52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS#46: JOHN HASTINGS SR. & JOHN HASTINGS JR.

Fellow geneablogger Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small has issued the
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. Basically, we have to post something every
week on a different ancestor, whether a story, picture, or research problem. I've
been tracing the ancestral lines of my grandmother Cora Barker, which include
the Barnes, Colby, Davis, Hoyt and Kelley familes, and now turn to my Hastings
ancestors.


I finally found something in Google ebooks about my 6x and 5x great grandfathers
John Hastings Sr. and John Hastings Jr. It was in a collection of family histories
for families in Maine, which I now realize is someplace I should have looked
at earlier, given my branch of the Hastings had moved there in the late 18th
century. Even so, most of the information on John Sr is about his wife's grandfather
Richard Bailey:
 
(IV) John, youngest son of Robert and Elizabeth (Davis) Hastings, was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, September 3, 1691. He married, May 2, 1717, Edna, daughter of Joseph Bailey, and granddaughter of Richard Bailey, of Rowley, who is said to have come from Yorkshire, England, some time from 1630 to 1638; he is represented then as a lad of some fifteen years, a very pious person, called on to pray for the safety of the ship during a storm encountered on the passage; the ship was the "Bevis," one hundred and fifty tons. Richard Bailey was one of a company to inaugurate at Rowley the first cloth mill in America; his death occurred between 1647 aml 1650, aged thirty-three to thirty-five years perhaps, just in the young flush of middle life. Richard Bailey left one son, Joseph, who was a leading man in state, church and army; a selectman in Bradford and a deacon from the formation of the church there till his death: he in turn left eight sons and daughters, among whom were Elizabeth and Edna, who married Robert and John Hastings, respectively, as aforementioned. Children of John and Edna (Bailey) Hastings: 1. John, born January 23, 1718. 2. James, May 4, 1720. 3. Abigail, August 12, 1722. 4. Jonas, January 12, 1727.

(V) John, eldest son and child of John and Edna (Bailey) Hastings, was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, January 23, 1718. He married (first) Rebecca Bailey, and (second) Mary Amy. Children of first wife: 1. John, born April 11, 1744. 2. Richard, October 12, 1745. 3. Rebecca, 1746. 4. Jonas, November 9, 1747. 6. Timothy, April 12, 1750, died young. 7. Amos, February 3, 1757. Children of second wife: 8. Levi, June 6, 1762. 9. Evan, July 12, 1764, died unmarried. 10. Mollie, September 12, 1766, died young. 11. Joshua, June 7, 1768. 12. Abigail, August 2, 1770. 13. Ann, March 3, 1772. 14. David, June 17, 1774. p1752

Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, Volume 4 (Google eBook)
Henry Sweetser Burrage, Albert Roscoe Stubbs Lewis historical publishing Company,  New York 1909


One problem surfaced in all this information: the book lists John Hastings Jr.'s first
wife as Rebecca Bailey while I'd previously found it in other places as Rebecca
Kelley. Here are images from the   New Hampshire, Birth Records, Early to 1900
collection at FamilySearch. These are for the births of four of the children of John
and Rebecca Hastings. If you compare the birthdates in the images with those in
the passage from the book, they match up. In all four, the name of the mother is
given as Rebecca Kelley.

I have a possible explanation for the discrepancy. Here is the image for the
marriage record of John Hastings and a Rebecca Kaley, The date here matches
with what I had in my database:

Could it be someone misread Kaley for Baley?

THE SIXTH ANNUAL GREAT GENEALOGY POETRY CHALLENGE POSTS

Welcome to the Sixth Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge!
Here are rules for the Challenge:
 
 1. Find a poem by a local poet, famous or obscure, from the region 
your ancestors lived in. It can be about an historical event, a
legend, a person, or even about some place (like a river)or a local
animal. It can even be a poem you or one of your ancestors have written!
0r if you prefer, post the lyrics of a song or a link to a video of someone
performing the song. 

2. Post the poem or song to your blog (remembering to cite the source
where you found it.).  If you wish to enter an older post, you may as long
as long as it has not appeared here in an earlier Poetry Challenge.
 
3.Tell us how the subject of the poem or song relates to your ancestor's
home or life, or the area of the country where they lived.

There are some really unique submissions this year with some great poetry
and even some songs. I think you'll enjoy these blogposts, so let's get started! 



Ellingwood cousin Pam Carter's submission is the lyrics of a song Pam's grandmother
used to sing to her. It's one I often used to hear myself as a child from my own
grandmother (along with another song, Pony Boy). Pam supplies a link to a
performance of the song and post the lyrics in Billy Boy- Traditional Folk Song at
My Maine Ancestry.

Barker cousin  Vickie Everhart of BeNotForgot has sent three submissions this year:
-In 1850 :: The Census Taker, she uses Darlene Stevens' poem The Census Taker
to help tell the story of her relative T.J.Allen who was a census taker in Texas.

-Vickie's 10x great grandfather was Job Tyler of Andover, Ma., and in 1896 a
family reunion was held there. Someone wrote a poem in praise of Job and
Vickie shares it with us in Ode to Job.

-Lastly, Vickie weaves the poetic epitaph on an ancestor's grave with her family
history and a bit of the history of Georgia in 1834 :: Howl Fir Tree for the Cedar is Fallen


Heather Wilkinson Rojo has shared some wonderful poems by her grandmother Bertha Wilkinson in previous Poetry Challenges. This time the subject is a trip to a place many
of my genealogy friends have taken themselves. The poem is entitled Our Trip to Utah,
posted in The Sixth Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge at Nutfield Genealogy

Over at TransylvanianDutch, John Newmark celebrates his wife's Scottish heritage with
a well known poem by Robert Burns. He also gives links to a poem by Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne, and to a performance of song made from it. His post is Sixth Annual Genealogy Poetry Challenge - Scotland


One of my favorite poets is fellow New Englander Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, so I was very interested (and a wee bit envious) when Diane MacLean Boumenot sent me
the link to her post Buckley Parmenter and The Wayside Inn. Her ancestor worked at
the inn that was the inspiration for Longfellow's "Tales of a Wayside Inn" poetry collection. Diane tells us about the history of the establishment and shares some stories about Buckley at her One Rhode Island Family blog.


I'm also envious of Barbara Poole of Life From The Roots, who also has a connection
to a Longfellow poem. While researching an ancestor she discovered he may have been
aboard a sailing vessel that vanished.  The incident is commemorated in Longfellow's
poem The Phantom Ship. Barbara's post is Poem for Bill West's Sixth Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge.

My contribution stems from my search for New England legends and folklore to write about at Halloween. This year I was lucky to find a poem written about distant cousin Jonathan Moulton being haunted by the ghost of a dead wife. Even better, the poem The New Wife And The Old, was written by another of my distant relatives, John Greenleaf Whittier. I wrote two posts about the story and poem in HALLOWEEN TALES: "THE NEW WIFE AND THE OLD" PT1  and PT2.


And that concludes this year's Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge. My thanks to all
the participants for their great blogposts!

MY ALLERTON AND WARREN MAYFLOWER ANCESTRY

((First posted November 2011))


Whenever I am talking or writing about my Mayflower descent, for some
ironic reason I always forget about Remember Allerton. The reason for the
irony is that both my Dad's parents were Allerton descendants: Pop from
Remember Allerton and Grandma Bertha from Mary Allerton.:



Allerton through Ellingwood Line

Isaac Allerton & Mary Norris
Remember Allerton & Moses Maverick
Abigail Maverick & Samuel Ward
Martha Ward & John Tuthill(Tuttle)
Martha Tuthill(Tuttle) & Mark Haskell
Martha Haskell & John Safford
Ruth Safford & Samuel Haskell
Martha Haskell & Moses Houghton
Sally Houghton & James Thomas Dunham
Florilla Dunham & Asa Freeman Ellingwood
Clara Ellingwood & Phillip Jonathan West
Floyd Earl West Sr  & Cora B Barker
Floyd Earl West Jr &  Anne Marie White



Allerton through Barker Line


Isaac Allerton & Mary Norris
Mary Allerton & Thomas Cushman
Sarah Cushman & Adam Hawkes
John Hawkes & Mary(Margery)Whitford
Eva Hawkes & John Bancroft         Eunice Hawkes & Jacob Walton
John Bancroft & Mary Walton
Sally(Sarah)Bancroft & Francis Upton
Hannah Upton & Cyrus Moore
Betsey Jane Moore & Amos Hastings Barker
Charlotte Lovenia Barker & Frank W Barker
Cora B, Barker & Floyd Earl Wesrt Sr
Floyd Earl West Jr and Anne Marie White.

My Warren ancestry comes through my Ames line

Warren Through Ames Line

Richard Warren  &  Elizabeth (?)
Mary Warren & Robert Bartlett
Mary Bartlett & Jonathan Mowrey(Morey)
Hannah Mowrey(Morey) & John Bumpas
Mary Bumpas & Seth Ellis
Mary Ellis & Ephraim Griffith
John Griffith & Mary Boyden
Polly Griffith & Jonathan Phelps Ames
Arvilla S. Ames & John Cutter West
John Cutter West & Louisa Richardson
Phillip Jonathan West & Clara Ellingwood
Floyd Earl West Sr & Cora B Barker
Floyd Earl West Jr and Anne Marie White.

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS#45: ROBERT HASTINGS

Fellow geneablogger Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small has issued the
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. Basically, we have to post something every
week on a different ancestor, whether a story, picture, or research problem. I've
been tracing the ancestral lines of my grandmother Cora Barker, which include
the Barnes, Colby, Davis, Hoyt and Kelley familes, and now turn to my Hastings
ancestors.

I recently did two posts about my 7x great grandfather Robert Hastings and his
parentage. It turns out there is not too much information about Robert available
on Google ebooks. I did find some in a genealogy of the Peaslee family written
by Emma Adeline Kimball:

On the same page of the history is the record of a house built by Robert Hastings
in 1676. This was not far from the home of the Peaslees. It may have been a log
house, and a larger one have been erected £ few years later; but, the house of
Robert Hastings was, in 1696, licensed as a tavern. There was no Hastings among
the Proprietors of the town of Haverhill. Being a mason or bricklayer, it' is easy to
conjecture that he came to the place to work on the house of Joseph Peaslee. It
is certain that he married Elizabelh Davis, born March 11, 1653-4; that her father
gave to Robert Hastings the land on which he built his house, and a few years later
added to the former gift of land one cow-common right and pasturage.
Robert Hastings, Sen., in a deed recorded April 21, 1710, gave to his son Robert thirty
acres of land on the "back side of ye said land I now live upon"; also a piece of meadow, half the orchard, and the east end of the house, to be his at the signing of the deed. For himself and wife, during life, he reserved the other half of the house and orchard; after their decease, Robert, the son, was to have the whole house and all of the orchard.

Elizabeth, the daughter of Robert Hastings, Jr., married Joseph Kelly, Jr., and lived on the homestead. It has never passed out of the family, the present owner being a descendant
of the Kelly and Hastings families under a different name.
pp10-11
The Peaslees and Others of Haverhill and Vicinity (Google eBook) Press of Chase Brothers, Haverhill, Ma. 1899

There was also this:
Katharine, eldest daughter of Robert and Elizabeth (Davis) Hastings, married Samuel Davis, Jr. Elizabeth Hastings married the third Joseph Peaslee. Robert Hastings, Jr., married Elizabeth Bailey, daughter of Deacon Joseph Bailey of Bradford, March 18, 1706. John, brother of Robert, Jr., married May 2, 1717, Ednah "Bealy," sister of Elizabeth. George Hastings, born April 24, 1688, and his brother John built their houses at the foot of the hill beyond the homestead, the home of Robert Hastings, Sen., and his son Robert. The house of one was near the-highway, in later years known as the J. H. Morse place, which was destroyed by -fire many years since. The other brother built his house on the edge of the intervale, now the home of Mrs. Elizabeth Swain, the daughter of Oliver Morse, in whose family it has been for more than a century, having been purchased of Robert Hastings of the third generation, son of the builder.p44

I was struck by the fact that Robert was a bricklayer. That's the third ancestor that
had that occupation, and all from different branches of my family. Besides Robert
Hastings on the maternal side of my Dad's family, there is 5x great grandfather
Joseph Ellingwood on his paternal side. And my Mom's side, her great grandfather
John McFarland from Ireland had worked as a bricklayer in Edinburgh, Scotland!     

MY ELLINGWOOD MAYFLOWER ANCESTRY

(( I first posted two articles about my Mayflower family descents back in
 November 2011 and decided to repost them every year as a Thanksgiving 
tradition.))

Back when I first started researching the family genealogy online I was
thrilled to discover we were descended from several Mayflower passengers.
At one point I even carried around a small folded up piece of paper
in my wallet with the lines of descent to show when discussing genealogy
with some customer at the bookstore. But I lost that some time ago, so I
thought I'd post them here for other family members.

The first three lines come down through my Ellingwood ancestry from
Stephen Hopkins, Thomas Rogers, and James Chilton.

Hopkins Line
Stephen Hopkins and Mary____
Constance Hopkins & Nicholas Snow
Elizabeth Snow & Thomas Rogers
Eleazer Rogers & Ruhamah Willis
Experience Rogers & Stephen Totman
Deborah Totman & Moses Barrows Jr.
Asa Barrows & Content Benson
Rachel Barrows & John Ellingwood Jr
Asa F. Ellingwood & Florilla Dunham
Clara Ellingwood & Philip West
Floyd West Sr & Clara Barker
Floyd West Jr & Anne M White

Rogers Line
Thomas Rogers & Alice Cosford
Joseph Rogers & Hannah___
Thomas Rogers & Elizabeth Snow
Eleazer Rogers & Ruhamah Willis
Experience Rogers & Stephen Totman
Deborah Totman & Moses Barrows Jr.
Asa Barrows & Content Benson
Rachel Barrows & John Ellingwood Jr
Asa F. Ellingwood & Florilla Dunham
Clara Ellingwood & Philip West
Floyd West Sr & Clara Barker
Floyd West Jr & Anne M White

Chilton Line
James Chilton & ?
Isabella Chilton & Roger Chandler
Sarah Chandler & Moses Simmons
Moses Simmons Jr & Patience Barstow
Patience Simmons & George Barrows
Moses Barrows & Mary Carver
Deborah Totman & Moses Barrows Jr.
Asa Barrows & Content Benson
Rachel Barrows & John Ellingwood Jr
Asa F. Ellingwood & Florilla Dunham
Clara Ellingwood & Philip West
Floyd West Sr & Clara Barker
Floyd West Jr & Anne M White

KISSING COUSINS

I mentioned in a previous post how many of my ancestors were already
related before their marriages. These were my paternal ancestors, whose
families had been among the early settlers of New England, when the
population was small, and travel between different areas was harder.
After three or four generations many of the people in a town were
related to each other, but by the 19th century many of those blood ties
were probably unknown. In my Dad's family, his ancestors had moved
from Massachusetts up to western Maine, away from the towns like
Andover and Groton where their families had first met and mingled.
  
Here's just two instances on my Dad's side of the family, his parents and
paternal grandparents, using the relationship calculator function on RootsMagic 6:

Floyd Earl West and Cora Bertha Barker
1. Fifth cousin twice removed (common ancestor: John Spaulding & Mary Barrett)
2. Eighth cousin (common ancestor: William Sargent & Elizabeth Perkins)
3. Eighth cousin (common ancestor: Henry Herrick & Editha Laskin)
4. Seventh cousin once removed (common ancestor: Richard Barker & Joanna Unk)
6. Tenth cousin (common ancestor: Hugh Sargent & Margaret Gifford)
7. Ninth cousin once removed (common ancestor: John Maverick & Mary Gye)
8. Eighth cousin 3 times removed (common ancestor: Nathan Halstead & Isabel Denton)

Philip Jonathan West and Clara J. Ellingwood
1. Sixth cousin (common ancestor: Samuel Phelps & Sarah Chandler)
2. Seventh cousin once removed (common ancestor: John Emery & Alice Grantham)
3. Seventh cousin once removed (common ancestor: John Prescott & Mary Gawkroger (Platts))
4. Eighth cousin (common ancestor: William Chandler & Annis Agnes Bayford)
5. Eighth cousin (common ancestor: Michael Bacon & Mary Jobo)
6. Eighth cousin (common ancestor: Joan Blessing)
7. Eighth cousin once removed (common ancestor: Willam Lakin & Mary Laudin)
8. Ninth cousin (common ancestor: Henry Chandler)
9. Ninth cousin (common ancestor: Richard Towne & Anne Denton)
10. Tenth cousin (common ancestor: Richard Bayford & Joan Searle)
11. Eleventh cousin once removed (common ancestor: John Adams & Margery Squier)


You can see how distant the relationships are. Their common ancestors lived one
and two centuries before them. Unless there was someone around who'd been
researching their family trees, there was no way they could have know they were
related.   

MY PHELPS LINES

I mentioned in my previous post that  my ancestors Jonathan Phelps and Beulah Parker
were both descended from John Ames and Priscilla Kimball.  Here's a chart showing their
lines:

I now also have a double descent from Samuel Phelps and Sara Chandler through
my great grandparents Philip J West and Clara Ellingwood, which goes like this:

Another example of how the small population in colonial New England led to many
entangled family lines!

THE QUESTION OF LYDIA PHELPS' PARENTS PT4: CONCLUSIONS

I haven't been able to find any  a marriage record as yet for Jonathan Phelps and
Beulah Parker, but I am convinced that Jonathan was the son of Samuel Phelps and
Elizabeth Andrews and that Beulah Parker was the daughter of John Parker and
Joanna Ames.

 The reasons I've come to this conclusion:

Discrepancies in "Aunt Betsey"(Ames)Putnam's story about her parents.

1. Her statement that when Lydia Phelps met and married John Ames it
was his second marriage. There is quite a bit of information on John Ames
but there is no mention of a first marriage in any of it.

2.Her story that Lydia's parents were of Scottish descent:  I mentioned in my
last post that I recognized the names of Beulah's mother Joanna Ames in what
William Richard Cutter had written about the family. This is because I already had
Joanna Ames in my database. She was the daughter of my 8x great grandparents
John Ames and Priscilla Kimball, and she married John Parker. The Parker, Ames,
and Kimball families had been living in Massachusetts for over a century by the
time of Lydia Phelps' birth.

The probate file and Phelps genealogy information :

The match of the names of the children of Jonathan and Beulah in the probate file
with the names in Charlotte Helen Abbott's genealogy of the Phelps family. 
This gives credence to me of her identification of Jonathan as the son of
John Phelps and Elizabeth Andrews, members of two more long established
colonial Massachusetts families. I've used her genealogy of the Barker family as
a reference while working on my grandmother's family and found her to be
very reliable as I've been able to find records to verify her Barker genealogy.
 
Name Patterns:

Once again, the names of the children of Jonathan Phelps and Beulah Parker were:
Joanna
Lydia
Jonathan
Francis.
  
Joanna is also the name of Beulah Parker's grandmother in Cutter's genealogy of
the family.

Lydia is the name of  Jonathan Phelps' sister in Abbott's Phelps family genealogy.

Jonathan could be named for his father or a number of other men with that name in the
Phelps and Ames families.

Francis was a Phelps family name because of the marriage of Rev Francis Dane's daughter Hannah to Samuel Phelps in 1684. (Ironic considering the events of the Salem Witch trials between the two families.) They are my 7x great grandparents through my Abbott line.


I still need to find a marriage record for Jonathan Phelps and Beulah Parker,
but for the reasons I've given here, I believe they are my 6x great grandparents.

THE QUESTION OF LYDIA PHELPS' PARENTS PT3

Continuing the story of my search to confirm the identities of the parents of
Lydia Phelps, my 5x great grandmother:

Having looked at the probate file of Jonathan Phelps at the American Ancestors
website, I next decided to see what I could find in Charlotte Helen Abbott's EarlyRecords Of The Phelps Family Of Andover on the Memorial Hall Library of Andover,
Ma. website. Since Beulah is a distinctive name I used that in the Find function of my
Firefox browser. I found two mentions of Beulah Parker. The first is on page 5 in the
list of the children of Samuel Phelps and Elizabeth Andrews.

It says their son Jonathan Phelps was born in 1726, that he married Beulah Parker
(but no date is given) .that he died in Groton, Ma in 1758, and that Beulah's second
husband was Peter Gilson. Notice the name of Jonathan's sister above his name.

The next mention of Jonathan and Beulah is the list of their children on page 9:

They match the names of the children in the probate file for Jonathan Phelps.

I decided to Google search next using the words Beulan, Parker, and Groton to
see if I could find more on Beulah. Old reliable William Richard Cutter came through for me again:

(III) John Parker, son of Samuel Parker (2), was born at Groton, in 1694. He married in that town, May 22, 1719, Joanna Ames. Children, born in Groton: 1. John, December 12, 1719. 2. Robert, January 20, 1720. 3. Jerusha, June 20, 1725. 4. Sarah, June 8, 1727. 5. Beulah, October 10, 1729. 6. Jonathan, December 1, 1732 (twin). 7. Relief (twin), December 1, 1732. 8. Deborah, June 4, 1736. 9. Oliver, mentioned below...-p1865

William Richard Cutter, Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, Volume 4(Google eBook) Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1910 Boston (Mass.)

When I saw the name of Beulah's mother, I recognized it immediately.

To be continued.

THE QUESTION OF LYDIA PHELPS' PARENTS PT2

Continuing the story of my search to confirm the identities of the parents of
Lydia Phelps, my 5x great grandmother:

I originally had Lydia's parents and Jonathan Phelps and Beulah Parker of
Groton, Ma. and then Hollis, New Hampshire. Sampson Read had cast doubt
on that in his genealogy of his family because of an interview with Betsey
(Ames)Putnam, my 4x great grandaunt, Betsey claimed that Jonathan Phelps
was a Scotsman because of stories Lydia had told her as a child.

The death date I had for Lydia's father Jonathan was 25Nov 1758.  Looking in the
Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871 on the American Ancestors
website, I found this file:

((Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871.Online database. 

AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. 

(From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.)

I opened the file and looking at the first image I knew it was the right Jonathan
Phelps:

((Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014.
(From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.) ))



The document reads:
To the Honourable Saml Danforth,  Esq, Judge of
Probate for the County of Middlesex
These are to inform your Honour that it is my Desire
that you would appoint Capt Abel Lawrance of Groton
Administrator to ye estate of my husband Jonathan
Phelps Late of Groton Deceased & in so doing you oblige
your Humble Servt.
Groton March 12th 1759 Bulah Phelps
P:S: It is my desire my Brother Robert Parker
should be Gardian for my children Viz Joanna
Lydia Jonathan and Francis.
The rest of the file consists of images of the inventory of the estate, most of which
went to Beulah (Parker) Phelps.

Next I went to  website for the Memorial Hall Library of Andover, Ma. , specifically to
the page for the Abbott Genealogies. These are collected genealogies written by my
distant cousin Charlotte Helen Abbott . She was a well known genealogist who wrote
a series of columns on the histories of Andover families for the local town newspaper.
One of those families was the Phelps family.

I'll discuss what she wrote about Jonathan Phelps and Beulah Parker in my next post.

To be continued...

THE QUESTION OF LYDIA PHELPS' PARENTS PT1

A few years back I posted about the question of the identities of the parents of
Lydia (Phelps) West, my 5x great grandmother. The original information I had
was that she was the daughter of Jonathan Phelps and Beulah Parker of Groton,
Massachusetts. Then seven years ago I found this:

"My father was John Ames, who was born in Groton, Mass., and
mother was Lydia Phelps, who was born in Hollis, Mass... When
father married second wife, the widow of Sampson Read, she had
three children, Sampson, Lydia and Amy, then children by John
Ames were: John, Jonathan, Zekiel, Polly, Betsey, and Ralph;
all born in Groton, Mass., except Ralph, who was in Merrimac,
Mass., and myself in Hollis." --Aunt Betsey Putnam, as told to Axel
H. Reed, Genealogy, p. 17.

"Lydia Phelps, my mother, was of Scottish decent [sic], whose
parents were born in Scotland, and from whom the Reads got
their light eyes, so father Ames used to say."
--Aunt Betsey Putnam, as told to Axel H. Reed, Genealogy, p. 17.

((The source for the quotes is: "Genealogical Record of The Reads,
Reeds, the Bisbees, the Bradfords of the United States of America"
in the line of Esdras Read of Boston and England, 1635 to 1915.
Thomas Besbedge or Bisbee of Scituate, Mass. and England, 1634
to 1915. Governor William Bradford, of Plymouth, Mass., and
England, 1620 to 1915." By Axel Hayford Reed, Glencoe, MN,
1915. I found them here at “The Ancestry of Overmire, Tifft, Richardson,
Bradford, Reed,” by Larry Overmire, RootsWeb World Connect Project,
2000-2007))

On the strength of that I unlinked Jonathan Phelps and Beulah Paker as Lydia's
parents because their families had been in Massachusetts for nearly a century
before Lydia's birth. But I didn't remove them or their families from my database
until I found more definite proof one way or the other . Then a few months back
the NEHGS added the Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871 
images to their American Ancestors and I started searching there for for the probate
files belonging  to my Middlesex County ancestors. One of the names I searched
for was Jonathan Phelps.

What I found there and one other place has I think settled the question of who
Lydia Phelps' parents were for me.

To be continued

THE SIXTH ANNUAL GREAT GENEALOGY POETRY CHALLENGE DEADLINE IS NEARLY HERE!

There's now less than a week to go for blogpost submissions to the Sixth
Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge. The deadline is Thursday,
November 20th and I'll be posting the list of links here on Thanksgiving
Day, Thursday, November 27th.

Once again the Challenge rules are:

1. Find a poem by a local poet, famous or obscure, from the region 
your ancestors lived in. It can be about an historical event, a
legend, a person, or even about some place (like a river)or a local
animal. It can even be a poem you or one of your ancestors have written!
0r if you prefer, post the lyrics of a song or a link to a video of someone
performing the song. 

2. Post the poem or song to your blog (remembering to cite the source
where you found it.).  If you wish to enter an older post, you may as long
as long as it has not appeared here in an earlier Poetry Challenge.
 
3.Tell us how the subject of the poem or song relates to your ancestor's
home or life, or the area of the country where they lived.

4.Submit your post's link here in a comment to me by midnight Thursday,
November 20th and I'll publish all links to the entries on Thanksgiving Day, 
November 27th.

If  you submit a humorous poem or song that will be entered under the
"Willy Puckerbrush" division. Willy was the late geneablogger Terry
Thornton's alias for some humorous posts and comments.

I've already received several blogpost links, and I hope there will be more
before the deadline falls.

THE QUESTION OF ROBERT HASTINGS PT2

My next stop in trying to find a clue to the identities of Robert Hastings' parents
was at FamilySearch.org Historical Records Collections, specifically the Massachusetts, Land Records, 1620-1986 for Essex County. Robert Hastings had married his wife there in 1676 and died there in the town of Haverhill so I looked for transactions that might
have been made between him and whoever his father may have been.

I found these entries under Hastings in the Deed index (grantee) 1640-1799 Had-Pix

Among them were transactions where Robert received or bought land from his father
in law James Davis.Some, like the following one, call him Robert Hastings Jr.

Others just refer to him as Robert Hastings. And to complicate matters further, my
ancestor had a son named Robert, and in later transactions the son is called Jr and
my ancestor Sr.

It's possible my 7x great grandfather Robert Hastings' father was likewise named
Robert Hastings. It's also possible there could have been another older relative, such
as an uncle or cousin in the area with the same name and my ancestor was called
Robert Hastings Jr to differentiate him from the other. But I think I can say with
some certainty that his father was not Walter Hastings of Cambridge, Ma.

THE QUESTION OF ROBERT HASTINGS PT1

One of the reasons I've enjoyed the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge is that
it has inspired me to do research on the older lines in my ancestry that I hadn't
spent much time on as yet.  It's helped me understand some of the ways the
different lines came together, and in some cases helped me push some of those
lines back a generation or two further.The past few months I've been exploring
the ancestors of my paternal grandmother Clara Barker,  which will continue
next with the Hastings family. 

But in doing some preparation for the first post I stumbled across a problem
with the parents of my 7x great grandfather Robert Hastings. I had them as
Walter Hastings and Sarah Meane but I had no record in my database for their
births, marriage, and deaths, nor did I have anything for Robert's birth other than
a birth year of 1653. I'd probably gotten the information that Robert was the son
of Walter and Sarah from a Google search years ago when I was a beginner but I
hadn't known enough to cite sources back then, so I set out now to see if I could
find something to confirm that.

What I found on Google didn't help:

-In an entry about John Meane of Cambridge on p 153 of An Historic Guide to Cambridge, it says Walter Hastings married Sarah Meane in 1655, two years after the supposed
birth year of Robert Hastings.


 -On page 216 of Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University Volume 3,
an entry for John Hastings, Class of 1681, it says he was the eldest son of Walter and
Sarah Meane, and that he was born on 2 Dec 1660



- I found the will of Walter Hastings in the Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers,
1648-1871. There was no son named Robert named among his children.

There was one more place I decided to look at for answers.

To be continued.

ON VETERANS DAY 2014

On Veterans Day I like to pay tribute to the members of
our family who have served our country from its birth. I don't
have all the details of the service records, and I'm sure I will
discover more relatives to add later, but this is what I have so far.

American Revolution: 
 
Jonathan Barker Jr. My 4x great grandfather
Was a Minuteman from Methuen Ma with rank of Sergeant.
He responded to Lexington and Concord with his sons
Served in Captain Samuel Johnson's Company in
Colonel Titcomb's Regiment for 2 months in 1777 in Rhode
Island and then with Nathaniel Gage's Company in Colonel
Jacob Gerrish's guards from Dec 1777 tol April 1778 guarding
the captured troops of General Burgoyne.


Jonathan Barker 3rd  My 5x great grandfather

Enlisted on 19 Apr 1775 in Continental Army, Capt. John
Davis' Company, Col. James Frye's Regiment, in the
Massachusetts line for 8 months in Cambridge, Ma. At the
conclusion of the term, he reenlisted for another 3 months in
Capt John Allen's Company, Colonel John Waldron's Regiment,
General Sullivan's Brigade in the New Hampshire Brigade at
Charlestown, Ma. He then enlisted a third time in June 1778
at Methuen, Ma., joining Captain Samuel Carr's Company, Col.
James Weston's Regiment, in General Lerned's Brigade at
White Plains, N.Y. and serving for another 9 months.


John Ames       My 5x great grandfather

Was a Minuteman under Capt. Asa Parker on April 18th,
1775. He then enlisted in the Continental Army under Captain
Oliver Parker, Col. William Prescott's Regiment and
in the Brigade that was commanded in turn by Generals
Putnam, Lee, and Washington and served for 8 1/2 months.
For a more detailed account of his service see my posts
about his Revolutionary War Pension File starting here.


Asa Barrows    My 4x great grandfather

A member of the militia from Middleborough , Ma. (south of
Boston) in the Company of Captain Joshua Benson, in Colonel
Cotton's Regiment, and General William Heath's Brigade for
8 months during the siege of Boston. In December 1776 he
joined a militia Company commanded by Captain Joshua
Perkins and marched to Barrington, R.I. and was stationed
there for 6 weeks. In July 1780 he again enlisted, this time
in a militia company commanded by Captain Perez Churchill
that marched to Tiverton, R.I. I posted about his
Revolutionary War Pension File starting here.


Moses Coburn  My 4x great grandfather

Moses Coburn got into the War late and by reason of being
"hired by a certain class of men in the then town of Dunstable
to go into the Continental Army in the summer of 1781."
When he reached Phillipsburgh in New York he was placed in
Captain Benjamin Pike's Company, in the Regiment of the
Massachusetts line commanded by Lt. Colonel Calvin Smith in
which he served for nearly two years until it was broken up.
He then transferred to the Company of Judah Alden in the
Regiment commanded by Colonel Sprouts until his discharge
in 1783.


Samuel Haskell   My 5x great grandfather

Samuel served in Captain Joseph Elliott's Company in Colonel
William Turner's Regiment and then under Captain Hezekiah
Whitney in Colonel Josiah Whitney's Regiment.


Amos Hastings   My 5x great grandfather

Amos was responded to the Lexington Alarm as part of
Captain Richard Ayer's Company and Colonel William
Johnson's Regiment. He later served in Captain Timothy
Eaton's Company in Colonel Edward Wigglesworth's Regiment
and was at the taking of the British General Burgoyne at
Ticonderoga.



Elisha Houghton   5x great grandfather

Enlisted at Harvard Ma as a Private in May of 1777 in the
Massachusetts militia and was at the Battles of Bunker Hill
and Stillwater. He then enlisted for three years in the infantry
company commanded by Captain Joshua Brown in Colonel
Timothy Bigelow's 15th Regiment of the Massachusetts line.
and took part in the Battles of Monmouth and Newport and
was at Valley Forge. He twice was promoted to Sergeant and
twice was busted back down to the ranks.


Amos Upton    My 5x great grandfather

Responded to the Lexington Alarm and marched there from
his home in Reading. He later joined the militia company
commanded by Captain Asa Prince as an orderly sergeant
and then enlisted for eight months in the Continental Army
under Colonel Mansfield for 8 months. He was at the Battle
of Bunker Hill. He was discharged in October of 1775.


John Griffith  My 5x great grandfather

Enlisted in 1781 as a Matross (he swabbed out the barrel of
the cannons after they fired, or so I've been told) in Captain
William Treadwell's Company in Colonel John Crane's
Artillery Regiment.



Reuben Packard   My 5x great grandfather

A Sergeant in Captain Josiah Hayden's Company in Colonel
Bailey's militia. They marched to Lexington at news of the
Alarm. He also responded several more times as a Minuteman
for a total of nearly 8 months duty.


Jonathan Abbot    My 5x great grandfather

Served as a Sergeant in the Militia under Captain Henry
Abbott and responded to the Lexington Alarm

Samuel Stowe  My 5x great grandfather

Minuteman from Sherborn, Ma. Served in Capt. Benjamin Bullard's
Company in Col. Asa Whitcomb's 5th Massachusetts Bay
Provincial Regiment

Besides those direct ancestors, these other relatives fought
in the Revolution:

Moses Barrows, brother to Asa Barrows.

Samuel, Jesse, and Benjamin Barker, sons of Jonathan
Barker, Jr. and brothers to Jonathan Barker 3rd.

James Swan, brother in law to Jonathan Barker.

War of 1812
John Griffith My 5x great grandfather

served in Capt Elias Morse's Company, Col. Holland's Regiment
as part of a artillery company defending Portland, Maine.

Amos Hastings My 5x great grandfather
helped organize the militia in Bethel, Maine and rose
to the rank of Brigadier General  of the 2nd Brigade, 13th Division of
the Massachusetts State Militia.

Nathaniel Barker  My 3x great grandfather
was a private in  the company commanded by Captain William Wheeler
in the Regiment  of Militia commanded by Col. Ryerson, which was
stationed at Portland, Maine.

Civil War
Asa Freeman Ellingwood  My 2x great grandfather

enlisted in Company I, 5th Maine Infantry, on June 24, 1861.
He was at the First Battle of Bull Run after which he received
a medical discharge in Dec 1861. He reenlisted inCo "A" 9th
Veteran R Corps in September 1864 and served until the end
of the war when he was honorably discharged.

Asa & Florilla Ellingwood

Other relatives who served in the Civil War:


 2x great granduncles:

 Leonidas West
 Enlisted in Company G 12 Maine Infantry Regiment on March 1,
1865. Mustered out on  18Apr 1866

Asa Atwood West
Enlisted in Company F of the Maine Coast Guard.

Oscar Phipps Ellingwood
Enlisted in Company E, New Hampshire 14th Infantry Regiment
23Sept 1862, mustered out 9Sep 1863. Transferred to Company
E,  U.S,.Veterans Reserve Corps 21st Infantry Regiment 9Sep 1863,
mustered out 11Jul 1865.

Cousins:

Charles O. Ellingwood
Enlisted 21 Dec 1863 in Company E, 9th New Hampshire Infantry.
Died 13Mar 1864 at Camp Burnside,Kentucky. (18 yrs old)


Henry O. Ellingwood Enlisted 25Oct 1862  Company K,  New
Hampshire 16th Infantry Regiment, died  1Mar 1863 in Carollton, La.

Franklin Dunham
Died in the War. Haven't found any details as yet.


Spanish-American War
Hollis J Ellingwood My cousin
Enlisted 2May 1898 in Company A 1st Regiment Maine Infantry
Discharged 28Oct 1898

World War 1

 Floyd E West Sr. My grandfather

Floyd E West Sr.

Enlisted 29Apr 1918. Served in Company K,303rd Infantry. He was a
corpsman at Camp Devens, Ma during the Spanish Influenza outbreak
and was honorably discharged 12 Mar 1919


World War II

Floyd E West Jr  My Dad

 Enlisted 19 Mar 1943 at 18 years old. After washing out of the Air Corps
Bomber School, he served in the US Army Infantry in the Pacific Theater  and
 was honorably discharged on 11 Mar 1946 at age 22

 Edward F White, Jr. My Uncle

Enlisted in the U.S.Navy on 27Oct 1942 at 17years old. He was honorably
discharged 18Apr 1946, a week before his 21st birthday.

Charles Barger My Uncle
I don't know the specifics of his service yet.
 
Operation Iraqi Freedom
 Paul Skarinka My Nephew

Paul And Jen

My nephew Paul Skarinka

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN: HAIR-RAISING FAMILY ADVENTURES!

It's been awhile since I did one of  Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy
Fun Challenges. I couldn't resist the hair-raisin one this week: 


1)  This week we're going to look for men's facial hair in our photograph collection.

2)  Find one or more photographs of men in your ancestral families that have facial hair - a mustache and/or a beard.  

3)  Show the photograph if you have it and tell us a bit about the person shown.   If you don't have a digital photograph, please describe the man and his facial hair the best you can.

4)  Write your own blog post, or a comment to this blog post, or a comment on Facebook or Google+.


It turns out I have quite a few ancestors with facial hair who posed proudly showing
it for posterity:

3x great grandfather Philip Richardson

2x great grandfather Asa F Ellingwood

2x great grandfather Jonathan Phelps West

2nd great grandfather Amos Hastings Barker

And most of Amos' sons and sons-in-law had mustaches:

I think for many years men grew beards because they kept their faces
warmer in Winter. Well, that's my theory, anyway. 

Grandfather Floyd E West & great grandfather Philip J West.

Our Dad occasionally grew a mustache but I don't think Mom liked it so
it didn't hang around very long when he did.

And as for me, well, I've been trying to grow a beard or mustache for over
fifty years now and all I have to show for it is some fuzz!

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS#44: RICHARD KELLEY

Fellow geneablogger Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small has issued the
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. Basically, we have to post something every
week on a different ancestor, whether a story, picture, or research problem. I've
been posting about the Barnes, Hoyt, Colby, and Davis family lines most recently
which are all in my Dad's maternal Barker ancestry. We're now at the point where
those lines come together with the Kelleys through the marriage of my 6x great
grandparents Richard Kelley and Susannah Hoyt, who were both the grandchildren
of William Barnes.

I found information on Richard online from the same two sources where I found
some about his father Abiel:  

(IV) Richard Kelley, son of Abiel and Rebecca, was born Oct. 24, 1697, and for a few
years resided in West Amesbury, and in about 1727 removed with his father to Methuen (now Salem, N. H.). He held a commission as captain in the Provincial militia. On Sept.
28, 1721, he married Susannah Hoyt, of Amesbury, who was born Feb. 20, 1697, daughter of William Hoyt, a grandson of John Hoyt, one of the early settlers of the town of Amesbury. The children born of this union were: Rebecca, born Dec. 22, 1722: William, Oct. 5, 1725: Richard, Nov. 2. 1727; Sarah, Nov. 28, 1730; Samuel, March 2, 1733; John, April 8, 1735: and Susannah, Nov. 11, 1738. p242
-Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts: Containing Historical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families ... (Google eBook) J.H. Beers & Company, 1912 - Barnstable County (Mass.)

The second source adds a bit more:

25. Richard-4 [ John 1,  John 2,  Abiel3], born October 24, 1697, married Susannah Hoyt, of Amesbury, September 28, 1721. She was born February 20, 1697. Her father was William Hoyt, a grandson of John Hoyt, one of the earliest settlers in the town of Amesbury.

Conjointly with his father, Richard Kelly bought, December 13, 1722, a lot of land in Amesbury (West), originally the lot of Robert Quenbe. On this spot he lived a few years and here three of his children were born. The place was sold to his cousin,  Richard, April 17, 1727, as elsewhere stated, and soon after with his father he removed to Methuen (Salem, N.H.).

In 1738 he was one of "a committee to provide stuft' for a meeting-house." He and two others were a committee calling " a meeting of the voters of the North Parish in Methuen," the call bearing date April 18, 1740.

It is recorded of him that he "was baptized and admitted to the Haverhill Church January 21, 1728." This must have been very soon after his removal from Amesbury. It is further stated that with others he 'was dismissed from the Haverhill Church to form a new Church in Methuen" October 26, 1729.

He held a commission of captain in the Provincial militia. -p22
A Genealogical Account of the Descendants of John Kelly of Newbury, Massachusetts, U.S.A. (Google eBook)

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS#43: ABIEL KELLEY

Fellow geneablogger Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small has issued the
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. Basically, we have to post something every
week on a different ancestor, whether a story, picture, or research problem. For
this prompt I've tried to concentrate on ancestors I haven't researched as much
as I have others in my family. This time my subject is 7x great grandfather Abiel
Kelley.

Abiel is another one of those ancestors that does not have as much information
on the internet as some of my other ancestors do, but I did find two entries for
him in genealogies. The first gives mostly the bare facts:


III) Abiel Kelley, son of John and Sarah (Knight), born Dec. 12, 1672, resided in Newbury, West Newbury and Methuen (now Salem, N. H.), in which latter place he
was a large land holder, and he took a prominent and active part in the early church
work of the places in which he resided. He died June 18, 1750. He married Rebecca, daughter of Samuel Davis, of Haverhill, Mass., Jan. 15, 1697, and their children were: Richard, born Oct. 24, 1697; Sarah, born Aug. 14, 1699; Mary, baptized March 29, 
1702: Rebecca, born Sept. 20, 1705; Mary, May 2, 1709; Abigail, March 16, 1712; Hannah, March 14, 1714; and Mehitabel and Ruth (twins), Aug. 18, 1716.-p242
-Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts: Containing Historical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families ... (Google eBook) J.H. Beers & Company, 1912 - Barnstable County (Mass.)

The second is a Kelly family genealogy and has a bit more information about Abiel:

Abiel3 [John2,  John1] born, December 12, 1672, married Rebecca, daughter of Samuel
Davis of Haverhill, January 15,(5 Cof.) 1697. He was one of twenty-four persons who
in 1796 "wished the second meeting house in Newbury to be located on Pipe Stave Hill,
and not on the plains." He and his wife were members of the second church in Newbury
(first church in West Newbury) at the time of Rev. Mr Tuft's ordination, June 30, 1714.

With his brother,  Jonathan, and eight others he received on petition, September 24,
1718, a grant from the town of eighty rods of the flats above Holt's Rocks, as fishing
ground, ''upon condition that they pay yearly one salmon each to Rev. Mr. Tappan and
Rev. Mr. Tufts."

He was resident in Newbury (West) as late as April 17, 1727. This appears from a document of that date bearing his signature. Nine months later he was in Methuen (Salem, N.H.)On January 17, 1728, he, with his son Richard, both of that town, 
bought of James Eaton, of Haverhill, eighty acres of land in Methuen, one of the 
corner bounds of which was at a point "on the top of Spicket Hill." March 15, 1729, 
he bought of John Renwee, joiner, of Methuen, a certain tract of land "situate lying 
and being in Haverliill and Methuen, by estimation 200 acres." It is described as "being on the south side of a path leading to Capt. Wainwright's Spicket Meadow, 
so called;" and as having on one side the old Spicket path, and on another side 
Spicket meadow, "but reserving and leaving suficient way for people to fetch their 
hay from out said meadow, joining said land."

He, with his wife, was dismissed from the second church in Newbury (First in West Newbury) in November, 1729, in order to join the church in Methuen. He was one 
of a committee appointed to lay out "a burying place" in the North Parish in Methuen (Salem, N. H.) in the year 1736. The parish voted, December 17, 1739, "to Abiel Kelly, for bords, the sum of 1. 3. 0." The boards were for a meeting house which was going up at the time. He was elected parish clerk the year previous.

The date of his death is thus given in the records of Salem: "Abiel Kelly desest on June ye 18, 1750.'
-pp13-14

A Genealogical Account of the Descendants of John Kelly of Newbury, Massachusetts, U.S.A. (Google eBook)

The important part though in all this is Abiel's marriage to Rebecca Davis, the daughter of
Deborah Barnes and granddaughter of William Barnes.