My 2016 Research Goals

I'd like to share my genealogy-related goals for 2016.  I set goals for both 2014 and 2015 and found that this helped me stay focused on my top priorities throughout the year.

I made quite a lot of progress on my goals in 2015.  For the past two years, I've been working on uncovering the lineage of my fourth great-grandmother, Amelia Brown Bellangee.  In 2015, I not only learned who her parents were, but was able to connect her to her grandfather, a Revolutionary War veteran.  One of my other goals revolved around my husband's Pinto ancestors.  This year, I was able to find documentation connecting Miles Augustus Pinto and his father, Isaac Pinto.

Hopefully, the success will continue in 2016!  Here are my top priorities:

1. GRIFFIN
The Griffins continue to be a major brick wall.  I worked on this family quite a bit in 2015 but still cannot prove the parents and siblings of my second great-grandfather John T. Griffin.  I believe I know who his parents are, but haven't found much in the way of actual proof.  I also can't seem to determine the parents of those supposed parents, which might help.  This family lived alternately in New York City and in the areas surrounding Scranton, Pennsylvania.  However, I haven't been able to find much in the way of census records, birth/death/marriage records, or probate documents.  This will be my primary focus in 2016.

2. SMITH
This is another holdover from 2014 and 2015, which I haven't worked on much due to the focus on the Griffin family.  We are missing a generation in our Smith family tree. I know that my fourth great-grandfather, Samuel B. Smith of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, was the grandson of Captain Samuel Smith of Winchester, New Hampshire. We have land deeds and other family records proving as much. However, I don't know who Samuel B. Smith's father was with certainty. I am pretty certain his name was also Samuel Smith, but looking for a Samuel Smith in New England is like a needle in a haystack.

3. MATTHEWS

In 2014, I was able to prove the parentage of my third great-grandmother, Temperance Burns.  I now know that her parents were Absolom Burms and Nancy Matthews.  However, I can't seem to go any further back than that.  Right now, I'm focusing on Nancy, since she is the last known ancestor in my direct maternal line.  All I know about Nancy is that she was born about 1800 in North Carolina, and married Absolom Burns in Tennessee before moving with him to Illinois.  My next step will be to try to locate a marriage record for Nancy that might name her parents.

Happy New Year!