Fantastic Find: Ancestry's New Free Database May Help Fill Historical Gaps for Black Americans

On my way home yesterday I was listening to NPR's All Things Considered and one of their feature stories was titled:

This database could help descendants of enslaved people learn about their ancestry.*

Ancestry has made available tens of thousands of old newspaper records about formerly enslaved people. If you're wondering what sort of information can be found in this type of record, here is the explanation given by Nicka Sewell-Smith, a genealogist and senior story producer at ancestry.com:

These records are incredible because they come from approximately 38,000 newspaper articles, and the date range is from approximately 1788 to 1867. And amongst those 38,000 newspaper articles, we have the names and details of more than 183,000 formerly enslaved people in a free collection that potentially could help millions of descendants discover more about their ancestors...

With this collection, you are really getting a bird's-eye view into the everyday nature of enslavement in the United States. A lot of times, we just think about the roles of those involved in the system, and, you know, it just is corralled to the formerly enslaved and their slaveholders. But you'll also see folks who were seeking their freedom and their actual details of what they looked like, what they wore.

There are even individuals in this collection where you get to learn about them and their personality traits, like - there's one man that I loved reading about that could speak three languages. And a lot of times, folks think that the enslaved, you know, weren't educated, or they didn't have skills other just being in agriculture, but they were just varied people who had lives and being brought back to prominence with their names being in this collection.

Anyone can access the database at home and for free. All you need is just a free Ancestry account and get to searching.** This is a random sample: 

The Louisville Daily Courier, Thursday, August 11, 1859 Page 3

* You can listen to the whole thing here (4 minutes). The transcript is available here.

**This collection is called U.S., Newspapers.com™ Auctions of Enslaved People and Bounties on Freedom Seekers Index, pre-1880

 

© 2024 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Did I Finally Find a Death Record for My 5th Great Grandfather, Benjamin Porter (b 1772)?

One of the benefits of being a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS/American Ancestors) is that you get access to some of their external databases, including the Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers database (Infotrac/Gale).

My mother's paternal grandmother Letta Estella Porter is a descendant of Benjamin Porter and Lydia Wilcox.

I haven't compared it to the holdings of my current newspaper subscriptions to GenealogyBank, NewspaperArchive, and Newspapers, but I thought I'd try it to see if I could find Benjamin Porter, my 5th great grandfather who seemed to disappear from record after appearing in the 1820 Census living in Alstead, Cheshire, New Hampshire.  Since Benjamin's wife Lydia married Henry Scovil in October 1821 in Walpole, Cheshire, New Hampshire, I had tentatively put his death at about 1820.  But that is an unsatisfactory death date!

The right age, and the right previous location.  "Deaths," Dover Gazette and Strafford (Dover, NH), Tuesday, 11 Aug 1829, page 3, col 2; Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers (via NEHGS/American Ancestors) (American Ancestors  : 22 Aug 2016).

I searched for "Benjamin Porter" before 1830, and was pleased to immediately discover a death notice for a Benjamin Porter in Charlestown (Boston), (then Middlesex county), Massachusetts.  What jumped out at me was his former residence in Lyme, Grafton, New Hampshire.  Although I have no direct evidence that Benjamin Porter ever lived in Lyme, I do know that his parents (William Porter d 1778 and Esther Carpenter d 1827) both lived and died in Lyme.

My speculation is that sometime in 1820/1821 Benjamin and Lydia separated or divorced, and that Benjamin went to live in the same town as his mother Esther (more records to research, and divorce proceedings in that time period should be interesting).

Then I think some time after that he moved to Charlestown, Boston, Massachusetts, probably not long before his death in August 1829, and thus didn't appear in the 1830 Census.

Partial snapshot of Benjamin Porter's probate record.  This doesn't show all the names associated with this record, which I will have to look up and follow up on.  The entire front and back page of this document citation: Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Probate court, Benjamin Porter, 10 Nov 1829, 72; digital image, [image 497-498],Massachusetts, Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991, Middlesex County, Probate Records, V. 216-218, 1826-1830, Ancestry (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=9069 : 22 Aug 2016).

Benjamin seemed to moved around a lot in his life, from being born in Coventry, CT, to likely living with his parents in Lyme, NH, before moving on and marrying Lydia in Surry, Cheshire, New Hampshire.  I don't know what he did for a living.

Their son William Porter (1796-1868) was born in Sheffield, VT, but then it appears they moved back to Surry where their other children were born.  William was a silversmith earlier in his life, and likely would have apprenticed to a silversmith in the 1810's (although I have a growing suspicion that he might have had access to that apprenticeship through his mother's Wilcox relations, which I'll cover in a different post).

If I have the right Benjamin Porter, I wonder what he was doing in Charlestown, MA?

He certainly seemed to spend the bulk of his life somewhere along the Connecticut River.

This all definitely opens up more questions than it answers.


Edited to add: I found a specific date from the Columbian Centinel (Boston, Massachusetts), Saturday, August 8, 1829, page 3 (GenealogyBank):
"In Charlestown, Mass. on Sunday morning last, Benjamin Porter, aged 57 years, formerly of Lyme, N.H." So he died 2 August 1829.




© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.