A QUESTION.

Ok, the picture on the left is an old drivers license picture of
myself.

The picture on the right is my 3x great grandfather John Cutter
West.

Does anyone else see a resemblance or is it wishful thinking on my
part?

Or was J.C. posing for his buggy driver's license and we just share
the curse of Bad License Photos?

What do you think?

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGICAL FUN - IT'S A DATE!

It's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun again(or in my case, Early Sunday Morning
Genealogy Fun) at Randy Seaver's Genea-Amusings blog and this week it's all about
dates:

1) Open your genealogy software program and search for a "Date Calculator."
You could go exploring in your Tools or Options menu, or you could use the
Help menu to find it.

2) Open the "Date Calculator" and put in a death date for one of your ancestors
and put in an age at death (use the one you know, or just make one up - we're just
testing this feature today). Do the same thing by entering a birth date and a death
date in the "Date Calculator" and see how old someone was when they died.

3) Tell us what software you're using and where you found the "Date Calculator."
Tell us the information you found out from using the "Date Calculator."

I have been using Personal Ancestry File for years and have been trying out
the free download trial version of RootsMagic4 so I thought I'd use both for
this one!

I first went to my PAF program and decided on using my 3x great grandmother
Rachel Barrows as my example. I found the Date Calculator on the drop down
"Tools" list. PAF only calculates "date to date" so I entered Rachel's birth date of
8/3/1795 and her death date of 5/9/1832.(Dates are entered in this format for the
PAF calculator). I hit "calculate" and found that Rachel Barrows was 36 years,
9 months, and 6 days old when she died. I then changed the second date to 4/26/2009
and had Rachel survived she'd be 213 years, 8 months and 23 days old!

I don't have any ancestor's death certificates so for RootsMagic I decided to calculate
how old Rachel Barrows' husband John Ellingwood Jr. would be today if he were still
living. The Date Calculator again was on the drop down "Tools" list. In RootsMagic,
the dates are entered as "12 Jun 1798" for birth and then "26 Apr 2009" for today, So had
John somehow become immortal, he'd be 210 years, 10 months and 14 days old today.
That's a LOT of candles on the birthday cake!

Just for fun I entered the date for John and Rachel's marriage. They were married on 28
Oct 1819 and so I entered that into the first box, leaving today's date in the second box.
It turns out they'd have been married 189 years, 5 months and 29 days as of today.

Finally, I noticed that Rachel was older than John when they married. How old? Well,
2 years, 10 months, and 9 days older!

But who's counting?

LAKE CHARGOGGAGOGGMANCHAUGGAGOGGCHAUBUNAGUNGAMAUGG IN THE NEWS.

The past few days I've noticed a lot of hits on my post about Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, which is in
Webster, Mass. I couldn't figure out why the sudden interest until
I heard a story on the radio last night about a sign the town had put up.

Apparently it's gone international. I've gotten hits from Switzerland
and the Czech Republic!

Anyway, here's a story on the sign from Australia!

WORD VERIFICATION DICTIONARY 3

Once again, definitions for the strange words that we type for
word verification for comments on Blogspot.com blogs:


uperds - Extremely optimistic nerds.

noesso - What there hasn't been since it became Exxon

unnow - The opposite of unlater.

unprest - What wrinkled pants are.

bungsh - The sound your whole body makes when you reach the end of your bungee junp rope.

BEDTIME GENEALOGY 31: SPECIAL ENNUI EDITION.

I'm having one of those nights where I know I want to post something,
and I have no shortage of things I could post on, but....

....

...

I can't work up the enthusiasm to write.

So I did a bit of poking around in Google and then spent about twenty
minutes fighting with Facebook (which seemed reluctant to load tonight)
before I finally got on and checked all my usual Facebook stuff.

Bed looks nice right about now. I'll eventually get around to the
next post on Jeremiah Swain tomorrow night, but for now I'm calling it
a night.

DAD'S BIG BIRDHOUSE

I've mentioned my Dad's country sense of humor before. Well,
this is a picture of one his more subtle jokes.

We were living in Marshfield at the time in a big old farmhouse
on Ocean St. There was an barn and some ramshackle pens
and sheds on the palce, and next to it was a big empty field
and woods than ran all the way down to the Marshfield Airport.
One Spring we found a pair of feral kittens someplace on the
property and took them in or tried to anyway.They had their
own ideas of what being domesticated meant!

Well, one afternoon, Dad went into the barn, I'm not exactly
sure why and emerged awhile later with this VERY large
birdhouse or feeder. I mean, alarge bird like a crow could
easily fit inside there, or perhaps a squirrel. We never saw
any in it, but what we did see were the kittens. They climbed
the tree it hung from and sit inside. I don't know for sure if
they ever caught a bird but they certainly must have
scared the heck out of a lot of them! Dad got a kick out of
watching the kittens sitting in there, waiting

The kittens are famous also for the refrigerator incident. We
shut them up at night in the small pantry where the fidge was
and one cold night they crawled in under it to get warm by the
motor. When my sister opened the door the next morning,
all she saw was their tails sticking out. She thought they had
died under there, but when we came to look, the two tails
swished back and forth and we lifted the fridge so they could
crawl back out.

The kittens eventually were put out in one of the sheds to sleep
once the weather got warmer but sometime that summer they
disappeared.I'm not certain if they wandered off on their own
or if their behavior earned them a ride in the car to a new
home. I can't recall what exactly happened to them.

But we've told the story of Dad's big birdhouse to his grandkids
and it still makes me laugh.

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGICAL FUN-POETRY AND GENEALOGY

Alright, I'm a little late for Randy Seaver's Saturday Night
Genealogical Fun challenge over at Genea-musings, but it's hard to
rhyme after midnight. So here's my genealogical poem, for what it's
worth:

A Genealogical Truth

Increasingly of late I find
My family tree is on my mind.

At night when I am seeking sleep
I do not try to count some sheep.
Other thoughts are in my head:
I think of ancestors instead.

And when I used to take the train
And stood there in the snow or rain,
I did not rant, I did not curse,
But listed ancestors in reverse.

I wonder what might have been their views
When they discussed the latest news.
Were they happy or were they sad?
Were they content with what they had?

They lived and loved, they laughed and cried
And in the course of time they died.
There's one thing that's a certainty:
If not for them, there'd be no me

Increasingly of late I find
My family tree is on my mind.

JEREMIAH SWAIN PART 5: "...A PRESENT & VIGOROUS PROSECUTION OF THE WARR"

I've no way of knowing what the Reading town elders expected to happen when they
sent off their petition to the Massachusetts General Court over the election of Jeremiah
Swain as Captain of the Reading troops. Did they think the Court would be swayed
by their argument and give the captaincy to their candidate, Jonathan Poole? If they did,
the outcome might not have been entirely satisfying. It appears that Swain was confirmed
in his rank and ordered off to Maine while Poole was made Captain of the Reading company.
A posting in a now more active area of conflict such as Maine could make a younger man's
reputation so perhaps Swain sought being posted there.

Ironically enough, Jonathan Poole died the next year in 1678 at age 44. Could he have had
health issues already during the election?

I haven't found much so far on Jeremiah's time in Maine in 1677 except for the following
excerpt from the Massachusetts State Archives (Vol 69, p134) in William Chester Swain's
"Swain and Allied Families":

"Att a Generall Court for Elections, held at Boston, 23d of May 1677.
This Court considering the necesity of a present & vigorous prosecution of the warr agst
the insolent eastern Indians, by invading & assaulting them in their quarters especially
near the sea coast, doe therefore order provisions of all sorts, necessary to — made for
two hundred men, to be sent to Blackpoint, to furnish a magazine there for the souldiers
to be imployed in those parts ; and further, that a light vessel and two shallops be provided
to attend the said souldiers, for their transportation over creeks and rivers, pursuing the Indian canoes ; and one hundred & fivety or two hundred stout, active souldiers be raysed,
& put under active & prudent leaders, & be, with all convenient speed, dispatched to Blackpoint & those parts, to pursue & destroy the enemy, & endeavour the rescue of the English prisoners ; & that those forces in Yorkshire under Capt. Frost & Capt. Swaine, so
many as shall be judged necessary for the garrisoning the townes, to be, with their commission officers, dismissed, and such of the souldiers as shall be left in garrison to be
under the comand & order of the committee of militia of the respective places where they
shall remain. "

"Capt. Frost" is Captain Charles Frost and I believe "Yorkshire" refers to York, Maine.
Blackpoint would be the site of a battle that Jeremiah Swain had no part in but one of my
other ancestors, Benjamin Rockwood(Rockett) did.

But that's for another later post .

UNCLE!

I've been sort of caught up in my research on Jeremiah Swain so I
haven't written anything new for this edition of the Carnival of Genalogy
which focuses in the topic of "Uncles". So I'm crying "Uncle!"

However, I thought I'd mention three of my granduncles I've posted
about previously, the first two from Mom's side of the family and the
third from Dad's.

The first is Frank McFarland, who I wrote about in one of my earliest
posts, "TOMATO SANDWICHES AND UNCLE FRANK" .

Next is Frank's brother, my granduncle Tommy McFarland in
"THOMAS LUKE MCFARLAND" .

On my West side of the family, I posted a series with my granduncle
Clarence P.West's memories of his fifty years as the caretaker of the
Azizcoos Dam in northwestern Maine. You can read them starting here
with "GRANDUNCLE CLARENCE REMEMBERS PT1" .

I'll try to have something new for the next edition of the CoG!

JEREMIAH SWAIN PART 4: "THAT OUR STRIFE BE AT AN ENDE"

By the fall of 1676 Jeremiah Swain had seen action in two campaigns against the
Indians and had acquitted himself well. He and his men had returned to Reading
from western Massachusetts and apparently been mustered out. But while things
were quiet with the Indians for the moment, matters on the home front were a
bit more complicated.

It appears that units were being organized and officers elected by the local
townsfolk for possible campaigns in the coming Spring of 1677 and Jeremiah
Swain found himself embroiled in controversy. In what was probably one of the
earliest examples of the "generation gap" in American politics, the town of
Reading was divided into two camps on who should have the captaincy of their
troops, and much to the consternation of some of the town elders, Jeremiah Swain
was the overwhelming choice of the younger citizens of Reading. So dismayed
were some of them, a petition was sent to General Court in Boston:

"To the Honourable General Court, boath Governor and Magistrates, with the Deputies,
new sitting in Boston : The request of your humble servants, being part of the inhabitants of the towne of Redding :—This Honoured Court, not being altogether ignorant of the state of our towne, to which your humble suppliants boath belong, Respecting the complecation of
our Military Officers, we would not fill up lines with compliments to trouble this Honoured
Court. But, Briefly, to give a narrative of our condition, and so humbly beging that this
Court would put an issue to our Bissenis, which is like to have so ill a consequence, if it lay longe as now it doath. There hath bin some strange actions relating to military officers, whereby we are become tow parties in the towne, one in opposition agaynst the other ;
wee apprehend wee have bin ingenious to the other party, notwithstanding great
eregularities they run into ; our party, as wee apprehend, is very considerable,
though not the major part in number, wee yielded to them that voted for Captain Swaine,
and prefered their minds to the Court, by setting our hands to itt, that was sent
to the Court, though we voated for Captain Poole, for not one of those hands that voated
for Captain Swaine was sent to the Court when he was presented to the Court; now, notwithstanding ther is, in our parte, the chiefest partes for heades and estates, amongst which are Decons, Commissenors and Selectmen, and the Major parte of the freemen, yet wee, not being wilful, but condescended to prefer their mindes to the Court, and concluded that though Capt. Swayne was not a freeman, yet if the General Court see cause to confirm him, wee should have been satisfied with what your honors had done. But he being not accepted, the matter is yet to doe; the towne running only upon tow perssons, we would
be glad to have our bissenes to bee promoted to the consideration of this Honoured Court.

Our numbre upon trial for voate for Capt. Poole was 2d voate.

There hath been several meetings and agetations since Capt. Swayne was presented to the Court, and they will have all the youth to voate that hath not taken the oath of fidelity to
the Commonwealth. And soe wee are outvoated, and they are not willing the Court should hear both parties andwhat wee have to saye—this being delivered after our ingenuity to
them, and they will do nothing; and so the towne is brought into tow parties.

And it begins to have influence into Towne matters, to strive to circumvent one another
in our actions, which wee feare will have a bad consequence. Therefore wee humbly
intreate the Honored Court that you would be pleased to issue the case for us, and settell
some abell and meete person in the place of a Capten amongst us, that our strife may be
at an ende. And wee know wee must at your Honours appoyntment sett downe quiett. As
to our Lieutenant, we could wish the Honored Court did thouerly understand his abillities
as to heade and estate.

Your humble servants, not having else to ad, but ever to praye for devine protection and guidance to your honners,—and remayne your humble petissioners."


The "Captain Poole" supported by the older town officials of Reading was Jonathan
Poole who was approximately ten years older than Swain. In 1671 he was appointed
quartermaster and had risen to the rank of "cornet" by the time of the start of the
King Philip's War. Like Swain, he'd served under Major Appleton and had seen action
in the Connecticut River Valley fighting, He had, in fact, previously had command of
the same garrison forts that Swain later commanded. Despite that, and despite having
the support of many of the town officials, he'd lost the election for the Captain's rank to
Jeremiah Swain.

So now those same officials looked to the General Court to somehow overturn the
results of the election. They would receive their answer in May of 1677.

JEREMIAH SWAIN PART 3: "DESTROY THE COMMON ENEMY'

Whatever wounds Jeremiah Swain suffered at the Great Swamp Fight apparently
were healed enough by the summer of 1676 for him to be promoted to the
rank of Captain and be sent out to the Connecticut River Valley in the western
part of the colony. He was in command of the garrison at the town of Hadley
on 12 Jun 1676 when a force of Indians estimated to be around 700 in numbers
attacked:

"For this assault seven hundred warriors swooped down from Passacus's new 
headquarters, and were before the town on the morning of the 12th. Strong 
bands were ambuscaded at the north and south ends of the town, and awaited 
the movements of the townspeople. Two men who had left the stockade contrary 
to orders fell among the ambushed band at the south end and were killed. 
Thus this band were discovered to the garrison, and Captain Swain instantly
sent a force out after them. While they were engaged with the garrison soldiers, 
the band at the north end sprang from their ambush. Rushing toward the stockade 
they found it lined with soldiers and Mohegans, and amazed, fell back in disorder. 
On the retreat some of them tarried to plunder a house, when it was struck by a 
missile from a small cannon. This was a weapon strange and awful to them, and 
they came " tumbling out in great terror." All were now on the run. The soldiers 
chased them for two miles northward. Disheartened by the repulse and the 
discovery of troops returned to the Valley with Indian allies, the fugitives reached 
their headquarters to find that in their absence their camp had been sacked by
Mohawks and fifty of their women and children left dead in the ruins. This was 
the final blow, and they scattered aimlessly in the wilderness."

-Edwin Munroe Bacon, The Connecticut River and the Valley of the Connecticut: 
ThreeHundred and Fifty Miles from Mountain to Sea; Historical and Descriptive
(New York, New York, G.P. Putnam & Sons, 1906) p 159.

Swain's predecessor at Hadley, Captain William Turner, had been slain in battle a few
weeks before Swain's arrival. On 29 Jun 1676, Swain sent out some men who reached
the waterfalls (now known as Turner's Falls) where the battle took place. They found
and destroyed a large but empty Indian encampment.

Then on 12 Aug 1676, the Massachusetts Colonial Council sent Jeremiah the new
orders.

"in ye Councill ! 12, Augst. 76, past by the Council!, E. R.
Captain Swain :
The Council having taken with consideration the present state of matters as to the 
Comon ending do judge meet to order & do hereby order that forthwith upon receit
hereof you sumon & as soon as may be draw up the Garrison Soldiers under your 
comand of the town of N: H: Hadlay, Hatfield, & also those of Springfield &
Westfield & wth them do march up, to Dearfield, Squakeheag & the places near 
about there to searching for & destroy the comon enemy and the corn that 
may be found, which having performed you are therewith the said soldiers to 
march homewards, either directly or by such ways as may be most advisable
for further service & this order you are exactly to attend except you receive
further order or any momentus pressidence (?) not now appearing to the council
dos (?) interpose, in wch case you shall give speedy advertisment."

Massachusetts State Archives Vol. 69, p. 43.
- William Chester Swain, Swain and allied families (Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
Press of Swain and Tate Company, 1896)pp.6-7

I believe "N:H:" refers to the town of North Hampton which fell within Swain's jurisdiction.

Ironically, on the very date of the issuing of the order, King Philip was killed. King
Philip's War was at an end, and on 1 Sept 1676 Jeremiah Swain and his men marched
back to their homes in eastern Massachusetts where controversy awaited him.

WORD VERIFICATION DICTIONARY 2

gumst-what happens when your shoe is stuck to the carpet by that piece of gum you
stepped on. As in "John couldn't believe he was gumst to his brand new rug."

dedult- The act of being demoted from adulthood because you won't act your age.
"Mary was dedulted by her parents for fighting with her brothers."

stungran-What you do when you suddenly ask your grandmother a kazillion
questions about family genealogy.

JEREMIAH SWAIN PART2

Jeremiah Swain was born 1Mar 1643 in Reading, Massachusetts. His father, Jeremiah
Swain Sr. was born in England and emigrated to Massachusetts sometime before 1638
when his name appears on documents as a resident of Charlestown, Ma. In 1640 he
became one of the first settlers of Reading Ma with his wife Mary (maiden name unknown)
and fathered five children, of whom Jeremiah Jr. was the oldest.

I've found very little about Jeremiah Jr.'s early life so far. He was 15 when his father died
on 1658, and his civilian occupation was a physician, for which he would have had to have
studied for and become before the outbreak of King Philip's War. When troops were raised
from the town he became a lieutenant in the First Company in the Massachusetts Regiment
commanded by Major Samuel Appleton. At the time of the Battle of Fort Narragansett,
also known as the Great Swamp Fight, in 1675 Jeremiah Swain would have been 32 years
old.

So as I noted in the first post in this series, the poet Lilley Eaton had a few details wrong in
his poem. Jeremiah was not in command of the militia forces at the time of the battle but
was instead a lieutenant, and still a young man. In fact, the overall commander was Josiah
Winslow of Plymouth Colony. And as the name "Great Swamp Fight" suggests, the terrain
hardly lent itself to a charge on horseback. The colonial forces were only able to get close
enough to the island the Indian "fort" was on because bitterly cold weather had frozen the
swamp over, and such a slippery and fragile surface would not support, I think, a man on
horseback.

At any rate, despite the discrepancies of the poem, Lt. Jeremiah Swain did see action in the
battle and is listed among the wounded. What the nature of the wound was or how he
received it is not known. In fact, there is only one other thing I've found about Jeremiah's
service in this period, a reference to a letter he sent in regards to items lost in a fire that destroyed Major Appleton's tent.

But Jeremiah's military career was only just beginning, and it when advancement came it
would come with controversy, as we shall see.

WORD VERIFICATION DICTIONARY

Alright, you know how on many blogs you must use word verification in order to post
a comment? I've done so many of those now that if I click on the empty box I get
a whole drop list of words I've had to type previously. It made me think of my friend
Diana, who used to take the subject lines from spam mail(before deleting them) and
then fashion them into stories. While I can't do that with the word verification...um...
words, it struck me that I could perhaps come up with what they might mean if they
actually WERE words.

Such as....

jecof ......What I do when I have a cold in France.

quition ... The act of asking yourself or others if you should quit your job.

rantic.....the state of mind in which you work yourself up into a blog rant.

rembot ...what you run the risk of becoming when you are able to rattle off long lists
of ancestors from memory.

mitths.... Mitt Romney supporters.


What about you? Do you have any "new words" from your word verification boxes?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUNT DOROTHY!

Today is the birthday of the lady most responsible for getting me started in
genealogy, my Aunt Dorothy. Because of the family charts and pedigrees
she sent us years ago I had a good foundation with which to start my own
research.

And awhile back, she gave me a handwritten memoir of growing up in Maine
with my Dad doing the Depression that had things I had never heard
before about him. (You can read it here.)

So Happy Birthday, Aunt Dot and here's to many more of them! I'm
looking forward to another visit where we can talk about the family
tree again!

THE 69TH CARNIVAL OF GENEALOGY: "WHAT IF...?"

((Image by footnoteMaven))

Welcome to the 69th Edition of the Carnival of Geneaology. In honor of April Fool's Day, the theme for this edition was "What if...?" :

"This is your chance to rewrite history! Have you ever imagined your ancestor
playing a major roll in history? Perhaps you've envisioned them singlehandedly
winning the American Revolution, going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, or
inventing the flutaphone. This is your chance to write a bit of fiction about your
ancestor to delight and entertain us. It is the April Fools edition after all!"

We have some great articles for you to read, some of which take a different tack on
the "What if...?" theme but all well worth the reading. Please be sure to leave a
comment when you visit these blogs!

