Saturday, January 2, 2010

Estate of Capt. James Weems

Good evening!
Ohh! Lots of luck today! Got your envelope, went to the bank and took care of the mundane chores of life, and then spent most of the day at the public library in Davenport.
Interesting place! They have a huge collection of books, almost all of which are included in Ancestry.com's database. Most everything I looked at, I already had but it was good to be able to look at the indexes for different spellings of the names; which eliminated the group from Sumner Co., TN. Almost any time they married or died, they used the names of Wims. Only the census listed them as Weems. They may fit in later, but right now I'm concentrating on NY.
It's sorta like finding all the pieces to a puzzle, putting them in the box, throwing them up in the air a few times to see where they land, and then trying to put them together.
Anyway! Today I found a cornerpiece! There is a book called "Genealogical Data from N.Y.'s First Newspaper" which has an entry for Capt. James Weems.
Weems, Capt. James late of NYC, dec'd - estate (7/7/29)
Because the date is repeated on the next couple of entries, it is most likely the date of the newspaper. I also searched the National Archives in London and found a corresponding entry for a James Weymss deceased, with a corresponding date, sort of.
According to the NY Colonial Records, he was replaced in 1723 after death. The will probate in London is in 1724 and the newspaper article is 1729, which means it took a while to get completed. I know it sounds a little odd but probates between the states of England often took several years, especially if they owned property in both places, which is probably what happened.

I also found the birth records of 2 of Thomas Scott Weems and Eleanor Jacobs children in St. Stephens Parish in Bucks Co., PA, giving me a place to look for other children.
I'm going to see if I can't find the original newspaper article, a copy of his probate in NY and a copy of the will from London. Pieces are falling into place!
Diana

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