Tombstone Tuesday: Perkins in New York

Nathaniel and Mary Perkins
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

This photo of the gravestone of Nathaniel PERKINS and his wife Mary Record was taken by Thomas Dunne of New York. This photo and others taken by him are used with his permission. (This is the great part of Find a Grave, don't you think?)

Some time ago, a fellow researcher, whose surname is Perkins, contacted me about the gravestone of Mary Perkins that I took at the River Bend Cemetery in Westerly, Washington, RI. He told me that there was a gravestone of her ancestor David Perkins in Bridgewater, MA right where I lived. It is one of my most special genealogical moments. A real delight!

Since then, there have been four of us working on Perkins gravestones and records. I am the only female and it is hard work keeping these men from clashing and to stay on track with the research. The role of genealogist can also be peacemeaker.

One of my "team" decided to travel to New York in search of Nathaniel Perkins (shown here) and his wife Mary. I didn't know where he was going but was interested in his adventure.

When he returned he called me to tell me all about it. It seems he did not have a clear idea of which cemetery before he left from PA to NY. I stopped him from telling me the story and asked for the name of the cemetery and when he told me, I immediately went to Find a Grave and located the grave already photographed. When he was done reporting on his adventure, I emailed him to tell him that it was already online. He was angry with himself that he did not look at Find a Grave first. But, he had a great time going to the places to do the research. The gravestone was just part of the adventure.

Last week, someone asked me about the Crandall genealogy (it is at Ancestry.com) and that reminded me about the mistake in print about the wife of Nathaniel Perkins (he is a junior) shown here. The Crandall genealogy states that her name is Mary Crandall. The problem is probably of transcription. Nathaniel Perkins, Sr. marrried Elizabeth Crandall.

I have found a Crandall family historian's Web site.  He mentions that there are a lot of mistakes in the print genealogy and that things should be verified with other sources. Good.