Back in January I put in a 3 hour research request to New England Historic Genealogical Society to find out when and where Elkanah lived after 1800, who his wife was, other children especially girls and when and where he died.
In early March I received a notice that the research had begun and that the research should be completed in early April. The report and documents arrived today.
Research Report Abstract:
Franklin, Vermont probate - no Lathrops listed
Vermont newspapers - Early American Newspapers Series 1 - 3, 1690 - 1922 database - no mention of Elkanah
Connecticut newspapers - Early American Newspapers Series 1 - 3, 1690 - 1922 database - no mention of Elkanah
Since the youngest known children of Elkanah, Hannah and Russell, were both married in Richford, Franklin County, Vermont, it is possible that they lived there after the death of their father. We then searched the town records of Richford to see if they had any additional information of Elkanah. In our search of the index, we found two entries for his son, Russell Lathrop. The second was his marriage to Cynthia Powell on 12 January 1815. Although they were married in 1815, the record stated that Russell was a resident of Swanton at the time of their marriage. Given this, we searched the 1810 US Federal Census returns for Swanton, Franklin County, Vermont, but we did not find any entries for the Lathrop family.
Canadian records:
First we searched a collection of Lower Canada Land Petitions, which are records of the British Crown granting land in Quebec from 1764 to 1841. In our search, we found several entries for the surname Lathrop, however, we did not find any entries for Elkanah. We then searched these records for the surname Lothrop and we found one entry for an Eleana Lothrop.
The original record shows that "Eleana Lothrop" of Vermont was listed as one of the associates of Simon McTavish who was patenting the land. There was also a man named Erastus Lothrop listed next to him. Since we know that Elkanah had a son named Erastus, this is probably a record of your ancestor.
According to the documents, Simon McTavish filed the original petition for the land on 21 September 1795. The petition describes the land as follows:
"North of Stratford, beginning at the southeast most corner of the Township of Weedon, running north-westerly up along the Easternmost boundary of that Township Ten miles, thence, in a direction North Easterly, by a line making a right angle with the first line Ten miles, thence down South Easterly to the North westerly corner of the Township of Stratford Ten miles, & from thence to the first station."Another page in the patent shows that the township was to be called Garthby in Quebec. The present-day name for this township is Beaulac-Garthby and it is located on the banks of Lake Aylmer.
After filing his original petition in 1795, McTavish's application was uncommended (denied). To remedy this, he submitted a list of 39 associates who would purchase and settle the land. All of the associates were from Vermont and both Elkanah and Erastus were among these men. In April of 1796, Simon and a few of the men who were going to settle the land went to survey the property and determine where it was best to settle. After the survey of the land was made, the Crown temporarily suspended their administration of land grants. On 3 March 1800, Simon McTavish wrote a letter to the land administration offices asking them to approve his original petition for land.
On 8 January 1802, a request was made to allow the associates of Simon McTavish to take the oaths required so that they could be granted land and settle there. There was not any further documentation about the settlement of this property, so we cannot know for sure whether or not Elkanah took the oath and settled the land.
We searched a collection of the notarial records of Quebec to see if we could find death information for Elkanah or a potential spouse. We were unable to find any records of Elkanah, but we did find that there was a Lathrop family living in the town of Dudswell in the district of Easton, Quebec. Many of the children of Cyrus and Mercy Lathrop were baptized on 10 October 1841 in the Church of England. This record is interesting because Dudswell is close to the township of Garthby in Quebec [north and east].
We also checked a collection of Non-Catholic parish registers for Quebec, but the collection did not have any registers for the years when Elkanah's other children would have been born.
See transcripts of petitions at: Elkanah Lathrop.
No comments:
Post a Comment