52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 10: DEACON AMOS UPTON PT3

As I said before, I found Amos Upton's probate file in the  Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871 at the AmericanAncestors.org website. Here's the image of the estate
inventory:

Source: Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.)


And here's John Adams Vinton's abstract of the inventory items on page 67 of The UptonMemorial:

Four cows and one calf, £12. One heifer two years old, and three heifers one year old, £5.15. A pair of steers three years old, £5.10. One horse, £4. Six sheep, £2.14. One swine, £1.10. Farming utensils, cart and wheels, plough, harrow, iron bar, axes, hoes, beetle and wedges, &c £6.3.3. Trunk and chest, £0.6. Men's wearing apparel, £5. Bed's furniture and other linen, £10. Chest of drawers and tables, £2.5. Spinning wheels and chairs, £0.9. One kettle, pot, dog-irons, trammels, &c, £3.1. Pewter flax-comb, chafing-dish, £1. Books, looking-glass, glass bottles, china ware, and other articles, £1.12. Corn and meat, £1.10. Saddle, bridle and gun, £0.16. Home stead, buildings and out lands, £408. Total, £471.11.3.

Besides one thousand dollars of the old emission left in the house of the testator and not valued.*

 At the bottom of the page is this footnote:

• Midd. Prob. Records, 61: 257. The Continental Congress of the United States, in order to carry on the war, had been compelled to issue enormous quantities of notes, or bills, amounting in the end to more than three hundred millions of dollars. This currency soon depreciated. In Dec, 1778, it stood at six of paper for one of gold. In Dec, 1779, it stood twenty-seven for one. In Dec, 1780, it was seventy fur one. In the autumn of 1781, when the foregoing inventory was made, this currency came down to five hundred for one, and was regarded as absolutely worthless.


So the $1000 dollars included in the inventory was probably only good to use for tinder
to help start a fire in the fireplace!

This probably explains why some of the estates of my ancestors who died after the
Revolutionary War give the value of their possessions in the old English currency values
of pounds and shillings rather than in the new American dollars. The American currency
was unstable and nearly worthless. It must have been a worrisome time for the citizens
of the new country!

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 10: DEACON AMOS UPTON PT2

John Adams Vinton has an abstract of Deacon Amos Upton's will and the estate
inventory on pp65-66 of The Upton Memorial. I'll go into the inventory in the next
post.:   

His will is dated May 24, 1780; proved Oct. 3, 1781; recorded Midd. Prob. 61 : 254—256. He calls himself Amos Upton of Reading, yeoman. He says: "I give to my wife Sarah the improvement of all my real estate that I have in Reading. To my son John Upton, all my real estate that I have in Reading * and all my live stock and husbandry utensils after my wife's decease, he paying the following legacies, viz:

To my son Amos Upton, thirty pounds lawful money, at six shillings and eightpence an ounce, or any other lawful money to the value thereof, to be paid in one year after my wife's decease.

To my son Benjamin Upton, the same.

To my son Nathaniel Upton, £16.13.4 lawful money, &c, besides what he hath already had.

To my daughter Eunice,t  five shillings besides what she already had.

To my daughter Sarah, twenty pounds. &c, (as in the case of Amos, repeating the same words).

To my daughter Rebecca, twenty pounds. &c, (as in the preceding case).

To my daughters Sarah and Rebecca,my in-door movables, after my wife's decease.

His wife Sarah was named executrix. The witnesses to the will were Joseph, Ebenezer and Elizabeth Upton.

* None of this property came into the possession of John Upton. He died several years before his mother. The other legacies, of course, were not paid.

t Eunice was already married, and had received her portion. Sarah and Rebecca were then unmarried.


I found Amos Upton's probate file in the Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871
at the AmericanAncestors.org website: 

 Source: Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.)


There is a phrase in Amos' will "or any lawful money to the value thereof". I'll discuss
the significance of that in the next post, which will also discuss the inventory estate. 

