ST. PATRICK'S DAY IN ABINGTON

I mentioned the Abington St. Patrick’s Day Parade
last night and that my Mom helped in the start of it.



Some background information first: Massachusetts is
reportedly the most Irish out of all the states, with
roughly 24% claiming Irish ancestry on the last census.
Abington is in Plymouth County where 31% of the
population is of Irish descent a tie with neighboring
Norfolk County for the highest percent among the 54
counties where Irish Americans are “the largest observed
ethnic group”. Abington itself is 33% Irish American
according to the 2000 Federal census.



John L. Sullivan, the Boston Irishman bareknuckle boxing
legend, retired to a farm here in West Abington where he
died in 1918.



With all this Irish heritage it seemed strange that there was
not a St. Patrick’s Day Parade in town.



Then 28 years ago Jack Bailey, a local garage owner was
at the VFW and took a $10 bet from another Post member
that he couldn’t start a parade in Abington. He enlisted the
help of some of the other members and wives, among whom
were my mother and some friends. Of course Mom would
have had to help! What else could a red-haired green-eyed
Irish lady do?



That first parade was on the spur of the moment. Luckily Mr.
Bailey had a tow truck and a flatbed as well, so those were
decorated with green streamers and signs. I brought a cassette
boom box with a tape of traditional Irish music that Mom and
others of the ladies sang along to as they rode on the back of
the flatbed truck. There may have been more cars involved but
I only saw the trucks as I was going to work when I dropped
off the music and so didn’t actually see that first parade myself.




28 years later it’s one of the biggest in the state. They held on
this past Sunday the 11th this year to avoid conflict with the
bigger celebrations in South Boston over this coming weekend.
The parade’s gone from a cassette boom box to 10 marching
bands this year and hundreds of marchers and spectators.


And Jack Bailey won that $10 bet.

BEDTIME GENEALOGY

I’m in one of those periods where I tend to crash into
a nap after I’ve come home from work and eaten dinner.
Eventually I do wake up and log on the computer for a
bit but as a result any genealogy work or writing comes
in spurts. But I have done a few things I’ll mention now
briefly before I head off to bed for the night.

Randy Seavers over on Genea-Musings has blogged about
the various resources he’s used in researching the genealogy
of a lady named Cornelia Bresee and it reminded me I had
new information available since the last time I tried some
of them.


For example, the SSDI over on Family Search. Using the
birth date of Grandfather White, I believe I found a match
with an Edward White who died in Billerica Ma. in 1981.
While the Social Security Card was issued in New York that
might not exclude him from being the right man for reasons
I’ll explain in a later post.


Also, since I still have a minimal free Ancestry membership,
I posted a query to the McFarland message board with all the
information on my McFarland great grandparents. I already
belong to a Rootsweb West families group and a query to the
White board there had resulted in finding out more about the
Whites. I’ll make queries to the Ancestry equivalents in the
next few days as well.


I did get one reply back the day after I sent my query but there
doesn’t seem to be a connection there yet.


So that’s it for tonight. I want to post the story about how my
Mom helped a friend start the St. Patrick’s Day Parade here in
Abington but I’ll have to do that tomorrow.

WINIFRED MCFARLAND

As I mentioned earlier, Aunt Winnie had already died
before I was born but her presence is still felt in the
family in a way most genealogy researchers find their
ancestors are remembered



These are among the oldest pictures in the family album.
Only two pictures of my grandmother Agnes McFarland
are older and these are the only ones with her younger
sister Winnie. I think the girl on the running board with
her is Aggie but that’s a guess on my part.

I think Mom once identified the two men as Uncle Mike
and one of the other uncles. The cap on the car roof had me
wondering briefly since one bit of information about my
Grandfather White was that he had worked for a time as a
chauffeur. But both men look older than the girls and I know
my grandparents were close in age when they married.I’ve
no clue to the identities of the other two girls or of the man
and woman walking up the road in the background. The only
thing I can say with a bit of certainty is that they seem to be
enjoying a day out in the country some time in the 1920’s.

Winifred McFarland was born in 1901 the 12th of 13 children.
(Only 8 made it to adulthood.) I know very little about her. She
appears as a 9 year old on the 1910 census. On the 1920 census
she was a 19 year old office clerk. By 1930 her father had died
and her older brothers and sisters were married and moved out,
so Winifred was the only one left living at home with her mother
at 950 Parker St in Boston. Winifred was listed as a stenographer
at a "chemical drug" business.

Winnie was only forty years old when she died on January
15th, 1940. I wasn't born until 1948, so I never met my grandaunt
But her boyfriend Jack Coyne visited us often because my
grandmother lived with us and I believe Jack and Aggie
stayed good friends until Aggie died.

Winnifred's death came at a time when her siblings were past having
more children and the next one was too young as yet to marry and
start raising families. I was the next child born, but my Uncle Ed
and Aunt Emily were the first to have a daughter, and so my cousin is
named Winifred White. (There was another Winifred McFarland, a
daughter of my Grand Uncle Mike, who was born back in 1917)

And so Grand Aunt Winifred is remembered through her namesake.

JOHN BARNES

I don’t know about other folks tracing their genealogy
but I have some favorites on the West side of the family.
It’s a bit unfair, I know, because there’s so much about
the Whites and McFarlands that I’ve yet to discover.
The majority of Dad’s ancestors were “salt of the earth”
people, ordinary folks dealing with the daily struggle to
survive. But there are a few rare souls who stand out
for one reason or another. Among these are some who
did things that made me (and probably their friends
and neighbors) wonder “What WAS he thinking?”


Case in point: John Barnes of 17th century Plymouth,
Massachusetts,


I found John while researching backgrounds of Mayflower
ancestors a few Thanksgivings back at The Plymouth
Colony Archive Project website. I discovered other later
ancestors listed there and John was among them.


He lived between 1633 and 1671, apparently a prosperous
merchant and citizen most of that time. All that seemed
to changed in 1651 when his first wife Mary Plummer
died. By 1653 John had married a woman whose name is
recorded only as Joan and began a long spiral down from
respectability, most of which is attributed to drunkenness.


In May 1648 he was granted permission to brew and sell
his own beer in Plymouth. There were a few incidents of
fines for public drunkenness during the next few years
but they were much more frequent after he married Joan
who was herself quite a contentious woman (and from
whom the Barnes line is descended). The details can be
read at the Plymouth Colony Archive Project, along with
John’s will and other information about his life.


It wasn’t the sad story of John’s trouble with alcohol that
struck me when I first read his story. It was the manner
of his death.


John lost his license to brew and serve beer and in 1661
the General Court forbade any one from selling or
serving him beer or liquor at all. This seemed to help
because he had only one recorded drunken incident after
the Court took that drastic measure. Judging from the
inventory of his estate at his death he was still fairly well
off by March of 1671.


This is where the “WHAT was he thinking?” comes into
the story. One day in early March, 1671, according to
the Plymouth Court Records, John Barnes stood at his
barn door and stroked his bull. The bull took exception
to that, turned, and gored John Barnes, giving him a
wound which caused his death approximately a day and
a half later.



Among those on the coroner’s jury who ruled on his death
was another ancestor of mine, Samuel Dunham.



Dad had passed away long before I first read the story
of John Barnes’ death but I I had no trouble imagining
what a Maine country boy like him would have said
about it:


“Damn idiot. That’s what happens when you pet a bull!”

TOMATO SANDWICHES AND UNCLE FRANK

By the time I was born in 1948 all my mother’s McFarland
Uncles were in their mid-fifties or older. Two of them had
already passed away before I was old enough to know them.
Uncle Frank and Uncle Tommy were still around and I have
memories of both, although more of Tommy than Frank. Of
the Aunts only Aunt Peggy was alive and I remember her
very well. Aunt Winnie had died but was not forgotten for
reasons I will mention later.


Uncle Frank was 62 years old when I was born so my earliest
recollections of him come from when he was about 70. Frank
had two children and split time living in Andover with his son
John and in Hanson with his daughter Mary, but occasionally
he spent a week with us in Dorchester. By this time he was
grey-haired and heavy set and used a cane when walking. It
was on one of those visits that Uncle Frank taught me how
to make tomato and mayonnaise sandwiches. This was a big
deal for me since the only time I’d ever used a knife was to
slice whatever was set before me at meals. I’d never actually
cut something up to MAKE a meal. It was the best sandwich
I’d ever tasted.


The next day I decided to make one on my own and I thought
it went pretty well until my Mom saw it. She asked where I had
learned to cut a tomato and then went off in search of Frank,
not for the reason you might think, though.


