Surname Saturday ~ LAMBERT of Boston

LAMBERT / LOMBARD / LAMPORT / LAMPERT / LUMBARD

Lambert family, probably of Boston, is one of my biggest brickwall mysteries in my family tree.  My 5^th great grandmother, Elizabeth Lambert (about 1775 – 1834) was described as a Boston debutante by her grandson, Governor John Owen Dominis of Hawaii.  However, I am unable to find out anything about her LAMBERT family except for one tantalizing clue.  She had a possible sister, Sarah, who married a John DARKE/DARGUE in 1796.   Elizabeth named her eldest daughter, Sarah Dargue Jones (about 1794 – 1875) after this sister. 

Elizabeth and Sarah Lambert would have been born in Boston around the time of the Boston military occupation by British troops prior to 1775. They probably were not even born in Boston at all.  Civilians fled Boston during the occupation.  In 1768 the British had deployed two regiments, or 2,000 soldiers, to restore order.   A fleet of British war ships crowded the harbor, which was closed.  Then, in 1775, the British retreated from the battles of Lexington and Concord to Boston, which was held under Seige by militas and the Continental Army.  Most civilians fled, or at least sent their wives and children out of the city.  Most of those left behind were Loyalists.  If the Lamberts were here before or during the military occupation and the Seige, where did they go during the conflict?  This might be where Elizabeth and Sarah were born, or where their parents married. 

Bostonians reclaimed Boston after “Evacuation Day” on 17 March 1775 when the British fleet departed Boston Harbor with troops and Loyalists aboard.   Citizens returned to Boston to rebuild the city, which had been ransacked.   The population of Boston in 1765 had been about 15,000 people.   The number of people in Boston fell by 2/3 during the 1770s to a low of less than 6,000. 

In 1793 Elizabeth Lambert married Owen Jones, the son of a British customs official.  Were they loyalists? I have no proof one way or another.  They had eight children, six daughters who all married well, and two sons who died young.  One son died as a young child, the other died unmarried at sea.  My Lambert lineage daughters out, and my 4^th great grandmother was Catherine Plummer Jones (1799 – 1828) who also died young after giving five children to her mariner husband, Levi Younger, of Gloucester.

The Lamberts and the Joneses lived in Boston’s North End neighborhood.   Owen Jones lived on Ship Street,  Hanover Street, and Tileston Street.   Records were found in the New North North church and at the 2^nd Baptist Church. 

Interestingly, Elizabeth (Lambert) Jones’s obituary was carried in the Nantucket Inquirer on 11 February 1834.  Did she have relatives on the island of Nantucket?  

Unfortunately, It is difficult to find vital records or any other type of information on Boston families during and before the Revolutionary War.  And LAMBERT and all its spelling variations were very common.  There were many LAMBERT families in Boston and other parts of Massachusetts.  I have had some luck searching church records, newspapers, and other sources. 

If anyone has a clue as to the identity of this LAMBERT family, please leave a comment or email vrojomit@gmail.com

My LAMBERT genealogy:

Generation 1:   Unknown Lambert; married and had two daughter (probably more children)  1.) Elizabeth 2.) Sarah Lambert born about 1776 and died 3 September 1796, married on 1 Dec 1793 to John Darke/Dargue

Generation 2:  Elizabeth Lambert, born about 1775, died 6 February 1834 in Boston; married on 11 May 1793 at the 2^nd Baptist Church, Boston, Massachusetts to Owen Jones, son of Owen Jones and Ann Unknown.  He was born about 1678 in Wales, and died 22 April 2850 in Dorchester, Massachusetts.  Eight children.

Generation 3:  Catherine Plummer Jones, born about 1799, died 2 May 1828; married on 23 October 1816 in Gloucester, Massachusetts to Levi Younger as his first wife.  He also married Jane Unknown, who died 26 November 1845 in Boston;  and Margaret Unknown, who died 21 February 1895. Five chidren.

Generation 4:  Mary Esther Younger, born 17 Feb 1826 and died 7 January 1913 in Boston.  Eight children.

Generation 5:  Mary Katharine Emerson m. George E. Batchelder

Generation 6:  Carrie Maude Batchelder m. Joseph Elmer Allen

Generation 7:  Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandparents)

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Surname Saturday ~  LAMBERT of Boston", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 21, 2017,  ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/01/surname-saturday-lambert-of-boston.html: accessed [access date]).  

Surname Saturday ~ JONES of Wales and Boston, Massachusetts

Vincent and I at Washington Place, Honolulu, Hawaii
the home built by my 4th great aunt
Mary Lambert (Jones) Dominis, born in Boston, 1803.
This was Queen Lili'uokalani's last residence,
and the current governor's residence.

