Rieta, Thanks for looking and ditto to Marylyn's comments of appreciation.
There's nothing to be sorry about. I had the same info in my data base as you
did - based on the 1897 History of Tioga County; except mine came from the Tri-County
web site's partial (at the moment) version.
As you reported, it said Archibald Hazlett moved to the present Middlebury Center
in 1824. That contradicts the the retyped obit's version, which said 1826,
but such data conflicts are routine. I noticed the discrepancy when I processed
the obit, but didn't think to comment on the data conflict.
A lot of our challenge as amateur genealogists/historians comes from reconciling
conflicts among data. There are a lot of people for whom I have 3 or different
birth or death dates. What someone's name "really" was is another. And
sorting
out who were the children of wife #1 and wife number # can be a challenge.
Especailly when the first wife is Mary Jones and the second is Mary Smith.
And when you include the cases where spouse #1 and spouse #2 are siblings, it
can add to the confusion.
The 1897 History could be wrong, a type setter could have made a mistake. The
retyped obit could be wrong. Whoever typed it fromt the original news clip
could have made a mistake. The typesetter of the obit could have made a mistake.
I place the obit in my "notes" section, but left 1824 in my database as the
date for his coming to Middlebury Center.
But, in spite of their being in print, as I see it, we are essentially dealing
with two oral histories. Obituaries are hurridly written at a time of grief,
without spending a lot of time on careful research. The person supplying the
data is often reporting on things that happened long before they were born.
Except for dates and names in a family bible (which can be wrong too), they
may partially rely on memories of stories they heard in their youth.
And the "Histories" aren't that much different. The stress of the recent
death
may be absent, but that's about it. They too were primarily capturing oral
histories. Generally, the people writing the biographies weren't historians,
researchers, nor genealogists. They were just trying to make a buck. As I
understand it, a door to door salesman would come to a house and try to sign
the folks up to buy one or more copies of the forthcoming book by offering to
include material on their family. Just like a play or concert or PBS fund drive
has different levels for contributing --'angel', 'Sponsor',
'Patron', etc.,
which had different price categories. These involved how many copies of the
book you received, how much coveraged your family got, were pictures of people
or homes included, etc. That's why I made the "vanity" comment. If you
look
at different books that came out over the years (primarily from the Centenial
to WW1) for a given area, you will note significant differences as to who is
listed as pioneer and "prominent" families. Apparently our nation's
centenial
spurred a big interest in history and "roots", that entrepeneurs were quick
to capitalize on. The salesman interviewed the buyer as to their family history
to include and someone on the editorial staff wrote it up. Of course, there
were often chapters of real history written by prominent local figures like
Tioga's Charles Tubbs or Dr. A. M. Loop tht added prestige to the book. But
the "bread and butter" of those publications were the biographies and family
histories supplied by the subscribers.
Similar stuff still goes on. A number of times I have been invited to be included
in a forthcoming diredtory of Who's Who in something or other. There's usually
an order form for getting a copy at $200, a place for me to write my bio, prices
for multiple copies, and an "opportunity" to have a "feature article"
on me
or my business - for an additional fee. Some things don't change much.
Archibald Hazlett was the first settler in Middlebury Center in the
year 1824.
He was postmaster from 1877 to 1881.
A.M. Hazlett was the owner, for about one year, of the Starkey
House.
Sorry that is all I found and it contradicts the dates you had.
Rieta
==== CAMPBELL-PA-NELSON Mailing List ====
Type and submit wills, deeds, bible records, old letters, etc. and share
your "treasures" with the rest of the family. We'll all be richer if
you do.
==============================
To join
Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go
to: