Thomas Graves still not moving

I have rechecked my Thomas Graves; I started from the little I have on his birth - a date in the family bible page, so I had written, and found it isn't so, now where did I get the date?- and went on from there. I rechecked the pension files, again no new information.
I have the warrant number for 160 acres he was awarded, but have not as yet tried to follow through, basically because I am not sure what to do with it.
I have the statement Thomas gave when he applied for his pension in 1850. He declared that he had lost or mislain (sic) his discharge at that time.
I have the affidavit of the Squire who married them giving the date of marriage, plus sworn statements of two of her neighbors, when his widow Olive applied for the pension for herself.
Unfortunately in all of these papers there is no reference to where he lived except he enlisted at Minden, NY. This is an item I had not read or noticed before so I will now see what I can find there in 1812 and 1813. There were no parental consent forms although he was very clearly not an adult when he enlisted. I was actually asked if it were possible that he was a drummer boy because of his age. The pension papers give no indication that he was anything but a private in the service of his country.
I rechecked the 1820 and 1830 census for Thomas  and had no result,  I do not have enough information to isolate Thomas and there were to many probables in the area to even make a guesstimate.
I will check on the Minden lead and if I find nothing I will move on  to my next brick wall.

This will be William Wright, he is most blank of all my walls, not even a smidgen of a brick protruding on which to get a foothold. I am not sure if William is his name, I got the name from his son Alpheus's death certificate, his son Johnson's certificate had unk on the space for father, This was later crossed  off and Wm substituted. I have traced a third son and need to get his death certificate to see what is on it.
There is a problem there also, as the date of birth for Henry on one census is 1834, but William or Henry (may be two sons) also has a birthdate of abt 1840. William named his son William also. One died in 1904 and the other in 1912, both are buried in Prospect cemetery in Sidney, Delaware Co., New York. but even his descendant is not sure which is which. I will have to save a little more and get both certificates if it is possible, NY is difficult to get information from.
I do know that the brother of Alpheus, be he William or Henry had four boys and I have traced them a ways as I want to get DNA samples from them.  If I can get a cross reference I may be able to bypass my William and get back further, then come forward on the line to get William that way.
Of the 4 boys I know that Charles and Frank each had two daughters, I know of no sons. William died either 1904 or 1912 and I haven't found if he were married or not. The last boy Dexter died about 1936, but I have found nothing else about him, except that he died in Cooperstown, NY. If I can't find a male descendant then my hope of a DNA trace is gone.

Speaking of DNA I sent for the final mtDNA step for myself, I hope that perhaps some cousins other than the ones I know will appear magically from thin air through FTDNA and their tests. I know that this form of testing can find links on all sides of the family, whether they are close in terms of years is another subject entirely. I just hope that something pops up. Meanwhile if somebody reads this post in the neighborhood of Bainbridge or Cooperstown, NY and any of these names rings a bell contact me!!!

Time to move on in my search

I have been busy with life and not feeling particularly talkative, so I am glad I named this an

every so often blog!

I feel I have done a reasonably exhaustive search on my Daniel Miller, so am moving on to my next brick wall in the same era of around 1800 - 1825. Thomas Graves born abt 1797 according to a note in my bible pages, I know a lot about Thomas after 1812, I have his pension papers and the information is good. He was married twice:

Mariah S (from her gravestone) born abt 1812 and died 1 Jun 1842. She is buried beside Thomas in Saint Matthews cemetery in Unadilla Village, Otsego county, New York. Thomas and Mariah had at least two children, John H who was born in 1839 and died 28 Oct 1841 and Sarah Jane born 7 Nov 1840 in Unadilla.

Sarah Jane married William Edgar Hubbell b abt 1835 in 1859, They lived in Corning, Steuben Co., in 1860, lived in Susquehanna Depot, Susquehanna Co., Pennsylvania where some of their children were born. I have not gone farther with that line as yet, because I want to find Thomas's parents.

Thomas's second wife Olive Owens was born 5 Oct 1823 in Cannonsville, Delaware Co., she married Thomas 10 June 1843 in Unadilla and they lived there until he died 24 January 1865. Olive and Thomas are buried in Saint Matthews in Unadilla.

Now I have a lot of information, but none of it has helped me find his parents. So this is where I will be working for the next few weeks. I will be checking the 1800, and 1810 census for Graves with a child of under 5 years and 15 years. I know none of his siblings so can't check that way. I will check the 1820 for Thomas by himself and again 1830 when he is presumably married to Mariah, but not necessarily as the first child I have listed wasn't born until 1839. 3ish me luck on this one.