N FIRST S OW ETT T LE LE R D S D I D E M S C f E o N Y D T A E N I C e T S M O S id NEWSLETTER of hethe SOCIETY of MIDDLETOWN FIRST SETTLERS DESCENDANTS CONNECTICUT, U.S.A. 1650-1700 Vol. 15, No. 1 www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ctsmfsd/Index.html Spring 2015 MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW ‘Cousins’ far-and-wide to explore Middletown roots at SMFSD Triennial Meeting set for Oct. 8-10, 2015 Hitch up your team and Maybe you’ll find your ‘needle-in-a-haystack’ ancestor! visit the ancestral town for research, exploration, discovery, and fun By R.W. Bacon Editor, The Middler The SMFSD Triennial Meeting – The 2015 Triennial Meeting the gathering of Middletown “cousins” will be packed with research every three years in the old ancestral opportunities and social town – will be October 8-10, 2015. activites. You might even find The always eagerly-anticipated your “needle-in-a-haystack” ancestor! (Top photo: Main gathering draws attendees with St., Middletown, c. 1907) Middletown ancestors from distant points across the U.S. for research, the Middler publication date, but Meeting Committee Chairperson networking, exploration, and socializ- subject to change) is on page 11. Barb Stenberg. Barb has worked at ing. If you haven’t attended before, Once again this year, the headquar- long-distance from Arizona to make we hope to see you this year – 2018 is ters hotel is the Marriott Residence arrangements and line up guest a long way off! Inn, Rocky Hill, Conn. Behind-the- speakers, with the assistance of her The Triennial Meeting registration scenes planning during the past year committee and SMFSD members form and schedule of activities (as of has been directed by Triennial who happen to live in Connecticut. continued on page 12 In this issue . WHERE THEY WENT Triennial Meeting Preview . 1 Where They Went: Western New York . 1, 6-7 From Middletown to western New York: Member Notes & SMFSD News . 2 The story of the Holland Land Company Can You Hear the Braying?. 2 N.E. Regional Genealogical Conference . 3 By R.W. Bacon dants remain today. Some stayed for A Notable Genealogist: Editor, The Middler just a generation or two before the Charles Collard Adams (1836-1925) . 4 It is clear from the SMFSD mem- family’s more adventurous souls Book Review: Hubbard Family: Pioneers in America . 7 bership rolls that a great percentage moved on to points farther west. Book Review: N.Y. Family History of membership descends from In the Fall 2007 issue of The Research Guide & Gazetteer . 8 ancestors who left Middletown for Middler, your editor tackled the story Book Review: greener pastures – or at least more of Hugh White (1733-1812) and his Elements of Genealogical Analysis . 9 expansive ones – in central and promotion of the 1784 settlement in Membership Information . 10 western New York. Some families what became known as Whitestown, Triennial Meeting Registration Form . 11 stayed for generations, and descen- continued on page 6 MIDDLETOWN NEWSLETTER of the SOCIETY of MIDDLETOWN FIRST SETTLERS DESCENDANTS he Mid e CONNECTICUT, U.S.A. CONNECTICUT, USA SMFSD NEWS A warm welcome to five new members, and a report on the New England Regional Genealogical Conference • Welcome new members. NERGC, the 2015 event being at the members we would have preferred. SMFSD welcomes five new members Rhode Island Convention Center in There were, however, enough inter- since the last issue of The Middler: Providence, R.I. The four-day event ested folks to keep us busy chatting Victor Lee Pritchett, AM-349, was April 15-18, but the SMFSD and getting brochures and surplus Methuen, Mass. (1st settler George booth exhibit presence was for one Middler copies in their hands. We Hubbard); Linda L. (Bowe) Wilgus, day only, April 16, at the event’s talked up the Triennial Meeting to AM-350, Lincoln City, Oregon (1st “Society Fair” for family associations, prospective members who live within settler Alexander Bow); Katherine hereditary organizations, and genea- easy striking distance of Middletown. Doolittle May, AM-351, Fort logical societies. Converging from (See page 3 for photos of the SMFSD Lauderdale, Fla. (1st settlers Samuel various points to staff the booth were booth and the main exhibit hall.) Doolittle and William Cornwell); SMFSD members Laura Hobbs The next day was devoted to taking Nancy (Hollis) Philipps, AM-352, (from Connecticut), Don Brock in a few educational sessions, scouring Anna, Texas (1st settler Daniel (from Maryland), and Reg Bacon the exhibit hall, and connecting with Harris); and Arthur Edward (from Massachusetts). friends old and new. Webster, AM-353, Cromwell, Conn. In comparison to previous confer- The conference, held every-other- (1st settler Robert Webster). ences, the foot traffic at this year's year, features speakers, educational • A report on the New England Society Fair was underwhelming. sessions, and vendors. The 2017 event Regional Genealogy Conference: There was a stream of lookers, just will be in Springfield, Mass. For SMFSD once again exhibited at the not the tidal wave of prospective information, visit www.nergc.org. N FIRST S OW ETT Can you hear the distant braying? T LE LE R D S D I D E M S C f Editor’s fallibility surfaces once again E o N Y D T A E N I C T S O Readers of the fall 2014 issue of make a big, fat, public goof as his foot S The Middler may have noticed gets caught in the stirrup. Go figure. 1650-1700 another one of the editor’s humbling For those who gave the last issue of oversights – in a boldface headline, The Middler only a cursory read, e no less. My apologies. Human perhaps you are wondering exactly he Mid fallibility surfaces once again. what and where the blunder was. NEWSLETTER of the In my work these days, even the I’m happy to point it out, because I SOCIETY of MIDDLETOWN FIRST SETTLERS DESCENDANTS rare typographical error is especially would not want to deprive you of a 1650-1700 – Middletown, Connecticut, U.S.A. irritating, as in the past year I have hearty laugh, even if it is at my www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ctsmfsd/Index.html turned two new books on editing and expense. (Be warned, though. The typography onto the market: The louder you laugh, the more likely you Vol. 15, No. 1 Spring 2015 Cranky Typographer’s Book of Major will be haunted by Murphy and his Annoyances: Helpful Graphics Tips ever-lurking law.) Please send articles, letters, news items, and corrections to: for Do-It-Yourself Designers, and The The typo was on page three of the The Middler Cranky Editor’s Book of Intolerable fall 2014 issue, in the headline for the c/o R.W. Bacon, Editor Fox Paws (Oops! Faux Pas!): Helpful article about the Middletown DNA P. O. Box 489 Newburyport, MA 01950 Writing & Style Tips So You Won’t project: “Middletown DNA project (E-mail: [email protected]) Look Stoopid. When working on last hass potential to identify early settler descendants to prospective members.” SMFSD OFFICERS fall’s Middler issue, I had just spent the previous 15 months boiling down So that’s it. One stupid extra letter. President . Margery Piersen Vice President . Sue Welles 50 years as an editor and typogra- I can say that since I began as a Secretary . Cynthia Nicewarner pher into two books that badger young journalist 50 years ago, I have Treasurer . Mike Campbell today’s do-it-yourself practitioners made usage and spelling errors from Historian. Don Brock about dumb mistakes. So of course time-to-time, but this is the very first Registrar. Hal Whitmore Middler Editor . R.W. Bacon Murphy’s Law almost ensures that time I have made a hass of myself. the expert on his high horse will – R.W. Bacon 2 MIDDLETOWN NEWSLETTER of the SOCIETY of MIDDLETOWN FIRST SETTLERS DESCENDANTS he Mid e CONNECTICUT, U.S.A. CONNECTICUT, USA SMFSD exhibits at New England Regional Genealogical Conference April 16, 2015 at Rhode Island Convention Center, Providence, R.I. Top left: R.I. Convention Center. Top right: SMFSD’s display at the conference’s “Society Fair.” In the next row, SMFSD members Don Brock and Laura Hobbs engage attendees. Lively presence by Godfrey Library at 4-day conference A substantial exhibit hall presence, on- site book sales, an informative education session, and the promotion of the Godfrey Scholar program kept the team from the Middletown-based library busy. Above left, library director Beth Mariotti and volunteer Laura Hobbs chat with a visitor. Above right, librarian Sharon Dahlmeyer- Giovannitti enrolls a new “scholar.” Wish you were there? Miss the conference? At left are photos of the teeming crowds … and a program room ready for the rush. 3 MIDDLETOWN NEWSLETTER of the SOCIETY of MIDDLETOWN FIRST SETTLERS DESCENDANTS he Mid e CONNECTICUT, U.S.A. CONNECTICUT, USA GENEALOGIST OF NOTE Middletown Upper Houses is a cherished source, so let’s meet the author, Charles Collard Adams Editor’s Note: Ten years ago, 1859. His introduction to Cromwell upon assuming editorship of The began shortly after his arrival, when Middler, one category of potential he was hired to teach the winter term content was profiles of those who at the town’s Brick Schoolhouse. (His made extraordinary contributions to recollections of a particularly severe Middletown local history and geneal- winter, his first in New England, still ogy. Since then, feature articles have survive, and call to mind the winter profiled Frank Farnsworth Starr, just passed.) Fremont Rider, and Jessie Alsop.