Cousins of my father's

Week 51 (Dec. 17-23): Cousins

My challenge is to skip my first choice, which was to have spent time with my first cousins this fall, but I've already blogged about our visit HERE.

So let's look back at cousins that might have been part of the lives of ancestors.

My mother had several cousins growing up. My father met some cousins at one time with his brothers. He may have stayed in touch with them later in life. All I have to go on are a few photos.

I just discovered my external hard drive won't turn on. I'm hoping it's just the connection. Otherwise, that will be a big loss of many old photos. Anyway, blogs have a few of my photos that I can scroll through!

Here are my father's cousins as adults.

My mother, Mataley Munhall Rogers on left, then my dad's cousin, Zulie Winslow Seamans, next to  her mother, Stella Swasey Winslow (Aunt Jim) and then her sister, my grandmother, Ada Swasey Rogers.

Men behind are Uncle Chauncey, his brother my father George Jr. Rogers, maybe his cousin who was close to my father's age, Billy Winslow, then my grandfather in hat, (Poppy) George Rogers Sr.

So Gummy (Ada Swasey Rogers) and Aunt Jim (Stella Swasey Winslow) were sisters. Gummy and Poppy were parents of Chauncey and George Rogers (as well as Alex and James not in photo.) Stella's husband died in 1923. Her children were Zulie Winslow Seamans and Billy (William Swasey Winslow).

I just love the clothes these family members were wearing. I wonder what that fur collar my mother is wearing might be. I am pretty sure my parents and the senior Rogers lived in San Antonio TX at the time (around the time my parents met sometime in 1935 until they got married in 1939.)

Chauncey Rogers, Zulie Winslow, Alex Rogers, and George Rogers, cousins in Kansas City, Mo in 1918. My father, George was 4 as they visited their mother's sister's family.  Zulie was a cousin while Chauncey and Alex were his older brothers. Since the boys all came from Texas, this snow must have a wonderful treat for them! I imagine the took the trip in 1918 on a train from Texas.  

I'm glad I had to check my ancestry files to find out if there was a special event at the time of the Rogers visit from Texas to Missouri. I had a vague date of the birth of cousin Billy (William Winslow) of 1918. But a hint gave me the correct June 2, 1917 date of birth for him. So I guess that had nothing to do with the visit in the winter.

Other details are in the notations of Alex's weight of 40 and date of Feby 10 1918 , and Chauncey's weight of 70 and a date of Feby 12, 1918. All the writing is that of my grandmother, Ada Swasey (Gummy) Rogers.

I wonder if the weights of the boys had something to do with their fares on a train...

Gladly sharing this with 52 Ancestors 52 weeks...as I have for the whole of 2023. Can I finish it?

Grandmother's recipes - maybe

 52 Ancestors, 52 Weeks: Week 49 (Dec. 3-9): "Family Recipe"

I can only say these recipes came from my mother. Not any grandmothers here, except I'm now one. I know my father's mother's recipe for fudge, but it's in my head, never written down. And that is the way it's going to stay. The secret Rogers Fudge recipe.

I've got a wonderful old book where 3x5 cards may be slipped into sleeves, and then placed in an appropriate index section. I must have been given it maybe 40 years back but kept my recipes in the little file box of 3x5 cards for some time, before finally filing them in the book. That's probably why the book is still in good shape...but the cards, well, just look at them!

Some cards are from my mother's cards, copied. Some of her's were from her Betty Crocker cookbook. Some were on her own file cards! And I also opened a library copy of a cookbook and copied some of those recipes, and never have cooked them!

As you can see, I slipped some clipped recipes into the sleeves also. This is in my Mother's handwriting.

Have you noticed a theme here yet?

Baking was my interest, in order to feed those wonderful children I expected to have. (Certainly not for my own tastes!)

These were typed by me, though I didn't have a typewriter of my own. Maybe when I'd been working somewhere I decided to get these recorded. I've obviously cooked them many times. Though I think Florida little critters may have contributed to some of the markings...which we won't think about, since there was already flour, butter and sugary fingerprints on them!

This is one of my favorite cookies. So soon I shall get a baking again.

Troublemaker

 I've brought some kind of post for all the 52 Ancestors 52 Weeks so far. But this one is hard!

Week 48 (Nov. 26-Dec. 2): Troublemaker

OK, a fourth great uncle was Legrand Booth. (On my mother's maternal tree.) There were some troubles, though I don't how many were his doing.

