• Mail Steamer at the Crossroads of War

    By Published On: August 13th, 2025Categories: Civil War, Surname: Lewis, Uncategorized

    Henry Lewis, the Nashville, the First Naval Shot, and the Opening of the Civil War In the spring of 1861, the U.S. Mail Steamer Nashville was exactly what her name and registry claimed her to be — a civilian “packet” steamer, meaning a privately owned vessel that ran on a fixed schedule under contract to

  • Of Fire and Killarney: The Story Behind the Hayes Name

    By Published On: August 7th, 2025Categories: Surname: Hayes, Uncategorized

    My name is Philip Hayes. I was born in the United States, as was my father—but according to the deep dive I’ve taken into our genealogy, we are unmistakably, undeniably, 100% Irish up to my father.  My father is a third-generation American, yet the Hayes line remained pure up to him. Our family roots trace

  • COBUS YERKS – From “The Book of Saint Nicholas”

    By Published On: July 7th, 2025Categories: Uncategorized

    Translated from the Original Dutch of Dominie Nicholas Aegidius Oudenarde Little Cobus Yerks—his name was Jacob, but being a Dutchman, if not a double Dutchman, it was rendered in English Cobus—little Cobus, I say, lived on the banks of Sawmill River, where it winds close under the brow of the Raven Rock, an enormous precipice

  • The Yerkes (Yerks) Tavern of North Salem: Separating Fact from Fiction in Historical Mythology

    By Published On: October 30th, 2023Categories: Uncategorized

    The Yerkes (Yerks) Tavern I extend my heartfelt gratitude and sincere appreciation to Robert Treadway and North Salem Town Historian Susan Thompson. This article owes its existence to their unwavering dedication and tireless efforts to unravel the layers of history surrounding the Yerks Tavern. Their years of meticulous research and passionate pursuit

  • Life in the Crossfire: The Yerks Family in the Neutral Zone during the American Revolution

    By Published On: June 2nd, 2023Categories: Uncategorized

    Skinners assaulting a family, from James Fenimore Cooper’s The Spy, published in 1821 by Wiley & Halsted. The American Revolution unleashed a tumultuous period in which families were caught in the crossfire between British forces and American Patriots. Families like the Yerks, residing in the Neutral Zone, experienced a unique set of challenges,

  • Abridged: THE “NEUTRAL GROUND”, By CHARLES PRYER.

    By Published On: January 23rd, 2023Categories: Uncategorized

    During the War of the Revolution, the County of Westchester, and particularly the lower towns (now forming the (Borough of Bronx or Bronck’s’[1]), was the prey of the foraging parties of both armies, as it lay directly between them and was permanently occupied by neither. Being common property to both parties, it was, therefore, called

  • 1925 Chappaqua Map Overlaid with 2023 Google Map

    By Published On: January 22nd, 2023Categories: Uncategorized

  • The Book of Life for John J Hayes and His Ancestors

    By Published On: November 7th, 2022Categories: Uncategorized

    This is a presentation I built for Christmas several years ago.  It may be hard to understand some of the slides without any context, but it is shared here in the interest of sharing information. https://www.icloud.com/keynote/0c62zm304e5m56AXVyTrWzkpg#Book_of_Life_-_The_Hayes_Family  

  • The History of the Westchester County Almshouse in Eastview, New York

    By Published On: January 12th, 2022Categories: Church's and Cemeteries, Places: Eastview, UncategorizedTags: ,

    Before The Eastview Complex.... Typically, responsibility for the care of indigents, the insane, orphans, and abandoned children were held by the individual towns of Westchester County. But in the early 1800s, several towns recognized the need for something better and found that by sharing resources, they may be able to care for more people and