Amanuensis Monday -- 1801 Deed of John Underhill Buying Land in Cheshire County, New Hampshire From Nathaniel Garland

This week's document for transcription is the 1801 Deed of Nathaniel Garland and his wife selling 57 acres of land in Plainfield, Cheshire County (now Sullivan County), New Hampshire to John Underhill for $700.    

a)  Cheshire County, New Hampshire. Deeds 1813-1814:  pages 502-503, image 543 of 866:

b)  Cheshire County, New Hampshire. Deeds 1813-1814:  pages 504-505, image 544 of 866:

The transcription of this deed, starting on page 503 near the top of the right-hand page of the first image, with the assistance of FamilySearch Full-Text Search:

[Page 503 starting near the top of the right-hand page of the first image]:

Know all men by these presents that I Nathaniel 

Garland of Plainfield in the County of Cheshire and 

of New Hampshire Trader For and in Consideration 

of the sum of Seven hundred dollars to me in hand 

Before the delivery hereof, well and Truly paid by John
Underhill of Chester in the County of Rockingham & 

State of New Hampshire husbandman the Receipt where-

of I do hereby acknowledge hence given Granted bar-
gained sold, and by these presents do give Grant Bar-

gain Sell aliene enfeoff Convey and confirm unto 

the said John Underhill his heirs and assigns 

forever. A Certain Tract or percel of land lying in 

New Grantham and Plainfield, Bounded as follows viz 

Begining at a Stake and Stones Standing on the west 

side of the road that runs from R. C . Duncans to 

Enfield, about four Rods west of a dry hemlock Tree

marked thence north 71 deg west 123 rods to the west line

of New Grantham then on said ^Town^ line South 42 deg. west
to a Stake and Stones Standing on the East side of the 

road that leads ^from New Grantham^ from through Plainfield by Mr Harris to 

Labanon 30 rods to a Stake nd Stones thence in Plainfield 

on the east side of said Road North 19 deg west 112 Rods 

to a Stake and Stones thence North 82 deg. east 134 Rods 

to a Small Hemlock Tree marked Standing in the 

South west Corner of land owned by Moses Flanders 

upon the North bank of Great Brook ( so called ) 

Then up the Centre of said Brook to the road that 

Leads from Robert Duncans to Enfield, thence upon 

the west side of said Road to the first mentioned 

Bound about 83 rods, Containing about fifty Seven 

acres more or less.  To have and to hold the s'd 

Granted premises with all the privileges and appur-

tenances to the Same belonging to him the said John

Underhill his heirs and assigns to his and their only 

proper use and benefit forever. And I do Covenant 

with the said John Underhill his heirs and assigns 

that I am Lawfully Seized in fee of the premises 

that they are free of all Incumbrances that I have 

good right to sell and convey the same to him 

and that I will warrant and defend the same to 

the said John Underhill and his heirs and assigns 

forever against the Lawful claims and demands

of All persons. In witness whereof I have hereunto

[page 504, top of the left-hand page of the second image]

Set my hand and Seal this ninth day of

June in the year of our Lord one Thousand eight 

hundred and One. And I,         wife of the said 

do hereby release my right of Dower in the premises 

Signed Sealed and              }    

delivered in presence of us }   Nath'l Garland  {Seal} 

Simon Towle    }                  Rockingham ss . State of New

Israel Huse       }            Hampshire Chester June 9th 1801. 

                                Personally appearing the above named 

Nathaniel Garland, and Acknowledged the above 

Instrument to be his Voluntary Act & Deed 

                                      Before me Simon Towle Jus Peace 

Recd . 29 June 1814. Recorded & Examined pr

                                                 James Campbell Rcdr.

The source citation for this deed record is:

"Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States records," Deed of Nathaniel Garland to John Underhill, executed 9 June 1801, recorded 29 June 1814; imaged, FamilySearch   (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSRH-F9ZN-4?view=fullText : accessed 1 May 2026), Image Group Number 008297918, "Cheshire. Deeds, 1813, 1814, 1813-1814," pages 503-504, images 543-544 of 866; original records in Cheshire County, New Hampshire Register of Deeds.

This deed documents the sale of 57 acres of land in Plainfield, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, sold by Nathaniel Garland and his wife of Plainfield to John Underhill of Chester for $700 in lawful money on 9 June 1801 (recorded 29 June 1814).  

John Underhill (1745-1816) and his wife, Hannah Colby (1745-1791), are my 5th great-grandparents, through their son Amos Underhill (1772-1865) who married Mary Metcalf (1780-1855) in 1801 in Piermont, Grafton County, New Hampahire.

I found this record using the FamilySearch Full-Text Search feature by searching for Johnhj Underhill and New Hampshire. The Full-Text Search transcription missed, or misplaced, many words on the left-hand margin of the pages.

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Read other transcriptions of records of my relatives and ancestors on my Amanuensis Monday Posts page.

NOTE: Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started a Monday blog theme years ago called "Amanuensis Monday." John offers this definition for "amanuensis:"

"A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."

The URL for this post is:  

Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share your comments on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.  Note that all comments are moderated, and may not appear online immediately.

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Best of the Genea-Blogs - Week of 26 April to 2 May 2026

  Scores of genealogy and family history bloggers write hundreds of posts every week about their research, their families, and their interests. I appreciate each one of them and their efforts.

My criteria for "Best of ..." are pretty simple - I pick posts that advance knowledge about genealogy and family history, address current genealogy issues, provide personal family history, are funny or are poignant. I don't list posts destined for most daily blog prompts or meme submissions (but I do include summaries of them), or my own posts.

Here are my picks for great reads from the genealogy blogs for this past week:

*  ChatGPT Images 2.0 for Genealogy: Photo Enhancement by Diane Henriks on Know Who Wears the Genes In Your Family.

*  The First Three Rules for Using AI in Genealogy;  Keys to talking to a chatbot: Prompts and How to Evaluate an AI Website for Doing Genealogical Research by James Tanner on Genealogy's Star.

*  Substack Articles: Crafting the Details by Barbara Tien on Mission: Genealogy.

*  The Myth of Fold3 Military Records by Jennifer Holik on Soul Traveler.

*  Surprising DNA Segments: Why Unexpected Ethnicity Results Happen by Michelle on Legacy Tre3e Genealogists.

*  How To Create Images Using AI by Natalie Webb on Family Tree Technology.

*   Building Contextualized Ancestral Timelines by N.P. Maling on Sea Genes Family History & Genealogy Research. 

*  What You Can Say, What You Can Infer, and What You're Making Up When You Write by Denyse Allen on Chronicle Makers.

*  Understanding Your DNA Ethnicity Estimates: What They Tell You (And What They Don’t) by Elizabeth Swanay O'Neal on Heart of the Family.

*  They Were Buried Apart, But Reached for Each Other Across a Wall by Paul Chiddicks on Paul Chiddicks.

*  Understanding Reclaim the Records – An Interview with Brooke Schreier-Ganz and Alec Ferretti by  Melina Papadopoulos on Family Tree Magazine.

*  When “I Know I’m Right” Replaces Research: A Troubling Trend in Genealogy by Lori Samuelson on GenealogyAtHeart.com.

Here are pick posts by other geneabloggers this week: 

*  The Chiddicks Observer Edition 52 by Paul Chiddicks on Paul Chiddicks.

*  Friday’s Family History Finds [1 May 2026] by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree.

*  This week’s crème de la crème -- May 2, 2026 by Gail Dever on Genealogy a la Carte.

*  GenStack [2 May 2026] by Robin Stewart on Genealogy Matters.

Readers are encouraged to go to the blogs listed above and read their articles, and add the blogs to your Favorites, Feedly, another RSS feed, or email if you like what you read. Please make a comment to them also - all bloggers appreciate feedback on what they write.

Did I miss a great genealogy blog post? Tell me! I currently am reading posts from over 900 genealogy bloggers using Feedly, but I still miss quite a few it seems.

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.

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Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/05/best-of-genea-blogs-week-of-26-april-to.html

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share it on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.  Please note that all comments are moderated and may not appear immediately.

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Genealogical Society of Santa Cruz County (GSSCC) Program on Tuesday, 5 May 2026 Features Kathlene Burrow

  I received this information from my friend and society colleague Gail Burk:

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Genealogical Society of Santa Cruz County (GSSCC) Lecture Series 

 Co-hosted Online by GSSCC and the Santa Cruz Public Libraries (SCPL) 

View meeting on Zoom or View In-person at Downtown Library (224 Church Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060)

 

 To register for the Zoom meeting, please type in or click 

https://santacruzpl.libnet.info/event/16267840 

Tuesday, 5 May 2026 1:00 PM PDT 

Guest Speaker:  Kathlene Burrow

"Finding Your Southern Roots"

The presentation will include discussion of the traditions, unique history, and record peculiarities of the South that define the families who lived there.

The program will examine wars important to southern research; the influence of churches; and will briefly include information on African American records in the South.  Kathlene will explain helpful sources, finding aids and online databases.

Raised at the feet of a professional family history researcher, Kathlene Burrow  has been working with family history since childhood.  Kathy has been a genealogical educator for many years, and has served as the Director and Training Director of the Oakhurst family history center. She also volunteered for more than two years at the LDS Library in Salt Lake City, training other volunteers to read, transcribe, and index old pioneer journals.  Kathy is teaching her grandchildren how to do genealogy so they can help her to carry on the legacy and stories of those who have gone before.

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Disclosure:  I am a member of this organization in Santa Cruz, California. I receive a free membership for presenting occasional presentations.

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/05/genealogical-society-of-santa-cruz.html

Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.  All comments are moderated, and may not be posted immediately.

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Betty and Fred’s Story: Thanksgiving 1943

 Here is the latest chapter in the story of the married life and times of my parents, Fred and Betty (Carringer) Seaver, who married in July 1942. The background information and the list of chapters of their life together are listed at the end of this post.  This is historical fiction with real people and real events, and is how it might have been.

