Linda Roorda

Thanks very much Kevin! but I haven't a clue how to do streaming services. My husband is blind and I'm not tech savvy. I've struggled with using DVDs, and even stopped doing that.

Thanks Kevin - Don't get Disney on our cable; don't know what streaming is 🙂

Welcome to Haefele! We're very pleased with what they have, tho Nat Geo and Nat Geo Wild are gone and the Mets baseball channel has been gone awhile, and we miss our Dutch Dr. Pol vet. Have had Haefele cable TV now for several yrs. Tempted to get internet too and use Frontier only for landline, but not looking forward to the hassle of changing all our many email user connections to a new name, so haven't switched. We get MeTV under Binghamton's ch.12.3 (I think it is - Ed's my DJ), and we really like the music channels too as my resident DJ toggles btwn different venues we like should a not-so-good song start playing LOL! Enjoy!!

Treasures – we all have them… they’re what our hearts hold dear. Treasures are often found within the important things of life – our family, friends, hobbies, and even little trinkets. Yet, what value do we give them? Are they all encompassing, devouring our time and energy… or are they like gifts in the backdrop of a life rich and full from serving others? One of my favorite verses from childhood has been, “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:20-21) In all honesty, though, I have not always looked at life from that perspective. But God never fails to bring something to mind which helps us remember His great and awesome treasure. I have many treasures, things I hold dear. One special treasure is a small collection of Delftware. Since both my husband and I are second-generation Americans of Dutch immigrants, I want to preserve our heritage. Though patriotic American, I also value the Dutch as my most prominent ancestry. My dad was full Dutch, while my mom is a mixture of many German/Swiss Palatines, a few Scots-Irish, English and French, and many early-17th century New Netherlands’ Dutch. Yet, as much as I treasure my family and its heritage, this is not where my greatest treasure is found. Instead, I have learned to “seek…first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness...” (Matthew 6:33) Storing up treasures through the gift of Christ’s love and sacrifice leaves me to understand everything else is simply an accumulation of stuff. I can’t take any of it with me when I pass away from this earth. By trusting, believing in, and accepting Jesus’ death and resurrection, we affirm His assertion to all the world that “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Nor can we escape the simple truth that, as Jesus told his followers, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21, Luke 12:34) That treasure I can take with me! And may we always hold the greatest treasure this world has ever known close to our heart. Heaven’s Treasures Linda A. Roorda Treasures are in the heart’s secret things The special thoughts, the riches valued But whence the source a difference makes For what the heart seeks, there lies its treasure. What do I value above all the rest? What would I give for my heart to follow? What is the worth of a sacrifice Among life’s stuff that draws me away? Is it my self, an ego to fulfill, Or is the choice of eternal value? Do I hold tight trinkets of this world, Or release them all for greater reward? Within this life are choices to make Whom shall I follow, to whom give my heart? To that which I seek will loyalty go Whether in pleasure or by wisdom’s light. For what my heart seeks there is my treasure Hidden in depths of awe-filled wonder As I gaze upon heaven’s great glory The shining home where faith has been placed. ~~

Hal, I'm so glad this prompted your memories!! Don't be sorry, I loved reading about your time at the sap house! Obviously, those were good old times with some great memories!! Glad to hear your cousins, too, still enjoy this venture making maple syrup! I never had the experience with my relatives, and think I missed out on a lot! Thank you again for sharing with us, Hal 🙂

As we noted previously, studying census records plays another key role in searching for ancestors. Census records track families as they grow, move to new frontiers, into the cities, or perhaps just stay put on the farm with family members scattered within walking distance nearby. Study the old handwriting, compare unknown names or words to letters and words which you clearly know. But, know that the old fancy cursive is different from what we’re familiar with in today’s handwriting. I became familiar with it when researching and copying old deeds as a young secretary years ago, learning the old language of legal documents in the process. I use two methods for keeping census records – one is to write all data on 4x6 lined index cards, and the other is using blank 8x10 census forms. I eventually acquired several hundred index cards filed alphabetically in a handy large shoebox. I find them easier to refer to than the large census forms which, admittedly, are the more accurate, though they can be placed alpha order in a 3-ring binder. The large blank forms are also used as a guide to what data to include on index cards from each census. Before searching census records, you should also know they, too, may contain errors. At times, the enumerator may have been given wrong information, or misspelled first and last names depending on his own abilities. When copying data, be sure to include the way names were misspelled, along with the known correction. For example, I tracked a McNeill descendant whose father had removed his family from Carlisle to Decatur, New York and later to the state of Maine. I knew his daughter, Appolonia Livingston McNeill, by baptism record. She married William Smyth(e) and lived in Bangor, Maine. By census records, her unmarried sister, Sarah McNeil(l), lived with them. I followed the Smyth(e) family in Bangor by census, and the family’s billiard hall by city business directory. I could not locate Appolonia in the important 1900 census, assuming she died after 1880. Searching for her sons, I was surprised to find Appolonia as a widow, listed on the 1900 census by her middle name as Livingston A. Smyth. She then resides with her twin sons in Portland, Oregon where she dies and is buried per death record I purchased. Wondering what brought them to the far side of the continent, I can only speculate that perhaps they later enjoyed Portland’s 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition. I have not had time nor funds to pursue further research on the family among Maine or Oregon records, though I did obtain a few free cemetery records online. Every ten years since 1790, our federal government has gathered a national census. Very few records remain of the 1890 census as most were destroyed by fire and water damage in 1921. In 1934, rather than make attempts to restore the balance of records, they were destroyed by the U. S. Department of Commerce despite a public outcry. The 1890 census was different from previous with in-depth questions about each family member and Civil War service, and would have been invaluable to researchers! State censuses are equally as important. Taken randomly, they are a little-known or seldom-used resource. Typically collected by states every ten years, in years ending in “5,” New York did so in 1790, 1825 through 1875, 1892, 1905, 1915, and 1925. For privacy reasons, census records are not available to the public until 70 or so years later, the 1940 census being released in April 2012. Records available to the public from 1790 through 1940 are found at a county clerk’s office, online by subscription at Ancestry.com, on microfilm through the Family History Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with some census records transcribed and placed online at county genweb sites. As a way to pay back other generous contributors, I transcribed the 1810 census for Carlisle, Schoharie County, New York. I’ve wanted to do more, but have not had time to go back and transcribe additional census records for online usage. And that was back when I had the slow dial-up internet, not my fast click’n-go high speed! Initial census records provide limited data. The 1790 census includes city, county, state, page, date, name of head of household, males under and over age 16, free white females, all other free persons, and slaves. The 1800 census begins to break down age groups by years, with 1820 including occupations in agriculture, commerce, manufacturing. The 1830 census includes the deaf and blind, but no occupations. The 1840 again includes age groups for males, females, free colored persons and slaves, but also occupations of mining, agriculture, commerce, navigation of ocean, canals, lakes and rivers, learned professional engineers; pensioners for Revolutionary or military services; the deaf, dumb, blind and insane; data regarding one’s education, and those who cannot read or write. The 1850 census is also a key census as it’s the first to list the name and age of every household member along with numbering the dwellings/houses and families of a town. From 1850 through 1940, data may include the name of each household member, age, sex (which helps when a given name is not gender specific or is illegible), number of children born to a mother, marital status, years of marriage, state or country of birth, birth places, year of immigration, street address, occupations, value of the home, etc. The 1880 census is free at both Ancestry.com and the LDS Family Search website. The 1900 gives month and year of birth along with other family and professional data. The 1910 through 1940 are more in depth than previous. Regardless, all census records contain a wealth of vital information on your ancestors! COMING NEXT – Military Records

That's awesome, Banjoman! I checked it out, and it looks like a valuable asset to local researchers, like you! Since I'm not a "native" of this area, my research encompassed the greater Albany, Schenectady, Schoharie, Mohawk region plus the old New Amsterdam/New Netherlands. I greatly appreciate your mentioning Joyce Tice's site for local genealogical data which will definitely help others who read this page and are interested in researching their local family roots. Thanks so much for your input!!

Forgiven! Can you imagine how she must have felt? So close to being condemned to death, now free to go… forgiven a heavy burden of sin… free to overcome her past… and free to share the love of her Savior with everyone she comes in contact with! “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery… ‘In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away, one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there…” (John 8:3-9) We’ve all done something in our past we’d just as soon forget. We may still feel the sting of shame. I can think of many public figures who disgraced themselves including President Nixon, Lance Armstrong, Pete Rose, Bill Cosby, Ravi Zacharias, and now New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo. But, how much better that they and we face our wrongs… our sins… head on. Admit them and repent, ask for forgiveness, stop blaming others, walk away from wrongful behaviors, and feel the loving grace of our Lord. So, what about the men who brought the adulteress woman to court? Well… they simply walked away and left her standing alone with Jesus. I’ve always wondered if Jesus was writing a list of their sins in the sand. If so, that would have made them more than a little uneasy. They would have stood in amazement, and perhaps felt shame as their secret thoughts and sins were written in the sand, available for all to read. How did this man know so much about them? They had brought this woman to condemn her for adultery, a sin punishable by stoning to death. And yet, where was the man from the tryst? Didn’t his sin matter to them, too? Or, was he among her accusers, blaming her? Rather than face the depth of hypocrisy in their own heart, each man turned and simply walked away. They didn’t want others to learn the weight of their own brokenness. But, as they silently walked away, no contrite heart or apology was expressed. Did they not realize that God sees and knows the truth? What a mockery they made of justice… fingers pointing at another while being guilty themselves. So typical of abusers who hide behind their mask of piety. They were so focused on trying to get Jesus to incriminate himself with a response, they didn’t understand the depth of their own sin. They walked away from seeing who Jesus truly was, and their own need of grace. Both civic and religious leaders fail us then as now. Leaders who call themselves gifted exude an arrogance with pride. (Proverbs 16:18) Leaders who fail to hold themselves and others around them accountable lack integrity and humility. Often, they can be classified narcissistic, being more than simply self-centered. They feel entitled to praise or special treatment. They lack empathy, are abusive, liars who do not take responsibility for their own behavior, take advantage of others, lash out at criticism or perceive they’re not getting the attention they deserve with a behind-the-scenes retaliation and perpetual blame shifting. Underneath the egotistic façade, they are usually deeply insecure and use a faux cover to present themselves as more worthy than they really are. Yet, what a powerful picture of mercy and grace Jesus gave us all as He forgave the woman. All she had to do was repent. In doing so, leaving her old life behind to follow the Teacher, our Lord, she would gladly share with others what He had done for her. Because she now had a future! A life to look forward to! She’d lived her past under whispered labels. She’d heard the mocking voices deep in her soul… stupid, worthless, trash, adulteress, prostitute. Yes, she’d lived a life of ill repute. But, the Teacher… He respected her! So, what did He see in her? He saw someone who’d been taken advantage of to benefit others… someone weighed down by a heart of sorrow and shame… someone willing to openly shoulder responsibility for all of her own wrongs. This Teacher, the man named Jesus… He saw what she could be when cleansed of her past. He saw her broken heart longing to be made whole. He stood her up tall so she could start anew. Just like our Lord does for us. He forgives the heart that repents, no matter the charge… that longs to make amends… that longs for a closeness with God. He holds out His hands to draw us near… setting us back up on our feet as He guides our path with flawless wisdom… Forgiven! The Adulteress By Linda A. Roorda I met him today, the greatest Teacher! My life was a mess, but He picked me up. He gave me hope... He gave me vision. He freed my soul from sin’s dark snare. Dragging to court they brought me up front, My accusers smug turning to the crowd. With taunting words they scoffed and accused Revealing my life, my sin and my shame. How could I have reached such fallen depths? He told me he cared. I believed his lies. His words were glib with flattery smooth But now I was caught, ensnared in a trap. Stating that stoning was punishment fit They asked the Teacher his thoughts on the law. Instead He stooped and commenced to write Words hid from others, known only to them. Yet, as they questioned, He continued to write. On standing tall, He peered in their eyes. “If any one of you lives without sin, Let him be the one who casts the first stone.” Slowly the elders and then the younger Quietly fled until only two, The Teacher and I, we alone stood still. From silence He spoke, my soul deeply touched… “Woman, where are they? Have any condemned?” Glancing around, “No one,” said I. “Then neither do I. I condemn you not. Go, and leave your sin. Forgiven are you.” ~~ 08/05/17

Thanks for sharing your story with me! I love that you found bits 'n pieces on so many lines, and esp the old Thomas family Bible with so much data that leads to finding local history! That's awesome! How neat to learn your paternal gr-grandfather was a really good woodworker/cradler! It's amazing what we can learn when digging deeper! If you feel overwhelmed by all the lines that go here, there and everywhere - which I did at first too, I found it best to keep file folders for each surname and lineage, then break it down again into another folder as you follow the attached individual lines. I've got a 4-drawer file cabinet full LOL! Make a chart of family lines backward to hang on the wall, and then take each line with its folder and work back as far as you can - doing that for each line, checking them off on the chart as you go. It'll help keep you from going crazy and getting discouraged - been there! 🙂 and I hope you pick up the pieces and are able to delve back into the search again soon!

