Next - Aristocratic ancestors, et al

 Confirmed by WikiTree:  through the Beismer, Vandermark and Hogancamp families, one of which is so named; I am a 18th cousin, 4 times removed of Lafayette, French aristocrat who fought with the Continental army during our American Revolution.

Our families' Lafayette Vandermark is buried in the Vandermark Family Cemetery in Debruce, Sullivan County, NY.

It's one of the fun features of WikiTree, you can find how closely related you are to various historical people and celebrities; if that's what you're interested in.

What have I been working on?  A little bit of everything.  

• I adopted a lot of WikiTree profiles: orphaned Odell profiles (no manager) in NY; some profiles of variant spellings of Beismer and Wormuth, as part of the one-name studies; 
• I created a couple of profiles of Native American people I'd met or knew about.  
• I adopted profiles of Platners in NY.

I had not thought about the fact that by adopting orphan profiles at WikiTree, I've committed myself to ensure they are correct and as complete as I can make them.  So, now I have a mountain of work to do to accomplish that.  It keeps me busy.

• I started the PIP (Profile Improvement Project) Voyage which will, hopefully, help me improve my skills at WikiTree.  I've already learned some things.
• I'm continuing to research how to form a Family Cemetery Association for the Vandermark Family Cemetery in Debruce.  It's a little complicated and I definitely need some relatives of the three (3) original families to participate.  Anyone related to any of the original families: Beesimer, Vandermark, Hogancamp; are welcomed to participate.
• Best of all, I'm making day and overnight trips to visit New York cemeteries and historical and genealogical societies to take pictures, notes and do research.  There's still a mountain of information that isn't online.

July Family Dates: births, marriages and deaths: 

Included are adopted profiles, click on a name and arrive at their WikiTree profile.  This will always be a work in progress as profiles and information are added.  Your input is always welcomed.

02 Jul 1920 Laura Shaw married Edmund Shaw

03 Jul 1822 Frederick Biesemeier was born

03 Jul 1901 Alfred Biesemeier died

04 Jul 1931 Mildred Tarchine married John Tarchine

04 Jul 1953 Dorothy Schulz married Walt Schulz

04 Jul 1888 Mary Wormuth married David Neer

04 Jul 1822 Phebe Brown was born

06 Jul 1883 Leroy O'Dell was born - Not my Dad

07 Jul 1898 Erling Odell was born

07 Jul 1928 Irene Platner died

08 Jul 1813 Susan Sherwood was born

08 Jul 1885 George Bossley was born

08 Jul 1925 Dora Reimuth was born

10 Jul 1942 Emma Camp died

10 Jul 1830 Sophia Wilcox married Joel Randall

10 Jul 1903 Joseph Odell died

10 Jul 1771 Maria Frans was born

12 Jul 1905 Laura Shaw was born

12 Jul 1853 Hendrick Mattice died

13 Jul 1918 Laura Chase died

16 Jul 1899 Robert Odell married Anna Odell

17 Jul 2006 Mary Barnhart died

17 Jul 1942 Carolyn Reeves died

17 Jul 1847 Othniel Odell was born

17 Jul 2007 Bill O'Dell died

18 Jul 2006 Frank Platner died

19 Jul 1893 Lowell Barnhart was born

19 Jul 1820 Anna Abrams was born

21 Jul 1997 Francis Grant died

21 Jul 1910 Roy Beismer was born

22 Jul 1947 Roger Besemer was born

22 Jul 1996 Leon Shenandoah died

23 Jul 1777 Janneke Besemer was born

24 Jul 1806 Cornelius Beesimer was born

24 Jul 1858 Henry Mattice married Georgeanna Mattice

25 Jul 1865 John Hendrickson died

25 Jul 1902 Stella Baxter was born

29 Jul 2009 Ruth O'Dell died

29 Jul 1953 Belle Space died

30 Jul 1931 Iona Bowker died

31 Jul 1937 Anson Odell married Marcella Odell

31 Jul 1950 Roy Beismer died

That's it for now                                          

An Interesting Feature

 FamilySearch.org is the Mormon church's genealogy web site.  They have a lot of free records and information about their many genealogy libraries all over the country.  Family history is important to them.

This morning, I got an email from them with an interesting feature they've provided; they combed through members' family trees and found ancestors that were living when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, calculated their ages and sent out emails to members showing that information.  It's quite interesting to see.

The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863.  This is what they found from my brief family tree posted on their web site:  (The links on the names will take you to their WikiTree profiles)

My great grandmother, Eliza Vandermark, was 13 at the time.  

 

 Her mother, Mary Jane Hogancamp Vandermark, was about 34.

Eliza's father, Simeon Vandermark, was about 41, at the time.

My 2nd great grandfather, Henry Mattice, was about 24.

His wife, my 2nd great grandmother, Georgeanna Dudley, was about 30.

My 2nd great grandfather, Joseph Wormuth, was about 48.

His wife, my 2nd great grandmother, Eleanor Debeck Wormuth, was about 30, then.

My 2nd great grandfather, James Hulse, was about 74.

My 2nd great grandfather, Joseph Odell, was about 2 years old then.

My 2nd great grandfather, Henry Flowers, was 20, and fought in the Civil War.

His wife, my 2nd great grandmother, Martha Hayden Flowers, was 6.  Uh oh, something seems wrong there; but, no, they didn't marry until 1878 when she was 21 and there was roughly 15 years between them.

My 3rd great grandfather, Jacob Mattice, Henry Mattice's father, was about 52.

His wife, my 3rd great grandmother, Mark Parks, about about 53.

My great grandfather, my father's grandfather, Frank Mattice, was 4, at the time.

My great grandfather, my mother's grandfather, Silas Beismer, was about 24.  I'm pretty sure he did not serve during the war.

My great grandmother, my mother's grandmother, Fanny Hulse Wotmuth, was 8.

Her husband, my great grandfather, T. James Wormuth, was 16.

There are more, of course, but I don't put all of my tree everywhere online; mostly at WikiTree.  

I think it's fun to look at this and imagine back then.

I have several ancestors, that I've found so far, who fought in the Civil War for the Union.

Enjoy.

 

Preserving the Vandermark Family Cemetery and other cemetery concerns

 I'm back on this.

But, before that -- there are new and interesting links that I've added.  See the Links tab above.

Rural NYS has a lot of small cemeteries, some of them originally family burial spaces, that should be preserved and, in some cases, promoted as interesting places to visit.

I've tried to get enough people interested in working with me, and to comply NYS regulations, to form a family cemetery association for the Vandermark Family Cemetery in Debruce, NY.  There's also the Henry Family Cemetery, nearby, closer to the road.  The Vandermark Family Cemetery was the burial place of family members of the Vandermark, Hogancamp and Beismer families. It is, unhappily, landlocked so access, in the past, has sometimes been difficult.  There is a road to it but, the last time I was there, that road was on private property.

I have a few new ideas to get this done.

I'm not finding information at the NYS site today, but I'm determined to get this done.  There may be legal work to be done and fees, etc.  That's one of the reasons for the GoFundMe I started, so I can get this and other things done.

I want the cemetery preserved for the families.

I'm also interested in green burial and green funerals which also preserves open space and can provide a natural and historic place for people to visit.

If anyone is interested in working on this, please let me know; I'll appreciate the help.