This story will give you the Willeys - literally!

 

To the memory of the Family

which was at once destroyed by

a slide from the white Mountains

on the night of 28 August 1826.

SAMUEL WILLEY, AE 38

POLLY L. WILLEY, 35

ELIZA A. WILLEY, 12

JEREMIAH WILLEY, 11

MARTHA G. WILLEY, 10

ELBRIDGE G. WILLEY, 7

SALLY WILLEY, 3

Happy Halloween!  In New England we use a lot of words to describe the sensation of getting the shivers - goosebumps, goosepimples, chicken skin, jitters, getting the creeps, and "getting the willies".  Some people say that this word "the willies" dates back to a disaster that happened in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in 1826 when an entire family died during a landslide.  The Willey Family story is sad, but scary enough to have lived on in ghost stories, books (including Nathaniel Hawthorne), and history books.  I previously blogged about the Willey family disaster and their genealogy HERE in 2010.  Seven members of the Willey family, two parents and five children, and two hired hands all died in this landslide. Only the bodies of the parents, two of the three children, and the two hired men were found. The bodies were buried near the homesite originally, and then reburied elsewhere. 

Recently we drove through Crawford Notch, the site of the famous 1826 landslide, and we looked at the monument to the family.  I knew that this was the place where the family house stood, not the burial place for the bodies of the Willey family.  But where were they buried? Somewhere else in Crawford Notch? Nearby in Bartlett or somewhere that is now part of the Crawford Notch State Park or the White Mountain National Forest land? Miles away with family members in southern New Hampshire (the family originated in the Piscataqua Region) or even out of state? Where? 

I made a quick search of the Find A Grave website, and Google with some interesting results. I searched for Samuel Willey born 1788 and died 1826.  Find A Grave said he was buried in the Willey Slide Cemetery located in Intervale, Carroll County, New Hampshire.  There are many places in New Hampshire called "Intervale", which literally means between mountains or between towns.  There is a place called Intervale nearby between the towns of Bartlett and Conway, New Hampshire. On Find A Grave there are no GPS coordinates or directions, which is very odd.  There is no description of the cemetery, and no map.  Very odd indeed.  There is even a misleading entry "Willey Family Cemetery" off Moose Mountain Road in Brookfield, New Hampshire with no photos, no information, nothing. I think it was created as a red herring. 

Since we were in the area, I was determined to find this elusive cemetery.  Google showed me that I was not alone. Many other people have documented this search online. I found one of the hired hands buried nearby in Bartlett.  His name was David Allen, and he is buried at the Garland Ridge Cemetery a short distance from Crawford Notch.  There is a link below to his gravestone. That was easy. But where is the Willey family burial ground, and where is the other hired hand buried? 

Using Google Maps satellite view has helped me in the past to find small, unmarked family cemeteries in New England.  Since we live in a heavily wooded region, satellite views often show small square or irregular openings in the forest canopy that are not visible from the road.  My next ploy was to stop in to the Conway or North Conway Public Library to ask about local cemeteries. 

As we were driving up towards Crawford Notch, through the Kancamaugus Notch and Bear Notch, I read the accounts online of other people searching for the Willey Family.  The story told by Robert Gillis of his teenaged nephew, Colin, searching for the burial ground, was inspirational. I loved reading about young people who become enthralled with local history or genealogy.  Colin used the local library to find the small Willey family burial ground. Then he mysteriously did not give the location.  But, if Colin could find it, I was sure I could find it, too.

As we were driving I also watched a 15 minute video by "Rick and Bill" on Youtube of their search for the Willey Cemetery.  You can find the link below.  Rick and Bill make videos of local history in New Hampshire, and although they also did not give the location of the cemetery either, their video gave me clues in the background as to where it was located. If you are familiar with the Intervale area, you will know what I mean. 

Both Vincent and I searched the Intervale area using the satellite views.  We knew that the Willey burial ground was nearby and easily found it.  You can find it, too.  I'm going to follow the local tradition and not tell you where to find it.  Some things can't be too easy! 

