The year is 1980. With this issue the Rochester Genealogical Society commences publication of Hear Ye - Hear Ye, official organ for the Society. Local members have expressed a desire for publication to do for Rochester, Monroe and adjacent counties what has been done so very well by sister organizations to the east and west. Membership has more than tripled this past year with many members located outside of New York State. A means for communication is due.

Our main objective is to provide a vehicle for publishing regional primary records, and usually unaccessable or little known secondary sources. Additionally, we wish to share research information, techniques, organization and methodology with our members -; in fact anything helpful, to fellow genealogists will be included in the format. This definitely includes a query column.

Initial effort is for two issues per year, with a goal for expansion to a quarterly as soon as practical. As with publications of this nature its' existence depends entirely upon informational contributions from each and everyone of you - its' readers. Whether a member or not, items are needed for publication, be it only a single bit of data or several pages. Forward whatever you may have, along with the source, to the editor.

Our prime concern is genealogy, but genealogy and history are interwoven, there fore suitable historical items will also be included.

Articles will be for the years previous to 1900 and cover primarily the territory of Monroe, Orleans, Genesee, Livingston, Wayne and Ontario counties.

Lastly, we need your critique of our efforts in order to provide you, our members, with the best possible service and publication. Please take a moment now and send your comments on our initial effort and include thoughts or ideas for future articles. Forward all correspondence relative to this publication to the editor, Jack Wilson, 86 Crestfield Dr., Rochester, NY 14017.

The next issue of Hear Ye - Hear Ye is scheduled for distribution in late summer 1980.

REMINDER Although RGS is a non-profit organization, the membership fee is vital to the support and continued growth of our organization, It covers the costs of the meeting hall, speakers, postage, gift books, special projects and this publication. So, if you have overlooked your dues for 1979-80, please take a moment to write a check and forward it to the membership chairperson. Thank you.

1817 saw Rochesterville incorporated as a village — population just under 1000. The same year a Protestant group, with Col. Nathaniel Rochester as a member formed an "attachment" with the Episcopalian Church. Thus St. Luke's was born. St. Luke's first church, a modest wooden structure 38' x 46' containing 40 pews, was constructed in 1820. The Erie Canal was under construction. Rochester was growing and on the way to becoming the USA's first boom town. Need for a larger edifice was recognized. The wooden church was duly moved to the rear of the lot on Fitzhugh St. and in front on 11 May 1824 the cornerstone for a new stone church was laid. The church was ready for worship 11 Sept 1825 and is there today still serving its purpose.

The RGS has undertaken publication of St Luke's Episcopal Church's records. Vol 1, covering the years 1818 thru 1847 includes baptisms, funerals, marriages and confirmations. The format will be loose leaf with 8½" x 11" pages. In all there are about 3000 entries. Complete copies will be available, in addition to copies of single pages covering an individual surname. Availability will be April 1980. At this time neither the price for the complete book or individual pages have been determined. A thank you is extended to all members who are taking part in this the first project of the RGS. A special thanks to David Miles for the suggestion and the leadership and liaison so necessary to keep an endeavor of this type moving along to a successful conclusion.

Direct inquiries regarding this publication to Doris Andrus, 126 Nob Hill, Rochester, NY 14617.

At the St. John Fisher College Library recently, I found a History of the Rochester Police Department published in 1903.

Below are examples extracted from the book. If it engenders any curiosity, help would be appreciated in extracting more information from this book. I can photo-copy pages at $.04 a page and send them to anyone willing to index them on cards to be listed here in later issues. If you are interested in doing this project in your home, my suggestion is send me a dollar, I'll send photocopies and cards with a sample. The book has about 250 pages so 25 people could accomplish the task in a week or two.

In 1862 Maryann Bannister was a young girl living in a rural area of northern New York State. Following the example of her mother, Rebecca, and older sister, Nett, she began to keep a daily accounting of her life. This habit continued until her death in 1908.

The family, Seventh-Day Baptists, lived in and near Adams, Jefferson Co., and in 1861 moved to New Bremin, north of Lowville, Lewis Co. During the Civil War years the diaries of mother and daughters allow the reader to visualize how the family of the absent farmer-patriot survived -- how the neighbors and friends helped to endure the hardships and loneliness caused by a country at war.

The diaries carry you through the girls' coming-of-age years, the absence of their father, the years of marriage and family-raising -- the daily chores, the visiting and the visited, travels, parties, illness and the sadness of death. Poetry was a meaningful part of their lives and the early diaries contain poems written by friends and family -- such like the autograph books of today.

Nett and Maryann married brothers and moved to and remained in the Verona, Oneida Co., area. The activities of Maryann's large family are recorded -- the work, the fun, trials and tragedies. Maryann was a friend. Many people found their way to her door and she mentions them all.

Rebecca's diaries remain for most of the years from 1862 until her death in 1893. An avid keeper of the record, sometimes humorous, sometimes sad, Rebecca often gave her feelings as well as facts, using her diary as an old friend. In 1871 she and her husband moved back to Adams.

An exceptional characteristic of these diaries is that all three women wrote the first AND last names of the people in their accounting -- so the reader can determine who visited the family, who "carried" them to church, who they picked hops with. There was a great deal of traveling and letter-writing between the communities of Adams, New Bremin and Verona, so that while the family lived in one or another of these areas, they often saw or heard from people in the more distant areas. Nearly every day people in the community -- or out of it -- were mentioned. Births, deaths and marriages of friends and acquaintances were written.

The fact that the full names were recorded make these diaries a genealogical treasure. They are not presently available from any public source, but indexes have been compiled. These indexes cover the years for diaries written in Adams, Jefferson Co., in 1860-61 and between 1871 and 1891; in New Bremin, Lewis Co., from 1861 to 1871; and in the Verona-Lee area, Oneida Co., from 1868 to 1908. A search of these indexes can be made by sending $2.00 to the address below. If the requested name is located, the dates of the diary entries will be provided. All inquiries will be acknowledged. Should typed copies of the entries be desired, an additional fee will be necessary.

The journals were so faithfully kept that you are compelled to believe they were meant for posterity. Maryann wrote wistfully in 1864:

N. T. Nash, 2981 Clarkson-Parma Tl. Rd., Brockport, NY 14420.

Ontario County Deed Records 1790 - 1820, (7) volumes with index and Genesee County Deed Records 1804-1821, (14) volumes with index are located in the sub-basement of the Monroe County Courthouse (Rochester, NY) Adjacent to these land records are Marriage Records for Monroe County, January 1908 through 1934 with index. Ask at the Monroe County Clerk's Office for access to the land records as noted. (An interesting early map of Rochester is in the back of volume 6, Ontario Records.)

The following has been abstracted from a paper entitled, The Life and Parentage of Lieut. Thomas Boyd who was Massacred near Cuylerville, September 13, 1779, written by W.P. Boyd and appeared in the published minutes for the thirteenth annual meeting of the Livingston County Historical Society held at Livonia, Tuesday, January 8, 1889.

John Boyd lived near the city of Kilmarnock, County Argle in Scotland and was married to Dorcas Bennett. About 1745/50 at least three of his sons arrived in New York City. Soon after the arrival the brothers separated, Ebenezer took up residence near Rye, New York in the County of Westchester. In 1763/4 he married Sarah Merritt. With the onslaught of the Revolutionary War, his wife became a cook for General Washington and he was commissioned a Captain. Ebenezer was associated with the capture of the spy, Major André, at the close of the War, he moved to Kent, Putnam Co., New York and was the first settler at the place that now bears his name, Boyd's Corners. He died there on June 29, 1792.

The second brother (name unknown) traveled to Albany, New York and settled there. Here tradition has it, he was known as General Boyd and lived to the age 114 years.

The Third brother, John went to Orange Co., New York and thence to Washingtonville, Northumberland Co., Penn. here he married _____ Hawthorn, he died young leaving a wife and 4 children. John, William, Thomas and Mary (b. 1763). The three sons went to War. John, the eldest, was captured by Indians and presumed dead.

William, the second son, died on the field at Brandywine, Sep. 11,1777.

Thomas, the third son, who was born in 1757 in Washingtonvil1e, was with Benedict Arnold on the march from Maine to Quebec in Sept. 1775. On the assault on the British Works he was wounded and captured but was shortly exchanged. After returning home in the winter of 1776 he re-enlisted as a sargeant and was present at the battle of Stillwater Oct. 7, 1777, and at Gen. Burgoyne's surrender on Oct. 14. On Jan. 14, 1778 he was promoted to Lieutenant and participated in the Battle of Manmouth, June 28, 1778. In the fall of 1778 troops, that included Thomas, were sent to protect the settlement of Schoharie, N.Y. from Indians and Tory depredations. While there, Thomas, became involved with one Cornelia Becker, daughter of Bartholomew Becker, a prominent and respected settler of the community, Soon after Thomas's death she gave birth to a baby girl and Thomas was the reputed father. (The child was named Catherine and grew to adulthood and became the wife of Martin Vrooman of Schoharie, N.Y.) Ordered from Schoharie, Thomas went with Gen. Clinton to join forces with Sullivan's Army in laying waste to Indian crops and villages in N.Y. State. The two groups joined and later camped near Foot's Corners in the Town of Conesus. Location of an Indian village, west of Conesus Lake was in question, so Sullivan sent out a scouting party on the night of September 12, 1779 to pin-point its' position for attack. Leaving about 11 o'clock that night, Lieutenant Thomas Boyd led 26 men and 2 Indians out on the scouting venture. After reconnoitering, the party returning in the early morning, ran into a large body of Indians, less than a mile from their camp. Many of Thomas's comrades were killed. A very few made it back to Sullivan's camp. Timothy Murphy was one of those. Thomas and Michael Barker were captured, tortured and finally killed. Just before the army encamped that night, Paul Sanborn (afterwards a resident of Conesus for many years) found the headless corpses of Boyd and Parker. The bodies were buried that night under a wild plum tree near the junction of 2 small streams. Today, a small park beside the highway from Geneseo to Cuylerville, encompasses the area and the tree at which Boyd was so brutally tortured on that Monday, September 13, 1779.

ED. NOTE: The two men's remains were brought to Rochester for burial shortly after toe establishment of the Revolutionary Hill Mount Hope Cemetery in 1841.

As of Jan. 1st 1889 the oldest person living in the town of (Conesus the longest, who was born out of the town, was Hiram Boyd (who came here in 1821) aged 92.

In this, all but forgotten book, 116 pages, thru personal interviews in 1864, the author records the words and recollections of the handful of Revolutionary War survivors -- all being 100 years of age or older. Photographs were taken of these men who 88 years earlier had fought in the Revolutionary War. Three of these veterans have regional connections: Daniel Waldo died in Syracuse, Lemuel Cook in Clarendon, Orleans Co. and Alexander Milliner at Adams Basin, Monroe Co.

Rev. Hillard's book was republished by Barre Publishers, Barre, Mass. in 1968. Several magazine articles have been based upon the book. Life magazine, in its May 31, 1943 issue, contained excerpts from the book with a commentary by Archibald MacLeish -- the grandson of Rev. Hillard. A digest appeared in the April, 1958 issue of American Heritage and Popular Photography, July 1976 carried a story on the book.

* Chapter About

Continued in Vol 1, No 2

Early Rochesterians Index, Rochester, N.Y. A computer printed index combining the 1830 census, 1827, and 1834 directories for Rochester into one handy volume, Full name, occupation and address are contained in directory lines with census lines giving full name, city, ward and page number. Index was prepared by Sylvester J.H. Clark of Syracuse,N.Y. This compilation is convenient for those researchers with ancestors in period covered. (Rochester Public Library has a Copy).