New 4th Cousin

NEWS

I just "met" another 4th cousin a couple of days ago through WikiTree.  It's always fun.

New About page.  See the tab at the top.

The Beismer Name Study has begun.  

What, exactly, is a One-Name Study.  Here's the definition from WikiTree"

"A One Name Study (ONS) is a project that focuses on researching all occurrences of an individual surname. The objective of a one-name study is not just the collection of data and names; The ultimate aim of an ONS is to research the genealogy and family history of all persons with a given surname. As a part of an ONS, researchers attempt to identify and understand items including, but not limited to:

• Name origins (or earliest references);
• Name meanings (are they matronymic, occupational, patronymic, topynomic, etc.);
• The relative frequency or occurence of the name;
• Patterns in migration; and
• Name variations and specific name branches."

In this study, we (mostly me right now), will be studying the Beismer surname as well as all the variant spellings I can find.  I will not be researching the Bessemer (steel)  surname or surnames that look similar but are pronounced Bays-mer.

I can use help.  There's a lot of work to do.  Any little bit of help would be appreciated.  In order to help, you have to join WikiTree.  IT'S FREE.  And, you have to read and be willing to follow the Honor Code that you will find there.  It's also a good idea to read most of what's in the One-Name Study Project pages and watch some of their videos.  It's fun.  Really!!  News from the study will be posted on the Surname page in this blog (see the tabs at the top).

While you're at WikiTree to consider helping with the study, you can look up relatives to see if they're there.

And

The Wormuth Name Study has begun.  

Read what's written about the above study; the same for the Wormuth Name Study.  News from the study will be posted on the Surname page in this blog (see the tabs at the top).

Please come and help.  While you're at WikiTree to consider helping with the study, you can look up relatives to see if they're there.  

Thank you.

I looked for a photo that could be related to the News. I know the man on our right is Silas Beismer, my great grandfather.  The man on our left is either a Beismer, a Wormuth, or a Swartwout.  If you know who he is, let me know.  Thank you.

Continuing On....

Historic Note:     I thought you might like this....

    November 7, 1912---

    "Because of the small pox epidemic the Board of Health ordered that all children under the age of 16 be excluded from public streets of the village, schools to be closed, fraternal order meetings and religious meetings to be forbidden and that vaccination be universal."

from "News Items of the Past from the Hancock Herald" -- in Stockport on the Delaware by Elizabeth Stephens Lotterer.

And, I didn't even have to look for it.  She has an entire chapter of newspaper clippings in the little booklet which is very enlightening since I never thought much about what was on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware, having grown up more inland.  The book is a very interesting description of the early history of the area from Binghamton to Port Jervis and life in border towns that is still very much the back and forth it always has been, even when that border is between countries.  Having lived very near the Mexican border in California and having friends on the Canadian/U.S. border, I know that International borders are seen very differently by people living along those borders many of whom cross it constantly.  After all, borders are mostly in our minds.

Which reminds me of a funny memory.  I once lived in a small apartment complex in California; don't ask me where because I can't remember, where the complex was divided by an imaginary border between 2 municipalities and, interestingly, 2 post offices.  My neighbor, across the sidewalk through the complex lived in a different town, had a different zip code and her mail was delivered by different mail carriers.  And, of course, her town and mine had different ordinances for some things.  That's what borders can mean.  Stupidity.

NEWS

    Not much new.  I continue working on various branches of my family tree and all my profiles at WikiTree.

    The biggest news is that I expect to be starting 2 One-Name Studies in May.  WikiTree has quite a lot of rules which I appreciate because it keeps things moving along smoothly and consistently.  There are criteria to meet in order to begin a One-Name Study at WikiTree which I haven't quite met until May.

    A One-Name Study is research on a single surname and, possibly, its variants.  These studies can be started for a variety of reasons.  Mine is a common one; I'm stuck; on almost all my family branches.  I can't seem to get back another generation, find parents for certain ancestors, etc.  It's true for almost all my family lines.  It's very frustrating.  Of course, I haven't even begun to exhaust all the resources out there but it would mean a lot of traveling to documents that aren't online yet and I'm not quite prepared to do that.

    So, starting a One-Name Study means a variety of things.  I'll be starting with finding all the instances of the surname, regardless of whether or not the individual with the name appears to be related, wherever they live, whenever they lived, whatever the kind of record I can find.  All this time, as I've searched for ancestors and relatives, I've run across other people, clearly, or seemingly, not related with the same surnames.  A One-Name Study will collect all those additional people and organize them.  Who knows what will turn up?

    The 2 surnames I'm going to start with are BEISMER and all its variants; and, WORMUTH, and all its variants. And, wherever I find them.

    So there are 2 primary geographic areas where I've seen Beismers and variant spellings:  in Sullivan County, NY, and in Ulster County, NY.  Now there is geographic overlap because Ulster County was an early county and existed during Colonial times while Sullivan County was carved, in part out of Ulster County. So, part of a One-Name Study, is just that, the history of the counties of New York State.

    In the case of the Wormuths, there was, early on, a family in the Mohawk Valley.  There are duplicate names between that family group and those in Sullivan and Delaware counties.  I, personally, have not found a definitive connection between the 2 groups of Wormuths.  If someone else knows it, they haven't told me about it.

    In both cases, there are, of course, other Beismers and Wormuths throughout the country and in other countries.  A One-Name Study is always International so it also can provide origins of the name and the families.  A One-Name Study also can describe how members of the family migrated from one place to another, how branches of a family changed religion, changed politics, changed professions, etc.

