I have been researching Hunterdon County, New Jersey families since 1981 when I started my house history business. Along the way, I have collected a lot of information.
I have also written articles for the Hunterdon Historical Newsletter, the Delaware Twp. newsletter called The Bridge, and the website The Delaware Township Post. Sometimes, a genealogical question will spark my curiosity, and send me searching for answers. But each answer leads to a new question, taking me farther and farther along until I end up with a good story, and the need to share it.
I hope that people who know even more about these Hunterdon families will add to the story and make corrections whenever I jump to the wrong conclusion. This brings up the question of sources.
Many many years ago, as a beginner genealogist, I made the common mistake of neglecting to note my sources. Like many people, I learned the hard way how essential it is to keep good track of your sources. Sources give you grounding, especially when family trees grow large. These days it is much easier to keep track of sources, thanks to the internet. However, helpful as they are, online family trees are not reliable. If I have no better source than an online tree, I will add a caution. When I have real sources to rely on, I will include them. But I do not want my blog to be loaded down with attributions, so I have created some separate pages for sources.
As for content, along with genealogies, I may write about institutions like schools, churches, local government, or mills, stores, cemeteries. There is enough material here to keep me going for years. Some articles I have written in the past can be found on The Delaware Township Post. You might wonder why I don’t just keep sending articles to the Post instead of doing this blog. A blog is more casual, more personal. I have a better chance of getting a dialogue with readers this way. Some of my blogs may turn into stories for the Post.
On the down side, a blog has no editor, other than me. The articles I published in the Delaware Post benefited greatly from the editorial process. But many of the items I will post here will not concern Delaware Township families, or if they do, are not quite material for the Post website.
Another place to learn about old Hunterdon families is the Rootsweb mailing list for Hunterdon (NJHUNTER@rootsweb.com) where a lot of genealogical questions have been asked and answered. I will continue to read those emails and answer people’s questions when I can, and ask even more. But the longer articles I want to write are not appropriate there.
This is an experiment. I’ve just read an article about how thousands of bloggers give up after awhile. That might happen to me too. If this blog fails to interest readers or turns into more than I can handle, it will go the way of those others, off into the ether. We shall see.
Correction, July 25, 2009:
Whenever one of my readers discovers I’ve made a mistake, or when new information turns up in later research, my practice will be to write a post recognizing the Sharp Reader who caught one of my goofs; then amend the original post with correct information; and (following the practice of the New York Times) make a note at the bottom that the original was amended. As an example, this paragraph is amendment to the original post.
Russ
June 20, 2009 @ 2:02 pm
Marfy,
Welcome to Blogging. Not being a writer, I had no thought of doing a blog.
I am looking forward to following your Blog, as I have been doing some research on a Hunterdon County family. I live in Warren County, so, "right next door".
What I keep hearing is "have fun". So, I pass that along to you as well.
Good luck,
Russ
Jim
June 20, 2009 @ 3:29 pm
This sounds like it will be a great blog. I hope you do keep it going and don't give up.
Best of luck,
Jim
Kim Eckhardt
June 21, 2009 @ 2:36 pm
Great job on the blog! Don't feel like you have to blog every day. Otherwise, you'll get burnt out. Welcome to the world of blogging. :)
Marfy Goodspeed
June 21, 2009 @ 2:52 pm
Thanks Kim. I'm aiming for once a week, but it turned out I had a little to add to the first blog. People who blog once a day amaze me.
dayinthelifeofmycat
August 22, 2009 @ 11:57 pm
Marfy, I found your blog a couple of months ago when I was doing some inquiry into my line of the Wolverton family. This is a great blog with such wonderful information and very interesting reading. I'm letting all of my family members know about it. Please keep it going!
Pat
June 8, 2011 @ 2:05 pm
Hi,
I have visited your blog several times when it came up on one of my searches for information about my Kugler ancestors. I have discovered a great deal of information on the wonderful Hunterdon County sites. I am hitting a wall looking for Sally Elgordon who was married to Snider Kugler by Jacob Kirkpatrick at the First Presbyterian Church of Amwell in 1817. Do you have any idea if Rutgers would have information about this family. Do you know of the Elgordons?
Marfy Goodspeed
June 9, 2011 @ 8:38 am
I don’t have any information on Sally Elgordon or on Snider Kugler, sorry to say. I do have 19 Elgordons in my database, picked up while researching properties in Delaware Township. They’re mostly 18th century names. I have no idea whether Rutgers would have anything, but suspect you’d have better luck at the Hunterdon County Historical Society. Here’s their webpage with hours when the library is open. It really is worth a visit.
http://hunterdonhistory.org/joomla16/index.php/library