For a few years I have been researching my great grandfather, Erastus Sisson. I was beginning to believe he didn't exist. Pulled up on Ancestry.com the Missouri Marriages, 1851-1900. It shows Eratus Sisson married Ravilea A. Roberts on April 25, 1861 in Lafayette County Missouri. Actually I believe his name was misspelled. They had nine children and Ravilea died in 1883 with several young children including my grandmother, Annie Lee Sisson, born in 1874 in Lafayette County Missouri. Erasuts Sisson (note the difference in the spelling) married again to Annie Adams on September 18, 1889 in Lafayette County Missouri. I don't have a DOD yet, but still researching that. In that same year of 1889, a William A. Lockhart married Lissie Sisson. William Lockhart was my grandfathers brother and Lissie Sisson was my grandmothers sister. Pulled up the Jackson County Missouri 1930 Census Report and it shows my grandmothers brother, John Sisson, his wife Caddie Sisson and daughter Lesta Sisson. I shows that his father, Erastus Sisson was born in Virginia as the case of all the information I have. I believe that I need to backtrack from Missouri to Virignia and I think that they were living in Kentucky before moving to Missouri. Erastus was born in 1837 in Virginia. My grandfather and grandmother, Albert M. Lockhart and Annie L. Sisson were married in Lafayette County Missouri January 20, 1895. If any of these names, places, or dates are familiar with anyone that subscribe to the Sisson list, please write me. I would appreciate any information that I can receive. My sister and I made a trip down to Lexington and Wellington Missouri (Lafayette County) a week ago to look up anything we could at the court house and library. The city cemetary in Wellington does have some of my ancestors buried there. One day is not enough to take care of all the years of research I need to do. Thank you, Patricia Lockhart Blanton [email protected]

Carol, would you please change my e-mail address on the list? I have been getting buried with spam. My new e-mail is [email protected] Thank you so much, Jane Daniels ----- Original Message ----- From: "Regehr, Carol" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2003 8:33 AM Subject: RE: [SISSON-L] One Story - Three Morals - LONG POST > > > David, what a *great* find! I believe it was Louis Pasteur who said, > "Chance favors the prepared mind." May we all find such a treasure > trove, on any of our lines! Cathy, I'll bet you *will* find something > great for yourself, as you've done for many others! > > Carol Sisson Regehr > Sisson-L list mom > -- > [email protected] > > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > > >

I'd ask - Where have you lived in the census years since you were born? and particularly during the summers of those years? My answer would be - 1940 Detroit, MI 1950 Detroit, MI 1960 Flint, MI 1970 Town of Rush, Monroe County, NY 1980 Town of Brighton, Monroe County, NY 1990 Town of Webster, Monroe County, NY 2000 Town of Brighton, Monroe County, NY 2010 Who knows? I would ask this question because the censuses gather details of a person's life more conveniently than just about any other kind of record. Part of me wishes that the data included the name of one's religious affiliation, but of course that would be skirting the issue of the separation of church and state. If one belongs to a "faith community" (to be politically correct), more good data might be available. Why can't I have a second question? If I did, I'd ask - Where do you save your letters and photographs? David Arne Sisson ----- Original Message ----- From: "glitz" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2003 9:33 AM Subject: [SISSON-L] Genealogy based question > I am doing a survey here. I want to do an interview. If you had the chance to ask only one question of a living person in your family---what would it be? > > Glitz > > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > >

To my father, Gaines Lawson "Cotton" Sisson: "Would you share with me the story of you life?" I realize that this could be a lengthy process, but that is exactly what I would expect and would prepare accordingly--lots of paper, camera, tape recorder, pens, whatever it took to get a complete picture. Kathleen

I have met four new cousins at our local library. Not the planned meetings, but by going to the library on the spur of the moment. These new cousins have come in from out-of-state. At our local library there is a book to sign for researchers. I always check the names that have been signed ahead of me. I ask the librarian in charge if that person is still there. If that person is still there I walk over to them and ask who they are researching. One day, I was at home and one of the librarians calls me on the phone. (It is a good thing I was not on the internet.) She knew what surnames I was researching. She told me there was a gentleman from South Dakota in town looking for his 2nd great-grandfather. I talked with him briefly, went to the library and gave him all the info he ever imagined. He has been back twice to Indiana to visit. I went to the library on the spur of the moment this spring and met a new Sisson cousin from Michigan. We have been exchanging information back and forth on the internet. This meeting of cousins by accident has happened to my husband also. I do not believe this is a coincidence. Destiny (maybe the ancestors up there giving us help, since they did not leave good records). Let the librarians at the libraries you frequent know the surnames you are researching, leave an outline descendancy chart with names & dates in the family files. Post your queries and surnames on all the sites related to that surname. You never know when someone will find you query and contact you. Judy Waggoner Green Grant Co., Indiana

I am doing a survey here. I want to do an interview. If you had the chance to ask only one question of a living person in your family---what would it be? Glitz

There are 19 Sissons listed in historical records (1860-1920) at the Nevada State Historical Preservation Office. The website is at http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/shpo/NVCENSUS/ Cathy

I agree, David! I love to hear success stories -- they've even given me ideas for new places to research and other trails to explore. Besides which, it's always great to hear about the successes of our big Sisson family. Cathy ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Sisson" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2003 1:29 PM Subject: Re: [SISSON-L] One Story - Three Morals - LONG POST > > Dear Friends and Cousins, > > Thanks for all the messages of congratulations that have poured into my mail > box since I sent the original One Story message, not only on the Sisson List > but also by private email directly to me. > > I think it would be great if everyone who has such a story would write it up > and post it here! Then we could see how each other is doing research, or > dreaming of a great find. > > Don't be shy. Don't say, "Oh, my story isn't nearly as dramatic as that > one!" No story of research or serendipity is too small to enlighten and > inspire someone. > > Next, please. > > David Arne Sisson > > > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > >

Dear Friends and Cousins, Thanks for all the messages of congratulations that have poured into my mail box since I sent the original One Story message, not only on the Sisson List but also by private email directly to me. I think it would be great if everyone who has such a story would write it up and post it here! Then we could see how each other is doing research, or dreaming of a great find. Don't be shy. Don't say, "Oh, my story isn't nearly as dramatic as that one!" No story of research or serendipity is too small to enlighten and inspire someone. Next, please. David Arne Sisson

Test sorry

David, what a *great* find! I believe it was Louis Pasteur who said, "Chance favors the prepared mind." May we all find such a treasure trove, on any of our lines! Cathy, I'll bet you *will* find something great for yourself, as you've done for many others! Carol Sisson Regehr Sisson-L list mom -- [email protected]

Congratulations, David, I'm so happy for you! What a wonderful find. I have to admit to being a little jealous! I wish we could all be that lucky, but thanks to your generosity and willingness to share, all Sissons will benefit from your find. Great job! Cathy

What a wonderful set of stories, David. We had a similar surprise when I found a 1954 note thanking a great aunt for donating something unidentified to the Rare Books and Manuscripts section of the University of Virginia Library. I called the library and found that it was a large collection of letters and other documents ranging from 1817 until after 1900. It documented the day to day lives of a family of Sissons we knew nothing about until then (the Abner and Rachel Chambers Sisson family), and some things that also related to our own family (Benjamin, brother of Abner). I got copies of everything and it took a full year to transcribe them all, but at the end, I had more than I ever dreamed possible. I've been able to answer questions on this list based on information in those letters. I now know that years ago, many states and state universities made an effort to ask for old letters, documents, etc. for their collections. If your family has lived in one state for a long time, it may be worth a call to either the State Library or the State University Library to see if you might be in for a surprise as well. Sharon Sisson Miller ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Sisson" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 4:51 PM Subject: [SISSON-L] One Story - Three Morals - LONG POST > But wait - There's more! My son Andrew Sisson likes to search for stuff on the Internet. One day he was searching for the name Sisson, and came up with a link to the University of Rochester's Rare Books and Manuscripts Room. (I live in Rochester, and Andy grew up here.) The rare manuscripts held by the U of Rochester included a stash of letters written to and from - no kidding - William and Betsey (Gale) Sisson. I called the Rare Books and Manuscripts Room to ask about their hours and what parking was available, and drove the three miles. Two large boxes were brought to me. I sorted, I listed, and asked for the listed papers to be photocopied, and now I possess 15 or so letters from that source.

Congradulations on your find David. That is a great one. Speaking for the internet, I found where a gg-grandfather on my grandmothers side was buried by searching the internet. I also found extra information to help locate a gg-grandmother on the Sisson side from the internet to help locate her burial site. I am a firm believer that the internet is a great source, but like everything else, you need to prove your sources. Larry L. Sisson

LONG POST WARNING Hello Everyone, This is a fairly long story. So first - the moral of the story. Actually there are three morals: 1. Always be sure to make yourself known to the historians and archivists and the associations and societies of the area where your ancestors came from. 2. Always read the footnotes. 3. Don't believe it when people tell you that the Internet is not a reliable source for information about your ancestors. Now, the story. This morning about ten o'clock the phone rang. It was a certain William/Bill Maddock of Lyons, New York. He told me he and his wife had found a locked trunk in their cellar when in 1985 they moved into their new home, built about 1840. The trunk was very light in weight and they thought it was empty. So it didn't matter that it was locked. A few weeks ago Bill's wife "couldn't stand it any longer" and decided that she'd force the lock to be sure the trunk was empty. It wasn't empty. A large shoe box was inside. Inside the box was a pile of papers which originally belonged to my great-great-grandfather William Sisson of Lyons, New York. If you surf to http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~dasisson/richard/aqwg58.htm#150, you will see William Sisson's record on the Sisson Genealogy Site. He and his wife Betsey (Gale) Sisson and his father and mother Elisha and Elizabeth (Chappel) Sisson were the first of the Sisson family to live in Lyons. On that web page you can see his line of Sisson ancestors back to Richard and Mary Sisson who were in Rhode Island by about 1650 or before. I descend from William through his son William Henry Sisson, and his son Frank Munro Sisson, and his son Frederic Gale Sisson. Fred was my father. The papers cover just about all the aspects of William's life. They are an almost incredible mélange of stuff - receipts from people he'd bought things from or paid for their services; and records of family happenings (some are drafts of records that are in his family Bible); letters from relatives, plus copies of letters he wrote back; legal papers (he was a lawyer and a judge); a diary covering a few months late in his life, etc. I spent over two hours with Mr. Maddock who handed me each sheet of paper one by one, so that I could get a little taste of the riches in the pile. And no mean pile it is. The "new" box is piled almost five inches deep with papers, many of them from William's early days in Lyons in the 1820s and many more from the year before he died (in 1863). How did Bill Maddock know to call me with news of his find? He talked with the Wayne County Historical Society's archivist, Sharon Lubitow, who knows of my interest in the Sisson family in Lyons. She was able to give Bill my address and phone number. Voila! See Moral Number 1 above. This collection of William Sisson's papers will give me great pleasure to scan and transcribe. Once I have everything deciphered, I will have a great deal of knowledge about the William's life. William was a very careful and cautious man, keeping track of every cent he owed, paid, or received, or earned interest or rent on. He generated a great deal of paper keeping track of it. He bought and sold property in Wayne county from about 1815 until shortly before his death in 1863. I probably now have a fairly large percentage of that paper, thanks not only to Bill Maddock of Lyons, but to a footnote and to my son Andy. First, the footnote - I knew from William's family Bible which my father inherited in 1955 that William's wife was Betsey Gale . I did not know who her parents were, though I knew she was married in the Town of Scipio, Cayuga County, New York. I began working on Betsey's roots in the early 1980s, finding that the only Gale family in Scipio in the 1810 census was that of Henry Gale, so he became my working candidate for her father. I borrowed Gale genealogies and found a Henry Gale or two of the right birth-date range soon after that. But neither of them had a Betsey daughter (or an Elizabeth). One of the Henrys had a son named Thomas Drury Gale however, and William and Betsey Sisson had a son named Thomas Drury Gale Sisson. That narrowed the search considerably, and eventually I found that Betsey had been omitted from the list of Henry's children in one of the Gale genealogies. Eventually I found Betsey Gale, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Gale, in the International Genealogical Index (the IGI). It cited a vital record in Vermont. The probability that this was "my" Betsey Gale was very large now. When I clicked on one of the many Henry Gale entries in the IGI, I found that he was father to Thomas Drury Gale. Now I was certain. The next step was to search for Henry's family of origin. His mother's name was Elizabeth Chadwick, and I found her in a Chadwick genealogy along with the footnote you've been waiting to hear about. The footnote said that information about Elizabeth (Chadwick) Gale's family came mostly from the Vermont Historical Society. I wrote email to them and asked about the Gale file, and they didn't answer. I wrote again, and they sent a list of the papers, almost all letters - from guess who? from William and Betsey (Gale) Sisson. Would I like copies? Estimated cost about $20. Would I?!! Now I had proof that the Betsey Gale who was William Sisson's wife was indeed the daughter of Henry and Elizabeth (Drury) Gale. See Moral Number 2 above. But wait - There's more! My son Andrew Sisson likes to search for stuff on the Internet. One day he was searching for the name Sisson, and came up with a link to the University of Rochester's Rare Books and Manuscripts Room. (I live in Rochester, and Andy grew up here.) The rare manuscripts held by the U of Rochester included a stash of letters written to and from - no kidding - William and Betsey (Gale) Sisson. I called the Rare Books and Manuscripts Room to ask about their hours and what parking was available, and drove the three miles. Two large boxes were brought to me. I sorted, I listed, and asked for the listed papers to be photocopied, and now I possess 15 or so letters from that source. See Moral Number 3. I could not have done this all by myself. If it were not for my son and my contacts and my searching in the genealogies I borrowed by mail from the New England Historic Genealogical Society (http://www.newenglandancestors.org/rs1/Default.asp) I would not know what I have discovered. And I would have missed some of the joys of my life. I'm working on a book tentatively titled The Sisson Families of Lyons, New York. The publication of the book suddenly has been pushed back several months, but sooner or later my cousins and I are going to have a lot of information about those families, including William, his daughter and sons, and his grandchildren. What fun!! Yours, David Arne Sisson

Hello to both of you, and welcome back Pat! Pat, I don't know about Tom Lincoln's connection, but this Mary was thought for years to have been a sister of our Robert. I no longer believe that. The Pope family is well documented. If you enter Nathaniel Pope's name in a search engine, you'll get pages and pages of information about him and his descendants. With regard to the Sisson connection to the Pope's, I will send you by personal email the information I put together about Mary and Nathaniel Pope, and particularly Daniel Sisson, who is thought by some to have been Mary's brother. Pat, let me know if you want this as well. There is controversy about whether or not she was originally Mary Sisson or Mary Baldridge. The problem stems from her use of "my brother and sister" with reference to Daniel and his wife, Jane Baldridge. Did she mean brother-in-law or sister-in-law when she wrote it? Mary was certainly an aunt to their children, but it's difficult to tell which side she was related by. There is also controversy about whether Daniel was even a Sisson. His name has been transcribed as Lisson, Liston, Lyston, etc., since the "L" and "S" of old were virtually interchangable. I do believe he was a Sisson, because his daughter's will was probated by her guardian, John Washington. Surely he knew how the name sounded, and her will says "Sysson". After a great deal of research, I have concluded that this family of Westmoreland County was not connected to our Robert of Richmond County. Sharon Sisson Miller ----- Original Message ----- From: Pat C. To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2003 3:33 PM Subject: Fwd: [SISSON-L] Mary Sisson m to Nathaniel Pope Sharon, Was Mary Sisson m to Nathaniel Pope Tom Lincoln's line? pc Delivered-To: [email protected] X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.1 required=6.5 Resent-Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2003 12:38:47 -0600 X-Original-Sender: [email protected] Sat Jul 19 12:38:47 2003 From: "glitz" <[email protected]> Old-To: <[email protected]> Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2003 13:47:24 -0500 X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 Subject: [SISSON-L] Mary Sisson m to Nathaniel Pope To: [email protected] Resent-From: [email protected] X-Mailing-List: <[email protected]> archive/latest/3975 X-Loop: [email protected] Resent-Sender: [email protected] I have no dates at the present. But I am seeking info on Mary Sisson m to Nathaniel Pope. They had a son named Nathaniel also who m 1) Jane Brooks Brown 2) Elizabeth Pierce. This line connects to my husband. TIA Glitz

Hi, Betsey. Article about Sissonville,WV would definitely be of interest to me.Thanks, Jimmy.M. Sisson

I have no dates at the present. But I am seeking info on Mary Sisson m to Nathaniel Pope. They had a son named Nathaniel also who m 1) Jane Brooks Brown 2) Elizabeth Pierce. This line connects to my husband. TIA Glitz

Thanks Betsey! Sure appreciate it. Take care. Joyce, near Seattle

found an article about sissonville, wv last night . is this of interest to sissons in general? or is it old? betsey levin