Annie Londonderry and her “Extraordinary Ride”

An Adventurous Woman Attempts to Ride a Bicycle Around the World!

Last year Peter Zheutlin, the author of the nonfiction book Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry’s Extraordinary Ride, came to the Leach Library to give an interesting lecture about his ancestor. Annie Kopchovsky, was “Annie Londonderry,” the first woman to go around the world on a bicycle. She was actually paid $100 by Londonderry Lithia Water, a very popular drink of the era, to carry their logo on her bicycle as she rode on her quest in the 1890s. Annie was a young mother, a wife, a Jewish immigrant, and a lone woman in a man’s world, which makes her story so very compelling.

I often imagine I’m a sleuth when I’m researching my genealogy. At his lecture Peter Zheutlin explained his detective skills for researching his own family tree. Annie’s ride was fascinating, but the whole story of how Zheutlin found out about his ancestress, and how the rest of the family actually hid her exploits was even more interesting. He had to dig through newspapers and magazines of the era to uncover his research for his book, since the rest of the family had hidden her story. In the 1890s, her adventure was their embarrassment! Any woman who would leave her husband and babies behind in Boston to go on such an adventure was not proper, and she had never ridden a bicycle before either!

Londonderry Lithia Water was bottled from a spring right near my backyard. The spring and its bottling plant have long ago disappeared, but around town antique ads can be seen on the walls at local restaurants such as “TJ’s” and “The Homestead.” Many people have Lithia water bottles on their windowsills, and I can find Londonderry Lithia Water postcards, ads and bottles for sale at local flea markets and on E-Bay. At the turn of the twentieth century, Londonderry Lithia Water was considered in vogue, and very medicinal. During prohibition it had a surge in popularity, until other bottled drinks such as Coca Cola and Pepsi became more popular. Imageability, a Londonderry company, sells reproductions of these amusing advertisements of Londonderry Lithia Water.

The town of Londonderry was also the base for Cohas Spring Water, produced by the Cohasaukee Corporation. The spring was on a large 100 acre parcel of land known as Cohas Park in the North West part of town, near today’s Manchester Airport.

Now, bottled water is again in vogue, and I’m sure that the aquifer my own well is served from is the same aquifer as the legendary Londonderry Lithia Water spring. Over 75% of Londonderry’s homes are served by well water, and it is quite tasty and refreshing. For years, the state of New Hampshire serviced a public water pump just off Route 102 near my neighborhood. Cars would be lined up on weekends as the public filled their water bottles and containers. For unknown reasons, this public water pump was removed several years ago when the rest area was closed.

I just saw on the internet that Amanda Costa of ProSeries 24 acquired the rights to the book Around the World on Two Wheels, and she will write the screenplay titled “An Extraordinary Ride.” (see “Screenwriting Buzz” at www.scriptforsale.com November 21, 2009) I have previously blogged about the movie “Barbarian Princess,” and the story of Ka’iulani of Hawaii. Unfortunately this historical movie about the popular Princess Ka’iulani lacks funding to be shown in my area, and I may never see it. Unfortunately, when local history is involved, these types of movies sometimes do not receive nationwide coverage at theaters. I hope that this film about Annie Londonderry receives the funding and advertising it deserves, so I won’t miss seeing it in local theaters!

For more information:

Around the World on Two Wheels, by Peter Zheutlin, Citadel Publishers, New York, 2007

www.londonderrylithia.com – A history of Londonderry Lithia Water

http://annielondonderry.com/ - the story of Peter Zheutlin’s book on his ancestress

www.imageability.com to buy reproductions of the Londonderry Lithia Water Ads

http://cohas.com/ the Story of Cohas Spring Water

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To Cite/Link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Annie Londonderry and her “Extraordinary Ride”, Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 30, 2021, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/annie-londonderry-and-her-extraordinary.html: accessed [access date]). 

PBS Genealogy Series “Faces of America”

Genetic Genealogy TV Series by Dr. Henry Louis Gates



Mario Batali's DNA?


