IN MEMORIUM - Gertrude Ball Deitz

photograph by Allen Deitz

Peter Deitz Farm Burying Ground

This small, abandoned burying ground for the family of Peter Ives Deitz and his wife Elizabeth Haverly is overgrown with trees and undergrowth. There are several downed stones, and perhaps more buried in the underbrush. Owner stated it was vandalized circa 1974. Burials 1812-1853. We need GPS coordinates.

Peter Deitz was the great great grandfather of Franklin S. Deitz, husband of Gertrude Ball Deitz.


GERTRUDE BALL DEITZ

The sympathy of the Berne community and the many friends of Gertrude Ball Deitz is extended to her children Allan, Arlene, and Gerald, to her sister Alberta Ball Wright, and to their families. Since her obituaries are posted on the Berne Historical Project site I will not repeat them here. Instead I will post here a recent Letter to the Editor, which I wrote, and which was printed in the Altamont Enterprise, the weekly newspaper serving the Hill Towns for 123 years.

Dear Editor,

Gertrude Ball Deitz, who died April 16, 2008 at age 91, had VERY deep Berne roots. She was born in Berne, the daughter of Clyde L. Ball and Alta Mae Sholtes.

Peter Ball, her earliest Ball ancestor, was about about ten years old when his father and mother emigrated in 1709 with thousands of other Palatine refugees from the Rhine river area of what is now Germany. Unfortunately, his father Johannes, along with hundreds of others, died in the long ocean voyage or shortly thereafter. When about 150 refugee families settled in the Schoharie Valley in 1712 and 1713, Peter and his widowed mother were not among them; still, they were apparently living somewhere in the greater Albany area when he was naturalized at Albany in 1716. When in 1740 his daughter Dorothea married Peter Fischer, both the Fischer and Ball families were undoubtedly neighbors living on the flats along the Foxenkill below what is now the hamlet of Berne.

Gertrude Ball was not the first Ball to marry into the Deitz / Dietz family. Her third great grandfather, George, son of Peter, married an Elisabetha Dietz in 1763. Elisabetha was the daughter of Johannes Dietz who was massacred in 1781. Also in 1763, George's brother Hendrick married Maria Elizabetha Dietz, a cousin of Elizabetha. George and Hendrick's oldest brother, Johannes married Maria Margaret Dietz in 1747. She was an aunt of Elisabetha and Maria Elizabeth. Based on all of these Dietz / Ball marriages, it is my opinion that by 1747 a number of Dietz siblings were also living along the Foxenkill just to the west of the Peter Ball homestead.

Gertrude Ball's mother was a Sholtes; her earliest Sholtes ancestor to live in Berne was Mathias Shultes, born 1740. He was the son of an unknown Shultes and Elisabeth Dietz, sister to the Maria Margaret Dietz who married Johannes Ball. Mathias Shultes was about 11 years old when his mother and step-father, Jacob Weidman, moved about 1751 to the Beaver Dam, as the area was then called.

In 1937 Gertude married her neighbor and distant cousin, Franklin Deitz, son of Frederick Deitz and Theodora Haverly. Frederick Deitz was also descended from Mathias Shultes. Theodora's earliest Haverly ancestor living in the Berne area was Christian John Haverly, also from the Palatine area of Germany, who before 1759 moved to what is now West Berne.

To summarize: the grandparents of Gertrude Ball and Franklin Deitz's three children, Allen, Arlene, and Gerald, had the surnames Ball, Sholtes, Deitz and Haverly, all early Berne families. It is especially interesting that a 1787 Van Rensselaer survey map of the area that now encompasses most of the Towns of Berne and Knox shows the Ball, Shultes, Dietz and Haverly families as neighbors, in the same vicinity as the families of Gertrude Ball and Franklin Deitz lived a century and a half later. (The current English spelling of the names differ from the original German, and different branches of the families spelled the names differently.)

The Berne Families Genealogy, posted on the Berne Historical Project website at www.Bernehistory.org, details the complex relationships of Gertrude and Franklin's ancestors. A 100 page ancestor report for the children of Gertrude and Franklin has 2225 people, including siblings of great-grandparents, going back 15 generations. They were from Germany, France, the Netherlands, and a Mohawk woman from the Turtle clan.

--
Harold Miller
Oaxaca, Mexico
Berne Historical Project www.Bernehistory.org
Blah, bla, blog at http://berneny.blogspot.com/

• History of the first generation of the Dietz Family of Berne and Schoharie.
  

IN MEMORIUM - Janice Irene LeBuis Bassler

DAVID CONGER FAMILY BURYING GROUND...



...on Cass Hill Road near Reidsville, is the small, well kept burying ground of the family of David Conger (1791-1878). In 1984 it was said to be well kept with monuments in excellent condition. We need GPS coordinates for this FBG.




JANICE IRENE LEBUIS BASSLER

Deepest sympathy is extended to the family of Janice LeBuis Bassler, eldest daughter of the late Doris and Leo LeBuis and devoted wife of Fred "Pete" Bassler. She is dearly missed by her family and the entire Berne community.

I decided to do a some research on the Lebuis family to add to the Berne Families Genealogy. Janice's paternal grandparents, Arthur and Eugenie (Landriau) LeBuis were French Canadians from Québec. They immigrated in 1901 and settled in Albany. In 1910 they were living at 839 Broadway in Albany; Arthur was a carpenter and Eugenie was the mother of 7 children of whom 5 were alive and living at home. Janice's father, Leo, (called Leopold in the 1920 census) was born in Albany on 10 Feb. 1912, making him the youngest of 8 children.

On Aug. 19, 1935 Leo LeBuis married Doris Irene Filkins, eldest daughter of Frederick Hazael Filkins Jr. and Nettie F. Skinner, both descended from early Berne area families. Frederick's second great-grandfather, Isaac Filkins, was born 1755 in Pittstown, Rensselaer, NY and settled on what became known as Filkins Hill about 1801. Nettie's second great-grandfather, Josiah Skinner, was born 1754 in Sharon, Litchfield, CT and moved to Rensselaerville in 1787.