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 10: DEACON AMOS UPTON PT1

This week's post for Amy Johnson Crow's 2015 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge is
my other Upton 6x great grandfather, Deacon Amos Upton. He was a much more
prominent figure in local affairs than his cousin Francis Upton, as his biography
in John Adams Vinton's The Upton Memorial:


Amos Upton 3, (Samuel2, John 1), widely known among his cotemporaries and still spoken of as Deacon Amos Upton, was brother of the preceding, and son of Samuel2 and Abigail (Frost) Upton; born in Darn ers; and baptized there, Oct. 20, 1717; married Dec. 5. 1739, Sahah Bickford, daughter of John Bickford of Salem town. She was admitted into full communion of the church in Danvers, March 28, 1756.

He resided in the north parish in Reading, which is now a town called North Reading, about a mile north east of the present meetinghouse, in a house yet standing, and in good condition. Of the church in that place, under the ministry of Rev. Daniel Putnam [pastor from June 29, 1720, to June 20, 1759], and Rev. Eliab Stone [pastor from May 20, 1761, to Aug. 31, 1822], he was deacon from Feb. 18, 1762, till his death in 1780. He was a man of great energy, and stern Puritan principles.

He died Oct. 6, 1780, aged sixty-three. His wife Sarah outlived him thirty-eight years, and at length died in North Reading, Nov. 17, 1818, at the advanced age of ninety-nine years and seven months. She remembered to have seen and talked with people who were living in this country prior to 1650. Three lives might thus, even at this time, 1872, comprehend our entire history as a people.
He was frequently called to serve his fellow citizens in places of public trust. In 1760, '56 and '61 he was Surveyor of Highways; he was Selectman in 1764.'66 and '68; Assessor and Parish Clerk in 1769; Moderator of North Reading parish in 1767, '72, '74 and '78. -pp64-65

 The Upton Memorial: A Genealogical Record of the Descendants of John Upton, of North Reading, Mass. ... Printed for Private Use Bath, Me. 1874

The book has a sketch of Amos Upton's house between pages 64 and 65:

The children of Deacon Amos Upton were—

Amos4, born Oct. 3, 1742; married, 1st Edith Upton4, daughter of Francis,; 2d Joanna Bruce,
3d Hannah Haskell.

Benjamin4, born May 7, 1745; married, 1st Rebecca Putnam. 2d Elizabeth (White) Cowley.

Sarah4, born Nov. 22, 1748; died young.

Eunice4, born Dec. 2. 1751; married, 1st George Upton of Danvers, son of Paul Upton, ; 2d___ Richardson.

 Nathaniel4, born Nov. 28, 1753: married, 1st Sarah Flint, 2d Jerusha Upton, daughter of Jabez

Sarah4, born April 9, 1757; married Job Bancroft of Reading, Jan. 10, 1782.

Rebecca4, born June 28, 1761; married Ephraim Pratt of North Reading, Feb. 24, 1785.

 Eliab4, born 176-; died young.

John4, born June 12, 1768 ; married Hannah Hart.-p67

Notice that three of Amos and Sarah's children married Upton cousins. Another two
married members of two other families related to me, the Haskells and the Bancrofts.

To be continued,

WHEN JUNIOR ISN'T SENIOR'S SON

I mentioned in my last post about 6x great grandfather Francis Upton that there were
two things in it I wanted to discuss in this post.

One has to do with names.

In my abstract of the list of the children of Francis and his wife Edith Herrick there are
these two entries:

Edith4, born Oct. 24, 1744: married Amos Upton  the third, oldest son of Deacon Amos Upton, Senior. Feb. 13, 1760. 

Ruth4, born Nov. 2, 1748; married Amos Upton, Junior., son of Ebenezer Upton of Reading, June 30, 1772.

