Annie Poole was my great great grandmother, born on Long Island about 1859, died Jan. 20, 1934 in Freeport on Long Island. This is the only photo I have of her, with my great great grandfather and her husband, Joseph James "J.J." Raynor:
Now, Annie's parents were Richard Poole (1820-1886) and Mary Story (1827-1902), who are both buried in Rockville Cemetery in Lynbrook, not far from Freeport and from Rockville Centre and Oceanside, where the family also resided. Annie's father and brother, also named Richard, were apparently somewhat well-to-do real estate magnates in the area, though I have yet to really delve into the details of the everyday lives of the Poole clan. Now, Richard who was Annie's father was the son of - who else? - Richard Poole (1790-1849) and his wife, Sarah Ackerly. (1795-1856), also both buried in Rockville Cemetery.
This is where the puzzle begins.
There are a few Poole families living in Nassau (then Queens) and Suffolk Counties in that time period, the 1700s and 1800s, and for the most part, they all seem to be related to or descended from one Pierce Poole. I do not know who Richard Poole the Absolute Senior's father is. I have a hunch I know who his mother was. Through the New England Historic Genealogical Society's website here, I found a will abstract for a William Johnson from 1818 that lists as an heir his grandson, Richard Pool, son of Mary Johnson, wife of Ezekiel Langdon. Now, I have not been able to corroborate my hunch with anything else - this document is all I have. But the time period fits with my Richard Poole and it doesn't hurt that my Richard Poole's possible mother and stepfather, Mary Johnson and Ezekiel Langdon, are also buried in Rockville Cemetery. Unfortunately, it would appear that Richard's father died before 1818 and his mother had already remarried, so the father is not named. Looking at other Poole will abstracts from that time period list no Richard as an heir. So I have this branch of my tree that stops at that point and is contemporary to a whole bunch of other Poole families in the area, but I am as of yet unable to connect them.
The good news is Cousin April and I will be investigating wills and land deeds for our common brick wall ancestor, Jacob Raynor, who lived in the same general area and time period, so I think when we continue that research, either through the Queens County Surrogate Court in Jamaica or at the Plainview Family History Center, I'm going to have to slog through some Poole wills and land deeds as well. Time to put the pieces of this Poole puzzle together!
