Who Was the Father of David Sukeforth's Wife Abigail? Part 2

Continued from Who Was the Father of David Sukeforth's Wife Abigail? Part 1

After discovering the Nathan Hale Cemetery Collection record (below) claiming that David Sukeforth's wife Abby J. was the daughter of Daniel B. Grinnell,¹ the first thing I did was check the Hale Collection cards for David and Daniel to see if they were likewise cross-referenced. Well, David's card listed "Abby J. wife" as expected, but Daniel B. Grinnell's card lists only "Sarah, wife" and "Elijah, son" – no mention of a daughter Abby buried nearby.²

Abby J. Sukeforth card, Miller Cemetery, Nathan Hale Cemetery Collection

Going back to Abby's card, I noted that above the table of names are the headings "The following names also appear on stone, monument or in cemetery" and "These names are the following relationship to the above". Also, the instructions at the top of the card are to "note relationship only when on the stones" (emphasis added). (Oddly, neither of the boxes are checked to indicate that the listed names – David G Sukeforth and Daniel B Grinnell – have their own card.) Were the stated relationships actually on the stones? I went looking for the memorials on Find A Grave. (I already had my own photos of the Sukeforth gravestones, taken on a 2013 trip to Maine.)

Abby J. Suckforth gravestone

In short, Abby's gravestone reads "wife of David G. Suckforth", with no mention of any relationship to Daniel B. Grinnell.³ None of the three Find A Grave memorials^{4, 5} gives any indication that Abby might be a Grinnell. Furthermore, according to Miller's Appleton Register of Deaths, Daniel Briggs Grinnell, besides the son noted on the Hale Collection card and his Find A Grave memorial, had four daughters, none named Abigail and none married to a Sukeforth or a Fossett.⁶ Nor could I find any other record of an Abigail Grinnell. This seemed to be a dead end.

I decided to further investigate the two Thomas/Abigail Fossett couples in the 1850 census. I was still bothered by the fact that there was no sign of either couple in subsequent censuses; I couldn't even find Ellen Fossett from the Union census record. (By the way, I have yet to find any record of Thomas Fossett's death.) Then I was struck by Lydia E. Fossett's middle initial – could Lydia E. be Lydia Ellen?

Lydia was no longer with her mother and stepfather in 1870, so I assumed she probably had married. Yes – on 11 Mar 1868, Lydia E. Fossett married George L. Robbins, both of Appleton.⁷ Unfortunately, recording of parents' names had not yet begun (would have been nice to find Abigail's maiden name!), and her middle name is not given, but maybe if I followed Lydia and George I'd find some clue.

George L. Robbins-Lydia E. Fossett marriage, 11 Mar 1868, Appleton, Maine

Sure enough, in the 1870 census, right next door to David and Abigail, there was George R. [sic] Robbins and Ellen, 22, with a 5-month-old son Alton!⁸ Just to make sure I had the right George Robbins (his middle initial is wrong), I then checked 1880: eight households away from the now-widowed David (but still on the same page) is George L. Robbins, with wife Lydia, 32, son Alton C, 10, and daughter Allice, 6.⁹ Clearly, Lydia and Ellen are one and the same. From 1900 on, she is Lydia E.; after George's death in 1905,¹⁰ she is living wih her married daughter Alice in Middleborough, Massachusetts. Not until her death in 1933 do we find her name completely spelled out, as Lydia Ellen (Faucett [sic]) Robbins.¹¹

1870 U.S. census, Appleton, Knox County, Maine, David Suckforth and George R Robbins households

Having established that Lydia sometimes went by her middle name, Ellen, even as an adult, I finally concluded that the two Thomas Fossett households in 1850 were very likely a double-enumeration of the same family, nearly two months apart: Henry Fossett's household in Union was enumerated on 29 July,¹² while the Thomas Fossett household in Liberty wasn't counted until 17 September.¹³ Henry's wife had died the previous December, so it's plausible that his son and family were staying with him for a time before returning to their own home in Liberty. The discrepancies in Abigail's and Lydia/Ellen's ages can probably be explained by Henry being the informant for his own household. Most likely Abby was calling her daughter Ellen at the time (and Henry reported her as such), but gave the girl's formal name as Lydia E. when they were later enumerated in Liberty.

