My cousin and I get together as often as we can in Boston - usually a couple of times a year - to do some hardcore research on our families and to visit with our children who just happen to live in the area. We usually work at the NEHGS library, do a little shopping on Newbury Street, and eat at some fabulous restaurants with our kids. Last weekend we attended Ancestry Day at NEHGS in Boston.
Just before I left, I posted the Veturia Platt story in hope that someone would come forth and identify her. It wasn't the focus of this trip, but I would have been happy to come home to some new information. Well, I still haven't heard from anyone from this blog posting, but in a way, I did hear from someone over the weekend.
I was busy in the microfilm department looking for John and Ellen Young (who also elude me) and when the day was nearly done, I was only able to delete people from my search. It is still progress, I suppose. I went up to the 7th floor to meet up with my cousin and had about fifteen minutes left to look for more information. I wanted to look at the Dikeman books recommended to me by my cousin, so I pulled them from the stacks. After perusing them, I decided it wasn't the same family, so I returned the books to the re-shelve rack and spied a book that looked promising to me - New England Planters in the Maritime Provinces of Canada 1759-1800. Hmmmm. I have relatives in Nova Scotia... I did find references to Samuel Mack, Ephraim Dean and others... I never thought of Samuel Mack as a Planter, but I guess he was. The listing showed 14 pages of letters. Jackpot! Unfortunately, it was something I would have to come back for another day's follow up.
Just as I had finished photographing the important details before returning the book, a volunteer came around to tell us the library was closing in five minutes. Already? I returned the book and glanced again at the pile of returned books and spied the Platt Genealogy on top. What? I have three minutes to see if this is the right Platt - and I believe it is - Richard Platt of Milford, Connecticut. Another day, Mr. Platt, we have a date.
Coincidence? I think not.
Ancestry Day is a day that NEHGS partners with Ancestry.com and offers presentations given by experts from both Ancestry.com and NEHGS. It was an early start, and a long day, but there was a lot of great information exchanged. I hope I can do better searches on Ancestry.com with the help of Crista Cowan's tips. I'll let you know.
Other talks were equally interesting and informative, and the wrap up Live Q&A Panel was lively and inspiring. If you get an opportunity to attend an Ancestry Day with NEHGS, go ahead and do it! It isn't a huge cost, in time or money, and everyone is so nice and helpful.
Showing posts with label NEHGS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NEHGS. Show all posts
06 March 2013
13 December 2011
I've got a hunch...
Do you trust your intuition when it comes to genealogy? I always act on it. Oh, indeed, there are times when I get unexpected results... lots of times actually. But often enough, the result is a happy one. Like this morning.
I spend the first hour of my day reading through the multitude of blogs that I follow. After I read through the bevy of blogs delivered to my iPad (and laughed, empathized, wondered and sometimes drooled), I sat for a moment and asked myself - what now? I don't know - maybe it was the quiet of the moment, or possibly just the lack of momentum, that made me pause over the google books app icon... and finally decide to tap it to see what I am currently reading. [Sadly, yes, it has been that long].
The History of Queens County, NS.
Oh, yes, I remember now... another tick in the PRO column for Google (who has been rapidly getting more ticks in the other column lately). I don't know if I am just fortunate that there is a lot of reading material available for the particular spot my family lived in for five generations, or what; however, there is an abundance of really good reading material! Obscure stuff too! Belcher's Almanac? Can you believe that?
Back to Queens County, Nova Scotia. It had been a while since I was last reading said book, so I went back to the preface and started again. Basically, how the New Englanders came to NS to fill in the void left by the Acadians, who were tossed out by the British. [I know, but let's just leave politics out of this particular discussion].
In 1760, roughly 60 men and women from New England petitioned the government to set up a township on the southern shore of Nova Scotia that would eventually come to be called Liverpool. In 1764 there were 150 persons listed who were allotted land plots, and who became proprietors of the township. Was I surprised to find two direct relatives? You bet I was! William K. Cahoone and Lemuel Drew. The rest of the list was comprised of familiar names related to the Mayflower and early settlements in New England. And relatives of relatives!
When I started out looking into my family's past, I was a collector more than a researcher. These days I am more of a researcher than a collector. I am working now on when a certain Samuel Mack (4x great grandfather) bought a certain sawmill in Port Metway, Queens County. I am collaborating with two fellows from Canada, that I met through my research project a couple of years ago. We each have our own perspective, but in working together we gain in knowledge of the times and events in our ancestors lives. I happen to enjoy spending hours in the NEHGS library in Boston looking for deeds (and finding them) and subsequently transcribing them. When I forwarded the documents to my collaborators, we were able to develop a clearer idea of how the mill passed from hand to hand, often back and forth, over the years. This is the depth and breadth of research that really makes me happy, and I really enjoy working with my distant relatives!
Of course, there is so much more to be discovered, or not be discovered. For instance, we may never really know for sure that Dr. Thomas Moseley -one of eight men who sold the mill to Samuel - actually knew Samuel back in East Haddam, CT before the mill transaction in Nova Scotia came about. But it is surely likely that they did. I'm currently working on the deeds that I collected on a trip this past summer in East Haddam. I sure could use some old maps though! Maybe they were connected through Samuel's wife, Lydia Brainerd Mack who died around the time Samuel picked up and moved to NS, leaving his young daughters to be raised with Lydia's family. Maybe not. I sure would like to know. In fact, I'd be happy to find out when Lydia died, and where she is buried!
One other benefit from reading old deeds - increased vocabulary! Enfeoffed and messuaged are the latest gems added to my repretoire. Thank goodness for the internet! Although, I did enjoy spending a lot of time with the HUGE Mirriam Webster dictionary that we had in our house when I was a kid, there is nothing like typing a word in Google search and getting many results, including passages in a book printed in the 1800's using the word you are trying to get a definition for.
Happiness is a tool that works!
I spend the first hour of my day reading through the multitude of blogs that I follow. After I read through the bevy of blogs delivered to my iPad (and laughed, empathized, wondered and sometimes drooled), I sat for a moment and asked myself - what now? I don't know - maybe it was the quiet of the moment, or possibly just the lack of momentum, that made me pause over the google books app icon... and finally decide to tap it to see what I am currently reading. [Sadly, yes, it has been that long].
The History of Queens County, NS.
Oh, yes, I remember now... another tick in the PRO column for Google (who has been rapidly getting more ticks in the other column lately). I don't know if I am just fortunate that there is a lot of reading material available for the particular spot my family lived in for five generations, or what; however, there is an abundance of really good reading material! Obscure stuff too! Belcher's Almanac? Can you believe that?
Back to Queens County, Nova Scotia. It had been a while since I was last reading said book, so I went back to the preface and started again. Basically, how the New Englanders came to NS to fill in the void left by the Acadians, who were tossed out by the British. [I know, but let's just leave politics out of this particular discussion].
In 1760, roughly 60 men and women from New England petitioned the government to set up a township on the southern shore of Nova Scotia that would eventually come to be called Liverpool. In 1764 there were 150 persons listed who were allotted land plots, and who became proprietors of the township. Was I surprised to find two direct relatives? You bet I was! William K. Cahoone and Lemuel Drew. The rest of the list was comprised of familiar names related to the Mayflower and early settlements in New England. And relatives of relatives!
When I started out looking into my family's past, I was a collector more than a researcher. These days I am more of a researcher than a collector. I am working now on when a certain Samuel Mack (4x great grandfather) bought a certain sawmill in Port Metway, Queens County. I am collaborating with two fellows from Canada, that I met through my research project a couple of years ago. We each have our own perspective, but in working together we gain in knowledge of the times and events in our ancestors lives. I happen to enjoy spending hours in the NEHGS library in Boston looking for deeds (and finding them) and subsequently transcribing them. When I forwarded the documents to my collaborators, we were able to develop a clearer idea of how the mill passed from hand to hand, often back and forth, over the years. This is the depth and breadth of research that really makes me happy, and I really enjoy working with my distant relatives!
Of course, there is so much more to be discovered, or not be discovered. For instance, we may never really know for sure that Dr. Thomas Moseley -one of eight men who sold the mill to Samuel - actually knew Samuel back in East Haddam, CT before the mill transaction in Nova Scotia came about. But it is surely likely that they did. I'm currently working on the deeds that I collected on a trip this past summer in East Haddam. I sure could use some old maps though! Maybe they were connected through Samuel's wife, Lydia Brainerd Mack who died around the time Samuel picked up and moved to NS, leaving his young daughters to be raised with Lydia's family. Maybe not. I sure would like to know. In fact, I'd be happy to find out when Lydia died, and where she is buried!
One other benefit from reading old deeds - increased vocabulary! Enfeoffed and messuaged are the latest gems added to my repretoire. Thank goodness for the internet! Although, I did enjoy spending a lot of time with the HUGE Mirriam Webster dictionary that we had in our house when I was a kid, there is nothing like typing a word in Google search and getting many results, including passages in a book printed in the 1800's using the word you are trying to get a definition for.
Happiness is a tool that works!
05 March 2011
Aaaaarrrrrrrrgh!
Too many Lemuel Drews!
In January I finally found the vital records for "our" Lemuel Drew family at the New England Historic Genealogical Society library in Boston. The Lemuel Drew family that our great-great grandmother Drucilla Drew Mack came from. The helpful folks at the library pointed me in the right direction and helped me find the correct roll of microfilm (and taught me how to use the microfilm reader too) from the Nova Scotia collection that would provide me with a copy of the listing for the Lemuel Drew family. And it did. Here they are:
Only I'm not sure now that this is the right Lemuel Drew family. It seems that these Lemuel Drew fellas like to marry women named Mary. And they also like to name their sons Lemuel and their daughters Mary. Fiends!
So I started a spreadsheet of Drews, and collected as many as I could find in the Lunenburg area of Nova Scotia.
Actually, not so many... you see, the family that I am looking for was around in the 1700's and, on the census forms in that time period, only the head of household was named. The rest of the members of the family were indicated by number; as in 5 males and 3 females. Darn it!
In frustration, I retreated to the online databases that I normally use - Ancestry.com, Familysearch.org, and Americanancestors.org. Let's just say there was a lot of mumbling under my breath during many sessions at the computer. And no additions to the spreadsheet either.
So, I started trolling through the message boards on Ancestry.com. Ding ding ding - we have a winner! I found a website by following a message thread that happen to mention South Shore Association (from the Lunenburg area of NS). Not much new there until I clicked on a website owned by one of the members. He had a listing of a zillion surnames. YAY! I now have lots of new information on some Drews, and some Cohoons. The spreadsheet grew a little...
Back to the census records in Lunenburg with new names to look up. Nope. Still too early. Now what? I went to the Nova Scotia GenWeb Project site (just Google it). What a wonderful resource that is! I visited there last year when I was looking for Mill Village and Liverpool Macks. I was able to download cemetery records for Queens County, as well as Vital Records for Liverpool. Not the actual documents, but a listing of names and dates. Certainly enough to get started.
Well, they have a huge listing for Lunenburg County as well, and I now have a nice collection of Drews for the spreadsheet, including a couple of will extracts. So this, combined with information gleaned from Simeon Perkins diary volumes one through five, I should be able to put the proper Drew puzzle together. I hope.
This is what prompted the whole search...
Drucilla Drew Mack's death certificate. It wasn't easy to find and it offers some disturbing information. Not that she died of old age - good for her! But who the heck are William J. Drew and Mary Manning?????
Burton was the informant for all the relative data... could he have been mistaken? It seems like he should know who his grandparents are though. But who am I to talk? I didn't know any of my grandparents except for Nana Mack (aka GiGi), and I only remember her as a kid, when she taught me how to knit and bake apple pies. She was 95 the last time I saw her. She passed away at 106. Good genes, huh?
So there you go. Even if you don't know your ancestors, you can get to know them. It just takes some work.
In January I finally found the vital records for "our" Lemuel Drew family at the New England Historic Genealogical Society library in Boston. The Lemuel Drew family that our great-great grandmother Drucilla Drew Mack came from. The helpful folks at the library pointed me in the right direction and helped me find the correct roll of microfilm (and taught me how to use the microfilm reader too) from the Nova Scotia collection that would provide me with a copy of the listing for the Lemuel Drew family. And it did. Here they are:
(Click on photo to enlarge)
Only I'm not sure now that this is the right Lemuel Drew family. It seems that these Lemuel Drew fellas like to marry women named Mary. And they also like to name their sons Lemuel and their daughters Mary. Fiends!
So I started a spreadsheet of Drews, and collected as many as I could find in the Lunenburg area of Nova Scotia.
Actually, not so many... you see, the family that I am looking for was around in the 1700's and, on the census forms in that time period, only the head of household was named. The rest of the members of the family were indicated by number; as in 5 males and 3 females. Darn it!
In frustration, I retreated to the online databases that I normally use - Ancestry.com, Familysearch.org, and Americanancestors.org. Let's just say there was a lot of mumbling under my breath during many sessions at the computer. And no additions to the spreadsheet either.
So, I started trolling through the message boards on Ancestry.com. Ding ding ding - we have a winner! I found a website by following a message thread that happen to mention South Shore Association (from the Lunenburg area of NS). Not much new there until I clicked on a website owned by one of the members. He had a listing of a zillion surnames. YAY! I now have lots of new information on some Drews, and some Cohoons. The spreadsheet grew a little...
Back to the census records in Lunenburg with new names to look up. Nope. Still too early. Now what? I went to the Nova Scotia GenWeb Project site (just Google it). What a wonderful resource that is! I visited there last year when I was looking for Mill Village and Liverpool Macks. I was able to download cemetery records for Queens County, as well as Vital Records for Liverpool. Not the actual documents, but a listing of names and dates. Certainly enough to get started.
Well, they have a huge listing for Lunenburg County as well, and I now have a nice collection of Drews for the spreadsheet, including a couple of will extracts. So this, combined with information gleaned from Simeon Perkins diary volumes one through five, I should be able to put the proper Drew puzzle together. I hope.
This is what prompted the whole search...
Drucilla Drew Mack's death certificate. It wasn't easy to find and it offers some disturbing information. Not that she died of old age - good for her! But who the heck are William J. Drew and Mary Manning?????
Burton was the informant for all the relative data... could he have been mistaken? It seems like he should know who his grandparents are though. But who am I to talk? I didn't know any of my grandparents except for Nana Mack (aka GiGi), and I only remember her as a kid, when she taught me how to knit and bake apple pies. She was 95 the last time I saw her. She passed away at 106. Good genes, huh?
So there you go. Even if you don't know your ancestors, you can get to know them. It just takes some work.
02 March 2011
Oh, dear!
"Saturday, Jan 27th - Cloudy. Wind W.N.W. The Dolphin, Capt. Collins, and Mr. Silvanus Cobb in his Schooner Sail for Halifax before Daylight or one of them, Cobb, did not go till Sunrise. The Wind Starts in to N.W. &c. Very Slippery, & Cold.
About ten of the Clock in the morning, Capt. Ephraim Dean was taken Suddenly Ill. Supposed to be an Apoplectick fit. He Lived till about 1 O'Clock, when he expired. I understand he was as well as usual about his Business, untill he Complained his tongue was Swelld or Num, that he could not well Speak. He was perceived to Faulter Immediately, & was only able to Answer two or three questions in a Low Voice, after which he Never Spake more, but Continued to Ly as if a Sleep till a Little before he expired he had Some Struggles. This Death is a Loud Call to the Living, & is a Great & publick Loss to the place, more especially to his Distressed Family & work men, &c."
The Diary of Simeon Perkins 1780-1789, p. 354, courtesy of The Champlain Society who makes it available through http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/.
My doctor husband said it sounds like a stroke. Ephraim Dean was born the 17th of October in 1734. His birth was recorded in the Barstable, MA Vital Records 1625-1903, (courtesy of NEHGS library). I still have to find where he is buried in Liverpool - I got a clue from Simeon where he described the corps [sic] being carried to the back of the Meeting House. Maybe he is there... he is not listed in any of the graveyards in Liverpool.
Ephraim is my 4th great grandfather on the Mack side.
About ten of the Clock in the morning, Capt. Ephraim Dean was taken Suddenly Ill. Supposed to be an Apoplectick fit. He Lived till about 1 O'Clock, when he expired. I understand he was as well as usual about his Business, untill he Complained his tongue was Swelld or Num, that he could not well Speak. He was perceived to Faulter Immediately, & was only able to Answer two or three questions in a Low Voice, after which he Never Spake more, but Continued to Ly as if a Sleep till a Little before he expired he had Some Struggles. This Death is a Loud Call to the Living, & is a Great & publick Loss to the place, more especially to his Distressed Family & work men, &c."
The Diary of Simeon Perkins 1780-1789, p. 354, courtesy of The Champlain Society who makes it available through http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/.
My doctor husband said it sounds like a stroke. Ephraim Dean was born the 17th of October in 1734. His birth was recorded in the Barstable, MA Vital Records 1625-1903, (courtesy of NEHGS library). I still have to find where he is buried in Liverpool - I got a clue from Simeon where he described the corps [sic] being carried to the back of the Meeting House. Maybe he is there... he is not listed in any of the graveyards in Liverpool.
Ephraim is my 4th great grandfather on the Mack side.
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