Are you my cousin? Ammi Burnham Young (1798 - 1874)

Views of the Boston Custom House

Did you ever see a historical name in a book or on a plaque and say “That name could be a cousin!”  Did you follow up by researching to see if that name really was a cousin?  That’s me.  I recognize familiar surnames around New England and often wonder if there is a kinship. 

I saw the name Ammi Burnham Young on a brochure about the Boston Custom House and I wondered about his BURNHAM name.  I knew that there were several “Ammi Burnhams” in my family tree.  I have eight BURNHAM lineages from the same two immigrant brothers, and so usually any New England Burnham ends up being a cousin to me.  I was very surprised to read that the architect Ammi Burnham Young (1798 – 1874) was not just a BURNHAM cousin, but I was also related to his FOSTER grandmother, his EMERSON great grandmother, and to both of his PERKINS great great grandmothers. His grand father, Ammi Burnham (1733 – 1785) is my 2^nd cousin 7 generations removed. 

When researching famous cousins, it helps if your own family tree includes all the allied branches of your ancestors, their siblings, the siblings spouses, extended family and also their children (your first cousins many generations removed, and also your second cousins many generations removed).  All these branches make it easier to match up to someone with a common ancestor.  

Who was Ammi Burnham Young?  He was born in Lebanon, New Hampshire on 19 June 1798, and his father, Samuel Young, built many civil buildings in Vermont and New Hampshire including churches, court houses and schools.  Ammi  graduated from Dartmouth College and followed in his father’s footsteps.  His two early works were the Vermont Capitol building and the Boston Custom House, which was finished in 1847.  The Custom house was considered Boston’s first skyscraper when a tower was added in 1915 which replaced the original dome designed by Ammi Burnham Young.

US Treasury Building, Washington D.C.
photo by Wikimedia Commons,
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Treasury_departement.jpg

After the Boston Custom House, Ammi Burnham Young was in great demand to build civic buildings all over the country.  In 1842 he built the US Treasury Building in Washington, DC (see the back of any $10 bill for an image of this building).  He built dozens of custom houses from Texas to Maine.  Locally in New England he built the courthouses in Worcester , Cambridge and Lowell, Massachusetts, the City Hall in Lawrence, Massachusetts.  In 1853 he supervised the construction of the Territorial Capital Building in Santa Fe, New Mexico.   

Ammi Burnham Young lost out on being the designer of the US Capital Building in Washington DC, and so as a consolation prize he was appointed “Supervising Architect of the US Treasury Department” in 1852.  He produced plans for many of the federal buildings built in Washington DC around the mall to be fire-proof using cast iron and granite.  Some of his custom houses in the southern states built at this time survived the Civil War, and orders by the Army of Northern Virginia to burn the Richmond custom house.  Jefferson Davis was indicted for treason inside the courtroom of this Richmond building in 1866.

Ammi Burnham Young died in Washington DC on 13 March, 1874 and is buried there at the Oak Hill Cemetery.

PDF of an article from the Bulletin for the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, “Architectural Projects in the Greek Revival Style by Ammi Burnham Young” by Lawrence Wodehouse, Volume LX, Number 3, January – March 1970, pages 73 – 85.

http://www.historicnewengland.org/preservation/your-older-or-historic-home/articles/pdf166.pdf  

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Are you my cousin?  Ammi Burnham Young (1798 - 1874)", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 4, 2014, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/09/are-you-my-cousin-ammi-burnham-young.html: accessed [access date]). 

Magna Carta [Great Charter] Great in history, not so great in actual dimensions

The Magna Carta
from the British Library, photo from Wikimedia Commons

When I heard the Magna Carta was coming to Boston I was thrilled.  How exciting to see the actual document sealed by King John, made famous in all the history books and as the villain in countless Robin Hood movies.  He is also my 23^rd great grandfather, as corroborated by Gary Boyd Roberts and William Addams Reitwiesner’s website.  There were also more than 25 Magna Carta sureties, Barons who were on record as enforcing the document.  The document ensured that they could meet at any time and overrule the king.  If you Google a noble ancestor from this time period, you might find a link online that lists him as a “Magna Carta Surety” or as one of the Magna Carta Barons.    I descend from three of these Barons- Saire de Quincy, William Malet, and Robert FitzWalter (my 23^rd, 24^th, and 25^th great grandfathers). 