First off, E Bradt presents "COG#69- What if... the British had won the Revolutionary War"at her "Ancestral Notes" log. If the British commander at Trenton had heeded the warning of Moses Doan, we might very well have remained a British colony!

Next, Ruth Stephens of "Bluebonnet Country Genealogy"shares a newspaper clipping detailing an assassination attempt by an actor named John Wilkes Booth on President Lincoln that was thwarted by a young Union soldier named Isaac Turner. Read all about it at "What if....President Lincoln Wounded!"

Kris P. writes about her grandmother Florence Laughlin. You can read about this incredible woman in "Carnival of Genealogy: The Story of a Woman" at Kris' blog "From the seed to the branches" .

We return to Ford's Theater for another "What If " involving that fateful April night and a certain rocking chair occupied by President Lincoln. Linda Hughes Hiser spins her tale on "Flipside" in "Carnival of Genealogy--What if... A Whopper of a Tale of the VanGilder chair"

Distant cousin Chris Dunham shares another interesting newspaper headline about a certain Supreme Court nomination made by Calvin Coolidge. It's entitled "He Wore Overalls Under His Robes" and you can read it over at Chris' always entertaining blog, "The Genealogue"

Kiril Kundurazieff has sent along two posts for our consideration. On the first one, Ancestor of Mine Dug Up by Greek Archaeologists! He writes: “My Father, who died in 1988, used to always claim that he was descended from Alexander the Great,but I had my doubts, and my research, in the last decade, bore out my suspicions.This story confirms what I thought: My ancient ancestor was not Ol' Alex, but a close associate.”

Kiril then turns to his mother’s side of the family for a bit of family lore:“I wish to share with you a secret, passed down thru the generations from a Colonial Ancestor of mine, a printer by trade: There were THREE, linguistic, versions of the Declaration of Independence printed that week, long ago.” Read about them in the post “Maternal Colonial Ancestor Claimed Three, Linquistic, Versions of Declaration of Independence Printed”. You can read both posts at Kiril’s Musings of a Mad Macedonian !

Jasia, creator of the Carnival of Genealogy shares a hitherto unknown photo from World War II that might shed some light into the story of the legendary and long lost AmberRoom. See it and judge for yourself over at Jasia’s Creative Gene in her article, “Who Owns the Missing Amber Room?” .

We’ve all had that dream of finding a box full of things that will answer all our family genealogy mysteries. Becky Wiseman tells us of “A mysterious phone call from a friend leads to the best gift I've ever received!” Read how it turned out in “The Best Gift -Ever!” over on Becky’s blog kinexions.

Janet Hovorka, The Chart Chick, takes us further back in time on her familytree: “Sheva the Fair, my 19th great grandmother born 34AD Alexandria, Egypt set the world on fire. Lots to emulate as her granddaughter. Here is my tribute.” Travel back to the siege of Masada in Israel in Janet’s “Sheva the Fair, my most famous Great-Grandmother”.

footnoteMaven shares a different and heartwarming "What If... "story in “What If... Santa Could” As she puts it it’s “The "What If" for every genealogist. I have so many of them.”

Over at Genea-Musings, Randy Seaver says “There are things that happen in a moment.” See how his might have been different in a “What if” moment involving his father.

My own “What If” story here on “West in New England” tells of what might have been one of the earliest tech support calls if my ancestor Jonathan Phelps West happened to pay a visit to Boston. I wrote about it in “Mr. West Goes To Boston (What If?)”

Finally, Craig Manson of GeneaBlogie tells about “My Great-Grandmother Moves to Texas”: “I suppose I may have taken some liberties with this month’s Carnival theme of “What if . . . ” I don’t know exactly what happened when my great-great- grandmotherand the son of a former slave owner who lived next door absconded to Texas from Georgia in 1884. But what if it happened like this:...” . You’ll enjoy how Craig envisions it may have happened!

That concludes the CoG this time around. I want to thank the participants and I had fun reading all your posts!

Now it's time for a Call for Submissions! The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is: Uncle, Uncle! This edition is all about our uncles. Have you got a favorite or interesting uncle? Tell us about him! Maybe you had a older cousin, neighbor, or friend you called "uncle"... that works too! No uncles in your life? No problem. Write about any gentleman on your family tree who was an uncle to somebody :-) The deadline for submissions is April 15th (get your tax return done early so you don't miss out!).

Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using our carnival submission form. Please use a descriptive phrase in the title of any articles you plan to submit and/or write a brief description/introduction to your articles in the "comment" box of the blog carnival submission form. This will give readers an idea of what you've written about and hopefully interest them in clicking on your link. Thank you!

BLOGGING BRUNCH 20

I've been gathering material for the next post on Jeremiah Swain and finding it
under several variations of his name. Besides Swain, there's Swaine, Swayne, Sweyn,
and Sweyne! A lot of it is repetitive but I'm finding copies of correspondence by him,
to him and about him which are fascinating and should give me enough for as much as
four or five blog posts.

One of the unexpected benefits of all this googling was that I found a copy of the will
of another ancestor, Francis Kendall (B.1612(?) -d9May 1708, Woburn, Ma.) that Jeremiah
witnessed!

I know that what I've found on the internet is only the tip of the iceberg but until I either
win the lottery or am declared the long lost rightful heir of some noble house, most of my
research will be online. Retirement is years away and one of my days off is Sunday when
libraries and archives are closed. But I will try to get out more now that the weather is better.

On another subject, I notice the blog is getting hits from folks searching the web for specific
family names that I share. If any of you have questions I can help you with, please don't
hesitate to contact me and I'll gladly share any information I have that is relevant to your
search!

BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY...

As many of you are aware, I do most of my blogging late at night. This
sometimes leads to my overlooking the obvious.

Tonight, I received two comments about blogposts. One of them read
as follows:

"I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought
I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I
have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often."

A hour or so later I was reading Crag Manson's post on GeneaBlogie about the
genealogy blog discussion and among the comments was one with the
exact same wording as the one on mine, even down to the misspelled
"accross" , but sent by a person with a different name than the one
sent to me.

I went back and looked at the comment sent to me, and then noticed
that while it was sent under one name, it was signed under another.

I then noticed that both the comment sent to me and the one sent to
Craig had links to two seperate websites that had nothing to do with
genealogy: mine was for a site dealing with "happy toddlers" and the
one to Craig was on laptops.

So. I'm assuming this is some marketing tactic that relies on the idea
that generally a blogger will out of courtesy or curiousity check out a link
that is included with a comment.

I've removed the comment from my blog. If I'm wrong, I apologize.
But if I'm right, I don't want somebody using my blog to lure folks to their
website.

Better safe than sorry.

MEA CULPA...

Alright, I have sinned. I am a genealogy blogger, and apparently I and
my fellow genealogy bloggers are not to be trusted sources of information,
don't cha know.

I do try to make sure I cite all my sources and keep my copy of
Evidence! handy to try to cite them correctly, and if I make a mistake
I try to immediately acknowledge it and correct it.

But in the interests of not muddying the clear springs of genealogical
truth, I've decided to do the only honorable thing and fall on
my flutaphone. So I'm discontinuing this blog and ....