I looked at Legrand Booth, because he had some tough times in his life, with several documents of insolvency. He started out life as a shoemaker, much like his father. I don't know how that would have resulted in a huge debt, but perhaps he tried buying more property than he could afford.  

I found an interesting letter that described some of that family. 

Letter sent from Ruth Kelsey Proctor to her Aunt Elizabeth Halverson, Uncle Roy Booth, Brother Harold Kelsey, Daughter Ann Proctor, Nephews Douglas, Robert, David, and Jeffrey as well as many of her first cousins as possible at the time (too numerous to list individually). Ruth took it upon herself to document much of the Booth-Carter family tree and history in the late 70s and this was the cover letter and brief overview of both families that she had found.

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The Booth family tree starts with Legrand and Betsey, both of whom were born in the late 1700’s. They had 12 children, the ninth being Elliott Lansing Booth, ray [my?] great grandfather. I have no information about the Legrand Booth family ex­cept what is contained in a letter dated April 23, 1859, addressed to Elliott Booth by his brother-in-law, Chester Gooding, E. Bloomfield (state not given). I will quote parts of the letter as it mentions places where some of the family lived:

“I will give you an account of your father's family. Your mother died January 8, 1852.  The family at the time of her death consisted of your father, Lafayette (Erastus), and Annjeanette, Lucius having been married the fall before to Mary Hopkins. After a time your father becom­ing dissatisfied and uneasy they concluded to break up and leave and your father went to live with Emeline who lived in Lafayette, Indiana, with her second husband, Mr. William Cochrane, having been divorced from Hummer who had left her and run off with a female spirit medium. Mr. Cochrane, being a very wealthy man and a large land holder and not enjoying very good health, Emeline wrote to Lafayette and father to come and live with them. Your father went up in November 1852. He did not like living in Indiana and left there in the following summer and went to Fitchburg, Dane County, Wisconsin, to live with Eli who was married and living there. Your father writes that he likes Wisconsin very much and enjoys excellent good health.

“Lafayette married in Indiana and also left and went to Fitchburg to live. He stayed there until this spring and has now returned to Lafayette and is in the County Clerk's office writing at a salary of ten dollars a week.

“Edward is in Joliette, Illinois, and is not married. Lucius moved last fall to Mundy, Genesee County, Michigan. Elizur lives where your fa­ther used to live and has as much flesh to carry about as your father ever had. Ann Jeanette is living with us.”

Elliot Booth (1832-1885) was son of Legrand (1772-1861) and his wife, Mary Elizabeth (Betsey) Peck (1790-1852). 

Elliot's brother was Erastus Lafayette Booth (1827-1907) who became an MD. Ann Jeannette (1830-1902) was the baby of the family. Elliot's brother, Everett Lucius Booth (1828-1861) had indeed married in 1851.  

Elliot's sister,  Emeline (1820-1895) had some interesting things happen with her 3 husbands. First when she was 23 yo she married Rev. Michael Hummer, in Indiana. Ten years later in Iowa they have a daughter Emily and we know nothing more about her. As cousin Ruth Kelsey Proctor said in her transcription of the original letter (do you think it was in the original?) that she divorced Rev. Hummer  "...who had left her and run off with a female spirit medium." So in 1852 she married the rich William Kerr Cochran (1807–1864). (She ended up being buried next to him). But wait, there's the connection of brothers and sisters between those two husbands. Her second husband had been married before, to the sister of her first husband (the one who ran off with a female spirit medium.)

"William Kerr Cochran's 1st wife was Nancy A Hummer (1807-1851). Nancy A Hummer and Michael Hummer were brother and sister.

Her third husband was Alexander Carlton King, whom she married in 1875, at age 65. She had been a widow for 11 years by then. We don't know when King died. Emeline lived to 84.

Chester Gooding goes on with details of other of the siblings. 

But we need to look closer at the dates of Legrand's wife's death...in 1852. Chester speaks of different adult children taking him in.

But is it possible he married another woman on Jan 16, 1844. Clarissa Hotchkiss, in Naugatuck CT, stating that Legrand was from Hartford, CT? It was a church wedding. 

BUTthere was another Legrand Booth, son of James Booth (not our Legrand, son of Isaac.) He (the other one) was born in New Milford CT, between 1712 and 1860. It's possible that that Legrand married Clarissa Hotchkiss. There's absolutely no data on Clarissa. There were a lot of Booths in Connecticut.

