Reenactments are a great source of historical information

The re-enactors of historical battles are a sort of mise-en-abime resource for researchers to learn from. Initially, as you stroll the battlefield and see the men and women in period dress, you take in the visual sense of what once existed in history.

You may have a chance to speak to one or more of the re-enactors, and learn about the authenticity of the clothes he or she wears, the food he or she is eating, and so on. You might meet a British spy, or an officer's wife, as I did. They all have stories, and the character they represent informs their appearance in the re-enactment. If the officer happens to die on the battlefield, I learned, his wife has to find another officer to marry, or she will not be traveling to the next battle re-enactment, as only a certain number can go along.

You might learn that the buttons on a jacket might be authentic, while the cloth they are attached to is a reasonable reproduction. The swords of some of the re-enactors may be authentic, owned by those who fought in battle while those of others are not. In any case, they must have been produced, or represent what was produced, from a time either preceding or of the time of the battle in question. They can't be later models.

If you have a chance to speak and listen to the stories of how the re-enactors got their materials, that alone will be informative. What was the original color of the metal in the sword? How did that change over time? How long did it take to load the guns? Who were the fighters--trained military or local residents? What were some of the strategies and how did they lead to failure or success?

Attending a battle re-enactment is not only informative, but also stimulating. You might end up with more questions than answers, both about how re-enactments are created, and and also about how they reflect historical events.

They are an excellent resource for learning about the history of a place and time from the viewpoint of the individual. The images below are from the bicentennial re-enactment of the Battle of Sackets Harbor in the war of 1812, a re-enactment that was of major historical value and which took place in a beautiful, serene location. The re-enactment could have attracted more interest but seems to have been a pearl viewed by a small and fortunate audience. See the description of the economic and political issues here (NY Times article) :
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/25/nyregion/war-of-1812-bicentennial-disorganized-in-new-york-state.html?_r=0

Images of War of 1812 Sackets Harbor Battle Re-enactment

Digitized marriage records, county histories and more at HathiTrust

The HathiTrust Digital Library is an excellent repository of information on books, many of which are digitized and readable on the website, while others, under copyright restrictions, cannot be read but can be searched for terms and names. The website is a result of a partnership between a number of institutions and organizations working together to preserve cultural information.

I found many easily accessed records of marriages and births for New York and for other States as well. There are also county histories and interesting records of jail censuses, agricultural reports, and political actions.

This is an excellent resource to check into when you are looking for that one more place to find your ancestors and their histories.

There is no charge to readers.

See HathiTrust to learn more and to begin the search there!

Gedmatch --subjective view--June 2013

Many of the hits on my blog are looking for information on Gedmatch.

Here is my brief subjective review of how things are at Gedmatch--many of the wonderful utilities, including triangulation and chromosome browser are on hold--but they should be back at some time, and will be amazingly helpful to researchers of all levels and abilities.

Of the utilities currently available, I find the one-to- many matches utility to be the most helpful, especially since there are at least three companies from which people can upload their results.
I have to say, that although this is great, and allows  us to see comparisons between FTDNA, 23andme, and ancestry.com, this is often just a lead to nowhere.

The frustrating aspect is that the aliases used by those tested are often very effective in hiding who has been tested. If an email has been provided it can be a clue, or it can be used to try to contact the person tested, but often this effort is futile. It is understandable that every tester wants to protect their privacy--but the result of the protection is that comparison is impossible or very difficult. As I have said before, what researchers want is information about the ancestors. Perhaps Gedmatch could provide a way for testers to give that information, as does Ftdna, which allows gedcoms, but only starting at least 100 years out from the present.

The person being tested is not, or should not be, of interest, unless living cousin connections are desired.

Main point--I'm sure Gedmatch will recover all of the utilities--just a matter of time and it will be working again. Like many dna-related websites, keeping it up and running well can be a challenge for many reasons, so if you find something working--use it--strike while the iron is hot!

Australian Descendants of Jefferson County, New York settlers

One narrative of the research  links between DNA results, the Patriot War, and New York ancestry.


Sometimes one thing leads to another in genealogy research, usually seemingly with reason, at least for awhile. Then it turns out that the connections weren't the ones we were looking for, or maybe they are, but we can't prove it yet. But...we always get a good story, and therein lies much satisfaction.

This story started with a speculation on a chromosome match spotted on Gedmatch. It appeared that there would be a Northern New York connection worth defining. Long story short, through pursuing the ancestry of the match, I found the name of  Ira Polley, born about 1816 in Lyme, Jefferson, New York.



All names connected to the DNA match were from an area of Tasmania. All of the names, not just some.  Considering that I was looking for a connection to  Northern New York ancestry, how could that be? Well, the Patriot War resulted in Northern New Yorkers being sent to Tasmania--"Van Diemen's Land." When I looked up the names of those transported to Tasmania,  I found that only one name matched--the very same last name of the person for whom I had found an online tree--Polley. The man "transported" (taken as war captive) was named Ira Polley.

Now the big question was whether Ira Polley had met a fate of death at sea or elsewhere, as did many who were transported, whether he was pardoned and returned to New York (again, like many others), or if by chance he had stayed in Australia.

Strangely enough (or not so strangely, given the DNA matching), he is  one of the very few who stayed--one of four--he was actually eventually pardoned, and got as far as Hawaii before returning to Australia. There is no explanation as to why he chose to stay, but stay he did, and he married twice and had many children. His descendants are now numerous.

Before the brief war waged against England in Canada, he had been living in Lyme, Jefferson County, New York. Although many researchers say that his father was John Polley, who also lived in Jefferson County, his death information in Australia names his father as William Polley. Other documents show that Ira Polley of Australia was born in New York, while the son of John Polley named Ira was born in Connecticut. It does appear that William Polley, also of Connecticut, but who moved early to New York, is indeed father of Ira. William Polley died in 1852 in Russia, Herkimer County, New York, not far from Lyme. He does not mention Ira in his will, however, and I cannot be sure he is the father without more documentation.

Sir George Arthur, of Upper Canada at the time of the Patriot War ordered the transportation of captives to Australia. Ira Polley named one of his sons George Arthur Polley. See the following website for details on this and on various captives  in the online article "American Patriots  Political Prisoners in Van Diemen's Land": leatherwoodonline

The story that I was able to piece together (beginning with a DNA clue) gave me more knowledge of, and interest in, the Patriot War of the late 1830's, and of the lives of those who begin as captives and continue as citizens of a different land and culture.