BIG NEWS FOR THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC GENEALOGY SOCIETY!

The NEHGS just got a very nice gift!

Read about it here, And boy, I can't wait to see that new website
because I think the present one is already excellent!

THE INDENTURING OF JACOB PRESTON TO THOMAS CHANDLER

In 1676, a man named William Curtis brought suit against his indentured servant
Jacob Preston for failure to serve out the full term of his indenture. While I am
not related in anyway to Curtis, there is a connection because Jacob Preston was
originally servant to my ancestor Thomas Chandler. That original document was
submitted as evidence in the case and read as follows:

"This Indenture made and concluded this twenty day of May in the yeare of ye Lord God
one thousand six hundred seventy and one & in the three & twentieth year of the reign of
ye soveraigne Lord Charles the Second by the Grace of God of England, Scotland, France
& Ireland, king, Defender of the Faith &c, Between Ensigne Thomas Chandler of the
towne of Merrimack in the County of Essex in New England Blacksmith on ye one part
and Jacob Preston of Andover with the full and free consent of Nicolas Holt of Andover aforesaid, his Father-in-law by the marriage of his Mother and also with the full consent
of his said Naturall mother hath and doth by these presents bind himselfe an apprentice
to ye said Thomas seven years to be compleated and ended accounting from the twenty-
sixth day of March last past untill the said seven years next & immediately ensuing the
said 26th of March 1671 shall be fully expired. During which time of seven yeares the said Jacob shall behave & demeane himself during his sd apprenticeship as an apprentice or servant ought for to doe according to the usuall & lawdable customs of England in the like cases. During wh time also of seven yeares, the above named Thomas, Master unto ye sd
Jacob, is hereby obliged & stands bound at his owne costs & charges to provide & procure
for his said servant, meat, drink, cloathing, washing, and lodging with all other things convenient, necessary & sufficient for an apprentice as is usuall in England. And the said Chandler is also to learne or cause his sd Apprentice to be learnt to read ye English tongue perfectly to write & cypher or cast & keepe accounts sufficiently for his owne employment
of a Blacksmith, if his capacities will attaine thereunto. And the sd Thomas is also hereby obliged according to his owne best skill & abilitie to learne and instruct the sd Jacob in the trade & art of a Blacksmith, if the sd Jacob be capable of learning the same, and he shall
keepe his said servant Jacob at worke upon the sd trade as much as may be without
damage to other necessary occasions that may fall out unavoidably to be done in a family; that so for want of time & use & instruction, ye said Jacob may have no just ground to complaine of his owne want of experience or profitting under his sd Master in ye sd Trade
of a Blacksmith. Alsoe ye sd Thomas when the sd seaven yeares are expired shall give the
sd Jacob two suits of Apparell from head to foot, suitable for a person of his degree, one
good & hansom and suitable to weare on ye Sabbath dayes, & the other convenient for ye week days. The said Thomas doth bind himselfe, heires, executors, & administrators to the
sd Jacob his heires, & assignes to fulfill the articles herein conteined belonging to him to
doe for the sd servant. In witnesse whereunto ye sd parties Thomas & Jacob as they are severally concerned in this instrument & the articles of the same have hereunto interchangeably sett their hands & scales.

Signed sealed & interchangeably delivered before
George Abbot Jr
Alexander Sessions.

Thomas Chandler
The Mark of
Jacob + Preston "


Sara Loring Bailey "Historical Sketches of Andover" Houghton Mifflin Co , Boston 1880
pp 49-50

Now, besides being one of the earliest known examples of an indenture agreement in the Colonies (along with the earlier one between Thomas Chandler and Hopestill Tyler), this document is of interest to me for two of the names on it. The first is that of Nicholas Holt,
Jacob's "Father-in-law by the marriage of his Mother" or in other words, his step-father.
Martha Holt was Nicholas' third wife. I am descended from Nicholas and his first wife,
Elizabeth Short and both their children Henry and Elizabeth Holt.

George Abbot Jr. is also a relative, another 9x great-grandfather who was married to
Hannah Chandler, sister of Thomas Chandler. This might be why there was a copy of the
original indentureship contract available to the court.

And George's son Benjamin Abbot married Nicholas' granddaughter Sarah Farnum and
their descendants, besides myself, include Tim Abbott of "Walking the Berkshires" and
Janice Brown of "Cow Hampshire"!

MY ANCESTOR THE KNAVE?

Here's one of those "eggs" I've found recently. Thomas Chandler of Andover (1628-1703)
is another of my 9x great grandfathers and was a blacksmith by trade.(Another blacksmith!
One of these days I need to make a list of all my blacksmith ancestors...). In 1658 he took
on Hopestill Tyler as an apprentice, and it was apparently not a good match. The result
was a story that made me laugh when I read Sara Loring Bailey's account of it here on
Google Books:

"One of the earliest apprentices found on record was Hopestill Tyler. There is a tradition
that his father, Job Tyler, was living at Andover when the settlers came here, as Blackstone
lived at Boston, " monarch of all he surveyed," until the advent of the "lords brethren," as
he said, put him to flight, as the rule of the " lords bishops " had driven him from the old
country. Job Tyler had apprenticed his son Hopestill to Thomas Chandler, the blacksmith,
1658. But after the papers were drawn up, he broke the bargain, got possession of the instrument of indenture, entering the house of Nathan Parker, (who wrote the paper, and
had it hid in, as he supposed, a safe place,) and stealing it in the absence of the owner of the house. The matter was a cause of long controversy and several trials, — "Chandler vs.
Tyler" and "Tyler vs. Chandler," extending over a period of more than ten years, and
carried from court to court. One paper of interest, in connection with this, is a deposition
of a witness in regard to the terms of the indenture, which it was said "Mr. Bradstreet"
saw, had perused,and judged " to be good and firme." In this the mutual obligations of
master and apprentice are set forth : —

`That the sd apprentice Hope Tiler should serve the said Thomas Chandler faithfully for
nine years and a half after the manner of an apprentice, that the master, the said Chandler should teach him the trade of a blacksmith so farr as he was capable to learne, and to
teach him to read the Bible & to write so as to be able to keepe a book, so as to serve his
turne for his trade and to allow unto the sd apprentice convenient meat & drinke, washing, lodging and clothes.'

Job Tyler paid dear for his hard words against a man of so great influence as Thomas Chandler, who afterward became one of the town's deputies to the General Court, and
who was one of the principal citizens in point of wealth, in the little community of
husbandmen and artisans : —

`1665 A case in difference between Thomas Chandler of Andevour & Job Tiler having
formerly been entered in Salem Court, in an action of defamation being withdrawne & reference made as appears by their bond to that purpose to Colonel Browne, Edward
Denison & Captain Johnson of Roxbury .... they not agreeing, wee the aforesaid Captain Johnson & Edward Denison doe give in our award as followeth : [Job Tyler, being poor,
they judge he should not be fined above six pounds.] ' We doe order that Job Tiler shall
nayle up or fasten upon the posts of Andevour & Roxbury meeting-houses in a plaine
leadgable hand, the acknowledgment to remain so fastened to the posts aforementioned
for the space of fourteen days, it to be fastened within the fourteen days at Andevour & tomorrow being the twenty-seventh of January '65 at Roxbury The Confession and acknowledgment ordered by us for Job Tiler to make & poste as is above expressed is as
followeth: Whereas it doth apeare by sufficient testimony that I Job Tiler have shamefullv reproached Thomas Chandler of Andevour by saying he is a base lying, cozening, cheating knave & that he hath got his estate by cozening in a base reviling manner & that he was recorded for a lyer & that he was a
cheating, lying whoring knave fit for all manner of bawdery, wishing the
devill had him, Therefore I Job Tiler doe acknowledge that I have in these expressions most wickedly slandered the said Thomas Chandler & that
without any just ground, being noe way able to make good these or any of
these my slanderous accusations of him & therefore can doe noe lesse but expresse my selfe to be sorry for them & for my cursing of him desiring God
& the said Thomas to forgive me & that noe person would think the worse of
the said Thomas Chandler for any of these my sinfull expressions And
engaging myself for the future to be more carefull of my expressions
both concerning him & otherwise desiring the lord to help me so to doe,
Isaac Johnson.
Edward Denison."


Sara Loring Bailey "Historical Sketches of Andover" Houghton Mifflin Co , Boston 1880
pp 47-48

Now maybe it's me, but it struck me as funny that in making his apology Job Tyler was
required to list in full all his slanderous statements about Thomas Chandler. I would have thought a simple "I apologize for all my slanderous statements about Thomas Chandler."
would have sufficed. Instead, there nailed up outside the meetinghouses of Andover and Roxbury were signs with the "base lying, cozening, cheating knave" on them.

Was this some statement by his peers about Thomas Chandler's behavior? As a later case
will show, another apprentice left him for a new master. Was Thomas an overly strict
master? Or was the ruling an example of a Puritan mindset where every little detail of a
case was set into evidence and writing?

