I have been doing research off-and-on for 10 years and this past week I started on my grandmother's side of the family. It has not been too difficult to find surnames but I need to connect a couple of people in Vermont/MA. I am searching for history, etc. on Cassius Cooley

I'm working on a huge brick wall, Horace Benjamin Whiting, born in 1831, in Vermont. Trying to locate parents. No birth records available, but some possible family in Hartland. Anyone know any church records available in this area of the state? Thanks!

Hi all, Some of my ancestors lived for a very long time in Vermont, primarily in the Norwich area of Windsor County. I have been told that the family farm in Norwich is still in the hands of a distant cousin, though I have never personally met them. I am researching the Loveland and Olds families of Norwich and their associated surnames, such as Hatch, Wheatley, and Blood. Most of these families moved up to Norwich from elsewhere in New England in the late 1700s. If anyone is researching some of the same families or in the same area of the state, I'd love to talk more with you. In addition to enjoying doing genealogy of my family line, I find the Norwich area's history quite interesting.

I have Blood ancestors who lived in Windsor and Vershire Vermont. Most of their relatives originated in Massachusetts. My line goes from Blood, Hosford, Hanson, Badger, to Burbank.

Hi everyone,
My name is Micki Boyer, I'm trying to get through my brick wall which is my great grandparents, Benjamin Donahue and Mate Cashell (and other variations of surname spellings.)

From my grandmother's and great uncles birth certificates, their parents were both born in Vermont. I have not found them on any census for Vermont or Michigan (where they lived in the 1890s. They left both children at an orphanage in Grand Rapids, MI, came back and visited a couple times then disappeared. I can't trace them forward or backward.

Any suggestions?

Micki

Hi Debra, Thank you for responding! Do they connect up at all with Lucy Blood (b. c1813 in Norwich), daughter of Levi Blood (b. c1784 in NH)?

Sorry Liz, I have no connection to Lucy and Levi Blood.

Hi - No ancestors in Vermont, but I used to live in Windsor Co and volunteered on www.raogk.com to photograph tombstones. I will be glad to check my pictures and see if any of your rellies are there.

Jim,
What did you do in Windsor? How long ago did you live there? Do you know some of them were "uprooted" by the tornado last year? We moved from Windsor 2-1/2 years ago.

Or is that Windsor County (not Windsor Colorado). I'm from Windsor Colorado. Sorry, I think I misunderstood your post as your name sounds very familiar, like someone I knew through the Chamber of Commerce.

Micki - Nope it is Windsor County Vermont. I worked for the Dept of Veterans Affairs. I left in May 2008 and moved to York Co PA I lived in a little town named Quechee.

Well, Jim, I don't suppose you know of any Cashell families (or Cashel), or Donahue families in your area. These folks have been impossible to track. They (Mate Cashell and Benjamin Donahue) moved from Vermont (no idea what town) to Grand Rapids Michigan. They married but I don't know where. Since both were born in Vermont, I suspect they married before they moved to MI. They had a son in 1889 and a daughter in 1892, and left both at an orphanage in 1895 for unknown reasons.

I can't trace them forward or backward, but only know of them through their children's birth certificates, marriage licenses, and other official documents.

Any suggestions where to begin researching online in Vermont? I'm on the far side of the country Nebraska & Colorado heading for California and Oregon), and can't afford Ancestry, so use Rootsweb (to no avail) Family Search at LDS, census records through HeritageQuestOnline (through the library), and am stuck.

Thanks for any pointers anyone can offer.

Researching all Partridge's across Vermont. I can normally assist researcher's trying to make their Partridge connection, irregardless of line.

My own Partridge family comes from Springfield, Vermont. I am also personally researching the following Vermont families: Greenia, Grenier, and Rich.

Hi Micki, Do you have any idea of an approximate birth date (no matter if it's ten years off) for them, or what name hers might have been other than Mate? I am finding many Benjamin Donahues on Ancestry, and no Mate Cashells.

Hi Liz (we also have Loveland's on my dad's side of the family, by the way.)

I can only guess that they might have been at least 20 when Benjamin Jr. was born in 1889. I really have no other information about them. Her last name was spelled both Cashel and Cashell on different documents, but Mate was her first name on everything I have.

Benjamin Henry Donahue was their son's name, born 1889 in Grand Rapids. I've got his draft registration, birth certificate and SSDI information, plus a couple census'. My grandmother was Maud N. Donahue on her birth certificate, but later was Margaret Agnes Donahue. After 1903, at least, Simon and Briget McNamara were their legal guardians and they went to the Tyrone school in Kent County, MI. The St. Johns Orphanage records showed that they were left at the orphanage in May 1895 and adopted out to two different families, the McCarthy's and the Chester's. Now, family lore says that she (at 3 years old, born July 1892) had a fit because a family adopted her without her brother, so they brought her back. I understood that they later came back and took both of them. But, these records indicate that another family was involved too. Then, other records show a third family (the McNamara's) were their "parents."

