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A Visit to the Family History Library

Posted in Aldrich, Arnold, Ballou, Genealogy, Lamphere on January 9, 2013 | 9 Comments »

This was my first visit to the large Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, that contains microfilmed records from around the world as well as many genealogy books and other resources.

The Family History Library, Salt Lake City

Preparing

I had prepared beforehand, in Evernote, a list of microfilms and books to explore. These were sortable by the “tags” which allowed me to choose records for one person or family at a time. I also added a tag “Important” in case I had to make choices.

I had three days in the library. I knew as the trip grew closer that I would concentrate on several real questions. I printed those notes and put them in a paper binder – sometimes it’s easier to rely on paper when you will need to walk around the library or be at a microfilm reader. I did access Evernote on my iphone but ended up NOT bringing the laptop to the library. Next time, everything needs to be on a clipboard or ipad, for portability. The library doesn’t want you leaving valuables around, which is understandable.

Research in the library

I like the kind of microfilm reader that lets you download each page to your own flash drive. At home, this can be enlarged and manipulated better than printed paper or photos. So I started at a regular reader, but planned to utilize the computer-reader whenever I found something. Because the library was unusually quiet during my stay, I managed to use the computer microfilm reader most of the time.

ScanPro 1000

These are the specific problems I decided to explore, and how it went.

Parents of Daniel Lamphere (died 1808), father of Russell

There are some obscure Lamphere records I haven’t seen before:

Lanphere/Lanphear family, ca. 1770-1920 Film 3005 Item 13
The Lanphere and related families genealogy by Edward Everett Lanphere, Book 929.273 L288L
The Bates family in America by Edward E. Lanphere Fiche 6046981
Record of the Lanphere family of Rhode Island, Manuscript (pedigree chart) Ped Chart no. 251
Probate records index, 1798-1990 [Westerly, Rhode Island] 16 mm film 1892412 & 3
Westerly Land Evidence records, 1661-1903
Bible records from Connecticut, index cards, He-Ly, film 2879

What I learned: I like to review lesser-known work on the Lampheres. Unfortunately, I didn’t find much work that would be helpful to me at all. One amusing moment was when I sought out the “Pedigree Chart” files, looking for chart number 251 on the Lampheres of Rhode Island.

Pedigree Charts

While there were some intriguing charts in there, the Lamphere chart was, I quickly recognized, pages from Austin’s Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island.

The Lamphere Chart

First cha-ching moment: The Westerly deeds were far more helpful. Prior to his death, Daniel Lamphere mortgaged his property to his son Russell, my gggg-granfather. Russell never lived on the property, but he was heavily involved in the subsequent dealings. It took the family about 10 legal transactions, over the next 10 years, to finally dispose of the property. Each transaction was more helpful than the last; listing all heirs by name, mentioning brothers, fathers, wives, widows, current locations, and neighbors. Tantalizingly, some of the neighbors were named “Tefft” which is the surname sometimes ascribed to Daniel’s wife Nancy. I even found names of some Lamphere connections that blog readers have mentioned to me. I’m getting back to them.

These 35 pages of Westerly Deeds will need some careful analysis to determine the facts, but I am hoping those facts will be very helpful. I should probably mention that I had travelled to Westerly Town Hall previously to look at these, but not all volumes were available that day. The nice thing about microfilm is that ALL volumes should have been microfilmed, and be available.

Darling/Aldrich property in Wrentham, Massachusetts

Norfolk County Probate films for guardianship and probate
Probate records, 1746-1916 [Cumberland, Rhode Island]

What I learned: I found the probate records for Asa Aldrich and I finally realized that his controversial will had produced legal records in TWO states, since Cumberland, Rhode Island and western Wrentham, Massachusetts are adjacent to each other and family members lived on each side of the border. So I saved all those records. I also found guardianship and probate records for Elias Darling, grandfather of Ellis Aldrich Darling, which answered some questions about his life.

The parents of Lucy Arnold

Smithfield, Rhode Island Deeds 1731-1874 Grantor index film 959536, Grantee index film 959543
Lincoln Probate records, 1733-1917 (Lincoln, Rhode Island) Thomas Arnold d. Aug, 1817 film 959529
Microfilm of records in James Arnold’s family notes – town notes collection at the Knight Memorial Library, Providence, Rhode Island film 1839290 Item 4

What I learned: I have a continuing question in my mind about why the famed Rhode Island genealogist, James Arnold, didn’t leave a volume behind about the Arnolds. I once saw an ad that claimed he was researching such a work. I knew some of his papers are housed in the archives at a local Providence library branch. I was happy with the chance to easily see some of them on microfilm, and they were interesting, but didn’t relate to the Arnolds. Oh well.

The Arnold book [Benson, Richard H. The Arnold Family of Smithfield, Rhode Island. Boston: Newbury Street Press, 2009] has helped me tentatively identify Lucy Arnold. I would like to learn as much as possible to help me confirm that. Unfortunately, I still have not found a probate record for her father. But in the many, many deeds I found for her father, there is a great deal of information, still to be completely analyzed.

Second cha-ching moment: One set of clues involves the identity of Lucy’s mother, who is possibly a Smith. I found several deeds relating to a certain Smith couple (a physician and his wife) and the last one, interestingly, says that the woman is now a widow, old and inform, and is transacting some kind of real estate deal with Thomas Arnold. I’m hoping that deed will help me find further clues that actually prove who Thomas’ wife, Rachel, is. It would be nice to prove something that wasn’t known in the NEHGS publication! I am also hoping that something about these deeds helps me determine my more immediate question about proving a link between Lucy and these parents that goes beyond name and town.

Thomas Arnold

Marriage of Mercy Ballou/Nathan Aldrich and birth of her daughter Nancy Ann Aldrich

Vital records, 1734-1858 [Cumberland, Rhode Island] film 955486
Marriages, v. 1-3 (1746-1895) film 955487
his and her fathers’ property, Plan of the Town of Cumberland (Map) film 955497
Richard Ballou will, Cumberland Probate records, 1746-1916 Probate records Vol. 6-10 1784-1815 Film 955491

What I learned: The abstract of Richard Ballou’s will, that I’ve seen, was correct. He does not name his heirs by name, just groups them as “my heirs.” So that gave me no clues about the later life of my ggggg-grandmother Mercy Ballou. There was nothing in here that helped, and the map was badly photographed, so was no better than my own imperfect photos of an old Cumberland property map I made at the Rhode Island Historical Society.

My reaction overall

I should really be using these films more, through rental at my local Family History Center (now called FamilySearch Centers). I copied a number of index pages for my family names to help me order microfilm in the future, if needed.
They have a crazy amount of microfilm there.
One of many many aisles of microfilm
I should keep more careful track of books and microfilms as they are released on the web at FamilySearch.org.
As I kept seeing so many people sitting for hours at the computers, I wondered at so many going to the trouble to visit just to use free access to various genealogy web sites. Then I tried, on a whim, looking for records of my gg-grandmother Catherine Young, born in Surrey, England. An 1841 British Census record came up, from a site I have never paid for, and then I really got it. It’s nice not having your search limited by subscriptions. No one wants to subscribe to everything.
All the records I found need to be carefully abstracted and analyzed. For instance, I need to eliminate deeds that refer to others with the same name.
Three days at the FHL is worth several months of what I’m doing at home. As more materials are moved to the web, that is bound to change.

Thanks to Randy Seaver for making me aware of the Family History At A Glance – Family History Library Research booklet, which was helpful. I would also suggest people refer to the FHL website to plan a visit.

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A Visit to the Rhode Island Judicial Archives

Posted in Aldrich, Ballou, Genealogy, Rhode Island Stuff on May 30, 2012 | 2 Comments »

The question: Can I find a divorce record for my ggggg-grandfather Nathan Aldrich and his first wife, Marcy Ballou, around 1805?

What I knew that led me to think they were married and divorced:

Nathan added Marcy to his family bible, which is located at the NEHGS, and later crossed her out.
They had one daughter that I know of, my gggg-grandmother Nancy Ann (Aldrich) Darling. Late in life, Nathan Aldrich and his third wife, Lois, were living with Nancy’s son Ellis and his family.
In 1802, Nathan published an advertisement in the Providence Patriot disowning Marcy
By 1809, Nathan and his second wife, Chloe, sold a piece of property to Marcy’s father Richard Ballou in Cumberland, Rhode Island, and from then on, lived in Wrentham, Mass.

What I was NOT finding was any evidence of Marcy’s death. I wondered how that first marriage ended.

In Rhode Island at that time, divorces occurred in the Supreme Court. Records for the Supreme Court are stored at the Rhode Island Judicial Archives. I wrote to the Archives last fall requesting that the file be looked up. The answer came back that it could not be found.

More recently I decided to go in person, not knowing how much searching, if any, I would be allowed to do. The Judicial Archives are located at 5 Hill Street, Pawtucket, R.I. There is free parking across the street.

You enter and go up to the second floor, where you sign in.

When I explained that I was looking for historical records, staff member Andrew Smith was called to assist me.

I thanked Andrew for trying to help me via email a while back, and said that I was here with the same question. We talked about different forms of the names, and the time and place for the possible divorce. He checked the index again, no luck. He was willing to bring me the handwritten volumes summarizing ALL Supreme Court cases, in chronological order, from the period we were talking about.

I sat in a research room containing an old conference table which had probably graced a courtroom 75 or 100 years ago. I settled in to go, page by page, through the two volumes he brought me, which ran from approximately 1802-1807.

A true Rhode Island story

The first thing I noticed, as I paged through, was the set of judges on the R.I. Supreme Court at that time, which was repeated at the beginning of each “session” entry.

Peleg Arnold, Chief Justice

This is why taking the time to page through, record by record, can be so valuable. If my theory about Marcy Ballou’s mother, Lucy Arnold, is correct, then Marcy was actually the great-niece of Chief Justice Peleg Arnold. This is getting to be SO Rhode Island.

Less than halfway through the first book, I got lucky. I FOUND THE DIVORCE. Here it is:

[p. 220] “M. Aldrich” Be it Remembered that at the present Term of this Court Marcy Aldrich wife of Nathan Aldrich of Cumberland in said County prefered her petition, praying for reasons therein stated, that a decree of divorce may be passed in her [p.221] favor dissolving the bond of matrimony now subsisting between her and her said husband and for alimony – after hearing the same. It is ordered, adjudged and decreed by the Court here, that the prayer thereof be granted.

Of course I noticed the mention of a “petition” and “for reasons therein stated”. What was in the book was just a summary. The real divorce petition should have been stored separately. Unfortunately, that couldn’t be found. Andrew did find one for a “Mary Ballou” which he showed me, but it wasn’t my case.

another divorce petition

Inside that petition:

Inside the other petition

You can see that if the Marcy Ballou/Nathan Aldrich petition could be found, it would likely contain 6 or 7 sheets of information about the marriage. Andrew promised to try again to find it, but that has not been successful.

I did notice in the summary record that she received alimony. After his newspaper ad refusing to pay any further debts of hers, I can only smile and perhaps, in a very not-based-on-evidence kind of way, assume this is some further proof that Chief Justice Arnold was her uncle. His name appeared on the session she was involved in, but whether he recused himself, I have no way of knowing right now.

However, I now know that they actually divorced in 1803. Nathan and his second wife moved a bit farther up the road into Massachusetts and had several more children. Marcy’s parents were in Cumberland, so I suspect she stayed there, however briefly. Later, there is evidence that Nancy Ann lived with her father. Did Marcy die? Remarry and move away? Become debilitated somehow?

The R.I. Judicial Archives

I mentioned to Andrew that I was going to write about my visit in my blog. He said it was ok to mention him. If any genealogists want to access historical records from the archives, they can contact him directly:

Andrew Smith, Judicial Records Center, absmith at courts dot ri dot gov.

The Judicial Records Center web site gives more information about record holdings and making requests, but Andrew suggests you email him directly to save some time. I would suggest anyone traveling to the center might want to email in advance to check on availability of records, and open hours.

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The Brick Wall Stories: Lucy Arnold, Part 3

Posted in Arnold, Ballou, Genealogy, Smith on February 6, 2012 | 2 Comments »

Since post one and post two on Lucy Arnold, I have been unable to pursue most of the on-site research I need to do, but I have pursued some research on a number of collateral lines that I was able to do from home.

The problems:

Lucy Arnold married Richard5 (John4, John3, John 2, Maturin) Ballou in Smithfield, Rhode Island around 1777 and they became the parents of nine children, of which my ancestor, Mercy Ballou, is the oldest, born in 1778. I am trying to determine:

whether Lucy Arnold is the daughter of Thomas5 (Thomas4, Richard3, Richard2, Thomas1) and Rachel.
the likely family of Thomas’ wife, Rachel (possibly Smith).

Here is what I learned:

According to Benson’s Arnold book (see below), a Greene manuscript (see below) is his source that Rachel was a Smith. Another possible clue that I noticed is Benson’s reference on page 242 that

“Thomas [Arnold] purchased 4 acres of land from Thomas Smith on 20 June 1767″ (p. 242).

Looking around, I find a Smithfield land owner named Thomas4 (Thomas3, Edward2, Christopher1) Smith, (1697-1777), who was the son of Thomas and Phebe (Arnold) Smith. Thomas Smith would be Thomas Arnold’s second cousin once removed. Thomas Smith was a Quaker who married twice and inherited Smithfield property from his father, and his birth in 1697 is noted in Benson’s Arnold book. It’s doubtful he is Rachel’s father because I think this would have been caught by now, but it would be good to pin down exactly who the seller “Thomas Smith” was.
Like most early Rhode Island residents, the Arnolds were opposed to the various New England authoritarian churches. Some of the Smithfield Arnolds were Quakers, and were instrumental in establishing a Meeting in Smithfield.
My branch of the Thomas Arnold family were driven out of Massachusetts after they became Baptists. They settled in Providence and later Smithfield, Rhode Island.
The Ballous were active in the Six Principle Baptist Church in Cumberland.
Elder Ballou Meeting House, Cumberland, R.I.
In line after line of the ancestors of these Ballou, Arnold, and Aldrich families, who all ended up in Smithfield/Cumberland/Wrentham, I notice that many branches came from nearby Mendon, Mass. Other branches were among the original founders of Providence. In terms of narrowing down the Smiths, this means that Rachel Smith could possibly have been descended from a Mendon family of Smiths, as well as several early Providence Smith families. I suspect that if my current lead about the land transaction is a dead end, it may take me a long time to prove anything about her.
The Ballou book (see below) has become more and more valuable as I attempt to place these people in a historical context. For the first time, I realized that the discrepancies I see about Cumberland, R.I. and Wrentham, Massachusetts are because it was the same place. I knew that “Attleboro Gore” was a Massachusetts settlement that transferred to Cumberland, R.I. around 1745; what I didn’t realize was that the Cumberland section my ancestors lived in WAS Attleboro Gore. This will help me to further investigate land records.
Comparing family connections among the Thomas Arnold (1733 – ) and Richard Ballou families has resulted in lots of distant connections, none of which seem significant. I believe Richard Ballou acquired his property through his own family (NOT from his wife’s father), but I need to look at each of his deeds.

Next steps:

Find old maps of the households in Attleboro Gore/Cumberland.
Pursue Cumberland deeds and also Smithfield deeds (which may be in Central Falls) for Thomas Arnold and Richard Ballou’s activities (already have one for Richard Ballou)

and two steps from the last post that have had to wait:

Check out Union Village in person, and also Union Cemetery
Research John and Mary Smith

Sources:

Austin, John Osborne. The Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island, with Additions and Corrections by John Osborne Austin, and Additions and Corrections by G. Andrews Moriarty. Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Company, 1969.
Ballou, Adin. An Elaborate History and Genealogy of the Ballous in America Providence: E.L. Freeman & Son, 1888.
Benson, Richard H. The Arnold Family of Smithfield, Rhode Island. Boston: Newbury Street Press, 2009.
Greene, Welcome Arnold. “Notes of Genealogy of the Arnold Family.” Unpublished typescript based on a manuscript complied starting in the 1840′s. 1914. Knight Memorial Library, Providence. [photocopy accessed at the NEHGS Manuscript Collection].
Holman, Winifred Lovering. “Hope Allen and Granddaughter Deborah (Wager) Henchman.” New England Historic Genealogical Register 102 (July 1948): 177-191 (for my Boyce/Allen/Clifford lines)
Snow, Nora Emma. The Snow-Estes Ancestry. 2 volumes. Hillburn, N.Y., privately printed, 1939.[full text was accessed on Ancestry.com]
Torrey, Clarence Almon. New England Marriages Prior to 1700. 3 volumes. Boston, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011.

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What I saw at the NEHGS

Posted in Aldrich, Ballou, Darling, NEHGS on August 22, 2011 | 5 Comments »

I’ve only been to the NEGHS once. I prepared pretty carefully for my pilgrimage, took the train into Back Bay Station, walked a few blocks and there I was, standing in front of the brass doors. I even took a picture.

The New England Historic Genealogical Society was founded in Boston in 1845

Sure, I learned some interesting things that day. I found a deed on microfilm from Cumberland, Rhode Island that was helpful. I read some journal articles of interest. I wasted time in the printed genealogy section … it’s hard to leave the stacks. I enjoyed the lobby display of current publications and found a book about the Arnold family that I had not been aware of. I bought it, and on the train ride back discovered that there was a mistake in my Arnold line and I need to do further research.

But let’s get back to what I saw.

I knew that the first thing I would want to do at the library was ask to see the one manuscript they have that had belonged to my family. I learned about it in The Register which is indexed online. A note in volume 51 (1897) on page 219 reads as follows:

Thwing and Aldrich — The following record is copied from stray leaves of two Bibles which were presented to this Society by P. K. Foley, Esq., of Boston:

[I. Thwing - let's skip this; not my family]

II. Nathan Aldrich born March the 19 A.D. 1773

Anna Aldrich Born June the 21 A.D. 1800

Chloe Aldrich Born September 2 A.D. 1773

Edmon Aldrich Born April 8: 1810

Calib Aldrich Born September the 25th, 1813 & He Died in October the 5th 1813

Edmon Aldrich Died September the 4, 1814

William Aldrich Born May 14, 1815

Sarah Jain Aldrich Born February 21, 1817

Chloe Aldrich Died March 10, 1826.

Wait … who are these people?

To the best of my knowledge Nathan Aldrich was married 3 times:

Mercy Ballou — mother of Anna
Chloe Crowninshield — mother of the other children
Lois Grant

Nathan is buried between his second and third wives in Wrentham, Mass.

At the Burnt Swamp Road Cemetery in the Sheldonville section of Wrentham, Mass., Nathan is buried between wives number 2 and 3 (who I believe were cousins to each other). There is some normal documentation of those two marriages. Of course the poorly documented marriage is the one I’m descended from; Mercy is my ggggg-grandmother and Nathan is my ggggg-grandfather. I am ANNA’s descendant.

I had gotten my first faint evidence of the Mercy/Nathan marriage in an old Ballou genealogy. But when I found this Bible entry it left me with a lot of questions about Mercy. Why wasn’t she on the list? Why wasn’t she in the cemetery?

As I got better at hunting old newspaper stories I found two items using GenealogyBank.com. In 1802, Nathan disowned Mercy in the Providence Patriot:

Whereas Marcy, wife of me the subscriber, hath separated herself from me and at sundry times has unnecessarily run me in debt: These are therefore to forbid all persons trusting her on my account, as I am determined to pay no debts of her contracting from the date hereof. NATHAN ALDRICH, Cumberland, May 5, 1802.

In 1817 this was followed by an item about the daughter, Nancy:

Whereas Nancy Ann Aldrich, daughter of the subscriber, has behaved herself in an unbecoming manner, it has brought her father under the painful necessity of forbidding all persons from harboring or trusting her on my account, as I am determined not to pay any debts of her contracting after this day. — NATHAN ALDRICH, Wrentham, June 14

I have not discovered a death or divorce record for Nathan and Mercy. I don’t know what happened to her. However Nathan and Nancy (“Anna”)’s relationship was, I believe, eventually repaired. A few years later she married a local boy, Paul Darling, and went on to have five children. Late in life, Nathan and third wife Lois were living with one of Nancy’s sons and his family on the family farm. And more than that we may never know.

… what was in the Bible?

The document turned out to be just the one leaf from the Bible, not the book itself. But I’m grateful that Mr. Foley rescued this from whatever book stall it ended up in in 1897. The archivist brought it over to me at a table. It was in a protective binder.

I opened the cover and realized that seeing the original is worth a hundred transcriptions any day. This is what I saw:

Wife #1 Mercy is blacked out

Mercy had been blacked out. She had an entry which was eradicated. But I realized that if I tried hard, I could read the original writing:

Marcy Aldrich Born

April the 19 1778

At my request the kind archive lady came over and peered at the page from different angles with me. We agreed on what it said.

This offers the first real evidence for Mercy’s family and matches the theory I had gleaned from the old Ballou book and some Rhode Island birth records. She is the daughter of Richard and Lucy Ballou.

I am grateful to the NEHGS for saving such an insignificant scrap. This part of my family is poorly documented and obscure. I have found no evidence that any other descendants of Nathan Aldrich are doing research. I would venture to guess that I’m the first person to request that archival record in the 114 years it’s been sitting there.

And despite a little resentment about the “unbecoming behavior” remark, it meant a great deal to me to hold something in my hand that my ggggg-grandfather wrote in 1800.

Thank you, NEHGS.

There is a further update to this story found in the post “A Visit to the Rhode Island Judicial Archives.”

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One Rhode Island Family

My Genealogical Adventures through 400 Years of Family History

Archive for the ‘Ballou’ Category

A Visit to the Family History Library