52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2016 WEEK 18: SAMUEL DANA OF CAMBRIDGE, MA. AND POMFRET CT.

I haven't had as much luck finding information online about my 7x great grandfather Samuel Dana.
Here's what William Richard Cutter wrote about him in his article about the Dana family:

(III) Samuel, son of Jacob Dana, was born in Cambridge, September 7, 1694, died August 22, 1770. In 1716 he received his father's real estate, under condition that he pay the other children certain sums of money. It consisted of a house and twenty-seven acres in Cambridge and some of the Mashamoquet purchase in Pomfret, Connecticut. He married (first) April 10, 1716, Abigail Gay, who died June 1, 1718. He married (second) January 6, 1719, Susanna Star, who died April 10, 1731. He married (third) December 30, 1731, Mary Sumner, who died April 28, 1770. Child by first wife: Nathaniel, mentioned below. Children by second wife: Susanna, born October 10, 1720; Abigail, July 23, 1722; Elizabeth, April 7, 1725; Eunice, April 16, 1727; Samuel, December 23, 1728; Penelope, March 30, 1731. Children by third wife: Mary, March 24, 1733-34; Hannah, May 28, 1736; Amariah, May 20, 1738; Elijah, September 4, 1740; Josiah, August 22, 1742; Sarah, August 30, 1745-p1143

New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation, Volume 3 Lewis historical publishing Company, N.Y., N.Y., 1914

Two items of significance in that:
-Samuel died in Pomfret, Ct. I've found nothing to tell me when he moved there from Cambridge, Ma. or why he did. But from this time on the Dana family was prominent in both places.

-Samuel's first wife, Abigail Gay, was the daughter of Nathaniel Gay and Lydia Starr. Samuel's second wife, Susanna Starr,  was Abigail's cousin.

I'd hoped to find Samuel's probate file on FamilySearch but there are no Connecticut probate files posted there as of yet.

Samuel's oldest son Nathaniel is my 6x great grandfather.

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2016 WEEK 17: JACOB DANA OF CAMBRIDGE, MA. PT2

8x great grandfather Jacob Dana's probate file is not as much as a "hot mess" as that of my other ancestor Nathaniel Stow Jr. But, as my mother might say sarcastically, it is "a thing of beauty and a joy forever."

First there is the handwriting on some of the court documents which, while not illegible, is a bit of a challenge to decipher.

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.)Case 5848 Image4

Then there are the images with multiple small sips of paper with records of debts on the estate being paid.

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.)Case 5848 Image15

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.)Case 5848 Image16

Finally there is the creative spelling used in the estate inventory:

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.)Case 5848 Image2

"sadel and pilyan" (saddle and pillion)
"brass and putter and iren weare" (brass and pewter and iron ware)
"one trundell beed and beeding" (one trundle bed and bedding)

Transcribing this one will be a piece of cake though, compared to Nathaniel Stow Jr.'s file!
  

   

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2016 WEEK 17: JACOB DANA OF CAMBRIDGE, MA. PT1

Continuing on with my Dana family ancestors...

My 8x great grandfather Jacob Dana was the eldest living son of Richard and Ann (Bullard) Dana. Here's what William Richard Cutter wrote about him:

(II) Jacob, son of Richard Dana, was born in Cambridge, December 2, 1654. died December, 1698. In the division of his father's estate, he received "the dwelling house and half the barn, with all the appurtenances, as one single share, or half his double portion"; "one-third of all the land near the house," consisting of about five acres; "4 acres on the south pitch of the hill bounded by John McKeen north and west, Thomas Chaney south, and Daniel Dana east, and the remainder of his third part of the upland lying by the roadway, etc., subject to rights of his mother and the payment of three pounds annually to her." He married, probably in 1678, Patience ____, who was buried June 3, 1712. He died in 1698, and his widow was appointed administratrix, January 23, 1698-99, the inventory being dated December, 1698-99. Children: Jacob, born October 12, 1679, died young; Elizabeth; Hannah, October 25, 1685; Experience, November 1, 1687; Patience, Samuel, mentioned below; Abigail; Jacob, 1698. p1143


New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation, Volume 3 Lewis historical publishing Company, N.Y., N.Y., 1914

Some family genealogies say that Jacob's wife was Patience Sabin of Rehoboth, Ma. but I haven't found any marriage record either in Rehoboth or Cambridge. Given that the two towns are in different counties and regions of Massachusetts, (Rehoboth is in Bristol County, southwest of Boston near the Rhode Island border.) I don't think it's likely she was a Sabin.

