THE BARKER BROTHERS

One of the warnings I've seen given several times to
beginning genealogists is this: if you have heard stories
about how your ancestor and his siblings were the first
settlers and founders of some town, it's probably not
entirely true.


What then am I to make of the Barker brothers? There is
the "Petition for Grant of Land Later Newry" that can be
viewed over at Chris Dunham's Oxford County Genealogy
Notebook. Jonathan Barker Sr and five of his sons are among
the signers. And numerous editions of Oxford County
histories and Maine Registers credit Benjamin, Jesse, and
Jonathan Barker 3rd as being first settlers of the future
Newry in 1781 along with Ithiliel Smith.

Apparently in some cases there are exceptions to the rule
about legendary stories!

But I'm not surprised. The Barker brothers and their
ancestors are an interesting bunch and in the next few
weeks I will be posting transcriptions of the Revolutionary
War Pension Files of Jonathan, Benjamin, and Jesse Barker
and discussing some of the family history they reveal. I'd like
to acknowledge the help given and research of my Barker
family cousins Mitch Barker, Nancy Downey, and Howard
Kaepplein.

I hope those who read their stories will enjoy them as much
as I've enjoyed researching them!

BLOGGING BRUNCH11

A dark and stormy Saturday afternoon as the remnants of
Hurricane Noel, now only a tropical storm, alas, roar outside.
At the moment the wind seems to be from the south which
means the apartments on my side of the building are sheltered
from the worst since we face north. We’ll feel it more when the
storm moves past and the wind shifts later this afternoon and
tonight.


Meanwhile, I made myself a cup of that cocoa mix and watched
the storm for a few minutes through my screen door. A lot of
leaves on the ground now out there! A minute or two of that was
enough since as my Dad used to say I’m not heating the outside.
So I came in to finish my cocoa while fiddling at my keyboard
until the power goes.


But I already charged up my mp3 player so I’ll have some Celtic
music to listen to, and my cell phone is on the charger already so
my sister will be able to call me later (or vice versa) to see how
we have weathered the storm. Knowing my sister, she’s probably
sitting in her car in the parking lot at a beach at Plymouth or
Marshfield watching the waves. I have a flashlight to read a book
by and a can of tunafish to make dinner with, so if I do lose power
here, I’m all set until it comes back, provided it’s within a few
hours.


After that, I go into computer withdrawal. Gulp.


I was looking over the other Revolutionary War Pension Files I
have to decide which one to transcribe and post here next. I’ve
decided to go with the smaller ones first, so the humongous
Benjamin Barker file will be last, and might not even be posted
until after the first of the year.


Going through the images I noticed a few things. Benjamin Barker
shows up in other ancestor’s files to testify as to their service
records. Of course two of them are his brothers: Jonathan(my
direct ancestor) in 1818 and Jesse in 1832. He’s also in the file for
Amos Hastings in 1839, but there is a personal connection there as
well since Benjamin’s nephew Nathaniel was married to Huldah
Hastings, Amos’ daughter.


I also noticed that some ancestors gave their “declarations” on
the same day: Asa Barrows and Amos Upton on August 20th,
1832, and John Ames and Jesse Barker a later on September
27th. Perhaps the Judge rode a circuit and was only in the area
for a short time each month? I wonder what stories they and the
other old veterans swapped about their war years as they sat and
waited their turn to file their claim? Would they be delighted or
dismayed to learn that their grandchildren and great grandchildren
would someday wed?


Think I’ll go do some quick housecleaning and then come back to
scan some old photos.

BLOGGING BRUNCH6

It seems to be a quiet day in many of the genealogy blogs I read
most often so after watching the Patriots game I started to dl the
the Revolutionary War Pension File for my ancestor Amos
Hastings from Footnotes.com. Last night I downloaded those of
Jesse Barker, the brother of my ancestor Jonathan Barker, which
is much smaller than his other brother Benjamin’s and the
Hastings file as well.


So far I’ve found Pension Files for seven ancestors at Footnotes
and the service records and rolls for some of them. It’s a windfall
of information for me and along with the Jesse Tuttle story they
should provide me with plenty of blogging material.


But I do want to get my files here more organized, so I ordered a
copy of Elizabeth Shown Mill’s book Evidence: Citation &
Analysis for the Family Historian so I can get more of a handle
on all the material I have found lately.


And I still need to come up with another thirty or so genealogical
uses for the fluteaphone!