Some Important Milestones in My Genealogical Research Projects

Countless discoveries have been made while researching my father’s family and mother’s family back through time. However, among the many discoveries and occurrences of varying import, the following ones helped make the greatest strides forward in expanding knowledge of family history and in aiding further research. /Charles W. Paige

Timeframe	Discovery Particulars	Page or Barnes
Pre-Genealogy-Project Years
1950s-60s	I was exposed to the first written genealogy I had ever seen—this one for the Bliss family. It had been handed down to my mother by her Aunt Etta (Bliss) Kendrick after being used to qualify Aunt Etta for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R).	Barnes
Early 1970s	I realized how little Barnes and Page family history I knew, especially in contrast with the Bliss genealogy. (While away from home serving in the US Navy.)	Barnes and Page
1970s
Early 1974	Injured in a traffic accident that left me somewhat mobile but off work at Penn Central Railroad in Jackson, MI for over a year, allowing for a large amount of research time when I began genealogical projects in earnest.	Barnes and Page
Mid-1974	I was chosen to be president of the next year’s Barnes reunion and to assist my mother and her siblings to collect family vital statistics to be included with reunion’s minutes.	Barnes
1974	Cousin Horace Levengood and his collection of Barnes family vital statistics since the early 1970s, and his mother Myrtie Adell (Rhoodes) Levengood’s collection of family-related newspaper clippings since as early as 1890, all of which would be invaluable to the project. From Horace I first learned of great-great-grandparents Thomas and Sarah Barnes, who came to Michigan from New York.	Barnes
1974	Probate repository for old Thomas Barnes, which established and/or verified Thomas and Sarah’s seven children. (Jackson County Probate)	Barnes
1974	Several aged, yellowing, pencil-written pieces of paper holding the memoirs of my grandfather William Hood Barnes comprised of information about ancestors on his father’s side—Barnes, Eggleston, Sittser—and mother’s side—Hood, McNellly, Duncan, Wilson—truly one of the most important discoveries for my mother’s side of the family. (Possessed by Aunt Helen Leggett.)	Barnes
1975	Cousin Lillian Striker’s information on the Sevira Ellen (Barnes) and Philo Andrew Bonham family from the Bonham family bible.	Barnes
1975	Cousin H. (Horace) Howard Field of Tonawanda, New York, who shared information from genealogical research he had been doing on the Melissa (Barnes) and William Field family.	Barnes
1976	California cousin with Michigan roots Dorothy Avalon “Tillie” Maher provided her composition "Bells are Ringing for 'Hattie' and her Brood" plus some other family history tidbits telling of the Johnson family—a Barnes cross-branch—and its migration to California from Michigan.	Barnes
Mid-1970s	Riley Page’s son George Hudson Page was born in Webster, Monroe Co., NY—George’s mother’s name unknown (George’s death certificate at Charlotte, Eaton Co., MI). This led to all the discoveries regarding the Page family in New York. It also led to an automobile trip, with my father, to Webster in 1977, where we found additional information. The Webster connection was truly one of the most important discoveries for my father’s side of the family.	Page
Mid-1970s	R. P. or Riley P. Page’s parents were William H. and Chloe (Thayer) Page, including listing of Riley P. and his brother William H., Jr., full dates and/or years of birth, plus marriage and death  information for Chloe and William, Sr. and Chloe and first husband James Robinson  (Mormon Church genealogical records)	Page
Mid-1970s	Chloe Thayer’s genealogy, including listing of William H. and Chloe Page, with Riley P. and his brother William H., Jr., in book by Bezaleel Thayer (Mormon Church genealogical records)	Page
Mid-1970s	Edward P. Castner born in Yates Co., NY (From marriage record for Edward Castner and Franky Sutliff at Sheppardsville, Clinton Co., MI). This led to the discovery of the Castner family in New York and its link to New Jersey; also the names of Edward’s parents William and Sarah Castner and some of his siblings.	Page
1977	William and Sarah Castner’s vital statistics found in their death certificates ordered from Clinton Co., MI. Learned that Sarah’s maiden name had been “Weltes,” which later turned out to be “Welter.”	Page
