JOHN PRESCOTT

I was having trouble thinking of free spirits and independent
thinkers in my family tree. It's not that there aren't any, it's
just that I really didn't know that any of them have been the
type to stand out.

So I started looking further up the family tree and John
Prescott's name caught my eye. John's already one of my
favorite remote ancestors for reasons I'll talk about later, so
I did a little more Googling on him and found that he fits the
bill for this edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.

John Prescott was born in Lancashire, England and came to
the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1640 after trying his hand
as a landholder in Barbadoes. He was married to Mary
Gawkrogers Platt with whom he had a total of seven children,
and he initially lived in Watertown close by Boston. But John
soon found himself embroiled in a dispute between the Puritan
leaders of the colonyand a man named Robert Childe.

Robert Childe was a man of learning, a medical doctor as well
as an alchemist, of all things, in Puritan Massachusetts. But it
wasn't his learning that set him in a collision course with the
colony leaders so much as his protests that the only people
allowed to enjoy religious and political rights were members
of the Puritan Congregationalist establishment. If you weren't
admitted as a freemen, you couldn't vote or hold office and if
you were an Anglican it was difficult to be admitted. Childe
and six others (including my ancestor Samuel Maverick)
petitioned about this injustice to the General Court of
Massachusetts and sent a copy of the petition off to England
where his brother published it. The Puritan reaction was
swift. Dr Childe was arrested and exiled back to England.

John Prescott hadn't signed the petition but he was known
to agree with Dr Childe so he wasn't too popular with the
government. He'd been one of three men to purchase land to
the west from the Indians and while the other two men never
settled there, Prescott took his family and some others and
traveled there to start over. Along the way he nearly lost his
family while crossing the Sudbury River but they finally
arrived safely at their new home. Prescott started a farm
and built a mill as well as a blacksmith shop. At one point the
settlement had to be abandoned after an Indian attack but
Prescott returned and rebuilt it.

When it became a town the inhabitants named it Prescott in
his honor but the colonial government forced it to be changed
and after a few more changes it became Lancaster in memory
of the home he'd left in England.

I mentioned that Prescott was one of my favorite ancestors
and the reason is he's the only recorded early settler of New
England with a set of armor. The full story is told here in this
quote from The Military Annals of Lancaster, Massachusetts.
1740-1865 Including Lists of Soldiers Serving in the Colonial
and Revolutionary Wars, for the Lancastrian Towns: Berlin,
Bolton, Harvard, Leominster, and Sterling By Henry Stedman
Nourse: (W. J. Coulter, Lancaster, Ma. 1889 pp360-361)
which is also the source of most of this article:


"It is related that at his first coming he soon won the respect
of the savages not only by his fearlessness and great strength
but by the power of his eye and his dignity of mien. They soon
learned to stand in awe of his long musket and unerring skill
as a marksman. He had no doubt seen some military service
in England for he came of a soldierly race his great grandfather
having been knighted for gallantry in battle. He had brought
with him from England a suit of mail helmet and cuirass
probably such as were worn by the soldiers of Cromwell"

"Clothed with these his stately figure seemed to the sons of
the forest something almost superhuman. One day some
Indians having taken away a horse of his he put on his armor,
pursued them alone, and soon overtook them. The chief of the
party seeing him approach unsupported met him menacingly
with uplifted tomahawk. Prescott dared him to strike and was
immediately taken at his word but the rude weapon glanced
harmless from the helmet to the amazement of the red men.
Naturally the Indian desired to try upon his own head so
wonderful a hat and the owner obligingly gratified him
claiming the privilege however of using the tomahawk in
return. The helmet proving a scant fit or its wearer
neglecting to bring it down to its proper bearings Prescott's
vengeful blow not only astounded him but left very little
cuticle on either side of his head and nearly deprived him of
ears. Prescott was permitted to jog home in peace upon his
horse.

After hostilities began it is said that at one time the savages
set fire to his barn but fled when he sallied out clad in armor
with his dreaded gun and thus he was enabled to save his
stock though the building was consumed. More than once
attempts were made to destroy the mill but a sight of the
man in mail with the far reaching gun was enough to send
them to a safe distance and rescue the property.

Many stories have been told of Prescott's prowess but some
bear so close a resemblance to those credibly historic in other
places and of other heroes that there attaches to them some
suspicion of adaptation at least Such undoubtedly is the story
that in the assault upon the town he had several muskets but
no one in the house save his wife to assist him. She loaded the
guns and he discharged them with fatal effect. The contest
continued for nearly half an hour Mr Prescott all the while
giving orders as if to soldiers so loud that the Indians could
hear him to load their muskets though he had no soldiers but
his wife. At length they withdrew carrying off several of their
dead and wounded."

I'm not sure how much of all that is true but it is fun to read.

In 1664 the General court opened the way for admission of
non Puritan believers as freedmen and John took the oath
in 1669. John Prescott died in 1681 a well respected man
and among his descendants are William Prescott the historian
and Col. William Prescott of Bunker Hill fame. I'm decended
from John's son Jonas Prescott, who himself is the subject
of another story, this one of a romantic nature, and which I'll
share in a future post.

This post is written for the 51st edition of the Carnival of
Genealogy.

SPEAK LIKE A NATIVE NEW ENGLANDER 8

Okay, so you are visiting New England on a hot summer day
and stop at a Brigham's or Friendly's for an ice cream cone and
the person at the take out window asks you "Do you want
jimmies on that?"

No, he's not asking you if he can put someone else's ice cream
on your cone. You probably know "jimmies" as "sprinkles", the
brightly colored bits of sugar sprinkled on ice cream, cookies,
and cupcakes.

No, I've no idea why they are called that up here. I suspect they
were first invented or served to diners by someone named
James or or Jimmy. At any rate, an ice cream cone with some
"jimmies'' on top sure sounds good on a hot day, doesn't it?

They're best on traditional "hard' ice cream but you can get
them at the DQ, too. If you want to be really decadent, have
the cone "dipped" in chocolate with "jimmies"

It's wicked good!

MY BARKER LINE

Before I move on to Jesse and Benjamin Barker, I thought
I'd briefly list my Barker Line. I decided to just list my
direct ancestors because of the number siblings in some
generations. At some point in the future I might do a more
detailed generation by generation posting.

The only siblings listed here are Amos Hastings Barker
and Nathaniel S. (for Swan, I wonder?) Barker since
their children married each other in the next generation.



1. Richard Barker was born about 1618 in Holme-on-Spalding
-Moor, Yorkshire, England and died 18 Mar 1693 in Andover,
Essex, Ma.

He married Joanna UNK About 1644 in Methuen, Essex, Ma.
She was born 1632 in ? and died 11 Apr 1687 in Andover,
Essex, Ma.




2. Benjamin Barker was born 28 Feb 1663 in Andover, Essex,
Ma. and died 11 Oct 1750

He married Hannah Marston 2 Jan 1688 in Andover, Essex,
Ma. She was born 16 Feb 1667 in Andover, Essex, Ma and
died 14 Jan 1733 in Andover, Essex, Ma, daughter of John
Marston and Martha Fuller





3. Jonathan Barker was born 14 Jul 1706 in Andover, Essex,
Ma and died 20 Jan 1737 in Methuen, Essex, Ma.

He married Mary Abbott 26 Jan 1728 in Andover, Essex,
Ma. She was born 24 Apr 1709 in Marblehead, Essex, Ma ,
daughter of Joseph Abbott and Sarah Devereaux


4. Jonathan Barker was born 23 Oct 1728 in Andover, Essex,
Ma and died 29 Apr 1794 in Methuen, Essex, Ma.

He married Abigail Mitchell 13 Oct 1750 in Methuen, Essex,
Ma. She was born 23 May 1730 in Haverhill, Essex, Ma,
daughter of Andrew Mitchell and Hannah Ayer, and died 15
Feb 1806 in Methuen, Essex, Ma.


5. Jonathan Barker was born 26 May 1754 in Methuen,
Essex, Ma and died 11 Jul 1824 in Newry, Oxford, Me.

He married Nancy Swan 14 Jun 1788 in Fryeburg, Oxford,
Me., daughter of James Swan and Mary Smith She was born
22 Sep 1765 in Methuen, Essex, Ma .


6. Nathaniel Barker was born 31 Jan 1794 in Newry, Oxford,
Me ( or 31 Jan 1794 in Ma)

He married Hulda Hastings 31 Jan 1819 in Bethel, Oxford,
Me. She was born 17 Mar 1798 in Bethel, Oxford, Me. ( or 17
Apr 1798 ), daughter of Amos Hastings and Elizabeth Wiley.

Children of Nathaniel Barker and Hulda Hastings:


7. Amos Hastings Barker was born 19 Nov 1828 in Rumford,
Oxford, Me and died 5 Nov 1907.

He married Betsy J Moore . She was born 16 Aug 1842 in
Waterford, Oxford, Me and died 12 Mar 1924 in Newry,
Oxford, Me.



7 Nathaniel S. Barker was born 13 Mar 1830 in Newry,
Oxford, Me and died 20 Mar 1884.

He married Elizabeth Coburn . She was born 10 Aug 1842
and died 15 Nov 1904, daughter of Westley Coburn and Lucy
Stowe. (Stow?)


8. Frank W. Barker was born 20 Apr 1865 in Albany, Oxford,
Me and died 21 May 1905 in Bethel, Oxford, Me.

He married Charlot Lovenia Barker . She was born 3 Aug
1879 in Albany, Oxford, Me. daughter of Amos Hastings
Barker and Betsy J. Moore, and died 1944 in Bangor, Oxford,
Me.


9. Cora Berthella Barker (aka "Cora Bertha Barker") was
born 27 Oct 1899 in Bethel, Oxford, Me and died Jun 1987.

She married Floyd Earl West Sr. 24 Mar 1919 in Errol, Coos,
Nh. He was born 14 Apr 1893 in So.Paris, Oxford, Me and
died 28 Jan 1970 in Dumaway, Me., son of Philip Jonathan
West and Clara Ford Ellingwood.

The last are my grandparents.

"HIDDEN HISTORY OF THE BOSTON IRISH"

I've previously mentioned reading the story of Barney
McGinniskin in Peter F. Stevens' Hidden History of the
Boston Irish. I skimmed through the book on my first reading
but today I took my copy and a glass of lemonade outside to
the patio and spent the afternoon there rereading the book
more closely. It was a pleasant and informative few hours.

If you are of Irish descent and live in Boston or your ancestors
did this book will give you a better picture of the obstacles
Irish-Americans faced in 19th century America and will make
you better appreciate how they overcame them with talent
and determination. Mr. Stevens writes about people and
incidents that I've either only heard briefly mentioned or that
I had never heard of at all and makes learning about them
enjoyable.


Reading the book I was struck by how some of this "hidden"
history has touched my life. I lived in Dorchester as a child, for
example, not far from Gallivan Boulevard, and never knew
about the man in whose honor it's named. I attended Cathedral
High School as a freshman and saw the Cathedral of the Holy
Cross every day and didn't know about the architect, Patrick
Keely, who designed and built it. I know that John L. Sullivan
retired to and died at a farm right here in Abington, but didn't
know that one of his greatest opponents, Jake Kilrain, quietly
lived out his last years in nearby Quincy.


As I read about the Broad St. Riot of 1837 where Boston
"Yankee" firemen fought with Irish workmen I was struck with
the irony of how a little over a century later my three McCue
cousins and other Irish Americans would be proud members of
the Fire Dept. I read about Patrick Collins, the first Irish
American mayor of Boston in the 20th century and wondered
if that opened the way for my mother's grandfathers to find
jobs working for the city.


Hidden History of the Boston Irish is a $19.99 paperback and
is available from your local bookstore and online. My store
sold out of the original ten copies that were shipped to us fairly
quickly so you may need to have it ordered in but it's worth
the effort. (I reordered more for our store, of course!)

And, in the interests of full disclosure, I had the pleasure of
meeting Mr. Stevens a week or so ago and we're planning to
host a signing at the store in August.(details to follow.)

BLOGGING BRUNCH 16

I'm on vacation this week and slept in today. I do have plans
for this week involving some genealogy research but I need a
haircut badly. The problem is my barber who I've gone to for
years is closed on Monday, so I'll get the haircut tomorrow
and take the train into Boston Wednesday and/or Thursday
depending on how much I find out at the three places I want
to visit.

I need the haircut so I will not be mistaken for one of the
homeless people who hang around inside the Library when I
visit the main branch at Copley Square. There's been some
unfortunate incidents involving muggings and fights there,
which is a sad statement both on the state of the library and
the state of a society where people need to use it for shelter.

So for today I've been catching up on reading other folks'
geneablog posts and doing some writing while keeping an ear
out for the approach of thunderstorms which are forecast for
all day. I've parked Ping under some trees in the parking lot
in the hopes it will keep most of the rain off since Ping does
not do well with damp wires.


And Happy Birthday to my late great-great grandmother,
Louisa Almata Richardson who was born 171 years ago on
this date, 23Jun 1837.

FLYBOYS

I think I may have posted this photo once before. It's from
when my Dad was training for the Air Corps during World
War II before he washed out due to inner ear problems.


On the back is a partial list of names of his fellow trainees,
and I'm posting that image now and my attempt at
transcribing it here in the hopes that the children and
grandchildren of these men might find it someday and see
how they looked in their uniforms before they went off to
war.


Because of the way the men are grouped it's hard for me to
assign names to specific faces. The only two I can are Michael
D. Piper Jr. and Lonnie (or Lennie?) L. Parker (?) standing to
either side of my father Floyd E. West Jr. at the far right end
of the back row. I think the first name is actually Lee Mill
Sanders and that he just signed the list "last name first."


I also noticed that Daniel M. Jeffrey's name appears twice.
The first entry is crossed over so I've assumed that either
someone else had posted the name in the wrong place or he
had done so himself and then corrected his mistake. I've
changed the first entry to "unknown".


So here they are. I wonder how many of them made it
home after the war, and I thank them for their service
to our country.


Sanders Lee Mill Artesia N.M.

Palmer E. Severson Wanooka (?) Minn,

Jerald L. Swan Beatrice, Nebraska

Helmut Paul Zimmerman, Buffalo, N.Y.

Robert L. Rugg Pueblo, Colorado

Unknown

Charles H. Parman, Skidmore, Mo.

Unknown

Unknown

Bill C. Hays San Angelo, Texas

Unknown

Ward L. Warnock, Camden, Ark.

Michael C. Sanborn (?) Port Arthur, Tex.

Bob Moffet St. Joseph, Mo.

Unknown

Ross Powill, Ellisville Miss

Daniel M. Jeffrey, Jeanette, La.

Allen D. Bailey Mpls Minnesota

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Jack Sessions Colton, California

Jack Wendt -Pecos, Texas

Unknown

Burton L. Steele, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Bob E Wick - Denver, Colorado

James H. Trask, Kansas City, Kansas

William E. Green - Eden, Texas

Unknown

Unknown

Michael D. Piper Jr. Queen City, Mo.

Floyd E. West

Lonnie (or Lennie?) L. Parker (?) Roswell, New Mex.

THE FAMILY PETS1-PICTURES

It finally dawned on me that I forgot to include some pictures
with my Carnival of Genealogy post about pets. So here are
three. The first is of Saddles, the very first family dog, and
the photo was taken sometime in the late 1940's or early
1950's.


The one above it (I can never get these pictures to load right
on Blogger!) is of my Mom, her nephew Vincent White, and the
dog is Flipper. It was taken on Evans St in Dorchester, Ma. in
the early 1960's. In the background you can barely see the
triple decker apartment building we lived in. It's on the far
right of the shot.


Finally, the one on top and the last chronologically is of
our cousin "Ree"(Marie) McFarland, my Sister Cheryl,
and a friend with Brownie on Bicknell Hill Rd in Abington
Ma. It's the only picture we have of Brownie

THE 50th CARNIVAL OF GENEALOGY : FAMILY PETS

Welcome to the 50th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy!
This edition we're sharing stories and pictures of the beloved
pets that have become part of our families. We have 29
authors and 30 stories, and I think when you read them
you'll find as I did that some of our pets shared characteristics,
such as the uncanny ability to find their way home across long
distances or the fear of thunderstorms.

