One of my brickwall ancestors is my 3x great grandmother Lucy Stowe.
All I (and other West family researchers)know for sure is that she was
born around 1808 and that she married my 3x great grandfather Westley
(Wesley) Coburn in 1827, probably in Newry, Oxford, Me. I've had
no luck discovering the identity of her parents or her place of birth.
Last night I was working on sourcing my Ancestry.com tree and did a
search on Lucy and Westley over on FamilySearch Record Search. I
lucked out: I found an image of a death certificate for a Lovisa Brown
of Milford, Middlesex, Ma. with Westley Coburn and Lucy E. Stowe
listed as her parents. I knew that Westley an Lucy had had a daughter
named Louisa or Lovinda, so this could be a variation of the name.
What puzzled me was the place of birth for all three was given as
Cochichuate, Ma . Westley and his family had lived mostly in Newry,
Oxford, Me. but the Coburns had originally come from Middlesex
County, Massachusetts. I needed more proof.
Lovisa's husband was listed as Parker V. Brown on her death record
so next I looked for any record of the marriage and found it again on
Record Search, this time in New Hampshire Marriages 1720-1920.
According to this, Lovisa and Parker V Brown were married in the
town of Shelburne, Coos County, New Hampshire on 5Jun 1851.
Finally, the name of the person who supplied family information on the
death certificate is given as "Mrs. F Barker". Lovisa's nephew was my
great grandfather Frank W. Barker who had died in 1905. Was his widow
Charlot visiting her Aunt Lovisa when the older woman died in 1913 or
even perhaps living there when it happened?
So what am I to make of all this? The names certainly match up and are
unique enough to satisfy me that they are my relatives. The Cochichuate
reference is the first time I've seen that town listed in connection with
the Coburns but perhaps this gives me a clue on where to look for more
information on Lucy Stowe.
(As a sidenote, the town's name is pronounced "Co-chit-u-it")
2 comments:
Lucy M. Stow and Wesley B. Coburn, both of Newry, married 28 Feb. 1827 in Newry, according to town records.
Lucy was the daughter of Melvin and Ann V. Stowe. Melvin was the brother of Andrew Newell Stowe of Newry, both sons of Samuel and Abigail (Dana) Stowe of Sherborn, Mass. (You'll find more on this family in Elizabeth Ellery Dana's The Dana family in America.) Melvin appears to have lived in Lisbon, Maine, in 1810, but removed to Newry by 1820. He and his wife (whose maiden name I don't know) are buried in Sunday River Cemetery, Newry.
Wow, thanks Chris!
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