The first of the Hills to come into Steuben County, New York, was Richard Lord Hill, my third great-grandfather. He was a remarkable man, larger than life, and a kind of giant. Monthly posts from members celebrate their contributions to family history storytelling — in all its forms.
You're so lucky to have those letters! My family has tintypes too and a few artifacts like embroidered samplers, but no letters earlier than my parents' generation. It's great that you are transcribing them too.
I only came to know of those let’s two years ago—the script they wrote in then, including a few odd ways of making certain letters (like “s” and “f”) actually makes transcribing like deciphering. It gets tricky, and I have to slow way down. Thanks for reading!
My Opp ancestors were your "neighbors" - Jacob Opp bought the grist mill in North Dansville in Steuben County in 1814 (Dansville was later annexed to Sparta and then became part of Livingston County). Who knows - they may have crossed paths!
And that’s what my book manuscript is about; the fact that so many of us, way back in our lines, interacted, crossed paths, and maybe even worked together. And most of all, ensured we were born by all those crossing paths! Hard to imagine Corning as a “village” or Steuben County as the frontier, but for our ancestors, it was.
You're so lucky to have those letters! My family has tintypes too and a few artifacts like embroidered samplers, but no letters earlier than my parents' generation. It's great that you are transcribing them too.
I only came to know of those let’s two years ago—the script they wrote in then, including a few odd ways of making certain letters (like “s” and “f”) actually makes transcribing like deciphering. It gets tricky, and I have to slow way down. Thanks for reading!
Readers of this piece will certainly want to read @Sean Patrick Hill's latest piece, "On the thousand places we come from" about Lord Richard Hill's wife. https://onecontinuousbranch.substack.com/p/on-the-thousand-places-we-come-from.
My Opp ancestors were your "neighbors" - Jacob Opp bought the grist mill in North Dansville in Steuben County in 1814 (Dansville was later annexed to Sparta and then became part of Livingston County). Who knows - they may have crossed paths!
And that’s what my book manuscript is about; the fact that so many of us, way back in our lines, interacted, crossed paths, and maybe even worked together. And most of all, ensured we were born by all those crossing paths! Hard to imagine Corning as a “village” or Steuben County as the frontier, but for our ancestors, it was.