Schurmans then and now

Descendant of Isaac Peel contacted me this week by e-mail because I had left
a note on the Automated Genealogy census page. The Peel name was transcribed
with Peck spelling but there is a link to the Peel spelling in another
census year.

The Schurman family book has 1394 pages in two volumes plus a booklet that
has outlines of each branch and maps. Some of the names are on the Internet
but I don't know of anyone who copied all of them to a single database.
There were a couple of attempts, complicated by same-name relatives, cousin
marriages and conflicting information in sources. eg. children listed in a
census may be grandchildren or other relatives.

Ross Graves contacted at least one living descendant in each branch with a
visit or a letter. Some descendants were found late 1971 when it was too
late to trace them in time for publication.

William Schurman, Loyalist
11 children
88 grandchildren
more than 400 great-grandchildren
est. 15,000 descendants at time of publication 1973

Ross also included information on some lines that married into Schurman
families guessing that one day a new researcher would appreciate them. The
Schurman history has a place of honor near my computer and is the most
frequently consulted source as I read the Cumberland mailing list. --
Elizabeth