Did Thomas Chandler stare angrily at those words or did he simply steer clear of the meetinghouses for two weeks?

And did Job Tyler perhaps laugh in private at his punishment?

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGICAL FUN-THREE THINGS

It's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun time (where DID that week go?) and
once more Randy Seaver has a challenge for geneabloggers over at
Genea-Musings. This week it's:

"1) Think of three things that you learned about Genealogy
or Family History today.

2) Tell us about them in a blog post or a comment to this post."

And here's mine:

My 8x great grandfather John Hoyt was killed by Indians on the road between
Andover and Haverhill 13Aug 1696.

My 9x great grandfather Thomas Chandler won a slander case in 1665 but the penalty
meted out to the slanderer sure seems more a further insult to Thomas!

It's a lot easier to find things about my paternal ancestors in 17th and 18th century
Massachusetts than to find anything from 19th century Maine and New Hampshire.
Really! Not to mention anything about my mom's Irish grandparents' family! But
I may take some steps on that soon.

Stay tuned for further developments!

THE GREAT GENEALOGY EGG HUNT

I think I might have used this analogy before, but more and more
genealogy to me seems like one of those Russian egg puzzles. You open up
the egg and inside is another egg and inside that is another egg and
so on until you reach the last teeny eeny egg. Lately in researching
the roles my ancestors played in the early Massachusetts colonial
wars I keep finding new "eggs" that have me err...scrambling...to
gather them up.

For example, I found some transcribed documents involving my 8x great
grandfather Stephen Greenleaf, and in googling some of my other ancestors
who were Stephen's contemporaries I found the details of court cases between
9x great grandfather Capt. William Gerrish and a rival in Newbury, Ma. The
last of the cases was a trial for slander and is a hoot to read. I'll be posting it here
soon.

I get a kick out of finding these stories and as long as fate, or Google,
keeps rolling these eggs in my direction I'll keep opening them up and
sharing what I find inside them here with everyone.

MY ROCKWOOD LINE OF DESCENT

My Rockwood Family descent:

Nicholas Rockwood (b1640?-d 26 Jan 1680) m. 1646 Jane Adams (b 1624?-d 15Dec 1654)

Benjamin Rockwood (b 8Sep 1651-d 5Dec 1747) m 27 Sep 1678 Judith Ellis (b 15 Apr 1658-
d ?)

Bethiah Rockwood (b. 24Jul 1679-d?) m 1Dec 1701 William Man(Mann)(B 1May 1679-d
22Mar 1765)

Mehitabel Man(Mann) (b 1Sep1713-d 7Jun 1789) m 24Sep 1734 Daniel Boyden (b 1Mar 1713-
d 29Jan 1782)

Hezekiah Boyden (b 28Nov 1739-d 9Feb 1800) m 13Sep 1764 Elizabeth Green (b 27Feb 1745
-d 11Feb 1841)

Mary Boyden (b 19Feb 1765-d 15Feb 1846) m John Griffeth (b 4Jun 1763-d8Feb 1840)

Mary (Polly) Griffith (b 30Nov 1785-d 13Jan 1834) m 6Sep 1807 Jonathan Phelps Ames
(b 20Apr 1781-d 16Dec 1863)

Arvilla Ames (b 25Jan 1810-d 25Apr 1907) m 23Sep 1827 John Cutter West (b 8Oct 1802-
d 24Jul 1862)

and then on down through my West family to myself.

STEPHEN GREENLEAF SR. & THE PHIPS EXPEDITION

The recall of Jeremiah Swain and his men from Maine in the autumn of 1689 possibly
was related to a change in strategy on the part of the Massachusetts colony with the
decision to carry the war to the French in Canada. An naval expedition was planned
with Sir William Phips in command.

Phips is an interesting man. Born in Maine, he'd been a shephard as a boy until he
got a job as a shipyard carpenter's apprentice. He then moved to Boston where he
appears to have gotten an education and married well, which allowed him to build a
shipyard back in Maine. When Indians burned him out, Phips took an amazing gamble:
he decided to salvage a sunken Spanish treasure ship in the Bahamas! He went to
England, found some investors among the nobility, and after one failure, succeeded
in salvaging some of the treasure and was knighted by the King. Remember, this was
1687 and he didn't have the technology and equipment used by modern day treasure
hunters!

Phips returned to Massachusetts in 1689. I haven't as yet found out whether the
expedition against French Canada was already in the works or whether it was
proposed by Phips himself, but either way, he was appointed its Commander. He set
sail for Canada in April 1690.

