This research submitted by Mr. Edmund L. Trafford on March 30 & April 3, 2000

Dear Dennis:

I've not corresponded with you for awhile, for which I apologize; I have preferred to rely less on other people's research and instead go off and do my own. I have some information on Alanson Treadway which I'd like to contribute to the "Bloodline" if you are not already aware of it and if you feel you can use it.

Many books and sites I've seen give Alanson's year of birth as 1779; these books and sites give Alanson's year of death as variously 1834 or 1845, in Plattsburg, New York. Most sources indicate his wife as Polly Willson, daughter of James and Mary (or Molly) Rich, who died in Shoreham on December 22, 1862. Polly's death is duly recorded in "Deaths Registered in the Town of Shoreham for the Year Ending December 31, 1862," of which I have a certified copy provided by Mary Jane James, Shoreham Town Clerk. Polly's parents are given as James and Mary Willson of Warwick, Massachusetts. She died of consumption. Her age is shown as 73y(ears) 6m(onths) 15d(ays), which agrees with her recorded birth date in June 1789. Also listed in this register is the death of Alanson Treadway, age 78, on June 20, 1862 (also from consumption). As he predeceased Polly, he is shown as "married"; at her death, Polly is accordingly shown as "widow."

For the sake of argument, it might be posed that "someone named Alanson Treadway" who conveniently died in Shoreham might not necessarily be "our" Alanson. However, the 1860 US census for Shoreham contains an entry for "Lanson" Treadway and his wife Polly; their ages are given as 76 and 71, respectively, exactly two years younger than their deaths in 1862, at the ages of 78 and 73, as might be expected. This census therefore links the Alanson and Polly of 1862 together, tying this Alanson to the same Polly who died in Shoreham and who is recognized as the wife of "our" Alanson. Further, Alanson and Polly Treadway also appear in the 1850 US census for Shoreham (age 67 and 61). Aside from showing that Alanson did not die in Plattsburg, New York in either 1834 or 1845, this information indicates fairly conclusively that
Alanson must have been born in 1784, not in 1779. 

 

I have written to Sue MacIntire in Shoreham attempting to trace the source for Alanson's conflicting death years (and why New York?) and for Alanson's birth year. According to a note I had from her in January, she of course has not retained any primary material to which she may have had access in compiling the Shoreham genealogies, but she did say that for each family group sheet she had made notations of the material that had been consulted or contributed to draw up the families. I also dropped a note to Virginia Armstrong asking her to review these conclusions.

In summary, I think we now have Alanson Treadway fairly well established as having lived and died in Shoreham, VT. My concern now is attempting to track the sources with the NY death information, which seems to me to be clearly erroneous, but I want to know where it came from. I have seen the same 1834 (or 1845) Plattsburg deaths in probably half a dozen different places (LDS, various other Treadway family websites, the Shoreham genealogy books, to name a few), and it will probably be impossible to "stamp it out," as many researchers seize on something and eagerly pass it along, enthusiastic about their latest "finds," thereby contributing to the spread of what I believe to be inaccurate information. I think the Bloodline will now be the only site to have it right. 

My nightmare, after talking with one other researcher, is the conceivable, albeit remote, possibility that there were two Alanson Treadways who may have been confused with each other. We do know that "our" Alanson and Polly had a son named Alanson, who died in his late 20s in Whiting, VT. If Alanson was a family name, it may be possible that Jonathan Treadway's brothers William and David had an "Alanson" also, who would have been cousin(s) to "our" Alanson. But let's not make difficulties where there may be none--yet. Also, the 1850 and 1860 census entries for Alanson give his occupation as "clothier." I doubt this means that he was a haberdasher in the modern sense; however, since he came from a line of weavers, it may be that he was a tailor or garment-maker of some sort.