Awhile later, Uncle Frank came out to the kitchen and explained
to me about cutting thinner slices so I wouldn’t use up an entire
tomato in just one sandwich.



Frank only stayed with us a few times in Dorchester. We lived
on the third floor of a triple-decker apartment and the climb up
the three flights of stairs probably would have been difficult at
his age. Most of the rest of the times I saw him were at Andover
or Hanson during the various family functions. Somewhere I've
packed away an old copy of Zane Grey’s Lone Star Ranger that
I was given on a trip to Andover. I’m not sure if it was Frank’s
or if it had belonged to his son John.


Frank passed away at the age of 82 on September 21st, 1968.


Tomato and mayonnaise sandwiches are still my favorite, by the
way, simply because an old man spent some time to show an 8
year old boy how to make one.

TEMPUS AND GENEALOGY

As I said the other evening, I want to save as much as I can
of my memories and the family history as well. While I’m not
planning on keeling over if I can help it, I know that none of
us live forever. My brother’s sons are still young and some of
us older folks might not be around when they reach adulthood
to tell them more about theirgrandparents. So, I’m blogging
my memories here along with stories about the people on the
family tree. I’ve posted the tree to Ancestry as well as copying
it to both cd and dvd. I’m scanning photographs to discs and
also saving them online at Snapfish. And of course I‘ve printed
out the genealogy.


I think of all I don’t know about the generations that came
before on both sides of the family and I want to preserve what
I do know and learn for the next.


Tempus, as they say, fugits.

SLOW NIGHT ON THE GENEALOGY FRONT

It’s one of those nights where I’m too tired to do
much genealogy blogging. My eyes have that burny
feel and the brain isn’t functioning on all cylinders.
I did manage to upload those photos I’ve scanned
to Snapfish. It’s free and I want to get as much of
the family pictures and genealogy saved as possible
for reasons I’ll go into tomorrow night.

An addendum to my entry on the portrait of Clara
Ford Ellingwood. This is her line of descent from
Henry Phelps showing where it ties into the Abbott
and Dunham lines. She and my great-grandfather
were 7th cousins through their common descent from
from Henry Phelps and Eleanor Sharp


Henry Phelps m. Eleanor Sharp
Edward Phelps m. Elizabeth Adams
Samuel Phelps m. Sarah Chandler
Samuel Phelps m. Hannah Dane
Hannah Phelps m. Ephraim Abbot(t)
Mehitable Abbot(t) m. Jonathan Abbot(t)
Zerviah Abbot(t) m. John Ellingwood
John Ellingwood Jr. m. Rachael Barrows
Asa F. Ellingwood m. Florilla Dunham
Clara Ellingwood m. Philip J. West

CLARA FORD ELLINGWOOD

As I mentioned below in my initial post on this blog, it was my Dad’s sister Dorothy who first started exploring the family treeand it was the information she sent us over twenty years ago nowthat got me started with my genealogy passion. I’m grateful forthe pedigrees and family charts she researched and then copied to send to the rest of us. And I’m glad I held on to them all these years, to say the least!

The other day her daughter, my cousin Diana, emailed us a copy of a picture from Aunt Dot: a copy of a portrait of Clara Ford Ellingwood, my great-grandmother. It’s been in the possession of a Cousin Ruth since Grandpa West’s death back in 1970 and recently she had a copy made which she sent along to my Aunt.The copy was in color but Aunt Dot recalls that the original on the wall at Grandpa’s was sepia tone so I suspect it has been colorized with a graphics art program somewhere along the way since 1970. I’ve made a sepia toned copy and that’s what I’ve posted above.

I think the resemblance to my Dad is there but I may be seeing

what I’d like to see.

It’s through Clara that we are related to many old New England

settlers such as the Dunham and Abbott families and others

back to the Mayflower.

So once again, thank you, Aunt Dot!

OF TWO MINDS

I find myself suddenly conflicted.

I am a bookseller by occupation and a book reader my whole life
and as such I’ve always held a negative viewpoint on books online
and hand-held ebook readers. I've always maintained, and still do,
that there is nothing like the feel of a real book in your hands or
of entering a library or bookstore and browsing the shelves. And
even though the price of paper has caused the books’ prices to
rise as well, it is still possible for nearly every citizen of the United
States to easily and cheaply obtain books.


