Update at Nutfield Genealogy

August has been a busy month, even though I wasn’t even home one week to work on genealogy!  I spent some time on Long Island, and found several interesting things to blog about later, including my posts on Shelter Island, the Dolan DNA Learning Center and the Walt Whitman Birthplace.  I always find something historical when we are sightseeing! 

Last month my newest guest blogger, Betty Pye Wing, launched her own blog The Pye Plate at http://thepyeplate.blogspot.com/   This is the third time I’ve encouraged someone to start their own blog, and they all are wonderful!  In fact, one of these bloggers has also started a second blog (unrelated to genealogy), so they must be having fun!  And I think that The Pye Plate is one of the all time great names for a blog!  

The Nesmith Public library in Windham has honored me by placing a link to my blog on their page of genealogical resources on their website.  Windham is one of the original towns that made up the grant of land known as Nutfield.  It’s always nice to learn more about Windham.  I was surprised to see quite a few hits on my blog that traced back to the library website.  What a great surprise.  Check it out! http://www.nesmithlibrary.org/Misc/Genealogy.html

Just last week a student at St. Anselm’s college in Manchester contacted me about using one of my photographs of a family burial plot in her presentation.  It is a lecture “for medical professionals that will contrast how the culture was in the 1800s vs. today for the acceptance of death and dying.”  I wish I could be a fly on the wall for that presentation!  I granted her permission, attributed to my photographer, Vincent Rojo, and I applauded her for asking.  I’m sure many more of my photos have been “lifted” without permission.  You can see the photo of the Pettingill Burial Ground of Londonderry at this link: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/10/tombstone-tuesday-pettingill-burial.html

A story I posted last year on the Towne Family Burial Ground around the corner from my house will be published in the next issue of the Towne Family Association newsletter, “About Towne” (another great name!).   I just received permission to take photos of the folk art portraits of Robert Boyd and Mary Towne that hang in Londonderry’s Leach Public Library to accompany the article.  If you are a descendant of William Towne and Joanna Blessing who came to Salem, Massachusetts about 1635, you can read all about it! The condominium I live in now was built on the Boyd dairy farm in the 1960s.  The Townes lived across the street, near the burial ground.  William must have fell in love with “the girl next door!”  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/09/tombstone-tuesday-towne-family-burial.html

Cousin Connections:

While I was in Long Island I received an email from a brother and sister who were excited to find their Wilkinson ancestors on my blog.  They were able to trace 11 generations back!  Some photos of a graveyard  I had posted from my first cousin near Brownsville, Maine helped them to put it all together.  We are very distant cousins, but it’s always nice to meet another Wilkinson descendant.

Another sharp eyed reader found several common ancestors on my blog, HAM, HEARD and HULL among others, and sent me the link for the Tamsen Meserve counterfeiter story.  It was too good not to share, so it was yesterday’s post.  I hope you enjoyed it, too!  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-1731-counterfeiter-named-tamsen.html

A third cousin wrote to me from Texas, after he saw my story about the Draper and Maynard Sports Equipment Company, and the very unique name of Cupe Adams.  He must have used Google.  I don’t think there are many people in the world with the name Cupe.  He said that he was Cupe Adams, the 5^th George Herbert Adams.   He also divulged that the first George got the nickname Cupe from delivering love messages to the girls side of campus to the boys side of campus.  The students started calling him Cupid.  It evolved into Cupe.  It was a great name to use for “cousin bait”!   The story about Cupe Adams can be found at this link: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/08/draper-and-maynard-sports-equipment.html

Enjoy what little of summer is left! 

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Update on Nutfield Genealogy

The last two weeks have been hard since my old computer died a slow death with a deteriorating hard drive.  Fortunately all the data was recoverable, and I didn’t need to use my cloud storage or my external hard drive storage.  It took days to move the data (literally) since we have many gigs of photos and documents.  It took a professional to do all the fine tuning, which is fine by me since I wanted it done fast and “right the first time”.   

Thank goodness for pre-posting two weeks of blog posts ahead of time!

