Beat the Heat!

Last night online a genealogist  asked  "How did our ancestors survive heat waves?"  I know that when I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s no one in my neighborhood had air conditioning, not even in our cars!  How did we survive the occasional heat wave?  What did our ancestors do?

Herbert Robson and Helen Hitchings (my great aunt)

at the beach in 1925, Beverly, Massachusetts

1936 Heat Wave kills thousands, strengthens the Dust Bowl

People sleeping outdoors in St. Paul, Minnesota during the Great Depression

Photo from the St. Paul Daily News, Minnesota Historical Society

Photograph collection 7/1936 Location No. QC1.3r5

Beverly, Massachusetts Misery Island 1948

my Dad on the far left  

My mom on vacation at a pool in Mexico, 1959

Hanging out on the stoop in Beverly,

Three generations of the Allen Family 1967

Holden, Massachusetts Public Pool, 1972

my sister and I with neighbors 

My Dad and a neighbor, during a 1975 heat wave in Holden,

There's nothing like a sprinkler, lawn chair, and a cold beer!

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Beat the Heat!", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 22, 2011, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/07/beat-heat.html: accessed [access date]).

Pinkerton Tavern Update

The former Pinkerton Tavern photographed 2009

In 2009 I wrote a blog post about the Pinkerton Tavern in Derry, New Hampshire.  It was a Halloween story because even though this beautiful building has an interesting history, it is most famous as having a resident ghost!   Please click on the link at the bottom of the page to read this story.


This 270 year old building is back in the news.  The restaurant inside closed a few months ago, and it is now for sale.  However, the building must be moved due to a project to widen Manchester Road in Derry.   Hopefully the building will be relocated nearby, but who knows its fate?  This is a nearly $6 million dollar project being held up while the town negotiated for property from 15 different property owners from Crystal Avenue to Ashleigh Drive.  One of the last parcels is where the tavern stands now. 

There is great concern around town for the building.  Someone even started a “SAVE THE PINKERTON TAVERN” facebook group!    The town of Derry was accepting proposals for a buyer who would move the building and possibly renovate it, and there were several interested parties who toured the building.  No one came forward to move the building.  You can make a proposal at derry-nh.org, or you can make a bid at the town hall.  The town is hoping to begin the roadwork in the fall.  Since no one was willing to relocate the building, the town is now looking for a buyer to dismantle the tavern for parts or to sell it as salvage.  For information or to tour the building, please call the public works department at 432-6144.


Last week the members of the Derry Heritage Commission toured the property for items of interest to preserve for the Derry History Museum.  They plan on producing a local access cable TV show on the 270 year history of the Pinkerton Tavern.  There were not many items worth salvaging, since the building had been remodeled so many times.  Most of the building is new, or not original to 270 years ago.  The curator of the museum, Karen Blandford- Anderson, took a small rock from the original fireplace for display in the town museum. 


My post on the history of the Pinkerton Tavern in Derry, New Hampshire: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/10/pinkerton-tavern-ghosts.html

http://www.nutpub.net/html/nnmain.html   Nutfield News 20 July 2011, "Residents Find Little to Preserve as Pinkerton Tavern Faces Dismantling"


Derry News, 24 March 2011, column “More tales to tell before Pinkerton Tavern is gone” by Rick Holmes, former Derry Town Historian and author of “Nutfield Rambles”, http://www.derrynews.com/derry/x357288292/Its-the-end-of-the-road-for-tavern-building

Derry News, 15 June 2011 “Buyer- and mover- sought for tavern” http://www.derrynews.com/local/x357067834/Buyer-and-mover-sought-for-tavern

Derry News, 6 July 2011 “It’s the end of the road for tavern building” http://www.derrynews.com/derry/x357288292/Its-the-end-of-the-road-for-tavern-building


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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Not So Wordless Wednesday - Pemaquid, Maine

We traveled up to Pemaquid, Maine to see the area where the ship "Angel Gabriel" wrecked in 1635.  Several ancestors were on this ship, but ended up in Essex County, Massachusetts since all survived the disaster of being blown off course to Maine by a hurricane.  I have a previous blog story about the shipwreck at this link: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/other-mayflowers-voyage-5.html 

Pemaquid Lighthouse
if it looks familiar it's on the Maine State Quarter!

Plaque by the Blaidell Family Association

Plaque by the Cogsell Family Association

The view from the top of the lighthouse!

A Revolutionary War encampment at the fort

Pemaquid Fort

All adventures in Maine end with a seafood dinner.
We found an "in the rough" restaurant right in Pemaquid Harbor
(steamers, lobster, onion rings, chowder, Mmmmmm!)