By the time Legrand and Betsey Booth had their fifth child they lived in Canandaigua New York, as well as Legrand's father Isaac and his family. It is one of the finger lakes. But as mentioned in the letter above, many members of the family moved further west through the years.

Canandaigua New York finger lakes

This Ancestor Stayed Home

 My  ancestry post for 52 Weeks 52 Ancestors about 'an ancestor who stayed home' means looking back at some of the women, who were expected to stay home for most of those years.

I choose one of the women who lived in Sevier County Tennessee, when it was first forming.

The family of Catharine Clack Rogers originated in Virginia, Loudon County was her mother's birthplace. Mother was named Mary de Beauvillers/Beaver born in 1745. Catharine's father Lt. Spencer Sterling Clack also was born in Loudon County (at the time it was in Fairfax County) in 1746.

Mary Beavers married Spencer Clack in 1766 in Loudon County VA. They had at least 8 children. I'm using some genealogical research from people living in Sevierville which look for evidence in original documents, as well as some "folk tales" passed along. Some of today's Ancestry Trees assume Mary Beavers Clack had 16 or more children. There is only evidence of these 8 however.

Many records have been lost, and there are several possibilities of Spencer Clack's parents.

But let's focus on Catharine (spelled the way my grandfather transcribed the Rogers Family Bible).

She was born in 1778 in Loudon County VA.  Her little brother Micajah Clack was born about a year later, and when he was just a toddler was struck and killed by lightening. This is a family story that has been handed down through the years. Incidentally, Catharine named her first son after him.

Though Catharine was part of the family which moved to Tennessee in 1787, (age 9) she didn't move much after that. She married Rev. Elijah Rogers in 1794. He was a Baptist preacher, known to travel to different churches in the area, as well as having a farm on the Little Pigeon River in Sevierville TN.

Catherine stayed home. Rev. Elijah lived until 1841 and she lived until 1850. 

The cemetery and church were located where these graves still are, and a park, by the Little Pigeon River in Sevierville. Catharine was probably buried there.

Catharine Rogers had 12 children, with one who died young, and two who have no known death dates. So at least 9 lived to adulthood. There are some documents verifying these children, but many ancestry trees have added many more!

Their oldest, Micajah Clack Rogers, my 3rd great grandfather moved to Texas when he was 50, with some of his children. His wife, Cyntha Cannon Rogers, stayed in Tennessee with the younger children and then moved to Texas before her death. There had been a personal note to Cyntha (which is now lost) which said he (Micajah) was sending the younger children back to Tennessee as there were no schools yet in Texas (in 1840).

I don't know if her father, Spencer Clack, was considered a hero when she was living, but since then there are various plaques in Sevierville honoring him.

Plaque on big stone near Sevierville TN court house.

Does Bacon's Rebellion remind you of going to market?

No, well, it's my attempt to connect the Ancestors meme with my family's history. This week "52 Ancestors 52 Weeks" asks us to "An Ancestor who went to Market."

Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion in 1676 by Virginia settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon against the rule of Governor William Berkeley. 

My ancestor Great Times 7 Uncle Thomas Hansford/Hansford from Virginia was part of Bacon's Rebellion which burned Jamestown.  

The Burning of Jamestown by Howard Pyle, ca. 1905.

Thomas Hansford was born in 1646 in Virginia
Death 13 November 1676 in York County, Virginia

FATHER: John Hansford 1590-1661
MOTHER: Elizabeth Jands
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Thomas Handsford was hanged by Gov. Berkley of Virginia for his participation in Bacon's Rebellion. He is said to be the first American-born person to be executed in the Colonies.

Southside Virginia Families, Vol. 1, by John Bennett Boddie, Genealogical Pub. Co, 1966, page 157.

Hansford pleaded that he be shot as a soldier not hanged like a dog, and protested his loyalty as he stood on the scaffold.   (Wikipedia) 

NOTE: one source says as many as 23 men were hung. 
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Wikipedia says:

Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion in 1676 by Virginia settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon against the rule of Governor William Berkeley. The colony's disorganized frontier political structure, combined with accumulating grievances (including leaving Bacon out of his inner circle, refusing to allow Bacon to be a part of his fur trade with the Native Americans, and Doeg tribe Indian attacks), helped to motivate a popular uprising against Berkeley, who had failed to address the demands of the colonists regarding their safety.