But with my interest in genealogy has come an appreciation for
things like Google’s Book Search. Earlier tonight I was reading Tim
Abbott’s “Walking the Berkshires” post about the Witch Hysteria in
Andover. Tim's a descendant of Elizabeth Phelps Ballard and I've
Phelps ancestors as well. I Googled my Phelps ancestor who lived
in the same time and found Genealogical and Personal Memoirs
Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts by
William Richard Cutter on Google Book Search.


The book has been scanned and from it I was able to determine my
ancestor Samuel Phelps was the brother of Elizabeth and learned
some new things I hadn’t known about him. This is a book I might
not have been able earily find in the local libraries or
even order cheaply at the bookstore.


I still hold a doubtful view on the so called “ebook revolution” but
I find myself with an appreciation of how useful a thing it is to have
old books such as Cutter available on the Google Book Search. I
know I’ll use it again.

I’ll just have to let my bookseller half deal with the guilt!

WHAT I FOUND AT ANCESTRY.COM

I mentioned a few nights ago about a trial membership at Ancestry
During that time I was able to find things I hadn’t seen before,
primarily the World War One Draft Registration Cards for my four
McFarland grand uncles and my grandfathers. I also downloaded
some copies of Federal Censuses. While I found these items and
had the family tree uploaded, I don’t think I can afford to pay the
cost of full membership so regretfully I didn’t subscribe.

I'll continue to make do with the free genealogy sites for now.

Here’s what I learned about the McFarlands:


Tom lists his occupation toolmaker at A. A. Crafts at 125 Summer
St.in Boston. For dependents he lists mother and there's a word in
front of that I can't decipher. His physical description is Medium
height, Slender build, with Brown (or Blonde?) hair and Brown
eyes. At the time he filled out the card he was living at 950 Parker
St. in Boston.


Frank was living with his family at 50 Cotton St. in Medford. He
lists his occupation as "bottiling" at the Moxie Plant at 69 Haverhill
St. in Boston. His eyes were Gray, his hair Dark Brown; his height
and build were given as Medium.

Robert was living with his family at 121 or 126 Paul Gore St. His
occupation was shoemaker at the Thomas J. Plant(?) Shoe Co. at
what looks like the "corner of Centre and Bickford Streets" in
Boston. His height and build are Slender, his eyes Light Brown and
his hair Black.


Mike was living at 946 Parker St in Boston with his wife Mary and
he was a shoe worker but at George A. Keith Company at 288 A St.
in So. Boston. His height was given as Tall, his build Medium, his
hair Dark and I think that it says Brown for the eye color.



Then there are the cards for both my grandfathers.

Floyd Earl West gives his occupation as farming in Upton, Me. His
height is listed as Short, his build Medium, his eyes Blue and his
hair “D. Brown” He claimed an exemption from the draft due to
an injury to his right arm and shoulder; on the disability line he
adds “right arm weak”. But whatever the injury was it healed
because Grandpa West did get drafted a year later and was
inducted(?) on 29 Apr 1918. He reached the rank of Pvt 1st
class in November of 1918 and served as part of Company K, 303
Infantry. He never made it overseas and I think I recall Dad
saying Grandpa had been stuck at Fort Dix N.J. during the
outbreak of the Spanish Influenza. He was honorably discharged
on 12 Mar 1919. So far Grandpa West is the only one out of this
group that I've found to have actually served in the military
during World War I. But the McFarland brothers were all in
their late twenties or older and Grandpa White might have been
exempted due to his occupation.


Finally, my mother’s father, Edward F. White lists his occupation
as “helper” on the “N.Y., N.H., & H. R..R. & Co.” by which I take it
to mean the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad. The
business address is given as Union Station in Harftord. He gives
his home address as 41 Philbrick St in Roslindale Ma. and lists as
closest relative his mother “Lena White”. His height is Tall, build
Medium. His eyes were Blue and his hair Dark Brown.

The information on Mom’s father is of interest because frankly,
there’s so damn little we know about him. For example. we’d never
heard mention of his working for the railroad. And this is the first
mention I’ve had of his mother as “Lena”. Up until now, I knew
her as “Pauline”

So much I don’t know!

So much to learn!

WISHES AND MEMORIES

Randy Seaver posted over on Genea-Musings about his gathering
of family memories and how relatives might have different views
of events than you might. It sort of ties in with my own thoughts
lately as to how important it is to set memories down somehow
and somewhere so that future relatives will have the chance to
read or hear them.

I suppose it's a touch of middle aged "intimations of mortality"
that has brought this issue to mind. I'm going to be 59 years old
and I while I’d like to think I’d be around to see my grandnieces
and grandnephews I know I might not. Then I think about all of
my older relatives who were gone before I was born or who died
when I was a child as well as those who’ve passed since. I never
had the chance or took it to sit down and talk with them about
memories of their childhood and lives. Genealogy was the charts
of royal dynasties I saw in history books.

I had a customer at the bookstore the other day who was looking
for Image of America books on Somerville and Charlestown, two
cities in the Greater Boston area. They were gifts for a relative
celebrating her 100th birthday who had lived in those cities as a
child. We talked a bit and she told me that another relative had
taped conversations with the centenarian some years earlier so
they had her recollections of her life to give her great-great-
grandchildren.

Of course most of us don’t think of these things when we are
young and concerned with the here and now. When I began
climbing up my family tree I came realize how much I don’t know
about both sides of my family. I wish I’d pressed my mother a bit
more for any recollection of her father or of what it was like for her
growing up during the Great Depression and World War II. I wish
I’d talked more with my father and gotten to know more what it
was like for him up in Maine in the same period but in what was
nearly a whole different world from Mom’s down here in Boston.


So, I’m setting down my own memories. My first few entries in
this blog were of the family trips "up home". I have been making
notes on other subjects for future entries and will do my best to
get them done, including what I recall of the older relatives I knew
in my childhood. And there’s still some people I can talk to and get
their versions of past events.

I wish I’d started doing it all sooner!

BILL & GED'S NOT SO EXCELLENT ADVENTURE

Recently I took advantage of the month’s free membership
at Ancestry.com and posted my family tree there. This led
to my First Adventure in Creating a GED file and it didn’t
turn out too well.



As I’ve mentioned in my initial post to this blog, my finances
are rather limited so I have used the free Personal Ancestry
File as my genealogy program and it’s worked quite well for
me. But the GED file creation and I didn’t click and instead
of sending the partial tree with ancestors from the Mayflower
on down to the A*******.com site I somehow managed to send
the whole dang PAF. Now this is not a total disaster but it is
a tad embarrassing since there’s a lot of people from before
the Mayflower who just might not be ancestors at all.



Like Odin.



Simply put, when I first began online research I could find
that was possibly even remotely related to my family. As
might be seen from the time of this post, I do a lot of my
online stuff very late at night after work and there’s a
tendency to just grab as much as possible with intentions
to sort it out when I have time on a day off or on vacation.
So there were a lot of things on the tree I would rather not
have posted online.


On the other hand…

It’s up. I’ll try to trim it as opportunity permits. So if you
run across it, pay no attention to anything pre-17th century.

You don’t seriously believe I’m related to Odin, do you?

But if you do, I have this Rainbow Bridge to Valhalla for sale.

Cheap.

MEET THE FOLKS

I'm currently scanning some of the older pics in two albums.

Back some twenty years ago we bought the type with the clear
plastic sheet that covers the photos thinking this would protect
them. Instead they recently began to discolor and fade. So at least
by scanning them and making several copies the chances of saving
them for the future are better.

This is my mom and dad on their wedding day. I know the look
on Dad's face as the one where he's about reached the end of his
patience but he's being polite. It's their wedding day and they're
posing for another dang picture instead of getting started on the
honeymoon!

I had to crop the left hand side some where the top left hand
corner was sort sort of eaten away. But on the other hand, I
never noticed the chalk writing on the wall behind them, or the
boarded up window or the open door before.

Oh, and this was taken in June, 1947.

ANOTHER BRILLIANT MARKETING IDEA

Maybe it's me? Could I just be too old because I
wonder what the heck these folks were thinking when
they used one of this country's oldest cemetaries for a
treasure hunt?

http://www.bostonist.com/archives/2007/02/23/dr_pepper_almost_defaces_graves.php

UNK-IFIED..WITH APOLOGIES TO DR. SEUSS.

I've done some writing elsewhere on my
tree climbing in the past and this is part of
it.

A little background: I was still fairly new at
genealogy and when I stumbled across an
ancestor with the unlikely name of Joanna Unk,
I thought perhaps she was from some other
nationality and this was how the name was recorded
in the town records by someone who didn't know
how it was spelled properly. But the name amused
me and I wrote this poem.

Two weeks later I discovered that Unk is an abrreviated
version of Unknown, used when the maiden name of a
person is unavailable.


Ah, well!


When I started climbing my family tree
I didn't realize what a chore it might be.
I really had nothing much else on my mind
Then to see what else I could possibly find.

I already knew of a number of names
I knew Barker and Dunham and Abbott and Ames.
But never, no never, did I possibly thunk
I would find I'd a relative, Joanna Unk.

It must not have been easy to grow up an Unk.
It's not a name beaus want to carve in tree trunks.
But her story's not tragic, it isn't you see,
Because if it were there would not be a me.

She lived out a typical Puritan life,
Met someone who loved her and became his wife.
And somewhere in heaven she's drinking some hooch
With my distant relative, Mistress Ruth Gooch.

MORE ON THE WHITE FAMILY

As I mentioned in a previous entry, the very kind Gayle
Nee found this information for me several years ago.



The information on great grandfather Edward J.White
and his family is all I know of them. One of the things
I noticed right off was the change in the birthplace of
his father from Ireland on the 1900 and 1910 census
to Massachusetts on the 1920. I'm not sure why but I
can think of two possibilities. One might be with a name
like White it would be easy to hide an Irish background
in an era when being Irish was a drawback in some circles.



The other might be because of World War One where the
Irish seemed sympathetic to Germany over the British
and hence to America.



I'm also fascinated by his progression of jobs from a
teamster for Wholesale Flour (and is that a company or
a job description?) to "head teamster" for the City of
Boston. When time, money and car repairs allow I
plan a trip to Boston City Hall to see if I can obtain
any records of his employ.



As I've mentioned before Edward F. White Sr. left
the family and was seldom if ever spoken about by my
mother or my uncle Edward F. White Jr. But when
Gayle sent me this information it explained something
from my childhood. Whenever we were driving across
the Mystic River Bridge and stopped at the toll booth,
Mom would look at the tolltakers and occasionally would
yell "Hey Fitzy!" and wave to one of them before we drove
off. When we'd ask who Fitzy was, all she'd say was that he
was a cousin on her father's side.



So, I suspect it might have been Albert Fitzgerald since as
I recall he was a middle aged man with glasses.

It's another one of those family mysteries waiting to be
explained.


1930 census - ‘Boston, Suffolk Co., Mass. ED # 333,
page IA
#939 Parker Street
Agnes D., White, 31, b. Mass., married at age 21,
father b. Northern Ireland, mother b. Scotland,
no occupation.
Edward F. White, son, 4, b. Mass., both parents b. Mass.
Anna M. White, daughter, 2, b. Mass.

#133 Washington Street, Roslindale
Edward J. White 56yrs. married/head teamster/City of
Boston

Pauline M. White 56 yrs. married/wife

Esther l6yrs. daughter
Ruth B. (White)Fitzgerald age 21 daughter of Edward
Alfred S. Fitzgerald age 25 (son in law)
Ruth J. Fitzgerald age 9 mos.

1920 Federal Census for Boston, Suffolk County, Ma.
January 2, 1920
41 Philbrick Street
White, Edward J age 47 b.MA Father b. MA Mother b. Canada
Occ: Stage builder Government

wife, Pauline M. age 47 b. MA Parents b. Germany

son, Charles age 22 b. MA Clerk RR
son, Edward F. age 21 b.MA Steam fitter RR
son, Frederick C. age IS b.MA Laborer Government
dtr., Pauline M. age 16 b. MA Salesgirl Dry goods store
dtr., Ruth age 12 b. MA
dtr,. Esther age 5 b.MA

1910 Federal Census for ‘Boston Suffolk County, Ward 23
Precinct 5 Enumeration District 1615 Sheet lA
April 15, 1910

White, Edward J. age 35 married 14 years b. MA
Father b Ireland Mother b.Canada teamster Wholesale Flour

wife, Pauline M. age 35 married 14 years 8 children 8 living
b. Ma Parents b . Germany

dtr., Marcella M. age 13 b. MA
son, Charles W age 12 b. MA
son Edward F. age 10 b. MA
son Frederick E age 8 b. MA
dtr, Pauline M. Jr age 6 b. MA
dtr., Elizabeth H age 5 b. MA
dtr., Ruth V. Age 2 b. MA
son, James A age 9 months

1900 Federal Census for South Boston Suffolk County MA
Liberty Street Enumeration District 1387 Sheet 9 Ward 16
June 6, 1900

White, Edward J. b. May 1873 in MA age 27 married 5 years
Father b. Ireland Mother b. Canada 0cc: Teamster

wife, Pauline b. Dec 1873 in MA age 26 married 5 years
3 children 3 living Parents b. Germany

dtr., Marsella b. June 1896 in MA age 3
son, Charles W. b.March 1895 in MA age 2
son, Edward F. b. July 1899 in MA age 10 months

IF EVER TWO WERE ONE

I haven’t mentioned it before but I work as a bookseller which has
led me to some books that I’ve found interesting and helpful in my
genealogy pursuits. I’ll mention some of those in the future but
even though it’s a day late I thought I’d talk about the one that fits
in with St Valentine’s Day.



I was waiting on a customer who was looking for a book for her 70
year old aunt. The woman picked up a book from the new release
large size paperback table and asked me if I knew anything about
it. The title was "If Ever Two Were One: A Diary of Love Eternal "
by Brian Sullivan, the story of the romance between Francis
Ellingwood Abbot and Katharine Loring told from Abbot’s journal
and letters.



This piqued my curiosity. I have ancestors named Ellingwood and
Abbot and a quick glance at the back cover told me this Abbot
was from Beverly where my ancestors lived. So I googled him and
while he's not a direct ancestor he is in fact a cousin. Our common
ancestor was Ralph Ellingwood of early Salem, Ma. but where my
line descends from Ralph Jr., Frank E. Abbot's descends from
another son.



The same is true of our Abbot ancestries descending from siblings
although there are several other incidents of relationship through
marriages of brothers or sisters into both lines.



Seems Frank was a Harvard man, a Unitarian minister, and knew
Emerson and others. He was one of the early American supporters
of Darwinism which led to his break from Unitarianism and a very
controversial reputation for most of the latter part of his life. In
his days as a Harvard divinity student he roomed at the home of
Henry David Thoreau’s mother and he spoke with Ralph Waldo
Emerson on several occasions.



Mr Sullivan’s book details Abbot's romance and marriage of over
forty years with Katharine Loring and the subsequent ten years
after her death, ending with his suicide on her grave in 1903.



It’s fascinating to see the Victorian romantic ideal mindset in the
flowery style of writing popular in those times. But I must confess
that Frank seems to me a bit overly intense in his devotion to his
Katharine.I suspect that when they married their respective
families felt some relief that the two young people were “settled”.



Harvard Magazine of July-August 2002 has a few examples of
entries from Francis Ellingwood Abbot’s journal here.

THE WHITES AND MCFARLANDS

These are my maternal ancestors.
As I said in the previous entry, Agnes McFarland
and Edward F. White were mom's parents.



THE MCFARLANDS

John McFarland (28 Nov 1852-03 Aug 1924)
m. Ann A. Kelly (01 Oct 1859-02 Feb 1945)

Children:
Michael b Aug 1882-d?
Annie b Mar 1885-d.Jun 1887
Francis J. b Nov 1886-d Sept 1968
John b Mar 1888-d?
Robert b Dec 1889-d?
Edward J. b Oct 1891-d Sept 1892
Thomas b Jun 1893-d 1978
Annie b Mar 1895-d?
Sarah b Nov 1896-d Jul 1900
Agnes b Oct 1898-d Deb 1957
Winifred b1900-d Jan 1940
Margaret b1902-d?
George b Jan 1918-d Jan 1918


THE WHITES

Edward J. White b May 1873-d?
m Pauline M. Offinger b, Dec 1873

Children
Marcella b Jun 1896-d?
Charles b Mar 1898-d?
Edward F. b Jul 1899-d?
Frederick b 1902-d?
Pauline b 1904-d?
Elizabeth b 1905-d?
Ruth b 1908-d?
James b 1909-d?
Esther b 1915-d?

The McFarland information came from my 2nd cousin
John McFarland who was the son of Francis.

A very nice lady named Gayle Nee on the Genealogy.com
White Family Forum gave me the White information from
the 1900,1910, 1920 and 1930 Federal censuses.

Thanks again, Gayle, if you ever read this!

NO RELATION

I've seen a few things about Barack Obama's genealogy
online and noted that there were Dunham's in his
ancestry.Having Dunham ancestors myself I was of
course curious if there was a connection but hadn't
found any information for comparison until tonight.

Randy Seaver also is of Dunham descent and posted
information on his Genea-Musings site. Turns out
he and Sen. Obama are related but from a different
Dunham family (the Dunham/Singletary line, I believe)
than mine.

But it was fun to speculate about it!

AGGIE

I’m a child of mixed heritage. On one side I’m
descended from a long line of Yankee settlers.
On the other, I’m descended from Irish Catholic
immigrants who came to Boston in the late
19th century.

Meet my maternal grandmother, Agnes McFarland.
In the family she’s known as Aggie. I believe the
picture is for her Confirmation.

She was born in 1898, eighth child and third daughter
out of the ten children that would survive infancy. She
grew up in a Irish Catholic family, her father a laborer
on the Boston Elevated Railway.


She had rheumatic fever as a child in a time when it
was a deadly disease and although she'd survived it left
Aggie with a weak heart. In 1924 she married Edward F.
White Sr. They had two children before a third died, then
Edward walked out in the middle of the Great Depression
leaving Aggie to raise the children on her own.

Aggie divorced him in 1935.

It was hard for her; in those times the label "divorced"
was somewhat shameful for an Irish Catholic woman.


Work was hard to come by for a woman with children
so she scrimped and saved. Some nights dinner was
bread soaked in milk. My Mom and uncle were sent to
a nearby dental school to have their teeth worked on by
students. When Mom came down with what was known
as St. Vitus’ Dance in those days, Aggie somehow came
up with the money for the doctors and to buy liver to
serve at dinner to get Mom’s iron content up. I suspect
Aggie’s parents must have helped her out here and there
financially. My Mom once claimed that the legendary
Boston Mayor James Michael Curley helped out with
some problem as well.


But Aggie was no cream puff, either. One story my
Mom told was of the time she and Uncle Ed skipped
school to hang out at the cottage out on Houghs’ Neck
with their cousins. The place was owned by Aggie’s
younger sister Peggy and her husband Leo McCue and
was quite a distance away from the Jamaica Plain
neighborhood of Boston Aggie and her children lived
in.


Yet suddenly my grandmother was walking down the
beach towards them. She’d taken the trolley and two
different buses to get there. She stayed long enough
to let Mom and Ed get their things and then took
them home by the same route she’d used to get there.


Somehow she did it. She raised her children to adulthood
even though it meant sometimes ducking her rebellious
son's head in the sink when he used swears or nursing her
daughter through a case of scarlet fever. She survived
watching her son join the Navy at 18 to fight in WW2.
All this while living life as a divorced Catholic woman
whose husband had left her for another woman.


She never remarried.


I knew her as Nanny, my grandmother, and she lived
with us when I was a kid. My Dad and Uncle Ed had
bought a two family home after the war in Malden on
a GI loan and so Aggie saw all five of her grandchildren
everyday. But she spent most of the time with my sister
and I because my parents both worked fulltime.


I have memories of her.


She was a quiet woman, black haired with grey streaks
and usually wore those one piece housedresses. She’d eat
peas by rolling them down the blade of her knife into her
mouth and looking back I think she did it to amuse me
and tease my mom. She never yelled but I remember
her breaking up a knockdown fight between two Italian
ladies who lived in the houses to either side of ours and
doing it with a slightly louder than usual voice and a
disgusted tone at their behavior in front of children.


I remember her being upset when the goldfish got sucked
down the drain of the kitchen sink when she pulled the
sink plug by accident after cleaning the goldfish bowl. And
I recall how she kept me from looking out the window after
a worker fell off the roof when it was being reshingled.
(He survived by the way; he broke his back and narrowly
missed landing atop the picket fence that ran between our
house and our next door neighbor’s.)


As time went by her rheumatic heart got worse and she
needed an oxygen tank in her bedroom for when breathing
was hard.


Aggie died at age 58 on February 12th, 1957.


She lived a tough life but she always carried herself like
a lady.