Saturday, July 12, 2014

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Do Some Semi-Random Research

It's Saturday Night - 
time for more Genealogy Fun! 



Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

1) We're going to do a little bit of Semi-Random Research tonight...

2)  Go to your family tree database of choice (you know, like RootsMagic, Reunion, Ancestry Member Tree), and determine who the very first person on your list of C surnames is.  Or the first person on your list of J surnames.  Or P surnames.  Or any other name you need to research.  Your choice!

3)  What do you know (or not know) about this person based on your research?  It's OK to do more research if you need to - in fact, it's encouraged!

4)  How are you related to this person, and why is s/he in your family tree?

5)  Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook Status post or Google+ Stream post.


Here's mine:

2)  The first person on my list of "P" surnames is Elizabeth P., the wife of Ichabod Sampson, who had a son named Ichabod Sampson in 1829 in Duxbury, Massachusetts, who married Harriet Augusta Seaver in 1862.  

3)  I have no birth, death or marriage information for either Ichabod Sampson the elder or for Elizabeth P., and I don't know Elizabeth's maiden name.

I looked in the FamilySearch Family Tree for the elder Ichabod Sampson and found:

Ichabod Sampson (KZLZ-WQN), born 3 April 1789 in Duxbury, Mass., married Elizabweth Packer Thomas in Nov 1827, died 13 Sept 1834 in Boston, mass.

Elizabeth Packer Thomas (KZV2-V4Z), born 12 May 1802 in Marshfield, Mass., died 29 Aug 1886.

Let's see if I can find records that confirm this information:

On Ancestry.com, I found:

*  Ichabod Sampson birth:  3 April 1789 (in Duxbury Vital Records book, page 139), from a probate record.
*  Ichabod Sampson death:   13 September 1834, age 45 (in Duxbury Vital Records, page 410, from a probate record)

*  Ichabod Sampson and Elizabeth P. Thomas marriage:  8 Nov. 1827 (in Marshfield Town Records, page 70, image 562 of 855).

*  Elizabeth Packer Thomas birth:  12 May 1802 (in Duxbury Vital Records book, page 174, and Marshfield Town Records, page 30, image 539 of 855).

On AmericanAncestors.org;

*  Elizabeth P. Sampson "Thomas" death:  29 August 1886 in Duxbury, from Deaths, Volume 374, Page 324, for 1886, in Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1915).

On Find A Grave:

*  Ichabod Sampson memorial #54926534 in Mayflower Cemetery, Duxbury, Mass.  Birth 1789, Death 13 September 1834, with a photograph of the stone.

*  Elizabeth P. Thomas Sampson memorial #54926560 in Mayflower Cemetery, Duxbury, Mass.  Birth 1802, Death 1886 with a photograph of the stone.

So I think I've found decent sources for the maiden name of Elizabeth P. and for each of the vital events for both Ichabod and Elizabeth Packer (Thomas) Sampson, good enough for other researchers to find if they care to.

4)  Elizabeth Packer (Thomas) Sampson is not related to me.  Her daughter-in-law, Harriet Augusta Seaver, is my 5th cousin, 5 times removed.  She is in my database because I "collect" Seaver folks.

I'm gradually working through my database to find these females with no maiden name, and parents of Seaver spouses with no information at all, and then finding leads to records to add vital events to my database.  I hadn't gotten down to the P surnames yet!


Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

6 comments:

GeneGinny said...

It was too hot to do anything else here this evening, so here's my contribution: http://geneginny.blogspot.com/2014/07/sngf-semi-random-research.html
Thanks for the nudge, Randy.

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

I did it. Didn't find much but now it's all documented!

http://mam-massouthernfamily.blogspot.com/2014/07/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-random.html

R R said...

1. I accept this Saturday Night Mission!

2. I was going to start with the C since that was the first letter mentioned in the mission. However, I don't have any C's in this tree as of yet. So I decided to start with the first person in the Index.

3. I know she was born in Missouri. She was married twice. She had 2 children by first marriage and 3 by her second husband. She attended church and played the piano, great cook, and made clothes by sewing or crocheting. She had a stroke..

a. I don't know her first husbands first name
b. I don't know their marriage date.
c. I don't know what happened to him.
d. I need her obituary
e. I need a death certificate on her
f. I need a marriage certificate for her first husband
g. I just this week requested information from her daughters about her and their family.

4. She is my Aunt and my mom's sister.

Dana Leeds said...

I participated and found some wonderful new information! Great challenge!

Eileen said...

Better late than never. Couldn't do this last night.

I discovered a gold mine obituary. Here is my link - http://www.oldbonesgenealogy.com/52-ancestors-28-helen-patchkusky-shuda-saturday-night-fun/.

Carrie Smith said...

This was fun- I ended up doing two! :)
http://underthenuttree.blogspot.com/2014/07/more-genealogy-fun.html