My 6^th great grandfather, Owen Jones, born about 1735, was a Royal Customs agent at Aberystwyth, Wales and also a customs agent at Boston, Massachusetts (probably before the Revolutionary War).  His son, Owen Jones, my 5^th great grandfather, was born about 1768 in Wales and he married Elizabeth Lambert in Boston.  Apparently the rest of the family returned to Wales, and Owen, Jr. stayed in Boston.  Owen’s sister, Ann, is buried at Aberystwyth with the following epitaph:

“Here lies the body of Ann, the daughter of Owen Jones, Collector of the Customs at Aberystwyth, by Ann, his wife, who was born at Boston, New England on the 17th of February 1769, and departed this life the 18th of February 1791, aged 22 years. Also to the above named Owen Jones, who departed this life the 28th of February 1798, aged 62”

Owen Jones, Jr. was a mariner, and he lived at Ship Street in Boston’s North End in the 1810, 1820 and 1820 censuses and city directories.  In the 1842 Boston directory he was living at 199 Hanover Street, also in the North End.  His death notice in the New England Historic Genealogical Society Register, Vol. 4, page 293 (July 1850) reads: “Jones, Mr. Owen, Dorchester, 22 April, ae 82, formerly of Boston”.    His obituary in the Boston Evening Transcript, 22 April 1850, page 2 reads “At Dorchester, this morning, at the residence of Wm. Hart, Mr. Owen Jones, 82, formerly of this city.  Funeral services at the house of Enoch H. Snelling, No. 108 Salem Street, on Tuesday, at 3 ½ o’clock PM. Relatives and friends are invited to attend.”   William Hart was his son-in-law (married to his daughter Agnes Jones), and Enoch Snelling was another son-in-law (married to his eldest daughter Sarah Dargue Jones).

Owen Jones married Elizabeth Lambert and had eight children.  Six daughters, and two sons (one died young, the other died at sea unmarried).   One of these daughters was my 4^th great grandmother, Catherine Plummer Jones (about 1799 – 1828).  Another daughter was Mary Lambert Jones (1803 – 1889), who married Capt. John Dominis and removed to the Kingdom of Hawaii where she became the mother-in-law to Queen Liliuokalani.  Two other daughters are named above, and the other two were Laura Williams Jones, who married John Lee, and Anne Marie Stanwood Jones, who was the first wife of Robert William Holt who also removed to the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Catherine Plummer (Jones) Younger died at age 29 and left her husband a widower with young children.  Their daughter, my 3^rd great grandmother Mary Esther Younger, was adopted by her aunt Mary (Younger) Harris and raised in Boston.  It was a letter written by her nephew, William Lee, to his aunt Mary Dominis in Hawaii that told me the connection to Queen Liliuokalani.  This letter in the Hawaii State Archives, dated May 9, 1887, was written when Princess Liliuokalani, her husband Governor John Owen Dominis, and Queen Kapiolani were visiting relatives in Boston enroute to Queen Victoria’s Jubilee celebration in London.  “…I tell you Aunt Dominis, the Jones & Lambert race will never die out!... [mentions Esther Emerson]… you can easily see the coming of the Queen and her party has been a marked event with our people.”  [M-93 Lili’uokalani Collection, Box 9, Folder 94 (years 1185 – 1888, #1164, s.n. 1305, Hawai’i State Archives]. 

Another letter dated May 11, 1887 from Governor John Owen Dominis to his mother says “Yesterday forenoon we had a reception for all my Cousins and aunts and nearly all were here…. The Queen and Lydia [Liliuokalani’s Christian name] had quite a jolly time with our cousins – Lydia has the names of all who were here.”  [ibid]

Esther Emerson, who met the Royal party in Boston, lived at #57 Nixon Street in Boston.  Her 1913 death record in the Massachusetts vital records gives her maiden name as Younger and her adopted name of Harris, as well as her parents and husband’s names.  She is buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Boston.   My great grandmother, Carrie Maude (Batchelder) Allen, died during my lifetime, and she was alive during the Queen’s visits to Boston both in 1887 and later after the overthrow of the monarchy.  She remembers visiting with “Auntie Lydia” and was one of the cousins mentioned in the letters above.   It was Great Grandmother Carrie’s insistence that we had a princess in our family tree that led me to start tracing this line back in the 1970s – my first foray into genealogy!

My JONES genealogy:

Generation 1:  Owen Jones, born about 1735, died 28 February 1798 in Aberystwth, Wales; married to Anne Unknown.  Two known children (probably more)

Generation 2:  Owen Jones, born about 1768 in Wales, died 22 April 1850 in Dorchester, Massachusetts; married on 11 May 1793 at the 2^nd Baptist Church, Boston, Massachusetts to Elizabeth Lambert.  She was born about 1775 and died 6 February 1834 in Boston.  Eight children

Generation 3:  Catherine Plummer Jones, born about 1799, died 2 May 1828 probably in Boston; married on 23 October 1816 in Gloucester, Massachusetts to Levi Younger, son of Levi Younger and Mary Wotton.  He was born 1 May 1786 in Gloucester, and died 8 December 1858 in Boston.  Five children.

Generation 4:  Mary Esther Younger, born 17 February 1826, died 7 January 1913 in Boston; married on 11 August 1845 in Boston to George Emerson, son of Romanus Emerson and Jemima Burnham.  He was born 11 July 1817 in South Boston, and died 11 January 1890 in Dorchester.  Eight children.

Generation 5: Mary Katharine Emerson m. George E. Batchelder

Generation 6:  Carrie Maude Batchelder m. Joseph Elmer Allen

Generation 7: Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandparents)

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To cite/link to this blog post: 

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, " Surname Saturday ~ JONES of Wales and Boston, Massachusetts ", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 14, 2017,  (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/01/surname-saturday-jones-of-wales-and.html: accessed [access date]). 

Grandfatherly advice in an 1843 letter signed “Your affectionate Grandpapa”. But wait! That’s not his grandfather!

John Owen Dominis
as an adult

The following letter to my first cousin several generations removed, John O. Dominis of Honolulu, Hawaii, was written in 1842 by the Rev. Andrew Yates in Schenectady.  He mentions his children, Austin and Mary.  He also mentions that John lived in his home during “those tender years of childhood”.  At the time of this letter, cousin John was about ten years old.   Rev. Yates quotes scripture, and asks John about his studies, and he hints that he would enjoy continued correspondence.  He signed the letter “Your affectionate Grandpapa”.  I knew that I hadn't found a YATES in our family tree, so....

Who was Rev. Yates, and who was John O. Dominis? 

John O. Dominis was born in Chinttenango, New York on 10 March 1832.  At age five he went with his mother to Honolulu, to join his father, Capt. John Dominis.   His mother was Mary Lambert Jones (1803 – 1889) born in Boston, sister of my 4^th great grandmother Catherine Plummer (Jones) Younger (1799 – 1828).  Auntie Mary Dominis and cousin John were living with Rev. Yates and his family while Capt. Dominis was at sea.  He is described as “a family member”, but I have not discovered the kinship.  While on this voyage to Hawaii, Mary left her two daughters (John’s sisters) with the Yates family to continue their education.

While their parents were in Hawaii, the daughters Mary Elizabeth and Frances Ann went to school, planning to join their family in Hawaii someday.  However in 1838, 13 year old Mary Elizabeth died.  And on 13 January 1842 13 year old Frances Ann also died.  They were buried in the Yates family plot in Schenectady. 

I found a “Mrs. Dominis and son” arriving in Boston aboard the barque Bhering,  listed in the newspaper Temperance Advocate, 1 April 1843, under the shipping news.  I don’t know how long the voyage from Hawaii to Boston took that year.  I don’t know if they received word that their second daughter had passed away and then they rushed to get back home to Boston and Schenectady.  Even letters took months and months to get from the East Coast of the United States to Hawaii in those days.  They stayed with the Yates family, and with family in Boston before returning to Hawaii.  In 1846 Capt. John Dominis was lost at sea, leaving Mary a widow and John an orphan.  Auntie Mary Dominis never left Hawaii again.

Mary was the daughter of Owen Jones and Elizabeth Lambert of Boston.  Owen was born in Wales, and came to Boston as a child with his father, also Owen Jones, who was the Boston customs agent for the King of England before the American Revolutionary War.  Elizabeth Lambert’s parents and birthplace are unknown, although she was married to Owen Jones on 11 May 1793 at the 2^nd Baptist Church in Boston. 

 Mary Lambert Jones’s husband, the Captain John Dominis was from Trieste, now in the country of Slovenia.  His parents would have been from Trieste, but as of now I have not discovered their names.

And what about Rev. Andrew Yates?  He was obviously not John’s Grandpapa (his true grandfather would be either Owen Jones or someone with the surname LAMBERT, although he was a very kind man who was like a grandparent.

Andrew Yates was born 17 January 1773 in Schenectady, the son of Colonel Christopher Yates and Jannetje Bradt. He married twice, first to Mary Austin and second to Hannah A. Hooker.   The Reverend Dr. Andrew Yates graduated from Yale in 1793,  was a minister of the Reformed Dutch Church and a professor at Union College.  He died on 14 October 1844.  He had three sons with his first wife (Christopher, John Austin, and Andrew John), and three children with his second wife (Mary Austin, Christopher, James, Christopher, Helen, Joseph and Ann Eliza.) 

The Yates family goes back quite a ways in New York history.  I searched the Yates genealogies for any Lamberts or Jones connections, but I didn’t find any.  Perhaps John’s kinship to Rev. Yates came from one of his two wives?

Wife #1 was Mary Austin.  Daughter of David Austin and Mary Mix.  She was born 25 August 1776 in New Haven, Connecticut and died 8 October 1798.  She married Andrew Yates on 8 October 1797 in New Haven.  Both her parents were born in New Haven. I’ve searched the Austin family for a connection to Jones, Lambert or to Boston, but have not found any kinships.

Wife #2 was Hannah A. Hooker, daughter of James Hooker and Mary Chaffee, born 4 September 1785 in Windsor, Connecticut.  She married Rev. Andrew Yates on 11 June 1810.  She died in Schenectady on 20 October 1859, nearly fifteen years after her husband’s death. Again, I found no kinship with the Jones or Lambert families in Boston.

I don’t know how Auntie Mary Dominis from Boston knew Rev. Andrew Yates, but all her children were born in Schenectady and she lived at his home before removing to Hawaii.  Her husband was a sea captain, and he knew other sea captains in the Albany area.  This was a big shipping and whaling port at this time period.  It is a mystery to me.

Finding this letter was very poignant to me because I knew that Auntie Mary had lived with the Yates, and that her daughters were buried in the Yates family plot.  This letter mentions that Reverend Yates had been waiting for a letter from John or Mary telling him that their ship had returned safely to Hawaii.  I found the newspaper account of their arrival in the United States in 1843, but not their return.  The Reverend’s interest in John’s education is sweet, especially since I knew he was a Yale graduate and a professor.

I have not found any other letters from any of the Yates family members to the Dominis family members in the Hawaii State archives.  This must be the only surviving letter. John O. Dominis’s papers fill several file folder boxes, but there is nothing at all there from Mary. 

Perhaps someday I will find the kinship between these families?  Maybe there is no kinship, just a great friendship?  Will this remain a mystery lost to history?

Hawaii State Archives, Queen Lili'uokalani Collections, M-93, Box 11, Folder 104,
Letter from Rev. Andrew Yates to John O. Dominis 2 November 1843

Transcription of the letter

                                                Schenectady 2^nd Nov. AD 1843

My Dear John,

                                So I address my children in writing to them,

My Dear Austin, My Dear Mary & the same address I use in writing

to you because you have resided in my family during those tender years

of childhood which call into exercise parental affections toward the young

in those who have care over them. I feel a deep interest in your wel-

fare, especially in your education as that is closely connected with

your welfare, because it trains you up for well doing. Altho in

the course of this world, men that conduct well do not al-

ways fare well in the wealth, and honors, and other ??? of

the world, yet generally, most commonly, they do fare the best

in these things of the present life.  So God says, in his word I Timothy

4^th chapter & 8^th verse. Godliness in that verse means a continual desire

and endeavor to do the will of God and that in doing well in the high-

est sense.  He that wishes and tries to do God’s will in doing well in

the best and surest way.  And tho he may not fare the better for his

well doing in this wicked world; though he may, like the apostles of

our Lord be persecuted and abused for it by wicked men, yet like

them he will farewell because he knows that he is serving

God in what he does and will enjoy a peace and happiness be-

yond all that wicked men can have or know.  When two of these

apostles were cruelly abused for a good deed and cast into the inner

prison, into the dungeon and their feet fastened in the stocks, they en-

joyed more happiness than their persectutors. They prayed and sang praises

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

Praises unto God, while their persecutors were full of wrath, and

the next morning they were glad to let the apostles out

of their prison and go off; because they had beaten and put

them in prison contrary to the Law and were themselves

liable to be called to account and to be punished for their

conduct.  The apostles were not unhappy when they were

cast into prison for they felt happy in praying & singing prai-

ses to God while they were in the dungeon with their feet fasten-

ed in the stocks, and they felt more happy when they were set

at liberty, that they might go on in doing good.  If we love

(read this account in Acts 16^th chapter from the 16^th verse to the end)

God and are doing good according to his word, we shall fare

Well, enjoying God’s presence and care always. A good edu-

cation consists in being instructed according to the word

of God, which is the Bible.  If you receive such an education

it will ?? all you for welldoing everywhere.  It is un-

derstanding what God requires us to do according to the

Bible, loving to do so, and always trying to do so which

will keep us in the way of welldoing.

                For a considerable time I have been very anxious to

hear from your parents and yourself and began to think

we were no more to hear of you except by some public

newspaper or thro’ some other person in correspond-

ence with your father.  It was a great relief to me when

your letter was received.  Your pleasant passage and safe

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

Safe arrival at Oahu stated in your letter was very grate-

ful news- You had not yet undertaken to go to school

when you wrote.  By this time I trust you have begun your

course no doubt and have made some progress, being nearly

seven months since the date of your letter.  The house you have

provided for you by your Father will be useful to your health

while you study, if it do not take up your time and attention

too much.  Use it for amusing exercise and do not let it

call off your mind from your study.  You may write to me

as often as you please and tell me what you study and how

fast you get along in your education.  If I live to receive

your letters, I will endeavor to answer them with ??

??? that will be profitable, provided you remem

ber them and take the advice I give.

                I will have ?? for your parents a small concern of business

I found the mistake respecting the 19.25 which Capt. Pearce had

paid to me as he supposed.  He had sent it Mrrs. Farnham & Co. and

stated to me in a letter I received that he had sent it.  My duty was

to have drawn for the money on Farnham.  I have not done is and

have ??? it from them.

