Samuel and Sarah Foy - Plan to find

Searching for your ancestors, 7+ generations back, can be difficult, but it is sometimes like police work - you have clues and motives. Piecing together those clues is always a challenge - keep good notes, devise a theory, and have plan on how prove or disprove that theory.

Quick summary of the facts: We have a documented biography that states Sarah Foy traveled with her son when he was 15 years old to Napoli, NY in 1819. From this we can deduce that Sarah Foy's husband may have died prior to that date, somewhere in Vermont. In addition, we have Sarah Foy buried in a Napoli cemetery in 1844, near her daughter Sarah (Foy) Thorp.

Census records show a "Samuel Foy", head of household, in 1800 and 1810 in Lydon, Caledonia County, Vermont, with children, wife, etc, but they are no longer in Lydon in 1820. So where did they go?

All these clues may fit together, but we need more details to confirm either way, so the plan to find the truth is to dig into the records... Here are some ideas of what to look for “Samuel and Sarah Foy":

1) Search for obits on "Sarah Foy" in 1844 in and around Napoli, NY
2) Search for obits on "Samuel Foy" before 1820 in and around Lyndon, Vt
3) Search for obits on Sarah (Foy) Thorp, Samuel Foy "Jr." - both lived around Napoli until their deaths. Expand the search for obits to the other children.
4) For "Samuel Foy", compile a list of cemetery listings for the Lyndon VT areas, then search for ALL cemeteries ided by government maps - cross reference to online sources and those without online listings, a) contact the local societies or b) visit the location. For partial online listings, a) contact the website owners.
5) Get in touch with local VT genealogical societies and Caledonia county GENWEB communities, who may be able to help with history and other sources for "Samuel and Sarah Foy"
6) Check into the other contemporary Foy’s who also could be the xG grandparents ie. Samuel (2 of them), Charles and others. Try to eliminate those as possible family members.
7) If "Sarah Foy" is our xG grandmother, and she traveled to Napoli in 1819 and died in 1844, then where was she living in 1820, 1830, 1840? Check census records for 1820-1840.