News from Nutfield ~ July 2013

NextGen Genealogy Network Utilization

I recently joined the NextGen Genealogy Network Facebook page.  According to the website “The NextGen Genealogy Network exists to foster the next generation’s interest in family history and engagement in our community through digital channels which virtually connect members throughout the world.”  You can follow the conversations also on Twitter @nextgennetwrk

 

I love this group because I started my genealogy research as a teenager.  I remember when I thought I was the only kid interested in family history, and I would go to events and be the only one who arrived by bicycle because I was too young to drive!  And when my daughter was younger, I ran a Girl Scout special interest group for genealogy.   We had classes and organized field trips to NEHGS and other repositories in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.  Young people have a great interest in family history, and can be enthusiast researchers.  I was glad I started early on my family tree, because I was able to interview people who had memories and stories of the 1800s, including remembering their own grandparents who had been in the Civil War, or who had passed through Ellis Island.  Today’s kids find our memories of JFK, hippies and Vietnam, September 11^th and disco music just as fascinating!

 Just recently I was shocked to realize that I no longer was the youngest genealogist in the room at any given genealogy event.  When did the past 35 years creep up on me so fast?

Londonderry Historical Society Acquisition

Lots of news from the historical society!  A thirty foot section of rail and a switch will be moved from North Londonderry to the Morrison House museum complex on Pillsbury Road.  The new rail trail being constructed and paved in that section of the old railroad bed meant that many miles of rail are being removed.  The Iron Horse Restoration Company will remove, move and re-install the track and switch at no cost to the historical society.   Also, a bowl from the Morrison family was recently donated to the historical society and will be on display inside the Morrison house.  I helped out with the genealogy research on this donation, and hope to do some more work on the genealogies of the three different Morrison families who were original Nutfield settlers here.   Read more about the railroad story here: http://nutpub.net/londonderry_times_newspaper/railroad-artifacts-to-be-placed-at-historical-society/

Wedding Instability and Renormalization

Yes, we had a wedding! – well, two wedding parties on two continents!  I tried to keep up with the blog by pre-posting three weeks of posts and stories ahead of time.  It’s been difficult to catch up now that all the hullabaloo has died down, and life comes back to a normal pace. I haven’t been able to keep up with comments and email, and some correspondence was lost when I tried to log on from Spain during this absence.  If your questions and comments were not answered in the past month or so, please resubmit your queries and I’ll try my best to keep up.

 

Other things I have caught up on since we returned from Spain.

1.    I successfully migrated all my favorite blogs from Google reader to Feedly. This was a good time to weed out blogs I no longer follow, blogs that have stopped posting, and to add in new fresh blogs.

2.   Started organizing my desk area after being inspired by the new Facebook group “The Organized Genealogist”.  Started doesn’t mean much.

3. Finally planted my containers and window boxes three weeks after Memorial Day. Late, late, late…  the tomato plant already had ten tomatoes, three bigger than three inches when it was attacked by a tomato hungry chipmunk.

4.   Put the sweaters in storage and got out the shorts and sandals… just in time for a heat wave.

5.    We had a vacation to recover from our vacation, a nice short weekend in Vermont

6.   Posted my 100^th Weathervane Wednesday post! http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/06/weathervane-wednesday-100th-weathervane.html

7.   I started a new series of blog posts on “20^th Century Americana” , the first two posts were on the CCC and a WWII museum. Stay tuned for more…

8.   Coming soon, my 4^th Blogoversary on July 27th

“Postcard from a Stranger” Implementation

Three years ago I posted a story about a postcard http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/03/post-card-from-stranger.html .  During World War II my grandmother wrote a letter to my uncle, who was serving in Guam, but she dropped the envelope in a department store.  A stranger found the letter and posted it for Nana, and was also kind enough to send her a postcard telling her that the letter was safely on its way.  Last month a niece of the stranger sent me an email.  The kind stranger was still alive (in her 90s) and was thrilled to read my story online.  This is not exactly a “cousin connection” but I was just as thrilled to receive this email! 

New England GeneaBlogger News

http://nhgenealogist.com/blog.html  Amylynne Baker Santagate of Hampstead, New Hampshire has started her new blog “NH Genealogist” and also posted information about her genealogy business.  Good luck to Amylynne!

Coming soon!  There will be a panel discussion of four New England GeneaBloggers on October 26^th at 10am, at the Nevins Library in Methuen, Massachusetts sponsored by the Merrimack Valley Chapter of the Massachusetts Society of Genealogists.  Yours truly, Marian Pierre Louis, Bill West and Cynthia Shenette will be on the panel to discuss our genealogy blogs, how we started, why we enjoy blogging, and to answer questions.  It should be an interesting topic for discussion, and I hope to meet readers and perhaps some new folks interested in becoming GeneaBloggers?!

Congratulations to New England Geneablogger John D. Tew!  His blog “Filiopietism Prism” was featured at NEHGS’s “Weekly Genealogist” newsletter online on June 12^th.  You can view this online at this link: http://www.americanancestors.org/enews-2013/   John’s blog is only about six months old, but he has a lot of fans and followers already. 

Catch the latest New England GeneaBlogger news at the Facebook group at this link:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-England-GeneaBloggers/137159396360343

Collaboration Catalyst

I just noticed I was getting lots of hits on my blog from this page at Boston.com:

http://www.boston.com/community/new_england_blog_network/local_life/?p1=Well_Community_subsection_links

Thanks to the mystery person who put Nutfield Genealogy on this list for the “New England Blog Network”!

"New to Me" blogs I am following:

50 Shades of Genealogy----  http://50shadesofgenealogy.tumblr.com/ 

Photo Sleuth        ----------  http://photo-sleuth.blogspot.com/

An Historical Lady  --------  http://anhistoricallady.blogspot.com/

 

And This is Good Old Boston  http://goodoldboston.blogspot.com/

FREE STUFF
Ancestry.com is offering FREE access to their New England records until July 21st!  And here is a link to their new guide to New England genealogy research...
http://c.mfcreative.com/offer/us/newengland_vital/NEvitals-ResearchGuide.pdf

These free records include:
Mass. births 1840 - 1915
NH births 1659 - 1900
Mass marriages 1840 - 1915
NH marriages and divorces 1659 - 1947
Mass deaths 1841- 1915
NH deaths and disinterments 1754 - 1947
Conn. Hale Cemetery inscriptions 1675 - 1934
RI State Censuses 1865 - 1935
VT vital records 1720 - 1908
Mass, town and vital records 1620 - 1988
Mass, Masonic membership cards 1733 - 1990
 

New Projects Added to Family Search Indexing (of interest to New England researchers)

US (Community Project) Rhode Island - Naturalization Index of the District Courts (1906 -991)
US, Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Probate Index 1881 - 1939
US (Community Project), Massachusetts, Boston, Crew Lists, 1891 - 1957
US, Maine - Vital Records Prior to 1892 for 80 towns
US, Massachusetts - State Vital Records, 1841-1920 (Part B)

Projects Completed, to be published at FamilySearch.org in the near future

US - Index to Volunteers of the War of 1812, 1812 - 1815
US, Massachusetts - State Vital Records, 1841 - 1920 (Part A)

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

News from Nutfield

It's been a while since my last "News from Nutfield" report.  I have about two months of catching up here.  I'm afraid that the next few weeks will be just as busy since there will be a wedding, adding a new branch to our family tree...

April Anomaly

Do you remember one year ago we were all excited about the 1940 census release, and then we were as busy as bees indexing away?  It’s hard to believe it was only one short year ago, the indexing was finished ahead of schedule and we’ve all grown accustomed to looking up relatives on the 1940 census just like any other census… How time flies!

States Meme Approximation

I didn’t know that over at the Hidden Genealogy Nuggets Blog by Jill Sanders there was a weekly blog theme called Genealogy by the States.  The week of March 5^th was New Hampshire week.   I have a Google alert for the words “genealogy” and “New Hampshire” and I was alerted to all the posts in the blogosphere that participated in this meme.  You should check it out to see if you would like to participate or maybe find a cousin connection when the meme comes to your home state. 

The 1779 Slave Petition to the New Hampshire Legislature
photographed at the New Hampshire State Archives

Slave Petition Permeability

In 1779 fourteen African slaves in New Hampshire petitionedthe legislature for freedom.  Instead of voting for or against the petition, the legislature tabled the issue.  Last month the New Hampshire Senate voted in favor of the petition, righting a wrong that had gone on for more than two centuries.  This story was in the news, and I posted it on the Nutfield Genealogy Facebook page.  Judy Russell, the Legal Genealogist, who is also a lawyer as well as a genealogist, inquired about the story and asked me how to get a copy of the 1779 petition.  I went to Concord to photograph it for her, which gave me a chance to meet the NH State Archivist and to actually see this important document in person.   It was a thrilling moment to carry out this little RAOGK for Judy.  

