Gurney Genealogy Library Updated 15 July 2026 by Allen Gurney

These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.

Amos Gurney (G08) Notes

Research notes for g08-amos-gurney-fact-sheet.md. See .claude/rules/research-files.md for the paired-file rule.

Working Notes

Birth in 1770 — at the moment of the Cummington move

Amos’s birth year of 1770 is essentially simultaneous with his father Benjamin G9’s June 1770 sale of the Abington land and 5 November 1770 Cummington purchase (Foster & Streeter, “Only One Cummington”, p. 390). This makes Amos’s birthplace genuinely uncertain: he could plausibly have been born in either Plymouth County (Bridgewater / Abington) or in the new Cummington homestead, depending on whether the household physically moved to Cummington in late 1770 or early 1771. The family-tradition placement of “Bridgewater” deserves checking against the Cummington and Plymouth Couny Vital Records.

The full Cummington child set — resolved

The “five further children” placeholder is now resolved. Rigler’s 1994 published entry names all six children, and the Cummington town register of births (page 213, image examined) records them — five in sequence under “G,” matching Rigler exactly:[1][2]

Child Cummington register, p. 213 Rigler 1994
Amos b. Nov. 5, 1792 (d. 9 Nov. 1796 per Rigler) b. 5 Nov. 1792, d. 9 Nov. 1796
Willard b. Mar. 6, 1794 b. & d. 6 Mar. 1794
Hannah b. May 7, 1795 b. 7 May 1795
Ruth b. Jan. 4, 1800 b. 4 Jan. 1800
Nathan b. Apr. 2, 1802 b. 2 Apr. 1802
Willis (G7) out-of-sequence entry, “Feb. 23[?] 1793 (?)” b.c. 1796–98

Rigler adds “perhaps more.” The five in-sequence dates match Rigler exactly. Willis is the exception: he appears only as a late insertion at the foot of the Gurney section, the year flagged with the clerk’s own question mark, and the “1793” collides with brother Amos’s 5 Nov. 1792 birth — so it does not settle his year. See the Willis (G7) companion for the contested-birth discussion.

1800 census — the household matches the surviving children

The 1800 federal census (Cummington, Hampshire Co.) records Amos Gurney’s household as five persons: one male and two females under 10, plus one male and one female aged 26–44.[3] That breakdown corroborates the register precisely. The two parents (26–44) are Amos and Ruth. The three children under 10 are exactly those expected to be living in 1800 — Willis (a boy), Hannah (b. 1795), and the infant Ruth (b. Jan. 1800) — once the eldest Amos (d. 1796) and the day-old Willard (d. 1794) are removed; Nathan was not yet born (1802). The single male child under 10 is consistent with Willis being the only living son in 1800. This also confirms Rigler’s “10010/20010” shorthand reads as males 1-0-0-1-0, females 2-0-0-1-0.

“Left Cummington after 1802” — and the 1820 Flushing negative result

Rigler’s 1994 edition sharpens this from the bare worksheet claim: Amos “moved his family from Cummington after 1802 to somewhere & perhaps afterwards to Flushing, Long Island, NY but there were no Gurneys listed in the Fed. Census of 1820 in Flushing.”[1] So the Flushing destination is a hypothesis, and a tested-and-negative one for 1820: Amos was not an enumerated Flushing head of household in 1820. His son Willis only surfaces at Flushing from 1830. The FamilySearch tree (KLCF-L29) tells the same story by omission — its dozen attached records for Amos stop at 1802 (son Nathan’s birth); there is no 1810, 1820, or 1830 census, and no death record, anywhere in the attached set.

A new data point narrows the window for the family as a whole: Amos’s son Willis was serving in the New York State militia by 1814 (see the Willis G7 companion), so at least part of the household was New York–bound within a dozen years of leaving Cummington. Whether Amos himself made that move, or stayed in Massachusetts, is still unknown.

The 1810 federal census remains the cleanest next test for Amos specifically: does he appear at Cummington in 1810? If gone, his move was 1802–1810; if present, the “after 1802” phrasing refers to a later or temporary departure. Availability: Available online (1810 census, FamilySearch / Ancestry).

Ruth Gurney with Willis at Flushing, 1850

The 1850 federal census, Flushing, Queens County, New York, should be examined for the Willis Gurney household to confirm Ruth’s presence and her recorded age and birthplace. If her age in 1850 is consistent with a birth c. 1770, that anchors her marriage age (about 20 in 1790). Birthplace would clarify her own origins (Cummington? Plymouth County?).

Rigler worksheet (c. 1980) reconciled against the 1994 edition

The earlier Rigler family-group worksheet for Amos (signed Robert G. Rigler, M.D.) and the 1994 published edition can now be compared directly, since both Amos entries have been examined.[4][1] They agree on the named child set and on the 29 Dec. 1790 marriage to Ruth Gilbert (b.c. 1772). They diverge in two ways the published edition treats as corrections:

  • Willis’s birth. The worksheet gives Willis “25 Feb. 1793”; the 1994 edition revised this to “b.c. 1796–98,” almost certainly to escape the impossibility of two birth children (Amos 5 Nov. 1792, Willis 25 Feb. 1793) three months apart. The wrinkle is that the town vital record itself indexes Willis at 25 Feb. 1793 — so the worksheet was following the record, and the 1994 hedge is an editorial reconciliation, not a new source. The conflict is therefore live; see the Willis (G7) companion.
  • The post-1802 destination. The worksheet’s Sources box states Amos “moved from Cummington to Long Island NY after 1802 (probably Flushing).” The 1994 edition softens this to “to somewhere & perhaps afterwards to Flushing,” and adds the disqualifying 1820 negative (no Gurneys in the 1820 Flushing census). Flushing remains the leading hypothesis but is explicitly unproven.

The marriage note “some records give 1792” (worksheet) is the only marriage-date variant; the 1994 edition prints 29 Dec. 1790 without the alternative.

Negative results

  • No will, probate, or burial record for Amos identified to date.
  • No Hampshire County deed in Amos’s name located in sources consulted.
  • Date and place of death of Amos: not established. FamilySearch holds no death record and no post-1802 record of any kind for Amos.
  • Amos absent from the 1820 federal census at Flushing (per Rigler 1994), the one later location ever proposed for him.
  • (Resolved) Specific names of all six children now established from Rigler 1994 and the Cummington town vital records — see the child-set table above.

Open Questions

  1. Where did Amos go after 1802? Possibilities: stayed in western Massachusetts (Worthington, Plainfield, Goshen — Cummington’s neighbors); moved to upstate or central New York (a common 1810s–1820s pattern from Hampshire County); or Flushing (Rigler’s hypothesis, but disproved for 1820 — no Gurneys in the 1820 Flushing census). Availability: Available online (federal censuses).
  2. Where and when did Amos die? “Before 1850” is the firm bracket. A Hampshire County or Queens County death record in the 1820s–1840s window is the next target; nothing is attached on FamilySearch. Availability: Unknown online.
  3. Who was Ruth Gilbert? A Cummington Gilbert family is worth identifying; her marriage and the children’s birth entries are in the town records. Availability: Available online (Cummington town records, FamilySearch index).
  4. 1810 federal census — does it show Amos still in Cummington, fixing the departure to 1802–1810? (1820 Flushing already negative; 1820/1830 Cummington and central/upstate NY also worth a sweep.) Availability: Available online (federal censuses).

Sources Consulted

  • data/ancestors v26.json, G8 entry.
  • Foster & Streeter, “Only One Cummington” (1974), p. 390 — for Benjamin G9’s land transactions, which bracket Amos’s birth and family.
  • Jean Gurney Rigler, The Gurney Family from Aaron to Zuinglius (rev. and expanded ed., 1994), Amos Gurney-6 entry (pp. 9–10) — now examined; transcription in sources/corpus_supplement/rigler-gurney-aaron-zuinglius-g9-g12-extract.md. Source ID rigler-gurney-family-aaron-zuinglius-1994.
  • Robert G. Rigler, M.D., Gurney family-group worksheet for Amos Gurney, c. 1980 — earlier working draft. Source ID rigler-genealogy-notes-c1980. See the reconciliation note above.
  • FamilySearch tree person KLCF-L29, attached sources (index level): Cummington town birth/death entries for all six children (1792–1802); 1790 US Census (“Amos Guirnsey”); 1800 US Census, Cummington. No record attached after 1802.

Sources to obtain

  • Cummington town vital records — record images (the FamilySearch entries consulted are index level; the images confirm dates and may give Ruth Gilbert’s parentage).
  • 1810, 1820, 1830 federal census, Cummington, Hampshire County, Massachusetts.
  • 1850 federal census, Flushing, Queens County, New York — Willis Gurney household, Ruth’s entry.
  • Hampshire County, Massachusetts, deed indices for “Gurney.”
  • Plymouth County, Massachusetts, deeds and probate for Benjamin G9 (already partly captured in G9 entry; relevant indirectly).

Notes for Future Drafting

  • The fact sheet narrative is currently three paragraphs and largely rests on Foster & Streeter and the JSON-derived family-tradition material. Cummington VR work should expand the children-table row substantially.
  • Amos is one of the least-documented direct-line ancestors in the project. Improvements here would close one of the larger gaps in the colonial-American chapter.

  1. Rigler, Gurney Family from Aaron to Zuinglius (1994), Amos Gurney-6 entry (pp. 9–10). Transcription at sources/corpus_supplement/rigler-gurney-aaron-zuinglius-g9-g12-extract.md. Source ID: rigler-gurney-family-aaron-zuinglius-1994. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  2. Cummington, Hampshire Co., Massachusetts, town register of births, page 213 (under “G”), recording the births of Amos, Willard, Hannah, Ruth, Nathan, and (out of sequence) Willis, children of Amos & Ruth Gurney. Page image (Ancestry, “Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620–1988”) held local-only at sources/media/cummington-vital-records/_local/; transcription at sources/corpus_supplement/cummington-vital-records-gurney-births.md; FamilySearch index ark:/61903/1:1:F4V6-Z38. Source ID: cummington-vital-records. Availability: Available online (FamilySearch index; Ancestry image). ↩︎

  3. 1800 U.S. Federal Census, Cummington, Hampshire, Massachusetts, Amos Gurney household (Series M32, Roll 15; Ancestry, “1800 United States Federal Census,” collection 7590, record 136807). Availability: Available online (Ancestry; images via FamilySearch). ↩︎

  4. Robert G. Rigler, M.D., Gurney family-group worksheet for Amos Gurney, c. 1980 (Honolulu); the earlier working draft behind Jean Gurney Rigler’s 1994 edition. Image held local-only at sources/media/rigler-genealogy-notes-c1980/_local/; transcription at sources/corpus_supplement/rigler-genealogy-notes-c1980-worksheets-extract.md. Source ID: rigler-genealogy-notes-c1980. ↩︎