Hope’s Genealogy
My primary genealogy work is now done on WikiTree, where I serve as a ranger and have my family tree beginning with myself
I was fortunate that both my maternal and paternal grandmothers gave me materials to start with family research. And the three editions of Spes Alit Agricolam (Hope Sustains the Farmer, Covering the years 1225 to 1962 of the Tilghman (Tillman) and Allied Family by Stephen Frederick Tillman of Chevy Chase, Maryland gave me a good start for researching the Tillman family, as did Robert Hunter Sturtevant’s 1986 Descendants of Samuel Sturtevant. While the largest number of surnames are TILLMAN and STURTEVANT, I have particularly been interested in tracking the maternal line backgrounds.
For more than a decade I maintained my tree also on this website with software from The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding, but I have stopped maintaining it, and so have recently removed it. Thanks to all of you who have emailed and shared information to help me learn more. I spend much more of my time today on WikiTree and, of course, on Ancestry/Family Tree Maker.
This family get-together followed the death of one of my father’s brothers: Arnold Lee Tillman.
Matthew Taisey – 1829 Liberty Notice
Matthew Taisey (1812-1881) was my paternal third great grandfather.
In this Liberty Notice published by the North Star paper, Danville, Vermont, on 5 May 1829: Robert Taisey released his son Matthew Taisey. Matthew was then seventeen years old and had trained to become a blacksmith. A possible reason for this warning out was that there were already more than enough blacksmiths in Groton, Vermont.
This was a major clue for me to confirm the identify of Matthew’s father.
Matthew married Jane Johnson in 1834 at age 22 and left Groton, Vermont on his westward venture which took him and his family to Minnesota.
See My Uncle Jimmy’s Reflections on the 20th Century. James Rogers Tillman (1915-2002) wrote this autobiography in 1999. Also included are his short biographies of his wife Joyce Bonner Hall, his in-laws, Ed Hall and Violet Marsh, and his mother Frances Nelson Tillman. My cousin Ned, James Edward Tillman, contributed a short note, as did Ned’s daughter Leigh. Thanks so much to my cousin Ned for sharing this.