This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/BUB.2ACI/6142 Message Board Post: Naboth Brightman Welch was the son of Naboth (no middle initial) Welch and Amy Crandall. Amy Crandall's maternal grandmother was Mary Brightman, the wife of Benjamin Potter, they being the parents of Patience Potter who married Caleb Crandall, Amy's parents. We do not know when Naboth Welch died, but it appears that he died along with his parents and many others of the family in the great epidemic that struck Brookfield in 1813. All of these deceased Welches are buried on the old Welch farm in Brookfield, which I have visited, but the original markers, probably made of wood, disappeared a century or more ago. The 1820 census shows Amy Welch as the head of a household comprised of herself and a male between the ages of 16 and 18.She is evidently a widow. Next door lives Naboth Welch, undoubtedly Naboth Brightman Welch with his wife. They are both between 16 6o 26. They have two daughters under 10. Based on proof that I will get to below, Naboth B. Welch was married to Freelove Tacy Coats, daughter of Ambarose and Tacy (Partelow) Coats, who lived next door. The 1830 census of Plainfield shows the Naboth B. Welch family, comprised of a young son and 6 daughters! There was also an older woman living with them--probably Amy (Crandall) Welch. By the 1840 census, the family had moved to the Knights Creek section of Scio, Allegany County, New York, and the older woman is no longer in the household. The 1850 census of the Town of Scio shows Naboth and Freelove as being between 40 and 50 with these children at home: Naboth 29, Phebe 18, Sophia 14, Emily 12, Mary 9, Martha 7, and Robert 4. The above Phebe is my wife's ancestor. In 1851, this Phebe Nancy Welch married Nelson Rice, a schoolteacher and dairy farmer, and they lived primarily on a farm outside the hamlet of Whitesville. For Christmas 1852, Nelson gave his 20 year olf wife a pocket diary for the year 1853. This diary remains in the family. Phebe recorded the events of each day, including the deaths of neighbors, the visits of friends and relatives, the health of her sister Jane (who was dying of consumption), and several dozen aphorisms--mostly related to death. On the inside of the back cover of the diary, she wrote: "Naboth B. Welch was born February the 2nd 1797 Town of Groton New London County State of Connecticut. Freelove Coats was born March 15, 1797 Town of Stonington New London Co. Connecticut State. Married August the 1st 1816 in Plainfield Otsego Co. NY." Reading the diary almost breaks one's heart when you realize that Phebe, herself, would die of consumption in 1858, at the age of 26, leaving two children, Sarah Joespha Rice born in 1854, and Arthur Judson Rice, born in 1856. Arthur Judson Rice was my wife's great-grandfather. I have an "Archive Record" of Naboth and Freelove's family which is on file at the Mormon Library in Salt Lake City. It is not indexed or avaiable on line. It was submitted by one Gertrude Jones, who lived in Tonawanda, New York, in 1970, so that she could have her ancestors and relatives baptized and "sealed." This record shows that Naboth Brightman Welch died on 10 June 1880 and Freelove Tacy Coats, his wife, died on 27 July 1877. This record shows 11 daughters and two sons as well as their spouses. Much of the information was apparently provided by "Myrtie Tibbs Hand," who must have had information from a family Bible, and who was probably descended from Mary Patience Welch, born 28 February 1841, who married Oscar Tibbbs. Clarissa Tacy Welch was born 11 September 1819, married John Wright, and Catherine married Robert Wright. I have visited the cemetery in Knights Ferry and the birthdates given on the stones for Naboth B. and Freelove are simply wrong by 25 years. As I have shown above, both Freelove and Naboth were born in 1797. This is proved by Phebe's diary entry and by the ages shown in the census returns. These errors on the stones have unnecessarily confused subsequent generations. In case you have not run accross it, there is information on the early Welchs in ELDER JOHN CRANDALL OF RHODE ISLAND AND HIS DESCENDANTS by John Cortland Crandall at 163. It correctly lists both Naboth Welch and Naboth B. Welch. I can supply copies of the archive record above, a handwritten pedigree chart, and I also have a photo of Freelove (Coats) Welch which probably dates from the 1860s-1870s and gives us some idea of the flinty life of women of her era. Horrors, she is not wearing makeup! Ambrose Coats and his wife, erroneously listed as "Lucy" instead of "Tacy," as well as his ancestors are shown in ROBERT COATES OF LYNN, M ASS. AND SOME OF HIS DESCENDANTS, compiled by Evgelyn (Coates) Aherin, 1970.