Janice's husband, Pete Bassler, has even deeper Berne roots. His fifth great-grandfather, Frederick Bassler Sr., was born in Riehn, Basil Canton, Switzerland in 1712 and immigrated in 1749 to Philadelphia with his first wife, Esther Thommen. The family remained there about 6 years while Frederick likely worked as an indentured servant to pay for the ships passage. During that time his first wife died and he married a widow, Anna Margaret (Leys) Leip / Leib. About 1755 Bassler moved to the Beaver Dam and homesteaded a farm on what is now Hill and Dale Road in the Town of Knox. Shortly thereafter his second wife died and he married Anna Dannerin.

Pete Bassler's mother was Sarah Weidman. His fifth great-grandparents were Jacob Weidman, who immigrated from Switzerland between 1738-1743, and Elisabetha Dietz, whose family was from the German Palatinate. They moved from Greene County to the Beaver Dam (now Berne) about 1751. Jacob, is said to have led a small band of settlers including the Dietz and Bassler families. Actually, the Bassler family arrived about 1755, and two of Elisabetha's brothers had settled about 1740 on the flats between what are now the hamlets of Berne and West Berne.

HUNTERSLAND, SIMMONS, PLUE, TALLMAN

HUNTERSLAND CHRISTIAN CEMETERY

The Huntersland Christian Cemetery is a long established and well-maintained cemetery. As does the Huntersland community, the cemetery also straddles the line between the Town of Berne, Albany County, and the Town of Middleburgh, Schoharie County. Earliest burial 1844. Per a meeting on September 25, 1893 the official name is The Union Cemetery Association of Huntersland. Transcriptions of the tombstones posted on the Berne Historical Project site are courtesy of Steve and Anne LaMont, keepers of the history of Huntersland.

photograph by Barbara Bolster-Barrett

HISTORY AND GENEALOGY

• Many months ago I started editing the Berne, New York site on Wikipida to make it more meaningful. One of the sections I added is labled Prominent Residents. Today I added Daniel Simmons who had an axe factory in Berne.
  

Recently I went to Cornell University's ¨Making of America,¨ a digital online archive of journals and books on American social history. Searching on "Berne, Albany" I found a mention in the book History of Cohoes, Arthur H. Masten, 1877 of Daniel Simmons, a prominent former resident that I had not yet added to Wikipida.

"Daniel Simmons began life as a blacksmith and had a forge in the lower part of the city of Albany. Here he commenced making axes by hand for an occasional customer, using for the cutting edges German or blister steel, which was then supposed to be the only kind that could be successfully welded to iron. About 1825 it was found that by the use of refined borax as a flux, cast steel could be made to answer the purpose, and Mr. Simmons promptly took advantage of the discovery, being one of the first to put it to practical use. His axes soon became favorably known, and the demand for them was so increased that greater facilities for production became necessary. Accordingly in 1826, he removed to Berne, Albany County, where he secured a small water power, erected rude buildings, and put up trip hammers and other machinery. In time these accommodations proved insufficient, and Mr. Simmons went to Cohoes, where he founded an establishment, which under years of successful management, made the Simmons Axe familiar in all parts of the globe. This became the foundation of the establishment of the Cohoes Manufacturing Company." [from THE HISTORY OF COHOES]

• I recently had an email from Rick Plue so I ran an ancestor report for him that had 560 people. Then I did a few hours of research and ran an update that had 35 pages with 836 peope. We are 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 10th cousins 1, 2 or 3 times removed through at least 9 sets of shared great-grandparents. But then I am cousins with most everyone who has Berne ancestors.
• Got an email from my good friend and fellow researcher Russ Tallman who researches his Tallman ancestors and related Helderberg area families. With the inspiration of this site he has started a Tallman blog.

NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES; OUR HERITAGE

Today's featured cemetery is the

Dearstyne Family Burying Ground

This abandoned burying ground of the Lawrence Dearstyne family, who leased this lot in 1837, is in very bad condition. There are about 10 unmarked field stones. It is a sad little place. I wish I could post a photo but we have none. The Berne Historical Project would like to add GPS coordinates and photographic records of the stones to their site. If anyone can help us, it would be much appreciated. To find the cemetery follow the directions given on this link.

HISTORY AND GENEALOGY

• Yesterday I was searching the Fulton History site for items with the word "Berne" in them and found this article in the Albany Evening Journal on the August 27, 1916 dedication of St. Mary's of the Lake Catholic Church at East Berne.
• I have added a permanent link in the left hand column for the Fulton History site.
  
• Tom Tryniski, the Fulton History site owner, has generously offered to scan microfilmed archived copies of the Altamont Enterprise to post on his site so they will be available free of charge to anyone using the Internet. Once posted, archived newspapers are fully "searchable," and when an article of interest is found, such as an obituary or article on Berne, individual pages can be downloaded. I put the editor of the Altamont Enterprise in contact with Tom, and they have agreed that the Enterprise will have microfilmed copies of their archives sent to Tom for scanning. Having the archives of the Altamont Enterprise on line will be a wonderful service for all of the Hilltowns, and for descendants of Hilltown families living all over the country. Currently archived copies of the Enterprise are available on microfilm at the New York State Library, the Guilderland Public Library, and the Altamont Village Museum. Your local library may be able to get them on loan form the Guilderland library.
• The same "Berne" search on the Fulton History site also turned up an article on the family of Sylvanus Walden Settle, born 1818 son of Jacob Settle, Jr. and Cornelia Rose Walden. About that same year, Jacob Sr. built a store with a meeting hall upstairs. He sold groceries, dry goods, crockery, hardware, paints and medicines. Source: Our Heritage. The former Settle store is the only store still operating in the hamlet of Berne.

Continuing the family line of work, Sylvanus Settle was a succesful Albany merchant when he died in 1899. In May 1901 his wife Caroline died leaving an estate of $30,000 dollars, some of which was left to various individuals in Berne and to the local churches. A front page article in the June 11, 1901 Albany Evening Journal gives the terms of her will and tells why her only living descendant, a granddaughter, was left just one dollar and was therefore contesting the will.

• "Our Heritage," edited by Euretha Wolford Stapleton, former Historian, Town of Berne, and produced by the Town of Berne Bicentennial Commission, 1977, is a 144 page paperback on the history of the Town of Berne, including many early photographs, plus biographical sketches on the some of the families of the early settlers. Although much new information has been discovered in recent years on these families, there is still much of value in this very interesting book. Unfortunately it has been out of print for many years. A few years ago the Historical Society discussed the possibility of having it reprinted but for some reason nothing came of it.

KNOXVILLE, OVERBAUGH, FETTERLY, BRADLEY

I am not sure who should get credit for the above photo.

West Mountain Methodist Episcopal Church Cemetery

The earliest stone in the West Mountain Methodist Episcopal Church Cemetery is dated 1816. The M. E. Church florished during the second half of the 19th century. Apparently not used after 1900. Now the abandoned cemetery is owned and annually maintained by the Town of Berne. Records in the Berne Town Hall.


MORE ON KNOX:

William Hooker, 1827

• Now that I already know the answer, that Union Street south of Berne on many mid 19th C. maps of New York State is an error and was really Knoxville (hamlet of Knox) to the north of Berne, I was able to do a better Google search to confirm that answer. I found four references:
  

A History and New Gazetteer: Or Geographical Dictionary, of North America ... - Page 374

by Bishop Davenport - United States - 1843 - 592 pages

The Annals of Albany - Page 269

by Joel Munsell - Albany County (N.Y.) - 1854

Historical Collections of the State of New York: Containing a General ... - Page 51

by John Warner Barber, Henry Howe - New York (State) - 1842 - 608 pages

Gazetteer of the State of New York: Embracing a Comprehensive View of the ... - Page 164

by Frank Place - New York (State) - 1860 - 739 pages

• Here is a 1917 post card of East Berne that I have not seen before. It is available on eBay.

The second building from the right is what is now Maple Inn. Originally built as Overlook House, it later became Dyer Inn. There are more early post cards showing the inn on the Warners Lake Association site. One of them even shows this same scene but in a different year.

GENEALOGY:

• Roberta (Overbaugh) Mattimore contacted me the other day offering to exchange information on her Overbaugh ancestors. I replied in part:

  I am an Overbaugh descendant, but I do not study all Overbaughs - only ancestors and descendants of folks who settled in Berne. That said, there are a lot them that I am interested in. That includes you and your ancestors.
  
  I have just produced a report of your Berne area ancestors on your father's side. It has 54 pages with 1322 people. I don't always all all siblings in each generation as it is just too many people.
  
  You are descended from Johann Peter Oberbach through his son George. (Was George's wife Catrina Spawn or Catrina Schmidt or both?) I am descended from Peter [brother of Johann Peter] via his daughter Anna Maria who md. Johannes Dietz who both massacred by the Indians in 1781.

• Had an email from:

  Susan Ward Merk
  Ward-Spittler-Metz-Lyon Family Heritage Center
  http://seiz2day.com/sbmerk/family

  "I am descended from William Ransier who fled to Canada from NY and had a daughter Catherine who married my g-g-grandfather Seth Lyon. See my family website at http://seiz2day.com/sbmerk/family/trees/lyontree.html"

• Had a very nice exchange of emails with Judy North and Linda Borst Hogan who are researching Linda's Fetterly / Fetterle family. Linda is descended from John Fetterly b. 1751 who md. (Anna) Maria Paabst. I had not known that they were Loyalists and after the Revolution had moved to Ontario, Canada, as had Anna Maria's parents and siblings. (Along with a great many other families from the Berne / Knox area.) In doing further research on this family I found that a number of early records misspelled the family name as Vedder.
  

It is my opinion that Fetter and Vedder were pronounced very similarly in German. Featherly, Fetterly, and Fetterle are Americanized forms of the German name Federle. (Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4.) Federle is a diminutive of the name Feder, which means Feather. (There is also the Dutch family Vedder in the area, but that is a different family entirely.)

Continuing my research I found that Johan Adam Papst, father of Maria Papst, served in Butler's Rangers and was awarded land in the eastern part of Upper Canada according to George Cloakey. John Papst, b. 1777, youngest brother of Maria Papst, died in 1869 in Osnabruck, Ontario. Maria's sister Elisabeth, married Gotlieb Otto, a distant cousin of mine, and they too moved to Osnabrouck (spelling?). Another brother, Rudoph Papst moved to Upper Canada.

My brother, Ralph, Town Historian, wrote me that he believes the article in the Berne Historical Project site on Supreme Court Justice Joseph P. Bradley may have been written by our distant cousin Marty Milner for something the they were doing in the late 90's or early 00's.

CLYNE FAMILY BG; UNION STREET

CLYNE FAMILY BURYING GROUND...

... is on Hunters Land Road (County Rte. 10), 1/10 mile east of the junction with Rapp Road (County Rte. 12). 105 yards on trail behind large sugar maple just beyond steep hill sign (next 1 1/2 miles). The small, abandoned, Clyne Family Burying Ground, the family of Peter Clyne (1804-1860) has a handful of graves surrounded by a stone wall perched above a shale pit. There are two children´s unmarked graves, each encircled by a ring of field stones, probably dating from the 1820's or 30's. We need someone to give us GPS coordinates.




AND NOW BERNE AREA HISTORY:

• For some time now I have been wondering why many maps of New York State dating from 1828 to 1850 show a hamlet called Union Street between the hamlet of Berne and Rensselaerville to the the south.

portion of map by Young, James Hamilton, 1830

Thinking that Union Street might be an alternative name for Union Church in New Salem, I Googled "Union Street" "New Salem" Albany"as a search. The second result was page 51 of Historical Collections of the State of New York; containing a general collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, etc. relating to its History and Antiquities, with geographical descriptions of every township in the state, by John W. Barber and Henry Howe, published 1842. It says that Union Street was another name for Knoxville (present day hamlet of Knox).

In taking another look at the maps I see that William Hooker, in 1827, made an error on his map (perhaps he copied an earlier map) and for the next few years other map makers just copied his error. Hooker's map had Berne where Knoxville / Union Street was located, and Union Street where Berne was located.

Mystery solved!

• Tom Tryniski, who is the webmaster of the Old Fulton NY Postcards site, has volunteered to scan and post early editions of the Altamont Enterprise if we can lend him microfilms. He will even make a CD of the newspapers and give it to the library that loans him the microfilm. I know that some library's have them available, but unfortunately Berne is not one of them. What can I do?

