Surname Saturday ~ POPE of Salem, Massachusetts

The Pope Chest, dated 1679
At the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts

POPE

The English origins of Joseph Pope, my 8^th great grandfather,  are unknown, but the records in Salem are full of stories about him and his family.  He arrived in Massachusetts in 1634 aboard the ship Mary and John and settled in Salem, Massachusetts.  He joined the First Church (Puritan) in 1636, but he was also in the first group of early Quakers in Salem.  There is a long list of fines levied against him in the court records, for absence from church until they were finally excommunicated.  Many other Quakers in Salem were whipped and jailed.

The Quaker persecution in Salem ended when Samuel Shattuck went to London in 1661 to deliver a plea to King Charles II, who sent a mandamus to Massachusetts and ended the Quaker persecutions.  It is unknown whether or not Shattuck is related to Joseph Pope.  Joseph named “my bothers George and Richard and Joseph Gardner and cousin Samuell Shatok the elder to be overseers”  of his last will and testament.  All these families were Quaker.  In a TAG article in 1954 the author was unable to find a genealogical relationship between these families [The American Genealogist, Volume 30: 164-66]

Joseph Pope, Jr. is my 7^th great grandfather.  He was the constable for Salem Village (now the town of Danvers) in 1683, and was one of the more wealthy citizens according to a tax list.  He ran a saw mill with his brother, Benjamin, and brother-in-law, Joshua Buffum.  The Buffums were also a Salem Quaker family (another sister, Hannah Pope, married Joshua’s brother, Caleb Buffum).   I descend from Joshua’s sister, Deborah Buffum, who married Robert Wilson (my 9^th great grandparents) and was whipped for appearing  “naked” in the Puritan church to protest these persecutions of the Quakers (she was also probably suffering from some sort of mental illness).   Click HERE for that story.

Joseph Pope, Jr. and his bride, Bethshua Folger, were married in 1679.  This year, and their initials, was carved into a valuables chest attributed to the Symonds furniture shop of Salem.   This chest was passed on in the family as the “Franklin Chest” because Joseph and Bethshua Pope were the uncle and aunt to Benjamin Franklin (Bethshua’s sister, Abiah, was Benjamin Franklin’s mother).   When the chest was sold at a Christies Auction on 20 January 2000 it was bought by the Peabody Essex Museum for a record breaking $2,422,500.   Now it is on display as the “Pope Chest”.  To read more about this chest, click HERE. 

The Popes were witnesses against some of their Salem neighbors in the 1692 Salem witch trials.  Perhaps this was payback for  all the earlier the Quaker persecutions?  Besides being connected to the infamous Witch Hysteria, they were also related to founding father Benjamin Franklin.  Bethshua's sister, Abiah Folger, was Franklin's mother.  This branch of my family tree touches a lot of interesting American history! 

For more information on the Pope family:

The Great Migration, by Robert Charles Anderson, NEHGS, 2007, Volume V, pages 487-491.

A History of the Dorchester Pope Family, 1634 – 1888 by Charles Henry Pope, (Boston 1888) pages 299 – 301.

Also see The Records of the First Church in Salem, Massachusetts, 1629 -1736, and The Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts (too many to list here, see the sketch at The Great Migration for details on the volumes and page numbers)

Also, please see last week's "Surname Saturday" post on the FOLGER family at this link:
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/11/surname-saturday-folger-of-watertown.html

My POPE genealogy:

Generation 1:  Joseph Pope, born about 1606 in England, died 1667 in Salem, Massachusetts; married first to Damaris Unknown (mother of 8 children); married second to Gertrude Unknown.  She died 27 April 1667 in Salem.

Generation 2:  Joseph Pope, baptized 27 October 1650 in Salem, Massachusetts, died in February 1712 in Salem; married in 1679 in Salem Village (now Danvers), Massachusetts to Bethshua Folger, daughter of Peter Folger and Mary Merrill.  She was born about 1650 on Nantucket.  Nine children.

Generation 3:  Jerusha Pope, born 1 April 1695 in Salem, died 29 June 1781; married on 9 July 1713 to George Flint, son of George Flint and Elizabeth Putnam.  He was born on 1 April 1686 in Reading, Massachusetts. Seven children.

Generation 4:  George Flint m. Hannah Phelps 

Generation 5:  Phebe Flint m. John Flint

Generation 6:  Olive Flint m. Luther Simonds Munroe

Generation 7:  Phebe Cross Munroe m. Robert Wilson Wilkinson

Generation 8: Albert Munroe Wilkinson m. Isabella Lyons Bill

Generation 9: Donald Munroe Wilkinson m. Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

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The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/11/surname-saturday-pope-of-salem.html

Copyright © 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Researching Your Mayflower Ancestors

Celebrating our Mayflower ancestors!

