Is there an Olympian in your Family Tree?

[This is an edited version of a post published at this blog on August 2, 2012 during the last Olympics in London]

Our Wilkinson family tree is not full of athletes.  In fact, we are all much better at sitting in our armchairs and cheering on the Red Sox or Patriots than getting out and tossing around a ball.  A few Wilkinsons were athletes in high school or college.  Some still jog or do yoga, and a few cousins have expanded this to 10K races and marathons.  But one, and only one Wilkinson, a descendant of Thomas Wilkinson (about 1690 - before 1739) of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has made it to the Olympics.

Brett Wilkinson
from www.Row2K.com 

In 2004 my fourth cousin, Brett Wilkinson, competed in the Athens, Greece Olympic games. Brett and I share a common 3x great grandfather, Aaron Wilkinson, who was born in South Berwick Maine in 1802 and died in Peabody, Massachusetts in 1879.

Brett is a rower, and competed in the men’s fours (quadruple sculls).   His boat came in eleventh, and a Russian boat took the gold medal during the 2004 Olympics.  If you are unfamiliar with rowing, a scull is a boat with the rowers pulling two oars each (one in each hand).  When the rowers have one long oar (both hands on one oar), it is known as a sweep.

I’ve never met Brett, and I only know about his athletic history because another cousin has filled me in on the details of this side of the family.  I was surprised to hear we had an Olympian in the family. And even more surprised to hear he was a rower.  If you hear you have an Olympian in your family tree, Google can lead you to lots of Olympic history, with lists of athletes, statistics, medal winners, biographies, interviews, and maybe even a video!  Every sport has it's own website, and for rowing I checked the archives at www.Row2K.com and www.USRowing.org . High school and college athletic departments often have great websites, with lots of statistics and photos.  Since Brett Wilkinson won a gold medal, I found his biography at Wikipedia, which led me to many other sources of information on this cousin. 

How do I know so much about rowing?  My own daughter rowed in high school and then for the Simmons College crew.  She also rowed in the 2006 Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston.  She rowed in a collegiate 8+ race (eight women and a coxswain).  Brett Wilkinson was also at the 2006 HOCR, rowing out of the same boathouse (Simmons college uses the Riverside Boat House), in the Championship Men’s Doubles,  and he came in 3^rd  place. This same year my daughter’s rowing coach, Nikolay Kurmakov, a former Soviet Union National Champion, won the gold medal in the HOCR Senior Master Men’s Eight race, rowing out of Riverside.  He won gold at the 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 Head of the Charles Regattas, and set a course record in 2007.  

Former Ukranian and Soviet National Champion, Simmons Coach Nikolay Kurmakov,
gives a pep talk to the 2006 Simmons College 8+ boat before the HOCR

The 2006 8+ boat shoves off for the HOCR from Riverside Boat House.
My daughter is in the number 4 seat.

Considering that we spent all day during the Head of the Charles Regatta 2006 at the Riverside Boat House, we must have bumped into Brett at some point.   We also spent all weekend of the 2005 and 2007 HOCRs at Riverside Boat House, too. I know that Brett Wilkinson participated in all the HOCRs between 1997 and 2008, and placed in the top 5 spots several times.  Nikolay and Brett, as team mates, must have known each other.   Perhaps he is in some of our family photos, warming up or cheering on his team mates?  Perhaps we made some passing remark to him about the weather, or the regatta, as we stood on the docks? But we’ll never know, will we?

The first modern Olympics took place in Athens, Greece in 1896.  This means that if you found an Olympic athlete in your family tree, he or she is probably not many generations removed from you.  Ask the living members of your family closest in relationship for more information, and you will have a good start in researching your relative.  Use the resources of the US Olympic Committee online, and through correspondence, to find out more on the athletic career of your relative.  College archives, team archives, newspapers and YouTube may turn up more information.  Small town newspapers are especially rich with information on local heroes.  If you are lucky, your athlete may still be living, and you can correspond with him or her directly!

