Pending Orders

Below is the list of records not available online that were ordered and not yet fulfilled.

More items were ordered since the last published list on January 21, 2024.

Service Record and Application for Bounty Land of Jonas Long, War of 1812

Requested from CivilWarRecords.com on February 12, 2024.

$55 via credit card online.

Death certificate of James Cummings, 1912

Requested of the New York State Department of Health. Form DOH-4384 mailed February 9, 2024.

$22 check.

Death certificate of Jane Cummings, 1899

Requested of the New York State Department of Health. Form DOH-4384 mailed February 9, 2024.

$22 check.

Death certificate of John Grant, 1882

Requested of the New York State Department of Health. Form DOH-4384 mailed February 9, 2024.

$22 check.

Death certificate of Beryl Nanejian, 1989

Requested from the State of California. Form VS 112 mailed January 19, 2024.

$24 check cleared February 8, 2024. Confirmation email received February 7, 2024.

Probate records of Jonas Long, 1837, and William Owens, 1853

Requested of the Richmond County, New York Surrogate's Court. Email dated June 25, 2023.

No fee at this time.

Social Security Earning Information of Jeannette ODonnell, 1937 through 1993

Requested of the Social Security Administration. Form SSA-7050-FR mailed June 2, 2023.

$100 check cleared October 26, 2023.

Death certificate of Mollie Schwartz, 1925

Requested from City of Bridgeport and State of Connecticut. Forms VS-39DST mailed April 6, 2023. (Same form number on both town and state forms.)

$20 each via money orders.

Death certificate of Edward Sheeby [Edmond Sheehy], 1893

Requested of the New York State Department of Health. Form DOH-4384 mailed March 1, 2022.

$22 check cleared April 2, 2022.

Originally requested in 2015.

Town of Amenia provided an obscure ledger entry in 2023.

Tail: Imlay and welcome Taylor

When I can't find discover someone's parents in my family tree, I call this a "tail."  Someone gave me this term to use instead of "brick wall."

A DNA connection turned up at 23andMe with Imlay of Monmouth County, New Jersey in his family.  I needed more on my Imlay line because mine stopped in the 1800s.  I need to travel back into the 1700s to make the DNA connection.

Ellen (or Eleanor) Euphamy Imlay was the Imlay tail.  She was one of my 4X great grandmothers.  She was married to William Walling (1804-1870) and lived her life in Monmouth County, New Jersey.  She died in 1895 in Keyport/Raritan Township in Monmouth County at age 87.  Her parents were listed as Elisha Imlay and Ellen Imlay.

Through the Red Bank Register newspaper archives (available free) I found a brother of Ellen, Joseph Imlay.

Joseph Imlay's death certificate listed his parents as John E Imlay and Eleanor Imlay.  Pretty close to Ellen's parents:  Elisha and Ellen.

FamilySearch has many (free) New Jersey resources, such as marriages recorded at the county level.  There is a marriage in Monmouth County for Elisha Imlay to Eleanor Taylor, 25 April 1802.  They fit as parents of Ellen and Joseph Imlay.

Imlay is a popular name in Monmouth County and is going to require quite a bit of sorting.  For the moment, I was luckier with Taylor.  The Monmouth County USGenWeb featured a transcription of a book, "Historical and Genealogical Miscellany," by John Stillwell.  There was quite a bit on Taylors of Monmouth County.

Of special interest was a blurb about two wills:
---George Taylor Senior, probated in 1835, mentioning that the children of his daughter, Eleanor Embly, would receive her share.

---James G. Taylor, probated in 1836, mentioning Joseph Imlay, son of Eleanor- James' sister.

Although this transcription of a transcription seemed to have the information to help me trace back two more Taylor generations, I could not rely on it as a source.  I could use it to get closer to the original source- the wills.  Again, FamilySearch makes available (for free) New Jersey surrogate records (except Morris County).  The wills (actually first transcriptions of the wills) and related court documents contain far more information and names than the book summaries, which is another reason to always get as close to the original record as possible.

