Land Records for Haddam and East Haddam

While doing some research for a recent post on Samuel Ackley, I ran across a good resource for land records from Haddam and East Haddam that should be of interest to Ackley researchers. If you're like me, you probably haven't paid much attention to land records, which is to our own detriment. As Lisa Cooke states in her "Genealogy Gems" blog [1]:

"Land records are some of the most underutilized, yet most useful, records available in genealogy. Often, they are the only records which state a direct relationship between family members. They can also be used to prove relationships indirectly by studying the land laws in force at the time. Sometimes they can even be used to locate an ancestor’s farm or original house, so that we can walk today where our family walked long ago."

Fortunately for us, there are some land records for Haddam and East Haddam that are fairly easy to access online if you know how to get to them.

Family Search

Most of you are probably aware of and have used records from familysearch.org. The site is free and has billions of pages of records that have been digitized and put online. While many of the records are indexed and can be found by searching for your ancestors by name, there are many more available that you have to go digging for a little bit. The Haddam and East Haddam land records fall into that category. Here are a few screen shots showing the process of finding the records for East Haddam.

Step 1: Click on "Search" and then "Catalog"

Step 2: Start typing haddam into the box labeled "Place"

Step 3: As you type haddam into the box, a drop down with possible place names will show up. It is important that you select the place name from that list; if you just type in the word haddam and hit return, the search will not find the place you have typed in. Click on the name and it will appear in the box. Click the "Search" button.

Step 4: From the list of record types associated with Haddam that your search produced, click on "Land and Property". This will expand that category and show you all of the different collections that have land and property records for Haddam.

Step 5: In this case, there is only one record collection that has land and property records for Haddam (some locations have more than one). Click on that collection.

Step 6: Clicking on a collection will take you to a page with a description of the records in the collection and a list of all of the "films" available in the collection. I put "films" in quotes because in the "good old days" these were physical microfilms, but by now Family Search has digitized nearly all of their microfilm and it is available online. Here is a portion of the list for the Haddam land records.

Note that for this collection, the first two entries are an index to all of the rest of the volumes of land record books for Haddam. For most land record collections, the index volumes have two lists of the people involved in land transactions; grantors (sellers or givers of land), and grantees (buyers or receivers of land). Before moving on, we need to discuss the last column of this list - the one with the heading "Format". If there is a camera there, you can click on it, and you will get a page that shows all of the images available on that film, and you can click on them to see them. In this case, we have the dreaded camera with a key above it:

This means that the images on this film are not available (locked) to the average user doing genealogy in their jammies at home. This happens sometimes when Family Search has an agreement with the original owner of the records not to make the records available to the whole world online.  But all is not lost; if you click on the camera with the key, you will see this:

If you click on either "Family history center" or "FamilySearch affiliate library", a map of the United States will pop up with the locations of all of the places you can go to look at these records on one of their computers. The same map pops up no matter which link you click. You can zoom in to your area and find the closest one; the greenish-bluish circles are Family History Centers and the orangish circles are FamilySearch Affiliate Libraries (i.e., public libraries that are allowed to access the restricted records). Here is the map zoomed in for my area:

I live very near O'Fallon, Illinois (lower right corner on the map); you can see that I am close to both a Family History Center (these are typically located in a Latter-Day Saints church) and an Affiliate Library. If you click on any of the location icons, a box will pop up with the address, phone number, and hours of that location. I have used the Family History Center in O'Fallon many times in the past, but right now they are open by appointment only due to COVID, and I didn't want to make someone open the library just for me. In the end I went to the St. Louis County Public Library, which also happens to be the repository for the National Genealogical Society book collection, so they have a lot of good reference materials available.

What will you find?

Assuming you have found a location that has access to these records, what next? The first step is to look in one of the index volumes to find names of interest that were involved in land transactions in Haddam. The index volumes are usually arranged alphabetically. Here is a page from the first index volume with Ackley grantors (all of the Ackleys who sold land in Haddam during the time period covered by the index):

I realize this is a little hard to read, but the page on the right-hand part of the image is a list of all of the grantors with the last name Ackley (the first column). The next column is the grantee for that transaction. The third column is the book number that transaction can be found in, and the fourth column is page number. The last column is title "Character of Deed". Most of the entries say "War" (I'm assuming that means warranty deed); there are a couple that say "Q.C." (I'm assuming that means quit claim deed), there is one that says "Mor" (I'm assuming that means mortgage deed), and there are two that say "Lease for life". I am not at all familiar with the different types of deeds, but that information might be useful for something. The fifth entry in the list is for Samuell Ackley (grantor), Thomas (grantee), which can be found in book 1, page 88. The grantee pages are arranged in a similar way, but the leftmost column is the list of grantees; the grantee pages would thus be a list of all Ackleys who bought land during the time period covered by the index.