....


....


.....



APRIL FOOL!

Sheesh!

Of course I'm not going to stop blogging over a unfair sweeping
condemnation of genealogy blogs by a person who's blog I will not
give a link to here. Rather, go read footnoteMaven's and Thomas
MacEntees blogposts on this discussion.

MR. WEST GOES TO BOSTON ( WHAT IF?)

Please read this all the way to the disclaimer at the bottom


On a cool March day in 1876, the story goes, Jonathan Phelps West was strolling down
a Boston street when a window in a building he was passing suddenly opened. A man
leaned out and bellowed: "Watson! WATSON!!" He pounded his hand on the window
sill in frustration. "Damn the man! Can't he hear me?" The man pointed down at
Jonathan. "You there."

Jonathan paused and looked up. "Ayuh?"

"What's your name, my good man?"

"Jonathan P. West from Upton , Maine. Who's asking?"

"Alexander G. Bell. How would you like to earn a dollar for delivering a message?"

Jonathan scratched his chin. "Depends where I have t' deliver it."

Mr. Bell tossed down a dollar coin. "Just go down that flight of stairs there to your right to
the cellar door, knock on it, and tell my assistant Mr. Watson it's not working. Could you
do that for me like a good fellow?"

Jonathan looked at the silver dollar in his hand. He rarely if ever came to Boston because
people here were so strange. But it seemed easy enough, and a dollar was a dollar. "Ayuh,
I'll do it." He nodded to the agitated man and took the stairs down to the cellar door and
knocked.

The man who answered the door was younger than Bell but just as agitated. "Yes? What is
it? I'm busy!"

"Your name Watson?"

"Yes? Who ARE you?"

"Jonathan P. West from Upton, Maine."

"Yes, yes, and what do you want? I'm busy here!"

"Man named Bell asked me t' come down here and tell you it's not working."

Watson's face turned so red Jonathan thought the man was going to have a stroke. "I
KNOW it's not working." He turned back towards a table with some strange contraption
set atop it.

Jonathan got a good look at the thing. Even from standing in the doorway across the
room he could see the problem. He pointed at the wire dangling beneath the table. "It's
not connected."

Watson turned and looked. "Oh. Er....thank you." And then he shut the door.

Jonathan was left outside. He shook his head, pocketed the silver dollar and climbed back
up the stairwell to the street. He looked up at the still open window. Bell was no longer
there, but as Jonathan walked off down the street, he could Bell shout one more time...

"WATSON! COME HERE! I NEED YOU!"

City folk sure were strange.

**********************************

This piece of FICTION was written for the "What If" (69th) edition of the Carnival of
Genealogy.

A CARNIVAL OF GENEALOGY REMINDER

"The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is: What if...
This is your chance to rewrite history! Have you ever imagined your
ancestor playing a major roll in history? Perhaps you've envisioned them
singlehandedly winning the American Revolution, going over Niagara Falls
in a barrel, or inventing the flutaphone. This is your chance to write a bit
of fiction about your ancestor to delight and entertain us. It is the April
Fools edition after all!"

The deadline for submissions is April 1st. There's still time to write
an article and submit it here. I'll be posting my own entry(perhaps two) this
weekend.

There's a lot of talented and clever genea-bloggers out there and I'm
looking forward to some entertaining posts!

JEREMIAH SWAIN PART1: "BELOVED OF MARS"

On May 29,1844, at the Bi-Centennial Celebration of the Founding of
Old Reading, Massachusetts (now three towns: Reading, North Reading,
and Wakefield), the Honorable Lilley Eaton stepped forward and read a
poem he'd written about the history of the town and some of it's important
citizens. Among these was my ancestor Jeremiah Swain(also spelled
Swayne or Sweyn)

"At my old map I looked again,
And found the house of Major Swayne ;
'Twas situated near the ground
Where Stowell, Issacher, is found.
This Major Swayne, the records say,
Was a great warrior in his day,
And in our ancient Indian wars,
A victor chief, beloved of Mars ;
And when King Philip with his troop,
With tomahawk and dread war-whoop,
With poisoned arrows and firebrand,
Bore down upon the pilgrim land,
Old Major Swayne, with courage true,
Forth to the post of danger flew,
Was made commander of the free,
And led them on victory.
And once, 'tis said, it so fell out,
While Major Swayne was on a scout,
Exploring swamps and other by-land,
Within the State of old Rhode Island,
He found the Indians, whom he sought,
Gathered in force, within a fort.
Our hero's numbers being few,
He wished to hide them from their view,
So lurking near their palisade,
Concealed them there in ambuscade ;
Then bold as e'er a lion was,
His glitt'ring steel the Major draws,
And, mounting on a rising stone,
He cries in loud, undaunted tone,
"We've found the foe, let's storm the fort,
To drive them thence will be but sport;
Come, Captain Poole and Sergeant Brown,
Wheel up your squadrons into line."
The Indians heard this fearless boast,
And thought there came a mighty host ;
With terror struck, and wild dismay,
They quit the fort and ran away ;
Our little band, with triumph then,
Into the empty fortress ran,
Unfurled the flag of liberty,
And gain'd a bloodless victory."

Lilley Eaton & James Flint, Historical Address and Poem: Delivered at the Bi-centennial
Celebration of the Incorporation of the Old Town of Reading May 29, 1844, (Boston, Ma.
S.N. Dickinson, 1844) pp.73-74

Now I'm well aware of poetic license but as I'll show in future posts Lilley Eaton took
quite a bit of it in his description of my ancestor's part in what is also known as the
Great Swamp Battle. Suffice it to say at this point that while Jeremiah Swain would rise
in rank in the Massachusetts militia, he was only a lieutenant at the time of the battle,
and the victory was hardly as bloodless as Mr. Eaton portrays it. But two hundred
years had passed and there was no internet around to consult about the actual event
so Lilley Eaton no doubt relied on tradition in composing his poem.

As I said, there'll be more to come, but for the moment, this is my descent from
Jeremiah Swain and his wife Mary Smith:

Jeremiah Swain m. Mary Smith
Sarah Swain m. John Laughton
John Laughton Jr. m Hepzibah(Hepzibath) Stimson (Stimpson)
John Laughton 3rd m. Jane Adams
John Laughton 4th m. Lydia Ann McGraugh
John Laughton 5th m. Amata Greenleaf
Esther Laughton m. Philip Richardson
Louisa Almata Richardson m. Jonathan Phelps West (my great great grandparents)

ABINGTON ST. PATRICK'S DAY PARADE 2009

The 2009 Abington St. Patrick's Day Parade was held on Sunday, March 22nd
this year because many of the units also marched in Boston or Scituate on the
17th. My brother Phil is part of the Defenders Alumni Drum and Bugle Corps
and he marched this year in the parade as he did many times with the original
Defenders when he was younger. That's him with the bass drum and wearing
the white plumed shako. I didn't attend because I was sick but his sons did
and saw their Dad march for the first time.I wonder if either of them were
bitten with the bug to march as Phil was when he saw our parents march in so
many parades as a kid.

