A 1764 diary of one Jabez Fitch provides a quick glimpse into an episode in one of my Brewster ancestor’s history. Jabez, a cousin of my 6th great-grandfather William Brewster, wrote about meeting William when he traveled from his home in the Oblong area of Dutchess County, New York to…
Published September 7, 2020
Most of my paternal ancestors lived for hundreds of years in the Hudson River valley of NY State, from Putnam County in the south, extending up to Albany in the north. One lady from my Brewster line did something quite different – she followed her husband to the California gold…
Published February 22, 2020
My 4th great-grandfather was John Colvin (1752-1814), a Scotsman who came to the Albany area of New York State in the 1770s, fought in the Revolutionary War, and became a NY State assemblyman in 1811. My line followed down from him through his son David (born 1779). Another Colvin line…
Read More Blowing of the Colvin horn with twaddle and frippery and tomfoolery
Published September 26, 2019
The 2019 season of the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are features an episode on the ancestors of TV personality Sharon Osbourne. Her Victorian Irish ancestors fled the potato famine, sailing to Massachusetts in hopes of securing jobs in a textile mill that would provide happy, prosperous lives…
Published June 16, 2019
Participation in a DNA surname project through FamilyTreeDNA has shown that my Brewster line descends from Elder William Brewster, passenger on the Mayflower and religious leader of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. The tricky part comes in documenting the tree from 1620 down to the present day. The older parts of the tree…
Published January 4, 2019
Today, the city of Beacon, NY is experiencing a resurgence as the “Brooklyn of the north”, home to art studios, hipster coffee shops, and affordable housing. At the turn of the twentieth century, when my grandparents lived there, it was know as NY State’s hat making capital, second only in US hat…
Published December 2, 2018
On my paternal tree, Andrew Colvin of Saugerties NY was listed in the 1850 census as a stone cutter. His grandfather John Colvin was born in Kirkudbright, Scotland in 1752. John immigrated to the United States in 1772, first going to Dutchess County, New York, then settling in Albany. A soldier…
Published December 17, 2017
Ice hockey is believed to have common roots with the sport of golf: they may both descend from an old Dutch game called “kolf” or “colf”. The summer version of kolf was played outdoors on the grass or streets, with players competing to hit a distant target (a stick or…
Published August 21, 2017
My paternal grandmother’s father was called Christopher Scaife Betterton. A carriage striper by profession, he came with his family to the US from England at age five. His father William Frank Betterton was a shoemaker in Sheffield who brought his young family to Rhinebeck NY in 1841. Christopher’s middle name was…
Published March 16, 2016
Among the many Palatine Germans in my family tree was a man named Jury William Dederich (1711-1786). He lived in Ulster County, NY, in a Palatine settlement called West Camp, located in the Hudson River Valley. Through ancestry.com, I recently found a copy of his will written in 1786. In…