Simmons College parents cheering from the peanut gallery
at the Riverside Boathouse during the 2007 Head of the Charles Regatta

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For more information:

A 2004 interview with Row2K.com http://www.row2k.com/olympics/features.cfm?ID=194#.UBaDYrRtq68

Brett Wilkinson (rower) at Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brett_Wilkinson_(rower)

Team USA website -  http://www.teamusa.org/   
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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Is there an Olympian in your Family Tree?", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 11, 2016,  (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/08/is-there-olympian-in-your-family-tree.html: accessed [access date]). 

Ten Things to Try When you Hit a Genealogical Brickwall

Every month on the 10^th day I publish a blog post with a top ten list…

The proverbial genealogical brickwall is a seemingly insurmountable obstacle to your discovering the identity or parentage of an ancestor on your family tree.  Sometimes, with just a few new ideas or hints, the answer will suddenly become apparent, and you can “smash” your brickwall.  Other times, unfortunately, you will run into a dearth of written records and must admit defeat.

Here are the top ten ideas I have used to smash brickwall genealogical problems.  You may have other ideas, and some new strategies I haven’t thought of, so please feel free to leave your “smashing tool” ideas in the comments or email me at vrojomit@gmail.com ! 

Let’s break a few brickwalls today!

1.) Get it in writing.  This is one of the most effective ways I have found to see the holes and gaps in my research.  Usually I write a “Surname Saturday” post every week for this blog.  By taking the time to write up a short sketch on an immigrant ancestor, I can immediately see discrepancies in dates, missing parents, poor sources, and missing citations.  By cleaning up the data, storylines, citations, checking new sources that might be available (books and newly published articles), I often find answers to my own questions.  More than a handful of times I have “smashed” a brickwall while getting a “Surname Saturday” post ready for publication. 

2.)  Share your written sketch (complete with all your citations) with other people.  Pass it around to members of your genealogy club. Email it to a genealogy colleague.  Post it online.  Blog about it.  Sometimes you have stared at your problem for so long you can no longer see what you are lacking in evidence.  Or someone else may know of an archive or source you haven’t thought about yet.  Don’t forget that sharing includes DNA and surname study projects.  You never know what you will uncover unless you share are willing to share.

3.)  Revisit the latest research.  I usually write about New England ancestors, so I double check books like Martin Hollick’s New Englanders in the 1600s for the latest published research.  This book only covers research up to 2010, so my next step is to go online or to my bookshelves to see what has been published since that date in my favorite journals.  Learn how to use PERSI for searching scholarly journals.   I double also check the online card catalogs at NEHGS, FamilySearch, Allen Country Public Library, the state libraries, historical societies, and other places for new books. Query your favorite archivists and librarian by email or pick up the phone. Use all these clues and articles to look for the original records which may have additional information you need to break down your brickwall. 

4.)  Visit the hometown of the problem ancestor, if at all possible, or take a virtual trip by email and perusing the internet.   Is there a historical society nearby?  A public library with a special collections department in genealogy or local history?  Ask the librarian to tell you what is available that you may have missed.  There may be resources unknown to you that could unlock clues about your family.  A local person might also know name variations or spelling variations you haven’t considered.

5.)  Since most of my brickwall ancestors are women, finding a maiden name can often be the biggest clue to finding her identity and parentage.  Court records can be invaluable here, especially in cases of divorce, deeds, guardianship, name changes, and citizenship.  Sometimes newspaper marriage announcements, obituaries or social pages may name a woman’s maiden name that is missing in vital records.  You can find articles, book, classes and webinars designed to help you find maiden names.

6.) Extended family such as siblings, in-laws, cousins, second marriages (and third and fourth marriages) and other distant relatives are often ignored by some genealogists, but learning more about these relatives can often help you understand your ancestry.  Intermarriages between cousins is more common than you think, especially the further you go back in time.  When you hit a brickwall, try working sideways on the family tree for clues.  Finding the vital records on all the siblings might yield a mother’s maiden name, or a cousin’s record could name a common ancestor that is new to you.

7.)  Who were the neighbors and friends of your brickwall ancestor?  Did you look for relatives living nearby on census records, maps, directories and tax records? A little investigating might prove that the neighbors with different surnames might actually be sisters, female relatives or other cousins.  Business associates, business partners, guardians, recipients of letters and gifts might also prove to be close or distant relatives. It can be well worth the time to investigate these friends, neighbors and their family trees.

8.)  Join a Facebook group for the surname, geographic location, religion or ethnic group of your brickwall ancestor.  This doesn’t mean you post a query and wait, but joining a group and frequently reading comments will keep you up-to-date on the latest research and discoveries that might help you.  Get friendly with the members of the group.  Some of the Mayflower groups I belong to have some of the most renowned authors for Pilgrim research frequently answering questions.  The “Explore Congregational Church History”  Facebook group has some wonderful ministers and theologians who are expert on the early Puritan church.  You never know who is on Facebook!

9.)  Hire an expert.  Many people think that hiring a professional genealogist is a big, expensive project.  However, you can hire a genealogist to do a lookup, visit an archive, or to work on a small, specific genealogical problem like your brickwall ancestor.   It doesn’t have to be a major expense,  because you can have a professional give you an estimate for the project ahead of time.  If you are seriously stuck, this is a good option to get you jump started.  There are online membership directories for professional genealogists at the Board for Certification of Genealogists http://www.bcgcertification.org/ or the Association of Professional Genealogists https://www.apgen.org/ to help you find a specialist.  

10.)   Relax. Be willing to wait.  New resources become available all the time. Look at all the lost records that are found every year in archives and libraries.  More items are digitized and indexed every day. If you can’t solve your brickwall today, put it aside and revisit the problem next year.  Later you will be refreshed, and can look at your problem with "new eyes".   After a waiting period, run through all the new resources, articles and books that were published during the interim, and recheck your queries online.  I’ve had queries answered months, years and in one case, decades later!

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Other strategies for brickwall ancestors include keeping a good research log (don’t keep searching in the same old places - keep track of your goals!), continuing your genealogy education (there is always something new to learn) and staying organized (document as your finds as well as your failures) .

What are some of your brickwall strategies?  Please leave a comment below!

This blog post was written as a story as part of The August 2016 Genealogy Blog Potluck Picnic! 

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Ten Things to Try When you Hit a Genealogical Brickwall", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 10, 2016, (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/08/ten-things-to-try-when-you-hit.html:  accessed [access date]). 

Weathervane Wednesday ~ Above another Ancestral Church in Connecticut

It's Weathervane Wednesday!

I post a series of weather vane photographs every Wednesday.  This started with images of weathervanes from the Londonderry, New Hampshire area, but now I've found interesting weather vanes all across New England and across the globe.  Sometimes my weather vanes are whimsical, or historical, but all are interesting.  Often my readers tip me off to some very unique or unusual weathervanes, too!  If you know a great weather vane near you, let me know if you'd like to have it featured on this blog.

Today's weather vane was photographed in Connecticut.

Do you know the location of weathervane post #271?  Scroll down to find the answer.

Today's weather vane was photographed atop of the steeple of the historic Center Church in Hartford, Connecticut.  We visited this church recently to see the burial ground behind it, but we neglected to call ahead and the church was locked and the cemetery was also locked.  I hope we can return soon.

The weather vane on this church is typical gilded banner style, but there is the whimsical addition of a little gilded bird that makes this a very interesting weathervane.  This congregation was originally gathered in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1632 when the followers of Rev. Thomas Hooker migrated together with him from the village of Little Baddow in Essex County, England.   Hooker and his followers left the Massachusetts Bay Colony and settled what is now the city of Hartford in 1636.  You can read the interesting history of this congregation in the website below.

There have been four different meeting houses in Hartford.   This building was constructed in 1807.  It is now a member of the United Church of Christ (UCC).

Center Church, Hartford, Connecticut   http://www.centerchurchhartford.org/

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

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Weathervane Wednesday ~ Above another Ancestral Church in Connecticut", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 10, 2016,  (  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/08/weathervane-wednesday-above-another.html:  accessed [access date]).

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Deacon Joseph Jenness and wife Theodate Drake, Derry, New Hampshire

This tombstone was photographed at the Forest Hill Cemetery in Derry, New Hampshire.

DEA.

JOSEPH JENNESS

DIED

Sept. 25, 1869,

AEt. 83 yrs. 3 mos.

DATY DRAKE

his wife died

Mar. 27, 1836.