(Originally published as front-page article in the local newspaper, Broader View Weekly, March 21, 2013. ) My family’s memories: Sharing about the old ways of collecting sap and making syrup brought to mind the stories my mother has shared over the years. The Tillapaugh family of 12 children in Carlisle, New York made and sold maple syrup for several generations, and my cousins continue the annual tradition today. My mother, Reba, and her younger sister, Lois, readily recall the childhood fun, albeit hard work, of helping their dad and older siblings during the 1930s and 1940s. Lois shared with me, “As the youngest I did look forward to maple syrup time. A lot of hard work, but worth it, with memories forever.” Their dad and older brothers used a hand-turned brace to drill holes in about 300-plus trees. They’d pound in the spiles from which buckets were hung, with lids placed by the younger girls. When the sap ran, besides regular dairy farm chores and caring for a few thousand chickens, they had daily sap gathering. This involved dumping each bucket’s worth into a holding tank on a large bobsled pulled by a team of black Shires (Dick and Daisy) or Belgians (Bunny, Nell, and Tub) on a trail through the woods. My mother said that if rain got into the buckets it turned the sap brown, and they threw that out. And, they often trekked the woods to gather sap with two or more feet of snow on the ground. Carlisle’s woods are not like those in our south-central finger lakes region. Carlisle has rolling hills with limestone boulder outcroppings, many crevices and mini-caves. With Howe’s Cavern near Cobleskill, the town of Carlisle and the Tillapaugh farm also have small caves with nooks and crannies throughout the woods. There was a defined trail for the horses through the woods, but everyone had to walk carefully among the trees. I remember as a child seeing a good-sized cave opening in the ground in the woodlot next to one of the farm pastures, so I can attest to their having had an interesting trek among the rocky outcroppings to collect sap. With a love for horses since my childhood when my father farmed with Belgians (and Clydesdales before marrying my mom), I can visualize the Tillapaugh’s harnessing their black Shires with flowing white “feathers” on the lower legs, listening to them clop along, stepping high in unison. I can imagine the creaking harness and traces, maybe bells tinkling, the big sled’s runners scraping along a gravel road or gliding atop the snow. At this point, my mother chuckled to recall a day she rode out on the sled carrying the sap tank with an older brother, Maynard. When he jumped off as they went up a hill, the sap tank tilted and she fell off, the sled nearly running over her but Maynard stopped the horses just in time. Another time, she got a tiny piece of metal in her eye from a bucket lid. The doctor had a large magnet to draw the speck out, but she refused to let him, petrified it would pull her eye out! She has no idea how the metal ever did get out of her eye, but there was no damage. When the holding tank was full, it was taken to the sap hut, and sap drained into one of two 4x8-10 foot evaporator pans over a wood fire. I questioned her about the size of those pans, but she was adamant about the very large size. Considering her memory has not failed her for other details, I saw online there were, indeed, evaporator pans this large. The oldest brothers stayed at the sap hut boiling all night, often around the clock, watching the temperatures carefully with thermometers. Lois also recalls their mother made lunches which the girls took out to their brothers. My mother agreed with my aunt who said that “when the partially cooked syrup was ready, it was brought to the house in milk cans. Mom would finish boiling it to the correct temperature over a kerosene stove in the summer kitchen, and strain it through felt into gallon glass jugs, mostly for home use, some to sell.” My mom added, “Some syrup was boiled down more to make maple candy, or poured over the snow for a delicious sweet chewy treat.” Maple syrup helped their family deal with sugar shortages and rationing during the Great Depression and World War II. At the end of the season came the hard work of cleaning all the equipment, repeated when the season started. After the youngest Tillapaugh brothers, Winfred and Floyd, retired and sold the family dairy herd in 1974, they built a modern and efficient sap hut closer to home. Using both pails and plastic tubing, Floyd’s son, Duane, recalls other cousins helping them tap a few hundred trees in a venture which eventually grew to around 1000 trees. “Back then, we put a pill in the drilled hole [to kill] bacteria. I believe that’s illegal now. We burned wood, but Dad rigged up a thing that would blow old motor oil in when it was close to syrup [stage] to make the fire hotter to push it to syrup.” They sold syrup from home in pint, quart, half-gallon and gallon containers, also making maple cream and candy. Their peak years produced about 200-250 gallons of syrup annually. That was, indeed, a sizeable maple syrup operation! I researched online articles about the use of paraformaldehyde pills/tablets in the tap hole years ago. Controversy has surrounded its benefits of cutting bacteria and helping the tapped tree heal versus the pills leading to fungi setting in with increased decay versus the fact that formaldehyde was making its way into food for human consumption. Therefore, its use became illegal in the 1980s. Knowing that Native Americans made maple syrup centuries ago, I delved into their sugaring process. They would make a slash in a sugar maple tree, collecting the sap as it dripped out. Hollowed out logs were filled with fresh sap, and white-hot field stones were added to bring the sap to boil. The Indians repeated this process until syrup stage was reached, or until they had crystallized sugar. When the first Europeans arrived, the Indians traded maple sugar for other products, and taught their sugaring secrets to the new settlers. Referred by my cousin, Bruce Tillapaugh, a retired Cooperative Extension agent, I contacted Stephen Childs, the New York Maple Specialist at Cornell University. Childs said, “Cornell has a number of resources for backyarders and beginning maple producers. Much of the information is available online at Cornell Maple. We have a Beginner DVD and Cornell Maple Videos. We hold many Beginner Workshops in the fall and winter. A maple camp is held in June that is three full days of instruction for new commercial producers or small producers planning to expand. There are recorded webinar programs online that interested persons can watch.” I also found a brochure online for the beginner written by a local resident: “Maple Syrup Production for the Beginner” by Anni L. Davenport, School of Forest Resources, The Pennsylvania State University; Lewis Staats, Dept. of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Cornell Cooperative Extension, 1998. Maple syrup not only tastes good, but with a little more research, I learned it’s good for you! It is a natural source of manganese and zinc, important for our immune defense systems. Zinc is an antioxidant which protects our heart by decreasing atherosclerosis and helping prevent damage to the inner lining of blood vessels. It is also known that a zinc deficiency can lead to a higher risk of prostate cancer. Zinc supplementation is used by healthcare practitioners to help reduce prostate enlargement. Studies have also found that adults with a deficiency in manganese have decreased levels of HDL, the good cholesterol. Manganese helps lessen inflammation, key to healing. Just one ounce of maple syrup holds 22% of the daily requirement of this key trace mineral. Syrup also contains iron, calcium and potassium which help repair damaged muscle and cells. It can settle digestive problems. It can help keep bones strong and blood sugar levels normal, help keep white blood cell counts up to protect against colds and viruses, and maple syrup is not a common allergen. With all the goodness going for itself, 100% pure maple syrup is truly worth all that hard work! Enjoy!

Cemetery records are another invaluable resource for your ancestry research. Historical societies also retain cemetery records, or transcriptions, of virtually all old gravestones for every cemetery, large or small, within any given county. Unfortunately, I have typically found this work to have been done several decades ago (often from early to mid-20th century), and desperately in need of updating. However, with our modern technology, a great resource not available when I first began my research journey in the late 1990s is the Find-A-Grave website. Cemetery associations maintain each cemetery, retaining records for all burials. They can often provide more information from their records on the deceased than that which is on a headstone, including full dates of birth and death, and family relationships with parents’ names and/or name of the spouse. On the other hand, I’ve also seen where my trip to a specific cemetery gave me more data on a gravestone than was written in the historical society’s record. It is also well worth making a trip to the actual cemetery whenever possible. On one trip, I walked up and down virtually every row of a very old, but still used, cemetery north of Cobleskill. Frustrated at not finding specific ancestors, I decided to give it one last try and got out of the car, facing a short steep slope. Climbing to the top of the little knoll, I walked directly into an unusual circular plot. Peering closely at the stones, I had that “aha” moment – I’d found exactly what I was looking for! For there were my mother’s grandparents and great-grandparents! As a teen, my Mom would drive her mother to this spot to place flowers on family graves, but she was unable to recall exactly where to find the plot. While researching, it is helpful to know that a.e. (i.e. anno aetatis suae) on a gravestone is Latin for in the__ year of life versus age meaning year of age. For example, you may see a stone with a date of death and age as follows: Jan 10, 1834, a.e. 16y. This indicates the deceased was in the 16th year of life; but, in reality, was 15 years old on the previous birthday before death. You may also see the deceased’s date of death with age as follows: d. June 15, 1827, 10y 3m 5d. From this date, you can count backwards to the date of birth, i.e. b. March 10, 1817. Take photos of gravestones for documentation, along with proof of the location of the stone(s) and exact cemetery of burial. In the case of very old stones from the 1700s and 1800s, I have done rubbings - either with washable chalk to make the eroding chiseled letters stand out, or by pencil rubbing on paper lain atop the sunken lettering when nothing else was available. The latter gave me data on my ancestor, John Caldwell McNeill, that was not in the cemetery records. I knew he was a sergeant in the New Hampshire Line, serving at Bunker Hill as per his pension file; but, a separate gravestone revealed these barely discernable words etched in stone by doing a pencil rubbing on paper: “Corp.1, Co.1, N.Y. Regt. Rev War.” Questioning what he was doing in a New York regiment, I spent the money to purchase his full Revolutionary War pension application file. I then read historical books about the Revolutionary War for their collateral documentation of the era. Reading “The Spirit of Seventy-Six,” author Morris Commager confirmed that the New Hampshire unit was asked to join the above-noted New York regiment on a mission to Canada. Records researched by Commager detailed how the men were captured, stripped of all clothes and possessions, and imprisoned on an island in the St. Lawrence with many soldiers dying. The remaining soldiers were bought back in a cartel by Benedict Arnold and released to serve out their enlistment, confirmed by other reputable sources, including “Benedict Arnold’s Navy” by James L. Nelson – a really great read! This all substantiated affidavits in John C.’s pension file and the story in a New Hampshire county historical book about the capture and release as celebrated annually by John C.’s friends and relatives who remained in Londonderry, NH after the Revolutionary War when he removed to Carlisle, Schoharie County, NY. Although rare, cemetery records and gravestones do occasionally contain conflicting dates or errors. A death certificate, if available, would be the more accurate record, along with collateral records. I have personally seen few errors in gravestone data, but one stands out as part of my documented and published research thesis. My ancestor, Lt. Timothy Hutton (b. 1746) had a nephew Lt. Timothy Hutton (b. 1764), both serving in military units in New York. A monument to my Lt. Timothy Hutton at Carlisle Rural Cemetery in Carlisle, Schoharie Co., NY credits his service under Capt. Gross of Willett’s Regiment in the Revolutionary War. On checking roster records, two Lt. Timothy Huttons are listed in Col. Marinus Willett’s Regiment at the same time – one in Capt. Gross’s company, the other in Capt. Livingston’s. Purchasing military records of my ancestor, with my editor supplying a copy of affidavits for the younger Hutton, provides our proof. This documentation notes both Lt. Timothy Huttons served in Willett’s NY Regiment. But, Lt. Hutton b. 1764 stated in affidavits he served under Capt. Gross, with other documentation noting he died in New Jersey, while his uncle, my ancestor, Lt. Hutton b. 1746, though not stating which captain he served under, is thus presumed to have served under Capt. Livingston as per the unit’s roster records. My Timothy Hutton (b. 1764) was documented serving in Schoharie County, NY, settling and dying in Carlisle, my mother’s home town. And so, I proved my Lt. Timothy Hutton did not serve under Capt. Gross as per his cemetery monument, but rather his nephew of the same name did. With both men sharing the same name, it's no wonder the kind folks who put up his monument were confused! There has also been a concerted effort over the last several years to put cemetery records online, a great aid in research, but you should still document and prove data accuracy because, again, I have seen errors. As the years pass, more and more data is making its way online than was available before 2000 when I began my research. Again, check out the Find-A-Grave website. Through the kindness of many people, photos are taken of gravestones, and, along with data written on the monuments, are placed online. Obviously, not every grave is to be found, nor is all information and family data accurate as I recently discovered from someone’s erroneous tie to my paternal family which I personally knew to be absolutely false. I emailed the contact person and did not receive a reply back; I don’t know if it was ever corrected online as I’ve not gone back. But, admittedly, it is very rewarding to find a photo of just the grave you’ve been searching for! COMING NEXT: Census Records.