And now we are up to late November 1943 and Thanksgiving is here.

                                     (AI NotebookLM Infographic - Thanksgiving 1943)

1)  Based on the biographies and the earlier stories, I asked Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.5 to tell another story - what happened next (I offered some suggestions!)?  Here is the next story (edited for more detail and accuracy): 

Betty and Fred's Story:  

Building a Life Together: Thanksgiving 1943

Thanksgiving at Fern Street

The house at 2130 Fern Street had smelled like Thanksgiving since seven in the morning.

Emily Carringer had been at it since before light — the turkey in the oven, the pies cooling on the counter, the good dishes already down from the shelf. Lyle had built a fire in the front room and made himself useful in a general way, which meant staying out of the kitchen and answering the door when people arrived.

Georgianna, Emily's mother, had installed herself at the kitchen table by eight o'clock with a cup of tea and had begun peeling potatoes with the efficiency of a woman who had been peeling Thanksgiving potatoes for six decades and had no patience for inefficiency. She and Emily worked in the comfortable parallel silence of people who have cooked together for years.

Fred and Betty arrived mid-morning, Randy in Fred's arms, bundled against the November air. Emily was at the door before they reached the porch.

"Let me see him," she said — these were apparently the words all women said upon the arrival of Randy Seaver, and Betty had ceased being surprised by it. Her mother took her first grandchild with practiced mother’s hands and held him up to look at him properly.

"He's grown," Emily said, with satisfaction, as though she'd had something to do with it.

"He has," Betty agreed.

"He looks like your side," Emily told Lyle, when he appeared behind her.

Lyle Carringer regarded his grandson with the quiet pleasure of a man who did not make excessive displays. "Healthy-looking boy," he said, which from Lyle was considerable praise.

Austin and Della Carringer, who lived across the block, arrived with Edgar, Austin's brother, just before noon.

Austin was in good spirits — he was always in good spirits when there was a gathering, when family filled up the rooms. But it was Della that Betty watched from across the room, and what she saw gave her a small catch of worry.

Della was eighty-one years old, and she had always carried her age well — small, upright, sharp-eyed, present. But today she moved differently. There was a carefulness to it, a conservation of effort, as though she was being deliberate about where she spent herself. When Edgar helped her into the best chair near the fire, she accepted the help without protest, which itself was notable.

She brightened visibly when they brought Randy to her.

"Come here, boy," she said, and held out her arms.

They placed Randy in her lap carefully, and Della looked down at him for a long moment. Something passed across her face — some long private calculation — and then she smiled.

"Four generations," she said, to no one in particular. "I've lived to see four generations." She looked up and found Betty's face. "You take care of this one."

"We will," Betty said. "I promise."

The Chamberlains arrived at noon — Marshall and Dorothy, their daughter Marcia, and Dorothy's mother Emily Taylor, Fred’s aunt, who somehow added her own particular warmth to any room she entered. Marcia, seventeen and bright-eyed, made directly for Randy the moment she came through the door, which endeared her immediately to Fred and Betty, both of whom had learned that people who made a fuss over Randy were people of sound judgment.

The house filled up. The rooms filled with the overlapping sound of conversation, the laughter of people who know each other well, the particular warmth of a house in November that has a fire going and food coming.

At 2 p.m., Lyle said grace before the meal. He was not a long-winded man and he did not offer a long-winded prayer. He thanked God for the food. He thanked God for the family around the table. He paused — and those who knew him understood that the pause was where the real weight was — and he thanked God for the men and women in uniform, near and far, and asked for their safety and their swift return home.

"And for little Randall Jeffrey Seaver," he added, at the end, "newest among us. May he grow up in peace."

There was a murmur around the table. Randy, as though he understood he'd been addressed, made a small sound.

Several people laughed. Several people had to blink.

"Amen," said Fred, quietly but without hesitation.

They ate. They were grateful.

Fear at the Table's Edge

It was after dinner, while the women were in the kitchen and the men had drifted toward the fire, that Della first said she wasn't feeling well.

She said it quietly, to Austin, who was sitting beside her. She put her hand against her chest in a way that was not dramatic but that Austin recognized immediately, because he had been married to this woman for fifty-six years and he knew every gesture she had.

He was on his feet before she finished the sentence.

"Della." He kept his voice steady by force of will. "Tell me."

"Tired," she said. "And there's a — pressure here." Her hand moved slightly over her sternum. "It's probably nothing. Don't make a fuss."

Austin Carringer was a man who had spent his life not making fusses. This was not one of those times.

Within minutes the room had quietly reorganized itself around the fact of Della's distress. Dr. Paex was reached by telephone. The women came from the kitchen without being called, understanding from the change in the air that something had shifted. Della was taken to Betty’s old bedroom.

Marcia Chamberlain quietly took Randy for a nap in Georgianna’s bedroom, correctly intuiting that whatever was happening required space.

Dr. Paex came. He was not in the room with Della for very long before he came out with the particular expression that doctors wear when the news is serious but not, just this moment, catastrophic.

He spoke to Austin first, then to the family gathered in the hallway. Her heart, he said. It was her heart. He used words like insufficiency and strain and managed, but the one that landed and stayed was the one he said carefully, gently, at the end: that at eighty-one years old, with a heart in this condition, they ought to be realistic about what the coming weeks and months might bring.

Austin stood very still when the doctor spoke. Lyle had moved to stand beside his father, and Austin let him.

"She's to rest," Dr. Harrington said. "Complete bed rest for now. No exertion. No stress. Keep her warm and comfortable and fed, and we'll see."

"We'll see," Austin repeated.

"She's a strong woman," the doctor said. "She's held on this long."

After the doctor left, they discussed how they would handle the situation when Della was moved back into her own home and bed.

It was Emily who organized it — Emily Carringer and Georgianna between them — with the calm, practical authority of women who know that love is often expressed through logistics.

Georgianna, who had nursed people through illness before and had a knowledge of broths and compresses and the particular care that an aging body required, offered at once to help nurse Della in the coming days.

"You'll need someone there regularly," she said to Austin. "You can't do it alone, and you shouldn't."

Austin, who was not a man who accepted help easily, looked at this large, straight-backed woman in her seventies, whom he’d known for 25 years, and something in him let go.

"I'd be grateful," he said.

Emily worked out the schedule quietly, over the next hour, while others checked on Della in the bedroom. There would be meals brought. There would be someone present during the day. Georgianna would come several mornings a week. Emily herself would come the others.

"Austin needs to eat," Emily said to Lyle, practical as always. "He'll forget to eat. He always forgets to eat when he's worried."

"I'll talk to him," Lyle said.

Fred, in the doorway of the parlor, watched his wife's family organize themselves around this new difficulty — watched the way they moved together, the way care passed between them like something natural — and felt, for the first time in a way he hadn't quite accessed before, what it meant to have married into a family.

He found Betty in the hallway and stood beside her.

"How is she?" he asked quietly.

"Resting," Betty said. "She's tired, Fred. She's so tired." She looked at him. "But she held Randy today. She said four generations." A pause. "I'm glad she was here."

Fred put his arm around her. "I'm glad too."

Down the hallway, through the half-open bedroom door, they could hear Austin's voice — low, private, the voice of a man talking to a woman he had loved for sixty years. They couldn't make out the words.

They didn't need to.

Later, driving home through the dark streets, Randy asleep in the back in the particular trusting stillness of a baby who has been held all day by people who love him, Betty looked out the window at the lights of San Diego passing, the harbor visible briefly as they came over the rise, the dark water beyond.

"What a day," she said.

Fred drove. "What a day."

"Randy's first Thanksgiving."

"Della." Fred said it simply, with weight.

"Yes." Betty was quiet for a moment. "She might not see another one."

Fred reached over, found Betty's hand in the dark. "We don't know that."

"No," Betty agreed. "We don't know that."

The car moved through the quiet streets of San Diego and National City toward Chula Vista, toward Twin Oaks Avenue, toward home. Randy breathed softly in the back seat. The harbor light swept once across the water.

There was grief possible in the weeks ahead. There was also the baby, breathing, here, new.

The year 1943 was nearly done, and it had given them both.

To be continued…

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2) Here is the Google NotebookLM Video Overview about Betty, Fred and Randy's life in late November 1943:

3)  This story is historical fiction based on real people -- my parents and me -- and a real event in a real place.  I don't know the full story of these events -- but this is how it might have been. I hope that it was at least this good! Claude is such a good story writer!  I added some details and corrected some errors in Claude's initial version.

Stay tuned for the next chapter in this family story.

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The AI-assisted ABC Biography of my mother, Betty Virginia (Carringer) Seaver, is in ABC Biography of #3 Betty Virginia (Carringer) Seaver (1919-2002) of San Diego, California. I also  wrote Betty's Story: The First-Year Art Teacher about the start of her teaching career.

The AI-assisted ABC Biography of my father, Frederick Walton Seaver, is in ABC Biography of #2 Frederick Walton Seaver Jr. (1911-1983) of Massachusetts and San Diego, California.  I also wrote Fred's Story: The Three-Day Cross-Country Escape  and Fred's Story: "I Need A Girl" about him coming to San Diego, and wanting a girlfriend.

Here are the previous chapters in this story:

•  Betty's Story: "The Dinner That Changed Everything" where Betty met Fred at Betty's student's home and their lives were changed.  
• Betty and Fred's Story: "The First Date" -- they got to know each other better.
• Betty and Fred's Story: "New Beginnings" --  the romance blossoms a bit.
• Betty and Fred's Story: "Late Summer, Early Fall 1941" -- more fun and love.
• Betty and Fred's Story: "Autumn Into Winter 1941" -- Thanksgiving, Pearl Harbor and Christmas
• Betty and Fred's Story: Winter 1941/2 ... and Waiting -- more fun and love and Valentine's Day -- and disappointment
• Betty and Fred's Story: "Winter Into Spring 1942"-- bad news, frustration and acceptance.
• Betty and Fred's Story: "The Big Moment" -- the proposal
• Betty and Fred's Story: "Racing Toward Forever"-- only two weeks to go!
• Betty and Fred's Story: "The Days Before 'I Do' " --  The next two weeks.
• Betty and Fred's Story: "The Wedding Day" -- the big day!
• Betty and Fred's Story: "The Honeymoon" -- a lovely week.
• Betty and Fred's Story:  "A Home and Planning Ahead." -- getting organized.
• Betty and Fred's Story: "Building a Life Together" -- working and loving.
• Betty and Fred's Story: "Celebrations and War Worries" -- a birthday, a telegram, and Thanksgiving.
• Betty and Fred's Story: Married Life in December 1942 -- Christmas 1942.
• Betty and Fred's Story - New Year 1943 -- Life is busy!
• Betty and Fred's Story: February to April 1943 -- A baby is on the way!
• Betty and Fred's Story: Late Spring 1943 -- Life goes on!
• Betty and Fred's Story: Early Summer 1943 -- Beach Party and First Anniversary
• Betty and Fred's Story: Late July and August 1943 -- Waiting Is Hard.
• Betty and Fred's Story: September to Mid-October 1943 -- Almost there!
• Betty and Fred's Story: October, 1943 -- Baby Randy Is Born -- Finally!
• Betty and Fred’s Story: Betty and Randy Come Home -- Now the Fun Begins!
• Betty and Fred’s Story: Baby Randy at One Month -- Life settles down a bit.

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Links to my blog posts about using Artificial Intelligence are on my Randy's AI and Genealogy page. Links to AI information and articles about Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy by other genealogists are on my AI and Genealogy Compendium page.

Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/05/betty-and-freds-story-thanksgiving-1943.html

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.  Please note that all comments are moderated, and may not appear immediately.

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Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Your Ancestors in the 1930s Great Depression

 Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1)  What did your ancestral families do during the Great Depression (1930-1940)? Did they keep their jobs and standard of living?  Did they suffer personally or economically?

2)  Share your information about your ancestors in the Great Depression in your own blog post, writing a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

NOTE:  I could use ideas for different SNGF topics.  Please email me (randy.seaver@gmail.com).

Thank you to Marian B. Wood for this week's SNGF challenge topic.

Here's mine:

1)  My patenral grandparents, Frederick Walton and Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver resided in Leominster, Massachusetts during the 1930s. They had two sons and two daughters at home, and both sons went to college in the early 1930s.  Fred's job changed and he took a pay cut, and they lost their house in Leominster and had to move into rental housing.  My biography for Fred notes:

The 1930 census captures the family at a moment of relative stability: Fred owned a home worth $5,000, complete with that modern marvel, a radio set. His daughter Ruth, at 22, was teaching in a public school, while Frederick Jr. and Edward were 18 and 16 respectively, and young Geraldine was still in school at age 12.

However, the Great Depression soon shattered this comfortable existence. Fred took a substantial pay cut at DuPont, and the bank foreclosed on the Hall Street house mortgage. The proud homeowner and factory superintendent was forced to move his family into an apartment on West Street in downtown Leominster, and eventually to an apartment at 90 Main Street. This reversal of fortune must have been particularly difficult for a man who had worked his way up from comb painter to factory superintendent.   

My father, Frederick Walton Seaver Jr., went to Dartmouth College for a year in 1931, dropped out because of a football injury and the family finances, and came back to Leominster and worked at odd jobs and eventually as an investigator for a bank and finance company. He may have lived with friends in the mid-1930s, and lived with his sister Ruth and her family for awhile in the 1940 time. 

2)  My maternal grandparents, Lyle and Emily (Auble) Carringer resided in San Diego at 2130 Fern Street during the 1930s.  They had one daughter, my mother Betty, at home, and Emily's mother, Georgianna (Kemp) Auble, lived with them.  Lyle's job as an accountant continued at Marston's Department Store, and they did not suffer significant financial setbacks.

My mother, Betty Carringer attended San Diego High School and then San Diego State College from 1936 to 1940 and became a teacher.

3)  Lyle's parents, Henry Austin and Della (Smith) Carringer resided in San Diego at 2115 30th Street. Austin retired from his job at the North Island Naval Air Station in 1932 at age 79, but they had apartment house rentals that provided sufficient income for them. 

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The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/05/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-your.html

Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com. Note that all comments are moderated, and may not appear immediately.

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ABC Biography of the John and Hannah (Colby) Underhill Family of New Hampshire (1745-1816)

Using the ABC method described in Using Artificial Intelligence In the Ancestor Biography Creation (ABC) Process -- Updated, enhanced by further developments, here is another ancestor couple biography using the Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6 AI tool.

1) The genealogical sketch for the family of my 5th great-grandparents John and Hannah (Colby) Underhill, including family members, record abstracts and sources, is in Genealogical Sketch of the John Underhill (1745-1816) and Hannah Colby (1750-1793) Family of Chester and Plainfield, New Hampshire.

(AI NotebookLM Infographic - John and Hannah (Colby) Underhill Family Biography)

2) For the Claude AI biography, I attached a PDF of the genealogical sketch for the specific ancestors using the plus (+) icon, and then prompted the AI tool with:  "You are an expert genealogist and family historian. Please create a biography based on information in the attached file for the John and Hannah (Colby) Underhill family. Include parents, siblings, spouses and children (with birth and death dates and places). Summarize life events, add historical events as appropriate, but do not add or embellish any extra genealogical details. Use section headings. Expand the information in each section to add more details. The tone should be engaging and suitable for family members."

3)  The Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6 biography (lightly edited for accuracy) is: 

The Underhill Family of Chester and Plainfield

New Hampshire, 1745–1875

A Family Biography

Introduction

Among the earliest families to shape the rugged hill towns of New Hampshire, the Underhills of Chester left a legacy woven into the very fabric of colonial and Revolutionary-era New England. This biography follows the life of Sergeant John Underhill (1745–1816), who served in the Revolutionary War, and his wife Hannah Colby (1750–1791) — a couple whose story spans the final decades of colonial rule, the turbulence of the American Revolution, and the hopeful expansion of a new nation.

From the rocky farmland of Chester, Rockingham County, to the hills of Plainfield on the Connecticut River, their lives touched some of the most dramatic events of their age. John bore a musket at the Battle of Bennington; Hannah raised six children on a family homestead; and together they built a family whose descendants spread across New England and beyond.

John Underhill (1745–1816)

Birth and Early Life

John Underhill was born on 20 June 1745 in Chester, Rockingham County, New Hampshire Colony — a time when the settlements of New Hampshire were still finding their footing on the edge of the British colonial frontier. He was the third child and second son of John Underhill (1720–1793) and Joanna Healey (1718–1809), who had married in Chester in 1741 and would go on to raise a family of ten children in that close-knit community.

Chester in the mid-eighteenth century was a thriving Scots-Irish Protestant settlement founded in 1719. Its residents were independent-minded farmers and craftsmen who prized self-sufficiency and community loyalty — values that would later lead many of them, including John, to take up arms for American independence.

John grew up in a large and lively household alongside nine siblings, several of whom remained in the Chester area throughout their lives:

• Betty Underhill (born 13 July 1742, Chester) — married Samuel Buswell in Candia on 12 July 1764; died 30 September 1806 in Candia.
• William Underhill (born 15 February 1744, Chester) — married Abigail Choate about 1767 in Candia; died 24 November 1780 in Moultonborough.
• Molly Underhill (born 4 December 1747, Chester) — married James Pierce in Chester in 1765; died 1835.
• Moses Underhill (born 2 February 1749, Chester) — married three times; died 8 February 1838 in Chester.
• David Underhill (born 9 September 1751, Chester) — married Jemima Blake in Chester on 20 September 1792; died 28 July 1827 in Chester.
• Samuel Underhill (born 5 May 1753, Chester) — married Sarah Underhill in Chester on 12 December 1775; died 20 September 1828 in Chester.
• Jeremiah Underhill (born 6 August 1755, Chester) — married Anna Heath in Hampstead in September 1775; died 16 September 1794 in Chester.
• Sarah Underhill (born 20 May 1759, Chester) — married Moses Greenough in Chester on 10 December 1789; died 7 September 1838 in Atkinson.
• Joanna Underhill (born about 1764, Chester) — married Moses Preston in Chester on 30 November 1784.

Hannah Colby (1744/5–1791)

Birth and Early Life

Hannah Colby was born on 14 February 1744/5 in Amesbury, Essex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony — the dual dating reflecting the old-style Julian calendar still in use at the time of her birth. She was the fourth of five children born to Joseph Colby (1707–1768) and Abigail Worthen (1714–date unknown), who had married in Amesbury in 1736.

Amesbury in the 1740s was a prosperous Massachusetts town on the Merrimack River, well known for its mills and craftsmen. Hannah grew up there alongside her siblings before the family made the significant decision to relocate northward to Chester, New Hampshire Colony, sometime before 1760 — likely drawn by the promise of inexpensive land and opportunity on the frontier.

Hannah's parents, Joseph and Abigail (Worthen) Colby, had the following children:

• Ephraim Colby (born 6 March 1736/7, Amesbury) — died in infancy in 1737.
• Joseph Colby (born 3 April 1739, Amesbury) — married Molly [surname unknown] before 1776 in Concord, New Hampshire; died 1839 in Concord — a remarkable life spanning over a century.
• Abigail Colby (born 24 September 1742, Amesbury).
• Hannah Colby (born 14 February 1744/5, Amesbury) — the subject of this biography.
• Ephraim Colby (born 24 March 1750, Amesbury).

Marriage and Family Life

The Wedding and the Homestead

John Underhill and Hannah Colby married in about 1767 in Chester, Rockingham County, New Hampshire Colony. Their union brought together two well-established Chester families — the Underhills, long rooted in that community, and the Colbys, relative newcomers from Amesbury who had quickly become part of the local fabric.

The Underhill Genealogy, compiled by Josephine C. Frost, describes their home as being "near the brick school house on the opposite side of the road a little to the southwest" — a vivid detail that places the family at the heart of Chester's community life, adjacent to the very institution where the next generation would be educated.

On 2 March 1774, John and Hannah made a significant financial and emotional investment in their future: they purchased the 60-acre homestead of Hannah's late father, Joseph Colby, from her brother Joseph for £165. The property, known as Lot No. 40, sat along the Long Meadow road near the old brick school house. It was the land on which Hannah had likely grown to womanhood, and it would now become the family's base for decades to come.

Children of John Underhill and Hannah Colby

Between 1770 and 1779, John and Hannah welcomed six children into their Chester home, all born in the town where their story began:

• Joseph Underhill (born 1770, Chester) — married Mollie Carr about 1798 in Cabot, Washington County, Vermont; they had five children; died 3 September 1843 in Marshfield, Washington County, Vermont.

• Amos Underhill (born 15 April 1772, Chester) — married Mary Metcalf on 25 March 1801 in Piermont, Grafton County, New Hampshire; they had five children; died 15 October 1865 in Aurora, Erie County, New York — a long life of 93 years.

• Nancy Underhill (born 1774, Chester), no further record.

• John Underhill (born 1776, Chester) — married Mary Esther Mitchell in 1798 in Grafton, Grafton County, New Hampshire; they had three children; died 1858 in Grafton.

• Susan Underhill (born 1778, Chester), no further record.

• Jonathan Underhill (born 9 August 1779, Chester) — married Sophia Slack on 5 March 1805 in Plainfield, Sullivan County, New Hampshire; they had four children; died 31 October 1875 in Washington, Orange County, Vermont — reaching the remarkable age of 96.

This was a household of considerable energy and responsibility — six children known by name, with the eldest born just as the American colonies were lurching toward revolution. The years of the children's births, 1770 to 1779, span exactly the period of America's founding, meaning the Underhill children grew up in the shadow of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the new republic.

John Underhill and the Revolutionary War

Service at the Battle of Bennington, 1777

John Underhill's most notable contribution to the American cause came in the summer of 1777, one of the most consequential years of the Revolutionary War. On 21 July 1777, John enlisted as a Corporal in Captain Stephen Dearborn's Company, part of Colonel Thomas Stickney's regiment under the command of General John Stark. The company marched west from Chester to join the Northern Continental Army.

The campaign that followed led John directly to the Battle of Bennington, fought on 16 August 1777 in present-day New York near the Vermont border. This pivotal engagement saw General Stark's forces decisively defeat a Hessian detachment sent by British General John Burgoyne to seize supplies at Bennington, Vermont. The victory — a stunning success for the American militia — weakened Burgoyne's army and helped set the stage for the crucial American victory at Saratoga two months later, which brought France into the war as an ally.

It was on this very day, 16 August 1777, that John Underhill was promoted from Corporal to Sergeant — a recognition of his service and leadership during the battle. He was discharged on 28 September 1777, having traveled 192 miles in service to the cause, and was paid £13 14s 8d for his efforts. From that point forward, records consistently refer to him as Sergeant John Underhill.

Service in the Coos Campaign, 1780

John's service did not end at Bennington. When the town of Chester was called upon to raise six men for six months' duty in the remote Coos region of northern New Hampshire, John Underhill was among those who answered. Under the authority of Muster Master John Webster — acting on orders from New Hampshire's Committee of Safety in Exeter — six men were enlisted to serve until the end of December 1780.

The mission required these volunteers to march approximately 100 miles north from Chester to the Haverhill area in the "Cohos" (Coos) region, the frontier edge of New Hampshire that bordered Canada. John was one of the three men entrusted with distributing travel funds to the soldiers — a sign of the trust his community placed in him. The war had long since moved south, but the northern frontier still required vigilant protection.

Later Years and Legacy

Hannah's Death and Its Aftermath

Hannah (Colby) Underhill died on 12 September 1791 in Chester, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, at 46 years of age. Her death must have been deeply felt in the household, which still contained several of the younger children. She had been the heart of the family through the years of the Revolution, through the births of six children, and through the daily labor of running a New Hampshire farm.

After Hannah's death, John continued to live in Chester for a time, spending some period in nearby Candia. The family homestead on Long Meadow road — the 78 acres (expanded from the original 60) — was eventually sold to Mary Brown in 1801 for $600.

The Move to Plainfield

With his Chester homestead sold, John Underhill made a significant move to Plainfield, then in Cheshire County, New Hampshire (later transferred to Sullivan County). On 9 June 1801, he purchased a 57-acre parcel of land in Plainfield from Nathaniel Garland for $700 — a modest but solid investment that would keep him near at least one of his sons.

His son Jonathan also settled in Plainfield, and married Sophia Slack there in March 1805. On 13 March 1806, John formally conveyed the 57-acre Plainfield property to Jonathan for $700, the same price he had paid five years earlier — likely an arrangement that ensured Jonathan and Sophia could maintain the farm while providing John a home in his final years. It is believed that John spent his remaining decade living with his son Jonathan's family.

Death of John Underhill

John Underhill died in 1816 in Plainfield, Sullivan County, New Hampshire, at the age of approximately 70 — a veteran of two stints in the Revolutionary War, a farmer, a father of seven, and a man who had lived through the transformation of his country from British colony to independent republic. According to the History of Old Chester, his death was caused by hypothermia, a stark and sorrowful end for a man who had survived battlefield service and decades of New England winters.

There are no surviving death, burial, or probate records for either John or Hannah in the counties of Rockingham or Sullivan. Their graves, if they still exist, have not been identified in any known cemetery record — a reminder of how easily even remarkable lives can slip from the written record.

The World They Lived In

To appreciate the Underhills fully, it helps to understand the world through which they moved. John was born just five years after King George's War disrupted New England, and spent his youth in the tensions leading to the French and Indian War (1754–1763). By the time he married Hannah in 1767, the Stamp Act had already inflamed colonial opinion against Britain, and the road to revolution was being paved.

When John marched to Bennington in 1777, he was part of a New Hampshire militia tradition of citizen-soldiers — farmers who set down their plows and picked up muskets to defend their communities. General Stark's victory at Bennington remains one of New Hampshire's proudest military achievements; the state motto, "Live Free or Die," derives from Stark's famous toast years after the battle.

The years of Hannah's childrearing, the 1770s and 1780s, coincided precisely with the war and its immediate aftermath — a time of sacrifice, scarcity, and hope. The family's purchase of Joseph Colby's homestead in 1774, just two years before the Declaration of Independence, placed them among those New Englanders who were simultaneously building private futures and a new public nation.

By the time John moved to Plainfield in 1801, Thomas Jefferson had just been elected president, the Louisiana Purchase was two years away, and the United States was still discovering the scale of its own ambitions. John Underhill was a man of the founding generation in every sense — born a colonial subject, transformed into a citizen, and aged into the early republic.

A Family That Spread Across New England

The children of John and Hannah Underhill carried the family outward from Chester in directions that reflect the restless mobility of early American life. Joseph, the eldest, moved to Vermont, settling in the Washington County towns of Cabot and Marshfield. Amos also went west and north — to Piermont in Grafton County, New Hampshire, and eventually to Aurora, New York, where he died in 1865 at the age of 93. John Jr. remained closer to home in Grafton, New Hampshire.

Jonathan, the youngest son, settled in Plainfield alongside his father in his final years, before his own family eventually relocated to Washington, Orange County, Vermont, where Jonathan lived until his death on 31 October 1875 — 96 remarkable years that carried him from the American Revolution to the end of the Civil War. The daughters Nancy and Susan remain less documented in available records, as was sadly common for women of their era.

Together, the children of John and Hannah Underhill produced at least seventeen known grandchildren across Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York — a family that grew with the young nation itself.

A Note on Sources

This biography draws upon several primary and secondary sources, including:

• New Hampshire Birth Records, 1659–1900 (Ancestry.com and FamilySearch)
• Josephine C. Frost, Underhill Genealogy, Volume 4 (Myron C. Taylor, 1932)
• Town of Amesbury, Massachusetts, Vital Records to the End of the Year 1849 (Topsfield Historical Society, 1913)
• Benjamin Chase, History of Old Chester From 1719 to 1869 (Auburn, N.H., 1869)
• New Hampshire Revolutionary War Records, 1675–1835 (FamilySearch and Ancestry.com)
• Cheshire County, New Hampshire Deed Records, 1801–1814 (FamilySearch)

Prepared from genealogical records of the Underhill and Colby families of Chester and Plainfield, New Hampshire.

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4) An Audio Overview (essentially a podcast) created by the Google NotebookLM AI tool) describing and celebrating the lives of the John and Hannah (Colby) Underhill family can be heard here (click on "Audio Overview" and wait for it to load).

5)  The Video Overview discussing the John and Hannah (Colby) Underhill family created by the Google NotebookLM AI tool is:  

6)  The Slide Deck produced by Google NotebookLM was incorporated into a Google Slides file, and the created Google Vids presentation is below:  

7)  I edited the Claude biography text to correct minor inconsistencies and errors. Every large language model (LLM) AI tool writes descriptive text much better than I can write. I was an aerospace engineer in my former life, and my research reports and genealogical sketches reflect "just the facts gleaned from my research." The AI tools are very perceptive, insightful and create readable text in seconds, including local and national historical events and social history detail when requested.

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Links to my blog posts about using Artificial Intelligence are on my Randy's AI and Genealogy page. Links to AI information and articles about Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy by other genealogists are on my AI and Genealogy Compendium page.

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