Thus it appears that David Sukeforth's wife really was the former Abigail Jane Sukeforth who married Thomas C. Fossett. A closer look at the 1850 Liberty census reveals that Michael and Sophronia (Bagley) Overlock were enumerated only three households before Thomas Fossett (I missed this initially because the Overlocks were on the previous page).¹⁴ So Abigail remained close to home after marrying Thomas.

The only remaining question is how on Earth the MOCA compilations got Abigail Overlock confused with the Grinnells. Only when I reviewed all the photos I took in Miller Cemetery did I come up with a possible explanation. In addition to individual closeups of David and Abby Sukeforth's and Michael and Sophronia Overlock's markers, I also took this wide shot of the Overlock markers with the Sukeforth markers visible behind them.¹⁵ Their proximity, and the identical style of the markers, further links the two families. It's also worth noting that Michael Overlock lived his whole life in Liberty, and there are no other Overlocks in Miller Cemetery except for two of Michael's sons, so their only apparent connection is through their daughter's marriage to David.

Michael and Sophronia Overlock gravestones with David and Abby Sukeforth stones behind,
Miller Cemetery, Appleton, Maine

What does all this have to do with the Grinnells? Well, take a closer look at the row of stones that includes the Sukeforths. At full enlargement, Abby's marker is clearly recognizable, with David's to the left, partially obscured by Michael Overlock's. And just to the left of that, the next stone reads "ELIJAH/SON OF/Daniel B. & Sarah Grinnell." Apparently, the Grinnell lot is directly adjacent to the Overlock/Sukeforth lot.

Detail of Michael Overlock gravestone showing markers for Elijah Grinnell, David Sukeforth, and Abby Sukeforth behind
(click on the image to enlarge)

While there is no overall shot of the Grinnell lot on Find A Grave, comparison of the backgrounds of individual photos of Daniel's, his wife's, and Elijah's markers¹⁶ with the overall shot of the Overlock lot indicates that the row of markers from left to right is probably Daniel Grinnell, Sarah Grinnell, Elijah Grinnell, David Sukeforth, and Abby Sukeforth. The MOCA volunteer reading the gravestones, not realizing that the Sukeforths actually belonged with the Overlocks in front of them (and apparently missing the clues in the gravestone styles – the Grinnell markers look nothing like the Overlock/Sukeforth markers), must have made an unwarranted assumption about Abby's parentage based on this sequence, and ignored the instructions to record only what was on the stones.

Lesson learned: you can't trust that people filling out forms and creating transcriptions always followed the instructions. It's so tempting to add something that you just "know" must be true ... except it isn't.

David G. Sukeforth is my first cousin four times removed, with Andreas Suchfort (aka Andrew Suckforth) as our common ancestor:

Relationship chart for David Grafton Sukeforth and The Down East Genealogist

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SOURCES

1. "Maine, Nathan Hale Cemetery Collection, ca. 1780-1980," database and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 24 January 2016), card for Abby J Grinnell Sukeforth, 1877; citing Miller Cemetery, Appleton, Knox, Maine.
2. "Maine, Nathan Hale Cemetery Collection, ca. 1780-1980," cards for David G. Sukeforth and Daniel B. Grinnell; citing Miller Cemetery, Appleton, Knox, Maine.
3. Miller Cemetery, Appleton, Knox County, Maine, Abby J. Suckforth gravestone, read and photographed by the author, 8 Oct 2013. 
4. Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 30 Jan 2016), database and digital images, memorials # 86049433 and # 86049470 for David G Sukeforth and Abby J Suckforth, created by "Stone Finders" (1 Mar 2012), photos by "Dale & Patti" and "MJD"; citing Miller Cemetery (Burkettville, Knox County, Maine). Note that Burkettville is actually a part of the town of Appleton.
5. Find A Grave, memorial # 86016001 for Daniel Briggs Grinnell, created by "Stone Finders" (29 Feb 2012), photos by "Dale & Patti" and "MJD"; citing Miller Cemetery (Burkettville, Knox County, Maine). 
6. Royce Miller, ed., Register of Deaths From the Beginning Until 1950, Appleton, Maine, updated 6th ed. (Gloucester, Mass.: Appleton Historical Society, 1999-2001), p. 55, entry for Daniel Briggs Grinnell; daughters Nancy (m. Bailey Grinnell), Eunice (m. William Leighr), Sarah (m. Joseph Light), Levina (m. Charles House). 
7. Original Records of Maine Towns and Cities: Town of Appleton, 1729-1892, digital images (PDF), CD-ROM (Rockport, Maine: Picton Press, 2005), pdf p. 312, George L. Robbins-Lydia E. Fossett marriage, 11 Mar 1868. 
8. 1870 U.S. Census, Knox County, Maine, Appleton, p. 29 (penned), p. 15 (stamped), dwellings 234-235, families 245-246, David Suckforth and George R Robbins households; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 Jan 2016).
9. 1880 U.S. Census, Knox County, Maine, Appleton, E.D. 100, p. 127-C, dwelling 67, family 71, George L Robbins households; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 8 Jun 2012).
10. "Maine, Death Records, 1705-1922,” database and digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 Jan 2016), George L. Robbins (mis-indexed as George B.), 1905.
11. "Massachusetts, Death Index, 1901-1980," database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 Jan 2016), Lydia Ellen (Faucett) Robbins, 1933, Quincy.
12. 1850 U.S. Census, Lincoln County, Maine, Union, p. 40/528, dwelling 286, family 296, Henry Fossett household; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 29 Jan 2016); enumerated 29 Jul 1850.
13. 1850 U.S. Census, Waldo County, Maine, Liberty, p. 48 (stamped), dwelling 635, family 682, Thomas Fossett household; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 Jun 2012); enumerated 17 Sep 1850.
14. 1850 U.S. Census, Waldo County, Maine, Liberty, p. 94(?) (penned), dwelling 632, family 680, Michael Overlock household; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 Jan 2016).
15. Miller Cemetery, Appleton, Knox County, Maine, overview of Michael Overlock cemetery plot, photographed by the author, 8 Oct 2013. 
16. Find A Grave, memorials # 86016036 and # 86016077 for Sarah "Sally" Esancy Grinnell and Elijah Grinnell, created by "Stone Finders" (29 Feb 2012), photos by "Dale & Patti" and "MJD"; citing Miller Cemetery (Burkettville, Knox County, Maine).

Who Was the Father of David Sukeforth's Wife Abigail? Part 1

Tracing a woman's maiden name in mid-19th century Maine can be tricky, especially when the woman married more than once. Marriage records rarely include parents' names, and death records (if they exist at all) only occasionally do so. And whatever records you do find can be misleading and contradictory.

When I first started piecing together the Sukeforth clan several years ago, a good deal of my initial material (births, deaths, spouses, children) came from the Maine Old Cemetery Association (MOCA) compilation of gravestone inscriptions. One such listing was for David G. Sukeforth (my first cousin 4x removed) and his wife Abby J., whose inscription was followed by the parenthetical and cryptic comment "See Daniel R. GRINNELL Lot".¹ Such notations in the MOCA compilations usually just mean the graves are located within the referenced lot, and might indicate anything from close relatives to distant relations or longtime friends. At the time I didn't find any obvious connection between the Grinnells and either David or Abby, so I disregarded the note.

So who was Abby? The first step was finding a marriage record. According to the town records, David married "Abagail J. Fossett" on 27 Dec 1855. Their marriage intentions were a bit more specific, however, naming the prospective bride as Mrs. Abagail Fossett, presumably a widow.² And indeed, the Grafton Suckforth household in 1860 included not only Abagail Suckforth, 36, but also one Lydia E. Fossett, age 12, obviously Abagail's daughter from her previous marriage.³ I would need to hunt further for Abby's maiden name.

Marriage intentions, Mr. David G. Suckforth and Mrs. Abagail Fossett, 27 Dec 1855, Appleton, Maine

David G. Suckforth-Abagail J. Fossett marriage, 27 Dec 1855, Appleton, Maine

1860 U.S. census, Appleton, Knox County, Maine, Grafton Suckforth household

The obvious route was by way of her first marriage; searching for a Fossett marrying an Abigail, I soon located the 1845 marriage (intentions) between Thomas C. Fossett of Union and Miss Abigail Overlock of Liberty.⁴ I also located an entry on Ancestry's One World Tree for an Abigail Jane Overlock (b. 11 Jan 1824, South Liberty, daughter of Michael and Sophronia (Bagley) Overlock) with two husbands, Thomas C. Fossett and David Suckforth,⁵ but I am cautious about online trees, especially considering both men were supposedly born in Liberty (definitely not true for David Sukeforth, and questionable for Thomas Fossett who was "of Union" in 1845).