                Give my affectionate regards to your Father & Mother and

for yourself be assured that I feel deeply interested in your

welfare.  I pray you may be pr??? and grow up to be a very

??? & happy man.

                                                Your affectionate Grandpapa

                                                And. Yates

Master John O. Dominis

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

Master John O. Dominis

Oahu

Sandwich Islands

(upside down)

Andrew Yates, Schenectady

                Nov. 2/43

For more information:

Austin Family genealogy http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~challis/John%20Austin%201647/pafg08.htm 

The Descendants pf Rev. Thomas Hooker of Hartford, Connecticut, by Edward Hooker and Margaret Huntington Hooker, 1909, page 17 and 169 (available online at archive.org) 

An article on the Dominis family from the Schenectady Gazette, August 27, 1932, title and page unknown    

Schenectady County, New York: Its History to the Close of the Nineteenth Century, by Austin A. Yates, pp 270 -277

History of Saratoga County, New York by Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester, 1878

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Grandfatherly advice in an 1843 letter signed “Your affectionate Grandpapa”. But wait!  That’s not his grandfather!", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 7, 2014, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/06/grandfatherly-advice-in-1843-letter.html: accessed [access date]).    

My Top Ten Brickwall Problem Ancestors

This is a shot in the dark, but last September Diane Boumenot posted her top ten genealogy research problems HERE and she has already solved two of them.   Readers and Google searchers found her post and sent her enough information or clues to break down those genealogical brickwalls.  So… here is my list.  I’m hoping for a reader or distant cousin to read this and help me to solve a few genealogy mysteries, too!

Diane listed the skills and strategies she thought she might need to solve her research problems.  This is a good idea, and working through this list has got me thinking of new ways to attack these mysteries.  Maybe I’ll solve them at least one brickwall before I get a mysterious “cousin connection” email or comment?

My 10 “Brickwall” ancestors:

1.   Elizabeth Lambert (about 1775 – 1834) is my 5x great grandmother.  She married Owen Jones, a native of Wales and son of a British customs officer, on 11 May 1793 at the Second Baptist Church in Boston, Massachusetts.  They lived in the North End, and had six daughters who were described as debutantes and all married very well.  I’m hoping she is from a well-connected, wealthy family in Boston who left lots of good records.  Unfortunately, there were many Lambert/Lombard/Lumbard/Lamport families in Boston at this time, and I have searched them all for Elizabeth.  A consultation with a professional genealogist at a conference leads me to believe I should search probate and deeds for Elizabeth among the many Lambert families.

One clue- Elizabeth had a sister, Sarah, who married John Dark/Dargue on 1 December  1793 in Boston.  Elizabeth (Lambert) Jones named her first daughter Sarah Dargue Jones in her honor.  The sister Sarah (Lambert) Dargue died on 3 September 1796, no parents listed.

Problem- I’ve never really done probate or deed research, so this will be my first test case with these types of records.  Searching for Jones records in the courthouse won’t be fun, neither will it be fun searching through all those Lambert/Lombard/Lumbard/Lamport etc. variations.  Elizabeth Lambert was born at about the time of the Boston siege during the American Revolution (many residents fled the city), so she may have been born somewhere else in Massachusetts or New England.

2.  Margaret Welch (about 1796 – 1860) is my 4x great grandmother.  Her death record in Chichester, New Hampshire does not name her parents.  She married Richard Locke on 21 October 1823 in Chichester.   Her children’s marriage and death records say she was born in Kittery, Maine.  Census records say she was born in Maine.

Problem - I cannot find a Welch/Welsh family at all that might be her possible parents or ancestors.  This is the opposite of the Elizabeth Lambert above where I have too many possibilities.  Perhaps searching York County, Maine probate and deeds would work, like my brickwall #1? 

3.  Nancy Thompson (about 1804 – after 1847) is my 4x great grandmother.  She married Jonathan Batchelder on 11 February 1822 in Belmont, New Hampshire.  Her children’s marriage and death records say that she was born in Gilmanton, New Hampshire.  There were several Thompson families in Gilmanton and Belmont (contiguous towns) but no record of Nancy/Ann/Hannah.  Jonathan Batchelder died in the Concord State Hospital after being declared insane.  I have his account book, and inside it I found guardianship papers dated 1847 making “Nancy Batchelder” the guardian of her minor daughter, Pauline.  No further trace of Nancy can be found in the New Hampshire vital records or census records.

Problem – Did Nancy remarry? Pauline’s death record name’s her mother as “Nancy Tompson”.  Is that a clue? The Gilmanton Historical Society is stumped.   I’ve searched all the Thompson/Tompson genealogies and vital records.  Perhaps I’ll need another probate and deeds research trip to Belknap County, New Hampshire?

