This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: HILL COLYER THOMAS WESTBROOK SWARTWOOD ARGETSINGER SHAPPEE FLANDERS VanAUKEN WEAVER SHOEMAKER SCHOONMAKER DECKER Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/3RB.2ACE/339.2.4 Message Board Post: I am very interested, after our research trip late last May 2002, in certain of those mentions. We learned that John Hill was father of Sackett and Hugh and a bunch of others. And that sometimes John is shown as Jno which some people assume is a Jonathan, but is 50/50 either given name. Also, on some census and other docs, Sackett is called Zachary! Local pet name, we have no idea. So. A "Jonathan" mortgage deed 1801 is possible but if so, per census, I am thinking he had not moved the family to Tioga yet, else it's a different John. John mortgagee 1815 and John 1832 are also possible. Thomas 1830 and John 1831 are also possibles. Now get this. Since finding John's will (he died intestate 1849 and Hugh as eldest son was named Executor, and all we've learned since then - there are 3 wives. Sarah (Sally) COLYER is the one grandmother told me. She also mentioned Sally THOMAS, I guess Colyer had died, we don't know yet. More children with THOMAS wife #2, who may have died early 1830s, have not found a burial for her nor for John. John also took a 3rd wife Elizabeth unknown who only probably lived with him perhaps 5 years. At the will probate &c it was stated that Elizabeth had not lived with John for 15 years following an "anti nuptual" and made no claim on his estate. By searching 1850 Cayuta censuses, each page and line, the two best candidates for Elizabeth, shown as widows, were a WESTBROOK (best bet) and a SWARTWOOD. We just did not have enough time at Chemung, we could have used 1-2 weeks more. I found mentions of land transfers by Elizabeth HILL and not knowing who she could be yet, did not get back to finding out what they were. The surname SACKETT's pretty much out of the picture now, period. I believe it's a given name. Sacket's father John, and his father also a John, named their sons after men they admired, and probably knew! What better way to begin in a new nation-to-be. The immigrant John appears to have shown up (from Scotland it's said, not proven) around Kingston, Ulster County, later Wallkill, Orange County NY, late 1740s. I really need to plan another trip to look at what's in deed records, from Owego, to Spencer, to Cayuta, to Erin, to Van Etten. I believe the last place was still in Hill family possession through the 1880 US census. Catharine ARGETSINGER (Hill) SHAPPEE, by then wife of Guy Maxwell Shappee, still lived there. I'd studied censuses from 1850-1880 in terms of who lived by/between whom to arrive at that likelihood. Shoemaker Hill, one of Sacket's sons, died in the civil war after having two sons with Catharine. I need to keep reading onward, those censuses. Do you perchance have access to 1825 NY state census for, I guess it's Tioga County still? I'd be looking not only at Sackett Hill, but John, Hugh, any others (Joseph, Abner, Morris) right close, also Abner FLANDERS, Cornelius Van AUKEN (any spelling), Peter WESTBROOK and a WEAVER who married Sacket's siblings. (sigh) I'll just bet the NY 1825 isn't going to be online anywhere, or available anywhere at all near me. Know what my current biggest mystery is at Chemung County right now? Learning who were the children of John SHOEMAKER and wife Phebe DECKER. The one child I can find documented so far is Catharine SPERRY whom they adopted one week after her mother died. Catharine's blood father was Basil SPERRY, Erin's very first resident. Why John? Effectively by elimination of Isaac and Abram but just as much to the point: my grandmother said so: that Elizabeth's father was John.