I remember them talking about the McNamaras, and I have photos of them, but have never heard of the Chester's or the McCarthy's, so don't know what role they played.

The orphanage also has the same parent names, but, again, no other information, middle names, or anything.

I have to put off any subscription to Ancestry for a while, but if there's enough information there, and the right Benjamin Donahues, I will at least do a one month subscription as soon as I can.

Thanks.

Hi Micki,
Where are your Lovelands?

I found this entry for a Benjamin Donahue on Ancestry:


Grand Rapids, Michigan City Directories, 1889-90
about Benjamin Donahue
Name: Benjamin Donahue
Location 2: 19 Court
Business Name: A Leitelt
Occupation: fitter
Year: 1890
City: Grand Rapids
State: MI

If this is the right Benjamin, perhaps you could use the occupation and/or company name and/or company address to try to trace him? Grand Rapids directories from around the same time list an apprentice Benjamin Donahue and a few BDs of varied occupations (e.g. plumber). Unfortunately those ones are scans rather than transcriptions.

The Michigan state website has an article on city directories: http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-18835_18895_20699-117864--,00.html

I can't find any Benjamin Donahues on census records that match yours. I still can't find anyone named Mate Donahue and am still wondering if perhaps census records transcribed it differently since it is an uncommon (at least to me) name - but it sounds from what you say like you have not seen it mistranscribed so probably wouldn't know what alternate names to look for first. I am wondering if perhaps after dropping the children off at the orphanage, the parents died, changed their name, and/or started reporting their birthplace as other than VT on official records. I have found several instances in my research where someone seemingly deliberately lied to record-keepers in addition to all the mis-recordings and mis-transcribings I've seen.

You probably already know about this site, but in case not, this is the site the state of MI recently introduced: http://seekingmichigan.org/ I am a member of the Genealogical Society of Vermont and will try their website next.

Wow, Liz, you found the right Ben Donahue. I've contacted Leitelt and the don't have employee records going back that far (only back to 1920 or so.) But at least he used the same name as an employee as he did on birth certificates.

I'm beginning to wonder if they WERE the kind to change names and just disappear. Ben Jr.'s daughter wrote to my mother about her father and what he told her about the orphanage, and she said that Ben Sr. was considered to be a "Dandy", fancy dresser and going out many nights, so they may have separated/divorced. If they were unable to come back for the children, they might have had the authorities after them.

Mate was also spelled Matie on something I have, and could also be Mattie. A transcriber might have thought it was "Mare", or gone on to transcribe it as Marie, Mary, or any other stretch of that name. Once you get to Mary Donahue, it produces hundreds of names, and all might be the wrong person.

I haven't found the Michigan Directories yet, so I really appreciate your links. I will check all of them out. I think I found one for the Detroit area, but didn't find them there, either.

And finally, though I've long ago stopped tracing based upon the story I was told about them, maybe there's a mix of truth to this. Without explaining what happened to Mate, the implication was that she was either dead or gone at the time Ben dropped them off at the orphanage. I was told that he was a bridge builder and would leave them there while he went off to build a bridge, then pick them up when he returned. This went on for several years until one time he never returned. When it was finally assumed that he either died or abandoned them, they adopted or fostered the kids.

The letter my mom's cousin mentioned that Mate visited them once in a while. So she wasn't dead at the time. It's possible he did leave them periodically and that the records they found just pertained to the last time he dropped them off. This "legend" adds confusion but may have snippets of truth, or may have been a face-saving story told to the kids, or one to keep them from having to believe their parents could just leave them behind.

Now, for the Lovelands. Marie Loveland married William Baragwanath in Watford, Hertfordshire, England on 12 Aug 1844. Other records say September 1844.

They came to America sometime after that and had 7 children. The earliest I have is Amelia Ann Baragwanath (my gr-grandmother) born in Chicago in 1854. Another child named Maria was born but I don't have a date or place, so don't know if Amelia was first or second born. The story I heard about their arrival here involved their ship sinking and he saved a wedding gift from going under, so I don't think they had a child with them, or he'd have saved the child if he could. Unless he couldn't.

If they are relatives of yours, I have lots of info on the Baragwanaths, but very little on Marie. Her father's name is (supposedly) Robert, and mother's was Maria (surname unknown.) That's all I have.

Thanks for all the help

Hi Micki,
I'm so glad to hear that is the right Benjamin! I hope it helps you in your search. I just tried another Ancestry search using just their last names to search VT in the 1880 census. There are several Donahue families (though none has a Ben or Benjamin) in VT but none using the spellings Cashel, Cashell, or Cashall. The closest are Cagill, Cagle, Cagswell, Caskill, Caswell, and Caslie. Just some surnames to keep in mind in your search. It is also possible that at least one of the families left as a whole family for MI (or some other state) by 1880 so my not finding anything in VT also certainly doesn't mean they weren't there in earlier years. I have seen cases where people who were from one place met after moving and married, so it is possible that is what happened to your family.

I will try a few more ideas.

Interesting family stories. I think it is definitely possible that there is some truth in them even if it is partly myth.

My Loveland family left England in the 1600s, though it is definitely possible that yours is a collateral line. I've only traced the Lovelands that left down to the present day, not the ones that stayed in England.

Hi Liz,
Thanks so much for going to that trouble. Eventually I'll have to join Ancestry if only for a few weeks, but we've been so busy I'm afraid I'd pay for time I wouldn't use, right now. So, I will keep those names in mind. I think these people made up their name as they went along. Seems like it, anyway.

Micki
Check your public library. Many of them have Ancestry subscriptions you can access when you are at the library.

I'll do that. At the moment I'm RVing in small towns, but should be near a substantial library in about 6 weeks. I've found few of the small town libraries have much in the way of genealogy resources, but some do surprise me.

I have a letter my grandmother wrote in 1917. It has an address on it, Camp Hollister at the Rilleo, but no town. Does anyone have any suggestions of where I could search to find where the camp was. It sounds like a girls wilderness camp. My grandmother was about 19. Thanks Debra

Debra Burbank
My line is: Thoams,Robert,Thomas,Isaac,Ichabod,Issac,Zebulon,Zebulon,Zebulon Gardner,Allen Hall,Carroll, to my mother Beryl

Hiyas. My Vermont ancestry consists of Vershire, Vermont in Orange County. My great-great-great-great Grandfather, Levi Jackman, as well as his siblings were all born there. His father was Moses French Jackman, born in 1767 in Salisbury, MA and died in 1797 in Vershire, Vermont (crushed by a tree he and his brother were cutting down). Moses' brother, Abel Jackman, died in Cornith, Vermont in 1820. I don't know if there's any Jackman's still there. All I know is that Vershire is a rather small town. I'd love to visit it someday. Just to see Moses' grave. Moses' wife was Elizabeth Carr. She died of breast cancer in Batavia, NY in 1819.

i looking for some one who lives in addison co . to take some digtail pictures for me

Hi am am at a standstill with my great grandfather Edward Worth I know that he was working as a lumberman in Rutland Mendon his sons birth certificate states thats where they were living and working in Nov of 1895 my greatgrandmothers name was Margaret E Whittier Lake Worth I know she was born in Nova Scotia. Any info on lumber workers or how to obtain info on where or whom he could have been working for or how to find it would help alot. Thank You Karen Worth-Carter

I'm looking for information on my ancestor Benjamin A. Lewis born ca. 1818 and wife Lucia, I have them in the 1860, 1870 & 1880 Claremont,Sullivan,NH censuses and have asked for a 1850 lookup but would be happy to know anything else. I found a record in the IGI of a son Willie Anderson born in Springfield, Windsor,VT 26 Feb 1857 so they must have moved to NH not long after that since they are there in 1860 and daughter Anna L. was born Sep 1861 probably Claremont.
I'm not sure if they had any other children. I think I have Lucia's maiden name here somewhere too, just not right here, as most of the family history was kept by my moms family and handed down to her and then me. It's just not all in my FTM as yet.
Thanks for any help you might offer

Hi everyone, I thought I'd repost my comment from last summer in case anyone new has joined and didn't see it:

Hi all, Some of my ancestors lived for a very long time in Vermont, primarily in the Norwich area of Windsor County. I have been told that the family farm in Norwich is still in the hands of a distant cousin, though I have never personally met them. I am researching the Loveland and Olds families of Norwich and their associated surnames, such as Hatch, Wheatley, and Blood. Most of these families moved up to Norwich from elsewhere in New England in the late 1700s. If anyone is researching some of the same families or in the same area of the state, I'd love to talk more with you. In addition to enjoying doing genealogy of my family line, I find the Norwich area's history quite interesting.

Since leaving that comment, I have discovered that there are Hills in the Norwich area named after the Lovelands and the Bloods, which I thought was pretty neat. :-)

Hi all, I am new to GenWise. I lived in Springfield, VT until I was 8yrs old. I am researching my father's family, surname Carlisle. I have back to a William Carlisle born in Scotland but no dates. If anyone out there has any info on Carlisle, Hall, Lawrence, or Goldsmith families in Springfield, VT I would like to exchange info with you.

hello I am looking for some one who lives in addison co vt in the town of orwell to take some pictures i posted in random act of kindness and some one answer and said they do it and never did

How 'bout Henry and Laura (Putnam) Bordeau? Moved from Vermont to Detroit, MI about 1920; originally from Canada.