Boston.com and AP reported on “NH Senate passes bill freeing former slaves” at this link: http://www.boston.com/news/local/new-hampshire/2013/03/14/senate-passes-bill-freeing-former-slaves/AOSRgOoGDUYZKVLaxNYe1H/story.html

Maine Manipulations

Pam Carter’s blog “My Maine Ancestry” had a great blog poston 9 March 2013 “A Case of Domestic Violence”.    This is a case of the importance of reading other people’s blogs, and the great cousin connections you can make.  Her blog post had a slew of ancestors from my family tree.   I knew most of the information in this blog, but not ALL of it.  Pam took the dry notes from several of the same sources I already read, but wove a wonderful tale that was very readable and interesting.  It brought together details into a wonderful explanation of the court records.

RootsTech and Hessian Soldiers Recurrence

Late last month I was in Salt Lake City for the RootsTech 2013 conference.  It was exciting enough to be in Salt Lake City, home of the world’s biggest genealogy library, but adding the RootsTech conference to it was like the icing on the cake.  Along with some of my blogging friends I was also able to be on Dear Myrtle’s Hang Out on Air pre-conference show.  All these lovely experiences needed a bit of payback to complete the karma circle.  One of the folks hanging out On Air with Myrt had a Hessian soldier ancestor like me, and happened to drop the name.  While looking up my own Hessian, I found her ancestor in the journal of the Johannes Schwab Historical Association.  I photographed the article and sent it off to her.  This is amazing to me because only a handful of libraries have subscriptions to the JSHA journal, and the Family History Library in Salt Lake City is one of them!

Cousin Connection Catalyst

Mehetable Chandler Coit was subject of recent Fieldstone Common episode “One Colonial Woman’s World with Michelle Coughlin”.  And then, again, Marian hit ancestor paydirt (for me anyway) with her episode of “The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle with Ava Chamberlain” on 28 March 2013.   The infamous Elizabeth Tuttle (b. 1645) was the niece of my 8^th gread grandmother, Dorothy Tuttle .   Thanks Marian!

I also learned that I am distant Marian Pierre Louis’s cousin.  Our connection is through John Chandler (abt 1634 – 1703) and Elizabeth Douglas, I descend from daughter Hannah Chandler Draper, Marian through another sibling.  Mehetable Chandler Coit was also a sibling.

New online resources

At the NEHGS website, the database previously named “Massachusetts Soldiers in the Colonial Wars” has been updated and renamed “Colonial Soldiers and Officers in the New England 1620 – 1775”  See the description and links at http://www.americanancestors.org/Blogs.aspx?id=28839&blogid=124069
 

The New Hampshire Historical Society, founded 1823, now has their museum collections catalog online at www.nhhistory.org.  Click “Museum” and then click “Online Catalog of Museum Collections”.  This database has over 23,000 records of objects and biographies of prominent people, most with images attached.  Reproductions of images may be purchased directly from the catalog.  Also, more finding aids have been added at http://www.nhhistory.org/finding_aids/finding_aids.html  

Also new this past month, NERGC, making the "Top 40 List" at Family Tree Magazine, touring the Mayflower II while she lies in drydock, volunteers just indexed their billionth record for Family Search, big news coming soon from my Hawaiian genealogy research, bridal showers and lots of wedding preparations... Phew!
 

Links:

Fieldstone Common blog http://www.fieldstonecommon.com/

Genealogy by the States- New Hampshire  http://www.hiddengenealogynuggets.com/genealogyblog/category/genealogy-by-the-states/

Hidden Genealogy Nuggetss http://www.hiddengenealogynuggets.com/genealogyblog/

Johannes Schwalm Historic Association (Hessian Soldiers) www.jsha.org

Mondays with Myrt 18Mar2013 HOA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D11HuZpTq3c

New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) www.americanancestors.org

One Colonial Woman’s World http://www.onecolonialwomansworld.com/

Pam Carter’s My Maine Ancestry Blog “A Case of Domestic Violence” http://mymaineancestry.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-case-of-domestic-violence.html

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

News from Nutfield

The Publishing Permutation

There has been a proliferation of Legacy Quickguides published these past few weeks. For New England, you can now find New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut and Rhode Island Quickguides, and I’ve been told by secret sources that Massachusetts and Vermont will be coming soon.  All of the Quickguides are available as downloadable files for your desktop or mobile device for only $2.95, and some are available as laminated cards.

