Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Looking for Bresee's in Jefferson County

I posted yesterday about finding "all" of the Bresee (and variant) surname families residing in Albany and Columbia counties in New York in the 1790 census.

What about later census records? Although Cornelia Bresee married James Bell before 1800 in Schodack, Rensselaer County, NY, the census records for 1800 to 1850 may be helpful in narrowing down the search for Cornelia's parents.

It comes down to two questions:

1) What Bresee (and variants) families were enumerated in Rensselaer and Columbia Counties NY in 1800? Did any of them have an "extra" male that might be James Bell? This is admittedly a stretch.

2) James and Cornelia (Bresee) Bell migrated to Jefferson County NY in the 1810 to 1815 time period. Are there any Bresee families in the 1820 to 1850 census that might be her parents or her siblings? There is no guarantee that a sibling migrated with Cornelia, but family members often migrated together, and it is a possibility.

In the 1800 census, there are four Bell entries (William, David, Samuel and David) in Rensselaer county NY, three of them in Schodack. Unfortunately, only Samuel has a male in the 16 to 26 age range, and it is Samuel. So it looks like James Bell is not enumerated separately in Rensselaer county. There are three Bresee (and variant) families in Rensselaer county:

a) Anthony Breese in Greenbush (has one male aged over 45, one male aged 16-26, one female aged over 45, one female aged 16 to 26, and one female under age 10),

b) Gerrit T. Brace in Greenbush (3 males under age 5, one male aged 26 to 45, 1 female aged 16-26)

c) Henry Breec in Hoosick (1 male aged over 45, 1 female aged over 45).

So the James Bell family might be residing with Anthony Breese in Greenbush, Rensselaer County, NY.

There are 20 Bresee (and variants) in Columbia county in the 1800 census. Of these, 8 of them have males and females aged 16 to 26.

In the 1810 census, there are no James Bell entries in Rensselaer, Columbia or Jefferson counties NY. There are 4 Bresee (and variants) in Rensselaer county, many in Columbia County, and none in Jefferson County.

In the 1820 census, James Bell (2 males under age 10, 1 male aged 26 to 45, 1 female aged under age 10, 2 aged 10-16, 1 aged 16-26, and one aged 26-45) and Thomas Bell (1 male under age 10, 1 male aged 10-16, 1 male aged 26-45, 2 females under age 10, 1 female aged 10-16, and 1 female aged 26-45) resided in Henderson township in Jefferson County NY. A William Bell (aged over 45) had a large family and resided in Henderson also.

Interestingly, there were three Bresee families of interest:

a) Nathan Bracy (2 males under age 10, 5 males aged 16-26, 1 female age 16-26) resided in Henderson and was enumerated 5 families after James Bell.

b) Cornelius Bracy (2 males under age 10, 1 male aged 16-26, 1 male aged 10-16) in Adams township

c) Jacob Brazee (1 male aged 10-16, 1 male aged 16-26, 1 male aged 26-45, 4 females under age 10, 1 female aged 10-16, and 1 female aged 26-45) in Brownville.

In the 1830 census, there is one Bresee (and variant) families in Jefferson County NY:

a) Cornelius Bracey in Hounsfield (1 male under age 5, 1 male 5-10, 2 males 10-15, 1 male 30-40, and 1 female aged 30-40).

In the 1840 census, there are three Bresee families in Jefferson County:

a) Cornelius Bracy of Sackets Harbor (1 male under 5, 1 male 10-15, 2 males 15-20, 1 male 20-30, 1 male 40-50, 1 female 5-10, 1 female 15-20, 1 female 40-50).

b) Parthena Bersee of Clayton (1 female 15-20, 1 female 50-60)

c) Peter Burzee of Alexandria (2 males under 5, 1 male 5-10, 1 male 30-40, 1 female 20-30).

In summary, there are some potential clues there. Finding the link between any of these Bresee families and the James Bell family will take some sleuthing in the land and probate records.

I checked my Bresee database, and did not find any Nathan Bresee or Jacob Bresee, but there are several Cornelius Bresee's born in the 1790's, and several Peter Bresee's born in the 1800-1810 period.

Are there suggestyions for further research here? I realize that not many of you "care" about this, but maybe something stands out that I've missed.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Randy

Thanks for posting your Cornelia search. It has been very interesting.

I live in upstate NY southwest of Albany. The Bresee name is well-known in nearby Otsego County. They ran an upscale department store. Likened to an "upstate Macys". There is even a buidling at Hartwick college named for one of the Bresee family. I do not know whether there might be any connection to Cornelia but thought it was an interesting note on an unusual name.

Charley "Apple" Grabowski said...

The genweb pg for Jeff. Co has a Cornelia Brazee . Poss. namesake? I haven't done much research in Jeff. Co myself.

If you find cemetery locations before end of summer I could try & find headstones in southern Jefferson or Oswego Cty