[Editor's note: This post originally appeared in Vita Brevis on 20 February 2014.]
I frequently encounter eighteenth- or nineteenth-century dates, especially on the migration trail, that are not cited and which often derive from “online trees,” usually the FamilySearch Ancestral File, Rootsweb WorldConnect, or Ancestry World Tree. These days, I find it easier to determine whether any of the information is valid thanks to the many works and databases indexed at Google and Google Books. The following case suggests the variety of trails the researcher must be prepared to follow, from unverified online trees (which may hold important clues) to books and newspapers contemporary with the events mentioned (and which are sometimes flawed).
Walter Goold was born in Lyme, Connecticut 25 January 1759 and buried there 3 June 1817. A descendant’s generation charts identified Goold’s wife as Sally Latimer. When searching the Lyme Vital Records (in the Barbour Collection at NEHGS), I was able to confirm Walter’s birth and I found his burial on FindAGrave; his marriage, also at Lyme, only identified his wife as _____ Latimer. (Click on images to expand them.)
On Ancestry World Tree, several trees identified her as Sarah “Sally” Latimer, daughter of Henry and Sarah (Christophers) Latimer of New London, Connecticut. They also gave her a date of marriage at Montville, Connecticut on 15 January 1785 and a death in Orleans County, New York, on 26 April 1853.
In reviewing the charts online, I recognized lines of both her purported father and mother going back to Mayflower passenger William Brewster: Henry Latimer would be in the sixth generation and Sarah Christophers in the seventh, both descending from William’s son Jonathan2 Brewster. I went to the Mayflower Five Generations in Progress volume by Barbara Lambert Merrick. Both lines were confirmed to Henry Latimer as a child of his parents and Sarah Christophers’ father as child, but neither line continues to Sarah Latimer and her marriage. Henry Latimer died in New London in 1825, but he did not leave a will identifying heirs. I decided to do a bit a Google searching.
I did various searches for “Walter Goold” and “Sally Latimer” and “Henry Latimer” and “Sally Christophers” and “Sarah Christophers” and “Lyme” and “New London,” etc. Below are some the results I got after some detailed searches:
This led to a citation to their marriage in Montville in 1785 that I did not find in the Barbour Collection:
(Chesterfield is a village of Montville.)
This led me to the website of the “Michigan Biographical Index,” which gave me links to two articles about Lodema:
Both were identified as coming from the Detroit Society for Genealogical Research, which we have in the NEHGS library. The source turned out to be an article by Howard R. Goold on “Descendants of Robert Goold Who Came to America in the Year 1665,” and on page 100 of volume 22 [1959] was the family of Walter Goold, which showed the dates that had often been used online:
When I was almost done with my research, I saw one final record that really surprised me. In another person’s Ancestry World Tree was a reference to Sally from the Hale Collection:
The Detroit Society for Genealogical Research article states that Sally died in Carlton, New York, and I also found a FindAGrave entry listing her burial there in Fuller Cemetery. I thought at first that perhaps Sarah had two gravestones, one in New York and one in Connecticut. However, Family History Library film # 3246 was not a listing of the main body of the Hale Deaths and Burial Index; rather, it was an index to the New London Weekly Chronicle. After using this index to get the full entry, I had everything I needed:
Charles R. Hale Collection, Family History Library film # 3423
Getting a death record in western New York in 1853 can be difficult. Usually you are limited to gravestones or death announcements (if that), since deaths were not civilly recorded. Even in Connecticut, while death records were kept in this period, the record usually did not list spouses, and almost certainly will not list parents. This newspaper’s death announcement of a New London native who died in western New York not only lists both of her spouses but also her father, giving me all the proof I need to extend her ancestors back in Connecticut and Massachusetts for seven more generations!
