When the genealogy bites-HARD!

My sisters were never really interested in genealogy. My youngest sister would drive around with me and send me things as she found them, she didn't have the time to look for me. Our middle sister could care even less... until last summer. What a gem to have her help! She has even taken pictures of cows for me!

So what does a cow have to with genealogy? She spent an entire day driving around looking for a small cemetery on a back road. She went by the same area three times before the said cow, mooed, and ran towards the cemetery she was looking for. It gives a new meaning to cow tipping.

Then she has made friends at the local historical societies that I have been trying to get to visit. The result? Two books on the local history and a stack of records.

Have faith that one your siblings/cousins/relatives get bitten by the genealogy bug. And let's hope they get it bitten hard. :)

Browns of eastern Connecticut

I am inspired! Every time I attend the NERGC conference (This year it was Providence, RI!) I come back home ready to sort through my dropped keys aka brick walls.

And of course the biggest "dropped key" are my Browns. It wouldn't be bad if there was one Brown or two, but the last count I had was five-three direct line; two relatives of the other three who married Browns. I have been focusing my research to see if the five are connected.  Separating them has helped too. But they keep returning to the same families.

I am getting closer to my answers. I just need to go back to the local location or to the Connecticut State Library to research.

The biggest clue is the Baptist church connection. I separated all the Browns married by Simeon and Ebenezer Brown including my Sabra/Sabrina and have been focusing on the families. Most of them are showing up in the Chad Brown Genealogy except for my Sabrina. By creating a chart showing which Brown was married by Ebenezer and Simeon I have been able to place everyone but my Sabrina and another person, Lucy Brown. (I have my fingers crossed that the two may be related!)

I am also focusing on Amos Brown who married Eunice Turner. They had a daughter Sabra who married and moved to upstate NY. the reason why I am focusing on them is that their naming patterns of children matches my Sabrina's children. Even the use of Sabra and Sabrina in their family records makes my genealogy antennae stand straight up. My theory is to focus Amos's brothers and see if my Sabrina pops in their records.

Of course I need to look at the church records too! (Fortunately they are on microfilm at the Connecticut State Library!)

My second line of Browns is my Zeruiah/Zerviah Buttolph who married Squire Richard Brown. The family Bible states his father is Silvanus/Sylvanus. I do find a Squire Richard Brown in the Brown genealogy with no other information. And remarkably these two do show up in -of all genealogies-the Cleveland Genealogy.

Bug eyed? Yes! But I have a feeling that the more I sort the Browns, the closer I am to getting an answer.

(BTW-next NERGC conference is in Springfield MA in 2017.)