If they married in 1845, they should be in the 1850 census, where I found a Thomas Fossett household in Liberty, with Thomas, 38, Abigail, 28, and Lydia E., 2.⁶ Although Abby's age is off by two years, and Thomas has no middle initial given, this seems almost certainly the same Abigail and Lydia E. found in David's 1860 household.

1850 U.S. census, Liberty, Waldo County, Maine, Thomas Fossett household

I also found two other 38-year-old Thomas Fossetts in the general area. The one in Bristol, with wife Mary, 23, and children Mary E (4), and Thomas N (2), seemed too far off the mark to worry about, but the other one was a different story: this Thomas is listed with middle initial C, lives in Union, and with him is a probable wife named Abigail.⁷

1850 U.S. census, Union, Lincoln County, Maine, Henry Fossett household

However, Abigail is listed as 33, which is quite a bit off, and the child listed with them is named Ellen, age 1, so I had to assume the Abigail Fossett in Liberty was the one who married David Sukeforth. Still... perhaps the one in Union was Abigail Overlock, and David married a different Abigail altogether. Also troubling was the fact that both of the Thomas-Abigail couples disappeared from the census after 1850; the only Thomas Fossett born about 1812 found in subsequent censuses in the area is the one in Bristol.

More recently, I discovered Royce Miller's Appleton Register of Deaths, which states that Abigail Jane Sukeforth, wife of David Grafton Sukeforth, "was dau. of Michael Overlock". By then I had found that the Overlocks are buried near the Sukeforths in Miller Cemetery, so that relation certainly seemed plausible. However, Miller goes on to say that her first husband was "Thomas C. Fossett, son of Henry."⁸ That set me back a bit: the Thomas C. Fossett in Union in 1850 is in the household of Henry Fossett, age 67, most likely Thomas's father. What were the chances that two Thomas Fossetts the same age, both sons of Henry, would both marry an Abigail? Yet the daughter of Thomas in Union was Ellen, not Lydia, and Abigail's age is wrong. I finally put this mystery aside and moved on to research other relatives.

Then, just the other day, while hunting Sukeforths in FamilySearch's Maine Cemetery Collections, I ran across an entry in the relatively recent Nathan Hale Cemetery Collection for "Abby J Grinnell Sukeforth." This struck me as odd, since I didn't recall any Abby Grinnell marrying a Sukeforth in the 1800s. Pulling up the card image, I found it was for the "wife of David G Sukeforth" and "dau of Daniel B Grinnell" (emphasis added).⁹

Abby J. Sukeforth card, Miller Cemetery, Nathan Hale Cemetery Collection

Was that the reason for the MOCA reference to the "Daniel R. GRINNELL Lot"? (It turns out that the cards in the Nathan Hale Cemetery Collection index were actually compiled by MOCA, so the two references are almost certainly from the same source.) Were Miller's Register of Deaths and the OneWorldTree entry wrong about Abby being an Overlock?

This demanded further investigation.

To be continued...

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SOURCES

1. Maine Old Cemetery Association, comp., Maine Cemetery Inscriptions: Knox County, MOCA Special Pub. No. 16, Edition No. 1: Series 1, 2 and 3, digital images (pdf), CD-ROM (Rockport, Maine: Picton Press, 2006), p. 43, David G. Sukeforth lot, Miller Cemetery, Appleton, Maine.
2. Original Records of Maine Towns and Cities: Town of Appleton, 1729-1892, digital images (pdf), CD-ROM (Rockport, Maine: Picton Press, 2005), pdf p. 93, marriage intentions between Mr. David G. Suckforth and Mrs. Abagail Fossett, 27 Dec 1855, and pdf p. 126, David G. Suckforth-Abagail J. Fossett marriage, same date.
3. 1860 U.S. Census, Knox County, Maine, Appleton, p. 38-8 (?), dwelling 258/58, family 270/61, Grafton Suckforth household; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 Jun 2012).
4. Original Records of Maine Towns and Cities: Town of Union, 1774-1899, digital images (pdf), CD-ROM (Rockport, Maine: Picton Press, 2005), pdf p. 337, marriage intentions between Mr Thomas C. Fossett and Miss Abigail Overlock, 12 Jun 1845.
5. “OneWorldTree,” database, Ancestry (http://trees.ancestry.com/owt/person.aspx?pid=44847420 : accessed 16 Jun 2012), entry for Abigail Jane Overlock.
6. 1850 U.S. Census, Waldo County, Maine, Liberty, p. 48 (stamped), dwelling 635, family 682, Thomas Fossett household; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 Jun 2012).
7. 1850 U.S. Census, Lincoln County, Maine, Union, p. 40/528, dwelling 286, family 296, Henry Fossett household; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 29 Jan 2016).
8. Royce Miller, ed., Register of Deaths From the Beginning Until 1950, Appleton, Maine, updated 6th ed. (Gloucester, Mass.: Appleton Historical Society, 1999-2001), p. 183, entry for Abigail Jane (Overlock) Sukeforth, d. Jan. 30, 1877; compiled from town records and histories, gravestone inscriptions, obituaries, Bible records, and many other sources. I don't give any credence to Miller's added comment that "we now believe there were two Abigails: one, the sister of David Grafton Sukeforth, who married Thomas Fossett, and one, his wife, formerly Abigail Overlock", because I have seen no evidence at all of an Abigail Sukeforth in the entire generation of which David is a part, let alone in his immediate family.
9. "Maine, Nathan Hale Cemetery Collection, ca. 1780-1980," database and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 24 January 2016), card for Abby J Grinnell Sukeforth, 1877; citing Miller Cemetery, Appleton, Knox, Maine.

