Always Check Again

I learn new things and new lessons every day. This week I had a major break through that cleared up a number of things that have been puzzling me for years.

Lately on Ancestry.com I have been meeting a number of new cousins (hi all). The decision to keep paying Ancestry is one I struggle with continually. Is it worth the convenience of having census records at my finger tips. Well the fact that I have been meeting so many folks lately with common ancestry to mine make the choice a little easier. It also has me rethinking my decision about posting my research on Ancestry.com. Ancestry takes ownership of any research that you post on their site. Should your membership lapse, like mine did for a bit, they just add anything you posted to their general site. In other words, you lose all control and all access (well except read only access). I've worked hard on my research and I want to openly share it, but I don't want to lose control over it. Still thinking...

On to discoveries, I found photos of Joel and Anna's headstones on Ancestry.com. The dates on these stones confirmed a number of facts that had been in question. I have seen Joel's death date before, but had no idea where the date was originally recorded. I also had no idea how the birth year of 1755 came about, it seemed to have just been plucked from thin air and cited in "The Early History of Southampton". As it turns out, his death date and age are provided on his headstone. With those two pieces of information, one can compute Joel's year of birth. As it turns out, photos of Joel and his wife, Anna Wines, headstone had been photographed in the last few years and posted on findagrave.com along with the headstones of Jetur, Wines and a daughter I never heard of, Amanda. The findagrave site was one I was familiar with, but when I began my research about 10 years ago, there was not much posted yet. It proves that you should always revisit sites to look for new additions.

The information on Anna's headstone answers some crucial questions. In the History of Mattituck there is a confusing entry of a marriage for Joel Reeve and Anna Wines dated 1800. This has thrown me for years, along with confusing census data. I thought for many years that Joel might have had two wives one who was the mother of half the children and then a later wife who was the mother of the younger children. The dates on this headstone however prove that Anna Wines was Joel's only wife and she did live long enough to be the mother of all Joel's children. This does not explain the 1800 marriage date, but in the end the headstone is the stronger evidence.

I have also puzzled many years over Wines and Jetur who disappeared. Recently, I found some documents that led me to believe that Jetur went to Califonia looking for gold and died there. Jetur's headstone in North Sea Cemetery proves that Jetur died before he had a family at 19 and the Jetur Reeve that went to California was not Joel's son. A few years ago, I found one census record for a Winas Reeve and wife Leah in Renslaerville that I strongly suspected was Joel's son Wines. The headstone for Wines with his wife's name, Leah, at the bottom, tell me I was right. Wines lived his life in Renslaerville with his brother Bethuel for at least part of his life. Knowing now that I have the right person, I can go back and chase him through the records.

Lastly, these headstones at North Sea Cemetery prove that Joel and Jeremiah never used the "Reeves" spelling of their name. Just like me, other people, census takers and record keepers, tacked the "s" on the end of their names too. Which made me quip "Some are born with "s", some concede to "s" and some have "s" thrust upon them".

The lesson here is keep a list of relevant sites that you go back and check for new information on a regular basis. You never know what will get added and what new information will turn up. New facts can change your whole direction on an individual and sometimes a whole line.

The Begining

When I first started working on my families genealogy I only had my Granfather's name and my Great Grandfather, Oscar Reeve. I knew Oscar came to California from Ohio somewhere and had settled in the San Jose area. That was it. My father really didn't remember too much. I started running google seaches for Oscar Reeve and behold, some kind soul had posted Oscars obituary on Roots Web (the free precurser to many genealogy sites). It's sad I can't even locate that post anymore since ancestry.com gobbled up rootweb. Oscars obituary gave me a number of family names as well as the town of Willoughby Ohio.

As I searched I kept coming accross the name Joel which I knew was Oscar's middle name. Fairly quickly I found the census records for Joel Rumsey Reeve 4/25/1823-2/16/1909. I spent the better part of a year working through census records, made multiple all day trips to the Sutro Library in San Francisco and even a week long genealogy vacation to Salt Lake City. I became convinced that Joel 1823 was connected to Joel 1755 and his father Bethuel, but I had a missing link. About that time I reconnected with a Cousin who had also done a lot of genealogy research. She send me her material and there was Rumsey 1790. I had already found the The Early History of Southampton, which gave me this nugget:

Reeve Family
For a long time the descendants of James Reeves of Southold have spelled the name Reeve. Bethuel Reeve of Southold town bought land in North Sea in 1758 and resided there. He was of about the fourth generation in Descent from James.
1. Bethuel d. 1782, had w. Mary and ch. 2 Joel b 1755, 3 Silas, 4 Daniel, 5 Zebulon, 6 Jeremiah, 7 Keturah and 8 Bethia.
2 Joel d. Dec. 14 1831, had w. Anna and ch. 9 Bethuel, 10 Rumney, 11 Wines, 12 Jeremiah and 13 Jetur.
12 Jeremiah had ch. 14 Jetur, 15 Barnabas, 16 Jeremiah, 17 Frances, 18 Bethuel, 19 Josephine, 20 Charlotte and 21 Charles.
From: The Early History of Southampton, Long Island, New York with Genealogies by George Rogers Howell, M.A. (Yale University), 2nd ed., pub. 1887 Southampton, Long Island, New York,

However, the ascertion that Bethuel was a descendant of James was much in doubt and not proof of it has been found then or since. This made me a bit sceptical of the accuracy of Mr. Howell's information. I really wanted more hard source proof. Then I found Bethuel and Rumsey living next door to each other in the 1820 Renslaerville census. Feeling more confident I began to scour any Long Island Record I could get my hands on. Finally, I found what I was looking for, a school record from the North Sea School:

North Sea School Taught by William Lemuel Sandford Quarter began 29 Sept. 1795 Ended 15 March 1796. The first six names on the list are as follows:
Bethuel Reeves (would have been 12)
Phebe Reeves
Rumsey Reeves (correct spelling on the first name this time he would have been about 5)
Orinda Reeves
Polly Reeves
Bethiah Reeves

The document is signed by the "Trustees" Joel Reeves, Samuel Scott, and Stephen Harris.

