Richardson Research Questions

If you follow my blog or have visited my website, a major research focus of mine is my Dad's RICHARDSON family.


I've come up with a series of research questions that I am going to focus on for this family.

1. Who were the parents and siblings of Jonathan (I) Richardson? 
2. Where did the Richardson family live before Leyden, Mass.? 
3. What was the name of Jonathan (I) Richardson’s wife? 
4. What other children did Jonathan (I) Richardson have besides Jonathan, John, Joseph, and Daniel? 
5. Was William Richardson (son of John) born in Ontario Co, New York or in Vermont? 
6. Who were the parents of George O Pierce (grandson of William Richardson, son of John)? 
7. What was the name of the wife of George O Pierce? 
1. Request sent to Onondaga Public Library in Syracuse, NY for NYS Vital Records Index lookup for both marriage record and death record. 
2. Received following citations: 
1. Marriage: George O. PIERCE, m. 9 May, 1885, Venice, #5177 
2. Emailed Venice Town clerk for instructions on how to order copy and costs on 3/30/2017. 
3. Death: Hattie Pierce, d. 1 March, 1897, Canadice, #9088 
8. Who were the neighbors of the Richardsons in Lot 70 of Livonia? 
9. When did John Richardson move to Ontario County? 
10. When did the family of Sarah Richardson and Asa Davis discover and convert to Mormonism? 
11. When did John Richardson and his wife Betsey Phillips die? 
12. Where were Jonathan (II) Richardson and Rhoda Thompson during the 1830 census? 
13. How many children did Jonathan (II) Richardson and Rhoda Thompson have? 
14. Is William Harrison Richardson (b. 1814) son of Joseph Richardson and Abigail Fisk the same William Henry Harrison Richardson that died in Lisbon, Juneau Co, Wisconsin in 1874? (Where were his male children born?) 
15. Did William Ryder Powell and Mary Martin actually marry? Did they divorce? Is William Ryder Powell the father of Mary Martin’s son John Powell? 
1. https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/New_York_Vital_Records#Divorce_Records 
16. Was William Ryder Powell prosecuted for horse stealing in Livingston or Allegany County, New York? 
1. Probably in the Supreme Court of either county. 
2. https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/New_York_Court_Records#Types_of_Criminal_Courts

Current research projects

Current research projects in progress:

• Descendants of Jonathan Richardson, progenitor of large family that began in western New York (Ontario, Livingston, and Allegany Counties).  His wife may have been Hannah Warren.  The family may have been from Leyden, Massachusetts.  I follow everyone, including daughters and their descendants with new surnames.
• Currently working on a branch of the family, the Worthly family, that lived in Biddeford, Maine.  A daughter married a man by the last name of Caouette, a descendant of French Canadians.  So I am trying to "learn" enough French to read census records and Drouin collection records.
• Descendants of Patrick Mahan and his wife Nancy Laughlin.  They immigrated to Philadelphia, PA in July 1819 (naturalization application of Patrick Mahan) from northern Ireland (Patrick was from County Donegal and Nancy from County Tyrone).  They moved to Indiana Co, Pennsylvania and were there by the time the census was taken in 1820.  I have a list of documents to request from the county to try to suss out *exactly* in either county either of them were from.  Both were Presbyterians.
• Ancestors and descendants of Asiel Snow, from Pulaski Co, Virginia.  His first wife, Mary Bullard,  is distantly related, by marriage, through another family I am researching, the Forbushes.  It is possible that Asiel Snow is also related to me through the SNOW family (possibly one of the SNOWs that are descendants of Nicholas Snow and Constance Hopkins, Mayflower passenger).
• Looking for the death of Asiel's son Stillman Bullard Snow, almost certainly in Texas.  An online family tree states that he died in Vernon, Wilbarger Co, Texas, around 1898.  Even living in Texas, I am so far away from Vernon that if there is a tombstone I can't get there any time soon, and I have no idea which cemetery he might be in.  He may be buried in Eastview Memorial Park in Vernon.
• Asiel's parents were Stephen Snow and Lydia Woodward.  Stephen Snow's parents appear to be Reuben Snow and Mercy Sears.  Mercy's parents appear to be Roland Sears and Mary Freeman.  If not connected to Asiel through the Snow family, then I will almost certainly be connected to him through the Sears/Freeman connection.
• Looking at the connections between the MOONEY and NORTON families in Rochester, New York.  Both Irish Catholic families, Ann Norton married Peter Mooney, had three children, and when both parents died, Ann Norton's brother Patrick Norton became their guardian.  Ann Norton and a brother, John Norton, worked at a hotel in Rochester.  Ann Norton almost certainly met her husband at her job and married around 1865.
• Ann's brother, Michael, may have served in the Civil War.
• Still looking for Michael Norton, John Norton, and Michael Norton's soon to be wife Helena Sullivan in the 1865 New York State census on FamilySearch.org
• Crossing my fingers that the 1855 New York State census will come online soon.
• Working on a "client" project for a friend to start prep for working on a professional genealogy portfolio.
• Working on an article for our local genealogical society's quarterly publication on the ELLIS family of England, Canada, and western New York.
• Cleaning out my Ancestry.com shoebox - which has over 4,000 documents in it.
• Cleaning out my data folder, with innumerable amounts of data in it that is waiting for data entry into my genealogy program.

Whooo.  That is a lot of stuff.  Plus trying to keep up with the blogs and actually that crazy thing called WORK.  Dang that real life and bills.