How do I know all this about the Legacy Quickguides?  I authored the New Hampshire and Maine versions last month. This is thrilling to me because it is almost time for the NERGC conference April 17 -21st, 2013 in Manchester, New Hampshire. You can order the Quickguides at this link: http://www.legacyfamilytreestore.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=71&Click=114207

The RootsTech Reaction

Technology +genealogy +archives +documents = Fascinating Discussions   

I’m wicked excited about attending the big conference in Salt Lake City later this month, RootsTech 2013.  I followed the last two RootsTech events online, and was very interested in attending in person instead of virtually being there.  In preparation for being surrounded by other technology nerds and genealogy geeks, I recently visited the MIT Media Lab event “Providing Innovative Access to the Content in the National Archives Records”.   I had a great time at this event and look forward to more of this in Utah. Read my post HERE.

The Snowstorm Solution

Three major blizzards have hit us three weekends in a row, with several smaller storms mixed in between for a bit of variety.  After Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Irene (which almost spoiled the 2011 Geneablogger Bash) and many ice storms, blizzards and the famous 2012 SnowTober storm have taught me to be prepared by backing up all my data.  I also have plans for charging up all my mobile devices and staying connected without power for extended periods. Are you prepared?  What do you run around doing when you hear severe weather alerts?

The Crafter Congruence

“Brown Eyed Baker” at http://www.browneyedbaker.com/ featured my cutting board blog post on their “Friday Things” post 8 February 2013 http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2013/02/08/friday-things-15/   This is a cooking blog, but their recommendation of my blog post led to almost 500 hits this month.  Also, many thanks to the Ravelry.com (a knitting website) discussion group that posted my blog post about the primitive portrait exhibit at their website.  I guess that members were discussing the portrait I had photographed of the “Lady of Essex, County”, which was originally titled “Portrait of an Old Lady Knitting, Essex County, Massachusetts”.  This has had almost 2,000 hits from Ravelry.com and a few comments from the Ravelry community.   I’m very sad that posts to do with arts and crafts have had so many hits lately.  I wish it were genealogists reading blogs, but anyways, maybe it will inspire a few cooks and knitters to explore genealogy? Read the blog post about folk art exhibit at Fruitlands HERE.
 

By the way, the cutting board story has had over 5,000 hits from Pinterest since Christmas time.  Again, this was pushed ahead in my blog statistics by crafters, and only a few genealogists.  I’ve seen a huge increase in blog traffic from Pinterest, but most of it is photo or craft driven, not history or genealogy driven stories.  Is this true for your blog, too?  Read my cutting board story HERE.

The Cousin Corollary

Filiopietism Prism at http://filiopietismprism.blogspot.com/2013/02/finding-cousin-kismet-karma-fate-or.html is authored by John Tew, who began his blogging as a guest writer here at Nutfield Genealogy.  He recently found out that we are cousins through our common ancestors Richard Tew (1605 – 1673) and Mary Clarke (1618 – 1687).  Our Tew connection is how we first connected on line through email correspondence.  I’ve found cousin connections with dozens of bloggers, usually through casual conversations with genealogists on Facebook.  I wish more bloggers would have blog posts or pages with the surnames in their lineages, to make these cousin connections easier. 

I find lots of common cousins through Facebook groups.  Of course, many are made on the several Mayflower pages and groups, but I also meet cousins on surname groups, local history groups, regional genealogy pages and even on tourism pages for New England sites.  There were some recent discussions about descendants of the Salem Witch trials that included families that were accused, accusers, witnesses, and other characters from 1692 Massachusetts. You never know when or where you will meet a cousin next.  Do you remember the days when we all used to post queries on genealogy bulletin boards?  Is Facebook the new version of this?

Londonderry Fluctuations

There has been a lot of interest in Scots Irish genealogy all of a sudden.  I’ve had lots of email from queries to the Londonderry Historical Society, from my blog, and from several websites asking me to do look ups for descendants from some of the old Ulster Presbyterian families.  These names include CARGILL, McMURPHY, STEELE, McCLARY, CILLY, ARCHIBALD, McKNIGHT,  BOYD, WILSON and MORRISON.  Some of these families removed from Londonderry to Pennsylvania and then on to other places along the Appalachian chain.  If you have a Scots Irish name, it just might have originated here in New Hampshire after leaving Northern Ireland, and before migrating south and west.

A member of the Londonderry historical society (not me!) will be attending the big event in Northern Ireland this summer.  The 400^th anniversary of Londonderry will be taking place, with a year of festivals and events.  In 1613 a Royal Charter established the Irish Society and the County of Londonderry.  The Irish Society established Ulster.   You can read more about it at The Honourable Irish Society at this link: http://www.honourableirishsociety.org.uk/about-us/400th-anniversary I hope to report on this more later this year.

Mayflower Implementation

When the Mayflower II went into winter quarters at the Fairhaven Shipyard last fall, it was discovered that repairs could no longer be deferred to the future, and some major rennovations are being completed this winter and spring. The ship is now 56 years old, which is a long time for a wooden sailing ship.  I received several updates on the maintenance by email from the Plimoth Plantation museum, which oversees the Mayflower II.  The museum will be fundraising significant donations towards this winter’s repairs and for more major renovations this year.  The ship will return to Plymouth harbor in May.

Click here to help raise the $380,000 to keep the Mayflower II shipshape and seaworthy!

https://secure3.convio.net/plimot/site/Donation2?1580.donation=form1&df_id=1580&JServSessionIdr004=4oudwza684.app338a  

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

News from Nutfield

The ARCHIBALD Anomaly

A few months ago I started reading a blog called “A Hoyt Family Genealogy” because the author had some cousin connections with my family tree.  Then I read her post on January 15^th and found out she lived in Derry!  And she was blogging about John Archibald and his tombstone!  What serendipity… and since then I’ve put her in contact with many Archibald descendants.  This should keep her busy for a while.  You can read that story at this link: http://www.la-famille.mardistudio.com/blog/2013/01/tombstone-tuesday-john-archibald/#comment-122

Award Amplifications

Thanks to Randy Seaver at the “Genea-Musings” blog for naming me to his Best of the Genea Blogs List for 2012.  I squeaked in at #18 (last) on the list, but I am still flabbergasted to have even made this list.  What a great honor! Gracias, Randy!

And thanks to Robin C. Mason, the Boston Genealogy Examiner at examiner.com.  She posted Nutfield Genealogy on her list of great Massachusetts Genealogy blogs, along with J.L. Bell’s Boston 1775, Ryan W. Owen’s Forgotten New England, Marian Pierre-Louis’s Roots and Rambles, Chris’s Massachusetts and More Genealogy Blog, and Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings.  I’m in very good company, as all of these are among my very favorites on my blog reader list.

And finally, thanks so much to blogger, author and genealogist Mariann Regan who surprised me with a nomination for the Blog of the Year 2012 Award.  And then thanks to John, John, Kathryn and Pam for four more stars.  I’m at five starts towards the “Blog of the Year”!  Lets see what happens….

The Pinterest Paradigm

Update on the infamous bread board/cutting board blog post.  In the first week of this new year I was surprised to see about 400 hits one night on this blog post about a recipe written in my mother’s handwriting wood burned into a cutting board.  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-favorite-christmas-gift-you-might.html  Several friends on Facebook told me that this image had been pinned to someone’s board at Pinterest and had “gone viral”.  In my last “News from Nutfield” I mentioned how surprised I was that it had reached 1,500 hits.  Well, in the next week I woke up one morning to see that while I was sleeping I had received almost 1,500 hits during a single night.  Since then I've had over 7,000 hits on this one post in a little more than a month.  Several crafters also listed my post on their “follow Friday” craft blogs.  The most popular was at this link, where I’ve received thousands of hits in just a few days: http://iowagirleats.com/2013/01/11/friday-favorites-54/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IowaGirlEats+%28Iowa+Girl+Eats%29    "Iowa Girl Eats"  must be an immensely popular blog.   Thanks, Kristin the Iowa Girl!

New Records Extrapolations:

(New records online of interest to New England genealogy research)

At Ancestry.com

Massachusetts, Town Marriage Records 1620 – 1850

Connecticut, Divorce Index 1968 – 1997

US, New England Marriages Prior to 1700

Rhode Island, Indexes to Naturalization Records, 1890 – 1992

Early Connecticut Marriages

FamilySearch.org

Maine, State Archives Collections 1790 – 1966

Maine, Oxford County Probate Estate Files 1805 – 1915

Mass. State Vital Records 1841 – 1920

Vermont, Franklin Country Probate 1796 - 1921

New England Historic Genealogical Society

Barbour Collection Updated (East Haddam, Somers, Union and Wilmington added)

Bristol County, Mass. Extracts from Court of General Sessions 1687 - 1801

Rhode Island Roots now searchable through volume 10

Upcoming Ancestry Day with NEHGS is March 2, 2013 in Boston! -

  

Online Death Records, Indexes and Obituaries http://www.deathindexes.com/

Maine, Dixfield Cemeteries

Maine, Penobscot County, City of Brewer Cemetery Records

Vermont, Bennington County: Pownal Historical Society (cemetery burials, deaths 1921 – 1980, etc)

Click here to see new additions to the Maine Genealogy Network

http://archives.mainegenealogy.net/

Just for fun….

Have you checked out Marion Pierre-Louis’s new blog “On-site Research New England: The podcast for historical researchers” at http://www.researchnewengland.com/     At this site you can listen or download a podcast (recording) of her interviews with archivists, librarians and genealogists at New England archives and repositories of historical documents.  At her first post she interviews genealogist Rhonda McClure at the Microtext department of the New England Historic Genealogical Society library.

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

News from Nutfield

Nutfield Genealogy has another (the fourth!) spin off!  My guest blogger John Tew has started his own blog called Filiopietism Prism.  You can read his first few posts, and his story about his interesting title, at this link: http://filiopietismprism.blogspot.com/   I think you’ll enjoy it!

Another “new to me” distant cousin contacted me just before Christmas, and also had a group of several Salem historians all contact me, too.  They are all descendants of the GARDNERS of Salem, who read my post about Benjamin Gardner.  He is mysterious brickwall ancestor who was a ropemaker in Salem just after the American Revolutionary War.  John Goff, who I knew before as a WYMAN cousin, wrote up a story mentioning Benjamin Gardner for the website “Wicked Local- Salem” http://www.wickedlocal.com/salem , which will appear later in January.  John Goff has a regular column at this website, called “Preservation Perspective”.

Another one of these GARDNER cousins is John Switlik who writes the blog “Thomas Gardner of Salem, MA” at http://thomasgardnerofsalem.blogspot.com/   and he also manages the Thomas Gardner Society website at http://thomasgardnersociety.org/     If you are a GARDNER, or if you have Salem ancestry, you might want to check out these links.

This cairn marked the first sermon by Rev. MacGregor
Where was it located?  It has disappeared since 1919

A geographer named Donald Kirkland is working with Richard Holmes, the Derry town historian, to determine the location of a cairn that marked the site where Rev. MacGregor gave the first sermon in Nutfield (now Derry, somewhere near Beaver Lake).  He read my blog posts on Beaver Lake and sent me this photo which dates from 1919.  Mr. Kirkland was hoping I knew the location of the cairn, or if I had a relative who knew the location. The cairn was somewhere near the northeast side of Beaver Lake.  He has queried seniors and members at the First Parish Church, but no one seems to know the spot.  If you know the location of this former cairn, please contact me (email vrojomit@gmail.com or leave a comment here) and I’ll pass it on to Mr. Kirkland.

A second cousin once removed, who I never knew before, related to my ALLEN lineage has found me via the website www.Genealogywise.com  I hadn’t been on the Genealogywise website in months and almost missed her posting.  Have you tried Genealogywise?  I don’t find it as interesting or useful as Facebook for connecting with other genealogists, but I’m glad I checked back in.  This is a lesson in checking back onto bulletin boards or websites where you may have left messages, because there just might be a return message, or a new post from someone who has potential information for you!

Last week I wrote a post on a Sunday.  I usually never post on Sunday.  However, at Christmas I had receive a very unique gift from my daughter and it was so perfect for family historians that I just had to share.  She had a cutting board made with my mother’s favorite recipe in her OWN HANDWRITING woodburned into the board.  It was made by a crafter at Etsy.com who took a scan of the original recipe card and burned the handwriting.  Think of all the recipes, letters or signatures you have collected that you can share this way.  It was picked up by someone and posted to Pinterest, where it went absolutely viral.  I have had almost 1500 hits to this one post this week, and over 1,000 of the hits came directly from the Pinterest website. I’m so glad I decided to post that whimsical story and photograph.  Isn't that what social media is all about?

Thanksgiving and Christmas have come and gone, and it’s now 2013.  I’ll be attending RootsTech 2013 in Salt Lake City in March and also NERGC in April in Manchester, New Hampshire.  Let’s see what the New Year brings for genealogy mysteries and interesting local history stories…

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo