About the First Book

Ira Osgood spent most of his adult life in the work of compiling a register of Osgood family lineages in the United States. He died in 1877 before fulfilling this work. Seventeen years later in 1894 the First Book was published through the efforts of a publishing committee, that had been created for that purpose at an Osgood reunion in 1888.

I am fortunate to have in my possession copies of several historical inquiry letters that were sent to Osgoods by Ira Osgood in the commission of his work.

You can view one such letter here.   (Link will open a new window)

The above letter dated over 140 years ago is similar to the hundreds of letters of similar inquiry that I have sent to Osgoods around the Country. Sometimes you hear back from these letters, many times you do not.

In the case of the letter to Harry Osgood dated April 29, 1863, no response was given to the inquiry. Consequently, the Line for this family ended with the birth of Harry Osgood in the sixth generation. He is shown as #230 in the line of Christopher on page 276 of the First Book.

Often times I feel like Ira Osgood’s alter ego as we both have tried to uncover information on the same Osgood family.

Fortunately, through the cooperation of Harry Osgood’s descendents, I have been able to extend the line of Harry through his two sons, Dorr (5/14/1824 - 5/15/1904) and Albert (6/14/1833 - 9/13/1863). In the case of Dorr the line has been brought forward to generation x11 with the great great grandsons of Harry Osgood; Frederick (5/15/1941), Richard (2/8/1945), and Randall (8/30/1954).

In the case of Albert the male line ends in generation 1x with the birth of his two granddaughters, Elda (1912) and Sadie (1914).

Had Harry Osgood answered the letter from Ira Osgood, he could have responded by saying, that at age sixty-five, his life’s journey had found him moving from Brookline, Vermont to New York State and finally to Iona County, Michigan. Further he could have told about his marriage to Basheba Brown in Vermont. They raised a family of four children; Dorr, Jane, Irene and Albert. Jane and Irene both married and the stories of Dorr and Albert are described above. Harry died in 1870 and Basheba died in 1872.

Now we know the rest of the story of #230 in the Christopher Line; a story even in part that Ira Osgood never had when compiling the information for the First Book.

If only Harry had answered the letter.

There are many other stories of Osgood family histories that add to the information in the First Book. Just as was the case with my predecessor, Ira Osgood, it is my objective to compile as many of these family lineages as possible.