{"id":1745,"date":"2012-09-25T15:34:16","date_gmt":"2012-09-25T15:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=1745"},"modified":"2017-10-17T12:56:39","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T16:56:39","slug":"genealogy-help-two-captain-elisha-smiths-which-is-my-ancestor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/genealogy-help-two-captain-elisha-smiths-which-is-my-ancestor.html","title":{"rendered":"Genealogy Help: Two Captain Elisha Smiths\u2014Which Is My Ancestor?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was recently doing some family history research, looking for information about my ancestor Captain Elisha Smith\u2014when I ran into a dilemma that genealogists occasionally face: two men with the same name from roughly the same time period.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how it happened, and here\u2019s what I did to solve this riddle.<\/p>\n

I was looking for my ancestor Captain Elisha Smith (1755-1834) who served in the American Revolutionary War.<\/p>\n

Hmm\u2026<\/p>\n

Family records show that he was born in 1755, died in 1834, and lived in New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

A quick search in GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>\u2014Bingo\u2014there he is.<\/p>\n

\"obituary<\/a>
New Hampshire Patriot (Concord, New Hampshire), 7 July 1834, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OK. This old death record seems to fit.<\/p>\n

He did live in New Hampton, New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

The age is about right: \u201cin the eightieth year of his age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Captain, and \u201csoldier of the Revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, that all fits my ancestor\u2019s profile.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s called \u201ca republican of the Jeffersonian school\u201d and \u201ca firm supporter of the present administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

OK, I have no idea what his politics were, but it is interesting to know that he was such a strong supporter of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was among the first settlers of the town in which he lived.\u201d<\/p>\n

OK, that fits. The family lived in New Hampton, New Hampshire, for generations.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s called \u201can enterprising and industrious farmer.\u201d<\/p>\n

OK; good testimonial to his character and work ethic.<\/p>\n

So\u2014this seems to be the old obituary of my ancestor.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, wait a minute\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

As the doctor said when my twin brother and I were born: \u201cHey, wait a minute, there\u2019s another one.\u201d<\/p>\n

I found another historical obituary for a person named \u201cCapt. Elisha Smith.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is this my \u201cCaptain Elisha Smith\u201d ancestor that I was looking for?<\/p>\n

Did I have the dates and places for him wrong?<\/p>\n

\"obituary<\/a>
American Advocate (Hallowell, Maine), 16 April 1825, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The name in the death record is the same, so is his title.<\/p>\n

So that fits.<\/p>\n

This Capt. Elisha Smith died in 1825 \u201caged 74.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was 74 years old in 1825, so his dates are approximately 1751-1825.<\/p>\n

This could be a record for my ancestor\u2014maybe the dates\/places I had were wrong and this is the correct Elisha Smith.<\/p>\n

He has the title \u201cCaptain.\u201d Given his age he probably served in the American Revolutionary War; a local militia or other military role.<\/p>\n

This Elisha Smith died in Lyman, Maine.<\/p>\n

Lyman, Maine?<\/p>\n

Hmm\u2026 that doesn\u2019t fit as well.<\/p>\n

As you can see from this map, Lyman, Maine, is about 70 miles from New Hampton, New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

\"map<\/a>
Map showing distance between New Hampton, New Hampshire, and Lyman, Maine, from Google Maps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Was he traveling in Lyman, Maine, when he died?<\/p>\n

I decided to see what else I could find about \u201cCaptain Elisha Smith,\u201d so I Googled his name.<\/p>\n

Bang. Up came a book written in 1915 by Mary Elizabeth Neal Hanaford: Family Branches of the Hanaford, Thompson, Huckins, Prescott, Smith\u2026and Allied Families<\/em>. (Rockford, Illinois: Author, 1915).<\/p>\n

\"collage<\/a>
Collage of pages from Mary Hanaford’s 1915 book “Family Branches of the Hanaford, Thompson, Huckins, Prescott, Smith\u2026and Allied Families”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Genealogy Research Tip:<\/strong> Google has digitized hundreds of thousands of local histories and genealogies just like this one. Use Google Books as a quick source to see what conclusions other genealogists and local historians have made. It\u2019s free, and can really help you with your own family history research.<\/p>\n

Hanaford\u2019s book is terrific. She published her research almost 100 years ago, in 1915, and she included a section on Captain Elisha Smith.<\/p>\n

Hmm. She makes no mention of Lyman, Maine, for her Elisha Smith.<\/p>\n

On page 145 she states: \u201cElisha Smith went to New Hampton [New Hampshire] from Brentwood Corner [New Hampshire] and settled at the foot of Beech Hill, in 1834.\u201d Since he died 28 June 1834, he moved to New Hampton within weeks of his death. Perhaps it was his advancing age and possible ill health that prompted the move to New Hampton, to be closer to other family members.<\/p>\n

Hanaford\u2019s book has pages of references and citations that give more details on his life and that of the other members of the family.<\/p>\n

I still need to check out those references, but with the additional corroboration in Hanaford\u2019s book I can reasonably conclude that the first obituary I found in GenealogyBank for \u201cCaptain Elisha Smith,\u201d the one published in the New Hampshire Patriot,<\/em> is for my target ancestor Captain Elisha Smith that I was researching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An article about how Thomas Jay Kemp solved a genealogy puzzle when he found two men named Captain Elisha Smith \u2013 but only one could be his ancestor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[12,2719,2020],"class_list":["post-1745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-genealogy","tag-genealogy-search-tips","tag-newspaper-archives"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/illustration-1019-2016-featured-graphic-sherlock-holmes.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}