Ancestors What Shares My Birthday

Nellie Butterfield is descended from a long line of Colonial American ancestors, among them the Deans, who would found the town of Westmoreland, Oneida, New York.  Nellie's grandmother was a Dean - Thankful Dean, who married the physician, Amasa Harrington, and lived and died in Laurens, Otsego, New York.  In fact, Thankful Dean, is buried in the Laurens Village Cemetery, having died on her birthday - April 9th - in 1866.

However, I do not share a birthday with Thankful Dean.  Thankful Dean shares a birthday with my Norwegian great grandfather, Ole Martinsen Fjeld, and is one day short of sharing a birthday with my mother.

No, the Dean that I share a birthday with is Gaius Dean, Thankful Dean's father.  Gaius Dean was born 26 September 1755 in Salisbury, Litchfield, Connecticut, but he would not tarry long.  Most of his life, he bounced between Canada and New York, living in Montreal, Kingston, and the Newcastle District in Canada and in Hillsdale, Columbia and Westmoreland, Oneida, New York.  Gaius Dean died 15 February 1821 in Westmoreland, Oneida, New York.

Gaius Dean served in the American Revolutionary War, enlisting as a private in Captain James Spencer's Company of Albany, New York, a regiment of foot under the command of Colonel Jeremiah Hogeboom.  My great grandmother's great grandfather ended his military career serving as a captain under Brigadier General Robert Van Rensselaer in the Columbia County Militia of New York State.   Of Van Rensselaer's Brigade, it has been stated that "Everything except the soil is destroyed from Fort Hunter to Stone Arabia."

Other Ancestors who share my birthday:  my 3rd great grandfather, Knud Knudsen Stigen, born 26 September 1820 on Ager farm in Lunder, Norderhov, Buskerud, Norway.  But he's not a Tiffany Creek ancestor...

Tags: birthday, Dean, Stigen, Canada, New York, Revolutionary War

Powered by Qumana

Getting to Joseph Bartlett of Newton

I thought it would be helpful to publish a five generation pedigree chart leading to Joseph Bartlett of Newton, then a suburb of Boston, in Massachusetts:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6213013/Am-as-a-Harrington-Pedigree

Am as a Harrington Pedigree - Upload a Document to Scribd

The line leading to Joseph Bartlett of Newton is highlighted.

Jehosephat Bartlett, Son of Robert Bartlett and Mary (Mayflower) Warren

Debunking Joseph Bartlett...

One such former ancestor is Joseph Bartlett, son of Robert Bartlett and Mary Warren and grandson of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren.  In fact, this is a common genealogy, which you can find on various sites online as well as in family history books.  Don't let me catch it in your family history book!

This particular mistaken lineage is everywhere.

One look at the most recent publication of Mayflower Families, Volume 18 (Descendants of Richard Warren) forever debunks this lineage and, once you have seen the true lineage of Richard Warren and son-in-law Robert Bartlett, there is no going back.

Mary Warren, daughter of Mayflower passenger, Richard Warren, did indeed marry a Robert Bartlett.  However, these are the children of Mary Warren and Robert Bartlett:

1. Benjamin Bartlett, born 1633


2. Rebecca Bartlett, born 1634


3. Mary Bartlett, born circa 1634


4. Sarah Bartlett


5. Joseph Bartlett, born circa 1639


6. Elizabeth Bartlett, born circa 1643


7. Lydia Bartlett, born 8 June 1648


8. Mercy Bartlett, born 10 March 1650/1

"What's the problem?" you say?  "Joseph Bartlett is child number five!"

The "problem" is the Joseph Bartlett born to Mary Warren and Robert Bartlett was born around 1639, five or six years earlier than our Joseph Bartlett.  Furthermore, the Joseph Bartlett born in 1639 was born in Plymouth and never left Plymouth.  Our Joseph Bartlett was a well-known early settler of Newton, Massachusetts, who was known to have been born in England.  Dorset, England, to be exact.  Our Joseph Bartlett lived in Cambridge Village, Newton, Massachusetts until his death on 26 December 1702.

