Happy Birthday, Vincent!

 Happy Birthday to Vincent!  

This is one of my favorite photos of Vincent and his Mom, Maria Josefa Garcia de Rojo.  She married in Madrid, Spain, removed to New York City a few weeks later (Vincent's Dad worked at the United Nations), and ten months later gave birth to Vincent.  I can't imagine being a newlywed young woman, a new immigrant to a strange country, and a new Mom all in the same year, can you? 

Maria Josefa died about two years ago, and we miss her very much.  

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Happy Birthday, Vincent!", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 16, 2025, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2025/11/happy-birthday-vincent.html: accessed [access date]). 

Captain Peter Adolph, buried 1702/3 in Sandwich, Massachusetts for Tombstone Tuesday

 This tombstone was photographed at the Old Town Cemetery in Sandwich, Massachusetts.

HERE LYETH Ye BODY OF CAPt.

PETER ADOLPH, OF NEW YORKE

AGED 48 YEARS, WHO DYED

SHIPWRACK IN THIS BAY

16th OF MARCH, 1702/3 &

WAS WASHED ON SHOARE

3 MILES BELOW THIS TOWNE. 

I found this interesting gravestone whilst wandering around looking for ancestors in this ancient burial ground in Sandwich, Massachusetts.  Located on Cape Cod, there were many tombstone for drowings and accidents at sea.  Who was Captain Peter Adolph?

Pieter Adolfz Van der Grost was baptized 8 July 1657 at the Reformed Dutch Church in New Amsterdam (now New York City), son of Adolph Pieterszen and Aefje Dircks.  He married Janneken Van Brosum at the same church on 1 January 1679, and they had eight children.  His will was proved on 29 May 1704. 

His 8 June 1696 will reads " Peter Adolph De Groot, being of perfect memory, do make this my last will and testament. First, I have nominated and appointed for my heir my beloved wife, Janeke Adolph, for one half of my estate of houses, lands and goods. And the other half to the four children which I have procured with her, named Adolph, Egbert, Agie, and Peter De Groot. I give to my son Adolph £10 for his birthright, and to my son Peter £5 for the sake of his name. My wife is not to be obliged to make any inventory or to give any account. Witnesses: Abraham Abrahamsen, Andries Abrahamsen. Timon Van Borsum and Cornelius Vielie are made executors. Proved 29 May 1704, and Cornelius Vielie is confirmed as executor"  [New York (County) Surrogates Court Abstract of Wills on file in the Surrogate's Office, City of New York (Volume 1, 1665 - 1707). Collections of the New York Historical Society (New York: Printed for the Society, 1892) pages 388-389.]

Captain Adolph was lost at sea in a shipwreck while sailing from Boston to New York.  The crew washed up on Scorton Beach in East Sandwich, and they all were buried in nearby cemeteries.  Adoph's widow gave a bell to the meetinghouse at Sandwich in gratitude for giving her husband's body a Christian burial.  It is known as the Captain Adolf Bell, and the meetinghouse is known now as the First Church of Sandwich, Massachusetts.  The bell is now on display inside the church. 

For the truly curious:

Find A Grave memorial for Capt. Peter Adolph:    https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/86541132/peter-adolph    

 More about this family from Rootsweb:    https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~brouwergenealogydata/genealogy/p655.htm  

Wikipedia article on the First Church of Sandwich, Massachusets:    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Church,_Sandwich_Massachusetts    

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Captain Peter Adolph, buried 1702/3 in Sandwich, Massachusetts for Tombstone Tuesday", Nutfield Genealogy, posted June 3, 2024, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2024/06/captain-peter-adolph-buried-17023-in.html: accessed [access date]). 

A Pretty Spanish Lady in New York City, 1965 - Vintage Family Photo Friday

When Vincent's parents married in Madrid, Spain, they left right after the wedding to live in New York City, where my father-in-law worked at the United Nations.  These photos were taken in February 1965 in New York, and on the backs of each photo my mother-in-law wrote notes to her parents about the apartment and the furniture. She was always very careful to note the dates, people, and descriptions on the backs of most photos.  This has been very helpful in going over all the old family photo albums while we scanned the images! 