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To Cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Not So Wordless Wednesday - Pemaquid, Maine", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 20, 2011.  

Tombstone Tuesday- Wilkinson Cemetery, Gilford, NH

I have used the website findagrave.com for many years, and have even contributed many gravestone photos and information to the website.  Recently I made my first photo requests to findagrave.com for some gravestones of distant family in Gilford, New Hampshire.  I was very lucky to make contact with a very nice woman, Carol Twomey, and it was her first volunteer effort! She found the Wilkinson family burial ground, and took these fantastic photos for me.  She also posted them on Picasa and at findagrave.com    Thank you!  THANK YOU, Carol!

According to Carol Twomey, this cemetery is
located on the south side of route 11B, about 1/4 mile west
of the intersection with route 11C 

JACOB R. WILKINSON
Dec. 5, 1805   April 22, 1883
LEAH A.
HIS WIFE
Sept. 30, 1810   Sept 1, 1905
ELNORAH D.
THEIR DAU.
Mar. 21, 1831    June 12, 1903

LEONARD WILKINSON
Born
July 15, 1829
DIED
 Aug. 1, 1898

MARK M. WILKINSON
Apr. 13, 1840
May 20, 1898

EMILY J. WILKINSON
Born
Sept. 16, 1832
DIED
May 15, 1898

MARY F.
wife of
M. M. WILKINSON
DIED
Apr. 12, 1871
AE. 30

MARY AMANDA
wife of
George H. Wilkinson
BORN
June 6, 1837
DIED
May 18, 1876
------------
sweetly resting

Wilkinson Genealogy:

Jacob R. Wilkinson, born 1 Jan 1805 on Stonedam Island, Gilford, New Hampshire and died on 22 April 1885 in Gilford, son of Benning Wilkinson and Deborah Langley.  He married on 25 June 1825 in Gilford to Leah A. Rundlett, daughter of Theophilus Rundlett and Patsy Taylor, born on 30 September 1810 in Gilford, and died 1 September 1905 in Gilford.  Five children:

1. Leonard Wilkinson, born on 15 July 1829 in Gilford, died on 1 August 1898 in Gilford; married to Emily J. Dockham, daughter of  John Dockham, born 16 September 1832 in Meredith, New Hampshire and died on 15 May 1898 in Gilford.  Four children..

2. Elnora Deborah Wilkinson, born on 21 March 1831 and died on 13 June 1903 in Gilford.  Unmarried.

3. Mary Amanda Wilkinson, born on 6 June 1837 in Gilford, died on 18 May 1876; married on 29 November 1862 in Gilford to her first cousin as his first wife, George Henry Wilkinson, son of Bradbury Wilkinson and Hannah Huckins, born on 22  May 1837 in Campton, New Hampshire and died on 3May 1899 in Laconia.  George Henry Wilkinson married second on 28 October 1878 in Laconia to Elizabeth A. Tyler, daugther of James Tyler and Clara Damon of Canaan, New Hampshire.

4. Marcus M. Wilkinson, born on 13 April 1840 in Gilford, and died on 20 May 1898; married first on 24 February 1862 in Gilford to Mary F. Saltmarsh, daughter of Thomas Saltmarsh and Sally H. Gilman, born on 12 May 1840 in Gilford, and died 12 April 1871.  He married second on 12 December 1874 in Lake Village, Gilford to Clara I. Hovey, daughter of John and Alice Hovey of Weare, New Hampshire.

5. adopted daughter, Hattie A. Huckins (probably a relative since there were several Wilkinson/Huckins marriages), born about 1859, no further information.

Photos taken by  Carol Twomey, New Hampshire, 28 June 2011

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Amanuensis Monday - A nephew's letter, 1883

Hawaii State Archives, Queen Liluokalani Collections,
M-93, Box 11, Folder 103,
Letter from William Lee to Mary Dominis, 23 March 1883 

[Engraved Stationary Letterhead]

LEE AND SHEPARD

PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS
47 Franklin Street (Up-Stairs)
New York Office                       Boston Mar. 23 1883
678 Broadway

Dear Aunt Dominis

                Your very welcome favor
reached me two or three days
ago- of course the photograph didn’t
look like me- I had it taken
on purpose because it would
not look like me!  You see I had
my hair cut as short as we do some
of the horses- and it altered my
appearance so much, I at one
had my picture taken, for a
memento= when my hair gets
grown out lengthy, I shall have
some other pictures taken, and
will send you one if you will ac-
cept it- then you will say this
thick-haired one is the best
looking!

               Mother is very well this

-2-

Spring and stays at Brockton
Like a hen among her chickens-
Our sister, Agnes’s only boy, Herbert, is very ill
Just now, and Mother is very anxious
About him-pneumonia- so a day or two
 will decide it.

                Mrs. William Lee, (my “Colonel”) has been very,
Very ill, but she is about again, in
Her usual health, which I regret to say
Is very poor.  She lives, so she says, in hopes
Of going to your beautiful islands to see
You- ever since she saw John & Tho. King
She has made you and yours her ideal.  She
Keeps John’s picture hanging in her rooms
To show her company her cousin, who is
Married to the sister of the King, etc., etc. etc.
You understand how these things work &
But I don’t believe we shall ever have
The pleasure & happiness of going to see
You, for we don’t get rich very fast
And one cannot leave business &
Home to go traveling unless he has
“the rocks” as our Yankee boys say.
You must tell John that both
Mr. Shepard & myself are very proud
of our invitations to the grand occasion
of the coronation- and perhaps if

[Letterhead]

-3-

they had reached us before the cer-
emony took place, we should have
been honored by attending.  As it
is we mean that it was a highly
successful affair- and we con-
gratulate you all “than it is done
 over” as the dandies say.

                I wish I knew what would cure

The rheumatism that you and
John might be relieved.  Now-
a-days the doctors say it is the state
of the blood that produces rheumatism and
its attendant pain.  Lemons is the
remedy here.  I have been so lucky
thus far I have escaped as such
complaints and have to thank
the good Father for a very com-
fortable life, with much more
happiness than I deserve but I
have greater hopes for the life to
come, just think of it, I am 57

-4-

years old and I can remem-
ber going to see you in Dorchester
more than fifty years ago! Ah!
Me! We must believe that the
good Father intends we shall meet
our loved ones to part no more-
This a good faith to have even
in this life and I have held to it
through thick & thin.

You don’t know unless your
ears tingle to tell you, how much
we talk about you and your
at home-

May God Bless You! With much

love to you and yours,

Love Very Affectionately
Your nephew,
William Lee

Mrs. Lee & Alice all send their
love to you- and charged me over
and over not to forget.

               W. L.

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

This letter was written by Boston publisher William Lee (1826 - 1906) to his maternal aunt, Mary Lamport (Jones) Dominis in Honolulu, Hawaii.  His mother, Laura William (Jones) Lee, is mentioned above, living in Brockton, Massachusetts.  There were six sisters in the Jones family, including my 4x great grandmother, Catherine Plummer (Jones) Younger.

Of all the letters I have transcribed from the Hawaiian Archives, this one doesn't give much new family genealogy information, but it is still a very important family letter.  I'll list the reasons below:

1.  It is dated after King David Kalakaua (1836 - 1891) had become King of the Kingdom of Hawaii.  He had visited Boston in 1874 when he had official business in Washington, DC.  No doubt he also visited with William Lee and the rest of the Jones family, since Mary Dominis's son,  John Owen Dominis was married to Kalakaua's sister, Lili'uokalani.   She would become Queen when he died in 1891.   There are references to all this in the letter.

2. Herbert, his nephew with pneumonia, must have survived because there is an 1887 marriage record for him in Brockton to a Miss Ida F. Norton.

 

3. William Lee's first wife, Anna M. T. Leavitt ( whom he refers to as "the Colonel") died not long after this letter was written, on 19 September 1883.  She was in her final illness mentioned here, and never visited Hawaii.

4.  The daughter, Alice, mentioned in the postscript, was an adopted daughter born as Alice Gookin,  daughter of Anna's sister, Mary Leavitt and George Gookin.  George died in 1861, but Mary didn't pass away until 1891 so I don't know the circumstances of this adoption.   The book "Seek and Find, or the Adventures of a Smart Boy" by Oliver Optic, published by Lee & Shepard, is dedicated to Alice Lee Gookin on page 3.

5.  I've been searching for the business papers or personal papers of William Lee.  His partner, Charles Shepard's papers are in the American Antiquarian Society Library in Worcester, Massachusetts.  I haven't found Lee's papers in any Boston library, but perhaps they are in a New York institution?  The letterhead here is the only one I have seen with a New York address, so they must have had an office in New York City.

