Exploring British Records from America

John Peter Bawden Roberts and his wife,

Emma Frances Warren, and children, Hilda,

Horace and Bertha (the baby) circa 1898

Leeds, Yorkshire, England

(My great grandparents, and my grandmother (Bertha) )

A few weeks ago in the US Ancestry.com offered a weekend of free access to the UK record collection.  The last time I noticed one of these offers we were on vacation, so I couldn’t take advantage.  This time we were snowed in for a long duration blizzard, so I had lots of time to peruse the collection.

Note: If it weren't for social media, I wouldn't have been notified about this sale.  Many of my genealogist friends were sharing the post about free access to the UK records on Facebook and Twitter or on their blogs.  There was probably an email from Ancestry, but I have a tendency to clear out my e-mail box of advertising without reading any of the unsolicited offers.  I almost lost out on this deal!

My grandmother was born on 30 September 1897 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England.  She, her parents and siblings came to America in 1915 via Ellis Island, traveling in steerage on board the SS Orduna from Liverpool.  My cousin and I had already found the passenger lists, which listed the entire family, and my grandmother as a 21 years old.  I remember her stories, and her brother and sister’s stories (my great Auntie Hilda and great Uncle Horace).   I've written about them HERE and HERE in previous blog posts.

And so I began my search for my grandmother’s family roots via the vital records and UK census records on Ancestry.  I had used this collection a few years back and had a copy my grandmother’s family listed in the 1901 British Census.   Now I could look for them in the 1911 census, and perhaps work backwards in time to previous generations. .    The British census is conducted on years ending in “one”, and online the records are available from 1841 – 1911.  This would be the last British census for the Roberts family before leaving for America in 1915.

The Ancestry collection was very easy to use, and even though I was working with very commonplace surnames I was able to pinpoint the records easily.  

Above is the 1911 census of the Robert Family in Leeds, Yorkshire.  I was excited to see that it was the original census form with my great grandfather's signature.  I was not excited to see that my 13 year old grandmother, Bertha, was missing.  However, I remembered that she had been "in service" as a undernurse in a vicarage since she was age 12, so by searching for her own name (I had previously searched under her father's name) I found her enumerated in the vicar's household.  See below, Bertha is listed on line 11 as a servant:

Previous to this weekend, my only copy of my great grandparent's marriage record was a photocopy given to me by an uncle.  He only had access to an 8" x 12" photo copying machine, so I had never seen the entire certificate before, just a partial view. This was a terrific find for me!

This image has two marriage records, my great grand parents are on the top:

"1890 Marriage solemnized at Sheepscar in the Parish of St. Clements in the County of Leeds

No. 401  

When married:  May 24th, 1890

Name and Surname:  John Peter Bawden Roberts  and Emma Frances Warren

Age:  25 and 25

Condition:  Bachelor and Spinster

Rank or Profession:  Engine Tender

Residence at the time of marriage:  1 Henbury Terrace Bistol Street and 45 Benson Street

Father's Name and Surname:   Samuel Roberts and Oben Warren

Rank or Profession of Father:   Engine Tender and Miller

Married in the Parish Church according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Established Church

by --------- or after Banns by me, Henry A. Prem

This Marriage was solemnized between us:

John P. B. Roberts and Emma F. Warren  

in the Presence of us

Arthur Roberts and Ellen Roberts"  [John's siblings]

Again, I was thrilled to see that these were my great grandparent's signatures! 

Here is the 1853 marriage of Samuel Roberts and Mary Anne Stott, parents of John Peter Bawden Roberts and my 2nd great grandparents.  This image is slightly cut off, but you can see the dates, information and signatures, including the names of my 3rd great grandfathers:

I was not able to trace the Roberts family further back in time, nor the Warren family, but I had very good luck with the Stott family.  I found the marriage records for Mary Anne Stott's parents, grand parents and great grandparents.  This is the 1796 marriage of Jonathan Stott and Mary Brunyet, my 4th great grandparents, married in Leeds, Yorkshire. 

"No. 386   Jonathan Stott sawyer of this parish and Mary Brunyet of this parish spinster were married in this church by Banns this twenty ninth Day of September in the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and ninety six by me Edward Watson, clerk.  

This marriage was solemnized between us Jonathan Stott and Marey Brunyet

in the presence of John Hardaker and Tho. Atkinsone"

With all the information I gleaned from the UK collection (mainly census and marriage records) I was able to start a pedigree chart for my grandmother Bertha Roberts. These are my roots in Yorkshire, England.  See below:

This was very exciting to me.  I have an audio tape made in the 1970s of my uncle interviewing my grandmother about her family in England.  Grammy Bertha had forgotten a lot of names, and also had the names of some of her grandparents incorrect.  These documents fill in the holes and extend her family back to the late 1700s!  And I didn't even have to cross the pond to find these ancestors.

