Last Tuesday Morning in New England

Arriving at Boston, Massachusetts Tuesday morning somewhat bleary-eyed from the overnight flight, I made my way through the airport corridors to the Budget Car Rental shuttle. By 9:30, I was on the road in my borrowed wheels, headed for Connecticut. It was surprisingly wooded and very green. I guess my mental image of New England was rocky shores and... a few rivers and mountains. It's wonderful to see the rest of the world and be amazed how unexpected and foreign it seems. Even in my own country (especially in my own country).

Two hours and four toll plazas later, I rolled into downtown Hartford. I was again astonished at the small collection of skyscrapers. I found the state capitol building very beautiful.

This is the Connecticut state library. It has several sections, but the part I needed was in the basement...

I made my way down the stairs into the Genealogy & History department.  The librarians were very helpful; the microfilm machines were not.

I was here to answer a very important True/False question: Was Lucas Tryon, my great-great-grandfather, born in 1794 to John and Rhoda (Lucas) Tryon in Middletown, CT?

I had first learned about the New England side of my family through a cousin in Wisconsin who had a copy of the Tryon Family in America, a published book of genealogy.  He stated that Lucas was born on February 25, 1794, and his mother was Rhoda Lucas.  Further research had revealed to me that Rhoda Lucas's mother Asenath Cook Lucas had been born in Eastham, Massachusetts (Cape Cod).  This in turn had led me to all my discoveries of Pilgrim and Puritan ancestry in 17th century Massachusetts.  IF the answer to the above question was False, or Uncertain, then my connection to the Doanes of Cape Cod was also in doubt.  Any genealogist worth his salt dislikes assumptions about the family tree... so many errors creep in that way.  Below is a picture of one of the many card catalogs I looked through for Lucas Tryon.

It took me about two hours to find Lucas.  He evaded me in the Church records, the Vital records, the Census records, but I finally found him in the Family Bible records.  Once I had proof of the birthdate and parentage of Lucas, I knew that the link from myself to the Doanes was complete and accurate.  It was a great feeling.