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 2

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

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, Schoharie counties, etc.  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!

Note that in the ledger, you will see “cwt” in entries related to sawing planks. I think it might mean “cut weight” and the unit would be in 100 lb. equivalents? Anyone have a better idea?

So on to the ledger entries!