The Newcombs in America

Death Certificates

2023-04-10T10:03:00.000-07:00

Death certificates are an important source of information. They tell us when, where, and how a person died. In theory, death certificates may also tell the person's birth date and who their parents were. Some include additional information, such as occupation and spouse's name.

It is important to remember that this information was probably not provided by the deceased person. The person providing the information, known as the informant, is often named on the certificate. Typically, the informant is someone who knew the deceased well: a spouse or child. Sometimes a friend or neighbor does the job. If the deceased is extremely old or far from home, there may not be a good informant available, and the person completing the certificate has to rely on medical records (if they exist) or guesses. Many times, spaces on death certificates are filled with "unknown".

Even semmingly reliable informants are prone to mistakes. Children are sometimes mistaken about a parent's year of birth, and in many cases the child or spouse doesn't know the names of the deceased's parents. Worse yet, they may think they know something they don't really know. I have seen certificates where the "mother's maiden name" was actually her married name from a previous husband. Often, stepparents are listed instead of birth parents.

My uncle's name was Ted Burrell, and his father's name was Paul Burrell. His parents divorced when he was very small, and he never knew his father. His mother subsequently remarried. Ted died at age 45. His mother was the informant for his death crtificate. When asked his father's name, she said, "George". George Smith was her husband, Ted's stepfather. However, the name George on the death certificate led some researchers to believe Ted's father was George Burrell (a person who didn't exist).

When looking at a death certificate, it's helpful to know who the informant was. Unfortunately, even a seemingly reliable informant, like Ted's mother, can make innocent mistakes. I try to compare the information on the certificate to other information I already have, such as military records, census information, or a birth certificate.

.

The Saga Never Ends

2023-03-03T10:41:00.000-08:00

In 1874, John Bearse Newcomb (JBN) published Genealogical Memoir of the Newcomb Family. His goal was to document "nearly every person of the name in America from 1635 to 1874". He found a lot of people, but, of course, there were many he missed. Without computers or telephones, he had to rely on whatever public records were accessible at the time, along with correspondence and interviews with informants whose memories, spelling, and pronunciation were not always ideal. Nevertheless, his achievement was impressive. It became the foundation for most Newcomb research.

JBN identified three major lines of Newcombs, each from an English immigrant ancestor. These were Andrew (1616-1686), Frances (1605-1692), and Baptist (1640-1693). The Andrew line was, and still is, the largest by far. There are a few smaller lines, also English, quite a few who originate in Germany or Switzerland, and many Newcombs whose origin is unidentified.

In 1923, Bethuel Merritt Newcomb (BMN) published Andrew Newcomb and His Descendants: A Revised Edition of "Genealogical Memoir" of the Newcomb Family by John Bearse Newcomb. As the title indicates, BMN restricted himself to the Andrew line. Half a century after the original work, the number of Newcombs in America had multiplied to such an extent that updating them all would likely have been impossible without resources BMN did not have, such as a large staff of researchers and the Internet, which would not be available to the general public for another 50 years.

Naturally, JBN and BMN made mistakes. They someimes conflated people with similar names, and were occasionally led astray by false assumptions, bad handwriting, or the distorted memories of informants.

Today, computerized archives of historical information have made genealogical research much easier than it once was. Unfortunately, online genealogy has also been complicated by the proliferation of bad information, which is often perpetuated more readily than accurate information. Even so, it has been possible for today's researchers to continue correcting and adding to the work of our predecessors, and we know more than ever about the Newcombs and their connected families.

I used to think I would publish an updated history of the Andrew line, but I recently realized that all the material I have would fill a 3000-page book. I'm not going to do it. It is possible that at some point I will publish a less ambitious work, containing only my direct line. In the meantime, I have continued to make my research available to others by posting family trees in online forums.

John Bearse Newcomb 1824-1897

2023-01-17T11:55:00.004-08:00

I've noticed that many careless researchers think that any man named John Newcomb is John Bearse Newcomb. This error is often combined with other incorrect information. I wonder sometimes if these people are really so careless, or if some are just deliberately lying to create confusion.

