February challenges

The GenieGirls Study Group met in late January. We had a great meeting. We tried something new and I think it was quite successful. I asked one of the ladies to give me a name of an ancestor she had not had a chance to do much research on.  Benjamin Stillman (1781 - 1868) married Polly Maxson (1782 - 1850).  They were in the RI and NY areas. We paired up and started researching. I wanted everyone to keep track of their steps.  Almost everyone went to Ancestry.com first - I would too.  Then checked Familysearch.org and/or Googled the names. Boy, did we come up with information!  We were able to go back several generations (now mind you, not all is verified at this point) and learned a great deal in a short time.  What fun! 

One lady also brought us up-to-date with her inquiry to a message board last fall. She did it because we assigned it as 'homework' but it was on a family that she has never met anyone from and really didn't expect to get a response, or knew much about - guess what?  She now has a new-found cousin. All very exciting.

We also did some editing for a member on an introduction to an article she is writing. This group has been exciting and we are all learning from it.

I have started working with a new client - in my spare time! I am starting to get organized for another research trip to New York is a couple of weeks. And I still need to do some writing for a new article I am writing for my Writers Group. I think I need a nap just thinking about all this. I can't complain though - it (mostly) keeps me out of trouble and mentally stimulated. At this age - that can't be all bad.

I wanted to add some comments on the COURT family I wrote about in my entry in January.  James Court (refer to the earlier column) was married to Martha Jennette Bocquet/Boquet. I have tried to do some additional research on her family. I believe her parents were Charles and Anna Bocquet. I don't know yet who Anna was, but I think Charles may have been born in England. It appears they may have had 9 or 10 children before Charles died in 1845. Anna later married an Ephriam King, but I do not think that marriage lasted more than a few years. She lived to be over 80 and spent her later years with son, Robert. I think Robert and my 3x great-grandmother, Martha Jennette, may have been the only children that outlived their mother. Robert doesn't appear to have married. A son, Francis, died during the Civil War (unmarried) and Andrew Jackson (A.J.) died at 49, but doesn't appear to have married. Most of the other children died as babies or young children. All of this is not verified at this point, but M. Jennette's children,  and through her son, my great-great-grandfather, William Wallace, may be the only "Bocquet" that had descendants from this family, as well as William being the only Court with descendants.

I think this is unusual.  One family had 9 children with only one having descendants and the other with five children and the same.