All Blog Posts Tagged 'Massachusetts' (56)

Last weekend we were in Washington DC, and at the top of my list of things to do in our capital city was to visit the National Archives.  If you read my blog story from last October, “Did George Washington Sign Here?”  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/10/amanuensis-monday-george-washington.html  you will know that I was questioning the authenticity of George Washington’s signature…

My 5x great grandfather Abner Poland served in Revolutionary War, but so did his father, Abner Poland, Sr., and so the records have always been difficult to separate when I started to research the Poland family.   He was born in 1761, and was only fifteen when the Battles of Lexington and Concord occurred in 1775.  He enlisted not long after, on 15 January 1776 as a private in Captain Abraham Dodge’s Company in Ipswich, Massachusetts.   He reenlisted in 1777 for another two years, and…

My great great grandfather Caleb Rand Bill was a music professor in Salem, Massachusetts before the turn of the 20th century.  Whilst researching his story, I found out about two other early music teachers in Salem, who were both Spanish immigrants.  It is interesting that they became ardent abolitionists around the time of the American Civil War.

Manuel Fenollosa came to Salem from Spain with his brother in law, Manuel Emilio in 1838 on the US navel frigate United States. …

When we first moved to Londonderry, New Hampshire I was surprised to find there was no Congregational church.  Nearly every town in Massachusetts has one!  Almost every New Hampshire town has one, too, but since Nutfield was founded by the Presbyterians, the churches remained Presbyterian for a long time.  The First Church in Derry changed to Congregational in the 1800s, and I tried a few services there.  My husband was working in Nashua, and he said several co-workers attended the First…

The schooner Fame is moored in Salem, Massachusetts at Pickering Wharf.  She was built in Essex, Massachusetts by Harold Burnham, and launched in 2003.  The Burnhams have been building boats in Essex since the 1640s.  The original schooner Fame was an Essex fishing schooner used as a privateer in the War of 1812.  

The interesting connection is that Abner Poland III served on board the Fame in the War of 1812 by Abner Poland III of Essex, Massachusetts.  I’m descended of his sister,…

Boston July 24. 1867



Dear Aunt,



I received your letter dated May 22/67 and

It was gladly received day before yesterday.

We are having pretty warm weather here now

although it Is not quite as warm today as it usually

is. Sara has been married just one year ago last

Thursday, her husband’s name is William Pierce.

Grandma was very much opposed to the…

My 3x great Grandfather Peter Hoogerzeil was born on 28 October 1803 in Dordrecht, Netherlands. He had stowed away on a Rotterdam ship to America. It was supposedly full of hemp bound for the ropewalk in Salem, Massachusetts. According to family lore, he married the Captain’s daughter. This story always bothered me because of two…

21 February 1873, Cape Ann Advertiser "On Friday afternoon, as one of the workmen in the shipyard of A. O. Burnham was hoisting the bow hasping, it got the best of him and fell striking Mr. Gilman P. Allen (about 63 years old) a glancing blow on the shoulder and head, and knocking him down. Fortunately no bones were broken, but it was a…

Obituaries (on file at the Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem)

May 20,…

An early Halloween Story.....

In the spring of 1819 the residents of Ipswich’s Chebacco Parish (now the town of Essex) saw lantern light in the graveyard at night. Soon they discovered that the graves had been disturbed, and several families discovered that their relative’s graves were empty. Eight graves, going back to…

The John Harvard statue located in Harvard Yard

A few years ago Philadelphia began a campaign to stop tour guides from telling myths and to start studying history…

Last November I wrote a post at Nutfield Genealogy www.nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com about a quilt made by a member of my family tree. I didn’t know about this quilt, nor about this branch…

We were recently sitting around the Easter dinner table discussing tuition, college and relishing the fact that we will no longer be paying tuition, since our daughter graduates with her Master’s Degree a few weeks from now.

My mom stated that she paid $110.00 for all…

Pine Grove Cemetery, Winnacunnet Road, Hampton, New Hampshire.

William Lane, junior. and his wife Sarah…

Some historical facts:

Upon hearing of the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, Princess Ka’iulani left England for the United States. They landed at New York City. On March 4, 1893, the day before Grover Cleveland’s inauguration as President, the seventeen year old Princess Ka’iulani and her…

Michiel Ockers Hogerzeijl was the captain of a whaling ship from 1729 to 1759. He lived in Holland and hunted for whales off the coast of Greenland. His father, Ocker Bruins Hoogerseijl, was also a commander of a whaling ship from 1720 to 1730. There is a Hogerzeil Street in the town of Krimpen aan de Lek, Holland, where they lived. In…