This note on the back is dated February 1965

"As you can see we have covered the sofa with black leather. We covered the chairs with blue leather (that is what we were doing in the other photo that the kid was with a hammer, and us on the floor)."

 -----------------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "A Pretty Spanish Lady in New York City, 1965 - Vintage Family Photo Friday", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 27, 2019, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/09/a-pretty-spanish-lady-in-new-york-city.html: accessed [access date]).

Photo Friday - Funny Story

There is a funny story attached to this glamorous photo of my mother-in-law...

back of the photo

dated April 1960

My mother-in-law was married in January 1960 and removed from Madrid, Spain to New York City, where my father-in-law was working for the United Nations.  She had this photo taken in New York, and sent it back to her parents in Madrid.

Do you notice anything funny about the photo?  Her conservative father (a military officer) liked the photo, but not Maria's "decolletage".  He colored in the neckline of her dress to make it a bit more modest.  And I'll bet you didn't notice until I pointed that out, did you?

Is there a photo in your family album that someone altered back before Photo Shop?  Maybe they cut out someone they didn't like? Or changed their hair color?

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Photo Friday - Funny Story", Nutfield Genealogy, posted June 21, 2019, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/06/photo-friday-funny-story.html: accessed [access date]).

Weathervane Wednesday ~ A Famous Merry-Go-Round

I post a series of weather vane photographs every Wednesday.  This started with images of weathervanes from the Londonderry, New Hampshire area, but now I've found interesting weather vanes all across New England and across the globe.  Sometimes my weather vanes are whimsical, or historical, but all are interesting.  Often my readers tip me off to some very unique or unusual weathervanes, too!  If you know a great weather vane near you, let me know if you'd like to have it featured on this blog.

Today's weather vane was photographed in New York by a reader.

Do you know the location of weathervane post #297?  Scroll down to find the answer.

Today's weather vane was photographed by genealogy blogger Elizabeth Pyle Handler in Central Park, New York City.  It is on the cupola above the Central Park Carousel.  This merry-go-round was built in 1908 in Coney Island. was moved to Central Park in 1951 and housed in this brick structure.   It also received a major renovation in 1990. It is called the Trump Carousel because in 2010 he leased it until 2020 in return for $400,000 in renovations.

The weathervane is a three dimensional carousel horse under a two dimensional umbrella.  According to Wikipedia, there are models of this carousel in the Legoland Florida and Legoland California.  We had been to the Legoland in San Diego in 2014, and when I checked my photo file, sure enough, there were two photos of this carousel made out of Lego.  Unfortunately, there was no tiny Lego weathervane atop the model.

Elizabeth Pyle Hander's genealogy blog is From Maine to Kentucky:
https://frommainetokentucky.blogspot.com/

Click here to see the entire Weathervane Wednesday series of posts!

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Weathervane Wednesday ~ A Famous Merry-Go-Round", Nutfield Genealogy, posted February 8, 2017, (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/02/weathervane-wednesday-famous-merry-go.html: accessed [access date]).

A New Hampshire Yankee in New York City - searching for family landmarks

In which we explore three boroughs of New York City (Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan) searching for landmarks like home addresses, schools, churches and places of employment...


Last weekend we did a whirlwind weekend trip to New York City to see where my husband grew up.  We brought my mother-in-law from Spain, so she could see all the places we only knew from stories and photographs.  It was a fun trip, and we covered a lot of miles in two days.  If you take a similar trip to New York City, a GPS and Google maps with street view is very important!

214 Montrose Ave, Brooklyn, NY

My husband was born in Manhattan while his father was working at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.  This is a prestigious address for employment, but their places of residence were much more modest.  At the time he was born, my husband lived at 214 Montrose Avenue in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.  This was a two story apartment building where he grew up in the 1960s.

