Ron HANLEY, VANDENBURGH, Dr. Sanford SMITH - OCD

Corresponding with Ron Hanley of Rochester, NY., and sharing information on early families of the Old Cambridge District. Surnames of interest: VANDENBURGH, FONDA, FORT, GROESBECK, KNICKERBOCKER, SHULTERS, VANEVEREN, VANEVERY, BENEWE.

An exciting discovery today through the use of the Michigan County Histories on-line. Located information on a previously unknown connection to the Presidents Georg BUSH lines that I have been working on for many years. One of the sets of the president's ancestors was Dr. Sanford SMITH, and his wife, Priscilla (WHIPPO) of Cambridge and White Creek, Washington Co., NY.

I had known of a daughter named Lucy with no further information. The Lenawee County, MI history shows she married a Thomas COMSTOCK and then a daughter Charlotte M. married an Edwin UNDERWOOD.

I have been trying for many years to prove the parentage of Priscilla (WHIPPO) SMITH, with varying degrees of success.

Asahel / Ashel / Asel HULET / HULETT / HEWLETT b. 1801, Shaftsbury, VT., d. Cattaraugus or Chautauqua Co., NY.

Have been working quite a lot on the descendants of Asahel / Ashel / Asel HULET / HULETT / HEWLETT b. 1801, Shaftsbury, VT., d. Cattaraugus or Chautauqua Co., NY. He was the son of Aaron & Cynthia (HOPKINS) HULET. Aaron was a Revolutionary War Pensioner of Shaftsbury, Bennington Co., VT

Asahel resided on the western border of Cattaraugus County in the Town of Dayton and many of his descendants are both in the adjoining county of Chautauqua and various other towns in Cattaraugus County.

I will be updating the Aaron HULET family file on the website www.ny-genes.com as soon as possible. The version posted on the website is very abbreviated with vital stats only. I am very happy to trade the full version with copious notes and all sources cited with anyone that connects to this family.

Michigan County Histories online Bonanza!

Hooray!!! I have just discovered that there are 202 volumes of 170 titles of Michigan County Histories available online, fully digitized to allow all word searches!

From the website: "The Michigan County Histories collection is a collaborative effort of Michigan's Council of Library Directors. The collection is projected to provide access to 192 histories dating from 1866 to 1926. There are 202 volumes in 170 titles currently online."

There is a very simple to use search engine that brings up a photo of the actual book pages required. You can search for keywords, phrases, full names, surnames, locations, events, etc. Boolean searches are also allowed. You are also given the proper book description of title, author, publication date, and so on, to be able to cite your sources properly.

This is such an important find for New York State researchers because so many people from New York were involved in the westward migration, and some settled in Michigan for a while on their trek to the west.

I searched for phrases like "white creek", "cambridge, washington", "shaftsbury", "hoosick", etc. and came up with hundreds of hits. This is going to help flesh out the Old Cambridge District collection greatly!

Here is the website: http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/micounty/

Have fun!!! Now if only all states would do this. Hmmm.