It is the time of year for renewing Ne-Do-Ba’s subscriptions to various research sites. We have limited funds for subscriptions so it is important to choose the right sites in order to get our money’s worth.
I have not noticed much in the way of real changes at the World Vital Records site, so I questioned if that was still a worth while subscription to maintain. I noticed a new comer to the field that looked as if it might be an interesting replacement, GenealogyBank.com. I decided to give them a try for a year. So far I am not at all sorry for making the change.
Of course, the first thing I did with my new subscription was search for Edward Marden!
At the beginning of this project I discovered the name Edward Marden on a list of proprietors for the town of Whitefield, NH in 1774, but was unable to determine if this was the same man I was researching.
Now, let’s look at what I found in early New Hampshire papers for the Edward Marden who was a proprietor of Whitefield, NH.
The proprietors for the town of Whitefield, NH regularly published lists of tax payers (land owners!) in the newspaper. I suspect this was because the town had come into existence in 1774 on paper but was not actually settled until after 1800. Original proprietors probably scattered over time so posting notices in widely circulated newspapers of the time was the simplest way to inform or remind those proprietors of their obligations. It may also have been a legal obligation to post the notices. Whatever the reason, it has proved helpful to my investigation.
The notices I found typically stated if taxes were not paid in full by a certain date enough property would be sold off at auction to the highest bidder to cover the unpaid taxes. These notices appeared in the “New Hampshire Gazette” and later years in the “New-Hampshire Patriot”.
So, it stands to reason, any proprietor who was not paying his taxes on a yearly basis would have the land sold out from under him and no longer be listed as a proprietor of the town in these notices.
The name Edward Marden appears on the newspaper lists of proprietors for all the years I located. The 1st notice I found was for the year 1792. Other years I found are 1793, 1795, 1807, 1816, 1840, and 1844. There is probably more, but these are the years my search for Edward turned up.
Those last two years, 1840 & 1844, are significant to my investigation. In 1840 an Edward Marden still maintained one of his original 2 lots and in 1844 Edward Jr. is listed as owner of the other original lot. These notices make it clear the taxes on these two properties have been consistently paid and ownership of the property has been maintained by this Marden family.
If you remember, Edward Marden (the Ranger) provided a sworn statement of his assets, properties, and income to the Pension Commission in 1820. In this statement, Edward claimed he owned no property and that his only living child was poor. If it had ever been determined that Edward lied to the Pension Commission he would have permanently lost his pension.
It is my opinion the newspaper notices along with the pension inventory and the documented date of death in 1835 for Edward Marden (the Ranger) makes it clear the Whitefield man is not the Edward Marden I am investigating.
In summary, the Edward Marden who was proprietor of Whitefield, New Hampshire is not the same man as the Edward Marden who served with Whitcomb’s Rangers.
Now I’m anxious to see if the GenealogyBank.com will be as useful in solving other mysteries.
The Ne-Do-Ba Research Journal 