AEt. 49 yrs. 5 mos.

Deacon Joseph Jenness was born 18 June 1786 in Rye, New Hampshire and died 25 September 1869 in Derry, New Hampshire.  He was the son of Richard Jenness and Mary Page.  He married his second cousin, Theodate “Daty” Drake about 17 July 1809 in Londonderry [Londonderry VR’s, page 143 Marriage intentions] - remember that Derry was known as Londonderry until the 1827 schism.  She was born 31 October 1786 in Hampton, New Hampshire to Samuel Drake and Mary Jenness.   She died on 27 March 1836 in Derry.  They had three children born in Derry [then known as Londonderry, New Hampshire]:

1. Mary Jenness, born 10 October 1810, married Parker Morse

2. Abraham Drake Jenness, born 16 May 1818 and died 28 October 1863

3. Samuel Drake Jenness, born 2 January 1813 and died 1843; married Nancy Garland

See Genealogical and Biographical Account of the family of Drake in America, by Samuel Gardner Drake, 1945.  (available at Archive.org online)

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~ Deacon Joseph Jenness and wife Theodate Drake, Derry, New Hampshire", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 9, 2016, 

( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/08/tombstone-tuesday-deacon-joseph-jenness.html: accessed [access date]). 

Maps, poetry and other musings on West Running Brook in the History of Nutfield, New Hampshire

The map of Nutfield from Willey's Book of Nutfield

“The appearance of the settlement along the banks of the Westrunning brook in 1720 must have been romantic.  Imagine the thick growth of forests largely composed of walnut, chestnut, butternut and oak.  Wild game, some of it unpleasantly fierce and dangerous to encounter alone or without arms. It required some time for each family to clear away timber enough to let in the sunshine and build a log cabin.  The cabins dotted the slopes a little back from the brook, probably concealed from each other by the forests, and reached by private paths hastily cut among the trees.  On a frosty morning the white curling smoke from the cabins along Westrunning brook rising over the tops of the trees may have been a pleasing feature of pioneer life.  In order to have corn and beans and other garden crops before fields could be cleared around each cabin, the settlers combined their strength and cleared a tract of land together, and all joined in planting and cultivating this tract, and the name by general consent became the Common Field.  It is easily recognized now on the west side of the turnpike about a mile below Derry Lower Village, and just north of the brook.  The map will enable the reader to locate the Common Field of the settlers at the south end of the Gregg land.  The engraving is intended to give a view of the homesteads in their position and relative proportions.”

The passage above is from the introduction of the book Early Records of Londonderry, Windham and Derry, NH 1719 – 1745: Volume II Proprietor’s Records, edited by George Waldo Browne, Manchester Historic Association, 1911, pages vii and viii.   Browne was referring to the map above, which shows West Running Brook right down the center of the page, in a vertical line since the map is oriented with north to the right side of the page.  This was the location of the homes of the first Scots Irish settlers in Nutfield in 1719, later known as Londonderry (now located in the town of Derry, New Hampshire). 

The first 20 settlers were:

James McKeen                       John Barnard

James Gregg                           Archibald Clendennen

Samuel Graves                       James Clark

David Cargill                          James Nesmith

Robert Wear                           John Goffe

John Morrison                        Elias Keyes

James Anderson                     Joseph Simonds

Thomas Steele                       James Alexander

Allen Anderson                     James Sterrat

John Gregg                            Samuel Allison

West Running Brook

Image wood block print by Julius John Lankes (1884 – 1960) for the book West Running Brook, by Robert Frost,  New York: Henry Holt, 1928 contained the poem, “West Running Brook”.  The Robert Frost Farm is located just down the road from this brook, near the tiny Hyla Brook, which is also the name of another one of his poems.

“Fred, where is north?"

"North? North is there, my love.

The brook runs west."

"West-running Brook then call it."

(West-running Brook men call it to this day.)

"What does it think it's doing running west

When all the other country brooks flow east

To reach the ocean? It must be the brook

Can trust itself to go by contraries

The way I can with you—and you with me—

Because we're—we're—I don't know what we are.

What are we?"

"Young or new?"

"We must be something.

We've said we two. Let's change that to we three.

