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All Blog Posts Tagged 'Massachusetts' (56)

Horace Greeley remembers Londonderry

My regular blog is Nutfield Genealogy at www.nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com where I blog about Londonderry and Derry, New Hampshire local history and genealogy in general for our our part of New England. This was one of my most popular blogs last month, not just for local people,…

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Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on June 12, 2010 at 3:40pm — No Comments

A Post Card from a Stranger

Sometime in February 1945 my…

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Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on June 7, 2010 at 10:30am — No Comments

Working at “The Shoe”

United Shoe Machinery Corporation was a major employer in Beverly, Massachusetts. The locals called it “The Shoe,” and when it began manufacturing in 1902 it was the largest factory in the world at that time. By World War I it employed over 5,000 workers. Founded in 1899, they produced machines for the shoe industry, and it was one of…

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Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on May 24, 2010 at 12:36pm — No Comments

Immigrants to Nutfield, New Hampshire

It is well known that Nutfield was founded by a group of Ulster refugees, Scots Irish Presbyterians fleeing the violence of Northern Ireland for New England. They were not welcome to settle in Boston, so in 1719 a group came to settle in New Hampshire. They called their new home “Nutfield” after the abundance of nut bearing trees in the…

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Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on April 13, 2010 at 9:27am — No Comments

The Mystery of Jonathan Batchelder, Chichester, New Hampshire

The Batchelder name is liberally sprinkled over New Hampshire. There are eight Batchelder/Bacheller families listed in the white pages for the Londonderry area. There are Batchelder Roads in towns from Hampton, to Strafford, to Raymond, to Nashua. The first Batchelder immigrant to the New World was…

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Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on March 31, 2010 at 11:34am — 1 Comment

What the heck is a gum copal worker?

I saw in the 1850 Federal census that my 3x great grandfather, Abijah Hitchings of Salem, Massachusetts, was a “gum copal worker.” After doing a double take, I wasn’t sure that I even transcribed these words correctly, so I called over three other people to look at the image on my…

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Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on March 23, 2010 at 12:46pm — No Comments

Missionary to Australia? That’s what he told the family!

My great great grandfather, the music Professor Caleb Rand Bill came from Nova Scotia to New England with his wife. They had their nine children in succession from…

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Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on March 18, 2010 at 5:57pm — No Comments

Tammy Younger, the Witch of Dogtown

Thomasine Younger was born in 1753 to William Younger and Lucy Foster. Her brothers grew up to be seamen, which is not surprising. Her younger brother, Levi, is my 5x great grandfather. Gloucester was a major fishing seaport in New England, famous for the Gorton’s frozen fish packing plant and the statue of the fisherman’s memorial. The…

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Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on March 11, 2010 at 9:14am — No Comments

Strange things that happened on the way to a cemetery…..

Several years ago, it was a weekend,…

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Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on March 3, 2010 at 8:11am — No Comments

Chronicling America Website, part 2

Four John Dominises-

Governor John Owen Dominis was the son of Captain John Dominis, the sea captain who brought his Boston born wife, Mary…

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Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on February 21, 2010 at 3:30pm — No Comments

A Love Story Too Sad for Valentine’s Day

Deborah Wilson, a Quaker in very Puritan Salem Village

Deborah Buffum was born in 1639 in Salem, Massachusetts. Her family was the Quaker Buffum family, headed by her father Robert, who was regularly fined for non-attendance at the Puritan meetings. She married Robert Wilson in…

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Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on February 12, 2010 at 9:59am — No Comments

George Peabody Merit Scholarship Medals

Sometimes I Google the names of ancestors and wait to see what happens next. I usually know their vital statistics, such as birth, marriage or death records, and I often know their children, or their parent’s names. However, I want to know the stories that might come up in obscure books or newspapers, or their mentions in town records, annual reports, and church bulletins. You never know what you’ll find.

Imagine my surprise when I found the name of my great grandfather on a list of… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on February 3, 2010 at 11:09am — No Comments

Levi Younger, Mariner and Prisoner of War

Levi Younger, Mariner and Prisoner of War

During the War of 1812, Britain imposed its power over the newly minted United States of America and thus impressed thousands of American soldiers into British service. The Royal Navy had 175 ships of the line and 600 ships overall, requiring 140,000 sailors. Volunteers alone were not enough to recruit enough seamen. New England lost many fishermen, sailors and mariners to forced labor or imprisonment.

Levi Younger was a Gloucester… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on February 1, 2010 at 7:30am — No Comments

Moooore Cows in the family tree!

Searching the family tree for more cow stories, I began to notice cows in wills and other legal records. Obviously, a cow was important to a colonial era family, and so cows were lovingly given to family members, and often called by their pet name in legal documents.

A typical document can be summarized like this:

Isaac Allen is on the 1799-1800 tax list in Essex, Massachusetts assessed for 1 poll, $60 in buildings, 1 cow-right of $40, 1 cow $10, 1 swine $3.33, and $37.50 for… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on January 9, 2010 at 6:17pm — No Comments

Another Cow, a Salmon, and Sam Adams

Yesterday I blogged about a cow, so I thought I’d try another cow story from the family tree…

Sam Adams, the revolutionary firebrand, and John Hancock (no wallflower, himself) were in Lexington, Massachusetts the night Paul Revere rode into town to warn them that the British regulars were approaching. They were at the home of the Reverend Jonas Clarke of Lexington when they heard the British regulars were on the march. So Sgt. William Munroe led… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on January 6, 2010 at 4:17pm — No Comments

Have a cow? Win a wife!

This is a cute story from my family tree…

“William Cogswell, when a lad, was out from home by the highway, where some men were trying in vain to relieve a cow who had become choked with a potato. There stood by, also, a young girl, eight or ten years old, who watched with interest every effort made. When all experiments failed, and it was suggested that only by someone thrusting his hand down the cow's throat would the cow be saved, she at once said, "My arm is small; I can do it… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on January 4, 2010 at 9:26am — No Comments

Samuel Eliot Morison’s Nutfield Connection

My daughter lives in Back Bay, Boston. It’s a lovely neighborhood for walking, and my favorite section has always been the Commonwealth Mall. It’s a green oasis in the city, a long avenue divided by a green park dotted with statuary of famous Bostonians. I had never examined these statues up close until recently, when I noticed that all the statues seemed to be literary figures. One of my favorite statues is that of Samuel Eliot Morison.

Morison… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on December 12, 2009 at 6:15pm — No Comments

Flying Santa- the Historian Edward Rowe Snow

Last year I saw a TV newscast about the work of Edward Rowe Snow and the Flying Santa program in New England. It was a service provided by Wiggins Airways, and every time I pass by the Manchester Airport and see the Wiggins sign, I think of the Flying Santas – even in the heat of summer!

Since colonial times the New England lighthouses were manned by families, and in 1929 William Wincapaw started a tradition of dropping presents… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on December 9, 2009 at 9:00pm — 1 Comment

Robert Frost, Derry resident

Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, California, taught school in Massachusetts, and died in Vermont, yet he will forever be loved as a New Hampshire Poet. He lived in New Hampshire between 1895 and 1938. His first book was title “North of Boston” and his fifth book was titled “New Hampshire”.

As another nod to his Derry residence, Frost’s eighth book was titled “West Running Brook” after the stream near his farmstead. This fame has caused a… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on December 4, 2009 at 10:06am — No Comments

Healys and Crosbys from Massachusetts to Chebogue, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

From Cape Code to Nova Scotia to Beverly, Massachusetts

My ancestor Joseph Edwin Healey arrived in Massachusetts from Nova Scotia sometime between his marriage in 1848 and the birth of his first child in Beverly, in 1852. I’m not sure if he arrived on a boat, but being a mariner, he probably sailed to his new home with his new bride. He is listed as a sailor or mariner on his children’s birth records in Beverly, and as a fisherman on the… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on December 1, 2009 at 4:00pm — 5 Comments