Armed with the book number and page number for the transaction you are interested in, now go back to the list of films and find the one that has the book number you want. Click on that film, and you will get the page of images in the book. You will now have to browse those images to find the page number you want (remember, these films are not indexed), which is a little tedious. The page for Samuell Ackley and Thomas Ackley from above looks like this:

I don't expect you'll be able to read that; their transaction is on the lower right of the image. Here is a small snippet so you can see what the handwriting looks like:

You can see that the handwriting is very difficult to read in spots, and on the edge the copy is not great, but if you slog through it you can get the information about the parties involved and the land being sold. I did a quick and dirty transcription of the the above record, and here is what I came up with (I tried to transcribe it exactly as written, so you will see many words that are not spelled as they are today):

To all whom thes presents may concern greeting Know ye that I Samuell Ackley of the towne of hadam in the county of Hartford and collony of Conectticut good and valuable consideration ? ? unto ? ? ? ? ? ? and just soum of nine pounds of current silver money of New England ? to me by bill b? d? with all ? ? bargained granted sold in ? and doe by this grant bargain sel and ? ? unto my brother Thomas Ackley a certain parsell or tract of land lying and being situat within the township of hadam on the east side of Conectticut River being by estimate about thirty acres be it more or less being in the second ? of land of Lady ? on the east sid the Great River being bounded north on the land of Capn George Gates east on the Comon south on the land of Nathaniel Ackley west on the highway that runs between the d? together with the right of twenty pounds right in the Comons and undivided lands to him my brother Thomas Ackley to him his heirs executors administrators and assigns for ? to have hold p? p? and quickly in joy for ever without any lot hindrances ? ? station from or by me or my heirs executors administrators and assigns or any by or from mine or their p?ment or any other that hereafter shal pretend to any claim or titel to the said land or any part thereof or any of the ? and immunity of the unto belonging or in any ? approximating unto the aforesaid tract of land for ever in ? money ? unto I have set to my hand and seale this twenty third of January 1699:1700.

 

Witnes John Chapman                                                          Samuell Ackley

James Ray                                                  Acknowleged before Nathaniel ? ?

You can see from the many question marks that there were a lot of words I could not decipher. Also, there was absolutely no punctuation in this record whatsoever, so it runs on and on a little bit. Some of the language doesn't make complete sense either. Nonetheless, you can get the gist of what transpired in this transaction. Samuel sold a tract of land in Haddam on the east side of the Connecticut River (most of Haddam is on the west side of the river) to his brother Thomas for nine pounds. The land was about 30 acres. Captain George Gates's land is to the north, common land lies to the east, Nathaniel Ackley's land is to the south, and a highway is on the west boundary. It also appears that Samuel has given his rights to some common land to his brother Thomas. The transaction was completed on January 23, 1699/1700. Recall that until 1752, Great Britain and the colonies were using the Julian calendar while much of the rest of the world was using the Gregorian calendar. Under the Julian calendar, the year ran from March to February, while the Gregorian calendar (which is what we use now) ran from January to December. As a result, the month of January was reported with two years - it was still 1699 under the Julian calendar, but 1700 under the Gregorian calendar.

Ackley Grantors and Grantees

To give you a headstart on finding Ackley land records in these collections, I have transcribed all of the Ackley entries in the index books for both Haddam and East Haddam.

Haddam Grantors

Haddam Grantees

East Haddam Grantors

East Haddam Grantees

If you are planning to do some research on Ackley land records in Haddam or East Haddam, the tables above from the index books will give you a starting point; to see the individual transactions, you will still need to access the volumes containing the actual records. Good luck with your research!

Sources

1. Cooke, Lisa. "How to Find and Use Land Records for Genealogy", Genealogy Gems Blog. Published Oct. 4, 2019; accessed online Dec. 11, 2021.

Link of the Day

The link of the day is the Family Search website from which all of the screen shots in this post are taken:

https://www.familysearch.org/en/

Note that the Family Search website is completely free to use, but you need to have an account to access records.

Quote of the Day

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work."

 -- Thomas Edison

Assumptions, Rumors, Myths, Legends, and Falsehoods

I am not a professional genealogist, and I suspect very few (if any) of the readers of this blog are professional genealogists. However, there are some things we as genealogy hobbyists ought to be striving for as we research our families and share the information we gather with others. While very few of us have taken steps to formally publish what we have found, we are all in a sense "publishing" our work when we share our information on sites like Ancestry, WikiTree, Family Tree DNA, MyHeritage, and Family Search, and we owe it to each other to be as accurate as we can so we don't spread misinformation about our ancestors among our fellow genealogists.

Standards

As the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) puts it:

"Both professional genealogists and casual family researchers need genealogy standards in order to get their genealogy right. Without standards, inaccuracies and myths can be created and perpetuated. Many of these errors can be avoided by working to genealogy standards." [1]

To guide genealogists with their research, the BCG has developed what is known as the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS). To reach solid conclusions in our research, we ought to meet the following five standards [1]: 

1. Reasonably exhaustive research.

2. Complete and accurate source citations.

3. Thorough analysis and correlation.

4. Resolution of conflicting evidence.

5. Soundly written conclusion based on the strongest evidence.

 

So where am I going with this train of thought? I've been looking at a lot of online trees with Ackley ancestors in them lately, and I am seeing many profiles that are supported mostly by assumptions, rumors, myths, legends, and falsehoods. I've written about elements of this in previous posts, but I wanted to address it in a more systematic way in this post.

Common Types of Inaccuracy

First, some definitions of the words I am using here [2]:

assumption - a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof.

rumor - a currently circulating story or report of uncertain or doubtful truth.

myth - 1. a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events. 2. a widely held but false belief or idea.

legend - 1. a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated. 2. an extremely famous or notorious person, especially in a particular field.

falsehood - the state of being untrue.

These words have slightly different meanings, but what they have in common is that if we report information in our genealogy that falls into any of these categories and don't acknowledge that it may not be true or don't qualify it in some way, we are not supporting this information properly.

