My 4th great-grandmother, Olive Gorton, is my case in point that in genealogical research, persistence eventually pays off!
Nearly three years ago, when I first figured out that Olive was the mother of my 3rd great-grandfather, William Larkham, the only evidence I could find of her was the record of her marriage to my 4th great-grandfather, Lot Larkham, from Voluntown, Connecticut town records, and the date of her death which my great-grandmother transcribed from a family bible. For three years, I searched everywhere to find out which Gorton family Olive belonged to -- through census, birth, marriage, death and cemetery records for Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York. I consulted with "Gorton Guru", Kay Gorton Thompson, and I probably drove my Larkham cousins and my family crazy. I considered every possible twist, including the fact that Gorton might not have been her maiden name, or that Olive was her middle name. Through the use of 1790 census listings, I narrowed down the list of possible fathers Olive might be the daughter of, but she was never mentioned in any of the written genealogies of the Gorton family in Rhode Island. Finally, last summer, I decided I was fed up and would not look for her any more! I took a much-needed but short-lived break!
When the local Family History Center called this fall to tell me that some microfilm I had ordered months ago had finally arrived, I couldn't resist taking a couple more stabs in the dark to find Olive. I had a strong hunch that if she wasn't from Voluntown, where her husband, Lot Larkham, was from, she was probably from West Greenwich, Rhode Island, because Stafford Greene, the Baptist elder who performed her marriage, was from West Greenwich. As a last resort, I ordered West Greenwich probate records and decided I would look at each Gorton record to see if Olive was mentioned in anyone's will. On December 8, 1999 (a day that I will always remember), I struck gold! As always seems to happen, when it was almost time to leave and I was approaching the end of the second roll of microfilm, I saw a listing for the will of Hezekiah Gorton. Since he was one of the potential father candidates I had for Olive, I decided to take one quick look and then leave to pick my children up from school. No sooner did I come to Hezekiah Gorton's will than the name "Betsey Olive Larkham" popped out at me! She was the younger sister of my 3rd great-grandfather, William Larkham, one of four children born to Olive Gorton and Lot Larkham in the seventeen years of their marriage. Hezekiah left Betsey Olive the bequest from his estate that he had intended for his daughter and Betsey's mother (Olive), who was now deceased. The shout I let out scared everyone in the Family History Center!
The Rhode Island Gortons are well-documented, and so it has been easy to trace Olive's ancestry back to the immigrant ancestor, Samuel Gorton, the founder of Warwick, Rhode Island. I thought I would have a difficult search learning the identity of Olive's mother (she is listed as "Miss Whitford" in the Adelos Gorton genealogy, but this no doubt refers to Eunice (Whitford) Gorton, Hezekiah's second wife, who he married in 1823, and who he mentions in his will in 1841. Eunice is clearly not the mother of Olive or her siblings, who were born in the late 1700s. However, a brief perusal of West Greenwich land evidence records quickly revealed her name -- Patience. She signed two deeds with Hezekiah for the sale of land in the 1770s, and she is clearly named in the land deeds as his wife. One of these land deeds was for the sale of land to William Wood, Hezekiah's brother-in-law who married his older sister, Ruth Gorton. William Wood had a younger sister named Patience. A researcher-friend of mine enlightened me to the fact that Hezekiah was in the DAR Patriot Index (Part 2). To my great delight, Hezekiah's wife was listed as Patience Wood, and Hezekiah's exact birth date, March 7, 1751, was listed!
My discovery of Olive's parentage has led to many new questions. For example, my Larkham cousins and I have pondered over what the "H" in my 3rd great-grandfather, William H. Larkham's middle name stood for. One cousin thought it was Herbert. Another thought it was Henry. A biography lists it as Hinkley (which makes no sense). I now have to wonder whether William H. Larkham's middle name was Hezekiah!
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