April 25, 2017
Besides helping to fill in informational gaps for ancestors already in your family tree, newspapers can also be a great resource for discovering relatives you never knew you had – that’s how I discovered my cousin Thomas Sniffen, Jr.
Many of my ancestors were born in New York’s Hudson Valley, settling in Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties. One branch of my family tree is the Sniffen family, who were originally from Ossining, Westchester County.
Ossining is a small town which is bordered by the Hudson River on the west and the Croton River on the north.
I wanted to see if I could find any new ancestors who might have belonged to this branch of my family, so, I decided to do a search in GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives to look for clues.
I began by searching the New York Newspaper Archives for the last name “Sniffen” with the keyword “Westchester,” one of the counties where they lived.
Out of 184 results, the sixth was a notice from the Westchester Herald, which was published in Ossining, about a man named Thomas Sniffen, Jr. whose property was being sold at a sheriff’s auction on 27 January 1824.
According to the article, Thomas Sniffen, Jr. owned “two certain farms, pieces or parcels of land, situate, lying and being in the town of Rye.” This is a good sign – it means this Thomas Sniffen, Jr. not only has the right last name, but he was from the right area, too.
Next, I searched for Thomas Sniffen in my family tree – but I couldn’t find him. That’s okay; since Thomas lived in Westchester County and was part of the Sniffen family, I can assume that he is part of the extended Sniffen family that I am related to. Now, I just need to do the additional research to see exactly how he fits in.
Find long-lost relatives of your own by searching your ancestors’ last names and birthplaces in GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives – you never know what new branches of your family you might uncover.
