Alonzo’s Wife Mary

Scholefield Family Tree The last person in Alonzo’s family that needs a few details is his wife. Here is her obit: Mrs. Alonzo H. Degraff Mary McLean, widow of Captain Alonzo H. DeGraff, died at 8 o’clock Thursday evening at the home of her son Harry W. DeGraff, 15 Grant avenue, after an illness of … Read more

Alonzo's Obit

Scholefield Family Tree I located one obit for Alonzo. There are likely more out there because this was one picked up by a nearby paper in a different county. The moral of this story is that you might find a news item about your family in an unexpected paper. Nearby papers would reprint news from … Read more

A DeGraff Researcher

Scholefield Family Tree My last post was found by Peter Cross — a DeGraff researcher. He offered some information about an additional Harmanus DeGraff in the area. I emailed him and he provided the following: His “Harman” was 31 at the time of the 1860 Census. His wife was Harriet Ann Wilde and his children … Read more

Detangler Needed?

Scholefield Family Tree The sources I have located have stated that Harmanus DeGraff, Helen Scholefield’s father, was born in 1800; however, I also find possible matches who were born in 1796 or 1791. Which do I choose to believe? More evidence is needed. (And here is some…) The 1840 Census reports: Harmonus DeGraff of Amsterdam1 … Read more

Which Harmanus?

Scholefield Family Tree It behooves the serious researcher to remember that not all search engines have indexed every part of the web. In this case, a search on Dogpile for “harmanus degraff” turns up the following result from Ask and Bing: Simon, son of Daniel, born April 6th, 1753, married December 6th, 1779, first, Annatie, … Read more

Searching Sideways

Scholefield Family Tree I am certain that I have pushed back another generation with the names of Harmanus DeGraff and Susan Thomas; however, what were the names of all of their children and their parents? Earlier I found that Susan had a brother named Alonzo, so searching for information about him might lead me to … Read more