Each one of us encounters failures and losses in life. Each one of us encounters disabilities in ourselves or those around us. But it’s what we do with, and how we react to, all that comes our way that makes a difference... in our lives and in the lives of others. We can carry on with selfish pride in what we can do, we can roll over in defeat at failure... or we can face the challenge in humility, asking God to guide us along a broken and difficult path. For 27 years (from 1982 to 2009), we burned wood to heat our house. When my gentle giant husband, Ed, farmed with his dad, he cut his own firewood with a chainsaw despite limited vision of 2/200 with correction in only one viable eye. Came the day, though, that Ed lost the balance of his limited vision, and was completely blind. He could no longer use a chainsaw after the first several years, and later had to stop using an axe to split wood, and it remained to be seen how he would handle the other obstacles that faced him being totally blind. Initially, he went through a difficult transition and grieving process, common to all with any serious loss. None of us knew how best to handle the change. It was a learn-as-you-go process until we found professional guidance specifically for the blind at A.V.R.E. in Binghamton, NY and The Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, MA. And then, his old self rose up to meet the challenges, determined to do whatever he could to face whatever came his way… with a catch. As he stacked firewood one day without any remaining fragments of light and color to guide him, the rows kept collapsing. He simply could not get the pieces of wood to fit together well enough to stay in neat upright rows. In utter frustration, he sat down and put his head in his hands, feeling like an utter failure. All of his life he’d had to struggle with limited vision, being classified legally blind from infancy on. He struggled in the classroom, not being able to see the board, often refusing to ask for help. He wanted to be just like everyone else. Most of us can tackle any activity, job or hobby with ease. But my Ed was denied what he longed to do… he couldn’t play football or basketball with his 6’7” height. He could swim like a pro, but wasn’t allowed on the team for fear he’d hurt himself or others if he strayed from his lane. Instead, the coach made him manager of their state division championship team from Warwick, NY. But, at other times, peers mocked and belittled him. Why couldn’t he be accepted just for who he was? Why did everything have to be so hard? Why couldn’t life be easier and simpler… like it was for everyone else? It wasn’t fair, he thought. Yet, he had accomplished so much with so little for so many years! He could milk the cows, climb the silos, drive tractor and do all the field work except plant corn, and that was only because he couldn’t see where the last row left off. With his limitations, he knew to be extra cautious and it always paid off. But, now it seemed that even this last bit of enjoyment in stacking firewood was being taken from him, too. Except, while sitting there, with the wood he’d stacked falling down, he decided to pray and ask God for help in this seemingly simple, but now very challenging task. He prayed that God would guide each piece of wood he picked up so it would fit and the rows wouldn’t fall down… so that he could stack the wood himself without having to ask yet again for more help. As he stood up and once again picked up the firewood, he soon realized that every piece he stacked fit… well, actually, fit perfectly! When he was done, his rows stood straight and tall without collapsing! And then he began hearing comments from neighbors who marveled at how great his stacked firewood looked. By a man who couldn’t see, no less! As Ed told anyone who commented, “It wasn’t me; it was God.” It was only after he prayed each time before he picked up the first piece of wood that he was able to manage this seemingly impossible task. But, if he forgot and just delved right in to stacking, the wood invariably collapsed… until he sat down and had a little talk with God. My poem below is reminiscent of a story floating around the internet of violinist Itzhak Perlman performing with a broken violin string. Though that feat was unable to be confirmed by reliable sources, the concept is worthy of illustrating our brokenness in disability. Another young man, Niccolo` Paganini, was an Italian child prodigy who played mandolin and violin from ages 5 and 7 respectively. Supposedly, he once played with three broken strings, refusing to allow the handicap to end his serenade. Paganini excelled in part because of Marfan’s Syndrome which gave him his height and extra long fingers, a genetic syndrome also found in our families. The elasticity of joints and tissues allowed Paganini the flexibility to bend and extend his fingers beyond the norm as he used the disability to his benefit. Like Ed and others with disabilities, we can either resent our situation or we can have a little talk with God, asking Him to guide us through whatever we face. The Broken String Linda A. Roorda Four strings create beautiful music Perfection in pitch, magnificent tone All they expect, not asking for more Performing with pride just as it should be. Pulling the bow across the taut strings Gently at first, then faster I stroke The symphonic sound brings tears to their eyes This is my gift to their list’ning ears. Closing my eyes to the beauty of sound Caressing the strings, deep feelings evoked From graceful and light to dramatic and rich Till one string popped, now what shall I do? Adversity gives a chance to prove worth As now I’ve lost a string that flails free. In silence all eyes are riveted on me; Would I be angry or would I accede? Silently I prayed, God give me the strength I’ve been disabled, humbled before all. Help me I pray to carry on well Let them now see You working through me. Adjusting my bow and fingers for sound Quickly I learned to amend my strokes, As to my ears a beautiful tune Emanates yet while focused on God. When the finale at last had arrived With a soft sigh I played my last note, And as it faded they rose to their feet With wild applause from their hearts to mine. Perhaps it was all intended to reach This attitude of pride within myself. A lesson was learned in how to react, Adversity’s gift to sink or to soar. For without You what does my life mean? What value is placed on my outward skills? Do You not, Lord, see deep in my heart Where my soul reflects my pride or Your grace? My attitude then a choice I must make Embrace gratitude or sink in despair. For I cannot change what happens to me Instead I’ll play while focused on You. Humility grows by resigning pride As a broken string reflects trials of life. Others I’ll serve as You did for me For in You is found the selfless way of life. ~~ First published as a shorter version in the Spring issue of “Breaking Barriers”, March 2016, for the Christian Reformed Church newsletter and online Network website.

My first personal-interview article originally published as front-page article in the local newspaper, Broader View Weekly, March 21, 2013: “It’s all up to Mother Nature,” said Al Smith. When the days begin to get longer and stay above 32 degrees, but nights are below freezing, the sap begins to flow. And it’s then we start to see those long lines of plastic tubing snaking between maple trees in the woods as we drive by. Did you know it takes about 30 to 50 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of delicious pure maple syrup? While a number of maple syrup producers locally have been in the business for decades, for brothers Allan and Albert Smith, Jr. (formerly Smith Brothers Maple Syrup, now Smith Family Maple Products), the sugaring fever hit in their teens. And they come by it naturally. Their grandfather, Dayton Smith, his brother Ben, and Dayton’s son Albert Sr. (the twins’ father), operated a small evaporator in the early 1970s. Ben’s father-in-law, Aubrey Westervelt, had been sugaring for decades. So, it was only natural the Smiths used his sugar bush, tapping about 250 trees annually with spile and bucket, trees still used by the younger generation. Dayton, Ben and Albert’s initial evaporator was set up in a garage for a couple years. Then, Dayton bought a commercial 2x6 evaporator and set it up at Ben’s farm on Sabin Road. After operating for a few more years, selling by word of mouth, they ended the labor-intensive syrup production and sold their equipment. A favorite family story is told of a time Dayton, Ben, and Albert, Sr. went to a meeting at Cornell University’s Research Center. They brought along a bottle of their maple syrup to show what they’d been up to in the little farming town of Spencer. On showing their light golden syrup to the Cornell gentlemen, one of the Smiths wryly asked, “Do you know how much brown sugar we need to add to make the color darker?” And a hearty laugh was shared by all! Having grown up with sugaring in the family, Allan Smith decided to build a small homemade evaporator in 1992 for his B.O.C.E.S shop class. With twin brother Albert’s help, they set it up in an old woodshed to see if they could actually make syrup. One day, grandfather Dayton happened to visit and discovered the boys’ secret. Seeing their homemade evaporator, he got excited and motivated them to continue their endeavors. The following season, Dayton purchased a 2x6 commercial evaporator for them. They boiled sap the old way, using about a wheelbarrow load of well-seasoned firewood every 15-20 minutes. It took roughly an hour to make about one gallon of syrup. As Smith Brothers Maple Syrup, the brothers tapped annually, selling by word of mouth just as the older generation had done. In 2010, Allan and Albert, Jr. sold their old equipment and purchased a 2-1/2 x 10 natural gas fired evaporator, capable of producing about 8-9 gallons of syrup per hour. With this expansion in the family business, they changed their name to Smith Family Maple Products. In 2011, they remodeled an old machine shed on their parents’ property into a modern sap house. They love what they’re doing from the mundane aspects to operating the high-tech equipment. And their excitement is contagious! I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the two evenings I spent learning from the Smiths. Starting in 1992 with about 30-40 maple trees using spiles and buckets, they now have about 10 acres of sugarbush (maple trees), tapping about 500 trees, hoping to add another 500 next year. Initially, they used a hand-turned brace with a 7/16ths drill bit, pounded the spile into the tree, and hung a covered bucket. Later, they tried a chainsaw with an attachment to do the drilling. It worked well, but the saw was a bit heavy to lug around all day. Now, they use a lightweight cordless drill with a smaller 5/16ths bit that is much easier to handle. The smaller hole also causes less damage to the tree. In 1999, they bought a filter press which does a better job than the prior hand filter to strain the processed syrup of undesirables. Their new sap house, with running water, and hot water at that, is a major change from the original old woodshed. They now have a kitchen area with a work table, sinks, counters and kitchen stove to process their syrup into candy and other sweet confections. Stainless steel containers store the maple syrup before it’s packaged into bottles and made into other products. They’ve added machines to make maple sugar candy, maple snow cones, maple cream (equipment built by their dad), maple cotton candy, and granulated maple sugar. The Smith family is constantly upgrading, hoping in the next few years to add a bottling facility for a bigger and better kitchen processing area. In 2012, they added a vacuum pump to the sapline which pulls sap off the trees for increased production. With plastic tubing strung between the trees, the pump draws the flowing sap downhill to the large stainless-steel bulk tank. From there, it is siphoned into a large plastic tank on a trailer and hauled to their sap house. Sure beats the days of handling all those buckets! From this large tank, the sap is run up into an insulated stainless-steel storage tank that stands about 15 feet above ground next to the sap house. From the elevated storage tank, sap is fed downline into the Piggy Back Unit in the sap house which sits above a 1 million BTU natural gas boiler pan. The steam created from the lower pan heats the cold sap in the upper pan. As the sap heats, water is boiled off the sap, condensing it down to the beginning stage of syrup. Hot air is forced through the sap in the Piggy Back Unit with a high-pressure blower, helping bring the sap to boil. Sap usually boils at 212 degrees like water, but that changes with atmospheric pressure. At the time of my first visit, Sunday, March 10, 2013, based on the barometric pressure in the sap house, the sap boiled at 210.8 degrees. As the sap continues to boil and water evaporates, the sap thickens. Reaching about 7 degrees higher than standard boiling temperature, or about 219, the sap reaches syrup stage. Thermometers in the pans are constantly monitored as they measure the temperatures. It’s a very delicate process. As the boiled sap loses water content, it flows from the Piggy Back rearward pan into the front syrup pan directly over the fire. Floats regulate the sap levels as sap is divided into channels to cook evenly. If it were to cook too hot or too long at this stage, it would blacken and harden like concrete. As it continues to cook, syrup is pulled from the front pan and drips down into a stainless-steel container. The syrup in this container is then poured into the finishing pan over a smaller fire where it is slowly boiled and refined to become the sweet taste we know as pure maple syrup. All this while steam from the boiling process emanates from the venting cupola above the building, permeating the outside air with the delicious aroma of sweet maple syrup. A daily log book is kept annually to record temps, weather (sunny, cloudy, windy, rainy, snowy), amount of sap collected and syrup made, the sugar content of the sap, barometric pressure, etc. I asked about the average amount of sap collected daily, and Allan simply looked it up in his log. Roughly 400-800 gallons are collected daily with a total last year (2012) of 4516 gallons of sap equaling about 70-80 gallons of syrup. The high boiling temperatures kill any bacteria that might come along with the sap. They also clean the equipment before each season starts, during the season on slow days with no sap to boil, and again at the end of the season. It is still a labor-intensive venture. The weather patterns make a difference as to the amount of sap and its quality. A good sap run begins after a cold winter with sufficient precipitation throughout the year. With the dry summer of 2011, followed by a warmer-than-usual winter and no deep cold spell in January 2012, the production of sap was down, though “still pretty good,” and the Smiths were pleased. Allan told me, “Every year’s production is different, and every night’s boiling is different.” They have definitely seen seasonal ups and downs, as does every farmer, but cannot say they have seen an overall “global warming” pattern. Usually they tap around Valentine’s Day, occasionally not until late February. This year they tapped February 8th and had their first sap run on February 16th. Sap collected in the raw state is about 2-3% sugar; the maple syrup stage is 66% sugar. The lighter grades of syrup are made earlier in the season, with grades darkening as the season goes on. The grades include Grade A light amber, most sweet; Grade A medium; Grade A dark with the most maple flavor; and Grade B dark, a cooking syrup. I asked about disasters, and they’ve had a few. When boiling, the sap can quickly burn if the temperature goes up too high too fast. What you’re left with is a pan of black goo that sets up like concrete, permanently ruining the evaporator pan. I can sympathize as I once accidentally overcooked some sugar water for my hummingbirds. Turning my back on the boiling sugar water for just a few minutes longer than expected, I returned to find it had become a thin layer of solid black concrete in a good pot. I used a screwdriver to scrape hard and long, but got it all off. The Smith brothers faithfully attend the New York State Maple Producers’ Association every January, the largest convention in the U.S. The two-day event, held at the Vernon/Verona/Sherril High School, brings in speakers and specialists from Vermont, Cornell University, and Canada, etc. Highly educational, it is for anyone who taps from one tree to 10,000 trees. The Smith brothers have been learning as much as they can about the business, including the latest technology available, constantly seeking to improve and grow their business. They also learn about industry standards in order to meet government regulations so they can market their products commercially. Smith Family Maple Products are sold by word of mouth and at Family Farm Mercantile on Townline Road between Spencer and Van Etten. A few years ago, a woman visiting from Ohio happened to see the Smith’s maple leaf sign on Sabin Road and stopped. Now she faithfully orders maple syrup every year from her home in Ohio! Eventually, they hope to build up a large enough volume to sell online. If folks want to try making syrup just for home consumption, there are no regulations. Basically, Allen and Albert told me, “You need to boil the sap to 219 degrees, keep everything clean, without contamination, and enjoy! Maple syrup is good on anything!” There are many websites which can provide information, along with Cornell’s Cooperative Extension offices. Being rather technologically challenged, I was very impressed with the Smith Family Maple Products’ operation. From simple and humble beginnings, it has grown to encompass today’s modern technology in order to produce more syrup, more efficiently. Next week: Part II

That's how my Dad felt for a bit - I remember his Buick Special and Roadmaster, both late '50s models back in the early to mid '60s.

My husband's nephew, Jon Roorda: Compton Farms Beef Store. Charolais beef. Located at 3216 Center Road Ovid, NY 14521. We're open for pick up. Weekdays 6 to 7 pm. Weekends 8:30 to 12. And by appointment. Ground beef, hamburger patties, roasts and stew beef. $5.25/pound. $5/pound on orders of 20 pounds or more.

Many communities in states above the Mason-Dixon line had safe homes to assist slaves fleeing north to freedom, like Portland, Maine. A center of activity, the city was important to blacks fleeing slavery for not only safe homes enroute to Canada, but also employment in the rail and shipping industries. Recently, I learned from friends near Portland, Maine that the city’s Underground Railroad Abyssinian Meeting House/Church, built during 1828-1831, is undergoing restoration. Noted to be “Maine’s oldest African-American church building and third oldest [standing African-American meeting house] in the nation”, it held worship services, abolition and temperance meetings, Portland Union Anti-Slavery Society, a school for blacks from 1846 until the 1856, and much more. Recognized as Maine’s only Underground Railroad site by the National Park Service, it is also on the National Register of Historic Places. (Wikipedia) The Abyssinian church was dealt a devastating blow, however, when the SS Portland sank off Cape Ann in 1898, taking 17 male parishioners. One of New England’s largest ocean steamers with side-mount paddlewheels, she provided a luxury service for passengers between Boston, MA and Portland, ME. When the powerful “Portland Gale” blizzard struck the New England coast November 26-27, 1898, more than 400 people and 150 vessels were lost. (Wikipedia) Locally, Tioga County, New York can also claim involvement in the Underground Railroad. But, as historian, Ed Nizalowski, noted online, “…as is the case in so many other parts of the country, actual documentation and credible evidence for involvement can be very difficult to verify.” According to Nizalowski, Hammon Phinney of the Baptist Church in Owego, NY was a strong leader among local abolitionists. Meetings in Owego, as elsewhere, throughout the 1830s and 1840s were rife with “wild confusion and violence.” Frederick Douglass was forced to cancel speaking engagements “for fear of his physical safety” in 1840, though he did return in 1857, and Garret/Gerrit Smith was hit with eggs. Nizalowski’s research uncovered four homes on Front Street in Owego which are known to have been involved in the Underground Railroad – Nos. 100, 294, 313, and 351. “At 294 Front Street, a building once owned by the Eagles Club, a brick lined tunnel had been found running along the north wall.” He also stated that No. 351 Main Street “has the best evidence for being a station for fugitive slaves.” It was owned previously by Judge Farrington, “a prominent Abolitionist,” and by Hammon Phinney, with the house having “a hidden space in the cellar.” Nizalowski avers that Phinney’s work as a stationmaster was learned primarily when the property was sold. “In 1867 when the Hastings family bought the property from Frederick Phinney, Hammon's son, the new owners were told that the home had served as a station for fugitive slaves. This story was passed on for over 100 years. The best evidence for Hammon being a stationmaster comes from his obituary that appeared on March 3, 1898 where it also states that his home served as a station. This is one of the few written references from the 19th century identifying a specific individual.” Tioga County homes in Newark Valley, Berkshire and Richford may well have been involved in the Underground Railroad as Nizalowski pointed out. There may have been additional safe houses in local communities. Though I have heard of homes used for the Underground Railroad in our town of Spencer, NY, I have no personal knowledge. I do know the McQuigg house built in 1830s where our house stands today had servants’ quarters; whether they were whites or free blacks I have no knowledge. At the far eastern corner of the kitchen was a staircase with a door. Taking the stairs up, there was an open area with two separate rooms and a small sitting area, closed off from the other rooms by a different type of door with a different type of latch. Sadly, since the house foundation beams had dry rot, and the structure itself was caving in, the house was not deemed appropriate for renovation by our bank. Typically, local history is only gained through stories passed down within families which attest to involvement in the underground. But there was definitely assistance and support for abolition work throughout our region of New York state, both financially and physically. Writing in 2002 for Elmira’s “The Jones Museum” website, Barbara S. Ramsdell quoted Arch Merrill’s book, “The Underground, Freedom’s Road, and Other Upstate Tales.” “Jones quietly took command of the Underground in Elmira, a gateway between the South and the North. It became the principal station on the ‘railroad’ between Philadelphia and the Canadian border. Jones worked closely with William Still, the chief Underground agent in Philadelphia, who forwarded parties of from six to 10 fugitives at a time to Elmira... The station master concealed as many as 30 slaves at one time in his home, exactly where he never told. He carried on his operations so secretly that only the inner circle of abolitionists knew that in a decade he dispatched nearly 800 slaves to Canada.” As noted in Part III, I had discovered while researching and reading various books and websites that the Abolitionist Movement and the Underground Railroad are intertwined with the beginnings of the Women’s Rights Movement. It was a time in history when many good people of faith were not inclined to confront the evils of slavery; it was just the normal way of life, or so they believed. And, for the most part, it was felt that the place of women was in the home or in limited occupations, often not even given as good an education as their brothers. It was an era when those opposed to owning another human clashed definitively with those opposed to slavery’s demise. Though slavery has been around since early historical times, even in Biblical history, how thankful we are that some felt a calling in their heart to honor God’s love for all by working tirelessly to free those in slavery. Were it not for the ardent religious beliefs, persistence and sacrifices of the abolitionists, men and women, white and black, who carried on their work despite great opposition, slavery might have lasted far longer in this nation than it actually did… and thank God it did come to an end. Yet, as stated in my preface, slavery is still a lucrative venture around the world, including in our own America. Under various guises, slavery flourishes in over 100 countries with India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, and North Korea topping the lists… all for the financial profits gained. Adult and child sex trafficking (especially of women and young girls), drug trafficking, forced child labor, debt bondage, unlawful recruitment of children for war, and domestic service slavery, are just a few of the repulsive categories. I began this series by noting Martin Luther King, Jr. had said, “We are determined to work and fight until justice rains down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Paraphrasing Amos 5:24, King did just that with God at his side to challenge us to seek justice. May we do the same. Never forgetting, we do not erase history. Without the knowledge and ability to learn from injustice, we are destined to repeat. Knowing slavery continues in our world today, may we have hearts that care enough to help in some way. One avenue we can take to help stop enslavement is by donating to a charity of our choice which specifically works to educate the public and free those held in bondage. For example, our charity of choice is Samaritan’s Purse, begun by Franklin Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham. Among the innumerable famous and little-known Blacks who have brought betterment to our world are the following few: 1. George Washington Carver (1864-1943) – born into slavery, an artist, botanist, teacher, agricultural scientist and inventor with extensive research on over 300 uses for peanuts; created Tuskegee Institute Movable School to teach modern agricultural techniques and tools to farmers in Alabama and around the world. 2. Edward Bouchet (1852-1918) - son of former enslaved parent, removed to New Haven, CT; accepted at Yale, first African American to earn a Ph.D., 6th American to earn this degree in physics. 3. Jean Baptiste Point du Sable (1745?-1818) – from Haiti, first to establish a permanent settlement at Chicago, a man of great reputable character and business acumen. 4. Matthew Alexander Henson (1866-1955) - son of free-born tenant farmers; ran away from abusive home at 11; traveled with Robert Peary in 1891 on first of several trips to Greenland; Peary and Henson took their final trip in 1909; Henson set foot on North Pole first; returning home, Peary took all credit with Henson’s achievements ignored as a Black man. 5. Bessie Coleman (1892 -1926) - one of 13 children born to Indigenous father and African American mother; educating herself, graduated from high school; not accepted at flight school being black and female, saved money for training in France; first Black woman to earn her pilot’s license in the world. 6. Lewis Latimer (1848-1928) - son of self-liberated parents, Chelsea, MA; served in U.S. Navy during Civil War; a draftsman with numerous inventions, including filament system to keep carbon filament in lightbulbs lasting longer, only Black member of Thomas Edison’s elite team; improved design of railroad car bathroom and early air conditioning unit. 7. Jane Bolin (1908-2007) - first Black woman graduate of Yale Law School; first Black woman judge in 1939; with Eleanor Roosevelt, created intervention program to keep young boys from committing crimes. 8. Alice Allison Dunnigan (1906-1983) – first African-American female White House correspondent; first Black female in Senate and House of Representatives press corps; chief of Associated Negro Press in 1947; served under Pres. John F. Kennedy as education consultant for President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity until 1965. 9. Wangari Maathai (1940-2011) - first Black woman to win 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for environmental work in Kenya; social, environmental and political activist; founded Green Belt Movement, planting trees. 10. Irene Morgan Kirkaldy (1907-2007) – July 1944 arrested for refusing to give up bus seat in Virginia; convicted in County Circuit Court, appealed decision to Virginia Supreme Court; Supreme Court ruled in her favor June 3, 1946 aided by Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP. 11. Claudette Colvin (1939-) - 15-year-old who refused to give up bus seat March 2, 1955, arrested 9 months before Rosa Parks; main witness in federal suit, Browder v. Gayle, ending public transportation segregation in Alabama. 12. Amelia Boynton Robinson (1911-2015) - tireless advocate for civil rights; first African-American woman in Alabama to run for Congress in 1964; worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. to plan march from Selma to Montgomery on March 7, 1965, severely injured; received Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Medal in 1990. 13. Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831-1895) - earned MD in 1864, first African-American woman physician in U.S.; wrote and published “Book of Medical Discourses in Two Parts”, first medical text authored by African-American. 14. Otis Boykin (1920-1982) – with 26 patents, developed IBM computers, and circuitry improvements for pacemakers. 15. Charles Drew (1904-1950) – physician, surgeon, medical researcher with discoveries in blood transfusions, developed large-scale blood banks, blood plasma programs, and bloodmobiles for Red Cross. 16. Jesse Ernest Wilkins, Jr. (1923-2011) – a genius, youngest student ever at age 13 to enter University of Chicago, earning bachelor, master, and doctorate degree in math at age 19; nuclear scientist, mechanical engineer and mathematician; published papers in mathematics, optics, and nuclear engineering; perfected lens design in microscopes and ophthalmologic uses; involved in Manhattan Project with future Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner with significant contributions to nuclear-reactor physics. 17.“Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race” is a 2016 nonfiction book by Margot Lee Shetterly. It tells about the lives of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, three mathematicians who worked as computers (then a job description) at NASA during the space race. They overcame discrimination to solve problems for engineers and others at NASA. For the first years of their careers, the workplace was segregated and women were kept in the background as human computers. Author Shetterly's father was a research scientist at NASA who worked with many of the book's main characters. These three historical women overcame discrimination and racial segregation to become American achievers in mathematics, scientific and engineering history. The main character, Katherine Johnson, calculated rocket trajectories for the Mercury and Apollo missions. Johnson successfully "took matters into her own hands" by being assertive with her supervisor; when her mathematical abilities were recognized, Katherine Johnson was allowed into all male meetings at NASA. (Wikipedia) BOOKS I’VE READ: *Abide With Me, A Photographic Journey Through Great British Hymns, by John H. Parker, New Leaf Press, Green Forest, AR, 2009. *Bound for Canaan, The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America’s First Civil Rights Movement, by Fergus M. Bordewich, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY, 2005. *Gateway to Freedom, by Eric Foner, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, NY, 2015. *Harriet Tubman, Conductor on the Underground Railroad, by Ann Petry, Harper Trophy of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., New York, NY, 1955. *The Island at the Center of the World, by Russell Shorto, Vintage Books Edition, New York, NY, 2005. A FEW OF MY WEBSITE SOURCES: *“Absence of Malice” (Adapted from “Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural” by Ronald C. White, Jr.) in Smithsonian, April 2002, p.119. *“The Underground Railroad in Tioga County, A Piece of History With Many Gaps to Fill” by Ed Nizalowski. *John W. Jones Museum, Elmira, NY - “Our purpose is to preserve… related artifacts in memory of his role and the roles of others in the Southern Tier involved in the Underground Railroad and the American Civil War.” *Freedom Quilts – “The History of The American Quilt: Part One (Early African American Quilts) - Pattern Observer. History of the American quilt” by Molly Williams.

