Ties to Sleepy Hollow

The Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow

Remember reading the story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving? It tells the tale of the schoolteacher Ichabod Crane, who came to Sleepy Hollow and disappeared after encountering the headless horseman, a ghost known to ride each night in search of his missing head. Maybe you saw the Disney version, or the more liberally adapted Tim Burton version. Either way, the original is free online at Bartleby.com if you want to revisit the tale!

The location and characters in Irving's story are based in reality - Sleepy Hollow is a village located near the larger community of Tarrytown, New York. The Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow figured prominently in the story, as did the adjacent churchyard, where the horseman was said to tether his horse each night after his ride.

I bring up the topic of the Old Dutch Church because, as it turns out, not only are a few of my ancestors from the Tarrytown area, but records show that they were members of that very church around the same time as the other townspeople who inspired Irving's story.

The Old Dutch Church, now the Reformed Church of the Tarrytowns, is the oldest standing church in New York, and it's very fortunate that its early records were preserved and digitized (check it out for yourself here at Google books). It can be tricky to find information, though, since the original records were written in Dutch, and there was considerable inconsistency in the spelling of names.

Matthys and Maritje Brouwer, my ninth great-grandparents, are listed among the earliest members of the church, along with their son, Samuel, and his wife Grietje. Their grandchildren are all listed in the register of baptisms, among them Johannes, who we also find in the register of marriages, wed to Eliezabeth Canckely (a.k.a. Elizabeth Concklin) on September 2, 1733. Their son, Deliverance (or Leverens), was baptized elsewhere, but reappears in the Old Dutch Church records with the baptism of his daughter, Eva, on April 27, 1762.

There are a few things about Eva, my fifth great-grandmother, that have piqued my interest. It is widely believed that the inspiration for Katrina Van Tassel, Ichabod Crane's love interest in Irving's story, was a woman by the name of Eleanor Van Tassel. Born in 1763, Eleanor was the same age as Eva, so it seems likely they knew each other. In any case, Eva married Edmund Bird, a soldier in the Revolutionary War; their son, Edmund Ranger Bird, is listed as being baptized August 28, 1785 in the Old Dutch Church. Eva was also known as Effie, a name which shows up a few times as my maternal line progresses: her granddaughter, Effie Linda (Bird) Taylor, bore the name, as did her daughter, Mary Effie (Taylor) Green, who is my great-great-grandmother.

The last tie to Sleepy Hollow that I can't resist speculating about is the character of Old Brouwer, who is described as "a most heretical disbeliever in ghosts" who does an about-face when he encounters the headless horseman one night. I can't help but wonder if he's inspired by one of our own ancestors!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Scanning Update

After last night's batch of scanning photos I thought I'd post a tally of my progress so far... 377 scans! Some of these are scans of documents, or the back of a photo that has a lot of writing on it, but that is still well over 300 photos. And that barely makes a dent in the pile.

I've been sorting the photos I scan as I go, using archival (acid-free and lignin-free) file folders, with acid-free paper separating each photo so they do not fade. These are then labelled and filed in small, easy to manage paper storage boxes which are about half the size of standard banker boxes.

Here are a few of the results! In the upper left is my grandmother Margaret (Green) Livingstone, her younger brother Harold and her father Ralph. In the upper right is my great-great-great-grandmother Harriet (Shuler) Redmond. Below is my great-grandmother, Laura (Smith) Livingstone, with three of her children: Mae, Laura, and Jack, my grandfather.

The Livingstones in England

John and Harriet Livingstone, 1871.

Today I received this in the mail - a certified copy of my great-great-grandparents' marriage record, straight from the General Register Office of England. The Livingstone branch of my family tree is a relatively short one, barely reaching the beginning of the 19th century, so it's exciting to find facts that can extend it a little more. That was the case with this record.

I already knew a few basics about John and Harriet Livingstone, who migrated to the U.S. in 1900 with six of their children, settling in Detroit. Census records show he was a tailor, originally born in Scotland; she was born in England; they were married in 1871. The picture below was taken within a few years of their arrival in the U.S., based on my great-grandfather's age (he was born in 1890, and is standing at the far left of the photo, eleven or twelve years old is my guess).

Seated: John and Harriet Livingstone.
Standing: John, Elizabeth, Harriet, Eleanor, Florence, and James Livingstone.

Confirming a few details, the document lists John and Harriet's ages, Harriet's maiden name of Smith, and John's profession as a tailor. Marriage records at the time included the bride and groom's fathers and profession, so I found that John's father (also John) was a carpenter, and Harriet's father, Joseph Smith, was a silversmith. Other assorted details provide their addresses in Birmingham (John lived at Albion Street, Harriet at Helena Street), names of the witnesses, Samuel David Livingstone (a cousin or brother?) and Sarah Starkey, and the church where they were married: the parish church of All Saints in Birmingham, Warwick. From a quick internet search (here), it looks like the All Saints Church itself no longer stands. Harriet's profession was listed as well, "machinist," which led me to wonder what exactly that meant in 1870s England. Research for another day, I think!

Learning that Harriet's father was a silversmith led me off on a bit of a tangent, albeit an interesting one. Using this new info to search census records, I found a likely match in the 1861 census: Joseph and Harriet Smith, and their daughter, Harriet Elizabeth, whose age matched perfectly. His occupation is listed as "Manufacturer of Electro Plated Wares." It turns out that the electroplating first took off as an industry in Birmingham. So, while not exactly the same profession, the industries were close enough that a transition from one to another sometime between 1861 and 1871 wouldn't be unusual. Another find: the Joseph Smith & Sons building in the jewelry quarter of Birmingham, as well as information about the hallmarks used by silversmiths in Birmingham at the time. So are these jewelers part of our family? Maybe!

USS Barnes Cruise Book

USS Barnes 1943-45

One of the more exciting things for me in researching family history is when I come across new documents that are not already part of the collection passed down in our family. One of the first I came across a few months ago is a cruise book for the USS Barnes, the carrier my grandfather, John Livingstone, served on during World War II. I likely would not have found this anytime soon if it weren't for the internet - it is held at the Navy Department Library in Washington, D.C., but its pages have been scanned to make it available at Ancestry.com.

Cruise books were a common publication produced after a deployment, similar to a school yearbook, and included photos of the crew and information about the ship's time at sea. This one in particular is about 80 pages and includes candid photos that document everything from the ship's commissioning ceremony to sailors relaxing on-board, group portraits of every department, as well as information like the ship's log. I was able to see that the dates when the ship returned to San Diego, where my grandmother lived while my grandfather was at sea. The best part of discovering this book, though, was the photo of the engineering department, with my grandfather seated right in front (below, second from the left)!

Engineering Department

Ship's Log

Highlights of the USS Barnes

The Beginning

Jack and Peggy Livingstone

Everything must have a beginning, and so this is mine. What started as casual curiosity about my family tree has grown into an ambitious project that will span years to come, and may never be fully complete! This is primarily a blog to document my progress as I research my own ancestors and digitize hundreds of photographs and papers that have been entrusted to me. I am also researching the genealogy of other members of my family, so my posts will probably touch on those topics as well.

There a few primary tools worth mentioning that I use regularly. For organizing my family tree I use Ancestry.com as well as the Family Tree Maker software published by the same company. I scan photos on an Epson Perfection V750-M Pro, and use Photoshop for editing the images - but I'll reserve anything more technical than that for future posts!

Pictured here are my maternal grandparents, Jack and Peggy Livingstone, who passed away in 2001 and 1996 respectively. I was fortunate to know them for many years and have countless fond memories of them, but I wish my interest in family history had developed while they were still living. I will always regret the missed opportunities to ask them about their past and their own memories. Happily, there are many letters and other first-person accounts among the materials I have access to, and of course there is a wealth of information available online. Piecing together the past is certainly a puzzle and a challenge, but one I look forward to meeting head on!