Know the In-laws: the elusive George Kempton

In tracing the family of David Depeyster Acker (1822-1888), I was trying to configure the family group of his second wife, Julia.  Their 1865 marriage record listed her as the widow Floyd but I was not sure how to find her maiden name. Her 1892 will provided what looked like a great clue -- one of the executors was listed as her brother and his surname was Outcalt.  But that was not her maiden name.

Over time and examining many, many documents I found that she was the daughter of Moses and Amanda Pomeroy and she had a younger sister named Lucy.  Moses died in 1834 and shortly thereafter her mother married John D. Outcalt and added two young sons to the family, John and Cornelius.  I found that Lucy married George Kempton in New York City in 1855.  So know I knew the surnames of everyone.

Tertullus Ludington of Catskill, New York

While reviewing my Catskill Village cemetery photos in preparation for uploading them to findagrave.com, I realized that I had stumbled upon information regarding the children of Tertullus Ludington, my 5th great grandfather. His gravestone listed his death as 16 Jul 1821 at age 48. I had forgotten that I'd found other family members buried next to him.

Cousinology: Charlotte Higley in Binghamton 1910

While piecing together the descendants of Dr. Adam Clark and wife Harriet Watson, an unrecognized “niece” showed up in the 1910 census with Harriet Gordon Clark, widow of their son Henry.

Family Snippets: The Comfort Sisters of Catskill

Hiram Comfort (1791-1839) and Julia Ludington (1807–1886) raised five daughters in Catskill, New York where Hiram owned a sash and blind factory.  He had been born in Orange County, New York but was in Catskill by 1822 when he married Julia, the daughter of Tertullus Ludington (son of Colonel Henry Ludington and brother of Sybil who both played important roles during the Revolutionary War).

I thought only living people were listed in the census

Well .... I guess that's not always true as can be seen here in an excerpt from the 1911 UK census.  

We likely would never have known of these young children ... so thanks Edward or Eleanor, whoever talked to the census taker.

Don't let the Congress block access to the SSDI

As David Rencher mentioned today at the Rootstech Conference, House ways and Means is seriously moving toward shutting down access to this very important genealogical data source.

Contact your reps in Congress as well as the H W&M committe ... Call them at 202-225-3625 and let your voice be heard!

If the issue is the inclusion of the social security number, drop it -- but give us access to the dates.

DO IT RIGHT NOW!!!

What kind of job is that?

Beamsman in a tannery

This is an excerpt from the 1911 UK census.  We had thought that John Holmes was a greengrocer ... so it was surprising to see this entry.  Actually it was his wife Margaret who was the greengrocer and John had a strange sounding job at the tannery.