As you and I are married to each other,

We 'll both be married to the brook. We'll build

Our bridge across it, and the bridge shall be

Our arm thrown over it asleep beside it.

Look, look, it's waving to us with a wave

To let us know it hears me."

"Why, my dear,

That wave's been standing off this jut of shore—"

(The black stream, catching on a sunken rock,

Flung backward on itself in one white wave,

And the white water rode the black forever,

Not gaining but not losing, like a bird

White feathers from the struggle of whose breast

Flecked the dark stream and flecked the darker pool

Below the point, and were at last driven wrinkled

In a white scarf against the far shore alders.)

"That wave's been standing off this jut of shore

Ever since rivers, I was going to say,

Were made in heaven. It was n't waved to us."

"It was n't, yet it was. If not to you

It was to me—in an annunciation."

"Oh, if you take if off to lady-land,

As't were the country of the Amazons

We men must see you to the confines of

And leave you there, ourselves forbid to enter,—

It is your brook! I have no more to say."

"Yes, you have, too. Go on. You thought of something."

"Speaking of contraries, see how the brook

In that white wave runs counter to itself.

It is from that in water we were from

Long, long before we were from any creature.

Here we, in our impatience of the steps,

Get back to the beginning of beginnings,

The stream of everything that runs away.

Some say existence like a Pirouot

And Pirouette, forever in one place,

Stands still and dances, but it runs away,

It seriously, sadly, runs away

To fill the abyss' void with emptiness.

It flows beside us in this water brook,

But it flows over us. It flows between us

To separate us for a panic moment.

It flows between us, over us, and with us.

And it is time, strength, tone, light, life and love—

And even substance lapsing unsubstantial;

The universal cataract of death

That spends to nothingness—and unresisted,

Save by some strange resistance in itself,

Not just a swerving, but a throwing back,

As if regret were in it and were sacred.

It has this throwing backward on itself

So that the fall of most of it is always

Raising a little, sending up a little.

Our life runs down in sending up the clock.

The brook runs down in sending up our life.

The sun runs down in sending up the brook.

And there is something sending up the sun.

It is this backward motion toward the source,

Against the stream, that most we see ourselves in,

The tribute of the current to the source.

It is from this in nature we are from.

It is most us."

"Today will be the day

You said so."

"No, today will be the day

You said the brook was called West-running Brook."

"Today will be the day of what we both said."

The Robert Frost Farm, Derry, New Hampshire

To hear the poem "West Running Brook" read by Robert Frost himself, with his lovely Yankee accent, click on this YouTube link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbMgMXLRBfc 

Derry Topgraphic Map, 1985, Courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin.   You can see the position of West Running Brook (where the first settlers built homes), the Robert Frost Farm and East Derry (the location of the First Parish Church).  Today there is a West Running Brook Middle School just off Route 28, too.  

For more about the original Nutfield map, with a transcription of all the names of the early Scots Irish settlers granted land before 1723, see this link:  

https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/07/transcription-of-early-nutfield-map.html     

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Maps, poetry and other musings on West Running Brook in the History of Nutfield, New Hampshire", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 8, 2010,  (  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/08/maps-poetry-and-other-musings-on-west.html: accessed [access date]).

Surname Saturday ~ WYMAN of Woburn, Massachusetts

2015 Wyman Family Reunion
at the Francis Wyman Homestead
circa 1666, Burlington, Massachusetts

Francis Wyman (1617 – 1699), my 9^th great grandfather, is the immigrant ancestor of a large number of descendants.  He came over with his brother, John Wyman, along with his uncles, Samuel and Thomas Richardson in 1636.  The first record of all four of these kinsmen was in 1640 when they signed the town order for Charlestown Village – now known as Woburn, Massachusetts.  Francis was made a freeman in 1657. The two brothers became tanners in Woburn.

In 1658 his father, Francis Wyman, Senior, wrote in his will “I do give and bequeath unto my two sons Francis Wyman and John Wyman which are beyond sea ten pounds a piece of Lawful English money to be paid unto them by mine executor if they be in want and come over to demand the same.”