On November 17, 2009 Professor Henry Louis Gates of Harvard was at the New England Historic Genealogical Society Library in Boston to film scenes for his newest project, “Faces of America.” It is a series for PBS to air beginning on February 10, 2010, featuring DNA testing and genealogical research for several celebrities. This seems to be similar to the British TV series “Who Do You Think You Are?” which is also scheduled for an American version on NBC for 2010. Dr. Gates previously hosted a PBS special “African American Lives” which focused on using DNA to help trace the heritage of Americans with roots in Africa.

According to the chatter on the internet and other blogs, “Faces of America” is a four part series hosted and co-produced by Dr. Gates. Again, he will use DNA and genealogy, this time to research well-known Americans of different races and ethnicities. Some of the celebrities include chef Mario Batali, comedian Stephen Colbert, cellist Yo Yo Ma, and actress Meryl Streep. I have posted the YouTube link for the preview below, and it is very moving to see the reactions on their faces as Dr. Gates shows them previously unknown branches of their family trees. It’s nice to know that the high and mighty react the same way as we peons when we find a fun fact in our genealogy!

Now I can’t wait to see this!

Press release from PBS
http://www.cpb.org/pressroom/release.php?prn=638

Photos of Dr. Gates at NEHGS at
http://www.newenglandancestors.org/events/event_photos.asp

A preview available on YouTube can be seen at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRgsmiFlTv0

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Copyright 2009, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

A Big Appetite, He must have loved Thanksgiving!

My mom found this little news clipping amongst her mother’s things. We finally figured out that the main character in the little story was her great grandmother’s brother. John Edwin Healey worked in the family business, Hoogerzeil Express Company. This was a Beverly, Massachusetts trucking and moving business started in the days before motorized vehicles. In the 1949 article it says he just celebrated his 92nd birthday, but I found him in the 1951 Beverly City Directory. He outlived two wives. For whatever reason, this side of the family is very long living. My grandmother, his niece, lived to be 96.

According to Wikipedia, “The American Weekly” magazine was published between1896 until 1966 as a newspaper supplement. It was published by Hearst, which surprised me because my great uncle was the COO of Forbes publishing in Chelsea, Massachusetts. You never know what you can learn from a little news clipping!

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Article in the "American Weekly" newspaper, 4 December 1949
"Never Goes to Bed....Because Sleep is 'Dangerous' "

When John E. Healey of Beverly, Mass sprang out of bed in severe pain one night in early 1919, he vowed he would never go back to bed again. He was certain that the persistent nightly cramps in his legs were caused by reclining on his mattress. In the 30 years since that decision, Healy has never broken his promise, and he has never had another cramp. He sleeps three hours each night. He wraps a blanket about him and sits in his rocking chair. At first his wife, Gertrude, was alarmed. "You'll dig an early grave for yourself,” she warned.

"Most people relax themselves into early graves,” he scoffed. "I never felt better than after sleeping in a chair for only 180 minutes. When I sleep too long I feel exhausted." Healey seems to have proved his point. Not only has he outlived his wife (she died three years ago) but he's passed his 92nd birthday in hale and hearty fashion. He still manages the trucking firm he has owned since 1908, and does all the bookkeeping. He is the town dog constable and is a member of half a dozen lodges and clubs.

"When I have a lot of bookkeeping to do after working all day, I sit in my rocking chair, loosen my belt for 30 minutes and smoke a cigar," says Healey. "Then I'm ready to go all night."

"I got out of the habit of getting tired. That's why I'm so healthy."

Recently Healey bought three truckloads of wood and chopped it into kindling, single-handed, in three days. He does most of his strenuous work when the temperature is in the eighties. "It drives me crazy to see Dad chopping wood when it's so hot,” complained his son, Joe. "Once it was so hot that I could not work, yet Dad was chopping away. I was sitting on the front porch reading and people would come by and see Dad chopping, and they'd look at me reproachfully. I didn't try to explain. Who would believe it?"

Healey consumes two and a half pots of coffee and smoke 10 cigars a day. Usually he walks five to eight miles a day for "exercise." As for appetite - Healy makes the rest of his family look like finicky canaries. "Went on an outing the other day," he said. "Ate two bowls of clam chowder, four frankforts, a plate of spaghetti and six ears of corn. Three hours later, I felt hungry again."

For years people have been warning Healey to slow down and to go to bed nights. "Everyone who has given me advice about changing my ways, I've gone to their funerals," he says soberly. He doesn't drink because he doesn't like the taste of liquor. "If I liked the stuff I'd drink it by the barrel. I don't believe you get healthy by avoiding things. All you need to do is work hard, and stay out of bed. Sleep is a dangerous thing."
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1895 Beverly City Directory
Healey, John E., shoecutter, b. 43 Bartlett
Matilda, widow of Edwin, b. 43 Bartlett

1900 Federal Census, Beverly, Essex County, Massachusetts
enumerated in the household of Peter Hoogerzeil
Healey, John, brother in law, b. Mar 1857, age 43, divorced, b. MA, father b. Canada, mother b. Canada, shoe cutter,

1910 Federal Census, Beverly, Essex County, Massachusetts
Ward 3, District 271 BEVERLY, ESSEX, Massachusetts
Healey, John, lodger, age 53, b. MA, father b. Can, mother b. Can, foreman, shoe factory

1911 Beverly City Directory
Hoogerzeil's Express, John E. Healey, propr., 43 Bartlett

1920 Federal Census, Beverly, Essex County, Massachusetts in February 1920
Enumeration District #16, sheet 16
#45 Bartlett Street
Healey, John, head, age 62, proprietor, express business
Lizzie G., wife, age 45,
Edwin, age 9
Ruth, age 8

1924 Beverly City Directory
Healey, John E., (L. Gertrude) (Hoogerzeil's Express), 7 Back, 45 Bartlett

1930 Federal Census, Beverly, Essex County, Massachusetts
Enumeration District #17,
#45 Bartlett Street,
Healey, John, head, own home, $5000, radio, age 73, age 52 at marriage, Expressman, Express Company,
Belle G., wife, age 56, age 35 at marriage,
Joseph E., son, age 19, single, chauffeur
Ruth E., daughter, age 17, single, sales lady, variety store
Woodbury, Thomas E., uncle, age 82, retired

1951 Beverly City Directory
Hoogerzeil's Express, (John E. Healy propr.) local and long distance moving, Cottage Lane

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John Edwin Healey, son of Joseph Edwin Healey and Matilda Weston, born on 8 March 1857 in Beverly, Massachusetts, died after 1951; married first on 10 April 1878 in Beverly to Mary Olive Hodge, born 12 September 1858 in Johnson, Maine; married second to Lizzie Gertrude Woodbury in 1909 in Beverly, born on 17 September 1874, daughter of John Edward Woodbury and Mary E. Elliott.

Children:
1. Cora Belle Healey, born 31 October 1878 in Beverly
2. Joseph Edwin Healey, born 9 October 1910 in Beverly
3. Ruth E. Healey, born about 1913

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Copyright 2009, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 7

From Cape Code to Nova Scotia to Beverly, Massachusetts
Last in my "Other Mayflowers" series for Thanksgiving week.

My ancestor Joseph Edwin Healey arrived in Massachusetts from Nova Scotia sometime between his marriage in 1848 and the birth of his first child in Beverly, in 1852. I’m not sure if he arrived on a boat, but being a mariner, he probably sailed to his new home with his new bride. He is listed as a sailor or mariner on his children’s birth records in Beverly, and as a fisherman on the 1860 Federal Census records.

His wife was Matilda Weston, also born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Her father was Zadoc Weston, a direct descendant of Edmund Weston of Duxbury, Massachusetts, who was apprenticed to John Winslow. There was much intermarriage between the Westons and Mayflower families. It is from this side of the family that I gained seven Mayflower ancestors. These families removed to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia as part of the Planter Movement. They received free land upon the removal of the French Protestants in the wake of the French and Indian War. In the Old Cemetery at Chebogue Town Point, near Yarmouth, I found the gravestones of these families.

The Plymouth County and Cape Cod farmers who removed to Nova Scotia received land for farming, but it must have been a very rough existence, because within two or three generations, my lineage came back to Massachusetts. Several years ago we took a family vacation to Nova Scotia, and I was able to visit the towns, churches and cemeteries where my predecessors once lived. Although it was beautiful, Yarmouth was also rocky, bleak and poor farming country. Some stayed, but some returned to New England.

Joseph and Matilda lived at 43 Bartlett St., Beverly, and their daughter, and then their granddaughter raised their families there. My mother remembers visiting her grandmother there. I was born in Beverly, and every time we passed Bartlett St. my mother would say “That’s Nana’s house!” Using the street view on Google maps I can still visit there.

Old Cemetery at Chebogue Town Point, Nova Scotia
GPS coordinates N43 46.61 W 66 05.907
Behind the Chebogue Congregational Church

Epitaph of Comfort Healy (Joseph Edwin Healey’s grandfather):

In memory of
Mr. Comfort Healy
who died May 15, 1821
Aged 67
Hear what the voice from Heaven proclaims
For all the pious dead
Sweet is the savior of their names
and soft their sleeping bed
Them while ye hearing heart strings break
How sweet my minutes roll
Immortal paleness on my cheek
And glory in my soul

Also at Chebogue
(a new memorial was raised above the original stones of Jonathan and Hannah Crosby, Matilda Weston’s great grandparents, because the originals were illegible)


















Jonathan Crosby
1703-1782
Hannah Crosby
1704-1791
Came to Chebogue
June 11, 1761

Jonathan Crosby came to Chebogue, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia from Mansfield, Massachusetts, via Saybrook, Connecticut in Jun 1761, and settled on what was afterwards called Crocker's Point. The Crosbys with six other families sailed in a small vessel up the coast and into the harbor at Chebogue. He died at Chebogue on the 26th July 1782, aged 78 years and 10 months, his wife surviving him. The Yarmouth church records give a list of people who had been members "in full communion of some church heretofore" and among these original members were "Jonathan Crosby and Hannah his wife, members of the First Church in Mansfield, New England, the Rev. Richard Salter, Pastor." (New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, January 1941)

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 7", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 24, 2020, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/other-mayflowers-voyage-7.html: accessed [access date]). 

The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 6

The Steamship “Orduna”, from Liverpool to Ellis Island

Bertha Roberts at about the time of her 1915 immigration 

 I previously have blogged about the Roberts family coming from England in 1915. They came from Leeds, through Liverpool and Ellis Island, to ultimately arrive in Beverly, Massachusetts in 1915. My great grandfather, John P. B. Roberts, brought his family to America, and wrote a journal about his experience. As part of this “Other Mayflowers” series, I thought I would let my grandmother speak. She was recorded by my uncle in the 1970’s, telling her immigration story on tape! 

Bertha Louise Roberts was born on 30 September 1897 in Woodhouse, Leeds, Yorkshire, England. She emigrated with her parents, and brother, Horace, when she was only nineteen years old. They came to live with her sister, Hilda, who had come to Beverly, Massachusetts several years earlier. John Roberts had a brother living in Beverly, too. Later, Bertha met my grandfather, Donald Munroe Wilkinson, at church, and they were married on 26 November 1926 at the family home on 7 Dearborn Avenue, in Beverly. This is the house where my father grew up with his two brothers, and where I lived until I was seven years old! 

Bertha’s story, in her own words: “…. At that particular time my father was a Stationary Engineer in a brewery in Leeds. He had learned his trade from his Dad. He loved his work and he was very good at it. But at that time they had changed managements and he wasn't too happy with the new manager. So he told my sister that if she really liked it over here and if she wrote and told us all about it, he might consider the family coming out. So my sister thought it was very nice in Beverly, Massachusetts, that's where they lived and she sent postal cards and told us that she thought that we would like it over here. So my father decided that perhaps it would be good for my brother and myself and so they started selling the things gradually. “My mother was very proud of her brass fender and the shovel and poker and those things. And I remember every week she would shine them and work with them. Well, of course we had to leave these things behind and sell all of the furniture. But people were very good to us. They told us we could keep them until it was time to come away. I remember the last night we slept with different people. And the people at the church couldn't understand why we would want to come to this country. They felt quite sorry that we were coming… “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…” 

Donald Wilkinson died at Long Beach, California in 1977 and Bertha died at Long Beach in 1990. Please see my blog posting on July 30, 2009 for the journal John Peter Bowden Roberts (Bertha's father) kept on his voyage to America. 

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 6", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 23, 2020, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/other-mayflowers-voyage-6.html: accessed [access date]). 

Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1782

Last week I posted the 2009 Annual Thanksgiving Proclamation for the State of New Hampshire, signed this year by our Governor John Lynch. Here is a transcription of the 1782 Proclamation, originating with the New Hampshire Committee of Safety....

STATE OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
IN COMMITTEE of SAFETY,
EXETER, November 1, 1782.
ORDERED,
THAT the following Proclamation for a general THANKSGIVING on the twenty-eighth day of November [instant?], received from the honorable Continental Congress, be forthwith printed, and sent to the several worshipping Assemblies in this State, to whom it is recommended religiously to observe said day, and to abstain from all servile labour thereon.
M. WEARE, President.
By the United States in Congress assembled.

PROCLAMATION.

IT being the indispensable duty of all Nations, not only to offer up their supplications to ALMIGHTY GOD, the giver of all good, for his gracious assistance in a time of distress, but also in a solemn and public manner to give him praise for his goodness in general, and especially for great and signal interpositions of his providence in their behalf: Therefore the United States in Congress assembled, taking into their consideration the many instances of divine goodness to these States, in the course of the important conflict in which they have been so long engaged; the present happy and promising state of public affairs; and the events of the war, in the course of the year now drawing to a close; particularly the harmony of the public Councils, which is so necessary to the success of the public cause; the perfect union and good understanding which has hitherto subsisted between them and their Allies, notwithstanding the artful and unwearied attempts of the common enemy to divide them; the success of the arms of the United States, and those of their Allies, and the acknowledgment of their independence by another European power, whose friendship and commerce must be of great and lasting advantage to these States:----- Do hereby recommend to the inhabitants of these States in general, to observe, and request the several States to interpose their authority in appointing and commanding the observation of THURSDAY the twenty-eight day of NOVEMBER next, as a day of solemn THANKSGIVING to GOD for all his mercies: and they do further recommend to all ranks, to testify to their gratitude to GOD for his goodness, by a cheerful obedience of his laws, and by promoting, each in his station, and by his influence, the practice of true and undefiled religion, which is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness.
Done in Congress, at Philadelphia, the eleventh day of October, in the year of our LORD one thousand seven hundred and eighty-two, and of our Sovereignty and Independence, the seventh.
JOHN HANSON, President.
Charles Thomson, Secretary.
PRINTED AT EXETER.

The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 5

The Shipwreck of the “Angel Gabriel”

The Great migration was an exodus of Puritans from England to New England between 1620 and 1640. During this time John Winthrop sailed on the “Arabella” and wrote his famous sermon about the “City on a Hill” during the voyage. Most of my ancestors arrived in this period, on many ships, mostly unrecorded by passenger lists. One ship carried the most ancestors (besides the Mayflower), and that was the galleon “Angel Gabriel.”

She was a galleon built for Sir Walter Raleigh, and carried him on his last trip to the New World in 1617. For eighteen years she carried passengers to America, but in 1635 she was shipwrecked in Maine. I’m descended of two of the families who survived: Andrews and Cogswell. “Angel Gabriel” had been blown off course by a hurricane, and came ashore at Pemaquid Point, Maine, which was a fortified military outpost. When the passengers disembarked for the night, the ship was caught at anchor in the harbor by another hurricane and disappeared. Although many have searched for her wreck, none have found any evidence of the “Angel Gabriel.”

The survivors were stranded at Maine for a short time, eventually made their way to Boston, Massachusetts and left a large number of descendants. Today there is a museum at the recreated fortress near the harbor, and plaques commemorating the shipwreck of the “Angel Gabriel” by the lighthouse. The gift shop maintains several three ring binders where many descendants have deposited family trees and genealogical information. Several of these families have associations with newsletters and annual reunions.

We visited Pemaquid Point a few years ago, to see the harbor and wooden stockade fortress. You will recognize Pemaquid lighthouse from the Maine state quarter that began circulation in 2003. It was a beautiful summer day, and the view from the top of the lighthouse was spectacular. But I’m sure that my ancestors didn’t appreciate the view as I did (well, there was no lighthouse in 1635 either!) Several ships were lost in this storm, and the “Angel Gabriel’s” companion ship “James” was blown to the Isles of Shoals. The passengers lost all their possessions (the Cogswells were reported to have lost five thousand pounds of money and much property) and valuable time in getting to their destination. Thankfully, only three or four of the passengers and crew, and most of the cattle, lost their lives since the passengers had all disembarked for the night.

There is no official passenger list that has survived the wreck. According to a book written in 2001, this is the recreated list of passengers. The possible list of passengers should be much larger, since the “James” had at least 100 passengers.

• Capt. Robert Andrews, Ship’s Master,Ipswich, Massachusetts
• John Bailey, Sr., Newbury, Massachusetts
• John Bailey, Jr. b. 1613
• Johanna Bailey (possibly came on a later ship)
• Henry Beck
• Ralph Blaisdell of Lancashire, settled in York, Maine
• Mrs. Elizabeth Blaisdell
• Henry Blaisdell
• William Furber
• John Cogswell, age 43, settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts
• Elizabeth, (Thompson) Cogswell about age 41,
• Mary Cogswell, about age 18,
• William Cogswell, about age 16,
• John Cogswell, about age 13,
• Hannah Cogswell, about age 11,
• Abigail Cogswell, about age 9,
• Edward Cogswell, about age 6,
• Sarah Cogswell, about age 3,
• Elizabeth Cogswell, infant
• Samuel Haines, about age 24, Greenland, New Hampshire
• William Hook
• Henry Simpson

Highlighted passengers are some of my ancestors!

For more information see:

“Angel Gabriel: The Elusive English Galleon” by Warren C. Riess, published by 1797 House, 2001

The Journal of the Reverend Richard Mather (who was aboard the “James”) published 1850

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Cite/Link to this post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 5", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 20, 2009,  ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/other-mayflowers-voyage-5.html: accessed [access date]).

The Kreative Blogger Award

Thanks to Bill West at www.westinnewengland.blogspot.com for passing me the Kreativ Blogger Award. He is one of the other genealogy bloggers from New England I have “met” online. I’ve enjoyed his blogging ideas, such as the Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge, which has helped expand my ideas, since I’m a new blogger. It’s nice to know that someone out there besides Mom is reading my blog!

As part of the award, I’ve been challenged to reveal seven things about myself that I haven’t blogged about to the genealogy community. And I need to pass along the award to seven other bloggers.

Me Trivia:

1. I took seven years of French classes and then married a Spaniard. Go figure!

2. I had to wear a foot brace for the last few years, yet recently I’ve been trying to get along without it and its working (so far!) Keep your fingers crossed…

3. When I retire I’d love to live in a college community and take advantage of classes, activities, clubs and libraries. We’ve looked into condos at MIT and several other Boston Universities. Very cool!

4. My favorite movie is “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.” It has nothing to do with history or genealogy, and I still laugh at all the jokes all the way through no matter how often I see it.

5. I’m very math-phobic, but I married an MIT rocket scientist so it all works out. He went to school outside of the USA and never took American History.

6. My favorite food is Chinese. Chinese anything. Breakfast, lunch or dinner.

7. Oops! I was told there was no math involved!

There are too many good genealogy and history based blogs out there to choose amongst, but I’ll pass the gavel to….

1. James Tanner at “Genealogy’s Star” http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/

2. Caitlin Hopkins at “Vast Public Indifference” http://vastpublicindifference.blogspot.com/

3. J. L. Bell at “Boston 1775”
http://boston1775.blogspot.com/

4. Maggiemac at “History of American Women” http://womenhistory.blogspot.com/

5. Sandy at “Remembering Danvers” http://rememberingdanvers.blogspot.com/

6. N. L. Taylor at “A Genealogist’s Sketchbook” http://nltaylor.net/sketchbook/

7. Robin C. Mason at “Boston Genealogy Examiner” http://www.examiner.com/x-9553-Boston-Genealogy-Examiner

Tag! You’re it! The rules of the award are as follows:
1. Thank the person who gave this to you.
2. Copy the logo and place it in your blog.
3. Link the person who nominated you.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that no one would really know.
5. Nominate seven 'Kreativ Bloggers.'