03/06/2013

Yeah, I'm loosing patience...LOL.  I need my luck to take a turn...ttyl

11/17/2012

Oh bother....:) Economy stinks... Be back soon, don't loose patience...:) Thx.

02/22/2012

 Well, I've been away a bit because the walls I've been trying to break through for the last umpteen years are falling like flies now! So fast I can hardly stay on top of it all....

What changed? Someone let me know about the Settlers of Beekman Patent series of books by Foherty...I got one tiny clue from one book, the one from another...and the whole thing caved in! 

I can't recommend those highly enough. If you have family involved in Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Fishkill, etc., New York, in the Hudson Valley and you are stuck? These books are the hammer... Beware though....they are pricey...(which is why I google for snippets...wink)

A rundown of the discoveries will come along and be posted here eventually...if you can't wait, just send me a message, or better yet ask on a board I'm subbed to!

TTYL

3/22

So much for doing a rundown....lazy!... I guess I like digging more than reporting!  I'll get to it, but as long as no one is asking, it's a notch or two down the priority list...

So new brick wall...

We broke through the Masten wall, not proven, but perhaps not provable? Anyway, gathering as much circumstantial as possible right now... So now the wall is Elizabeth Masten's husband's (Benjamin Sherow) parents...

Family tradition is that his name was George Sherer and he came to America in 1760 from Scotland, married a "little Huguenot woman", and settled in Dutchess county New York. He was supposedly killed in the Revolution.

He had two children, George Jr, who supposedly "drifted" to Cherry Valley, New York, who had a son named Cyrus. At some point, this Cyrus is said to have visited George's other son Benjamin, named above. It seems reasonable that this visit(s?) would account for our branch's awareness of the other branch, and is partly responsible for the family story.

Intense searching of Duchess county records has yielded not one trace of this George Sherer (Sr.). Plenty of other people around, just no one named George. There are hints and traces of other Sherers in the area, that seem to have slipped through the "cracks"....Roeliff Sherer (Sherrer), a Lewis Sherer in Pleasant Valley, a John Scherer living next door to a Benjamin Scherer in 1800 Federal census, etc. There is nothing to connect these people so far. 

One event that may account for the lack of records in the Revolution and the events surrounding it. The Presbyterian church was occupied by Tories and used as a headquarters and hospital at different times. Church records of births and marriages are probably not high on the priority list for preservation in such times. However traces are still there so there is some hope yet.

Tax lists, proerty records, civil records, court actions, etc., have not been thoroughly checked yet.

Any help appreciated, no mater how remote!