Loren Fay

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Loren V Faxon (I have no idea where the Faxon name came from or who spelled my name that way....)

United States Public Records Name Loren V Faxon Also Known As Loren V Fay Residence Date 10 Aug 2005-01 Oct 2007 Residence Place Albany, New York, United States Birth Date 02 Aug 1950 Phone Number (518) 438-5115 Phone Number Recorded Date 20 Aug 2008

Address 775 Myrtle Ave Apt A10 Address Continued Albany, New York 12208 Address Date 10 Aug 2005-01 Oct 2007

2nd Address 775 Myrtle Ave # A10 2nd Address Continued Albany, New York 12208 2nd Address Date 01 Apr 2003-01 Feb 2006

3rd Address 476 Morris St # 1 3rd Address Continued Albany, New York 12208 3rd Address Date 01 Oct 1991-20 Aug 2008 Record Number 88408182

Citing this Record "United States Public Records, 1970-2009," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K5C9-HRZ : 22 May 2014), Loren V Faxon, Residence, Albany, New York, United States; a third party aggregator of publicly available information.

No image available United States Public Records, 1970-2009

Loren V Fay United States Public Records, 1970-2009 birth: 2 August 1950

residence: 1 June 2001 Albany, New York, United States

COPY PRINT SOURCE BOX SHARE Attach to Family Tree

Loren V Fay United States Public Records Name Loren V Fay Residence Date 01 Jun 2001 Residence Place Albany, New York, United States Birth Date 02 Aug 1950

Address 4760 Morris St Address Continued Albany, New York 12208

2nd Address 4760 Morris 2nd Address Continued Albany, New York 12208 2nd Address Date 01 Sep 1999

3rd Address Rr03 Box 3rd Address Continued Moravia, New York 13118 3rd Address Date 01 Jan 1995 Record Number 499625995

Citing this Record "United States Public Records, 1970-2009," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QJH4-8WYJ : 23 May 2014), Loren V Fay, Residence, Albany, New York, United States; a third party aggregator of publicly available information.

Biography

I began my family history adventure in my last years of high school, as a young member of the LDS Church. We had a general basic class at church that started it. Relatives gave me what information they had and later I began to look further into census and other records. We had no computers. We did lots of random looking in sources we could find, live research in cemeteries, historical societies and county offices, etc., but in the 1960s-1970s there were few sources open to research. After the TV drama Roots in the late 1970s and the American Bicentennial in 1976, interest grew and more records began to be opened because of the general public interest. In the late 1980s, home computers began to become widespread and records began to be shared on the internet in the 1990s-2000s. I did a lot of research before the online thing became big, then, when computer records began to be available at libraries, I began to redo my research to make it better from about 2010 onward. This is how our growth of public free information happened, and I began branching out to connect with my relatives on FB and on Wiki Tree in March 2013 and that continues to this day. Best wishes to all.

Check this out for many cemetery photos of Family Resting Places:

(I have heard that to look at these Facebook photos requires being a "friend" of mine to pass the security walls on Facebook, so if you wish to be friended to see them, just send me a friend request and note on my FB page. I decided this was easier than uploading many pics to this place. I have hundreds of photos in albums on Facebook. Sorry for that inconvenience. I didn't want to just give my photos to this website. -LF)

family cemetery photos:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.483810745341.289111.535575341&type=3

And here for several of my childhood photos:

I call the album, "Loren Fay was a child once too."

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150119887465342.316650.535575341&type=3

I also have pics of the house I grew up in, album called "LF Slept here" and two or more albums of Fay and Bartlett family photos on my FB albums pages...

What does your DNA show?

I know I am from English, Irish and Scottish roots, but that probably also means French, Germanic and Scandinavian further back, and maybe Roman and other groups, too... and I think we all share the same or close African ancestors who some may call Adam and Eve...

In modern genealogy we can trace 300-400-500 years of records, maybe more for royal and noble family history. For a study on more remote ancestry, read the blog on this website:

http://vermilioncousins.wordpress.com/family-history/deep-genealogy/

a study of ancient DNA in British Isles:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/mar/18/genetic-study-30-percent-white-british-dna-german-ancestry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_history_of_the_British_Isles

5 Marjorie Jean Bartlett 1922 - 1986 married 1943 Neil Henry Fay 1919 - 2005

6 Bruce Edward Fay 1944 married 1966 Lenora Elizabeth Flick

7 Barbara Ellen Fay 1968 married 1991 Kean Flynn

8 Jacob Flynn 1994

8 Jesse Flynn 1998

7 Brenda Elizabeth Fay 1972 married 2011 Tammy Sadler

8 Bradley Tuttle 1998

8 Derek Tuttle 2000

7 Becky Elaine Fay 1974 married 1997 Sean Nesbitt

8 Tori Elizabeth 2000

6 Douglas James Fay 1945 married 1971 Della Kay Crithfield

7 Paulette Jan Fay 1972

7 Tara Jean Fay 1974

7 Douglas James Fay Jr. 1979

6 Stanley Neil Fay 1946 - 1998 married 1970 Carol Susan Young

7 Edward Arnold Fay II 1975

7 Jeffrey Allan Fay 1977

6 Loren Vincent Fay 1950 the present compiler of this list.

1850 US Census of Cayuga County, NY, part two, starts with Moravia:

https://archive.org/stream/populationschedu0504unix#page/n92/mode/1up

(There are many ways to see census records, on LDS, on Ancestry, on the Archive.org website after you know the place and page number from the LDS or other index, some censuses are online in various free or pay places, and at local county offices or library locations for their local censuses, in NY, at the NY State Library for NY Federal and NY State censuses. Sometimes the films are easier to read than the online pages if they are not working right, but if you get the references that will help you to look them up on the microfilms at Archive.org or at libraries. - LF.)

Memories shared by Loren Fay from time to time as they arise...

I have always seemed to like history, so my passion for research has built up over the years since that began with a World Book Encyclopedia set we had at home in the 1960s. That was a gift from my Uncle John and Aunt Lena Fay in 1960. Starting in the 1960s, I have become a member of the "Look it Up Club" for life. When I learn of something new that interests me, I just have to look it up. This is a very handy thing to have this habit in genealogy and historical research.