JBN, as many of us call him, was the author of A Genealogical Memoir of the Newcomb Family, published in 1874. He was born in 1824, the son of Obadiah Newcomb (1798-1840) and Molly Bearse (1795-1840). JBN married Arethusa Gould in 1850. Their son Andrew died the day he was born, and their daughter Foneta died unmarried at age 22. JBN has no descendants!

JBN's goal was to document every Newcomb in America. He couldn't do it. His work was amazing, but without access to the resources we have today, he missed a lot of people (as we still do), and occasionally made errors in identification. Nevertheless, his book is the best starting point for Newcomb researchers.

In 1923, JBN's distant cousin, Bethuel Merritt Newcomb (BMN), published an update to the genealogy, Andrew Newcomb and His Descendants. As the title indicates, BMN wasn't looking for every possible Newcomb, just the descendants of his own ancestor, Captain Andrew Newcomb. BMN was able to bring the work into the 20th century.

No More Comments

2022-03-02T14:17:00.001-08:00

Due to a flood of bizarre spam, I have had to disable commenting for a while.

Unreliable Sources

2020-12-16T16:14:00.005-08:00

I've been a member of Ancestry .com for years. It's a great source of information, via the many collections of records that have been digitized and made available for online reasearch.

However, not all records are equally good. As discussed previously, errors often creep into official records. Particularly faulty, it seems, are unofficial records. Ancestry allows users to upload their own family trees and share them with other members. Unfortunately, these trees are often filled with misinformation, lies, and fantasies. I limit my use of these trees to the records that are sourced, and then I check the source myself. Without a source, it seems that many of the people creating these trees are just inventing things.

Reliable Sources

2020-11-11T17:46:00.002-08:00

We tend to believe that certain sources of information are final authorities. Birth certificates, tombstones, newspaper announcements, "official" records of all kinds -- these seem accurate. Yet we often find contradictions and strange inaccuracies in these records. Why?

Misunderstandings

Most of us have had the experience of ordering food in a restaurant, only to get something different from what we were expecting. We don't always hear what other people think they are saying. This happens, not just in noisy restaurants, but in busy offices and everywhere people are trying to convey information to each other.

For example, my Aunt Ruth was born at home on 11 September 1900. Her father walked into town a couple of days later to officially report the birth to the County Clerk. The day he made the report was September 15, and that was the date that was put on her birth certificate. For the rest of her life, Ruth was annoyed by inaccurate, yet "official" information, despite her efforts to get the record corrected. Eighty-six years later, the Social Security Death Index included that wrong birth date, and of course it still appears in various databases derived from official records.

Bad Memory

Most people think they have accurate memories, but study after study has demonstrated that we don't remember things as well as we think we do. Was Uncle Pete's first wife named Shirley or Shannon? (Actually, it was Sharon.) How many children did that distant cousin have? (Grandma thinks there were five, but it just seemed that way because the three of them made so much noise running around with the neighbor kids.)

Assumptions and Guesses

Often, people think they know something they don't really know, just because it seems right. One of my contacts remembered all her grandmother's stories of growing up on a farm in Iowa, so she assumed Grandma was born in Iowa, and was frustrated at not being able to find her birth records. It turned out that Grandma had been born in Ohio, and the family moved to Iowa when she was little.

Death certificates are especially problematic, since the person in question isn't available to provide information. Often the informant is someone who doesn't really know the facts, and just guesses.

Lies

The thing people lie about most often seems to be age. Out of vanity, many people pretend to be younger than they are. In times past, young men sometimes claimed to be older, in order to join the military.

In many old documents, I've found divorced people who claimed to be widowed, people who misstated their marriage date in order to hide the fact that the bride was pregnant on her wedding day, teenagers who claimed to be 21 so they could marry without parents' permission, people listed as married even though they weren't, non-citizens who claimed they were born in the U.S., probably to avoid immigration and residence problems, and a vast array of petty deceptions over things that may heve felt important to someone at the time, but seem insignificant now.

