BEDTIME GENEALOGY 21

I intended to do a post on the Great Molasses Flood but the
MassMoments website beat me to it and did a much better job
of it than I would have. I will say, though, that I’ve met Stephen
Puleo, the author of the book Dark Tide: The Great Molasses
Flood of 1919. My bookstore hosted one of the first signings for
the book and I highly recommend the book. My mother was
born eight years after the Molasses Flood and lived in a different
district of Boston, but often said that on a hot day you could smell
molasses if you were anywhere near the North End.


Today, January 16th, is the 174th birthday of my great-great
grandfather Jonathan Phelps West who I’ve written about before
in the story of his first marriage to Orpha. I was thinking about
this earlier tonight and realized that Pop, Grandpa West, would
have known his great grandmother Arvilla Ames West, Jonathan
P.’s mother, who lived from 1810 until 1907. I wonder if she ever
told him about her parents and grandparents who were born in
the century before!


Last but not least, congratulations to Randy, Chris, Jasia, Blaine,
Sally, and J.D. for making Kimberly Powell’s “Top Ten Blog List”
and to Terry, Craig, Miriam, Tim, Tim, Denise and Shelly for
being also mentioned by Kimberly as among her favorites. All
of them are terrific writers and if you haven’t read their blogs
yet, follow the links above to catch up with them now!