Orin Day Peckham of Rennselaerville

In attempting to find and confirm the birth, marriage and death dates of all the children of Peleg and Desire (Watson) Peckham, I was stumped by odd seeming online family tree entries for their son Orin. He is listed as born in either 1805 or 1813, died in 1825, MARRIED ! If he was born in 1813, marriage didn’t sound reasonable if he died at age 12.

Births are difficult to confirm in those years unless a christening record can be found; I did not find one for Orin. I also could not find a newspaper account of his death nor a grave listing. 

Reviewing the various online trees that included him and some biographical references for the possible Thompson wife, I did find a clear citing of the marriage to Sarah Ann, daughter of Rev James Thompson, and Orin Peckham at St Paul’s Lutheran Church in Oak Hill, NY on October 15, 1834. Believing this is the Orin I was seeking,he would have been 21 to 29 years of age.

Searching for them in the 1840 census did not result in a match with Orin as head of household. I wasn’t sure if they were living in Greene County, NY nor did I know if they had had children.  Moving to the 1850 census, Orin was still not found.  Where were they?  Might they have been living with her elderly parents? Had they moved away? Most of Orin’s siblings had remained in New York, but some ventured off to Wisconsin.

Sarah’s father had been pastor at St Paul’s, so I found a record of his death and burial there in 1844 and for her mother in 1854.

Searching for her mother in the 1850 census led to a curious record: Anna Thompson, age 74, in the Derby, CT household of Edward B. Crafts 36, with NY-born wife Sarah also 36, their CT-born 2 year old daughter PLUS a NY-born 11 year old, George T. Peckham! Was this Sarah remarried and with a Peckham son? It certainly seemed it was based on her mother’s presence in the household.

Searching again for Sarah and her well-established pastor father, I found an ebook on the Thompson family that listed both Sarah’s marriage to Orin and the birth of their only son on March 25, 1837 plus her second marriage to E.B. Crafts in 1846.

Another ebook recapping the Crafts family, displayed in summary format on Google, indicated she and Edward had married in 1840. 

Edward Blakeslee Crafts" (son of Pearl') (322) (Ancestry Edward", Samuel', ... Married 9 Oct., 1840, Sarah Ann Thompson, daughter of Rev…….

So that would narrow Orin’s death year to between 1837 and 1840.

HOWEVER, when I looked at the ebook itself, the entry on page 508 stated their marriage year as 1846 – so beware of search result displays!

So I was still searching for Orin’s death between 1837 and 1846. His parents and some other family members are buried at Albany Rural Cemetery, so I thought perhaps I could find a record for Orin there; I did not. Might he be at St Paul’s in Oak Hill with his father-in-law? Not found.

I searched through online newspaper archives, assuming they had stayed in New York as their son was born there.  I tried ORIN, ORRIN, O, Orin Day, no luck. When might he have died?  No earlier than 1837 (based on son’s birth) and no later than 1846 (based on wife’s remarriage).  I expanded the search for records other than just death notices and did find an 1837 mention of Orrin D Peckham of Westerlo, Albany County at the Young Men’s Republican Convention. I wasn’t sure that would help me any.

I was about to give up when I decided to go back to the news archives and search only for deaths / PECKHAM/ New York State / 1837-1846. That led to numerous other Peckhams and finally a small notice in the Spectator:


                      2 July 1838 ORVIN D PECKHAM, Westerlo, 33

SO, I think that’s him !! The age matches up with the 1805 birth year, the location matches a citation from the previous year.  I still can’t be sure, but now I have something more substantial as my basis for further graveyard hunting.  I’d love to confirm it and also find out what happened to him and what his profession was.

If you happen to know, please drop me a note.