July 30, 2012

Check State & Occupation Information in Census Records

While tracing the children of Rhode Island born blacksmith Hezekiah Peckham, who migrated to Oswego New York, I "lost" his son Benjamin.  Ben was born in RI about 1825 and was found in the 1850 census with his mother and brother, listed as a baker. But I could not find him in 1860 or 1870. In 1880 he seemed to match a record found for a baker age 54, married to Lucy, and living in Michigan with 10 year old daughter Eva who was born in WISCONSIN !

So I looked in the 1870 census in Wisconsin and intially could not find them. Then I tried Benjamin, born RI, no surname and checked for occupation of baker -- there he was as PICKEL with matching wife and daughter plus 3 older sons in Milwaukee.  All three sons were listed as born in New York, so I looked again at the 1860 census and did find him with with Lucy and the 3 boys. I'm glad I noticed that Eva was born in Wisconsin or I might have missed his sons.

July 10, 2012

Orin Day Peckham of Rennselaerville


In attempting to find and confirm the birth, marriage and death dates of all the children of Peleg and Desire (Watson) Peckham, I was stumped by odd seeming online family tree entries for their son Orin. He is listed as born in either 1805 or 1813, died in 1825, MARRIED ! If he was born in 1813, marriage didn’t sound reasonable if he died at age 12.


Births are difficult to confirm in those years unless a christening record can be found; I did not find one for Orin. I also could not find a newspaper account of his death nor a grave listing.