Capt. William Blackman, One Mystery Solved

My maternal gggg grandfather is, I think, Captain William Blackman. He was the father of my ggg grandmother, Marinda Blackman who married John Denman in 1819. This “fact” has not yet been satisfactorily documented in my own research, however, the suggestion comes from a number of sources. I originally learned about this Blackman line from another researcher, about 15 years ago. She found me online through a Denman question I had posted somewhere, if I remember correctly. She seemed to have more information than I did, although she was actively searching at that time for more about William and his parents. There were several other researchers around the same time as well. To make my work a little more complicated, I also have a Blackman line (going back to New Jersey) on my father’s side. The two lines have not yet converged but I also know very little about the “other Blackman” family.

William was born around 1776 in Massachusetts, based on his report on the 1850 federal census (as well as other researchers). By 1775-1776, the Blackman family he was born into may have been in western Massachusetts. Family trees posted online show him as the next to youngest son of Samuel and Mehitable (Long) Blackman. This Samuel apparently moved on west to western New York state, where he died. If this is our William’s family, he and a number of his siblings also moved to western New York and then on to the Huron county area in northern Ohio. The 1800 federal census enumerated a William Blackman and another male (perhaps a brother?) between 16-25 in Northampton, Ontario, New York. In 1800 Ontario county was most of present-day upper New York state. Northampton was established in 1797 and was in the area of what is now Rochester New York.

In 1801, William Blackman, along with a Hiram Blackman and a Daniel Curtis were listed as settlers upon the Holland Purchase in Township 12, Range 1. And by 1803 there was a William Blackman listed in a book available at Google as participating in the establishing and governance of the town of New Amsterdam in the Holland Purchase (Buffalo area of New York state). William was named as one of the overseers of highways. By the time of the 1810 federal census, William was listed as head of a household including one male age 26-44 (presumably himself), 3 females under age 10, and one female age 26-44 (presumably his wife Philenda nee Curtis). Ggg grandmother Marinda was born in 1803 in this area. So, now I know that I need to find a marriage record in New York state, between 1800 and 1803, and birth records for at least 3 daughters between then and 1810. It also seems that William owned land, so that is another source of records for me to search.

The mystery I set out to try to solve was that William Blackman was generally referred to as Capt. William for most of his adult life, but there were no explanations to his title. So, until just recently I had no idea why he was Capt. William. What was he a captain of? Or in? The original Blackman family researcher who I had gotten much of my information from suggested he had been in the War of 1812. This made some sense at the time, but I thought little more about it. I vaguely thought about the location of his daughter Marinda’s place of birth, Niagara (I assumed county), New York. This county is in northwestern New York state and borders on Lake Ontario. This was presumably an area active in the War of 1812, and maybe William was a naval captain. You can tell I didn’t (and don’t) know much about the War of 1812.

The resources at books.Google.com have provided the basic answer. William Blackman was first an ensign and then a captain in the local infantry of the New York militia (I think that is correct). The Military Minutes of the Council of Appointment of the State of New York, 1783-1821, list his service in 1806 as ensign and in 1811 as a Captain in the Niagara County brigade. I still don’t know for sure that he was active in the War of 1812, but it seems very likely. And since 2012 is the bicentennial of the beginning of that war, I want to learn more about it.

So, I have answered one small mystery and opened up a number of questions for future research. Having skimmed several local histories of the northern New York counties, I am more aware of how arduous life was for this young family. They, like many other pioneer families cleared and planted land, built a shelter, raised the next generation, and did not leave many clues to what they were like as individuals.