Hi listers I am very interested in the RYAN grave site my ggg grandfather John Wilkes Ryan and per a letter from my greatgrandmother she wrote that son of Col. Jeremiam Ryan married and died in the Rensselaer,Troy area. My last posting I indicated that all records had been destroyed in the Troy fire the earliest date that I have is Caroline Ryan d of John Wilkes Ryan b 3-9-1821. I am also very interested in the sealing of the church records,which I'm very much against,but the records are the only means of tracing people.But here again ,if II read one of the posting correctly researchers have not taken care of these documents and have taken some away,you can't expect the church to be very happy about this.I'm am Episcopalian/Lutheran and my marrage in1941 is sealed due improprities and I don't think that my children will be able to see the records. Life does go on regardless researching Monroe,Bates,Ryan,Rowley,Lathrop,Smith,Huntington,Hyde, Able ,Fargo ,Robinson and Levis.CT,NY,IA. Bill Levis -----Original Message----- From: bmyers <bmyers@du.edu> To: NYRENSSE-L@rootsweb.com <NYRENSSE-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Tuesday, September 12, 2000 8:24 AM Subject: [NYRENSSE] recent visit to Troy Hello Everyone! I returned yesterday from NY where I spent two days in Troy researching all I could about my family lines. Obviously it was no where near the amount of time I would've liked to have spent, but I was able to find some information and visit some places I'm sure my ancestors did. I have a few questions for you...the first is regarding the St. Joe's (in Troy) church records. I spent much of one whole day looking at the old records, but was really disturbed when Bernadette (the helpful church secretary) told me that the head pastor decided to seal the records up for good sometime in the near future. Apparently nobody will be able to see them anymore due to their failing conditions, and the apparent disturbance to the normal church functions that we genealogists pose to them. I spoke with Bernadette about this for a long time, but unfortunately she was not a very sympathetic ear as she does not like genealogy. I offered to transcribe the records one book at a time from Latin to English, but she didn't give it any thought (understandable so, I guess). Neither of the priests were available to speak with, but she indicated that it was their idea to seal the records. She also told me that Salt Lake has called to microfilm the records, but due to apparently personal reasons the church has refused to let them microfilm the records...she said something to the effect that a former St. Joe's priest converted to the Mormon faith. I got the impression that this happened after they contacted the Church to copy the records, but I'm not sure. When I was looking for some records, it seems as if some of the oldest books were missing and/or stolen. Anyway, I am really interested in doing something to dissuade the priest(s) from prohibiting future access to these valuable records. I'm not sure what I can do from here in Denver, as it is easier to hang up on a person on the phone. If anyone else is interested or disturbed about this, I'd love suggestions and maybe some help or support in keeping these records available. Feel free to e-mail me. Lastly, I visited St. Joe's cemetary and found some stones separated from the cemetary by a grass road and drainage from nearby apartments. The caretaker does not have the resources to clear up this area, as this area looks beyond help. There are some beautiful large stones in good condition not visible from the rest of the cemetary. I dressed in fisherman's boots, rubber coat, work gloves and goggles to force my way through the heavy growth of trees and brush. I believe this is considered part of the swamp area, but not the stones concealed up on the small hill. My family has never seen these stones before, but I was always told some family was buried back there. I found one stone (it was difficult to see the large stones unless you were right near them due to the heavy growth) with the Ryan surname. Cornelius Ryan and his family was buried there. I took pictures, but had difficulty finding the room to write...the brush was so bad. If anyone is interested in the info. from this stone, when I get the pictures developed I'll pass on this information. I'm sure no human has set foot there for at least the past 50 years it is so badly overgrown. Brooke Myers ==== NYRENSSE Mailing List ==== Archives: http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl Rensselaer County Genweb page: http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyrensse/ GenConnect Board: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/NY/Rensselaer Listowner, Pat Connors: mailto:nymets11@pacbell.net