I'll discuss Jacob's probate file in Part 2.

To be continued.

FINDMYPAST FRIDAY COLLECTION RELEASES FOR 27MAY 2016

 The Findmypast Friday releases for 27May range from Pennsylvania to Ireland:


This week we're bringing you over 615,000 new records and newspaper articles including:

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We hope you enjoy exploring this week's new additions. The Poverty Relief Fund records are an excellent resource as they record the names of individuals who are often missing from official government records and provide valuable insight into the devastating effects of the Famine on families right across Ireland.

Jen Baldwin



Full disclosure: I am a member of the Findmypast Ambassador Program which includes a
complimentary one year world subscription to Findmypast and a Findmypast First membership.

THE MILITARY HONOR ROLL PROJECT 2016: ABINGTON, MA.

((I first posted this back in 2013. Sadly another name has been added to the wall since then, 
Abington's first native son killed in Afghanistan))

Heather Wilkinson Rojo of Nutfield Genealogy is once again asking
bloggers to transcribe their local veteran monuments and list the names
on their blog. It's called the Military Honor Roll Project and I wanted to
take part this year.  I headed over to the memorial here in Abington
which is located right next to the building shared by the American Legion
and VFW Posts. It's a beautiful spot and there's quite a few names on it for
such a small town. They start with World War 1 and run up to the present
day.
 
It was a bright sunny day and I thought perfect for taking the pictures I needed
to work with for the transcription, but it turned out to be it was less than ideal.
The nearby trees were casting shadows over most of the monument and the wind
moving the leaves would cause the shadows to shift around.

 

                     DEDICATED
          IN LASTING MEMORY OF
ABINGTON'S MEN AND WOMEN WHO
       SERVED AND SACRIFICED IN
         THEIR COUNTRY'S WARS

             KILLED IN ACTION



World War I
Edgar D. Bascomb
Chester W. Belcher
Walter W. Coleman
Charles Cook
Lloyd Crossman
Lewis V. Dorsey
Robert B. English
George H. Gillespie
Henry C. Hurst
John J. Mahoney
Joseph D. Martin
Charles E. Murphy
Charles S. Myers
Myron Stewart
Harold L. Taylor
Shirley S. Thayer
George L.  Whore

World War II
Charles H. Bellows Jr.
Wendell E Chamberlin
Lloyd R. Clapp
John Colburn
George W. Coleman
Edmund G. Crossley
Elton E. Eckstrom
George S. Forsyth
Roy E. Hjelm
Wellington Jamieson
John R. Keeley
Clifford Kimber
Richard L. McCue
Harold R. McGeoch
John F. Monahan
John Rice
Frank D. Warner Jr.

Korea

Viet-Nam
Dennis K. Holly
Peter D. Christianson DFC
Richard F. Gliniewicz
Glenn R. Gordon
Ralph G. Hamlin
Ernest H Laidler
Richard A. Fitts


Afghanistan
Daniel Vasellian

I encourage my fellow genealogy bloggers to take part in Heather's
Military Honor Roll Project. You can read more about it here.

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2016 WEEK 16:RICHARD DANA OF CAMBRIDGE, MA. PT2

My 9x great grandfather Richard Dana died intestate but his surviving children reached an amiable agreement among themselves as to how the estate should be divided. While it's quite legible the document presents me with a challenge of a different sort.
Here's the backside of the agreement:

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.)Case 5859-3

 As you can see, it appears that someone taped two pages into one long piece. But since tape of this sort didn't exist in the 17th century, it's more likely it was one long piece to begin with and at some point had to be repaired with tape to hold it together. There's also some water damage.

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.)Case 5859-4

This is a problem (albeit a minor one) for three reasons. The first is in the middle where the two pages aren't quite lined up properly so some letters in words along that vertical crease are harder to make out.

Secondly, most of the words in the horizontal crease are obscured by the tape and a few have been damaged by the water.

Thirdly, the document is so large whoever scanned it couldn't get it all in one image so the top part of the second image is the bottom part of the first. It took me a few minutes to realize that when I first read the agreement.

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.)Case 5859-5

So I haven't finished transcribing this yet.

But at least there isn't any superscript!

WHY SUPERSCRIPT IS A THORN IN MY SIDE.

Transcribing records is one of those things that can be easy if the handwriting is neat and easy to read, or difficult if the handwriting messy and hard to read.

And then, just for fun, some colonial sadists threw in superscript, those little abbreviations that sort of float just between two lines of text.Here's some examples taken from my ancestor John Wetherbee's will:

This first is a symbol called a thorn which was derived from a letter in the Old and then Middle English alphabets. It's used an abbreviation for several words that begin with th:the, that. this. thou, and which word it stands for depends on the other words it's used with in a sentence. For example, in the example below, I decided it meant that as in "the meadow that belongs to my home lott" . I've usually seen it written as "yt" but for some reason whoever wrote the will used "ty" instead.

The next one is not an abbreviation but the familiar "ye". What is not familiar is that again the writer puts it down as "ey":

Lastly here's part of a sentence with two superscript abbreviations. I must admit the beginning seems like gobbledygook. Ironically the only word I could make out was the abbreviated "wth" for "with". The second part of the example uses "wch" for "which" in the phrase "the wch ten pounds".

Luckily the handwriting itself was mostly legible, otherwise I'd have really been frustrated!




   

THE FINDMYPAST TREE CHALLENGE

Findmypast is having an interesting challenge contest on their website starting tomorrow; Here's
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FINDMYPAST FRIDAY COLLECTION RELEASES FOR 20MAY 2016

 Here's this weeks Findmypast Friday announcement for 20May:

This week we're bringing you over 15 million new records and newspaper articles including:

British Newspapers
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See all this week's new records.

 
We hope you enjoy exploring these rich and varied collections. Electoral Registers are a fantastic resource that have taught me a great deal about the history of my home and have allowed me to gain a better understanding of my ancestors' place in society. 
Jen Baldwin 


Full disclosure: I am a member of the Findmypast Ambassador Program which includes a
complimentary one year world subscription to Findmypast and a Findmypast First membership.

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2016 WEEK 16:RICHARD DANA OF CAMBRIDGE, MA.

My 5x great grandfather Samuel Stow's wife was Abigail Dana, a member of  a distinguished Middlesex County, Ma. family. Her immigrant ancestor was Richard Dana, my 9x great grandfather. William Richard Cutter wrote this short biography:

(I) Richard Dana, the immigrant ancestor, is thought to be the ancestor of all the Dana families in this country. He came to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1640, from England, according to tradition, which also says his father was a native of France who went to England because of religious persecutions. In some records the date of Richard Dana's birth is given as 1620. In 1652, in the division of Shawsheen, he received twenty acres, and in November, 1661, he was constable. In 1665 he was surveyor of highways, and the same years he was allotted ten acres. In April, 1668, he was tythingman; he also was selectman and grand juror. In December, 1683, he had fifteen acres for services to the town. Most of his land was south of the Charles river, if not all of it, in the part now called Brighton. On April 20, 1656, he deeded fifty-eight acres of land to Edward Jackson. He died April 2, 1690, of injuries received from falling from a scaffold in his barn, and an inquest was called by Lieutenant Governor Thomas Dantorth. The inventory of his estate was dated August 2, 1690, and the estate settled April 16, 1691. He married, probably in 1648, Anne Bullard, of Cambridge, and she died July 15, 1711. He and his wife were members in full communion of the church. Children, born in Cambridge: John, December 15, 1649, died August 12, 1650; Hannah, May 8, 1651; Samuel, August 13, 1653, died 1653; Jacob, mentioned below; Joseph, March 21, 1656; Abiah, March 21, 1656, died October 10, 1668; Benjamin, February 20, 1660; Elizabeth, February 20, 1662; Daniel, March 20, 1663; Deliverance, May 8, 1667; Sarah, January 1, 1669, died January 11, 1669.-p1143

New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation, Volume 3  Lewis historical publishing Company,  N.Y., N.Y., 1914



Richard Dana died intestate but I found his probate file online and I'll discuss that next.

To be continued...

THE DANA DESCENT

Before moving onto the ancestors of my 5x great grandmother Abigail (Dana) Stow, here's a
look at how my family connects back to immigrant ancestor Richard Dana through my grandmother
Cora Berthella Barker. While my line is by way of Richard Dana's son Jacob, another son, Daniel
Dana, is the ancestor of author Richard Henry Dana of Two Years Before The Mast fame.

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2016 WEEK 15: JOHN WETHERBEE OF MARLBOROUGH AND STOW , MA. PT3

My 7x great grandfather John Wetherbee/Witherby had made out his will in October 1707 but didn't die immediately afterwards. However, he did add a codicil two years later in 1709. The main matter that was chaged was the disposition of the land he'd bought fro the widow Ruth Wheeler. Whereas that property had originally been willed to his sons Jonathan and Ephraim, in the codicil Ephraim is instead given a different piece of property that had been purchased from a J.R. Holm sometime after the original will had been written. Both the will and codicil were filed at Middlesex County Court in Cambridge, Ma. on 2April 1711, so John Wetherbee may have died in March of that same year.

Here's an abstraction of the codicil. Again, some of it was difficult to decipher:

This may signify to whom it may concern That whereas I ye within mentioned Jno Witherby in
within mentioned will did order that my sons Jonathan & Ephraim should have all ye upland
& two thirds of ye meadow belonging to ye lands I bought of Ruth Wheeler together wth part of ye
meadow belonging to my home lott as wthin. I do alter my sd will in manner following.
In pri. I do appoint & order tht my wife wthin mentioned & my son David shall have ye wholl of
my house lott in manner as they were to have all ye upland by part of ye meadow, now they
to have all ye meadow belonging and shall not have any of ye meadow that I bought of
sd Ruth Wheeler. And to my son Jonathan I give all whole lands both upland
& meadow tht I bought of sd Ruth Wheeler, and to pay ten pounds to his sister Anne my
at full age or sooner if she shall happen to marry, as is mentioned in his deed of it
pr wifes bearing even date wth these presents the wch ten pounds shall be in part of the fifteen
pounds ye sd Anne was to have been payd for by my Executor as wthin. and I do further will
& bequeath unto my youngest son (viz) Ephraim the whole of the land & accomadations
that I bought ye last year of J.R. Holm, wthin sd town of Stowe bound and he to have no fur
ther in ye land yt I bought of sd Ruth Wheeler or my home lott or meadows belonging
only my sd wife & David my son shall have ye use of ye lands I have given unto Ephraim
my sd son until he shall attain ye age of twenty on years, and further if my personall
estate afer my sd wife had her third shall ammount to more than to pay my sd daugh
ters their legacyes, then ye over plus to be equally divided amongst my children after my
sd wife her decease, all to be done & performed according to ye directions above written not
wthstanding what is contained wthin this my sd will. In witness whereof I do affix my hand
and seal this forth day of April Anno Domini seventeen hundred and nine.
signed sealed published
and declared
in the presence of us

Thomas Baroman
Thomas Browne Senr
Elizabeth Browne her mark

FINDMYPAST FRIDAY COLLECTION RELEASES FOR 13MAY 2016

Here's this weeks Findmypast Friday announcement for 13May. This week's editions focus on
London:
  
This week we've added over 1.6 million new records including:

London Lives, Culture & Society, 1680-1817
Explore this rich archive of more than 1.5 million London records including criminal registers, apprentice records, coroner inquests, workhouse minutes, clerks' papers and much more. Uncover the realities of life in historic London »

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This includes more than 40,000 announcements of armed forces promotions, appointments of official public offices, Royal proclamations and more. Were your ancestors high achievers? »

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If you have any queries or comments for us, or family history discoveries you'd like to share, get in touch here. We love hearing from you.
Jen Baldwin

Full disclosure: I am a member of the Findmypast Ambassador Program which includes a
complimentary one year world subscription to Findmypast and a Findmypast First membership.

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2016 WEEK 15: JOHN WETHERBEE OF MARLBOROUGH AND STOW , MA. PT2

My seventh great grandfather John Wetherbee/Witherby left a will and a later codicil, and I found
them in his probate file at AmericanAncestors.org and at first glance I thought transcribing it would
not be too difficult. As it turned out, it wasn't difficult but it was annoying because of a few things,
one being some of the words abbreviated in superscript, a topic for a later blogpost.  

 

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.) 24167:1

The original will was drawn up and witnessed on 13Oct 1707, three and a half years before it was filed in Middlesex court on 2Apr 1711:  

I John Witherby of the town of Stow in the county of Middsx within the Province
of the Massachusetts Bay in New England Husbandman being grown old & weake of Body,
but of perfect mind & memory praised be God for it calling unto minde ye mortality of my Body and knowing that it is appointed for all her(?) once to dy, Do make and ordain this my last will & testement First of all& principally I give & recommend my soul into the hands of God that gave it, & for my body I commend it to the earth, in a decent manner to be buried, according to the discretion of friend, nothing doubting but at the General Resurrection I shall receive the same againe by the mighty power of God. And as to my worldly estate that God of his Goodness hath bestowed upon me, I give, divide & dispose of the same as followeth. Imprimus, I do will & Appoint that all my just debts be payd and my funerall charges be defreyed by my executor hereafter mentioned. Itm I do will and bequeath unto Lidia my beloved wife all the free use of the one half of my now dwelling house in sd Stow & half of the Improvemnt of that my home lott that is to say the upland during the time of her naturall life except she should marry again, and to my son David I will & bequeath the other halfe of both houseing & land for ever together with ye other halfe of sd housing & land after his mothers decease or marriage again if she should happens so to do. Itm I do will & bequeath unto my two sons (viz) Jonathan Witherby & Ephraim Witherby all the the upland that doth belong unto the land that I bought of Ruth Wheeler of ye place called Shalbern (?) at Stow afore sd. Together with two third parts of the meadow that doth belong unto the sd land that I bought of Ruth Wheeler as also of that meadow ty belongs to my home lott before mentioned, both for quantity & quality, and the other third part of the meadow belonging to each parcell of sd upland I do will & bequeath the same unto her my sd wife & him my sd son David Witherby in & after the same maner as I have to them ye housing & land forth above mentioned. And to my three daughters (viz) Mary, Lidia, & Anne I do will & bequeath unto each fifteen pounds that is to say Fourty & five pounds in the whole & the same to be payd out of my prsonal estate by my Executor if the same will hold out, after my sd wife has had her thirds out of my sd personal estate, my sd daughters to be payd when they come to lawful Age or sooner if any happens sooner to marry, and if my personal estate hold not out to pay the afore sd fourty five pounds, my aforenamed two sons (viz) Jonathan & Ephraim shall make it up in paying the remaindr unto their fore mentioned sisters. And unto my three eldest sons I do will & bequeath as followeth, unto my son Joseph Witherby fourty shillings unto my son John, & Thomas, unto each twenty shillings and all three to be payd by my son David in common pay within or by the expiration ofone year after my decease. The wch being Added to what I have formerly given unto them is the wholl of what I do resolve to give them my sd three eldest sons, and the remainder of my prsonal estate after my wife afore sd hath had her third out of my sd prsonall estate (the wch I do will unto her for ever) the remaining I say of any therebe I do will & bequeath unto her my sd wife & David my son whome I do make & ordain the Executor of this my last will & testement. And I do utterly disavow revoke disannul every other former will by me made at any time ratifying & confirming this & no other to be my last will & testement in witness there of I have here unto set my hand & seal this thirteenth day of October  In the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred & seven.
signed sealed published pronounced and declared
by him the afore sd Jon Witherby, as his last will
& Testament in the prsence of us the subscribers
(viz) John Hunt
         Thomas Brown Senr
          Ruth Browne
 
John signed it with his seal and by making his mark.

The codicil will be the subject in Part 3.

To be continued.

THE "HOT MESS" PROBATE FILE OF NATHANIEL STOW JR PT6

The next three images in Nathaniel Stow's probate file are still pretty straight forward. Image 11 is a letter from Nathaniel's heirs to the judge in which they name the people they've chosen as the commissioners to appraise the value of the estate and then divide it up. It's dated 9Apr 1726 and I've transcribed it as written (except that I  can't reproduce how some letters in abbreviated words are slightly above the rest of line.)

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.)Case21772 p.11

To the Honorable Judge of Probates for the County of Middsx
These may Certify that wee the subscribers do make Choyce
of the men hereafter named to be Commissioners to
Apprise the Fathers Nathaniel Real Estate of our Father
Nathaniel Stow of Concord in sd County deseast: Capt John
Flint mr Samll Jones mr Samll meriam mr Daniel
Brooks Junr mr Samll Straten all of Concord afore sd
as witness our hands this 9th Day of April 1726


Mary Stow her x mark                                         Joseph Stow
                                                                            Benjamin Stow
                                                                            Nathll Stow
                                                                            Nathll Merriam
                                                                            Bartholomew Jones
                                                                            Eleazer Melvin
                                                                            Daniel  Brook

Images 12 and 13 are the front and back pages of the instruction the judge sent to the five commissioners describing their duties in evaluating the estate.  This is dated 18Apr 1726:

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.)Case21772 p.12

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.)Case21772 p.13

As I said, these images are straight forward, and easy to read as well as easy to understand.
Unfortunately, things start getting messier with the next images, as you'll see in the next post in this series.

To be continued...

MOTHER'S DAY PT2

In honor of Mother's Day, here are pictures of our Dad's female ancestors.

First, on his mother's side:

Amos H Barker & Betsey J (Moore) Barker

Our 2x great grandmother Betsey Jane Moore was born on 16 Aug 1842 at Waterford,
Oxford, Me. She married Amos Hastings Barker in 1856 and they raised a family of
12 children, 11 of whom survived to adulthood. Betsey died 12Mar 1924 at age 82.

My great grandmother Charlotte Lovenia Barker is the lady on the right.

 Our great grandmother Charlotte Lovenia Barker was youngest of  Amos & Betsey's
12 children. She was born on 3 Aug 1879 in Albany, Oxford, Maine and was known as
":Lottie". She married her first cousin Frank W. Barker on 16Oct 1898 and they had
4 children before Frank died in 1905 from pneumonia caused by "La Grippe" (the flu).
She was married three more times before her death on 3Jan 1944 at Bangor, Maine.   

Cora Berthella (Barker) West & her great granddaughter Mindy Sue West

Our grandmother Cora Berthella (Barker) West was born 27Oct 1899 and was the eldest
child of Frank and Charlotte. She preferred the name Bertha, although it was given as
Cora on her marriage certificate. Bertha married Floyd E.West Sr on 24Mar 1919 and
had 5 children, one of whom was our Dad.

 On his Dad's side of the family:

Arvilla (Ames)West

Our 3x great grandmother Arvilla Ames was born in Livermore, Androscoggin, Maine
on 25Jan 1810, one of 10 children. She married John Cutter West on 23Sep 1827
at Sumner, Maine, and five years later they moved to Letter B Plantation (later renamed
Upton), Oxford, Maine. She had 10 children, 3 of whom died in a diphtheria outbreak
in 1862. She died at age 97 at Hermon, Maine.

Louisa A.(Richardson) West

  Louisa Richardson, our 2x great grandmother was born in Wilton, Maine on
23Jun 1837 at Wilton, Maine.  She was the second wife of Jonathan Phelps West,
whose first wife had died in the 1862 diphtheria outbreak. Louisa and Jonathan
married on 31Jan 1865 and had 4 sons. She died 4Oct 1925 at age 88.

Florilla (Dunham) Ellingwood & Asa F Ellingwood

Our other paternal 2x great grandmother was Florilla Dunham who was born 29Aug
1832 at North Paris, Oxford, Maine. She married Asa F. Ellingwood on 10Aug 1850
at Woodstock, Oxford, Maine and 11 children.(She was one of 11 children herself.)
She died in Paris, Oxford, Maine on 21Feb 1917.

Clara (Ellingwood) West

                                                                                                  

Finally, our great grandmother  Clara Ellingwood was the 8th child and youngest
daughter of Florilla and Asa. She was born 6Mar 1865 in Dummer, Coos, NH.
Her first marriage with Charles Tidswell ended in divorce and she married  our
great grandfather Philip J West on 25May 1894 at Shelburne, Coos, NH. She had
three children by her first marriage and two by her second, including our grandfather
Floyd E West, Sr. Sadly, Clara died young after an illness in Augusta, Maine on 10Apr
1901. She was only 36 years old.

And those are the pictures we have of the mothers in our family.

Happy Mother's Day! 

MOTHER'S DAY PT 1

Once again for Mothers Day I'm posting photos of our family's mothers.

For our Mom's side we don't have very many since her grandparents immigrated
here from Ireland and Germany in the 19th century.

 

John McFarland & Annie (Kelley) McFarland

First there's Anna Kelley, born 1Oct 1858 in Kiltrustan, Roscommon, Ireland. She married
my great grandfather in Edinburgh Scotland on 16May1879 and shortly after they came
to America and settled in Boston. She had 17 children, 10 of whom survived to adulthood.
Anna died 15Feb 1945 at Boston, Ma. at age 86.

Pauline (Offinger) White

Our other maternal great grandmother was Pauline Offinger, born 17Dec 1873
in Cambridge, Massachusetts to German immigrant parents. She married Edward J.
White on 27Nov 1895 in Boston, Ma. and had 9 children.          

Agnes (McFarland) White

Our grandmother Agnes (McFarland) White was born 7Oct 1898 in Boston, Ma, the
14th of John & Annie's 17 children. She was known as "Aggie" in the family.
She married Edward F.White, Sr. and had two children, our Uncle Ed and our Mom
Anne Marie. She died 12Feb 1957 in Malden Ma.

Anne M. (White) West

Finally, our Mom, Anne M. (White) West. She was born 7Jul 1927 at Boston, Ma and
married our Dad on 29Jun 1947, also at Boston. To her McFarland cousins she was
known as "Red White". She died on 28Jul 1999 at Weymouth, Ma and she is missed by
my brother, my sister, myself and the rest of the family.

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Jen Baldwin


Full disclosure: I am a member of the Findmypast Ambassador Program which includes a
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52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2016 WEEK 15: JOHN WETHERBEE OF MARLBOROUGH AND STOW , MA. PT1

My 6x great grandfather Thomas Stow married Anne Wetherbee, daughter of John Wetherbee and
Lydia(Moore)Wetherbee.

The ubiquitous William Richard Cutter had this to say about John Wetherbee in one of his collections
of New England family genealogies:

The surname Wetherbee or Wetherby is of ancient English origin, being derived from the name of a locality. The name is spelled in a great variety of ways in the early records. There is a town of Wetherby in Yorkshire. The seat of the principal family of this name in England has been for some centuries in Norfolk and its coat-of-arms: Vert a chevron ermine between three rams passant argent attired or. This is the only armorial of the Wetherby family of ancient date.

(I) John Wetherbee, immigrant ancestor, was born in the north of England about 1650. He settled first in Marlborough, Massachusetts, in the south part of the town, now the town of Southborough, and later removed to Stow, where he died in 1711. On June 7, 1684, he sold land in Stow to Thomas Ward, and August 22, 1701, he sold to Joseph Doby thirty acres with town rights. On September 20, 1706, he bought of Ruth Wheeler fifty acres of upland and eleven of meadow, and March 4, 1706, he sold land to Jacob Brown. He was called yeoman. His will was dated October 13, 1707, with codicil April 11, 1709. It was proved April 2, 1711. He married first, at Marlborough, September 18, 1072, Mary Howe, born November 18, 1653, died at Stow, June 5, 1684, daughter of John and Mary Howe, of Marlborough. He married second, Lydia Moore.-p1795

Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, Volume 4  Lewis historical Publishing Company, 1908 - Boston (Mass.)

It took me awhile to complete a list of the Wetherbee children because Cutter indulged in a bit of what
I call "run-on genealogy". That's when instead of listing just a person's children, a writer lists one child, his children, then their children,etc. before moving on to the next child of the original person.
Worse yet,it's all given with no separation in the text, so I had to wade through four pages to find all
nine Wetherbee children. 

Here's the list:

Children with Mary(Howe)Wetherbee
1. Joseph Wetherbee, b. 18 Sep 1672 Marlboro Ma; m. Elizabeth Johnson.
2. John Wetherbee, b. 26 March 1675 Marlboro Ma; m. Catherine Whitcomb
3. Thomas Wetherbee, b. 5 Jan 1678 Sudbury Ma; m. Hannah Woods

Children with Lydia (Moore) Wetherbee:
4. Jonathan Wetherbee, b. in Stowe Ma
5. Ephriam Wetherbee, b. in Stow Ma  m 1)  Elizabeth Hall. 2nd) Joanna Bellows Ma.
6. Mary Wetherbee b abt 1691 in Stow Ma
7. Lydia Wetherbee b abt 1693 in Stow Ma
8. Anne Wetherbee b abt 1695 in Stow Ma
9. David Wetherbee, b. 1696 in Stow Ma

I found  John Wetherbee's probate file on AmericanAncestors.org which includes his will and a
codicil. I'll discuss that in a second post.

To be continued...

FINDMYPAST ADDS 10 MILLION NEW U.S. MARRIAGE RECORDS

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complimentary one year world subscription to Findmypast and a Findmypast First membership.

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN:MY 2X GREAT GRANDPARENTS' LIFESPANS

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has an interesting Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Challenge regarding the lifespans of my 2x great grandparents. Here's the Challenge:

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:
1)  We each have 16 great-great grandparents.  How did their birth and death years vary?  How long were their lifespans? 

2)  For this week, please list your 16 great-great grandparents, their birth year, their death year, and their lifespan in years.  You can do it in plain text, in a table or spreadsheet, or in a graph of some sort.

3)  Share your information about your 16 great-great grandparents with us in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or on Facebook or Google+.  If you write your own blog post, please leave a link as a comment to this post.

Okay, I decided to compare the two sides of my family. What stood out to me immediately was that my 2x great grandparents on Dad's side lived much longer than Mom's,  with five living past
age 80 an one just missing it by a year.

Dad's Side
Jonathan Phelps West  (1834-1917) 83 years
Louisa Almata Richarson (1837-1925)  88 years
Asa Freeman Ellingwood (1828-1921)  93 years
Florilla Dunham (1832-1917) 85 years
Nathaniel S Barker (1830-1884) 54 years
Lucy E Coburn (1842-1904) 62 years
Amos Hasting Barker (1828-1907) 79 years
Betsey Jane Moore (1842-1924) 82 years

Mom's Side
Patrick J White (1848-1902) 54 years
Mary Powers ( 1848-?) ? years
Charles Offinger (1848-1881) 34 years
Johanna Luick (1844-1908) 64 years
Michael McFarland (?-?)  ? years
Dorothy  _____  (?-?)  ? years
Patrick Kelly (1829-1886) 57 years
Anne Byrne (1831-1900) 69 years

My Dad's farmer ancestors in Maine had longer lives than Mom's Irish and German immigrants in Boston. Of course, I'm missing information on some of the Irish relatives but I don't think that would
make a difference in the wide disparity of ages.

I hope I take after Dad's side of the family.