FINDMYPAST FRIDAY RECORDS COLLECTION RELEASES FOR 27JANUARY 2017

The 4.5 million new records in the Findmypast Friday releases for January 27th include records from
Australia and Ireland:

VIEW ALL NEW RECORDS:

Victoria Petty Sessions Registers
OVER 3 MILLION RECORDS   Did your ancestor have any dealings before the Court of Petty Sessions in Victoria? Discover if your ancestor was a plaintiff or a defendant and what issue was brought before the court.
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Queensland Custom House Shipping 1852-1885 Passengers and Crew
OVER 107,000 RECORDS
Discover the names of the passengers and crew of 485 inward ship voyages from 1852 to 1885. These lists come from the Collector of Customs (Brisbane) records held at the National Archives of Australia.
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ADDITIONAL RECORDS FOR EXISTING SETS:

PERSI Quarterly Index Update
New records: 14,684
Titles: 46
Covering: English, Scottish and American publications
Discover: Thousands of historical, genealogical and ethnic publications
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Irish Newspapers
New articles: 1,297,009
New titles: 7
Covering: Leinster, Donegal, Kildare, Wicklow & Longford
Discover: The realities of life in historic Ireland
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52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2017 WEEK 2:RALPH ELLINGWOOD JR. OF BEVERLY, MA. PT3

My ancestor Ralph Ellingwood Jr died sometime between 8 April 1741, when he made out his will,
and 11 May 1741 when it was filed in court in Ipswich, Ma. There are some interesting points in it:

-Ralph's name is spelled Ellingwood, rather than the Ellinwood used by his father Ralph Sr. or the
Ellenwood used by his brother Benjamin and his descendants, It may have ben a way to differentiate
between the two families, since Benjamin was a successful merchant in Salem while Ralph was a
farmer in Beverly.

-Provisions were made for the widow of Ralph Jr's son Ralph III and her two oldest children, but
no mention is made of the other children of Ralph III in the will.

-Ralph makes sure his daughter Abigail is provided for "During her naturall Life, She Being not
Abele to provide for her self, for her comfortabele subsistance while in the World". Was Abigail sickly or was this because she was a 46 year old spinster at the time of her father's death? (She
lived for another 35 years.)

-Ralph Jr's real estate holdings are measured in poles, not acres, and I haven't a good head for
converting them to acres. But the total real estate was valued at 497 pounds, so he was land wealthy.

Here's the images of the two page will:

Essex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1638-1881.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.) Case 8712 Image 33

Essex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1638-1881.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.) Case 8712 Image 34

And here's my transcript of the document:
In the Name of God Amen I Ralph Ellingwood of Beverly
in the County of Essex in New England husbandman Being Weake
& Inferme in Bodey & Calling to mind that it is Appointed
By God for all men are to Dye Do make this my Last Will
& Testament & in the first place I Do Commit my sole into the
hands of God that Gave it & my Bodey to the Earth to Be
deasantly Buried  at the discresion of my Executors after named
& as for my Temporal Estate wherewith it has plesed God
to Bles me I Do Dispose of it after the foowing maner

Imprimus my Will is that all my personall Estate my Common Rights  &
a small oease of Land I now improve for a Gardin & adioyns on my
Sone Ebenezars Land Extending Westrly to the Way that LeadsDown to
the Water as the fenc now stands Be Sold by my Executors to
pay my just Depts & financall Charges & the overplus money
if any there Be to be Divided Eaqualy Among my Children
Sone Ralph Ellingwoods Children to have one Share

Item I give unto my daughter Abigail Ellingwood the Improvement of one
half of my Real Estate During her naturall Life, She Being not
Abele to provide for her self, for her comfortabele subsistance while
in the World.

my Will is that my two Grannsons Israele Ellingwood & Ralph
Ellingwood have the free use & Improvement of the Barne &
Wele there father Built on my Lands with Egres to & from the same
I give unto the children of my sone Ralph Ellingwood desesd one fifth
part of my Real Estate to be to them & there heirs for Ever Saving
my daughter Abigails Improvement

I give unto my sone Ebenezar Ellingwood & to his heirs one fifth of my Real
Estate

I give unto my sone Thomas Ellingwood & to his heirs one fifth of my Real
Estate

I give unto my daughter Returne Ellingwood one fifth, or in money
Aquivalant; of my Real Estate 

I give unto my daughter Martha Smith & to her heirs one fifth of my
Real Estate or an Aquivlanc in money

My Will is that my Sons Ebenezar Ellingwood &Thomas Ellingwood
together with my two Gransons Israell & Ralph Ellingwood if they
se cause Redeme my Lands in Equall proportion they paying unto my
two daughters Returne & Martha the value of there shares in my Estate
in money upon Apprisement the one half to to Be paid to each of them
in one year after my Desese the other half in one year after my
Daughter Abigails desese

My Will further is that if any of my children or granchildren
Shold Bring a Dept Against my Estate that it Shall Be
paid out of Such parsons Share

My will is that my Sone in Law Nehemiah Smith Improve
that half of my Lands I have in this my Will ordered for my
Daughter Abigails Support  & that he Render an Account yearly
unto my Executors of the produce or profits there of
& pay in the same to my sd Daughter that so She may not be
Deprived of the proper Benifits & in Case my Sone Smith Should
neglect to Improve the Land to the Best advantage according
to the nature thereof it shall & may be Lawfull for my
Executors to Rent the Same to Some other person

And Lastly I do Appoint my Sone Thomas Ellingwood & frind
Joseph Trask to be my sole executors of this my Last Will &
Testament hearby Revoking all other Wills By me heartofore
made & in Confrimation of This my Last Will &Testament I do
hearunto set my hand & seale this eight day of Aprele
one thousand seven hundred & forty one
Signed Sealed & published           Ralph (his mark) Ellingwood
In presents of
Israell Wood
John Stephens
Anthony Wood

 

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2017 WEEK 2:RALPH ELLINGWOOD JR. OF BEVERLY, MA. PT2

Other than the scandalous end of his first marriage. Ralph Ellingwood Jr.'s life was no different than his neighbors in colonial Beverly, Ma. He was a farmer, and served in the militia during King Philip's War. He and his brother John were part of the troop that fought in the Great Swamp Battle; John lost a finger during the fighting. Ralph was given a grant of land for his service.

Ralph and his wife Martha (Rowlandson) Ellingwood had seven children, all born in Beverly, Ma. and six of whom survived childhood:

Returne b.22May 1692, m.(1)Philip Giles 24Aug 1712; m.(2) Samuel Wardwell 20Dec 1716.
 
Ralph III b.18Apr 1694. m Sarah Woodbury 1712, died at sea 1728

Abigail b.22Jan 1695, d.20Jan 1775 at Beverly

Ebenezer b.29Aug 1697, d.in Amherst, NH

Martha  b.7Feb 1700, m.Nehemiah Smith 13Dec 1724, d.17Feb 1778 in Beverly

Thomas bp. 16 May 1703, m.(1) Abigail Wallis in Beverly 16Feb 1726; (2)Rebecca Livermore
at Sturbridge, Ma 17Nov 1757, d.1Jun1772 at Brimfield, Ma.

Esther bp.24 Aug 1707, d.21 Feb 1716

Ralph's  son Ralph III died at sea leaving a widow and children. His daughter Abigail may have been sickly. Ralph made provisions for these family members in his will.

To be continued...

BLOGIVERSARY: NOW WE ARE TEN

Ten years ago today I posted my first story on West In New England. During my genealogy research
online I'd found geneablogs written by Randy Seaver, Chris Dunham, and Tim Abbott, who as it turns out, are all my distant cousins.The thought struck me that if I had a geneablog of my own it might help distant cousins find me, and boy,  was I right! It's worked beyond my expectations as "cousin bait".

A few stats: This is post 2135. I've had  679,474 pageviews (most of which were likely by webcrawlers bots) and I  have 277 followers. I lost 15 followers since last year due to some change in Blogger,

These were my All Time Top Ten Posts on this day last year:

And this is the list as of today:

While the top four posts haven't changed, the other six have.

Since it doesn't look like I'll run out of things to write about anytime soon, I 'll keep on going until I do!

Finally, thanks to you folks who read what I write and encourage me by leaving comments!

FINDMYPAST FRIDAY RECORDS COLLECTION RELEASES FOR 20JANUARY 2017

The nearly 3.5 million new records released for this week's Findmypast Friday come from
Leicestershire and  Rutland, England:



Leicestershire Parish Records
OVER 1.8 MILLION RECORDS   Does your family tree have roots in Leicestershire? Trace your ancestors back to the 16th century with baptism, banns, marriage & burial records covering 50 parishes and uncover intimate details of their lives.
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Leicestershire Parish Records Browse
OVER 3,000 VOLUMES
Browse volumes of Leicestershire baptism, banns, marriage and burial registers in their entirety.
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Leicestershire Marriage Licences
OVER 22,000 RECORDS
See if your ancestors were married by licence in a Leicestershire parish between 1604 and 1891 with records that reveal where they were married, when they were married and their residence.
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Leicestershire Marriage Licences Browse
OVER 75 RECORDS
Browse volumes of Marriage licence records in their entirety to discover the intended couples’ names, birth years, residences, home parish, denomination and the date the licence was issued.
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Leicestershire Wills and Probate Records
OVER 173,000 RECORDS
Search through thousands of wills and probate records from Leicestershire to shed light on your ancestor’s wealth, uncover the names of numerous family members and the date of your ancestor’s death.
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Leicestershire Wills and Probate Records Browse
OVER 971 VOLUMES
Browse administrations, inventories, probate act and probate registry records organised by year range and type.
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Leicestershire Electoral Registers Browse
OVER 3,862 RECORDS
Explore thousands of names by browsing through 134 years of Leicestershire electoral registers to discover the history of your home. Find out who previously lived in your house as well as in the homes of your neighbours.
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Rutland Parish Records
OVER 328,000 RECORDS
Explore thousands of baptisms, banns, marriages and burials from hundreds of parishes throughout the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. Uncover the lives of your Rutland ancestors with 400 years of records.
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Rutland Parish Records Browse
OVER 460 VOLUMES
Browse volumes of Rutland baptism, banns, marriage and burial registers in their entirety.
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52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2017 WEEK 2:RALPH ELLINGWOOD JR. OF BEVERLY, MA. PT1

My 7x great grandfather Ralph Ellingwood Jr. was born in Salem, Ma. on 18 Mar 1657, the third
child asnd second son of Ralph and Elinor(Lynn)Ellingwood. His first wife was named Katherine,
but I haven't been able to find a record of the marriage online. In fact, I might have never learned  about it except for the way in which it ended. 

In June 1682, twenty five year old Ralph found himself being divorced by Katharine who stated
that she’d rather be dead than live with him. She sued on grounds of Ralph's "insufficiency"

Ralph for his part did what any man in 17th century Salem Ma.might do when faced with such an embarrassing situation: he claimed that it had to be witchcraft. Not exactly original, and highly ineffective in the light of the character witnesses Katherine had to testify in her behalf.

It must have been the talk of the town. Both husband and wife were given physical examinations, Katherine by a panel of “goodwives” and Ralph by two men(one of them a chirurgeon) appointed
by the Court. Based on their reports the Court granted Katherine her divorce and ordered she be allowed to take whatever clothes and property that she had brought with her into the marriage.

All of this might have been lost in the mists of time except that there was a court record of the proceedings and several centuries later the case is cited in several articles and a book about women
in Puritan society. I’ve not been able to read any of them in their entirety but what I have read
makes no mention of what happened after. So in the interest of fairness to Ralph, here’s the rest
of it:

Ralph remained single for nearly 9 years but in August of 1691 he wed Martha Rowlandson. The marriage lasted nearly 20 years before her death.

They had seven children

We don’t know what happened to Katherine after her divorce from Ralph, There is no record of her maiden name. Hopefully she too remarried and with a man she loved who gave her children of her own.

But if Ralph felt he had a point to prove to all of Salem and Beverly, Ma. the seven children he fathered may have done it.

You can read the court record at Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, Volume 8, pp356-357

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2017 WEEK 1:RALPH ELLINGWOOD SR. OF SALEM & BEVERLY, MA. PT2

I knew Ralph Ellingwood Sr. had left a will because my cousin Florence O'Connor had included the
text of the will and estate inventory in her book Ancestors and Descendants of Asa Freeman  Ellingwood and  Florilla (Dunham) Ellingwood. So I went over to AmericanAncestors to see if the
probate file was in the Essex County, MA: Early Probate Records, 1635-1681 database.

And it was .

But it was empty.

Just a photo of a little scrap of paper with the words "No Papers Found"

I downloaded it anyway.

Luckily, cousin Florence had cited her source for the will and inventory, The Essex County
Quarterly Court Files, and using that information I was able to find them on Googlebooks and  download them as well: 

Estate Of Ralph Ellinwood Of Beverly.

"January 7th 1673 The last will and testament of Raph Ellinwood who being weecke in body but of a good memory first I Comit my body to the earth and my Soule to god that gaue it Secondly I make helen my wife my lawfull executrix and to make use of all my estate to bring up our Children in the feare of the lord. Thirdly I make my son Raph my lawfull heire after his mothers decease but when he is Come to the age of twenty one yeares he is to haue the ten akres which was formerly old Robert Moltons lot and that our son Raph is to pay to our other four sons as namely John Joseph Beniamin & david and our too daughters Mary and Elizabeth each & either of them an equall portion only Raph a doble portion acording as the estate is prised to be paide as each comes to age onely I alow my wife hir thirds dureing the terme of hir life and after hir decease equaly her thirds are to be devided amongst our sons & daughters that then doe surviue."

[no signature] Witness: Thomas Piekton and his wife Ann. Proved in Salem court 3: 5m: 1674 by Tho. and Ann Piekton.

Inventory of the estate of Ralf Ellinwood of Beverly, taken Jan. 30, 1673, by Henery Skerry, sr., Tho. Rootes and John Massey: The lot commonly called Molton's lot, with the building, orcharding, etc., 135l.; plowabell Land, pasture, with part of the orchard, 130li.; 2 Cowes, 7li. 10s.; 2 Heffers with Calf, 5li. 10s.; 2 Oxen, 8li. 10s.; 1 Calfe, 1li.; 1 mare & 2 mare Colts, 3li.; 15 sheepe, with theare lambs, 7li. 10s.; 4 swine & 3 pigs, 3li. 5s.; 6 Loads of haye, 6li.; A Beed part Fethers & partt Flockes with 3 Fether pillowes with a bolster & Covering 3li. 10s.; a flock bed with 3 blancitts,1li. 10s.; 20 Bushels of Ingen Corne, 3li.; 15 Bushels of barly, 2li.; 2 bushels of peese, 8s.; 8 Flitches of Bacon, 3li. 10s.; 2 bushels of Ry, 7s.; 30li. of sheeps wooll, 1li. 10s.; 16li. of hempe, 8s.; 10li. of flax, 10s.; Chaines & Fetters & horse Trases, 16s.; Cart & wheles with a Cops & bolt with plow Iornes, 2li.; 3 Boxes For wheeles, 5s.; 6li. wedges, 2s.; axes & hoes, 8s.; 2 hacks & 1 pare of Fiar Tongs, 10s.; 2 Akers of Salt marsh Ground Laying to the Common, 1li.; 3 Iorne pots and a Scellett, 15s.; warming pan, 10s.; a brace Cettell & scellitt, 1li. 10s.; a barrell of a Gun, 3s.; 5 puter platters & an old pott & porrenger, 1li. 2s.; half a barrel of mackrell, 9s.; 10 bushels of Turnups, 10s.; 1 barrell & half of sider, 15s.; 3 spining wheels, 10s.; 2 Chests, 15s.; 20li. of Cheese, 6s. 8d.; 8li. of Cotten yearne, 16s.; woodden dishes & boles & earthen platters, 5s.; 2 old siths & 2 Repe hooks, 4s.; a sider prees & pounding Troff, 1li.; a connew, 10s.; 4 old bibels & sume other books, 18s.; 4 pare of sheets with pillo bears and Tabell clothes, 4li.; 5 yeards of home maide wollen Cloth, 2li.; mony, 3s.; a towell, 1s. 6d.; his best sute of home spun Cloth, 3li.; 2 wascots, a Cote an drawers, 1li. 5s.; his stockens, shewes, & hats, 1li.; 3 shirts & neck clothes, 1li. 10s.; 3 chaires, 5s.; total, 352li. 12s. 2d.
Attested 3: 5m: 1674 by Ellenor, the widow of the deceased. 
Essex County Quarterly Court Files, vol. 22, leaves, 6, 7. pp411-412

The Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts: 1665-1674 (Google eBook) Vol II
Essex Institute, Salem Ma 1917


I was puzzled over what the item "connew" was in the inventory and eventually realized it must mean "canoe".

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2017 WEEK 1:RALPH ELLINGWOOD SR. OF SALEM & BEVERLY, MA. PT1

My 8x great grandfather Ralph Ellinwood/Ellenwood/Ellingwood Sr, arrived on the Truelove in1635,  settled first in Salem, Ma., and later moved to Beverly.He was around 28 years old. Not long after arriving he married his first wife Elizabeth and they had at least one child, a son named Josiah who was baptized in 1644. Between then and 1655 something happened to the family because on 13 March 1655 Ralph married his second wife, Elinor Lynn.and then they proceeded to have eight children, all born at Salem, Ma. :

Stephen, baptized 16 March 1656 .
Ralph, born 18 March 1657 .
John, born 2 July 1659 
Joseph, born 12 May 1662
Mary, born 3 April 1664
Elizabeth, born 27 June 1666
Benjamin, born 1 April  1668
David ,born 6 July 1670

Ralph is one of my favorite ancestors. He testified in the Essex County Quarterly Court that a
neighbor had called hm and his wife Elinor a "bawd and a rogue". He and his son-in-law John
Smith were brought into court for trespassing on a neighbor's farm to steal dung. Our Mom liked
to tease our Dad about that one.

To be continued...

FINDMYPAST FRIDAY RECORDS COLLECTION RELEASES FOR 13 JANUARY 2017

Findmypast has added over 1.5 million new records to its database for this Findmypast
Friday:

BRAND NEW RECORDS:

Yorkshire & Derbyshire Methodist Baptisms
OVER 42,000 RECORDS   
Find out if your ancestor was baptised in a Methodist Church with thousands of records from the Sheffield district. This collection stretches across two counties and covers the years 1795 to 1997.
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Yorkshire & Derbyshire Methodist Marriages
OVER 22,000 RECORDS
Explore transcripts of marriage records from the industrial Sheffield area of South Yorkshire covering eight branches of the Methodist Church to discover when, where, and to whom your ancestor was married.
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ADDITIONAL RECORDS FOR EXISTING SETS:

Middlesex Monumental Inscriptions 1485-2014
New records: 12,005
Total records: 43,157
Covering: St Nicholas Church, Chiswick
Discover: Birth year, death year, monument type, inscription, memorial & position reference
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British Newspapers
New records: 1,539,572
New titles:Cricket and Football Field, Lloyd's List & Homeward Mail from India, China and the East
Covering: Sporting news, maritime & shipping news and the history of the British Empire
Discover: News articles, family notices, letters, obituaries, advertisements, and more
SEARCH THESE RECORDS »

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2017:AN OVERVIEW

For the 2017 edition of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks I'm going to work om the Ellingwoods and the
and the other families on that branch of my family tree.  I've already written quite a bit on the
Ellingwoods and some of that material will be reused and reexamined as I go along,  but before beginning I thought I'd give a brief overview.

Here's a descent chart from my immigrant ancestor Ralph Ellinwood Sr down to  my 2x great grandfather Asa Freeman Ellingwood:

While my ancestors on my Grandmother Barker's side of the family are all from the areas north and west of Boston, the West and Ellingwood sides have many ancestors from south of Boston in Plymouth County. A large number of them come from Asa Ellingwood's wife, Florilla Dunham.
Despite that Dunham line being predominantly from the Plymouth area, a marriage nearly two hundred years earlier made Asa and Florilla 5th cousins:

There's a lot of things here to cover, and these lines should keep my busy into next year.  I'll be starting off with Ralph Ellinwood Sr., my 8x great grandfather.

FINDMYPAST FRIDAY RECORDS COLLECTION RELEASES FOR 6 JANUARY 2017

Findmypast Fridays kicks off the new year by adding nearly 312,000 new records from England
and Ireland to the Findmpast databases:

BRAND NEW RECORDS

Ireland, Petty Sessions Court Registers
OVER 227,700 RECORDS   Find out if your Irish relatives had brushes with the law thanks to these new additions that reveal whether your ancestors were witnesses, complainants or defendants, their addresses, dates in court, details of verdicts and sentences.

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ADDITIONAL RECORDS FOR EXISTING SETS

Dorset Memorial Inscriptions
New records: 40,235
Total records: 85,868
Covering: Inscriptions taken from gravestones, tombs, monuments and even stained glass windows from around the county
Discover: Birth year, death year, burial date, burial place, names of relatives, memorial type and inscription
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Warwickshire Burials
New records: 21,263
Total records: 1,129,563
Covering: Witton Cemetery (Birmingham) 1987-2011
Discover: Birth year, death year, burial place, parents’ names, residence, inscription, grave and register number, and additional notes
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Northumberland & Durham Monumental Inscriptions
New records: 16,811
Total records: 23,021
Covering: 26 churches & burial grounds in Northumberland & Co. Durham
Discover: Birth date, burial year, burial place, death date, denomination and inscription, and stone type
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Ireland, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Congregational Records
New records: 5,737
Total records: 1,208,254
Covering: Quaker meetings held throughout Ireland from 1600 onwards
Discover: Details about the meetings your ancestor attended and the religious activities they engaged in
SEARCH THESE RECORDS »
 

JOHN ENDECOTT PT1

One of my genea-plans for 2017 is to do some blogposts about my 10x great grandfather John Endecott. I discovered Gov. Endecott was my ancestor this past fall, and I have to admit I had mixed feelings about that. I already knew some of  the more unpleasant aspects of his history. Still, he is a fascinating character. Consider these facts:

He was already in Salem, Ma. before the arrival of the Winthrop fleet and was the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Historians believe he was responsible for starting the Pequot War, the first clash between
the New England colonists and the Native Americans.

He was Governor five times during which he often clashed with the English government. He also knew my relatives Roger Conant, Samuel Maverick and Samuel Skeleton

He was a Puritan and persecuted members of other denominations, especially the Quakers, four of whom he executed by hanging.

He is the subject of poems by Whittier and Longfellow, as well as of a short story by Hawthorne. He doesn't come off well in any of them.

There's a lot to write about there, more than just one blogpost. So I'll be doing a series posts about Governor Endecott over the course of the coming year.

I like to joke about how my Pilgrim and Puritan ancestors might be horrified by their Catholic descendant.

I think John Endecott would have a downright conniption.

MY GENEA-PLANS FOR 2017

It took me a few days to come up with my 2017 genea-plans. I wanted to have some specific
new ones for this year along with those I usually make every year. This is what I've decided to
try to do in 2017:


 1. Remember to add more of my ancestors' siblings to the family tree. Most of the ones I need
to work on are in the older colonial families in the 17th and 18th centuries.

2.  Make a better effort to get out to the towns where my ancestors lived  and take photos of their homes and headstones.This will have to wait until the snow and mud seasons are over.

3. Continue reaching my goal of surpassing my previous year's total blogposts on West In New England, and post much more on The Old Colony Graveyard Rabbit(I won't set a goal for OCGR because when I've done it in previous years I usually fail miserably).

4. Keep posting photos of headstones in Mt. Vernon Cemetery to Find A Grave and fill more photo requests. The latter is another activity for after the snow and mud seasons.

5. Stay organized:  Keep putting images  I download into  the folder they belong in immediately,

6. Transcribe more of the documents I haven't done yet.

7. Find and download the wills and probate files of female ancestors.

8.  Research and write up the timeline for my ancestors who were involved in the Colonial New England Indian wars,

9. Finish the series about the "Hot Mess" probate file of ancestor Nathaniel Stowe which I forgot about last May. (Probably because it's such a "hot mess").

10. Get around  to writing  about my ancestor Gov. John Endecott. I keep pushing it aside, I think, because he did somethings that were nasty.

11. Keep whacking away at that John C Cutter brickwall.

12. And finally, as always, keep having fun researching my family tree. 

2016 BY THE NUMBERS

Time for a look back at my some of my genealogy activity  in 2016 with a comparison with 2015.

Database:
My research numbers as shown by RootsMagic7:
2015-30,823 people, 110,992 citations, 577 sources.
2016-31142 people,  111434  citations. 577 sources

The number of people in my database went up by 313 because of new discoveries
on the Barker side of the family.

Find a Grave
My total contributions went up modestly:
2015- 615 memorials,  962 Photos, 162 volunteer photos taken
2016- 616 memorials, 1002 photos 185 volunteer photos taken.

My total memorials only increased by one because I transferred a number to relatives
of the deceased.

Blogging
This is post 237 for this blog this year. It's the fourth straight year the blogpost total has gone up,
and the third highest total all time:

2016 (237)

2015 (220)

2014 (199)

2013 (179)

2012 (170)

2011 (248)

2010 (196)

2009 (254)

2008 (214)

2007 (208)

My posts on the Old Colony Graveyard Rabbit went down to 5 from 6. I really have to
post more there.

Not a bad year, but I'll do better in 2017, I hope!

AFTER CHRISTMAS 2016

((originally posted in December 2013))

When I was a kid the day after Christmas was a wonderful day: I knew I had a
week or so off from school and I had some new toys or games to play. If I
grew bored with them I'd just go to the library and take out some more books
to keep me occupied. If it had snowed, I'd go sledding over on Selden Street
with Barry Solomon and the other kids. 

The torn wrapping paper was stuffed into empty department store bags (
plastic trash bags didn't become popular until the 1960's) and the boxes that
toys and appliances came in were hauled out by the curb for the city
trash trucks. This was how we knew what  the other kids got for Christmas
or Hanukkah. Inside, gifts had to be removed from under the tree to our
rooms a day or so after Christmas so the pine needles under the Christmas
tree could be vacuumed up.  
  
If Christmas fell on a Friday or Monday that year there'd be a round of visits
to our McFarland and McCue relatives or they'd visit us. So Christmas decorations
stayed up for several weeks, sometimes to the end of January. When we were
living on Capen St. my Mom used Glass Wax stencils to decorate our apartment
windows but she stopped after one year when cleaning the windows off was
harder than usual. Besides, nobody could see them anyway since the apartment
was on the third floor! We also only used "angel hair" to decorate the tree
once.

But eventually we'd take off the decorations, lights, and garlands from the tree
and pack them away, and the tree would be hauled out to the curbside. If it
snowed before trash pickup it might be out there an extra week or two. In time,
as we grew older, the artificial tree would be disassembled and taken down to
the cellar.

Christmas was  over.

2014 Update
Since I'm a single "senior citizen" the after Christmas cleanup is minimal. After New
Years I'll put away the six inch tabletop Christmas tree and it's decorations away. Easy

peasy!

2015 Update
After Christmas cleanup was even more minimal than usual, since I didn't put out
the mini-Christmas tree this year.

FINDMYPAST FRIDAY RECORDS COLLECTION RELEASES FOR 30 DECEMBER 2016

Nearly 973,000 new records from England, Scotland and Scotland are in this week's Findmypast
Friday record releases:

NEW RECORDS:

Ireland Dog Licence Registers
OVER 900,000 RECORDS   have been added to our collection of Dog Licenses. This census of furry, four-legged friends covers all 26 counties in the Republic of Ireland, dates back to 1866, and 

allows you to find out the colour, breed and sex of your ancestor’s dog.

SEARCH THESE RECORDS »

Huntingdonshire Marriages 1754-1837
OVER 1,000 RECORDS
Browse 26 volumes of marriage records from the Huntingdonshire district of the English county of Cambridgeshire to discover when, where and to whom your ancestor was married.

SEARCH THESE RECORDS »

Roxburghshire, Kelso Dispensary Patient Registers 1777-1781
OVER 1,700 RECORDS
Was your Scottish ancestor admitted to the Kelso Dispensary? These registers list the date and outcome of patients’ treatment (such as cured, relieved of symptoms, or died) and are an excellent pre-civil registration resource.

SEARCH THESE RECORDS
ADDITIONAL RECORDS FOR EXISTING SETS:

PERSI monthly update
New records: 67,682
New titles: 5
Covering: The American Historical Society, Chicago, Maryland, and British family histories & heraldry
Discover: Articles, photos, and other material you might not find using traditional search methods

SEARCH THESE RECORDS »

MY 2016 GENEAPLANS: HOW WELL DID I DO?

 Before I make my "geneaplans" for 2017, let's see what they were for 2016 and how
well I did fulfilling them. My comments on how I did on each are in red type: 

1. Work more on my family tree: I still have plenty of collateral relatives to add to my database but I also need to continue to work on merging the duplicates I put in the database back when I first started researching online and was in my "name gathering" newbie phase. I also need to add citations and sources where I don't have any entered.

Result: I added more families to the Barker side of the tree. I added some collateral lines but not as many as I'd hoped. The same is true of citations and sources.

2. Visit more of the towns where my ancestors  lived, see their graves and homes, and take photos: I need to make more of an effort at this as soon as the snow season is over, especially getting up to Essex and Middlesex counties, and west to Worcester county.

Result: Again, not as good as I hoped. I did visit Dedham and Lancaster, but by the time I got to both places it was too late to do more than a quick drive around.

3. Blog more: I met my 2015 goal for this blog of going over 200 posts by reaching 220. So for 2016I need to top that, even if it's only by just one more post. And I will institute that 52 Gravestones in 52 Weeks series for my Old Colony Genealogy Rabbit blog.

Result:  This is post #234 so definitely a success this year for this blog.But I failed miserably in my
Graveyard Rabbit blog.


4. Keep on with Find A Grave activities: I still have a whole lot of cemetery photos to use to creatememorials, and I want to get out and fill some more photo requests.

Result: A moderate success. I found 23 requested headstones and 40 photos so far. There's still a few days left in the year so that may go up a little more.

5.Transcribe: There's a bunch of Probate Files I haven't worked on yet. I started using the program Transcript last Fall and it's simple to use, so I'll see if it makes it easier to keep this resolution.

Result: I'll call this another moderate success since I did transcribe some probate files but there are still plenty more to do.

6. Stay organized: I need to keep at putting things I download onto my hard drive into whatever folder they belong in immediately, rather than letting them sit in the Downloads file until I get around to it.

Result: Success. Having to transfer everything to a new computer helped me organize many files.

7. Scan more: I still have family photos to scan.

Result: Failure.

8. Index more:  I hope to do some indexing for Familysearch without waiting for another crowd sourcing "event" to motivate me

Result: Failure.

9. Join a local society: I say this every year. Hope springs eternal.

Result: Failure, Hope is still springing but I still haven't done this.

10. Break down that John Cutter West brick wall: Maybe this will be the year!

Result: Failure. That brick wall still stands.

And again, as in every year, to keep having fun with genealogy!

Result: Still having fun!

CHRISTMAS MEMORIES: DEALING WITH CARDS 2016

I don’t get a lot of Christmas cards, mostly because I don’t send
out a lot myself. I get some from the family and a few from friends
but since I’m not much of a social animal there’s no more than perhaps
a half dozen each year sitting atop my tv.

In years past the amount of cardage fluctuated. When I
was a kid there were a lot of cards, usually taped to the
door frames or sitting atop the end tables in the living room.


When we moved to Abington they were displayed across the
mantel piece or taped around the edges of the mirror above it.
The years when my folks were actively involved in the VFW
brought the highest number of season’s greetings. Mom would
spend a few hours herself signing and addressing cards to be
sent out. But as she and her generation of family and friends
grew older the flood of Christmas cards dwindled. Several years
Mom even had some unused cards left over when she finished.


I tend not to like sending “mushy” cards so I usually try to find
something funny. Although this year I may be giving people a
look at a certain dancing elf via e-mail!

2010 Update: I'm going to see what sort of selection we have at
the store tomorrow and hopefully find something funny, although
last year I sent out cards that were more "New England-y"

2011 Update Since Borders has closed I'm going to have to take
a long walk over to Target soon to get some boxed cards!

2012 Update I'm waiting for my box card order from B&N
to arrive.

2013 Update I haven't bought any Christmas cards yet. I'm also
trying to figure out what to do with the leftover cards from the
last few years.

2014 Update:
I'll probably buy my cards this weekend. I don't really start thinking
about Christmas cards until right about now, although I've already
received one this holiday season. 

The past few years I've taken to displaying the incoming cards on my
bookcase, as in this photo from a  few years ago:

2015 Update
I still have several boxes of leftover Christmas cards from previous years, so this year
I'm going to send those instead of buying a new box.


2016 Update: 
I was a bad boy again this year and never sent out any cards.And I feel a bit guilty as
I received a bit more than usual:

((Originally posted in 2007)) 

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2016 WEEK 52: DEACON GREGORY STONE OF CAMBRIDGE PT2

New England was at odds with the Mother Country long before the American Revolution. Besides the conflict between the Puritans and the Church of England, there was also the Crown's desire to make Massachusetts a royal province which would change the form of government. Instead of a governor chosen  by election, he would be appointed by the king. Fear that this would happen worsened when Charles II became king after the restoration of the monarchy.

In 1664 the residents of Cambridge, Ma. voiced their concerns in a document, the Cambridge Memorial. It was brought to the General Court by four men, one of whom was my 9x great grandfather Deacon Gregory Stone.

From Joseph Gardner Bartlett's Gregory Stone Genealogy: Ancestry and Descendants of Dea. Gregory Stone of Cambridge, Mass., 1320-1917:

But the most noteworthy committee on which Dea. Gregory1 Stone served was in 1664, when he and three other Cambridge men presented to the General Court a memorial signed by them and about one hundred and forty other residents of Cambridge, protesting against the then proposed government of New England by a Royal Commission, as an arbitrary government of a Council or Parliament in which they were not represented, and contrary to the intent of the original patent of the Colony. This was the first muttering of the spirit which over a century later was heard in full tones in the Declaration of Independence of 1776. The Colony Records thus describe this occurrence:

"19 Oct. 1664. The Court being'mett together & informed that severall persons, inhabitants of Cambridge, were at the doore, & desiring liberty to make knowne theire errand, were callled in, & Mr. Edward Jackson, Mr. Richard Jackson, Mr. Edw: Oakes, & Deacon Stone, coming before the Court, presented a peticon from the inhabitants of Cambridge, which was subscribed by very many hands," etc., viz:

"To the honoured Generall Court of Massachusetts Colonie. The humble representation of the inhabitants of the towne of Cambridg.

For as much as we have heard that theire have beene representations made unto his Majesty conserning divisions among us and dissatisfactions about the present government of this colonie; we whose names are under written, the inhabitants and householders of the towne above mentioned, doe hearby testify our unanimous satisfaction in and adhearing to the present government so long and orderly estableshed, and our earnest desire of the continuance theirof and of all the liberties and privileges pertaining theirunto which are contained in the charter granted by King James and King Charles the First of famous memory, under the encouredgment and security of which charter we or our fathers ventered over the ocean into this wildernesse through great hazards, charges, and difficulties; and we humbly desire our honored General Court would addresse themselves by humble petition to his Maiesty for his royall favour in the continuance of the present estableshment and of all the previleges theirof, and that we may not be subjected to the arbitrary power of any who are not chosen by this people according to their patent. Cambridg the 17th of the 8:1664.
Charles Chauncy
Edward Oakes
Samll Andrewe
Jonathan Mitchell
Elijah Corlett
Richard Champny
Edmund Frost
Gregory Stone"
[The names of one
hundred and thirty
more signers follow.]

(Massachusetts Colony Records, vol. 4, part 1, p. 136; and "History of Cambridge," pp. 74-75.)
-pp47-48
Gregory Stone Genealogy: Ancestry and Descendants of Dea. Gregory Stone of Cambridge, Mass., 1320-1917  Stone family association, Boston, Ma  1918


And the governor of Massachusetts in 1664?

My 10x great grandfather John Endicott!

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2016 WEEK 52: DEACON GREGORY STONE OF CAMBRIDGE PT1

And so  I've come to my last ancestor for this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, 9x great grandfather Deacon Gregory Stone of Cambridge, Ma.  Here's the entry in William Richard Cutter's Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Volume 4:

Gregory Stone, immigrant ancestor, came to America with his family, in the "Defence," which sailed from London early in July, 1635, and arrived, presumably at Boston, in October of the same year. He had as fellow passengers Rev. Thomas Shepard and his associate, who were fleeing religious intolerance at home. On the voyage they were exposed to greater danger than that found by most of the colonists, for their ship had  "a bottom too decayed and feeble indeed for such a voyage so that a perilous leak endangered her safety on the way hither." In the same year his brother Simon came with his family on the ship "Increase," also from London.

(II)Deacon Gregory Stone, born in England, about 1590, baptized at Great Bromley, Essex county, England, April 19, 1592, died at Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 30, 1672. He settled first at Watertown as early as 1636, but soon removed to Cambridge, of which he was a proprietor in 1637. He was admitted a freeman May 25, 1636, with his brother Simon, both of Watertown. His farm at Cambridge was noted for high state of cultivation and excellent orchards. It is the site of the present Botanic Gardens of Harvard College. He was deacon of the Cambridge Church thirty-four years, deputy to the general court, and local magistrate. He deposed September 18, 1658, that he was aged about sixty-seven years. He died November 30, 1672, aged eighty-two. His will was proved December 14, 1672. The widow died June 24, 1674. He married in Nayland, England, July 20, 1617, Margaret Garrad, baptized at Nayland, December 5, 1597, and buried there August 4, 1628. Stone married second, in England, Lydia Cooper, widow, born in England and died in Cambridge, June 24, 1674. His second wife had by her first marriage a son John Cooper, who married Anne Sparhawk, and a daughter Lydia, who married David Fisk. Children: i. John, baptized July 31, 1618, in England; settled in Framingham; ancestor of the main families of Worcester county of this name. 2. Dr. Daniel, baptized August 15, 1620; resided in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 3. David, baptized September 22, 1622; resided in Cambridge. 4. Elizabeth, baptized October 3, 1624, buried at Nayland, England. 5. Elizabeth, baptized March 6, 1628: married Anthony Potter, of Ipswich. 6. Samuel, mentioned below. 7. Sarah, baptized February 8, 1632: married July 12, 1653, Joseph Merriam, of Concord; she died April 8, 1704. -p1889

Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Volume 4  Lewis historical publishing Company, N Y. N.Y. 1908


But this wasn't the only place I found online with details of Gregory's life, and I found something very interesting about Gregory on another website.

To be continued.