6.  Dorchester is a clue to the family address of the Joneses.  In censuses and city directories they are found living in Boston's North End neighborhood through 1842.  I haven't found them in an 1850 census yet, but father Owen Jones died there according to a notice in the New England Historic Genealogical Society Register, (July 1850) Volume 4, page 293 "Jones, Mr. Owen,  Dorchester, 22 April, ae 82, formerly of Boston".   No death record has been found. 

7.  I have transcribed many of the letters written by Boston family members to Mrs. Dominis (you can find them by clicking on the keyword DOMINIS in the right hand column of this blog) and they all are very sentimental.  The great distance letters had to travel to and from Boston to Hawaii in this time period, and the fact that Mary had not been to Boston since the 1830s make these letters very poignant.

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Caroline Wilkinson, Simmons College Class of 1907

Caroline May Wilkinson

Candidate for a degree

Born at Laconia, New Hampshire, December 7, 1883

Attended Laconia High School

Address:  Laconia, New Hampshire

"As merry as the day is long"

CAROLINE WILKINSON

Caroline loves all library work,

Its methods she's made her own.

She catalogs and classifies and verifies each tome;

She enters noes on neat P. slips,

Sher arranges them by sub-heads;

And then, to make them seem more real,

She gives them a title page.

What a treasure trove can be found in college and university records!  My own daughter graduated twice from Simmons College in Boston.  I knew that Caroline May Wilkinson had graduated from Simmons with a library degree.  It is still one of the top schools in the North East for Library and Information Science.  The archivist at the Simmons library found these pages from the 1907 Simmons Yearbook and mailed them to me.  Have you tried looking for school records for your ancestors?

Wilkinson Genealogy

Generation 1: Samuel Wilkinson, born about 1722 and died about 1795 in Deerfield or Epping, New Hampshire.  He was a Revolutionary War soldier under Brigadier General John Glover.  A deed with his name was found in the Rockingham County records dated 1796. He is a possible son or relative of Thomas Wilkinson (abt 1690 - before 1739) of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Generation 2: Benning Wilkinson, born about 1764 "of Epping", and died 20 October 1851 in Center Harbor, New Hampshire; married on 4 December 1786 in Northwood, New Hampshire to Deborah Langley, born 17 July 1765 in Nottingham, New Hampshire, died 20 August 1845 in Center Harbor. Benning also served in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.  Twelve Children.

Generation 3. Bradbury Wilkinson, born 19 April 1793 in Allenstown, New Hampshire, and died 22 November 1851 in Campton, New Hampshire; married on 23 January 1820 in New Hampton, New Hampshire to Hannah Huckins, daughter of James Huckins and Dorcas Bickford, born 22 January 1796 in New Hampton, and died 17 February 1882 in Plymouth, New Hampshire.  Six children.

Generation 4. George Henry Wilkinson, born 26 May 1837 in Campton, died 3 May 1899 in Laconia; married first to Mary A. Wilkinson, daughter of Jacob R. Wilkinson and Leah A. Rundlett, his first cousin, on 29 November 1862 in Gilford, New Hampshire.  No children.  Married second to Elizabeth A. Tyler, daughter of James Tyler and Clara Damon, on 28 October 1878 in Laconia.  She was born on 23 April 1846 in Canaan, New Hampshire, and died on 14 October 1912 in Laconia.  George and Elizabeth had four children.

Generation 5. Caroline May Wilkinson, born 7 December 1884 in Laconia, died 30 June 1973 in Brockton, Massachusetts; married on 31 March 1913 in Newton, Massachusetts to William I. Carleton, son of Harvey Percy Carleton and Annie Barker McIntire.  He had a filling station in East Bridgewater, and  the family resided at 44 Plymouth Street.  Two children: Harvey W. and David T.  

---------------------
Sources:

Notes of the Wilkinson Family, by Mrs. B. J. Wilkinson, 1940, from the Tuck Library, New Hampshire Historical Society

Simmons College Senior Book 1907, Simmons College Archives, 300 The Fenway, Boston, Massachusetts

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

600 Blog Posts

Every three months I make a book out of my blog posts.
Notice how the first book had no dates on it?
Back in the beginning I never thought I'd still be blogging two years later!

Last week, genealogy blogger Bill West noted that he had reached his 1,000^th blog post at his West In New England, and then a few days later Susan Peterson noted her 500^th blog post at her Long Lost Relatives blog.  Congratulations to both of them, and to anyone else who has reached this milestone. 

 I enjoyed reading their reflections on blogging very much, and wondered how many posts I had written.  I didn’t know how to find out this data, but by adding up some numbers on my blog statistics page I saw that I had missed announcing the 500^th post mark, but was still a long way from 1000.  Then Blogger changed its platform and the new format had an interesting new tag across the top of the page.  On July 12 it stated that I had written 599 posts!

By the time you read this I will have passed the 600th blog post!

Well, that stat is enough for me to celebrate!  Also, my 2^nd anniversary for Nutfield Genealogy will be on July 27, which is just two weeks from today.  I remember starting my blog with only two or three posts, and then taking a long break while we entertained some cousins from Spain.  The same thing will happen later this month, when I will probably be incommunicado for the same reason, with the same cousins from Spain visiting New Hampshire.  Isn’t it funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same?

Two years ago I thought I had lost my momentum right at the beginning, but I guess I was able to jump back in, and haven’t run out of story ideas or genealogy information yet.  There have been more vacations, several ice storms and losses of electrical service, illnesses and family issues, but I’ve kept plugging along.  I’m glad I have a few weeks before my “Blogaversary” to ponder over all these things.  It looks like Nutfield Genealogy is here to stay…

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Hanging Out with Google+

I’ve been having fun exploring the new Google+ social networking application.  It’s to my advantage that genealogists have jumped all over this product.  It wouldn’t be fun exploring  this new world without a big circle of followers, but I already have about 100 genealogists in my circles, as well as various friends, family and acquaintances.  I started a circle for Mayflower cousins, and it still has ZERO participants- are you surprised?  It would be hard to explore Google+ without a lot of circles and friends posting.

For the past two nights I’ve checked out the “Hangout” feature.  This is the one new feature that Facebook doesn’t offer.  The first night I joined in on a pre-arranged hangout hosted by Ginger Smith, and about six or seven genealogists chatted for about an hour.  Last night I started a hangout, which attracted six chatters, with no more than four of us at a time on screen as some chatters only stayed for a few minutes just out of curiosity!

The first night was a real experiment, since folks didn’t know that a patch was required for the video chat, and some of us had trouble logging on to the chat.  I had to reboot several times, and the chatters could see my name appear and disappear with each attempt.  I finally got onboard, yet lost my wireless connection before the hour was up.   There were a variety of platforms being used by participants, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc. and the one causing the most problems seemed to be Chrome (which is a Google product, believe it or not!)  Dick Eastman mentioned that he had to close all his other windows to run the chat properly, and he blogged aboutthis, too.

Another thing I found out is that after the chat, Google+ automatically posted a notice that I “hungout with 6 people”  and listed their names X, Y and Z.   This is an automatic feature, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to edit or change this?  Maybe I’m wrong, but it would be important to know ahead of time that the world is going to know everyone you include in your “Hangouts”!   I suppose you could always delete this post, but for some people that might pose a bit of a problem.

The more people who join your chat, the slower the video seems to run.  The audio kept up just fine, but at some point the video became very jerky.  People would seem to disappear off the screen, instead of seeing them get up and walk away.  A chart held up in front of the camera would appear and disappear, so it would be important to remember to hold it there for a minute or two instead of just waving it in front of the computer (a good hint for genealogists!) 

The second night’s hangout was initiated by a prearranged time, but most people just saw the open invitation to hangout on the stream and joined in that way.  Spontaneous hangouts seem to be the most fun.  I can see that if a family wanted to chat about a topic, or a group of friends decided that posting on line was getting tedious they could just break into a spontaneous video hangout to continue the conversation face to face.

Marian Pierre Louis, who is a professional genealogist, had some concerns right away during our chat about how she looked on video.  Lighting, background, and background noises all seemed to matter a lot in how participants looked and sounded.  One participant had a TV on in the background, and another seemed to be too far away from the microphone and was hard to hear.  Russ Worthington wore a headset (earphones and mic) and he sounded the best to everyone who was listening.  This is not important for just socializing, but for a client conference or a more important conversation these are all things to keep in mind.

It was not necessary for participants to have a webcam and microphone, since there was a built in chat box on the screen.  We experimented with sending messages on the chat wall, and it seemed to work just fine.  It reminded me of the chat wall where the Peanut Gallery posts comments during Thomas MacEntee’s Genealogy BlogTalk radio shows.  I liked this because everyone can participate this way, even if they don’t have a webcam.   Everyone will see the video, even if they are just chatting.  There is a button to “mute” the camera (if you are in your PJs!) or to “mute” the audio (in case the phone rings, which happened to me!).

Since I had initiated the hangout, I was curious to see what would happen when I logged off the conversation.  Would it end the video conferencing?  Or would the other participants be able to continue their chat?  Fortunately, when I logged off, they could continue- which is a nice feature to know about ahead of time.

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo