07 January 2011

First Friday Folder: Cary & Godfrey

I'm backdating this post a bit, but I did start it before January's first Friday...!  These are two of my eighth-great-grandparents: John CARY and Elizabeth GODFREY.  I picked this folder for this month because I haven't worked on them for a very long time, no one in the line of descent has been a FirstFridayFolder yet, and the folder looked awfully large.  I was hoping there would be lots to weed out, leaving more room in the file drawer!

Organization
Yes, I hadn't studied this couple for a long time: the family group sheet was six years old!  There were several printouts from 2003 of online, unsourced family trees--clearly from my name collecting days--and I discarded them.  Yeah! The file drawer has a little more room!

Updates
I ran the Cary/Godfrey names in searches in the NEHGS databases, printed out a few sheets, and updated the sources in my database.  Darn, now the folder is back to the size it was before I started....

Planning
Reviewing my notes in the family group sheet, I see that there is a good deal of controversy/uncertainty about John Cary's ancestry and early years.  I checked the Great Migration series at NEHGS and see that there is still no Cary sketch.  I checked Hollick's (2006) New Englanders in the 1600s and recorded the sources for Cary in my To Do file.

I need to study more on the best or standard format for locations in the Massachusetts area in the 1600s.  Should I be using colony names?  What was Bridgewater part of in 1644?  It seems to me that there should be a published,  industry standard for all those early towns for specific date ranges.

Line of Descent
John Cary  =  Elizabeth Godfrey
Joseph Cary  =  Maretia Mercie Bushnell
Elizabeth Cary  =  Seth Palmer
Joseph Palmer  =  Abigail Lasell
Zenas Palmer  =  Lydia Marshall
Lydia Palmer  =  David Bascom
Hannah Field Bascom  =  Titus Davison
Clara Eveline Davidson  =  Celim Homer Porter
L Willis Porter

2 comments:

  1. Have you ever found any evidence or records of any of your Cary or Godfrey ancestors migrating to Nova Scotia?

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  2. Hi, Chris!
    Thanks for the question. I'm sorry for the delay in responding: I just plain wasn't monitoring comments received and I can only apologize. I've re-read all my notes and, no, I don't have any of them in Nova Scotia (nor anyone else for that matter). I'm also sending a response to your email address in case you've given up on me.... I love your blog BTW!

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