Saturday Challenge- 2015 Achievements

This week’s Genea-Musings challenge is found here:  
Genea-Musings: Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (SNGF) -- Best Find of 2015, and Research Challenge for 2016: 1) What was your best research achievement in 2015? Tell us - show us a document, or tell us a story, or display a photograph. Brag a bit! You've earned it! 2) We all have elusive ancestors. What research problem do you want to work on in 2016? Tell us where you want to research and what you hope to find.

I’m not really sure what my biggest achievement has been in the last year.

v I’ve gotten some of my files more organized

v I received much paperwork from my uncle that still needs to be organized

v Most of my citations in my database are now properly formatted

v I’ve eliminated some “sources” that were not very good, like so-and-so emailed about this information

Probably, though, the biggest as far as break throughs happened in December of 2014 and continued into 2015. I took a second look at a line that dead-ended something like this:

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Mary Ann Fay. Born on 11 November 1840 in Antwerp, Jefferson Co, New York. Mary Ann died in Wilna, Jefferson Co, New York, on 24 July 1906; she was 65. Buried in Hillside Cem, Antwerp, Jefferson Co, New York.

On 10 August 1862 when Mary Ann was 21, she married Joseph D Ingalls in Antwerp, Jefferson Co, New York.

2 Ezekiel Edson Fay. Born on 23 September 1802 in Fitzwilliam Depot, Cheshire Co, New Hampshire. Ezekiel Edson died in Leroy, Bremer Co, Iowa, on 17 January 1888; he was 85. Buried in Mentor Cem, Fredericka, Bremer Co, Iowa.

Ezekiel Edson married Sophia [surname unknown]. Born about 1814 in possibly Antwerp, Jefferson Co, New York.

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(I haven’t included the citations here to keep things easier to read, but have them if anyone is interested in this family). 

Mary Ann Fay Ingalls

In the past little over a year, I’ve found out some things about these people. Sophia is the daughter of Zolpher Holden and his wife Jerusha Harrison. But, but, Sophia was NOT the mother of Mary Ann! There is a grave kind of hidden in the old part of Hillside Cemetery in Antwerp for Louise Wood Fay—Ezekiel’s first wife and the mother of most of his children including Mary Ann. He had married Sophia after Louise died and then moved out to Iowa taking the children with them, but Mary Ann came back to Jefferson County when she got older and remained here.

The Fay family also has some more history than what I knew about. I can trace that line back to Southborough and then to Sudbury, Massachusetts. Some of this still needs documentation, but I have the outline of where this family came from. I have also enjoyed looking at some of the branches that are not directly related to me.

There’s a baby that’s named Ethan Allen Fay who was born in 1779, a couple years after the Battle of Fort Ticonderoga. I wonder where he got his name? His father Dr. Jonas Fay named him after a friend of his, after all, he was at the battle and his father, little Ethan Allen’s grandfather, was Samuel Fay who owned the Catamount Tavern where the Green Mountain Boys met! I can’t really claim them as Samuel was a half cousin, eight times removed to me, but it is fun to look through some of these lines and wonder if my ancestors were aware of their distant cousins and what they were doing.

On to the second part of the question, where do I want to research and what do I want to work on this year? Hmm. How long do you have? I could go on for hours with all the things I want to do in the next year. So long, that they obviously won’t all get done or even started during 2016.

v Continue organizing my stuff. Kenneth helped me identify some pictures today that I hadn’t been sure of.

v Get copies of stuff digitized and organized to send out to the cousins

v Get at least one line solidified enough to write a booklet about them so that I can publish it and get it in various repositories

v Return to IGHR again this year and take the Law Libraries and Government Documents course

v Attend Syracuse’s New York State Family History Conference

v Attend Professional Management Conference at Fort Wayne, Indiana

Can I accomplish all these in 2016? I don’t know, but I’m certainly going to attempt to!