Deerfield, Massachusetts

After the NERGC Conference, we headed off on the remainder of our trip which involved staying at the Deerfield Inn, Deerfield, Mass. overnight. I have visited Deerfield, Mass. several times but wanted to stay in the town at least one time. My ancestors Benjamin Burt and Sarah Beldin (Belden, Belding) lived there and were taken captive in the French and Indian raid of February 29th, 1704 and then marched to Quebec. While in Quebec they were put under the protection of Christophe DuFrost sieur de la Jemmerais at Varennes, Quebec. Son Christopher was born at Varennes and named in his honour. Benjamin and Sarah probably worked as servants at the Sulpician Seminary and in the Convent of the Congregation de Notre Dame in Montreal. Through the negotiating efforts of Lieut. Sheldon, commissioner from Massachusetts, who went to Quebec three times, the Burt family, Rev. Mr. Williams and others from Deerfield were ransomed and were returned to Massachusetts about two years later in 1706. My ancestor Seaborn Burt was born on the return trip.

The remainder of our trip involved going to the Connecticut State Archives, a number of local graveyards (all found by GPS and actual graveyard sites marked by GPS now), The Horace Greely Home, Chappaqua, NY and a workshop by the New York Genealogical Biographical Society at Elmsford, NY. All of this was done readily with the use of a GPS - a must tool for genealogists. I will write about these things.