Sarah C. (Sukeforth) Kirk

I've decided not to tie myself down to a "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" format this year (partly because it's already week 4!), but to go with a mix of sketches of individuals and families, family stories, transcriptions of important documents, a look at research in progress, an explanation of the sleuthing I did to track down an elusive ancestor, how I use Legacy Family Tree and/or RootsMagic (depending on whether I ever make up mind), maybe some select GeneaBloggers blogging prompts – in short, an eclectic approach. I hope there will be something of interest to everyone.

In my 2014 "52 Ancestors" series, I covered three of my four paternal great-grandparents. To start my new year, how about a look at the fourth, my great-grandmother Sarah C. Sukeforth. Although her middle initial appears in many of the records that name her, I have never seen anything that might indicate what the "C" stands for. A strong possibility however is Catherine, for her great-grandmother Catherine Newbert.

Sarah was born on 30 or 31 March 1838,¹ in the town of Washington, Maine,² the third child and first daughter of Simon and Jane (Miller) Sukeforth. She appears by name in the census only once with her parents, at age 12 in 1850,³ before marrying a young shipwright named Silas Kirk, in his home town of Warren, on 12 June 1856.⁴

Marriage of Silas Kirk and Sarah C. Sukeforth, 12 Jun 1856, Warren, Maine

A little over a year later, Sarah gave birth to a son, Chester, and in 1860, the family is living in Union.⁵ By 1870 the family has moved to Auburn, where Silas is working in one of the city's thriving shoe shops while Sarah is "keeping house."⁶

1860 U.S. census, Union, Knox County, Maine, Silas Kirk household

1870 U.S. census, Auburn, Androscoggin County, Maine, Silas Kirk household

The story not told by these two census records is that of Sarah's second child, Abbie, who was born in 1861 in Washington, Maine (perhaps at her parents' home? There is no record of Silas and Sarah actually living in Washington), and died in Auburn in 1867 at the age of five and a half.⁷

In 1875, they sold their homestead and moved again,^{8, 9, 10} this time to Freeport, where they are found in the 1880 census.¹¹ Silas has returned to his original occupation as a ship carpenter.

1880 U.S. census, Freeport, Cumberland County, Maine, Silas Kirk household

But again, the census fails to tell the whole story: five years after losing Abbie, Sarah had another daughter, Mabel, born in 1872. Sadly, this child lived only a little more than two years, slipping away in 1874.¹² I can't help but wonder if this final loss was what spurred Silas and Sarah to leave Auburn and settle in Freeport, where they remained for nearly 30 years. I have been unable to find birth or death records for either daughter, leaving their brief story to be told only on the family gravestone, and alluded to indirectly by the notation on the 1900 census that Sarah was the mother of three children, only one living.¹³ Did she have to answer the enumerator's (undoubtedly painful even 26 years later) question, or was Silas the informant? I'll never know. I hope she was comforted by the presence of her two grandchildren (Chester's children) in the household.

1900 U.S. census, Freeport, Cumberland County, Maine, Silas Kirk household

Sarah died at home on Friday, 26 May 1805,¹⁴ from "softening of the brain"¹⁵ (at that time, this probably referred to senile dementia). She is buried, together with Silas and their daughters, in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Auburn, Maine¹⁶ – on the land where she and Silas had lived, which they sold to the cemetery corporation in 1875.¹⁷

          

Sarah Kirke funeral article, Six Town Times

          

Sarah Kirk death, 26 May 1905, Freeport, Maine

Children of Silas Kirk and Sarah C. Sukeforth:

1. Chester F. Kirk, b. 1857, Warren, d. 1939, Lewiston, married five times
2. Abbie A. Kirk, b. 25 Jun 1861, Washington, d. 15 Jan 1867, Auburn
3. Mabel S. Kirk, b. 4 Jan 1872, Auburn, d. 21 Mar 1874, Auburn

My descent from Sarah Sukeforth:

• Sarah C. Sukeforth and Silas Kirk
• Chester F. Kirk and Mary M. Hodsdon (my paternal grandparents)

Silas Kirke family gravestone, Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Auburn, Maine

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SOURCES

1. Greenleaf Cilley and Jonathan P. Cilley, The Mount Desert Widow: Genealogy of the Maine Gamble Family (Rockland, Maine: Knox County Historical and Genealogical Magazine, 1895), p. 170, Sarah Sukeforth b. 31 Mar 1858; digital images, Internet Archive (http://archive.org/details/mountdesertwidow00cill : downloaded 5 Mar 2012). This is consistent with the birthdate calculated from her death record (see footnote 2). However, her gravestone gives the date as 30 Mar 1858.
2. “Maine Vital Records, 1892-1922,” digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 7 Jan 2014), Sarah Kirke death, 26 May 1905; her age is given as 67 years, 1 month, 26 days and her birthplace as Washington.
3. 1850 U.S. Census, Lincoln County, Maine, Washington, p. 576 (penned), dwelling 296, family 296, Simon Suckforth household; digital image, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 14 Apr 2012).
4. Original Records of Maine Towns and Cities: Town of Warren, 1762-1938, digital images (PDF), CD-ROM (Rockport, Maine: Picton Press, 2005), pdf p. 42, Silas Kirk-Sarah C. Sukeforth marriage, 12 Jun 1856.
5. 1860 U.S. Census, Knox County, Maine, Union, p. 41 (upper left), 227 (penned upper right), dwelling 312, family 300, Silas Kirk household; digital image, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed 7 Mar 2012).
6. 1870 U.S. Census, Androscoggin County, Maine, City of Auburn Ward 2, p. 35, dwelling 237, family 318, Silas Kirk household; digital image, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 9 Dec 2010). 
7. Mount Auburn Cemetery, Auburn, Androscoggin County, Maine, Kirke monument, read and photographed by the author, 10 Nov 2007. Also, Cilley and Cilley, The Mount Desert Widow, p. 170.
8. Directory of ... the Cities of Lewiston and Auburn for [Date] (Boston: Greenough & Co., 1874-1876), 1874-5, p. 226, entry for Silas Kirk, shoemaker; 1876-7, p. 230, no entry for Silas Kirk; database and digital images, "Maine City Directories," Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 25 Jan 2016). 
9. Androscoggin County, Maine, Deeds, 80:460, Silas Kirk to Mount Auburn Cemetery Corporation, 9 Aug 1875; digital image, Androscoggin County Registry of Deeds, Records Access Site (http://androscoggindeeds.com : accessed 25 Jan 2016); Silas is "of Auburn" at this time.
10. Cyrus Eaton, Annals of the Town of Warren, in Knox County, Maine, Second Edition (Hallowell [Maine]: Masters & Livermore, 1877), p. 567; digital images, Google Books (http://books.google.com/books : accessed 11 Dec 2010); Silas "r. Freeport" by the time the book was published in 1877.
11. 1880 U.S. Census, Cumberland County, Maine, Freeport, ED 33, p. 22, dwelling 203, family 222, Silas Kirk household; digital image, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed 9 Mar 2012).
12. Mount Auburn Cemetery, Kirke monument. Also, Cilley and Cilley, The Mount Desert Widow, p. 170.
13. 1900 U.S. Census, Cumberland County, Maine, Freeport, ED 42, sheet 12A, dwelling 261, family 282, Silas Kirk household; digital image, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 9 Dec 2010). 
14. "Freeport Sentinel," The Six Towns Times, Cumberland Globe, Yarmouth Gazette & Freeport Sentinel (Portland, Maine), 2 Jun 1905, p. 6, col. 2-3, article about Sarah C. Kirke's death and funeral; digital images, Google News Archive (https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=UIW7YHcmbUEC : accessed 26 Jan 2016).
15. “Maine Vital Records, 1892-1922,” Sarah Kirke death, 26 May 1905.
16. Mount Auburn Cemetery, Kirke monument. 
17. Androscoggin County, Maine, Deeds, 80:460, Silas Kirk to Mount Auburn Cemetery Corporation.