This blog post was published simultaneously here at Nutfield Genealogy and also at the Worldwide Genealogy blog www.worldwidegenealogy.blogspot.com 

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Every year, just before Thanksgiving, some folks  want to know if they have a ancestor from the 1620 ship Mayflower.  My first advice is that it will probably take you more than a few weeks to prove a lineage back to someone born in the late 1500s, who might qualify as a passenger on this ship.  After all, it has been about thirteen or fourteen generations since those passengers were born.  But, if you work hard at it, you might be able to introduce your Mayflower passenger ancestor to your friends and family around the 2015 Thanksgiving table.

Mayflower descendants live all over the globe.  There are active Mayflower Societies in all 50 states, Washington DC, and Canada.  Societies are being considered for the United Kingdom and Australia because there are descendants living there, too.  Many descendants live in the Netherlands, because the Pilgrim families left siblings and married children behind in Leiden.  There are good numbers of other descendants scattered across the map.  Are you one of them?

1.   Start with yourself and work backwards in time.  It is impossible to start with a passenger and try to work forward to yourself along a lineage.  Besides, there were 102 passengers.  Even if grandma swears you descend from William Bradford, you just might be a descendant of Myles Standish or Priscilla Mullins. You will never know unless you follow proper genealogical practices of starting now and working back through the generations.

2.  Become familiar with the surnames of the 102 passengers, their descendants and where they lived.  Yes, BREWSTER is one of the Mayflower names, but there was also an early Brewster family in New Hampshire.  They were not related. Some of the passengers had common names like BROWN and WHITE.  However, if your BROWNS lived in southeastern Massachusetts in the 1600s and 1700s, this is worth researching.   You can find a complete list of passengers with known descendants are at these links:

https://www.themayflowersociety.org/about-the-pilgrims20/the-pilgrims

http://www.americanancestors.org/who-came-on-the-mayflower-pt2/

http://sail1620.org/Society/mayflower-passenger-list

Scroll down to “Mayflower Research” on this page to read sketches on each Pilgrim family from early Plymouth, Massachusetts: http://www.americanancestors.org/articles-topics/

3.  If you can work your family tree back to about the mid 1700s your next step is to review the Silver Books published by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.  These are books produced by the “Five Generations Project” to document the first five generations of each Mayflower passenger. Some of the finest colonial genealogists have been part of this project.  Most of these lineages have been published, and the project is now called “Mayflower Families in Progress” as they continue researching the sixth and seventh generations.  You can find these books in good genealogy libraries, book stores, and for sale online at this link: https://www.themayflowersociety.org/membership-info16   For a good listing of all the books, see this link: http://mayflowerhistory.com/mayflower5g 

4. Use primary source documents (birth, marriage and death records) if you are planning to submit your research to a lineage society.  Deeds, probate (wills), gravestones, diaries and family bibles have also been used to establish lineage.  Some of this is available on the internet, and are acceptible if they are scanned images of original documents such as censuses and birth records.  Note all records with proper citations (page numbers, microfilm numbers, etc.).   User submitted trees on www.familysearch.org and www.ancestry.com  are not acceptable because they lack documentation, but you can use them as clues to help you find primary source materials.  Don’t forget to make photocopies of everything you find.  Click this link to read about “The Best Records to Prove your Case” by Mayflower genealogist Alicia Crane Williams:

 http://www.americanancestors.org/researching-your-mayflower-ancestors-part-V/

5.  In rare cases, you might want to consider DNA testing.  Many of the Pilgrim family associations have DNA projects.  However, for acceptance into a lineage society such as the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, DNA testing must be backed up with a paper trail.  DNA can help establish that two men descend from a common ancestor.   Several DNA tests have been used in the lineage application process for GSMD. 

Let’s say you find a link to one of the Mayflower families.  What happens next?

1.  Congratulations!  You are connected to some of the most well researched group of immigrants on the planet earth.  There are endless books, articles, blog posts and all sorts of stories, documents and things to learn about your ancestor to keep you busy for quite some time. New research is being published every year.

2.  You've earned your bragging rights.  Not just that you have a famous ancestor, but you have done an impressive job at researching thirteen or fourteen generations.  You can now take those documents and research papers and apply to family associations (more than half the Mayflower families have family associations), to the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, Colonial Dames, or any number of other lineage societies.  Here is a link to the “Join GSMD” webpage: https://www.themayflowersociety.org/membership-info16

3.  Double check your research against these links to common Mayflower genealogy hoaxes:

http://faculty.ycp.edu/~tgibson/genealogy/MayflowerAncestryHoaxes.html

http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/genealogy/mayflower-ancestry-the-case-for-and-against

http://www.americanancestors.org/who-came-on-the-mayflower-pt2/

http://www.americanancestors.org/researching-your-mayflower-ancestors-pt4/

4.  If the historian of a lineage society questions your lineage application papers, don’t worry.  They are just asking you to clarify a point with additional documentation.  They usually can help point you where to look for that additional piece of information.  Remember that lineage societies are actively recruiting for new members, they don’t want to keep you out of the club!

