I haven't been very active on this blog for awhile, except for a recent post about a brick wall in my Hitchcock/Sears line. I have had a website:  www.relativesintheattic.com for over 10 years, but it is time to close it down. My domain name will expire in early October, so please visit it before it goes away.

   The demise of the website is the reason I am going to be more active on this blog. So, to start with, please note my published articles from over the years in various publications. It should be easy enough to access most of them, but if you want to see something and can't get to it, let me know. I know some of them are linked and I will try and get the rest of them linked as well.

 

Please read my articles:

Ypsilanti Gleanings (Winter 2010, Winter 2011 and Fall  2020)
 on the Halstead, McDougall, Muir and Hazelton families can be found at:
http://www.ypsilantihistoricalsociety.org/publications/gleanings.html

Desert Tracker  (West Valley Genealogical Society, Sun City, AZ)
"Early Settlers of Augusta and Superior Townships"  Fall 2010, Vol. 31, No. 2
"The Second Wife" Fall 2011, Vol. 32, No. 2
"Who was Mickey" Fall 2012, Vol. 33, No. 2
"The Court Family" Fall 2013, Vol. 34, No. 2
"One-Room Schoolhouse" Spring 2016, Vol. 37, No. 1
"Hitchcock Brick Wall Ancestor" Spring 2020, Vol. 41, No. 1

Illinois State Genealogical Society Quarterly Vol. 46, No. 4, Winter 2014
"Water: Both Life and Death to the Beckington Family"

The Connecticut Nutmegger, by the Connecticut Society of Genealogists, Inc.
"John Chapman (1751-1814) of Sharon, Connecticut and New Marlborough, Massachusetts: Confusion and Errors Surrounding His Family" Vol. 55, No. 2, Spring 2023

 SAMUEL HITCHCOCK-SARAH SEARS BRICK WALL

   Samuel Hitchcock - b. 28 Feb 1731 (documented) in New Milford, Litchfield, CT, d. 19 Feb 1801 in Sheffield, Berkshire, MA. He leaves no will/no grave/no evidence of actual death date, except in my great-grandmother’s notes. He is on the 1790/1800 censuses for Sheffield, with the appropriate family members. When my great-grandmother was researching this (early 1900s), the Pittsfield Town Clerk, Berkshire Co., MA, said there was a letter in their files of Elizabeth (Samuel’s widow) responding as to why she didn’t probate his estate. Her answer - nothing to probate. When I called several years ago, they could find no such letter. He did have land that she later sold.
   Marriage #1 - Abt. 1766 in Middletown, Middlesex, CT, to Sarah Sears (no proof for any of this).  Sarah was b. abt. 1746 (some say to Joshua and Rebecca (Mayo) Sears, in Yarmouth, Barnstable, MA) and d. aft. 1771, prob in New Marlborough (again, no proof). She (and brother Thomas) are listed in the Samuel P. May book Sears Genealogy, with the Mayo/Sears couple – but she and Thomas are not in the birth records with the other children. In May’s book it states she is “married to a _____ Hitchcock.” She has no marriage/death/burial records nor records for births of children (prob in New Marlborough):
   Ebenezer Hitchcock (b. 23 Nov 1767)
   Reuben Hitchcock (b. 1769)
   Jerusha Hitchcock (b. 27 Mar 1771)**
New Marlborough has great b,m,d records covering this time period, but THIS Hitchcock family is not mentioned.

   Marriage #2 – abt. 1773 in New Marlborough, to Elizabeth "Betsey" Sears (b. 19 Jun 1738, Yarmouth, Barnstable, MA (sister of Sarah) and d. abt 1809, (prob) in Herkimer, NY. Child:  Silas Hitchcock,(prob) b. 13 Aug 1779 in New Marlborough.

   Betsey Sears, is listed in the May book with the same family and it reads: “m. Samuel Hitchcock.”  Mr. May leaves no sources, but his book seems credible and quoted in the Mayflower Descendants book for William Brewster.

   There is a division of land in 1757 for Joshua after his death on 27 Sep 1753, (no will) and Thomas and Sarah are not mentioned. Their oldest daughter, Rebeckah, is married to a Thomas Sears (which of the many Thomas Sears is he?) 
   Samuel was a Revolutionary War Soldier from MA, served in 1777 from Sheffield.

   I have spent YEARS (off/on) researching these people, have a 33-pg Research Log (which includes gen. info), have looked at more than 150 films (FHC), written Town Clerks/Berkshire area entities/NY Historians – you get the idea. HELP!
   Samuel P. May, 1890: The Descendants of Richard Sares (Sears) of Yarmouth, Mass (1638-1888).

   Mrs. Edward Hitchcock, Sr., of Amherst, Mass, 1894: The Genealogy of the Hitchcock Family (lists Samuel’s children (Silas out of order) but no wife/mother).