Among Phip's officers was my 9x great-grandfather Stephen Greenleaf Sr. who was 61
years old and from a family of citizen-soldiers. His father Edmund Greenleaf had served
in the militia against the Indians as far back as 1637, and his son, Stephen Greenleaf Jr.
was an officer in the fighting on land in Maine even as the Phips fleet sailed north.

Phips attacked and captured the town of Port Royal in Arcadia (now Annapolis Royal,
Nova Scotia) on 11May,1690 and then returned to Boston, where he was put in charge
of an attack on the city of Quebec. The fleet left Boston in 9August,1690 which was
close to the onset of the rougher autumn weather. Ironically, it was not storms but
becalmed winds that slowed the fleet, and Phips and his ships didn't arrive at Quebec
until October. Despite his fleet and a force of over 2,000 men, Phips was unable to
overcome the city and after 6 days gave up and started the return journey to Boston.

Now this is where I have some confusion over Stephen Greenleaf Sr. I've found many
sources online that say he was part of a "disastrous Phips expedition against Port Royal"
in October 1690 during which he drowned off Cape Breton in December 1690. As I've
already noted, Phips had captured Port Royal back in May; it was the attack on Quebec in October that had failed. Also, various sources state that some of Phips' ships stopped for
repairs during the return voyage to Boston. By that time the storm season would have set
in and the trip would have taken much longer.

So I believe that when Stephen Greenleaf and 9 others drowned of Cape Breton on 1Dec,
1690, it was as part of the Quebec expedition,

Meanwhile, Stephen Greenleaf, Jr. was fighting in battles on land in Maine, We'll
discuss those next.

BENJAMIN ROCKWOOD AT BLACK POINT, MAINE.

As I've mentioned before, Benjamin Rockwood was wounded in King Philip's War in Maine.
This took place on 29 June, 1677 at Black Point near Scarborough, Maine in a fight known
as The Battle at Moore's Brook. There's a great account of it by Sumner Hunnewell
posted here at a site from the Lane Memorial Library at Hampton, NH. and I highly
recommend it to anyone interested in colonial history. It has information on many of
the colonial soldiers and their fates, including an image of the actual casualty list
of the battle.

I also found the following on Google Books:

"Many others whose names are not here, appear in the old documents referred to; like
that of Benjamin Rockwood (Rocket), who, in a later Ledger, has credit for Military Service,
in 1677. In Mass. Archives, vol. 72, pp. 622- 624, several original documents arc found
showing that he was a soldier in Philip's war, was in service at the Westward, and then was
sent, under Capt. Swett, to the Eastward; and at Bllackpoynt, was twice severely wounded,
and was confined' in Salem Hospital for " a quarter of a year." A memorial of his townsmen testifies to the facts, and other evidence shows that he had " two bullets in his thigh." Much
more is found about this last case, which, being typical of the times and men, doubtless had
many parallels, if we knew all."

George Madison Bodge Soldiers in King Philip's War 2nd ed. Self published (?) 1896
page 453

Benjamin Rockwood died in 1747 at age 97. Hunnewell mentions the son in law who
petitioned the colony for a pension to help support Benjamin when he was 93 and who
then was accused of keeping the money for himself. That appears to have been my
ancestor William Man(Mann). The pension was then sent to and administered by the
town of Wrentham.

BAD NEWS ABOUT " COW HAMPSHIRE"?

Ironically, I was checking the links on my Puckerbrush Award posts when I
found that the one to Janice Brown's Cow Hampshire blog doesn't work.

I got one of those dreaded error messages:

"ERROR: cowhampshire.blogharbor.com is temporarily unavailable
or does not exist. Please check the address and try again."

I hope it is only temporary, but given the length of time since Janice last
posted I fear the website is now gone.

I hope Janice is well wherever she is at present and that someday we will see her
return to her genealogy blog!

THE PUCKERBRUSH AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE

This past Friday I was honored to receive The Puckerbrush Award for Excellence"
from both Cheryl Fleming Palmer and Judith Richards Schubert. I am flattered and
grateful for being given this award, especially since it is given in honor of one of my
first genea-blogger friends, Janice Brown. She has a great sense of humor and it was
her that gave me the challenge to come up with 49 Genealogical Uses for a Flutaphone!
Early on we discovered we were distant cousins.


The award was started by Terry Thornton, aka Willie Puckerbrush:


"In honor of our absent friend, Janice Brown, whose delightful blog Cow Hampshire
continues to inspire through all her archived articles, is my attempt to recognize a few
writers and their blogs --- those I consider the best in the blogging world and whose
work has influenced me the most.

Janice told us all about the word "puckerbrush" in an article she posted August 27,
2007, at Cow Hampshire .... That article inspired me to use, on occasion, the
alias of "Willie Puckerbrush" in making some of the many foolish comments I've left
about the blogosphere.

It appears to me that in the thicket of all the blogs being written that I should highlight
those ten writers of greatest influence to me --- in other words, my list of the ten best
based solely upon my personal opinion."

So here are my list of ten. Please note I had one heck of a time coming up with this, not
because I couldn't think of anyone, but because there are so many out there to choose
from. So in the end I opted to go by the wording used by Terry and pick those who've had
the greatest influence on me through their style of writing and the content of their blogs.
They've all contributed prominently to the formation of our genea-blogger community:

Jasia from Creative Gene- The creator of the Carnival of Genealogy through which I
discovered so many other genealogy blogs and author of great articles on her own
blog!

Chris Dunham from The Genealogue- There's always something there that makes me
laugh and I found many genealogy blogs through hi Blog Finder, Besides, he's a cousin!

Randy Seaver from Genea-Musings- Randy's blog has great analysis of genealogy
programs and issues written in a direct and easy to understand style! And his Saturday
Night Genealogy Fun challenges are exactly that: fun, and educational!

Miriam Midkiff from AnceStories- The creator of ScanFest Sunday where I've
learned a lot about scanning and have had a chance to "meet" other bloggers.
Besides, she's a cousin!

Tim Abbott from Walking the Berkshires- Reading his blog inspired me to explore
the historical background of my family's history. And, besides, he's ...yeah...another
cousin!

Craig Manson from The GeneaBlogie- Another great writer. Craig is able to explain
legal aspects of genealogy and blogging in a way even a dunderhead like myself can
understand.

footnoteMaven from footnoteMaven- A creative lady with a sense of humor that rivals
Janice's own. Creator of great graphics for various genealogy carnivals and an authority
on proper source citation. All that, and a writer I enjoy reading!

Terry Thornton from Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi- Terry's writings on his beloved Mississippi are great reads. And he's the Founder of the Association of
Graveyard Rabbits bloggers .

Thomas MacEntee from Destination: Austin Family- "The Perle Mesta" of genea-blogging community and creator of the Geneabloggers website and the Genea-Bloggers group on Fb.

Apple from Apple's Tree- Another fine writer who's blog I read regularly. And, yes, she's
a cousin!

It was after I made my choices that I realized that four of them were my distant cousins.
But so is Janice, so I guess I'm sort of keeping the award in the family!

Thanks again, Cheryl and Judith, for this award!

THE TRUTH BEHIND THE TRADITION.

As many of us have found out at one time or another in researching our
family tree, family traditions can sometimes turn out to be something
other than the real facts.

Christina Tree writes about her own discovery of the truth behind a
family legend in an article in the Boston Globe here entitled
"A presumed family legacy uprooted."

The truth she discovered is much less romantic than the legend
but I think it's much richer.

WHERE WERE THEY IN 1909?

This week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Challenge from Randy Seaver over at
Genea-Musings was an interesting one, Where Were They in 1909? :

1) Which of your ancestors were alive in 1909?

2) Tell us where your ancestral families were living in 1909. What country, state,
county, city/town, etc. Who was in the family at the time? Use the 1910 census as
"close enough."

3) Have you found each of these families in the 1910 census?

4) Write a blog post about your response. Or write a comment to this post.

5) Have fun. Learn something!


Alright then, I did use the 1910 census for my information. I've divided it up into
two sections. Ages and maiden names are in parentheses:

My Mom's Family

Great-Grandparents Edward J. White (35) and his wife Pauline (Offlincher)White(35)
were living at 218 Florence St in the Roslindale section of Boston, Suffolk Co., Ma. Edward's
occupation was Teamster for Wholesale Flour. They had eight children ranging in age from
12 years old to 9 months old, among whom was my grandfather Edward F. White, age 10
years old.


Great-Grandparents John McFarland(56) and wife Annie(Kelley) McFarland(50) lived at
950 Parker St in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston, Suffolk Co., Ma. with their 8 children,
ranging from age 23 to age 6. Among these was my grandmother Agnes McFarland, age
11. John's occupation was given as a Laborer for the street Dept.

I have no knowledge of any other maternal ancestors living in 1909.


My Dad's Family.

Great-grandfather Philip J. West(40) was living with his second wife, Alphonsene (Turgeon)
West(30) in Upton, Oxford Co., Me. Living with them was Philip's 18 year old son,
my grandfather, Floyd E. West Sr. Philip's occupation was given as a Farmer.

Great-grandfather Frank W. Barker was deceased and I haven't found any record of the
location of great-grandmother Charlotte L (Barker) Barker. She would have been 30 years
old in 1909-10. and I believe she lived until 1944. Her maiden name was the same as her married name because she and Frank were first cousins. Their daughter, my grandmother
Cora B. Barker would have been 10 years old and I believe her to be the 10 year old Cora
B. Barker listed as a Boarder with Olis W. Brooks and his wife Cora in Grafton, Oxford, Me.

Great-great grandparents Jonathan Phelps West(78) and Louisa (Richardson) West(72)
were lving in Upton, Oxford Co., Me.

Great-great grandparents Asa F. Ellingwood(80) and Florilla (Dunham) Ellingwood
(78) were living with their son Joseph Ellingwood's family in Hebron, Oxford Co., Me,

So now I have a mystery: Where was Charlotte Lovenia Barker in 1909? Was she
simply missed in the census or her name mispelled? Was she someplace outside of
Maine trying to make a living? Her husband Frank had died in 1905 leaving her
with 6 year old Cora and 2 year old Henry to raise. Is that why Cora is a boarder
with the Brooks family, if indeed is my grandmother living with them. Is there a
connection with Cora Brooks?


Hmmm....

SPEAK LIKE A NATIVE NEW ENGLANDER 10

Well, it's nearly summer time again, and some of my readers might be
traveling up here in New England, so it's time once more for some lessons
on how to speak like a native New Englander.

It might help you understand what we're saying, too.

Place names up here are always challenging and a story on the news
tonight provided me with two examples:

One is the town of Natick. It's not pronounced "Nah-tick" or "Nat-ick"
Nay! It's pronounced "Nate-ick"

And it sits on the shores of "Lake Cochituate". This is usually pronounced
as "Ka-chit-chew-it." You can imagine some of the jokes kids make of that
one.

But at least it's a shorter name than Lake Chargogg....er...that place..

BENJAMIN ROCKWOOD AND INDIAN POINT, FRANKLIN, MA.

I mentioned my ancestor Benjamin Rockwood (also known as Rocket or
Rockett)in passing in one of my earlier posts about Jeremiah Swain. Now
that I finished the Swain series, I began searching for information on
Rockwood, and discovered this passage discussing his role in an incident
during King Philip's War. It illustrates how intense a struggle it was:


"In that part of ancient and original Wrentham now called Franklin, a man named
Rocket, in the spring or summer of 1676, was searching for a stray horse, and at about
sunset he discovered a train of forty-two Indians that he suspected were preparing
to attack the English settlement at Wrentham. He therefore secretly followed them till
they halted for the night, when he hastily repaired to that settlement and gave notice
to the inhabitants, among whom a consultation was held and it was determined to
attack the Indians early the next morning. A company of thirteen men from
Wrentham and vicinity were collected, who, having secured the women and children
in the garrison house, these men, under the lead of a Mr. Ware, set out for the Indian encampment that they reached just before daylight the next morning. The party were
divided at a short distance from the Indian camp, with orders to reserve their fire till
the Indians began to decamp. Between daylight and sunrise the Indians suddenly arose,
when at a given signal a general discharge of the English musketry threw them into consternation, and in attempting to escape, the Indians leaped down a rocky precipice
of ten or twenty feet, but were pursued by the English, who slew some twenty of them
with no loss of life on their part. The spot where the Indians that night encamped is
still known as " Indian Rock." "

(Ebenezer Weaver Pierce & Zerviah Gould Mitchell, Indian History, Biography, and Genealogy
Boston, Ma. 1878)

I found the book on Google Books here.

Another source claims that only 2 Indians escaped.

Reading this, I couldn't help but wonder: what if the Indians weren't planning an attack but
were "just passing through"?

THE 73RD CARNIVAL OF GENEALOGY IS POSTED!

The 73rd Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is up over at the Apple's Tree blog.
The topic is "The Good Earth" and twenty geneabloggers write about the
connection between their family and the land in ways such as farming or
gardening.

Of course, it concludes with the call for submissions to the 74th edition:

"And now it's time for a Call for Submissions! Back by popular demand,
the topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be: Swimsuit
Edition! Why should Sports Illustrated have all the fun? This is your chance
to show off the bathing beauties in your family. Pull out the old photos of
Grandma Moses in her seaside bloomers, Auntie Mae in her pin-up girl suit
from the 1940s or 50s, cousin Paula in her psychedelic bikini from the 1970s,
or even yourself in your Speedo! Let's have some fun here! Memorial
Weekend is behind us and that means the start of the summer sun, sand,
and lakeside season so let's get in the mood with summer fun photos. What?
You don't have any swimsuit photos you dare to share? No problem! Tell us
your best family beach stories instead! The deadline for submissions is
June 15th. This edition of the COG will be hosted by Jasia at Creative Gene.

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. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our
blog carnival index page."

While we're on the subject of the CoG, the 73rd Edition was published in time to
celebrate its third anniversary. Congratulations, Jasia, and here's to many more
years of enjoyment from the Carnival of Genealogy!

JEREMIAH SWAIN PART 14 : CONCLUSION

This is the last in a series of posts about Jeremiah Swain, my 9x great grandfather:

I've yet to find any information online as to whether Jeremiah Swain saw any more military
action after 1689. Instead he returned to his practice as a physician and to his political
career, serving several terms on the Reading Board of Selectman as well as the town's
Representative to the General Court and as a Governor's Assistant. As if all that wasn't
enough to keep Jeremiah busy, he also became a Justice of the Peace for Reading in 1691
which meant he could perform marriages.

The last online record I can find of Swain speaking in public involves the Salem Witch
trials in 1692. A woman named Mary Taylor was accused of witchcraft by Jeremiah's
sister Mary Marshall, and Jeremiah was present when she testified. He made a few
comments to "Goody" Taylor and asked her a few questions. I've found nothing else
about his activities after that in the eighteen years leading up to his death in 1710.

But I count myself extremely lucky to find so much of his actual correspondence!
His letters reflect the writing style of his period but are not flowery and his personality
comes through in some of his commentary about the Maine campaign. Despite adverse
weather and supply shortages he did the best he could and was a commander who led
his men into action. Like Benjamin Church, he seems to have adopted tactics more suited
to fighting Indians rather than European foes. But unlike Church, he didn't write a book
about his military exploits, so his role in the New England Indian wars is largely unknown
today.

This series on Jeremiah Swain started off discussing the facts behind a poem he
appeared in as "beloved of Mars." While some of the poem's facts are incorrect, other
writers describe him as a brave man and a good officer. A doctor, politician, justice of the
peace, and a military officer, he was a man of many parts.

And of course, without him I wouldn't be here!

JUST MAKE UP THE LYRICS GENEALOGY CHALLENGE: `MY FAMILY NAMES'

Ok, here's my entry into the " Just Make Up the Lyrics
Genealogy Challenge":

My Family Names
(to the tune of "My Favorite Things" from Rogers' and Hammerstein's
"Sound of Music" and NOT from Lerner and Lowe's "My Fair Lady" )

West, White and McFarland, Barker and Coburn,
Offinger, Ellingwood, Richardson, Dunham.
Barrows and Laughton and Hastings and Moore
These are the ancestors I' m searching for!

There's Houghton and Haskell and Benson and Abbot
I do have a Lowell line but don't have a Cabot,
Griffeth and Greenleaf, Packard and Ames
These are a few of my family names!


I have Williamson, Boyden, Buswell and Dow,
(I need a way to rhyme Bumpus somehow!)
Willard and Stafford, Pierce, Stone and Green
So many family names I have seen.

When I find that I have come to
A dead end or brick wall
I simply remember the names that I've found
And I don't feel too bad at all!

CARNIVAL OF GENEALOGY 73: THE LAND AND MY FAMILY

Like many early immigrants to this country, it was always about land for my ancestors
on my Dad's side of the family. Our Mayflower ancestors sought religious freedom but
they also needed good farmland to support themselves. With time the settlers moved
northwards where the farmland was better and our Edson, Forbes, Keith, and Packard
ancestors ended up in what later became the Bridgewaters, which are less than ten minutes
away from where I sit typing this article at this moment.

Our Massachusetts Bay Colony ancestors were a bit luckier than those south of Boston.
The land to the north and west was more fertile and land was plentiful. Ralph Ellingwood
was given 1/2 acre in 1637 by the town of Salem and left a considerably larger estate
when he died. Simon Willard was one of the first settlers of Concord, John Prescott of
Lancaster, and Jeremiah Swain Sr. of Reading. Some were farmers, some built mills and
sawmills, and Simon Willard even traded in furs with the Indians. And of course, it was
the growing number of English settlers taking over the land that led to the wars with the
Indians.

A lot of the fighting took place in Maine and New Hampshire over the next century so
many of the Revolutionary War veterans who took land grants there after the Revolution
had heard stories of what to expect in the area from their fathers and grandfathers. Some
of them farmed, but others logged the forests.

The more recent generations of Dad's family did some of both farming and logging, and
trapping and hunting as well. Admittedly I'm not expert but from what I can tell they
did it carefully and with respect for the land.

And then my father moved south and married a city girl. Mom's family might have
been here for a shorter time but her Irish-American family did have in common with my
Dad's ancestors a desire to own land. As soon as they could they bought houses out in
the suburbs. I think the biggest regret for both my parents was not being able to manage
to own their own home.

One of the great things about researching my family history is the realization of how deep
a connection there is with the history of the region. That probably explains why I can't
imagine myself living anywhere else!

Written for the 73rd edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.

BIRTHDAY FUN FACTS

It's Saturday Night Genealogical Fun again over at Randy Seaver's
Genea-Musings blog.

This week's challenge:

1. Go to the www.PaulSadowski.com web site.

2. Read his Bad Jokes page. What was the first one that popped up?

3. Click on his Birthday Calculator link. What are five Fun Facts you
didn't know about your birthday?

4. Click on the "what your name means" link. What are your Number,
your Soul Urge number and your Inner Dream number? Do the descriptions
of your numbers match your perception of yourself? Note - females need to
enter their birth name, not married name.

5. Tell the world your answers (with as much privacy protection as you wish)
in a blog post or in comments to this post.


So, here we go

The bad joke:
A woman in Brooklyn decided to prepare her Will and make her final requests.
She told her rabbi she had two final requests. First, she wanted to be cremated,
and second, she wanted her ashes scattered all over Bloomingdales. 'Why
Bloomingdales?' asked the rabbi. 'Then I'll be sure my daughters visit me twice
a week.'


The Birthday Calculator:

I was born on a Friday

I was born in the Chinese Year of the Rat

My age is the equivalent of a dog that is 8.68845401174168 years old.

I share my birthday with H.P. Lovecraft and Robert Plant. (Different years,
of course)

I'll have 61 candles on my next birthday cake, which could boil 6.97 ounces of
water.

What My Name means:
Strong helmet or resolute protector (in other words, stubborn?)


My name number is 11
The characteristics of #11 are: "High spiritual plane, intuitive, illumination,
idealist, a dreamer."

My Soul Urge Number is 6: This means, among other things that:
"With a number 6 Soul Urge, you would like to be appreciated for your ability to
handle responsibility. Your home and family are likely to be a strong focus for you,
perhaps the strongest focus of your life. Friendship, love, and affection are high on
your list of priorities for a happy life. You have a lot of diplomatic tendencies in
your makeup, as you a able to rectify and balance situations with an innate skill.
You like working with people rather than by yourself. It is extremely important for
you to have harmony in your environment at all times."

Finally, my Inner Dream Number is 5:
"You dream of being totally free and unrestrained by responsibility. You see
yourself conversing and mingling with the natives in many nations, living for
adventure and life experiences. You imagine what you might accomplished."

Hmm. I guess liking to write qualifies me as creative and a dreamer. I do like
working with people, which is why I do well in bookselling, I suppose. As for
dreaming of being totally free, if that means financially, then I guess we all do,
don't we? But I have to confess I'm not a big numerology believer.

Thanks Randy for an interesting challenge!

THE GENEA-BLOGGERS' JUST MAKE UP SOME LYRICS CHALLENGE

After finishing the post about the "Sixteen States of Maine Song"
I made an attempt to come up with a "Fourteen States of Massachusetts"
equivalent. I'm dealing with a nagging sinus headache today so I didn't
get very far. Or maybe I could do a song with my ancestors names.
But no luck as yet.


And then it hit me: an idea for a genea-blogger challenge. And so, I
present The First Great Genea-Bloggers' Just Make Up Some Lyrics
Challenge!

The rules are simple:

1. Set the names of your ancestors to the music of any song. It can be
any number of names, any song. Just remember to mention what song
you are using so we can all sing along as we read!

2. Publish your efforts on your blog and send me the link. If you don't have
a blog( and you really should, you know, they're easy and fun to do) then send
me your song in a comment to this blog.

2. Dead line is June 30th. I'll publish the final list here on the 4th of July!


There. There's a lot of talented people out there in the genea-blogging
community and this should be fun. Maybe people will sing their songs to
each other at genealogy conferences. Flutaphone accompaniments would
be optional.

Er..ok..maybe not...