16. August 2008 by Tim.

The info Auntie Mary gave me has enabled me to make leaps and bounds of progress on the Orcutt branch of the Tree.  The reason for this is that the Orcutts have lived in Abington and Weymouth, MA for over 200 years!  Tracing them back through the US Censuses was a fairly simple matter.

Of course, the farther back one goes, two things become clear.  First, that the Census was, at first, just a mechanism to enumerate just (male) heads of households - everyone else was just counted (not named).  Second, the further back one traces their roots, the more likely one is to find some other Tree which overlaps.  This is what happened to me.  I found 8 or 9 Trees which overlapped the Orcutt branch.

Now, this has some perils of its own.  For example, if someone else made a mistake, just adding their info to my Tree means I have done nothing more than duplicating that mistake.  So, while finding overlapping Trees is good, it does not mean just “click and go” on to the next.  It means click and check, confirm then go.

Either way, it is pretty neat to think that in one fell swoop, my collective ancestors went from “late 19th century immigrants” to “late 19th century immigrants except for one branch who fought in the American Revolution!”  If I was a female, I would be a Daughter of the American Revolution!  Nice!

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16. August 2008 by Tim.

Auntie Mary provided either clues or actual information enough for me to answer several of the original questions my early research had raised.  For example, the question about who Ralph Mousdell was, the question of Frank H Orcutt’s biological father, the question of who (and where) exactly Dinah Currier was, and what the realstory was behind Frank and Elsie Orcutt and their seeming two lives.  Well, all of those have been resolved now - thanks to Auntie.  However, there are a few of the old ones still remaining, and now there are a couple of new ones.

Auntie gave me the birth and death dates for Napoleon Lamothe.  However, only the birth date of Alphonse.  Why?  Was Napoleon still in contact with his children after Annie passed away?  She died in 1923, but Napoleon did not die until 1947.

Why did Alphonse change his name to Lamont when Annie did?  And, how did they decide on LAMONT anyway?  Why not Lamond, Lamotte, or Jones?  Did she change the names of the three kids legally, or just practically?  If not legally, is the marriage of her son, Paul, to my grandmother legal?  Wow, what a thought.

And then there is the question of who Annie Grenier’s father was.  I know her mother was Mary, born in August of 1836, but that is all.  Who were Annie’s ancestors?

Each question answered raises a new unanswered one.  But, at least the questions are changing and the process is continuing.

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