County historical and genealogical societies are another great repository of data to aid in your research. Among their resources are town and county historical books which often include brief lineages of early settlers, donated private family records, old family Bibles or transcripts of family data, transcribed census records, church and cemetery records, microfilm of various records including old newspapers, donated copies of wills or abstracts of wills, maps, rare books, donated specialty items, published family genealogies, and unpublished family manuscripts which can often be as accurate as any published composition, and so much more. But, please remember that any family genealogy is only as good as the family’s recollections and the ability to provide solid documentation, so personal footwork is still necessary to clarify or prove data if source documentation cannot be provided. If you know where an ancestor lived, contact the corresponding county historical society. You might be amazed at what may have already been researched, or what the folks can help you with, and how well they can point you in the right direction. There is a research and copy fee at a historical society, though it is always less expensive to do your own research on the premises. When I researched in the early 2000s, an average fee of $25/hour was charged by most societies to have their staff do your research (may cost more now). I personally traveled to several historical societies; but, since that was not always feasible, I also paid for some to do my research. Visit the online website for the town and county historical societies where you wish to obtain data. If you want them to research, write a brief letter of request, include their base fee as listed online, and a self-addressed stamped envelope along with a brief description of information you seek. As they respond in the order requests are received, it may be a few weeks before you receive a reply noting your request for research has been placed. By clarifying data on a family record form filed at both Tioga and Schoharie, NY county historical societies, I proved someone wrongly placed a daughter in my McNeill family. I wrote the submitter for more information and her sources, but never received a reply. There were two McNeil(l) families in Schoharie County. Ruth McNeil married Matthew Lamont, removing to Owego, Tioga County, New York by 1825. Matthew and his son, Marcus Lamont(e), purchased Hiawatha Island east of Owego on June 23, 1830 and operated a ferry across the Susquehanna River. Marcus Lamont(e)’s son, Cyrenus McNeil Lamont, purchased the island in 1872 and ran the famous Hiawatha Hotel until 1887. I proved Ruth (McNeil) Lamont did not belong to my McNeill family as had been listed on the above family history form. Instead, I believe she was more likely the daughter of John and Ruth (Reynolds) McNeil, and thus named for her mother. John and Ruth McNeil were originally from Vermont as per that McNeil family history writeup which I purchased from Montgomery County Dept. of History & Archives. Per her sons’ census records, Ruth was born about 1782 in New York, the same year as my John C. McNeill’s proven daughter, Betsey, his oldest child. Betsey was actually adopted by her mother Hannah’s childless sister per New Hampshire records. Historical societies often have microfilm of local newspapers for birth, marriage, obituary and death notices. Newspapers are a great source of collateral family data found in ads, public notices, or community event columns, i.e. the old-fashioned “gossip” columns which note the hosts and attendees of fashionable events. Other important historical society holdings include old church records which provide vital information for births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials. Old baptism records often include not only the name of the infant and parents, but the sponsors/witnesses who were usually relatives or close friends. Churches do not provide this data, but many older church records have been donated to historical societies. Often, you will find that someone with an interest in preserving this information took the time and effort to transcribe original handwritten records into a neatly typed report. The transcriber certifies his/her work to be true and accurate, retaining all original errors. These records may be in manuscript form or in a published book. Town and county clerks’ offices are also invaluable resources. Check the respective website for who to contact and what records they retain. Marriage, birth and death records are typically kept by the respective town clerk where the event took place. County clerk websites provide information on who to contact for genealogical research purposes. The county clerk’s office maintains original state and federal census records, public land records (deeds, mortgages, liens, and maps), tax records, and wills, etc. Family documentation can be found in wills (sometimes found at surrogate’s court), estate records for those who died intestate (without a will), inventories of estates, letters of administration, guardianships, etc. Always note the source to document your facts, i.e. book, author, publisher, date, page, for example: 1. William E. Roscoe, History of Schoharie County, New York, 1713-1882. (Syracuse, NY: D. Mason & Co., 1882), p. 54. 2. John C. McNeill, Revolutionary War Pension File 20246. 3. Mortgage Book B, pgs. 69-70, Schoharie County Clerk’s Office, Schoharie, Schoharie Co., NY. 4. U.S. 1790 Census, Weare, Hillsborough Co., NH, p. 5, handwritten p. 332, line #9, NARA roll M637_5 (ancestry.com census record). When appropriate, you may certainly state data was found on personal visit to a specific named cemetery (be sure to include the address), a personal conversation with someone specific, or in a box of letters found in Grandma’s attic. Don’t forget to also note dates of visits and conversations, and full names, including maiden and married surnames. By keeping solid research documentation, it will always be available to validate your findings as needed. You will never regret the extra effort. Because, now, a number of years after I concluded my family research, my memory is not as great as the walking encyclopedia of family data that it once was. NEXT: Cemetery Records.

