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Amaziah Treat--lived beyond 1819 and I've got the proof!

Amaziah Treat--lived beyond 1819 and I've got the proof!

Posted: 15 Nov 2013 8:19PM GMT
Classification: Lookup
Surnames: Treat
I want to share my story in hopes of encouraging others. I've been pulling records to join the Daughters of the American Revolution(DAR). I have several Patriot ancestors, but I started with the first one I found. My Patriot is Cornelius Treat from Massachusetts. His son Amaziah is my 5th gen. Grandfather. It is well documented that Amaziah had 4 children with his first wife, and most genealogy resources including DAR applications say that he died in the Spring of 1819 in Illinois. He didn't die though, because if he had...I wouldn't be here! He married a second bride and had three more children, the youngest being my grandmother. I found lots of documents showing him living in Illinois up to his death in 1839. The DAR registrar I was working with in MD told me we needed to prove this was the same man. I was thinking to myself, Amaziah Treat...it isn't a common name, isn't that enough? Anyway, there was a typed copy of a letter on ancestry from Cornelius to one of his children(John Jay) in which he discussed learning Amaziah was alive and well with a new family. He was disappointed that his son was living in adultery. This is exactly what I needed! I figured DAR wouldn't take this because I didn't have a copy of the handwritten version so I set out to find if it existed by searching for the man who typed it out 30 yrs ago. Not only was I able to track him down, but he sent me a copy of the handwritten letter as well as two others. What wonderful insight to my Patriot in his later years. The handwriting is spidery, but still legible. Never give up searching. Even after you've searched in one resource, go back and check it again later. I am grateful to Mr.Neel for typing out that letter 30 years ago, to Mrs. Patricia Treat of NY for finding and keeping those letters safe as well as sharing them, to my distant relatives Pat Shell and Kenny Treat for sharing all their research and information with me, and to the creators of ancestry.com!!

Re: Amaziah Treat--lived beyond 1819 and I've got the proof!

Posted: 6 Jan 2014 4:58PM GMT
Classification: Query
This is wonderful. See if you can get permission to post copies of the originals to ancestry.com so other descendents can find it and as a backup to the paper copies, which could get lost or damaged.
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