Jacob Jennings Brown and his adopted children

Jacob Jennings Brown was appointed commanding General of the U. S. Army in 1821, following his successful leadership in the War of 1812. He was also founder of the town of Brownville, Jefferson County, New York.

What is less publicized about him is that he and his wife, Pamelia Williams Brown, who had many children of their own, became adoptive parents of at least two children whose parents were close friends of his. In both cases of adoption the natural parents had died as young parents, and had left their young children orphaned.

One of these children is Mahala Bellows, who married William Dillin. She was born in 1804 in New York. Another adopted child in the Brown family is William Waffle, born 1787. He married Mary Baxter. Both of these adopted children later named one of their own daughters Pamelia, after their adoptive mother.

I wonder how many more there may be?

Orleans, Vermont resources

Orleans, Vermont is one of those genealogical watersheds. It is a place Rhode Islanders and Bay Staters passed through, and you can find a lot of significant colonial names there in that late 1700 and early 1800 period.

There is a useful website, called, interestingly, North East Kingdom Genealogy of Vermont. Although they encourage visitors to subscribe for a low fee, browsing is indeed free, and browsing will get you access to all the names in the census and cemetery transcription data. There are excellent gleanings of marriage and death notices from old newspapers dating back to the early 1800's.


Image from rootsweb

What is gedmatch and what can it do for me?

Gedmatch is an excellent website which can be useful to anyone researching a family tree. There are many possibilities.

If you have had your autosomal DNA tested there are lots of fun things to do.

But, even if you have never had your DNA tested, you can still use one section of Gedmatch. That is the gedcom matching section. You just load up your gedcom (family tree), and if you don't have one, it may be worthwhile to buy  a program like Family Tree Maker because of its great versatility. If you don't want to do that, there are some free alternatives for creating gedcoms. Just check around online. Once you have done that, you load the gedcom  up and it will automatically be compared to many other gedcoms to see where there might be names, dates,  and places in common. Some of  the results will seem silly--Jamie Johnson from Tennessee  is matched against Jamie Johnson of Wales, and they have nothing in common. Other matches will prove more intriguing. You can just scroll though the results to see where something looks like a good match. If you find a distant cousin, you may find that there is a chance to get more information on your ancestors, either by contacting that person, or by looking at other information on the cousin's tree.

Massachusetts Witch Trials: draw your own conclusions

Want to read the arrest warrant for John Alden? Yes, the one who loved Priscilla. You can see that, and there is more...and more fascinating stuff in very old court records.


Did you know that you can look at Massachusetts Court records of the Salem witch trials? The transcribed records are available through the Salem Witch Trials and Documentary Archive Transcription Project. 

The archive site also has other court records, and if you have any ancestors from Salem, you may find their names there as judges or as complainants, or defendants or even as witnesses.
 Another site with excellent transcriptions is: .Salem Witch Trials


Read the actual petitions of accused "witches." I put that word "witches"  in quotes because there were no witches in Salem, just victims of bad behavior on the part of their neighbors and countrymen.
I find the witch trials fascinating, and have pored over them to learn more about the time and events in Salem.



It is all there, and you can read the words as they were  recorded.
In my opinion, the court records always provide a great view into society and motives.
Image taken from Famous American Trials.(http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/salem.htm)