After learning these new ancestor's names I joined a few Facebook groups on UK and Yorkshire genealogy.  I immediately had some help from genealogists living in some of the towns in Yorkshire where my grandmothers ancestors lived - Leeds, Dewsbury and Pontefract.  I also learned about a website called Curious Fox.  If you have UK ancestry, it is worth checking out with a free registration http://www.curiousfox.com/    

This blog post was also published at the Worldwide Genealogy blog on 7 March 2015

www.worldwidegenealogy.blogspot.com 

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

The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/03/exploring-british-records-from-america.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

George L. Wyman ~ “A Hard Character”

The Manchester Weekly Times, Manchester, New Hampshire, October 1, 1881

From http://theoldentimes.com/glwyman81nh.html

--- George L. Wyman, who stole a quantity of steam fire engine castings from the Amoskeag Company about six years ago, and who was tracked by David Perkins after his appointment as detective for the company, was sentenced Thursday forenoon in the Supreme Court at Nashua to a fine of $50 and costs, and to six month in jail.  Wyman has been a hard character, and has led a life of crime.

I saw this newsclipping and I was intrigued by several things.  First of all, it was fun to imagine a detective in the 1880s tracking down this thief, before the technology we have today.  Also, the name WYMAN, which is in my family tree, is what made me stop and read this story.  Most New England Wymans are all descended from Francis Wyman (1621 - 1684) of Woburn, Massachusetts.  I wondered if this George was a cousin to me through Francis Wyman?  Also, The Amoskeag Company was famous for their fire engines in the 1800s and early 1900s.  I just saw a fine example in Exeter at the Fire Museum, and another on display at the Manchester Historic Association’s Millyard Museum.  I knew I wanted to investigate this Black Sheep Wyman, just like the detective mentioned in the news clipping. 

I didn't know what a tangled knot I was going to find! 

I turned to Google to see what I could find on George L. Wyman.  The first thing that popped up  at Google books was a list of paupers from the city of Manchester, New Hampshire in this book:  Thirty-Fourth Annual Report of the Receipts and Expenditures of the City of Manchester for the Fiscal Year ending December 31,1879, Manchester, NH: Printed by John B. Clarke, 1880.  In the year 1874 George L. Wyman was given $2.46 in poor relief.  In 1875 he received $3.22, in 1876 he received $2.62.  Also in this book a Peter Gaines was paid $1 to furnish wood to Sarah Wyman (page 223), and Hardy & Putnam were paid $89.43 to furnish groceries to Sarah Wyman (page 220).   Who was Sarah Wyman?

In the NH Death records I found a George L. Wyman, d. 23 Feb 1912 at 752 Elm Street in Manchester, New Hampshire, age 70 years, 3 months, born in Goffstown, New Hampshire in November 1841, divorced, cause of death- natural causes, alcoholism probable, father Edward Wyman and mother Mary Loomis.  From here I was able to look for more information on George in the vital records, and filled out the genealogy you can find below.  I found his wife (the Sarah Wyman from the poor records), daughters, marriages and lots of other New Hampshire vital records pertaining to this family at https://familysearch.org/

1870 US Federal Census, Manchester, New Hampshire, George L  (age 29) and Sarah J. Wyman (age 28) are living in the household of Edward and Mary Wyman.  George is listed as a teamster. His brother Edward A. (age 26), working in a print shop, is listed there as well.  Remember this fact – see below!

In the 1880 census, Sarah J. Wyman is listed at 31 Granite Street in Manchester,  as the head of the household, no husband, age 37, with five daughters, and a boarder named Charles Loomis, age 22 (a possible cousin?).   I couldn’t find George L. Wyman in the 1880 census, but in 1900 he was listed in the census as living in Goffstown,  age 60,  as a prisoner at the state prison.  Jailed again for some unknown offense!   In the 1910 census he was listed as a boarder at 788 Elm Street in Manchester, working as an engineer doing “contract-work”.  He was dead two years later.

Since I was having good luck with online resources, I also tried Fold3 www.fold3.com  whereI found George L. Wyman listed as a private in the Civil War, from Nashua, New Hampshire, enlisted on 9 August 1861, age 21, in Company F of the 4^th New Hampshire Infantry.  He was discharged on 23 August 1864.  On 29 March 1894 he applied for an invalid pension.   

Last I checked Genealogy Bank www.genealogybank.com and I found a divorce granted in Nashua, New Hampshire to Sarah J. Wyman from George L. Wyman listed in the New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette (Concord, NH), Thursday, October 14, 1880, page 3.   Unfortunately, I didn’t find any more news stories on the theft or the arrest and sentencing of George L. Wyman, for either offense (1881 or whatever put him in prison in the 1900 census).

As a Wyman descendant, and a member of the Wyman Family Association  http://wymanassociation.org/ I had the rest of George L. Wyman's lineage back to the 1500s in my data base.  The family database, newsletters and books helped me to piece this lineage together many years ago, and the search I had done on George L. Wyman fit right in!  This Wyman family originated when Francis Wyman (1621 - 1684) came to America and settled in Woburn, Massachusetts.  His house, built in 1666, still stands and is the site of an annual Wyman family reunion every autumn.  

The Wyman Genealogy:

Generation 1:   Francis Wyman, was born 1594 in Westmill, Hertfordshire, England, died about 15 September 1658 in Westmill; married on 1 May 1617 in Westmill to Elizabeth Richardson, daughter of Thomas Richardson and Katherine Duxford.  These are my 10^th great grandparents.

Generation 2: John Wyman, son of Francis Wyman and Elizabeth Richardson, was born 1621 in Westmill, Hertfordshire, England, died 9 May 1684 in Woburn; married on 5 November 1644 in Woburn to Sarah Nutt, daughter of Miles Nutt and Sarah Bronson.  She was born about 1624 in Barking, Suffolk, England and died 24 May 1688 in Woburn.  Ten children.   John Wyman was my 9^th great uncle, and I descend from his brother, Francis Wyman (1617 – 1699), who also immigrated to Woburn, Massachusetts from Westmill in England.

Generation 3: Seth Wyman, son of John Wyman and Sarah Nutt, was born 3 August 1663 in Woburn, died 26 October 1715 in Woburn; married on 17 December 1685 in Woburn to Esther Johnson, daughter of William Johnson and Esther Wiswall.  She was born 13 April 1662 in Woburn, and died 31 March 1742 in Woburn.

Generation 4: Seth Wyman, son of Seth Wyman and Esther Johnson, was born 13 September 1686 in Woburn, died 5 September 1725 in Woburn; married on 26 January 1715 in Billerica to Sarah Ross.  She was born 7 October 1694 and died 26 November 1727.

Generation 5: Seth Wyman, son of Seth Wyman and Sarah Ross, was born in 1719, died 19 November 1749 in Arlington, Massachusetts; married on 4 July 1744 in Woburn to Ruth Wright.

Generation 6: Seth Wyman, son of Seth Wyman and Ruth Wright, was born 17 February 1750 in Woburn, Massachusetts, died 11 April 1825 in Goffstown; married three times to Sarah Atwood,  Sarah Wright and Ruth Belknap.

Generation 7: Seth Wyman, son of Seth Wyman and Sarah Atwood, born 4 March 1784 in Goffstown, died 2 April 1843; married on 16 December 1808 in Skowhegan, Maine to Wealthy Loomis, Daughter of Dyer Loomis and Esther Johnson. 

Generation 8: Edward Wyman married on 6 January 1840 in Manchester, New Hampshire to Mary Loomis, daughter of George Loomis and Martha French.  She was born 16 January 1819 in Skowhegan, Maine, and was Edward’s first cousin (George Loomis was the son of Dyer Loomis and Esther Johnson).   Seven children.   Just by coincidence, Mary Loomis is my 6^th cousin 5 generations removed because we are both descendants of the immigrants Joseph Loomis (about 1590 – 1658) and Mary White (1590 – 1652) who settled in Windsor, Connecticut.

Generation 9: George Lewis Wyman, born November 1840 in Goffstown, New Hampshire, died 23 February 1912 in Manchester, New Hampshire, married to Sarah Jane Lyman, five children born in Manchester.   According to the NH Vital Records, on 19 April 1885 she remarried to Edward A. WYMAN , printer, (George’s brother) in Manchester!   She died 31 October 1926 in New Hampshire.  This makes the two Wyman brothers, both husbands of Sarah Jane Lyman,  my 7^th cousins 4 generations removed. 

Children of George Lewis Wyman and Sarah Jane Lyman:

1. Ida Wealthy Wyman, born 15 March 1861; married first to Wardner Jefferson Jones; married second 21 April 1908 to Jason Albert Phillips

2. Mary Pattee Wyman died 19 October 1947; married first on 23 March 1888 to Herbert Danford; married second on 25 April 1893 in Manchester to John Thomas. Interestingly, this marriage record did not list George L. Wyman as the father, the father was left blank (note below how another sister spurned George and named Edwin as her father on her marriage record).

3. Caroline E. Wyman, born 1868, died 12 June 1945 and buried at Pine Grove Cemetery in Manchester; married Arthur Leroy Holt on 3 July 1888.  

4. Sarah Aurilla Wyman, born 1871, married on 15 August 1892 to  Joseph Frank George; married second on 28 August 1926 in Francestown, New Hampshire to Frank Edson Chandler.

5. Anna Lillice Wyman born 1 September 1875 married on 2 September 1893 in Manchester to Emile G. Dirtsch.  Edwin A. Wyman is listed as the father on the marriage.

6. Nellie Wyman,  born after 1876, no further information.

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

The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/02/george-l-wyman-hard-character.html

Copyright © 2015, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Amelia! What is your maiden name?

For many years I have been researching Amelia, my 4^th great grandmother.  In the 1970s, when I was a teenager, I found my first record of her through her son’s birth record (Thomas Russell Lewis, is my 3^rd great grandfather) in the published Salem, Massachusetts Vital Records.  According to the “Tan Books”, Thomas Russell Lewis is listed as “LEWIS, Thomas Russell, s. Amelia, bp. June 26, 1825. CR 10”.  The notation CR10 refers to the Howard Street or Branch Church.   Two sons were baptized on the same day. 

Thirty five years ago I am still finding records about Amelia, but none give her maiden name.

This baptism record was odd, since most of the births and baptisms list both parents.  Why was Amelia listed as the sole parent of these boys?   I could not find a marriage record, and there was a death of a Thomas Lewis listed on August 21, 1821 in the Salem records.  Was this her husband?    There was also a death announcement in the Salem Gazette, 24 August 1824 for “Mr. Thomas Lewis, aged 54”.  Was this her husband?  He is another brickwall, and I don’t know his parents or ancestry.

There are two Thomas Lewis’s listed in the book Old Marblehead Sea Captains and the Ships in which they sailed by the Marble head Historical Society, page 87

     1)      Thomas Lewis born 15 June 1776 master of the schooner “Hawk” 90 tons in 1792

     2)      Thomas Lewis, Jr. born 28 May 1775, master of the schooner “Susanna and Lucy” in 1812

In the Gloucester death record of the other son, Frederic Augustus Lewis, Thomas Lewis was listed as the father.  I also found Thomas Lewis listed as the father on both Thomas Russell Lewis’s and Frederic Augustus Lewis’s marriage records.  Which Thomas Lewis is my 4^th great grandfather?

I couldn't find a death record for an Amelia Lewis, and so I searched to see if she had remarried and gained a new name.  Yes! She had been married three times!  First to Thomas Lewis.  Second to Thomas Johnson on 16 October 1827 in Salem, and then a third time on 11 June 1843 in Topsfield, Massachusetts to John Adams.  Amelia is listed as Amelia Adams on her death record in Wayland, parents unknown, died 22 April 1860 as a paralytic in the poorhouse, born in Stoughton.   Since she died in a year ending with a zero, I searched the federal census mortality schedules and found this sad entry (both husband and wife died the same month in the poorhouse):

1860 Federal Census Mortality Schedule

Wayland, Massachusetts

Amelia Adams, age 72, married, d. April, b. Mass.  pauper, paralysis, 4 days

            John, age 69, married, d. April, b. Mass, pauper, lung fever, 3 weeks

Also:

1850 Federal Census, Topsfield, Massachusetts

John Adams, age 60, m, shoemaker, b. Mass.

            Amelia, age 60, f, b. Mass

            Joseph H, age 18, m, shoemaker, b. Mass

            Susan S., age 16, f, b. Mass

William H. Garrett, age 16, m, shoemaker, b. Mass

The clue here in the 1850 census is the names of the children, Joseph H and Susan S.  With this information I was able to find this family record published in the Essex Antiquarian journal, Volume 1, Number 6, 1897, page 92

“FAMILY RECORDS.

In the possession of Mr. William C. Peabody of Georgetown is a book entitled "Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul," by Philip Doddridge, D.D., and published in Boston in 1818, having on the first fly-leaf the following words, written in ink: "John Adams from his brother Joseph Adams," and on two other blank pages the following family records:

John Adams Born Sept. 17th, 1789.

Sarah Adams Born Decr. 5th, 1790.

John Quincy Born March 17th, 1815.

Abigail Bowles Born April 25, 1816.

Sarah Ann Born Nov. 8th, 1817.

Ruth Bowles Born Augt 11th, 1819.

Nathl Hayward Born April 24th, 1821.

Lydia Towne Born Febry 18th, 1823.

Abigail Bowles 2 Born Janry 30, 1824.

Nathl Niles Hayward Born June 29th, 1825.

Susan Hayward Born April 1st, 1828.

George Washington Born Janry 27th, 1830.

Joseph Hayward Born Decr 30, 1831.

Susan Irene Born Oct. 28, 1833.

My wife Sarah Adams Died April 9th on Fryday at 6 1-2 Clok 1841 P.M.  Intered on Monday Following.

Abigail Bowles 1st Died July 2d, 1817.

Nathl Hayward Died Sept. 10th, 1822.

Abigail Bowles 2d Died March 2d, 1824.

Lydia Towne Died Sept. 14th, 1824.

George Washington Died May 1st, 1832.

Susan Hayward Died May 5th, 1832

Sarah Ann Wildes Died July 14th, 1853.”

This fleshes out her 3^rd husband’s family, but provides no clue to his marriage with Amelia, two years after the death of Sarah.  No maiden name, no birthdate. 

I have been unable to find any information on the 2^nd husband, Thomas Johnson. But here is a big clue from the Essex County probate records.  These have recently been added to the online database of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, 35 years after I started my search for Amelia.

The image of the probate record for Amelia Johnson
from the New England Historic Genealogical website database
of Essex County, Massachusetts probate records at americanancestors.org 

[transcribed]

To the Honorable Daniel A. White Esquire, Judge of

Probate for the County of Essex

HUMBLY shews Amelia Johnson of Salem

In said County, widow that Thomas Lewis, last

An inhabitant of Salem in said county, ropemaker, has lately viz.

1821, August 31 died intestate, leaving goods and estate, of which administration

Is necessary: - That your petitioner is a widow, and was the widow (the children being not of the commonwealth) of

Said deceased, and has a legal right to take such administration, and is ready to give bond with sufficient sureties for the faithful discharge thereof.  Wherefore he prays, that your honor would appoint her administratrix as aforesaid, agreeably to

Law in such cases made and provided.

Dated at Salem this seventeenth day of August, A.D. 1841

                        Amelia Johnson

ESSEX, ss. At a Court of Probate holden at Salem in and for said

County, on the third Tuesday in August, A.D. 1841

The foregoing petition being duly considered, it is thereupon decreed by the Court here, that administration, as therein prayed for, be granted to said Amelia Johnson, she giving bon

According to law her faithful discharge of that trust.

                        D. A. White JUDGE OF PROBATE

Know all Men by these Presents, That we Amelia Johnson, widow, as principal

And John Downs, trader, as surety, both of Salem, and John I. Baker, of

Beverly, esquire, as surety, - all in the county of Essex.

