Last week the renowned New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston announced that they have added the Londonderry Vital Records to their online database. Today they announced that they have added volumes 1 to 5 of the journal “The Essex Genealogist” to their database, with additional volumes being added throughout this year. According to the announcement "Within the pages of this journal are selections of cemetery transcriptions, bible records, vital and church records relating to families from Essex County. The Essex Genealogist has had published numerous Anentafel’s (Ancestor Tables) of the ancestry of their members, as well as verbatim transcriptions of lectures over the years."
Many Essex County families removed to Londonderry in the nineteenth century, especially from Haverhill, Topsfield and Newbury/Newburyport. This is important to know that Essex County, Massachusetts spawned this migration. This new resource is invaluable, especially for those who may not exactly where in Massachusetts they ancestors previously lived.
For more information see this link:
http://www.americanancestors.org/Blogs.aspx?id=24564&blogid=124069&blogid=124069
The NEHGS website is http://www.americanancestors.org/ Most of the NEHGS database requires membership to log in and use their files. Please see the website for more information.
At this time, Londonderry’s public library (the Leach Library) www.londonderrynh.org/library is not offering free access to the NEHGS website. However, they do have Ancestry.com, Heritage Quest, Newsbank and other subscription paid databases to use at the library computers or from home. Please visit the reference librarian for more information on logging on from your home computer.
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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Everything Old is New Again?
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| The Londonderry Town Pound according to a historical marker on this site, the pound was built in 1730 by David Gilcreast |
"Town Pound may Make a Comeback
At about 7pm Sunday night May 29th, officer Doyle was out on Old Derry Road for reports of a loose cow near the Manchester Line. Finding a bull on the side of the road grazing and enjoying the long grass, LPD now needed a way to help it get home.
While Londonderry Police were looking for “someone who deals with catching these kinds of animals” a neighbor and officer Coyle were able to round up the animal and secure it in the paddock."
For more information and photos see this link:
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/04/wordless-wednesday-1730-londonderry.html
Platts Family - Tombstone Tuesday
The Platts gravestones are located in the Forest Hill Cemetery, Derry, New Hampshire. The stone erected to James Platts is typical of several found along the area called "Old Settlers", where descendants have erected memorial stones to their ancestors because the original gravestones are missing, broken or illegible.
The Platts family plot
JAMES PLATTS
BORN ROWLEY MASS. aUG. 21, 1775
BUNKER HILL MASS. AMERICAN ARMY
1775-6-7 DIED JAN 9, 1835
HIS WIFE MARY WARNER
BORN IPSWICH MASS JAN. 22, 1755
DIED NOV. 29, 1839
CHILDREN (B) LONDONDERRY
MARY 1780-1858
SUSAN (FISK) 1782-1822
NANCY (WALKER) 1785 - 1873
SARAH (WALKER PIERCE 1789 -1864
MAHITABLE 1790-1844 LOWELL MASS
ABIGAIL (FISK) 1792-1878
JAMES 1794-1828 BRASHER N.Y.
IN WAR 1812
WESLEY 1797-
ELIZA 1800 - 1830
ERECTED BY C.M. AND F.E. PLATTS
James Platts was born 21 August 1755 in Newbury, Massachusetts, died 29 January 1835 in Londonderry; married on 6 April 1780 to Mary Warner, born 22 January 1755 in Ipswich, Massachusetts, died 29 November 1839.
James Platts was the son of James Platts and Mary Perkins. We share a plethora of common ancestors, including Samuel Platts AKA Gawkroger (1617 – about 1690) and Sarah Bates (my 9x great grandparents), Richard Hutchinson (1602 – 1682) and Alice Bosworth (my 9x great grandparents), John Perkins (1583 – 1654) and Judith Gater (my 10x great grandparents), Robert Kinsman (1603 – 1664) (my 9x great grandfather), Daniel Rindge (d. 1662) and Mary Kinsman (my 8x great grandparents), and John Burnham (1616 – 1694) and Mary Whipple (my 9x great grandparents).
Mary was the daughter of John Warner and Susannah Hodgkins of Ipswich, and the grand daughter of Nathaniel Warner and Mary Tuthill. We also share the following ancestors: John Tuthill (1666 – 1715) and Martha Ward (my 8x great grandparents), George Giddings (1609 – 1676) and Jane Lawrence (my 9 x great grandparents), Daniel Rindge and Mary Kinsman (see above).