1977	Riley Page married Emma (Conant) Wright at Webster, Monroe Co., NY in 1905. Riley’s middle name listed as “Preston.” (From marriage record for Riley’s third marriage)	Page
1977	Learned much information about the life and marriages of ancestor Isabella Duncan, the names of her children, and of the life and death of her first husband ancestor John McAnally/McNelly. He died a soldier during the War of 1812. (From Old War Widow pension file for Isabella Duncan McAnally Ellis, National Archives Military and Pension Records)	Barnes
1980s
Early 1980s	Death certificate for Helen M. (Hubbard) Bliss listed her parents as Adam Hubbard and Mary McClean, and that Helen was born at Moravia, Cayuga Co., NY. This led to discovery of the Adam F. and Mary M. Hubbard family in Moravia and later to additional information about them and their descendants in New York and Michigan, and about Adam and wife Ann M. in New York and Michigan. (1850 Federal census for Adam F. and Mary M. Hubbard at Moravia, Cayuga Co., NY; 1860 Federal census for Adam F. and Ann M. Hubard at Aurelius, Cayuga Co., NY; and 1870 Federal census for Adam and Ann Hubbart at Albion, Calhoun Co., MI.)	Barnes
Early 1980s	Learned the name of the sister of Alexander Wilson the Ornithologist and her husband, Mary (Wilson) and William Duncan. (Robert Cantwell’s book “Alexander Wilson Naturalist and Pioneer.” Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1961) This led to many more discoveries about the family of Mary and William Duncan, their descendants, and Mary’s immigration to America with her children.	Barnes
1980s	Nearly complete list of Edward Potter Castner’s siblings received from cousin Gayle (Page) Miller, adoptive daughter of Marshal and Esther Page, which she had received from Maude Annabelle (Castner) Page Moore. The list also gave Edward’s middle name as “Potter.” The only name missing was that of the firstborn Elizabeth, whose name escaped Maude’s memory at the time she made the list, although a numbered space was left for the name. I later discovered the name in an obituary for the siblings’ mother Sarah Castner, which further led to information about Elizabeth’s marriages, families, and children.	Page
1980s	Learned the names of Great-Grandmother Sarah M. (Keyes) Page Cline’s parents. (From Sarah’s death certificate at Lansing, MI) Led to extensive discoveries over many years regarding Keys/Keyes and Shook families, including Civil War participation by her father Rev. Orlando Keyes.	Page
1980s	Learned much information about the life and marriage of ancestor Lucinda Shook Keyes, the names of her children, and of the life and death of her husband ancestor Orlando Keys/Keyes, who died as a result of serving in the Civil War. (From pension file for Lucinda Keyes, National Archives Military and Pension Records)	Page
1980s	Learned the names of Lucinda Keyes’ parents Johnathan “Jonas” and Annah “Fanny” Shook, except for the mother’s maiden name LaRoche, which was not learned until found in 2005 as part of Lucinda’s 1918 obituary. (Lucinda Keyes’ death certificate) This led to further discoveries about the Shook family and its history in PA, NY, and MI.	Page
1990s
1990	Advent of the World Wide Web AKA Internet and email greatly enhances access to genealogical and other information—more so as time progresses—while also providing quick and inexpensive access to fellow researchers.	Barnes and Page
1990s	All of my prior genealogical writings were scanned with OCR hard- and software using personal computers. Updating was begun after all OCR’d writings were organized and cleaned-up and continues ad infinitum. (OCR=optical character recognition)	Barnes and Page
1997	Obtained access to database of some Keyes family cousins—descendants of Benjamin Keyes of East Bloomfield, Ontario Co., NY. (GEDCOM file from Charles Babcock)	Page
1998	Obtained access to database of some Shook family cousins. (GEDCOM file)	Page
1998	Obtained access to database of Martha Barnes Eggleston’s parents, siblings, ancestry, and other kin. (GEDCOM file)	Barnes
1999	Obtained access to database of Orlando Keys/Keyes’ parents, siblings, ancestry, and other kin.  (GEDCOM file)	Page
1999	Obtained a database of Aaron Barnes’ parents, siblings, ancestry, and other kin, connecting up with the descendants of Thomas Barnes of Marlborough, MA. In return provided information on Thomas and Sarah (Sittser) Barnes and their descendants. (Exchanged GEDCOM files of information collected by Donald Barnes of Tampa Bay, FL and Charles W. Paige of Los Angeles, CA)	Barnes
2000s
2000	Verified that Sarah, wife of ancestor Thomas Barnes, had “Sittser” as her maiden name. (From last will and testament of David Sittser of Sennett, Cayuga Co., NY, posted as a text file on the Cayuga Co., NY, genealogical web site.) Led to massive amounts of information about Sarah, her parents, grandparents, siblings, and other relatives.	Barnes
2000	Obtained a database of Sarah Barnes’ Sittser parents, siblings, and other kin. (GEDCOM file of information collected from research done by the late Douglas Norton Sittser of Muskegon, MI, and other Sittser cousins)	Barnes
2001	Learned that Riley Page and his parents were already living in Branch Co., MI. (1860 Federal census of Bronson and Matteson, Branch Co., MI.) Originally believed that Riley’s parents never migrated to Michigan, and that Riley did not arrive in Michigan until after the birth of son George in 1864.	Page
2001	Learned that Riley Page’s first wife, whose name was known to begin with an “E,” was Elizabeth (1860 Federal census of Matteson, Branch Co., MI.), and that they had a daughter Carrie who was born before George—formerly thought to be the firstborn child. (1870 Federal census under the name Reyley Page at Batavia, Branch Co., MI.) All of this ultimately led to further information about Elizabeth, Carrie, and Carrie’s families.	Page
2001	Learned of the descendants of Isabella Duncan McNelly’s youngest brother James Duncan through one of James and wife Jane (Waddell) Duncan’s descendants then living near Detroit, MI. Information provided included vital statistics and pictures for some of the generations as well as information surrounding the death of James Duncan Hood during Civil War.	Barnes
2002	Thomas Barnes’ sibling Jeffrey Samuel Barnes settled and died in Bronson Co., MI, by 1870. (Michigan’s GENDIS Database). Led to discovery of Jeffrey’s family in Bronson Co. and Berrien Co., MI, and later some New York locations.	Barnes
2002	1810 Federal census of Sharon, Litchfield Co., CT and 1820 Federal census of Aurelius/Mentz, Cayuga Co., NY, proved that ancestor Thomas Barnes had six siblings, and that the family did not immigrate to Cayuga Co., NY, until after 1810.	Barnes
2002	Ancestor A(a)ron Barnes was found at the Pine Hill Cemetery at Throopsville, Cayuga Co., NY, next to a daughter “Sephronia (Barnes) Craw.” This provided date of death for Aaron as 1-3-1824. His wife Martha had yet to be found.	Barnes
2005	Aaron Barns’ name found on list of testators for Cayuga Co., NY. Testator information subsequently received concerning the last will and testament and estate of Aaron Barns, who died at Mentz, Cayuga Co., NY. (Surrogate Box # 4 and Will Book B 1 page 193 for Aaron Barnes) This led to the complete list of Thomas Barnes’ siblings, about whom further discoveries were made.	Barnes
2005	Riley Page’s brother William Henry Page found in Branch Co., MI, under names Henry Page and William H. Page. (“Branch County directory…” comp. by Stevens & Conover, 1870-71.) Led to extensive information about William Henry Page, Jr., his wife, and their children in Michigan and New York.	Page
2005	Learned the name of Riley Page’s first wife Elizabeth Hollenbeck from a list of marriages for St. Joseph Co., MI. Subsequently sent for the marriage certificate, which had the date of marriage and other information.	Page
Late 2005	Took early retirement from Northrop Grumman Corporation which allowed for a large amount of research time.	Barnes and Page
2006	Purchased membership for six months at Ancestry.com, a genealogy-based online website, through which I was able to mine huge amounts of census information on a wide assortment of individuals and families. Other information was found also in other aspects of the website.	Barnes and Page
2006	Discovered the probable parents and siblings of Adam F. Hubbard on a website provided by Marvin G. M. The family spelled their last name “Hubbart,” which is how Adam spelled his surname during at least one census taking. The parents were listed as Thomas and Silence (Bartlett) Hubbart of Russia, Herkimer Co., NY. Adam was listed as Adam Frink Hubbart. The name Bartlett got carried forward quite a bit by Adam and his descendants. I emailed Marvin to try and establish two-way information sharing. His daughter emailed back saying that Marvin had just been killed while riding his bicycle. (See entry for Barnes below in 2010 for more on this.)	Barnes
2006	Learned of the marriages of Carrie B. Page, firstborn daughter of Riley Page and his first wife Elizabeth Hollenbeck in response to queries I posted to the Kalamazoo Co., MI online message board. Led to further information about Carrie’s marriages, life and descendants.	Page
