Re: Error in Chaffee Genealogy
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In reply to:
Error in Chaffee Genealogy
5/01/99
Hi,
We are second cousins, or whatever the correct relation designation is!I know this posting is almost 3 years old, but I am brand new to this and I just found this; please bear with me.Walter Atkinson Chafey is my gr.grandfather and Charles Willard Chafey my grandfather.I am very intrigued by your statement about THOMAS (5) being the same 316 Thomas referred to on page 79.Have you found something solid to support this?I have been looking for evidence for this link for many years (albeit off and on).My parents have the copy of the Chaffee Genealogy book that was originally owned by Walter Atkinson.It has his very distinctive and elegant handwriting in several places, one of which is page 79, pointing to 316 Thomas, stating "not correct, later discovered that he settled in Hornerstown, and died there 1828.See pages 575-576."That is great, BUT he didn’t say what was found, or how it is that he knew this!Walter Atkinson would have been about 30 years old at the time the book was being researched, and certainly would have had a personal interest in having his gr.gr.grandfather linked.Further, James Herbert Chafey was still alive; being about 65 at the time the book was being researched.If it was personal recollections, rather than documentary, that could have been gathered!So it is strange that the information didn’t get put in the book.However, I note with interest that only two of Walter Atkinson’s children are listed, whereas four children (including your father) were born in time to have been included, so communication must not have been very good.
About 8 years ago I was in SLC on business and I had just half a day to stop in the LDS Genealogy library.I askied for assistance, and the volunteer staff was very helpful.Actually, the gentleman that came to my aid at first scowled at me, saying, "You mean, you have a revolutionary war soldier, and you can’t find who his parents are?"But then he rolled up sleeves and took me through lots of records.We checked a lot of things; town records, county records, war dept records, and found lots on Thomas Chafey himself, but nothing to indicate his parents, or where he was born.And, nothing to indicate a possible rift with the Joseph (4) family.About half way through the search, he mused while looking at the papers I had assembled, "you know, I only give this half a chance of being a link, because the names of the children don’t reflect the older generation."We didn’t find anything.