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Some good links for online information on the Mayflower Passengers:

The General Society of Mayflower Descendants  https://www.themayflowersociety.org/

Leiden, Netherlands Pilgrim Archives  http://www.pilgrimarchives.nl/

Leiden American Pilgrim Museum Foundation  http://www.leidenamericanpilgrimmuseum.org/

The Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth, Massachusetts   http://www.pilgrimhallmuseum.org/  

Plimoth Plantation Museum, Plymouth, Massachusetts  www.plimoth.org

The New England Historic Genealogical Society  www.americanancestors.org 

Caleb Johnson’s Mayflower History website   http://mayflowerhistory.com/

Sail 1620 (Pilgrim Biographies)  http://sail1620.org/

Women of the Mayflower Project  https://sites.google.com/site/womenofthemayflower/home/announcing-a-presentation-of-new-research

Thru the Looking Glass:  Mayflower Families   http://mayflowerfamilies.com/

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Good Books (there are many, but here’s a good place to start):

The Great Migration Series, The Great Migration Begins (3 volumes)  and The Great Migration (7 volumes) by Robert Anderson published by the New England Historic Genealogical Society

The Pilgrim Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth Colony, 1620 – 1633  by Robert Anderson, NEHGS, 2007

William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation, edited by Caleb Johnson, 2006

The Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War, by Nathaniel Philbrick, 2007

Strangers and Pilgrims, Travellers and Sojourners: Leiden and the Foundations of Plymouth Plantation, by Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs, 2009

Making Haste from Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World: A New History, by Nick Bunker, 2010

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Researching Your Mayflower Ancestors", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 7, 2014, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/11/researching-your-mayflower-ancestors.html: accessed [access date]). 

Weathervane Wednesday ~ Above a New Hampshire Inn

Weathervane Wednesday is an on-going series of photographs I post weekly.  I started by publishing weather vanes from the Londonderry, New Hampshire area, but now I've been finding interesting weather vanes all across New England.  Sometimes my weather vanes are whimsical, or historical, but all are interesting. Often, my readers tip me off to some very unique and unusual weather vanes, too! If you know an interesting or historical weathervane, please let me know.

Today's weather vane is from New Hampshire.

Do you know the location of weather vane #181? Scroll down to the bottom to see the answer!

Today's weather vane was photographed at the Bedford Village Inn in Bedford, New Hampshire.  It is a large three dimensional sheep, visible from quite a distance away from the inn.   We had our anniversary dinner there this summer, and spotted this weather vane for the first time.  There was a thunderstorm and monsoons of rain during our dinner, so we came back later on a sunny day to get this photograph!

The Bedford Village Inn sits on land that was granted to John McLaughlin, the first town clerk of Bedford, New Hampshire.  His brother Gordon cleared the land in 1774 and settled here. He went off to serve in the Revolutionary War, and after his return he built the farmhouse here in 1810. You can read the entire history of this property, and how it became the inn and restaurant, at the link below.

The Bedford Village Inn website   www.bedfordvillageinn.com   

Click here to see the entire series of Weathervane Wednesday posts!  

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The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/11/weathervane-wednesday-above-new.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Hoogerzeil in Beverly, Massachusetts

This family plot was photographed at the Central Cemetery in Beverly, Massachusetts

EUNICE HOOGERZEIL

Died Oct. 21, 1866

Aged 79 yrs 5 mos.

6 dys

[inscription illegible]

PETER HOOGERZEIL

Died May 12, 1889

aged 85 yrs, 6 mos

15 dys

[inscription illegible]

ALBERT HOOGERZEIL

U.S. NAVY

[Albert was a mariner in the US Navy from 1862 to 1864 during the Civil War.  He served aboard the USS Vermont, USS Western World and in the Potomac Flotilla.  He was a fisherman in Beverly]

Lot No. 212 Sub-Div. Sec. 6 Avenue --------------------------

Name Peter Hoogerzeil

Interments                                         Removals

Month Day Year            Name                           Age                                            

                                      Yrs. Months

May 12 1889 1. Peter Hoogerzeil         85 6

Oct 21 1886  2. Eunice  "                     79 5

March 28 1886  3. William "                     43       

March  1 1862  4. Simeon  "                     23      

June 11 1920 5. Albert "                       75 1

The plot labeled #1 on this map is the Hoogerzeil family plot

A detail of this section of the cemetery

Even greater detailed section showing exactly where to find the Hoogerzeil plot.

