Finding sources for Families

Part of the fun in finding your ancestors is the challenge of where to look and what to look for. With the Internet, it is now VERY easy to locate a large number of records, BUT they can only get your so far. The majority of records on the planet are still hidden away in books, micro fiche, and certificates.

A good example are my 5G grandparents, whom for now I am calling Samuel and Sarah Foy. They were born in the 1760's somewhere in New Hampshire or the near vicinity, as best as I can tell and eventually moved to Vermont and possibly New York, in later years. Previous efforts have narrowed a location to Lydon, Caledonia County, Vermont as a possible "stopping" point, where a number of their children, MAY HAVE been born.

Narrowing down to a specific town/vilage is very important and in turn reduces the number of records to look through and focuses the resources that may prove your ancestors were there. In this case, I have sent a request to the local Lyndon Historical Society for help on finding any of the following:

"I am looking for a Samuel Foy/Foye and Sarah ? Foy/Foye, who likely married in or around the town of Lyndon sometime between 1788-1791. I am fairly certain they had several children here, namely William Foy (b 1791), Benjamin Foy (b 1796), Ruth Foy (b 1797), Jonathan Foy (b abt 1802), David Foy (b 1802), Samuel Foy (b 1804). There are at least 5 other females born, whom I am uncertain if they lived to adulthood.

My question is do you have any source listing of the surrounding cemeteries, for any Foy’s or Thorp’s? Or any obits for Foy’s? Births, death, marriage certificates for Foys? Any historical “gazette” or biographical information on Foy/Foyes?

If you know of other sources I can contact for same information, I would appreciate that as well."

Another source, which was located on the Historical Society webpage, was microfiche listings for Lyndon on Births, Marriages, Deaths, and minutes from town meetings, going back to when Lyndon was formed (1791). Next step here will be request those microfiche films, which will take about 2-3 weeks, and then review them as well.

Enjoy.