Next year will be the 800^th anniversary of the Magna Carta, which happened at Runnymede, on the banks of the River Thames, near London, England on 15 June 1215.   This document will be traveling across the United States in commemoration of this important event.   After Boston’s MFA exhibit it will travel to Williamstown, Massachusetts to be on display at the Clark Institute, and then to the Law Library of Congress in Washington, DC until early 2015.

I was surprised to find out that this was not the Magna Carta.  There was not just one copy of this document made at the time, but many.  There are four surviving copies of this 1215 document.  The one at the MFA in Boston is held by the British Library, and on loan for the exhibit Magna Carta: Cornerstone of Liberty.   That was OK, I didn’t mind that there were several exemplifications of the Magna Carta.  It was still exciting to see a document from that moment in history.

Paul Revere's Liberty Bowl at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass.
Look carefully to see the words "Magna Charta"
from the MFA website
http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/sons-of-liberty-bowl-39072 

At the MFA exhibit the United States Constitution was also on display, as well as the Declaration of Independence.  The 5^th Amendment owes its roots to the Magna Carta.  The phrase “no person shall …. Be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” is derived directly from “No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned, disseised, outlawed, banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will We proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land”. 

Paul Revere’s Liberty Bowl was also on display, in front of the Magna Carta.  One of the phrases he inscribed on this bowl was Magna Charta.  There were also portraits of important signers such as Samuel Adams by Copely, and marble busts, and other historical documents related to the founding fathers.  It was a great exhibit, and included with admission to the MFA (no special timed entrances or additional tickets needed).

When I finally gazed at the Magna Carta I realized, it was sealed under oath, not signed, by King John.  His signature did not appear anywhere on the document.  I was extremely sad about this.  It would be so terrific to see the signature of a 23^rd great grandfather!  You can see the seal of the king on this 1297 version of the Magna Carta.  I’m sure you’ve seen similar on photos of papal bulls and other historic documents.  But this copy was just a piece of vellum with text.  No signatures.  Not even those of the Barons.  Darn.

1297 copy of the Magna Carta
from the NARA website
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/magna_carta/images/after-restoration-l.jpg

I was disappointed to not see a signature, but also by the size of the document.  It’s not much bigger than a regular legal sized paper, covered with miniscule handwriting.   I suppose I was imagining a large parchment, like the Declaration of Independence with John Hancock’s large, impressive signature.  After all, isn’t that how you imagined a King would sign a document?  A little research showed me that in the time period of 1215, most documents were sealed, not signed.  Kings were probably illiterate anyways, although I doubt King John was illiterate if he was the son of Eleanor of Aquitaine.   It pays to do a little research on the time period, as well as the document, before an exhibit such as this.

According to the British Library http://www.bl.uk/   each copy of the Magna Carta differs slightly in size, shape and text. There are two copies at the British Library (which is probably why they are willing to loan one for traveling on exhibit this year), and one each at the cathedral archives of Lincoln and Salisbury in England.

You don't need to have royal or noble ancestors to enjoy this exhibit.  Perhaps your ancestors were involved with the American Revolution?  Or were there lawyers in your family tree?  Were your family members involved with struggles for human rights in other countries of the world?  Just think how this historic event at Runnymede 800 years ago influenced democracy across the globe, and might have changed the lives of all our ancestors.

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For the truly curious:

Magna Carta: Cornerstone of Liberty

July 1, 2014 – September 1, 2014 at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston

See this link for more information:

http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/magna-carta   

Clark Institute, Williamsburg (Magna Carta will be on display September – October 2014)

http://www.clarkart.edu/    

“Magna Carta to go on display at Clark Art in 2014” from The Berkshire Eagle

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/ci_23800437/magna-carta-go-display-at-clark-art-2014  

Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor  

November 6, 2014 – January 19, 2015 at the Law Library of Congress, Washington, DC

https://www.facebook.com/events/345534555598885/

For Royal and Noble lineages see:

“WARGS”  William Addams Reitwiesner’s website  http://wargs.com/

The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants to the American Colonies or the United States, by Gary Boyd Roberts, 2004  (available from NEHGS and Genealogical Publishing Company)

Notable Kin, Volumes One and Volume Two, by Gary Boyd Roberts, 1998 and 1999, (available from NEHGS)

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See this link for “Profiles of Magna Carta Sureties and Other Supporters”.  Is your ancestor on this list?

http://www.magnacharta.com/bomc/profiles-of-magna-charta-sureties-and-other-supporters/

The home page of “The Baronial Order of Magna Charta”

http://www.magnacharta.com/

More about the Magna Carta from the US National Archives (a 1297 copy is on display here in the Rubenstein Gallery at the National Archives)

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/magna_carta/

Translation of the 1297 Magna Carta (issued in Latin)

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/magna_carta/translation.html


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The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/08/magna-carta-great-charter-great-in.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Back to MIT to hear about NARA’s plans for records access

Round table discussion at MIT Media Lab
Civic Media Lunch:  Providing Innovative Access to the Content in National Archives Records

I heard about this workshop through one of my husband’s MIT alumni networks, and then I heard again from Kate Theimer of the Archives Next blog on Twitter.  She wanted to know if anyone was going to the discussion, and I decided “Why not?”  Perhaps someone from the genealogical community should be there, listening in.  I love going back to the MIT campus, and the subject was right up my alley: “Providing Innovative Access to the Content in National Archives Records”

This lunchtime talk was open to the MIT community, and I may have been one of the few people there who was not a student, research fellow, MIT archivist or media lab employee.  It was not aimed at the end user (me, the genealogist) but at the developers and designers of the computer platforms and technology that drives our online experiences.  This discussion was a behind the scenes peek (for me) at the problems, hurdles and headaches of archiving 12 billion pieces of paper and electronic records, and making some of them safe for long term storage, and some of them also accessible to the public.

At this meeting were Michael Moore from the NARA facility in Waltham, MA, and his “boss”, Bill Mayer who is the head of Executive Research Services for all of NARA.  The main part of the presentation was by Pamela Wright, who used to be NARA’s Chief Digital Access Strategist (their social media guru), but is now the Chief Innovation Officer.  This department was formed in October 2012.

To read the blow by blow description of the meeting, you can read the blog by the students who were sitting right in front of me, liveblogging the seminar.  But here is what I took away from this meeting, as a genealogist and local historian…

The first item that I found to be great news was that there are Regional Residency  Fellowships available at the 6 NARA facilities around the USA.  See the website for details.  Wouldn't that be a wonderful way to fund some solid genealogy or local history projects?  This is a $3,000 stipend to assist with travel and research expenses for the completion of a research project which results in a publishable work.  You must work fast, the deadline for proposals is March 15, 2013.  The Boston/Waltham facility is one of the fellowship locations on the list.

Next, I found out that NARA’s website “Today’s Document” and the mobile apps for this were their first foray into social media in 2009.  This was the very first app I got for my iPhone three years ago, quickly followed by Twitter, Facebook and Ancestry (in that order). Pam learned that to make it successful she needed to have it on many platforms, including Tumblr.  David Ferreiro, the US Archivist at the head of NARA then asked Pam, “Where do you go when you go on line?”, and she knew that Google and Wikipedia were at the head of her list.  She hired a “Wikiepedian in residence” for NARA.  He was a Simmons Library School Graduate.  He put hundreds of thousands of NARA images online.   Their presence online grew tremendously after this.

Check the website for the Citizen Archivist dashboard.  This was designed to leverage the willingness and participation of the public (crowdsourcing) to help get useful information about documents online.   There are several places here to assist NARA with online scanned images of documents, including “You can Tag It”, to add tags to images and records partnered with Flickr and the online NARA catalog, and also “You can Transcribe It” to help transcribe documents at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.  No log in is necessary, so there is no barrier to participation.  They also plan some challenge competitions as they venture towards more public help.

These last two places for the public to get involved reminded me of the chance we all had to help transcribe and index the 1940 census.  If you enjoyed that experience, this would be very similar.

The end of the meeting dwelt on describing the data sets that would eventually be available and open to the public, including government email, taxes, military and other electronic documents.  There are sets of old data in unstructured form from platforms 30 to 40 years old that must be manipulated to new platforms.  Format obsolescence is the key word here.  After librarians dealt with paper documents in the same way for 6,000 years, now they have 60 years of bit stream to archive and keep relevant.  Pamela Wright explained that paper has preservation and access issues, but with electronic records access equals preservation.  (Data tends to stays up to date if that data is still available to users in a relevant way.)

Halfway through the meeting I remembered that Pamela Wright was the NARA person who sent me a now famous email about my trip to the Washington DC NARA facility in March 2011.  During my trip to DC I was denied access to see a copy of my ancestor’s Revolutionary War paper in person, and I was told I could only see it on microfilm.  I had already seen it online at Fold3, and was hoping that if I saw it in person I could discern if the signature was George Washington’s, or a facsimile or stamp. However, I now know it was a real George Washington signature, since the original had been removed for safekeeping away from the public.  She read my blog and sent me a color, high quality scan that certainly proved it was truly the president’s signature in pen.  You can read that blog story here.   At the end of the talk I introduced myself to Pamela and we had a good time reminiscing about that incident.  Small world indeed!

This is what greeted me as I got off the
elevator at the MIT Media Lab-
legos, foozeball and strange sculptures!

Please see the MIT blog for more details.  I understand that the meeting was videoed, but it is probably for MIT use only.  I asked Pam Wright if she or any other NARA staff would be present at RootsTech 2013 in Salt Lake City, and she did not know.

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For more information:

Archives Next blog by Kate Theimer http://www.archivesnext.com/

MIT Center for Civic Media http://civic.mit.edu/

MIT Center for Civic Media event calendar, “Innovative Access to National Archives” link: http://civic.mit.edu/event/innovative-access-to-national-archives

MIT Center for Civic Media blog “Bringing a Nation’s Archives Online” by Matt Stempeck, research assistant http://civic.mit.edu/blog/mstem/bringing-a-nations-archives-online

National Archives website   http://www.archives.gov/

2013 Regional Residency Fellowship: Request for Proposals  http://blogs.archives.gov/prologue/?p=11587

NARA Citizen Archivist Dashboard  http://www.archives.gov/citizen-archivist/

My NARA blog post from 2011 with the email from Pamela Wright http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/04/national-archives-they-read-my-blog.html

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Mom and Dad in Washington DC - Not So Wordless Wednesday

Remember those Saturday night slide shows, shown the living room wall because we didn't have a proper screen? I guess there was nothing on TV back then, because we always enjoyed the family slide shows more, especially those showing family photos from before we were born!  We would hoot at the fashions and hairstyles, and sigh at the romantic old cars, and remember relatives who were no longer with us.

Recently we scanned these vacation slides.  In the late 1950s my parents chaperoned a teenaged church trip to Washington DC.  Mom was an RN and she was an excellent choice for chaperone. When I was a kid, these were fascinating slides for me, since I didn't go to Washington DC until I was a teenager myself.

Since we grew up in Massachusetts
we always thought Mom looked like
Jacqueline Kennedy in this photo

Don't you love the fashions?

The flag at half staff because someone important had died!
This could be a clue to dating this photo.

How this view has changed!
I noticed right away that the newer Smithsonian Museums
such as the Air & Space, and the Native American Museums
are missing from the right hand side... as well as other buildings

 
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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

A House in the Smithsonian Museum

Last week, at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, we stumbled upon an exhibit that took my breath away. The exhibit is called “Within These walls”. It was a house from Ipswich, Massachusetts reconstructed inside the museum, showing the generations of families that had lived there since the 1700s until the mid 21st century. Yes, it was beautiful, but what I loved most were the names of the families. The first five families who lived in this house were from my family tree!

Timeline of house owners
click to enlarge

The first inhabitant of the house, and its builder in 1757, was Abraham Choate. He was my 1st cousin 8 generations removed. He removed to Maine in 1772 and sold his house to Isaac Dodge, my 3rd cousin 8x removed. Isaac sold the house to his brother Abraham Dodge in 1777 who served in the Revolution at the Battle of Bunker Hill. (My other ancestor Abner Poland enlisted in Capt. Abraham Dodge’s regiment at the start of the war.) In 1789 Abraham Dodge sold the house to Nathaniel Baker, who I suspect was a cousin through Abraham’s grandmother, Priscilla Baker (it was a small town, after all), who sold it to John Appleton in 1791, and he lived in it until 1798 when he sold it to Daniel Thurston and his wife Margaret Appleton. Margaret was a great granddaughter of Jacob Perkins, my 9x Great Grandfather, and she was the daughter of John Appleton, the previous owner.