Furthermore, Joseph Bartlett of Plymouth married Hannah Pope around 1662 and died in Plymouth on 18 February 1711/2.  Children of Joseph Bartlett of Plymouth and Hannah Pope are:

1. Robert Bartlett, born circa 1663


2. Joseph Bartlett, born circa 1665


3. Elnathan Bartlett


4. Hannah Bartlett


5. Mary Bartlett, born circa 1672


6. Sarah Bartlett


7. Benjamin Bartlett, born circa 1679


8. Thomas Bartlett, baptized 1683

Joseph Bartlett of Newton married Mary Mercy Waite and had a son, John Bartlett, who married Patience Cady and had a son named Nathaniel Bartlett, who married Sarah Thompson.

Children of Nathaniel Bartlett and Sarah Thompson are:

1. Patience Bartlett


2. John Bartlett


3. Mary Bartlett


4. Lucy Bartlett


5. Sarah Bartlett


6. Nathan Bartlett


7. Submit Bartlett

Our ancestor is child number 5, Sarah Bartlett, who married Ephraim Harrington, who fathered approximately twelve children, among them, the physician and surgeon, Amasa Harrington, who married Thankful Dean.  Amasa Harrington and Thankful Dean are the parents of W.C.D. Harrington, who married Mary Ann "Belle" Parker, who are the maternal grandparents of my great grandmother, Nellie Butterfield.

Jehosephat!

Powered by Qumana

Former Ancestors

I have literally thousands of former ancestors, most of whom I have never heard of I am sure - some of them waiting in the wings for their 15 minutes in the branches of my tree, others whose 15 minutes will find them on the branches of someone else's tree... lying in wait, with a single-minded and tenacious audacity of purpose, salivating over the opportunity for confounding yours truly and anyone else lured into their traps by an obsessive desire to put one more leaf on the tree, reaching into antiquity as the Tower of Babel reached into the Heavens.  The Butterfield tree is full of such creatures.  But....

Like the Tower of Babel, these former ancestors will be struck down!

With relish.

By me.

[Evil laughter in the background.]

Tags: ancestors, former ancestors, Tower of Babel

Powered by Qumana

Tea Leaves and Coffee Grounds

As you will see in the interests portion of my profile, I have an interest in "occult" subjects as well as in family history.  What better place to put an entry in the old folk practice of reading tea leaves and coffee grounds than in a genealogy blog?

Reading tea leaves and coffee grounds to predict the future was - and still is - generally practiced by women and, as it turns out, my great grandmother, Nellie Butterfield, used to read both.  Mother tells me her preference was for coffee grounds, though.

Apparently, the practitioners of this art use shapes formed by the coffee grounds or tea leaves to create a story about the drinker's future, once the drink itself is gone and the dregs remain, of course.  In my opinion, complete nonsense, but possibly an entertaining way to break the ice at a tea party or kaffe klatsche!

Powered by QumanaTags: coffee, tea, future, occult

Late Night Discovery

I was going to post something about the 1860 census here, but after a somewhat frustrating experience looking for information on my ancestor, Thaddius Actford Butterfield, I made an unexpected and, for myself, exciting discovery.  My ancestor's name is spelled in different sources as either Thaddius or Thaddeus and is sometimes abbreviated Thad.  While I was fooling around with databases in Ancestry just before bedtime last night - or so I thought! - I found Thaddius A. Butterfield listed as Omnibus proprietor in Rochester, New York.  Thaddius did indeed live in Rochester, New York.  He was by profession a printer and newspaper publisher, as I had determined from multiple censuses.  So I assumed "Omnibus" was a newspaper of some sort.  Then, I thought, 'What if the publisher of this guide that I was looking at literally meant omnibus, as in a vehicle for public transportation?'  I knew that if the literal definition, rather than the literary definition, applied, that the Thaddius A. Butterfield listed as Omnibus proprietor was not my Thaddius A. Butterfield.  Perhaps there was more than one Rochester in New York in those days?

