From The Master Genealogist to Legacy Family Tree

   Going on two years ago, on 31 December 2014, Wholly Genes Software discontinued The Master Genealogist. The software, developed by Bob Velke, remains functional for now, but no new updates are being created and no official tech support is available. I began using TMG at its inception back in 1993, and initially decided to stay with it. 
   But - was it smart to add new data to TMG? Suppose some unforeseen catastrophe happened. Suppose it wouldn't be compatible with a new version of Windows. Then what?

   A short while later, RootsMagic announced that its software had been reconfigured so it could import TMG directly; that is, without a GEDCOM. I bought RM, installed it, and imported one of my data sets. Everything seemed to work and it did not appear that I had lost much data. But I found the program completely different from TMG and I didn’t like some of the reports. I continued to use TMG.
   In July 2016 I came across a comparison of some of the leading genealogy programs and saw that Legacy Family Tree was deemed the best (RM was fourth). I downloaded LFT’s basic version, which is free, and imported (via a GEDCOM) TMG’s sample database. At first glance, the program seemed to be easier to use than RM and the reports were more to my liking. I decided to give it a try.
   Via GEDCOM, I imported one of my databases into LFT. I immediately discovered that witnesses to events, such as censuses, were missing. And so was my research log. Totally unsatisfactory! What to do?
   GEDCOM is not programmed for witnessed events or research logs; however, RM’s new version was designed to accept both directly. It had imported TMG’s witnessed events as shared events and the research log as a to-do list, all properly linked to individuals, events or sources. Since LFT supports shared events and has a to-do list, could I import my RM file into LFT via a GEDCOM? 
   Yes! The new LFT database seems okay - all the shared events are there and so is my old to-do list. I purchased the deluxe version and am using it instead of TMG. There is a rather steep learning curve, but the online documentation is detailed and there is a PDF user’s guide for when I’m completely baffled. I miss TMG, though.

What Became of Mary Bartley?

    David Bartley and his first wife, Margaret Burnes, had four children, the first born in Ireland, the others in New York City. John died, unmarried, at 26 years of age in 1867 and was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, Queens County, New York. Both Robert (born in 1843) and David (born in 1845) married and had children. They have living descendants and their lives and families are well documented. 
    The fourth child, Mary Bartley (born circa 1846) was enumerated in her parents’ household in 1850, 1855 and 1860. She was not buried in either of her father’s two plots in Calvary Cemetery, so it is likely she married, rather than died, before the 1870 census.
    Robert’s daughter, the writer’s grandmother, often talked about her uncle David, but she never mentioned John and Mary. Since John died eight years before she was born, it would not be surprising had she not known of his existence.  But what about Mary?

1860 NYC, Ward 4, p. 776, dw 22, fam 294, David Battel [sic]; Ancestry.com

   According to the 1860 census, Mary’s middle name was Jane; however, that added clue hasn’t helped the writer locate her.

Pruning a Family Tree

Joseph Limburg-Caroline Louise Rupp Family Tree¹

 

     According to this tree, Caroline Louise Rupp was born in Buffalo on 26 February 1852, daughter of George Martin Rupp and Barbara Haas, and she died there on 31 July 1928. Her husband was Joseph Limburg, with whom she had thirteen children between 1872 and 1889: Frank J., Alvin George, Cora, Cora (2nd), William Henry, Elizabeth L., Edward, Edward Allen, Frederick, Viola, Lora, Laura Christine, and Clara. 
     Caroline Louise, her parents and her siblings appear as Rupp-Haas “Family Members.”² Of interest is sister Caroline (1855-1909), who married Oscar H. Becker.      
     It does happen that parents, especially those of Germanic origin,  will have two or more living children with the same first name (typically Johann, Anna, Maria, etc.), who are generally called by their middle names. The two Carolines should make one wonder, however. 
     Six censuses (1850, 1855, 1860, 1865, 1870, and 1880)³ show that George Martin and Barbara Rupp were enumerated at various times with the following children: George A., 1836; Henry M., 1842; Barbara D., 1845; Michael, c1848; Charles A., 1850; Caroline, 1855; and Edward M., 1857. Obviously, a daughter Caroline born in 1852 and alive until 1928 was not a member of this family.
    Since Caroline Louise’s parents were not George Martin Rupp and Barbara Haas, who were they? Fortunately, there were death notices for Joseph F. Limburg⁴ and Caroline Limburg.⁵ According to both, Caroline’s maiden name was Rapp, with an A. I’ll leave the identity of Caroline Louise Rapp’s parents to be discovered by those interested in the Limburg-Rapp family.

Forest Lawn Cemetery, 2013

     As for the Rupp-Haas daughter born in 1855, Caroline, her baptismal record clearly places her in this family and her parents were her sponsors.⁶ She married in Buffalo on 30 January 1883 Oscar H. Becker.⁷ George M. Rupp’s five surviving children and their addresses were listed in his probate file, which included a waiver from Caroline Becker,⁸ who as Caroline F. [sic] Becker (died 4 December 1909) was buried in the Rupp plot in Buffalo’s Forest Lawn Cemetery.⁹

 

Sources:

     ¹Joseph Limburg (1849-1911 • L7NC-HRJ) and Caroline Louise Rupp (1852-1928 • L285-Q5C), FamilySearch family tree (https://familysearch.org/tree/#view=tree&person=L7NC-HRJ&section=pedigree : accessed 11 July 2016).   

    ²George Martin Rupp (1813-1887 • LKGF-Q7J) and Barbara Haas (1814-1900 • Barbara Haas (1814-1900 • 9H8F-CDF), Family Members, Limburg-Rupp FamilySearch family tree (https://familysearch.org/tree/#view=ancestor&section=details&person=LKGF-Q7J : accessed 11 July 2016).

      ³Censuses, Erie County, New York, population schedules: 1850 U.S., Buffalo, Ward 4, p. 295, dwelling 807, family 847, George Rupp; 1855 N. Y. state, Buffalo, Ward 5, Southern E.D., dwelling 142, family 174, George Rupp; 1860 U.S., Buffalo, Ward 5, p. 6, dwelling 41, family 40, George Rupp; 1865 N. Y. state, Buffalo, Ward 5, 1st district, no. 475, George M. Rupp; 1870 U.S., Buffalo, Ward 5, p. 648B, dwelling 1867, family 2775, George Rupp; 1880 U. S., Buffalo, Ward ?, ED 127, p. 231B, dwelling 297, family 509, George M. Rupp. 

      ⁴“Joseph F. Limburg,” death notice, Buffalo (New York) Courier, 19 March 1911, p. 1, col. 6; digital image 0948.pdf, Fulton History (accessed 11 July 2016)]

     ⁵“Caroline Limburg,” death notice, Buffalo (New York) Evening News, 1 August 1928, p. 29, col. 2; digital image 3234.pdf, Fulton History (acc 11 July 2016).

      ⁶St. Paul’s Evangelical Church, Buffalo, New York, parish registers, volume 3 (baptisms), p. 3, no. 22, Caroline Elisabeth Rupp, 1855; original manuscript; Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society (now Buffalo History Museum), Bufffalo.

     ⁷Erie County, New York, marriage records, volume 4, page 35, no. 16, Oscar Becker and Caroline E. Rupp, 1883; original books, Erie County Clerk’s Office, Buffalo.

      ⁸Erie County, New York, probate file 19056, George M. Rupp, 22 April 1887; original documents; Erie County Surrogate’s Court, Buffalo.

     ⁹Forest Lawn Cemetery (Buffalo, New York), “Lot Registers,” Section A, p. 68, lot 132 (Charles A. Rupp, 7 April 1893), grave 12, Caroline F. Becker, 1909; WNYGS microfilm. Photograph by buffalogen, July 2013.

     

     

From Buffalogen's photo collection

Cheektowaga NY Baseball Team - circa 1915

Top:  Butch Pelloth, Geo. Pelloth, Supervisor Frank Wildy, Reuben Rupp

Middle:  Cy Neibert, Ray Myers, John Meininger, Ben Wagatha, Wm. Anker

Bottom:  Art Reiman, mascot, Al Reiman, Rowland Rupp 

Who was the mascot?

 
Bob Hauser, Photographer
Buffalo, NY

Mocavo's records from The History of the Descendants of John Dwght of Dedham, Mass.

I recently searched the Internet for "Horace Dwight Hall" and, to my surprise, up popped a Mocavo record at http://www.mocavo.com/The-History-of-the-Descendants-of-John-Wright-of-Dedham-Mass-Volume-I/140305/380. The record included a scan of the page on which Horace's brief account appeared. 

Wouldn't you think that someone at Mocavo might wonder why a genealogy of the Wright family had a plethora of Dwights and not one Wright? I know - "the computer did it." Nevertheless, aren't there any real people at Mocavo?

Benjamin W. Dwight's The History of the Descendants of John Dwight of Dedham, Mass. (New York: John F. Trow & Son, 1874) is a well-known, two-volume compilation of the family of an early and prolific resident of Dedham. It is this genealogy that was scanned by Mocavo.

I found no way to alert Mocavo to this egregious error.

The Robert Harrisons of Charles City & Prince George Counties, Virginia

    The first Robert Harrison of Prince George County about whom anything much is known was Robert I, who was perhaps born circa 1725 and died before 10 February 1789, when his will was presented for probate.¹ He married Elizabeth Cureton,² who was born on 20 January 1726/7, daughter of John Cureton and Frances [Thweatt].³ He is known as Robert of Bicars.
    Robert and Elizabeth had a son, Robert II of Huntington, who was born on 11 February 1755⁴ and died on 8 July 1797.⁵ He married Henrietta Maria Hardyman,⁶ daughter of William Hardyman and Angelica Epes,⁷ and had (among others) Robert Harrison III of Racefield, who married Charlotte Thomas Pretlow.⁸.
    It has been repeated countless times that Robert I was a member of the Harrison family of Berkeley in Charles City County, son of Benjamin Harrison and Anne Carter. This supposition arose possibly because of Robert’s purchase from Benjamin in 1760 of Bicars, the 600 acre plantation with house and dependencies, orchards and gardens, on Tar Bay on the south side of the James River.⁹
    Most accounts agree that Robert of Berkeley married Elizabeth Collier, with whom he had a son Collier¹⁰ and daughter Ann. According to John Bennett Boddie, his second wife was Beersheba Bryant, with whom he had sons Braxton Harrison and Robert Carter Harrison.¹¹ Another source wrote that the Harrison-Collier children were Collier Harrison (who married first Christina Minge, nee Shields, and second Beersheba Bryant) and Braxton Harrison.¹²
    Yet another account related that Robert of Berkeley, born circa 1730 and died before 1771, married Elizabeth Collier and had Collier Harrison, who married first Christiana (Shields) Minge, by whom he had Elizabeth Harrison and Collier Harrison who died young. By his second marriage to Beersheba Bryant, Collier had Robert Carter Harrison and Braxton Harrison. Many more instances of tangled relationships abound, both in print and on the Internet.   
    Presented, without proof, on the “The Harrison DNA Project: Patriarchs” website is the lineage below.¹³

    No mention is made of Henry Harrison (Robert's surviving brother) and Collier Harrison (his son). Obviously, there is a great deal of confusion about Robert of Berkeley, his wife or wives, his children, and grandchildren. 
    A suit, “Harrison, against Harrison and Others,” originally initiated in a lower court of Virginia years earlier as “Syme vs Harrison” and finally settled in the Court of Appeals of Virginia in 1799, provides evidence of the death and parentage of Robert Harrison, the original defendant. In the report of the decision, it was revealed that Robert was dead before 29 October 1770 and that he had brothers Henry and Benjamin, as well as sons Collier (eldest son) and Braxton.¹⁴ This suit definitely rules out Robert I's being Robert of Berkeley.
   