About a thousand Virginians of all classes rose up in arms against Berkeley, attacking Native Americans, chasing Berkeley from Jamestown, Virginia, and ultimately torching the capital. The rebellion was first suppressed by a few armed merchant ships from London whose captains sided with Berkeley and the loyalists. Government forces from England arrived soon after and spent several years defeating pockets of resistance and reforming the colonial government to one more directly under royal control.

It was the first rebellion in the American colonies in which discontented frontiersmen took part; a similar uprising in Maryland took place later that year. The alliance between former indentured servants and Africans against bond-servitude disturbed the ruling class, who responded by hardening the racial caste of slavery. While the farmers did not succeed in their initial goal of driving Native Americans from Virginia, the rebellion did result in Gov. Berkeley being recalled to England.

Bacon's wealthy landowning followers returned their loyalty to the Virginia government after Bacon's death. Some former rebels of lower classes were ordered to make public apologies, and many were fined or ordered to pay court costs.

Bacon [had] promised his army tax breaks, predetermined wages, and freedom from indentures, "so long as they should serve under his colors." Indentured servants both black and white had joined the frontier rebellion. Seeing them united in a cause alarmed the ruling class. Historians believe the rebellion hastened the hardening of racial lines associated with slavery, as a way for planters and the colony to control some of the poor. For example, historian Eric Foner writes, "The fear of civil war among whites frightened Virginia's ruling elite, who took steps to consolidate power and improve their image: for example, restoration of property qualifications for voting, reducing taxes, and adoption of a more aggressive American Indian policy." Some of these measures, by appeasing the poor white population, may have had the purpose of inhibiting any future unification with the enslaved black population.

It's interesting to read more recent historians' view of the rebellion.

According to the Historic Jamestowne website, "For many years, historians considered the Virginia Rebellion of 1676 to be the first stirring of revolutionary sentiment in [North] America, which culminated in the American Revolution almost exactly one hundred years later. However, in the past few decades, based on findings from a more distant viewpoint, historians have come to understand Bacon's Rebellion as a power struggle between two stubborn, selfish leaders rather than a glorious fight against tyranny."

Nonetheless, many in the early United States, including Thomas Jefferson, saw Bacon as a patriot and believed that Bacon's Rebellion truly was a prelude to the later American Revolution against the control of the Crown. 

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Thomas Hansford had a younger brother, Charles, born May 9, 1654.  He married Elizabeth Folliet Moody, and their son William Hansford is a direct ancestor of mine.  Five generations later was born my grandfather, Albert J. "Bud" Webb.

So my rebellious spirit might have been well tamed, but the blood runs true!

Sharing with Generations Cafe, a Facebook Group where "52 Ancestors 52 Weeks" is collected. 

Week 46 (Nov. 12-18): “This Ancestor Went to Market…” Pardon my use of Bacon's name as that of something purchased in a market!

Week 45 (Nov. 5-11): War and Peace

Sergeant Richard A. Gee (Rag = his initials)

This post is about Fanny Witty Gee (1850-1923) sister of my GG Grandmother Eugenia Witty Booth (1852-875), and Fanny's husband, Sgt. Richard A. Gee (1833-1930)

She was a Valentine baby, Fanny (Frances Malone) Witty Gee born on Feb. 14, 1850 in Limestone, Alabama. But I don't know if Valentines Day was celebrated much then.

Her first census listing was when she was 4 months old, and the penmanship is so illegible the transcriber calls her Thomas, though a female child.  At least by 1860, when her family had moved to Texas, she was listed as Fanny.

Fanny married at 17, to Richard A. Gee who had been born in 1833 in Tennessee (17 years older than she was). Some of his records say he was born in Virginia, where his parents were born.  They raised 7 children, who all lived to be adults, (though one died at 19 years of age) and they had 19 grandchildren.  Some of her children and grandchildren lived into their 90s, and one, Ethel M. Stingily, lived to 100, dying in 2013.

Her son who died at 19, has a marker in the same cemetery where she was buried, but I can't find any photos of her marker. So I'm using his because I know how hard it must have been for a mother to lose a son when he had his whole life ahead of him.

Marker for John C. Gee, 1876-1892. In Covington Cemetery, Hill County Texas, where his mother Frances Malone Witty Gee is also buried (1850-1923). Fanny herself was 73 when she died in 1923.