There is a Wyman Street in Woburn where John had a house.  And in 1666 Francis Wyman built his homestead that still stands on Francis Wyman Road in what is now the town of Burlington, Massachusetts.  It is now owned by the Francis Wyman Association.

Francis Wyman had several Scots prisoners of war as indentured servants in his tannery.  He also had a slave.  In his will he left “a Negro girl named Jebyna” to his wife.  100 years later four WYMAN households in Woburn still had one slave each.  [“Slavery was part of Winchester History” by Ellen Knight, Daily Times Chronicle, Winchester Edition, Feb. 24, 2000]   He is often confused with Frances WICOM/WICOMB, who testified against Margaret Scott of Rowley during the 1692 Salem witch trials.  Many books state that it was Francis Wyman, but they are different people, a woman from Rowley versus a man from Woburn.

Francis Wyman is buried in Woburn at the Old Burial Ground, and his epitaph reads:

"Here lyes ye body of Francis Wyman, aged about 82 years, died November 28th, 1699"  "Memento Mori-Fugit Hora."  "ye memory of ye just is blessed"

2012 Wyman Family Reunion

For more information:

The Francis Wyman Association     http://wymanassociation.org/

Wyman Genealogy  https://www.wyman.org/

The History of Woburn, Massachusetts by Samuel Sewall,  1869

The Richardson Memorial: Comprising a Full History and Genealogy of the three brothers Ezekiel, Samuel and Thomas Richardson,  by John Adams Vinton,  1876.

Some Descendants of Francis Wyman of Woburn, Massachusetts, by Mrs. Bernard Woodke, 1990 [manuscript at NEHGS Mss C 3920]

My WYMAN genealogy:

Generation 1:  Francis Wyman, son of Francis Wyman and Elizabeth Richardson, born 2 May 1617 in Westmill, Herfordshire, England, died 28 November 1699 in Woburn, Massachusetts; married second on 2 October 1650 in Woburn to Abigail Reed, daughter of William Reed and Mabel Kendall and mother of his children.  She was born 30 December 1634 in Dorchester, Massachusetts and died before 1699. He was previously married on 30 January 1644 in Woburn to Judith Pierce, daughter of John Pierce and Elizabeth Hart.  She was born about 1623 in Norwich, Norfolk, England and died in 1644, the year they were married.  Twelve children with his second wife, Abigail.

Generation 2: Nathaniel Wyman, born 25 November 1655 in Woburn, died 8 December 1717 in Woburn; married on 28 June 1692 in Woburn to Mary Winn, daughter of Increase Winn and Hannah Satell.  She was born 1 May 1670 in Woburn, and died 7 June 1743 in Woburn.  Twelve children.

Generation 3: Increase Wyman, born 1 March 1707 in Woburn, died 5 September 1739 in Woburn; married on 11 March 1730 in Woburn to Deborah Pierce, the daughter of Ebenezer Pierce and Mary Wilson.  She was born 17-9 in Woburn, and died in 1739.  Five children.

Generation 4:  Increase Wyman,  born 4 June 1732 in Burlington, Massachusetts, and died before 1776; married before 1755 to Catherine Unknown. Ten children.

Generation 5:  Jemima Wyman, born 10 February 1757 in Billerica, Massachusetts, died 6 September 1843 in South Boston, Massachusetts; married on 21 January 1779 to Colonel Joshua Burnham, son of Stephen Burnham and Mary Andrews.  He was born 26 January 1754 in Gloucester, Massachusetts and died 7 June 1835 in Milford, New Hampshire.  Eleven children.

Generation 6: Jemima Burnham m. Romanus Emerson

Generation 7:  George Emerson m. Mary Esther Younger

Generation 8: Mary Katharine Emerson m. George E. Batchelder

Generation 9: Carrie Maude Batchelder m. Joseph Elmer Allen

Generation 10: Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandparents)

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Surname Saturday ~ WYMAN of Woburn, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 6, 20116,  (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/08/surname-saturday-wyman-of-woburn.html: accessed [access date]). 

Weathervane Wednesday ~ Above an Ancestral Church

It's Weathervane Wednesday!