I was born in the hospital in Cortland, NY, on Aug. 2, 1950, and at that time, the total bill for my birth was about $75.00, a far cry from what it now costs for a birth. (I found the bill/receipt in my mother's papers.) I was taken home about fifteen miles west of Cortland on our small farm in Moravia, NY, where I grew up. This was still home when my mom died in 1986. My oldest brother lives there today and has updated the house. Some of the neighbors are the same ones I grew up with, making return visits nice. My parents and all my aunts and uncles are gone now, so trips to the hometown are rare these days. I go there for family funerals and class reunions every 5 - 10 years.

The old home was built in the 1820 - 1830 era by the Vosburgh family who moved there from the Albany, NY, area about 1820. I later found it interesting that I grew up there and then moved to live and work in Albany, the reverse of their migration to live and work in Moravia, NY. The Vosburghs got this land through the NY Military Tract, where the state paid Revolutionary War military men for their service with land.

In the 1800s, the Vosburghs seemed to be more well-to-do than most of the neighbors and their home shows signs of that. It seems to have begun as a typical frontier lean-to home, which could be the present kitchen area. A larger addition later made it a sort of New England salt box house with an upstairs for sleeping rooms with slanted ceilings under the roof. The old floor boards are wide and mostly still sturdy today. The front porch was grand for the time, with four pillars holding up the roof and two large front doors constructed with heavy panels shaped like crosses. The two doors opened into the sitting room and the dining room, though we kept the former closed and locked, using the dining room door as our front door.

I am guessing that, originally, the walls upstairs went all the way up to the peak of the roof, evidenced by old wallpapers on the walls above the present upper ceiling. Later the upper ceiling was put in and that probably made it easier to heat in winter, and a floor register system let heat come up from below and stove pipe could come up through the sleeping rooms to the big chimney, which would also help warm the upstairs.

The larger and taller east upstairs room looks like the master bedroom, with a flat ceiling and a side space for a large bed or a crib area. The master room is the brightest, with two eastern windows to help the farmer to rise early for chores. There are three smaller rooms for storage upstairs and a medium sized room with slanted ceiling that two or three children could share. I shared that room with a brother as kids. Sometime along the way I discovered two secret spaces upstairs, possibly for hiding valuables in the old days, but empty last time I looked. One was in the master bedroom floor, the other in a smaller room's mopboard.

In the old cellar, there was a water cistern system, which held water that would be saved from rains coming off the roof and was used for washing and other household purposes. Along with a well, they had good water. While I was growing up our water was good, tho possibly called hard water. As more homes were built on the hill in the 1970s and 1980s, I noticed a strange sulphur taste in the well water. The water table level probably dropped, because of more homes drawing water on the hill.

The house by 1950, when my family moved in there, was pretty run down and old fashioned. The depression didn't help. When they bought the 69 1/2 acre farm and house and barns in 1950, the price was about $4,500. Of course money was worth more back then, so the price should not be compared to the same amount today. The price also reflects the average median annual income of workers in the 1950s, according to what I found online.

My mothers job in 1960 paid $1.00 an hour at minimum wages for 1960. My first fulltime job in the early 1970s paid a gross of about five thousand dollars for the year. At that time the minimum wage was $2.00 an hour, but the hospital paid a bit above that to help keep good help. By the time I finished college and eventually came back to the hospital, the minimum was $3.00 an hour and the hospital paid a bit more to reward good help.

Even though the price for the farm was small, it took us 20+ years to pay off the mortgage to own it free and clear. At first, we were very poor and barely had a car or TV, except for used ones that often were not too good. We were on welfare for ten years until 1960 when I was ten years old and mom had to go to work and got a part time job at a small publishing company in our small town. That eventually worked out well and when the older boys went on their way to school or military or marriage, then we had more to live on and life became better in that way. It was a very happy day when mom got the mortgage paid off and that was recorded in the county deeds as our own property. My dad happily signed off on the land papers so mom could own it free and clear and enjoy her home for the rest of her life and pass it on to her sons. My older brother was the one who had stayed in the hometown, so naturally he is there today. My father had mental issues and was under care at Willard State Hospital, thus, unable to provide for his family, so we were thankful our country provided some help, along with help from our kind grandparents, until things got better for us.

Our grandfather, Ed Fay, installed running water and a bathroom. There was still a backhouse out back, until Hurricane Hazel knocked it down in 1954. Central heating did not arrive until the 1960s. Until then we had a wood stove in the kitchen for heating in winter, and an electric stove for cooking. A kerosene heater warmed the dining room in winter. There was no heat in the living room and the bedrooms in winter. On a few really cold nights, we would sleep on the floor around the heater in the dining room. We used old quilts and blankets to keep warm in bed. I learned how to stay warm, by putting my head under the covers and breathing my warm air into the space around me, which warmed it up quite well. I still use this idea when the heat is too low in my apartment.

My favorite route to travel the about 160 miles between Moravia and Albany is US Route 20, which runs from the east coast to the west coast of the USA. The section in NY State is the old Western Turnpike, one of the roads that the early settlers followed to go west from New England into NY and on further west. There are so many picturesque towns and scenes along this route that I can imagine my ancestors coming west along the roads back then. However their travel in the 1800s would have taken weeks, not just the four hours when I go now. Back then, roads were usually rough and rutted, even if local people did work on them. Then, travel could be easier in winter in a sleigh, when the ruts were full of snow and ice.

I learned a short cut for this travel by going west on US 20 about 100 miles to NYS Route 26, south to West Eaton, then west to Erieville over a country road to meet Route 13 at Sheds, then take 13 south to the Cortland and Homer area, then west over NYS Route 90 or Routes 41 and 41A and country roads to Moravia. The weather could change my route. Since Mom's death in 1986, and lately, I don't do this travel in the wintertime. It is done in summer or autumn for class or family reunions in general.

I went to school in the Moravia central school district. My favorite subjects were history, geography, and English. Along the way I acquired a talent for writing. Teachers recognized this and encouraged it. Later in life I used it to teach genealogy research by writing articles and guides for helping others to learn how to do research. It also helps me organize my research and present results. A little more organization is good.

In school, after joining the Mormons, I was the only Mormon in my class and sometimes there was some name calling about being a Mormon. Later, I have wondered if the kids sensed my being different in my orientation and some of the teasing being for that reason. I will probably never know.