One of these men is Richard Albert Gee. I think it's the older looking one. Rag only had one brother, John O. Gee, born in 1844, so about 11 years younger than Richard (born in 1833!)

Richard Albert Gee was a Sergeant in the Confederacy, and thus had a veterans grave marker when he died in 1930 at age 96. He entered the Civil War in 1861 as a Corporal in Parson's Mounted Volunteers, 12th Regiment of Texas Cavalry, Company A. He discharged with the rank of Sergeant.

Having survived the Civil War, he lived many more years, and it wasn't until 1927 that he applied for Veterans Benefits. His wife Fanny had died in 1923. And Rag only had these benefits until he died in 1930.

Richard Albert "Rag" Gee, (1833-1930)  He's also buried in Covington Cemetery, TX. 

The Find A Grave site lists these children: Jennie Burgess; Lena Mae Stingily; William W Gee; John C Gee; Albert Richard Gee; Marvin Brice Gee. 

For some reason their son Alonzo Benjamin Gee who lived till 1958, wasn't included in that list.

When I recently spent a day with cousins who live a long way away, one of them said that there's a genetic trait that she's noticed from her father to her grandson. Their ears stick out quite a bit. But all the rest of the siblings in her family, and her other children and grandchildren don't have this trait. Must be recessive!  The family I posted about today is on my mother's side of the tree, and this cousin is from my father's side...so no blood relation to the Gee men. I just thought I'd mention it, since us matriarchs are the ones who can remember things like that going down through the generations...and it seldom will show up in anyone's biography!

Sharing with 52 Ancestors 52 weeks

Mary Lovett Tyler and the Salem Witch Trials

For this week's 52 Ancestors 52 Weeks, Oct 29-Nov 4 - Spirits

I have an ancestor who was accused of being a witch in the Salem Witch Trials. Here's a repost of that blog from 2021:

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Mary Lovett Tyler and the Salem Witch Trials

I read a historical book about the Salem Witch Trials...which includes a lot of information about the events of the times, not just the trials, accusers and various accused persons. It is "In the Devil's Snare" by Mary Beth Norton, published 2002 by Vintage books. I'm having trouble concentrating, so it's slow going. But I wanted to add to my knowledge of my 8 times great grandmother, one of the accused.

Following is the post from 2018 which I shared here. 

Mary Lovett Tyler

1651–1732

Birth 7 MAR 1651/53 • Braintree, Norfolk, Massachusetts

Death 03 MAR 1732 • Preston City, New London, Connecticut,

Wife of Hopestill Tyler (See his blog Dec. 8, 2017)

Mary Lovett Tyler, Mrs. Hopestill Tyler, was accused of Witchcraft in Andover, Mass. in 1692, along with many other townspeople, men, women and children in other locations in New England.

There are original documents of her accusation...
and a good 4 pages of telling the story of her arrest, imprisonment, trial and acquittal.

I'll post them as well as tell a synopsis of the events.

NOT Mary Tyler, but a woman accused of being a witch, and those who tried to prosecute her.  Some women and men were hanged.

From Pequot Plantation by Radune.

How is she related to me?  She's my eight times great grandmother on my father's mother's family tree, which I call the Ada Swasey Rogers tree...she's way up there with some of the earliest immigrants to Massachusetts colony.  I've talked about her husband Here, and her husband's father, Job Tyler, HERE.

The following pages are from North America, Family Histories 1500-2000, author not cited at Ancestry.  First is a description of Hopestill Tyler (at bottom of page 25) second generation:

Top of page continuation about Hopestill's early life.
 Bottom of page 26, the story of Mary Tyler's Confession

Rev. Increase Mather states that Mary lied in her confession to being a witch to stop the verbal persecution she was enduring.

Mary is acquitted of the felony of witchcraft for which she had confessed. Her 3 daughters are also accused, but released when Hopestill pays a bond. According to Nevin's "Witchcraft in 1692" there were 11 Tylers named in list of the accused. There are no more details given of these accusations. I don't find a resource, but I believe she spent several weeks in jail.  Then the entire family moves out of state to Connecticut.

 Original transcript of 1692 witch trial of Mary Lovett Tyler

 Another page describing witch trials.

