Wordless Wenesday: Animal Land

 

Wordless Wednesday: 1948

 

Upcoming Jefferson County Meetings

 

Research & Lineage Societies

 Quite often when talking with somebody that doesn’t do genealogy, I get asked how far back I’ve researched my family. Now, most of us that have done genealogy for very long, realize how difficult a question this is to answer. Many of us are more interested in doing thorough research that is well documented. We want to know more than just the names and dates of people. Fleshing out people’s stories and learning about their lives takes time and is more interesting than how many generations we can add on behind them.

There’s also the question of which line when we say how far back we have gone. Some are easy to find and document. Those we’ve probably traced back a long way rather quickly. One day I was bored and noticed a line on my particular tree that ended in the mid-1800s. In an afternoon, I was able to trace this woman’s ancestry back from northern New York to the immigrant landing on the shores of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. I had gathered just the basic facts using mostly published sources that I could find on Ancestry.com, but I had the line back several generations. It also solved my curiosity that had arose as I started tracing: this line did not lead to a Mayflower ancestor.

Some people think if you mention a Mayflower ancestor you feel superior to others. Indeed, there are undoubtedly some that do. I don’t, I just find it interesting to find people that were involved in a certain well-known event. I do have at least six ancestors that arrived on the Mayflower but have not joined the Mayflower Society. Part of telling people this is that although others may not have researched their ancestors, they remember studying about the events in school.

I actually have many early settlers in my lines, both good and bad. For example, do you know that there was only one Englishman ever executed for high treason in New England history? Joshua Tifft (1646-1676) during King Phillip’s War. I do not descend from him. However, his father, John, who died trying to rescue him, and his brother Samuel are my direct ancestors. I’ll claim them all, the good and the bad. Often it is the bad who make the more interesting stories to tell!

Another common event that people ask about is the Revolutionary War. The popularity of the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) has made people well aware of the connection between this war and genealogy. Lesser known is the male society, the SAR (Sons of the American Revolution). Both have requirements of being a direct descendant of a participant in this war. On the correct side, of course. If your only direct descendant was a Loyalist, you do not qualify for these! However, there are other societies that you would qualify for.

That is the thing with lineage societies. There are so many that someone that researches multiple lines in their family could spend a fortune trying to join and maintain their membership in each society!

Another one that I find interesting is the Flagon and Trencher Society. To belong you must be a direct descendant of a tavern keeper during the Colonial period of what is now the United States. I can probably qualify a couple different ways as I have two known tavern keepers prior to the Revolutionary War, although one may not count as she was a tavern keeper in the Dutch New Netherlands.

It is all an interesting mixture of people when you start researching the various lines.

When asked about my immigrant ancestors, I mention those on the Mayflower. Also, others that helped found some of the early settlements of Milford and Derby in Connecticut. Some people who have more recent ancestors may feel a little put-out about that. I laugh and say, but don’t forget my Grandmother who arrived here at age 19 in 1912! Incidentally, she married my Grandfather, who is a descendant of those early arrivals.

Yes, most of us if we research far enough, will find that we are quite a mixture of people. Early immigrants and recent immigrants. The famous and the unknown. Good upstanding citizens and criminals. All different nationalities are likely to be involved as well.

Wordless Wednesday: July 1945

 

Dry Creek

 

Dry Creek. Sounds like a pretty safe place to be. Well, not always— spring rains come down, snow melts off and the creek becomes anything, but dry.

Dry Creek is the name of the stream that meanders through Fillmore Glen State Park in Moravia. The stream makes many of the beautiful spots that draw people to the park. Follow the gorge trail through the park and you are walking beside Dry Creek most of the way. Large pieces of shale line the bottom of the creek in spots. Waterfalls, both small and medium-size are abundant along the trails when the water flows plentifully. Wooden bridges meander back and forth across the stream. Hiking to the far point of the trail or driving to a parking lot nearby, you can see the dam that was created to hold the water back and form a pond that has beavers living there. You can even walk across the top of the dam to the head of the hiking trails from the end that comes down to the pond from the parking area. Yes, a lot of Dry Creek is anything, but dry.

Nearer the front of the park, a driveway dips down and fords the creek on the way to a parking lot for picnickers and hikers. Kids enjoy riding their bikes down through the water. As a kid, I nicknamed it “the bike car wash.” There is a footbridge beside it if you don’t want to get your shoes wet, but still want to cross from one side to the other. Just beyond this, the creek separates campsites from camping cabins. A bridge in the camping area carries cars and RVs to the farther side with a rumble that sounds like thunder. A great thrill to listen to especially for young children.

Upon the hill behind the campground is Dry Creek cemetery. It can most easily be reached along the trail that leads from the campground to the back playground at the nearby elementary school. This cemetery is no longer in use. It was the first burial ground for the village of Moravia. Many of the earliest settlers are buried there along with their families. There are some sad rows of stones where whole families of children are buried, some with death dates within days or weeks of each other. Obviously, with dates like this, some illness swept through this family and perhaps the village as well. Although many recovered, many apparently didn’t.

Why was the cemetery abandoned? A severe storm in August of 1863 caused flooding across the state. Dry Creek was certainly no exception and flooded. It flooded so bad that it took about an acre of soil at a depth of twenty feet that was swept away from the cemetery! Along with this dirt, sixteen coffins were swept away into the torrent of water. As they were tossed about, many of the coffins struck against branches or each other causing them to open and expose the body within; which was then swept up into the water as well. Amongst the corpses was that of Lieutenant Stoyell, a prominent citizen that was recently deceased. About half of the coffins and corpses were recovered by the next day.

After having a number of smaller floods before this massive one, the citizens of Moravia were tired of dealing with this problem. Samuel Ely Day donated land to the north of the village, high on the hill, for a new cemetery. And thus Indian Mound Cemetery was created where local citizens are buried to this day. Ironically, the first burial in the cemetery was that of Mr. Day, himself.

Wordless Wednesday: Saint James Church, Skaneateles