Saturday, May 26, 2012

"Waterford Historical" Marks Memorial Day Weekend With Grounds Work at Riverside/Pike Cemeteries

Armed with a plot map that Matt L. put together, we checked the entire Pike Cemetery section of Riverside first, looking for any turf-buried stones (none found) and correcting the map for a few placements that had changed.

Then some of us worked on trimming turf around ground-level stones that were getting covered by the lawn growth -- and despite two-plus hours, barely covered 20% of the work needed. Another session would be great! At least two stones need repair that we couldn't do, and one was successfully reset, thanks to Roberta S. and Barb C.

Olivia helped Colleen K. with pruning, and others worked on fence repair. Olivia's birthday-boy brother stopped in to visit, with their mom. Helen P. labored over the stone of her father's little sister Violet, and noted that her own stone (crafted to remind us of her "Greetings From New Jersey: A Postcard Tour of the Garden State" book) was incorrectly placed and needs to be trimmed to size and placed between the stones for her parents. The dog assisting us came with Nate D. and is named Memphis -- a Southerner taking part in Yankee labor today, May 26.





Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Waterford, VT, in ORANGE County?

Yes, if you're accessing early records of Waterford -- especially back to the days when the town was called Littleton -- the correct county name is Orange, NOT Caledonia.

Also note that, according to the Vermont Census Finder website (http://www.censusfinder.com/vermont.htm), the year of a Census record can be misleading: "The 1790 Federal Vermont Census was actually taken in 1791 when Vermont became a state. This can cause confusion as an individual may be enumerated in the 1791 Federal census of Vermont but could have actually been living in a different state in 1790. When conducting genealogical research in Vermont, beware of this common pitfall."

Here's the 1790 Census record, courtesy of that site and VTGenWeb:

Waterford, Caledonia County, VT

1790 Census

The first census of the United States was taken in 1790. Six information fields were recorded: 1)Name of head of family; 2) Free white males of 16 years and upward, including heads of families; 3) Free white males under 16 years; 4) Free white females, including heads of families; 5) All other free persons; and 6) Slaves.

Please note that at the time of this census, the town was called "Littleton" and was located in "Orange County".

Please note that the census is transcribed exactly as it was printed and that Heads of Families may not be in alphabetical order. Please also note that there are several misspellings of surnames.



Head of familyFWM16+FWM16-
Adams, James2..1.. ..xx
Brown, James1..2.. ..xx
Felton, Joseph122.. ..xx
Hamlet, William116.. ..xx
Knoulton, Thomas121.. ..xx
Morgan, Cornelius224.. ..xx
Pike, Nathan3..3.. ..xx
Potter, Barnabas223.. ..xx
Sylvester, Peter112.. ..xx
Wood, John143.. ..xx
Wood, Joseph1..6.. ..xx