Transcript
Kathleen: Hello, my name is Kathleen Tompkins Puciato and I’m going to share a story about my Schoharie County Tompkins heritage, beginning with my early immigrant ancestor, John Tompkins. They raised large families and were farmers, tradesmen and business owners. They followed the migration patterns of the times. However, they primarily remained in the lower and mid-Hudson Valley and Catskill regions. Tompkins men were veterans of Revolutionary and Civil Wars. The 1872 Middleburgh Directory lists Nathaniel and William P. Tompkins as proprietors of Tompkins Furnace. The Ashland Greene County, New York region has a large concentration of Tompkins families, mostly farmers. My third cousin, Daniel D Tompkins, was New York State Governor and served two terms as Vice President of the United States of America with James Monroe.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that my third cousin, JC Tompkins, lived within a few miles of where I now live. Separated only by time. JC was born in Westerlo, Albany County, New York, on August 20th, 1814. Jesse moved the family, including his wife, Elizabeth Moshier, two young children, his father, Joshua Tompkins, and his mother, Peggy, from Westerlo to Fulton in Schoharie County about 1834 to a southeastern slope just off Rothman’s Hill in an area locals referred to as Tompkins Hollow. Nestled in the much larger coal hollow. There, they cleared the land for small scale farming, built a frame house and raised their family of six sons and two daughters.