I saved the record anyway, knowing the record probably did not refer to my Thaddius A. Butterfield and entered Rochester, New York into Wikipedia.  Sure enough, there were two Rochesters in New York - one in Monroe and the other in Ulster county.  My Thaddius A. Butterfield had lived in Monroe in 1840 and by 1850 was found in Racine, Wisconsin, publishing another newspaper.  The so-called omnibus proprietor lived in Ulster county in 1849.  Case closed.  The omnibus proprietor could not have been my Thaddius A. Butterfield, right?  Wrong.  There are nine years between 1840 and 1849 and a man can move a lot in that amount of time.  There's no law against living in two different towns of the same name.

Given that logic, I decided to return to Ancestry and see if I could find anything else on Thaddius A. Butterfield in the New York State databases.  When I returned, I had a hard time finding the databases.  I had just been to that site a few minutes ago and the databases were not where I left them.  The darn things were playing a game of hide-and-seek with me.  So I poked around and eventually found them again.  Nothing more on Thaddius A. Butterfield, Thaddius Butterfield, or even Thad Butterfield.

So I tried Google.  Good old Google.

Not like it was in the old days...

Now they have books!  So I typed Thaddius A. Butterfield into the Google Books search engine and Voila!  Stuff about Thaddius Butterfield - all sorts of stuff and many different Thaddius Butterfields living at the same time my Thaddius Butterfield lived.

Suddenly, something caught my eye:

 

1841, dau. of Thaddeus Ackford Butterfield and Rebecca J. Webb. In 1845 Edward
went to Calhoun Co., Mich. In 1853 to Adams Co., Wis., and expects in Fall of ...

That was him and that was it - the discovery I thought I would never make.  The discovery I thought no one would ever make.  Most of the descendants of Thaddius Actford Butterfield who are researching their heritage are the descendants of Thaddius and his second wife, Cleora Greene Hammond.  (Or is that Cleora Hammond Greene?  I forget which.)  They are either unaware of the first marriage or don't have a clue as to who his first wife was.  She is an unknown.  As a descendant of Thaddius' son, George A. Butterfield, Thaddius' first wife is not as unknown to me.  I had discovered through census records that her name was Rebecca J., but I did not know her maiden name.  To me, she was Rebecca J. Unknown, mystery woman.  Staying up past my bedtime - 12:30 a.m., to be precise - changed all that.  I had been wrong all this time.  Rebecca wanted to be found and her name is Rebecca J. Webb.

Thanks to Burhans Genealogy, a book written in 1894 by Samuel Burhans concerning genealogies that, for the most part, had nothing to do with my own.  Fortunately for me, George A. Butterfield's sister, Frances, had married into Samuel Burhans' clan - she had married a Van Wie.  Otherwise I might never have known Rebecca J.'s maiden name.

Technorati Tags: "Rebecca J. Webb","Thaddius A. Butterfield",genealogy,Wisconsin,Dunn

Casting Bricks

There are two separate Parker lines in my maternal heritage - one that straddles the 18th-20th centuries and another straddling the 16th and 17th centuries.  What if these two lines were intertwined, interconnected, one eventually leading into the other?  This is a game I play with myself.  I almost wish it were true, that I could find evidence that it were true.  I can play this game because I have a brick wall in my Parker research that has stymied genealogists for generations.

The latter day Parkers moved about quite a bit, moving from Pennsylvania to Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa and, eventually, Wisconsin, where they settled.  My direct Parker ancestor is Mary Ann Belle Parker (1824-1907), who married William C.D. Harrington (1814-1890) at the age of 15, with full permission from her father, Wilson Parker Sr.  I know she had full permission from her father, because I have a photocopy of the original document, written in Wilson Parker's own penmanship, giving her over to W.C.D. Harrington as a bride.  Mary Ann Belle Parker and William C.D. Harrington settled in Dunn County, Wisconsin sometime between 1858 and 1860 and spent much of the remainder of their lives in Menomonie and Tainter Townships.

 

In 1849 they can be found in Marine Mills, Washington County, Minnesota, living next door to Wilson Parker Sr.  By 1852, they are in Lyon's Township, Clinton, Iowa, according to the Iowa Census.  Then, in 1860, they are in Dunn, Wisconsin.  We know they had moved to Tainter, Dunn, Wisconsin by 1858 because their son, James, was born in Tainter in 1858.  Another of their sons, Andrew, was born in Iowa in 1852.  In between James and Andrew, another son was born - Alva.  Many researchers list Alva's birthplace as Minnesota.  Then again, many researchers also list Andrew's birthplace as Minnesota, whereas multiple census records indicate he was born in Iowa.  I have yet to find a state census showing where this family was living in 1856.  I am fairly certain they were in one of three places:  Minnesota, Iowa, or Wisconsin.  I strongly suspect they were not in Minnesota, but until I have facts, I cannot rule Minnesota out.