So, who was Robert Harrison I, husband of Elizabeth Cureton?

    It has been suggested that Robert I was the son of an earlier Robert Harrison to whom Benjamin Harrison sold two slaves, Dido and Ned, on 11 June 1736.¹⁵ The connection is said to be substantiated by the fact that Robert I had the bill of sale in his possession. This likely progenitor probably lived at Maud's Neck and Swamp Field in Prince George County.

    It would be interesting to see the results of a Y-DNA test for a descendant of Robert Harrison I of Prince George County. Would it connect him to a known patriarch?
__________
     ¹Robert Harrison, will dated 15 January 1787, proved 10 February 1789 in Prince George County, Virginia, court.
     ²Cureton family Bible record, 1717-1812, photocopy and transcript, Library of Virginia Bible records collection, accession no. 29236; digital images, Library of Virginia Digital Library (http://eagle.vsla.edu/cgi.../bible.gateway/ : accessed 24 November 2001); currently at (http://image.lva.virginia.gov/Bible/29236.pdf : accessed 17 August 2015).
     ³Cureton family Bible record, 1717-1812.
     ⁴Robert Harrison family Bible record, photocopy and transcript, Library of Virginia Bible Records Collection, accession no. 27394; digital image, Library of Virginia Digital Library (accessed 24 November 2001).
     ⁵Robert Harrison family Bible record.
     ⁶Robert Harrison family Bible record.
     ⁷Dorman, Epes compilation
     ⁸Probably Robert Harrison’s will.
     ⁹Purchase of Bicars from Benjamin Harrison.
   ¹⁰“Robert Harrison,” memorial 70963725, Find A Grave (accessed 15 August 2015); record by Georgia Girl, June 2011. The location of Robert’s burial was unknown.
   ¹¹John Bennett Boddie, Historical Southern Families, volume IX (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogic Pub. Co., 1965), p224.
   ¹²Louise Pequet du Bellet, Some Prominent Virginia Families, p. 506.
   ¹³“The Harrison DNA Project: Patriarchs,” Lineage 34-The James River / Presidential Harrison Line, haplogroup R1b1a2,World Families.net  (http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/harrison/pats : accessed 15 August 2015), 
   ¹⁴Daniel Call, Reports of Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Court of Appeals of Virginia, volume I (Richmond: Thomas Nicholson, 1801), pp. 419-429; digital image, Google Books (accessed 19 August 2015).
   ¹⁵Lindsay O. Duvall (Rev.), Virginia Colonial Abstracts - Series 2, Vol. 6, Records of Prince George County, Virginia, 1666-1719 (copied and reprinted, Easley, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1978).

Charity (Walbridge) Blodgett

Alexander Village Cemetery, 1982

     Charity Walbridge was born in Stafford, Tolland County, Connecticut, on 1 April 1751, daughter of Ames Walbridge and Margaret (–?–).¹ She died in Painesville, Geauga (now Lake) County, Ohio, on 3 December 1822, notice of her death appearing in the Painesville Telegraph of 4 December 1822:  "Died yesterday morning, widow Charity Blodgett, age 65 yrs.² She married in the First Congregational Church of Stafford on 6 February 1777 Caleb Blodgett,³ who was born in Stafford on 20 September 1751, son of Samuel Blodgett and Hannah (–?–)⁴ and died on 25 October 1813,⁵ probably in Alexander, Genesee County, New York.⁶   
    Caleb was buried in Alexander Village Cemetery, where there is a gravestone and DAR marker.⁷ There is also a stone for Charity, although her place of burial has not been ascertained.⁸
    Caleb and Charity had at least eleven children, including a daughter Charity, who was born in Randolph, Orange County, Vermont, on 9 September 1790⁹ and died in 1841.¹⁰ She married first Burnham Lyman¹¹ (1780-1828) and second Lomer Griffin¹2 (1772 - 1878).
     A photograph of the gravestone of Charity Blodgett Lyman-Griffin, who is identified as the daughter of Caleb and Charity, is posted on Find A Grave. She died 1 May 1841 and was buried in Old Kingsville Corners Cemetery in Kingsville, Ashtabula County, Ohio.¹³ The inscription, somewhat difficult to decipher, appears to be: “Charity/ wife of/ Lormer Griffin/ Died/ May 1, 1841/ Æ 57 Yrs./ 3 Mos & 15 Days.”
    The photograph of Charity Griffin’s gravestone appears on several Ancestry Family Trees as the icon for Charity (Walbridge) Blodgett. Why?
__________

     ¹Lucius Barnes Barbour Collection [of Births, Marriages, and Deaths from Connecticut Town Records to ca. 1850], Stafford, vol. 2, p. 7, Charity Walbridge, 1751..
     ²Judy J. Stebbins, Guide to the Painesville (Ohio) Telegraph, 1822-1829 (Willoughby, Ohio: Genealogical Research Co., 1982), item 94.
     ³L. Belle Gorton, Records of the First Congregational Church, Stafford, Connecticut, 1757-1817 (copied by L. Belle Gorton for Connecticut Society of Colonial Dames of America), Marriages, p. 53, Caleb Blogget and Charity Wallbridge, 1777; microfilm of 110 page photostat copy in the Connecticut State Library in Hartford, Connecticut; FHL microfilm1013276, item 10.
     ⁴Edwin A. Blodgett, Ten Generations of Blodgetts in America (revised edition, Barre, Vermont: Modern Printing Co., Inc., 1969), p. 37. Also "Connecticut Births and Christenings, 1649-1906," database, FamilySearch (accessed 24 August 2015), Caleb Bloggett, Stafford, Tolland County, 20 September 1751; no microfilm source cited.
     ⁵Alexander (New York) Village Cemetery, Caleb Blodgett gravestone inscription copied and photographed in October 1982 by Irene Marks Rupp.
     ⁶New York, Genesee County, probate records, orders 1809-1841, volume 1, p. 46, widow’s dower laid off to Charity Blodgett (part of lots 4 and 2, section 14, township 11, range 2; i.e., Town of Alexander); digital image 29/500, FamilySearch (accessed 24 August 2015); FHL microfilm 811136.
     ⁷“Caleb Blodgett,” memorial 18102482, Find A Grave (accessed 23 August 2015); record by Donna Ruhland Bonning, February, 2007; photograph taken July 2011 by Edward Toy.
     ⁸“Charity Walbridge Blodgett,” memorial 22438123, Find A Grave (accessed 23 August 2015); record by Dawn L. Pocock-Dilcher, October 2007; photograph (taken October 1982) added by Irene Marks Rupp.
     ⁹“Vermont, Vital Records, 1720-1908,” database and images, Ancestry.com (accessed 23 August 2015), entry for Charity Blodget, Randolph, 1790; original data, State of Vermont,Vermont Vital Records through 1870; New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.
    ¹⁰“Charity Blodgett Lyman- Griffin,” memorial 51291746, Find A Grave (accessed 23 August 2015); record by Suzanne Thayne, April 2010; photograph by Nancy LoomisPhillips, August 2010.
    ¹¹“Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988,” database and images, Ancestry.com (accessed 23 August 2015), entry for Charity Blodgett and Burnham Lyman, Chester, 9 September 1807; citing Holbrook Research Institute, “Chester Marriages,” Massachusetts Vital and Town Records (Provo, Utah), p. 125.
    ¹²"Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013," database with images, FamilySearch (accessed 24 August 2015), Lomer Griffin and Charity Lyman, Concord, Geauga County, 13 April 1831; citing FHL microfilm 20,256.
    ¹³“Charity Blodgett Lyman- Griffin,” memorial 51291746, Find A Grave.