Mary and Hopestill Tyler had 11 children, the last 2 being twins born in 1687. Their children were either at home, or beginning their own lives as young adults.  Martha Tyler Farnham (their eldest and my ancestor) married right after (or during) the trials June 30, 1693, and I've written about them HERE.

Both Mary and Hopestill adjusted to their new home in Connecticut, where he continued to work as a a blacksmith.  They both joined the church there, as well as at least one of their sons. They both lived long lives, she died at age 81, and he was either 84 or 87 (due to differing dates on records.)

The Norton book has not added any specific details to Mary's story...(having looked through it to page 262 where Mary Tyler is mentioned.) I am not going to read the entire book, but will say that the frequent Indian attacks in New England seemed to have a lot to do with the various reports by children of witch attacks. I think Norton is merging these two horrific events in their lives, which sometimes resulted in legal ramifications, and sometimes didn't. And it's very interesting that so little has been said in American history classes about the frequent Indian attacks, which left many a homestead completely ruined as the people were killed. (Note, they called them Indian attacks, I still prefer Native Americans as the term to describe them. But we know who's land it had been before the colonists settled it.)

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And as more people have interest in the Salem Witch Trials, here's a 18 page article with bibliography describing them. It brings out how Mary's father was also accused earlier. It's a PDF file, so here's the link if you're interested.

The Tyler Family and the Salem Witch Trials, by Bruce M. Tyler, PhD.

I quote Mary Tyler from page 13...

“And, indeed, that confession that it is said we made was no other than what was suggested to us by some gentlemen, they telling us that we were witches, and they knew it, which made us think it was so; and, our understandings, our reason, our faculties almost gone, we were not capable of judging of our condition; as also the hard measures they used with us rendered us incapable of making our defense, but said any thing and every thing which they desired, and most of what we said was but in effect a consenting to what they said” (Upham, 2:402-4)." 

"How could confessing to witchcraft save their lives? Because the law had been turned on its head. Those who confessed to being witches and did not recant their confessions lived. Those who were convicted but would not confess and those who recanted their confessions were hanged. This trend had been developing in Salem, and the citizens of Andover had apparently figured out what was necessary to survive. Confessions and repentance indicated tacit approval of the system. (Konig, 175)"

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Also sharing with Sepia Saturday, which has a theme of portraits. My ancestress was accused, confessed and repented at the urging of clergy, and finally let go from the Salem Witch Trials (after paying some fine). No portrait needed.

Generation's Cafe is a closed Facebook Group, but applications are accepted if you're interested in ancestry!

The Sylvesters of Shelter Island

 The Sylvesters of Shelter Island came from England and the Netherlands. The map below shows on the far right of Long Island, a tiny name, Shelter Island.

On Ancestry 11) Capt. Nathaniel Gascoigne Sylvester is listed as being born either in 1610 in London City, Middlesex, England or between 1615-25 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands,
and dying on 13 Jun 1680 in Sylvester Manor, Shelter Island, Suffolk County, New York.

I'm glad to find new information about his life by looking a bit more closely at the Wikipedia information. (I'll just quote it all below)

Impossibly small picture, no idea what the script at the bottom says, I don't know where it came from, sorry!

The Sylvesters were my 7 greats grandparents.

His wife was 11) Grizzell Brinley Sylvester (born 16 Jan 1635 in Datchet, Buckinghamshire, England and died 13 Jun 1687 at Sylvester Island, Suffolk, New York) 

signature of Grissell Brinley Sylvester

 

St Mary the Virgin, Datchet

Datchet Mead and Datchet Ferry in 1686 with Windsor Castle in the background

Where Grizzell Brinley Sylvester was born: 

Datchet (Buckinghamshire, England) was a village on the River Thames, England. which developed because of its close proximity to Windsor and the ferry service which connected it to the main London road across the River Thames.

Dachet Village center

When Grizzell was 17, she married Captain Sylvester, in 1652 on Shelter Island, NY. She had come to the American colonies with her sister, Ann Brinley, who married William Coddington (who became governor of Rhode Island.) Grizzell's sister, Mary Brinley, married Nathaniel Sylvester's younger brother Peter Sylvester. 

In Nathaniel Sylvester's last will and testament he mentions that he owns half of the island originally known as "Nanhansack Ahuquashunamock" now Shelter Island, and all the negroes and livestock on it. He also was half owner of Roberts Island. He left everything to his beloved wife (and here the scribe didn't use any "," comas to separate the names) Grizzell Sylvester Francis Brinley James Floyd Isaak Arnold Lewis Morris and Daniel Gould to have and to hold...[the islands, houses, stock and all...] It was dated 1679, so it's supposed that he died sometime shortly afterward.

