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.
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