Thursday, July 15, 2010

Day 25




Another good day in the land of the long departed. I made my way down Skaneateles Lake to Ithaca. I entered town and came upon Cornell - Hort farm to the left and Vet school to the right. What more representative of my parents' college life could you get??? Naturally, I took a photo of the Cornell sign for posterity.






I then made my way to the Tompkins County Historical Society. I originally was looking for Alanson Davenport. He married Eliza Middaugh and George Martin Davenport was born in Slaterville, just a few miles south of Ithaca. A chance comment from Uncle Harold yesterday clued me into the fact that there might be Middaughs in the area. Now this seems very logical in hindsight. However, I knew that Alanson was born in New Jersey. Eliza was of Dutch descent so I assumed it was New York City Dutch so she was probably from the NYC/New Jersey area (we only had a listing of New York for a birth place).

WRONG assumption. There are HUNDREDS of Middaughs in the area. Much of the Albany and Ulster County areas were settled by Dutch in the 1600s. Many of them made their way to the Tompkins/Tioga County areas in the late 1700s after the federal government negotiated a treaty with the Indians. About the fifth piece of paper I picked up listed the lineage for Eliza Middaugh immediately pushing the line back to 1700 and adding three more generations. I have yet to find definitive birth records or land records. Records are scarce before 1820 which is the timeframe I am searching. I will go to Tioga County on Saturday since that was the predecessor county and see what they have. Meanwhile, I think instead of Albany late next week, I will detour further south and hit Kingston in Ulster County. The Ulster County Genalogical Society has a whole book on Middaugh genealogy so I am hoping that fills in some blanks. Meanwhile - here are the graves for gggg grandmother and grandfather Middaugh - great grandpa Davenport's great grandparents. (Found them at the Dutch Reformed Church cemetery in Slaterville.)

George - 1774-1839
Margaret - 1778-1844













There are also quite a few Davenports here. I did find Alanson but no record of George Martin or specific land titles. Daveports too seem to have come through Kingston and Ulster County. I have a lineage that takes the Davenports back to 1600 but there are some dates that don't quite coincide. I need to figure out if G grandpa Davenport's information is accurate or whether the other research is correct. Again - Ulster County should have some answers.


Tomorrow - off to Pharsalia - looking for John Coats and Lucy Peabody Coats!

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