7.Addenda - Bellsouthpwp.net

Page 376
NWP Letter
[The following letter was not part of the original genealogy published by Norman W. Pettys, Sr., but is
included here because it offers insight into his thoughts for additional research. Curfman, the man to whom the
letter is addressed, published his own excellent genealogy of the Pettys family and dedicated it to two people,
including Norman W. Pettys, Sr.]
25 September 1974
Mr. Robert Joseph Curfman
3624 Walnut Street
Kansas City, Missouri 64111
Dear “Cousin”:
I appreciate your last letter of 15 September 1974 with copies of your circular trying to find
both Petty and Paddock family lines. It is just too bad that there are so many disinterested persons
who are not proud of their family lines and who would like to see a history of their ancestors in printed
form. I guess it has always been that way and will continue in that vein although genealogy has had
an upswing in recent years.
Your letters have re-stimulated my interest altho my direct line has been established for I am
still imbued with the idea of finding the parentage of John 1 and I still want to know who Ann was and
where she came from.
I checked through the printed volume, which I have, entitled “The Albert Petty Family” by
Charles B. Petty and printed by Deseret Press of Salt Lake City. I am enclosing an extract and while
our line is mentioned, they were not able to connect. I re-read their book carefully and neither did I
find any connecting link.
I had the notion that our John 1 descended from the son of Joseph Pettee or Petty who
resided at Weymouth as early as 1639 so I spent several hours last night reading through old letter
from my genealogist, Francis Sears, to see if he had checked the Weymouth, Mass. records and the
Windsor, Conn. records. The Hartford, Conn. investigation showed nothing and a check with the City
Library Association of Springfield, Mass. developed no more than what we already knew. (Copy of
letter from them of 15 May 1955 attached for your interest.)
Mr. Sears likewise had this same thought and in addition thought that John 1 might have been
of the William 1 Pettee family, also of Weymouth. His letter to me of 12 July 1955 (copy attached)
definitely rules that out. William's son John was drowned in 1659, aged 21.
Mr. Sear’s letter of 28 October 1954 spells out that John 1 apparently was the first of his
particular family in this country and that he was born on the “other side,” (copy of this letter attached
and it is poor because the original was in light letters (he needed a new typewriter ribbon, I guess).
The only possible search that occurs to me now in view of Mr. Sears’ exhaustive research is
to check the arriving ships and passenger lists AFTER 1620. 1 do not think that all of these records
are available but if they are, where do we find them? In Salt Lake City?
I might write Goodspeed's in Boston to see what IS available. What do you think?
Over the years, I have occasionally run across a few of these lists in printed form but never
a trace of our people. Of course, they could have come here with some family who paid their passage