Those of you who are familiar with Henry Z. Jones, noted researcher/lecturer in German Genealogy, and author of the "Psychic Roots" books, might be interested in the following account which relates to our Blanchard genealogy investigations. There have always been certain individuals in any region of a country who have developed, often for reasons of their own, an interest in recording and preserving the history of their locality. Henry C. Ritchie of Saratoga County, NY was one of these people. The "Ritchie Papers", housed in the New York State Archives, have been available to researchers by way of microfilm but the nature of the original handwritten records did not produce clear, reliable film. Within the past few weeks, arrangements were made to transfer the original papers to the Saratoga County Historian's Office in Ballston, Spa, NY. Yesterday, when I had an opportunity to inspect the Ritchie Papers, I was pleasantly surprised to find the following letter among the alphabetically arranged data pages under 'Blanchard'. ________ Apartment 15 D, 21 - 66 33rd. Road Long Island City, 6, N.Y June 13, 1953 Mr. Henry C. Ritchie Galway Saratoga County, N.Y. My dear Mr. Ritchie: In my spare time I am engaged in compiling a history of the Blanchard Family, descendants of Thomas Blanchard who came to New England on the ship, "Jonathan," in June 1639 and settled in Charlestown, Mass. To date I have record of more than twelve thousand obtained by tracing the male lines to the present but the female through one generation only. My connection with the famiy is by marriage, my wife Helen Blanchard, being of the ninth generation from emigrant Thomas through his third son, Samuel Blanchard of Andover, Massachusetts. After the Revolution several individuals of various branches of this family settled in Saratoga County having come there from Vermont or western Massachusetts. As an authority on that district, I am writing you at the suggestion of my friend Mr. George McKenzie Roberts, now of Berryville, Va., to see if you can give any additional information on the following Blanchards. A couple of years ago, while doing some work of his own on a branch of the Rhodes family in Saratoga County, Mr. Roberts copied the following items from Town Clerk records, Cornelius E. Durkee's Cemetery Inscriptions, etc. Simeon Blanchard b. Dec. 19, 1848, in Northumberland, N.Y.; d. Sept. 18, 1896, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., a son of Charles & Elizabeth (Van Kleeck) Blanchard. On Mar. 28, 1978, he mar. Jennie C. Ingalls and for many years was a carpenter in Greenfield, N.Y., where all of their seven children were born. Unfortunately, at the moment I cannot find in my files what little data I had concerning Charles Blanchard and his wife Elizabeth Van Kleeck but what there was, was probably taken from Durkee who, I think, had death records for both. However, I think he said that Charles was the son of Asahel Blanchard. What I would like to know is whether you have any records whatever on this Asahel Blanchard, probate, land conveyances, identity of his wife, other children besides Charles, etc. And, likewise, whether or not you have similar records of Charles and Elizabeth Van Kleeck. I have no idea as to the identity of her parents. If we can learn more about Asahel Blanchard I am sure that I can place him in the proper branch of the family. It is an unusual name in the Blanchard family but I am sure that this Asahel is a descendant of an Asahel who, as a veteran of the Revolutionary War, died May 10, 1815, in New Haven Mills, Vt. Another Asahel, undoubtedly a son, was in New Haven, Vt. in the Census of 1810, with a wife over 45 years of age, a daughter between 16 and 24, and two sons and another daughter under ten years of age. One of these younger sons born in the early 1800's may welll have been the Asahel of Saratoga County, father of Charles. Any further light that you may be able to throw on any of these people will be deeply appreciated. A self-addressed stamped envelope is inclosed for your convenience. Sincerely yours, J. Crawford Hartman _________ [If I had come across this letter 6 or 7 years ago, it would have saved me a lot of digging!] Some of you will recognize J. Crawford Hartman as the subject of a number of posts to this List, from our discussions of <his> papers some of which are located at the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society in New York and his genealogical articles which have appeared in several publications including the NYG&B Record and the Boston Evening Transcript. I don't believe there is anything personal in this letter that would prohibit me from including it here and the information on these Saratoga County Blanchard families may be of interest to our members. This letter is of particular interest to me since it mentions my 2g.grandparents Elizabeth (Van Kleeck) and Charles {Henry} Blanchard and my 3g.grandfather Asahel Blanchard. Contrary to Mr. Hartman's presumption that the younger Asahel, residing in New Haven, VT was a son of the Rev. War veteran Asahel, I am attempting to confirm that rather, he was a nephew and the son of the elder Asahel's brother, Abner. The letter verifies that Mr. Hartman's interest in BLANCHARD was because of his wife Helen who was descended from Samuel, son of Thomas. It is also of considerable interest to learn that he had collected data on "more than twelve thousand". This suggests that if these records are included in the "boxes" at the NYG&BS, we should definitely arrange to see them. Correspondence from them indicated that the records are unindexed, consist of 3 cu. ft. and can be viewed by NYGBS members. Ritchie's microfilm gives no clue to the existence of the Hartman letter or any of the clippings, and other brief notes that are tucked between some of his original data pages. All of these are now available to researchers at the Saratoga County Historian's Office. I am working with a group that will investigate how we can publicize the "Ritchie Papers" and perhaps make them available in abbreviated form on the Web. Fletch