PIATT FAMILY RESEARCHERS' CONFERENCE Delaware Valley College, Doylestown, Pennsylvania June 26, 2001 Present: Elizabeth "Liz" Branstead, Beth Ann Lauer, Kenneth Lawrence Lauer & Mary Joan (Piatt) Lauer, David Conrad Piatt, James Donovan Piatt and Edith (Ross) Piatt, Laverne (Ingram) Piatt, Richard O. Piatt and Mary (Keiper) Piatt, Ira A. "Skip" Piatt, Sharolynn Pyeatt, Christine Webb, Elizabeth Webb. Joe and Paulie Piatt did not attend the evening meeting because they met their son Joseph in Philadelphia for dinner. Laverne and Sharolynn went to the New Jersey State Library and tried to find cemetery listings for Middlesex, Somerset and Hunterdon Counties. Laverne also checked some other areas and found several interesting things, which are probably already known, including a Baptism: on July 8, 1770, Rev. Frazer baptized Mary, the wife of James, and their child, Benjamin. Richard said that the child was quite young. He believes that both mother and child died shortly thereafter and are both buried in Alexandria. This information was disappointing since it means that Benjamin is not a link to some of the unconnected lines. Laverne also found a compilation of tavern licenses from Hunterdon County. Richard said that he had never known that Elijah Piatt had purchased a tavern license in Hunterdon County around 1823. William Piatt also paid a tavern tax in 1792, as did "William's father," who is unfortunately not otherwise identified on the list of those paying the tax. Richard, Mary and Skip spent the day at the New Jersey State Archives. They are attempting to collect vital records documents for their direct line. Richard also spent a lot of time answering questions about the early Piatts for others researching at the Archives. David worked at the Archives all day, concentrating on Will Abstracts. As a matter of interest, he looked up Rene Piatt's Intestate packet on microfilm, copied it, and passed it around at the meeting for everyone to look at. At the State Library, Sharolynn found an abstract from a will that was filed in Middlesex County for Michael Munday, a neighbor of the Piatts who died in his 80s. He was a farmer, but was also an alcoholic. His will had been made 20 years earlier before his second marriage. Michael Munday's brother contested the will, and the dispute resulted in over 100 pages of documentation and testimony from many witnesses (including Asa Piatt). Most who testified also gave biographical information about themselves. Asa's testimony appears to include information about his own movements back and forth from New Market to New Brunswick to Somerset and back to New Brunswick over his lifetime. Unfortunately, once Sharolynn got to the Archives, she found that their microfilm seems to contain only some accountings from the packet. She is hoping to go to New Brunswick and get a chance to look at the original document packet there. Jim and Edith Piatt worked at the Archives. They found many interesting details in a book called More Records of Old Hunterdon County: Division of Lands 1796-1876. Jim quoted one: "On 13 Sept. 1824 John Pittenger was surety for Jacob Pittenger, distiller of Alexandria Township, who was accused of being the father of the unborn child of Mary Piatt, single woman of the same place. (Recog. 2332)." Jim also looked at some will records in the book. Nicholas Pickle left a bequest of 400 pounds to his "daughter, Anna Pyatt" in a will dated 15 April 1818. And on August 27, 1821, Jeremiah King of Kingwood Township left a lot to his daughter, Sarah Pyatt, wife of Dr. James Pyatt. Christine and Elizabeth Webb also spent their day at the Archives. They worked on gathering vital record information from other lines. Christine spent $30 on photocopying from microfilm, but none of this was Piatt information. As usual, her Piatts managed to be scarce in the records. At the Archives, Liz looked at Birth Records from 1848-1878. She would have preferred to concentrate on the earlier era, but unfortunately has not pushed her own line back far enough yet. The Piatts she found had diverse names (not all repetitions of previous generations) and some of them were very unusual, for example, Alavesta Piatt. Liz also looked at Will Abstracts and really began to build more familiarity with the New Jersey Piatts. She feels that just now, however, she needs to concentrate more on her line in Pennsylvania in the hope of finally making the connection back to New Jersey. Jo found a book at the Archives that had been put into a special folder because it was in such fragile condition. The index listed John the Sheriff (Piatt) of Middlesex, and the book contained actual copies of newspaper items that John had published in the newspapers of his time. The information seemed so interesting that Jo intends to publish it in Piatt Family Photogravure even though there are no pictures to go with it. She thinks it is important to preserve it for future generations in case the book crumbles into little bits too small to read! Jo commented that she was also intrigued to find the name "Joseph Paxton" listed in the Will Abstracts at the Archives. If she has time later in the week, she will pursue information about him for Liz. Ken checked the card catalog in the Documents Room of the Archives. It contains information about New Jersey newspaper citations. He found several Piatts of various spellings. Unfortunately, the Archives does not hold all of the relevant microfilm reels for the newspapers where the articles cited can be found, but some of them may be available nearby at the State Library. Beth began her day at the Archives by reviewing Volume 7 (1786-1790) of the Will Abstracts for any mention of Piatts. Two of the three abstracts she found involved Piatts only as people who helped inventory the estate. She will give the information she found to Laverne so it can be added to her document "Some Court Records Involving Piatts in New Jersey 1683-1814." The names Dunham and Munday are both mentioned in these abstracts in connection with Piatts. At Richard's suggestion, Beth then checked early land conveyances involving Piatts and the every-name index of Wills. Richard thinks that the land transfers from James Pyatt to Benjamin Stelle and James Pyatt of Piscataway to Thomas Pyatt may be worth pursuing, but Beth did not have time to follow up in the microfilm. At Richard's suggestion, Beth did look up the estate packet for Thomas Pyatt of Middlesex County, father of Asa. She copied it and Richard will review it to see if it contains any new clues. Richard gave everyone information about William and Hannah Tindall Piatt, saying that "some of it is fact and some of it is thought." (See attached.) He plans eventually to post this write-up on the Piatt-LIST. Liz said that she was intrigued to see Rita Piatt O'Brien listed as the granddaughter of Nathaniel Piatt. It makes her wonder if her Joseph Paxton Piatt could tie into this line somehow? Richard cannot prove it, but he believes that all clues are pointing to the likelihood that William (of William and Hannah Tindall Piatt) is the son of Benjamin and Hannah Bowlby Piatt. It just seems to him that it can't be a coincidence that all of these things tie in. Jo commented that the three recent obituaries that appeared in Photogravure are all descendants of William and Hannah Tindall Piatt. Furthermore, she has heard Erta Piatt Walker and her sister LeMoyne Matthews talk about (and LeMoyne has written about) Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Notes by Beth A. Lauer