In 2018, I wrote about my third great-grandfather, Joseph T. Glynn, husband of Nancy Reed and father of Joseph Albert Glynn. At the time, I noted that the T may have stood for Truman, but I was not willing to write his name as Joseph Truman Glynn without better evidence. I had seen the name Truman connected with him in several places. His son Joseph Albert Glynn's death certificate named his father as Truman. I found Truman Glynn as a witness to a deed, as well as in other documents and newspaper articles.
Still, those records did not show me Joseph Truman Glynn. Most records called him Joseph Glynn or Joseph T. Glynn, so I continued to use the name supported by the records rather than assume what the T represented.
Then I found this deed.
The person writing the deed wrote Truman, crossed it out, and replaced it with Joseph T. Glynn.
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| Detail from an 1843 Putney, Vermont, deed showing the name “Truman” crossed out and replaced with “Joseph T. Glynn.” The deed records land transactions involving Luther Read, Nancy Glynn’s brother, and Lydia A. Campbell, Sophronia Sabin, and Charles Campbell, while preserving Nancy Glynn’s right to draw water from a spring. Nancy Reed Glynn was the wife of Joseph T. Glynn. |
That small correction is the closest I have found to seeing the two names connected in the same record. Taken together with the other references to Truman, I am now comfortable concluding that the T in Joseph T. Glynn stood for Truman.
Today, the most useful evidence in a record is the word someone crossed out.
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Diana Bryan Quinn, “#52ancestors Post Twenty-Four: Learning about my 3rd Great-Grandfather, Joseph T. Glynn, on Father’s Day,” Moments in Time, A Genealogy Blog, 17 June 2018, Blogger (https://momentsintimeagenealogyblog.blogspot.com/2018/06/52ancestors-post-twenty-four-learning.html : accessed 18 August 2026).
Dummerston, Vermont, Town Clerk, Deed Books 6–8, p. 511, William Winn to Ezra Harter, quitclaim deed, 10 December 1821, witnessed by Truman Glynn; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSVG-K764-Z : accessed 18 August 2026), image 517 of 789, image group no. 008129506.
Putney, Vermont, Town Clerk, death record for Joseph Albert Glynn, died 2 November 1905, naming father as Truman; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L99D-BZYR : accessed 18 August 2026), image 650 of 1301, image group no. 005488193.
Putney, Vermont, Town Clerk, Deed Books 8–10, pp. 241–242, land transaction involving Luther Read, Lydia A. Campbell, Sophronia Sabin, and Charles Campbell, 10 May 1843, identifying Nancy Glynn as wife of Joseph T. Glynn; “Truman” written and crossed out before “Joseph T. Glynn”; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSRG-14R5-F : accessed 14 June 2026), image 441 of 635, image group no. 008312537.
