Re: Henry Graves of Smithfield or Providence R.I.
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In reply to:
Henry Graves of Smithfield or Providence R.I.
Marjorie Perry 2/03/08
Short History Lesson -
The present town of Smithfield is much smaller than the 1809 Smithfield.This could come into play if at a later time once you find your Henry GRAVES and are looking for burials since you may need to look somewhere else other than Smithfield depending upon where, geographically, you finally locate your GRAVES family.
1871 - Smithfield was split into the towns of Smithfield, North Smithfield and Lincoln.
Within the Town of Lincoln was a special area known as the Central Falls Fire District.
1895 - The Central Falls Fire District was split off from Lincoln and became a separate entity known today as the City of Central Falls.
Early records for the Town of Smithfield are housed in Central Falls.I don't know if the City does searches via email/mail requests or if you need to go there in person.I would suggest contacting the City Clerk's Office where the records are held and asking them.
http://www.centralfallsri.us/http://www.centralfallsri.us/
If distance is a problem, you may have to request on the boards someone in the area of Central Falls to go into the City Hall and do a look-up trying to find a birth for a Henry GRAVES.
I chose to look at the 1910 census which would be the one closest to Henry's birth year.There were on 11 pages to Smithfield and I looked at them all.Not a single family named Graves in the town.
There were however, 3 GRAVES families in nearby Scituate.Although I would tend to go with the marriage document because that information was given by Henry himself rather than an unnamed informant after his death I wonder if it ispossible that Henry thought he was born in Smithfield but instead his family actually lived over the line in Scituate at the time of his birth and maybe moved to Smithfield at some later point when he was old enough to begin remembering things from his childhood and so Smithfield is what he remembered?It might be worth checking into.Looking at a map, both towns meet in a 4 corners with Glocester and Johnston completing the group.
You didn't say where the sources you looked at for Providence city +/or county births were located - on line or RI State Archives.
RI State Archives might have a birth if the record survived.If you haven't looked there yet -
Rhode Island State Archives
337 Westminster Street
Providence, Rhode Island 02903
Telephone: (401) 222-2353
Email: [email protected]
There is also the RI Historical Society Library which has tons of resources too numerous to name.I know that this is one place where you do have to go in person.
http://www.rihs.org/http://www.rihs.org/
North Scituate Public Library - they have a genealogy collection and a person on staff for genealogy assistance -
http://www.scituatelibrary.org/http://www.scituatelibrary.org/
This is the site of the Smith-Appleby House owned by the Historical society of Smithfield and seems to be the means through which you would contact them.I looked in an old - 1878 - RI history book I have and the earliest church it mentions for Smithfield/Lincoln/North Smithfield is the Baptist Church in Greenville, " The first building erected and expressly devoted to public worship, was that known as the Baptist Church in Greenville. The lower room in the old academy had previously been used for religious purposes, and thus continued until the erection of the church edifice in 1826....At first it was used by these different societies, each using it upon certain Sabbaths in each month; of these the Freewill Baptists two, Methodists two, and the Six-Principle Baptists whenever a fifth Sunday occured."The Historic Society might be able to tell you what other churches existed in Smithfield in 1809 and where those records might be if they still exist.
Have you checked the LDS site familysearch.org to see what has been filmed for the town of Smithfield in the way of records?these can be borrowed from Salt Lake City and used at your local Family History Center which can also be located on this site.
http://www.familysearch.org/http://www.familysearch.org/
If all else fails, there is the Yahoo Group Brickwall for posting genealogy brickwalls.http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Brickwall/http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Brickwall/