I enjoy looking at old post cards of Berne that are being sold on eBay. Here is one of the Lakeside Hotel at Thompsons Lake. Indian Ladder, A History of Life in the Helderbergs, by Gary L. Donhardt, gives a fascinating in depth history of this resort (and of all of Thompsons Lake). In 1884 William J. Hart and his wife Elimna (Emmaline) built the first resort on Thompsons Lake. Lake View House, on the southern shore of the lake, soon drew large crowds of summer visitors from as far away New York City. By the turn of the century they had more than 100 overnight guests some of whom were from Oregon, Alaska, and Europe. In 1906 it was sold and the new owners remodeled it and named it the Lakeside House. It had 125 rooms and bungalows were added. The Hotel burned in 1917.
- I subscribe to the Albany, New York mailing list on Rootsweb. NYALBANY-admin@rootsweb.com. It discusses genealogy and history of Albany County. A great resource for those with Albany County ancestors.
- A couple of days ago it had a question from a researcher of the family of Charles Speenburg Zeh born 1888. Well, Zeh is a family I study since they were from Schoharie and Berne and are my ancestors, too. I could not place Charles, but Nancy Curran was able to. I was surprised to learn that he was from Berne! I had him as Charles L. Zeh, son of George R. Zeh and his wife Carrie. Thanks to Nancy's thorough research I realized that my Charles L. and Charles Speenburg Zeh were one and the same. Also, thanks to Nancy, I found that his mother was Carrie Speenburg.
- While I was at it I researched William Henry Zeh, Jr. born 1884, Knox.
- The results of my research will be posted this weekend when I update the Berne Genealogy which I do at the end of each week.
- Nancy Curran is a professional genealogical researcher specializing in the Albany area. Here is her contact info:
Nancy Johnsen Curran
http://pages.prodigy.net/nancycurran
Genealogy research and photography in the capital region of New York State
The Continuum
P.O. Box 9419
Niskayuna, NY 12309
Phone: (518) 393-5905 Fax: (518) 377-3810
nancycurran@prodigy.net
- There was a request on the NY-ALBANY-BERNE@rootsweb.com mailing list as follows:
I have been trying to find the parents of my gggrandfather, John Clarkson Brayton/Braton....... He was born in Albany NY-1838, and moved with his parents to Montrose, Lee Co., IA ------- In Albany, NY their name was Brayton, when they got to Iowa they changed their name to Braton....... I do not know John's parents name or if he had any brothers/ sisters, canyou help me? Thank you. Anne
I have not researched that family so could not help. Betty Fink did some research and found that in 1830 the only Brayton or Brayton sounding name in Albany County was John P. Brayton in Bethlehem. He was also there in 1840.
- Betty Fink is a fellow researcher specializing in Ablany County. She has an excellent site at Bettyfink.com.
