Monday's Mystery Ledger, part 4

This is a continuation of the ledger entries I started in my Monday Mystery Ledger (first posting January 31, 2011). When I first looked through this ledger, I wasn't sure how useful it was – but eventually I broke a couple of brick walls, finding people mentioned as “son of”, “wife of” etc. So good luck!

To repeat: The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to try to help me figure out where this ledger came from – patterns of names connecting to families might help narrow down the possibilities. Although I don't know for sure, it probably is from somewhere near Albany in upstate New York. The first entry is 1830. My notes and running commentary are in brackets...

Names found in the posts for previous Mondays included:

Becker, Mary Beecker, David Billington, James Billington, John (son of James) Flansburg, Conrad Groat, Simon

Houg, Peter M Merenae, Abram Mereness, John Mereness, John Jr Moak, Phillip Rosenburg, Jacob

Sirby (Dirby?), Nicolas Sommers, Abram Sommers, Harriett Vanderwarker, George (above might be Vandewater?) Vaness, John

Today, the ledger revisits David Beecker, Simon Groat, Abraham Mereness, John Mereness and Jacob Rosenburg, with more entries for each of them. In addition, this week's entries have a number of new names as well.

The math in prior versions wasn't adding up, and occasionally it still may not due to the vagaries of penmanship & my ability to read the old text – but I did look it up and the monetary conversion at the time provided for 20 shillings per pound, and 12 pence in each shilling... that may (or may not) make things balance a bit better!

Grab your detective hats, and on to the ledger entries!

Monday's Mystery Ledger, part 3

This is a continuation of the ledger entries I started in my Monday Mystery Ledger (posted January 31, 2011).

To repeat: The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to try to help me figure out where this ledger (earliest date 1830) came from – patterns of names connecting to families might help narrow down the possibilities. Although I don't know for sure, it probably is from somewhere near Albany in upstate New York. The first entry is 1830. My notes and running commentary are in brackets...

When I first looked through this ledger, I wasn't sure how useful it was – but eventually I broke a couple of brick walls, finding people mentioned as “son of”, “wife of” etc. So good luck!  

Names found in the posts for previous Mondays include:

Becker, Mary Beecker, David Billington, James Flansburg, Conrad Groat, Simon Houg, Peter M

Merenae, Abram Mereness, John Mereness, John Jr Moak, Phillip Rosenburg, Jacob Sirby (Dirby?), Nicolas

Sommers, Abram Sommers, Harriett Vanderwarker, George  (above might be Vandewater?) Vaness, John

Today, James Billington and his son, John, take up the entire entry...

One very odd entry (near the end) is “ faling one mill sane” - and one entry for “pickling cockle” (a cockle is a small salt water clam). But don't think cockles would have kept fresh to be brought from the seashore for pickling inland – any ideas?

On to the ledger entries!

Monday's Mystery Ledger, part 1

I came across a very old ledger – but nowhere am I told who it belonged to... I probably could figure it out if I knew where it was from, so I am hoping for some help. If we put our collective eyes and genealogical detective skills together, we might just come up with some answers.

There is a lot of information between these pages, cover to cover. Sometimes it is confusing as things don't necessarily go from page to page in chronological order... if space was found between old lines, new entries were squeezed in...

I would like some help solving a mystery, and along the way, someone might find out something about a relative... lots of names and dates in here, even if they are not in any consistent order or format. I also find it interesting what people paid for what...

When I first looked through this ledger, I wasn't sure how useful it was – but eventually I broke a couple of brick walls, finding people mentioned as “son of”, “wife of” etc. So good luck!

What I know – its a ledger – upstate New York – probably Albany, Rensslaersville, Coeymans, Greenville, Westerlo – in the general area of Albany, Schoharie County, etc... Maybe someone will notice a pattern of names that can help identify the exact community. 

It appears to be a combination of employment records and things sold, and lots of other stuff tossed in for good measure, including sawing occasional planks and a recipe here and there...

I will transcribe and post a few ledger pages on Mondays and hope for the best. I will do the transcription in page order, which means the dates will jump around a bit. Maybe our collective noggins can solve the mystery of where it was (names should help) and who it might have belonged to... So here we go! My notes and running commentary are in brackets...

[The ledger is “hard bound” although coming loose a bit – remarkable condition for almost 200 years. Inside front cover, there is a glued on stamp about the size of a business card, that is affixed to the upper left corner.]