Sunday, July 19, 2015

Distraction but Progress

As soon as I saw posts late last week that Mocavo.com was offering free access this weekend, I knew this could potentially mean trouble for my well-laid weekend plans. I was right, but what a find!

Mocavo.com (I have no affiliation with them or Find My Past) has copies of Ancestral Registers and Legacy Books (I think they are the same thing, but the title changed through the years) of the Daughters of the American Revolution.  A general search for my 2nd great-grandfather, Benjamin Smith, yielded an entry in the 1898 Legacy Book for his daughter Charlotte E.J. Fisk. Charlotte is the sister of my maternal grandfather's father, George Robert Smith.

Benjamin Smith Family early 1900s - Newark, NJ


The register shows that she (and I) are descended from two revolutionary soldiers, Phineas Chidester and Japhet Byram, so the connection from my maternal grandfather goes like this:


George Washington Smith (1898-1979) son of

George Robert Smith (1860-1922) son of

Mary Ann Codner (1821-1914) daughter of

Phoebe Chidester daughter of

Phineas Chidester (1757-1814) - Minute Man & Rebecca Byram daughter of

Japhet Byram (1721-1798) - Private in the Morris Co. militia

The exciting thing about finds like this are the potential for records and the history it may be possible to find. And, of course, now the excuse to plan a trip to Washington, D.C. and head for the DAR Library! More soon.

Pictured above are: Seated - Benjamin Smith, Emma Amelia Smith Edwards, Mary Ann Codner Smith and Standing: Orlando Chauncey Smith, Charlotte (Lottie) Elizabeth Smith Fisk, George Robert Smith, William Henry Smith

Do you see a cousin connection on this or any of my posts?  Please contact me at acmatthews1 at verizon dot net.

1 comment:

  1. Those free days on paid genealogy sites are a boon to some of us. If we had memberships we might be more casual about searching, but with one or two free days, I think we hit the sites with intensity. (At least I do.) Congratulations on the great finds!

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