BERNE AREA GENEALOGY:

• I am trying to identify the Tillie Zimmer b. 1856 who md. David Cook b. 1850 Town of Wright. In various census' she is called Tinna and Tina L. but according in the obituary of her son she Neil J. Cook she was identified as Tillie Zimmer.

• A DAR Registrar from Cedar Rapids has contacted me on behalf of a woman who has asked for her help in joining the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) through her Patriot ancestor Andrew Secor b. 1758 in Rockland County. He was was a Private in the Revolution and about 1791 settled near Thompsons Lake. The woman is descended from Francis Secor b. ca. 1826 who died during the Civil War in 1864 in the Battle of the Wilderness. He married 1855 in Camden, Oneida County, NY. In the Berne Families Genealogy I have Francis as the son of Simon Secor b. 1788 of Berne, but have no evidence to support this. In fact, Francis may well have been the son of Simon's brother Andrew Jr. b. 1776 who was living in Knox in 1830 but by 1840 was in Camden. Who knows?

• From Mark Brown:

  the Genealogical History of the Gallup Family in America" notes Almerin Gallup [1810-1888]- s/o Nathan - and a daughter ( not named but her first name is Minnie or Mary) Mrs. Henry Brown of Schoharie. As you see by my name - I'm a Brown and Henry Brown is related to my Brown's. I'm trying to find out where Henry's wife - son and daughter went to after his death. I have Henry's will - but I can't put my hands on it right now - BUT - he died about - between 1894 and 1900 I think. Henry is buried in St. Paul's Lutheran Cemetery in Schoharie.

Unfortunately, I was unable to help him.

• This week, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) announced that it has made available for the first time online more than 5.2 million records of some passengers who arrived during the last half of the 19th century at the ports of Baltimore, Boston, New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia. The records can be accessed through NARA's online Access to Archival Databases (AAD).

• Terry Wagner, a Warner descendant, wrote me about her interest in joining the DAR. I replied:

  I don't think you will be able to join the DAR using your Warner ancestors, although your fifth great-grandfather, Christopher Warner, was a private in the 15th NY Regiment. Unfortunately, according to the New York Commission for detecting Conspiracies, in 1780 Christopher Warner with thirteen other were apprehended "on the way to the enemy." He was sent to Albany by the Schenectady Committee. Examined July 23 and released Aug 4 on bail of 100 lbs. furnished by Henry Warner of Beaver Dam [his father-in-law].
  

The good news is that Terry should be able to join the DAR through anther fifth great-grandfather, Daniel Secor. Daniel was b. 1756 in Haverstraw, Orange Co. and served in the Revolution. He moved to Thompsons Lake about the same time as Andrew Secor. They were undoubtedly related, perhaps cousins. Although some Secor descendants say they were brothers, I have not seen evidence to support this.

TAVERNS and HISTORIC MARKERS

Photograph by Terrell W. Shoultes

Eddie Shultes and Terry Shoultes, July 2005

The small (two stones) Mathias and Peter Shultes Family Burying Ground is on land that is part of the Partridge Ridge State Wildlife Management Area. Terry Shoultes, on the right in the photo, is an avid researcher of the descendants of his ancestor Mathias Shultes (1740 - 1812), an early Berne settler. Mathias was the son of Elizabeth Dietz and her first husband. In 1743 in Greene County Elizabeth married her second husband Jacob Weidman. Young Mathias came to Beaver Dam (as Berne was then called) about 1751 with his mother and step-father. Weidman has long been credited with leading the first settlers to Berne in 1750. NOT! A study of the baptism records in Schoharie show that his brother's-in-laws already had homesteaded the area more than a decade earlier.

It wouldn't take much effort to restore this cemetery, but who will do it?

The genealogy and history of the Shultes / Sholtes / Shoultes family, by Terry Shoultes, is in the Berne Public Library is located in the Town Hall.



And now to the results of my historical research and genealogy of the past week or so:

• In recent posts I discussed what was possibly the earliest tavern in the Town, in what is now the home of Ellen Yarmchuk in the hamlet of Berne. The photo of the house published in this 1936 newspaper article on the history of Berne shows a NYS Historic Marker in front. Nancy Yarmchuk Becker tells me the broken sign is in the basement of her mother's house. Perhaps the sign says the tavern was established in 1809 and was used as a recruiting center during the War of 1812. The public will not know until the sign is repaired and reset.
• In the last post I mentioned Corporation Inn that was in the house now lived in by Andrew Wright across from St. Paul's Lutheran Church. At one time there was also a NYS Historic Marker in front that said.
  

CORPORATION
INN
OPENED 1817 BY
HENRY ENGLE.

This sign is also gone but not forgotten. It had been broken, but a few years ago my brother, Ralph, Berne Town Historian, had it repaired. It is now leaning up against the garage of the Wright home, waiting to be reset.

• The New York State Historic Marker Program, which was managed by the Education Department’s State History office as an active field program from 1926 to 1966, has now become largely an advisory and database management program. It is now up to the Town, the Historic Society, or individuals to maintain the markers. These markers were meant to remind us of our history, but now even the reminders themselves have been forgotten. Who will step up and be the guardians of our heritage?
• Here is a list of some of the Historic Markers that were at one time in Berne. The 1809 Tavern sign is not listed. How many signs are missing?
  

WEST MOUNTAIN, EARLY TAVERNS

photo by Barbara Bolster-Barrett

Cook Family Burying Ground

Today's featured cemetery is that of the family of Bennet Cook (1749-1801). The Cook Family Burying Ground is one of four on West Mountain on land that is now part of the Partridge Run Wildlife Management Area. This small, pretty cemetery in a wooded glade of Red Pines is surrounded by a stone fence that is falling down in places. There are 14 stones, 7 of which are in fair condition and 7 in poor condition. Most are leaning, 2 fallen, and 3 illegible in 1984. The grounds receive annual maintenance.