Confusing, isn't it? You'd think that Deacon Amos Upton's son Amos would be the Amos Junior, and that his his cousin Amos Upton, son of Ebenezer Upton, would be just plain Amos Upton.
But that's not how our colonial ancestors did things when there was a bunch of people living
in the same town with the same name. The people responsible for keeping birth, marriage, or death records went by date of birth, not by who was related to who:  

Deacon Amos Upton was born in 1717 in Danvers

Amos Upton Junior, son of Ebenezer  was born May 6 1738

Amos Upton the third, son of Deacon Amos Upton was born Oct 3 1742

According to the index of The Upton Memorial there were ten "Amos Uptons" born in
the area between 1717 and 1817.  I imagine there may have been several instances of
some of the labels changing as older ones died off and new ones were born.
 
So if you are looking for your colonial ancestor John Smith, Jr. and you find a record for one,
don't just assume it's the person you are looking for, because it could be another relative living
in the same town.

The second item is just something that caught my eye  about Francis Upton's signature
on his will. I had zoomed in on the document and it looks like it was originally written
faintly and then written over more darkly. Was the original too faint to read  and had to be
rewritten? Did someone else write his name for Francis for him to use as a model to
write his own name?

It's not important, but it's one of those little oddities I have run into researching my
family tree that makes me "go hmmmmm".

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS#23: JOHN UPTON

Fellow geneablogger Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small has issued the
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. Basically, we have to post something every
week on a different ancestor, whether a story, picture, or research problem. For
this prompt I've tried to concentrate on ancestors I haven't researched as much
as I have others in my family tree. For this post, I'm writing about my 8x great
John Upton and one of those "family traditions" common in some genealogies.

I recently found this in an edition of the Historical Collections of the Essex Institute:

UPTON FAMILY.
COMMUNICATED BY MATTHEW A. STICKNEY

The following traditions relating to the Upton* family of Danvers and Reading, were obtained by me, Jan. 18, 1849, from Eli Upton, who was born Oct. 7, 1759, and died Feb. 24, 1849; and, as some of the items here given are not recorded anywhere to my knowledge, they are offered for publication in the Collections.

"John Upton was born in Scotland, and, it is supposed, was one of the prisoners taken by Oliver Cromwell at the battle of Dunbar, in 1651, and sent by him to New England, as he was sold on his arrival here. He was bought by a woman, whose name is not remembered, but who lived in that part of Salem now called Danvers. She came from England. Some of the fruit trees on the place were brought out by her. She had been living there some time. 

The place above mentioned has been in the hands of the Uptons from the death of John to the present time (1849); and it is now owned by Mr. Eli Upton. Two houses have been built there.

John Upton aforesaid bought a large lot of land in Reading for a "piece-of eight" and a colt. On this land one of his sons settled, and there John himself died in 1699. P247
Historical Collections of the Essex Institute (Google eBook) Vol7 Number 6 Essex Institute.,  Salem Ma 1865

A nice story there about how John came to Massachusetts, but probably untrue. There's no
mention of a John Upton on the list of names of the Scottish prisoners sent to the colony. In
his Upton Memorial, John Adams Vinton discredits that story and another that claims the
lady was Upton's wife who somehow got to Massachusetts before the prison ship had
arrived so she could purchase her husband. He also questions the tradition that the wife
was named Elenor Stuart.

There's also this, which concerns some land purchased by John Upton:

1668. Feb. 1.—Jeremiah Swain of Reading, for 22s. 6d.. sells to John Upton half an acre and seven poles of meadow, lying on the north side of Ipseage River, also a quarter of an acre and twenty-eight poles of meadow on the north side of said river, all in Reading -p13
The Upton Memorial: A Genealogical Record of the Descendants of John Upton, of North Reading, Mass. ... Together with Short Genealogies of the Putnam, Stone and Bruce Families (Google eBook)  private use at the office of E. Upton & son,  Bath, Me 1874

It's significant to me because Jeremiah Swain is my 9x great grandfather and John Upton my 8x great grandfather. I always get a kick out of finding these sort of things involving ancestors from two different branches of my family tree!

AMOS UPTON OF NORWAY MAINE PT4

My 5x  great grandfather Amos Upton had a good memory for a 90 year old
man when he applied for his Revolutionary War Veteran's Pension in August
of 1832 but unfortunately that was all he had with which to make his case. His
friends who had witnessed his service were all dead so they could not testify
in his behalf, nor did he have any documents he could produce as proof, either.
His statement was termed   "traditionary evidence" on the brief filed with his
application. Now according to Black's Law Dictionary, traditionary evidence is
"Evidence derived from tradition or reputation or the statements formerly
made by persons since deceased." Amos was not dead, but the term was the
closest to his defining statement. The next step was an inquiry into the
military records of Massachusetts where Amos had been living during the
Revolution. The answer came back in  April 1833 and it was not good news:



 "Boston Sec. Office, April 24, 1833
 Thomas Clark, Esq.
Sir-
I send you a certificate of all that can be found as (pertains?) the service of
John Lombard. Amos Upton I do not find at all. There is one Roll of Capt.
Asa Prince's company, but Upton's name is not on it.
Yours,
Edward S (Bangsby?)"

But Amos didn't give up. The rely had been written on April 24th and most have
taken two or three days to get from Boston up to Norway in Western Maine. A
few days after that, Amos reapplied for hs pension:

"State of Maine, Oxford SS May 1, 1833. Personally appeared before me, the
undersigned, a Justice of the Peace, in and for the county of Oxford, Amos
Upton who, being duly sworn, deposeth and saith, that by reason of old age,
and the consequent  loss of memory, he cannot swear positively as to the
precise length of his service , but according to the best of his recollection
he served not less than the period mentioned below, and in the following
grade: viz. For six months I served as a sergeant and for such service I
claim a pension.
Amos Upton."

There's none of the names of officers Amos mentioned in his first application.
His signature looks shaky and the "t" in Upton looks as if he forgot it and had
to add it after the original signature. Looking at this statement, with even less
information than on his already rejected first application, it's hard to think that
Amos would have any success this time around. But he did. I believe that someone
in  the Massachusetts state government finally found the records for this entry in
Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution:

"Volume 16  
page 226
Upton, Amos, Reading.List dated Reading, 2d Parish, May 15, 1775, of men who 
enlisted under Capt. Asa Prince, of Danvers, as returned by Capt. John Flint to Col. 
David Green; also, Sergeant, Capt. Prince's co., Col. Mansfield's regt.; order for 
advance pay, signed by said Upton and others, dated Cambridge, June 8, 1775; also, 
Capt. Prince's co., Col. John Mansfield's (19th) regt. commanded by Lieut. Col. 
Israel Hutchinson; company return dated Oct. 6, 1775."

A certificate of pension was issued on August 2 1833.  Amos Upton was to receive $30
a year, a good amount of money in those days, beginning the following year of 1834. But
he also received $75  immediately, $60 of which was in arrears.

Amos lived for another five years, finally passing away at the age of  95 on 3Apr 1838.
He had been probably the last surviving Revolutionary War veteran in Norway, Maine.

AMOS UPTON OF NORWAY MAINE PT3

When my 5x great grandfather Amos Upton appeared in court in August 1832
to make application for his veteran benefits, he was two months short of his
90th birthday.His contemporaries, the men he had served with and those with
whom he had helped build the town of Norway, Maine were all dead. Despite
whatever physical weaknesses old age might have given him, it doesn't seem
to have lessened his memory as his statement shows:


STATE OF MAINE
County of Oxford SS.
ON this 25th day of August A.D. 1832, personally appeared in open
Court, before the Court of Probate, now sitting, Amos
Upton a resident of Norway, in the county of Oxford
and State of Maine, aged 90 years, who being first duly sworn according to law,
doth, on his oath, make the following declaration, in order to obtain the benefit of the
act of Congress, passed June 7, 1832. That he entered the service of the United States
under the following named officers, and served as herein stated.

On the 19th day of April 1775, on the alarm given of the enemie's being at Lexington,
he marched from his then residence, in Reading in Massachusetts, as a volunteer
with others to Lexington, and soon after joined a company of Massachusetts Militia,
commanded by Captain Asa Prince, was appointed an orderly sargeant, and
enlisted into the service of the U.S. in said company in the regiment commanded by
Col.Mansfield, for the term of eight months, with orders to enlist others- and he
accordingly enlisted Stephen Curtis, late of said Norway, a pensioner now deceased-
& Job Bancroft likewise deceased- he marched to cambridege near Boston, where he
was stationed, he was at the battle of Bunker hill on the 17th day of June 1775, he
well recollects  among many other officers at Cambridge, Gen Heath, Col.Ward, &
Gen. Putnam.  He served till about the last of October following, at which  time he
was under the necessity of returning to Reading, and with the consent of his officer,
he gave a young man whose name he does not now recollect, his gun and equipments
to take his place as a substitute, and was thereupon verbally discharged from the
service. He has no documentary evidence to prove his service, & and he knows of no
person whose testimony he can procure, who can testify to his service.  He was born in
the North parish in said Reading on the 30th day of October in the year 1742 and has
a record of his age in his family bible, made by his father. He resided at said Reading
when he entered the service, and removed from thence to Norway aforesaid his
present residence forty one years ago. He is the oldest inhabitant of the town in
which he resides and is personally known by the principal inhabitants- and here
names the Rev. Henry A.  Merrill and David Noyes, Esquire, likewise the selectmen
of said town of Norway all of whom can testify to his character for veracity and their
belief of his services as a soldier of the revolution.
He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the
present and declares that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any
State.
Sworn to, and subscribed, the day and year aforesaid.
Amos Upton
Before Stephen Emory, Judge

So Amos didn't have anyone nearby who could testify for the veracity of his statement
of service and looking through the rest of the file there is no collaborating documents,
either. Would he be awarded his pension?

To be continued.

AMOS UPTON OF NORWAY MAINE PT2

More stories about my 5x great grandfather Amos Upton from the book
The History of Norway [Me.]: Comprising a Minute Account of Its First Settlement,
Town Officers, Interspersed with Historical Sketches, Narrative and Anecdote
(Google eBook) by David Noyes.

I think this is my favorite story about Amos: his cure for being struck unconscious
by lightning:

"Previous to 1800, Amos Upton had built a large one-story house, and in January
of that year Ward Noyes moved from Andover, Mass., into Mr. Upton's house,
and lived there until the next fall. In July there was a terrific tempest of lightning,
thunder, rain and wind. The house was struck by lightning at the easterly end of
the ridge-pole; the electric fluid ran down the rafter and other timbers, and went
almost over the whole house. Seven persons were knocked down by the shock,
and Ward Noyes was insensible for a long time; probably he never would have
recovered had it not been for the application of cold water, which by Mr. Upton's
direction was poured upon him by pail full—he having, a short time previous,
seen in a newspaper an account of its efficacy. Large spaces of thick forest were
prostrated by this wind, and considerable damage done otherwise."-p41

Our pioneer ancestors often worked at various professions to earn a living. Besides
being a blacksmith and carpenter, Amos was a miller. His carpentry skills  came in
handy here as well:

"In 1801, Amos Upton built a grist-mill on a brook .about three-fourths of a mile
westerly of Fuller's Corner. It was rather a rudely constructed thing, as he did almost
all the work himself, even to the making of the mill-stones. His oldest son, Francis
Upton, afterwards owned said mill, and tended it for many years. In the drought of
summer there was not sufficient water to grind; but at other times it did considerable
business, and was a great convenience to the settlers in the northwest part of the town. 
Amos Upton, Jr., another son of Amos Upton, succeeded his brother Francis; he built
a new mill on the same stream, a little above the old one; and did considerable business
in grinding. Jonathan Swift, some twenty-five years age, succeeded Amos Upton, Jr.,
and afterwards built a new mill, which is still in operation."-p44

Finally, in 1802 the citizens of Norway organized a Congregational Church and Amos was
involved in that as well:

"It appears that the church records were to be kept in the house of Amos Upton, who had 
previous to this time built himself a large house for that day, and for many years it was used 
as a place for religious meetings. He was a zealous professor, and spent much time in fitting 
his house with seats to accommodate those who attended meeting on the Sabbath. On Saturday 
afternoon he would bring in blocks and planks, or boards, and arrange seats in his long kitchen, 
in preparation for meeting the next day. Mr. Joseph Martin was a good singer, and understood 
the rules of church psalmody well for that early day. Occasionally a missionary would come 
along, and stop and preach a few Sabbaths with the church and people; and sometimes a 
minister was hired to preach a Sabbath or two, or a month, and once or twice for three months...

...Thus it appears that we were not entirely destitute of the preached word; and when there was 
no minister, the people assembled in Mr. Upton's house, and held what used to be called a 
Deacon's meeting; there would be a sermon read, (the writer has read many in our Sabbath 
meetings,) and prayers offered up by some of the more gifted members of the church, and 
singing, good enough. There were many good singers of the old school method of singing, and 
uncle Jo Martin (as we used to call him) would give us the pitch of the tune with his pitch-pipe, 
and we could make first-rate church melody of such tunes as Old Hundred, St. Martins, Wells, 
&c."- pp75-76

By 1802 Amos was 60 years old, an age far past the average lifespan in that era, but only
two-thirds of the way through his life. Thirty years later, at age 90, he would apply for his
Revolutionary War Veteran Pension.

I'll discuss that next.
  

AN HOUR ON FOOTNOTE.COM

It's Thursday and after a short visit to the doctor for some tests the rest of
my day is free.I prefer to schedule the appointments as early as possible
in the day for just that reason.

I thought I'd revisit Footnote.com to see what databases were new or
updated and found one that was unfamiliar to me, the Final Payment
Vouchers Index for Military Pensions, 1818-1864. These records show
the date of the final payment to a Revolutionary War veteran or his
widow and many have the dates they died.

I found cards for the following ancestors:

John Ames
Asa Barrows
Jonathan Barker
Amos Upton

I also found the records for Jonathan Barker's brothers Benjamin and
Jesse. I didn't learn anything I didn't already know but I downloaded
the images to each of the files I have for them.

I also checked again for pension files for a few of the ancestors I hadn't
found one for as yet. One of these is John Griffith (4Jun 1763 Rochester,
Plymouth, Ma.-8Feb 1840, Livermore, Androscoggin, Me.). I knew that
he'd served as a matross in an artillery company under Captain William
Treadwell in the 3rd Artillery Regiment commanded by Col. John Crane.
And of course not all veterans applied for pensions. But this time around I
checked under the names of the widows and got a hit. On an image from
the pension file of James Rankin I found a letter concerning the cases of
several widows and on it was the following:

"In the case of Mary Griffith widow of John Griffith you inform me
that no papers can be found-it is stated in her application that her
late husband enlisted in Col Crane's Regiment of Artillery and served 
til the end of the war, the foregoing are all the particulars we can
furnish you."

The letter's signature is faded but looks like it could be a Levi Bailey. It's
addressed to "J.S. Edwards Commissioner of Pensions, Washington DC"
and was written on 16 Apr 1845 from the Bangor Land Office so Mary
Boyden Griffith might have been applying for a land grant. I've found no
record online that she succeeded so she may have failed. She died in
Livermore, Oxford, Me in 1846. Her granddaughter Arvilla Ames is my
3x great-grandmother Arvilla Ames West.

But not bad for an hour's search on Footnote.com, I think!

BLOGGING BRUNCH11

A dark and stormy Saturday afternoon as the remnants of
Hurricane Noel, now only a tropical storm, alas, roar outside.
At the moment the wind seems to be from the south which
means the apartments on my side of the building are sheltered
from the worst since we face north. We’ll feel it more when the
storm moves past and the wind shifts later this afternoon and
tonight.


Meanwhile, I made myself a cup of that cocoa mix and watched
the storm for a few minutes through my screen door. A lot of
leaves on the ground now out there! A minute or two of that was
enough since as my Dad used to say I’m not heating the outside.
So I came in to finish my cocoa while fiddling at my keyboard
until the power goes.


But I already charged up my mp3 player so I’ll have some Celtic
music to listen to, and my cell phone is on the charger already so
my sister will be able to call me later (or vice versa) to see how
we have weathered the storm. Knowing my sister, she’s probably
sitting in her car in the parking lot at a beach at Plymouth or
Marshfield watching the waves. I have a flashlight to read a book
by and a can of tunafish to make dinner with, so if I do lose power
here, I’m all set until it comes back, provided it’s within a few
hours.


After that, I go into computer withdrawal. Gulp.


I was looking over the other Revolutionary War Pension Files I
have to decide which one to transcribe and post here next. I’ve
decided to go with the smaller ones first, so the humongous
Benjamin Barker file will be last, and might not even be posted
until after the first of the year.


Going through the images I noticed a few things. Benjamin Barker
shows up in other ancestor’s files to testify as to their service
records. Of course two of them are his brothers: Jonathan(my
direct ancestor) in 1818 and Jesse in 1832. He’s also in the file for
Amos Hastings in 1839, but there is a personal connection there as
well since Benjamin’s nephew Nathaniel was married to Huldah
Hastings, Amos’ daughter.


I also noticed that some ancestors gave their “declarations” on
the same day: Asa Barrows and Amos Upton on August 20th,
1832, and John Ames and Jesse Barker a later on September
27th. Perhaps the Judge rode a circuit and was only in the area
for a short time each month? I wonder what stories they and the
other old veterans swapped about their war years as they sat and
waited their turn to file their claim? Would they be delighted or
dismayed to learn that their grandchildren and great grandchildren
would someday wed?


Think I’ll go do some quick housecleaning and then come back to
scan some old photos.

BEDTIME GENEALOGY 17

Sometimes, the pieces of the genealogy puzzle just seem to fit
together with a life of their own.

I decided to search Footnote.com again for my ancestor Amos
Upton in the Revolutionary War Pension File. He hadn’t been
there the first time I’d looked but Footnote is still updating
those files so I checked, and voila…there it was. As I read it
I found he’d been a resident of Norway, Maine which I hadn’t
known before.

So while I downloaded the images of the file, I did a search on
Google and found A History of Norway, Me. by David Noyes
on Googlebooks. There is quite a bit of information about Amos
in there as well as some on his son Francis. This brought me to
Amos’ granddaughter, Hannah, who I didn’t know much about
other than she had married Cyrus Moore and that their daughter
(my great great grandmother) Betsey Jane had been born in
Waterford, Maine.

The Amos Upton file was still dl so I tried searching Googlebooks
for Hannah Upton & Waterford. I found The History of Waterford:
Oxford County, Maine by Henry Pelt Warren and on pp 273-274
in the Records of Families I found a Hannah Upton who married a
Cyrus, son of Stephen Moore and Millie Davis. There were two
younger Moore children listed, daughters Betsey and Jane.


Perhaps Betsey Jane Moore had been named after her aunts?


By this time the Amos Upton file was all downloaded so I decided
I’d blog about this and then turn in for the night. I’ll try to find
more Moores in the next day or so, but if this pans out I now know
the names of Cyrus Moore’s parents, which I hadn’t before tonight.


Ah, serendipity!