Heather Wilkinson Rojo's Blog – January 2010 Archive (9)

In New Hampshire we have a Lafayette Social Club in Manchester, started by the French Canadians, and a Lafayette Road along the seacoast, otherwise known as Rt. 1. There is a Mount Lafayette in the White Mountains, which rises 5,260 feet from the side of Interstate 93 in Franconia Notch. All of these were named in honor of General Lafayette, the French hero of the American Revolution. He made an extremely popular, triumphal tour of New Hampshire in 1824-25, in celebration of the 50th… Continue

I had computer problems earlier this year. My computer had a lot of memory, but my Family Tree Maker 2006 file was getting very large. My computer crashed several times, and I became a back up fanatic because I was afraid of damaging my file and losing everything. The Family Tree Maker database was taking forever to close down or backup. It wasn’t fun to sit and wait every night to see if it would back up or not. Eventually, I had my computer overhauled, with a new 1.5 terabit hard drive, more… Continue

The story of John Locke, Rye, New Hampshire



John Locke was baptized at London’s White Chapel on 16 September 1627, as the son of Thomas Locke and Christina French. In 1916 Arthur H. Locke published “A History and Genealogy of Captain John Locke of Portsmouth and Rye, New Hampshire and his descendants.” In this book it is theorized that his brother Nathaniel was baptized there at White Chapel on 11 November 1629, and they both removed to New Hampshire.



John Locke settled in… Continue

Last week I blogged about Colonel Joshua Burnham, and the fine mansion house he built in Milford, New Hampshire. His house was later sold to the Hutchinson family. Because of their fame as singers, I’ve been able to find many documents about my ancestor the Colonel. You would think that as a Revolutionary War officer, and as someone wealthy enough to build a large estate, he would have left documents for me, the future genealogist, to uncover. But that is not the case with Joshua… Continue

My 5x great grandfather, Colonel Joshua Burnham, built a fine home in Milford, New Hampshire in 1824. He sold the home to fund his retirement, and it was purchased by Jesse Hutchinson to house his large family. The children and grandchildren used it as a summer home until the mid 1900’s. It still stands in Milford, and is down the street from a small cemetery where Colonel Burnham, and many members of the Hutchinson family, is buried.



It turns out that the Hutchinson family was quite… Continue

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

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

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

No, not the double dating you did in high school when you didn’t have a date for the dance, this is the double dating that shows up in history books and genealogies. If you use a good genealogy data base like Family Tree Maker, your software may actually change or challenge any dates you put in pre- 1752 between January and March 24. Or you may have tried to figure out how to calculate a date during this time period, only to notice that you were off by three months somehow when you finally find… Continue