Calder Family

Part 1 of the Calder Family
Click on this link to access the post   "From the Highland of Scotland Our Family"

Calder Family Research Blog

Today I decided to revive an old project my Calder Family Research Blog.  Redesigned it and made my first post you can access it at this link  Calder Family Research blog   Or the blog list  on the top right of this page.

LakeGen Website Updated

Updates have been made to the design and some content added to family pages in the Calder, Sanders and Lake families.

www.lakegen.com or follow the links on this blog

Website Updated

Lakegen.com was updated today the John Calder and Elizabeth Forbes family page additions were made, last week some of the individual Lake Family Pages were updated

Bringing together Blogs

Ever since beginning this documenting project I had it in my head that I would create a blog for each family group then post stories and research notes etc for those groups. Then I began looking around at other blogs that people have been working on and found just how much they put into just one. It also became apperent very quickly when I started building a seperate website just how much extra work I was bringing on myself.  So in an effort to keep posting to this blog current and work the website and research and, and, and!!!!    I have move all of the blogs with the exception of one to this place and made several posting of older information in this one spot and taken the others down hopefully this works better.

Harvey Jesse Lake of Natural Bridge NY

Harvey Jesse was born December 7, 1863 to Joesph J. Lake and Christie Ann Calder Lake, he was the eldest of three and the only son. He was born in De Kalb, St. Lawrence Co., New York, in what can be considered the seat of this branch of the Lake Family from the War of 1812 until relatively modern times.

A short history is in order to place Joseph and Harvey in historical perspective. The first of this Lake Family line known to be in the colonies was John Lake of Gravesend, NY. Some accounts have him traveling to the Gravesend Colony with Lady Deborah Moody, a religious dissenter of the time. No historical evidence is currently available to prove that he travelled to the Gravesend Colony with the original party, but it is clear that he was a member in the years very shortly after it was founded. John married the daughter of one of the original party and established his family, the majority of which stayed in or around that area of New York and New Jersey until the American Revolutionary war. John’ son, John, was the next in our family line; he was born and died in Gravesend, NY. They were all farmers, or at least that is what history can tell us so far. It appears that the elder John went from being a relatively poor farmer to a man of some means before his death, based on his will.

Nicholas, the third generation, was also born in Gravesend, but moved to New Jersey to raise his family and died in Somerset in 1773. His son Thomas was born in New Jersey but did not stay in that area, information has him in the Upstate New York in an area of what is now Washington County. When the American Revolutionary War began he was a Loyalist who served in a Loyalist Militia and at the Battle of Bennington he was captured, his nephew, Nicholas Lake was killed. An interesting side note: Thomas' son Henry was also at the Battle fighting in a Patriot Militia unit, which must have made for interesting family reunion conversation.

After the war Thomas and most of his family fled to Canada as all of their farm land was confiscated and it was extremely difficult for any loyalist to live in the new Republic. Thomas’ son James was the first to return to the United States but he moved back and forth across the border several times. His son Jesse Lake, during the War of 1812, was conscripted by the British to fight against the American Army in an upcoming attack across the St Lawrence River; Jesse escaped the British, and when crossing the river, he notified the American Garrison of the British intentions. Jesse never returned to Canada and after this, his father refused to sign a loyalty oath to the British Crown and was forced to leave Canada for good. It was at this point they settled in Gouverneur, St Lawrence Co., New York. Several generations, and Lake family lines can trace their roots to this place.

Jesse Lake was, as many of his ancestors, a farmer. He married Lavinia Cook in 1816 and began their family; they had 10 children, one of which was Joesph J. Lake, the father of the subject of our article.

Harvey J. Lake worked as a laborer on farms, mines and the railroad. It was while he was working in a Railroad engine for the New York Lime Co. on June 19, 1906 that he was critically injured, losing an eye when the boiler valve exploded in his face. The article (above) from "Watertown Daily Times June 20, 1906" tells the story of what happened.


This story (left side) from the "Carthage Republican July 11, 1906" demonstrates just how serious the injury was and it talks about his return from the hospital some 20 days later. The photograph of Harvey (above) was taken about 1930, twenty four years after the accident.

He lived through defining moments in this US and World History. Looking at the times of my Great Grandfather's life, he was born in the middle of the American Civil War, he was 35 years old during the Spanish American War. The SS Titanic was lost in 1912, the Russian Revolution of 1914, the Abdication of King Edward VII of England in 1938, and the "Roaring Twenties." I would imagine that many of these important historical dates meant very little to him. The important dates to him would have been when his youngest son Robert was coming home after serving in the Navy during World War I, the loss of his wife, and nearly his son in law to the flu pandemic of 1918, the Great Depression.

His birthday in 1941 marked a point in history that will forever be remember in the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt as "A day that will live in infamy;" the beginning of World War II for the United States.

He lived during the terms of 16 of our Presidents, one serving two different times so 17 administrations in all. Presidents Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Authur, Cleveland, Harrison, Cleveland (again) McKinley, T. Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt.

Harvey Jesse Lake died April 3, 1942 in his home in Natural Bridge NY, without fan fair or parade with only his family to mark his passing. The times he lived in were some of the greatest and worst in our history but they passed by for this simple working person who raised his family in New York, probably never realizing just how important a time he lived in and how much history he was witness to. Wouldn't it have been nice to talk to him!

Name Scrabble

The most interesting and probably the most mind bending part of genealogy research has been the propensity of the people of old to change their names seemingly at will. Several example of this can be found in the research, the most telling being in the Calder line, my 2X great grandmother is identified on her grave marker in Hillside Cemetery Natural Bridge NY as Christie Ann Lake. In the census of 1860, 1870 and 1880 she is known as Ann Lake, her death record in Black River, NY identifies her as Anna Lake. The most current information that research has provided, leads me to believe that her true name was Christianna Calder born in Scotland in 1840.

The same could be said for my mother’s grandmother, most of her life, some 104 year she went by the name of Emma, very few people even those inside the family knew that her true name was Martha Emily, she is buried in Halifax Center Cemetery in Halifax, VT under the name of Emma M. Clement.

Still another example is Edwin Ira Clement, my mother’s great uncle, He is identified as Edward Ira, Ira Edward, and then just Ed, his true name was Ira Edwin Clement, but preferred “Ed” he married another who subscribed to the game of "Name Scrabble". Her name was Florence Merle Lake, early on she changed it to Merle Florence and went by Merle for the rest of her life time.

So the challenge is to sort out, not only who is who, with records that are sometime faulty or damaged, but then you must contend with players who keep changing the rules on you during the match. Good luck :)

Joesph Lake and Christie Ann Calder

New post at http://caldergen.blogspot.com/ re: Beginning of Research into the Calder and Lake Family.

Welcome to the Lake Family Genealogy Research Project Blog

Welcome to the Lake Genealogy blog. I have created this place to open a discussion with other researchers working on Lake Family Genealogy who may have similar issues to mine or are part of the John Lake and Ann Spicer Lake family, which began in Gravesend NY, in the early 1600's. I do not intend this blog to be an all inclusive authority or reference to the Lake Family just a documentary of my journey through the maze that is our family history.

I have another blog that is complimentary to Lake Family Research, it is the Calder Family Project at http://caldergen.blogspot.com/ Titled "A Family from Scotland" cross links are provided.