Thursday, September 22, 2016

7 Dearborn Avenue, Beverly, Massachusetts

My cousin recently sent me a large box of documents and photos that had belonged to my grandparents.  Among the photos were many of 7 Dearborn Avenue in Beverly, Massachusetts.  Four generations of our family lived here, including me!

7 Dearborn Avenue
(nice photo of the street)



September 1962
You can see my Dad on the sidewalk
with his rolling golf bag

September 1962
That's me in the stroller!

This one was labeled on the back
"Heather Christmas 1962"

This one was labeled on the back, but undated
"Susan and Bertha"
Susan is my first cousin,
Bertha is our grandmother


This Purchase and Sale agreement is between my grandparents and my parents, dated 20 September 1962 (around the same time as the top three photographs were taken).  They sold the house to my Dad for $13,500, and then retired to Long Beach, California.  Inside this paperwork was a description of the sale to my grandmother from her parents dated 4 October 1930.  

My grandparents were married in this house on Thanksgiving Day, 26 November 1925.  I have no photographs of their wedding, but my grandmother described the day "I married Don and his people were very nice to us.  And when we got married we just had a quiet family wedding.  I still kept on working for a while.  And of course we were married on a Thanksgiving Day 1926.  I think the date was November 25th, 1926.  I remember that day was quite hectic but we had the family, and an Episcopalian minister married us.  We went to Boston for just a couple of days.  My sister stayed with my mother and then I kept on working.  Oh, when we went away for our honeymoon Don's sister tried to pull away his suitcase for him.  And he kept hanging on to it and he got a black eye from the door banging into his eye.  So he had a black eye on our honeymoon and people joked about that but he really didn't feel a bit good. And Don's cousin gave us tickets to see "The Student Prince" and then we went to the "Miracle" while we were in Boston."  [from a tape recorded conversation with Bertha Wilkinson made by my uncle, Richard Wilkinson, sometime in the 1970s]. 


I hereby certify that on the
twenty sixth day of
November 1925
I joined together in Holy wedlock
Donald M. Wilkinson
and
Bertha Louise Roberts
in Beverly, Massachusetts
according the laws of the State of Massachusetts
                            Signed by me
             Eugene J. V. Theiqueau
          Rector, St. Peter's Church
Witnesses:                                                     
Ellen Thornton Roberts      [John's neice, daughter of Harry Roberts]     
William John Blades   [future brother-in-law (married Janet Wilkinson, 
               Donald's sister]                                


My grandmother's parents, John Peter Bowden Roberts and Emma Warren, emigrated from England with two of their children in 1915. Their daughter, my great aunt Hilda, had married and was living in Beverly, along with one of John's brothers, Harry Roberts.   They first lived in a boarding house at 60 Colon Street (around the corner).  By the 1920 census, John and Emma were living in the house on 7 Dearborn Avenue in Beverly, and were listed as the homeowners. 

Generation 1: John Peter Bawden Roberts, son of Samuel Roberts and Mary Anne Stott, born August 1865 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, died 23 August 1925 at 7 Dearborn Avenue, Beverly, Massachusetts; married on 24 May 1890 at St. Clement's church, Sheepscar, Leeds to Emma Frances Warren, daughter of Obed Thomas Warren and Betsey Hannah Stimson.  She was born about 1865 in Peterborough, England and died 1927 in Lynn, Massachusetts.  Four children.  My great grandparents.

Generation 2:  Bertha Louise Roberts, born 30 September 1897 in Leeds, died 17 March 1990 in Long Beach, California; married on 26 November 1926 at 7 Dearborn Avenue, Beverly, Massachusetts to Donald Munroe Wilkinson, son of Albert Munroe Wilkinson and Isabella Lyons Bill.  He was born 23 October 1895 in Salem, Massachusetts, and died 24 July 1977 in Long Beach.  Three sons.  My grandparents.

Generation 3:  John Warren Wilkinson, born 3 January 1934 in Beverly, died 7 August 2002 in Worcester, Massachusetts- my father.

Generation 4:  Me!  I lived at 7 Dearborn Avenue from 1962 until 1969.  We removed to Holden, Massachusetts.

My Dad (the baby) and his two brothers, 1934,
in front of 7 Dearborn Avenue, Beverly, Massachusetts


For the truly curious:

Who was living at 7 Dearborn Avenue for the 1940 census?
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/04/my-first-peek-at-1940-census.html

Easter 1965 at 7 Dearborn Avenue:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/04/happy-easter-1965.html

Four sets of twins on Dearborn Avenue in the 1940s
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/03/photo-friday-twins-from-beverly.html  



7 Dearborn Avenue, 2016
photo by my cousin Susan Wilkinson Parker,
pictured above in the undated photo 


------------------------------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "7 Dearborn Avenue, Beverly, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 22, 2016, (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/09/7-dearborn-avenue-beverly-massachusetts.html: accessed [access date]).

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