Will of George Taylor Senior, written and probated in 1835 in Monmouth County, New Jersey
FamilySearch.org

George Taylor named a daughter, Eleanor Embly, in his will, but left her share of his estate to her children, who are not named.  Embly could be Imlay, but I need more to make a firmer connection.  This pattern of inheritance suggests that Eleanor Embly/Imlay was dead at the time the will was written.  Fortunately for research purposes 180 years later, George Taylor had many more children and he named them in his will.  This makes James G Taylor, whose will was probated one year later, likely to be a son of George Taylor.

James G. Taylor, will probated in 1836 in Monmouth County, New Jersey
FamilySearch.org

The will of James G. Taylor was probated in Monmouth County in 1836, one year after George Taylor Senior's will.  James' siblings are the children of George Taylor in the previous will.  Eleanor Embly became Elenor Imley, which is closer to Imlay.  But more importantly, her children were named, and they match what I already traced, that Eleanor's son was Joseph Imlay and her daughter was Eleanor Euphamy, who married William Walling.

So I now have parents for Eleanor Euphamy Imlay:  John Elisha Imlay and Eleanor Taylor.  TAYLOR is a new ancestral surname for me!

And I have to get back to John Elisha Imlay, for he is my new Imlay tail.

1.  George Taylor (d 1835)
     2.  James G Taylor (d 1836)
     2.  Eleanor Taylor (d before 1835) married (1802) John Elisha Imlay
           3.  Eleanor Euphamy Imlay (d 1895) married William Walling
           3.  Joseph Imlay (d 1894) married Martha Roberts

Killed by Death

Abraham Lent Brewer was born in 1826 in Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to James Brewer and Mary Lent.  His sister, Rene Brewer, was my 4X great grandmother.  Abraham married Fannie Duryea.  She was a sister of Stephen Duryea, my 3X great grandfather.  (We'll save that story for another day.)

Because Abraham predeceased his wife, Fannie, their entire estate passed to her family, which helped me immensely in identifying her siblings and their children.  [This is why you need to follow siblings and not just your direct line!]  In researching this couple, I discovered that Abraham Brewer was the source of the naming of the Brewer Fire Engine Company of the Monsey Fire Department.

Yet the exact dates of death for Abraham and Fannie eluded me.

They died within hours of each other in April of 1901, according to newspaper articles.

Their gravestone at Brick Church Cemetery in Spring Valley, Rockland County, New York, listed the year of death, 1901, without a month and day.  Only the International Genealogical Index ("IGI") gave a month and day:  April 28.  Below are copies of the actual paper submissions that the IGI is based upon.  Sources are not provided!

Family Group Sheet submitted for IGI
Abraham Lent Brewer- "died 28 Apr 1901"

Family Group Record for Abraham Lent Brewer, his parents, and some siblings

Today's online version of the IGI
FamilySearch.org

I ordered the death certificate for Abraham Brewer from the New York State Department of Health.  In return I received the death certificate for Fannie Brewer, his wife, with a date of death April 28, 1901 at 3 am.  This is the same date in the IGI for Abraham's death.  If the date in the IGI were correct, Abraham would have died between midnight and 3 am on April 28th in order for Fannie to have survived him, enabling her family to collect the entire estate.

New York State death certificate for Fanny M Brewer, died April 28, 1901 in Ramapo, Rockland County.

When I was in Albany, New York last year, I checked the index of deaths myself and took another shot at ordering Abraham Brewer's death certificate.  (Unlike neighboring New Jersey records, you cannot search yourself for the certificates.)  After several months, the death certificate arrived.  His date of death as per the death certificate is April 27, 1901 at 3 pm.

New York State death certificate for Abram L Brewer, died April 27, 1901 in Ramapo, Rockland County.

Now that we have Abraham Brewer's death certificate, we can form a picture of what happened, using the newspaper articles.  Abraham died in the afternoon of April 27th.  After caring for him for at least a week, his wife, Fanny, retired to her bed and died.  Her 3 am time of death is probably an estimate after neighbors checked on her the following morning and found her dead, but reflects that the deaths were within hours of each other.  Their deaths were not on the same day/date, but rather within the same 24 hour timeframe.

The date in the IGI is incorrect by one day and further illustrates why you should be leery of certain databases as well as all unsourced information.

Finding Parents

The Wallings of Monmouth County, New Jersey are an interwoven bunch that I am trying to sort.  Of particular interest at this point is proving the parentage of William Walling, who died in 1870 (the second entry in the Estate Index below).  The Monmouth County Genealogy Society publishes a newsletter, The Monmouth Connection.  The September 2012 Newsletter provided a transcribed will for William Walling, written in 1823 and proved in 1824.  I looked for the original will at Family Search in the New Jersey Probate collection.  The digitized collection is not named-indexed yet, so you need to browse through the images to locate a usable index.




Estate Index for Monmouth County, New Jersey.
I am sorting the Wallings.  William was a popular name among the Wallings of Monmouth County.
The first entry is the transcribed will that I noticed in The Monmouth Connection.



Proceedings Index.
William Walling, 1824, is file number 27096 from the Estate Index.
His will is in Volume B, page 396.
Monmouth County, New Jersey

Will of William Walling, signed 3 December 1823, Volume B, page 396.
Monmouth County, New Jersey.

From the will, we learn that this William Walling had a wife named Rebecca.  He had children under the age of 21 and he had at least three sons whom he named as executors: Isaac, Amos, and William.  It is possible that this William Walling (died 1824) and Rebecca were the parents of William Walling who died in 1870.  We need more records before we can be certain.

The transcribed wills in The Monmouth Connection contained additional numbers not in the Surrogate's index.  William Walling's will was number 9571M.  I browsed through other images of wills organized by number and not volume and located the original will and inventory.



Will and Inventory filed as 9571M
Monmouth County, New Jersey



Inventory of property of William Walling in 1824.
He had $16 in cash and an assortment of household items.
His most valuable asset was firewood.



Accounts owing to William Walling 1824
Several of these people are related in more than one way.

New Jersey Probate Records Online

Family Search has just offered New Jersey probate records- over 3 million images.  Dates range from the late 1600s through the 1900s.  I am going to be very busy!  The records on this site are free and are the digitized versions of the microfilm rolls that you can order through a FamilySearch Center.  Types of records include wills, accountings, and guardianships.  To use the probate records, you need to use the indexes on the film as created by the Surrogate's Court.  The site is actively indexing its holdings and you can volunteer to help index.

You may discover dates of death from these records along with heirs at law (if no will/will rejected) or the people/family to whome the testator devised the estate.  Guardianship proceedings are also informative because all minor children should be named.  The surviving parent did not automatically receive custody of the children, hence the guardianship records.

The records are organized by county.  Keep in mind two things when you search for probate records.  First, boundaries of counties changed over the years and new counties were carved from existing counties.  If you know the name of the town (which also may have changed) where your family lived, you should be able to identify which county to search within a range of years.

The map on the right represents the 21 modern counties of New Jersey.  [Credit Geology.com.]
The map on the right is from circa 1826.  [Rutgers Special Collection]

The second point to keep in mind when searching for probate records is that the will or estate did not necessarily have to be probated in the county where the deceased lived.  The proceedings may be in a neighboring county or in the county where the real property (land/houses) was located.  This could result in probate proceedings in more than one county or even state, so read the records carefully for references to other proceedings.

Page from the Surrogate's Docket Index of Essex County, New Jersey
You may have to play around with the numbers until you find the corresponding documents.



Docket #17226 turned out to be a guardianship proceeding for the minor children of Charlotte Uhl,
awarding her guardianship of her own children after her husband died.

Kings County, New York Wills 1866-1923 online

I continue to be amazed by the growing collection of original records over at Family Search.  Original and indexed probate records for wills are available for Kings County, New York, for the years 1866-1923.  You can't beat free and online original records, so if you have any lines with any connections to Brooklyn, you best run the names through the search.

Documents accompanying the will can include a date of death.  If you are unable to easily locate a death certificate, probate records are another source to try to uncover a date of death.  Remember that a date of death recorded on a death certificate is a primary source, while a date of death recorded in the estate file is secondary information at the most.

I used this resource in hopes of uncovering more information about a pair of siblings, Mary and George Hawkins, born in the late 1880s in Brooklyn.  Fortunately, all four of their grandparents have records in this collection.  Their maternal grandparents, Georgianna and Smith Nostrand, could be considered collateral lines, but I find such lines to be worth researching for at least a few generations.  Georgianna's records were most interesting.  We were provided with a date of death of 15 May 1917, which will greatly assist in locating a death certificate and obituary.  The witnesses to the will were what intrigued me.  Marguerite Stewart, formerly Hawkins, was one witness.  This provided a married name and made Marguerite easier to trace.  The other witness was Walter Phelps.  He was a cousin of Marguerite, but on the Hawkins side, not the Nostrand side.  So why did Walter bear witness?  We do not know.  He may have simply been available when Georgianna was creating her will.  Or his signature could indicate a deeper relationship among these families that has not yet been uncovered.  It is something to bear in mind as research continues on these lines.

Portion of estate papers of Georgianna Nostrand, 1917.

1900 federal census
Georgianna and Smith Nostrand with their daughter and her family
914 Greene Avenue, Brooklyn

Miniature family tree diagram illustrating relationship between testator, Georgianna Nostrand,
and witnesses, Walter Phelps and Marguerite Hawkins

Divorce

If your research leads you to suspect a divorce, look for the divorce record.  Herman Lutter and Clara Uhl were married in Newark, New Jersey in January of 1888.  They are not found living together as a couple in the 1900, 1910, or 1920 census.  I suspected that the couple may have divorced because Herman married Emma Neubauer in Newark in March of 1915.  The marriage certificate lists Herman as divorced.

Divorces in the late 1800s in New Jersey were heard in the Chancery Court.  The records for a divorce may be in a few locations with no clear dividing points.

Description of holdings for divorces at the website for the New Jersey Archives.

The Archives in Trenton carries microfilm of the docket for some years of cases heard in Chancery, so I started there.  I found proceedings for Lutter versus Lutter for 1894 and 1895.  I was told that the records for these years are held by the manuscripts room at the Archives, but off site.  I placed an order for copies and about ten days later, I had copies of the divorce proceedings.

There are few details provided in the record, such as the marriage date and place, that I already had.  I discovered the cause of action, desertion of Herman by Clara, not even ten months into the marriage.

You may need to read what is not there.  The marriage ended very quickly.  You also need to gather any other documents that you can find.  There is no mention of a child in these divorce proceedings, but Clara filed a delayed birth certificate for a child in 1935, claiming a birth date of June 1889.

Filing a delayed birth certificate, especially in the mid to late 1930s, is common because of the Social Security Act.  While we should not necessarily read into Clara's not filing for a birth certificate at the time of the birth, we have more of a prospective on Clara's circumstances in 1888.  She left her marital home and returned to her mother when she was newly pregnant.  She may or may not have known about the pregnancy, but that is the timing of the events.

Herman acknowledged his son in his will, dated 1923, leaving him $5.  (Not a large sum of money then or now.)

Three Hours

Fannie Duryea and Abraham Lent Brewer were married in the 1840s and had no known children.  They lived in New York City and then Rockland County, New York.  They both died in 1901.  Fannie left her estate to Abraham, but he died before she wrote a new will, so her estate passed intestate to her surviving sister and nieces and nephews.  The disposition of her estate solidified many of these suspected family lines.

I recently discovered that Abraham founded a fire department in Monsey, New York.  (You can read the post here.)  In spite of his local fame because of his contributions, I have yet to find an obituary for Abraham.  I decided to widen my search and found a notice of the deaths of Abraham and Fannie- in Georgia of all places.  They have no connection to Georgia, so I never thought to look there for information.

The Augusta Chronicle, Augusta, Georgia, 1 May 1901, page 4.
Retrieved from genealogybank.com.

Fannie died at 3 a.m. on 28 April 1901.  If Abraham died before her, but on the same day, he had only a three hour time span.  This quirk enabled me, one hundred years later, to map out her family lines.  Had Abraham died just a few hours later, I may still not have such a clear mapping of Fannie's lines.

Certificate and Record of Death for Fannie M. Brewer,
died 28 April 1901 in Ramapo, Rockland County, New York.

Even on Fannie's death certificate, she is listed as widowed.  I never suspected she was a widow for only a few hours.

Following Daughters

Louise and Charles Lutter were parents of five known children- all daughters.  This could spell disaster for tracing this family, as women of the late 1800s tended to marry and change their last names.

1880 federal census, 52 Belmont Avenue, Newark, Essex County, New Jersey
ED 81, page 15, enumerated 3 June 1880

Fortunately, all of these sisters and their children can be traced with little difficulty.  In his 1920 will, their father lists each of them by their married names.

Will of Charles Lutter, proved 12 January 1921 in Essex County, New Jersey

When you get stuck trying to trace the life of one sibling, switch to another sibling.  Sometimes siblings are living in the same house or on the same block.

1900 federal census, 342 Camden Street, Newark, Essex County, New Jersey
ED 132, page 2A, enumerated 8 June 1900

Getting Closer

A small newspaper blip about the will of Herman Lutter led me to find his actual will, filed in Monmouth County, at the Archives in Trenton.  The article referred to "the three children of his sister who lives in Germany."  I wanted names and a location.  I found them in the will.

Red Bank Register, 23 July 1924

Will of Herman Lutter, proved 16 July 1924 in Monmouth County, New Jersey

The newspaper provided a few details.  It is best to get as close to the original source as possible; in this case, the actual will.  Herman Lutter's will names his deceased sister, Ottillia, as well as her three children: Paul, Edeline, and Anna Michel.  I also received confirmation that I need to be looking in Thueringen for records.

Add Another Branch

Still perplexed about the birthplace of Herman Lutter, I decided to give the online Red Bank Register another try.  Herman died in Wall in Monmouth County, New Jersey.  The Red Bank register carried a notice of his pending divorce in December of 1923, citing a Spring Lake residence.  Previous searches turned up results mostly for the word "latter" or for ads of farm-fresh butter.  Today I lucked out.

Red Bank Register (Monmouth County, New Jersey)
23 July 1924  page 1

His will was probably probated in Monmouth.  His name is absent from the probate index in Essex County.  I do not know at this time if he and Emma divorced.  The notice of their pending divorce appeared in December of 1923; according to the above article, Herman wrote his will in June of last year [1923], which would have been before the divorce action.

So now I know that Herman was not an only child.  He had a sister with three children in Germany, as well as a brother, Otto, here in New Jersey.  A preliminary search of my own records shows that Otto appeared once in the Newark city directories in 1893; occupation blacksmith; residing at 36 Beacon.  He died Sunday, 11 July 1909, aged 64 years; leaving behind a widow, Martha.  Their address was 513 Middlesex in Harrison.  The notice of death appeared in the Newark Evening News on 12 July 1909.  He was buried at Woodland Cemetery in Newark in section 69; no tombstone exists; the undertaker was Schott.  I have all of this information already because I collected whatever information I could find on any Lutters in Newark.

Otto and Martha seemed to have only one child who survived to adulthood:  Augusta or Gussie.  She married James Kittson.  I have found only one child of hers, a son named James Kittson, born around 1920.  I need to find out what happened to this Kittson family.

I also need to get copies of the actual will and related estate papers.  This is very exciting to finally find more family for Herman.  But the witness to his 1888 marriage to Clara Uhl still looks like Alex Lutter.  Who was he?

According to Herman's death certificate, he was buried at Fairmount Cemetery in Newark, but no records of such a burial have been located.  No gravestone, never mind one costing at least $600, has been located for Herman.

Forgotten branch?

One of the pursuits in genealogy is to assemble all of the children of a couple.  Only heads of household are listed in census years before 1850.  If the children left the nest before the 1850 census, you will need to assemble the family piece by piece.

Garret Duryea and Ann Cornell had lots of children.  I started with three siblings- Fannie, Stephen, and George- and then incorporated the parents.  The children seemed to be born in New York- Long Island or New York City- starting around 1810 and complete by 1834, when Garret died.  My theoretical fourth sibling, John, died in 1836, leaving behind a pregnant wife, Sarah, and a daughter, Catherine Jane, information obtained from his will.



Will of John H. Duryea, probated 1836 in New York City



I found a big piece of the puzzle when I received the estate papers of Fannie Duryea, widow of Abraham Brewer.  She died intestate in 1901 in Rockland County, New York.  Her estate was divided among her surviving sibling and the children of her deceased siblings.  I found previously unknown siblings, Jacob, Mary, and Sarah, and confirmed that Stephen and George were indeed brothers to each other and Fannie as originally theorized.  The problem was that John’s child or children were not mentioned in the estate papers.

John’s widow was last seen in the 1848-49 New York City directory for a “fancy store.”  Had she given birth in 1836, and did that child survive?  What about Catherine Jane?  She may have died or remarried just before the 1850 census, precluding me from finding her intact family.



Doggett's New York City Directory 1848-1849, page 135



Following Stephen Duryea’s death in 1887, his widow, Mary, remarried in Jersey City in 1890 to Alfred D. Eyre (this scenario is a separate blog post to come).  The witnesses were Mrs. Kate Lockwood and H. A. Lockwood.

Always research the witnesses to a marriage.  By looking at their entries in the census and the Jersey City city directories, I discovered that Mrs. Kate Lockwood was actually the Catherine Jane Duryea mentioned in her father’s will in 1836; Harry Abram Lockwood was her husband.  By figuring this out, I was able to find her mother, Sarah, who had remarried to Joseph L. Scott; and the baby that Sarah was pregnant with in the 1836 will- Elizabeth Duryea, who had married Joseph Henley and had children.

Yet you will not find a marriage record for Catherine or Kate Duryea to Harry Abram Lockwood.  This is because she married in 1869 as Kate Leander, widow.  Her mother is listed as Sarah M. Scott, not her maiden name, Moffet, and nowhere is Duryea mentioned.

What is puzzling about this branch is that it is left out of Fannie Brewer’s 1901 estate disbursement.  As I previously wrote, I visited the plot for this branch at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn; however, the death dates of Sarah and her two daughters are not on the stone or on the burial transcript.  Kate and Harry Abram Lockwood are last seen in the 1900 census in Jersey City.  I do not know if Kate and Elizabeth died before their aunt Fannie died in 1901.  I do know that Elizabeth had at least one child, Augustus B. Henley, who was alive in 1901.  According to his gravestone, he died in 1931.  I initially thought that the family forgot about John, as he was probably one of the earlier siblings, dead in 1836 when several of the other siblings were still very little and could never remember him.  But the presence of Kate Lockwood’s signature on the 1890 marriage of Mary Duryea to Alfred D. Eyre shows that the family did know about John’s children and their whereabouts.

So why did the children of John Duryea, Fannie’s deceased brother, not inherit from her estate in 1901?  I do not know.  Still more searching to do.

Road Trip: Pound Ridge, New York

Stephen C. Duryea died 27 April 1887, according to his gravestone at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Tarrytown, Westchester County, New York.  I have copies of his probate records from Westchester County, mentioning his wife and surviving children with no surprises.

I cannot find his death certificate or an obituary.

I was recently in White Plains, so I headed over to Bedford and Pound Ridge.  Stephen's 1870 census had him in Pound Ridge, post office Bedford; while his last census entry in 1880 had him in Pound Ridge.  I ended up at the Pound Ridge Library.  They were quite helpful and directed me to a book called God's County, A History of Pound Ridge, New York by Jay Harris.

There was mention of Stephen C. Duryea owning property.  I found his parcel on a map from the 1870s.  I knew that he had purchased land in Pound Ridge from his probate records and from deed conveyances online at the Office of the Westchester County Clerk.

A search of this website does not show that Stephen C. Duryea sold these lands.  A map in God's Country from 1908 showed Mrs. Eyres on this plot.  Stephen's widow, Mary, had remarried Alfred D. Eyre.  So she owned the land at least until 1908.  I drove to the area, but without house numbers, I could not definitely find the correct piece of land.  I did find a lovely seen that I'd like to imagine they saw every summer.

Back home on the computer, I researched the deed conveyances again, this time for Eyre.  She sold the land in 1910.  Although the name was Eyre, formerly Duryea, the online index only picked up Eyre.

That explains what happened to the property in Pound Ridge.  I still need to find Stephen's death certificate.

Researching in Morris County, New Jersey

On Friday I did some research in Morris County, New Jersey on the Cook family.  So far, my tree for these Cooks reaches back to the couple Stephen Cook and Eliza Vandroof, both born around 1800.  I am hoping to find more children of this couple and to find out how they relate to the other Cooks of Morris County for this time period.

I visited the Morris County Courthouse, Surrogate's Office.  I was allowed to search the computer and retrieve the microfiche myself, which I think is great.  (If you aren't too computer savvy, or can't read the little microfiche labels, you may not find this conducive.)  I was told that the computer index starts around 1804.  The index is available online here, which is fantastic.  If you search for Stephen Cook, you will find the entry for his probate case in 1845.  This search will not turn up the will of his son, Stephen B. Cook, in 1843, unless you type in the B.  You can also just search for a last name and wade through the results, which is a more thorough way of searching.

These two men were not the Stephen Cook that I was looking for.  That's okay.  The wills provide me with names and relations, which I need to distinguish these Stephen Cooks from the Stephen Cook that I am looking for.



Will of Stephen Cook, probated in Morris County, 18 March 1845, Book F, page 42



The computer index is not necessarily accurate for the records of the 1800s.  The original index is at the beginning of the microfiche set for the older libers, or books.  The nominal fee for photocopies decreases after twenty copies, so you are encouraged to gather as much info as you can.  At least that was my interpretation.

Next I headed over to the Morris County Library in Whippany to explore their genealogical resources.  They have files on some families.  The Tuttle/Tuthill file contained dozens of hand-typed notes about the history of the Tuttle family, painstakingly assembled by someone before the computer age.  They are worth a look.  I don't know if they have been preserved elsewhere, but I hope so.

It's great to just be able to look around and see what you can find.  I came across a microfilm of Morris County Marriages.  This is a collection of marriages starting around 1795, or Book A, with a hand-written index.

Here is the marriage of Stephen Cook to Eliza Vandroof:



Morris County Marriages, Book B, page 83


Difficult to read and no parents listed, but this is what you need to find and copy for your records when researching.  You can find this marriage listed at pilot.familysearch.org.  That's nice, but it's not a reliable source.  The info on this website looks clean cut, all typed and everything, but without additional legwork on your part, the info is not worth much.  Who typed it?  From what?  Each time info crosses hands, it can be modified.  Don't rely on non-original records for your research.



pilot.familysearch.org search results for Eliza Vandroof