Dear Aunt Elva, Carolyn, Virgil, and Mr. & Mrs. Jacobs -- June 20, 1999 I have gleaned a few items for the Collier Genealogy in the last month. I'll send along a report to everyone, probably sometime in July, after I have made another visit to a big library. In the meantime, I have picked up the following: In 1796, 3 years after his marriage to Mary Kittle, in Boston, Gershom Collier, housewright (house builder, I presume) was living in Sheaf's Lane, in Boston's North End. A William Collier, "taylor" was living in an adjacent street. The business of Collier and Jacobs, housewrights, was about 3/4 mile away, in an area near the current Massachusetts State House, which was then being developed. (This from the Boston City Directory of 1796 -- there are several other directories for the period which need to be checked.) (There seem to be AT LEAST 30 or 40 official town records, lists of births, etc. for Boston, and I have quite a few to locate and check, yet.) In the 1789 to 1796 period there were at least 4 cousins of the Collier/Spear family living within 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile of Gershom, in Boston. I keep looking for a more direct connection between the Hull/Scituate family and "our" Gershom, but I haven't found it yet. Sometimes I feel as if I have almost everything on Gershom except his fingerprints and DNA, but I can't find his parents and birth record. (See page 1 of Descendants of Thomas Collier, for the marriage of Mary Collier and Joseph Spear. I now have an additional 6 children of this marriage, many of whom moved to Boston from the South Shore.) Within the last few weeks, the Mormons have opened an Internet site - FamilySearch.com - for their genealogy material. They are supposed to have one of the world's great collections. There has been coverage of this in the national magazines, and on the network news shows. I have checked several of the names that we need information for, and have found some. I HAVE LOOKED AT SOME OF THESE RECORDS IN THE PAST, AND FOUND SOME OF THIS MATERIAL TO BE SUSPECT -- SOURCES NOT GIVEN, ERRONEOUS INFORMATION, ESTIMATED DATES, ETC., BUT IT GIVES SOMEPLACE TO START. There is a listing for a Gershom Collier, born in 1771 in Boston -- no parents listed. This would be about the latest date I would expect him to have been born, as Mary Kittle was born in 1769. Gershom would have been 22 and Mary 24, at their marriage in 1793, if this birth date is correct. Of the children of John and Mary Samson Collier - Christopher's siblings - I have found some useful information. I still haven't found anything certain on Lyman (1823 - 1907, according to our bible record), and he is probably not the one listed in the 1850 Connecticut census, as there were at least 3 generations in that area, with that first name. I can find no other Lyman Collier in the Internet listings, at least through the 1850 Census. On Adeline, born 1825, I have a marriage record. It looks as if my speculation about her being in Cincinnati in 1850 is wrong. The Mormon records list an Adaline Collier, who married Washington Allen, in Portage County, 29 August, 1849. Washington Allen is listed in the 1850 Ohio Census as living in Mantua, where John and Mary were living, so this record makes sense. On Gennett, born 1833, died 1884, I also have a marriage record. Apparently I remain a male chauvinist, as I had thought that this was a son, whose name rhymed with "Bennett." (I had thought that being married to an Irishwoman for 28 years had knocked that out of me, but I guess not!!) Instead, Gennett was a daughter, spelled Jennett in the marriage record. She married William C. Westland, in Page 2 June 20, 1999 Portage County, 27 March, 1851. I speculate that William was the son or brother of Gilbert Westland, who is in the 1850 Mantua census. There was a William Westland in Aurora in 1830, and one in Hiram in 1840. Again, this record makes sense in light of John and Mary living in Mantua, at least until Mary's death in April, 1850. (I find at least two other instances, both in New England, of the spelling Jennett for what we would spell Jeanette, today.) Do the names Westland and Allen ring any bells as relatives? On Madison (1830 - 1900) there are two possible marriage records - 13 May, 1851, in Columbiana County, (Madison Collier married Mary Mc Glaughlin) and 9 November, 1852, in Cuyahoga County (Madison Collier married Mary A. Hewes). The Mormon records also list a marriage date for Christopher C. Collier and Sarah Stephenson -- August 20, 1865, in Geauga County. I don't know whether you had that date, or not. I didn't have it here. There is no town listed, but Munson would be a good place to check, I'm sure. On the family of William Stephenson, father of Sarah and Oney, I have found quite a bit within the last couple of days. The first new information was from the Mormon web site, where the names of William's parents, and his wife's surname, were listed. I have confirmed some of the information there from a book available at another location on the Internet. We had William's birthdate as 10 July, 1813 (I presume from the gravestone in Fowlers Mill, Munson). One Internet record has 10 Jul, 1819, but with the correct date of death (22 Nov. 1887). He was born in Vermont, no town listed. His wife's name was Jane A. Woodward (we had Jane A., only), and she was also born in Vermont, town not listed. They were married 13 May, 1840, in Munson, Ohio. There were a few Woodwards, and several Stephensons, in Vermont in 1810, 1820, and 1830, so I can't really locate which town the families might have been in. I don't have anything else on Jane, but William's father was Robert Stephenson, born about 1785 in Falmouth (Cape Cod), Massachusetts. I will probably be able to find more on them at some point, but there are so many individuals of those names that I haven't been able to do so, yet. He is probably the Robert who is listed, with William, in the Munson 1840 census, as he also moved west. Robert's wife was Rachael Hamblin, born 1788 in Falmouth, Mass. They were married there about 1809. (The first Hamblin, James, Sr., came to Cape Cod in 1639. Rachael's mother's family - the Bassetts - had come to Plymouth in 1621, only a year after the Mayflower.) The Hamblins were a large family, as was usual then, of course. Many of them moved to Vermont - mostly to the Champlain Valley, and the large islands in the north part of Lake Champlain -- in the 1790 - 1800 period. It wouldn't be surprising if Robert and Rachael also moved to that area, but the record isn't complete. After about 1820, when the Western Reserve started to fill up rapidly, many of them moved to Ohio. I see Ashtabula, Conneaut, Chardon, Munson, as towns that family members lived in, and I haven't checked fully. (The source for much of this information is The Hamlin Family, Lyman S. Shreeve, published by the author in Exira, Iowa, 1902.) I enclose an updated copy of the family tree from Gershom Collier down. Again, please let me know of any additions, corrections, etc.