A couple of weeks ago I took a trip up the Hudson River with a fellow genealogist who was researching a family living in Ulster County. I knew I had a few ancestors who lived in Kingston in the 17th Century, so I went with her to the Schoonmaker Research Library at Historic Huguenot Street…
New York City is starting to open up after over a year of COVID-19 related closings. The New York Public Library opened all its branches on July 6, including the Stephen A. Schwarzman building. Not all the resources at Schwarzman will be available on a walk-in basis though. Many of the research collections will still…
Continued from Part I… My visit to the Seward properties began in the New Hackensack Reformed Church building. Jim, a member of the congregation, met me in the side entry and took me on a tour of the church. I heard the sound of strings playing throughout the building and Jim explained that a musical…
I am stepping away from the assigned 52 Ancestors theme of “resolution” this week. Instead of focusing on one ancestor, I’ll be talking about the house many of them lived in and the church they all attended. Rev. William Seward moved with his family from Connecticut to Dutchess County, New York about 1795, after he retired…
This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is “Unusual Sources.” Most of the sources I’ve referenced have been what you might call “usual.” Census records, birth, marriage, and death certificates are all commonly used by genealogists to confirm evidence. Many people have family bibles where their older relatives have recorded family events. Not many of my ancestors…
This week’s theme is “travel.” My ancestor Caleb Douglas was born in Connecticut and later settled in Whitestown, NY. In his late 60’s he took a mission trip to Michigan and purchased land there. Caleb was born in 1756 to John and Esther (Leach) Douglass. He grew up in New London, Connecticut with his parents…
The theme for week 20 was “language.” I’m in the middle of packing for a move, so this post will be short. Do you notice anything different about Aeltje van Couwenhoven’s headstone? It was written in Dutch, not English. Quite a few people in the Dutch community at that time still spoke Dutch as a…
There was a news update this week about the Brinckerhoff Cemetery where my ancestor Aeltje van Cowenhoven Brinckerhoff was buried. The Friends of Brinckerhoff Colonial Cemetery, a nonprofit organization, just signed a contract to purchase the landmarked site.
This week’s theme is “Close Up.” When I first started delving into the Dutch history of New York City, I started to notice people in databases like Ancestry having birth places or death places in Long Island City, a neighborhood of the borough of Queens. That is not very far from the neighborhood I live…
One of the great things about the 52 Ancestors exercise is that it points out the gaps in my family history as well as the more researched parts. As this week’s theme is cemeteries, I will write about a fairly well-researched ancestor and a cemetery I have yet to visit. Philander Seward was born to…