My family left Ulster in 1716 for Massachusetts, settling finally in the Lisburn Proprietary, now Pelham. The name is Crossett. A book claims the original name was du Crozat, a Huguenot. It spells out who he married, how many children with dates only for the boys, and where his farm was. Another generation follows with similar details. The third generation came to America. That is documented. The story has always made me doubtful since there are no references given other than that the family had had research done in 1927 in Ireland. What is the opinion of the list as to whether such information could have been then or could today be found? Tom

Hi Thomas, it is more likely that information on the family can be found today than at any time in the past. Why? Because we have greater access to documents than ever before as well as better training in how to do this research. If you read Falley's book on Irish and Scotch Irish Ancestral Research, you'll find a whole chapter on how to research Huguenots. In the past our standards were much lower for genealogical research and documentation so much compiled genealogy lacks proper sourcing. That's pretty much the norm. Efforts have been constantly made to improve things and you'll find articles published in the leading journals are properly sourced. Good luck! Linda Merle ----- Original Message ----- From: "thomas crossett" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, March 8, 2010 7:15:32 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: [S-I] 17th Century research My family left Ulster in 1716 for Massachusetts, settling finally in the Lisburn Proprietary, now Pelham. The name is Crossett. A book claims the original name was du Crozat, a Huguenot. It spells out who he married, how many children with dates only for the boys, and where his farm was. Another generation follows with similar details. The third generation came to America. That is documented. The story has always made me doubtful since there are no references given other than that the family had had research done in 1927 in Ireland. What is the opinion of the list as to whether such information could have been then or could today be found? Tom ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Anyone whose family had research done from America in the 1920s or thereabouts, especially if it is impressive and well connected and goes back a long way into interesting and picturesque times and looks like it cost money, needs to check that it did not come from the slimy hand of Gustav Anjou. Who did indeed charge lots of money, and who did provide a pretty and apparently documented genealogy, but who invented hundreds of genealogies out of thin air. Look him up on the web; there are several sites. I myself traced Anjou's work in the accepted genealogy of my Co Derry families, with help from the website owner of http://www.torrens.org.uk If someone from America did not employ Anjou, but did real research themselves or employed a real researcher, before the Public Record Offie went up in smoke, it is always possible that their material is irreplaceable and might preserve information that no one else could ever get. I really hope that this is the case with your Crosset family, but I would be afraid that Anjou has been at his filthy work Linde Lunney