The Children of Francis West from Duxbury

Still working on that Thomas West story.  They are now in West Gwillimbury, Ontario, Canada and it's about 1830.  They've been there for 11 years.  And now the challenging part... finding information, facts, and records.  Do I write about what I know is in front of me, or do I wait and search for additional records, continuing later?   Or, is this a work in progress, writing what I know and easily changed when new information surfaces?  That's the challenge right now.  Because I really want this to be good, but know it's only as good as the information inside. I've taken 4 big family history trips in my life.  Michigan, Kansas, Vermont, and West Virginia.  At each  place I learned things never before uncovered.  It literally took going to those places to find out.  Not everything is found on the internet.  Especially when it comes to old plat maps, property and court records.  Additionally, those places had cousins ...

I have a fantastic attention span.  Generally speaking.  Where was I? Oh, yes.  But for whatever reason, when it comes to family history work, I'm like a child holding car keys, a xylophone, and the remote control.  I go from one thing to another at speeds that have no scientific measure. It's exasperating.  Poor uncle Joseph from Wichita is getting all my attention, when I spot another name from that 1910 census record, and decide I should follow that lead for fear of forgetting the thought.  The next thing I know, I'm searching Wikipedia for information on beheadings during the reign of Czar whoever.  What's really worse is, by the time I have a cognisant thought, I can't remember where I started.  And then poor uncle Joseph gets lost in time again.  Well, until I'm reminded of him later, while I peruse party dresses of the 16th century on oldpartydresses.com.

Years ago I came across  this website  with a story about  Francis West  and his wife Margery.  I just ate it up.  The story, and especially the way Curtis West weaved a sweet narrative.  I've used the idea of it the last few weeks in writing the biography of Thomas West.  Wanting my story of him to be both informative and interesting, a good read, I've tried to come outside the story a few times and add my own thoughts, ideas, and humor.   But I'm finding it tough at times, as the private detective in me wants to know more facts, with proof, and not a bunch of guesses and jokes.  But I'm trying to keep it light, imagining the moment a distant cousin discovers my story and eats it up as well.  Thomas lived from 1774 to 1865.  It's taken me about three weeks to reach 1820.  Here's to the next forty-five years!

So, as I'm in the middle of all this internet research tonight, checking the possible routes Thomas West could have taken to Ohio in 1809, looking at google maps, calculating mileage, wondering why the hell he left Montpelier, etc., I come across a book entitled "A Journey to Ohio in 1810:  As Recorded in the Journal of Margaret Van Horn Dwight."  And I'm like... come on, are you kidding me!?  So I read a few pages and I'm enthralled.  She notes on one stop through Connecticut, "The house is very small and very dirty - it serves for a tavern, a store and I should imagine hog's pen stable and everything else.  The air is so impure I has scarcely been able to swallow since I entered the house-  The landlady is a fat, dirty, ugly looking creature, yet I must confess very obliging-"  Is that priceless or what?  So though time consuming to read and research, I think this little Thomas West biography might end up quite good.

I have an account on  Findagrave.com , a free site that documents cemeteries and whose buried in them.  It's an addictive site, for me at least, reading about the history of people, seeing cool photos of headstones.  The members take the photos and supply the content.  It's been around a long time, and it's very popular.  So popular that it now has findagrave groupies, volunteers, and rule Nazis.  Generally, your average family history hobbyist or cemetery aficionado will create a memorial, and then maybe upload a photo of a headstone.  And then generally, that person will say something to the affect of, "enjoy the photo, feel free to use it as you please."  These are generous people.  But the obsessive compulsive rule Nazis have a different view.  Their precious photos are copyrighted .  Now I could go into all the definitions of copyright , what it is and what it isn't, I could even go through the rules and regulations of all...

So much misinformation floating the internet about the origins of Francis West of Duxbury.  So many websites detailing his life as the son of Capt. Francis West, the future deputy governor of Virginia Colony and a descendant of royalty.  Couldn't be further from the truth.  On so many levels.  It's been explained before, so I won't go into it here, but suffice to say that modern DNA testing has put an end to it.  Well, an end to the sceptics, but not the propagators.  I continue to see family trees on Ancestry.com with full West lines back to Francis West of Duxbury and then on to Capt. Francis and then the royal De La Warr line.  And it's not the end of the world.  And mostly funny.  In that I think people really want to be connected to royalty.  They want that moment over dinner.  Phil: "Hey sugarplum, guess what I found today on that internet?"  Sallyann:  "What, honeypie?"  Phil:  "We been descended from...

So I've been working on this, um, sort of biography, of my 4th great grandfather the last week.  His name was Thomas West.  He was a junior, meaning his father was named Thomas as well.  But the funny part is, so was his grandfather.  And still later there are another two Thomas' after him.  How does a family keep these names straight?  A nickname?  Is that where Tommy came from?  I find that when I start talking to cousins about Thomas here, I have to give his date of birth or some other thing to remember him by.  He seems to get called Capt . Thomas West in many written accounts, so I just go with that.  But back to this Thomas West biography of sorts.  It's hard.  I get stuck at times, as I write, trying to add information that seems important, yet trying to balance it with what I think might be more interesting, er, more fun.  But I don't wanna get bogged down right now, so I'm just throwing in the information, thinkin...