I'm writing this story near Halloween.  I've seen what Halloween mania has done to historic places like Salem, Massachusetts, and to some local burial grounds.  This is why the local people have not published the map, coordinates, or address for the Willey Family cemetery.  If you are truly interested in the history, then like me, Bill, Rick, and Colin, you can do the legwork and find it for yourself.  This is a burial ground which deserves respect.  It is not a tourist attraction for Halloween.  

Visit with respect.  Bring flowers, and leave nothing but footprints. 

Colin, Bill, Rick, and the entire Willey family would agree.  Let me know if you find the Willeys! 

The Willey Family plot

A close up of the tombstone

This stone is marked with a DAR flagholder,

and is reinforced with a metal support

The entrance to the cemetery is on private property.

Ask permission before you enter the cemetery

For the Truly Curious:

A 2010 blog post about the Willey Family:   
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/10/happy-halloween-story-of-willey-family.html     

Wikipedia:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willey_House_(New_Hampshire)   

Link to Samuel Willey's memorial at Find A Grave:   https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/231693821/samuel-willey  

Link to David Allen's memorial at Find A Grave:   https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/116456101/david-allen  

Robert Gillis, "An historical quest fulfilled: Finding the Willey Family of Crawford Notch", posted 17 September 2015,  https://www.robertxgillis.com/?p=5761  accessed 18 October 2025. 

Bill Thompson and Rick Davidson, "Visiting the Site of the Famous Willey Landslide and the Willey Cemetery", Youtube, 17 April 2024,   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPlKlczGsBs accessed 18 October 2025. 

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

To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "This story will give you the Willeys - literally!", Nutfield Genealogy, posted 28 October 2025, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2025/10/this-story-will-give-you-willeys.html: accessed [access date]). 

A Google Book Search for Mayflower Books

Mayflower II 1957 arriving in Plymouth harbor

There are many, many books on the Mayflower and the Plymouth Colony, and many are listed on Google Books, but few are readable online.  Some are just previews, or are searchable, but not readable.  You won't find the latest research or the newly published books on the Pilgrims here, those books are still under copyright - like Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs' book Strangers and Pilgrims, Travellers and Sojourners or Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower.

Many of the older books contain out of date research, but some are invaluable such as the membership directories from the Mayflower Society from 100 years ago, or the epitaphs from Plymouth's Burial Hill written in 1896 (some of those epitaphs are now illegible).  The most recent book on this list was published in 2009, but most are 100 years older than that!  If you are interested in a particular book on this list, just type the title and author into the search bar at https://books.google.com/   Also, please note that these digitized versions of the books are searchable, so you search each volume for surnames, geographic locations, or any other keyword.  Sometimes this is better than having the actual volume in front of you on the desk! 

The Arrival of the Pilgrims, by John Franklin Jameson, 1920, published by Brown University.

Bradford’s History “Of Plimoth Plantation”, 1901, published by Wright & Potter, state printers for the Massachusetts General Court. 

The Brewster Genealogy, 1566 – 1907: A Record of the Descendants of William Brewster of the Mayflower, Ruling Elder of the Pilgrim Church which founded Plymouth Colony in 1620, Volume 1,  by Emma C. Brewster Jones, 1908.

Captain Myles Standish, by Tudor Jenks, 1905, published by Century Company.

Chief of the Pilgrims: Or the Life and Time of William Brewster, Ruling Elder of the Pilgrim Company that Founded New Plymouth, the Parent Colony of New England, in 1620, by Ashbel Steele, 1857, published by J. B. Lippincott.

Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth, by Alexander Young, 1841, published by C. C. Little and J. Brown.

The Colony of New Plymouth and Its Relations to Massachusetts: A Lecture of a Course by Members of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Delivered before the Lowell Institute, Jan. 19, 1869, by William Brigham, 1869. 

Elder William Brewster, of the Mayflower: His Books and Autographs, with Other Notes, by Justin Winsor, 1887, published by John Wilson and Son.

Epitaphs from Burial Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts from 1657 to 1892 with Biographical and Historical Notes, by Bradford Kingman, 1892, Brookline, Mass.: New England Illustrated Historical Publishing Company.

The Enterprise of the Mayflower, by Amice MacDonell, 1889, published by Walter H. Baker & Company.

The General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1901, published by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.

Good Newes from New England, by Edward Winslow, 1996, published by Applewood Books.  

Governor William Bradford’s Letter Book, by William Bradford, 1906, published by the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants (reprinted from the Mayflower Descendant).

The Graves of Myles Standish and Other Pilgrims, by Eugene Joseph Vincent Huiginn, 1914.

Guide to Plymouth and Recollections of the Pilgrims, Volume 2, by William Shaw Russell, 1846.

Handbook of Old Burial Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts: Its History, Its Famous Dead, and Its Quaint Epitaphs, by Frank Herman Perkins, 1896.

An Historical Memoir of the Colony of New Plymouth, by Francis Baylies, 1830, published by Hilliard, Gray, Little and Wilkins.

A History of the Allerton Family in the United States, 1585 to 1885, and a Genealogy of the Descendants of Isaac Allerton, Mayflower Pilgrim, Plymouth, Mass., 1620, by Walter Scott Allerton and Horace True Currier, 1900, published by S. W. Allerton.

History of Plimoth Plantation, by William Bradford, 1898, Boston: Wright and Potter Printing Co.

History of Plymouth County with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Massachusetts, by Duane Hamilton Hurd, 1884, Philadelphia: J. W. Lewis & Co.

History of Plymouth Plantation, by William Bradford, edited with notes by Charles Deane, 1856, Boston: Privately Printed.

The History of the Pilgrims, Or, A Grandfather’s Story of the First Settler of New England, 1831, Boston: T. B. Marvis for the Massachusetts Sabbath School Union.

History of the Town of Plymouth, by William Thomas Davis, 1885, Philadelphia: J. W. Lewis & Co.

History of the Town of Plymouth, from Its First Settlement in 1620 to the Present Time: With a 

Concise History of the Aborigines of New England, and Their Wars with the English, etc., by James Thacher, 1835, published by Marsh, Capen & Lyon.

The Howland Homestead, 1911, published by the Society of the Descendants of Pilgrim John Howland, of the Ship Mayflower.

An Illustrated Guide to Historic Plymouth, Massachusetts, by Walter F. Wheeler, 1921, Boston: The Union News Company.

John Robinson, Pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers, A Study of his Life and Times, by Walter Herbert Burgess, 1920, published by Williams & Norgate.

The Last of the Mayflower, by James Rendel Harris, 1920, published by the University Press.

Lives of the Governors of New Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, by Jacob Bailey Moore, 1848, New York: Gates & Stedman.

The Mayflower, edited by Robert Hamilton, 1846, originally published in Boston by Saxton & Kelt.

Mayflower Essays on the Story of the Pilgrim Fathers as Told in Governor Bradford’s History of the Plimoth Plantation:  With a Reproduction of Captain John Smith’s Map of New England, by George Cuthbert Blaxland, 1896, published by Ward & Downey.

The Mayflower: Or, Scenes and Sketches Among the Descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852, published by Knight and Son.

The Mayflower Pilgrims: Being a Condensation in the Original Wording and Spelling of the Story Written by Gov. William Bradford of their Privations and Trials, and the Voyage of the Mayflower and Settlement at Plymouth in the Year 1620, by William Bradford and John Tyler Wheelwright, 1921, published by McGrath-Sherrill Press.

The Mayflower Descendant: A Quarterly Magazine of Pilgrim Genealogy and History, Volume 23 (1921) and others published by the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants.

Mayflower Descendants and Their Marriages for Two Generations After Landing, 1922, published by the Bureau of Military and Civic Achievement, Washington, DC

The Mayflower Pilgrim Descendants in Cape May County, New Jersey, by Paul Sturtevant Howe, 1921, published by A. R. Hand.

Mourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, 1986, published by Applewood Books.

Mourt’s Relation Or Journal of the Plantation at Plymouth, contributors Edward Winslow, Henry Martyn Dexter, and William Bradford, 1865, published by J. K. Wiggin.

The New England’s Memorial, by Nathaniel Morton, 2009, published by Applewood Books.

The Pastor of the Pilgrims: A Biography of John Robinson, by Walter Herbert Burgess, 1920, published by Harcourt, Brace & Howe.

Pilgrim Alden: The Story of the Life of the First John Alden in America, by Augustus Ephraim Alden, 1902, Boston: James H. Earle & Company.

Pilgrims and Puritans: The Story of the Planting of Plymouth and Boston, by Nina Moore Tiffany, 1888, published by Ginn & Company.

The Pilgrims and Their Monument, by Edmund Janes Carpenter, 1911, published by D. Appleton and Company.

Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, In New England, Volume 7, by Nathaniel Shurtleff and David Pulsifer, 1861, Boston: the press of William White. 

Records of the Town of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Volume 1 1636 to 1705, 1889, Plymouth: Avery & Doten.

Richard Warren of the Mayflower and Some of His Descendants, by Emily Warren Roebling, 1901, published by David Clapp & Son.

The Romantic Story of the Mayflower Pilgrims: And Its Place in the Life of Today, by Albert Christopher Addison, 1911, published by L. C. Page.

Signers of the Mayflower Compact, by Annie Arnoux Haxtun, 1896.

The Signers of the Mayflower Compact and Their Descendants, by Henry Whittemore, 1899, published by the Mayflower Publishing Company.

Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of Michigan, 1915.

Stories of the Pilgrims, by Margaret Blanche Pumphrey, 1912, published by Rand McNally.

A Tribute to the Memory of the Pilgrims, and a Vindication of the Congregational Churches of New England, by Joel Hawes, 1836, published by D. Burgess & Company.

The Voyage of the Mayflower, by Blanche McManus, 1897, published by E. R. Herrick & Company.

The Women of the Mayflower and Women of Plymouth Colony, by Ethel Jane Russell Chesebrough Noyes, 1921, published by Memorial Press. 

The Women who Came on the Mayflower, by Annie Russell Marble, 1920, published by the Pilgrim Press.

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "A Google Book Search for Mayflower Books", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 23, 2020, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2020/01/a-google-book-search-for-mayflower-books.html: accessed [access date]).

A Google Book Search for Nutfield Books

Names of people (ancestors, relatives, their neighbors and friends mentioned in letters and documents) can show up in all sorts of places online. Google Book search is nice place to start from the comfort of your own home http://books.google.com/  When starting out with a family or new branch of the family tree, it is a good idea to just explore the local history where you know your ancestor lived. Once you click on a book found at Google Books, you are able to search for keywords in every volume, one at a time or through all the books in the database. If Google Books doesn’t satisfy, try Internet Archive or the Hathi Trust websites.   For the book best selection, check your local library and see what is available through the inter-library loan system.

Here are a few of the books found about Nutfield (Londonderry, Derry, Windham, Derryfield (Manchester)), New Hampshire at Google Book Search:

Bibliography of Manchester, NH, by Sylvester Clark Gould and John Weeks Moore, 1885, originally published by Harvard University.

Manchester Historic Association Collections, Volume 4, by the Manchester Historic Association, 1908. [also volumes 1; 3, 1903; 1897; 7, 1914;  11, 1909; and more]

Contributions to the History of Derryfield, New Hampshire, William Ellery Moore, 1896, originally published by Harvard University.

Derry Revisited, by Richard Holmes and William Dugan, 2005, Acadia Publishing

  

The Descendants of James and William Adams of Londonderry, Now Derry, NH: Also a Brief Account of the Families of Robert Cochran and Joseph Morrison of Londonderry, and of Dea. Thomas Cochran of New Boston, NH, by Andrew N. Adams, 1894, Rutland, VT, Tuttle Company. (Also available is the Higginson Genealogical Books reprint)

Early Records of Londonderry, Windham and Derry, NH 1719-1745, by George Waldo Browne, 1911, Manchester Historic Association.

Early Records of the Town of Derryfield, 1751 – 1782, George Waldo Browne, 1905.

Early Records of the Town of Derryfield, 1782 – 1800, George Waldo Browne, 1907, Manchester, NH.

Historic Tales of Windham, by Derek Saffie, 2016, Arcadia Publishing.

The History of Londonderry, Comprising the Towns of Derry and Londonderry, NH , by Edward Lutwych Parker, 1851, Boston: Perkins and Whipple.

  

James Rodgers of Londonderry and James Rogers of Dunbarton, by Josiah H. Drummond. 1897, Manchester, NH, Gould Publishers

Londonderry, by the Londonderry Historical Society, 2004, Arcadia Publishing. (some pages not viewable)

The Londonderry Celebration: Exercises on the 150th Anniversary of the Settlement of Old Nutfield , by Robert C Mack, 1870, Manchester: Published by John B. Clarke.

Manchester: A Brief Record of Its Past and Picture of Its Present, Including an Account of Its Settlement and of Its Growth as a Town and City; A History of Its Schools, Churches, Societies, Banks,  compiled by Maurice D. Clarke, 1875, published by J. B. Clarke.

Manchester Men: Soldiers and Sailors in the Civil War, 1861 – 66, by George Clinton Gilmore, 1898, originally published by Harvard University.

The Manchester, New Hampshire Directory, 1901, Sampson & Murdock Company.

Poems of Robert Dinsmoor, “The Rustic Bard”, by Robert Dinsmoor and James Dinsmoor, 1898, Damrell & Upham.

Scotch Irish in New England, by Arthur Latham Perry, 1891, J.S. Cushing & Company (originally the University of California).

Scotch Irish Pioneers in Ulster and America, by Charles Knowles Bolton, 1910, published by Bacon and Brown (originally the University of California).

Semi-centennial of the City of Manchester, New Hampshire September 5, 7, 8, 9, 1896, by Herbert Walter Eastman, 1897.

A Sermon, Delivered at Londonderry East Parish, May 5, 1816, Occasioned by the Death of John Pinkerton, Esq., by Edward Lutwyche Parker, 1816.

The Siege and History of Londonderry, 1861 [about Londonderry in Northern Ireland before the 1718 migration]

Supplement to the History of Windham in New Hampshire: A Scotch Settlement, by Leonard Allison Morrison, 1892, Boston, Mass: Damrell & Upham

The Road to Derry:  A Brief History, by Richard Holmes, 2009, Arcadia Publishing.

Township, Nutfield, Harrytown, Derryfield, and Manchester, From the Earliest Settlements to the Present Time, by George Franklyn Willey, 1896, Manchester, NH: Willey Publishers

  

Willey’s Book of Nutfield: A History of that Part of New Hampshire Comprised Within the Limits of the Old Township of Londonderry, from Its Settlement in 1719 to the Present Time, by George Franklyn Willey, 1895.

Willey’s Semi-Centennial Book of Manchester, 1846-1896: Historic Sketches of that Part of New Hampshire Comprised Within the Limits of the Old Tyng Township, Nutfield, Harrytown, Derryfield, and Manchester, From the Earliest Settlements to the Present Time, by George Franklyn Willey, 1896, Manchester, NH: Willey Publishers

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

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "A Google Book Search for Nutfield Books", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 16, 2020, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2020/01/a-google-book-search-for-nutfield-books.html: accessed [access date]).

Weird Search Terms

It’s been about two years since I’ve published a list of weird search terms.  For a while, I wasn’t recording some of very odd ones, and so unfortunately they all have been lost.  But here are some doozies I do remember, and some strange ones I remembered to write down.

Remember, these are the actual words someone "Googled" to land at my blog. 

For some of the past funny search term blog posts, see the links below.

Google                                                My comments

Throat Distemper                              Yes, it’s a real disease, called Diptheria today

Glosster Massitchuchest                   Really?  And you landed at my blog?

Photo of French and Indian War      Let me call Dr. Who…

Photo of Johnny Appleseed              Darn!  His camera needs recharging!

Who was burned in Salem?              No one, they were hanged

Cast iron coffins                                  Again, why my blog?

Photo of Gov. Roger Conant            See above

Queen Victoria’s Legs                        OK, this one made me curious.  I had to Google, too

Sam Adams isn’t here?                      Nope. Nor is Budweiser

Is your ancestor a Pilgrim?               Yes, but is YOUR ancestor one, too?

Maine’s grandmother                       ????

Just Plain Odd…

Dirty genealogy

How to hang a witch

Is it wrong to marry ancestors

Tombstone towels

For the truly curious:

Weird Search Terms July 2011

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/06/weird-search-terms-2011.html

Weird Search Terms May 2012

 http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/05/friday-funny-weird-search-terms-for-my.html

Weird Search Terms February 2013

 http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/02/weird-search-terms-february-2013.html

Weird Search Terms October 2013

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/10/weirdsearch-terms-2013-google-comment.html   

Weird Search Terms March 2014

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/03/weird-search-terms-2014.html

Weird Search Terms December 2014

https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/12/weird-search-terms-for-my-blog-2014.html

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

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Weird Search Terms", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 13, 2016,  ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/01/weird-search-terms.html: accessed [access date]). 

To all Nutfield Genealogy Blog Followers

To my dear blog readers and blog followers,

Each and every one of you is important to me.  I enjoy your email and comments very much, and many of you have become Facebook friends with me, or have joined my Facebook group “Nutfield Genealogy” https://www.facebook.com/nutfield.gen/?fref=ts   I appreciate all your comments, suggestions, humor and inquires.

I operate my blog on a blogging platform supported by Google.   Recently Google announced that they will be changing the way Google Friend Connect works for blog followers.  If you signed in to be a blog follower using anything other than a Google account, your name was removed from the follower list. This affects anyone who signed in using a Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or OpenID account.  You can read the press release from Google at this link:  http://buzz.blogger.com/2015/12/an-update-on-google-friend-connect.html

If you were removed from the follower list, you will no longer receive notifications of new posts. You will need to sign up for a Google account and re-follow the blog.  Or you can look in the right hand column of my blog for the “Follow by email” link.  Just enter your email and you will receive an email notice every time I publish a new blog post.

This morning I noticed that I formerly had over 350 followers, but now I have only 278 followers listed for my blog.  I'm very sorry that some of you were cut from notifications.  It is beyond my control, and I hope you will sign up by email to re-follow. 

 If anyone has questions, concerns, or comments, please comment below or email me at vrojomit@gmail.com

Thank you for reading my blog!

Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Top Ten Blog Posts for 2015

Every month on the 10^th I post some sort of “Top Ten” list.  It’s very funny that two of these Top Ten posts made the Top Ten list for 2015!  Of the top ten posts, only three were written in 2015, which I find very interesting, too.  

My blog is not monetized.  I don’t promote advertising, and I have no affiliate links. So checking out my stats is only an activity I do out of pure curiosity and fun.  If there are patterns, I just ignore them because I write for fun, for my family, and for the pure enjoyment of receiving comments and feedback from readers.

Here are the top ten blog posts from Nutfield Genealogy -  in reverse order…

#10. "Plan ahead for genealogy research without Family Tree Maker – Part 1 of an ongoing series"

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/12/plan-ahead-for-genealogy-research.html

                The retirement of Family Tree Maker software was big news late in 2015, and this post barely made it to the top 10 list.  It barely made a little over 1,000 hits this past month according to my statistics.  Not bad for a post from just a few weeks ago.

#9.   "Hezekiah Wyman and the Legend of the White Horseman"

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/04/hezekiah-wyman-and-legend-of-white.html

                This blog post is from 2011 and gets a lot of hits around Patriot’s Day (April 19^th- the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord- when this episode in history took place).  I’m not sure why so many people are googling the story of Hezekiah Wyman, the guerilla sharp shooter who picked off many of the British regulars as they retreated back towards Boston. It’s a good story, but rarely found in any history books.

#8.  "The Five Kernels of Corn Myth at Thanksgiving"

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-five-kernels-of-corn-myth-at.html

                This is another perennial favorite, and gets hundreds of hits every Thanksgiving since it was first published in 2013. I should try a re-write next Thanksgiving with updated information.

#7.  "Ten Things to Know About Researching a Pilgrim in Your Family Tree"

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/11/ten-things-to-know-about-researching.html

                This post blew up my statistics for 2015, and made November one of my best months, passing over 60,000 hits over all for that month.  Pilgrim stories are very popular on my blog (see #8 above).

#6.  "A Funny Thing Happened on Our Way to Pick up Photo Prints"

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-funny-thing-happened-on-our-way-to.html   

                This is another perennial favorite, and was picked up by Pinterest last year and still gets most of its hits referred from Pinterest.  This is interesting since I stopped using Pinterest around the same time that this post was published.  I guess the blog post sharing on Pinterest has taken on a life of its own with me even promoting my blogs anymore.

#5.  "Fruitlands exhibit of “New England Portraits” "

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/02/fruitlands-exhibit-of-new-england.html

                Two years ago this blog post was picked up by a knitting website (one of the featured folk art portraits shows a woman knitting), and went on a mini viral trip that still draws a lot of knitters to my blog from the "Ravelry" website.  I hope they learn to love genealogy as much as knitting!

#4.  "Surname Saturday ~ FOWLE of Charlestown and Woburn, Massachusetts"

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/12/surname-saturday-fowle-of-charlestown.html

                It is very funny to me that this particular family FOWLE made the top ten list.  They are not a very well known family.  Didn’t come on the Mayflower. No Revolutionary War generals. No presidential or royal connections.  Its a true mystery why the FOWLE post has thousands of hits.

#3.   "10 Unexpected Places to Find Family History Online"

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/02/10-unexpected-places-to-find-family.html

                This blog post from earlier in 2015 has over 6,000 hits and still gets hundreds of hits each month.  It will be interesting to see if it remains popular and stays on the top ten list next year, too.

#2.  "Flora Stewart – Black History Month in Londonderry"

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-favorite-christmas-gift-you-might.html 

                The photo of former house slave Flora Stewart that was published with this blog post went viral on Pinterest two years ago.  It was picked up by several African American websites and chat groups, and  I still get many hits from some very interesting Black history websites.  I’m glad this one was so popular, and that this obscure housemaid from Londonderry, New Hampshire is becoming so famous online!

#1.  "A Favorite Christmas Gift!  You might want one, too!"

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-favorite-christmas-gift-you-might.html

                OK, this one is barely about genealogy, but it continues to be a favorite on my blog.  Right away, back in 2012 it was picked up by Pinterest, Buzzfeed,, Tipsted and other crafty type websites and blogs. It has over 200,000 hits and grows by leaps and bounds, especially every Christmas and Mother’s Day.  This past month It gained another 18,000 hits. I hope that a few of the crafty readers also pick up a love of family history and check out my other blog posts, too!

Top Ten Traffic Sources for 2015

1. Google

2.  BuzzFeed

3. Pinterest

4.  Facebook

5.  Nutfield Genealogy

6.  Bing

7.  Yahoo

8.  Google.UK

9.  Tipsted

10.  Clark Howard

Other odd facts-
      First blog post -  27 July 2009
      Total posts 2077
      Published comments (minus spam)  4161
      Page views all time history  1, 521,235 (as of January 1, 2016)

Top Five Search Keywords (phrases)
1.  "White Horse"
2.  "Nutfield Genealogy"
3. "Flora Stewart"
4.  "Thanksgiving Proclamation"
5. "Tombstone"

Total Blog Posts by Year
2009  - 75 posts
2010  - 337 posts
2011  - 341 posts
2012  - 346 posts
2013  - 349 posts
2014  - 309 posts
2015  -  291 posts  (In the last two years I moved and then had a grandbaby- good excuses?)

Total number of views of these pages:

"Surnames to 9 Generations"                 16,640
"Descendants of Thomas Wilkinson"    11,665
"Descendants of Samuel Wilkinson"       7,649
"Awards"                                                  6,180
"Honor Roll Project"                                6,169 (this has moved to its own webpage)
"New England Genealogy Bloggers"       5,709

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Published under a Creative Commons License
Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Top Ten Blog Posts for 2015", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 10, 2016, (  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/01/top-ten-blog-posts-for-2015.html: accessed [access date]). 

Weird Search Terms for My Blog 2014

Google                                                           My Comment

Skelton family massitustice                                     Apparently spelling doesn’t count on Google?

Ferdinand & Isabella weathervane                           Now THAT would be cool!

Secret documents Alan Bartlett Shepard                     THAT would be even cooler

Mirskidok                                                                ???

Norton Howland Bearse Adams Benson Clark          Narrow your search

Lundundairy                                                             Ha!

New Hamster                                                          How about West Vir-gerbil?

kuai maryot weather station                                      I don’t know how google found me with this, but

                                                                               I did have a photo of the Kauai Marriott weather station

                                                                               Believe it or not!

Images searched online that actually landed on my blog website ….

Photos of Salem witch hangings                               Yeah, right

Photo Winthrop Fleet                                               Sure, with my iPhone…

Photo Mayflower Compact signing                           OK, I’ll use my iPhone, and get a selfie this time

Questions on Google?

Are there any photos of my father online?                [this is sad]

Whose the astronot from NH?                                 5 points off for spelling

Just Plain Odd…

Cemetery property for sale flyers

Victorian steel hats

Boston Alaska Chinese vase

Salem witch shoes                                   

Close, but no cigar… these are names of kin

                                     (no one else would know these names),

                                     if you are the cousin who googled these please identify yourself!

Jonathan Glover Lee NH 1800s put in insane asylum

Peter Hoogerzeil Beverly Mass

Abijah Franklin Hitching book author

Reverend Ingraham Ebenezer Bill

For the truly curious:

Weird Search Terms July 2011
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/06/weird-search-terms-2011.html

Weird Search Terms May 2012 

 http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/05/friday-funny-weird-search-terms-for-my.html

Weird Search Terms February 2013

 http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/02/weird-search-terms-february-2013.html

Weird Search Terms October 2013
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/10/weirdsearch-terms-2013-google-comment.html 

Weird Search Terms March 2014
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/03/weird-search-terms-2014.html

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The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/12/weird-search-terms-for-my-blog-2014.html

Copyright © 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Weird Search Terms 2014

Search Term                                      My Comment

“five carnals of corn”                            giggle and blush

list all the WWII soldiers                      In my spare time

geneo.ogy                                            really?

Londondairy                                        Moo

Dery new hamster                                really?

Virtuwal Mayflower accpericance         ?

Abandoned Japanese hole shelters        I’m dying to know more

Mayflower society does not approve    I’m dying to know what the next word is

Images searched online that actually landed on my blog website ….

Photos of salem ma witches                Let me warm up the time machine     

Photos of Franklin’s mother               Where is Doc Brown when you need him?

Questions on Google?

What whitches hung in 1692?               What? 

Who grandmother dounturn abby?        Where?

How do I apply Meyflour certificate?    How?

Naashuaa mayor                                  Who?

4 July 7176                                          When?

Mistakes?

érett swwex                                         Pardon me?  And how did this land on my blog?

Most popular search terms this year:

1.   maria del rosario cayetana alfonsa

2.  Nutfield Genealogy

3.  Duchess of Alba

4.  Thanksgiving proclamation 2010

5.  Kilcher family tree

6.  tombstone

7.  Villar de Ciervo Salamanca

8.  abandoned places nh

9.   "john and sarah"  ship

10.  White horse

The most popular referring websites to Nutfield Genealogy:

1.  Google

2.  Pinterest

3.  Nutfield Genealogy

4.  Bing

5.  Buzzfeed

6.  Yahoo

7.  Facebook

8.  Ravelry.com  (a knitting website, can you believe it?)

9.  Vampirestate.com  

10.  Ask.com 

For the truly curious:

Weird Search Terms July 2011
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/06/weird-search-terms-2011.html

Weird Search Terms May 2012 

 http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/05/friday-funny-weird-search-terms-for-my.html

Weird Search Terms February 2013

 http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/02/weird-search-terms-february-2013.html

Weird Search Terms October 2013
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/10/weirdsearch-terms-2013-google-comment.html 

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The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/03/weird-search-terms-2014.html

Copyright © 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo