Long Island and return

We just arrived back from Long Island having successfully seen all of our daughter's belongings loaded onto a North American Van Lines truck headed for her new teaching post. She doesn't have a lot so will not be too enormous a job to unpack it all when she heads for her new position. We had packed about 80% of her belongings before we left in mid-May. However, it still took a full day of packing to complete the preparation. It was very warm there and working (even with the airconditioning running full blast) was very difficult. We went to Jones Beach in the evening and had a lovely walk along the ocean beach.

The traffic going down to Long Island was really heavy last Sunday and we waited two hours to cross on the George Washington Bridge to Manhattan Island with a much shorter wait to take Throgs Neck Bridge onto Long Island. The four days passed quickly with last minute packing and a trip into New York City to see the Museum of Art - always a really pleasant visit although we were noticing that it was similar to ROM although on a larger scale. Last ride back on the Long Island Railway for a while I expect. I do not think we would have ever spent so much time in New York City or on Long Island if she hadn't been there. It gave my husband the opportunity to really look at all the places where his ancestors lived - he has over 70 early Dutch/French/Belgium ancestors who lived at New Amsterdam (now New York) and about the same number or perhaps slightly greater who lived on Long Island. We have now visited a number of the areas where his ancestors lived in the 1600s (up to the 1800s) including Block Island, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Dutchess County, New York. We will need to have a longer look at New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Once I feel like being in a car for longer than 20 minutes!

No research at all. I completed reading the book :The Tribes of Britain: Who are we? and where do we come from? by David Miles. A really interesting read although very heavy. Length is 500 pages but that wasn't the weight. Rather the detail that he provides necessitates one spending quite a bit of time either remembering the history of the time period or looking up all of his references.

Our films have arrived at the Family History Library - I ordered Hutton Cranswick (Yorkshire), Driffield (Yorkshire) and Bradfield (Berkshire). My husband ordered two Mecklenberg films (Brohm and Staven). We anticipate spending at least two weeks going 4 or 5 times in the week to work our way through the films. I am looking for the Sproxton and Wiles family at Hutton Cranswick and the Harland, Cooper, Sproxton, and Wilkinson families at Great Driffield. At Bradfield I am hoping to learn more about Nathanael Lambden who was baptized there in 1724 - the son of John Lambden and Joan Caruthue. I have not been able to find the marriage of Nathanael Lambden and Sarah around 1851.

My husband is looking at his Schulz, Passow and Naumann families. We already know that the Schulz and Passow families are in the Brohm register but would like to have a longer look at this parish. We recently discovered Staven as a possible place of baptism for his great grandmother Rachel Naumann.

Andover Parish Register 2 - 3

Carried on with the Andover Parish Registers again today and completed to the end of 1639 which is 2903 baptisms in total now in my excel file. A couple of new Blake entries and one surprising one which was a daughter (unnamed) to old Mr. William Blake. I shall need to work that one out. Again a couple of new names but still the older names continue in the register. This Register stops at 1642 and I will then do the marriages from 1634 to 1642 and following that the baptisms from 1634 to 1641. Then I can begin Register 3 which runs from 1642 to 1684. This will be a most interesting register and hopefully in better shape than the second register. I do know that ahead of me are pages and pages of neatly written baptismal, marriage and burial records. That will inspire me to keep going!

We went for a 10.5 km bike ride this morning and it was quite fresh. The parkway is closed for the next six weeks so we can partake of that great roadway every day of the week instead of just Sunday mornings when it is closed to traffic. I miss bike riding in the winter. It is very relaxing just to stroll along the Ottawa River on our bikes feeling the wind and enjoying the greenbelt.

I added Hampshire to my groups at Genealogy Wise. I need to update with information on Hampshire. I will advertise the DNA study at FT DNA as well. Acquiring people with a paper trail back to Hampshire is quite difficult actually. I only have six people of the 21 who are in the study. I asked to set up a Midlands and Birmingham mtDNA study and that one is still in the thought process. We will see if they are willing to set up this one. I think it will be very interesting as a study because Birmingham is like a crossroads with people coming there from the counties around Birmingham (Midlands); coming from Wales to Birmingham to work in the cotton factories; coming to Ireland to escape the famine and coming from Scotland to work in the factories. We should find an enormous variety of mtDNA and I will ask for a paper trail back to Birmingham and the Midlands. I have to decide which counties to include although it could be that that terminology is already decided for me.

This evening we went and ordered films from the Family History Centre - I ordered Hutton Cranswick and Driffield Yorkshire and Bradfield Berkshire. My husband ordered Staven, Schonbeck and Brohm Mecklenberg Germany. We are trying to put together his Schultz family for the next reunion in September. We have the details now for his great grandfather Schultz and want to acquire the details for his great grandmother Neumann. It has been quite a chase looking for their details.

Tomorrow I will work on the Andover Parish Registers. I think I will concentrate on them for a few days and then pick up the Timberscombe Transcripts again. I want to complete the Timberscombe by the end of August. The Andover will be a much longer proposition as I have 100 fiche for Andover up to the early 1900s.