After this the house was sold to many other Ipswich inhabitants, but I only recognized one other surname from my family tree (Mears). I'm sure there are other cousin kinships though!

In the lineages below, I have highlighted the residents of the house in red…

Choate Lineage:

Generation 1: John Choate, born about 1624 in Groton, Colchester, England, and died 4 December 1695 in Ipswich, Massachusetts; married about 1660 to Ann Unknown. Eight children. My 9x Great Grandfather. I descend from Thomas, below, and Sarah, who married John Burnham in 1693.

Generation 2: Thomas Choate, born about 1671 in Ipswich, Massachusetts, died 31 March 1745 in Ipswich; married about 1690 in Ipswich to Mary Varney, daughter of Thomas Varney and Abigail Proctor. My 8x Great Grandfather. His sister, Sarah, is also my 8x Great Grandmother (she married John Burnham in 1693) He had nine children and I descend from Thomas’s daughter Anne, who married John Burham in 1710. He was also married to Mary Ayer in 1734, and to Hannah Burnham in 1743.

Generation 3: Francis Choate, born 13 September 1701 in Ipswich, died 15 October 1777 in Ipswich; married 13 April 1727 to Hannah Perkins.

Generation 4: Abraham Choate, born 24 March 1732 in Ipswich, died 23 April 1800 in Whitefield, Maine; married on 13 March 1755 in Ipswich to Sarah Potter, daughter of Aaron Potter and Sarah Appleton.

Dodge Lineage:

Generation 1: William Dodge, born before 19 September 1640 in Middlechinnook, Somerset, England, died 24 March 1720 in Beverly; married to Mary Conant, daughter of Roger Conant and Sarah Horton.

Generation 2: William Dodge, born 20 March 1663 in Wenham, Massachusetts, died 20 October 1765 in Wenham; married on 27 July 1699 to Prudence Fairfield, daughter of Walter Fairfield and Sarah Skipper.

Generation 3: William Dodge, born 6 March 1705 in Wenham, died 11 April 1777 in Ipswich; married on 9 January 1728 to Rebecca Appleton, daughter of Isaac Appleton and Priscilla Baker.

Generation 4. Isaac Dodge, born 26 February 1732 in Ipswich, died 29 June 1785 in Ipswich; married on 8 November 1755 in Ipswich to Elizabeth Day. His brother Abraham was born 17 August 1740 in Ipswich, died 16 June 1786 in Ipswich; married first on 17 April 1762 to Abigail Cogswell; married second on 2 June 1782 to Bethia Patch. Abigail is my 1st cousin 8x removed because her grandfather, Robert Woodbury, is my 8x Great Grandfather. (confused yet?)

Margaret Appleton’s Lineage:

Generation 1: Jacob Perkins, born before 12 September 1624 in Hillmorton, Warwickshire, England, died 29 January 1700 in Ipswich; married about 1648 to Elizabeth Whipple, daughter of Matthew Whipple and Anne Hawkins.

Generation 2: John Perkins, brother to my 8x Great Grandfather Jacob Perkins, born 3 July 1652 in Ipswich, died 15 March 1717 in Wenham; married about 1677 to Mary Fiske.

Generation 3: Sarah Perkins born about 1688 in Ipswich; married 17 December 1701 in Topsfield, Massachusetts to Oliver Appleton.

Generation 4 : John Appleton, born 1707 in Ipswich, died 4 January 1794; married on 4 August 1731 in Ipswich to Lucy Boardman. Lucy’s great grandfather is also Jacob Perkins, above, so John and Lucy were 2nd cousins.

Generation 5: Margaret Appleton, born 1742 in Ipswich, died February 1822; married first to Daniel Thurston, married second on 3 June 1773 in Ipswich to John Kinsman. Believe it or not, John Kinsman is my 2nd cousin, 8x removed. He is related to me through his mother, Hannah Burnham, and his great grandfather, Robert Kinsman, is my 9x Great Grandfather.