4. Hannah Phelps (1728 – 1805) is my 5x great grandmother.  She married George Flint on 13 November 1753 in Andover, Massachusetts.    I’m not even sure of her surname, it was given as “Phelps” in a compiled Flint genealogy.  This is a real stumper.  I’ve very little information on George Flint, too, except what was found in the Flint book.

5. David Lyons (about 1759 – 1812) is my 5x great grandfather.  He was from Connecticut and removed to Cornwallis, Nova Scotia where he appears in many land records.  He was married in Cornwallis on 25 May 1779 to Elizabeth Ratchford.   I have no idea where he came from in Connecticut, and few clues.  I don’t know if he was a planter or a Loyalist.  Another real stumper.

6. James Radsford/Ratchford  b. about 1719 is my 7x great grandfather.  He married Margaret Ball on 26 December 1738 in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts.  They had five sons and all their births are recorded in the Bridgewater vital records.  This surname seems to have a lot of variations, and perhaps it was a corruption of some other name altogether?  There are no Radsfords or Ratchfords in earlier Massachusetts records.  No death record has been found.

7.  Margaret Ball (see above)  I have no birth or death record on Margaret, just a marriage and her name listed on her children’s births as “Margaret”. 

8. Amelia Unknown (born about 1790 – 1860) is my 4x great grandmother.  Her death record lists her birthplace as Stoughton, Massachusetts but no birth record has ever been found.  She died as a pauper in Wayland, Massachusetts the same year as her husband, who was also listed as a pauper.  Amelia had a colorful life with at least three husbands as listed below….

     #1 Amelia gave birth to twins in Salem on 26 June 1825 as Amelia Lewis, no husband listed.  Her son’s death records list their father as “Captain Thomas Lewis” but I haven’t found a marriage record.  Her twins were possibly born after he died.   Did he die at sea?  No record has been found for him in Massachusetts.

     #2 Amelia remarried to Thomas Johnson in 1827 in Salem

     #3 Amelia remarried third to John Adams in 1843 in Topsfield, Massachusetts.  Her death record lists her parents as “unknown”.    Both sons died very young before 1853, and their records do not give her maiden name.   She married often, so perhaps there is even another earlier marriage I am missing here?

9.  James Phillips (about 1792 – 1820) is my 4 great grandfather.  He married Sarah Cree on 6 August 1815 in Topsfield, Massachusetts.  His death record in Topsfield says he was a “native of Rowley” but I cannot find him in the Rowley records.   There is a James Phillips enumerated in the 1820 Census in Andover, Massachusetts, which may or may not be this James.   Again, Phillips is a common surname in Essex County, Massachusetts, which makes this as difficult as the Jones brickwall #1.

10. Mary Hovey (about  1751- 1832) is my 5x great grandmother.  She married Nathaniel Treadwell on 1786 in Ipswich, Massachusetts.  I have no clue as to her birthdate, birthplace, parents or ancestry.  Mary is listed on my lineage papers to the Mayflower Society, showing my descent from Mayflower passenger Isaac Allerton.  No one at the Mayflower Society can find her parents either!   There is plenty of information on her husband, who served in the American Revolution and was from a noted Ipswich, Massachusetts family.  I’d love to beat the professionals who have attempted to identify Mary Hovey, but so far I’ve been unsuccessful, too.

Please read Diane Boumenot’s blog post at this link, she inspired my list!:

http://onerhodeislandfamily.com/2012/09/17/how-to-solve-the-next-ten-problems/

Another blogger with a similar idea is Colleen Pasquale, who posted a list of 12 puzzles from her family tree on 12 December 2012 (12/12/12)  at this link:
http://leavesnbranches.blogspot.com/2012/12/121212-twelve-genealogy-questions.html

and Randy Seaver picked up the meme at his blog at this link:
http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/12/12-genealogy-mysteries-id-like-to-solve.html

Barbara Poole posted her top Ten Brickwall Ancestors at her blog back in 2010 and she is still waiting for her big break.  Keep your fingers crossed for her!  Read about her list at this link:
http://lifefromtheroots.blogspot.com/2010/10/top-ten-brick-walls.html

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

Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Amanuensis Monday - A nephew's letter, 1883

Hawaii State Archives, Queen Liluokalani Collections,
M-93, Box 11, Folder 103,
Letter from William Lee to Mary Dominis, 23 March 1883 

[Engraved Stationary Letterhead]

LEE AND SHEPARD

PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS
47 Franklin Street (Up-Stairs)
New York Office                       Boston Mar. 23 1883
678 Broadway

Dear Aunt Dominis

                Your very welcome favor
reached me two or three days
ago- of course the photograph didn’t
look like me- I had it taken
on purpose because it would
not look like me!  You see I had
my hair cut as short as we do some
of the horses- and it altered my
appearance so much, I at one
had my picture taken, for a
memento= when my hair gets
grown out lengthy, I shall have
some other pictures taken, and
will send you one if you will ac-
cept it- then you will say this
thick-haired one is the best
looking!

               Mother is very well this

-2-

Spring and stays at Brockton
Like a hen among her chickens-
Our sister, Agnes’s only boy, Herbert, is very ill
Just now, and Mother is very anxious
About him-pneumonia- so a day or two
 will decide it.

                Mrs. William Lee, (my “Colonel”) has been very,
Very ill, but she is about again, in
Her usual health, which I regret to say
Is very poor.  She lives, so she says, in hopes
Of going to your beautiful islands to see
You- ever since she saw John & Tho. King
She has made you and yours her ideal.  She
Keeps John’s picture hanging in her rooms
To show her company her cousin, who is
Married to the sister of the King, etc., etc. etc.
You understand how these things work &
But I don’t believe we shall ever have
The pleasure & happiness of going to see
You, for we don’t get rich very fast
And one cannot leave business &
Home to go traveling unless he has
“the rocks” as our Yankee boys say.
You must tell John that both
Mr. Shepard & myself are very proud
of our invitations to the grand occasion
of the coronation- and perhaps if

[Letterhead]

-3-

they had reached us before the cer-
emony took place, we should have
been honored by attending.  As it
is we mean that it was a highly
successful affair- and we con-
gratulate you all “than it is done
 over” as the dandies say.

                I wish I knew what would cure

The rheumatism that you and
John might be relieved.  Now-
a-days the doctors say it is the state
of the blood that produces rheumatism and
its attendant pain.  Lemons is the
remedy here.  I have been so lucky
thus far I have escaped as such
complaints and have to thank
the good Father for a very com-
fortable life, with much more
happiness than I deserve but I
have greater hopes for the life to
come, just think of it, I am 57

-4-

years old and I can remem-
ber going to see you in Dorchester
more than fifty years ago! Ah!
Me! We must believe that the
good Father intends we shall meet
our loved ones to part no more-
This a good faith to have even
in this life and I have held to it
through thick & thin.

You don’t know unless your
ears tingle to tell you, how much
we talk about you and your
at home-

May God Bless You! With much

love to you and yours,

Love Very Affectionately
Your nephew,
William Lee

Mrs. Lee & Alice all send their
love to you- and charged me over
and over not to forget.

               W. L.

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

This letter was written by Boston publisher William Lee (1826 - 1906) to his maternal aunt, Mary Lamport (Jones) Dominis in Honolulu, Hawaii.  His mother, Laura William (Jones) Lee, is mentioned above, living in Brockton, Massachusetts.  There were six sisters in the Jones family, including my 4x great grandmother, Catherine Plummer (Jones) Younger.

Of all the letters I have transcribed from the Hawaiian Archives, this one doesn't give much new family genealogy information, but it is still a very important family letter.  I'll list the reasons below:

1.  It is dated after King David Kalakaua (1836 - 1891) had become King of the Kingdom of Hawaii.  He had visited Boston in 1874 when he had official business in Washington, DC.  No doubt he also visited with William Lee and the rest of the Jones family, since Mary Dominis's son,  John Owen Dominis was married to Kalakaua's sister, Lili'uokalani.   She would become Queen when he died in 1891.   There are references to all this in the letter.

2. Herbert, his nephew with pneumonia, must have survived because there is an 1887 marriage record for him in Brockton to a Miss Ida F. Norton.

 

3. William Lee's first wife, Anna M. T. Leavitt ( whom he refers to as "the Colonel") died not long after this letter was written, on 19 September 1883.  She was in her final illness mentioned here, and never visited Hawaii.

4.  The daughter, Alice, mentioned in the postscript, was an adopted daughter born as Alice Gookin,  daughter of Anna's sister, Mary Leavitt and George Gookin.  George died in 1861, but Mary didn't pass away until 1891 so I don't know the circumstances of this adoption.   The book "Seek and Find, or the Adventures of a Smart Boy" by Oliver Optic, published by Lee & Shepard, is dedicated to Alice Lee Gookin on page 3.

5.  I've been searching for the business papers or personal papers of William Lee.  His partner, Charles Shepard's papers are in the American Antiquarian Society Library in Worcester, Massachusetts.  I haven't found Lee's papers in any Boston library, but perhaps they are in a New York institution?  The letterhead here is the only one I have seen with a New York address, so they must have had an office in New York City.

6.  Dorchester is a clue to the family address of the Joneses.  In censuses and city directories they are found living in Boston's North End neighborhood through 1842.  I haven't found them in an 1850 census yet, but father Owen Jones died there according to a notice in the New England Historic Genealogical Society Register, (July 1850) Volume 4, page 293 "Jones, Mr. Owen,  Dorchester, 22 April, ae 82, formerly of Boston".   No death record has been found. 

7.  I have transcribed many of the letters written by Boston family members to Mrs. Dominis (you can find them by clicking on the keyword DOMINIS in the right hand column of this blog) and they all are very sentimental.  The great distance letters had to travel to and from Boston to Hawaii in this time period, and the fact that Mary had not been to Boston since the 1830s make these letters very poignant.

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Tombstone Tuesday- Snellings in Boston's Copp's Hill Burial Ground

Copp's Hill Burial Ground is located in Boston's North End neighborhood, right in front of the Old North Church made famous in the story of Paul Revere.  There are more than 10,000 people buried here, but only about 2,300 tombstones.  Many graves are unmarked, and some tombs hold up to ten people, so the number of graves doesn't match the number of inscriptions. It was first laid out as a burial ground in 1659.

In researching the Jones/Lambert family of my family tree, I found that my 4x great grandmother Catherine Plummer Jones (abt 1799 - 1828)  had a sister, Sarah Dargue Jones (abt 1794 - 1875), who married Enoch Howes Snelling (abt 1790 - 1866).  The Joneses lived in the North End, and so did a plethora of Snellings.  There were many more Snelling tombstones than I have posted here today.   There is a Snelling Alley still located between the burial ground and the church. 

For more information on the Copp's Hill Burial Ground, and a listing of gravestones, please see the book Boston's Copp's hill Burying Ground Guide by Charles Chauncey Wells, Chauncey Park Press, 1998

Here lyes ye Body

of Mr. BENJAMIN

SNELLING.  Who

Died Novbr. 6 Anno

Domi 1739 in ye 40th

year of His Age.

Here lyes Buried ye Body

of ANNA SNELLING

Dautr of Mr. JOSEPH and

Mrs PRISEILLA SNELLING

Who departed this life

Jany the 30th 1766

Aged 20 Years

Here lies ye Body of

REBECAH SNELLING

Daur of Mr. JOSIAH &

Mrs MARY SNELLING

Died April ye 20th

1777

Aet 5 Years & 10 Days

In Memory of

JOSEPH SNELLING

son of JOSIAH

& MARY SNELLING

decd April 27th 1799

Aged 24 Years

on the left

ANNA SNELLING

1790

on the right

Rebeckah         Hannah

Snelling          Snelling

Died June 9th    Died June 22nd

1730 Aged     1730 Aged

1 Years & 1 Years &

1 Mo.    1 Mo

ye children on Joseph

& Elizabeth Snelling

CAP JONATHAN SNELLINGs TOMB

JOSHUA SNELLING son of Cap JONATHAN & Mrs

MARY SNELLING Died Janry 26 1748 Aged 2 years

2 Mo.  also SARAH SNELLING Died Janry 13th

1749 Aged 7 Years

for another post with Snelling's buried at Copp's Hill, click here:

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/01/snellings-at-copps-hill-burial-ground.html 

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo



Londonderry's Hermit

This postcard found on eBay prompted my story….

Crystal Lake, AKA “Skenker’s Pond” or “Mosquito Pond”, is located in Manchester’s south end off Bodwell Road. The City of Manchester runs a municipal park there with swimming. There is still a fieldstone bathhouse located at Crystal Lake Beach, built in 1942 by the Works Progress Administration, which was renovated in 1987.

Charles Alan Lambert arrived in Manchester in the 1840s from Lincolnshire, England to live the life of a hermit. He bought 40 acres on Mosquito Pond, as it was known then, and built a hut.  It appears that Lambert had failed in his law studies, and at love, and decided to take to the woods as a hermit. He lived a vegetarian lifestyle, wrote poetry and tended sheep. He was a local celebrity, and was sought out by tourists for his home grown herbs.  During his life he amassed a large collection of Indian artifacts, which he showed to visitors. He did not allow himself to drink coffee, tea, or alcohol. (Sampson, 2000) 

Lambert lived in his hut for 60 years, and died at the Sisters of Mercy House of St. John for Aged Men in 1914. He was buried at St. Joseph’s Cemetery with a gravestone marked “The Hermit” (Perreault, 1984) His will stipulated that all his property was to benefit St. Patrick’s Orphanage in Manchester.

The famous Manchester photographer Ulric Bourgeois (1874 – 1963) was known for his photographs of the mill workers and French Canadian immigrants. He also had a series of photographs of the hermit Charles Lambert. Bourgeois read about Lambert in the local papers, and bicycled over to Mosquito Pond with fourteen glass plates to make 28 exposures of the hermit over the years. Lambert was almost eighty years old at the time they met, but over a dozen years he struck up a friendship with Bourgeois and allowed him to photograph his lifestyle.  This postcard is one of Bourgeois's photos.

For more information on Charles Alan Lambert:

“Mosquito Pond, or Life in the Woods”, by R. B. Perreault,  in the The Manchester Journal,  July 4, 1984.
Manchester: the Mills and the Immigrant Experience, by Gary Sampson, Acadia Publishing, 2000, pages 103 – 107.

New Hampshire Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff , by Eric Jones, Morris Book Publishing, 2006, pages 72-74.

Encyclopedia of New England,  "Hermits", by Burt Feintuch and David H. Watters, Yale University Press, 2005, pages 759 - 760.

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo