Researcher: Joanne Murray
Joanne has researched and created a website detailing the Becraft Family of Morehouse. This is another Becraft family originating/transiting through New York and mixing the name thoroughly with the other Becraft’s in the area. See: https://hamilton.nygenweb.net/bios/Becraft1.html
Researcher: Majorie Smeltzor-Stevenot
Researcher: Majorie Smeltzor-Stevenot While have not personally engaged with Majorie, her work “Families of the Ramapos: Becraft, Call, Charleston, Hogencamp, Pitt, Starr and related families” is another Becraft line that came in through the New York area. As a foundational document, it is a useful collection of Becraft genealogies and related families that can be leveraged for further research into this line.
Researcher: David Kendall Martin (1933 –
Researcher: David Kendall Martin (1933 – ) David was a researcher of the New York Becraft line. His genealogy works include this and other materials he published the old fashioned way, on a typewriter. His New York Becrafts are documented in a volume that is available at the Library of Congress and you will be impressed to discover it is in a self-published mimeo style format. David has since retired from the Becraft research and his work in this regard is well appreciated and like the other collections discussed and found to compile this website are the foundation upon which future family genealogists can begin their work.
Researcher: Ivory Goodrich Davis (1911-1995)
Researcher: Ivory Goodrich Davis (1911-1995) Ivory wasn’t around for me to get to know too well. She was like everyone else I encountered when I began my genealogy digging, a kind and willing helper who would share all she knew and be excited for anything new that she didn’t. Ivory was a major researcher of the family who heeded the call to “go west”. She had a lot of knowledge in this area and would share the things she had found.
Researchers: Stephen Roe Becraft (1910-2004) and Mildred Morrison Tipton (1919-2000)
Researchers: Stephen Roe Becraft (1910-2004) and Mildred Morrison Tipton (1919-2000) Not a day goes by that I don’t reflect on the letters that came frequently from Mildred with new bits of information on our family genealogy and the next research topic that I could dig into here in Maryland for her and Steve living in Ohio. I’m still looking for the Franklin connection we discussed on more than one occasion and still haven’t found it, although Franklin pops up and catches my attentions when I am doing research because of the length of discussions we had on the topic. Mildred and Stephen were another of the old-school researchers, digging into the depths and files found in our available repositories. They would be amazed at how much of that is reflected in the online sources we now can access from the seats of our couches while travelling no more distance than from the coffee pot to there. I will never forget our visit with Mildred and Stephen on a trip we made west visiting other family at the time. They were just like family we’d known for years and years. Mildred brought out a very nice picture and showed us. We looked at it and said, that’s Leonard Allen Becraft. She laughed and revealed it was actually a picture of her Stephen Roe Becraft. It still sticks in my mind and makes me wonder what genealogy will look like years from now as we compare faces with software that will tell us who it thinks the picture is of and we can laugh at the software because we know who it really is. I still have those letters from Mildred and Stephen. My heart tugs hard to think about what might be a tidbit hidden in those pages, but I’m not quite ready to dig through the emotions that are buried with them.
Researcher: Leonard Allen Becraft (1938-2015)
Researcher: Leonard Allen Becraft (1938-2015) As I write this, it has been 10-years already since you’ve left this world. It is entirely Leonard’s fault that I am doing this today. He was a voracious researcher, diving into phone books and anything he could find that would generate leads on Becraft’s that might live or have lived in the place he was currently at. His notes would come to me as copies of envelopes, napkins, and other writeable materials that he found and could put a pen or pencil to write that newest bit down. Leonard contributed our genealogy to a book published as “Burtonsville Heritage, Genealogically Speaking” by Elizabeth M Lord and published in 1978. It was the core book to the Maryland Becraft line and helped establish that material for future enhancements and references. I will miss the visits and inevitably, the family history discussions that came up in those visits. It was always a surprise to have Leonard roll up in his old pickup truck, fresh from a visit to the auction house down the road from our home in New Windsor, MD. A call from Leonard would entail a deeper family discussion around something he had recently found, or was pondering and needed a second opinion. Too often, those calls were also to inform on the passing of another of our older generations. Those all stopped when we got the call of his passing. Leonard was a true family treasure and one of the people who shared everything he found about our family history. I would like to think that I am following in those footsteps and sharing like Leonard and so many others you will find here have done.
Researcher: Lorraine Plotner Becraft (1924-2008)
Researcher: Lorraine Plotner Becraft (1924-2008) I have a genealogy for the Burtonsville Maryland Families that I received from my father that has a faded envelope that contains a family request from Lorraine. That was how she gathered her family information. At the time I was able to correspond with her, she had over 3700 Becraft family sheets in her collection. Lorraine was active on the many message forums that people would use for genealogy research. She was always willing to provide a hint or family sheet from her collection and any relevant information she could impart. Sadly, in 2008, I encountered her death notice. No great announcement, no funeral arrangements, no official obituary. Lorraine’s husband Walter Raymond Becraft, had passed away 19 Nov 1998. REQUEST: If anyone knows of the where abouts of Lorraine’s collection, we would like to honor her by making some of that available here for researchers who may like to have some of her legacy.