BLOGGING BRUNCH2

Another midmorning at the keyboard with toast and coffee.


Transcribing John Ames’ Pension File has been fun although I
once again wish I could type faster. But it’s gone faster than I
thought it would. One reason is I am using the split screen method
Randy Seaver talked about over on Genea-Musings. The other
reason is that Nathaniel Weston had good penmanship.Believe me,
that’s a BIG help.


You know all those documents we see with the graceful writing?
Well, they most likely were copied from drafts by clerks and
secretaries who had a “good hand”. Some of the records I dl from
Footnotes take a bit to decipher, and one for a Benjamin Abbott is
well…it’s impossible to read. The writing looks like some child had
drawn waves across the page. It took me several times before I
realized that it’s not about Benjamin Abbott but about a Joshua
Sargent of Lyndsborough,N.H. I can make out John Abbott’s
name and references to the Battle of White Plains and then a Lt.
Benjamin Abbott. I’ve tabled that one for now until I finish with
John Ames and Asa Barrows.


Another thing that I’ve noticed is how much they tried to cram
onto one page. Yankee frugality, perhaps? Waste not, want not!
At any rate the writing gets smaller and the lines closer together
as the end of the pages draw near. The next image I’m working on
is from Obadiah Wetherell, and it appears the image after that is
of the backside of his statement, where the various entries go all
about the middle of the page picture frame style. That’s going to
be fun to transcribe!


I find myself stopping to check out the names mentioned in
John’s statement, first over at J.L. Bell’s Boston 1775, then at
Chris Dunham’s Maine Genealogy and Oxford County Genealogy
Notebook sites, and finally by Googling the names. John’s
statement and what I’ve found will give me more to post about
after I’m done with the transcriptions. I’d like to finish these
before my nephew’s wedding a week from this Saturday where
I’ll have a chance to talk with my Aunt Dorothy.


Good thing I’m on vacation this week. It’s hard to stop working
on this.


Guess I am a genea-holic!

BEDTIME GENEALOGY 9

Just a few thoughts for tonight:

First, for those from outside the area who wonder how big a deal
Patriots’ Day and the commemoration of the battles of Concord
and Lexington might be around here, take a look at the calendar
posted over at Boston 1775 by J. L.Bell

Second, I found a map of Andover in 1692 that show the locations
of all those Abbotts and Chandlers and others that are in my line
and in Tim Abbott's as well. It includes a handy name key to go
with the numbered houses. If you have ancestors from there,
check it out!


Finally, I‘m really beginning to like the Google Books site more
and more. I could get lost for hours just looking through the old
books like William Cutter’s and looking for entries on my ancestors.