Some Examples

To illustrate, consider some of the information below that is widely reported for Nicholas Ackley. While there is a great deal we do know about Nicholas (see this post for his biography), there are some basic items that are still not known for certain, yet are reported as if they are fact. Some of the more common examples:

1. Nicholas Ackley was born in England. While this is a reasonable assumption and is almost certainly true, it is an assumption for which I have never found any actual documentation. There are no passenger lists or other immigration documents that definitively state that Nicholas came from England. It makes logical sense given his name and the origins of the other people in Hartford and later Haddam where he lived, so it does seem a reasonable assumption to make. However, in the absence of any documentation, we should say that it is an assumption rather than a known fact.

2. Nicholas Ackley was born in Shalford, Essex, England. This item has always puzzled me because it is so specific, yet I have never seen a reliable source for this information. I have written several posts relating to Nicholas's birth place, including this one, and this series (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4) on the possible origins of the Ackley surname. Without any proof for this claim, at best it can be viewed as a rumor.

3. Nicholas was born at Hopton Castle, England. Also a very specific assertion, and in direct conflict with #2. However, there is some documentation to support this idea, but it is entwined in a whole series of events related to item #11 below and is discussed in this post. The post raises some pretty fair arguments against accepting this as fact. Further, I have recently written about the fraudulent nature of the work of Gustave Anjou, the genealogist who produced the pedigree for Nicholas's ancestors in this post. Well-known genealogists have warned against using any of Anjou's work in developing pedigrees for our ancestors.

4. Nicholas Ackley was born in 1635. Another puzzling one given the specificity of the data and the lack of any reliable sources to support it. Logically I also have some doubts about this date given the other information we know. We have evidence that Nicholas signed a petition in May 1653 seeking to establish a plantation at Nonotuck, Massachusetts. If he was born in 1635 he would have only been 18 years old when he signed the petition. I am a little skeptical that such a young man would have been allowed to sign such a document; certainly not impossible, but in my opinion not likely. Therefore, I feel that his birth year may have been a little earlier than 1635. But, I have no evidence to back that up, so I can't report any alternative date with any authority.

5. Nicholas Ackley was an immigrant. This item follows naturally from the assertion in item #1, and for the same reasons listed there it is a reasonable assumption. Further, there have been no records found that would suggest Nicholas was born in the colonies, although that is not impossible.

6. Nicholas Ackley was indentured when he came to America.

7. Nicholas came to America to flee the British Civil War. #6 and #7 seem to be the stuff of family legend. I have not seen any documentation to support either assertion, although both are certainly plausible. Indentured servitude was a fairly common way for people to gain the funding necessary to travel to America, and the British Civil War took place between 1642 and 1651, which is consistent with the time period that Nicholas is thought to have come here. However, in the absence of any supporting documentation, these assertions will remain family legend in my eyes.

8. Nicholas Ackley's first wife was Hannah Ford Mitchell and his second wife was Miriam Moore. See this post for details; all we can really prove with reliable documentation is that his first wife was named Hannah (she is mentioned by first name only along with Nicholas in a deed) and that his second wife was named Miriam (she is mentioned by first name only in his will).

9. Nicholas had two other sons (named Nicholas and Benjamin) besides the ten children listed in his will (Thomas, Nathaniel, John, Samuel, James, Elizabeth, Hanna, Mary, Sarah, and Lydia). Although there are a couple of sources that name these two sons, these sources offer no good support for these claims, and one of the more complete references [3] on Nicholas Ackley's family speculates that they are probably grandsons, although even that argument has holes in it. For this reason, I would rate this claim as a rumor at best. 

10. Nicholas was a private in the Revolutionary War. This is just a flat-out falsehood and could not possibly be true given the known date of Nicholas's death and the timing of the Revolutionary War. From Nicholas's probate we know that he died on 29 Apr 1695. The Revolutionary War didn't start until 1776, which is 81 years after his death. 

11. Nicholas is the son of John Hackley (or some other Hackley). This relationship has been repeated over and over in family trees on Ancestry, WikiTree, and Family Search. I have written extensively about this item here, here, here, and here. Although this issue can probably not be put to bed until we find proof of who Nicholas's parents actually are, I feel that the arguments made in the first post cast serious doubt on the veracity of this claim. 

Bottom line: We need to stick to verifiable facts in our genealogy as much as possible. If we report data that is not supported by documentation or logic, we need to state as such so that others who are reading our work know that we are not certain about the data presented. If we don't know a date for certain, we need to use language such as "about 1635" and explain why we think that date makes sense. If we report a location we aren't sure about, we need to use words like "probably England" and include logic to support this speculation. To be sure, assumptions are not always a bad thing, but when assumptions are made, we need to identify them as such and explain why we think they make sense.

Another thing we need to be aware of when attempting to support our research is that not all sources are created equally. The different types of sources are a topic unto themselves, but I do want to mention that the following may or may not be reliable sources:

1. Someone else's Ancestry tree

2. Millennium files on Ancestry

3. LDS IGI records

4. LDS pedigree files

5. U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900

6. Find-A-Grave

The reason these sources need to be used with caution is that they all are some form of user-provided information, and could suffer from the issues discussed above. It is probably not fair to paint all of these sources with the same broad brush -- many people are very conscientious about sourcing the information in their trees, and their trees can be perfectly good sources if there is supporting documentation. On the other hand, there are also many trees that have little to no documentation associated with them, and are little more than good hints for further research. As such, I tend to use the above types of information as a starting point for a deeper dive into people of interest.