In the 1960s, at 13, I became a convert to the LDS and became very interested in scripture study and personal inspiration about what it meant for me. At one point, I became convinced that living a life of peace and service was of great importance to me. At age 18, I registered with the draft board as a religious conscientious objector. Some LDS didn't like that, but my leaders knew I was sincere and supported my belief, because I was not running away to Canada and willing to work off my service as the law allowed. I have never had any feelings against people in the military, just did not believe in that myself. Several relatives have served in the military from colonial wars up to more recent conflicts.

I had a few little different beliefs that showed I was not just another sheep following the herd. I was a free thinking soul, often keeping that secret to fit in. Sometimes the secrets just came out. Over the fifty years since embracing Mormonism, I had my own kinds of revelations, visions, guidance, dreams and experiences. What the main Mormon message means to me is that spiritual gifts are alive and real, and they can be there to use when we need them. And the belief that God loves all of his children, no matter who or what they are, with an unconditional, unlimited love. God is that kind of love in my point of view. When there is conflict it usually comes to me from someone else and I have to just endure it by keeping busy with my own work. Only if they get in my face do I get invoIved to solve it. If I keep busy and don't get involved, it usually passes or goes away. If I have to state my case, I do so and let it go. I like what the Shakers said: Put your hands to work and your hearts to God. That leads to peace.

As I came to the end of high school, my Uncle John Fay and Aunt Lena Fay encouraged me, as well as my brothers, to go on in our education, offering to help with tuition for college. I am not sure if I would have gone on to college if they had not done this. We were so poor that it may not have been possible, except by working along the way. So, they did the tuition and I did the working and saving for room and board. Thus, it took me about eight years to get my AA and BS degrees. I later learned that my father had also contributed to the college fund along the way when he had some extra savings, which he gave to mother and she passed it on to me at college. At the time, I didn't know where that came from. I acknowledge all of their help in getting my education, which has made my life better for it and has made this family tree research better as well.

While at college, I also did some part time searching in census records for pay to help earn some money. I advertised in a popular genealogy column in the Tri-State Trader, in Indiana, a paper popular with hobbyists and serious collectors. People sent me orders for research, I did it and reported back and they paid me. This was done the old way, page by page, with very few indexes in those days. I financed a summer trip home doing this. I rode the Greyhound buses from SLC to Cortland, NY, a three day and night trip each way. I rode all that way on buses several times, as well as in cars, as shared rides with others.

I began doing basic family history research before college, as a young LDS member in our small church at Cortland, NY. Relatives gave us the first information and we went from there. When I went to BYU, I took a basic research class in my first year and from then on, learning and doing research was my main interest. After graduating in 1976, soon I was moving back to home in NY and doing some part time jobs to make ends meet. A couple of years into that I found my full time job in Albany, NY. This was good, bringing me near to the NY State Library and State Archives again.

Actually, when I first went to BYU, I only had enough $ to do one year, so after that I came home and looked for a job. My mom had some cancer treatments and I was there to help her. At that time, the Viet Nam war was going on, so I was asked to perform my civilian work and the draft board gave me a list of places interested in having conscientious objector workers. My aunt and uncle lived near Albany, NY, and encouraged me to work there. Albany Medical Center was on the list and they accepted me. I worked there to fulfill my selective service work assignment, saved $ and soon after that went back to BYU to get my AA and BS degrees. After graduating, of course I was back to square one with no $. In time, I again was hired at Albany Medical Center Hospital and have worked there ever since, and eventually I will retire from there after about 40 years of working there, counting the first and second employments together.

Working in Albany opened other opportunities and views to me. In the 1970s, the NY State Library expanded and research became better there. Again in the 1990s, they took a survey and discovered that research is the top reason people come to visit their library, so they again rearranged the facilities to make research easier. I love going there to search and research history and genealogy in the old books, films and records. They now have online research available as well, and it is free for use there.

In 1981, several of us research folks decided to organize a genealogy society and invited others to join with us. Hundreds of folks have joined over the 25+ years since then. We have offered a volunteer service at the NY State Library where we offer advice to help people do their searching.

In the 1985-1996 era, I wrote several dozens of research columns for Heritage Quest magazine, compiled the index to the 1828 Quaker Census and got it published and worked on several Quaker records as a personal interest. In the 1980s, I explored Quakerism quite extensively, because I have several ancestral Quaker connections. I also studied Unity, Shakerism, New Age ways and Spiritualism, and other spiritual systems. I like some of all of these beliefs and add them together for myself.

After my mom passed on due to cancer in 1986, I had a spiritual crisis. But it was short lived. About six months into it I had a special dream, where I met mom and she told me she was now cured and happy. That solved my crisis, but it also cleared the way for the next one, when I discovered I was gay a year or two later.

After personal study of good texts from our city library, I learned there was nothing wrong with being gay, despite what traditional religions say about it. I also began remembering attractions to males throughout my life, from childhood and teen years, on up into adulthood. Owning these attractions helped me see the truth. It was nothing new, but social customs made it awkward to know and accept it. I also knew that I had experienced many spiritual things along the way, so it was not a block to spiritual growth. Mormonism says God knows us as persons before we were born on earth, so I reason that God knew about me and still worked within me. Thus, no reason to change myself, no reason to try. No reason to hate who I am, like a genealogy friend said, "No reason to hate yourself." The LDS "Plan of Salvation" says we are all created to find joy and purpose in life, create loving families, working and enjoying our lives. This does not have to be different for gay members. God loves and blesses all of His children, according to LDS scriptures. The church has been too slow to try thinking how to act as God would in this situation. So, I decided to leave the LDS behind.

Over the years in the LDS, I learned they did not accept gay people, so when I came to my own realization, the crisis was less traumatic with all that other spiritual studying I had done along the way. When one door closes, another can open. I waited until the time was right to exit the LDS. By then there was a new gay church in town and I simply joined with them and was going to both LDS and MCC long before resigning from the LDS. That was over 20 years ago, so by now I have learned not to hate the LDS view, I just know they don't or can't understand with their limited information on the topic, leading to their limited political and spiritual views. Though they claim to be led by modern revelation, they seem to be getting revelations only when they want to, rather than operating on the model of the unconditional love of God, as I see God's way.

Today, I have moved on again and call myself a Free Thinking Mormon or Reform Mormon, which means I am free to believe whatever is best for me. I like being free from an organized religion, where I can determine what is good. As a young person, I was also born again and continue to feel spiritual guidance when I seek it, sometimes even when I don't seek it, like while doing research, a thought will say to look here or look there and then a new find is made. I call it a research miracle. Along with my hospital work, daily life, and social scenes, research is still my main interest. When I retire, research should keep me going happily and give me something to share with friends and family.

When I was at BYU in the 1970s, they had a whole study curriculum of classes on various kinds of genealogy research, i.e., US & Canada, British Isles, European, Latin for researching, etc. By the time I did my hospital service and got back to BYU they were scaling that back, finding there was not enough work for researchers to do as a profession. So, I studied the American and British courses, along with library science and technology courses, history, geography and other related courses in an Open Studies liberal arts program drawn up for my own interests. That is what I earned the AA and BS degrees in. In retirement, after 40 years working in a hospital, I can use these interests to reinvent my life, doing all the research I wish, to make life interesting. I will not consider this going to work, but as a pleasure and entertainment. It will not have to make a profit, as it is not a capitalist venture. I just enjoy helping people find their history and along the way I also find more of my own.

Loren V. Fay

MY DIPLOMAS:

Moravia High School 22 June, 1969

BYU Associate Degree 15 August 1975

BYU Bachelors Degree 17 December 1976

Certificates:

LDS Accreditation in New England Genealogy Research 1977 - 1997

Registered Genealogist with IGCO 1981 - 1984

Certificate for Passing the classes on Sterile Processing 2007

Certification for passing Sterile Processing Technician Exam 2007

Renewal of Sterile Processing Certification in 2012

Listings:

Listed in the directory Who's Who In Genealogy, 1980s.

Fifty Years of Mormonism and other Memories... History, Testimonies, Spiritual Experiences, Personal Revelations or Words of Wisdom...

An essay telling of my own experience in Mormonism, 1963 - 2013...

by Loren Fay.

It was August 1963. I had just turned 13. An older brother, our mother and I were invited to go see the Mormon Pageant at Palmyra, NY. My TV viewing recalled an old film that had Mormons that looked like Amish people, in dark clothing and beards, moving west to Utah in covered wagons. So I expected to see Amish-like people at the pageant. Of course that was not so, but we were impressed and then took the lessons a month later with Elders Croft and Randall, and a few weeks later we joined. I didn't react quite as willing to join as they hoped, but I did eventually fill out the request to be baptized. My brother and I were baptized on October 12, 1963, and joined the small local church branch at Cortland, NY, which was then a part of the old Eastern States Mission in New York City. I believe that the next year, the Cumorah Mission was set off from the ESM, with offices in Rochester, NY. This mission is now called the NY Rochester Mission, and I believe all or most of the State of NY are now served by LDS Stakes, which are fully organized church unit districts. In 1963, I believe the only stake in Upstate NY was the one at Rochester, then called the Cumorah Stake, named after the Hill Cumorah near Palmyra, NY, where Joseph Smith said he got the golden plates of the Book of Mormon.

In 1963, there were many small missionary branches of the LDS church across the NY State, most of which rented rooms to meet in, with a few larger churches that had buildings of their own, mostly in cities. The Cortland Branch met in the basement auditorium of the county court house when we joined, but soon after the missionaries rented a house and we began meeting there, fitting the living room with individual chairs. I remember a few large meetings when fifty or more attended, probably like an Easter Sunday, or when leaders came from the district to do business meetings. We met in that small house for a few years until a larger place was needed. Someone in the church knew of a women's club that had a clubhouse with room for 100 to meet and we began to meet there and continued there until we built a small church as a first phase chapel in the mid 1970s. In the mid 1980s, that small chapel was enlarged to a full sized building for the growing Cortland church, which had over 500 members and 100 - 200 attending. The church became fully organized and was part of the Ithaca NY Stake, and later the Syracuse NY Stake.

I was very active in the Cortland branch as I grew up. I was in 7th grade when I joined and had the rest of my schooling to go through as a member. This let me grow up in the Aaronic Priesthood, from Deacon to Teacher and Priest. As school went on, I was the only Mormon in a class of 100, and sometimes the other kids would call me names for being a Mormon. Later, after knowing about my orientation, I have wondered if some of the teasing was about that. Another memory is that some classmates tried to save me from Mormonism. As sort of a compromise, I just did the born again thing that seemed to satisfy them. It is also in the Book of Mormon that one can be born again, so it really did go along with basic Mormonism and the Spirit became more real to me.

I also grew up very poor and without a father in the home. I learned later about his mental and orientation issues that kept him in a mental hospital and then in group homes after the state closed those hospitals. I was different in several ways, so any of those ways could have made me a target for others who thought doing teasing or name calling made themselves feel more powerful. At one point in high school, one day after lunch as I waited in a hallway by the door of the next classroom to be used, I was approached by a nice looking athletic classmate who told me I was attractive to him, I turned him on, he said. I didn't know really what he meant, but I had found him attractive as well, when we had spoken together at other times, but I made sure never to say that out loud. Years later after coming out, I recall it as an interesting memory. I had found several nice guys interesting, some older guys and some my age. Because the church taught us not to dwell on bad thoughts, I buried these feelings until they had to come out later in life, when I was nearing forty years old, in the late 1980s. The conservative values of the LDS made my coming out wait about twenty years more than the usual normal for many folks. However, a friend observed that with life changing in the 1970s and HIV and AIDS in the 1980s, the delay may have saved my life, as too many men who came out in the 1970s ended up dying in the 1980s and 1990s. And by deciding not to be sexually active for safety, my life had a chance to be a long life well into the 2000s, and I was able to work until normal retirement, plus a few more years.

Another difference came about as I studied the Bible and decided I wanted to live the peace life. When I turned 18 and had to register with the Selective Service, I did so as a conscientious objector, though it took a bit of convincing of the local board, because they thought Mormons could not be that. I was lucky that my church leaders were supportive, I was not trying to run away to Canada, and as I was willing to do civilian work, the local SS board approved it. I was deferred for college, but later went to work in a hospital to fulfill the alternate service requirement. Doing that eventually gave me a lifetime career. All of this was fully good according to selective service rules in the times when I was doing my service. I got an honorable release after my two years of civilian service were completed.

I graduated from high school in that pivotal year of 1969. After my aunt and uncle offered to help with college tuition costs, I applied to BYU and was accepted to begin studies in the fall of 1969. I didn't know then, but the Stonewall Riots that began a gay rights movement in NY City happened at the end of that June. I learned about that twenty years later. We all heard about the Woodstock music festival that summer, but as a good Mormon, I wasn't interested in that. The first Moon landing happened that summer. Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five began their careers that year. My summer was spent on the farm and as a volunteer actor in the Hill Cumorah Pageant and I prepared for the big trip out to Utah to begin my BYU college days in September.

I felt terribly homesick in Utah at first. This was my first long time spent away from home on the farm. But I was rooming with my brother and with friendly people all around and in a Mormon society and school, so it was easier to feel a belonging and the homesickness went away as I studied more. One of my classes took hold of me and has blessed me for the rest of my life. That was a beginning genealogy class on the basics of doing family history research as it was done way back in 1969, in the before computer age. My original major went out of favor and then I decided to go open studies with many topics around life and research themes. I had time to think, as my funds ran out after the first year at BYU. I had to go to work for a while.

At the end of that first year at BYU, my brother and I came home to NY in the summer of 1970. My brother also brought home his future wife from Utah. I remember when she got to our country home and asked, "Where is the city?" She had just traveled across half of NY State and not seen the big city yet. Then I realized that many folks think NY is just one big city, whereas we have mostly country areas with smaller cities along the way, and the big city is a long way away, down by the ocean. For that summer, we all did some kinds of work and enjoyed seeing the many cousins and going to the Cortland Branch and to the Hill Cumorah Pageant. At the end of the summer, my bother and his fiancé went back to Utah and BYU. I found a small job cleaning the local bowling alley and restaurant at night, which paid $80 a week. That worked out OK because I lived at home with mom. Sometime this year I was ordained an elder and began serving in the branch leadership in clerical roles, keeping meeting minutes and member records and even having a small voice in moving the local church along on its journey.

My mother had some kind of female cancer issues that they solved with radiation therapy and I was home to help her. After that episode passed, the local draft board asked me to find the civilian work to do, and supplied a list of places, including the Albany Medical Center Hospital. My aunt and uncle lived near to that and suggested I might like it there, so they helped me find my way there and I was accepted and had a physical and later began work there in late 1971. I did that work for a year and a half and then transferred my civilian work to Chenango Memorial Hospital in Norwich, NY, for the last six months to about the end of 1973. Then, I returned home and took the cleaning job again, as there were not too many jobs in my small hometown. At this time the church was beginning to convert its handwritten member records to computer files, so I worked on the forms to help convert the local records.

I returned to BYU in the Fall of 1974 and did studies until earning my AA and BS degrees in 1975 and 1976. It took less years than normal because I did two Spring terms of classes along the way. I did my LDS Accredited Genealogist test in late 1976 for New England States research. I spent the winter in Utah and came home to NY in the spring of 1977 and did odd jobs and research for two years. Soon after moving east, my mother had taken the missionary lessons and was ready to be baptized. I was asked to do the baptism and confirmation, which are the only ones I have ever done. I served again as a clerk in the local church branch, keeping the confidential records of meetings and membership records and helping to count the donations. Later that summer several families went to the Washington DC Temple for their ordinances. I was invited to go as well and got my ordinances as well. That trip to DC was a very special event for the local members to realize many of their spiritual desires and their dreams were coming to pass as the local church became larger and stronger, on the verge of changing from a branch to a ward and the spiritual gifts that go with that seemed to be manifested more after the temple experiences. Everyone seemed to grow from that.

In late 1979, I went to do some research in Albany, NY, and visited with my aunt and uncle in that city. While there, something led me to look in the newspaper for a job. I found an ad for a similar job to what I had done before at the Albany Medical Center Hospital. When I called about it, I was asked to come in and apply. They then looked up my work record and found it was excellent, then referred me to the manager of the same department I had worked in before. I found out later that one of the supervisors knew me and remembered my good work and told the manager to hire me after seeing me coming for an interview. She made an offer and I accepted it with a week or two to move to Albany. 1980 became a better year in every way with a job and fulltime income.

The Albany Ward was a larger organization than I had experienced in the Cortland Branch. They had built a larger chapel out in the suburb of Loudonville about 1970 and I had gone there when I was working in Albany in the 1971-1973 period, then in the 1980+ period of working in Albany. MY Genealogical interests channeled me into serving in the small Family History Center there for about fifteen years, about 1981 - 1996. Also in 1981, several local people helped me and a friend to organize a community genealogical society that meets in public libraries and has hundreds of members today. In the early 1980s, I compiled a series of research guides to the counties of NY, which were published on demand as people ordered them and later on microfiche. In 1985, I received a letter from the editor of a new genealogical magazine called Heritage Quest, asking if I would like to submit articles. This turned into a series of over sixty articles and columns, the last one of which ran in 1996. Most were articles about research in New York State and New England, and one of the last was a long article about Quaker research in these areas. Much of this information is now found online in various forms on the US Gen Web and other sites. In the late 1980s, I indexed and published the "Quaker Census of 1828," a list of thousands of New York Yearly Meeting members. This helps people locate their Quaker ancestors and local Quaker meetings they were members of.

In the later 1980s, I found that for some reason, I was feeling tired of Mormonism, with its demands on time and perfectionism, or maybe I was just tired of organizations. As life went on, I came to visit the Quakers as a way of learning about some of my ancestral faiths and their records and customs. I liked the older original Quaker meetinghouses that were like visiting spiritual museums, with wood stoves, hard benches, and quiet meetings. Another place I enjoyed going was to Shaker historical sites, there being several in my area, where I could feel spirit and history together. A chance visit to a Unity church led to a year or two of study with some very open minded new age folks and also led to a few Spiritualist experiences. All that while keeping up with Mormonism and genealogy interests. I think these visits let me know that if I ever needed another spiritual path, that there are many out there to enjoy.

My mother passed away in 1986, after suffering from another cancer situation for about six months. This death made a huge impression on me and I was sad for six months, until I had a dream of going home and finding mom there making supper. In the dream, I asked why she was there and what had happened last year? She shocked me awake when she said something like, "Oh that. I am cured and happy now." The sadness went away after that. Life became more normal, I worked at my job and genealogy and went to church as usual.

Some changes began soon after. At work they were beginning to bring computers into our Central Supply work, so new jobs were opened for working with that. I decided to take that opportunity to do computer data entry as a clerk at work, also getting basic courses on use of personal computers in the late 1980s period. I did that work for about two years and also bought my first IBM desktop personal computer, the kind with two floppy disk drives, which I began my own journey of learning the complicated uses of the IBM PC. After two years on days, I got tired of the daytime shift. When the job I had on evening shift reopened, I went back to running the sterilizers, which I have done ever since in my work life at the hospital.

Soon after those changes at work I came to realize I was different and that meant that I found men attractive to me. Not knowing much about that, except for the usual cultural negative thoughts and stereotypes from society and from religion in the 1980s, I decided to learn what this was all about. I went to the public library and read many things there, not wanting to borrow books about homosexuality, because that would link the books to my library record. After some months of study of many positive writings, I eventually read about the Mormon group called Affirmation out in California. I joined and began reading their materials and that helped me become more self respecting and accepting, also giving me more courage to be myself, despite what other Mormons might think or believe about gays in general.

Over the last 25 years, Affirmation has helped me feel better and helped me to move on to find a more comfortable spirituality. I moved on to the primarily gay Metropolitan Community Church, where I served as a lay member and board member. I also joined the Quaker meeting, until they eventually objected to my being a member of another faith at the same time, so I withdrew from the Quakers. I stayed with MCC until I was over it and just decided to have a spiritual rest from organizations. The MCC has since disbanded in the local area, but there are now so many welcoming churches that it would be easy to find one if I wanted to attend.

In the early 1990s, with the new awareness of myself and my orientation, I eventually came out to my Mormon leaders and was released from my church callings. At first that seemed like a punishment, until I had a mind shift and then saw it as a spiritual vacation. I could go to church and did not have to do anything there. Except for genealogy, where they needed me. This continued until 1993, when in Utah they were excommunicating intellectuals. I decided that meant that the LDS Church was a place where I did not need to be if intellectuals were unwelcome. I wrote a short note saying I was no longer a believer and cancelled my LDS membership. At times I ask myself that if the LDS ever became fully welcoming, would I go back? I don't think I would. I have read too many things about the secret Mormon history.

In some ways, I still have a sort of "Mormon" cultural outlook. I have had a few of my own visions and revelations along the way that have helped me to walk my own path in life. I like being healthy and safe, so I don't drink much, don't smoke at all, don't do risky things. I just do what makes me feel alive and good and safe. I drink water while I dance. I try to live the Golden Rule for myself and others. I don't think I need any more spiritual rules than that. I believe in Karma, that you get back what you put out there in life. It can be sweet. I still have sort of Mormon Testimony, but it is totally personal and does not edify the orthodox.

I go out to socialize and dance for both the exercise and the fun. Most of my peers accept me as I am and respect me for who I am. I don't care if others disrespect me, because they are also disrespecting themselves when they do that to me. For some I am an older person with a good outlook on life, while others can't figure me out. To do so, they will have to figure themselves out first, then they can understand others better. It is really that simple, but even so could be pretty complex for them.

Occasionally, I make a Mormon history pilgrimage. This happens when a gay event is planned at a Mormon historic place and I can also do some of my personal genealogical research along the way to or from the event, or there is some other compelling connection I want to make. This happens every five or ten years, just often enough to be serendipitous and good for me.

One such visit was in Nauvoo, Illinois, and on to Washington, DC, Philadelphia and New York City, taken by train in 1992. One to Michigan in 1993, at an RLDS/COC campground and doing some Fay research in the area. Later to Kirtland, Ohio, at the original Mormon Temple, in 1995 and again in 2011. I have gone to SLC a couple of times to attend a gathering and visit my brother's family and do some research at the LDS library. Touring those historic places and doing personal research just seems to make the trip more fun, interesting and multifunctional. On the most recent trip to Kirtland, Ohio, I drove the 500 miles each way and stopped at several cemeteries and historical sites to learn more about our Bartlett family history, taking more than 200 photos of historic Kirtland and graves and other things along the way. As soon as I returned, I learned of an aunt's death and got to go to her funeral, visit cousins, and take photos of the graves and old farmhouse they had lived in since the 1920s.

I did a 1991 tour through parts of all the New England states the same week that Hurricane Bob decided to visit the area, making it very memorable. That was before having digital cameras, so maybe I need to repeat that trip and look at more in retirement. The trip included Plymouth Plantation, Quaker meeting in Sandwich, the Provincetown area, finding Mayflower ancestor Joseph Rogers grave site, the Salem Witch Museum, The Sabbath Day Lake Shaker Community, some Vermont research, etc.

In my second hometown, Albany, NY, the Mormons have worshipped in this city in rented rooms until the 1950s, when they bought an old Jewish temple to use as a chapel. Outgrowing it, they moved out to the suburbs about 1970 in a new church, where I attended in the 1970s and 1980s. They opened a new church in the city about 1995. A year or two ago they had grown to the point of needing a new building, so they bought property and tore down an old Catholic school to make room to build. In mid 2013 they began meeting there and in September, they had an open house that I attended just to see the new place. Of course it is all new and very modern. All the media programs were played on computers and they are all wired for easy communications to be given from SLC headquarters to the local church. Quite different from the old Quaker meetinghouses I like, with their quiet meetings and their old primitive out houses. It seems like being a time traveler to feel comfortable in both the old fashioned quiet meetinghouses and with the latest technology we use at work, at home and everywhere else, including in our new cars if we want to.

Over all these years, I have learned more about religion and spirituality in my own individual ways. I am less sectarian, more open to what works for me. I would say I am now more of a Reform Mormon, less believing in the LDS way. I see JS and BY as strong leaders with some strange beliefs that came from their times. Reform Mormons are more liberal in many ways, open to whatever works for individuals in a Mormon kind of cultural expression. We keep the good and let go of the less good in Mormonism, as well as in life in general.

Mayflower ancestry... One day many years ago I was tracing back and ran across our Mayflower connection. I was not seeking same, but found it.

Our Rogers Mayflower ancestry through Thirteen geneations:

compiled by Loren V. Fay.

Thomas Rogers was a passenger on the Mayflower, and a signer of the Compact, came to Plymouth, Mass., in 1620, and died the first winter there. Name noted on the town monument in Plymouth, Mass., and in Mayflower documents.

Joseph Rogers, one of his sons, also came on the Mayflower in 1620, married Hannah...., d. Eastham, Mass. 1677/78. A boulder with a plaque about him are in the Cove cemetery in Eastham, Mass. (stone visible on Find a Grave website.)

John Rogers, 1642 - 1713/14, also buried at Eastham, Mass. married 1669 Elizabeth Twining.

Nathaniel Rogers, 1693 - , married 1721/22 Silence Dimmock at Harwich, Mass.

Ruth Rogers, 1725 - 1808, married Jonathan Lord 1746 at Colchester, CT, died in Norwich, VT.

Experience Lord 1749/50 - 1822, married Aaron Pennock in CT, died in Strafford, VT. (Aaron in Rev. War)

Ruth Pennock, b. c. 1774 in Strafford, VT, d. 1835 Chelsea, VT, m. Henry Godfrey, c. 1790s.

Henry Godfrey, b. 1803, m. 1825 at Chelsea, VT, married Elizabeth Little, both buried in Chelsea, VT, old cemetery.

Julia Emma Godfrey, b. 1832 in VT, d.1888 in Wisconsin, m. 1851 VT, James Edward Campbell, 1830 - 1921, b. VT, d. WI.

Ida May Campbell, 1855 - 1907 in Wisconsin, m. 1887 WI, James Henry Fay c.1860 - 1929, b.MI, d.Ontario.

Edward Arnold Fay, 1889 - 1976, m. 1912 Bloomer, WI, Barbara McCulloch 1893 - 1970, both d. in NY. Graves on Find a Grave website at Homer, NY.

Neil Henry Fay, 1919 - 2005, b. Bloomer, WI, d.NY, m 1943 Homer, NY, Marjorie Bartlett, 1922 - 1986. Graves on Find a Grave website at Homer, NY.

Bruce, Douglas, Stanley and Loren Fay, all b. Cortland, NY, 1944 - 1950, lived in Moravia, NY growing up, then the three younger brothers moved in different directions to SLC, UT, Cortland, NY, and Albany, NY and other places along the way in life. Loren Fay is active in genealogy research in Albany, NY, as of 2011.

40+ Years of Sterile Processing... (I will retire in early 2020.)

Loren Fay began this Sterile Processing work in 1971-1973 as a "helper" at Albany Medical Center's Central Supply department, then moved on to finish college. After graduation and several part time jobs, he returned to work at AMC in 1979. He became a sterilization technician and then worked with helping initiate the Digimax inventory system in the later 1980s. He returned to sterilization work in the 1990s when the Central Processing Department took over the sterilization of all the OR sets, because the old OR sterilizer machines did not pass inspection. He has continued in this role ever since. The department name changed again to Sterile Processing Department and has had several major changes in leadership over the years, but the mission is the same. The stress experienced in recent years due to the growth of AMC has led to constant turnover of leaders and workers. The whole department went to school to study for becoming certified sterile processing professionals in 2006-2007, and many have taken and passed the exam since then. Many have since moved to a less stressful work place, or have retired. In 2020, we have one lady who has worked in CS, CPD and SPD for over 60 years. Others have worked here 25 - 50 years, but the majority have joined the staff in the past 10 years.

The work in the 1970s and 1980s was different than it is today. Back then, almost everything was reusable. Needles, glass syringes, respiratory equipment, tray and bundle wrappers, etc., were all reused and reprocessed. Throw-away, one-time use items were rare back then. When HIV/AIDS and other diseases threatened the safety of reusing equipment, disposables became a new industry in all parts of the health care field. 1981 was a scary year, because at the beginning of the HIV pandemic, we didn't know what it was or how it was spread, causing almost a panic in how to react to the disease in a hospital setting. Universal precautions became a normal way of dealing with the issues. This means being careful with all patients and what is used with them. Over the years, better understanding, scientific advances and public awareness have all helped to improve the situation in health care and in sterile processing.

Computerization of inventory and ordering systems has also been another revolution in the work. From totally handwritten or typewritten paperwork before about 1987, desktop computers began to make work easier after the initial work of putting enough information into the system to make it smart enough to respond to future use of the data. By the 1990s, computers were becoming more indispensable and small hand-helds were used to do site inventories and bring the information back to the office for processing. Computers moved up a notch in the new millennium to where we also use them to store and recall data about the reprocessing of instrumentation, the distribution and return of items and the recording of the sterilization processes and load contents, and load testing.

In mid-2003, the AMC SPD began to use the T-DOC system to record and track the reprocessing work of OR and other instrumentation. Since then, most items that are reprocessed have been bar-coded and have instructions for handling in the T-DOC system. The system has also recorded over 81,000 batches or loads of sterilization cycles since 2003. That is an average of over 10,000 batches or loads a year. (Since then, in May 2013, we processed our 100,000th sterilizing load with T-DOC, and just kept on counting.) (On Sunday, May 31, 2015, I ran batch/load number 140,000, which means we are running about 20,000 loads a year the past two years. On Thanksgiving eve, Nov. 25, 2015, the 150,000th batch/load was run and later I ran the 150,026th.) On 12/31/2019, I ran batch number 281,070 at the end of my evening shift. When a single set or instrument is needed quickly, a One Tray cycle is run, which has inflated our batches. By 1/22/2020, the total was already up to 283,500 batches.

In 2012, Loren Fay was just one of many qualified SPD technicians running loads of goods and using T-DOC, and he helps train new people in getting used to doing it our way to fit better into our records and processes. In 2011, he personally ran over 3,000 loads, and he manages the load records and laboratory reports, almost daily filing them and each month trying to keep them in order, then boxing them monthly and sending them annually for storage in the AMC Archives. (Since writing this, we have begun to run and incubate and record the results of biological testings of loads several times each day, and for each load with an implantable device. We hold those in quarantine until the test tells us they are clear to be used in surgery. In 2015 we began using a one hour test that makes use of sterilized goods more rapid than the old three hour tests. For Gravity steam loads, we use a 30 minute read out test.)

Looking ahead to his future, Loren Fay was planning to retire from AMC on time in 2015, until the social security system changed the full retirement age to 66. He has had an active interest in family history for over 50 years, and does active research online and at local research places when he is not working at AMC. If he stays in the Albany area, he has plans to volunteer at the New York State Library in the History and Genealogy section after he retires, along with doing his own research and helping others who may want him to look up information for them for either simple family history or for family health history from historical records. He maintains an active Facebook page with many family photo albums shared with relatives and friends, many of whom find the photos and resources interesting. He also has a work photo album and many other topical albums with Facebook.

Sources

• First-hand information. Entered by Loren Fay at registration and revised whenever he wishes to do so.

Check this out for many cemetery photos of Family Resting Places:

(I have heard that to look at these Facebook photos requires being a "friend" of mine to pass the security walls on Facebook, so if you wish to be friended to see them, just send me a friend request and note on my FB page. I decided this was easier than uploading many pics to this place. I have hundreds of photos in albums on Facebook. Sorry for that inconvenience. I didn't want to just give my photos to this website, until later on when I began adding some to the Wiki Tree profiles. -LF)

family cemetery photos:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.483810745341.289111.535575341&type=3

And here for several of my childhood photos:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150119887465342.316650.535575341&type=3

One of my publications, done at home, printed from computer and photocopied, folded and stapled by hand. Available in my hometown historical society and Library of Congress. out of print. A Wood family chart of Quaker family cousins is at the center of the booklet.

Author: Fay, Loren V. (Main) Title: Sempronius Meeting of Friends : an historical sketch of the first religious society in the town of Moravia, Cayuga County, New York, 1804-1838 Publisher: Albany, N.Y. (Box 2167, Albany 12220) : L.V. Fay, 1986, 2nd ed., rev. Description: 33 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. Notes: ~~ Subjects: Society of Friends--New York (State)--Moravia-- History; Church records and registers--New York (State)-- Moravia; Moravia (N.Y.)--Church history; Moravia (N.Y.)--Genealogy. LC Call No.: BX7649.M65F391986 - DEWEY CLASS NO.: 289.6/74768 ED: 20 Format: Book - LCCN: 88-152242

With this interest of history and family, I have noted several early Fays in the Albany area, including these, who are named in old city directories and in cemeteries, as well as in the old census records:

In memory of Anna Fay, wife of John Fay, Jr., daughter of John Bogart Esq., who died July 8, 1822, aged 37 years and 6 mos. (Followed by this verse:) Husband, farewell, my life is past, My love to you till death did last, For my decease no sorrow take, But love our offspring for my sake. Your loss I trust tho fraught with pain, Will prove thy everlasting gain.

From the Medical section of Albany County Bicentennial History in the 1800s on p. 210:

Henry B. Fay, graduated from Albany Medical College 1843, after practicing locally, he removed to New York City and practiced his profession there.

In the NY Daily Tribune, Aug. 16, 1855, p.8, right end column:

COMMISSIONERS OF EMIGRATION. The Board held its regular weekly meeting yester- day afternoon, at the office in Worth-st. Present, Messrs. VEKPLAKCK, CUMXING, CAKRIGA.V, MORGAN, CVAIUIIGCE, Ky.N.vKny. PURDY and KELLY. Communication from Dr. Henry B. Fay, Physician- in-Chief of the Emigrant Hospital, Ward's Island, nominating Dr. George Forde as First Assistant Physician and Dr. Simrock as Second Assistant Physician; was received, whereupon the Board (voted to confirm them...)

Henry B Fay

United States Census, 1850

Name: Henry B Fay Event Type: Census Event Year: 1850 Event Place: Albany city, ward 2, Albany, New York, United States Gender: Male Age: 28 Race: White Birth Year (Estimated): 1822 Birthplace: New York House Number: 340

Household Role Gender Age Birthplace (The Bogarts are inlaws of the Fays), and John Fay, Henry's father, is buried on the Bogart lot in Albany Rural Cemetery, as seen above.)

John Bogart M 89 New York no occupation $6,000 real estate owned

Sarah Bogart F 60 New York

Mary Bogart F 48 New York

Henry B Fay M 28 New York grandson physician

John Bogart M 14 New York

Eliza Van Vechten F 58 New York

Catharine Barringer F 32 Germany

Ellen Norton F 14 New York

Household ID: 466 , Line Number: 36 , Affiliate Name: The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) , Affiliate Publication Number: M432 , Affiliate Film Number: 471 , GS Film Number: 17047 , Digital Folder Number: 004196759 , Image Number: 00174 (when they indexed the family, they separated John Sr., because of a numbering correction made on the wife's line, making it look like two listings, but I am sure it was meant to be one family household.

Citing this Record

"United States Census, 1850," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MCTD-7QT : accessed 28 Sep 2014), Henry B Fay in household of Sarah Bogart, Albany city, ward 2, Albany, New York, United States; citing family 466, NARA microfilm publication M432.

Find items about me and others by searching this old newspaper site:

http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html

Today I had a day off, did some research, went out to shop and to eat this evening...

while doing research looked in census pages and found some old stats from 1855 in the area where I grew up...

looked at some 1855 census stats today about four towns I grew up with them surrounding my home... Summerhill, Moravia, Locke and Sempronius, NY. can u believe there were 256 families and 237 farms reported in Summerhill, Cayuga County, NY in 1855??

361 families and 223 farms in Moravia? back then almost every family had a farm and was basically self supporting... in the valleys of Montville and Moravia the water power turned mills and kept small factories running and made some jobs available for villagers.

Locke, Cayuga County, NY in 1855 had 265 families listed and 171 farms, the other families were probably in small manufacturing or worked for others on their farms or businesses... several small factories in the valley used water power to run mills. etc.

Sempronius, Cayuga county, NY in 1855 had 258 families and 229 farms. similar to Summerhill. These towns are very rural, though also well populated today, but u can imagine there are a lot fewer farms today.

Those who had farms with sheep used the wool to make cloth and clothes, all by hand work. My ancestors did that like most others did. Shearing, carding, spinning thread and weaving the threads into cloth, then cutting the cloth and sewing it into clothes. People were busy and less bored.

The old 1825 - 1880 agricultural censuses, taken along with population censuses, help us see our ancestors' lifestyles more clearly, along with names, dates and places. We have that old info here at the NY State Library. Once you get there access to it is free, as it should be for NY taxpayers, and descendants of past NY taxpayers.

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