These days, we mostly associate Aaron Burr with Alexander Hamilton, due to the popular musical. While it is true that Burr shot Hamilton in a duel, there is more to his life than just that one incident. This book tries to tell more of Burr’s story, utilizing as one of the main sources the letters between Burr and his daughter, Theodosia Burr Alston, who was called Theo. She was his only child, and he was devoted to her, especially after her mother died when she was still a child. He focused, even after she was grown and married, on giving her advice, mainly focused on her education. He was actually an early proponent of education for women.
Burr was, by all accounts, an accomplished lawyer. He served as an officer in the Revolutionary War. This book merely mentions that fact. However, he is well enough known that he is elected Vice President under Thomas Jefferson from 1801 to 1805. This is the era when the separate political parties were being differentiated. By the end of his term as Vice President, and certainly after his disastrous duel with Hamilton, Burr has managed to make himself persona non grata with both the Federalist and the Democratic-Republican parties. After he left the office of Vice President, he was being hounded by debt collectors. He apparently had a habit of living above his means. To get away from them, he traveled west, and eventually to New Orleans.
Burr tried to start a settlement on the Washita River, in Louisiana Territory. At least that is the rationale for an expeditionary force he assembles. Others think he is planning to wage war against the Spanish, who held this territory, and then have some of the more western states secede and join with him to form a separate country. While he is acquitted of the charge of treason, mainly because while he may have planned a war, no war actually occurred, things are too hot for him. He travels to Europe, where he stays for several years, and only returns right before the start of the War of 1812. He dies in 1836, having become mostly irrelevant.
If this was your family, how would you research them? Again, court records were used, for the section of the book dealing with his trial for treason against the United States. The other main source were the letters between Burr and Theo. Someone well-known, even if they are infamous rather than famous, is obviously more likely to have their records preserved. In Burr’s case, sadly, there were probably land records regarding the sale of his property to satisfy his creditors.