As we noted earlier, most of the early conductors on the Underground Railroad were Quakers, but their early numbers steadily grew to include Methodists, Presbyterians and many other denominations, anyone interested in helping free the slaves. Both preachers and abolitionists spoke publicly despite threats against them as they made inroads into the hearts of Americans. William Lloyd Garrison was one such man who influenced untold thousands of people with his abolition work, as did others who shared his sentiments. Obviously, their stand was unpopular as the news media proclaimed them "fanatics, amalgamists, disorganizers, disturbers of the peace, and dangerous enemies of the country." Riots during convention meetings and attempted murder of abolitionists were not uncommon. But there were also black men who reached the forefront in speaking against the cruelty of slavery. One of them was a former slave himself, Frederick Bailey. At age 18 in 1838, Bailey left behind his common-law wife, Anna, escaping from Baltimore to freedom in Philadelphia and then to New York City, two of the most important northern freedom cities. Meeting with men who could assist him, help was obtained for Anna to travel north where they were reunited and married. Encouraged to change his name, he became Frederick Johnson. Bound for Newport, Rhode Island, he presented a letter of introduction to Nathan Johnson, a prominent black man who would next assist the couple. Noting that Johnson was a very common surname among blacks in New Bedford, Massachusetts where they were to settle, Bailey again changed his name – to that of Frederick Douglass, destined to become one of “the most famous African American of his generation.” Ultimately settling in Rochester, NY, Douglass started a newspaper, supported women’s rights, and became a much-sought speaker on the abolitionists’ circuit throughout America, also having the ear and admiration of President Abraham Lincoln. To honor his legacy, on February 14, 2021 it was revealed that the Rochester International Airport has been renamed Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport. Sadly, freedom for blacks in the north was still often less than what white society enjoyed. Josiah Henson escaped the bonds of slavery with his family, removing to Canada where they could truly be free in every sense of the word as Canada refused to surrender former slaves to the United States. Henson was a born leader, a man who knew how to manage his affairs while assisting others. Struggling to survive in a strange land, Henson worked hard and ultimately owned land in Colchester, Canada, observing what it required for black communities to prosper. He, too, became a conductor on the Underground Railroad, assisting many slaves northward to freedom. His life’s example was used by Harriet Beecher Stowe as “Uncle Tom” in the book which propelled her to fame and which did so much more to push the abolitionist movement forward. Another slave, a brave young mother, left her husband and children behind in the dark of night, carrying her young infant tightly in her arms. It was the winter of 1838, and she left knowing that a slave trader was trying to buy her or her infant separately. Though fearful of dying in the cold, or breaking through the Ohio River ice and drowning, she knew she had to try. Along with her infant, she carried a flat board. As she crossed the river, she repeatedly broke through. Pushing her baby up onto the ice, she climbed out with the use of the plank. Slowly she crept across the ice by pushing the baby ahead of her and using the board to move herself along, pulling herself up on it when she fell through the ice. Finally, reaching the northern shore, she collapsed, freezing cold and utterly spent, but on the free side of the river. What she did not know was that a slave hunter had been watching her, and she was about to be captured. As he approached her, the man’s heart inexplicably softened when he heard her baby’s soft cry. Instead of capturing her for reward money, and returning her to meet certain punishment at the hands of her master, he unexpectedly told her, “Woman, you have won your freedom.” What compassion! On bringing her to the village, he pointed out a farmhouse in the distance, a haven of safety and rest, a home on the Underground Railroad. Assisted by the Rankin family in fleeing onward into the arms of freedom, she became the inspiration for Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Eliza.” Her treacherous crossing over the ice-covered Ohio River became “the most famous rendering of a fugitive’s escape ever written.” Written in the Victorian era, and considered a romanticized version of actual events, Stowe’s 1852 novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly,” accomplished a tremendous feat. It not only brought respect to the abolitionists and their moral outrage at slavery, but it shed favorable light on the secret operatives of the Underground Railroad. On the other hand, it greatly angered those in the pro-slavery camp. Stowe’s very popular book prompted President Lincoln to remark when greeting her at the White House that she was “the little lady who wrote the book that made this great war.” Knowledge of Stowe’s story left Harriet Tubman unimpressed. Refusing to go with friends to see a play in Philadelphia based on “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” Tubman stated, “I haint got no heart to go and see the sufferings of my people played out on de stage. I’ve seen de real ting, and I don’t want to see it on no stage or in no teater.” Despite her husband’s threat to report her should she ever escape, Tubman (born ca.1821) left him behind in 1849. She quietly fled during the middle of the night to the home of a white woman who had previously proffered help should she desire it. From Dorchester County in eastern Maryland, she both walked alone and was taken 90 miles north into Pennsylvania with the kind assistance of many along the way. She crossed into the land of freedom as the sun rose, remembering always that “I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person now I was free. There was such a glory over everything, the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in heaven.” Though of short physical stature, Tubman was a woman capable of hard physical labor, proud to swing an axe like a man, preferring outdoor work over women’s housework. Having known much hardship as a slave, having been lent out in early childhood, having been whipped and beaten repeatedly, and having had her skull bashed in by a thrown keg meant for a fleeing man, Tubman knew how to survive. And, ultimately, she gained great success on the stage of life in assisting her people to their freedom. With an unassuming yet authoritative air about her, Tubman had the ability to pass virtually unnoticed through the towns of Southern slaveholders, hiding her identity, “stealing” away numerous slaves on the road to freedom. But that is not to say she didn’t face difficulties in helping slaves escape their bondage. It was not an easy venture for any free black, even with proper papers, to maneuver around in slave territory without being apprehended. Known to live in constant dependency on God during those times, Tubman is quoted as saying simply, “I tell de Lawd what I needs, an’ he provides.” When she brought out her brothers and some of their friends from Maryland, they stayed briefly in her parents’ barn where her father fed them. Hesitant to see their mother for fear emotions would give them away (Tubman had not seen her mother in several years), they left quietly, walking along muddy roads in the rains, circuitously through the woods to get around towns, eventually arriving at the homes of northern abolitionists. They arrived in Philadelphia and were given aid by her friend, William Still, of the Vigilance Committee. Still put Tubman and her fugitives on a train to New York City where Sydney Howard Gay gave assistance, putting them on another train to Albany, then Rochester, and finally taking a boat across Lake Ontario to St. Catharines, Canada. Canada – where so many fugitive slaves endeavored to establish a life in true freedom, often becoming wealthy in owning their own land and businesses. William Still, a free black and secretary for the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee, kept meticulous records of fugitive slaves and their conductors. Still published a book in 1872, “The Underground Railroad,” from his extensive trove of information on the fugitives and their experiences. In turn, Still was in contact with men in New York City who, like Sydney Howard Gay, also kept detailed records of the fugitives they assisted. The extant records left by such men are among the limited but solid evidentiary proof of those who traveled the elusive and secretive Underground Railroad. Messages between offices or stops were disguised as to the real purpose, known only to those involved on the “railroad.” One such example reported by a visiting abolitionist was Still’s telegram to Gay of “‘six parcels’ coming by the train. And before I left the office, the ‘parcels’ came in, each on two legs.” Tubman was called “Moses” by her people, “General” by John Brown of Harper’s Ferry fame, and “Captain” by Sydney Howard Gay in New York City when he documented those whom she brought north to his office. Her bold courage and ability to successfully travel unnoticed among the “enemy” was reportedly unparalleled among “conductors” on the “railroad.” By the time the Civil War began, Tubman had traveled 13 times into the South since she escaped bondage in 1849. She is believed to have brought out at least 70 fugitives, among them her siblings and parents, possibly indirectly assisting an additional 50 in leaving on their own. Supposedly, over 300 slaves were brought north on 19 trips by Tubman as claimed by her first biographer, Sarah Bradford; but these figures are believed to be greatly inflated based on contemporary study of now-known extant records. With the advent of civil war, Tubman became restless, feeling the need to do more for her people. She became a nurse, cook and spy for the Union in South Carolina, becoming “the first woman in American history to lead a detachment of troops in battle.” The abolitionist issues in Stowe’s book, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” also brought legitimacy to the women’s rights’ movement which sprang to life in the 1840s and 1850s. Men who championed their tenets nationally included Horace Mann, Rev. Harry Ward Beecher, Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and Gerrit Smith (the cousin of Elizabeth Cady). Women whose beliefs embodied not only the values of abolition but women’s rights included Lucretia Mott, Sarah and Angelina Grimke, Abby Kelley Foster, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Elizabeth Oaks Smith, Paulina Wright Davis, Lucy Stone, Antoinette Brown, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Esther (McQuigg, Slack) Morris who grew up on our former farmland, supporting abolition as a young woman while operating her own business in Owego, NY, later becoming the first woman Justice of the Peace in 1870’s Wyoming Territory. These are just a few of the many whose belief in equality for the blacks seemed to naturally extend into rights for women who were unable to legally own property or to vote. Yet, even the cause of women’s rights created division within the nation just as the abolitionists’ work had done. For troubled times were about to become even more turbulent. During the 1850s, issues arose about the need for increased funding in the work of the abolitionists and the Underground Railroad. Funds were sorely needed to meet needs of slaves who fled northward to freedom, and to assist them once they were free. Disputes also erupted as to whether enough was being done to rid the nation of slavery as a whole. And dissension even arose amongst the white and black abolitionists during this period. Blacks felt the whites were not doing “enough to combat racial prejudice,” while the whites “were appalled by the controversy.” Many white abolitionists felt they had willingly placed their lives, their family, and their property on the line to follow their heart’s leading to assist the slaves, asking nothing or little in return. To be vilified for not doing enough to help the plight of the black man was abhorrent to them. Before elections in the fall of 1860, debate upon debate was held as the option of state secession was also discussed. Southern newspapers began warning that if Lincoln were elected president, they expected the Fugitive Slave Act would not be followed, and the Charleston “Mercury” opined in October that “the underground railroad would operate ‘over-ground.’” Then, to the pleasant surprise of some and the disgust of others, Abraham Lincoln was elected president on November 6, 1860. Though Lincoln intended to hold the country together as one nation, he would not end slavery nor was he inclined to end the Fugitive Slave Law. He did, however, wish to amend the law so that no free black could ever be forced into slavery. With feelings running high, Southern states began to secede from the Union after South Carolina was the first to leave on December 20th. Together, they formed the new Confederate States of America. Shortly thereafter, federal troops arrived at Fort Sumter in the bay outside Charleston, S.C. to defend federal property. With ongoing dispute between the Union and the Confederacy over ownership of Ft. Sumter, President Lincoln faced a dilemma in how to respond. After Lincoln ordered aid sent to the federal troops at Ft. Sumter, the Confederate Army opened fire on the fort early in the morning of April 12, 1861. And thus began the American Civil War… After so many sacrifices were made to escape the bonds of slavery, and with the nation’s first civil war, clarity was ultimately expressed when President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Freeing all slaves (except in Maryland and Kentucky which had not seceded), his proclamation essentially proved that the work of the Underground Railroad was done. The abolitionists had accomplished what they’d set out to do. They had gained freedom for all enslaved African Americans, the fulfillment of dreams for thousands upon thousands when their work began inauspiciously so many decades ago. At President Lincoln’s second inaugural address on March 4, 1865, he stated, “…These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war… It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged… With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.” Afterward, Lincoln asked Frederick Douglass what he thought of his speech. Douglass replied, “Mr. Lincoln, that was a sacred effort.” (“Absence of Malice,” Adapted from “Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural,” by Ronald C. White, Jr., Smithsonian, April 2002, p.119) Ultimately, all former slaves received their full legal freedom with passage of the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in April 1870. They could now appreciate their hard-won liberty; and yet, they continued to struggle for their rights over the next century, culminating with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. And even now, many continue to feel a prejudice. Harriet Tubman, former slave, a free and fearless woman, died March 10, 1913 in her new hometown of Auburn, New York. She was essentially the last survivor of an unprecedented era, famed conductor on the Underground Railroad, having lived her life to help others attain the very freedom she had gained. Fittingly, the town of Auburn erected a monument to the auspicious career of this amazing woman. “In memory of Harriet Tubman. Born a slave in Maryland about 1821. Died in Auburn, N.Y., March 10th, 1821. Called the Moses of her People, During the Civil War. With rare courage she led over three hundred negroes up from slavery to freedom, and rendered invaluable service as nurse and spy. With implicit trust in God she braved every danger and overcame every obstacle. Withal she possessed extraordinary foresight and judgment so that she truthfully said “On my underground railroad I nebber run my train off de track an’ I nebber los’ a passenger.” [As noted above, the figure of 300 blacks is considered an exaggeration by 20th century researchers. lar] NEXT WEEK: Part IV, conclusion.

Great video! I'd love to have chickens again, but... This brought back alot of memories! I took care of 3-doz-plus chickens of mixed breeds (aka straight run!) that arrived as baby chicks in the mail too, 6 Muscovy "ducks" with one who set and raised ducklings (yes, they were delicious albeit greasier than chickens), plus one guard goose who my toddler brother named "Honk" and the name stuck! Both my parents knew how to care for them - my Dad grew up in Clifton's city life, but, with farming in his blood, raised chickens under his Mom's tutelage, winning 4H competition with his prized birds such that he won a trip to Boston competition as a late teen. My Mom helped care for 3000+ chickens in varying stages on their dairy farm during the Depression; her Mom did the candling, and they took "tons" of eggs into Albany to markets every week. We kept our chicks with the lamp, feeder, and small waterer similar to this video - but in a big tall box in back corner of our farmhouse kitchen. When she deemed them old enough, I put them into the re-claimed chicken coop that my Dad had remodeled/updated/reroofed, using glass eggs found in the nesting boxes from the former owner of our property - supposedly they help the pullets know where to start laying eggs. They were my responsibility as a teen and I loved them! We also knew some were meant for the freezer, so my sister and I were the "dunk and pluck" crew. Dressing one old hen, my Mom showed us the raw forming eggs minus the shells in varying sizes - really cool! Maybe someday again... 🙂

Thomas Jefferson embodied the dichotomy of struggle about slavery within our nation. Acknowledged in his writing of the U.S. Constitution is the biblical premise that “all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with the inherent and inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…” Though he owned slaves, he struggled with how to end the institution of owning another human. He called it a “hideous evil,” yet, like others, saw blacks as an inferior race and necessary to a superior way of life. In 1784, Thomas Jefferson, a member of the Continental Congress, helped draft a plan for settlers of new lands between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River. The plan was to prohibit slavery in all western territory. Defeated by one vote, hopes were dashed for preventing slavery’s spread. From this dichotomy with which our nation struggled, Jefferson wrote he “feared that the continuation of slavery would inevitably lead to bloody rebellion and race war.” The Fugitive Slave Act enacted by the United States government in 1793 was followed by state laws passed to aid the free blacks. But this act also allowed slave owners, especially kidnappers, to obtain legal papers for returning fugitive slaves in the North back to their owners in the South. Kidnapping blacks, both free and fugitive, went unabated as it was often difficult to prove one's legitimate freedom. New York’s Manumission Society provided helpful legal assistance, but their efforts were often thwarted by claims of kidnappers who simply did not care that they might be sending the wrong person into slavery. Bursting onto the scene with a great labor-saving device, Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin that same year of 1793 propelled the southern cotton industry prodigiously forward. While the machine contributed to the growth of cotton, it also enhanced expansion of slavery. In 1800, there were just under 900,000 slaves in the U.S.; this grew to around 1.2 million by 1810, increasing to just over 2 million by 1830. By the time the Civil War began, there were about 4 million slaves in our nation. It wasn’t until 1799, after the Revolutionary War, that New York State passed the Gradual Emancipation Act, with the final state of New Jersey passing it later. A subsequent law enacted in 1817 freed all slaves born before 1799, but that did not take effect until July 4, 1827. In March 1820, Pennsylvania became the first state in the nation to pass a law to defeat the purpose of the Fugitive Slave Act. In other words, slave hunters and kidnappers in Pennsylvania could face felony charges for their actions, be levied with a fine up to $2000.00, or spend up to 21 years in prison. Six years later, the religious Quaker influence reinforced the law by making it even more difficult for a slave owner to "retrieve" his former property without a legally executed warrant and sufficient court witnesses for corroboration. These laws allowed Pennsylvania citizens involved in underground activity to act without fear of reprisal, especially in the rural areas near their southern state line, though still necessitating they operate discreetly. In northern states, blacks were considered free, but they kept one eye always alert, aware that at any time they could be tripped up, caught, and taken south. During the early half of the 19th century, the dreams of slaves for freedom continued to grow. In answer to these dreams came certain whites, along with free blacks, willing to assist them despite threats and their own arrest and imprisonment. Unfortunately, in the summer of 1800, a plan for a major rebellion by slaves was discovered in Virginia. Hundreds of blacks were arrested without solid evidence, and twenty-six were executed for their supposed involvement. Any free black who traveled without authorization was arrested and fined, or sold back into slavery. Even those with freedom papers were kidnapped and sold unless another white was willing to fight and/or pay for their rights. Laws were still not conducive to assisting the free blacks, let alone aiding those who sought to obtain their freedom. Efforts to provide help to fugitive slaves took a great amount of personal conviction and determination to go against the norm. Noticeably, the percentage of free blacks in northern cities rose dramatically – some were free by manumission (released from slavery by their owners), others escaped bondage during the Revolutionary War, some fought with colonial troops during the war and rewarded with freedom, while others were fugitives who had made their way north. In northern cities, former slaves were treated as near equals by people who believed slavery was truly an evil. Fugitives realized they could disappear among their new-found friends, especially in areas settled by other free blacks. Almost by accident, it was the Quakers who initially led the early abolitionist work in the City of Brotherly Love… Philadelphia. How fitting! Their clandestine activity was based on religious faith and a belief they were honoring God by assisting slaves to freedom... while most of the rest of the nation believed it was criminal activity to harbor and assist a runaway slave, thus punishable by law. As a group, it was the Quakers who held to a higher standard of education amongst their own people, men and women alike, and this naturally extended to the blacks whom they helped rescue. With education, the blacks proved they were quite as capable as the whites in every endeavor, a novel idea to many who felt they were an inferior race. In the early 19th century, Quakers found safe homes and jobs for fugitives in Pennsylvania or in parts of New England. They worked fearlessly, tirelessly, and surreptitiously to help untold hundreds flee while living under threats against themselves and those who assisted. Along with some Methodists and Baptists who joined the Quakers, they felt morally bound by their faith in God to do everything within their power to help these poor people… one by one. This cooperation enabled the Abolition Society and their non-member friends (including wives behind the scenes) to aid the fugitives as they passed from one home to another until reaching a safe destination. Along the way, they were fed, clothed, sheltered, protected, and assisted in assimilating into northern society as free people. In due course, Quakers became the hands and feet of the abolitionist movement. Not realizing they were creating a “railroad” of sorts, they set up a series of safe homes/havens. In this way, escaped slaves could travel safely from the southern slave states into the northern/northeast free states, often into Canada to begin a new life. In the south, a group of abolitionist Quakers from Nantucket, a whaling port in Massachusetts, led the anti-slavery movement known as the North Carolina Yearly Meeting (NCYM). They met in the town of New Garden, N.C. and became instrumental in assisting slaves on their way north. One young lad from this Quaker group, Levi Coffin, heard his father speak kindly to men in a “coffle” (i.e. gang of slaves chained together). Retaining an understanding in his heart of the inequality and devastating effect on the men being led away from their families, this incident played a major role in young Levi’s life. By about 1808, the NCYM Quaker members began owning slaves in a trusteeship for the sole purpose of granting their freedom in assisting them northward. Some of these Quakers removed to the border states, i.e. lands north of the Ohio River, taking their “slaves” with them. Once in non-slave-owning territory, the trusteeship slaves were given their freedom or assisted in reaching the northeast or Canada. Gradually, word spread of assistance for slaves as the North Carolina Quakers were familiar with the efforts by their Philadelphia Friends in transporting slaves to freedom. Yet, “no blueprint for the network… [they] created survives, no map showing routes of escape, no list of safe houses.” Soon, the American nation became embroiled in a bitter dispute over new states and their right to own slaves or not. Reminiscent of today’s political animosity, Congressional debate in 1820 raged on both sides of the aisle. Sen. Nathaniel Macon from North Carolina insisted that if restrictions were imposed on slavery, “[it] could only lead to a national catastrophe.” Henry Clay from Kentucky felt that “the spread of slavery into western territories would actually benefit the slaves themselves…reducing whites’ fear of free blacks…” Still, the overriding question remained whether Congress had “the power to restrict slavery when it admitted a new state to the Union.” To compromise, Missouri allowed slave ownership. The flip side of the compromise was that southern states grudgingly agreed to an exclusion of slavery in land north of what became known as the Mason-Dixon line as it extended westward. Ultimately, the compromise angered men on both sides of the argument rather than appeasing anyone, and there the matter festered. From Boston in 1831, William Lloyd Garrison led the way with strong anti-slavery convictions in his first issue of “The Liberator,” America’s first abolitionist newspaper. “I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write with moderation… I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – AND I WILL BE HEARD.” In August that same year of 1831, Nat Turner, a slave from Virginia, led a bloody revolt against whites as the assailants horrifically killed 60 men, women and children. Turner was executed after his confession, while up to 200 additional slaves were killed in retaliation without proof of their involvement. This event only led to further restrictions on the slaves in every way possible, making life often more unbearable for the slaves as a whole. The next year, 1832, Garrison founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society. The New York City Anti-Slavery Society was established in 1833, the American Anti-Slavery Society in December of the same year, with the New York Vigilance Committee forming in 1835. The cause which Garrison and others so avidly promoted garnered not only American but now international support. Just as the abolitionists began to speak out more fervently against the evil of slavery, so the “railroad” become more active. Yet, blacks who reached the northern free states continued to live in fear that even those who were kind to them might recapture them at any moment for bounty money. And, more often than not, those men and women traveling north went without spouse and family – it was simply too difficult a journey to escape together. After earning enough money, they attempted to purchase freedom for their loved ones, or hired someone to bring their loved one(s) safely north, albeit not always successfully. As noted above, though there were no definitive routes north, but typical avenues – with a different path for each person or group going north so as to avoid capture. The slaves often had little to no knowledge of what to do, nor how and where to go in order to obtain the freedom for which they yearned. They often heard through the “grapevine” who to contact for assistance, but fear of recapture and discipline lay over their heads like a death pall. Because of that fear, and the fear of never seeing their family again, most refused to escape their bondage even when offered the chance. It is also believed slaves made “freedom quilts” to display specific patterns giving directions for when, where and how slaves could flee, even which homes were safe. It seems logical despite recent research claiming this may not be reality. As most slaves could not read or write, communicating through code via quilts is plausible. They brought fabric and skills with them from Africa, handing down oral traditions through the generations with descendants of slaves attesting to a quilt code validity. “Ozella McDaniel of Charleston, South Carolina, was taught the story of a system of quilts used to direct escaping slaves to freedom by her grandmother, a former slave… Different quilt patterns conveyed specific instructions for each stage of the journey.” With little past black history deemed worthy of maintaining, much has come down through oral and private documentation with research to celebrate their history in America. The work of what we now call the “underground railroad” was done by word of mouth… knowing those along the way willing to assist blacks to freedom in the north… and those willing to provide a safe haven, willing to harbor a slave despite threat of law. Even Harriet Tubman never went the same way twice, nor did they know exactly when she or others might appear. Often, slaves escaped alone with no direction except to follow the north star. At times, waiting for clouds and bad weather to clear held the inherent risk of being recaptured. Few fled in groups or as families; it was too risky. It took great courage to calmly outsmart the bounty hunters/traders, for the journey north was fraught with danger at every turn. They traveled silently from one place to another, through rough terrain of forest, marshes, creeks and rivers, and into towns where professional slave hunters and informants lurked. Whether alone or with a “conductor,” they carried very few possessions, wearing out their clothing and shoes (if they were lucky enough to have even one pair) from briars and simply walking, being fed, clothed and hid along the way by the kind souls at various stops on the line. Gradually, the number of people willing to assist the fugitives grew over the decades as multiple routes with safe havens became available. Each successful step on the journey took the wit and cunning of those willing to give of their time in offering respectful assistance to another human. It took ingenious ways to hide the fugitives and assist them from point A to point B to point C and so on until their destination was reached. The fear of being found out and of being reported to authorities was overwhelming at times to most, if not all, participants on both sides. For the conductor on the railroad, it might mean a steep fine or jail time, while for the slave it would mean punishment and the possibility of being sold into the “deep south,” far away from family and friends, or death. Even the abolitionists who assisted fugitives were at times beaten, stoned, egged, fined and served time behind bars for their work. It was not easy being involved in this “openly clandestine” business to help fugitive slaves. Many people knew exactly who was involved in the conveyance of fugitives on the road to freedom. At times, the slave hunters knew who was providing aide, keeping an eye on their activity, while those either on the sidelines or involved in transport knew who to direct fugitives to for assistance. Out of fear for their lives and those of the people they assisted, utmost secrecy was crucial when there came a knock at the door from a fugitive seeking help. The work took a firm determination and absolute conviction that what they were doing in these acts of civil disobedience was ordained by a higher power… that they were doing God’s will in helping to free the slaves. Next week: Part III – Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Tubman

LOL!! Too funny, isn't it?! Neat who we do find familial ties to tho! Yeah, going back far enough we all have some ties to various "rich 'n famous" from way back when 🙂 I even have extended ties to Theodore Roosevelt's Mom and the Wright Brothers of flying fame, and "love" the direct line tie to everyone's favorite bad girl banned from New Amsterdam for selling liquor to the Indians! Ah life!!

I saw it on FB and agree with the original post by Carano, who I know nothing about, not even that she is/was an actress. She was fired because she was not being "politically correct." Since I was a teen, I read extensively on the attitudes of hatred and extermination pre-/during WWII, and both of us had paternal families emigrate to the U.S. from Holland post WWI to seek a better life, their other family and friends going thru it again during WWII. I own Corrie ten Boom's books, including why she and family were sent to concentration camps for protecting Jews. I have childhood friends whose parents left Holland after WWII, their mother losing a sibling to sniper bullets while trying to flee a war scene. I find what was done in the hate/violence against Jews, or anyone who supported them, back then is not essentially different from the hatred and violence now perpetrated and espoused against opposing views. We are losing our freedom of speech... and thought! I see it amongst my childhood and high school friends on FB, but have remained friends by no longer speaking up against their hatred of opposing conservative viewpoints like mine... to my regret at times for not standing up more for my own beliefs.

In researching your ancestors, you will hit brick walls – guaranteed! When you do, think about who the most recent known ancestor was. Remember that we discussed previously how the Dutch used a specific naming pattern. Each child was named after the grandparents, alternating back and forth to include each of the child’s grandparents, great-grandparents, then aunts, uncles and parents, the parents' names, etc. Other ethnic groups, including the Germans, often used a similar pattern, but did not follow it as consistently. By searching census records of the community where a particular family was known to live, I found the probable paternal grandfather of a friend’s ancestor. It appeared her ancestor’s middle name was that of the probable grandfather, thus creating a crack in her brick wall. Often, names changed spelling over time depending on the speller’s knowledge, or were changed to reflect the pronunciation. Your surname today may not be how it began a few centuries ago. My maternal family name of Tillapaugh began as the Swiss Dällenbach, being changed in the early 1800s among several lines, including the usual Dillenbeck/Dillenbach, etc. Another example is the German Jung, pronounced and often Americanized as Young. From the 1600s New Amsterdam, my Dutch VanKouwenhoven morphed into Conover. My French DeGarmeaux from the Albany area became DeGarmo, while my German Richtmyer became Rightmyer in other lines. Another example of surname change is found in my Revolutionary War families. The original Swiss Dübendorffer became Diefendorf after arrival here in the 1730s. My ancestor Georg Jacob Diefendorf remained loyal to the crown during the Revolutionary War. However, his son, a staunch patriot, took his mother’s surname (his own middle name) as his new surname, becoming John Diefendorf Hendree, to disassociate himself from his father. Paying close attention to details helped me find the marriage date for my ancestors Christina Dingman and Jacob Kniskern. Sorting book by book in one row of the genealogy section of the Steele Library in Elmira, I saw a tiny church book for Montgomery County, New York. This is a typed transcription of original handwritten church records. Having seen these church records online, I knew exactly what I was holding. Searching page by page, I saw the name of “Conescarn.” Suddenly, I realized that I was looking at the phonetic spelling for the old pronunciation of Kniskern; now the “K” is silent. I’d discovered what no one else had recognized before - my great-great-grandparents’ marriage date of October 17, 1840! My family's Kniskern name began as Genesgern in church books from the 1500s in Germany. It is one of the oldest documented pedigrees of any New York 1709/10 Palatine emigrant according to the author Henry Z. Jones, Jr. in his personal email to me. See his two-volume set “The Palatine Families of New York 1710” which I own with invaluable family data. Mr. Jones and his assistants went to Germany and systematically searched records in every town and old church to document as many Palatine-region emigrant families as possible to provide solid documentation for today’s researchers. When researching old families, it is also helpful to know that Sr. or Jr. and Elder or Younger do not necessarily indicate father and son as it does today. Often, this title was used to differentiate between extended relatives or unrelated men within the same community who happened to have the same name. With the old naming pattern, it was not uncommon to find “umpteen” men and boys by the same name in town and church records. Without the title or other differentiation, it can be difficult to place them correctly in their family of origin, though key is noting the birth parents and baptismal sponsors. Census takers frequently wrote a surname based on their own spelling ability, which, I discovered, was often quite atrocious! Be flexible. As you search records, try various spellings as names were often written as they sounded. That fact alone can make all the difference in finding your ancestor. Even my McNeill name, consistently signed by the oldest family members with two “l”s, was spelled variously on census records as McNial (likely written as pronounced by the old accent), McNeal, McNiel or simply McNeil (without the second “l”). Several years ago, I transcribed the online 1810 census for Carlisle, Schoharie County, New York and posted it on the county genweb page. Some names were very misspelled; but, being familiar with many of Carlisle’s families from research, I understood the intended names and put them in parentheses. However, in hitting your brick wall, do not jump hastily into accepting published genealogies. If there is evidentiary proof with solid documentation (like I provided for my published genealogies in footnotes) from reputable journals or well-documented books or actual hard proof in family Bibles and church records, then you should be able to accept them. But, again, beware! I found false leads, fake ties, and erroneous data which I proved wrong with personal old-fashioned research, part of my published thesis. It pays to put in the extra effort to prove your data. I also want to stress that I do not readily accept claims of family ties to famous historical folks, Mayflower ancestors, or royalty - nor should you. Maybe you truly are connected, and know that I'm excited for you! But I want to see sound documentation, preferably family Bible records, church records, baptismal, marriage and death records, or cemetery records for every generation backward as possible. Also know that most well-documented earliest generations in America begin in the 17th or 18th centuries. Viable records previous to those centuries in Europe are not always available. Since Ancestry.com has records from Britain, Ireland, Wales and several European countries, it is a valuable subscription resource. You can also hire one of their professionals should you feel the need for their assistance. A general search online for records from a particular nation may also be helpful as I found a reputable website with documented birth and marriage records from the Netherlands for my grandmother’s lineage. I purchased the book on my paternal ancestry documented by a woman married to my direct cousin; she just happened to work in the genealogy division of The Hague, and we are now friends. Though her work can definitively trace my paternal ancestry only to the early 18th century, I’m satisfied. And I was amazed to see the book held the photo of a Dutch constable, a brother of my great-grandfather, who looked uncannily like my Dad, even to how he stood!! Some of your best resources can be found in books containing transcripts of original documents and/or in legitimate family records placed at historical or genealogical societies. Unless you know that what you hold in your hands is truly legit, do like I did to prove my lineage beyond a doubt – tackle the hard work yourself to prove every ancestor. Yes, it’s time consuming and takes years, but the end result is truly worth the effort! May I also suggest that once your research is done, give a copy to the local historical society where your family originated. I donated a copy of my 600+ page manuscript on my mother's family to the Schoharie County Historical Society at the Old Stone Fort in Schoharie, and eventually plan to donate all my numerous file folders full of research and correspondence (whatever my family does not wish to keep). By doing so, you will aid future generations of seekers. Again, many genealogies were written in the past with ties to royalty and early American Mayflower ancestors which have since been proven false. A number of resources regarding what to look out for are available at the following websites: LDS Family Search “Fraudulent Genealogies.” Genealogy.com’s “Fraudulent Lineages” by Nicole Wingate. Genealogy’s Star blog: Genealogy as a Fraud. Tips on accuracy of research in “Bogus Genealogies” by George C. Morgan. COMING NEXT: County Historical and Genealogical Society holdings.

PART I - Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “We are determined to work and fight until justice rains down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Paraphrasing the Biblical book of Amos 5:24, King did just that with God at his side to challenge us to seek justice. Sadly, slavery is still a profitable venture around the world, including in our nation under various guises. It flourishes in over 100 countries with India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, and North Korea topping the charts. And it continues to survive because of the illicit financial profit it brings to the traffickers. Several years ago, I researched, read, and wrote this article, “The Underground Railroad,” for my historical blog. In honor of February being Black History month, I’d like to share part of my extensive article in series format. We can collectively learn from history’s mistakes to understand and improve life for our future, but erasing history serves no good purpose. Just as the slaves arrived with memories of their African homeland, values, religious beliefs, intellect, wisdom, music and song, artistry, and skills, so their old ways were fused with the newly learned, blending and creating a new way of life as they strove for freedom. (My resources available on request, books listed at article’s completion.) Just mention the Underground Railroad and the words evoke images of slaves huddled together, speaking in hushed tones, making plans with great fear and yet tremendous hope, depending on certain symbols to guide them… of those with unspoken plans to escape entirely alone… of lonely walks through the dead of night… of traveling with extreme vigilance in broad daylight… of being concealed under the false bottom in the bed of a wagon carrying produce, hay or bricks, etc… of stowaways hidden aboard ships bound for northern cities… of being hidden in a home or barn until it was safe to move on again… all while living under the overwhelming fear of discovery at any moment by both passenger and conductor/stationmaster alike. In reality, the abolitionist movement took tremendous faith and courage on the part of every participant on this train of sorts. Most often, it was facilitated by one’s faith in God and knowing that “all men are created equal…” as the U.S. Constitution avers. There was a spiritual impetus in seeking emancipation for a people who should not be held captive as someone’s possession, regardless of how ancient the tradition of slavery might have been… even from Biblical times. But it also took bravery and self-sacrifice for a seemingly “hodge-podge” system to thrive in secrecy while operating within plain sight of those vehemently opposed to its intrinsic value. Unfortunately, many who considered themselves “good Christians” were just as adamantly opposed to freeing the slaves. Abolitionists were involved in an act of civil disobedience like no other, punishable by fines and/or imprisonment upon discovery, never mind the slave who was disciplined/punished in varying degrees of severity, even death. With all of that at stake, how did the “underground railroad” ever manage to pull out of the station on such successful clandestine lines? In 1823, the British Anti-Slavery Society was established by William Wilberforce, a former member of Parliament. Having become an evangelical Christian in 1785, Wilberforce carried on a 20-year fight against the evils of slavery. In 1787, after meeting with a group of British abolitionists, he recorded in his diary that his life’s purpose was to end the slave trade. Becoming a leading abolitionist in parliament, he saw his cause through to the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807. He continued to support the full abolishment of slavery even after his retirement from parliament in 1826. When his efforts were rewarded with passage of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, slavery ended in almost every corner of the British Empire, and Wilberforce died three days later. Meanwhile, it was the notorious 18th century captain of a slave ship, John Newton, who realized the gravity of his evil ways as a foul-mouthed captain of ill repute when he, too, converted to Christianity. Captured and pressed into service for the Royal Navy in 1743 at a young age, he led a hard life, once being whipped on board ship for attempted desertion. In March 1748, Newton called out to God during a severe storm when his ship almost sank. Every year thereafter, he recalled March 21st as the anniversary of his spiritual conversion to Christianity. (Parker, p.12) Though continuing in the slave trade despite his new-found faith, he treated others better, refrained from certain vices, and worked his way up to become captain of his own slave ship. Newton felt he was doing nothing different from other Christians at the time in both owning and selling slaves, eventually retiring from the sea in 1754. Yet, it was Newton who later penned the words in 1772 for one of our all-time favorite hymns as evidence of God’s grace in his life. “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.” In 1788, Newton published a pamphlet, “Thoughts Upon the Slave Trade,” describing the appalling conditions of slave ships. He apologized with “a confession, which…comes too late… It will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders." Newton became an active supporter of Wilberforce’s campaign to end the slave trade, dying December 21, 1807 well before Wilberforce’s end to slavery was realized in 1833. Mistreatment of slaves was universally known. Being in the hold of a ship was difficult enough of a trial being typically pressed in together with barely enough room to move. Sickness and death, tossed overboard for infractions, jumping overboard in suicide, or being jettisoned overboard as unnecessary cargo were just some of the fates awaiting the slaves en route. Then, being put on the auction block under close inspection, they were forced to endure yet more humiliation. In addition, there were often agonizing family separations of spouses and of parents and children. Any slave found guilty of infractions (from some simple error, running away or murder) was punished, some more severely than others. Should a slave not perform up to expectations, he or she often met with discipline. Floggings or whippings, branding, mutilation of the ears or hands, cutting off of the ears or hands, hanging, overwork, and many other unsavory forms of punishment were meted out as seen fit by frustrated, angry and authoritative owners. Man’s inhumanity to man was evidenced in untold suffering, too despicable to enumerate here, something which we cannot begin to fathom or contemplate. To their credit, however, there were those who treated their slaves in exemplary fashion and whose slaves in turn were loyal and faithful servants, albeit still in bondage. And yet, this evil was part of normalcy for many centuries. We are able, with hindsight, to see the injustice forced on fellow humanity through our combined modern ideology and spiritual insight. Then, it was considered part of the established way of life, a substantial and valuable labor force. Their times and understandings were so different from our perspectives. Thankfully, there were those who saw the inequalities inherent within the slave trade even then, despite popular opinion to the contrary; and, gradually, the early abolitionists’ ideas took root and grew from their understanding of God’s inherent biblical truths. In 1619, “The White Lion” seized 20 African slaves from a Portuguese trading ship, the Sao Jao Bautista, selling them to the English settlers at Jamestown in Virginia. Slaves began to arrive in New Netherlands as early as the 1630s by the Dutch West India Company. The company was more interested in the labor that slaves could provide, not perpetual ownership. Roughly “two thousand American and British ships were engaged in transporting between forty thousand and fifty thousand Africans to the Americas every year” during the 18th century. It was even this tremendously profitable venture which fed England’s industrial revolution of the 18th century. In 1784, Thomas Jefferson, a member of the Continental Congress, helped draft a plan for settlers of the nation’s new lands between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River. The plan was meant to prohibit slavery in all western territory. Then, defeated by only one vote, hopes were dashed for preventing the spread of slavery. Out of this dichotomy with which our nation struggled, Jefferson wrote he “feared that the continuation of slavery would inevitably lead to bloody rebellion and race war.” Long before that bloody civil war began though, there was a movement afoot to assist slaves in escaping their plight rather than turning them in to the law for bounty money, or back to their masters for certain discipline, aka punishment. Even most northern states had passed helpful laws by 1800 for the gradual abolition of their slaves. PART II to follow... Feature photo courtesy of www.history.com

What a neat idea!!