Speaking of the Parade, I received an commentl from Tim Bailey who corrected an
mistake I made on the post where I first discussed the Parade. It was his father
Jack Bailey who started the Abington St. Patrick's Day Parade, not his
grandfather Eddie Bailey. Read the original post here and Tim's comment.
I'm correcting the error.


The Bailey family is owed a debt of gratitude for starting a great annual
Abington institution!

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGICAL FUN

Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun exercise this week was inspired by his
seach for Y-DNA test matches:

"The challenge is this:

Provide a list of your paternal grandmother's patrilineal line. Answer these questions:

* What was your father's mother's maiden name?

* What was your father's mother's father's name?

* What is your father's mother's father's patrilineal line? That is, his father's father's father's
...back to the most distant male ancestor in that line?

* Can you identify male sibling(s) of your father's mother, and any living male descendants
from those male sibling(s)? If so, you have a candidate to do a Y-DNA test on that
patrilineal line. If not, you may have to find male siblings, and their descendants, of the
next generation back, or even further."

So here I go...

* My father's mother was Cora Berthella Barker (1899-1987) born in Bethel, Oxford,
Me.

* My father's mother's father's name was Frank W. Barker (1865-1905) born in
Albany, Oxford, Me.

* His father was Nathaniel S. Barker (1830-1884) born in Newry, Oxford, Me.

* His father was Nathaniel Barker (1794-?) born in Newry, Oxford, Me.(?)

*His father was Jonathan Barker (1754-1824)born in Methuen, Essex, Ma.

*His father was Jonathan Barker (1728-1794) born in Andover, Essex, Ma.

*His father was Jonathan Barker (1706-1737)born in Andover, Essex, Ma.

*His father was Benjamin Barker (1663-1750)born in Andover, Essex, Ma.

*His father was Richard Barker (1621-1693) born in Stoke-on-Nayland, Suffolk, England

Now my grandmother had two brothers...one died in infancy and I don't know much
about the other. And her father Frank likewise had two brothers that I have no records of
as yet.

That leaves his father Nathaniel S. Barker. He had one brother, Amos Hastings Barker.
And there is where I'm not sure there would be complications for Y-DNA testing, because
his daughter Charlot Lovenia Barker was Frank W. Barker's wife. In other words, Frank
and Charlot had the same grandfather and were first cousins.

I'm not sure how that might effect the Y-DNA test. Meanwhile, I'll try to see if there are
any living male sibling descendants I can find.

MEANWHILE, IN ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST....ERR...FAMILY TREE

As part of my series about my ancestors involvement in the Indian wars
of New England, I'll be shifting over to the ancestors of my great great
grandmother Louisa Almata Richardson.Families included in this line
are:

Richardson
Laughton
Dow
Greenleaf
Buswell
McGraugh
Williamson
Campbell
Adams
Gray
Stimson(Stimpson)
Mackres (MacCrest)
Derby
Flagg
Swain(Swayn)
Gershom
Cox
Whitmarsh
Holbrook
Leffingwell
Taylor

So far the most prominent figure is Jeremiah Swain but there were a few others
with distinguished careers or who met tragic ends in the fighting. I'll be looking for
any instances where their paths might have crossed with the Willard, Sawyer,
and Houghton families. I've already discovered a link between the Stimsons
and the Upton family from my Barker line!

Sorry about the title of the post. It just sort of popped into my head and
made me laugh!

THE 68TH CARNIVAL OF GENEALOGY IS UP!

Jasia has posted the 68th Carnival of Genealogy over at her Creative Gene
blog and there's over 30 participants who contributed posts from their
blogs. In honor of March being Women's History Month the theme is on
women we have known or in our family that have significance to us. As
usual there are a lot of thoughtful, well written posts!

I'll be hosting the 69th Edition of the COG here on West in New England,
and since it's going to be in April, we're going to have some fun with it:

"And now it's time for a Call for Submissions! The topic for the next
edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is: What if... This is your chance to
rewrite history! Have you ever imagined your ancestor playing a major
roll in history? Perhaps you've envisioned them singlehandedly winning
the American Revolution, going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, or inventing
the flutaphone. This is your chance to write a bit of fiction about your ancestor
to delight and entertain us. It is the April Fools edition after all! This edition
will be hosted by Bill West at West in New England. Thanks Bill!
The deadline for submissions is April 1st so start spinning your tall tales!


Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using
the carnival submission form. Please use a descriptive phrase in the title of any
articles you plan to submit and/or write a brief description/introduction to
your articles in the "comment" box of the blogcarnival submission form. This
will give readers an idea of what you've written about and hopefully interest
them in clicking on your link."


So give one of your ancestors a chance at fictitious glory and send us your post.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what people come up with for this one!

THE 12TH CARNIVAL OF IRISH HERITAGE AND CULTURE IS UP!

The 12th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture is up over at
Lisa's Small-leaved Shamrock. This edition was the Carnival's 2nd Annual
St. Patrick's Day Parade of Posts. 19 writers contributed articles from their
blogs covering all sorts of aspects of their Irish heritage, so read and enjoy!

The next edition will be on Irish names:

"Share with us the surnames in your Irish family tree, but don't just stop there.
Do a little research and tell us the origin of one or more of those surnames,
the stories of how they might have changed over the years, or tales of how
they've been mixed up and misspelled, etc.

Want to focus on your family's given names instead? Share with us the
story of your ancestors' Irish first names (given at birth or nicknamed later),
the "grandparent" nicknames in your Irish family tree, or any other Irish
name stories that you'd like to share.

Deadline for submissions to the Irish Names edition of the carnival is Sunday,
May 24, 2009. This edition will be published at Small-leaved Shamrock on
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 ."

Hmm. I'm going to be doing some McFarland research!

MIRIAM WILLARD

Six years after the capture and release of Enos Stevens, Fort No. 4 was still
subject to Indian attacks. On 30th Aug, 1754, during the height of the French
and Indian War, another raid was made on what was now called Charlestown,
N.H. and members of the Willard family once more found themselves
captives. Miriam Willard was visiting with her sister Susanna Willard Johnson's
family when the home was attacked. Everyone had been asleep so there was
no fighting and no blood shed. Taken in the raid were Susanna and James Johnson,
three of their children, Miriam Willard, and two men, Ebenezer Farnsworth and
Peter Laboree.

Susanna Johnson later wrote an account of her captivity and you can read it here
at Susan S. Martin's "Northeast Captivity Stories". For reason's that will become
clear later, I will focus on Miriam here.

The Indians forced the captured colonists into a grueling march north to Canada,
at one point stealing a horse belonging to Phineas Stevens for the pregnant Susanna
Johnson to ride. After she gave birth to her child and it became obvious the horse
was too weak for the trip it was slaughtered and fed the whole party. For the most part
they were well treated, and the only restraint on young Miriam at night was that the
Indians "...simply required her to lie upon the ground, while an Indian
lay upon either side of her, with cords passed over her body and under
theirs, so that the least stir on her part would arouse them. She testified,
however, to their modest and correct deportment during her continuance
with them, though entirely subjected to their control."
- ((Seth Chandler, History of the Town of Shirley, Massachusetts, self-published 1883
pp 716-717))

Then the party separated, with Miriam being taken on to Montreal where the
Indians sold her to the French. But while her ransom was paid, she had no way to
to return home, and somehow ended up living in the household of the Lieutenant
Governor and earned her keep for several years as a seamstress making dresses for
the ladies and uniforms for the men. When James Johnson failed to return in time
(through no fault of his own) with the money needed to free the rest of the family,
Miriam was reunited with her sister Susanna's family. Mr. Johnson and his son
Sylvanus were freed a year later, leaving the two women and the younger children
behind until they were set free in a few months later.

Unfortunately, they were forced to take the long way home. First they were shipped
to Plymouth, England, and then back across the Atlantic to land in New York in
December of 1757. When they returned home to Charlestown just after New Year's
Day, 1758, they learned that their father Moses Willard had been killed in an Indian
raid two years before in 1756. Miriam went on to marry the Rev. Phineas Whitney
in 1762 but died in 1769. They had no children.

Now if any of this story sounds familiar to you, it's perhaps because you already have
read it elsewhere. Writer Elizabeth George Speare based her novel Calico Captive
on Susanna Willard Johnson's account of her family's ordeal and tells the story
through Miriam's viewpoint.

And I, as a bookseller, have stocked and sold this book as part of school summer
reading lists never realizing until recently that it was the story of my distant
cousin, Miriam Willard!

Written for the 68th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy

PHINEAS STEVENS AND THE DEFENSE OF FORT NO.4

((This is another in a series of posts about the descendants of my
ancestor, Simon Willard, and their experiences in the Indian wars
of colonial New England.))


I've written earlier about the capture of young Phineas Stevens and his
brother by Indians in 1721. During his captivity he experienced and learned
much about Indian culture and this knowledge would shape the course of his
life.

After his eventual ransom and return home to his family, Phineas reached
adulthood and became an officer in the colonial militia. He also was sent
to Canada twice to negotiate the release of captives from Massachusetts and
on one of those he liberated was John Stark, who later became a general in the
American army and defeated in the British at the Battle of Bennington, Vt.

Phineas' most interesting exploit involves his defense of the frontier garrison
called Fort No. 4 which at that time was part of Massachusetts but it is now
Charlestown, New Hampshire. He took command of the Fort in March,1747
with a force of thirty men, and soon found himself under attack several
days later by a combined force of French and Indians led by General Debeline.
Phineas wrote about the siege to Governor Amherst of Massachusetts:

"Our dogs being very much disturbed, which gave us reason to think that the enemy
were about, occasioned us not to open the gate at the usual time; but one of our men,
being desirous to know the certainty, ventured out privately to set on the dogs, about
nine o'clock in the morning; and went about twenty rods from the fort firing off his
gun and saying, Choboy to the dogs. Whereupon, the enemy, being within a few rods,
immediately arose from behind a log and fired: but through the goodness of God, the
man got into the fort with only a slight wound. The enemy being then discovered,
immediately arose from their ambushments and attacked us on all sides. The wind
being very high, and everything exceedingly dry, they set fire to all the old fences,
and also to a log-house about forty rods distant from the fort to the windward; so that
within a few minutes we were entirely surrounded with fire — all which was performed
with the most hideous shouting and firing, from all quarters, which they continued, in
a very terrible manner, until the next day at ten o'clock at night, without intermission;
during which time we had no opportunity to eat or sleep. But notwithstanding all their
shoutings and threatenings, our men seemed not to be in the least daunted, but fought
with great resolution: which, doubtless, gave the enemy reason to think we had
determined to stand it out to the last degree. The enemy had provided themselves with
a sort of fortification, which they had determined to push before them and bring fuel
to the side of the fort, in order to burn it down. But instead of performing what they
threatened, and seemed to be immediately going to undertake, they called to us and
desired a cessation of arms until sunrise the next morning, which was granted : at
which time they would come to a parley. Accordingly the French General Debeline
came with about sixty of his men, with a flag of truce, and stuck it down within about
twenty rods of the fort in plain sight of the same, and said if we would send three men
to him he would send as many to us, to which we complied. The General sent in a
French Lieutenant with a French soldier and an Indian.

Upon our men returning, he desired that the Captain of the fort would meet him half-way,
and give an answer to the above proposal, which I did, and upon meeting the Monsieur,
he did not wait for me to give an answer, but went on in the following manner, viz. —
that what had been promised he was ready to perform, but upon refusal he would immediately set the fort on fire, and run over the top, for he had seven hundred men
with him, and if we made any further resistance, or should happen to kill one Indian,
we might expect all to be put to the sword. " The fort," said he, " I am resolved to
have or die. Now do what you please, for I am as easy to have you fight as to give up."
I told the General, that in case of extremity his proposal would do; but inasmuch as
I was sent here by my master, the Captain General, to defend this fort, it would not be consistent with my order to give it up unless I was better satisfied that he was able
to perform what he had threatened; and furthermore I told him that it was poor encouragement to resign into the hands of the enemy, that upon one of their number
being killed, they would put all to the sword, when it was probable that we had killed
some of them already. "Well," said he, "go into the fort, and see whether your men
dare to fight any more or not, and give me an answer quick, for my men want to be
fighting." Whereupon I came into the fort and called all the men together, and informed
them what the French General said, and then put it to vote which they chose, either to
fight on or resign; and they voted to a man to stand it out as long as they had life.
Upon this, I returned the answer that we were determined to fight it out. Upon which
they gave a shout, and then fired, and so continued fighting and shouting until daylight
the next morning."


But the French apparently were not in such a good position as they claimed, for the next
day they asked for a second parley and sent two Indians with a new offer from General
Debeline:

"That in case we would sell them provisions, they would leave and not fight anymore; and
desired my answer, which was, that selling them provisions for money was contrary to the
laws of nations, but if they would send in a captive for every five bushels of corn, I would
supply them. Upon the Indians returning the General this answer, four or five guns were
fired against the fort, and they withdrew, as we supposed, for we heard no more of them.

In all this time we had scarce opportunity to eat or sleep. The cessation of arms gave us
no matter of rest, for we suspected they did it to obtain an advantage against us. I believe
men were never known to hold out with better resolution, for they did not seem to sit or
lie still for one moment. There were but thirty men in the fort, and although we had
some thousands of guns fired at us, there were but two men slightly wounded, viz.
John Brown and Joseph Ely. (Saunderson's "History of Charlestown, N.H")"
- quoted in The History of Sudbury, Massachusetts. 1638-1889 by Alfred Sereno Hudson.

Despite the failure of this attack more were to come. A year later in June, 1748, Phineas'
son Enos was captured by Indians in the field outside the fort and continued the family
tradition of being carried off to Canada. He was released shortly after and sent home
by way of Albany, N.Y., a rather roundabout way of returning.

But six years later another attack on Fort No.4 would result in several of Simon Willard's
descendants taking an even longer journey home from captivity.

"HONEY FITZ"

In Boston when St. Patrick's Day rolls around you'll sometimes here the stories
about the legendary Irish politicians of the city's history, and among them none
loom larger than James Michael Curley and John Fitzgerald. Both of them were
political bosses of the old school, always ready to help a friend or exact revenge
on an enemy. I've written a bit before about Mayor Curley, so in this post I'll
talk a bit about "Honey Fitz."

John Fitzgerald rose first to prominence in Boston's North End in 1892 when he
ran successfully for the state senate. He was keenly aware of his constituents' lives,
their weddings and funerals, and he mingled with them at dances and dinners. His
supporters were known as "Dearos" because he frequently referred to the "Dear Old
North End" in his speeches. Two years later he won election as congressman and served
three terms before running for Mayor of Boston and defeating an opponent from
the old Yankee establishment in 1905. His administration was famous for cronyism,
and Fitzgerald lost his bid for re-election but regained the office two years later when he
defeated another "Yankee", James J. Storrow. (I'm not certain but I think Storrow Drive
is named after him.)

One night during a rally of that campaign, a band was hired to play during Mayor
Fitzgerald's entrance. They finished two songs, "The Star Spangled Banner" and
"The Wearing of the Green" while Fitzgerald tried to make his way to the platform
through the crowded hall, then began playing "Sweet Adeline". When Fitzgerald
finally climbed up on the stage, he led everyone in singing the song and it became his
trademark. He'd perform the song at every event or rally he was invited to speak at.

"Honey Fitz" was also well known as a man with an opinion on nearly everything. In fact,
someone even wrote a poem about it:

"Honey Fitz can talk you blind
On any subject you can find.
Fish and fishing, motor boats
Railroads, street-cars, getting votes
Proper ways to open clams
How to cure existing shams
State Street, Goo-Goos, aeroplanes,
Malefactors, thieving gains,
Local transportation rates,
How to run nearby States;
On all these things, and many more,
Honey Fitz is crammed with lore."

There were other Irish political bosses in Boston. One was P.J. Kennedy from East
Boston, with whom Fitzgerald had ties through the marriage of his daughter Rose to
Kennedy's son Joseph. Another was James Michael Curley from South Boston who
eventually challenged "Honey Fitz" in 1913. Curley ran a tough campaign and
spread a rumor that Fitzgerald had an affair with a cigarette girl named "Toodles".
He even scheduled a public "lecture" entitled "Great Lovers from Cleopatra to
Toodles". Rather than put his wife through the wringer of such a campaign, Mayor
Fitzgerald withdrew from the race. He never again held an elective office.

But he did live long enough to see his grandson John Fitzgerald Kennedy win the
Congressional seat he himself once held. And when JFK was elected President of the
United States, he named the presidential yacht the Honey Fitz in honor of his beloved
grandfather.

Written for the 12th edition of The Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture.

BEDTIME GENEALOGY 30

I've been doing some more research on ancestors and relatives involved in
the 17th century Indian wars of New England and I'll be posting some articles
about them in the coming days. I keep finding information I never knew about.

I also am planning a series about the economic recessions and panics and how
they may have effected my family. They've happened a lot more frequently in
American history than most people realize.

I sometimes wonder just how much my 19th century West family ancestors
knew about their ancestors. Of course, most would have known about their
grandfathers who fought in the Revolution. But did Arvilla Ames know about
Rebecca Blake and Mary Eastey at Salem? Was Clara Ellingwood aware of how
many connections she had to the Mayflower passengers? And did Louisa
Richardson hear stories of Jeremiah Swain and the Indians?

I probably will never know. None of them left any written proof of such
knowledge. But I hope that by writing articles about events my ancestors lived
through I am helping pass along their stories to their descendants.

TRUE CONFESSIONS OF A GENEALOGY JUNKIE

It's Saturday night...well, Sunday morning now...and as is his usual
want, Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings has a Saturday Night
Fun prompt. This week he's posed us these ten questions about
our genealogy life:


1. When did you start genealogy research? Sometime in the 1970's
Aunt Dot sent us copies of the research she had already done. But
except for some futile attempts to locate the birth record of John
Cutter West I didn't get seriously into research until 2006.

2. Why did you start doing research? I was chatting online with my
friend Diana Probus who mentioned she was researching her own
family tree. She was the one who told me about the free Personal
Ancestry File program and about how much information was now
available online. I began looking for any John Cutter West information
and anything else available about other family members. I was hooked!


3. What was your first big success in research? Finding the Revolutionary
War Pension Request files on Footnote.com for first John Ames and
then nine other ancestors.


4. What is your biggest genealogy regret? Not interviewing my parents
and other relatives before they passed away.

5. What are you best known for in the genealogy world? This blog, if I'm
known at all in the genealogy world!

6. What is your professional status in genealogy? None. I'm an amateur!


7. What is your biggest genealogy achievement? Umm. This blog. and
I suppose the completion of the quest for "49 Genealogical Uses for a
Flutaphone" (grin)


8. What is the most FUN you've had doing genealogy? Discovering and
sharing information with the cousins I've met through this blog.

9. What is your favorite genealogy how-to book? Evidence! by Elizabeth
Shown Mills

10. What notable genealogist would you like to meet someday?
Anyone of my fellow genea-bloggers!

COOL

I rarely ever saw my Dad lose his cool. Where my Mom was a redheaded
Irish American with the typical swing of emotions you'd expect, Dad was calm
and quiet and never seemed to panic. He was good with his hands and knew all
sorts of things to take care of mechanical problems. For example, we had mostly
used cars and if they were having trouble in wet weather, he'd wipe down the
wires with a little kerosene on a rag to keep them dry. (Don't ask me the exact
way he did it. I'm afraid I didn't inherit his mechanical aptitude!)

Once when we were renting a house that sat at the bottom of a driveway, the
cellar was in danger of flooding from water because the drain in the driveway
had clogged. Dad opened up the large overhead door in the front where the water
was backing up, then opened the small door at the back of the cellar, and the water
flowed right through and out leaving most of the boxes we had down there
undamaged.

Another time when my folks had the trailer up in Meredith, N.H., my Dad and
a friend were winterizing their trailers while my Mom and the other man's wife
went to a craft fair. When they returned, Dad was sitting in the campground
office, smoking a cigarette and red-faced. Mom thought he'd had some beers, but it
turned out that there'd been an accident. The stove in the friend's trailer had backfired
because the friend had turned a valve the wrong way, and Dad was calmly sitting
in the office for the ambulance to take him to the emergency room to have him checked
out. Luckily, Dad was ok.

When we first moved to Abington, some of the neighborhood kids thought they could
play a trick on the folks who'd just moved there from the city. They left the infamous
"burning bag of cow..er...manure" on our front step, rang the doorbell and waited for
someone to come out and try to put out the fire by stamping on it. Dad opened the door,
looked down, then retrieved the small shovel from the fireplace in the living room. He
went back to the door, scooped up the burning bag and then tossed it over in the
direction of where he heard some kids laughing. That was the last time anyone tried
that trick on us!

There was one time when Dad did lose that cool head: the day my brother was born, Dad
loaded Mom's bag in the car, and then nearly drove off to the hospital without her!

Written for the 67th Edition of the Carnvial of Genealogy