Several emails and messages kept me busy on my laptop while all this was happening.  First, Jeanie at The Family Connection blog http://www.jeaniesgenealogy.com/ wrote to me about my blog post “John Locke ~ He Cut Off an Indian’s Nose with his Scythe” at this link: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/07/john-locke-he-cut-off-indians-nose-with.html

She questioned my statement that John Locke was not married to Elizabeth Berry.  She was correct, and I was wrong in my post.  John Locke definitely did marry Elizabeth Berry, daughter of William and Jane Berry, about 1652.  I was thinking of statements seen all over the internet that his wife was Elizabeth BOLLES or BOWLES.  See, I almost perpetuated that myth with my boo boo.  Sorry, Jeanie, but thanks for making the comment so I could correct the blog post!

I had my guest blogger Bette Pye Wing write up a second blog post about Fort Banks, Winthrop, Massachusetts at this link: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/07/fort-banks-winthrop-massachusetts.html .  She will be creating her own genealogy blog soon, and it will be titled “The Pye Plate” (cute name ‘eh?)  I’ve never met Bette, but she is a cousin to a very good friend.  Bette’s research on her lineage to the Mayflower passenger Stephen Hopkins helped me to complete an application for membership for my friend’s Mom just two year before she passed away.  She was thrilled to become a member, even though she was only a member for a very short time.  Now her children and grandchildren and descendants will be able to apply for member in the Society of Mayflower Descendants, all due to Bette’s hard work.

I also heard from Paul A. Clark, who is researching Esther Wines, wife of Nicholas Hodson, married about 1639.  He is looking for a connection to the Wincoll family and is also looking for a will written by a cousin with the fantastic name of “Faintnot Wines” from Charlestown, Massachusetts.  This will mentions the cousin connections. Has anyone out there done any research on the WINCOLL or WINES families?

A mysterious message by “ Fr. Garcelon” left me a link to a GARCELON family tree on an excel spreadsheet.  Thanks, for the link and I have checked out the large pedigree chart!  I know I haven’t blogged about this family, but I did leave a message on a bulletin board a few years ago when I was looking for information on a Peter James Garcelon who married my third cousin Anna M. Wilkinson on 14 August 1875 in La Grange, Maine.   The pedigree chart was very helpful.

I am finding Connecticut research maddening.  There are two Charlotte Mathers  (a daughter in law and her mother in law) who appear to have flown under the radar and their records do not appear in any of the usual places for vital records.  I’ve never done any research in Connecticut before.  I hope I don’t have to make a trip down there!  Help! Any research tips or RAOGK would be appreciated now.   Maybe now that I have my computer I can write to a dozen possible towns clerks for information!

Surprise, surprise!  A very odd bunch of websites related to metal detecting have been referring readers to my blog.  I clicked on one of the links that showed up on my statistics page, and there was a running thread on a forum for metal detectors.  It seems that someone dug up a metal medallion related to an anniversary for the city of Springfield, Massachusetts.  On the front of this medallion was an image of Samuel Chapin, one of the city founders.  There is a large statue of Chapin in Springfield, and I blogged about it during the last NERGC conference in Springfield (see this link: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/04/mini-chapin-reunion.html)    My blog post and the accompanying photograph helped the hobbyists identify the medallion and the image of my 10 x Great Grandfather, Deacon Samuel Chapin.  You never know, do you, where all this blogging will lead?

For the truly curious:

The link to the metal detecting thread:

http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=121022 

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo and Bette Pye Wing

Fort Banks, Winthrop, Massachusetts

Fort Banks – Winthrop MA

by Guest Blogger, Bette Pye Wing

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, Winthrop is where I grew up. I never knew it at the time, but it was a super special place to live. As I moved to new places and visited others, I was able to make a fairly accurate assessment of each and Winthrop always came out the winner.

For instance, how many kids grew up on a peninsula 1.6 miles square, with 7 miles of beaches, a view of the inner harbor and Boston skyline on one side and nothing but ocean and islands in any other direction?  For that matter, how many kids grew up in a town with two (2) forts and a third one near by on Deer Island? Yes, that would be as in military forts and not just historical ones, but actively occupied and maintained forts. It wasn’t unusual to see jeeps and Army trucks on the streets near the biggest fort, Fort Banks. It was usual to spend a day at the beach and see the Shore Patrol making their daily rounds. The Army was a definite presence in our town.

Fort Banks started out as a Mortar Battery, originally built in 1892. It was named for the Civil War general and congressman, Nathaniel P. Banks. It originally had four pits with four, twelve inch diameter mortars each. These mortars were capable of sending an 800 pound shell, nine miles out to sea. This installation was meant to guard and protect Boston Harbor as part of the Harbor Defense. Later, anti-aircraft guns were added and Fort Banks became the base for the Army’s 9^th Artillery Regiment. In preparation for WWII, by the end of June 1941, there 58 Officers, 18 NCO’s and 892 enlisted men stationed at Fort Banks. As we headed into the Korean War, Nike Anti-Aircraft Rockets were on the site.  The fort now served as part of the early warning system for all of New England. There was also a 250 bed hospital, barracks and officers housing. Today, only one pit and two underground bunkers remain of the original installation, which were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. In the 40’s and 50’s military personnel had life pretty easy. Fort Banks became know as The Country Club, while Revere Beach Amusement Park and the hot spots in Boston provided plenty of entertainment.

What once was an important defense installation bustling with military personnel and activity, became inactive September 30,1966. It has become a multi-use area, today, with a school, playground, condominiums, apartment buildings and a cemetery.

I have access to the census records of Fort Banks from 1910 – 1940 and will do look-ups. Please use thepyeplate@gmail.com to request additional info or look-ups.

The other two forts, Fort Dawes and Fort Heath will be the subjects of future blogs.

  

Sources:

http://ed-thelen.org/J-McGrath/NBANKS.HTM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Banks_Mortar_Battery

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fort_Banks_Mortar_Battery_Winthrop_MA_01.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Banks_(Massachusetts)

http://winthropite.com/history

personal observations and history

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo and Bette Pye Wing

So, Where is Winthrop anyway?

An essay by a new guest blogger, Bette Pye Wing

The Deane Winthrop House circa 1675
Winthrop, Massachusetts

So where is Winthrop anyway? I grew up in Winthrop, but I always say I’m from Boston because no one knows where Winthrop is. I run into other New Englanders and they say the same thing, so I always say “me too, but I actually come from Winthrop.” Then I find out they’re from Lynn, Medford, Chelsea, Revere or another town they think no one has heard of. So then we have a great chat about Boston, the home towns and how much we miss New England. I call myself an outlander, but, in truth, I’m a died in the wool, sea water in my veins, New Englander.

But this isn’t about me, it’s about Winthrop. This little gem of a town is a peninsula jutting out into the northern reaches of Boston Harbor. There are only two ways into and out of town, one through East Boston and the other through Revere. This has provided the town with a bit of insulation. You usually have a reason for going there because you can’t go any further. There’s nothing beyond except the mighty North Atlantic. You don’t drive through Winthrop on your way to some other town.

Winthrop was settled in 1630 by just a handful of hardy people. Much of it was owned by John Winthrop, Gov. of Mass. Bay Colony. His son, Deane Winthrop (1623-1704) was one of the early settlers. The place that became his home was built in 1637 and he lived there 1647-1703. It has become one of the oldest wood frame houses in the country. Another distinction for this historical jewel is that it is the oldest continuously lived in home in the United States. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

When I was a youngster, the people, who lived there as caretakers, were friends of my family. I spent many an afternoon there with my mother while she visited with her friend. I treasure my warm memories of this house, but one stands out vividly. Across from the front door was a closet built in under the staircase. This small, cramped closet held a secret, though. Way in the back was another door. I was allowed to go into that place, have the doors closed and for a brief moment in time, I experienced the fear those early children must have felt, for this was a hidey-hole, where they hid the children during Indian attacks. I don’t know if the Indians ever did attack, but those first settlers were prepared to save their children. The Deane Winthrop House is open to the public but you must call ahead for an appointment. (617) 846-8606 40 Shirley St, Winthrop, MA 02152 Sources: http://www.wihaonline.org/deane.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deane_Winthrop_House

http://www.winthroptranscript.com/2009/03/19/deane-winthrop-house-writes-new-chapter-with-a-new-addition/ 

and Personal experience

by Guest Blogger Bette Pye Wing

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo and Bette Pye Wing