General Confusion

Death certificates are often used as a source of information about a person's parents. Often, however, the informant provides the name of a stepparent rather than the biological parent. The mother's maiden name may be incorrect because she was married more than once and kept changing her name.

Bad handwriting, faded documents, and eroded tombstones lead to mistakes that spread to other sources. All too often, a 3 is mistaken for an 8, or entire words morph into something completely new.

Names don't get much respect. For some people, the order of first name, middle name is interchangeable. William John becomes John William, Willie J., or J.W. Exactness doesn't exist. Mariah might be rendered as Marie, Mary, Mary Ann, or Marian. Sometimes when a young child dies, the parents recycle the name to the next child. I once found a family that had four sons, all with the same name, each one named after a deceased predecessor. One of my ancestors was named Simon and had a brother named Simeon. Even during their lifetimes, the similarity of their names caused confusion. Decades later, family historians couldn't keep them straight, and often thought they were the same person.

Carelessness

I have found family trees that show people who died prior to birth, people who married after death, people who married their own great-grandparents, and many other absurdities. Mistakes like these are typically caused by typos that weren't corrected, or confusing two people with similar names. It surprises me a bit that so many people just mindlessly copy these things and pass them on.

What to Do?

When faced with conflicting facts, I try to pick the one that seems the most likely in context. A document where the person wrote his own name seems more authoritative than one where someone else filled out a form. Doing the math helps. If the record indicates that a woman gave birth at age 84, I know there's a mistake. If someone has a 60-year-old woman who lived her whole life in Indiana suddenly married to a 20-year-old in Alaska, I'm skeptical. If two pieces of information seem equally likely, I list both as possible alternates. If I can't make sense of something that seems crazy, I write notes explaining the problem.

Check, double check, triple check.

Avoiding Genealogy Mistakes

2017-12-19T13:10:00.001-08:00

According to Legacy Family Tree some of the top genealogy mistakes are believing family myths, believing that family trees online are accurate, thinking that people with the same name are the same person, and believing that all original family records are accurate.

When I first started researching my family history, I made some of these mistakes, and had to go to a lot of work later to correct them. I have also corresponded with people researching lines that are connected to mine, and learned that many of them have run into problems as a result of mistakes like this.

Family Myths

For many people, the family legend that they have Native American ancestry is a source of pride. Many families think they are descended from, or closely related to, certain well-known historical figures. Others have an interesting but undocumented story about an ancestor's adventures, achievements, or crimes.

The origin of these stories is usually unknown, but they have been passed along for several generations, and are accepted as true. Until someone starts looking for proof and discovers that there is no truth behind the myth.

Now that DNA testing has become accessible, it is fairly easy to find out something about one's geographic or ethnic background. In some cases it is also possible to use DNA information to find living relatives who can provide important information. Other beliefs need to be tested through careful research.

Online Trees

Unfortunately, many people post family trees online without checking to see whether they are true. They may have believed an old family myth. They may have copied their information from someone else who didn't do accurate research. They may have connected people with similar names who aren't really connected. They may have accidentally inserted typing mistakes which then get copied and perpetuated by others. In some cases, they haven't even applied basic logic (such as listing someone with a death date before their birth date).

When using family trees or anecdotes posted online by other people, take a good, hard look at their sources. Did this information come from reliable sources? Can you reproduce some or all of their research. If they don't list sources, it's better not to use the information unless you can verify it yourself.

Same Name, Same Person?

This one can be crazy-making. It's not at all unusual to find several people with similar names, all about the same age, all living in the same area. Even a name that seems very unusual may have been used by more than one person. Sometimes cousins will have the same name because they were named after the same ancestor. A nephew may have been named after his uncle. Just checking to see if their parents, spouses, or children also had similar names doesn't always help. It's not that unusual to find several men named William or John who were the sons of men named William or John, and who all had wives named Sarah or Mary. I've seen cases where people thought a father and son were the same person because they had the same name and married women with similar names. I found one instance where a woman divorced her husband and married his father, who had the same name!

It's important to take discrepancies seriously. Different birth dates, different professions, different family structures -- any differences at all should be thoroughly investigated before assuming that this John Smith is really the same as that John Smith.

Original Family Records

Family Bibles are often seen as authoritative sources for information. Often they are. But in many cases they are inaccurate, because the person recording the information made mistakes. Often, events like marriages and births were not written down as they occurred, but were listed much later, from memory.

People sometimes write the wrong dates (or even the wrong names) on the back of photos because they are working from a flawed memory -- or just guessing. Marriage and birth announcements sometimes have intentionally fudged dates. Letters are prone to all the same mistakes (and sometimes deliberate deceptions) as anything else. Death certificates contain information supplied by informants who may not really know what they think they know. Even grave stones have been found to have wrong information carved on them.

Again, research is the key. Compare family records with official records, and compare several different sources with each other.

Philetus/Miletus Newcomb, born 1798

2016-08-22T10:08:00.002-07:00

The old Newcomb genealogies list Capt. Philetus Newcomb, the son of Doctor Luther Newcomb and Anna Salisbury (out of wedlock). He married Rhoda Hayes in 1820, and they had several children prior to his death in 1837.

I now believe his correct name was Miletus, not Philetus.

The headstone in Gaffield Cemetery says Miletus.

He had a son named Miletus, and that son also had a son named Miletus.

There is a military service card from the "Register of officers terminated prior to Jan. 1858" listing a Capt. Miletus Newcomb.

The 1830 U.S. Census for Wilmington NY lists a Miletus Newcomb with five young children and an adult female in his houshold.

There is a birth record for Miletus Salisbury, born December 28, 1798, in Brattleboro VT, mother's name Anna, father's name Newcomb Salisbury, father's occupation doctor.

My conclusion is that his name was Miletus. The confusion seems to have come about because Miletus and Philetus rhyme, and because there was a Philetus Newcomb of about the same age who also married a woman named Rhoda. All those similar names can be confusing.

Why I Didn't Reply to Your Email

2016-05-07T12:31:00.004-07:00

I recently got an email from someone who thinks she might be related to me. I wanted to reply to her, but unfortunately she had somehow sent me a message without including her return email address.

This happens all too often.

If you contacted me and I didn't answer, it's probably because your contact information was missing. It's always a good idea to add your email address to your signature to make sure I will have it even if it is somehow missing from the "reply to" field.

How to Begin Researching Your Family History

2015-03-08T19:06:00.001-07:00

By guest blogger Suzie Kolber

Studying one’s past can be an exciting adventure. You never know what stories and facts you will learn about your family genealogy during the process. One of the ways that you can make this task easier is by creating a visual “map” that you can follow during your research phase.

Collect the Information That You Know

Begin by writing down everything you know about your family history. Start with your parents and grandparents and work your way back. See how far back into your ancestry you can go just based on the information you have. If you are lucky enough to still have great-grandparents living, you may already have basic data about four or five generations. The most important information and often the easiest to collect are the names of your ancestors. Even if this is all you have to go on, you have a good start. Once you have listed all of the information that you have currently available, now is the time to organize it into a visual format.

Creating a Family Tree

As you delve deeper into your family history, it will be easy to get confused. This is especially true if you have people with the same names. Take the time to write your basic information down into a format that is easy to read and visually pleasing. You may wonder why it is important to include this step. The reason is that it helps you keep the information straight in your mind. While it is easy in the beginning to remember who you are researching because you either know the person or have heard stories about him or her, as you move farther back into your past, it becomes more difficult. These people become just names on a page and it can get confusing. A family tree allows you to stay organized.

Choosing a Family Tree

Numerous templates are available to help you organize your information. Each one is designed a different way to appeal to various styles of researchers. Some are extremely simple and only include names while others provide room for more elaborate details. The first decision is how many generations you want on your family tree. To begin your research, you may want to start with a four or five generation family tree. Many of these templates give you room to write birth and death dates, dates of marriage and even locations. Since you probably know more information about recent ancestors, this is a good option for storing that data. As you move farther back into your family history, you may want to use an eight- or nine-generation template. This allows you to see more members at a glance without including a lot of information. These templates come in various styles to fit your needs. Some common options include circular, hourglass and bowtie shapes. The one you choose depends on what is most visually pleasing to you. Researching your family history can be challenging and a lengthy process. Begin by organizing your information into a family tree and it will make the task much easier.

Suzie Kolber created http://obituarieshelp.org/free_printable_blank_family_tree.html to be the complete online resource for “do it yourself” genealogy projects. The site offers the largest offering of family tree charts online. The site is a not for profit website dedicated to offering free resources for those that are trying to trace their family history.

Your Family Photos

2014-09-17T15:23:00.001-07:00

A recent post on "For Better -- Or What?" reminds us of the importance of labeling family photos. Without labels, future generations will not know who is who. Even if you took the picture, the day is likely to come when you can't quite remember when this was taken or exactly where you were. Photos should be labeled with the names of all the people in the picture, the date the picture was taken, and the location. If you have room, include additional details about what made the event special. Your descendants are much more likely to appreciate and keep family photos if they include meaningful information.

Lost in a Sea of Names

2014-08-18T10:59:00.000-07:00

I have over 26,000 people named Newcomb or some variation on Newcomb in my database. With the spouses, ancestors, and descendants, the total number is over 120,000.

Here are some statistics from my collection:

Approximately 860 men were named John (or Johnathan, Johnnie, etc.) Newcomb
Around 660 men were named Charles Newcomb
326 women were named Sarah Newcomb
Over 600 Newcomb men had a wife named Mary
151 Newcombs married someone named Smith
Close to 3,000 individuals have unknown parents

I enjoy helping people find information on their ancestors. But I am sometimes overwhelmed by the numbers.

Keep in mind that if you write to me and say, "My great-grandparents were John and Mary Newcomb," I won't be able to find them. Inquiries should contain as much specific information as possible. Include whatever you know, such as dates of birth, death, and marriage, names of children or siblings, names of parents, etc.

John Newcomb's Cane

2014-08-03T12:36:00.000-07:00

According to the old Newcomb genealogy, written in 1874, Jonathan Newcomb (b. 29 Jun 1796) of Braintree/Quincy had in his possession a cane which had been given to his 3-g-grandfather, John Newcomb, in 1712. The cane was described as "of mangrove wood with an ivory head and a band of silver 3/4 inch wide, upon which is the inscription, 'John Newcomb March 1712.'" John Newcomb (1634-1722) was a member of the Francis Newcomb line.

It appears that Jonathan Newcomb had no descendants. Upon his death the cane may have been passed to one of his brothers (William, Benjamin and George) or to a nephew or some other relative.

I have received an inquiry from a member of the Francis Newcomb line who wonders what happened to the cane. It would certainly be interesting to find this item still in possession of a Newcomb descendant.

If you know anything about what happened to the cane, please respond in the comments or send me an email. Thanks!

Paul Z. Burrell

2014-01-02T11:55:00.000-08:00

Are Paul Z. Burrell and Paul Zanfrey Burrell the same person, or is it just a coincidence that there were two men with such similar names (including the unusual middle initial) of about the same age in the same place at the same time?

Paul Zanfrey Burrell was born 7 May 1890 in Columbus Ohio, but seems to have lived most of his childhood and youth in Nashville. His parents were Benjamin Franklin Burrell (1864-1941) and Annabell Zuck (b. 1886). Paul died 17 April 1936 in Nashville TN and was buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery. He was married to Rose Shields (or Shield), (b. approx. 1900), and they had two daughters. They seem to have lived in New York throughout most of their marriage. Paul worked as a telegraph operator and/or railroad dispatcher.

Paul Z. Burrell was born between 1888 and 1900 in Ohio, but lived in Nashville. The 1910 census lists his occupation as railroad operator. Paul married Hazel Delight Newcomb (1889-1975) 3 August 1909 in Chicago IL. They had one son, Theodore (1910-1955), probably born in Illinois. According to Hazel (as recounted by her daughter-in-law), Paul died young (some time between 1910 and 1914) and she moved to California, where she married her second husband. I have not yet been able to find the record of Paul's death or burial.

I am hoping to determine whether Paul Z. Burrell is the same person as Paul Zanfrey Burrell. It is possible that Paul and Hazel divorced and that she lied about his death (I have found that divorced people in the past often claimed to be widowed because they were ashamed of the divorce). It is possible he kept his first marriage a secret, or that he simply didn't talk about it, so descendants might not be aware of it. It is even possible that they never got a formal divorce and simply remarried bigamously. All the more reason to avoid mentioning the first marriage or to claim the spouse had died. All of this is speculation, because I simply don't know whether or not the two Pauls are the same person. Aside from all the other things they have in common (probably the same age, born in Ohio, lived in Nashville, railroad dispatcher) it's that middle initial that really gets to me.

Molly Bearse married Obadiah Newcomb

2013-12-22T09:47:00.000-08:00

Molly Bearse was born 14 Dec 1795 in New Fairfield CT, the daughter of John and Molly (Beardsley) Bearse. She married Obadiah Newcomb (1798-1840) 6 Mar 1823 in Westmoreland NY. Obadiah was the son of William and Elizabeth (Cunnabell) Newcomb. Obadiah and Molly had two children, John Bearse and Esther. Molly's sister Esther married Obadiah's brother William.

Esther Atwell married Isaac Newcomb

2013-12-18T10:54:00.000-08:00

Esther A. Atwell was born around 1835 in Vermont. She married Isaac Madison Newcomb (8 Aug 1824 - 4 Jan 1862) 1 Aug 1852. They had two children: William Stanley and James Madison. Esther's second husband was Simon B. Buxton.

Sources: J.B. Newcomb, U.S. census records

Nancy Attwater married Henry Newcomb

2013-12-12T10:50:00.000-08:00

Nancy A. Attwater was born around 1856 in Illinois. She married Henry Edwin Newcomb (1852-1878) and had a son, Willis Knight Newcomb. Nancy's second husband, whom she married 19 Feb 1880 in Fulton Co. IL, was Millard F. Duncan.

Sources: Public records, online sources

Clara Beauchamp married Clement Newcomb

2013-12-07T11:52:00.011-08:00

Clara Yetter Beauchamp was born 13 Nov 1885 in Delaware, the daughter of George N. and Kate E. (Jones) Beauchamp. She married C.C. Newcomb, the son of Charles C. and Phoebe B. (Sheppard) Newcomb. His name appeared as Charles C. in the Delaware marriage records, but the license was issued to Clem. C. and the preponderance of evidence indicates he was Clement Campbell. On 23 Mar 1910, in Wilmington DE, Clara was murdered by Charles Tindall, who shot her and then himself. According to newspaper accounts, the motive was jealousy and Clara's refusal to elope with Tindall. Clement's second wife was Carrie B. (Caulk) Anderson, whom he married in 1914.

Mary Beaty married Robert Newcomb

2013-12-04T11:49:00.003-08:00

Mary M. Beaty was born 29 Oct 1890 in Arkansas, the daughter of Daniel Jefferson and Julie Ann (Moore) Beaty. She married Robert Clayborne Newcomb (1884-1969), the son of Jan Tate and Sarah F. (Landers) Newcomb. They had at least one child, a son, R.C. Newcomb. Mary died 6 Sep 1954 and was buried in Graham Cemetery, Benton AR.

Alma Beattie married Arthur Newcomb

2013-12-01T11:45:00.009-08:00

Alma F. Beattie was born 22 May 1869 in Grand Pré, Nova Scotia, the daughter of Thomas and Harriet E. (Ward) Beattie. She married Arthur Foules Newcomb (b. 1869), the son of Obadiah and Harriet Elizabeth Newcomb, 2 Oct 1869 in Grand Pré. Arthur and Alma had three children: Gladys O., Harold O., Curtis Lakeman.

Rebecca Beasley married Joseph Newcomb

2013-11-27T11:41:00.007-08:00

Rebecca Jane Beasley was married 24 Mar 1837 in Rush Co. IN, the daughter of Cornelius and Jane (Nipp) Beasley. She marred Joseph Smithers Newcomb (1830-1887), the son of John and Sarah (Smithers) Newcomb, as his second wife. They had eight children: Arinda Jane, George Cornelius, Luzettia Indiana, William David, Thomas F., Rosanna J., Charles A., Elizabeth Katherine. Their son William married his first cousin, Melissa Jane Beasley, the daughter of Rebecca's brother George. Rebecca died 23 Jan 1911 in Colorado Springs CO. Joseph's first wife was Harriet Miller, with whom he had three children.

Melissa Beasley married William Newcomb

2013-11-23T09:52:00.014-08:00

Melissa Jane Beasley was born 25 Nov 1868 in Nebraska, the daughter of George W. and Sarah Elizabeth (Turner) Beasley. She married William David Newcomb (1869-1948) 19 Apr 1895 in Colorado Springs CO. William was her first cousin, the son of Joseph Smither and Rebecca Jane (Beasley) Newcomb. He was her second husband. Her first husband's surname was McNeil, and they had a daughter, Mabel. Melissa and William had a son, Jesse Earl Newcomb. They eventually divorced.

Crazy

2013-11-19T08:53:00.000-08:00

Blog comment spammers are so annoying. And so pointless. I just got nearly 100 spam comments added within a few seconds of each other on a single 7-year-old post on this blog. Of course, these comments never appeared in public because this is a moderated blog. Why do these idiots bother spamming moderated blogs? Probably, since most spam is automated, they don't even know what they are doing but just broadcast spam everywhere. The good news is, I can bulk delete the spam, so I don't have to click on each stupid comment. I could make it harder for the idiots by adding a word verification puzzle to the comments. I've never wanted to bother my readers with that, but now that I am getting more and more ridiculous spam on the blog, I may do it. I know it won't stop all of them; some pathetic spammers actually upload their phony comments by hand. But it would stop the ones that use automation to upload 100 comments per minute.

Louise Bearse married Theodore Newcomb

2013-11-17T09:43:00.006-08:00

Louise Adelaide Bearse was born 2 Jun 1866 in Mashpee MA, the daughter of Nathaniel Doane and Olive Gould (Pells) Bearse. She married Theodore Freeman Newcomb (b. 12 Sep 1861) 27 Mar 1884 in Mashpee. Theodore was the son of Ebenezer Freeman and Theresa (Folma) Newcomb. Theodore and Louise had six children: Amos T., Laura Frances, John Wesley, Theresa Louise, Cedric Earl, Theodore J. Theodore's second wife was Elizabeth Morse (b. 1864), whom he married in 1894. They had four children.

Esther Bearse married William Newcomb

2013-11-14T09:39:00.005-08:00

Esther Bearse was born 21 Apr 1879 in New Fairfield CT, the daughter of John and Molly (Beardsley) Newcomb. She married William Newcomb (1791-1876) 7 May 1816 in Westmoreland NY. William was the son of William and Elizabeth (Cunnabell) Newcomb. William and Esther had a daughter, Elizabeth. Esther died 12 Feb 1852 in Westmoreland NY. William's second wife was Mary Pratt, whom he married in 1852. Esther's sister Molly married William's brother Obadiah.