 1890, mothers are seldom given maiden names.  Most records in the other states starting in 1870 will give parents as: John and Jane Smith.  This is better than nothing, but not helpful if you are looking for Jane's maiden name.  Starting in 1890, but by no means universally so,  maiden names start creeping into death records.

Now, these are just observations and generalizations.  In genealogy for every rule there are a dozen exceptions.  And, of course, death records are the least reliable of the three types of vital records.  It is not uncommon for mid-20th century death records to have parents as blanks, because no one could remember who they were by the time of a child's death in old age.

Likewise, marriage records in New England up to about 1870 in all the states but Massachusetts are generally Groom marries Bride, without parents noted.  Even then from 1850 in Massachusetts and starting in 1870 to 1890, the parents are almost always given as John and Jane Smith.  It is only after 1890 that you start to see mothers' maiden names start creeping into records.

So, if you are researching, these records are important to gather, but may not be the best or even the most reasonable route to a woman's maiden name.

New Hampshire Vital Records (Statewide pre 1900)

The New England states, other than Massachusetts, adopted a statewide system of collecting vital records (birth, marriage, and death) in the late 19th century.  [Mass. was first in the mid-19th century].  After those dates you should be able to find any such record in the statewide system.  Usually, the state official asked that the town clerks to submit their records for previous years as well, which was done on a voluntary basis.  So, in Maine you have a pre-1892 statewide collection that includes some but certainly not all towns.  Vermont has a collection of vital records pre-1870, etc.

New Hampshire has a similar set that has been microfilmed.  It functions the same as the others.  Some towns are included and most are not.  However, New Hampshire is unique in that its order of surnames is not alphabetical as are the records of Maine and Vermont.  New Hampshire alphabetizes the surnames by the first letter, then third letter, then second letter.  So when searching the name Wallis or Wallace, it is WLA.  It is therefore after names like Wright (WIR).  It is very confusing to use, even when you've been using it for twenty years.  

New Durham is one of the town that did contribute to the statewide pre-1900 vital records.  However, the town clerk just took the records, copied them and sent them in.  So marriages that were only bride and groom on a ledger, look like this.

Torrey's New England Marriages to 1700

Massachusetts Town Records

Of all the states, Massachusetts has the finest collection of vital records that stretch back to its beginning in 1620.  They are organized by town up to the year 1850. Of course, that's an official date, and it's a bit of a lie.  In fact, much of Massachusetts's great collection of town vital records needs to be understood better.  I've been doing a great deal of research in western Massachusetts and those town records, which are just as rich in records, are nowhere to found in databases or books.  Here's some facts you need to know:

• There is a collection of towns that had their vital records published in the early 1900s. These are the "tan" books and have titles such as Vital Records of Amesbury, Massachusetts to the Year 1849.  Not all Massachusetts towns have such books. 
• Not all such books are included in the searchable database Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850 at the NEHGS website. [subscription required]
• Some towns have vital record books that were published much later.  Some of these books can be searched by doing a global search at the NEHGS website.  Then click on Vital Records. [subscription required]
• The state-wide gathering of vital records actually starts in 1841, although not all towns responded.  They responded more uniformly after 1850 (and hence that date).  However, that means there are some double records, both in "tan" books and at the state-level.  Check both for vital records 1841-1850.
• Jay Mack Holbrook filmed over 250 Mass. towns which is now available in microfiche.  These towns include many that don't have "tan" books and don't appear in any databases.  Some towns that I've used with success include Lenox and Lanesborough.
• The Corbin Collection which covers towns in Hampshire and Hamden counties.  In paper, this collection is housed at the NEHGS, which produced a searchable CD-ROM with the records.  Again, these records are mostly not in the "tan" books and therefore no where else, except in the Holbrook microfiche.
• Boston is an exception to all rules.  Books on vital records run well to the year 1800.  There is a thin index to births from 1801-1849 which may represent 10-20% of the actual births that happened.  After 1850 you need to consult the state-level index, but never count out the Boston City Archives.

There are two resources in print that can help with this: (i) Edward Hanson did a town by town list in the book Genealogical Research in New England (1984):97-108.  However, this is now over 25 years old and is missing all the recently published vital records of places such as Plymouth, Sandwich, Stoughton, and Springfield, to name but a few; and (ii) Genealogist's Handbook for New England Research by Marcia D. Melnyk (4th ed. 1999).  Simply put, it's the Bible.  You can't do New England research without it.  Word is that a fifth edition is finally in the works.