First up on my list of people born this day* is Mary Alcott.
Mary Alcott was the wife of my 4th cousin 8 times removed (through Edmund Rice and Thomasine Frost) Eber Rice.
When I started writing this post, I had very little on Mary Alcott. I had that she was born 3 Feb 1765 in Tinmouth, Rutland County, Vermont, USA, and that she married Eber Rice 2 Apr 1788 and that she died 24 May 1847 and was buried in Florence Hill Cemetery, Florence, Oneida County, NY.
No location for the death or the marriage. No parents. I had recorded 8 children for her: Phares, Josiah, Mary, Seth, Sabrina, Matilda, Harvey and Stephen. All children had birth dates.
And, *yawn*....this is all very boring! Even to me, and I'm a genealogist! I would like to view all my profiles from different perspectives. One perspective is that of a new fledgling researcher. If I was a fledgling researcher and I came across this profile, would I be excited? Would I tell my family about it over dinner? Surely not.
So what info would I like to add? Anything I can find of course, but especially missing are:
1- Location for marriage
2- parents names
3- location for death
4- photos
5- any special info ie occupation/talents/description
As I typically do, I turned first to Ancestry.com. I had already entered all the above info into my Ancestry.com tree. Ancestry suggests that they have found 1 Historical Record, 1 Family Tree and 1 Photo/story. I always like to start with the Historical Records, which in this case was a Findagrave entry. The Findagrave entry has a photo of her headstone, and confirms the burial info I already had. This was the same photo as the Photo hint given by Ancestry.
Of course, Ancestry hints aren't the only records to be found on a person, so next I Search for additional records. I am rewarded with the Vermont marriage record. There is #1 off the checklist! They were married in Tinmouth, Vermont. The record on Ancestry is a scanned index card, and contained little else of value, except a note that the name may have been "Olcott" instead of "Alcott". They were married by Rev. O. Noble
Next I see what Ancestry has under Member Connect. Ancestry suggests 10 members have this Mary Alcott in their tree. Many of them suggest that Mary died in Florence, Oneida County, New York. Since she was buried there, this seems likely, so I add this, but so far the only source is the weak "Ancestry Trees". By the time I have accepted 6 of the suggested connections, the list of Suggested Connections has grown to 14 (making a total of 20). By the time I have accepted 16 of the suggested connections, that left 6 (total of 22 now), all of which had an additional daughter Nancy. I add this additional daughter Nancy for now, and continue to add the suggested connections, until I have accepted all 39 of them. None were incorrect suggestions btw.
Next, I accept the 10 "family tree" suggestions. None of the above netted me even a clue as to her parents.
Then I turn to Eber Rice, in hopes of finding more records. Eber had 12 Historical Record suggestions, 1 Family Tree and 1 Photo/story.
Since Eber served in the Revolutionary War, his widow Mary was allowed a pension in 1839 in New York. I viewed the pension papers at Fold3. Someday I should transcribe them.
I did discover that there was no daughter Nancy. So I contacted all 11 people who had her on Ancestry.com via a posted comment on Nancy and then deleted her.
That still leaves me with no parents for Mary. I tried familysearch.org but came up empty there as well. As this isn't a direct ancestor, and is a "only" distant cousin's wife, I give up for now....
The children of Eber Rice and Mary Alcott include:
Phares Rice (1788- )
Josiah Rice (1791- )
Mary Rice (1793- )
Seth Rice (1795- )
Sabrina Rice (1797- )
Matilda Rice (1799- )
Harvey Rice (1802- )
Stephen Rice (1805- )
They did not have a daughter Nancy, see my post on Eber Rice for my arguments on that issue.
Sources:
1810 US Census
1820 US Census
1830 US Census
Rev. War pension file for Eber Rice at Fold3
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