So many common ancestors! I’m glad we snapped this photo!
My Platts Genealogy:
Generation 1. Samuel Platts and Sarah Bates
Generation 2: Abel Platts and Lydia Bailey
Generation 3: Moses Platts and Hannah Platts (daughter of Jonathan Platts and Elizabeth Johnson)
Generation 4: Moses Platts and Ruth Williams
Generation 5: Sarah Platts and George Southwick
Generation 6: Mary Southwick and Robert Wilson
Generation 7: Mercy F. Wilson and Aaron Wilkinson
Generation 8: Robert Wilson Wilkinson and Phebe Cross Munroe
Generation 9: Albert Munroe Wilkinson and Isabella Lyons Bill
Generation 10: Donald Munroe Wilkinson and Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)
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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
Monday, May 30, 2011
Carnival of Genealogy- Annual Swimsuit Edition
I wanted to participate in the Annual Swimsuit Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy for the past two years, but my ancestors were pretty Puritan when it came to the beach. We lived on Massachusett's North Shore when I was growing up, right where my ancestors landed in the 1620s and 1630s in Beverly, near beautiful beaches in Gloucester, Ipswich and Manchester-by-the-Sea. But no one has any photos of my grandparents or their ancestors in bathing costumes. More typically, when they went to the beach they looked like the photo to the right (my great grandparents Arthur and Etta Hitchings in the 1930s at Gloucester, Massachusetts). They are covered head to toe with clothes!
And so you will have to do with a photo taken in 1965, at Lynch Park beach in Beverly, Massachusetts of yours truly, and my baby sister and Mom (who isn't even in a bathing suit!) I think this photo is the last time I was ever in a bikini!
This post was submitted for the 4th Annual Swimsuit Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy at http://creativegene.blogspot.com/ The permanant link for the 4th Annual Swimsuit Edition is
http://creativegene.blogspot.com/2011/06/carnival-of-genealogy-106th-edition.html
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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
Sunday, May 29, 2011
The Londonderry 99 - Memorial Day
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| This monument is on the town common, for the Revolutionary War |
In his book, Parker divides the list into the groups below. Parker also separates the officers from the enlisted men. I will just present the names in this list without distinguishing rank. For more information, please see the book, which is available free on Google Book Search.
Group One- men raised for the Lexington Alarm and marched to Medford. This list was made on 28 July 1775.
George Reid
Abraham Reid
James Anderson
John Patten
Daniel Miltimore
John Nesmith
Robert Barnet
John Mackey
James McCluer
Robert Boyes
Joshua Thompson
George McMurphy
Robert Burke
Thomas Ingliss
Matthew Anderson
Robert Adams
Samuel Ayers
Hugh Alexander
John Anderson
Alexander Brown
William Boyd
John Campbell
Thomas Campbell
Peter Christie
Solomon Collins
Stephen Chase
William Clyde
William Dickey
James Duncan
Samuel Dickey
John Ferguson
David Gregg
James Gilmore
Allen Hopkins
John Head
Asa Senter
John Hopkins
Samuel Houston
Jonathan Holmes
Peter Jenkins
John Livingston
Ebenezer McIlvain
Hugh Montgomery
John Morrison
James Morrison
Joseph Mack
Martin Montgomery
Robert McMurphy
William McMurphy
William Moore
Robert Mack
David MClary
Archibald Mack
James Nesmith
James Nesmith, Jr.
William Parker
Joshua Reid
William Rowell
Thomas Roach
Abel Senter
James Stinson
Samuel Senter
Samuel Thompson
John Vance
Hugh Watts
Thomas Wilson
John Paterson
Henry Parkinson
Samuel Stinson
John Smith
Richard Cressey
James Moore
A group of 99 men were raised for Londonderry, and town bounties were paid for them, but their names were not known except for David MacGregor, William Gregg and William Adams.
On August 1776 eighty men were raised for service from Londonderry, Windham, and Pelham under Col. Matthew Thornton’s regiment, and from Col. Josiah Bartlett’s regiment. This group was commanded by Captain John Nesmith. Parker lists these names from Londonderry:
John Nesmith
Alexander Graham
Samuel Cherry
Solomon Todd
William Dickey
Michael George
Timothy Dustin
John McClurg
Samuel Thompson
Matthew Anderson
John Anderson
William Rogers
Robert McCluer
James Ewins
James Boyes, Jr.
John Orr
Samuel Rowell
John Humphrey
John Cox
Edward Cox
John Anderson, Jr.
Thomas White
Ephraim White
Joseph Mack
James Moor
Samuel Eayres
John Vance
John Ramsey
David George
William Dickey
Jonathan Gregg
Hugh Alexander
Abner Andrews
Peter Jenkins
Alexander Graige
William Colby
Patrick Fling
William Adams
James Boyes, Jr.
Jonathan George
Allen Hopkins
James Gilmore
Charity Killient
John Lancanster
Men raised in December 1776 for Capt. Samuel McConnels’s company:
James Hopkins
Jonathan Walace
Hugh Watt
William Lyons
Moses Watt
Thomas McClary
Jesse Jones
James Nesmith
Arthur Nesmith
John Todd
Benjamin Nesmith
James Hobbs
Nathan Whiting
Benjamin Robinson
David Marshall
William Burroughs
James Gilmore
John Kinkead
Alexander Morrow
Men raised in 1777 and 1778 for Continental Service:
Peter Jenkijns
Joseph Mack
Samuel Walton
Nathaniel Plummer
William Dickey
Bishop Castor
John Obrian
George McMurphy
David Plummer
Abel Walton
James Campbell
John McMurphy
Robert Wilson
Joseph McFarland
Samuel Ayers
Robert Rogers
Solomon Todd
Frederick Roche
Charles Bryan
James Nesmith
William Johnson
John Erwin
Jeremiah Fairfield
John Ayres
John Martin
John Morgan
David George
David Dickey
Ebenezer Mellvane
Timothy Harrington
Robert Boyes
Thomas Holmes
Martin Montgomery
Zaccheus Dustin
Valentine Sargent
Robert Craige
John Head
James Boyse
John Allen
Alexander McMasters
Abel Whiting
Ambrose Vicker*
John Grear*
Claude Colombon*
Joseph Coste*
Jean Rots*
Jonathan George
Michael George
Timothy Hutchins
*according to Parker, these men were raised at Exeter, but the bounty was paid by Londonderry
Additional men from Londonderry found in muster rolls during the war, but who did not receive bounties for Londonderry according to Parker:
William Hogg
Samuel Hamilton
David Ela
John Mack
Zabulon Colby
William Colby
Castor Barnes
A company of volunteers raised on 20 July 1777 for the Battle of Bennington:
Daniel Reynolds
David McClary
Adam Taylor
John Hughes
John Smith
John McKeen
John Anderson
John Robinson
Matthew Dickey
David Clark
Simeon Senter
Joseph Hastings
Thomas Griffin
John Barr
Nathaniel Burrows
John Robinson
George Eviston
Joseph Sargent
Isaac Colby
Alexander Stevens
William Houston
William Fellows
James Nesmith
Jonanthan Cheney
Samuel Rowell
William Sevrans
Jonathan Kelso
John Ferguson
Samuel Thompson
Nathaniel Sweetser
Dudley Balley
John Campbell
James Humphrey
James Taylor
Archibald Cunningham
William Burrows
Peter Robinson
Mansfield McDuffee
Nathaniel Cheney
James Moore
Thomas Carr
Samuel Spear
Samuel Cambell
William Ramsey
Robert Morrison
Thomas Wallace
Joshua Conant
Joseph Caldwell
Adam Dickey
William Adams
Thomas McClary
Hugh Watts
Andrew Todd
Thomas Wallace
Jesse Jones
Thomas Rogers
Ephraim Gregg
James Morison
John Watts
Allen Anderson
David Brewster
Jonathan Wallace
John Wallace
John Todd
John McClary
Joseph Hobbs
Joseph Steel
Samuel Brown
Samuel Taylor
John Stuart
Volunteers raised on 1 October 1777 to join the Continental Army at Saratoga:
Joseph Finlay
James Christy
Robert Adams
John Patterson
Jonathan Gilmore
Robert Wallace
Adam Dunlap
John McCoy
David Quinten
Samuel Gregg
Jonathan Holmes
John Moore
Peter Christy
William Hopkins
Joshua Lancaster
William Moore
John Taylor
Adam Johnson
John Adams
William Aiken
David Wilson
Thomas Morrison
William Alexander
Samuel Anderson
William McKeen
John Hunter
Moses Walton
John Walton
Samuel Dodge
Nathaniel Holmes
From a muster roll of Col. Henry Jackson’s regiment the following men from Londonderry, enlisted in 1777
John Nesmith
John Vance
John Bryant
Timothy Melon
John Mitchel
Londonderry bounties were paid for 20 volunteers for the Rhode Island service in 1778, but their names are not know except for Joseph McKeen.
