AN ITCH THAT NEEDS SCRATCHING

I'm wondering if any of my genealogy friends have ever had this happen to
them:

I was putting together a post about my 3x great grandfather Nathaniel Barker's
War of 1812 Pension file and had the pedigree view up on my RootsMagic5
database. I wanted to check on the death dates for Nathaniel and his wife
Huldah(Hastings)Barker because of something in the Pension File. Nathaniel
died on 12Mar 1884 in Bethel, Oxford, Maine; Huldah didn't survive him for
long, passing on 7Jun 1884 also in Bethel. Well, they were both elderly, 90
and 86 years old respectively, and perhaps Huldah was overwhelmed by her
grief.

But then I happened to glance over that the box for their youngest son, my
2x great grandfather Nathaniel S.(I believe the S stands for Swan for his paternal
grandmother Nancy Swan) Barker. He died a week after his father on 20Mar
1884 in Albany,Oxford, Maine. That got my attention. How could I have not
really noticed that before? Could it just have been coincidence or was there
more to it? Was there some accident involving the two Barker men, leaving
Huldah died of grief after? Or was there another outbreak of an some disease
in the area that claimed all three lives?  Since there had been seven members
of my West family that died in an outbreak of diphtheria in Mane in 1862.

I've got a copy of the death record for Nathaniel S. Barker but it doesn't give
a cause of death. I have not been able to find any for his parents.  Going to
Maine is not an option for me since I don't have the means to get there at
this time. I'm hoping to find an obituary or newspaper report eventually.

This is turning into an itch I need to scratch.

ANNIVERSARIES

Yesterday, January 31st, was the wedding anniversary date
for two couples among my ancestors.

The first couple are Nathaniel Barker and Huldah Hastings.
They were the children of Revolutionary War veterans
Jonathan Barker and Amos Hastings and are my 3x great
grandparents. They were married 189 years ago on 31 Jan
1819.

The second couple are Jonathan Phelps West and Louisa
Almata Richardson, my 2x great grandparents who were
married on 31 Jan 1865. I’ve written a bit about them before
on my post on Jonathan’s first wife Orpha and the diphtheria
outbreak of 1861-2. I have some pictures of them but they
are in a book and I’m not sure if posting them here would be
a copyright violation so I prefer to err on the side of caution
and not post them. I think I admire them most out of my
West ancestors since they kept the family going after a
horrendous event when many other families ended.

SERENDIPITY

Does anyone else ever get a case of descendant’s guilt, a feeling
that while you’re pursuing leads on one group you are neglecting
another?


Well, I was feeling a bit of it the other night when I mentioned
Cora Barker(my grandmother) and Louise Almata Richardson,
my great great grandmother. I’ve been so lucky with my searches
on the Ames, Abbots and Ellinwood lines that I’ve spent more
time on them than the other two lines.

So I started googling for Nathaniel Barker and ended up at
Rootsweb’s World Connect where I found on a member's page
a Nathniel Barker on who was married to a Huldah Karsting.

Mine was married to a Huldah Hasting.

Figuring it was worth asking I sent an email to the website owner
listing Nathaniel with my information and it turns out our
Nathaniels look to be one and the same and I broke through a
brick wall. Not only that but it turns out there are several other
connections between this person’s line and mine.


I’m not going to go into all the details now but the reason I’m
bringing it up is that it reminded me again this afternoon as I
exchanged emails with this new-found cousin that if this were say,
15 or 20 years ago, before the age of home computers and the
internet, I might have eventually found the information but I’d
probably never have made the acquaintance of the person who
shares my ancestry.

And that’s the biggest effect computers have had on genealogy.
Instead of just solitary researchers who might belong to a local
genealogy society, we also now have a global network of people
who might belong to a genealogy society on the other side of the
continent and who are able to make use of the archives from
their home as well as being able to meet and share information
with people on the internet who share their ancestry.

I know, I know, I've said all this before I think.


But isn’t technology great?