Sea Genes

Sometimes you come across a source, use it for one or a few personas, and forget it. Then you come across another persona who happens to be in the same source. Are you duplicating your research? Yes, no? Maybe.

It seems to me to be a good idea to re-visit sources that you’ve used in the past, like when you find an apparently unrelated persona. Revisiting the folks that you’ve already gotten out of that source enables you to pick up any details you may have missed the first time around.

Revisiting that source for previously discovered and newly discovered people allows you to strengthen their relationships, not only to you, but also between them.

A recent example in my research is about the Booth family of Connecticut as documented by Donald Lines Jacobus in the 1950s.

On the Booth family in Lenox, Massachusetts, I found that Lemuel and Mehetabel had eight children, including Josiah and Philo, six of whom are not referenced in the Jacobus genealogy of the family. While this line of ancestors was not the thrust of the genealogy, it seems odd that Jacobus didn’t know about the six kids.

The omission of such a large number of children shows that even a prominent genealogist can leave things out, or undone. Loose ends like this are the responsibility of later genealogists, to tie up and close some doors to possible incorrect information that might be circulating either in print or on the Internet.

Checking one’s own work (research) in this way improves your future work and provides a good exercise in checking the veracity of others’ work. Had I not followed on the statement in Jacobus about the family being in Lenox, I would not have found six descendants, or relatives, let alone the exact date of birth of Philo.

The evidence the Lenox records provides, though, seems to show that Philo was born in Massachusetts, and not Connecticut as other evidence suggests. The 1850 U. S. Census says that he was born in Connecticut, a probably direct statement, rather than implied as the Lenox record is. Which was it?

NPM

© 2012 N. P. Maling — Sea Genes – Family History & Genealogy Research

Emery, William Morrell. The Families of Perkins, Fairfield and King. San Francisco: The Murdock Press. 1907. 58 pp. (including blank pages)

This reprint of the original 1907 edition has been completely re-set in a modern typeface. The formatting and style follows the original. The publisher used an original copy of the book to create this new version, so no marginalia or other markings interfered with the text’s appearance.

The only omission from this reprint is the image of the Perkins family arms. The textual description of the arms remains, however, as Mr. Emery wrote it.

The reprint is available on Lulu.com as a print item: Families of Perkins, Fairfield, and King.

OBITUARY

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The following mousic obituary is taken from the Portsmouth Evening Times:

In this city, Dec. 1st, “James D.” mouse, owned by Mr. James D. Potter, (colored) of this city, formerly of Port[l]and, at the age of 4½ years of old age and paralysis of the heart. This was a common gray mouse which Mr. Potter had trained and exhibited in many cities in this country and Canada. The mouse was forwarded to Boston by express this morning to be stuffed and when returned will be placed in the little cage which has been his home for 4 years. The mouse funeral will be held in City Hall. A special invitation has been extended to Chandler’s band and Neal Dow to be present. The mouse was insured in Chicago for one hundred dollars and Mr. Potter says he would not have taken $500 for it and will wear mourning all over his face as long as he lives. [Montreal, Chicago and Portland papers please copy.

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Daily Eastern Argus, Portland, Maine, Wednesday, 6 December 1882, page 1, column 7.

In which I point out and correct a number of errors in previously published materials.

Summary

John¹ Burbank (?–1681) was an early settler of Rowley, Massachusetts. There has been quite a bit of poorly researched information about this family posted on the Internet as well as in earlier published works.

The report: Burbank_John1-Desc_Final, of the family points out and corrects the misinformation that I am aware of. It begins with his wives, continues to his children, one of whom is alleged to have married at the tender age of 11, and ends with his 2nd great-granddaughter Mary Burbank, who married John Fairfield, of Arundel (Kennebunkport), Maine in 1751.

As an adjunct to my earlier Mellen family post, “Richard Mellen of Massachusetts – Genealogy Available,” I’m adding two versions of earlier genealogies of the family. The first one is a reprint of William Barry’s sketch in A History of Framingham, 1847, Barry’s Framingham Mellen reprint. The second one is a reprint of J. H. Temple’s sketch in History of Framingham, 1887, Temple’s Framingham Mellen reprint.

The two reprints are set up as 6″ × 9″ pages and are designed for front-to-back printing.

Enjoy.
NPM