Also in 1778 Jonathan Ferrin, Hugh Jameson and Francis Mitchel enlisted in the Continental Army.
1779 enlistments:
Thomas Rankin
Edward Colby
Richard Gillespie
James Campbell
Henry Weld
Peter Hakins
Robert Barber
David Richards
John King
John White
John Ross
Archibald Clark
John McCarty
Isaac Colby
Thomas Drew
Neal McGee
Windsor Golden
1780 enlistments:
John McCarty
William Thomas
Zoe With
John Clark
John Remmick
Pomp Sherburn
James Whaley
Windsor Golden
James Harris
Thomas Mitchel
Samuel Merrill
James McMahan
Jeremiah Fairfield
1781 enlistments:
Abner Andrews
Asa Andrews
Jonathan Black
Charles Burrows
John Ward
Allen Anderson
Archibald Clark
John Webb
Pomp Sherburne
Martin Byrne
James Burke
James Adams
David Morrison
Jeremiah Fairfield
John McCarty
John Pease
Daniel Marsh
James Boyes
James Blair
William Dickey
Thomas McLaughlin
Adam Dickey
William Eastman
Arthur Nesmith
Robert Thompson
James Gregg
Elijah Towns
Alexander McMurphy
Abraham Perry
John Mannyfold
1782 enlistments:
John McCurdy
Charles Cavenaugh
Serving for other towns:
John Hall for Deerfield
John Reed for Chichester
Daniel Callaghan for Atkinson
John Moloy for Hampton
James Keeff for Hampton
Thomas Mitchel for Hampton
Michael Keeff for Amherst
Also noted General George Reid, David MacGregor, Robert MacGregor, Matthew Thornton and others served as officers.
For lists of men and women on the war memorials of Londonderry Common (Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korean and Vietnam), please see these links:
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/11/amanuensis-monday-weeklong-project.html
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/11/korean-war-veterans-from-londonderry.html
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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
Friday, May 27, 2011
The 1804 House Update
The piece below is a carved panel that belongs over the door.
Below is an example of a McIntire designed room now on exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. It was originally part of the Oak Hill Mansion built in Peabody, Massachusetts, owned by Nathaniel West and Elizabeth Derby originally of Salem, Massachusetts. You can see how the Forster-Leach house used the McIntire carvings as inspiration. The new owners are trying to preserve as much of the original woodwork as possible in the house rennovations.
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| click to enlarge and to read the detailed museum description |
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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
Thursday, May 26, 2011
NEHGS reads my blog!
Surprise!
I was very happy to receive an email this afternoon from Alessandra Magno at the New England Historic Genealogical Society. She would like me share the following special events at NEHGS this summer:
Programs at NEHGS
June New Visitor and Welcome Tour
June 1, 2011 10:00AM - 11:00AM
99-101 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02116-3007
Make plans to start your genealogy with this great tour. This program begins with a thirty-minute introductory lecture and will be followed by a tour of the NEHGS library and its vast holdings.
Come Home to New England
June 13, 2011 9:00AM - June 18, 2011 5:00PM
NEHGS, 99-101 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02116-3007
Dubbed as one of the society’s most popular programs, “Come Home to New England,” is a fun-filled week of family history discovery and education. This program features research, individual consultations, interesting lectures, group meals, and other exciting activities.
Talking Back to Your Ancestors: Reweaving the Family History
June 22, 2011 6:00PM - 7:00PM
99-101 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02116-3007
Dr. Barbara B. Reitt will describe what she learned in a four-year search for truths long hidden by the family and what compelled her to respond to her late father’s memoirs by researching and writing a biography of his grandmother.
Programs and Events
A Tour Through Ireland and Irish History
July 5, 2011 5:00PM - July 15, 2011 5:00PM
Ireland
Please join NEHGS as we explore our Irish immigrant ancestors’ native land, the rolling hills of Ireland. We will discover spectacular scenery, and enjoy legendary Irish hospitality in internationally renowned hotels and restaurants and elegant private homes.
Please e-mail education@nehgs.org if you wish to be placed on a waiting list for the event.
Weekend Research Trip to Albany, New York
July 13, 2011 3:00PM - July 17, 2011 11:00AM
Albany, New York
Join NEHGS as we explore the vast resources of the New York State Archives. The weekend includes individual consultations, lectures, and a group dinner.
English Research Tour
September 25, 2011 3:00PM - October 2, 2011 12:00PM
London, United Kingdom
Discover the wealth of information available in London's repositories as NEHGS returns to London in 2011. Participants will take part in two group dinners, consultations, and guided research tours through the Society of Genealogists (SOG) and the National Archives (UK).
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To learn more about upcoming events, programs, and tours, visit AmericanAncestors.org/Event to register online or download a registration form. Please mail your registration form to:
NEHGS, Education & Tours
Attn: Joshua Taylor
99-101 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02116-3007
For more information call 1-888-296-3447, or e-mail education@nehgs.org
The Worcester Tornado, June 9, 1953
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| A young Senator John F. Kennedy and two teens tour the tornado disaster in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts 1953 |
When I was growing up in Central Massachusetts, the adults would speak in hushed tones about the Worcester tornado. We moved to Holden in 1969, more than 15 years after the tornado, but the effects were very visible. The area was heavily forested, but the tornado’s path was still empty and barren of trees. I could follow the path through Holden into the nearby city of Worcester by seeing the lack of woodlands as we drove into the city for shopping or doctor’s appointments. My parents would casually mention that certain landmarks were “due to the tornado.”
Several neighbors had survived the tornado’s devastation. The young mother who lived next door had three toddlers, and would come to hide in our cellar whenever there were thunderstorm warnings. My mom would bring out boxes of Ritz crackers and peanut butter, and my sister and I would entertain the babies whenever storms passed over. At the time I didn’t understand her fear. She was just a small child herself when her home was destroyed in the Burncoat neighborhood of Worcester.
I would overhear women telling of how their children were injured in the storm, including a boy who was sucked out a living room window. Men would tell my Dad how belongings were found miles away, and miraculously returned. As a child I had visions of Dorothy and Toto’s flying house racing through my mind whenever we had severe storm warnings. It all seemed like fairy stories, too terrible to believe.
In my hometown of Holden, nine were killed, and then the tornado moved through Worcester, where another sixty residents died. A total of 94 people died, 1288 were injured and 10,000 were homeless. This was a staggering loss for the time, with a loss of 4,000 buildings and hundreds of automobiles. The damage was estimated at $53 million dollars in 1953. Debris was later found in the Atlantic Ocean off of Weymouth, Massachusetts- over 50 miles away. Worcester is a thousand miles away from tornado alley, but it was still a victim. It held the unfortunate record of most destructive tornado for over 60 years, until this month when Joplin was hit.
When I was much older I saw the photographs of the tornado damage, and there were annual TV news reports on the storm’s anniversary. Not too long ago my daughter applied to Assumption College in Worcester. I took her to the main office for her entrance interview and spent my time perusing a display about the tornado. I didn’t know the campus was originally on Burncoat Street in Worcester. I didn’t know that the original campus was destroyed. Later in 1953 Miss Jacqueline Bouvier, fiancée of Senator John F. Kennedy, presented a $150,000 gift from the Kennedy Foundation towards rebuilding a new campus on Salisbury Street. A priest and two nuns died in the storm, but no students died since summer break had just begun.
Today, the storm damage is barely visible. The great empty fields near the Great Brook Valley housing development are now covered with mature trees and new industrial buildings. There are no more vacant lots, since they have long been rebuilt with new homes or businesses. The earth has healed. I know that for now the people in Missouri will think that peace of mind is a fairy tale, but their pain will also fade and become barely visible. Barely… because I know at least one woman in Holden who still hides in the cellar when the thunderstorms pass through.
[The above photo is from MSNBC.com, at this link you can read about the Worcester tornado and also see a rare movie about the tornado (in three parts on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJciyLvvfKI&feature=youtu.be ]
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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Worcester Tornado, June 9, 1953", Nutfield Genealogy, posted May 26, 2011, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/05/worcester-tornado-june-9-1953.html: accessed [access date]).
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