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A compilation of the family records as of January 2002
First, this collection is contained within a File prepared using "Family Tree Maker" - TryHard.ftw There are approximately 750 persons listed within dozens of family groups.
Families that have contributed Surnames include:
Bodecker - Pittsburgh, PA
Bradley - Madison, CT
Clark - OH, MA, NE, NY
Crampton - NY
Edwards - AR
Fraser - Nova Scotia
Frieman - NY
Jones - IA, PA, NY
Lewis - NY
Loomis - MA
MacDonell - Nova Scotia
MacGillivray - Nova Scotia
MacLean - Nova Scotia
McDonald - Nova Scotia
McDonell - MT, WA, CA, Nova Scotia
McIsaac - Nova Scotia
Meigs - CT
Miller - NY
Norton - KS, IA, IN, CT, CA
O'berly - OH
Palmer - NY
Randall - MA, NY, OH, IA, CA
Sullivan - CA
Stuckenberg - PA, CA, MO
Taylor - NY
Thayer - NY
Van Valen - NY
Ward - CT, NY
Whitaker - IA, CA
Includes data collected from numerous Community and County Histories, Genealogies from various familiy members dating from 1885, Census Reports, and oral tradition.
Special thanks to Lois Edith Crampton, Madison, Connecticut, who spent much of her life gleaning original records from New England Village archives that date back to 1640. Her sharing made possible much of the entries up to 1850.
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"We are all descended from Grandfathers" - True in most cases but not in my family when I was young. I had two of them but neither had lived to see me. They had died in 1931, 1932. Nobody thought of talking about them. So, the inquiries began for me when I was eleven. I had just read "Heidi" and was saddened by the death of her kind Grandfather. My mother noticed my mood, asked about it and exploded in anger when she heard. Why was not known for years. Eventually, the truth came out - I was a descendant of two Grandfathers, four Great Grandfathers, etc.
In 1960, one of my Grandmothers died - the funeral was a revelation because she was buried alongside one of her children. In 1975, I was suffering from "Male Menopause", an insulting way of describing a growing concern for what I had missed along the way to age 40.
I quit work and spent two years finishing a B.S. in Business Administration. It was hard for me but nowhere near as hard as I was for my instructors. I had completed High School in 1955; qualifying me for relegation to the post "Sputnik" human junk heap. While there, I had access to the college library and I learned how to use it. There was a complete Report on the Civil War on the shelf. I had found out that one of my ancestors had fought in an Artillery Company from Ohio. Soon, I knew where and some of the things that happened to him.
That discovery led to special libraries; places where peoples' family recollections were stored. Notes, charts, sketches, copies began to proliferate. My son joined the search and my wife. Both of us traveled around the USA to see the sites, including places where ancestors had lived and died. We were hooked. 1n 1976, my son and I stood on a corner in Maine and celebrated our most easterly destination. 1n 1977, my wife and I stood at the grave of a Great Grandfather; in a quiet and nearly forgotten cemetery in central Nova Scotia. Last year, my son offered to pay our way to Scotland - to see the land and the records library in Edinburgh.
Last week, I obtained a copy of "Family Tree Maker" and spent the waking hours pouring data collected as long ago as 1875 to three minutes ago. I think it is finished but I keep finding things. Cleared of the clutter of 50 years of research; my tired mind can more readily perceive what was invisible to me yesterday.
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