Final Thoughts

I want to emphasize that this post is not meant to be a criticism of anyone who uses some of the information detailed above in support of their trees. While the internet has been an absolute boon to genealogists because it has made billions of records available to us from the comfort of our own homes, it has also been responsible for the proliferation of improperly supported "facts". It can be very tempting to accept this information if "everyone else" has it in their trees. I view this and previous posts about this topic as encouragement to seek out valid documentation when conducting our research and building our trees. A quixotic endeavor perhaps, but one I feel is worth undertaking.

Don Quixote fighting windmills [4]

Sources

1. Board for Certification of Genealogists, "Ethics and Standards". https://bcgcertification.org/ethics-standards/

2. Google Online Dictionary (provided by Oxford Languages), accessed online on 9 Sep 2020. 

3. Ferris, Mary Walton, Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines: A Memorial Volume Containing the American Ancestry of Mary Beman (Gates) Dawes Vol. II (Wisconsin: Cuneo Press, 1931), p. 33-54.

4. Wikimedia Commons contributors, "File:Don Quixote fighting windmills.jpg," Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Don_Quixote_fighting_windmills.jpg&oldid=427763549 (accessed August 30, 2020).

Link of the Day

For an excellent example of using the principles discussed in this post, see the forthcoming book on Nicholas Ackley titled "Discovering Nicholas Ackley, Early Connecticut Settler, 1630-1695" by Nancy Mattison. I have had an opportunity to read the book before publication, and it addresses virtually all of the issues noted above. To learn more about the book, visit the author's website at this link:

https://ackleygenes.com/

Quote of the Day

“If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.”

  -- Marcus Aurelius

Samuel Ackley (1680-1745) and His Family

While I have made every effort to find reliable sources for the facts presented in this post, you will see that there are a few items for which there are no good sources. In such cases, I have identified the lack of reliable sources.

Samuel Ackley was the tenth of ten children born to Nicholas and Hannah Ackley. He was born about 1680; Find-A-Grave gives his birth place as East Haddam, Connecticut [2]. However, it is unlikely that he was born in East Haddam. It is more likely that he was born in Haddam; Nicholas and Hannah lived in Haddam in 1680, and the settlement at East Haddam was not begun until around 1685 [14]. Samuel's birth date could also be in question as well; probate records for Richard Piper of Haddam show that he gave "To John Ackly a mare; To Samuel Ackly a mare & colt, and all my Rights of Land East side of the Great River" when he died in 1678 [24]. This would suggest that either Samuel was born before 1680 or there was another Samuel Ackley for which no other records exist. 

Although Samuel was probably born in Haddam, it does appear that he lived most of his life in East Haddam; all of his children were born there, and he died there. According to probate records, he died 27 April 1745 in East Haddam [3]:

Samuel Ackley death date from inventory attached to will

At the time of his death in 1745, sons Samuel and Stephen were already dead, as were daughters Deborah and Lydia. Signed statements in the probate records from sons Isaac and Bezaleel and Samuel's widow Bethia acknowledge receipt of their portions of his estate. Son Simeon was administrator of the estate, and son Elijah also signed the will. Additionally, David, son of Samuel, Jr. was given a portion of the estate [3].

Samuel married Bethia Adams on 3 January 1700 in Haddam, Connecticut [15]. Samuel is sometimes referred to as Sergeant in some trees and in his will; so far I have not found evidence of military service for him. Samuel, Bethia, and their son Samuel were all baptized on 6 Oct 1706 at the First Congregational Church in East Haddam [21].

According to probate records, Samuel was chosen by two different young men to be their guardians. His nephew, Edward Purple, Jr. chose Samuel to be his guardian in 1729 [23], and Joseph Spencer, a minor 18 years of age, chose Samuel to be his guardian in 1730 [22].

Evidently Samuel did not know how to write. On every probate or land record I have found for him, he "made his mark" whenever his signature was required.

Land Records

Haddam and East Haddam land records reveal the following land transactions for Samuel:

• On January 23, 1699/1700, Samuel sold a piece of land in Haddam to his brother Thomas for 9 pounds [25].
• On May 27, 1717, Samuel sold a piece of land in Haddam to James Ray for 10 pounds, 10 shillings [26].
• On September 12, 1739, Samuel entered into some type of agreement with John Purple in Haddam. The image of the agreement was difficult to read, but it does appear to be a land transaction [27].
• On October 30, 1739, Samuel sold a piece of land in Haddam to Joseph Arnold [28]. The image was not clear enough to make out the sale price.
• On November 23, 1742, Samuel bought a piece of land in Haddam from Ephraim Griswould. The sale price was illegible on the image. On the same date, he also completed a land transaction in Haddam with Joshua Brainerd, Isaac Spencer, Mathew Smith, Jabez Chapman, and Thomas Gates [29].
• On March 8, 1744, Samuel gave a piece of land in East Haddam to his son Simeon Ackley [30].
• On April 25, 1744, Samuel gave a piece of land in East Haddam to his son Nathaniel [31].
• On December 18, 1744, Samuel sold a piece of land in East Haddam to Christopher Reed for 12 pounds [32].
• On April 25, 1745, Samuel gave a piece of land in Haddam to his son Bezaleel [33].

Given the timing of the last four transactions in relation to his death on April 27, 1745, it appears that Samuel may have been ill about a year before his death and was preparing for his death by disposing of his property.

Children

Fortunately, there are some fairly complete records covering the births of Samuel and Bethia's children and most of their grandchildren [4]. The East Haddam records shown below provide documentation for many of the vital dates that will be discussed. Each of the families to be discussed is enclosed in a different colored box.

Image 5 from Records of births, marriages, and deaths, 1687-1915.

Samuel and Bethia had seven sons and three daughters, all born in East Haddam, Connecticut (their information is enclosed in the red box above). Their ten children were:

1. Samuel Ackley was born 8 Dec 1703 in East Haddam, Connecticut [4] and died 18 January 1730 [5]. He married Hannah Hungerford on 22 November 1727 in East Haddam [4] (data is in the purple box on the top right of the image above). Samuel and Hannah had two children:

    a. Samuel Ackley was born 30 November 1728 in East Haddam [4].

    b. David Ackley was born 23 April 1730 in East Haddam [4].

2. Jerusha Ackley was born 29 March 1707 in East Haddam [4] and died in August 1736 [6]. She married Jedediah Graves in March 1728 in East Haddam [6]. Jerusha died in Aug 1736 in East Haddam [11]. Jerusha and Jedediah had three children:

    a. Jonah Graves was born 20 Jun 1728 in East Haddam [6].

    b. Esther Graves was born 9 Jan 1731 in East Haddam [6].

    c. Rachel Graves was born 2 Jan 1734 in East Haddam [6].

Note: Some online trees list a fourth child, Lydia, born in East Haddam in 1732. No sources are given, and it would seem odd for a child born in between Esther (1731) and Rachel (1734) not to appear in the same records.

3. Deborah Ackley was born 11 July 1709 in East Haddam [4]. Note: Other than birth and baptism records, very few records for Deborah can be found online. The following is reported in [16] with very little supporting documentation. Use with caution! 

Deborah married Edward Scoville, date unknown. She died around 1737 [16]. Deborah and Edward had four children:

    a. Micah Scoville, baptized 16 Nov 1735 [16].

    b. Benjamin Scoville, baptized 16 Nov 1735 [16].

    c. Lydia Scoville, baptized 16 Nov 1735 [16].

    d. Hannah Scoville, born after 1735 [16].

4. Lydia Ackley was born 14 August 1712 in East Haddam [4]. Note: Sources for Lydia Ackley's data are hard to come by as well. The following data is pieced together from several poorly documented sources. Again, use this data with caution! She married Thomas Fenn on 22 Mar 1731, and died in 1741 [17]. They had four children:

    a. Lydia Fenn was born 11 Jul 1733 [18].

    b. Thomas Fenn was born 1 Dec 1735 [18].

    c. Samuel Fenn was born 27 Dec 1737 [18].

    d. Hannah Fenn was born 24 Mar 1741 [18].

Thomas Fenn died in 1769, outliving both Lydia and his second wife Christian Baker. His will mentions all four children he had with Lydia Ackley and at least five children he had with Christian [3].

5. Simeon Ackley was born 10 January 1714 in East Haddam [4] and died 5 May 1791 in East Haddam [3]. Simeon was married twice. First, he married Alice Fuller in East Haddam on 8 Nov 1739 [4]. Her death date is unknown, but she must have died before 1747 because Simeon married again in 1747. Simeon and Alice had four children (data in blue box):

    a. Samuel Ackley was born 3 Oct 1740 in East Haddam [8].

    b. Lydia Ackley was born 18 Dec 1742 in East Haddam [8].

    c. Hannah Ackley was born 17 Jul 1744 in East Haddam [8].

    d. Alice Ackley's birth date is unknown, but she died on 6 Aug 1746 [11].

Simeon's second wife was Elizabeth Crocker. They were married 25 May 1747 in East Haddam [7]. Simeon and Elizabeth had six children:

    a. Elizabeth Ackley was born 25 Dec 1747 in East Haddam [8].

    b. Simeon Ackley was born 15 Apr 1749 in East Haddam [8].

    c. Stephen Ackley was born 25 Mar 1753 in East Haddam [8].

    d. Thomas Ackley was born 25 May 1755 in East Haddam [8].

    e. Isaac Crocker Ackley's birth date is not known for sure. One source reports he was baptized on 4 Nov 1760 [19]. He was probably born in 1760; his death record states he died on 3 Nov 1848 at age 88 [11].

    f. Bethia Ackley was born 22 Apr 1764 in East Haddam [9].

6. Stephen Ackley was born 27 July 1717 in East Haddam [4]. His death date is not known for certain; various trees give anywhere from 1720 to 1739 without references. He is not mentioned in Samuel's will. He probably died at a young age without marrying or having children.

7. Elijah Ackley was born 28 March 1719 in East Haddam [4], and died 3 Mar 1807 in East Haddam [10]. Elijah married Abigail Blakesley in East Haddam on 12 Oct 1741 [7]. Elijah and Abigail had seven children (data in green box):

    a. Stephen Ackley was born 19 Aug 1742 in East Haddam [8] and died 5 Dec 1749 in East Haddam [11].

    b. Elijah Ackley was born 23 Jun 1745 in East Haddam [8].

    c. Amasa Ackley was born 17 Feb 1747 in East Haddam [8].

    d. Abigail Ackley was born 28 Jan 1749/50 in East Haddam [8].

    e. Stephen Ackley was born 6 Sep 1750 in East Haddam [8].

    f. Bethia Ackley was born 31 May 1754 in East Haddam [8].

    g. Elizabeth Ackley was born 12 Feb 1756 in East Haddam [8] and died 20 Mar 1764 in East Haddam [11].