• WEST MOUNTAIN
  This is the start of an Oct. 2, 1937 article in the World-Telegraph. The Resettlement Administration had recently bought over 3,300 acres of scrubbed-out farm land to make it a forest and wildlife preserve (see previous post). This article tells of the lives of four families left in the area, including that of Ellery Shufelt, age 41. He and his wife, age 23, and their three kids aged 6 weeks, 1 1/2, and 4, were squatting in an old, abandoned farmhouse. Ellery, the middle of thirteen children, never got as far as the fourth reader and could not read nor write. They used kerosene lamps at night as the electric and gas companies never bothered to push up to West Mountain. During his stint in the Army during the World War he caught bronchial pneumonia and lost the use of one of his lungs. There was no government compensation for that kind of veteran. In 1936 he made a meager living by sharecropping, using an old drop-reaper -- the windmill type with arms sweeping the buckwheat back. He figured his share would be twenty-five bushels of buckwheat that would sell for about fifty-five cents a bushel, just about the cost of production. He would be using it as feed for his thirty or so chicks. He also had a cash job as a night watchman for the Resettlement Administration.
• FIRST TAVERN IN BERNE? A couple of posts ago there was an item on this 1936 newspaper article on the history of Berne. It has the picture of a house with the caption:

  This neat dwelling in the heart of Berne hamlet was erected more than a century and a quarter ago and used as a tavern. Recruiting for the war of 1812 was conducted in the building.

  In reply to my question as to which house that was, Allen Deitz replied that he believes it is the house of Ellen Yarmchuk. Her daughter, Nancy Yarmchuk Becker, agrees:

  "I had remembered the date of 1807 or 1809--it's probably the date the house was built. I do remember it was utilized in the War of 1812.¨

  This recent photo of the Yarmchuk house was taken by Allen Deitz. It is my opinion that the original house was the part on the right and that it has been extensively remodeled to remove the original door and to raise the roof. The front room, which is now the living room, would have been the site of the early tavern and been where recruiting was done for the War of 1812. The two story wing on the left was probably constructed in the latter half of the 19th. century.
  
• OTHER EARLY TAVERNS IN BERNE - Allen wrote again to say:

  While looking for info on old local taverns, I came across a web site on a book called,"Early American Inns and Taverns,¨ by Elise Lathrop(1926). There is a chapter on "Inns of New York State" that includes a few lines about three Berne taverns--Berne, East Berne, and South Berne. Al D.

  "at Berne [not given this name until 1825, (AD)], Henry Engle opened in 1817 his Corporation Inn, which had been Eli Whipple's residence [Berne was then called Corporation (HM)]: and three years later, Elnathan Stafford was keeping a tavern at East Berne, or Werner's Mills [as it was called at the time (HM)], and buying his liquors in Philadelphia [which for a time led to the hamlet being called ¨Philadelphia¨ (HM)]. At South Berne, [Called Centerville (HM)] in 1822, Alexander Mckinley, a wagon-maker, opened a tavern, keeping a trained bear, a moose, and life figures of noted criminals to attract customers."

  
  

WEST MOUNTAIN

Today's featured cemetery is the Gifford Hollow Burying Ground on land that is part of the Partridge Run State Wildlife Management Area. This small, abandoned burying ground of the Furman and Gifford families is difficult to find. To my knowledge, it was last cleared of brush and weeds in 1996 when photographs of all readable stones were taken by a Gifford descendant, J. Dudley Richards.

• Here is a 1936 article from the Albany Evening Journal on the history of West Mountain that I found on the Old Fulton NY Postcards site. It tells of the purchase of 2,600 acres (by the following year it totaled 3,300 acres) of sub-marginal mountain-top land by the Federal Resettlement Agency, which the following year became the Farm Security Administration. The FSA paid much more than the land was worth on the open market and then helped the farmer's re-locate on more productive land elsewhere. New and improved access roads were then built and the former fields were resown one last time with crops suitable to feed wildlife. Cut-over woods were allowed to revert to their natural growth.
  
• The former, abandoned, upland farms were eventually turned over to the State of New York and became the heart of today's Partridge Run State Wildlife Management Area. It now consists of 4,594 acres (18.59 km²) improved with hiking trails, and parking lots and is available for birdwatching, cross-county skiing, snowshoeing, hunting, fishing and trapping. Partridge Run and nearby Cole Hill State Forest are units in the Helderbergs Management Area of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.
• On page 16 of the HELDERBERGS UNIT MANAGEMENT PLAN (http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/lands_forests_pdf/helderbergsump.pdf) is the following (in part):

  Acheological and Historical Sites

  The New York State site location maps list no known archaeological or historical sites on the Unit. There are at least two cemeteries and numerous old house foundations and stone walls located on the Unit. Protection of cultural resources of historic significance is provided for under the New York State Historic Preservation Act.
  

• If I am correct, there are four cemeteries in the Partridge Run WMA. Two of them, Turner Burying Ground and the Cook Family Burying Ground, are kept clear of brush. The Mathias and Peter Shultes Family Burying Ground consists of just two stones and could be kept clear with an hour of work once a year. The Gifford Hollow Burying Ground would take a few men a day a year to keep clear. As part of the requirement for the protection of cultural resources of historic significance, I would hope that the DEC would be able to provide the manpower to do annual clearing. It is my opinion that a family buying ground is a cultural resource of historic significance and should be at a minimum kept clear of brush. Neglect allows fallen stones to be covered with branches and dirt and lost forever.
  
• A couple of years ago Karl Parker, Sr. Wildlife Biologist in the NYS DEC Region 4, proposed to place road signs near the approaches to each of the cemeteries. I presume that has been done.
  

1936 newspaper article on the history of Berne

I have decided to post a series of photos of local cemeteries, one each blog. The above photo of the Bogardus Farm Burying Ground was taken in October, 2005 by Gerald Dietz. He photographed each stone while his brother, Allen, transcribed them. The results are now posted on the Berne Historical Project site. Before that there was no record of who was buried there. This cemetery really needs to be cleared of brush and cleaned up. There are undoubtedly fallen stones that should be found and at least transcribed, and at best reset.

• Here is an interesting article on the history of Berne that I found on the Old Fulton NY Postcards site. Among other subjects, it talks about former Associate Chief Justice of the United States Joseph Philo Bradley who was born on a farm on Cole Hill a mile from where I grew up. Also discussed is White Sulphur Springs Hotel which has been boarded up for the last fifty years or so.
  
• There is a picture of a house in the 1936 article with a caption:

  This neat dwelling in the heart of Berne hamlet was erected more than a century and a quarter ago and used as a tavern. Recruiting for the war of 1812 was conducted in the building.

  It looks like it has a NYS Historical Marker in front of it. Can someone identify this building for me and send me a current photo, please.
  
• The article also has a photo of the Lutheran Church with the caption:

  As the largest available auditorium at the time, this old church was the scene of a political convention at Berne in 1845. Three hundred delegates from 10 Capital District Counties assembled to vote support at the polls for only those legislative candidates opposed to the patroon system of rents.

  Henry Christman, in Tin Horns and Calico, a Decisive Episode in the Emergence of Democracy. ISBN 0-685-61130-2, says there were 150 delegates from 11 counties. The meeting was a turning point in the Antirent Wars.
  

Morey, Plue, Newell, Martin

Today's picture, by Allan Deitz, is of the West Berne Reformed Church Cemetery. It is in typical condition of most of the fifty or more small family burying grounds in the Town of Berne. I believe the brush was cut a few years ago.

• Betty Fink wrote:
  

  I don't know if you know about the Old Fulton NY Post Cards site. Tom has over 5 million pages of newspapers, mostly from central New York, but has recently added quite a few from Albany and those have sections about the surrounding towns including as far away as Middleburg.

  It's free and it's fun even if traffic is a little high sometimes.

• I searched the site for "Berne" and found 5000 hits! The second one was a 1918 Albany New York Evening Journal page with people that owed land taxes. I try to have everyone who lived in Berne in the Berne Genealogy and I was able to add a number of names. Also found that some people I had thought died earlier than 1918 were still alive.
  
• My brother Ralph asked how I do my searching for people. Here is my reply:

  My best source is Ancestry.com which I subscribe to. It has all the census records up to 1930 (newer ones are not allowed to be published). It also has a public record index for living people giving their age, address and tel. no. This site also has posted family genealogies which gives exact dates of birth, maiden names, ancestors, siblings, etc.
  
  Then I use Social Security records to find when and where dead people were born and died. I also use Rootsweb.com and FamilySearch.com

• I researched the paternal ancestors for Pat (Morey) Favreau, our Town Clerk. My reply:

  Your father, Nelson Morey, was third youngest of ten or more children of Nelson H. and Mamie E. (Duncan) Morey. They lived on Falls Road, Catskill, Greene, NY up until after 1913 when they moved to Washington County. He was a Democrat according to the 1913 tax records on rootsweb.com from a search on Google.
  
  His great grandparents were Horace and Louisa Morey from Catskill (1880 census records can be found on FamilySearch.com).
  
  I used Rootsweb.com to find that Mamie's maiden name was Duncan. That came from Pat's aunt's obituary.

• Shelley Lynn Plue Googled her name and found it in the Berne Genealogy. My reply to her:

  We are 3rd, 5th, 7th, 8th, and 10th cousins, through at least 8 sets of shared great-grandparents on your father's side. The closest are Peter and Libby (Milner) Becker and Washington and Sophia (Williman) Barton. Attached is a 24 page journal of over 500 of your father's Berne area ancestors.

• My sister Marilyn sent me the obituary for John R. "Dick"Newell and posted it on the Berne Historical Project site.
• The other day she posted the obit for Clyde. J. Martin.
  

NYALBANY, Gary Donhardt, Nancy Curran, Betty Fink

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.
  

Huntersland, Steve & Anne LaMont, Hank Jones

Before continuing with Huntersland, I wanted to share a posting from ebay:

Early Postcard - Thompson's Lake, Berne, Albany Co., NY

Postcard, ca. 1906, undivided back, used but in good condition. Captioned THE COVE, THOMPSON’S LAKE, N.Y. Near Altamont, Berne, and Vorheesville in Albany County New York.

And now more on Huntersland:

• Part of a letter from Hank Jones to an email I forwarded to him from Steve & Anne LaMont asking how they could obtain a copy of his book for the Middleburgh Library:

Hal Miller has told me of your interest in obtaining a copy of my book A Few More Left: The Story of Isaac Hillman which contains a large section on his ancestral Barkman/Barrickman family. Isaac himself lived in MIddleburgh in 1820 with his brother Garret Barickman before changing his name to the anglicized "Hillman" and moving to Troy and then California during the Gold Rush.

I'd be happy to send you a gratis copy of my book with my compliments. Years and years ago Frances Spencer helped me as a teenager in assembling Huntersland/ Middleburgh data about the family, and I've always been grateful for her kindness.

Best wishes on your own studies of your lovely and historically-important area. So many of the Palatines I write about in my several books settled there (see my website for more on these volumes).

Please send me your address, and I'll mail off a copy to you right away.

All the best,

Hank Jones
{Henry Z Jones, Jr., Fellow, American Society of Genealogists}
www.hankjones.com

PS: If ever you run across an old photo of Daniel Barkman's father (1777-1851), do let me know - I'd love to see it! I am delighted to correct the erroneous photo caption I gave on page 310 of my book: the man whom I thought to have been my great great grandfather Garret BarickmanNoah Dibble (1788-1864) of Breakabeen was actually old Daniel Barkman of Huntersland.

• And Steve & Anne's reply:

Thank you so very much. If you are ever in this area, you must come into the NEW Middleburgh Library and see the History/Genealogy Room. The library was built in 2003 and is quite beautiful and our room is highly thought of in the area. Marian Lynes Bouck did a tremendous job organizing the collection from the old library and also for bringing in a lot of new material. Steve and I volunteer there every Thursday morning and help indexing all the scrapbooks, etc. for easier reference. We have also added a few books to our Genealogy section and are very happy to add yours.

• The next letter is from Mark Traver via my brother Ralph, Town Historian:
  

  Hi Ralph, I love the web-site.   I have traced my genealogy back on the
  Church family from Schoharie County to Berne.    I have tracked down
  many headstones, but was stuck on Simeon Church 8/11/1750-6/4/1841 and
  wife Theodora Beebe 6/6/1841.   I knew that they were buried in the
  Jacob Dumond burial ground, could not find where it is located.   The
  web-site says it is located on Miller Road just over the town line.    
  My wife and I drove up and down Miller Road on Saturday, but found no
  obvious site.  There was one area a third of the way in from Gifford
  Hollow Road on the left across the road from a house.  There was a flag
  pole and a little memorial set-up.   Do you have any knowledge of its
  precise location?    Thanks Mark T. 
  

I have sent an interim reply but am waiting for possible additional information.

Huntersland, Middleburgh

Today's focus is on Huntersland, Middleburgh on the western town line in Schoharie County. It adjoins Huntersland, Berne, which is on West Mountain.

• First a couple of photos from Susan Richtmyer. The upper photo is Marriman Scutt of Huntersland, Middleburgh. He was born about 1828 and died after 1880.
  
• The lower photo is Daniel Barkman (1803-1886) of Huntersland, Middleburgh.

• I wrote Henry Z Jones an email forwarding Susan's photo of his ancestor Daniel Barkman. Hank is the author of a book on his Middleburgh ancestors including Barkman, Hillman, Sweet, Dibble and Crippen. Here is his reply: Many thanks! Susan had just forwarded it to me this morning, but I do appreciate yours also - a welcome double-dose of Daniel Barkman.
  I had seen this gentleman before in an un-labelled photo in Isaac Hillman's photo album from 1877: as I noted on page 310 of my "A Few More Left: The Story of Isaac Hillman", I had wrongly thought it was my great great grandfather Noah Dibble of Breakabeen; now it's finally been straightened out just who he was - Daniel Barkman. What a great face!
• Next a follow up on the search for Terry Effner supposedly buried in "West Hill Cemetery" from Anne LaMont: Steve checked the cemetery records at the Middleburgh Library and found them in the Middleburgh Cemetery. Case solved.
• I should note that Steve and Anne LaMont are the unofficial historians for Huntersland.
  
• Also from Anne: The Middleburgh Library has records of the Middleburgh and Huntersland Methodist churches and I have some records of the Huntersland Methodist Church here. There are hundreds of pages, therefore too extensive to copy.
• From Julie Mooney of Menlo Park, California: I was researching George Heligis ( this is the spelling used from circa 1860 in California) B: 1835 approx - in New York. And his son, Frank Jesse Heligis born in New York in 1858. I think this is a fit [with George Helligas b. ca, 1832 on Bradt Hollow Road, Huntersland, Berne, son of Jesse and Eunice Helligas]. And now, I am trying to find a marriage record of George, married approx 1856 to a Maria ( O'Hara, I suspect) somewhere in your area. She was from Ireland and I am sure they were married in a local church. George is a seaman on a ship in San Francisco in the 1860 census and his daughter Anna Heligis was born there in 1861 or 1864. San Francisco records are very sketchy due to the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. They also had two more sons George and John who died in an epidemic in 1868. So I think her father would be listed as John on any marriage record…or Francis…and I am sure she was catholic.

• If George Heligas was married in Berne it was probably at the West Mountain Methodist Episcopal Church which existed from about the early 19th C. to the early 20th C. I would like to find who, if anyone, has the records of the church. See the Berne Historical Project site for the history of the church.
  
• I wrote Anne Lamont and asked if she had any information on inquiry on George Heligas. Here is her reply: The only Heligas in the Middleburgh Methodist Church as follows:

• - Married Sept. 29, 1924
  Hillijas, Raymond - Altamont - age 24 Born in Middleburgh Farmer
  Slater, Gertrude - Middleburgh - age 18 - Born in Fultonham
  Parents: William and Anna Castle Hillijas
  Ellsworth and Elvina Schrom Slater
  - There are no Heligas in the Huntersland records.
  - Middleburgh records start in August 1856 and Huntersland records start in 1872-1873
  - I do not have any Heligas in my Huntersland Genealogy records, nor the Christian Church.
  - The first paper in Middleburgh was started in 1871, so there would not be any items. The only other paper that may have had any notice of marriages would have been Schoharie. I don't know when they started, buy they are earlier than Middleburgh.

van Woert, Effner, Heligas, Stewart, Church, Beebe

What a week! After our computers got stolen over a week ago I switched to a laptop that the thieves missed. Then it got ¨corrupted¨ and I could no longer access the Internet. Finally this afternoon we got our stolen computers back. One was destroyed, as was one of the two monitors. Gracias a Dios (TG!) my computer still works and my genealogy records are intact. We paid off the police and the ¨Justice¨ department to get justice. Most of the things stolen are now in the hands of the police and we will never see them again. They say they were not recovered. The thieves are in jail for 6 or 7 years (still not sentenced).

Now for Berne genealogy:

• From Cindi Christman: I understand that you are looking for further information on Jacob Schoenderwoert. I live in Oneonta, NY and have been comiling the family tree for my mother's side. Our history goes back to Jacob van Woert (shortened) who came here from the Albany area. What information do you have on him? Thanks, Cindi Christman
• From my aunt Jerry Becker: We got a call this morning from Palmer and Shayler Funeral Home in Middleburg. They had gotten a call from a funeral home in Arizona about a woman who had died and wanted to be buried here. In her things they found reference to "West Hill Cemetary" and they decided they probably meant West Mt. Cemetary which is by the old Methodist Church. They are going to check with the funeral home out there again to see if they can get any more information. If it is in Berne that has to be the one. Her Grandparents are supposed to be buried there but there is no stone. She wants to be buried by or near them. The grandfathers name is Terry Effner and we wondered if in your research you have run across that name? I looked in the old cemetary yearbook I have (1945-47) and the name isn't there. He could well have died after that and no stone was ever put in. Mr. Coltrain from Middleburg wanted to know who took care of the cemetary and we told them the town highway men keep it mowed. Do you know of anyone who might have records of that cemetary?
• From Julie Mooney: I think this is my family!!! I was researching;

  George Heligis ( this is the spelling used from circa 1860 in California) B: 1835 approx - in New York. And his son, Frank Jesse Heligis born in New York in 1858. I think this is a fit. And now, I am trying to find a marriage record of George, married approx 1856 to a Maria ( O’Hara, I suspect) somewhere in your area. She was from Ireland and I am sure they were married in a local church. George is a seaman on a ship in San Francisco in the 1860 census and his daughter Anna Heligis was born there in 1861 or 1864. San Francisco records are very sketchy due to the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. They also had two more sons George and John who died in an epidemic in 1868. So I think her father would be listed as John on any marriage record…or Francis…and I am sure she was catholic.

  I want to thank Harold Miller for sending this as it is the link I have been seeking….Thanks in advance for any leads you can provide.

  Julie
• From my sister Marilyn:
  H. Delite Stewart
  WESTERLO - H. Delite Stewart, 85, of Westerlo, died at The Hospice Inn at St. Peter's Hospital in Albany, on April 27, 2001.
  She was born in Medusa on April 17, 1916, daughter of the late Harry and Grace (Kelsey) Mackey.
  She had worked as a rate adjuster, having retired on 1985 from Farm Family Insurance in Glenmont. She was a member of the First Baptist Church of Westerlo and the M.B. I. Guild.
  She is survived by husband, Philip Stewart; a daughter, JoAnn Garry of Albany; tow grandsons, Robert F. and Steven J. Garry; two great-grand=children, Hannah and Eve Garry; and two sisters Joyce Eufemia of New Port Richey, Fla. and Gene Smith of Medusa. Her Brother Donald Mackey died before her.
  Interment in the Westerlo Rural Cemetery will be at the convenience of the family. A memorial service will be held at a later date.
  Arrangements are by the Cunningham Funeral Home in Greenville.
  Memorial contributions may be made to the First Baptist Church of Westerlo Memorial Fund.

• From Mark Traver via my brother Ralph: I have traced my genealogy back on the Church family from Schoharie County to Berne. I have tracked down many headstones, but was stuck on Simeon Church 8/11/1750-6/4/1841 and wife Theodora Beebe 6/6/1841. I knew that they were buried in the
  Jacob Dumond burial ground, could not find where it is located. The web-site says it is located on Miller Road just over the town line. My wife and I drove up and down Miller Road on Saturday, but found no
  obvious site. There was one area a third of the way in from Gifford Hollow Road on the left across the road from a house. There was a flag pole and a little memorial set-up. Do you have any knowledge of its
  precise location? Thanks Mark T

It will take me a day or two to research these requests.

Hempstead

Busy day yesterday dealing with the banks and credit cards in the aftermath of our robbery the previous day. As the day went along we found many more things missing from the house: rugs, a floor lamp, coasters for glasses, a wooden figure, and a clock. The good news came in the evening that the culprits have been caught and our computers recovered. Hopefully we will get the other stuff back also.

Getting back to business:

• If anyone knows any Hempstead descendants please pass on to them the following update on the Hempstead family reunion:

Dear Hempsted Descendants,

I'm SO sorry to do this, but after I sent my most recent message I received correspondence from our headquarters informing me of a conflict and the need to change the dates of the reunion. I know that some of you have already passed the word on to other relatives and I truly regret the need to change the date at this point. Some things can't be avoided though, so here's the update:

Our Hempsted family reunion will take place the weekend of 20 and 21 September, 2008, NOT the following weekend as originally planned. Please spread the word. Also please let folks know that if they want to be included on our email list for updates from the source here in New London
that they should feel free to write.

Once again I apologize for any inconvenience or confusion that this might have caused.

And so we move forward....

Sincerely

rs

Rick Spencer, Site Administrator
Hempsted Houses
A Connecticut Landmark
11 Hempsted Street
New London, CT 06320
860.443.7949
hempsted@ctlandmarks.org
www.ctlandmarks.org <http://www.ctlandmarks.org/> History Moving Forward.
Formerly the Antiquarian & Landmarks Society

Hempstead, Utterville, Rivenburgh

I really have hesitated to write a blog for today, since it has been such an unusually terrible day. It started off with a noise in the night that awoke me. Our house was being burglarized. Someone was leaving the bedroom with my wallet and keys when I heard the bedroom door close.
I found out later he had a butcher knife from the kitchen and had come in over the roof. I slowly descended the stairs unarmed to find the door to the street was open. Looking out I saw some one peering around the corner of the adjoining house. I took chase even though I was in my underwear. He ran a block and turned a corner and jumped on his motorcycle. In the meantime his accomplice must have left in a larger vehicle with two computers and everything that goes with them, my wallet and keys, the silverware, and a half used tube of toothpaste that was next to my wallet. I don't yet know how it will affect the Berne genealogy as I did not have a very recent backup. Somethings will be lost. Somethings I can re-enter.

After a couple of hours I fell into a restless sleep to be awaken at 6:30 as usual by the garbage truck stopping. I had to get up, as I do every morning, to take out the garbage. Unusual for me, I tried to go back to sleep only to be awaken at 7 am by an earthquake. It lasted almost a minute but turned out finally to be much ado about nothing, TG. It took most of the day to take care of reporting the robbery to the police, trying to change the locks on the house and the car, calling banks about credit cards, etc. Much time was spent but little accomplished. Tomorrow much more of the same.


Here is a summary of genealogy events:

• From Ed Healy: Here is the latest news on the Hempstead Family Reunion. Please pass this along to all who may be interested. Please post this link in any Hempstead message boards your are a member of. See http://www.eehealy.com/healy3a.html for Hempstead Notices.

• From Anne Lamont in reply to the question "Where is Utter Ville": To the best of my knowledge, Utterville is at the corner of High Point Road and Huntersland Road, just past the Christian Church. Josiah Utter had a saw mill somewhere near there, possibly on the lower end of Cook Hill Road. It's the little collection of houses at the corner. I thought years ago, when I first came to this area I saw a road sign there saying Utterville, but Steve does not remember it. Middleburgh News used to run a column called Utterville and most of it was on the people who lived in that area.

• From Susan Rightmyer : I noted in your blog spot that you receive obituaries and thought you might be interested in the attached for Ellen Rivenburgh [Forwarded to my sister Marilyn for posting on the Berne site]. I will check with my Aunt Florence Rivenburgh Dietrich to see if she can recall where Utter Ville was located.