2007	Through cheek scrapings processed by FamilyDNA, learned of the strong possibility that my male line of ancestors may have been Flemish settlers to England and/or Scotland. This may have been as early as around the time of the Norman Invasion of 1066. (DNA near matches to Scottish people of probable Flemish descent.) I’ve joined two FamilyDNA projects so far:  Page and I1a. I’ve also joined the National Geographic Genographic Project and Ybase.org.	Page
2007	Learned and confirmed extensive amounts of information about Ebenezer Page—long believed to be a half-brother of Riley Preston Page—including members of Ebenezer’s family and parentage. Through Ebenezer’s death certificate, William and Martha were confirmed as his parents, and Martha’s maiden name was discovered to be “Hudson,” although in a Civil War record (see a 2012 Page notation) Ebenezer claimed that his mother’s maiden name was “Sanders.” Sanders was the middle name of his firstborn son William, who was killed during the Civil War. Ebenezer’s obituary listed his surviving children, leading to further discoveries about other of his descendants.	Page
2007	Receipt of an email from Sandra (Sturdevant) Cline led to adding two more children to the family of William and Mary (Wilson) Duncan—Jean and Anna. S. Cline is a descendant of Anna, who was William and Mary’s last child, born in 1797. Anna married James Sturdevant, and they had several children. S. Cline and another cousin with whom she was in contact, G. Evans, provided significant information that required extensive changes made to The True Story of a Family in History. Jean was born in 1795 but nothing further as yet has been discovered about her.	Barnes
2007	On July 2 the name of the history was changed to Great-Great-Grandfather Duncan Married…a Sister of Alexander Wilson the Ornithologist of Philadelphia. A concerted effort was soon begun to publish the work when completed. In late July I began polling for potential subscribers for an October or November publication. The plan evolved to self-publish upwards of 50 copies for the initial printing. By late September the total number of pages finally stabilized at 136 after assorted new material was added including an extensive index. By the end of 2007, 38 copies were sold and distributed.	Barnes
2008	In early August 2006 I had posted a query online with Greene County NYGenWeb requesting information regarding Andrew SITZER, variously spelled Andreas SITZER, Andries SITZER, Andreas ZITZER, Andries ZITZER. On March 21, 2008, I received an email from the genealogist/actor/writer Henry “Hank” Jones in which he stated:  “I note your posting on an old Greene County genealogy message board. In case you haven’t seen it, my book More Palatine Families has a fully documented section on the Zitzer/Sitser et var. family of colonial New York, including my German discoveries from their ancestral village overseas. All my books are available via my website: http://www.hankjones.com.” In less than a week I sent away for the book and received it shortly thereafter. I was subsequently able to make the connection with my Zitzer/Sittser family, taking that family back to its origins in Germany.	Barnes
2009	In January 2009 I discovered two daughters of William H. and Martha Page. They were Ester/Esther, who was discovered first, and then later in the month I found her sister Mary, who was married to Alonzo Langdon of Palmyra, Wayne Co., NY. Esther also lived at Palmyra for at least two decades before marrying in 1889, as his third wife, Benjamin Hoag of Macedon, Wayne Co., where the newlyweds settled. In 1864 Esther had been living at Parkersburg, Wood Co., WV, and then Hartford City, Mason Co., WV, and was involved in a venture to lease a piece of property from Stephen C. Shaw of Parkersburg for purposes of mining and excavating “coal, salt, or salt spring coal or rock or carbon oil, or any other valuable mineral substance or substances.” A contract was drawn up but it is not known whatever came of Esther’s involvement. She was at Palmyra by 1870. Mary and Alonzo lived at Palmyra all their married life. According to their death records, Esther and Mary were born in England to William H. Page and Martha Sanders, whereas on their purported brother Ebenezer’s death record the parents were listed as William Page and Martha Hudson. Esther was born before Ebenezer and Mary was born after him. According to Ebenezer and Mary, the Page family came to America in the 1829/1830 timeframe. This still leaves a bit of a mystery regarding Martha which will probably never be solved. (See a 2012 Page notation for more information on the “Sanders” name.) Esther was quite old when she married for the first time and left no descendants. Mary, however, left one surviving son and has descendants living today, one of whom I have contacted via phone and email and who provided a copy of the mining lease contract plus some other items.	Page
2009	In early March 2009 I discovered the obituary for Horace Barnes, a son of Aaron and Martha (Eggleston) Barnes of Sharon, Litchfield Co., CT, and Mentz, Cayuga Co., NY. Through it I learned that he had married Sarah, a daughter of Dr. Benjamin Tucker, and that they had remained in Galen, Wayne Co., NY, their entire married life. Most importantly, I learned that 1816 was the year the Aaron and Martha Barnes family moved from Connecticut to New York. Later in the year I discovered that for many years Horace’s farm abutted that of Calvin Hall Bliss, whose granddaughters, sisters Nellie Mae Bliss and Susan Ella Bliss, had married, respectively, brothers William Hood Barnes and Martin Barnes, grandsons of Horace’s brother Thomas. All four had been born in Michigan.	Barnes
2009	Adam’s full name being Adam Frink Hubbard was proven/confirmed in June with the discovery of the death certificates for Adam’s sons Levi and Thomas, on which he was so listed. Discovered on Levi’s death certificate was the name of Adam’s second wife who until now I had only known as Ann, and at one time I even thought that Mary and Ann were the same person just alternating between given first and middle names. Turns out Ann’s maiden name had been Decamp.	Barnes
2009	In mid-July 2009 I discovered the name of the first child born to Aaron and Martha (Eggleston) Barnes’ son Jeffrey Samuel and his wife Lucretia. Her name was Julia L. and she had married Philetus Chamberlin/Chamberlain, a farmer of Mendon, Monroe Co., NY. Around this same time I discovered that Lucretia’s maiden surname had been Storke and that she was a daughter of Daniel and Margaret (Grey) Storke of Sennett, Cayuga Co., NY. At least two of Lucretia’s sisters also married into families of my Barnes and Sittser relatives—Elizabeth married Augustus, son of Thomas and Mary (Tyler) Barnes, Thomas being Aaron Barnes’ younger brother, and Abigail married John Sittser, a brother of Aaron Barnes’ son Thomas’ wife Sarah. John and Sarah were children of David and Sarah (Mills) Sittser. The David Sittser and Aaron Barnes families had arrived in Cayuga Co., NY, in 1815 and 1816, respectively. The Storke family had arrived from New England around 1796, about the same time as Aaron’s brother Thomas’ family. Philetus and Julia Chamberlain’s only child, Philetus, Jr., became an attorney and began a dynasty of attorneys that continues to this day. At least one Chamberlain descendant now lives and practices law in Manchester, Bennington Co., VT. Shortly after discovering the family of Philetus and Julia L. (Barnes) Chamberlain I discovered that another of their daughters, Louisa, went to Michigan to marry Horace Field, whose wife, the former Martha Barnes, had died as had both of their children. Martha was a daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Sittser) Barnes and was Louisa’s 1^st cousin once removed.	Barnes
2009	In early September 2009 I received an email from a cousin by the given name of Chris, a descendant of Thomas and Mary (Tyler) Barnes, questioning the validity of the connection between his Thomas and the family of Thomas and Sarah Barnes of Sharon, Litchfield Co., CT. The source he had followed claimed his Thomas was a son of a Barnes family in Killingly, CT. As a result of our email banter I added two more daughters, Maranda and Sylvia, to the family of Amos and Phena Barnes, Amos being a son of Thomas and Mary (Tyler) Barnes. Maranda, through whom Chris was descended, married Samuel Blackwell. Another important result of the banter was the following note listing an assortment of strong and not so strong proofs that his Thomas was indeed a son of Thomas and Sarah Barnes of Sharon and, consequently, a brother of my ancestor Aaron Barnes. NOTE:  There is another claim to the ancestry of this Thomas Barnes. According to a five-page document entitled, “The Barnes family of Connecticut, New York and Michigan,” submitted to the publication Yesteryears in 1964 by Mrs. Donald A. Wilson of Medina, Washington, it was declared that this Thomas was a son of Nathaniel and Anne (Allen) Barnes of Killingly, Windham Co., CT. That document is now being used by a number of researchers as proof of a correlation between the Thomas Barnes who married Polly Tyler (a.k.a. Mary) and the Thomas Barnes that was born 08-01-1765 to Nathaniel and Anne. However, that document does not list any sources other than Mrs. Wilson’s personal assurance that the “material is pretty well worked out.” On the contrary, there is significant substantial and circumstantial evidence to indicate that this Thomas was a son of Thomas and Sarah Barnes of Sharon, Litchfield Co., CT, and Aaron’s brother. When Thomas Barnes married Polly Tyler (a.k.a. Mary) he was listed as Thomas Barnes, Jr.  They were united by “Roswell Hopkins, a prominent citizen and Justice of the Peace in the adjoining town of Amenia, [Dutchess Co.,] NY.” Source:  Van Alstine, Lawrence, Born, Married and Died in Sharon, Conn,  (Sharon: Press of Pawling Chronicle, 1897). Daniel Barnes, an uncle of Aaron and Thomas, Jr., purportedly resided during his lifetime in East Haddam, Middlesex Co., CT; Sharon, Litchfield Co., CT; Amenia, Dutchess Co., NY; and Athens, Bradford Co., PA.  (Amenia, NY, was originally called Nine Partners, NY.) It might have been while Daniel was living in Amenia that Thomas, Jr. was married there. Another uncle, Jonah Barnes, was a physician in Sharon. Sources:  (1) Ibid. (2) Charles F. Sedgwick’s book, General History of the Town of Sharon, Litchfield County, CT,  (Amenia, N.Y.:  Charles Walsh, Printer and Publisher, 1898). Statira, daughter of Thomas and Sarah Barnes of Sharon, also immigrated to Cayuga Co., NY, around the same time as her brother Aaron, which was in 1816. Thomas, Jr. had settled there more than a decade before. Statira was buried at the McMasters Corners Cemetery. Five years later, in 1835, Thomas, Jr.’s daughter Louisa (Barnes) Mills was buried near her. Source:  (1) The Charles W. Paige collection of genealogical material regarding the Thomas and Sarah Barnes of Sharon family and that of Thomas and Mary (Tyler) Barnes. (2) Year of immigration from Sharon to Mentz from Aaron Barnes’ son Horace’s obituary appearing in the Clyde (Wayne Co., NY) Times newspaper dated November 8, 1877. (3) Record of burials for McMasters Corners Cemetery, Sennett Twp., Cayuga Co., NY. Thomas and Mary (Tyler) Barnes’ son Augustus lived in Mentz, Cayuga Co., NY, for much of his life and died there in 1880. Aaron Barnes (purportedly Thomas’ brother) died at Mentz in 1824, and Aaron’s grandson David Barnes was born there in 1826. Sources:  (1) Augustus Barnes’ obituary, “Death of Augustus Barnes,” recorded in C.A. Storke’s book, The English Storkes in America, (Santa Barbara, CA 1935), Daniel Storke section: p. 29. (2) Aaron Barnes’ probate records, Surrogate Box #4 and Will Book B-1, page 193, stored at Cayuga County Records Management, 12 Court Street, Auburn, Cayuga Co., NY. (3) David Barnes’ obituary, “Another Pioneer Dead,” appearing April 13, 1895, in the Horton (Jackson Co., MI) Local newspaper. Elliot G. Storke, brother of Augustus Barnes’ wife Elizabeth and author of The History of Cayuga County, New York 1789-1879, and Thomas Barnes, Jr.’s son Amos Barnes were witnesses to the signing of David Sittser’s last will and testament October 9, 1841, and later testified to that effect. Amos Barnes and wife Phena were buried in the cemetery that was then located on David Sittser’s homestead. David Sittser’s daughter Sarah had married Aaron Barnes’ son Thomas in about 1822. Sources:  (1) Augustus Barnes’ obituary, “Death of Augustus Barnes,” recorded in C.A. Storke’s book, The English Storkes in America, (Santa Barbara, CA 1935), Daniel Storke section: p. 29. (2) David Sittser’s probate material, Cayuga Co., NY, Will book Vol. E, page 184, LDS microfilm 0853220, New York State, Cayuga County, Wills Box 2, p.184-187; Transcribed by Mary Lou Olsen Stanley on June 6, 2000 & proofed by William E. Stanley on June 5, 2000 from LDS microfilm copy. (3) Headstone pictures and record of burials at the “Community, or Sitzer, Cemetery,” Lot 96, Throop Twp., near Sennett Town Line (Book 65 Skilton), Cayuga Co., NY. (The Skilton material is now located in the Local History Archives at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY). (4) The Charles W. Paige collection of genealogical material regarding the Thomas and Sarah (Sittser) Barnes family. The given names Nathan, Nathanial or Nathaniel do not appear in the names of descendants of Thomas and Mary (Tyler) Barnes. The name James appears once in the early 20^th century. The names Thomas and William appear a number of times each. Source:  Inspection by Charles W. Paige of his extant Barnes family database as of September 2009. Thomas’ name appeared as one of the sons of Thomas Barns of Sharon, CT, in the latter Thomas’ last will and testament dated 8 September 1797. Source:  Last will and testament of Thomas Barns of Sharon, Litchfield County, Connecticut, dated 8 September 1797.	Barnes
2010	Back in 2006 I first learned of possible/probable parents and siblings of ancestor Adam F. Hubbard. Adam’s full name being Adam Frink Hubbard had been confirmed in June of last year with the discovery of the death certificates for Adam’s sons Levi and Thomas. In May of this year I discovered very distant cousin Robert C. N. He had done extensive research into the Hubbart family, including Adam’s parents, grandparents, etc. Robert was very willing to share and I received much information from him, including photocopies of Thomas Hubbart’s Revolutionary War pension and service-related material. It was finally and irrefutably confirmed that Adam’s parents were Thomas and Silence (Bartlett) Hubbart of Russia, Herkimer Co., NY.	Barnes
2010	Out of the blue, and totally unsolicited, I received an email from Lola G., a non-relative of mine that was a Milliman cousin of my cousin Helen Elizabeth (Milliman) Shafer Krans Forbes, granddaughter of my great aunt, Carrie (Page) Richards Soule Wheeler. In her initial email to me, Lola G. wrote the following:  “I may be in possession of some important Paige family materials. I am named after Lola Richards Milliman DeForest. She was my great Aunt, but I never met her.” She later explained that Lola  Mae (Richards) was actually a cousin by marriage, but since both Lola and her daughter Helen, a blood cousin, were so much older than she, Lola G. always called them Aunt.  Lola G. and I corresponded over the month, during which time we exchanged information about the Richards, Kranses, Millimans, etc. I was able to fill in some gaps and get some clarifications on information I already had. Then the promised package arrived on Friday September 3. In the rather heavy box, on which $45 worth of stamps had been placed, were three photo albums and a large bible, all of hoary age. The three photo albums were on top, so I went through them first, taking each out of the box one at a time. Some of the pictures in the photo albums were identified but many were not. Of those identified I found: Pictures of Riley P. Page in his thirties and late life A baby picture of Elsie Adelaide Page, who died A picture of Riley’s half-sister Chloe (Robinson) Smith when she was a young woman, from whom Riley bought the Webster, NY, house in 1897; by 1897 Chloe was a widow and only lived until 1903, when she died at age 82 A picture of Riley’s third wife Emma (Conant) Wright Page in late life An ancient picture taken at Palmyra, Wayne Co., NY, of a man I now believe to be my immigrating ancestor William H. Page (his goofy smile was nearly an exact duplicate of a picture I have of Dad in his late-life graduation picture) Assorted pictures of Carrie (Page), including one with her third husband Elmer Wheeler A picture of Theodore Dudley Richards, Carrie Page’s first husband A picture of Lola Mae Richards as a little girl and a few years older A picture of Joseph Burchard Milliman, Lola’s husband, in his late teens or early twenties A picture of Helen Elizabeth Milliman as a baby A number of pictures of Great-Uncle George Hudson Page, his wife Mary, their daughter Elsie May, and Elsie’s husband Jesse Strange Harrison Assorted pictures of my more intimate Page family, including:  one of Grandfather Charles Orlando Page as a boy, one in late teens or early twenties, and one in his thirties or forties; one of Dad, Uncle Marshal (Mutt), and Aunt Margaret (Peg) in a group shot as little kids (it was with these pictures that was found the old one believed to be William H. Page, Sr.) The last book in the box was a large, rather expensive-looking Holly Bible. The front matter was in tatters and I was unable to find a year of publication. However, in the center of the bible, between the old and new testaments, were some pages designed for recording family vital information. These were copyrighted in 1873. Someone, probably Carrie or perhaps Lola, had written-in information for a number of people on a page simply titled “Family Records.” The first bit that caught my attention and made me catch my breath was about William H. Page. It said he was born in Essex, England on Feb. 19, 1797. This was VERY IMPORTANT data to assist in tracking the Page family back to England. (However, since William’s son Ebenezer Page listed his own birth place as Sussex, England for purposes of his Civil War record, that puts Sussex in play and opens the door to the possibility that whoever wrote “Essex” really meant “Sussex.”) There was much information about William H. Page’s family with Chloe (Thayer) Robinson, but nothing about his earlier family with Martha Sanders or Hudson. Also, other than giving Riley’s brother William’s name and birth information, there was nothing further about him or his marriage or family. A number of missing pieces of information about Riley’s two families were filled-in thanks to the single page that contained all the above information—perhaps too much to be broken down here. NOTE:  Be advised that not all the information is accurate, such as the death dates for William and Chloe. William H. Page, Sr. died 17 Jan 1862 and Chloe (Thayer) Robinson Page died 13 Jan 1862. The list also has all six of Riley’s children as appearing to be the children of Riley and Elizabeth, whereas the last three were by Riley and his second wife Sarah M. (Keyes) Page.	Page
2011	I purchased and received a scan of the two-page last will and testament of Thomas Barns of Sharon, Litchfield County, Connecticut, dated 8 September 1797. I ordered the scans in July and received them in August from www.sampubco.com. The scans were very difficult to read but were finally transcribed by Christopher Rubeo, with the assistance of his cousins Charles W. Paige, Bion L. Hoeg, and John C. Field. The will confirmed Christopher’s ancestor Thomas Barns as a son of Thomas of Sharon and introduced two more daughters—Elizabeth and Esther. It also stated that daughter Eleanor had married Ephram Seley[Seeley/Seelye/etc.].	Barnes
2012	On May 1 I received an email with attachment, from Page descendant and cousin Gail Palmer, that provided personal information about Ebenezer Page and his son William Sanders Page, both of whom enlisted in the armed forces during the Civil War. The attachment was the scan of a Civil War record of soldiers and sailors Gail found on Ancestry.com entitled:  "New York Town Clerk's Registers of Men who served in the Civil War 1861-1865," from the New York State Archives.	Page
	Ebenezer Page: Through the military record I discovered that my English-American ancestor William H. Page, Sr.'s son Ebenezer was born in County Sussex, England. This tied in with a discovery I had made some years ago but had to place on hold because I had not yet found evidence that my Page family had any ties to Sussex. Now it was suddenly more possible that the family was living in or near Ringmer, County Sussex, before immigrating to America. A William Page married a Martha Sanders on 31 Dec 1817 at Ringmer. Martha (Sanders) was Ebenezer's mother's name according to the military record, which refutes his mother’s maiden surname of Hudson found on his death certificate and aligns with the maiden surname claimed by Ebenezer’s siblings Esther, Mary and Nathan.
	William Sanders Page: Through the military record I also discovered that the William S. Page who enlisted eleven days after Ebenezer, also at Ontario, Wayne County, New York, was Ebenezer’s son. Up until then I had never been able to learn what had happened to Ebenezer’s eldest son, who disappeared from census records even before 1860. (Previously, the 1850 Federal census was the only record I had found that listed him, at which time he was still living with his parents Ebenezer and Elizabeth and two siblings. In that record his name was clearly spelled “William H.”) The military record provided his middle name in use, confirmed that his father’s name was Ebenezer Page, his mother’s name was Elizabeth (Mcdowell), told of his military history, and provided the cause and date of his death 3 Aug 1864. A year and a month before his death he had been wounded on 3 Jul 1863 during the Battle of Gettysburg. He was again wounded on 30 May 1864 during the Battle of Cold Harbor, which two months later resulted in his death. His burial was at Arlington National Cemetery.
This Web page was created March 31, 2007 by Charles W. Paige and last updated September 27, 2014. Copyright 2014 Charles W. Paige

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