Stephens, Griswold, Houghtaling, Reinhart, Scutt, and more

Hi folks! Those who know me know that I spend much of each day working on the genealogy of Berne area families and researching the history of Berne. The results of my work, and those of many others, are posted on the Berne Historical Project web site. I have so many day to day projects that I want people to know about that I have decided this is the easiest way to communicate with fellow researchers. Here are some of the projects I have been working on this past week:

• My inspiration for this blog came from a posting I read this morning from Midge Frazel on her blog The Stewart Family of North Stonington, Conneticut. As Midge knows, in the 1790's dozens of families from Stonington moved to Knox. The Stephens / Stevens family mentioned in her blog was one of them. Here is an article that I wrote on this phenomena that was published in the Feb. 2002 edition of Historical Footnotes, Bulletin of the Stonington Historical Society.
• Margaret Torok last week gave me corrections to the descendants of Peter Houghtaling that will be posted when I update the Berne Genealogy this weekend.
  
• Charles W. Griswold, a descendant of Elijah Griswold b. 1762 in Middletown, MA called my attention to the fact that Elijah was living in Berne in 1800. (Elijah "Grissel" in the census record, which is why I had never heard of Elijah Griswold.) This was a family I had not researched, but with Charlie's help it will be included in the next Berne Genealogy update.
• Cousin Arlene Johnson, a descendant of the Civil War soldier Peleg Reinhart called gave me an update on his son Theodore who was her grandfather.
• Cousin Susan Rightmyer gave me an update of Edwin Scutt Rivenburgh, Avery Southwick, and their wife Mary Acker. I guessed that Edwin's mother was a Scutt and Susan confirmed it. I did more research on her ancestors and sent her 23 pages of her ancestors.
  
• Responded to a request for information from Jeff Saddlemire who attended BKW. I did not even know he existed but was able to give him a journal of his ancestors going back 15 generations. Jeff replied: "Hal you almost have it back to Adam & Eve! I have concluded that in Berne almost everybody is related to someone just over the next hill if you know what I mean." Jeff also called my attention to this Saddlemire site posted by my fellow researcher Gerry Saddlemire. Unfortunately I have lost contact with Gerry.
  
• In the 1925 federal census for Berne the families of John Hall, Russel V. Shafer, and Levi Rivenburg lived in "Utter Ville." It was somewhere on West Mountain. At the turn of the 20th C. there was an Utter family that lived on West Mountain. Has anyone ever heard of Utter Ville?
• Leslie Campbell wrote me that the father of Charles Campbell b. 1771 was Alexander not Martin. Glen Swartz tells me that according to Charles' marriage record to Anna Swart his father was Martin so I will stick with Martin for now.
• Phil Lankau, a grandson of Avery Southwick and Mary Acker, wrote, "I would just like to thank you and anyone else that has taken so much time to devote to the Bernehistory.org website. It has been so unbelievably helpful to me in finding my ancestors." I sent him about 25 pages of his Berne area ancestors.
• Marty Duell wrote me: "Thanks so much for keeping everyone in touch.
  I have sent all my pictures to Will [Osterhout] who is writing a book with the pictures I sent. Great times. Finaly after all these years they may be made avaiable to who wants them. Its has been great to have you provide such info over the years." Willard Osterhout is editing his fourth book with early photos of Berne families.
  
• Julie Kennel gave me the corrected spelling of her name and I sent her a 23 page ancestor report.
• My sister Marilyn Nardolillo recently sent me obituaries (as she does almost daily) for Joseph Orsini and Thomas Bates.