The book of records of the town of Southampton : BOOKS 1, 2, 3 and 4 - 1st book. 1639-1660 -- 2nd book. 1660-1717 -- 3rd book. 1717-1807 -- 4th book. 1809-1870, AUTHORS: Southampton, Henry P Hedges, William S. Pelletreau, Edward H. Foster, including all the writings in the town clerk's office from 1639 to 1660: with other ancient documents of historic value, Sag Harbor, N.Y.: J.H. Hunt, book and job printer.

At last I had my secondary proof that Rumsey was Joel's son, and as a bonus I got his daughter's names as well. With the help of the Curator at the Renslaerville Historical Society, I was able to flaesh out Rumsey's family more. Then I discovered the History of the Western Reserve which provided lots of details about Rumsey's son Joel. Having cleaned up the ties between my two Joels. It was time to turn my attention on Bethuel's origins.

The mystery of Bethuel is why I began this blog. I read some tips on genealogy that said a blog was a great way to keep your research handy and in one place. I've found it very helpful, hopefully it's helpful for others as well. As I come accross records or things I want to save, I have a button in my browser that puts it in my blog. I also store links and facts I refer to frequently. Eventually, I may resort to help from a professional genealogist to see if there is anyway to really link Bethuel to Solomon. Who knows, there maybe some obscure document, deed or legal paper that survives that will tie them together. Or perhaps I will have to resort to DNA, but I don't even know if there is a living male that is proven to be in Solomon's line. Proving Israel and Bethuel were brothers might be easier, but it doesn't make the puddle jump. I've resorted to hunting down side lines to mine in the meantime. I've been finding a fair amount about what I think happened to Bethuel's sons Silas and Zebulon.

Rumseys

Rumsey is an unusual name, in fact in my research there are only 3 Rumseys on Long Island prior to 1800. Rumsey 1 was the son of Israel Reeve and is documented as having died on the Prison Ship Jersey with his brother Benjamin (We assume this Benjamin is the one who Salmon Records shows in 1782 (no month or day given) who died "about 3 weeks ago"). Rumsey 2 was born in 1789 he was the son of Luther Reeve, grandson of Israel Reeve. Rumsey 3 was born in 1790 and was the son of Joel Reeve (b. Abt. 1755).

Where does a name like Rumsey come from? Most likely it's origin is in remembrance of a mother's maiden name. Much like "Wines Reeve" is an ommage to the Wines family into which Anna Wines Reeve was born. Most researchers believe that Rumsey is a derivitive of the surname "Ramsey/Rumsey". Baker states on p. 270 of his Study:

"...we think it more likely he (Israel) was a son of Solomon Reeve 3 (Joseph 2, Thomas 1) because, as Mather notes Solomon married in 1724 Sarah Rumsey and Israel had a son Rumsey (and a daughter Sarah)."

Baker theorizes that Israel was the son of Solomon Reeve and Sarah Rumsey because of the use of the name Rumsey. This is the simplest explaination of the use of the unusual name. Unfortunately, Solomon left no will and there is no record of his children other than the conclusion that Solomon Jr. was one of his son. I can only think of three reasons Joel (b. abt 1755) would name his second son Rumsey. He named his first son Bethuel after his father, and his second son Rumsey was named for his first wife's maiden name. Now this is a very plausible theory until one realizes that no other marriages besides that of Solomon Reeve and Sarah Rumsey, occurred on Long Island between the Reeves and the Ramseys/Rumseys.

Perhaps Joel was so moved by the deaths of the patriot soldiers aboard the Prison ship Jersey, that he resolved to commemorate Rumsey 1 by naming his second son in his honor. Certainly this could have happened this way and there may be a bit of truth in it. But I prefer the last possibility, which is that Joel named his second son for his grandmothers familiy and his uncle's lost son Rumsey 1. He may even have been inspired by his cousin Luther who name one of his sons, Rumsey 2 who was born a year earlier, after his brother Rumsey 1. I think this is a rather compelling theory and makes the case for Israel and Bethuel being brothers and sons of Solomon even stronger. In fact, when writing his manuscript in the 1970's, Baker did not have the information about my line that has since come to light. He in fact dismissed Bethuel as being a descendant of one of the earlier Southamton Reeves such as Thomas Reeves. It was not until I was able to substantiate Rumsey 3 as a grandson of Bethuel in 2004, that the name Rumsey became solidly connected to Bethuel. It's a critical piece of the puzzle in my mind. Connecting to Solomon is crutial as it transports both Israel's line and Bethuel's line back across the Atlantic Ocean to England.