How I Spent My Spring Vacation

As I mentioned last time, I did accomplish one goal last year: I attended my first genealogy conference, NERGC 2015 in Providence, Rhode Island. It was a lot of fun and I learned plenty. Among others, I got to hear Judy Russell's "No Person Shall ... Gallop Horses In the Streets", Drew Bartley on "Newest Sources for Vermont Research", and two sessions particularly relevant for my maternal grandmother's line, Pauline Cusson's "Navigating Brick Wall Research in French-Canadian Records", and Michael LeClerc's "Researching French-Canadian Ancestors Online." (Unfortunately I did miss the Saturday morning session on DNA Basics on account of having to get a new left front tire put on my car. You can read the painful details on my other blog, Just One Damned Thing After Another.) Along the way, I made the rounds of the Exhibit Hall numerous times; spent way too much on books, magazines, and map CDs; enjoyed a delicious luncheon of Grilled Chicken Di Parma accompanied by Judy Russell's presentation on records access; met a number of current and former NEHGS staff who were friends of my late brother; and generally had a great, though exhausting, time.

Once the conference was over, I headed up the road a piece, to Newburyport, Massachusetts, where a passel of my P.E.I. Murphy relatives settled down in the late 1800s. I located the large Catholic Church cemetery where they were all ostensibly buried, but several hours of trekking around the place failed to turn up any names I recognized. Maybe I just never found the right section – like I said, this a large cemetery. I find it hard to believe none of them had headstones; the Irish Catholics in Newburyport seemed to have a penchant for fancy stones and huge family monuments. Anyway, my feet were so sore by this time (recall that I had just spent three days traipsing around the exhibition hall, not to mention trekking betwen the parking garage, the conference center, and the food court in the mall ) that I headed for my hotel, and rain the next day precluded any more sightseeing in Newburyport.

I did accomplish one more genealogy-related task before heading home; I made a side trip to New Hampshire, where my older brother lives less than an hour from Newburyport, and finally – nearly 10 years after the death of my younger brother the genealogist – retrieved the computer that had belonged to him and which contains the only electronic copies (in many cases, the only copy of any kind) of his files, research reports, publications, and email correspondence. Remarkably, the computer, an ancient eMac, still works! (Though it did insist it was January 1, 1969.) After backing up all the files to a flash drive and to my own computer, I upgraded the eMac's pitiful RAM and antique operating system and replaced the PRAM backup battery, in hopes of facilitating the conversion of the obsolete AppleWorks files to something a little more up-to-date. I have yet to tackle this job, which is not going to be as easy as you might think. (You can read the whole saga, should you be so inclined, on my other blog, at An antique computer and a digital legacy, Lost in translation, and Screwed and unscrewed.)

Oscillating Between the Horns of That Dilemma

It seems that the "little break" from blogging I said I was taking almost a year ago has turned into an extended hiatus. Not that I haven't been doing anything genealogical. Back then I decided I needed to move from Reunion to software with better source-handling and other capabilities, and spent a good deal of time pondering whether to go with RootsMagic or Legacy Family Tree.

Trouble was, I couldn't make up my mind. Still haven't, in fact. Initially I decided on RM for its superior source templating and location details, imported my GEDCOM, and spent a considerable amount of time converting sources, defining custom events, cleaning up locations, and the like. Then I had some second thoughts – largely due to Legacy's ability to copy and paste entire events complete with source citations – transferred everything to Legacy, and spent more time converting sources, etc., etc. Now I'm having third thoughts: maybe RM is the way to go after all, so I'm back to experimenting with that. I'm even debating the feasibility of maintaining my tree in both programs for the best of both worlds.

One way or another, I need to bite the proverbial bullet and get back to adding dead relatives and their associated records to some database. And then blog about them.

One other thing I planned to do last year did come to pass: I attended my first genealogy conference, NERGC 2015 in Providence, Rhode Island. More on that next time.