Saturday, November 10, 2012

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Who Is Your 3rd Most Recent Unknown Ancestor


Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 
 It's Saturday Night again - 
time for some more Genealogy Fun!!



Your mission, should you decide to accept it (where's my Mission Impossible music...drat, lost it), is:

1) Who is your TMRUA - your Third Most Recent Unknown Ancestor? This is the person with the third lowest number in your Pedigree Chart or Ahnentafel List that you have not identified a last name for, or a first name if you know a surname but not a first name. 

2) Have you looked at your research files for this unknown person recently? Why don't you scan it again just to see if there's something you have missed? 

3) What online or offline resources might you search that might help identify your TMRUA?

4) Tell us about him or her, and your answers to 2) and 3) above, in a blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a comment on Facebook or Google Plus. 

NOTE:  We've done Most Recent Unknown Ancestors before - feel free to work down your list to someone you haven't written about before.


Here's mine:

My Most Recent Unknown Ancestor is #52, the father of my second great-grandfather, Devier James Lamphear Smith. I don't know Devier's father's given name or surname, although I suspect that the surname is Lamphear (Lanphear/Lamphier/Lamfear/Lamphere, etc.).  
My Second Most Recent Unknown Ancestor (SMRUA) is #53, the mother of Devier James Lamphear Smith. I have no clue about her name!

My Third Most Recent Unknown Ancestor (TMRUA) is #76, the father of my third great-grandfather, Thomas J. Newton (ca 1795-after 1834).  I suspect that his surname is Newton.

2)  Here is what I know about Thomas J. Newton that may lead me to his parents names and ancestry:

Thomas J. Newton (ca 1795-after 1834) married in about 1832 to Sophia (Buck) Brigham (1797-1882, widow of Lambert Brigham (died 1830).  Thomas J. and Sophia (Buck) (Brigham) Newton had two children, Thomas J. Newton (1832-1915) and Sophia Newton (1834-1923).  The marriage records for the two children say that their father was born in Maine, and that they were born in Cambridge, Vermont (presumably the one in Lamoille County).  

There were two known Newton families in Maine before 1800 -

1)  Nathan and Anna (Brigham) Newton, who moved from Northborough MA in 1794 to Andover, Oxford County, ME.  They had a son Lambert Newton and a daughter Sophia Newton. The Brigham, Lambert and Sophia names coincide with those found in the family of Sophia Newton's mother. In addition, Sophia Buck's first husband was named Lambert Brigham.  The known children of this family appear in the Sudbury MA town records.  Anna (Brigham) Newton died in 1794, and Nathan married Dorothy Wood soon after, and she bore him nine more children, five of whom are in the Andover, Maine town records.

2)  Levi and Elizabeth (Woodward) Newton, who moved from Sutton MA in about 1786 and settled in Dixfield, Oxford County, Maine.  They had seven children between 1770 and 1787, including five sons who had children in Dixfield.  Almost all of the births of the children of the five sons are recorded in the Dixfield town records from 1802 onwards.  One of the sons, Jacob Newton, had a son Thomas J. Newton born in 1808, who died in 1852 in Reading, Massachusetts.  I don't think that this is the Thomas J. Newton that married Sophia (Buck) Brigham before 1832, but it is possible.

Of course, there may be other Newton families in Maine in the 1800 time frame!

I have searched Maine records, Vermont records, Massachusetts records and New Hampshire records (vital records, census, some land and probate records, Newton family books, town histories, etc) for Thomas J. Newton. There is not a clear record for Thomas J. Newton in the 1820, 1830 or 1840 census for Massachusetts, Vermont or Maine.

The Newton Genealogy by Ermina Newton Leonard has been perused for hours, trying to link Thomas J. Newton with a Maine, Vermont or Massachusetts family, with no success.

3)  There is more information about my Thomas J. Newton in Mystery Monday - Thomas J. Newton of Maine (19th century), Using the FAN Club Principle - Thomas J. Newton, Father of Sophia Newton (1834-1923) - Post 1 and - Post 2.


The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/11/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-who-is.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

2 comments:

Liz said...

Here's mine, Randy. This was a great opportunity to get another query out into the world re: my biggest brick wall ancestor. Thanks!

http://gatapleytree.blogspot.com/2012/11/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-who-is.html

Liz

Sara Greenleaf said...

Fun, as always, Randy. This was a useful revisit to past research - http://bit.ly/TBBUH6 - Thanks!