We find this family in the 1850 federal census as well, still living in Marine Mills, Washington, Minnesota.  Wilson Parker Sr. is no longer a head of household at that location.  He disappears and I have been unable to locate him in the 1850 census.  A Wilson Parker appears in the 1854 Iowa state census for Jackson in Lee County living next door to John Terrell, brother of Rebecca Terrell, the latter of whom married Wilson Parker Jr.  However, this is more likely to be Wilson Parker Jr. than his father, Wilson Parker Sr.

Basically, we do not know what happened to Wilson Parker Sr. or where he wound up. It is possible he was missed by the 1850 census if he was in the process of moving across country again.  However, it is also possible that he died in 1849 in Minnesota.  Wilson Parker Sr.'s death is a mystery.  We do not know when or where he died.

Similarly, Wilson Parker Sr.'s birth is an enigma.  We know he was born in 1792, but we have not found any records indicating his birth.  In the 1880 census, we find that Mary Ann Belle (Parker) Harrington's father was born in Pennsylvania and her mother in Kentucky.  But how reliable is this information?  Considering William C.D.'s parents are both listed as having been born in England, I would take this information with a grain of salt.  William C.D. Harrington's parents were born in New York (mother, Thankful Dean) and Massachusetts (father, Amasa Harrington).  It is possible that W.C.D. replied "New England" when asked by the enumerator where his parents were born, thinking the enumerator had asked him where his father was born.  The enumerator may then have written down that W.C.D.'s parents were born in England, not having heard correctly.  Then again, one of his children or one of the neighbors could have given the information about this family, in which case, the information it contains is inaccurate.  In any case, the birth information for Mary Ann Belle's parents may still be correct.  Perhaps the enumerator merely got the states mixed up.  In other words, how do we know that Wilson Parker Sr. wasn't born in Kentucky and his wife, Patience Watson,  in Pennsylvania?

In general, we are casting bricks at a brick wall.  This may not help in the short run (and looks a little foolish), but if we cast enough bricks at this brick wall, either the bricks will eventually come tumbling down or the wall will rise larger in height.

Technorati Tags: genealogy,Parker,Wisconsin,Tainter,Dunn,Menomonie,"brick wall",bricks "Mary Ann Belle Parker","William C.D. Harrington","Wilson Parker"

Welcome!

Welcome to Tiffany Creek, a new blog about ancestors from Dunn and Pepin counties in Wisconsin. I will be posting information about my Wisconsin ancestors here, as well as information about other individuals who lived in the area. With any luck, I will help others researching ancestors from this region. I welcome your comments and suggestions. I am still in the process of tweaking the settings and layouts of this blog, so you can expect changes. I intend to make Tiffany Creek more attractive than it is now, but that will take some time. In the meantime, enjoy my posts and sign my guestbook, please!

A short list of surnames I am researching in this region:
Butterfield
Harrington
Parker
Nussberger

Note that this list is not all-inclusive and there are other surnames I have information about and am researching. The Nussbergers came to America in 1847 and settled in Bear Creek, Pepin, Wisconsin, which was later renamed Durand. The Parkers and Harringtons arrived from Minnesota in about 1860 - they had also lived in Iowa and Illinois, with the patriarch of the Parker family having been born in Pennsylvania and the matriarch - a Watson - having been born in Kentucky. The Harringtons and Butterfields have ancestry that dates back to early colonial times in the U.S., these families having lived in various parts of New England, especially the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Harringtons intermarried with the Deans of New York and Canada as well. So you will see a lot of east coast genealogy as well, not to mention some posts about the witch trials and certain Quaker incidents that my family was involved in.

Last, but not least, do expect sources. These will be listed, whenever possible, at the bottom of posts as footnotes with links, where appropriate.