Internet Archive, aka archive.org, has a large collection of digitized material that is free to view online. Without this website, I would never have found Albigence and his family.

Albigence Adams

Born: 21 JAN 1801 in Hartwick, Otsego County, New York, USA

Father: Abner Adams (1773 to 1857)
Mother: Desire Ashcraft (1770 to 1844)

Spouse: Diana Lattin (1799 to 1845)

Married: 1825, estimated marriage date, no record found.

Children:

Clarinda Adams (1828 to 1895)
Abner Adams (12 MAY 1829 to 18 APR 1907)
Leander L Adams (18 JAN 1834 to 22 JUL 1905)
Henry Adams (1839 to Unknown)
George Riley Adams (17 JUN 1840 to 11 JUNE 1911)

Died: 1 JUL 1867 in Hartwick, Otsego County, New York, USA

Burial: Hartwick Center Union Cemetery

Timeline:

1828 Birth of daughter, Louisa
1829 Birth of son, Abner
1830 Hartwick, Otsego County, New York, USA
1833 Cattaraugus County, New York, USA
1834 Birth of son, Leander
1839 Birth of son, Henry
1840 Birth of son, George
1840 Mansfield, Cattaraugus County, New York, USA
1844 Death of mother, Desire
1845 Death of wife, Diana
1848 Janesville, Rock County, Wisconsin, USA
1850 Rock, Rock County, Wisconsin, USA
1855 Whiteside County, Illinois, USA
1857 Death of father, Abner
1865 Hartwick, Otsego County, New York, USA
1867 Death and Burial

Occupation: farmer

Records:

1830 to 1850 United States Federal Census Records
New York, U.S., State Census, 1865
The U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current

Variations of Surname: none

Spouse:

Diana Lattin:

Diana was born around 1799 in New York, USA. She died in 1845 in Rock, Rock County, Wisconsin, USA.

I could find no information on Diana in Ancestry.com’s databases. There are several family trees that have listed her parents as:

Gideon Lattin was born in 1765 in Connecticut, USA.

Hannah Harger was born in 1774 in Connecticut, USA.

If you are a descendant of this family, please contact me. My email is dlwakenight@yahoo.com. You can also leave a message in the Comments Section of this post.

Daughter:

Clarinda Adams was born in 1828 in Hartwick, Otsego County, New York, USA. She died in 1895 in Round Grove, Whiteside County, Illinois, USA.

Clarinda married George S Fulmer on 23 OCT 1851 in Janesville, Rock County, Wisconsin, USA. Four known children were born to this marriage:

Lewis E Fulmer (1852)
Clarence Fulmer (1857)
Harriet Fulmer (1858)
Willis E Fulmer (1863)

George S Fulmer was born in 1823 in Pennsylvania, USA. He died in 1894 in Round Grove, Whiteside County, Illinois, USA.

The Given Name:

Albigence as a given name is quite rare. The name may have originated during the Catharism movement in southern France. The Wikipedia article explains:

“The adherents were sometimes referred to as Albigensians after the city Albi in southern France where the movement first took hold.”

The Family’s Move West:

There is a memorial for Albigence’s son, Abner, on the Find A Grave website. It includes a summary of the family’s movements from New York to Wisconsin.

You can also find this information on Archive.org. The book is entitled “An Illustrated History of the State of Montana“. It was written by Joaquin Miller.

This article explains that Albigence, his wife, and his children lived in Hartwick, Otsego County, New York, USA. In 1833, they moved to Cattaraugus County, New York, USA. Then, in 1848, they moved to Janesville, Rock County, Wisconsin, USA.

Albigence is a name that was easy to mistranscribe. The handwriting of the officials who filled out old vital records such as birth, marriage, and death records was also an issue.

The transcriptionists of these documents would type what they perceived the word to be, not what it actually was. That meant his name could have been transcribed as any other name in the world.

In fact, in two out of three census records, his name was misspelled:

Albigener Adains on the 1830 US Census
Albegener Adams on the 1840 US Census
Albigence Adams on the 1850 US Census

I could not find Albigence on the 1860 US Census.

The 1860 US Census:

The Archive.org article explains that in 1857 Abner and Arabella moved to Iowa. The 1860 US Census shows that they were living in Reeve, Franklin County, Iowa.

Three of Abner’s siblings also appear on the 1860 US Census:

Clarinda had married George S Fulmer and was living in Mount Pleasant, Whiteside County, Illinois.

Leander was living with Charles and Susan Sanford in Mount Pleasant, Whiteside County, Illinois.

George was living with David Hazard and his family in Lyndon, Whiteside County, Illinois.

What Happened to Albigence?

As I was building Leander’s profile, I discovered another publication on Archive.org. The book is entitled “Past and Present of Fayette County Iowa“.

The article contains the biographies of both Leander and George. You can read about Leander on Page 1057 and George on Page 1370.

It was from these biographies that I found out what happened to Albigence:

In 1855, Albigence moved to Whiteside County, Illinois, USA.

Leander’s biography indicates that Albigence went back to Hartwick to visit relatives in 1867.

George’s biography indicates that Albigence went back to live in Hartwick in 1859.

Both biographical accounts confirm that Albigence died in 1867 in Hartwick, Otsego County, New York, USA.

The End of My Search:

The 1860 US Census for Hartwick shows that four of Albigence’s siblings were living at the family farm.

The 1865 New York Census shows that Albigence was living with three of his siblings at the family farm. His given name was listed as Alby.

This would mean that Albigence moved back to live at the family farm between 1860 and 1865.

Special Thanks:

Archive.org is officially known as the Internet Archive. It is a website that has a vast amount of digitized material that is free to view online. Without these two publications, I would never have known what happened to Albigence and his family.

Notes:

John Adams (1595 to 1633) was the first person with that English surname to immigrate to North America from England. In 1621, John boarded the Fortune. This was the second ship, after the Mayflower, to bring puritans to North America. In late November of that year, the Fortune arrived at Plymouth Colony. John was the progenitor of all the Adams descendants listed in these posts.

Creating Your Family Tree

Interested in building a great family tree? Remember these important steps:

Look in your photo albums. You may have old pictures that your parents or grandparents gave you. Or, ask them for copies of photos that they have in their possession. Many people will write names and dates on the backs of photographs. Letters, diaries, and family bibles are also excellent sources for births, marriages, and deaths.

Talk to your older relatives to find out about your ancestry. They may relate stories about an ancestor that you can add to your family tree. Family history is usually not found in newspapers. It is more of a verbal memory that is passed down from generation to generation.

Find the right family tree builder that suits your needs. You can choose one that has a paid subscription like Ancestry.com. There are also free sites like FamilySearch.org.

When you start building your family tree, add documentation to your ancestor’s profile. The records can include birth, marriage, death, census, military, city, and county directory listings. Any information that you can find will help create a life story about your ancestor.

If you have a unique surname, like Wakenight, you may find databases on the internet that are useful in your search. I use SurnameDB.com for my English surnames. There are many others on the internet for other countries like Ireland, Italy, and Germany.

Genealogy is the study of a person’s “line of descent.” As you create your family tree, you would typically start with one individual and go “back into time.” You would add their parents, grandparents, and so on.  There are also family trees that go “forward into time.”  Many of these family trees start with a famous person, such as a president or royalty, and move forward into the present time.  The purpose of this type of pedigree is to establish a person’s bloodline with that famous person.

There is no limit on how big your family tree can grow. The blank canvas is there for you to use. Cherish your family history, and it will be there for generations to come!