He mentions a brother, Joshua, who was very young (maybe 4 years old) to receive his brother Constant's aid through Constant's will, as well as anything else needed by Joshua until he was able to support himself.  His will stipulates that all his sons should equally share the islands and the estate, unless they decide otherwise. His daughters are all to receive one hundred pounds. His will has many details about his slaves, as well as his livestock. 

In his will he mentions how the Dutchmen of New York did invade their island and take much of the things they owned. He also says his brother Constant Sylvester and Thomas Middleton may be part owners of the Mill and Millhouse. He sets aside the house, gardens and orchard for his wife.  But he tries to make his sons and their heirs the only ones who may ever own the island, so when one dies, the rest will divide his portion. Since I know at some point Shelter Island finally was sold away from the family, the last survivor of Nathaniel must have finally died.

I admit that is where I stopped reading the will, written in cursive by a scribe of the court probably...and with many difficult spellings...after I waded through 5 pages of it.  Nathaniel finishes saying he's signing it, and it is dated 19 March 1679 and 80, (that's the way the year is designated.) But the signature is missing because all of this is apparently a transcription from the original, made in the town of Jamaica, New York, 30 Dec 1880.

With all his mention of his negroes, I must say something about the enslaved people on this "manor" or "plantation." There were many who were born and died there. Nathaniel made his fortune from sugar plantations of Barbados. That meant he was part of the Sugar/slave/rum triad of trade probably.  

The Sylvesters also were known as sheltering persecuted Quakers from the Puritan colonies around them. They had 12 children, all of whom saw their 30th birthdays, and at least one who lived to 101 years.

There's a monument on the property, a table, with names inscribed below it of those who are buried in the cemetery, as well as the lineage from Thomas Brinley (Grizzell's father)

Photo of the original Sylvester Manor as it is in modern times.  It was inhabited (and rennovated) by family members for 12 generations, from 1652.

Sylvester Manor as rebuilt in 1737, as it looks today (2016?)  

Ann Sylvester was a daughter of Nathaniel and Grizzell, and Ann married Jonathan Bower of Somerset, MA, and a long long way down the line comes myself.

There's an Ancestry Publication (originally published elsewhere and Ancestry offers it on line to view) about the Sylvesters and Shelter Island.  It covers much of the history, up to it's publication date of 1932.

I looked up Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island, and Google Maps has a few images (copyrighted probably) of the manor house and calls it an educational farm now.

Sharing with Generations Cafe' group on Facebook for 52 Ancestors, 52 weeks

Week 43 (Oct. 22-28): Dig a Little Deeper

James Alexander Conn and Nancy Erwin Conn

Background for James Conn and wife Nancy Erwin Conn.

James A. Conn (1780-1826/7), was the child of  Elisabeth Alexander Conn (1760-1845) and her husband, William Henry Conn (1760-1836), who had been a "Private, Calvary and Infantry" in the Revolutionary War.

Father William had been born in New Jersey, and Elisabeth in North Carolina, which is where they married in 1778.  This is recorded in North Carolina Marriage Records 1741-2004, Tryon and Lincoln Counties, Dec. 6, 1778, page 33.

James A. Conn was born sometime between 1780-85, living till 1826/27.  His birth was in North Carolina, (Lincoln County probably) while some of his siblings were born (or at least recorded) in Russell County, Virginia.

Lincoln County NC is known for a Revolutionary war incident perhaps in the year he was born:

The Battle of Ramsour's Mill took place on June 20, 1780 in present-day Lincolnton, North Carolina, during the British campaign to gain control of the southern colonies in the American Revolutionary War. The number of fighters on each side of the battle is still an issue of contention, but Loyalist militiamen (many of them German Palatine emigrants and settlers in the local area) outnumbered Patriot militia and had captured a group of Patriots who they were planning to hang on the morning of June 20.

