A Picture of Aunt Lucinda--the Shaker With Descendants

This is the first time I have ever found a relative's photograph in an archival collection in any library. And a wonderful picture it is. It can be very easy to overlook special collections at regional, college, and university libraries in our ancestral search. Any archival collection has the potential to contain material on a relative, but the chance is increased when our relative was a member of a unique group--in this case a Shaker.

The original copy of this photograph is in the Shaker Collection at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. Lucinda joined the Shaker community in Enfield, New Hampshire in the 1840s and remained their until her death. 

The name on the back of the photograph is "Lucinda Furnum." Based upon the reasonableness of the variation and census records, I'm fairly certain this picture is the Lucinda (Sargent) Fairman who was born in Leicester, Vermont, the daughter of Samuel and Sarah (Gibson) Sargent.

What I am not certain of is when the picture was taken. I also need to find out of there is any significance to a Shaker to what she is wearing.

The image posted as a part of this blog post has been created from the front and back of the actual image by using a digital version of the photograph obtained on the Hamilton College Library website. It is a great little find.

Samuel and Sarah (Gibson) Sargent are my 4th great-grandparents.

The Only Stone Left Standing

[this post was posted to my Casefile Clues blog some time ago and we're reposting it here since Shakers have been a recent topic of discussion]

This "find" found me thanks to my earlier blog post on Lucinda (Sargent) Fairman. 


Work on Lucinda, who lived in a Shaker community in Enfield, New Hampshire, has taken a back seat to other things. However, a contributor to FindAgrave recently photographed her tombstone in the Shaker Cemetery in Enfield, New Hampshire. According to the information on the cemetery on Findagrave, Lucinda's stone is the only one remaining. It's not often I get that lucky--over 300 burials and the only stone left is the one I actually need. 


This photograph of her stone was taken by Nicole S Vecchi and is used here with her permission.   

The Findagrave entry can be viewed here. 


Hopefully we'll have periodic updates on Lucinda and her life in the Shaker community.

Lucinda is a sister to Clark Sargent--my 3rd great-grandfather.

Finding Lucinda Fairman in 1850

It took me a while to find Lucinda "Fairman" in the 1850 census.

I "knew" she should be in Enfield, Grafton County, New Hampshire. The difficulty was finding her. When I looked at the entry underlined in red on the image above, I knew I had the right person. Comparing the birth place that is clearly Connecticut (in green above) with Lucinda's (in blue above) also confirmed that her place of birth was Vermont and not Connecticut.

When I went back and looked at how her entry was transcribed at Ancestry.com., I realized why I had difficulty finding here.

This shows the results screen when I searched the 1850 census for people born in 1807 (plus or minus 5 years) with first name of  Luc*, living in Grafton County, New Hampshire, and a keyword of "enfield."

Search results for at Ancestry.com.of the 180 U. S. Census on 12 December 2012. 

Lucinda was transcribed as Lucinda Lamum, born about 1808 in Connecticut. I could see how her name was transcribed the way it was--although I disagreed with it. The error in the place of birth was not as easy to see, especially as Connecticut was clearly indicated as "Conn." in at least one other entry on the page.

Before we complain too much, it does us well to remember that the alternative to using the indexes is to search page by page.  I think I'll stick with the indexes and keep making that list of tricks and workarounds when the humans who have made the index have transcribed something in a way in which I would not. Sometimes those differences are simply due to interpretation variations and sometimes, yes, they are due to error.

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Reminder--we don't include complete citations on blog posts--just our personal preference. Complete citations are always included in Casefile Clues or you can learn about citations in Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained. We always do include enough background information in blog posts that readers can find our original sources.If you think we don't, please fire off an email to me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com