New York New York!

I am coming to the realization that all of Phil's family - both Norton and Palmer - were in upstate New York within a 100 mile radius during the 1800s.  Yet the two families didn't come together until Doris Palmer (from Pennsylvania) and Clinton Norton (from Michigan) met at the University of Rochester in the 1950s.  Nearby were the final resting places of their grandparents.  The Palmer side  stretches from Buffalo (where the Pattisons are buried) to Alfred (where the Palmers are buried).  The Nortons can  be found in Geneseo with status as founding pioneers of Groveland.  And just over the line in Pennsylvania we have the Hacketts.

Now I just need to organize my thoughts and research to spend a week or two driving the backroads!  But at least this week I'll be able to get to Geneseo and Temple Hill Cemetery for a visit with Asahel Norton. More picture to come I hope!

Pictures to come!

Finding the Pattison Family!

Sunday was a blur as I sat down to work on our family history.  Immediately I was sucked into a shaky leaf on Ambrose Pattison's name.  There it was - his death date!  All through a connection on www.findagrave.com!  That website has been a treasure trove for me as I can often estimate a birth date through the census. But the death dates have been elusive.  So here we have the marker for Phil's 3rd great-grandfather's family.  I found Jesse Pattison, his wife Zelia and many of their children, including Ambrose.  They are buried at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York.  One exciting piece was seeing the name of a sister to Phil's great-grandmother that we didn't know about.  I am grateful to all those contributors who trudge through the cemeteries, take the photos, upload and carefully record the data.  It was a thrill to find so many ancestors for Phil's grandfather, Nelson Pattison Palmer.