The one to two-hour battle during the foggy morning of June 20 did not involve any regular army forces from either side and was literally fought between family, friends, and neighbors with muskets sometimes being used as clubs because of a lack of ammunition. Numerous cases of fratricide occurred during the battle. William Simpson, a patriot scout, rushed to the battle to kill his brother Reuben, and Peter Costner, a loyalist, was killed by his brother Thomas who buried his sibling's corpse after the fight.^[2] Despite being outnumbered, the Patriot militia defeated the Loyalists.^[3]

The battle was significant in that it lowered the morale of Loyalists in the south, weakening their support of the British.

Souce: Wikipedia 

James Conn married April 6.1810, to Nancy Erwin  (Ancestry.com. Kentucky, Compiled Marriages, 1802-1850 .)  

This wedding was in Henry County, Kentucky, the first record I've found of his move there.  His father (William Conn) has a child born between 1790 and 1794 in Kentucky, James' sister Rachael.  However the next 2 sisters births were recorded back in North Carolina.

In 1810 James and Nancy Conn first appear in a census, in Henry County, Kentucky, having a household of just 2, to show the newlyweds have set up housekeeping on their own.  Henry County Kentucky was formed out of Shelby County in 1798. Shelby County was the location of many other Conn ancestors who might have been cousins.

James and Nancy's child Hannah Conn (to marry William Booth when grown) was born in Henry County KY on April 13, 1819.  In the future her daughter, Annie Booth Attaway lived until 1948, and is mentioned in the link about her (Hannah Conn Booth's) grave, as well as other children:  Lucinda Booth, Elizabeth Booth, Conn Booth, and Frank Booth. (Find a Grave HERE) states she was born in Henry County KY, and died in Hillsboro County, Texas  in 1885.  This entry at Find a Grave, was entered by my third half (?) cousin Cheryl Richardson, who states James and Nancy Conn were Hannah Conn Booth's parents (posted 2009). 

While living in Kentucky in those early days of the nineteenth century, James Conn was probably farming.

Nancy Conn, widow of James, is listed as head of household in the Census of 1830 on Henry County KY and 1840 in Jackson County, IN, the last document of Nancy's life that we have at this time. There are no names listed, but a family listing of 9 people in 1830 and 11 people in 1840.

Jackson County IN is also the county where Nancy's daughter Hannah married William Lewis Booth in 1843. They were my 3 times great grandparents, though it was William's second marriage. His first marriage is the link I have to another Ancestry researcher, Cheryl Richardson, thus she's a half-cousin, three time removed, or something like that. I'm very thankful for her careful research of the Booth families.

Today I want to focus on Nancy Erwin Conn. Of course it's sad that her husband probably died in 1826/27. Nancy had 8 children from 1811 to 1824. However the records first came up with two children with the year 1818 listed for their births, Matilda and Bartholomew. Matilda doesn't have many records at all, but probably married a Fowler and had a daughter, and Matilda's name comes up on the daughter's death certificate. But Bartholomew of 1818 also is more flexible in his birth date as several other Ancestry trees state he was born ABT. 1818.

Since my great times 3 grandmother (Hanna Conn) was born on April 13, 1819, her mother, Nancy Conn must have had Matilda before July in 1818. The next previous child had been born in 1815, so I'm betting that Bartholomew had been born sometime in 1816-17. Of course these could be completely reversed, but Nancy didn't have two children in 1818 anyway!

See what fun this ancestry stuff is? Well, I was really trying to see which relatives of Nancy Conn might have lived in Indiana, since she moved there when her husband died. Since her daughter married William Booth there in 1843, that narrows the move down between 1840 and 1843! 

Nancy's two older sisters did move to Indiana. Mary "Polly" Erwin Burcham (1782-1840) married Samuel Burcham Sr (1766-1845) and her unmarried sister Margaret "Peggy" Erwin, may well have lived with them (a jump on my part.)

The Burcham's probably moved to Indiana around 1800, though their second son may have been born in 1801 in KY, their first was born in 1800 in IN. But there isn't much to substantiate the dates and places. The later children were born in Vallonia, Jackson County, IN a town which was incorporated in 1811.

Which leads me back to my ggg grandmother Hannah Conn Booth, meeting and marrying the attorney William Lewis Booth in Jackson County in 1843! She was 23, and he was 24, but also had family around him. They were both somewhat newcomers to that area. But then most people were moving into new territories all the time.

And then they moved even more...see my post about their families going to Illinois and finally to Texas...last week HERE.

Sharing with 52 Ancestors, 52 weeks at Facebooks' Generation's cafe group for Week 42 (Oct. 15-21): Friends.