Welcome to the world of genealogy research where your ancestors come alive!  It’s exciting to put names, faces, and personalities to your family’s past.  Here, we’ll delve into clues to find those whose genes flow through your veins, and who contributed their part to who you’ve become today.  But, I need to warn you – it’s addicting!

I used this poem, Dear Ancestor, in the 600+ page manuscript I wrote on researching my mother’s complete ancestral history.

Your tombstone stands among the rest,
Neglected and alone.
The name and date are chiseled out
On polished, marbled stone.
It reaches out to all who care
It is too late to mourn.

You did not know that I exist
You died and I was born.
Yet each of us are cells of you
In flesh, in blood, in bone.
Our blood contracts and beats a pulse
Entirely not our own.

Dear Ancestor, the place you filled
One hundred years ago
Spreads out among the ones you left
Who would have loved you so.
I wonder if you lived and loved,
I wonder if you knew
That someday I would find this spot,
And come to visit you.

By: Walter Butler Palmer (1868-1932), written in 1906

Several years ago I gave a two-part seminar for the Spencer, New York Historical Society on researching ancestors.  In this column, I’d like to revisit that arena because you may be starting your research journey, may have hit a brick wall or two or more, or maybe just want to find a little more information on your elusive ancestors.  The key to starting a study of your family’s history is through personal research of family records, census records, church records, cemetery records, and war records, etc. 

This series was originally published biweekly in the former local newspaper, “Broader View Weekly.”  My intention is to expand the articles and provide interesting historical backgrounds.  Many of you know I also wrote other personal interest/interview articles for that paper, and began a blog, “Life on the Homestead/Homespun Ancestors”. 

To introduce my genealogy work and credentials, I researched and documented both of my mother’s parents back to the early 1600s Dutch of New Amsterdam and the greater New Netherlands, including founders of New York City and the Albany and Schenectady area.  Along the way, a few French, Belgian and English folk became part of my family with their own fascinating histories.  My lines next include numerous 1710 German/Swiss Palatine immigrants documented from church records in Germany and Switzerland as researched and published by Henry Z. Jones, Jr., and the ca. 1718-1720 Scots-Irish immigrants to Massachusetts Colony, founders of the Londonderry, New Hampshire region. 

Among various genealogy reference books, there are two books in my personal library which were invaluable to my early research:  “The Palatine Families of New York, 1710, Vols. I and II” by Henry Z. Jones, Jr., and the incomparable background history of the Palatines and their travails in “Early Eighteenth Century Palatine Emigration” by Walter Allen Knittle, Ph.D.

I am not a professional genealogist, but a hobby researcher who loves history.  I had no prior training, but learned along the way with the help of kind strangers met on my journey.  Several even turned out to be distant cousins with whom I continue to maintain a close friendship. 

My quest began with my mother’s family tree in hand.  Though I never saw the actual tree (which now belongs to one of my cousins), it hung on the wall in my maternal Tillapaugh family farmhouse in Carlisle, Schoharie County, New York.  In 1969, my Mom carefully copied down all the names from the tree for my first Bible.  Then, in 1998, I purchased a book on my paternal Dutch Visscher genealogy from a distant relative who works at The Hague’s genealogy center.

I also have “The Dallenbachs in America” which documents my maternal Swiss Dallenbach/Tillapaugh ancestry.  It includes a photo showing my mom’s parents at the 1910 Tillapaugh Reunion on the Hutton Homestead, settled in the early 19^th century.  My mother’s two oldest brothers inherited this dairy farm, and my cousins continue to run it.

But, it was another item which actually launched my deeper research.  In 1999, a photo was offered on the Schoharie County Genweb email site noting these words penciled on the back:  “First Tillapaugh Reunion July 1910, Hutton Homestead.”  As noted above, my uncles inherited this farm from our Hutton ancestors, and my cousins still farm it today.  Informing the seller (a professor and antique enthusiast) of my immediate family ties to the photo (showing my grandparents and paternal great-grandparents), he offered it for my purchase, and I was determined to learn more about my ancestors.  And part of that photo is featured above as my header image. (see photo attached.)

Out of my several years of extensive research and documentation came three articles published in the “New York Genealogical and Biographical Record” (NYGBR), which are in Elmira’s Steele Library Genealogy Section where I researched many Saturday mornings.  You can also find the NYGBR in Cornell University’s genealogy library, or other libraries with such holdings.  If there is no viable genealogy library near you, your local library can obtain various books and journals for you through the inter-library loan system which I also used extensively.

My first article was titled, “Which Elizabeth Van Dyck Married John Hutton?”  (NYGBR REC.135:31 – REC indicates the volume, followed by the page on which the article appears).  It documented use of the Dutch naming pattern to clarify which of three Elizabeth Van Dycks married the shipwright John Hutton, not the goldsmith, of the same name.  They were all of New York City and documented in records of the late 1600s and early 1700s. 

Though this naming pattern is endemic to the Dutch, other ethnic groups used a similar pattern, but not as consistently or as extensively over the centuries as the Dutch.  They faithfully followed a pattern of naming the first two sons after the children’s grandfathers, and the first two daughters after the grandmothers.  Thereafter, children were named after the respective great-grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, or even the baptism sponsors.  I absolutely enjoyed mapping families using this naming pattern in the online baptismal records of the early Dutch Reformed Churches of New York City, Albany and Schenectady.

My second article, “The Family of John Hutton and Elizabeth Van Dyck,” (REC.136:45; 136:135; and 136:193) again used the Dutch naming pattern to determine that Elizabeth Deline Hutton’s parents most probably were William and Ariantje Deline.  I could not accept that a prior researcher had published as fact (and believed by multiple genealogists with whom I was in contact) that she was the daughter of 63-year-old Margrietje Clute Deline, a woman who was more likely Elizabeth Deline’s grandmother.  If mother of Elizabeth, Margrietje would’ve held a world record for sure if that were true! 

This article delineated John Hutton’s descendants (some not previously documented in this family), including my ancestors who settled on the above-noted Hutton Homestead in Carlisle, New York in the early 19^th century.  My research article also corrected other mistakes in lineage, and corrected wrong Revolutionary War data chiseled onto my ancestor’s tall obelisk monument.  There were two Lt. Timothy Huttons, my ancestor and his younger nephew.  I proved the military data on the monument is actually that of the younger Lt. Tim Hutton.  Oh, but it pays off to do your own thorough research!

My third article, “The McNeill Family of Carlisle, Schoharie County,” (REC.139:123; 139:217; 139:313) documented the descendants of John McNeill, mariner, of Boston [Massachusetts] and New Boston [New Hampshire].  John’s wife, Hannah Caldwell McNeill, died (presumably) soon after childbirth, while John likely died at sea as per estate records purchased (no cemetery record available).  This left their only son, John Caldwell McNeill, an orphan, raised by his mother’s parents in and around Londonderry, New Hampshire.  About 1795, John C. removed his family to Carlisle, NY. 

The McNeills had never been documented as a family, and I knew of only one son, my ancestor, Jesse.  But, piece by piece, a family was built from John C.’s Revolutionary War pension file (which had an affidavit by son Jesse, no other children’s names), census records, cemetery stones, other family war pension files, obituaries, historical society data, out-of-state historical books the local Spencer Library graciously ordered for me, and from other descendants who replied to data I posted online.  Unfortunately, I know nothing about one daughter, and only the nickname of one other daughter. 

Again, there is no substitute for the hard work of personal research and documentation; but, making friends with researchers of the same lines, and sharing data, goes a long way to helping you find your ancestors!

It is my hope to inspire you by providing valuable tips on researching your ancestors in future articles.  But, again, fair warning – it’s addicting!