8. Isaac Chalker Ackley was born 6 October 1721 in East Haddam [4]. Isaac died on 17 Dec 1798 in East Haddam [11]. He married Ruth Gates on 25 Apr 1745 in East Haddam. Isaac and Ruth had nine children (data in yellow box):

    a. Demmis Ackley was born 16 Feb 1745/46 in East Haddam [8].

    b. Rhoda Ackley was born 10 Nov 1747 in East Haddam [8].

    c. Temperance Ackley was born 27 Sep 1749 in East Haddam [8].

    d. Ruth Ackley was born 23 Mar 1752 in East Haddam [8].

    e. Prudence Ackley was born 5 Aug 1754 in East Haddam [8].

    f. Lucy Ackley was born 9 Oct 1757 in East Haddam [8].

    g. Isaac Chalker Ackley, Jr. was born 16 Mar 1760 in East Haddam [8].

    h. Israel Dutton Ackley was born 1 Jun 1762 in East Haddam [8] and died 13 Oct 1764 in East Haddam [11].

    i. Olive Ackley was born 28 Aug 1764 in East Haddam [13].

9. Bezaleel Ackley was born 14 February 1723/24 in East Haddam [4]. His death date is uncertain; some online trees give 1776 without sources. Bezaleel married Bridget Champion in Lyme, Connecticut on 23 Nov 1748 [12]. Bezaleel and Bridget had five children:

    a. Deborah Ackley was baptized on 16 Jun 1754 in Hadlyme, Connecticut [20]

    b. Bezaleel Ackley was baptized on 16 Jun 1754 in Hadlyme, Connecticut [20]

    c. Lavina Ackley was baptized on 3 Sep 1758 in Hadlyme, Connecticut [20]

    d. Champion Ackley was baptized 6 Apr 1760 in Hadlyme, Connecticut [20]

Note: Some trees list a fifth child, James Erasmus Ackley, born about 1764, for this couple.

10. Nathaniel Ackley III (see this post about the three Nathaniels for an explanation of the "III" designation) was born 14 June 1726 in East Haddam [4]. He died 14 Mar 1794 in Millington, Connecticut [1]. Nathaniel married Lucretia Willey on 16 Feb 1756 in East Haddam [7]. Nathaniel and Lucretia had seven children (data in orange box):

    a. Ahira Ackley was born 22 Apr 1761 in East Haddam [8].

    b. Ithamar Ackley was born 13 Jul 1763 in East Haddam [8].

    c. Nathaniel Ackley IV was born 8 Aug 1765 in East Haddam [8].

    d. Huldah Ackley was born 6 Apr 1768 in East Haddam [8].

    e. Deborah Ackley was born 19 Feb 1771 in East Haddam [8].

    f. Mary Ackley was born 24 Feb 1775 in East Haddam [8].

    g. Irene Ackley was born 24 Feb 1778 in East Haddam [8].

Sources

1. Ferris, Mary Walton, Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines: A Memorial Volume Containing the American Ancestry of Mary Beman (Gates) Dawes Vol. II (Wisconsin: Cuneo Press, 1931), p. 50.

2. Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database online]. Memorial #177437120. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

3. Ancestry.com. Connecticut, Wills and Probate Records, 1609-1999 [database online]. Original data from Connecticut State Library (Hartford, Connecticut).Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

4. East Haddam (Connecticut). Registrar of Vital Statistics. 1984. Records of births, marriages, and deaths, 1687-1915. Salt Lake City, Utah: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah. Film 1480163, Vital statistics v. 1 1687-1789, Image 5.

5. Manwaring, Charles William, A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records 1729-1750 Vol. III (Hartford, Connecticut: R. S. Peck, & Co., 1906), p. 1.

6. East Haddam (Connecticut). Registrar of Vital Statistics. 1984. Records of births, marriages, and deaths, 1687-1915. Salt Lake City, Utah: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah. Film 1480163, Vital statistics v. 1 1687-1789, Image 42.

7. Ancestry.com. Connecticut, Town Marriage Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) [database online]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006.

8. Ancestry.com. Connecticut, U.S., Town Birth Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.

9. Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database online]. Memorial #134646412. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

10. Ancestry.com. Connecticut, U.S., Deaths and Burials Index, 1650-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

11. Ancestry.com. Connecticut, U.S., Town Death Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.

12. Ancestry.com. Early Connecticut Marriages [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

13. Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database online]. Memorial #90504743. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

14. Bayles, Richard M., "Town of Haddam", History of Middlesex County, Connecticut with Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men. Henry Whittemore. (New York: J.B. Beers, & Co., 1884), p. 370-371.

15. Ancestry.com. U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2012.

16. Ancestry.com. A survey of the Scovils of Scovills in England and America : seven hundred years of history, and genealogy [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data:Brainard, Homer Worthington,. A survey of the Scovils of Scovills in England and America : seven hundred years of history, and genealogy. Hartford: Priv. print., 1915.

17. History of Waterbury. Author, publisher, date unknown. p. 163. [Photocopy listed as source in many online trees, but no publication information included.]

18. Fischer, Carl W. Descendants of Thomas Horton of Springfield, and including some descendants of Phineas Pratt. (Interlaken, NY: I-T Publishing Corp., 1976), p. 93 [Accessed online on familysearch.org].

19. Crocker, James R. Crocker Genealogy. Unknown publisher. p. 22 [Accessed online on familysearch.org].

20. Ancestry.com. The Champion genealogy : a history of the descendants of Henry Champion of Saybrook and Lyme, Connecticut [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: Trowbridge, Francis Bacon,. The Champion genealogy : a history of the descendants of Henry Champion of Saybrook and Lyme, Connecticut, together with some account of other families of the name. New Haven Conn.: F.B. Trowbridge, 1891.

21. First Congregational Church and Ecclesiastical Society (East Haddam). Church Records 1702-1927. Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1953, Image 12.

22. Manwaring, Charles William, A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records 1729-1750 Vol. III (Hartford, Connecticut: R. S. Peck, & Co., 1906), p. 115.

23. Manwaring, Charles William, A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records 1700-1730 Vol. II (Hartford, Connecticut: R. S. Peck, & Co., 1904), p. 424.

24. Manwaring, Charles William, A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records 1635-1700 Vol. II (Hartford, Connecticut: R. S. Peck, & Co., 1904), p. 350.

25. Haddam (Connecticut) Town Clerk. Land records, 1668-1906; general index, 1668-1920. Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1948, 1984, 1987. Film 4464, Land records, v. 1 (1673-1744), v. 2 (1704-1730), Image 95.

26. Haddam (Connecticut) Town Clerk. Land records, 1668-1906; general index, 1668-1920. Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1948, 1984, 1987. Film 4464, Land records, v. 1 (1673-1744), v. 2 (1704-1730), Image 313.

27. Haddam (Connecticut) Town Clerk. Land records, 1668-1906; general index, 1668-1920. Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1948, 1984, 1987. Film 4465, Land records, v. 3-4 1728-1759, Image 197.

28. Haddam (Connecticut) Town Clerk. Land records, 1668-1906; general index, 1668-1920. Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1948, 1984, 1987. Film 4465, Land records, v. 3-4 1728-1759, Image 201.

29. Haddam (Connecticut) Town Clerk. Land records, 1668-1906; general index, 1668-1920. Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1948, 1984, 1987. Film 4465, Land records, v. 3-4 1728-1759, Image 381-382.

30. East Haddam (Connecticut) Town Clerk. Land records, 1704-1912; general index, 1704-1910. Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1949, 1984, 1987. Film 4097, Land records v. 2-3 1725-1749, Image 750.

31. East Haddam (Connecticut) Town Clerk. Land records, 1704-1912; general index, 1704-1910. Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1949, 1984, 1987. Film 4097, Land records v. 2-3 1725-1749, Image 761.

32. East Haddam (Connecticut) Town Clerk. Land records, 1704-1912; general index, 1704-1910. Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1949, 1984, 1987. Film 4097, Land records v. 2-3 1725-1749, Image 756.

33. Haddam (Connecticut) Town Clerk. Land records, 1668-1906; general index, 1668-1920. Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1948, 1984, 1987. Film 4465, Land records, v. 3-4 1728-1759, Image 663.

Link of the Day

This is a link to the East Haddam records on Family Search used extensively in this post:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/375312?availability=Family%20History%20Library

This reference has three separate sets of images that are useful for East Haddam research.

Quote of the Day

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn."

--Benjamin Franklin

The Parentage of Nicholas Ackley Revisited

I apologize up front if you are reading this post hoping to find some new revelations about the true parentage of Nicholas Ackley. So far, I have found nothing new about Nicholas's parentage, but I have discovered additional information discrediting what many have accepted as his ancestry.

Quite some time ago, I wrote a post about The (Supposed) Ancestors of Nicholas Ackley. In that post, I attempted to debunk the notion that Nicholas Ackley's father was John Hackley, from Hopton Castle, and that his ancestors reached back to Hughe de Hackluite in the 14th century. This pedigree, or some variation of it, appears in many, many online trees on Ancestry as well as WikiTree, and seems to have its origins in a pedigree that was published in the book The Life of Charles Henry Hackley, Drawn from Old Public and Family Records by Louis P. Haight [1]. Virtually all of the Ancestry trees cite other Ancestry trees as the only source for their information (which is like having no source at all), while WikiTree makes repeated references to what seems to be the Haight book in the profile for John Hackley, who is listed as Nicholas's father. This note in his WikiTree profile describes the Hackluite information:

"Descendants of Hughe De Hackluite. Mr. Haight had Gustave Anjoy, a Hasbrouck Heights, NJ, professional genealogist, trace the Hackley "family tree" back to Hughe De Hackluite in Herefordshire, England in 1377."

The name Gustave Anjoy (who it turns out is actually Gustave Anjou) is new information to me; I discovered it recently while assisting a fellow Ackley researcher who is writing a new book on Nicholas Ackley (which I will discuss in more detail in a future post). The two of us began independently looking into Gustave Anjou and learned that he is a notorious forger of genealogies who was cranking out pedigrees by the hundreds in the early part of the 20th century. Anjou originally pedaled his genealogies to well-to-do clients for the hefty price of $9,000 (which is equivalent to almost $300,000 today), but eventually began selling them for $250 through a mail-order business. Mr. Anjou's business even made page 1 of the New York Times in December 1927 [2]:

The article goes on to sing the praises of the work Anjou was doing to make genealogy affordable to the masses, with no hint of the fraud he was perpetrating that was finally fully exposed in the 1990s.

The first hint of Anjou's fraud came in an article by George McCracken in American Genealogist in 1976. McCracken's article was really just a short note in which he advocated starting "a list of genealogical authors whose works are so untrustworthy that they deserve general condemnation."[3] Without explanation as to why, the list included Gustave Anjou, Charles H. Browning, C. A. Hoppin, Orra E. Monnette, Horatio Gates Somerby, Frederick A. Virkus, and John S. Wurts. (Many of these authors plus a few others are mentioned in the article found at the "Link of the Day" below.) However, it wasn't until two companion articles were published in 1991 in Genealogical Journal that the full extent of the fakery was exposed. Gordon Remington wrote in detail about Anjou's carefully fabricated life story and the persona he invented to make himself attractive to his clients [5], while Robert Anderson used an example of Anjou's work to reveal the methods he used to produce the hundreds of bogus genealogies he sold to unwitting customers [4].

In his article, Anderson also published a list of 109 Anjou genealogies believed to be fraudulent along with their call numbers at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Other researchers have added to the list, and there are now over 300 genealogies produced by Anjou that are considered to be fakes; among them is the Hackley genealogy. For a complete list, see the forum entry by Nicole Wingate on genealogy.com [7].

In describing Anjou's methodology, Anderson wrote [4]:

A typical Anjou pedigree displays four recognizable features:

1. A dazzling range of connections between dozens of immigrants to New England; for example, connections far beyond what may be seen in pedigrees produced by anyone else.

2. Many wild geographical leaps, outside the normal range of migration patterns.

3. An overwhelming number of citations to documents that actually exist, and actually include what Anjou says they include and

4. Here and there an invented document, without citation, which appears to support the many connections noted under item 1 above

Without rehashing the points made in the original post, it is pretty clear that the Hackley pedigree presented in the Haight book fits the pattern laid out by Anderson. The pedigree includes references to Nicholas Ackley and is the apparent source of Nicholas's ancestry mentioned above; we now know it is not to be trusted. Much of the information about earlier generations is documented and verifiable, but there are too many leaps of faith required to connect the generations to each other. Likewise, bits of the data on Nicholas are correct, but most of it is just flat out wrong, and supporting sources are not provided.

It is hard to know which parts of the pedigree can be attributed to Anjou; in the opening paragraph of the chapter on Hackley's ancestry, Haight credits only H. Farnham Burke with the research on the pedigree. Sir Henry Farnham Burke (1859-1930) was a professional genealogist and held several royal appointments to positions related to English heraldry and genealogy. In 1826 his family established "Burke's Peerage", a guide to royal and other prominent families worldwide, and it is still published today. However, there are several clues that Haight engaged Anjou for help with the pedigree, and there was a long association between the two. There is a signed letter from Anjou at the front of the book, dated April 16th, 1906 (the book wasn't published until 1948), verifying the Hackley coat of arms that appears in the book. Additionally, in The First Two Hundred Years in Muskegon [6], author Frederic Read details Haight's efforts to honor his friend Charles Hackley and states that:

"To top if off, Mr. Haight had Gustave Anjoy [an apparent misspelling of Anjou], a Hasbrouck Heights, NJ, professional genealogist, trace the Hackley "family tree" back to Hughe De Hackluite in Herefordshire, England in 1377, and from then forward to the life of Charles Henry Hackley in Muskegon. According to Dr. Anjou's information, one ancestor, Sir Thomas Ackley, was mayor of London in 1511. Another was sheriff of Eaton in England, another a rector of Westminster."

Read's book was written in 1976, so Anjou's work had not yet been exposed as fraudulent. Whether Haight gave Anjou credit or not, it is apparent that the "research" on the pedigree in Haight's book was Anjou's work.

While I feel that the dismantling of the pedigree presented in the earlier post, which I wrote without knowing that Anjou was a fraudster, was pretty thorough and stands on its own, this additional information about the fraudulent nature of Anjou's work should be a red flag to anyone researching Nicholas Ackley. It is all the more reason to discount Nicholas's ancestry, which was based on that work, that has made its way to every corner of the genealogy internet. If you have included the Hackley information in your tree, I would strongly suggest either removing it or at the very least including comments/warnings for anyone who sees your tree that the information is definitely not reliable.

Sources

1. Haight, Louis P., The Life of Charles Henry Hackley (Muskegon, Michigan: Dana Publishing Company, 1948), p. 107-120.

2. "Sells Family Trees at a Cut-Rate Price." The New York Times, 12 Dec 1927, p. 1.

3. McCracken, George E. (July 1976). "Towards an Index Expurgatorius". The American Genealogist. 52 (3): 182.

4. Anderson, Robert Charles (1991). "We Wuz Robbed, The Modus Operandi of Gustave Anjou". Genealogical Journal. Utah Genealogical Association. 19 (1 & 2): 47–70.

5.Remington, Gordon L. (1991). "Gustave We Hardly Knew Ye: A Portrait of Herr Anjou as a Jungberg". Genealogical Journal. Utah Genealogical Association. 19 (1 & 2): 59-70. 

6. Read, Frederic. The First Two Hundred Years in Muskegon (Publisher and location unknown, 1976), p. 89.

7. Wingate, Nicole. "Fraudelent Lineages" on genealogy.com at Home > Forum > General > General Genealogy 

(https://www.genealogy.com/forum/general/topics/gen/37674/), accessed 19 Nov 2021.

Link of the Day

This is a link to a page at FamilySearch.com discussing known fraudulent genealogists:  https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Fraudulent_Genealogies

Like most genealogists, I have relied more than once on prepared genealogies to fill in earlier generations of my tree. After learning about Anjou and other fraudsters, I plan on consulting this link to make sure I haven't unknowingly used bad information.

Quote of the Day

"No legacy is so rich as honesty."

  -- William Shakespeare