Montrose Avenue Subway Station

The two story original building was gone, and was replaced by this four story apartment building.  Most of the neighborhood was the same, including a laundromat across the street and the subway station on the corner.  One block down the street at 138 Montrose Avenue is the Most Holy Trinity church, flanked by the parochial elementary school and convent.  Vincent attended this school until fifth grade.  Vincent's Mom is still friendly with neighbors she met in this neighborhood over 50 years ago.

Most Holy Trinity, Brooklyn, NY

Vincent had his baptism and made his first communion in the Most Holy Trinity church.  Unfortunately it was closed when we dropped by, but we were able to get a photo through the window.  It is a lovely old church built by German immigrants in 1841.  It was almost burned to the ground by Bill "The Butcher" Poole's gang of "Know Nothings" (anti immigrant gang) in the 1850s during a period of anti-Catholic sentiment.  Holy Trinity is still a thriving community today, although the school has been closed.

PS 175, Forest Hills, Queens, NY

Around 1970 Vincent's family moved from Brooklyn to the Forest Hills area of Queens.  He attended 5th grade at PS 175 on 64th Street near Yellowstone Boulevard, where their apartment was located.  This school is now called the Lynn Gross Discovery School.  On that August Saturday the playground was full of kids and parents - kids speaking dozens of languages. It was a great sight!

A typical apartment building on Yellowstone Blvd.

We couldn't find the exact address where they lived on Yellowstone Boulevard.  The entire street was lined with brick apartment buildings that all looked alike.  This is the one that Vincent and his mother think was their home (or one similar to it!).

Nearby Yellowstone Boulevard was the site of the 1964 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows.  This spot held a lot of memories for Vincent and his mother.  She still has a souvenir plate and photographs of the World's Fair.  We stopped first at the Queen's museum, which by the way, was the United Nations headquarters in the 1940s before the Manhattan headquarters compound was completed in 1952.  Serendipity!  Inside the museum is an exhibit of 1964 World's Fair memorabilia and the "Panorama of New York" which was one of the rides back in the day.  It is no longer a ride, but it is still a huge scale model of the entire five borough area.

1964 World's Fair, Spanish Pavilion
That's Vincent and his mother in the middle!

Unisphere, 1964 World's Fair, NYC

The Queen's Museum building

Right behind the Queen's Museum is the iconic Unisphere which is often featured in movies and on TV.   This was a great time for a photo of Vincent and his mother.  The observation towers, which used to house a restaurant on top, are still standing nearby.  Maria told me that they ate in that restaurant at least once.

1964 World's Fair streetlights at Canobie Lake Park, Salem, NH

[Serendipity!  Canobie Lake Park in Salem, New Hampshire has many of the World's Fair features near the park entrance including some futuristic looking street lights and trash cans.  Check them out the next time you are there.  We lived nearby in Londonderry for 33 years and didn't know about this bit of trivia!  Apparently many World's Fair features were auctioned off after the fair ended, and this is where some of those items ended up.]

United Nations Headquarters
Manhattan, New York

From Queens we traveled over the Hudson River to Manhattan to see the United Nations headquarters.  Unfortunately there are no guided tours of the General Assembly building on weekends, but we had a lot of fun walking around, eating lunch in the cafeteria, peeking in the bookstore and gift shop, and reminiscing.  Vincent's father was employed there during turbulent times in the 1960s and he witnessed Krushchev banging his shoe on the UN podium (a month before Vincent was born),  the Bay of Pigs incident, the Vietnam War, Civil Rights and other exciting history.

The new Freedom Tower in Lower Manhattan
see through the car roof window

After our walk around the UN, we drove the length of Manhattan down Fifth Avenue to see the new Freedom Tower and Battery Park.  We also drove up to Hastings on Hudson, where my mother-in-law used to work for a publisher named Morgan and Morgan in the 1960s.   This is a cute little village in Westchester County.  Maria used to take the train from Brooklyn, to Grand Central Station, and then all the way to Hastings on Hudson every day (19 miles north).  The little storefront that used to be the publishing office is now a driving school.  Morgan and Morgan published photography books, including books by Ansel Adams.  Maria remembers meeting Ansel Adams in the office in Hastings on Hudson!

The former offices of Morgan and Morgan Publishers

Maria at work at Morgan and Morgan
in the late 1960s

Although this is all recent family history, my husband and his mother had not been back to see all these locations since the 1970s.  It was fun to listen to them reminisce as we toured New York.  I hope you will take the time to bring your family back to see where you and your loved ones lived, worked, worshipped and went to school, too.

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For the truly curious:

PS 175 Lynn Gross Discovery School  http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/28/Q175/default.htm

1964 World's Fair at Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_New_York_World%27s_Fair

The Queen's Museum
http://www.queensmuseum.org/  

A YouTube video of Most Holy Trinity Church at Christmas Time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6b6Ks8Cbbo

Most Holy Trinity Church, Brooklyn, Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/Roman-Catholic-Parish-of-Most-Holy-Trinity-St-Mary-28302113051/  

United Nations Visitor's Center
http://visit.un.org/


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

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "A New Hampshire Yankee in New York City - searching for family landmarks", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 18, 2016, (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/08/a-new-hampshire-yankee-in-new-york-city.html: accessed [access date]).

1950s ~ Mom and Dad in New York City

The Manhattan skyline

That's Mom in the middle!  She looks so young and glamorous!

Rockefeller Center still looks the same

In the 1950s my parents chaperoned a high school trip to New York City and Washington, DC.  You can see the Washington photos HERE.  I love these photos because of the great fashions and the skylines.   If you've been to either city lately you will immediately notice the difference in the skylines! It's too bad that they didn't take more photos.  Sometimes I wish my parents and ancestors had access to the digital photography we have today.

Washington DC trip 1950s
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/06/mom-and-dad-in-washington-dc-not-so.html

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The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/04/1950s-mom-and-dad-in-new-york-city.html
Copyright (c) 2015, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Easter Parade 1963, Fifth Avenue, New York City

In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it, 

You'll be the grandest lady in the Easter Parade. 

I'll be all in clover and when they look you over, 

I'll be the proudest fellow in the Easter Parade. 

On the avenue, Fifth Avenue, the photographers will snap us, 

And you'll find that you're in the rotogravure. 

Oh, I could write a sonnet about your Easter bonnet, 

And of the girl I'm taking to the Easter Parade.

- "Easter Parade" by Irving Berlin, 1933

This is a photo from the 1963 Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue in New York.   My husband is the little boy in the hat near the bottom middle.  His father is the gentleman on the left, and his mother is the woman dressed in the black mantilla, traditional for Easter in Spain.  His mother's aunt, Tia Chon (Ascencion), is to the right, also dressed in black. Tia Chon was my husband's nanny.

They were in New York when my husband was a child because his father worked at the United Nations.  Walking down Fifth Avenue for the Easter Parade was one my my mother-in-law's favorite memories of New York.  She said many people took photos of her Spanish mantilla.  I understand that New York still continues this tradition on Easter Sunday.

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Photo Friday ~ A Bridge in New York City

This photo is dated 1963, so my husband must have been about two and half years old in this photo!  The woman is his great aunt, "Tia Chon".  Her real name was Maria Ascension Garcia,  sister of my husband's grandfather.  When his parents married in January 1960 and came to New York City from Spain, my husband was born in November of the same year.  In Spain the extended family would have taken care of any children, but they were newly arrived immigrants to the USA.  So they arranged for Tia Chon to come be the babysitter, since she had never married and wanted to see America.  Tia Chon came from the tiny village of Puerto Seguro in Salamanca, so New York City must have been a great experience for her.   My father-in-law worked at the United Nations, and my mother-in-law worked for a New York publisher.

I'm told that the bridge in the background is the George Washington Bridge, and that this was photographed at the Cloisters Museum.  If anyone from New York City can help identify the setting, that would be very helpful!

How do you like the hat?  My husband is still a big fan of hats.  He has a hat  in his current wardrobe just like this one, and a fez, a Mexican sombrero, a Stetson, several Panamas, berets, baseball hats, fedoras, a colonial tricorn, and a collection of wild winter polar fleece hats that are pretty unbelievable.

This photo was taken at Bear Mountain State Park in New York.  The background shows the Hudson River and some buildings or a bridge.  It probably dates from about the same time as the photo above.  Starting at the right is my mother-in-law with my husband on her lap.  Next to her in the dark clothing is Tia Chon.  The young girl in the foreground is, Julia, a friend of the family, and to the left is a young woman named Amparo.  Amparo was another relative from Puerto Seguro, Spain who also came to New York to babysit my husband.  She later became a nun in Peru.

UPDATE- Reader Wendy Walter has identified the bridge in the first photo as the Queensboro Bridge.  We checked on Google Maps and Google Streetview and from the angle of the photo we think it was possibly photographed at the United Nations Plaza.  This makes sense, because that is where my father-in-law was employed at this time!  Thanks, Wendy!

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

An Historic Moment - 2004 Republican National Convention

In 2004 my daughter was entering her senior year of high school, and interested in politics. She had an exciting junior year since the New Hampshire primary was underway.  Many young people in New Hampshire every four years find themselves in the swirl of excitement with visiting candidates, news media and local events.  She was at the right age, at the right time to find all this very alluring and intriguing.  When she found out that she could attend the National party conventions with the Junior Statesmen she jumped on the chance to see politics at a much higher level.

When she found out that she had been accepted to be a delegate with the Junior Statesmen at both party conventions, she was ecstatic!  However, family finances being what they were, we told her she had to make a choice.  The Democratic Convention in 2004 was being held in Boston, and the Republican Convention in New York City.  Both were within driving distance (thank goodness for me!).  She had no political affiliation to either side, so the decision came down to location.  She finally decided that New York would be the more exotic locale and she chose to attend that one.  This is a very important point when you are a teenager.

Madison Square Garden 2004

It was fun to see the convention through the eyes of a teenager.  Of course, the political platform of the candidates were not as important as the excitement around the entire convention.  Media stars, collecting buttons, and getting INTO the actual convention were the most important things to her that week.  The Junior Statesmen attended outside events from neighborhood level meetings, meeting the mayor of New York, the Governor and even going to the United Nations.  But getting inside the security line of Madison Square Garden was not included except for tours and day events.

However, the kids soon learned that schmoozing is a big part of politics.  She was the only kid there from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont or Massachusetts while there were about a dozen kids each from bigger states like California.  The imbalance was in her favor.  She was invited to the delegates breakfasts of all four of those New England States, and attended for New Hampshire and Massachusetts. At each she received a goodie bag full of cool stuff, but the most important were the passes to get INSIDE Madison Square garden.  Now she suddenly had four passes to share (two from each state for the week) and she was the most popular kid!  Her passes were for the nosebleed section in the rafters, but they were still inside.

Pins, pins, and more pins!

She also learned that schmoozing got her places, like her elevator talks in the extremely crowded elevators at her hotel right across the street from Madison Square Garden.  She met delegates in the elevators from most of the states in the union, and each one offered her passes, buttons, business cards, and even scholarship applications and other goodies.  She schmoozed her way into the CNN café.  She schmoozed her way into passing out brochures to delegates on the floor of the hall (better than sitting in the rafters).  She collected pins from all types of delegates, protestors, media companies, and other folks through trading, swapping and just asking – “I love your pin, how do I get one of those?”

The CNN Cafe (media only) across
from the Madison Square Garden

 She even schmoozed her way into sitting on the second level of Madison Square Garden on the last night.  Unknown to her she was sitting in the booth right next to the candidate’s family.  Since the candidate was George Bush, this meant that his parents (ex-president Bush and his wife) and the Bush daughters were sitting there.  A secret service agent stood behind her during the entire night, but did not question her pass.  My daughter was a bit nervous, but instead of sneaking out at the end of the night she tried the ultimate schmooze- chatting up the secret service!  She actually said to him “That’s a great pin.  How can I get one of those?” and pointed to his secret service pin on his lapel.  He said that it was a special pin for guarding the first family.  She knew that there would be no pin trading with this guy.  However, after the famous balloon drop,  as she was leaving Madison Square Garden he tapped her on the shoulder and handed her the pin right off his lapel!  It is now the most prized pin in her collection.

Over this week in New York my daughter learned a lot about history, politics, political protesting and the political media circuses surrounding events like the national party conventions.  She also learned that the delegates attending were more than happy to chat up young people, share ideas (as well as pins!) and encourage them to continue their interest in politics.  I’m sure she will never forget her time in Madison Square Garden in 2004.  She entered college planning to major in international relations, but soon changed that to public relations.  With all the schmoozing skills she perfected in New York, it was a perfect choice for her!

Junior Statesmen of America  http://jsa.org/

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Iberia Airlines, about 1965

This photo was taken about 1965.  Remember when flying was a big deal, and there was a photographer at the doorway to take your photo?  Remember when everyone flying dressed up in suits, even the little boys? This is my father-in-law and my husband as a little boy.  My father-in-law worked in New York City at the United Nations, and they would fly home to Madrid several times a year on Iberia Airlines.  Later, my mother-in-law became a ticket agent and manager for Iberia, and they were able to continue flying home to visit family several times a year- even after my father-in-law stopped working at the UN and became a professor.

I often wonder if all this intercontinental flying my husband did as a little boy influenced his desire to become an aeronautical-astronautical engineer?

We found this photo in a box of memorabilia in Madrid, and scanned it with my Flip-Pal scanner.

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Iberia Airlines, about 1965", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 26, 2012, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/07/iberia-airlines-about-1965.html: accessed [access date]). 

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.

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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- The Patterson Family

The Patterson Family Monument

Glenwood Cemetery, Londonderry, New Hampshire

located right by the stone wall along Mammoth Road

Governor George Washington Patterson (1799- 1879)of New York State

erected this monument to his family in 1870

He paid $700 for the large stone of New Hampshire Granite,

and had it inscribed with the names of all the Pattersons

descended of Peter Patterson (1716-1800) the original Nutfield immigrant

Governor Patterson was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Wallace) Patterson.

He graduated from Pinkerton Academy and went to the Genesee Valley, New York

with his brother George. Later, brothers Robert and Peter joined them in New York.

The last brother, Thomas Patterson stayed in Londonderry.

Thomas Patterson lived on the Patterson Homestead on Adams Road.

It is now a cellar hole on Mack's Orchard land.

The Patterson Monument was photographed for RAOGK

and for a genealogy request through the Londonderry Historical Society.

Names incribed on the Patterson Monument:

Stone #31

Patterson, David 2/11/1793 - 2/12/1793
Elizabeth (Baker) 6/10/1791 - 6/6/1875
Elizabeth (Burns) 1765-1848
Elizabeth Wallace 10/14/1755 - 12/30/1875
Grisey (Barret) 3/26/1776 - 11/13/1850
Grisey (Burns) 1761 - 1845
Hannah 4/26/1798 - 11/12/1869
James 11/21/1777 - 6/4/1815
Jane (Frank) 10/30/1795 - 2/19/1867
John 1750-1793
Margaret (Holmes) 1755 - 1838
Mary (McNeill) 4/11/1783 - 2/22/1812
Peter 11/14/1779 - 2/18/1865
Peter 1716-1800
Rachel (McNeill) 1752- 1838
Robert 1744-1828
Thomas
Thomas 10/23/1746 - 5/20/1834
Thomas 8/11/1786 - 10/27/1838
William 6/4/1789 - 10/27/1869

