A Property Transfer
Using the name Amy L. Stevens, both with and without the middle initial, I searched old New York newspapers. One 'hit' occurred in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of April 6, 1903: the report of the transfer of a property in Hicksville. The land in question was described as adjoining property that was owned by Amy Stevens. Of additional interest was the name of the person who had sold the land: George W. Harper. Was this the same George Harper I was interested in learning about? That was a possibility, but I needed to find a way to confirm if that were true.
Daughter Amy F. Harper had been born in the 1860s. Unless her father had died soon afterward, he would have been alive at the time of the 1870 U.S. Census. I checked that census, and I found that it listed approximately 500 men named George Harper. How could I figure out if any of them was the man who fathered Amy F, and/or the man who would later sell the property in Hicksville? I was stymied.
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