Granite in My Blood: Finding Rhode Island Patriots Part 1

Red, White, Blue and Midge, 2 July 2011

Finding my ancestors that lived in Rhode Island

who Served in the American Revolution

Using a handy infographic (created by Fold3) from the Ancestry.com Blog, called "What War Did My Ancestor Serve in?", I focused my search for ancestors in my tree that were Born in the years between 1726 and 1767 for the Battle Years, 1775-1783. These men, if served, would be my maternal 5th great grandfathers.

When I had my possible names and dates, I turned to the Rhode Island Society of the Sons of the American Revolution to find out more. They offer (in PDF format) lists of burial records and grave markers. That is not really proof of service but it is a good place to start. As I knew that my ancestor, Henry Maryott served, I started looking for him first.

SAR Burial Record (link above) for Henry Maryott

As you can see, this tells me that he is buried in Rockville Cemetery in Hopkinton, RI. The original location of burial was called "Henry Maryott Monument" and was listed as HP06 for the Rhode Island Historical Cemetery index. It is in the same location as Rockville Cemetery and the cemetery grew from 1819 to meet where this marker is located. He didn't move from his grave, the cemetery increased in size to envelop the monument.

Henry's wife was Mary Saunders. Their graves are marked by fieldstones. Ms. Arruda, the deputy town clerk took those photos, printed them and mailed them to me. As you can see they are near the stone wall.

Another patriot, William TOURGE, Sr. (listed as Tourje) is a newly recognized 5th great grandfather and his descendants (my 5th cousin) worked hard to get his service recognized so that his place of burial in the Gould-Tourgee Lot (SK 35) could be marked with a government issued plaque. (Find-a-Grave link to this cemetery) Notice that it states American Revolution.