Hi--I'm new. And I'm looking for a SMITH in Ulster County (though I have not completely ruled out nearby Deleware or Greene). In fact, I've been looking at LOTS of Smiths in northwestern Ulster County, in the Shandaken-Big Indian-Pine Hill area. Still, as always, I have yet to find the one SMITH that's been the object of my research for about 10 years now. Theodore Hall SMITH, b. Jan (23?),1831. I don't know where he was born. I wonder if anyone ever really knew. But while I don't know where he came from, all roads seem to lead me back to Ulster County, New York. Facts? I have a few: Theodore Hall SMITH married Anna M. VanArsdale (b. Aug 8, 1829, Northampton, Bucks Co., PA) in or about the mid 1850's. I've no idea how they met, unless you can tell me there is some connection between Ulster County and Bucks. I have no idea where they married, or where they went or lived prior to the mid-1870's. Neither was living with their parents on the 1850 census, nor can I find them together anywhere in the 1850, 1860, or 1870 censuses. But just after Theodore died on April 29, 1890, at Clifton in Somerset County, Maryland, one Joseph S. SMITH of Shandaken, New York showed up and paid for the casket. I think he might also have paid to have Theodore's body shipped elsewhere for burial. I've found no grave for Theodore in Maryland. The next year the same Joseph S. Smith and his wife Elizabeth facilitated the transfer of property in Shandaken from themselves to Theodore's widow. That property had been in Joseph's family for some time. Joseph was born ca. 1839/40 to Samuel Smith Jr. and Clarissa Gossoo, of Shandaken (or is it Big Indian or Pine Hill?). Does anyone have any idea how Theodore might be related to these people? Theodore and Anna SMITH had two children: Samuel Carson SMITH (b. 1856, in PA?) was supposedly sent north from Maryland to be educated in New York. The 1880 MD census shows him as away "at school." Is anyone aware of a school in the area for 24 year olds in 1880?? Later, Samuel was living with his wife (Lizzie Roxana Drake from Hunterdon Co., NJ) and children in Camden, NJ, when in 1901 he packed up his young family and moved them to Big Indian, Ulster County, New York. He died in Big Indian in November 1903. He was only 47 years old. By the way, what kind of middle name is Carson? It is not a family name from his mother's side. For that matter, the same could be said for his father--what kind of middle name is Hall?? The second child was Elizabeth (Lizzie) V. SMITH (b. 1869 in NJ). Don't know much of her, except she lived in Philadelphia. Around 1901/1902 she mortgaged some property up in Shandaken. Later, in 1910, she was living in Philadelphia and had apparently married someone named Richards. Now, the son Samuel Carson SMITH himself had two children, T. Howard Smith and Gertrude Smith. Gertrude was about 14 when her father died in Big Indian, T. Howard was 11. Their mother, the widowed Elizabeth Roxana Drake Smith, moved back to Trenton for a time (near her family), but apparently moved back up to or near Ulster County when she remarried a man named Macomber at some point after November 1913. I've never known his first name. She died in Fleishmann's, in Delaware County, at some point in the mid or late 1930s? or later? (She was born 1865, I have no death date). The daughter Gertrude must have remained in the area, at least for a while, or else she returned after marrying. She married George A. Speenburgh in New Brunswick, NJ, in 1913, but at that time was trying to get her teacher certification from New York State. A Yahoo! phone search on Speenburgh tells me this George had to be from Ulster/Delaware/Greene. Gertrude Speenburgh was living in Fleishmann's in 1928. Finally, all of what I know began with one family bible page of deaths (there is no bible, just that page). It begins with an entry, supposedly prior to April 1890, that reads: "Ida Virginia Smith departed this life on the . . .". That's it. No date, no explanation of who Ida might have been. In 10 years looking I've never found her. Perhaps the answer is in Ulster County? I was aware of my Smith's connection to Ulster County before, but always thought they were, perhaps, just tourists who decided to stay. But the arrival of Joseph S. Smith in Maryland to help settle Theodore's affairs tells me otherwise. Presently, I'm collecting all the information I can find on Smiths in northwestern Ulster County. Any and all contributions, help, advice, or direction, are MOST welcome. Sorry for such a long email, Marian Smith