Wishes for a Happy New Year

 

                                                              A quick sketch done at a writing retreat in 2023

A new year starts with anticipation and resolutions.

Looking forward to 2024, one of my resolutions is to explore

and nurture my artistic abilities further as I started to do with the sketch above.

I hope that the new year brings

new and exciting possibilities into your lives too!

 

Seasons greetings

 

Wishing you all the best for the

Holiday Season!

Lost records that increased the record count

 

                                                     Some of the military papers relating to Charles Tripp's service

As researchers, we always hope that our ancestors have been included in the records of an event and that those records have remained intact. But sometimes it turns out that when the standard records have not survived it can lead to further records of deeper genealogical value. Such was the case for Charles Tripp and Jane Woodworth, my 3 x great grandparents.

In regards to his entitlements from fighting in the Revolutionary War, things when wrong from the beginning for Charles Tripp. He signed up for three years in January of 1781 and was duly discharged three years later in January of 1784. But, according to his statement, he gave his written discharge papers to the duty sergeant Dakes [sp] "for the purpose of getting his bounty lands". After that, the sergeant's house burned and the discharge papers were lost.

It appears that Charles never received any bounty lands which may explain his subsequent moves through the county of New York and, eventually to Percy in Upper Canada. I wonder if he ever pursued legal channels in regards to the bounty lands. If he let that go, did he feel that there was more at stake when he applied through the courts later when there was a pension involved?

Whatever the reason he did so, his application through the court in Manlius carried an account of the movements of his troop and himself through the three years that he served as part of the Revolutionary force. Probably meaning a much more thorough account of his war was preserved than that of the average combatant. When he died and left Jane a widow, she then applied for the pension available to "certain" widows of revolutionary soldiers. This was also a complicated matter that needed to go before the courts because she couldn't produce a document to prove the marriage. In turn, this created even more records of genealogical value which will form the basis of future research. More on that later. 

Sources:

Ancestry: U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1900 

The power of landmark events

 

Faneuil Hall, a Boston landmark

It is said that the further back you go, the harder it is to find records for past ancestors. Unfortunately, that is true most of the time but when it comes to US records there seems to be an exception in some particular cases. We've all heard the stories of people who can trace their ancestors back to the Mayflower. Well, I can't do that, at least not yet. As far as I know, my first ancestor to the eastern shores of North America didn't come to the original American colonies until 1630 but John Tripp did leave a written account, so there is that.

There has been a lot of research done on the Tripp line as evidenced by the information to be found on the Tripp Family Genealogical website http://www.trippgenealogy.org My own offshoot of that line branches off to Charles Tripp who was born in 1761 in Duchess County, New York. Luckily, he fought in the American Revolution. That is another event that US researchers like to trace their lines back to. It also meant that Charles was entitled to a pension and, after he died, his wife, Jane, was entitled to a widow's pension because of his service. Only there was no marriage certificate so she had to prove they had been married. You know what that means, records. Lots of lovely documents which I found on Ancestry in the US Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900. There were even some affidavits sworn to by some of her male Woodworth cousins. I'm hoping to figure out where they fit in my family tree as I increase its width to make it more usable for DNA purposes. 

In the meantime, there was also information written about Jane's father, Solomon Woodworth, who fought and died in the conflict. That led me to information about his father, Caleb. And when I searched for Caleb Woodworth I turned up records for Solomon's brother, Saleh, in an Ancestry database for the U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970. It was filed in 1959 and included a detailed lineage from the earliest known male ancestor down to the applicant. I wonder if any of the other Woodworth kin went this promising route. 

Encapsulated history

 

                                                Burying the latest time capsule at Veterans Square in Port Coquitlam

Sometimes people living in the present make history. No, not by being part of a catastrophic event or by breaking some kind of record or something like that. There are times when a person can be witness to preserving things for posterity. That was the case in Port Coquitlam on November 30.

PoCo has been updating the areas close to city hall. One of those places was Veterans Park, the area that holds the cenotaph where people gather to pay their respects on Remembrance Day. Because the renovation called for laying new paving stones, digging was involved. When that was done two time capsules were unearthed, opened and lists of their contents taken. One of the time capsules was from 2013, so just 10 years or so ago. PoCo Heritage members took part in placing that box of memorabilia in the ground and it was not supposed to be dug up until 2038. The other time capsule that made its appearance was from 1998 and among the things it contained were 9 inch floppy discs. Of course, we can no longer read them because we don't have access to the old technology.  

I think we learned from those mistakes. The things buried this time in the latest time capsule don't rely on technology to be read and contain a mixture of items we hope will be of interest when the 2023 time capsule is dug up. It was good to witness history in the making.