Peter Hoogerzeil is my 3rd great grandfather.  He was born on 28 October 1803 in Dordrecht, Netherlands, the son of Simon Hogerseijl and Lissa Van Epenhuizen.  He was from a long line of whaling sea captains in the Netherlands.  Around 1825 Peter Hoogerzeil stowed away in a boat loaded with hemp, leaving Rotterdam to Salem, Massachusetts for the ropeworks.  On 30 December 1828 in Beverly he married the daughter of the ship captain, Eunice Stone.  She was the daughter of Captain Josiah Stone and Susanna Hix of Beverly.  Peter was a mariner and a caulker in Beverly. They had six children, outlined below, and three of the four sons served in the Civil War.  Peter died on 12 May 1889 in Beverly, and Eunice died 21 October 1886 in Beverly.   

1.  Lucy Ann Hoogerzeil, born 9 November 1832 in Beverly, died 14 December 1916 in Beverly. She married  Addison W. Foster.

2.  Simeon Hoogerzeil, born 10 December 1839 in Beverly, died 1 March 1862 in Beverly.  He died unmarried, and is buried with his parents in this cemetery plot.

3.  Peter Hoogerzeil, my 2nd great grandfather, born 24 June 1841 in Beverly, and died 10 May 1908 in Beverly.  He is buried with his wife and children in another plot at Central Cemetery.

4.  William Hoogerzeil, born 24 July 1843 in Beverly, died 26 March 1886 in Beverly.  He served in the Civil War for 20 months and is buried here in this plot, but without a military stone.  Unmarried.

5.  Albert Hoogerzeil, born 3 May 1845 in Beverly, died 9 June 1920.  He served in the Civil War (see the photo above of his military stone in this plot) and died unmarried.  

6.  Edmund Hoogerzeil, born 7 May 1847 in Beverly, died 30 January 1922 in Beverly.  He also served in the Civil War, and he married Hitty Ann Taylor and is not buried in this plot, but is buried elsewhere in Central Cemetery with his wife and family.  

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The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/11/tombstone-tuesday-hoogerzeil-in-beverly.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Mystery Ancestors

Can anyone identify these mystery ancestors for me?  LOL!

This photo was taken just before the 1996 or 1997 Londonderry Old Home Day parade.  We were dressed up for a Girl Scout float depicting historical scenes of girls.  It was one of the few times our troop attempted a float in this parade. The girls were Junior Girl Scouts (grades four, five and six). We usually just marched in our uniforms, or built a float with all the Girl Scouts in Londonderry, not just our troop.  We won a prize for our float, and the girls were thrilled.   I spent a long time sewing this dress, and I remember that the hoop skirt was the most difficult part.  My daughter's dress was one of my old dresses gathered up with an apron (easy peasy).

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Mystery Ancestors", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 3, 2014, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/11/mystery-ancestors.html: accessed [access date]). 

November 2014 Genealogy and Local History Calendar

November 1 and 2, Saturday and Sunday, all weekend, Native Heritage Weekend at the Fort at Number 4, 267 Springfield Road, Charlestown, New Hampshire. Check the website for more information www.fortat4.org

November 2, Sunday, lecture 1pm, house tour 2pm, The Codmans and the Great War, at the Codman Estate, 34 Codman Road, Lincoln, Massachusetts, $10 Historic New England members, $15 general public. Registration required, call 781-259-8098.  After war was declared in Europe in 1914, New England families like the Codmans, who had strong ties to France, felt reverberations. When war broke out, oldest brother and architect Ogden Codman, Jr., was at his chateau outside of Paris. While he and his staff made a daring, last-minute escape to the United States, his friend and co-author Edith Wharton remained in Europe to assist the war effort. In Lincoln, the Codman siblings threw themselves into homefront activities like knitting and canning. Dramatic letters from family and friends in Europe serving as ambulance drivers, nurses, aid workers, and soldiers kept the family abreast of news from the front lines. Drawn from material in Historic New England’s Library and Archives, this illustrated talk focuses on the First World War experience of the Codmans and their community.

November 2, Sunday, 2pm Pretty Halcyon Days, on the Beach with Ogden Nash, at the St. James Masonic Lodge, 77 Tide Mill Road, Hampton, New Hampshire.  This lecture explores the ways Nash’s summers on the New Hampshire seacoast influenced his poems.  Free to the Public. Call the Tuck Museum, 603-929-0781 for more information.

November 3, Monday, 6:30 pm, Baked Beans and Fried Clams: How Food Defines a Region, at the Plainfield School, 92 Bonner Road, Meriden, New Hampshire, Free to the public.  Contact the Meriden Library, 603- 469-3252 for more information.

