Stephentown Historical Society

Address: PO Box 11, Stephentown, NY (Staples Road @ the Corner of Garfield-Nassau Road)

Phone: Call: (518) 733 6070

Website: https://www.stephentown-historical.org/

Email: SHS@Fairpoint.com

Hours: The Heritage Center is open from 1 to 4 p.m. on Fridays and by appointment. The volunteers will gladly make an appointment for you if they can.

Photocopies are readily made by the volunteers for a nominal fee. There is no charge to research at their facility, but donations are gratefully accepted.

Heading either east from Albany along winding roads or north or south along NYS Route 22, it doesn’t matter. Any route you take to Stephentown will find you on country roads winding up and down mountains and through forested areas until you feel you are somewhere in the wilderness. It is in this area close to the Massachusetts border that many of our ancestors settled for either a brief time or a generation or more. Here, nestled in a small community that was once a bustling place, is an old Methodist Episcopal church in the small country style that is now home to the Stephentown Historical Society. Tracks once carried passenger and freight trains through here including milk to New York City, but they have been abandoned since 1951.

In the 1790 census, Stephentown was listed as the ninth largest town in the United States. Looking at the town today, this is hard to believe, as it is a sleepy little rural area that is sparsely populated. However, I have found in researching, as I’m sure others have as well, that many more people have connections to Stephentown than you might believe. More than once, I have heard somebody comment that a family in the late 1700s or early 1800s was in Rensselaer County briefly. I have replied: “Let me guess, Stephentown.” and I was correct. Part of some of the major routes for westward migration out of New England crossed the Massachusetts border near here and headed on westward through small communities including especially Stephentown.

While at the historical society, I found more information about some of my family lines. The volunteer, Bill Zimmerman, who opened for us, was the son-in-law of one of the founders, Elizabeth McClave, who had been a font of information about the early families. Luckily, she wrote much of this information down on index cards that are used to locate obscure information on the early families.  Although not sourced, these cards have been found to be extremely accurate.

While at the historical society, Bill gave us not only information on the people I was interested in and the cemeteries they are buried in, but also directions to a hidden cemetery.  I don’t have any direct ancestors buried at the Tifft Cemetery, but the name derives from the family, as my 4^th great-grandfather’s brother and family are many of those buried there. The cemetery is about 500 feet off the road along a logging trail. The trail, barely discernable from the forest now, is all uphill to this little cemetery tucked into the woods so much that it has become a part of the woods itself. However, we found it and were able to see for ourselves these family graves. 

Saturday Challenge- Where Were They in 1900?

A typical scene*

From an old GeneaMusings by Randy Seaver.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

1)  Where were your ancestors in the year 1900?  Make a list with their ages and location (with the street  address if you know it).

This assignment shouldn’t be too hard I thought, I’ll only do my direct ancestors, not aunts, uncles, or cousins. Right. In the year, 1900, I had four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, nine 2-great-grandparents, and one 3-great grandmother alive! Well, here goes:

Grandparents

William Ward lived in Scipio with his parents at age 13. This undoubtedly would have been the Mapleton area.

Frances Ingalls Ward at age 11 would have been on the Fort Drum military base. No that’s not right. Fort Drum didn’t even exist yet. She lived near North Wilna on her father’s farm. Today the area has been absorbed into Fort Drum.

Marion Wooster was age 4. He had been born in Iowa, but in 1900 was living back east where the family had come from on the outskirts of the hamlet of Lysander in northern Onondaga County.

Alice Valentine Jennings Wooster would have been 7 and living on her father’s farmland in Ireland.

Great-Grandparents

Charles Ingalls at age 36 owned a farm in the town of Wilna Jefferson Co, New York, just north of the settlement of North Wilna. The previous year he had lost his first wife (my great-grandmother) in childbirth and had not yet remarried.

William Jennings at age 51 and his wife, Sarah (Damery) Jennings age 38 were living on their farmland in Keelinga, Leap, County Cork Ireland. This is a small community in southwest Cork not far from the sea. One of their granddaughters and her husband own it today.

John Ward was 46 and his wife, Maria (Titus) Ward was 42 that year. They lived in the town of Scipio on a farm that we believe was near the four corners of Mapleton.

Verner Wooster age 37 and his wife, Edith (Duff) Wooster age 36 would have been on one of their farms. This one was in Lysander, New York, but they still had a farm in Iowa that they would travel back and forth to over the years.

2-Great-Grandparents

John Brown age 65 and Anna (Wright) Brown age 64 were living in Antwerp not far from their son-in-law Charles Ingalls, recent widower of their daughter Achsah. Antwerp is the town next to Wilna and the homes were about 5 miles or so apart.

James Duff was age 64 and Nellie (Johnson) Duff was 53 this year. Their farm was in Hampton Township of Dakota County, Minnesota. This is south of Minneapolis.

William Ward was age 72 and his wife, Mary Ann (Blackwell) Ward was 74 in 1900. They lived in Scipio, probably on the property that Mary Ann owned at Manchester Road and Cork Street.

Mary Fay Ingalls was 60. A widow, she lived with her son Charles in Wilna, undoubtedly helping him with his children.

 

Elizabeth (Tift) Wooster, a widow at age 73, she is living in her son, Verner’s home in Lysander as mentioned above at the time of the census. She appeared to consider Verner’s home as her base while visiting her children for extended times. Seven of her ten children were surviving in 1900.

Lodema (Tobias) Titus, at age 69 lived in Ledyard, with her oldest son, Daniel. He is listed as the head of household on the census. However, this was the home she had occupied for many years not far from the Great Gully that separates Ledyard from Springport in Cayuga County.

3-Great-Grandmother

Mary (Aubin) Johnson was age 85. One of the two original white women to settle in Washington County, Minnesota, she was now living in her daughter Emma’s home in Castle Rock, Minnesota. Emma and her husband, William Duff, lived not far from their siblings Nellie and James Duff mentioned above.

Despite the number of people to account for, this was not hard to figure out. Prior research has made me aware of the general vicinity of the places that my ancestors had lived. The census for 1900 reminded me of where they were living; particularly for those that had, had different homes over the years or that were staying with children.

*The picture is from Lancaster Pennsylvania taken this year while on vacation. But as they all lived on farms in 1900, this would have been typical of what they might have seen out their windows.

Wordless Wednesday- Tifft Cemetery

Saturday Challenge- Three Degrees of Separation

GeneaMusings Saturday Challenge:

  Using your ancestral lines, how far back in time can you go with three degrees of separation?  That means "you knew an ancestor, who knew another ancestor, who knew another ancestor."  When was that third ancestor born?

When I saw this challenge, I figured I wouldn’t get too far back in time. On my father’s side of the family, I never met my grandparents as they were both deceased before I was born. My maternal grandmother emigrated from Ireland and I don’t have the dates to be able to go very far back on her lines- only the names and not sure of them. So, I’m a bit surprised at  how far back I can actually go with the three degrees of separation.

These are my three longest lines:

From my Dad (1919-1998), he knew his paternal grandmother, Maria (Titus) Ward, (1858-1927) and she knew her parents, Samuel Titus (1825-1874) and Lodema (Tobias) Titus (1831-1926). She might have met her father’s mother, Maria (Lockwood) Titus who was born 1801 and died sometime before 1862. If so, that would put me back to 1801, but at least to 1825 with this line. Her maternal grandfather, John Tobias was born 1802, but we have no idea when he died, so he is still a possibility as well.

Starting again with Dad, I can go through his maternal line back to the early 1800s as well. His maternal grandfather, Charles Ingalls (1864-1939), knew his  paternal grandparents Samuel & Gertrude (Stahl) Ingalls (1802-1873 and 1800-1869). If Gertrude’s birth year is correct, I get one year farther back on this line and I am sure that each generation had met each other as with this line, the older ancestors lived very near each other during that time period.

Looking at my mother’s side of the family, I can start my reach farther in the past. I knew my grandfather, Marion Wooster (1896-1976). He knew his grandmother,  Elizabeth (Tifft) Wooster (1826-1906). I am quite sure she met on an occasion or two her grandmother, Bridget (Bailey) Tifft Coon 1768-1847). If she didn’t meet her in person, there would have been letters between the families. Elizabeth lived with her parents Reuben and Betsy in Richland and Orwell, Oswego County New York while her grandmother was living in Bradford County, Pennsylvania where she had moved after marrying her second husband.

Therefore, at least through letters between living members of the family, we can connect me through 3 degrees of separation to a woman that was born in 1768. A lot farther back than I had imagined I could get!

Almost Wordless Wednesday- In Honor of Memorial Day

Just a few from my Wooster line that served during conflicts and that I have pictures of their burial sites.

Robert Tifft burial site. Revolutionary War

Orrin Wooster. Civil War

Marion Wooster. WWI and WWII.

Alice Wooster. WWI

Robert Wooster. WWII

Age Span of Great-Great Grandparents-- Saturday Challenge

It’s time to catch-up on last weekend’s Saturday Challenge from Randy Seaver:

1)  We each have 16 great-great grandparents.  How did their birth and death years vary?  How long were their lifespans?  

2)  For this week, please list your 16 great-great grandparents, their birth year, their death year, and their lifespan in years.  You can do it in plain text, in a table or spreadsheet, or in a graph of some sort.

Lodema, the oldest of my gg-grandparents

GG Grandfather -

Ward               William                       1 Feb 1830           31 Aug 1902        72 years

Titus                Samuel H                    13 Oct 1825         10 Mar 1874        48 years

Brown             John Robert                 18 Nov 1835        24 Oct 1917         81 years

Ingalls             Joseph D                     19 Dec 1834        21 Aug 1894        59 years

Duff                James                          26 Mar 1836        26 Feb 1926        89 years

Wooster          Barclay                        29 Aug 1819        3 Mar 1895          75 years

Damery           James “John”            1812                     1896                    84 years

Jennings          Richard J                                                                              unknown

GG Grandmother -

Blackwell         Mary Ann                    14 May 1828       11 Aug 1902        74 years

Tobias             Lodema                       16 Oct 1831         28 Mar 1926        94 years

Wright             Anna S                        12 Dec 1836        13 Feb 1923        86 years

Fay                  Mary Ann                    11 Nov 1840        24 Jul 1906          65 years

Johnson           Mary Ellen “Nellie”   25 Dec 1847        12 Feb 1921        73 years

Tift                  Elizabeth Hannah        11 May 1826       24 Mar 1906        79 years

Wolfe              Elizabeth                      1823                     abt 1862               39 years

Fuller               Mary                                                                                    unknown

There is a couple in Ireland, as you can see, who I have no idea of their birth and death years. There is much research to do in that area, but few records that can be found from a distance. This is one of the reasons that every time it is announced about new Irish records available online, I hold my breath and hope that they are Protestant and more specifically Church of Ireland (Anglican) records.

The oldest and the youngest were both female at 94 and approximately 39 years. Elizabeth Wolfe probably died either in childbirth or shortly after the birth of her daughter, Sarah Damery, my g-grandmother.

The average age for males of that generation was 72.5 and females 72.85. It is remarkable how close together the averages came out.

Saturday Challenge of Names Part 2

This week's challenge from Randy Seaver's Genea-musings:

1)    My friend and colleague Linda Stufflebean posted Just For Fun – 4 X 6 = 24 FAMILY TREE QUESTIONS on her blog last week, and I thought we could answer half of the questions last week and half this week.

2)  Here are the last three questions:

*  Name four places on my ancestral home bucket list I’d like to visit:

1.     Stephentown, Rensselaer Co, New York

a.     I’ve been there before, but have more research I’d like to do on Reuben Tifft an his parents, Robert and Betsy.

I believe this is the burial spot of Robert Tifft

2.     Jamestown, Steuben Co, Indiana.

a.     I’m cheating a bit on this one as it’s a collateral line. However, I’m hoping by learning more about Dennis K. Wooster and his wife, Sarah Hammond, to figure out some things about his parents Leverett and Jerusha who are direct ancestors.

Dennis and Sarah's graves

3.     Afton, Union Co, Iowa.

a.     Dennis’ brother Barclay (my GG-Grandfather) and many in his family lived here.

4.     Sheldon, O’Brien Co, Iowa

a.     Barclay’s grandson, Marion- known to me simply as “Grandpa” and his brother, Dana were both born in this community.

 
*  What are the four most unusual surnames in your family tree?

This one is hard as many of my lines are rather common English names, so don’t seem all that unusual. However, three just by the sounds of the name and the last one, well…

1.     Chatfield

2.     DuColon

3.     Basford

4.     Ingalls

a.     Many probably think of Laura Ingalls Wilder. As far as I can find, we are not related. There is a 7^th cousin 4 times removed that shows up in the collateral lines—her husband Almanzo Wilder! That makes it seem unusual to me that it’s not the obvious connection.

Alice & Charles Ingalls, my g-grandfather and his second wife

*     Which four brick walls would you most like to smash through?

1.     When did Leverett Wooster above die and is he buried with Jerusha?

2.     What is Jerusha’s maiden name?

3.     When did Reuben Tifft die and where is he buried?

4.     Proof of  Leverett’s parents. (I think I have this one almost!)

Where They Were Born

Fellow genealogist J. Paul Hawthorne started a trend on Facebook earlier today. Playing along with this, these are the birthplaces of my ancestors up to great-great-grandparents. I also have lived my entire life in New York State. So, despite this state being such a black-hole for finding information, you can see why most of my research is done here.

There's also another black-hole not so evident within this chart. With all the Catholic parish registers and such appearing for Ireland, you might think that line is getting very easy to research. Well, considering not a single one of the people born in Ireland likely ever crossed through a door into a Catholic church let alone created a record within them, I'm still waiting for the Church of Ireland (Anglican) records to become more easily accessed. When/if they finally come online- don't expect to hear from me for awhile!