I post a series of weather vane photographs every Wednesday.  This started with images of weathervanes from the Londonderry, New Hampshire area, but now I've found interesting weather vanes all across New England and across the globe.  Sometimes my weather vanes are whimsical, or historical, but all are interesting.  Often my readers tip me off to some very unique or unusual weathervanes, too!  If you know a great weather vane near you, let me know if you'd like to have it featured on this blog.

Today's weather vane was photographed in Connecticut.

Do you know the location of weathervane post #270?  Scroll down to find the answer.

I recently took a research trip to Wethersfield, Connecticut to research my FOOTE, SMITH, and BLISS ancestors.  Nathaniel Foote (1592 - 1644) is buried in the cemetery behind this church, the First Church of Christ on Main Street in Wethersfield.  We didn't find his grave, but we did find some cousins' tombstones and other interesting sights.  This church and the weathervane were fascinating to me.

The Puritan congregation in Wethersfield was first gathered in 1635.  This brick building dates from 1761.  The weather vane atop the steeple is a gilded banner, and it appears to be original to the building.  Did you know that George Washington attended a service here on May 20, 1781? 

First Church of Christ in Wethersfield, Connecticut:  http://www.firstchurch.org/

The First Church Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/FirstChurchPage/  

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

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Weathervane Wednesday ~ Above an Ancestral Church", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 3, 2016,  (  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/08/weathervane-wednesday-above-ancestral.html:  accessed [access date]). 

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Mr. and Mrs. Robert Clark, Derry, New Hampshire

This tombstone was photographed at the Forest Hill Cemetery in Derry, New Hampshire.  At the time of these deaths, it was known as Londonderry.

ERECTED

In memory of

Mr. Robert Clark

who departed this Life

April the 20th AD 1775

Aged 65 Years

Likewise in memory of Mrs. Letitia

Clark, widow of Mr. Robert Clark

who died June ye 16th 1784.  In ye 70th

year of her age.                                

Erected by Mr. John and Samuel Clark

their Sons.                                         

Robert Clark came to Nutfield from Northern Ireland about 1725 and lived on land northwest of Beaver Pond (in what is now the town of Derry, New Hampshire).  Two of his sons removed to Clark Hill in New Boston, near the border of Francestown.  There are still Clark descendants living in Londonderry, New Hampshire.

Robert Clark was born about 1710 probably in Northern Ireland, died 20 April 1775 in Londonderry, New Hampshire.  He was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery and his wife shared his tombstone.  He married about 1732, probably in New Hampshire, to Letitia Cochran, born about 1708 in Northern Ireland and died 16 June 1784 in Londonderry, New Hampshire.  She was the daughter of early settlers John Cochran and his wife, Jean.

Children:

1.  John Clark, born about 1732, married about 1760 to Nancy Stinson

2. William Clark, born 18 January 1733/34 in Londonderry, New Hampshire, died 9 March 1808; married 2 February 1764 in New Boston, New Hampshire to Anne Wallace.

3. Ninian Clark, born about 1735, died 1808; married about 1765 in New Boston to Mary Ramsey.

4. Agnes Clark, born about 1736; married William Anderson

5. Elizabeth Clark, born about 1737, died 1830; married Andrew Mack.

6. Samuel Clark, born about 1738, died 9 August 1790; married first to Sarah Holmes, married second to Janet Barnett.

7.  Letitia Clark, born about 1744, died 6 Dec 1832; married first to Robert Moor, married second to Samuel Wallace.

8. Jane Clark, born about 1745, died in New Boston; married James Crombie.

For more about the Clark family see:

The History of Londonderry by Rev, Edward Lutwyche Parker, 1851 pages 265 – 266.  (available to read online at Google book search and Ancestry.com )

Willey’s Book of Nutfield, by George Franklyn Willey, 1895, page 339.  (Google book search)

“The Clark and Perkins Families of Londonderry, New Hampshire”, by Janice Brown, Cow Hampshire, posted 21 April 2015

http://www.cowhampshireblog.com/2015/04/21/the-clark-and-perkins-families-of-londonderry-new-hampshire/ 

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

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~  Mr. and Mrs. Robert Clark, Derry, New Hampshire", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 2, 2016, 

(http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/08/tombstone-tuesday-mr-and-mrs-robert.html:  accessed [access date]).