November 5, Wednesday, 1pm, A Visit with Abraham Lincoln, living history presentation by Steve Wood at the Wentworth Home, 795 Central Avenue, Dover, New Hampshire, presented with funding by the NH Humanities Council.  Free to the public.  603-516-8826

November 5, Wednesday, 4pm, The 1907 Heresy Trial against Mary Baker Eddy and the Christian Science Faith, by author Peter Wallner at the New Hampshire Historical Society, 30 Park Street, Concord, NH.  Admission is FREE. Wallner will sign his new book, Faith on Trial,  and discuss the case Eddy v. Frye, in which Mary Baker Eddy’s son and adopted son attempted to take possession of her person and wealth, and charged that she was insane.

November 6, Thursday, noon, Lunch & Learn: “A Nice Indian Pudding”: Maize in the Diets of Colonial New Englanders, at the Plimoth Plantation Visitor Center, Plymouth, Massachusetts.  Discussion at noon in the Accomack Building, bring a lunch.
November 6, Thursday, 6pm, Mementos: An Introduction to Jewelry of Life and Love, at the Governor Langdon House, 143 Pleasant Street, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Free to Historic New England or Preserve Rhode Island members, $5 general public, a lecture about jewelry, including watches, rings, bracelets and cuff links that mark major life transitions.  Through these heirlooms this talk explores how New Englanders from the 18^th century to today mark their important moments and memories. Registration required, call 603-436-3205.

November 6, Thursday, 7pm, Victorian Furniture: Design Run Amok or Inspired Creativity? At the Governor Henry Lippitt House Museum, 199 Hope Street, Providence, Rhode Island, $5 Historic New England members, $10 general public.  Registration required, 617-994-6678.

November 7, Friday, 7pm, New Hampshire Cemeteries and Gravestones, at the Walpole Town Hall, 34 Elm Street Walpole, New Hampshire, Free to the public, presented by Glenn Knoblock.  Call the Walpole Historical Society for more information 603-756-3449.

November 9, Sunday, 3pm, Mementos of Pet Ownership in New England, at the Sarah Orne Jewett House Museum and Visitor Center, 5 Portland Street, South Berwick, Maine.  Free to Historic New England members, $5 general public.  Registration required 207-384-2454. Birdcages, fish bowls, dog collars, headstones and chewed furniture are the material remains of pet ownership in New England. Senior Curator of Collections Nancy Carlisle conducted a survey of roughly forthy New England societies and history museums and located more than 80 objects associated with pets from the 18^th through the early 20^th century.  Together these artifacts reveal surprising attitudes about different animals and uncover unexpected cultural assumptions.  Registration recommended, 207-384-2454

November 10, Monday, 7pm George Washington Spied Here: Spies and Spying in the American Revolutionary War, at the Stratham Fire Department, 2 Winnicutt Road, Stratham, New Hampshire, Free to the public, presented by Douglas Wheeler.  Call Pam Dziama for more information: 603-772-4118.

November 11, Tuesday, 7pm, Vanished Veterans – New Hampshire’s Civil War Monuments and Memorials, at the Salem historical Museum, 310 Main Street, Salem, New Hampshire, Free to the public, presented by George Morrison who has located, inventoried and photographed the variety of New Hampshire’s Civil War memorials.  Contact Beverly Glynn for more information 603-893-1433.

November 12, Wednesday, 6pm, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience, an author talk by Emerson W. Baker, at the Abbey Room of the Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts. FREE to the public.

November 12, Wednesday, 7pm, Mary Todd Lincoln: An Unconventional Woman, at the Milford Town Hall, 1 Union Square, Milford, New Hampshire, presented by Sally Mummey as Mary Lincoln. Free to the public.  Call Polly Cote for more information 603 – 673-1946.

November 13, Thursday, 7pm A showing of the film Celia Thaxter’s Island Garden by Peter Randall, at the research library of the Portsmouth Atheneum, 9 Market Square, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This film brings the story to those who can’t make the trip to the Isles of Shoals, or wish to see it in a new way.

November 14, Friday, 1:30pm Imagine Nashua: Then and Now by Don Himsel of the Nashua Telegraph.  He will discuss his weekly column and encourages the audience to bring old photos of the Nashua area and share stories.  Sponsored by the Genealogy Club of the Rogers Public Library, Hudson, New Hampshire, at the Library in the Community Room.

November 14, Friday, 12 noon, Forgotten Drinks of Colonial America, presented by author Colin Hirsch, part of the brown bag lunch series by the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts. FREE to the public, http://masshist.org/calendar

November 15, Saturday, 9:30am to 12:30pm, Genealogy Workshop:  Getting More Out of Your Genealogy Research Using Ancestry.com, FamilyTreeMaker and other tools,  at the Nesmith Library, Windham, New Hampshire, presented by Marcell Jussaume, past president of the American Canadian Genealogical Society. Free and open to the public.  Call 603-432-7154 or email swilliams@nesmithlibrary.org to register.

November 17, Monday, Brewing in New Hampshire: An Informal History of Beer in the Granite State, at the Merrimack Public Library, 470 Daniel Webster Highway, Merrimack, New Hampshire, Free to the public, presented by Glenn Knoblock. Call the library for more information 603-424-5021.

November 18, Tuesday, Our National Thanksgiving: With Thanks to President Lincoln and Mrs. Hale, a living history presentation by Steve and Sharon Wood at the Merrimack Adult Community Center, 4 Church Street, Merrimack, NH.  Presented with funding from the NH Humanities Council.  Free to the public.  603-424-5084.
November 18, Tuesday, 7:30 pm Reliving the Civil War, presented by Bob Duffy, costumed Civil War living historian, at the Nashua Historical Society, 5 Abbott Street, Nashua, New Hampshire.  Free to the Public.

November 18, Tuesday, 7pm Our National Thanksgiving: With Thanks to President Lincoln and Mrs. Hale, at the Merrimack Adult Community Center, 4 Church Street, Merrimack, New Hampshire.  Presented by re-enactors Sharon and Steve Wood as Sarah Josepha Hale and Abraham Lincoln.  Call Anita Greager for more information 603-424-5084. Free to the public.

November 18, Tuesday, 6pm, Uncovering African American Stories, at the Otis House, 141 Cambridge Street, Boston, Massachusetts.  Free to Historic New England and NEHGS members, $5 general public.  Expert genealogist David Allen Lambert discussed the primary and secondary sources at the New England Historic Genealogical Society for researching African Americans in New England. Registration required 617-994-5920.

November 19, Wednesday, 12:30pm Our National Thanksgiving: With Thanks to President Lincoln and Mrs. Hale, a living history presentation by Steve and Sharon Wood at the Litchfield Community Church, 259 Charles Bancroft Highway, Litchfield, NH, Presented with funding from the NH Humanities Council.  Free to the public.  603-429-1315

November 19, Wednesday, 6pm, The Schooner Fame, by Capt. Mike Rustein, , at the House of Seven Gables, 115 Derby Street, Salem, Massachusetts, a lecture by Matthew Thomas, Free to members, non-members $15, reservations recommended 978-744-0991 ext. 104

November 19, Wednesday, 7pm, The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail, a lecture by Jeffrey Bolster, part of the 2014 series celebrating the 400^th Anniversary of Captain John Smith’s Voyage to New Hampshire, at the Portsmouth Atheneum, 9 Market Square, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  Free to members. $10 general admission.  Reservations requested, call 603-431-2538 for reservations. 

November 20, Thursday, 6:30pm Discovering New England Stone Walls, at the Baker Free Library, 509 South Street, Bow, New Hampshire, Free to the public, presented by Kevin Gardner, author of The Granite Kiss. Contact Betsy Mahoney for more information 603-224-7113.

November 22, Saturday, 2pm Blogging for Genealogy, presented by Heather Wilkinson Rojo at the Amesbury Room of the Amesbury Public Library, 149 Main Street, Amesbury, Massachusetts.  Contact Margie Walker 978-388-8148 or mwalker@mvlc.org to reserve a space.

November 27, Thursday  HAPPY THANKSGIVING:

It’s not too early to plan for a Thanksgiving dinner in New England.
This is the link for Thanksgiving feasts at Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Reservations REQUIRED.  Choose between the two feasts listed below:  
http://www.plimoth.org/dining-functions/thanksgiving-dining-special-events/thanksgiving-dining  or call 1-800-262-9356  ext. 8353, 8364, 8365
Thanksgiving Day Buffet, Thursday, 27 November 2014 at the following times: 11am, 1:30pm, 4pm and 6pm
Classic “America’s Thanksgiving Dinner”, Thursday, 27 November 2014 at the following times, 11am, 2:30pm SOLD OUT, 6pm AND Friday, 28 November 2014 at 1pm
OR
This is the link for the two different Thanksgiving feasts at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.  Again, reservations are required:
https://www.osv.org/event/thanksgiving-weekend
Traditional Thanksgiving Feast at the Bullard Tavern, Thursday, 27 November 2014, call 508-347-0285
Thanksgiving Buffet at the Oliver Wight Tavern, Thursday, 27 November 2014, 11am to 6pm call 508-347-0285
ALSO
Salem Cross Inn, Route 9, 260 West Main Street, West Brookfield, Massachusetts holds a traditional thanksgiving dinner, with hearth cooking.  Call 508-867-2345 for reservations. $10 non-refundable deposit per person to hold your spot. http://salemcrossinn.com/events/events-holiday-calendar/

Other famous landmark restaurants that serve Thanksgiving Dinner (all prix-fixe, reservations required):
Legal Seafood, most locations open for Thanksgiving, choice of roast turkey or stuffed lobster and other delicious offerings.
Top of the Hub, 52^nd floor of the Prudential Tower in Boston, 4 course Thanksgiving menu, call 617-536-1775
Omni Parker House Hotel, 60 School Street, Boston, Thanksgiving buffet, with seatings at 12 noon and 2:30pm call 617-725-1660
Concord’s Colonial Inn, Concord, Massachusetts, call 978-369-9200
Longfellow’s Wayside Inn, 72 Wayside Inn Road, Sudbury, Massachusetts 978-443-1776

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December 3, Wednesday, 6pm, Legendary Locals of Beacon Hill, at the Otis House, 141 Cambridge Street, Boston, Massachusetts presented by author Karen Cord Taylor based on her new book. Hear the stories of people such as John Hancock, Louisa May Alcott, John Singleton Copley and Julia Ward Howe. Free to the public, registration required 617-944-5920. 

December 8, Monday, 7:30pm New Hampshire on Skiis, at the Congregational Church of Amherst, 7 Church Street, Amherst, New Hampshire, presented by professor E. John B. Allen, free to the public, contact Neil Brenner for more information 603-315-8413.

December 13, 4:30pm, The Spirit of Christmas Past: Four Centuries of Christmas in New England, at the Sarah Orne Jewett House Museum and Visitor Center, 5 Portland Street, South Berwick, Maine. Free to Historic New England Members, $5 nonmembers.  This popular lecture traces the development of the celebration of Christmas from the time it was outlawed in 17^th century New England to the 20^th century.  Registration required, call 207-384-2454.

January 14, Wednesday, 7pm Family Stories: How and Why to Remember and Tell Them, at the Merrimack Public Library, 470 Daniel Webster Highway, Merrimack, New Hampshire, presented by storyteller Jo Radner.  Snow date January 15 same time and place.  Free to the public.  Call the library for more information 603-424-5021.

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The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/11/november-2014-genealogy-and-local.html
Copyright 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Surname Saturday ~ FOLGER of Watertown, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts

A replica of the Pope Valuables Chest
at Plimoth Plantation

FOLGER

John Folger (my 9^th great grandfather), his wife Meribah, and son Peter arrived in New England on board the ship Abigail with the Reverend Hugh Peter in 1635. He lived first at Watertown, and then removed to the island of Martha’s Vineyard with Thomas Mayhew (my 10^th great grandfather).  He died intestate about 1660. 

In the second generation, Peter Folger was my 8^th great grandfather, and his wife Mary Morrill was an indentured servant for Rev. Hugh Peters.  Peter saved his money for seven years and paid 20 pounds to buy her out of servitude and declared “it was the best appropriation of money he ever made”.  There is too much information about Peter Folger to include in one blog post, but I'll put the highlights here. 

Peter went to Nantucket in 1663 to be an Indian interpreter for Tristram Coffin.  He was very influential in assisting the first settlers on this island with negotiations with the native people.  In the records Peter appears as a surveyor, miller, weaver, blacksmith, school master, and the clerk of the records.  His poem “A Looking Glass for the Time” was published on 23 April 1676. This poem gives his opinions on religious freedom and government, including freedom of speech.  

In the next generation, Peter had 12 children. One daughter was Bethshua, my 7^th great grandmother, and another was Abiah, mother of the famous Benjamin Franklin.  Several authors have attributed Benjamin Franklin’s wit to his grandfather, Peter.  Others have compared Franklin’s concepts of religious freedom and free speech in the Articles of Confederation with his grandfather’s writing. 

My 7^th great grandmother, Bethshua Folger, married Joseph Pope and lived in Salem, Massachusetts.   Their initials and wedding date is carved upon a "Valuables Chest” that was passed down in the family and auctioned off at Christie’s in 2000 for a record breaking $2,422,500.00  [see the link below for the full story].  The Popes were wealthy Quakers, who had been persecuted by the Salem authorities in earlier days.  During the witch craft hysteria of 1692 Joseph and Bethshua were accusers against John Proctor (also my ancestor), and Bethshua claimed to be tortured by some of the accused witches, including Giles and Martha Corey, and Rebecca Nurse (sister to another ancestor, Edmund Towne, my 9^th great grandfather).   When he died, Joseph Pope’s gravestone was described as “a pretentious stone of slate” by Jasper Marsh  [in the Historical Collections of the Danvers Historical Society, Volume 10, page 93].

Some sources for more information on the Folger family:

Mayflower Quarterly, Volume 72, pages 243- 264 (Peter Folger and his descendants)

Away Off Shore: Nantucket and Its People, by Nathaniel Phibrick, New York: Penguin Books, 2011

History of Martha’s Vineyard by Charles Edward Banks, Boston, 1911

History of Watertown, by Henry Bond and Horatio Gates Jones, Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1860.

“The Folger Family” by William Coleman Folger in the NEHGS Register July 1862, Volume XVI, pages 269 – 274.

The Devil Hath Been Raised: A Documentary History of the Salem Village Witchcraft Outbreak of March 1692, by Richard B. Trask, Danvers, Massachusetts: Danvers Historical Society, 1992, pages 38 and 57.

A previous blog post about Joseph Pope and Bethshua Folger’s “Valuables Chest”

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/09/treasure-chest-thursday-at.html

My Folger lineage:

Generation 1:  John Folger, born about 1590 in Norwich, Norfolk, England, died about 1660 on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts;  married before 1618 in England to Meribah Gibbs, daughter of John Gibbs and Alice Elmy.  She was born about 1595 in Freyn, Norwich, Norfolk, England and died about 1635 on Martha’s Vineyard.  They had five children.

Generation 2:  Peter Folger, born about 1618 in Norfolk and died about 1690 in Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard; married on 23 June 1644 in Watertown, Massachusetts to Mary Morrill.  She was born about 1623 in England and died 1704 on Nantucket.  They had twelve children.

Generation 3:  Bethshua Folger, born about 1650 on Nantucket island and died in Salem, Massachusetts; married in 1679 in Salem Village (now Danvers), Massachusetts to Joseph Pope, son of Joseph Pope and Damaris Unknown.  Nine children

Generation 4:  Jerusha Pope m. George Flint

Generation 5: George Flint m. Hannah Phelps

Generation 6: Phebe Flint m. John Flint

Generation 7: Olive Flint m. Luther Simonds Munroe

Generation 8: Phebe Cross Munroe m. Robert Wilson Wilkinson

Generation 9: Albert Munroe Wilkinson m. Isabella Lyons Bill

Generation 10: Donald Munroe Wilkinson m. Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Surname Saturday ~ FOLGER of Watertown, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 1, 2014, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/11/surname-saturday-folger-of-watertown.html: accessed [access date]). 

Halloween ~ A visit to "Blood Cemetery"

Pine Hill Cemetery in Hollis, New Hampshire is also known as “Blood Cemetery” not because of anything violent that happened here, but because of the Blood family.  This cemetery unfortunately has become quite famous online as the site of paranormal activity.  Because of this “fame” there has been vandalism and loitering in this remote cemetery.  The town has erected surveillance cameras and the place is off limits between dusk and dawn.  The Hollis town police patrol this area especially near Halloween to keep out the vandals and thrill seekers.

Abel Blood’s tombstone has attracted many teenagers over the years due to myth and rumor.  The local historians haven’t found any connection between poor Abel Blood and any violent act or the occult, but nonetheless over the years many believe he haunts this cemetery.  The town had to remove Abel's tombstone because of all the damage and vandalism.   Local teens leave coins on the graves of the other Blood family members, perhaps as a bribe or offering to free them from his haunts?

During my visit there were coins on these two gravestones, and on several others. 

What is funny is that very near there is a real Blood Cemetery in Dunstable, Massachusetts- just over the border and a ten minute drive from Pine Hill Cemetery in Hollis, New Hampshire.  This smaller cemetery is labeled Blood Cemetery, has a sign, has some Blood family gravestones, and yet the local believers in spooky things seem to leave it alone.

Go figure!

The real "Blood Cemetery" located in Dunstable, Massachusetts
ten minutes from Pine Hill Cemetery

 “Blood Cemetery” , a webpage by the International Organization for Paranormal Activity all about Pine Hill Cemetery in Hollis, New Hampshire “is believed to be the most haunted and active cemeteries in the region”  http://www.bloodcemetery.com/ 

On YouTube  “Creepy Places of New England: Blood Cemetery”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx8uciuvo9k

Blood Cemetery (actually the Pine Hill Cemetery) is on this list of the spookiest places in the state of New Hampshire by Yankee Magazine:
http://www.nhmagazine.com/October-2012/Haunted-New-Hampshire-Where-to-Find-Ghosts-Ghouls-and-Scares-in-the-Granite-State-0/ 

New Hampshire Magazine, October 2012 “Spooky Stuff: Blood Cemetery” by Barbara Coles http://www.nhmagazine.com/October-2012/Spooky-Stuff-Blood-Cemetery/   

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Halloween ~ A visit to "Blood Cemetery", Nutfield Genealogy, posted October 31, 2020, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/10/halloween-visit-to-blood-cemetery.html: accessed [access date]).