WINDHAM COUNTY, Vt. – The next meeting of the Windham County Genealogy Interest Group will focus on “Searching Beyond Vital Records” and “Researching the Westminster Massacre,” on Saturday, Nov. 23, from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m., on Zoom only. This meeting is free and open to all. Please register at www.bit.ly/WCGIGregister. A Zoom link will be sent before the meeting. Pose any questions that you may have for the presenters when you register.
Researching an ancestor when the paper trail of vital records disappears becomes more difficult, but there are strategies to find alternate information. In “Searching Beyond Vital Records,” using his research into one of his great-great-grandparents as an example, Wayne Blanchard will present some of the things he learned in a recent course about breaking down genealogical brick walls. Although the course included such issues as finding an ancestor’s origins, uncovering a maiden name, and discovering where a family moved, his interest is in determining parentage. The challenge is not only finding alternative sources, but also analyzing the information and resolving conflicting data.
In “Researching the Westminster Massacre,” Jessie Haas will talk about her process in researching the Westminster Massacre for her book “Revolutionary Westminster” (The History Press, 2011). The massacre is an extremely well-documented event, yet is commonly misunderstood and inaccurately described even by historians.
Haas states, “A close reading of primary documents; knowing that Benjamin Hall, author of ‘A History of Eastern Vermont,’ was a grandson of Westminster and steeped in local oral history; and now looking at the events imaginatively in writing a novel about them, have given me an understanding that the massacre was a thoroughly revolutionary event in a line running from the Massachusetts Farmers Rebellion and the Powder Alarm to the battles of Lexington and Concord. I will talk about that, and my sheer luck in having the Brooks Memorial Library and my dad’s personal collection to work from, as well as state archives in New York and Vermont.”
Haas is the author of 41 books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for children and adults. Her forthcoming book, “Dearest Blood,” tells the story of the Westminster Massacre through the eyes of 15-year-old Fanny Allen, then Montusan, who lived near the courthouse at the time. It picks up again eight years later, when Fanny, a young widow, meets and marries Ethan Allen in Westminster. Find out more at www.jessiehaas.com.