The official link to the Smithsonian Choate House exhibit http://americanhistory.si.edu/house/families/choates.asp

A Massachusetts realtor’s website, a member of the National Association of Realtor’s who sponsored the exhibit in Washington DC http://www.tricountyrealtors.org/id46.html

Descendants of John Choate http://www.paulasgenealogy.com/choate.htm

Descendants of John Perkins http://www.paulasgenealogy.com/perkins.htm

The Dodge Family Association http://www.dodgefamily.org/index.shtml

The Perkins Family http://www.perkins-family.org/

The Family of John Perkins of Ipswich, Massachusetts, by George Perkins, Salem, Mass, 1889. The full text of this book is available on http://www.archive.org/

Video of "Within These Walls", the Smithsonian Choate House exhibit:
http://vimeo.com/50368799

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

The National Archives- They read my blog!?

National Archives
Washington, DC

For part 1, click here  "George Washington Signed Here?"
For part 2, click here   "National Archives - Good News/ Bad News"

Part 3 - -  I recieved this email:

"I work at the National Archives on social media and digitization efforts. As part of that work, your blog post of Wednesday, April 6, was brought to my attention: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/04/national-archives-good-news-bad-news.html

Your description of your research experience at the National Archives was very informative and I was glad that Ms. Blanton helped by providing more information for your research.

I also appreciate your optimistic spirit, even though you didn't get a chance to look at the original document, due to its preservation in the vault.

We were able to get a high resolution, color copy of the document available via our Flickr stream, at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/5601107283/

We also plan to make this available in our online catalog in the near future, too. I hope this provides a bit more of the feeling for the original document and is of use to you.

I wish you all the best with your research and your blogging about it!
Sincerely,
Pam

Pamela Wright
Chief Digital Access Strategist
National Archives and Records Administration"



A much improved image!
Abner Poland, Jr.'s discharge paper
from the Revolutionary War


and so I sent this reply:

"Dear Ms. Wright,
Thanks so much for your email. Your photograph of Abner Polands' document is great! In color and with a higher resolution it is much easier to see what part of the paper was printed as a form, and what parts were filled in with ink. The signatures are easier to see, too, especially General Washington's signature!

I printed out a copy for my Mom, and she was thrilled. It will be a family heirloom! I will certainly use this in writing up our family history and the chapter on the Poland family will be much improved now that we know the story behind this document. Our adventure in Washington is a big part of that story.

I'm glad NARA has a social media department. I've recieved many comments and emails about my blog post, and family members will be thrilled now to see the photograph on my updated post next week.

Sincerely,
Heather Wilkinson Rojo"

The image above is the one provided by NARA and stored at Flickr.com at the link provided in the text of Pamela Wright's email to me.

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The National Archives- They read my blog!?", Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 11, 2011, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/04/national-archives-they-read-my-blog.html: accessed [access date]). 

The National Archives - Good News/ Bad News

A page from the
Revolutionary War Pension File
of Abner Poland, Jr of Essex, Massachusetts

Last weekend we were in Washington DC, and at the top of my list of things to do in our capital city was to visit the National Archives.  If you read my blog story from last October, “Did George Washington Sign Here?”  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/10/amanuensis-monday-george-washington.html  you will know that I was questioning the authenticity of George Washington’s signature on a document found amongst some Revolutionary War Pension papers.   My 5x great grandfather, Abner Poland, Jr. of Essex, Massachusetts, had a pension application file that included a piece of paper with General Washington’s signature.  It’s hard to tell if it’s a rubber stamp, an engraved signature or the real thing, from an image on Footnote.com   so I was determined to see the real document someday.

I announced my desire to check out the document at the National Archives on a discussion board on Facebook for genealogists.  Several genealogists told me to “go for it!” and to drop by and see the “real thing”.   Not one experienced genealogist told me that the National Archives were not as accessible as I hoped.  When I emailed the National Archives directly, I was told that the Revolutionary War pensions were only available to view on microfilm.  These are the same images I had seen at the Waltham, Massachusetts regional NARA, and the same images I had seen on Footnote.com

Not quite believing this news, I emailed the authors of “NARAtions”, the blog by the staff at NARA http://blogs.archives.gov/online-public-access    John at NARA sent a very thorough explanation to my comment and he was also nice enough to privately email me.  It was the same explanation as I had previously received from NARA.  The Revolutionary War pensions were not available for viewing except on microfilm.  I was disappointed that a trip to Washington wouldn’t show me anything different than I could see at home!

Still not quite believing this, I made a printout of the one page from Abner Poland’s file that had George Washington’s signature.  This is the image you see above.  I carefully read the instructions on line concerning visits to NARA (all researchers must obtain a research card photo ID, no folders, notebooks, personal possessions etc. in the research room, etc. etc.) and prepared myself for our visit to Washington DC.

Hubby and I went through the security at the research entrance, which is not the tourist entrance that leads to the rotunda where the Constitution and Declaration of Independence are displayed.  We signed in, obtained our photo ID research cards, read the power point presentation on regulations and rules, and we began to ask LOTS of questions.  We made it past several staff members, not to the research room but to the office labeled “Finding Aids”, and past several more layers of staff members until we were seated across a table from Archivist DeAnne Blanton.

I showed Ms. Blanton the photocopy of Abner’s document, and we had a very interesting discussion about Revolutionary War documents, and their value to the nation as some of our earliest records in the National Archives.  Usually, like I had been told via email and blog comments, these records are not available to the public except as microfilmed images, because of their fragile condition.  However, Ms. Blanton was also curious about the document since it was signed by George Washington, and a type of document she had never seen before.  After much back and forth, discussion and explanation, she said she would pull Abner Poland’s file for us.  However, she also warned us that most of the records had been searched for valuable documents with things like George Washington’s signature.  If an archivist had previously seen this signature, then the record would have been replaced by a photocopy and the original would be placed in “The Vault”.  Anything in this ominous sounding vault would be strictly unavailable to anyone.  We crossed our fingers and she went off to find the file.

Ms. Blanton came back empty handed and said to us “Good news/ bad news!”   The good news was that George’s signature was authentic.  It was not an engraved facsimile or filled in by an amanuensis.  The bad news was that since it was authentic, it was now “in the vault” and unavailable.  Ms. Blanton then gave us quite an interesting story about the document.  I had previously thought it was given to Abner  Poland, Jr. as a certificate to accompany his Badge of Merit, but it was actually his discharge papers.  He had given these papers with George Washington’s signature back to the government as part of his pension application.  Had Abner decided at that time to keep this particular paper as a souvenir it might have been lost.  But since it had been carefully preserved in Washington, DC, it had survived 200 years.

Good News/ Bad News- It was an authentic Washington signature, and thus a very valuable document.  We were still unable to see the paper because it had been removed for special storage, but we now had quite an interesting story and history to tell about Abner Poland, Jr., a farmer from Essex, Massachusetts who gave away his most valuable possession to earn a Revolutionary War pension.  It was not a lost morning at the National Archives.  Even though I did not see Abner’s document, I now know more about it than I had ever previously imagined.



This is carved into the wall
by the research entrance to NARA
Washington, DC

 Read this blog post by "Dear Myrtle" on all the details of researching at the National Archives, how to prepare, what to expect, and more at this link: http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2011/04/myrts-day-at-archives.html 

UPDATE! -  read a new blog post for some good news from NARA, who read this blog post and sent me an interesting email message on 8 April 2011.... http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/04/national-archives-they-read-my-blog.html

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The National Archives - Good News/ Bad News", Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 6, 2011, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/04/national-archives-good-news-bad-news.html: accessed [access date]). 

50 Years Ago Today - A bit of NH Trivia

This information was sent to me by my friend Dean Dexter, Governor of the New Hampshire Mayflower Society, and author of the blog "New Hampshire Commentary" http://nhcommentary.com/

New Hampshire U.S. Senator and former governor Styles Bridges, the senior Republican in the senate, escorts the incoming first lady to her husband's inaugeration, with outgoing First Lady Mamie Dowd Eisenhower, The White House, January 20, 1961. Archives Life magazine.

This was the Kennedy inauguration. There is a traditional "coffee" at the White House with the in-coming and out-going presidents, just before the inaugural ceremony at the Capitol. Senator Styles Bridges was the top ranking Republican in the U. S. Senate at the time, and on the inaugural committee. He was President Pro-Tem of the senate when the Republicans were in the senate majority in 1952, and chaired by Eisenhower Inagural Committees.

Dean Dexter's page about Styles Bridges is at this link:

http://nhcommentary.com/styles_bridges.html