Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Finding the Original Pays Off!

Yesterday I posted my transcription of Adam Wisner's Revolutionary War pension application. I had previously seen a transcription of this document in: The Wisners in America and their kindred: a genealogical and biographical history, by George Franklin Wisner, 1918. The book is now available online at Google Books. The following is a snip of a portion of the transcription found on page 131.



It says, " In the month of March, 1813, I removed to the town of Coshocton, in the County of Coshocton, in the State of Ohio, and resided there until 1819."

Here is a crop of the image found at Footnote.com:



And my transcription of the same section with the difference bolded:

In the month of March 1813 I removed to the town of Andrus (now Dewitt) in the County of Onondaga and State of New York at which place I resided until 1817. On the 15th day of September 1817 I left the County of Onondaga and Removed to the town of Coshocton in the County of Coshocton in the State of Ohio and resided there until 1819.

These few lines may be a huge find for me! I don't understand the reference to "Andrus," as Dewitt was called Orville. But the important thing is that Dewitt is mentioned. Dewitt was part of the town of Manlius until 1835.

My 3rd great-grandfather, William Wisner was born 27 March 1783. Some records list his place of birth as Pennsylvania and others as New York. The earliest record I have found for him is a land purchase on 29 Oct 1812 in Manlius, Onondaga, New York.

William Wisner was the only Wisner I could place in Manlius during this time period, until now. Was Adam his father, uncle or cousin? I'm not sure but I'm betting there was some relationship. Now I just need to dig deeper and find out what it was...........

7 comments:

GrannyPam said...

Exactly. Always use an original if it is available. Indexes, transcriptions, extractions, and compilations contain variations from the original record.

This is a useful way to point that out.

Elizabeth Thomas said...

Isn't it exciting to find something new?

Anonymous said...

Until you posted yesterday and today, I had no idea that pensions from the Revolutionary War were so detailed! I'm so pleased to see how much information you were able to get from the original.

Yes, transcriptions are nice, but I agree - originals are the best!

Barbara Poole said...

Thanks Apple. I now have Footnote, but haven't used it. Maybe I will for a Rev. War pension application. Have you compared them to those on Heritage Quest? I was told the HQ ones are only selected pages, and the entire file, such as at the NARA are the full record. Example, the NARA one had great genealogical info., the one on HQ didn't. That is why I am wondering about Footnote.

Nancy said...

Thank you, Apple, for this reminder. I'm fairly new to family history research and so far have depended on transcripts as guides until I can find originals. I haven't found many differences yet, but that's probably because I don't have enough originals yet.

I also wanted to tell you that I've given you "A Blogger's Best Friend Award" because of your comments to my posts. I appreciate them. You can get the image and information at my blog, My Ancestors and Me at www.nancysfamilyhistoryblog.blogspot.com

Thank you for your support. I appreciate it.
Nancy.

FranE said...

Your post has doubled my resolve to go back and find all the originals of the abstracts I have used as sources in the past. Thanks for such a great post.

Barbara Poole said...

I'll answer my comment. Heritage Quest does have the full Rev. War pension application, so that is good news. I don't know about footnote.