Within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, are holden and stand firmly bound and obliged unto Daniel A. White

Judge of Probate of Wills, and for granting administration with the County of Essex, in the full

and just sum of one thousand dollars, to be paid to the said Daniel A. White,

and his sucessors in said office; to the true payment whereof we do bind ourselves and each of us, and each of our heirs, exec-

utors and administrators, jointly and severally, by these presents, sealed with our seals.

dated the seventeenth day of August in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred

and forty one.

THE CONDITION of this Obligation is such, That if the above bounden Amelia Johnson

Administratrix of all and singular the goods and estate of Thomas

Lewis, late of Salem in said county, ropemaker, deceased, do make,

or cause to be make, a true and perfect inventory of all and singular the real estate, goods and chattels, rights and credits of said de-

ceased, which have or shall come to the hands, possession or knowledge of her the said administratrix or into the hands or

possession of any other person or persons for her and the same, so made, do exhibit, or cause to be exhibited into the Registry

of the Court of Probate of the said county of Essex, at or before the seventeenth day of November

next ensuing; and the same goods and chattels, rights and credits and all other the goods and chattels, rights and credits, of the said

deceased, at the time of his death ^ and two deeds of real estate which may be sold for payment of debts which at any time after shall come to the hands and possession of the said administratrix

or into the hands and possession of any other person or persons for the said administratrix do well and truly administer ac-

cording to law; and further do make, or cause to be made, a just and true account of her said administration upon oath, on or

before the seventeenth day of August, which will be in the year of our Lord one thousand eight

hundred and forty-two:- and all the rest, residue and remainder of the said goods and chattels, rights and credits, which

shall be found remaining upon the said administration account, (the same being first examined and allowed by the Judge, for the time

being, of Probate of Wills and for granting administrations within the County of Essex aforesaid,) shall deliver and pay unto such

person or persons respectively, as the said Judge, by his decree or sentence, pursuant to law, shall limit and appoint: - And, if it shall

hereafter appear, that any last will and testament was made by said deceased, and the executor or executors therein named do exhibit

the same into the Court of Probate of the said County of Essex, making request to have it allowed and approved accordingly; if the

said Amelia Johnson above bounden, being thereunto required,

do render and deliver the said letter of administration (approbation of such testament being first had and made) into the said court:-

Then the before written Obligation shall be void and of none effect; or else shall abide and remain in full force and virtue.

Sealed and delivered in presence of us:-

(signed)

Charles Kimball                                   Amelia Johnson

Nathan. Lord Jr.                                  John Downs

                                                            John I. Baker

ESSEX, ss. At a Court of Probate holden at Salem in and for said County, on the

Third Tuesday in August, A.D. 1841

The foregoing bond, having been duly examined, in approved, and ordered to be recorded in the probate office.

                        D. A. White     JUDGE OF PROBATE

John S. Williams esq.

John Downs

James Odell

                                                Sal. Reg.

This document gives the date of death of Thomas Lewis as 1821, four years before the boys were baptized, and two years before her marriage to Thomas Johnson.  It says that her children, Thomas Russell and Frederic Augustus (maybe more children?), lived “not of the commonwealth”, so did the Johnsons live in another state?  Another country?  I’ve found no records of Thomas Johnson, her husband.  It also states that in 1841, the year of this document, she was twice widowed.  She did not marry John Adams until 1843 in Topsfield. It also lists that her husband Thomas Lewis was a ropemaker, which was interesting to learn.  Was he former sea captain, too?

My 3^rd great grandfather, Salem sea captain Thomas Russell Lewis (before 1821 – 1853) died in Surinam, West Indies.  I found a death notice in the Salem Register (newspaper) dated 6 October 1853 “Mortuary Notice.  At Surinam, August 22, of erysipelas, Captain Thomas R. Lewis of this city, master of the brig Gazelle”.  Erysipelas is a strep infection of the skin, and deadly in the ages before antibiotics.

I had often wondered why Captain Thomas Russell Lewis was not buried with his family at the large family plot in Salem’s Harmony Grove Cemetery. It took me many, many years to find this newspaper notice.  I suppose he was buried at sea off the coast of Surinam in South America.  He was married twice.  His first wife was Hannah Phillips (abt 1821 – 1851), daughter of James Phillips and Sarah Cree of Topsfield. 

Hannah (Phillips) Lewis was my 3^rd great grandmother.  His second wife was Lydia S. Pickering (1834 – 1866), daughter of Benjamin Pickering and Lydia Stanley, who lived for thirteen years after her husband’s death.  None of Thomas Russell Lewis’s records list his mother’s maiden name, nor do they give any clues to his father’s origins.

Over 35 years the clues to build this sketch of Amelia have slowly been uncovered. I had to use books, vital records, newspapers, census records, probate records, cemetery records, journals and online resources.  These are all resources YOU can use to help identify the missing maiden names of you female ancestors, too.  I hope that in the next few years I might learn her maiden name and origins.  I just hope it doesn’t take another 35 years to learn more about Amelia and Thomas Lewis!

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

The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/09/amelia-what-is-your-maiden-name.html

Copyright © 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Who are you calling a “Huckster”?

Whilst researching my Great Great Grandfather Robert Wilson Wilkinson (1830 – 1874), I looked for his occupations in the US Census records.   He died in 1874, and so I looked first in the 1870 census where I found him listed as a “huckster”!  This seemed to me to be a pejorative statement, so I checked in the American Heritage Dictionary where I found the definition to be “One who uses aggressive, showy, and sometimes devious methods to promote or sell a product.”  Fortunately I stopped to also look at the archaic definition, which stated “One who sells wares or provisions in the street; a peddler or hawker”. 

Working backwards in time, the 1865 Massachusetts State census his occupation says cryptically “periodical depot”.  In 1860 it says “clerk”.  The 1855 state census has him listed as a “shoemaker”.  In 1850 he was 20 years old and listed as a shoemaker. He lived his entire life in Peabody, Massachusetts (even though the earlier censuses list him in Danvers, before the town split into two bodies in 1855 and South Danvers became Peabody in 1868).  Peabody is known as the “Leather City”, and other family members were also shoemakers, tanners, hide cutters, etc.  But his later occupations puzzled me.

I looked next at city directories. In the 1864 Salem City Directory (Danvers, thus Peabody, too, split off from Salem) there is a listing on page 97 for “Wilkinson, Robert W., Main, Periodicals”.   In the 1866 Salem City Directory, there is a listing on page 229 for “Wilkinson Robert W. 13 Main Fruits and Vegetables”, on the same page under “confectionaries” and on page 230 under “Periodicals” at the same address.  Apparently he had a small store or stand at Main Street where he sold these small, inexpensive items? But in the 1873 Danvers City Directory he is listed on page 199 as “watchman”, just a year before he died.

Just for fun, I checked out 13 Main Street, Peabody on Google maps, and switched to street view. I couldn't find number 13, but number 14 is now a dollar store. Some things never change!

I checked the advertisements in the back of the Salem Directories and other nearby cities.  Periodical stands and “depots” sold newspapers, magazines, stationary, and other paper items (including cardboard collars!).  I’m guessing that for a while he sold newspapers and then switched to fruits and vegetables.  All are small items sold from carts or stands.  Perhaps this was too strenuous and he became a watchman?

As a younger man, my ancestor Robert Wilson Wilkinson was a shoemaker, like so many other young men in Peabody.  Why was he reduced to being a peddler? He died of “heart disease” at the age of 46. Had he been ill for a long time and not able to do manual labor?

These answers won’t be found in census records or directories…

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

Etching is "Pushcart Peddler"  by Samuel Johnson Woolf, 1880 - 1948, American

Photo "Toronto News Stand, Spadina Avenue", September 1938,  Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 58, Item 1500, from the City of Toronto Archives, via Wikimedia Commons

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

To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Who are you calling a “Huckster”?", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 25, 2013, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/07/who-are-you-calling-huckster.html: accessed [access date]) 

If you don't see this URL you are reading this blog post from a Splogger who has stolen my material.   

Back to MIT to hear about NARA’s plans for records access

Round table discussion at MIT Media Lab
Civic Media Lunch:  Providing Innovative Access to the Content in National Archives Records

I heard about this workshop through one of my husband’s MIT alumni networks, and then I heard again from Kate Theimer of the Archives Next blog on Twitter.  She wanted to know if anyone was going to the discussion, and I decided “Why not?”  Perhaps someone from the genealogical community should be there, listening in.  I love going back to the MIT campus, and the subject was right up my alley: “Providing Innovative Access to the Content in National Archives Records”

This lunchtime talk was open to the MIT community, and I may have been one of the few people there who was not a student, research fellow, MIT archivist or media lab employee.  It was not aimed at the end user (me, the genealogist) but at the developers and designers of the computer platforms and technology that drives our online experiences.  This discussion was a behind the scenes peek (for me) at the problems, hurdles and headaches of archiving 12 billion pieces of paper and electronic records, and making some of them safe for long term storage, and some of them also accessible to the public.

At this meeting were Michael Moore from the NARA facility in Waltham, MA, and his “boss”, Bill Mayer who is the head of Executive Research Services for all of NARA.  The main part of the presentation was by Pamela Wright, who used to be NARA’s Chief Digital Access Strategist (their social media guru), but is now the Chief Innovation Officer.  This department was formed in October 2012.

To read the blow by blow description of the meeting, you can read the blog by the students who were sitting right in front of me, liveblogging the seminar.  But here is what I took away from this meeting, as a genealogist and local historian…

The first item that I found to be great news was that there are Regional Residency  Fellowships available at the 6 NARA facilities around the USA.  See the website for details.  Wouldn't that be a wonderful way to fund some solid genealogy or local history projects?  This is a $3,000 stipend to assist with travel and research expenses for the completion of a research project which results in a publishable work.  You must work fast, the deadline for proposals is March 15, 2013.  The Boston/Waltham facility is one of the fellowship locations on the list.

Next, I found out that NARA’s website “Today’s Document” and the mobile apps for this were their first foray into social media in 2009.  This was the very first app I got for my iPhone three years ago, quickly followed by Twitter, Facebook and Ancestry (in that order). Pam learned that to make it successful she needed to have it on many platforms, including Tumblr.  David Ferreiro, the US Archivist at the head of NARA then asked Pam, “Where do you go when you go on line?”, and she knew that Google and Wikipedia were at the head of her list.  She hired a “Wikiepedian in residence” for NARA.  He was a Simmons Library School Graduate.  He put hundreds of thousands of NARA images online.   Their presence online grew tremendously after this.

Check the website for the Citizen Archivist dashboard.  This was designed to leverage the willingness and participation of the public (crowdsourcing) to help get useful information about documents online.   There are several places here to assist NARA with online scanned images of documents, including “You can Tag It”, to add tags to images and records partnered with Flickr and the online NARA catalog, and also “You can Transcribe It” to help transcribe documents at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.  No log in is necessary, so there is no barrier to participation.  They also plan some challenge competitions as they venture towards more public help.

These last two places for the public to get involved reminded me of the chance we all had to help transcribe and index the 1940 census.  If you enjoyed that experience, this would be very similar.

The end of the meeting dwelt on describing the data sets that would eventually be available and open to the public, including government email, taxes, military and other electronic documents.  There are sets of old data in unstructured form from platforms 30 to 40 years old that must be manipulated to new platforms.  Format obsolescence is the key word here.  After librarians dealt with paper documents in the same way for 6,000 years, now they have 60 years of bit stream to archive and keep relevant.  Pamela Wright explained that paper has preservation and access issues, but with electronic records access equals preservation.  (Data tends to stays up to date if that data is still available to users in a relevant way.)

Halfway through the meeting I remembered that Pamela Wright was the NARA person who sent me a now famous email about my trip to the Washington DC NARA facility in March 2011.  During my trip to DC I was denied access to see a copy of my ancestor’s Revolutionary War paper in person, and I was told I could only see it on microfilm.  I had already seen it online at Fold3, and was hoping that if I saw it in person I could discern if the signature was George Washington’s, or a facsimile or stamp. However, I now know it was a real George Washington signature, since the original had been removed for safekeeping away from the public.  She read my blog and sent me a color, high quality scan that certainly proved it was truly the president’s signature in pen.  You can read that blog story here.   At the end of the talk I introduced myself to Pamela and we had a good time reminiscing about that incident.  Small world indeed!

This is what greeted me as I got off the
elevator at the MIT Media Lab-
legos, foozeball and strange sculptures!

Please see the MIT blog for more details.  I understand that the meeting was videoed, but it is probably for MIT use only.  I asked Pam Wright if she or any other NARA staff would be present at RootsTech 2013 in Salt Lake City, and she did not know.

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

For more information:

Archives Next blog by Kate Theimer http://www.archivesnext.com/

MIT Center for Civic Media http://civic.mit.edu/

MIT Center for Civic Media event calendar, “Innovative Access to National Archives” link: http://civic.mit.edu/event/innovative-access-to-national-archives

MIT Center for Civic Media blog “Bringing a Nation’s Archives Online” by Matt Stempeck, research assistant http://civic.mit.edu/blog/mstem/bringing-a-nations-archives-online

National Archives website   http://www.archives.gov/

2013 Regional Residency Fellowship: Request for Proposals  http://blogs.archives.gov/prologue/?p=11587

NARA Citizen Archivist Dashboard  http://www.archives.gov/citizen-archivist/

My NARA blog post from 2011 with the email from Pamela Wright http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/04/national-archives-they-read-my-blog.html

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

Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Londonderry's 113th Annual Old Home Day

Ever since we arrived in Londonderry almost 30 years ago, we look forward to Old Home Day. This year the five days of Old Home Day start on Wednesday, August 15 and run through Sunday August 19th. The most popular day, of course, is Saturday August 18, 2012. The day starts early with the 5K road race, followed by the parade, the baby contest, the colonial encampment by the Morrison House Museum, and of course the common will be crowded with local organizations selling homemade food, games for the kids, and neighbors greeting old friends. The whole day is topped off with a concert and fireworks!

1920s Londonderry Old Home Day on the Common

According to the Londonderry Hometown Online News at http://www.londonderrynh.net/, over 15,000 people attend Londonderry’s Old Home Day each year. This is a testament to good old fashioned fun. Not to be competitive, but our Old Home Day is usually held the same weekend as Hudson’s celebration (this year Hudson is celebrating one week early). Hudson is located just next door. In fact, their fairgrounds at Alvirne are closer to our own house than Londonderry’s fiesta on the town common. But, we like the old fashioned flavor of Londonderry’s Old Home Days over Hudson’s. No traveling carnival rides, no commercial food vendors (except for the ice cream truck), no questionable games of chance. At our Old Home Days all the games have to be free to all kids- and the few for adults are fundraisers for local organizations. The food, snacks and beverages are all homemade and sponsored by the Boy Scouts, churches, sports teams and civil groups. Don’t miss the Lions Club BBQ!

The Morrison House Museum and some
Revolutionary War re-enactors

Weaving demonstration
Linen was Londonderry's first
big industry in the 1700s

Historically, Old Home Day is an important part of New Hampshire culture. In 1899 New Hampshire Governor Frank Rollins proclaimed the first Old Home Day on the third Saturday in August to bring people back home who had moved to the big cities and out of state for employment or for easier farming out West. There are only about ten communities in New Hampshire that have faithfully carried on the Old Home Day tradition of the third Saturday in August.

Why was this so important? Look at the population schedules below. You can see that with the opening of the West to farming, the Civil War, and employment in the big cities of Boston and other states, people left New Hampshire in droves for a long time period. New Hampshire was one of six states to also show a percentage population decrease in 2008 due to the economy. They seem to be following Horace Greely’s advice to “Go West, young man!” (Greeley had Londonderry roots, too!)  With all the folks leaving town, Old Home Day became a precious tradition, and it still is much beloved in Londonderry.

New Hampshire v. total US Population
1860 326,073- NH 31,443,321- USA
1870 318,300 39,818,499 NH decreased 2.5%, US increased 22.6%
1880 346,991 50,155,783 NH increased 9%, US increased 30.2%
1890 376,530 62,947,714 NH increased 8.5%,
1900 411,588 76,212,168 NH increased 9.3%, US increased 21%

2012 New Hampshire Old Home Days on the third Saturday in August:
Chichester
Danville
Derry
Hancock
Londonderry
Lyndeborough
Landaff
Milton
Seabrook
Hudson

All other NH Old Home Days can be found at http://www.nhlibertycalendar.org/oldhome.php

-----------------------
Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

My First Peek at the 1940 Census

I've experienced several census releases over the years.  I started my genealogy research in the 1970s, so I remember the release of the 1920 and the 1930 censuses (I was In college when the 1910 census was released and it was not a priority for me at that time!).   The 1920 census was fun but by the time the 1930 census was released I was using the internet and Ancestry, which was even more fun.  This time around, the fun is more immediate since the images were available on the same day as the release.  Even though the images eventually ended up on line in 2002, there was no way to Tweet or post on Facebook.  I read hundreds of Tweets yesterday about discoveries being made within hours of the 1940 census release online.

For most of the day of 2 April 2012 I was unable to find my ancestors on line in the 1940 census.  The NARA website was giving me error messages, or I was too impatient to wait for the images to load (especially after waiting for 40 minutes at a time!).  I stared at the message “Processing Image” for hours.  At Ancestry.com only certain states were online, including Maine and Rhode Island.  After trying and trying at NARA to look at my parents and grandparents in Beverly and Hamilton, Massachusetts, I decided to look at Maine to find some distant cousins.

Bingo!  The first town I looked at was South Berwick, Maine, where my Wilkinson ancestors lived in the 1700s and 1800s.  I knew there were still some Wilkinsons there in the 1920 and 1930 censuses.  I found two Wilkinson households in the 1940 census, and had the great luck of finding one cousin was listed on line #29.  This is genealogical gold!  On each page of the census, two people were chosen to answer an additional set of questions.  Hopefully I will find more of these lucky ancestors as I go along exploring the 1940 census.

And thank goodness I complained on Facebook that I couldn’t get into the Massachusetts images.  Fellow genealogist Michael Maglio read my complaint and sent me the entire set of images (all 36 pages) for the Massachusetts Enumeration District 5-45, which includes Dearborn Avenue in Beverly.  This is the address where my Dad grew up, and this 1940 Census image would be the first time I saw Dad in a Census since he was only 6 years old.  Not only that, but four generations of my family lived at 7 Dearborn Avenue, including me in the 1960s! 

click to enlarge
This image from Beverly, MA ED 5-45 includes 7 Dearborn Avenue

Massachusetts. Essex County. 1940 US census, population schedule. Digital images, Archives.gov. http://1940census.archives.gov: 2012.

Lucky me again!  The very first image had Dearborn Avenue penciled in on the margin, and I had to only scroll to page 3 to find house number 7.  But wait…. Look at this… the head of the household was listed as “Munroe, Donald”.   If I had waited to find my grandfather in the 1940 Census after indexing, I would never have found him because his name is “Donald Munroe Wilkinson”.  For some reason, the enumerator dropped the surname WILKINSON and gave his middle name as the surname.  It’s a good thing I browsed the pages instead of relying on an index!

There were no surprises under the family entry.  It listed my grandparents, my Dad and his brothers.  Papa listed his occupation as “shipping inspector” at “Shoe Machinery” which is the United Shoe Machinery Corporation only a few blocks away.  He could walk to work, and so did my great grandfather, and my Dad who all worked there at some point in their lives.  Even my grandmother worked there as a “Rosie the Riveter” a few years after this 1940 census was taken.

1947 at 7 Dearborn Avenue
and I was lucky enough here to have
this photo labeled with names! 

What was fun to me was to read all the neighbors who lived on Dearborn Avenue in 1940.  Some were still there when I lived there in the 1960s.  My Dad and all his brothers had dear boyhood friends listed on Dearborn Avenue and in the surrounding streets.  Dick Woodbury “Woody” lived right around the corner on 6 Story Avenue, and my uncle still visits him.  Charlie Bucci, age 9, lived at 10 Dearborn Avenue with his parents born in Italy.  The Pooles lived at numbers 17 and 22, and Billy Poole “Poolie”, aged 6, grew up and sent me some photos of the neighborhood sandlot baseball team.   There were lots of memories here!

Thanks, Michael Maglio!  You can read Michael’s blog “Origin Hunters” at this link: http://originhunters.blogspot.com/

A blog post I wrote about Bill Poole’s photo of the Dearborn Avenue baseball team at Avery Field in Beverly http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/11/neighborhood-baseball-1949.html

Another blog post about the United Shoe Machinery Corporation, where many members of my family worked, located within walking distance of 7 Dearborn Avenue in Beverly, Massachusetts http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/04/working-at-shoe-in-beverly.html

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

Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo