February 2000 Research Updates Feb. 27, 2000 Just a brief note to keep in touch, while I continue to try to locate some material for my cousin, Marian, on lines related to the Harwood side of my family -- Matthews, Dabney, Huston -- all in Ohio by early to mid - 19th Century. Thus far, I have been able to locate a few marriage dates, etc., but haven't been able to make a breakthrough to an earlier name and location. (More soon, Marian -- I promise !) I spent a few evenings last week on the Coller/Collar family connections of Roger Smith, who has posted some heavily-researched material on the Collier Family Genealogy Forum, as well as the new Collar.... Forum. (Mike has posted the good advice for researchers to look at both forums. There also is a new Collyer Family Genealogy Forum. Neither it nor the Collar one has much activity yet.) Roger has put his material on the Collar ...Forum, and I have posted my 1790 Census, Early Mass Colliers, etc. on both the Collar and Collyer Forums. He sent a message the other day, after wading through snow to visit his Coller Cemetery in Northfield, and will send along whatever "Collier" information he has collected. I don't see any connection between the Coller and Thomas Collier families, except that a few members of each coincidentally ended up living in the vicinity of Northfield, Mass., where Tammy Stevens hails from. I was able to provide a little help to Roger when he was in the area early in the week, but other than passing "Coller" information to him, and he "Collier" stuff to us, we probably won't have much common ground. I have made several short trips down to the Fitchburg Library in the last week or two, and have pretty much exhausted their resources. As I have indicated, it has a full collection of the 150-odd volumes of the NEHGR, which I have checked pretty thoroughly for Collier and related info, nearly the full collection of the Reports of the Boston Record Commissioners, a few early Census indexes, a respectable collection of town Vital Records and Histories, and an Acadian collection -- we have a large number of French-Canadian families in New England, of course. I have to go on to the Holy Grail -- the NEHGS in Boston - before much longer. Tim Kelley, our new connection to the Moses Collier branch, has been in touch a few times. I have sent along most of the material I have on that family. There are many names unaccounted for during the period they were in New Jersey - 1683 to 1850 or so. I hope a relative still in New Jersey chimes in one of these days. Tim's branch, descended from Jacob Collyer (spelling changed about 1800 by this family) and Phoebe Babbitt, moved to the San Francisco Bay area sometime in the later 19th Century. Progress notes on a couple of items - In going through recent volumes of the NEHGR this afternoon, I found (NEHGR, Vol. 151, pages 166-170, 1997) a brief study of an early Nash Family of Weymouth, Mass. --- James and Alice Higgins Nash, in Weymouth before 1643. On getting home and checking my files, I can see that this appears to be the immigrant family of Abigail Nash, who married Gershom Collier of Scituate and Northport, ME. I will copy those pages on my next visit and send them on to Mike and Linda Peacock. Also, for Mike and Linda: I have looked through most of the Vital Records of the North Shore, since the Fitchburg Library has most of them, including Lynnfield and all the nearby towns, and I do not find a record of the birth of Roland Collier. I won't swear to it, but I think the only North Shore towns having Collier/variant births prior to 1850 (when most of the published Vital Records are cut off) are Salem, Marblehead, Amesbury, and, possibly, Newbury and Newburyport, and Roland is not there. As you know, that is not to say that your family-based information is not correct, but it isn't confirmed in the records I have found so far. I have been in touch with descendants of the Poole family -- Gershom Collier of Hull (ca. 1674 - 1753), m. Elizabeth Poole of Reading, Mass (1678 - after 1729), from whom most of us are descended. They have a homepage at - < http://www.bc1.com/users/lchamber/poole.htm >, although it isn't very extensive. At least one of the individuals involved in their project lives in British Columbia. The article on Seventeenth Century Hull... in the NEHGR, Vols. 142-143, has a little more info on the background of the mother of Elizabeth Poole, and I will send that along to these folks when I have a chance. For the Chesterfield contingent, the various Reports of the Boston Record Commissioners had a few worthwhile items: The 22d Report, page 255, listing the property and valuation of Boston residents in 1798, shows "Gersh. Collier [as] owner and occupier; wooden dwelling; East on Jacobs; South on Carver; North on Gardner. Land, 2,440 square feet, house 544 square feet; 3 stories; value $ 600." Living in a 544 square feet house, with at least 6 children by 1805, could certainly have given Gershom and Mary the impetus to move to the wide open spaces of Chesterfield, Hampshire County. Note that this information was for 1798. In 1796, Gershom was listed in Sheafe's Lane, which was about 1/2 mile away. Also in 1796 was the apparent business address of "Collier & Jacobs, housewrights," in George Street (now Hancock Street) on the north side of Beacon Hill. In the 1798, 1800, and 1803 Boston Directories, Gershom was listed as a housewright in Belknap Street (now Joy Street), also on the north side of Beacon Hill, beyond the "new" State House from the Common, and one street west of George/Hancock. There is no indication in the directories as to which addresses were residences and which were businesses, although I would guess that Sheafe's Lane and Carver Street were the residences, as Beacon Hill was then the booming new development area of the city. Refer to my map of "Boston - 1814," on the homepage, for orientation. The 30th Report (1902), page 454, has a somewhat surprising item: "Boswell Collier and Mary Rumrell were married in Boston, Feb 6, 1785" That is duplicated on the LDS Family Search site, but there is no other item on "Boswell" in either the NEHGR or Internet listings I checked. I would guess that Ann House (Bosworth's first wife, of course) had died, and Bosworth remarried, with a mistake in the transcription of the name. Subject to confirmation, Mary Rumrell and Bosworth had probably both died by January 18, 1788, when Thomas James, of Chesterfield, Hampshire County, was awarded guardianship of Bosworth's children Anna and Rebecca. I am NOT putting this second marriage information in my files at the moment. The NEHGS has a new book covering Boston Deaths in the 18th Century, and I hope that I will find some clarification there. (I find only one or two "Rumrell" families in Massachusetts at this period, and none listed in Boston, so I can't check from that point.) The NEHGR, Vol. 151, pages 61 - 86, 1997, " A New Look at the Family of Francis and Philip James of Hingham: Immigrant Ancestors," has a lengthy discussion of the ancestors of the Thomas James, married to Susannah/Susanna Collier, who became the guardian of the Collier girls. I will incorporate that information in my next major revisions. As the title indicates, the family was of Hingham before some of the members moved to Cohasset in the early to mid-18th Century, then on to the wilderness of Chesterfield. (I view this as more indirect evidence that Colliers of Chesterfield were of the South Shore family.) I continue to search for the ancestry of Mary Samson (Feb 10, 1804 - April 30, 1850), who married John Collier in Chesterfield, 1822, and moved with him to Ohio. The Samson/Sampson families in early Massachusetts were very numerous, as I have mentioned, and I haven't made the connection yet. I continue to think that the connection may be to the family of Issachar Samson, of Worthington (the next town west of Chesterfield) who had children born in the same time frame as Mary. He may have been from the area of Plympton, Plymouth County, Mass., but there was another individual of the same name and area, born in the same year, and I am having difficulty sorting out the facts. On the Ohio front, I have found an Internet listing of the second marriage of John Collier, after the death of Mary Samson Collier in Mantua, Portage County, Ohio, April 30, 1850. He married Sarah Dayton in Burton, Geauga County, on or about Nov 20, 1851. Burton is only about 15 miles north of Mantua. We have had family records of this marriage, and the date, but not the location. I have nothing further on the movements or deaths of John and Sarah after their marriage. They are not in local cemetery listings I have checked. On the children of John and Mary Samson Collier, I have found a few more bits and pieces. I am sure I can find more on my next trip home, this summer. At any rate, I find on an Internet listing of Geauga County marriages that Lyman Collier (b. Oct 23, 1823, unknown location - d. Jul 26, 1907, Pompeii, Gratiot County, Mich.) is no doubt the individual who married Julia Melinda Giles, in Bainbridge, Geauga County, on or about 13 Sept 1848, when Lyman would have been 25. Bainbridge is less than 10 miles from Mantua. There may be later records in the Bainbridge area, possibly the marriage of one of Lyman and Julia's children, Charles and John, but I cannot be certain from Internet sources alone. That is where we are at the moment. Let me know of your progress, and let me know if there is something I can try to locate when I do get to the NEHGS, probably in March or April. If you haven't done so lately, please take a look at my homepage. I have added more photos and maps, and a brief overview of the Moses Collier/Collyer family. Wade Collier Trumbull County, Ohio and Lunenburg, Massachusetts