Saturday, October 16, 2021

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Your Best "Genealogy Find" This Week (or Month)

 Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:

It's Saturday Night again -
Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!


Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music):

1)  What was your best "genealogy find" this week (or this month, or this year)?  Was it a new ancestor, a new record, a new conclusion drawn, a new photograph, or something else?

2)  Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or on Facebook.  Be sure to leave a comment with a link to your blog post on this post.

Here's mine:

While working on the Ephraim Buck genealogy sketch on Wednesday, I noted that all I had for his death was "1734" with no day/month, no location, and no source.  I tried to improve that date based on a record or some source.  A search on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FamilySearch, WikiTee, Geni, Google, and American Ancestors found no death, burial, or probate record.  However, I found several land records in Middlesex County, Massachusetts on FamilySearch Historical Records by browsing the deed indexes and captured several deed images.  One of them was very helpful - here is my abstract of the deed:

"Ephraim Buck, yeoman of Wilmington, sold two parcels of land in Woburn to his son Ephraim Buck, husbandman of Wilmington, on 15 March 1738/9. for 200 pounds in money.  The first parcel was the homestead now in Wilmington bounds containing about 50 acres adjoining.  The land was bounded easterly on Andover road, northerly by Daniel Eames, westerly by Maple Meadow in Woburn, and southerly by his brother Samuel Buck.  A second parcel was the land purchased by Ephraim Buck from Benjamin Johnson.  He reserved one half of the homestead, the barn, and the land bounded on Andover road for his use and benefit for his lifetime.  The deed was signed by Ephraim and his wife Esther Buck, who relinquished her thirds.  The deed was recorded on 21 June 1742."

The clincher here is that Ephraim's wife, Esther (Wagget) Buck is identified in this deed, and it was executed on 15 March 1738/9.  So Ephraim Buck was still alive on 15 March 1738/9.  It was recorded in the record book on 21 June 1742.  That doesn't mean that Ephraim Buck died before that date, but it is a possible clue that he did.  

So I was able to add a death date of "after 15 March 1738/9" to Ephraim's life sketch.

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Copyright (c) 2021, Randall J. Seaver

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6 comments:

J. Stephen Little, Jr. said...

This was one of my best weeks ever in genealogy: I saw for the first time a record for which I'd been searching for years, the 1692 court order freeing my surname immigrant ancestor from indentured service. I wrote about the search and seeing the citation, abstract, and manuscript for the first time: https://asheancestors.home.blog/2021/10/15/1692-order-freeing-abraham-little-1671-1720-my-surname-namesake-indentured-servant-immigrant-ancestor/

ByAPearl said...

I was planning to post this item when your assignment popped up. Your timing is impeccable!
https://geneajournalsbyapearl.wordpress.com/2021/10/16/tom-peevy-1866-labor-contract-sngf/

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

I was working with patents for inventions and found a few!

https://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2021/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-your-best.html

Janice M. Sellers said...

I sorted out my cousin's multiple wives and children.

http://www.ancestraldiscoveries.com/2021/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-your-best.html

Bill said...

Hi Randy-

Great find of that record!

Have you found a way to put a date like "after 15 March 1738/9" into the date fields in Roots Magic, Ancestry or FamilySearch? If not, do you capture it in the comments field or elsewhere?

Thanks,

Bill Greggs
bgreggs@gmail.com

Linda Stufflebean said...

Mine was an excellent conference! https://emptybranchesonthefamilytree.com/2021/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-163/