Also listed are several Wallaces and Wilsons and 1 Washington on Stone #31
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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Amanuensis Monday - Bertha’s Audio Tape- Part 5

Bertha Louise (Roberts) Wilkinson
(1897-1990)
This photo was taken about the time of her arrival in America in 1915

I read about Amanuensis Monday in Randy Seaver’s blog “GeneaMusings” and Randy read about it on John Newmark’s genealogy blog “TransylvanianDutch”. Amanuensis: A person employed to take dictation or copy manuscripts.This is an ongoing series of Monday posts to transcribe an audio cassette tape my Grandmother, Bertha Louise (Roberts) Wilkinson (1897 – 1990), made in the 1970s. In this section of the tape she describes the extended family and their trip to America via Ellis Island in 1915.
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“We had lots of good times with the family. I remember my grandma coming and visiting, my father's mother. She was a sweet little old lady and she wore a jet bonnet and a jet cape and she would come and visit us and when she came we used to tease her and play games with her. And then I had, I don't remember my other grandma, but she did bring me into the world. And at the time my mother said I had thick black hair when I was born and her other children were all very light, not much hair. My other grandma lived with my mother and Dad but I don't remember her because I was quite..., just a baby when she died.

My aunts and uncles would come and visit us. My father had five brothers and two sisters. One of his brothers came to this country when he was 18 years old. And he had, there was Edward, Frank, Jim and Sam were twins, and my father. The twins were Jim and Sam and one of the sisters was the mother to the one that married my sister. She was my father's sister and they had a drapery store in Armley (?) not too far away from Leeds. And I remember going over there when I was a little girl. We used to visit them. And I loved to go in the store and my uncle would let me measure the ribbons and I thought that wonderful. It was quite a nice store and they sold a lot of lovely things and they had five girls and just this one boy, Herbert.

My sister... my mother had four sisters and two brothers. The sisters were Betsy, Liza, Mary, Hetty and my mother. My mother's name was Emma Frances. The two boys left home and went to New Zealand when they were just young boys and it was very sad because my mother didn't hear from them. My grandma never heard from them for years and years and they never wrote and we never heard from them until after I was married even, and we heard from one of the widows saying that this George had passed away and was always talking about home. He was blind for quite a while and she sent news, but we never heard from Arthur the other boy.

So my father was just a young child and there was this girl taking care of him and he fell in this pond wherever it was, and this man saved his life, and brought him home to my mother and he said "Has this child been christened?" Well, he had been … He was named John, but his man's name was Peter Bowden, and he said, "Will you give him my name, too?" So my mother called him John Peter Bowden Roberts. Now this man was a very wealthy man and he lived in London. Once in a great while he would come up to Leeds and he would visit. And he would tell my father to be a good boy and to learn all he could and he would give him a gold piece. He would give all the other children a silver piece. My, I think that they thought he would take care of my Dad but he left his money without a will. So when that happens it goes to Chancellery.

Anyway, Dad started working very early because my people were just well they didn't have much to do with really. And so he started working half days when he was 10 years old. And his father was an engineer and he showed him, told him all about trade, being an engineer. Before my father married he took care of his mother for quite a while and they lived nearby. And my mother took care of her mother. My mother worked in a shoe shop and she would bring home her work so that she could stitch at home and make extra money. Many times my father would go to walk to… they worked in the same factory, and he would walk there to…. And look through the window and my mother would be asleep at the sewing machine. So she really neglected herself and didn't get enough rest. And she wasn't too well. Even when they got married she was wasn't too well. She had a cough and I remember one time she went away to the hospital for quite a while. And I remember going to visit her. But she did work hard, all her life and….

I think I told you all I can remember about my childhood. Then when we came to this country we were treated very good. Of course, we had to come third class. The captain was very nice. My mother and I shared a room and my father and brother shared another room. But we ate at the table together and I enjoyed the voyage very much, although it was really risky because it was during the war. In fact when we were booked to go on this Orduna Cunard liner and the voyage before the Germans had almost torpedoed it. The torpedo had just missed the boat. So they were yelling out the news that this had happened. So when we went to Liverpool to go on this boat, everybody was looking at me saying they didn't think it would make it. They thought that it would be torpedoed. Well, they had a life belt drill. Oh, we waited until the middle of the night. We went down the river Mersey and it stopped there and then in the middle of the night it started up. And the only ones who know which way we were going was the pilot and the Captain. And they had a life belt drill to tell us what to do if the siren sounded. We had a life belt. Each one of us had a life belt and they were looking out all the time for submarines.

My father wrote a diary and I gave it to my granddaughter. He had very little schooling but he was a wonderful writer and he was a smart man. Well, we enjoyed the voyage and we got there safely. And when we got here my sister had decided to meet us with a cousin of hers and the baby. But she missed us, so the guide put us on the train to Beverly, Mass. from Boston and we got off at Montserrat station. Now Beverly at that time was a beautiful city. It was called a garden city, and I thought it was just beautiful. We didn't know exactly where 60 Colon Street was, but we took a taxi and my mother was quite sick. Well, we got to the house and a neighbor came out and she had the key to the house and she said that my sister would be back again. And my sister had everything ready for us to have a nice dinner. And my uncle, the one who came when he was 18 lived in Beverly, Mass. And, of course, he and his wife and children came up to see us. Well, that night the older people talked all night, they had a lot to catch up with.

And this young cousin I had, the next morning we went for a lovely walk to the Beverly country lanes. Now since then it's all been built up and Beverly isn't as pretty as it used to be. It's deteriorated like lots of cities do, but it was beautiful then. [I’d love to tell her that Beverly, Massachusetts is again a beautiful seaside city!]

My father got work at the United Shoe. I worked as a ladies tailor. I didn't care for that kind of work and finally I got work in the United Shoe. And I worked there for 10 years. And we lived with my mother and father. But my father had to start work as a fireman and work his way up to be an engineer. But it wasn't too long and he started to get sick. Well, we finally found out he had a large cancer in the rectum and he was a very sick man. He had an operation and a colostomy, and was sick a long time. And my mother wasn't a bit well. So for quite a while my mother was upstairs sick and my father was downstairs sick. Well, I had an aunt come during the week to take care of them. And then weekends I stayed home and well... when I met my husband in a church in Salem through a friend, and then my father died. Don would come over all the time to see me and of course we couldn't go anywhere but he would shave my father and we would sit on the porch in the summertime like that, and then my father passed away.”

Click here to see my blog post from July 2009 with a transcription of my great grandfather’s journal during their trip from England to America via Ellis Island http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/07/ellis-island-immigration-journal-john.html

Click here to see Part One of this series on the audio tape by Bertha http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/04/amanuensis-monday-berthas-audio-tape.html


More about the SS Orduna at this link:
http://maritimemoments.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/the-ss-orduna-warrior-troop-ship-and-stage-for-human-drama/ 

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Amanuensis Monday - Bertha’s Audio Tape- Part 5", Nutfield Genealogy, posted May 10, 2010, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/05/amanuensis-monday-berthas-audio-tape_10.html: accessed [access date]). 

Wordless Wednesday- Ellis Island 1975

(very poor quality photos
from an old slide scanned in before it deteriorated further)
The World Trade Center was new back then in 1975

My sister and I on the ferry to Ellis Island

I was thirteen, she was about nine

I remember that it was January and we were freezing!

Dad had us pose next to the immigrant exhibit (don't we look thrilled!)
His mom had passed through Ellis Island in 1915 from Leeds, England

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Wordless Wednesday- Ellis Island 1975", Nutfield Genealogy, posted May 5, 2010, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/05/wordless-wednesday-ellis-island-1975.html: accessed [access date]).