All of them claimed a place in our hearts.



First, David Bowles over at Writing the Westward Sagas
tells us about his friend and companion Lulubelle with "Whos'
Training Who?" David's post confirms my suspicions that
we're the ones being trained!


Then visit Robert Lord's "Pets in Our Family History" at
Lord and Lady for a poignant story about an incident
during the Depression that shows how people helped each
other out in those hard times and how Robert got the only
pet he had during his childhood.

Chery Kinnick's mom grew up on a farm in Minnesota and
Chery shares family photos of pets and farm animals in
"Animal Friends on the Johnson Farm." She also tells us
about how one of the farmhands taught her mother and
some cousins manners by using their pet dog. I don't know if
I like how he did it very much, though! See for yourself over
at Chery's Nordic Blue blog.


Our first story about feline friends comes from Donna
Pointkouski of What's Past is Prologue who tells about
Lou C., Tigger and Stanley in "Cats Ruled This Family".
Some of the things they did made me grin and reminded me
of the cats we had in our family!


For many of us our dogs and cats are more than just friends.
Wendy Littrell at All My Branches Genealogy writes of her
"Furry and Feathered Family Members-Carnival of
Genealogy". Her stories show just how much a part of our
family our pets become, a tradition carried on in her family
now by Oreo.


CoG founder Jasia tells us about her friend Penela Pooh Pooh
Penela Cougar Poober Penn Noonie Poop, aka "Pennie the
Wonder Dog" over at Creative Gene. Jasia had to overcome
her Mom's dislike of pets to get her dream dog but it was
definitely worth it. I related to this story because like Jasia
I wanted a collie when I was a kid. Check out that great
photo tribute to Pennie, too. Jasia also contributes a story
about a family's pet crow in "A Most Unusual Pet".

One of the other things I've enjoyed about the entries for
this edition of the CoG is the names of the pets. Susan J.
Edminster writ"es about her family's dog, "Beans", at her
Echo Hill Ancestors Weblog and tells us about his favorite
game: tug-of-war !

Janice Brown has some great photos of pets from various
generations of her family in her post "Pets in My Family Tree"
at Cow Hampshire. Her present dog, "Ladie Di" is a real cutie.


Sharon Klein at her Genealogy has some stories of family
dogs as well in "Our Four-Legged Family Members". She
mentions that one of her dogs, Whiskers, was afraid of
thunderstorms, which as I've mentioned seems to be a fear
some other geneablogger's pets shared.


We head north to Canada next for M. Diane Rogers'
CanadaGenealogy, or Jane's Your Aunt. She writes in
"Carnival of Genealogy-Family Pets" of how her family
preferred cats to dogs and a reason why her Dad wouldn't
eat chickens!


Janet Iles doesn't own any pets of her own but her parents
did as children as her pictures in "Pets-Carnival of Genealogy"
show at Janet the Researcher.

Jewelgirl of Searching for Family Branches is another cat
lover and doesn't believe that superstition about black cats as
the pictures prove in "Beloved Pets-50th CoG".


Laura at The Virtual Dime Museum has a unique entry
about her granduncle Charlie and a cat in "Charlie Doctors
The Cat".


Becky Wiseman talks about "Buster, Rover, and Bootsie" at
Kinnexions. I think her Bootsie wins the prize for the most
unusual "trophy"brought home to show the humans!


Ken Spangler's "Rocky the Hound Dog" was another dog afraid
of thunder and that fear led to a remarkable feat. Read about
Rocky at Beyond Fiction.


Next up is Terry Thornton at Hill Country of Monroe County,
Mississippi. Terry's a cat person as he attests in "One little,
two little, three little kittens... " and his present companion is
the well named Hattie La Rue Thornton!


Terry also sent along a "guest column" by Johnie Sugg West
about "Bo Diddle", who was a feist, a breed of small hunting
dogs. The story of how Bo protected his family is a moving one.
Thanks for sending it in, Terry!


Jessica Oswalt of Jessica's Genejournal recently posted
about her two dogs Ben and Casey who are Schnauzer/Terrier
mixes and tells us more in "They May Look Cute...". Are they
named after the tv character, I wonder?


John Newmark of Transylvania Dutch had six pets: three
dogs and three...well, read his post "Pet Sounds" to find out
what they were and their names.



Then swing by Thomas MacEntee's Destination: Austin
Family to read "Minyo and Princess: A Clown and A Doll".
Like myself, Thomas doesn't have any pets in his life right
now but he has great memories of two unique dogs.


The footnoteMaven posed for a photograph as a child on
her noble steed and tell us more about the horse in "Daughter
of Lone Ranger-Make That Little Abner!" That was one pet
I always wanted, but I couldn't quite figure out how we could
get it up the stairs to our third floor apartment! I'm envious,
ftM!


Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is in the cat lover's column
and his recollection of the cats he's known and loved shows
why in the post "Rootie Toot Toot, Lickety Split, Softie and
Squash/Mira". Great names, Randy, for some great cats!


Amanda Erikson over at Random Ramblings contributes the
story of her pet rabbit in "My Little Munchkin" . Munchkin
certainly sounds much smarter than any of the rabbits I've
owned or cared for when I was younger.


Most families choose what pet they will take into their hearts
but sometimes the animal makes the choice for us. Steve
Danko at Steve's Genealogy Blog tells about how Smoky the
black cat became "The Family Cat" for the Dankos.


At Looking4Ancestors Kathryn Lake Hogan remembers
Specs, "The Dog Who Could Tell Time" and who also had
quite a bit of skill in dealing with locks.


Elizabeth O' Neal is allergic to cats but that hasn't stopped her
from always having some other sort of pet around! See some
pictures of the furry members of her family in "Creatures
Great and Small(Mostly Small)" at Little Bytes of Life.


Lori Thornton's home now from her visit to the Boston area,
including "Qwin-zee", just in time to tell us about the cats
and dogs in her life and includes a picture of her cat Brumley.
I imagine he's very glad to see Lori is back home. See the
picture of him in "Pets" at Lori's Smokey Mountain Family
Historian.

Lori's story prompted Chris Dunham of The Genealogue to
post "When Pets get Political." He didn't enter it for the CoG
but it's short and unique, so I'm including it!

Craig Manson's mother was no fan of cats, but gradually was
won over by the cat that was named "Top Cat" after the
television cartoon character. TC more than lived up to the
name and you can read how over at Craig's GeneaBlogie


Finally, some guy named Bill West of West in New England
tells stories about the canine characters his family owned,
especially the dog named Brownie in "The Family Pets1:
Brownie"

Thanks to all our contributors for sharing their pets with us!

And now it's time for the call for submissions to the 51st Edition
of the Carnival of Genealogy from Jasia:

"The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be: Independent Spirit. With the upcoming July 4th holiday, there is no more perfect time to honor someone from your family whose life can be summed up in one word – INDEPENDENT! Do you have a relative who was feisty, spoke their own mind, was a bit of a free spirit? Anyone who most people might consider a “nut” on the family tree but you know they really just followed a “different tune?” We all have at least one person whose character and habits may have made them seem “ahead of their time” and now is the chance to tell us their story. The host for the next edition of the COG will be the very free spirited, Thomas MacEntee. Thanks T!

The deadline for submissions will be July 1st."

Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of
Genealogy using our carnival submission form. Past posts and
future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

I hope you've all enjoyed this 50th Edition of the
Carnival of Genealogy.

PHEW!

It's been one of those days. Ping didn't start this morning,
which was probably for the best since I wasn't feeling too well
and it's better to be here at home when I feel lousy than to
be stuck somewhere in a stalled out car. If Ping doesn't start
up tomorrow I'll take the train into work and have the car
repaired next week when I'm on vacation.

This was on top of a near disaster, blog-wise. I had been
visiting each entry for the Carnival of Genealogy and
bookmarking them into a Blog Carnival folder. Around 6pm
Sunday night as I was writing up the final version of the
introductions, there was some sort of very brief power failure.
The lights flickered and the computer shut down but
everything was back on immediately. The computer seemed
ok and I shut it off while I watched the Celtics-Lakers game.

When I turned it back on after the game ended, I went back
to working on the CoG and found that not only were most of
my bookmarks for genealogy gone, so was the "Blog Carnival"
folder. Luckily I had saved all the email entries and hadn't
lost the intro, so I was able to finish it today. The 50th CoG
is stored on Blogger and I tried setting a timer on the post.
We'll see if I did it right come tomorrow night!

Putting together this CoG edition has given me a greater
appreciation of the hard work Jasia has put in it month
after month!

THE FAMILY PETS1:BROWNIE

As I mentioned in my post on family cars, the history of our
family pets is an epic in itself. Most of our dogs and cats
were "characters" and I still remember most of them with
a grin and a shake of my head. The dogs are the most
memorable for me.


"Saddles" was the first family pet and I barely remember him
but for many years he was the benchmark the family dogs
were compared against. He was a small fox terrier type and
died after a fight with a larger dog, a boxer that lived across
the street from us. My Dad and Uncle Ed drove from Malden
to the Angell Memorial Animal Hospital hoping they could help
the dog there but it was no use. Mom told me when I was older
that I was outside and they thought perhaps the dogfight
started because Saddles was "protecting" me.

Saddles was followed by some rather er...unique....successors.


There was the Irish Setter a coworker gave my Dad. The dog
was beautiful, but the previous owner was Polish American
and the dog only obeyed commands given in Polish. Since
neither of my folks spoke Polish, the setter was eventually
returned to the original owner.


When we moved to the first apartment in Dorchester the
landlord didn't allow pets so there was a period of three years
or so without them. But when we moved to the second
apartment and were on the first floor, we had pets once more.


There was Flipper, a small mongrel dog that Dad said was a
"Sooner": the dog would sooner go to the bathroom inside
than outside. One day Flipper ran out into the street and
was struck by a car.


Our next dog was another that a coworker of Dad's gave us.
Peppy was a full grown part Alsatian but seemed to have...
issues. One day one of the neighbor kids teased him and
Peppy grabbed hold of the sleeve of the girl's winter jacket
and wouldn't let go until he'd pulled the entire sleeve off!
Luckily for Peppy, he hadn't bitten the girl. He was exiled to
our cousins in Hanover where he amused himself by chasing
cars and running headlong into their side doors.


At that point, my folks decided we were done with dogs.
Other relatives had nice, normal dogs: Aunt Peggy had Lady,
Uncle Tommy had Mr. Chips, Uncle Ed and Aunt Emily had
their Boxer, Missy. We seemed to have no luck with dogs and
about this time we got our first cat, Mittens, so there would
be no more dogs, or so we thought.


Then we moved out to Abington. One of our former neighbors
in Boston had already moved out to the country and a relative
had some puppies needing a home. They were part Boxer,
part Spaniel and the hope, I think, was that the puppy we
took would be as good a dog as Uncle Ed's dog Missy.


We got lucky. Brownie was the best of all our family dogs.
She had a great disposition and was smart. She was one of
those dogs who look like they understand what you are saying
and then make little noises like they are trying to answer you.


Brownie was Dad's favorite dog, I think. When we moved to
Abington our house was built near a large field and we could
see Brownie chasing rabbits around it. Another time she very
nearly caught a wild pheasant that wandered across the front
lawn, and actually had a tail feather in her mouth before the
bird pulled loose and got away. She brought it inside and
showed it off to Dad.


Somehow or another my folks miscalculated and one day we
there was a small pack of male dogs outside our back door. A
few months later Brownie had a litter of eight puppies. the
first of which was born on the foot of my bed. We kept one of
the puppies and named it Saddles and found homes for the
others, one of whom ended up with one of our neighbors and
was named Bella. Saddles the Second was a good dog but was
what Dad called a "dumb mutt" and eventually we gave
him to another family friend. And Bella barked....a lot. Mom
said it must have been their fathers because they certainly
didn't take after Brownie.


We had Brownie for 5 or 6 years. One day a neighbor's kid
banged on the door to tell me our dog was lying at the end of
the driveway bleeding. When I went outside it was obvious
Brownie was very badly hurt. She'd been up at the golf course
at Rte 18 and ran out into traffic chasing something. The
driver who struck her stopped and tried to help her, but
Brownie made it the quarter of a mile back to the house
before she fell and did not get up. The driver had followed her
home and was very upset.



I was in my late teens at the time and the only one home that
day. I asked a neighbor to call the police, but Brownie died
before the Dog Officer arrived.

Eventually we would have other dogs, and they were good
pets and we loved them.

But to my mind, at least, Brownie was the best of all our pets.

REMINDER: CARNIVAL OF GENEALOGY DEADLINE!

Just a reminder that this Sunday June 15th is the deadline
for your submissions to the 50th Carnival of Genealogy! Do
you have some memorable pets that belong to your family
or have stories about pets that belonged to your ancestors?

Submit your entries here to the CoG submissions page by
midnight Sunday night, then read all the submissions here
on June 18th!

OF SODA POP AND HAM,

I've been talking with my coworkers about my "Speak Like a
Native New Englander" series and one of them told me how
when she was a child and her family was on vacation in Florida
she ordered a "tonic" and was teased by the waitress about
drinking hair tonic. I was going to do a post on the soda/pop/
tonic terms for soft drinks but I wisely checked Janice
Brown's Cow Hampshire first and sure enough, she did a
post on it two years ago on it, and there's a reference to
hair tonic. Go check that out here!

I will note, however, that while we in the Boston area call it
tonic, my cousins from Milan N.H. were calling it "soda pop"
or at least were some fifty years ago when I first noticed the
difference.

And the other night one of the ABC commentators referred to
the Celtic's training facilities in Waltham and pronounced it
"Walthum".

Tsk, tsk. It's Walth-ham! Obviously, he's not a native New
Englander!

SPEAK LIKE A NATIVE NEW ENGLANDER 7

Back in the 1960's Mr. Peabody was the Governor of
Massachusetts.

No, his boy Sherman was not Lt. Governor, nor did he own
a "Wayback Machine"

This Mr. Peabody was Gov. Endicott "Chub" Peabody . Gov.
Peabody came from old New England stock and was a
descendant of John Endecott, who was governor of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 17th century.

There is another difference from the other Mr. Peabody

The time traveling hound's name is pronounced "Pea-body",
while Gov. Peabody's name is said the same way the North
Shore town of Peabody is pronounced: "Pea-ba-dee", although
the "ba-dee" is said quickly: "Pea-b'dee".

So to get to "Pea-b'dee" from "Baw-ston", don't warm up the
Wayback Machine.

Take your "cah"!

SPEAK LIKE A NATIVE NEW ENGLANDER 6

In honor of Lori Thornton of Smoky Mountain Family
Historian who's up this way attending a conference and doing
some genealogy research as well, we will discuss the correct
pronunciation of the city of Quincy, where Lori's conference
is being held.

I'm told some folks in other parts of the country pronounce it
"Kwin-see"(perhaps in Quincy, Illinois?). But around here,
it's commonly spoken as "Kwin-zee".

Lori's been enjoying the restaurants and cuisine of New
England. Hopefully she'll have a chance to sample some
"steamahs" or "chowdah" on her visit to "Kwin-zee"!

PRIDE

We got a new book in at Borders last week for my "All
Things Local" section and the minute I saw it I knew I'd be
buying a copy. It's Peter F. Stevens' "Hidden History of the
Boston Irish" (trade paperback, $19.99 from History Press)
and a quick scan of the back made me grin. There was a
reference to Barney McGinniskin, who in 1851 became the
first Irishman on the Boston Police force. Barney announced
his arrival with: "Barney McGinniskin from the bogs of
Ireland!"

I could picture him roaring that out, an "in your face"
declaration of his presence despite the opposition to his hiring
that Stevens details. Many of the objections against him were
all too familiar to the Irish immigrants of the early 19th
century: he was taking work away from native born
Americans, American culture was threatened by the influx
of low born, poorly educated foreigners, and worst of all,
they were Catholic!


Barney lost his place on the force three years later during the
era of the aptly named "Know Nothing" Party's reign of anti-
Catholic terrorism, but the Irish kept coming, carving out
lives for themselves and their families in New England.


"No Irish Need Apply?' Fine, some of them started their own
businesses while others took on menial jobs that put roofs
over their heads and money in the bank. If they had to work
as maids or ditch diggers, they did; their children would have
the chance for better jobs as clerks or teachers. Bit by bit
they worked their way to their dreams. Among them were
my Mom's grandparents.


One of her grandfathers, John McFarland, started out as a
laborer in 1880 and was working for the Boston City Street
department by the 1910 census and as a gardener for the
City in 1920. At the time of his death he owned two houses.
By 1940, his sons were employed by shoe factories, a bottler,
and a diamond cutting company and each of them owned
their own homes. His grandchildren include three Boston
firemen. It's an American success story that's repeated in
many other families whose ancestors arrived here with very
little and achieved so very much through hard work and
perseverance.

I recently heard a conservative declare we make too much
of being "hyphenated" Americans, of being Irish-American,
or Italian-American or Polish-American. If he had his way,
there'd be no celebration of Columbus Day or St. Patrick's
Day or any other ethnic group festivities.

I was astonished as a historian, as a genealogist, as well as,
yes, an Irish-American. We should be proud of being
Americans but we should also be proud of where our
families came from and the contributions their cultures have
made to American culture as a whole. When I hear the debate
raging over immigration today I hear some of the same
arguments used against the immigrants of other times,
including my Irish ancestors. If those arguments had
prevailed then, what a much poorer country America would
be today!

And as a historian I am proud of the contribution Ireland itself
has made to music and literature, and in its role the Irish
monasteries played in preserving much of the Greek and
Roman literature duringthe Middle Ages.

So that's what I feel about being Irish and Irish-American:
pride in my ancestors for what they overcame, and grateful
to them for what they have given back to America in return!

Written for the 6th edition of The Carnival of Irish Heritage
and Culture at the Small-Leaved Shamrock.

THE 49th EDITION OF THE CARNIVAL OF GENEALOGY IS OUT!

The 49th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, the Swimsuit
Edition is up over at Jasia's Creative Gene and is full of posts
on beaches, bathing suits, and memories of summer fun.
There's some great reads, so take a look and enjoy!

I'll be hosting the next CoG and the topic will be Family Pets:

"And now it's time for a call for submissions! The topic for
the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be: family
pets! Bring out those old photos of Snoopy, Garfield, Rex
and Bob! Tell us the funny, charming, and cute stories about
the pets you remember or remember hearing about.
Introduce us to the furry, feathered, and scaly members who
have a place on your family tree! The deadline for the next
edition is June 15, 2008..."

I'm looking forward to a lot of well written memories!

HE WAS SO THIRSTY HE GULPED DOWN THE WHOLE CABINET!

With this entry we widen the scope of how to speak New
Englandese to include the words and terms peculiar to the
area. So let's start with food, and in this case, the milk shake.

According to the Wikipedia, the classic milk shake is made by
handmixing any flavor ice cream and additional flavors,
although it's more commonly done with a machine. The
"shakes" served at the fast food restaurants for the most
part are made from a frozen premade mix without ice
cream (although some chains still serve ice cream based
milkshakes.)

Of course, this being New England, we have our own spin on
the drink. It's often called a "frappe" (rhymes with ''lap")
and Janice Brown at Cow Hampshire has previously written
about the term. (Go read it here for extra credit!)

Some forty years ago when I was a camp counselor on Cape
Cod, several of us went to a local restaurant and ordered
hamburgers, fries, and milkshakes. But one of us came from
Rhode Island and when he stepped up to the window he asked
for a "cabinet" which was a frappe...which was a milkshake.
The rest of us had no idea what Jerry was talking about but
the restaurant worker did and served up a "cabinet" in a
minute.

Basically, in New England, if you want ice cream in your
milk shake, order a frappe. Personally, the best I ever
tasted are served at the Brigham's Restaurants. Get
one with a grilled cheese sandwich and a side order of fries
or onion rings!

Hmm. I'm suddenly hungry....

HOUGHS NECK

When I was a kid "going to the beach" meant we were going
to visit my grandaunt and granduncle Peggy and Leo McCue
at their cottage on Hough's Neck. (pronounced How's Neck).
"The Neck" is part of Quincy, Ma. and juts out to form the
southern boundary of Quincy Harbor.


There were other nearby beaches but they were crowded
and the water wasn't too safe on some days, so for most of
my childhood we would drive out to see Aunt Peggy and
Uncle Leo. Their cottage sat at the end of the seawall on a
little dirt road named Nut Island Ave. but one of my earliest
memories of the place is of walking down a long flight of
wooden steps to the cottage from Island Ave which ran
along the hillside above it. There was brush on either side of
the stairs and walking down towards the building must have
made an impression on me because I've never forgotten it.

Aunt Peggy (Margaret) was the only surviving sister of
my grandmother Aggie. She and Uncle Leo had five
children, three boys and two girls. Four had already married
and started their own families so there were usually some
cousins around to play with when we visited. It was also great
when Peggy's youngest son Bobby was around because he was
my idea of a very cool guy: good looking, athletic, and he had
a driver's license. He was about 7 or 8 years older than me so
it was a classic case of a younger kid idealizing an older one!

The first picture is of my second cousin Margie, my Mom
on the right and oh, yeah, that's me in the middle. It's a bit
ragged like some of the old photos I have and one of these
days when I can afford the cost of Photoshop Elements I
hope to be able to fix this and others like it.

The dirt road ended at the cottage and beyond that was a
rocky beach. We used to toss rocks at the ground and watch
for the "squirt" of the steamer clams and dig them up. If you
went swimming, you either had really tough soles on your
feet or you wore old sneakers into the water.


One incident at the cottage I dreamed about for years. There
was a raft in the water made out of old planks and oil drums
and somehow or another I fell off it into the water. I must
have been around 5 or 6 years old and I swallowed a LOT of
water. The end result was that for years after, right into
college, I never put my face under the water while I swam.
We had swimming class as part of gym at college and that's
where I finally got over that fear, but I still prefer to keep my
head above water!

I have other memories of the cottage. One involves my first
taste of beer. The grownups were sitting around drinking
what I thought was ginger ale but when Uncle Leo gave me
a sip of his I didn't like it at all. My Mom told me I made
quite a face.


I've never forgotten the family dog, Lady, who was crawled
over, tugged at and pestered by grandchildren and cousins
and was always patient about it.

And the first place I ever saw "The Ernie Kovacs Show" and
The Nairobi Trio was on a tv at the cottage.

As you can see from the picture of the building, the cottage
wasn't some grand building and the atmosphere was laid back.
If you look closely, you can see somebody's leg resting on the
railing of the porch.

Uncle Leo passed sometime in the 1960's and Aunt Peggy in
1988. At some point the ownership of the cottage changed
hands but I don't know the particulars. Two of their children
had cottages in other Massachusetts towns and so my
younger brother (who is 17 years younger) has memories of
the visits to the Marshfield cottage.

I haven't been out to Hough's Neck in years and I think the
original cottage no longer stands.

But the memories live on.

SPEAK LIKE A NATIVE NEW ENGLANDER 5

Scituate is a nearby town on the coast of Massachusetts with
some nice scenery and a name that gives newcomers pause.
As usual with many names around here, it's not said as it's
spelled.

It's not "Skit-u-ate"

The 'c' is a soft c, the `tu' becomes 'chew' and the 'ate' is
pronounced as 'it': "Sit-chew-it". But it's also often
pronounced as "Sit-chwit".

It's another one of those tricky New Englander situations!

WHILE YOU'RE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

When I got the idea to do a series of posts about
some of the place names of New England and
another series on pronunciations, I found two very
useful sites on Google.


One is a list of "Archaic Community, District,
Neighborhood, Section and Village, Names in
Massachusetts" on the Citizens Information
Services website run by the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts. It gives an alphabetical list of old
place names organized in the following fashion:

"place name/located in/County of/a.k.a."

So Assinippi is listed this way:

"Assinippi / part of Hanover & Norwell / Plymouth
/ Post Office in Hanover, a.k.a. Snappy".

A second site is a 1890 Gazetteer of Massachusetts
by the Rev. Elias Nason. It has a list of towns and
villages from Abbott Village in Andover to Zylonite
in Adams with other fascinating names like
Donkeyville, Dragon's Corner, Egypt, and Wyoming
along the way.

It's fascinating to see these old place names and it
made me wonder if some of my Abbott ancestors
from Andover lived in Abbott Village for example.

How about you? You may know the name of the
town or city one of your ancestors lived in, but do
you know if they lived in a specific village or district
of that town that you don't know about?

Maybe a search in a gazetteer will help!

SPEAK LIKE A NATIVE NEW ENGLANDER 4

One of the town names that newcomers to Massachusetts
initially mispronounce is Haverhill, birthplace of my ancestors
Amos Hastings and Abigail Mitchell.

The furthest off is to say the first syllable like the verb "have"
and then pronounce the 'r' as the second syllable before
ending with a"hill" so it comes out "Have-r-hill". I've heard
this once or twice from reporters new to the area.

'Have' actually has a long 'a' as in "hay" and some people get
that first part right but still fall into the 'hill' trap.

There's no hill in Haverhill. Basically, the 'h' is silent and the
name has two syllables:

"Hayv + rill"= "Hayvrill".

So remember, if you are going to Haverhill, keep the 'h' out
of it!

SPEAK LIKE A NATIVE NEW ENGLANDER 3

When I was a child, our family often would vacation in Berlin
and Milan.

No, not the cities in Europe. These are in New Hampshire and
as you might expect, we in New England pronounce them
differently than the way the original cities are pronounced.

Milan(where some of my Ellingwood ancestors were born)
sounds like "My lan". Berlin sometimes is pronounced the
same way as the German city(mostly by reporters from
down here in the "flatlands") but when my Dad or my Aunt
Flossie and her family up in Milan said the name it was
"Burlin" as in "Merlin".

Think of it this way. Merlin from Berlin is stylin' in Milan!

WITH A NAME LIKE THAT, IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE COUNTY SEAT

Like most everywhere else in the USA, Massachusetts once
had many smaller towns or villages that were absorbed into
larger towns. I learned of one of them shortly after the family
moved out of Boston down here to Abington. We had visited
our cousins in a neighboring town and on the drive home as
we went through a small intersection, Dad announced that
we were in "Ass-i-nippi!'


Mom thought he was kidding but a few days later when we
went through the same area during the daylight hours Dad
pointed out a sign on a building that read "Assinippi General
Store."


Assinippi Village is now part of Hanover, Ma. and got its
name from an Indian word meaning "rocky water". I suspect
its proper pronunciation might be "Ah-sin-ippi".


But in our family it's always been pronounced as Dad did, and
so, alas, Assinippi has been the...(cough)... butt of many
family jokes.

SPEAK LIKE A NATIVE NEW ENGLANDER 2

Today's lesson in New Englandese is in honor of Terry and all
of the H.O.G.S. bloggers: ham.

No, not the kind you eat. This "ham" is the ending of many towns'
names in Massachusetts and other New England towns.

To paraphrase Mr. Rogers, "one of these 'hams' is not like the
others." Can you guess which one?

Gorham
Wilbraham
Chatham

Here's another three:

Framingham
Dedham
Wareham.

In the first group, the answer is Wilbraham (Will bra ham) and in
the second, Framingham. (exactly as it looks...Framing ham)

In the others, "ham" becomes "em" or "um":

Gorham (Gor um)
Chatham (Chat em)
Wareham (Ware em)
Dedham (Ded um)


And I've no idea why it's one way for some and the other way
for others.

I just speak it, I don't explain it!

SPEAK LIKE A NATIVE NEW ENGLANDER!

Along with funny place names, New England has many names
with easy looking names that have tricky...for outsiders...
pronunciations.It's often a cause of amusement to hear a
newly hired reporter mangle one of the local town names.

So, I'll be posting a series of short posts to help people learn
how to speak New England-ese.

First up, Leominster, in honor of Randy Seaver who often
mentions it.

Looks like "Leo-minster", right?

Nope.

It's "Leh-minster", at least as pronounced in Eastern
Massachusetts.

It might have a slightly different accent "west of Worcester."

I'll get into that another time!

WHEN YOU SAY CHARGOGGAGOGGMANCHAUGGAGOGGCHAUBUNAGUNGAMAUGG, YOU'VE SAID IT ALL.

Massachusetts and New England has some interesting
geographical names and I thought I'd occasionally write about
some of the more unique ones. And if I'm going to do that, I
might as well start right at the top:

Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.

No, I'm not gargling.

That is the original Nipmuc Indian tribe name as well as the
offical name for a lake that is also known as "Lake Webster"
because of the town where it is located. When I was a kid and
we drove by it once my folks told me the name meant "You
fish on your side, we'll fihs on our side, and nobody fishes in
the middle." but according to the Wikipedia article here,
that definition was a humorous attempt by a local writer to
resolve the arguments over the meaning of the word.

The Nipmuc Indian Association of Connecticut (Webster is
close to the Connecticut-Massachusetts border) website says
the name incorporates the name of a local Nipmuc village of
Monuhchogok but there also seems to be some reference
to a "meeting place" in the name.

The word has several distinctions. It is often cited as the
longest place name in the USA and the 6th longest in the
world. The letter "g" is used 16 times which is the most
times any letter is used in any word in the English language
and the letter "a" is used 9 times, again the most times for
that letter in the language.

I think the Nipmucs would have preferred to keep their
beautiful lake and forego the linguistic distinctions.

It is a mouthful, though, isn't it?

Do any of you fellow geneabloggers have a unique place name
near you? Write about it on your own blog and let me know
and I'll post the link here!

UPDATE:

Randy has commented with "Funny Place Names"

Jessica has as well with "Speaking of Funny Place Names..."

THE 48th CARNIVAL OF GENEALOGY IS OUT

Well, the 48th Carnival of genealogy is out and this one had a
Mother's Day theme, "Mom, How'd You Get So Smart?".
Jasia gathered together articles from 22 contributors for
another great collection of reading!

The theme for the 49th CoG is just in time for warm weather:

The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy
will be: Swimsuit Edition! Why should Sports Illustrated
have all the fun? This is your chance to show off the bathing
beauties in your family. Pull out the old photos of Grandma
Moses in her seaside bloomers, Auntie Mae in her pin-up
girl suit from the 1940s or 50s, cousin Paula in her
psychedelic bikini from the 1970s, or even yourself in your
Speedo! Let's have some fun here! Memorial Weekend is
knocking on the door and that means the start of the
summer sun, sand, and seaside season so let's get in the
mood with summer fun photos.

What? You don't have any swimsuit photos you dare to
share? No problem! Tell us your best family beach stories
instead! The deadline for submissions is June 1st.

Submit an article from your blog here and join the fun!

THE OBITUARY OF FLOYD EARL WEST SR.

From the Norway, Me. Advertiser-Democrat February 5,
1970:


"Floyd E. West


UPTON--- Floyd Earl West, 76,
died at his home, Wednesday, January
28.

He was born April 14,1893 at South
Paris, the son of Philip J. and Clara
(Ellingwood) West.

He married the former Cora Barker.
Mr. West lived most of his life in Up-
ton and Wilsons Mills and was a re-
tired woodsman. He was a veteran of
World War I.

Surviving are his widow of Upton;
three daughters, Mrs. Malcolm Harvey
Wentworth Location, Mrs. Charles
Bargar, Uhrichsville, Ohio, Mrs. Her-
bert Balser, Milan, N.H; two sons,
Floyd E. Jr., of Abington, Mass, and
Stanley R. of Molan, N.H.; two broth-
hers, Clarence P. West of Wilsons Mills
and William Tidswell, Turner; 15
grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.

Funeral services were held Satur-
day, January 31 at 2 pm from the
Greenleaf Funeral Home, Bethel, Rev.
Bertha Burris officiating.
Burial in the spring at the Lincoln
Plantation Cemetery."

I found this clipping tucked away in the top drawer of the
dresser the other night while trying to find my old school
report cards. I immediately scanned it and saved the image,
but it wasn't until I was discussing finding the obituary with
a co-worker at the bookstore that I realized that it was
incorrect, genealogically speaking. My father did indeed have
a brother named Stanley, who was born before Dad but he
died in infancy. The Stanley R. West in the obituary is actually
his nephew, the son of my Aunt Hazel who is the "Mrs.
Malcolm Harvey" in the list of children. I was told by my
parents that Stanley's father had died and that when Hazel
married Malcolm Harvey, my grandmother raised Stanley.
A researcher might assume that there was only the one
Stanley unless they already knew the family history or had
seen the death record of the infant Stanley.

Another error but a minor one is the typo in Stanley's
residence which should be Milan, not Molan, N.H. And finally
there is how my Aunts are listed, not by their own names but
by their husbands.

The information in death notices and obituaries is usually
provided by the surviving family or family friends and often
reflects their viewpoint of the deceased and the family. So
while obituaries are a great source of family information, it's
still important to check the facts!

MOM

My Mom, Anne Marie White, never graduated from high
school. The only school I recall her mentioning was the Mary
E. Curley School in Jamaica Plain, which today is a middle
school, grades 6-8, and I haven't been able to determine as
yet if it was a high school in her day. And the only story I
remember her telling about her school days was one about
how she'd been made to sit under the teacher's
desk once for acting up in class back in elementary school.

Mom dropped out of school sometime during WWII and went
to work at an A&P Supermarket. Uncle Ed had enlisted in the
Navy and so there was just Mom and my Grandmother Aggie.
I'm not sure how old she was when she went to work, but
Mom was born in 1927 so she'd have had to have at least 14
or 15 years old. Years later when we living in Malden she'd
shop at the A&P in Linden Square and I remember her using
the coffee grinding machine which impressed me!


Mom was a very intelligent woman and I'm quite sure that if
she'd stayed on in school she would have done well. She was
well-spoken, a good conversationalist, and liked to read. She
liked historical novels and some of her favorite authors were
Taylor Caldwell, John Jakes, and Susan Howatch, but she
also enjoyed Sidney Sheldon and Jackie Collins. She also
read historical romances such as Beatrice Small's books, and
mysteries. Occasionally she'd surprise me by reading one of
the books I'd been reading, such as a Stephen King novel, and
then asking me if the author had written anything else. The
only type of books I do not recall her ever reading were the
science fiction and fantasy books I loved other than Marion
Zimmer Bradley's Arthurian fantasy "The Mists of Avalon" .


Over the years Mom held a variety of jobs most of which
were of the light assembly or warehouse variety, although
her last one was as a switchboard operator/receptionist.
That one required using a computer for the first time and
once she got over her initial unease she did it well.

She was the Red Headed Witch of Evans Street and
taught me how to ride a bike in her own unique style.

My mother had style too, and dressed as well as family
finances and the budget allowed. When my sister and I were
working in the garment business at Collegetown and had
employee discounts we had no trouble figuring out what to
get Mom for her birthday, Christmas, and Mother's Day.


I'm firmly convinced that given her intelligence Mom might
have done quite well if she'd finished high school and maybe
gone on to college if circumstances had allowed it and if she'd
been a little more self confident. She never got over her
father's estrangement from the family.

I'm proud of both my parents. Neither of them graduated
from high school but they raised three kids to adulthood and
did it through good times and some very tough times but
did their best to keep a roof over our heads and food in our
bellies. They weren't perfect but they kept at it.


And they are missed.


Happy Mother's Day, Mom.

A MOTHER AND CHILD REUNION

A moving story of how genealogy reunited a 72 year old man
with his 90 year old birth mother!

A VERY GOOD YEAR!

I was digging through some of the dresser drawers tonight
hunting for some old report cards I had kicking around for
years. I didn't find them as yet, but I did find this Merit
Award from June of 1959 which was, I think , for fourth
grade. Third grade was a nightmare as I tried to switch
from one school system's (Malden) way of teaching math
to the more traditional math taught in Boston. So I KNOW I
didn't get an A or B in Math that year, despite Mom's
vigorous attempts to get me up to speed on the higher
numbers in the multiplication tables.

So, yeah, this must have been fourth grade and the zenith of
my school career at the Frank V. Thompson. I don't recall
making the Honor Roll there very much and math was always
the bane of my young existence. Heck, it was all the way
through college graduation! I still occasionally have a dream
in which a request for my college transcript leads to the
discovery that I hadn't graduated after all because of some
bad grade in math or chemistry.

I haven't found the report cards yet. When I do, I'll scan
them and post them here, and then challenge my fellow
geneabloggers to show theirs.

I bet we all got good grades for "Works Well With Others"!

BOSTON ARCHDIOCESE ARCHIVES CLOSED FOR REST OF 2008

The Archdiocese of Boston is closing its Archives to
researchers for the rest of 2008 while they are moved to
a new location in Braintree , Ma.

Sacramental records needed for official purposes will be
temporarily unavailable from "Jun 1st to about Aug.4"

Records for genealogical purposes will not be available to
next year.

The full story is available here at the Boston Pilot website.

JONATHAN BARKER'S PENSION FILE4

In my last post about my 4x great grandfather, Jonathan
Barker, I mentioned that after seeing his Revolutionary War
Pension file there were some things that puzzled me. How
had he gone from being a a cofounder and landholder of
Newry, Maine with a wife and family to being penniless and
alone at the time of his pension petition?

I downloaded his file from Footnotes.com in September of
last year, but his was one of many that I found at that time.
At twelve images his was one of the smaller files, while his
brother Benjamin's was nearly 5 times larger. It took awhile
to finish finding as many of my ancestors' files as I could and
I only managed to transcribe one, Asa Barrows' file, before
the Christmas rush at work and other matters pushed the
transcriptions aside for a bit.


Then in January I mentioned the Barkers again in my blog
and shortly after I received an email from Howard Kaepplein
who is a fellow descendant of Jonathan Barker. His letter
cleared up the questions about Jonathan's situation at the
time of the petition. Howard has been kind enough to grant
me permission to quote here from his email:

"Bill,
I have read about your Barker genealogy with great
interest, since I am also a descendant of Jonathan Barker
3rd. In fact, I am writing an historical novel about his
father, Jonathan Barker Jr. The book was originally
planned to be about Jonathan 3rd until I took a writing
course and my teacher suggested that the primary
character should be a heroic figure, or at least one that the
reader could empathize with. Jonathan Barker doesn't
qualify, since, after his children were grown and married,
his wife, the former Nancy Swan, left him and went back
to Methuen. Jonathan had become an alcoholic and, in a
drunken stupor, burned his house down. He became an
embarrassment to his children and grandchildren. My
great grandmother, Marcia Barker Saunders, daughter
of Amos Barker and granddaughter of Jonathan
3rd, became a staunch member of the Women's
Temperance Movement, and often spoke about her
grandfather's drunkenness. She moved to Cambria County,
PA with her husband, Nathan Saunders, and cousin,
Abraham Andrews Barker (who became a congressman
during Lincoln's term). Marcia's husband was killed in a
train accident in the Galitzin Tunnel, after he had survived
two of the bloodiest Civil War battles. My grandmother,
Laura Saunders Hysong, continued living in Marcia's house
until her death, but her husband, who fathered six of her
children, was not allowed to live in the house because he
opposed Prohibition. Eventually, when it became law, he
was allowed to move in.

Jonathan Barker 3rd is buried in an unmarked grave at
the back of the old Newry cemetery, while his brothers and
co-founders of Newry, Benjamin and Jesse and their wives
have prominent stones on a hill near the front of the cemetery

There are two anecdotes about Jonathan Barker in "History
of Bethel, Maine" by William B. Lapham. One is about
Jonathan encountering some Indians (probably three) who
challenged him to wrestle with them. He took them on, one
by one, starting with the smallest, and layed each one on his
back. The other is about Jonathan's great strength in pulling
a sled loaded with all his belongings eight miles through the
snow in March, from Fryeburg to Newry. There are also
anecdotes about James Swan, father of Jonathan's wife,
Nancy. One is that James was impressed into the English
Navy in 1768 and placed on a ship heading out of Boston
Harbor. However, he and two crewmen overtook the
English officers and sailed the ship back into Boston
Harbor. James then fled to Methuen and took his family
to Fryeburg, ME where his brother, Caleb Swan had
been one of the first settlers with his brother-in-law,
Joseph Frye.

There is more information about the Barkers in "Sunday
River Sketches". Also, "A History of Newry" by Carrie
Wight and "Newry Profiles" by Paula Wight. All of this
material is available at the Bethel Historical Society, where
I am a life member..."

The men who filed for their Revolutionary War pensions
were men who were in need of help. Jonathan Barker
was one of those men. Some of us when starting our
genealogy research want to believe that our ancestors
were extraordinary people.

The truth is that they, like ourselves, were human
beings, trying to get through life the best way that they
could.

VATICAN BARS LDS FROM DIOCESES RECORDS

I routinely Google for news stories involving history or
genealogy and today was taken aback by reports that the
Vatican has instructed Catholic dioceses worldwide not to
allow LDS members access to copy diocesan records.
Obviously, this is a blow to those of Catholic descent who
might find information and images on FamilySearch.

The issue is the rebaptism controversy but I must confess
to a certain amount of skepticism as well. I have to wonder
if the recent boom in genealogy might not have called
attention to the fact that if Church records are available free
from the LDS, the Church loses out on the fees they charge
for making copies of the records for researchers.

Here's a link to the Catholic News Service story. After
rereading it just now, I noticed the order from the Vatican
was issued before the Pope's visit to America but wasn't
made public until now.

And for the record, I'm Catholic myself. Another Church
policy I disagree with, I'm afraid.

THE CARNIVAL OF GENEALOGY IS UP!

Jasia posted the latest CoG earlier tonight and it's a doozy!
Over thirty geneabloggers represented, some with more
than one post, so there's plenty of good reading.

The next Cog will be the 48th and will have a Mother's Day
theme:

The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is:
Mom, how'd you get so smart? We'll examine our mothers'
education. What schools did your mom attend? Did she
graduate high school or attend the school of hard knocks?
Did she attend a one room school house or was she home-
schooled? Was she the first in the family to attend college?
Maybe your mom took self-study courses or was an avid
reader. Tell us all about how a mother figure (mother,
grandmother, mother in law, godmother, etc.) in your life
became so brilliant! The deadline for submissions is May
15th.

IN TOUCH WITH MY INNER THWENG

I was buying my lunch at the cafe at work today and was in
a good...alright, silly...mood when I reached the cashier. Now
it's routine for the cashier to ask for the customer's first name
so they can let them know when their order is ready, but they
already knwo mine so they never ask.

As I said, I was in a silly mood..so after I placed my order, I
added "And my name is Marmaduke Thweng."

The cashier laughed

I added "I come from a long line of Thwengs!" (alright, just
one.)

And that cracked her up.

Nothing like an possible ancestor with a unique name for a
few laughs at work.

And of course, as we all know, it don't mean a thing if you
ain't got that Thweng!

JONATHAN BARKER'S PENSION FILE3

For some reason, even though Jonathan Barker's Pension
application had been approved and submitted by Judge
Albion K. Parris, he didn't receive his pension right away.
In fact he appeared before Judge Parris again nearly a year
later:

"UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
DISTRICT COURT OF MAINE, ss.

At a District Court of the United States begun and
holden at Portland within and for the District of
Maine, on the first Tuesday being the sixth day of June
and by adjournment from day to day, on the twenty
ninth day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and twenty, before the Honorable
ALBION K. PARRIS, Judge of said Court.

ON this twenty ninth day of June in the year above
written, personally appeared in open Court, the
same having "the power of fine and imprisonment",
and being a Court of Record for said Maine District,
Jonathan Barker, aged sixty six years, late of Newry now
resident in Portland in said District, who being first
duly sworn according to law, doth on his oath
declare that he served in the Revolutionary War as
follows, viz. as a Private in the company commanded
by Capts. Davis and Carr in the Regiments commanded
by Colonels Frye and Wesson in the line of the State of
Massachusetts on the Continental Establishment, as
is more particularly mentioned and described in his
original declaration, made on the 24th day of April
A.D.1818, and on which said declaration his
Certificate of Pension, numbered 7704 was granted.
And I do solemnly swear that I was a resident citizen
of the United States on the 18th day of March 1818;
and that I have not since that time by gift, sale, or
any manner disposed of my property, or any part
thereof, with intent thereby so as to diminish it as to
bring myself within the provisions of an Act of
Congress, entitled "An Act to provide for certain
persons engaged in the land and naval service of
the United States, in the Revolutionary War",
passed on the 18th day of March 1818: and that I
have not, nor has any person in trust for me, any
property or securities, contracts, or debts due to me;
nor have I any income other that what is contained
in the schedule hereto annexed, and by me
subscribed; that my occupation and ability to pursue
the same, together with the number and other
particulars of my family, are in fact and in truth as
is particularly described on the back hereof, also
subscribed by me.

Jonathan Barker

sworn to and declared on the twenty ninth day of June ,
A.D. 1820 before Albion K. Parris, U.S> District Judge
for the District of Maine."

Jonathan's "signature" is in different handwriting than on his
initial affidavit and it appears to be identical to Judge Parris'
signature.

The other side of the page has the "schedule" of Jonathan's
relatives and possessions:

"SCHEDULE of the real and personal estate, (
necessary clothing and bedding excepted) belonging
to me the subscriber, viz:
Real estate___ I have none___ Personal estate__ none
I have no family, nor have any income____ I am by
occupation a laborer.
Jonathan Barker

Sworn to June 29 1820
Before Albion K. Parris
U.S. District Judge. "

The following page is a statement by the Court Clerk, and it
would seem he was the person who signed Jonathan Barker's
name to the statement:

"MAINE DISTRICT, ss.
I, John Mussey, Junr. Clerk of the District Court of
the United States for the Maine District, do hereby
certify, that the foregoing oath, and the schedules
thereto annexed, are truly copied from the Record of
the said Court; and I do further certify, that it is the
opinion of the saidCourt that the total amount in
value of the property exhibited in the aforesaid
schedule, is one cent and no more.

In Testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand
and affixed the seal of the said Court, on this twenty
ninth day of June A.D. one thousand eight hundred
and twenty.

John Mussey Junr,
Clerk of the U. States District Court for the Maine
District."

And so now Jonathan Barker received his pension.:

"7704
Maine
Jonathan Barker
of Newry in the Dist of Maine
who was a private in the regiment commanded by
Colonel Wesson of the Massachusetts
line, for term of nine months.

Inscribed on the Roll of the District of Maine
at the rate of 8 Dollars per month, to commence on
the 24th of April, 1818

Certificate of Pension issued 16th of Nov 1819
and sent to A.K. Parrish, Esq,
Paris, Maine.

Arrears to 4th of Mar 1819 (illegible) 82.89
Semi-anl. all'ce ending 4th Sept 1819 48.00
_____
$130.89

Revolutionary claim,
Act 18th March 1818"

The page had been folded in half and it might have been used
as a folder to hold the other documents. Written vertically
along the fold to the left is the following:

"Died July 11th, 1824" (in dark ink)
"Notification sent to John Mussey Jr. Esq.
Portland, Maine." (all in lighter ink)

Several questions arise from reading Jonathan's pension file.

How did he go from being an original settler and landholder
in Newry to being penniless?

What was he doing in Portland in 1820?

And how could he say he had no family when , since I am one of
his descendants, he obviously did?

I'll discuss the answers in the next post on Jonathan Barker.