    A One-Name Study is usually conducted by a team; it's a pretty big project for just one person.  For me it's personal; I'm stuck, but there are other people who just like aspects of this kind of project.  There is a Guild of One-Name Studies which I will be joining once I get started.  There is, currently, no One-Study registered for either Beismers nor Wormuths at either the Guild or at WikiTree.  That means that doing these studies may possibly open up more resources for these families and identify more people who are interested in the families.  You don't have to be related to the surnames to work on the research.

So, at this point, I'm letting you all know that I'll be doing these studies.  If you're interested in participating, let me know, join WikiTree -- IT'S FREE -- and I'll let you know what work has to be done.

FYI

    I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before:  A "family" crest or coat of arms is NOT given to a family, but to an individual for various reasons.  You can buy them and hang them on your walls but they really aren't yours.  I suspect that most of them that you can buy aren't genuine anyway.  I have several either in print or digital:  Mattice, Beismer, maybe Wormuth.  It would be interesting to find out who they were made for but I'm not all that interested in that but I might make it a task for the One-Name Studies.  If you look up the arms of the royal family (Wikipedia), you'll find that there are official arms of various types and each individual has their own, often composed of elements of their ancestors.  Each element of the arms signifies something.  The College of Arms of the U.K. regulates their heraldry.  Other countries have similar heraldic authorities.  There is an American Heraldry Society but it doesn't have the official weight as those in other countries.  After all, the establishment of the United States and our democracy was based on equality, not a feudal hierarchical society (as much as we've been able to avoid it) which required strict class distinctions assisted by heraldry and other social institutions.  Anyway, if you're displaying a coat of arms, it's isn't yours and doesn't actually apply to you.

My apologies for being so wordy in this post.  I try not to be but there was a lot I wanted to say.  So here's a picture of the Stockport Cemetery.  Stockport is between Hancock, NY and Equinunk on the PA side.  I already know that a bunch of some of my ancestors moved back and forth across the river in that area.

That's it!

One mystery solved

 As I wrote a couple of blogs ago.  I have 2, apparent, death certificates for one of my ancestors, Minerva Odell, but, on closer inspection I began to think they were death certificates for 2 different people.

Generally, when researching family history, you go backwards looking at each person on a direct ancestral line: maternal or paternal.  After a while, though, you look at family groups, the children of each couple.  After that, you can start to look at the family group for each of those offspring; cousins, etc., and, your family tree grows and grows.  You don't always get to each individual in a family; there isn't always a need nor an interest.

So, as I previously wrote, I had immediately emailed the Meredith town clerk about my mystery and I got a response.  Thanks to Liliane Briscoe, Town Clerk of the Town of Meredith, for solving the mystery.  What she found was that Minerva June Odell, was the daughter of Ancel Odell and Gertrude "Florence" Gransbury.  She was born in 1928 and lived only 3 days; very sad.  Ancel was the grandson of Minerva A. Odell so little Minerva, her name sake, was great granddaughter of Minerva A. Oliver Odell.  2 death certificates for 2 different family members.

There was one other family member that had a baby for which I have no name.

Historic Note:

I decided to include these historic notes, from time to time, because I occasionally read or refer to local history books that have been written about the geographic areas where my family branches lived.  These local histories are usually written by people living in the area who have talked to people about their memories and who often have access to local documents.  Many history books cover major historical events that affected the country's economic and political landscape with little attention to how those events affected local towns and individuals at the time.  Local histories are, generally, just the opposite; they begin with local historic events and have details often missed in more general writings.

I often run across interesting things in these books that relate to towns and people I'm familiar with that I think might be of interest to other family members and others researching in the same geographical area.

Because of copyright restrictions, I can only include small quotations but, hopefully, if you're interested, you can get a copy of the book quoted and read more. Brackets [] are usually mine, for clarification.

-------------------

    "...Less than 200 miles south of the Mohawk lies the Minisink Valley and the Wyoming Valley, both of which have also received much historical recognition for the battles which transpired there.

    The territory between the two, though less familiar, is of no less importance in the total picture of the border wars of the American Revolution in New York State.  The same brutal fighting that characterized the two places also erupted in the area between, in the midst of which was the former trading center and missionary outpost called Onaquaga [Oquaga].... 

    ...The name Onaquaga was also used for an are[a] of the river valley, an expanse of perhaps twenty miles running in a north-south direction, as well as the village itself.

    ...Its exact location is 1 1/2 miles north of present Windsor.

    ...This important carrying place went to Cookhouse, now Deposit, on the Delaware River, a favorite haunt of Indians and fur traders.... Cookhouse, or Cookose, meant "Owl's Nest" or "Place of Owls", and then contained "Two Huts of Delaware Indians...

    ...Heading up river from Onaquaga, at the junction of the Susquehanna and the Unadilla Rivers, was the white settlement of Old Unadilla or Johnstone Settlement, present day Sidney.  This village, like Onaquaga, also became a prominent base of operations for the Tories and Indians...."

from Onaquage: Hub of the Borders Wars by Marjory Barnum Hinman, self published, 1975.

Joseph Brant set up operations there.  It was a very interesting area.

News

I continue to work on the family tree at WikiTree.  I joined a couple of projects there and I think I need to back out of one because I don't have access to records outside the U. S.  And, I think I've taken on more than I can do.

I continue to digitized documents which has been helpful in taking another, closer look at them and finding more information, or, more questions.

Once you get bitten by the family history bug, it's an endless process; I'll never be finished.

I'm at brick walls just about on every branch.

I'm about to send out 2 new documents requests.  It's always interesting to see what comes back.