Well, that's not really true--the diary I wanted to publish today wasn't cooperating, and will have to wait until I can rework it. So, in a tryptophan-induced stupor I had to scramble for a topic I could throw together in a hurry that didn't sound like it was written by someone who was in a tryptophan-induced stupor. Or something.
Anyway, this diary will continue our recent themes on the importance of not believing everything you read. ;)
Genealogy & Family History Community
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A while back, I wrote about my 4g-grandfather Nehemiah's experiences in New Jersey during the Revolutionary War. That diary drew on documents supporting his application for a pension, and his widow's application for benefits after he died. Earlier generations were more problematic -- there was a lot of "lore" out there that the family was connected to one of Passaic/Newark's founding families ... that of George Day and his wife Mary Riggs. For fun, this link is to a map showing lot ownership in 1666. Old George is there, south of Market Street between Broad and Mulberry Street, and there are Riggs family in-laws nearby. So now I had a quest.
Back to what I knew and had records for--Nehemiah and Phebe outlived most of their children, and many of their grandchildren had moved away from New Jersey by the 1840s--even if they still existed, things like letters and family bibles were going to be hard to trace. (Remember, New Jersey was part of the main drag during the Rev War; as a result official records are a bit sparse.) I knew that Nehemiah was the 8th of his parents' 12 children. His father, Daniel, died in 1760, and Nehemiah's oldest brother was born in about 1728, which was the same year that Daniel acquired his first land in Morris County, New Jersey. Before that, it's really anyone's guess! I don't even know Daniel's year of birth, but have been working on the assumption it was sometime between 1700-1710.
I started going to early genealogies and published histories for some inspiration. One early work that gets a lot of publicity was from 1852: Family Records: Or Genealogies of the First Settlers of the Passaic Valley -- the hard copy of at the Minnesota Historical Society was quite lovely, but it was fairly fragile and I was not allowed to make any copies. Fortunately, it is now available online, so I was able to grab some images to share with you:
So,
OKAY then. Which is Minnesotan for it's nice to have the line so conveniently taken from ol' George down to my Nehemiah:
1. George
2. Joseph
3. Jonathan
4. Daniel
5. Nehemiah
Still, there is a certain lack of specificity, no? I believe my cranky researching friend, Col. Levering, would have had some rants had this been part of his project. Anyone who takes the time to read and wonder will remark on how tight the timeline is from George's arrival in 1666 New Jersey to Daniel's birth, which I had been placing between 1700-10.
I had hopes that something might pan out with a further digging, especially since I noticed references to a Stephen Day (son of Joseph, and related by marriage to the Caldwells -- in Nehemiah's pension application, he made specific reference to serving under Captain Stephen Day and also to the death of Hannah Caldwell). Please let there be some germs of truth here!
Next, I pored over volumes of research published by the New Jersey Genealogical Society in 1910. Volume III had this to say about the 1852 book:
Aha, not much more detail, but a definite opinion that this was a different family from that of the "famous" George Day. I could live with that, and maybe start working on some different lines of attack in researching. But I had to be thorough and check out their article on the famous George Day, which was in Vol. IV.
Must not pull hair out.
The big difference is adding another generation between George and my Daniel's maybe father Jonathan...who according to this was born in 1720, eight years before his grandson Benjamin (Nehemiah's oldest brother) was born.
Sigh. But maybe something later will reconcile this mess. And, I can hear you thinking, what about church records! Shouldn't any good genealogist be searching there? After all, the church Nehemiah belonged to all his adult life in Mendham still exists, and he is buried in the adjacent cemetery. The congregation itself was established c, 1738--surely there must be something relevant. Which is a good idea in theory. The current church building only dates to 1860 -- the original 18th century structure suffered numerous skirmishes and was used as a hospital for smallpox victims during the Rev War years. Not terribly far into new century, the old structure was torn down ... but then there was a fire, which destroyed the "newer" building together with a lot of the old records. Still, there was enough available for a 200th anniversary church history to be published in 1938 ... along with a companion pamphlet containing biographic sketches of early prominent families:
Must NOT pull hair out.
What is even more troubling about this version is that it only includes 5 of Nehemiah's 9 children ... my 3g-grandfather is excluded here, even though he was one few to actually survive his parents. The author cites Nehemiah's probate records as the source, but had they checked the additional records of the widow, Phebe, they would have found info on the missing (and surviving!) heirs.
Lesson here is to research, speculate, but VERIFY VERIFY VERIFY. And sometimes, there just may not be a way of finding out what happened, so there is no point in tearing your hair out or banging your head against the wall. (See, my title did have a point.)
For the two or three diehards who have stuck with this silly diary to the very end, the floor is now open for your own research rants and/or stories you shared over the Thanksgiving meal. Meanwhile, I'll be raiding the fridge to make a turkey sandwich and heat up some stuffing, but back in time for comments.