![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ink_n_impWell, the Bronx has been abandoned for the moment, as my fact finding for the Ebling brewery was rather successful, and we have more pressing projects to worry about. Just before Christmas, I started researching in the Richmond County clerk's office, just a quick (and free!) ferry ride from the southern tip of Manhattan to the St. George station in Staten Island. You see, there is a mall going up right under the Outerbridge Crossing, and before it can go up, the site's history must be accounted for!
So, first on the to-do list is looking up land deeds.
Of course, it's taking FOREVER, because why would anything be easy in this line of work, really?! The reasons? One, because I have to look up more than one block. Two, because after about the 1920's, there AREN'T any block listings in Staten Island, what with it all having been farmland (at least, in the area I'm searching). And Three, because after about the 1900's, pretty much the same 5 or 6 families are buying up/own ALL OF THE FRICKEN ISLAND. So, in a single ledger, Abraham Cole, for instance, may have bought 50-odd lots of land from all sorts of different people…and without any way of pinpointing those pieces of land, because they aren't assigned block numbers, just their coordinates and what other farms or roads they might adjoin. So, what's a girl archaeologist to do, except find some land coordinates, an old map or two, and read through all the deeds that MAY match up, to see if you're even in the right ballpark land-wise.
…There are a LOT of deeds that MAY match up.
Luckily, my boss dug up a colonial land grant map, so after I traced the deeds back to the 1900's and hit a wall known as the 19th century, I began to trace FORWARDS from the colonial land grants (circa 1685ish). I hope beyond hope that when all is said and done, the two sets of information I have will meet up in the middle.
The major problem I find beginning around the 1850's, however, is the matter of BOUNDARIES. Or more importantly, how they are described in the deeds.
Take this deed, from May 1851, Liber 23: page 81:
"Beginning at a large apple tree and running southwesterly along the road that leads to Daniel Lake's Mill to a a Cedar tree. Thence southeasterly along the meadow of William Lake to a large ditch. Thence northeasterly along the said ditch, and meadow of said Lake. And Morris Taylor. To the land or highway; thence northwesterly up said lane or highway to the place of beginning. Together with three lots of Saltmeadow marsh lying on road leading to Lake's mill opposite to the place called the stone Bridge."
Let us begin with the real Canker that Ga-naws, as Captain Hook would say. The problem with using trees as boundaries markers is grossly evident. Even the last pear tree of Peter Stuyvesant at the corner of at the corner of Thirteenth Street and Third Avenue succumbed to disease and old age in 1867. And considering Old Peter was stomping around New Netherlands/New York on his peg leg back from 1647 to 1672, that is IMPRESSIVE, but not COMMON. (I personally think the damn thing was just as stubborn as the one-legged Dutch bastard that planted it.)
A large apple tree? A Cedar? A ditch? Gee, wonder how long THOSE stuck around! /sarcasm.
The only two promising things are the Mill and the "place called the stone Bridge". But even that's a damn trick and a half, because just cause it's called "the stone Bridge" doesn't mean it's there now, or that it ever WAS. Your best hope is a map of the area from circa 1850's, and--if you're real lucky--the mill and the "stone Bridge" are on the map.
I know back then there wasn't much out there to use as boundary markers, but a part of me suspects they only did it to taunt folks like me.
And so, that is how my days lately have been spent. Reporting to the office at 8 am, catching the Staten Island Ferry at 8:30, researching deeds from 9-3, and back to Manhattan, to Penn Station, to catch the 4:19 train.
But before I leave you all, an open letter:
Dear Joseph Egbert, Clerk of Richmond County, Staten Island, NY;
I know you were the county clerk from approximately 1790's to 1850's, maybe even longer; which, true yes, means you've been dead for quite some time. But allow me this slight indulgence.
I love you. And when I mean you, I mean your handwriting. Oh, the books from the 1680's are in far too much a flowery Dutch style for my tastes, and whoever was county clerk in the 1870's deserves a special place in Hell for his large, thick style that looks like a series of S's of various sizes. But You, Joseph Egbert, are a treat indeed. Oh, you might have been a bastard in your life, and who would know? The grave protects the secrets of your life and personality--but your Handwriting is so delightful, so simple, so--dare I say?--girly, that even though time and microfilm have made reading it a bitch and a half, the point is, I Can read it.
Case in point: I know the photocopy of the microfilm mars its' natural beauty, but anyone can still look upon this and imagine its' former glory.
So thank you, Joseph Egbert. You make my days in the county clerk's office just a little bit neater.
Love,
Nella
So, first on the to-do list is looking up land deeds.
Of course, it's taking FOREVER, because why would anything be easy in this line of work, really?! The reasons? One, because I have to look up more than one block. Two, because after about the 1920's, there AREN'T any block listings in Staten Island, what with it all having been farmland (at least, in the area I'm searching). And Three, because after about the 1900's, pretty much the same 5 or 6 families are buying up/own ALL OF THE FRICKEN ISLAND. So, in a single ledger, Abraham Cole, for instance, may have bought 50-odd lots of land from all sorts of different people…and without any way of pinpointing those pieces of land, because they aren't assigned block numbers, just their coordinates and what other farms or roads they might adjoin. So, what's a girl archaeologist to do, except find some land coordinates, an old map or two, and read through all the deeds that MAY match up, to see if you're even in the right ballpark land-wise.
…There are a LOT of deeds that MAY match up.
Luckily, my boss dug up a colonial land grant map, so after I traced the deeds back to the 1900's and hit a wall known as the 19th century, I began to trace FORWARDS from the colonial land grants (circa 1685ish). I hope beyond hope that when all is said and done, the two sets of information I have will meet up in the middle.
The major problem I find beginning around the 1850's, however, is the matter of BOUNDARIES. Or more importantly, how they are described in the deeds.
Take this deed, from May 1851, Liber 23: page 81:
"Beginning at a large apple tree and running southwesterly along the road that leads to Daniel Lake's Mill to a a Cedar tree. Thence southeasterly along the meadow of William Lake to a large ditch. Thence northeasterly along the said ditch, and meadow of said Lake. And Morris Taylor. To the land or highway; thence northwesterly up said lane or highway to the place of beginning. Together with three lots of Salt
Let us begin with the real Canker that Ga-naws, as Captain Hook would say. The problem with using trees as boundaries markers is grossly evident. Even the last pear tree of Peter Stuyvesant at the corner of at the corner of Thirteenth Street and Third Avenue succumbed to disease and old age in 1867. And considering Old Peter was stomping around New Netherlands/New York on his peg leg back from 1647 to 1672, that is IMPRESSIVE, but not COMMON. (I personally think the damn thing was just as stubborn as the one-legged Dutch bastard that planted it.)
A large apple tree? A Cedar? A ditch? Gee, wonder how long THOSE stuck around! /sarcasm.
The only two promising things are the Mill and the "place called the stone Bridge". But even that's a damn trick and a half, because just cause it's called "the stone Bridge" doesn't mean it's there now, or that it ever WAS. Your best hope is a map of the area from circa 1850's, and--if you're real lucky--the mill and the "stone Bridge" are on the map.
I know back then there wasn't much out there to use as boundary markers, but a part of me suspects they only did it to taunt folks like me.
And so, that is how my days lately have been spent. Reporting to the office at 8 am, catching the Staten Island Ferry at 8:30, researching deeds from 9-3, and back to Manhattan, to Penn Station, to catch the 4:19 train.
But before I leave you all, an open letter:
Dear Joseph Egbert, Clerk of Richmond County, Staten Island, NY;
I know you were the county clerk from approximately 1790's to 1850's, maybe even longer; which, true yes, means you've been dead for quite some time. But allow me this slight indulgence.
I love you. And when I mean you, I mean your handwriting. Oh, the books from the 1680's are in far too much a flowery Dutch style for my tastes, and whoever was county clerk in the 1870's deserves a special place in Hell for his large, thick style that looks like a series of S's of various sizes. But You, Joseph Egbert, are a treat indeed. Oh, you might have been a bastard in your life, and who would know? The grave protects the secrets of your life and personality--but your Handwriting is so delightful, so simple, so--dare I say?--girly, that even though time and microfilm have made reading it a bitch and a half, the point is, I Can read it.
Case in point: I know the photocopy of the microfilm mars its' natural beauty, but anyone can still look upon this and imagine its' former glory.
So thank you, Joseph Egbert. You make my days in the county clerk's office just a little bit neater.
Love,
Nella
