Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Hill Cemetery, Londonderry, NH- Tombstone Tuesday

The Old Hill Cemetery is the oldest graveyard in Londonderry, located on Hovey Road at 42°53'4"N, 71°21'27"W   It is very near the exit 4 of Route 93.   Any earlier burials were probably at the Forest Hill Cemetery in Derry, behind the First Parish Church.  The stones were removed and then replaced in the incorrect places, in neat rows, in the 1930s by a well meaning, but misinformed, person who cleared the grounds.  Many stones are illegible, or damaged.  There are transcriptions of most of the stones in the cemetery notebooks in the Leach Public Library local history room.


The Old Hill Graveyard 1733
When you looked at the top photo
did the stones look this tall?
I'm 5' 7"

This may be one of the earliest Celtic knots
on a New Hampshire gravestone

HERE LYES
BURIED THE BODY
OF Mr WILLIAM DICKE
WHO DIED JOBER 9th
AD 1743 AGED 60 YEARS

Has anyone ever seen JOBER before?  I suspect they meant "October" but you never know...

This is a good link for information on the Old Hill Graveyard http://www.familypage.org/oldhill/oldhill.htm

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

The Civil War’s 150th Anniversary

The following members of the family tree served in the Civil War

Great Grandfathers:

Abijah Franklin Hitchings
1.)  Abijah Franklin Hitchings (1841 – 1910), Salem, Massachusetts, my 2x great grandfather - enlisted twice, first he enlisted in Co. I of the 8th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry from 30 April 1861 until 1 August 1861, which rescued the USS Constitution (“Old Ironsides”) from the South and sailed it to New York Harbor for safekeeping, second he enlisted in Co. H, 19th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry from 13 December 1862 until 25 July 1863 after he was wounded in the Battle of Fredericksburg on 13 December 1862. He had served in the Invalid Corps. His obituary states the following "there was a very large attendance, including comrades of Post 34, G.A.R., the old Salem Zouaves, Collector of Customs David M. Little, and past and present Custom house officials, and many prominent citizens. The G. A. R. service was conducted by Commander J. Frank Dalton, Chaplain William I. Arvedson, S.V.C. Eben S. Perkins, O.D.,John C. Grover, Adjutant Everett E. Austin and Patriotic Instructor Charles H. Frye of Post 34."   His pallbearers included members of the Salem Zouaves (who must have been quite elderly at the time!)  A blog post about Abijah Hitchings is at this link: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-to-find-your-american-veteran.html

2.)  Joseph Gilman Allen (1830 - 1913) Essex, Massachusetts, my 2x great grandfather– enlisted as a private in Co. B, 7th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers 1 July 1862 until 31 December 1862, and served as a prison guard at Fort Warren, on an island in Boston Harbor. A blog post about Joseph Allen is at this link: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/02/fort-warren-boston-harbor.html

3.)  Samuel Mears (1823 - 1904) Essex, Massachusetts, my 3x great grandfather- enlisted in Co. A, 39th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry from 26 July 1862 until 18 August 1862, discharged for disabilities. He re-enlisted in Co. G, 13th Veteran Reserve Corps 30 July 1864 until 21 November 1865. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic Lodge in Beverly, Massachusetts, John H. Chipman Post #89. There is a blog post about Samuel Mears at this link: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/09/amanuensis-monday-samuel-mears-1823.html

Great Uncles

1.)  William Hoogerzeil (1843 – 1886), Beverly, Massachusetts was my 2x great grand uncle, brother to my 2x great grandfather Peter Hoogerzeil (1841-1908)- enlisted in Co. 2, Unattached Massachusetts Infantry 3 May 1864 to 6 August 1864.

2.)  Albert Stone Hoogerzeil (1845 – 1920), Beverly, Massachusetts was my 2x great grand uncle, brother to William and Peter mentioned above. He was a mariner in the United States Navy 1862 through 1864. He enlisted January 8, 1862 in Boston for three years as a landsman, credited to Beverly. He served aboard the U.S.S. Vermont, Western World and the Potomac Flotilla. He was discharged January 9, 1864.

4.)  Edmund Hoogerzeil (1847-1922), Beverly, Massachusetts was my 2x great granduncle, brother to William, Peter and Albert mentioned above. He was a private in the Co. 2, Unattached Massachusetts Volunteer Militia as a private. He was only 16 years old. He became a member of the the Grand Army of the Republic Lodge in Beverly, Massachusetts, John H. Chipman Post #89.

5.)  Hervey Allen (1841 – 1905), Essex, Massachusetts was my 2x great grand uncle, brother to Joseph Gilman Allen mentioned above. He also enlisted in December 1864 for one year of defense of the forts of Boston during the Civil War.

6.)  Henry W. Mears (b. 1845) Essex, Massachusetts, was son of Samuel Mears above, and brother to my 2x great grandmother Sarah Burnham Mears (1844- 1913). At age 15 he enlisted in the Civil War and was discharged on a surgeon’s certificate of disability. He re-enlisted on 1 October 1863 in Co. B, 2nd Regiment of the Massachusetts Heavy Artillery.

7.)  Joseph Harrison Knowlton (1848 – 1896), Essex, Massachusetts was my 2x great grand uncle, and adopted son of Samuel Mears mentioned above, and adopted brother to Henry Mears, above. Joseph enlisted at age 16 on 16 November 1864 to 7 July 1865 in Co. 2, Unattached Infantry Regiment, Massachusetts Infantry.

8.)  Romanus Emerson (1846 – 1918), Boston, Massachusetts was my 2x great grand uncle, brother to my 2x great grandmother Mary Katherine Emerson (1847 – 1932). He served in the United States Signal Corps and received a Civil War pension.

9.)  Rufus Elwin Mears (abt 1841 - 1864), Essex, Massachusetts, my 3x great grand uncle and brother to Samuel Mears mentioned above.  He enlisted in Co. A, 39th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers.  He was at the battles of Mine Run, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Tolopotomy, Bethesda Church and Petersburg.  He was taken prisoner at the Sheldon Railroad on 18 August 1864, and died in the notorious Confederate prison at Salisbury on 26 October 1864. 

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Monday, April 11, 2011

Who do You Think You Are? and BlogTalk Radio with Thomas MacEntee

Thomas MacEntee, the host of the GeneaBlogger website, author of many geneablogs, speaker and author decided he wasn't busy enough, and so he started up a genealogy radio show to follow each of this season's episodes of NBC TV's "Who Do You Think You Are".   The entire genealogy community has enjoyed these shows every Friday night.  Each episode follows the theme of the NBC TV show.  For example Thomas invited several Irish genealogy researchers to speak after Rosie O'Donnel's episode, and Jewish researchers were interviewed following last week's episode with Gwenyth Paltrow.  He also offers door prizes to callers, and there is a chat board so the peanut gallery can comment along with the broadcast.

Last week, the WDYTYA? episode followed Ashley Judd as she explored a Civil War ancestor and ultimately ended up in New England with a lineage that ended with William Brewster of the Mayflower.  Josh Taylor of the New England Historic Genealogical Society of Boston was the star genealogist on the air, unrolling an impressive scroll with Ashley's Brewster lineage.  Josh was also the genealogist on the very first episode of WDYTYA? with actress Sarah Jessica Parker.

Josh and I had been at the NERGC conference in Springfield, Massachusetts all day last Friday when this episode aired on NBC.  Since Ashley Judd's lineage ended with a Mayflower passenger, Thomas MacEntee asked Josh Taylor, me and New England researcher Diane Rapaport to be interviewed on the April 8th episode of GeneaBlogger Radio.  Diane is an expert in researching New England court records, being both a lawyer and a genealogist, as well as a speaker and author.  It was fun being interviewed by Thomas, even though I had missed the WDYTYA? show and didn't see it until just last night!

Please click on the link for GeneaBlogger Radio and listen to the episode from 8 April 2011 on "Colonial Genealogy, Mayflower Ancestry and More!"    Yours truly is sandwiched in the middle of the more famous genealogist interviews, right in between Josh and Diane.  Thomas also asked me about my adventures at NARA with Abner Poland's document signed by George Washington.  Enjoy! 

Links:

GeneaBloggers website http://www.geneabloggers.com/

Thomas MacEntee's "High Definition Genealogy" Blog http://hidefgen.com/

Thomas MacEntee's "Destination: Austin Family" Blog http://destinationaustinfamily.blogspot.com/

GeneaBlogger Talk Radio http://www.blogtalkradio.com/geneabloggers   (for archived and live episodes)

NBC's "Who Do You Think You Are?" http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/  (watch archived episodes here, too!)

New England Historic Genealogical Society website  http://www.americanancestors.org/

Diane Rapaport's book website http://www.dianerapaport.com/

Diane Rapaport's genealogy website  http://www.quillpenhistorical.com/

The General Society of Mayflower Descendants website http://www.themayflowersociety.com/

The New Hampshire Society of Mayflower Descendants website http://www.nhmayflower.org/

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

The National Archives- They read my blog!?

National Archives
Washington, DC
For part 1, click here  "George Washington Signed Here?"
For part 2, click here   "National Archives - Good News/ Bad News"

Part 3 - -  I recieved this email:

"I work at the National Archives on social media and digitization efforts. As part of that work, your blog post of Wednesday, April 6, was brought to my attention: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/04/national-archives-good-news-bad-news.html

Your description of your research experience at the National Archives was very informative and I was glad that Ms. Blanton helped by providing more information for your research.

I also appreciate your optimistic spirit, even though you didn't get a chance to look at the original document, due to its preservation in the vault.

We were able to get a high resolution, color copy of the document available via our Flickr stream, at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/5601107283/

We also plan to make this available in our online catalog in the near future, too. I hope this provides a bit more of the feeling for the original document and is of use to you.

I wish you all the best with your research and your blogging about it!
Sincerely,
Pam

Pamela Wright
Chief Digital Access Strategist
National Archives and Records Administration"


A much improved image!
Abner Poland, Jr.'s discharge paper
from the Revolutionary War

and so I sent this reply:

"Dear Ms. Wright,
Thanks so much for your email. Your photograph of Abner Polands' document is great! In color and with a higher resolution it is much easier to see what part of the paper was printed as a form, and what parts were filled in with ink. The signatures are easier to see, too, especially General Washington's signature!

I printed out a copy for my Mom, and she was thrilled. It will be a family heirloom! I will certainly use this in writing up our family history and the chapter on the Poland family will be much improved now that we know the story behind this document. Our adventure in Washington is a big part of that story.

I'm glad NARA has a social media department. I've recieved many comments and emails about my blog post, and family members will be thrilled now to see the photograph on my updated post next week.

Sincerely,
Heather Wilkinson Rojo"

The image above is the one provided by NARA and stored at Flickr.com at the link provided in the text of Pamela Wright's email to me.

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The National Archives- They read my blog!?", Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 11, 2011, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/04/national-archives-they-read-my-blog.html: accessed [access date]). 

Sunday, April 10, 2011

A Mini Chapin Reunion

"The Puritan"
Deacon Samuel Chapin (1598 - 1675)

Three members of the Chapin family:
Great Grandfather Samuel Chapin,
Heather Rojo and Bonnie Jean MacDonald


For a full story about "The Puritan" statue by Augustus Saint Gaudens, see my blog post "The Chapin Monument" at the link http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/02/samuel-chapin-monument-not-so-wordless.html    This statue is located just a few blocks from where the NERGC conference was taking place in Springfield, Massachusetts this weekend.

Bonnie Jean MacDonald, who I met at the NERGC conference, also has several genealogy blogs.  Please check them out!

http://boardmanbrown.wordpress.com/  The Boardmans and Browns: A Canadian Story

http://barclayspineriver.wordpress.com/  The Barclays of Pine River:  The Lives of George and Amarilla Barclay

http://pawanderings.blogspot.com/  Pennsylvania Wanderings 2008

http://massmeanderings.blogspot.com/  Massachusetts Meanderings 2011 (wherein Bonnie goes to NERGC!)

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

NERGC 2011

The New England Regional Genealogical Conference
Springfield, Massachusetts April 2011

Over 800 attendees enjoyed about 85 lectures,
workshops, tours and a large genealogy Expo for four days!

Friday Night's Banquet
Heather, Midge Frazel of the Granite in my Blood Blog, Steve Frazel
and Russ Worthington of the Family Tree Maker User Blog

Heather and Cynthia Shenette of the Heritage Zen Blog
Heather, Midge Frazel
Denise Levenick of The Family Curator Blog
and Steve Frazel
NERGC 2013 will be held in Manchester, New Hamphire, right in my backyard. 
See you there!

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Tartan Day - April 6th



The Munroe tartan



These photos are from the  Munro Clan booth at the New Hampshire Highland Games, Loon Mountain, 2006. For more information on my Munroe lineage click on the keyword MUNROE in the right column of this blog page or see these posts
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/06/surname-saturday-munroe-of-lexington.html
and
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/google-your-way-to-quilt-sometimes.html

The New Hampshire State Tartan is


items with the NH tartan can be bought at http://www.standrewsocietynh.org/newsasnh_014.htm

The purple represents our state bird and our state flower - the purple finch and the purple lilac, the green our forests, the black our granite, the white our mountains and the red our New Hampshire heroes.

You can read all about Tartan Day here:  http://www.tartanday.org/about

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

The National Archives - Good News/ Bad News

A page from the
Revolutionary War Pension File
of Abner Poland, Jr of Essex, Massachusetts

Last weekend we were in Washington DC, and at the top of my list of things to do in our capital city was to visit the National Archives.  If you read my blog story from last October, “Did George Washington Sign Here?”  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/10/amanuensis-monday-george-washington.html  you will know that I was questioning the authenticity of George Washington’s signature on a document found amongst some Revolutionary War Pension papers.   My 5x great grandfather, Abner Poland, Jr. of Essex, Massachusetts, had a pension application file that included a piece of paper with General Washington’s signature.  It’s hard to tell if it’s a rubber stamp, an engraved signature or the real thing, from an image on Footnote.com   so I was determined to see the real document someday.

I announced my desire to check out the document at the National Archives on a discussion board on Facebook for genealogists.  Several genealogists told me to “go for it!” and to drop by and see the “real thing”.   Not one experienced genealogist told me that the National Archives were not as accessible as I hoped.  When I emailed the National Archives directly, I was told that the Revolutionary War pensions were only available to view on microfilm.  These are the same images I had seen at the Waltham, Massachusetts regional NARA, and the same images I had seen on Footnote.com

Not quite believing this news, I emailed the authors of “NARAtions”, the blog by the staff at NARA http://blogs.archives.gov/online-public-access    John at NARA sent a very thorough explanation to my comment and he was also nice enough to privately email me.  It was the same explanation as I had previously received from NARA.  The Revolutionary War pensions were not available for viewing except on microfilm.  I was disappointed that a trip to Washington wouldn’t show me anything different than I could see at home!

Still not quite believing this, I made a printout of the one page from Abner Poland’s file that had George Washington’s signature.  This is the image you see above.  I carefully read the instructions on line concerning visits to NARA (all researchers must obtain a research card photo ID, no folders, notebooks, personal possessions etc. in the research room, etc. etc.) and prepared myself for our visit to Washington DC.

Hubby and I went through the security at the research entrance, which is not the tourist entrance that leads to the rotunda where the Constitution and Declaration of Independence are displayed.  We signed in, obtained our photo ID research cards, read the power point presentation on regulations and rules, and we began to ask LOTS of questions.  We made it past several staff members, not to the research room but to the office labeled “Finding Aids”, and past several more layers of staff members until we were seated across a table from Archivist DeAnne Blanton.

I showed Ms. Blanton the photocopy of Abner’s document, and we had a very interesting discussion about Revolutionary War documents, and their value to the nation as some of our earliest records in the National Archives.  Usually, like I had been told via email and blog comments, these records are not available to the public except as microfilmed images, because of their fragile condition.  However, Ms. Blanton was also curious about the document since it was signed by George Washington, and a type of document she had never seen before.  After much back and forth, discussion and explanation, she said she would pull Abner Poland’s file for us.  However, she also warned us that most of the records had been searched for valuable documents with things like George Washington’s signature.  If an archivist had previously seen this signature, then the record would have been replaced by a photocopy and the original would be placed in “The Vault”.  Anything in this ominous sounding vault would be strictly unavailable to anyone.  We crossed our fingers and she went off to find the file.

Ms. Blanton came back empty handed and said to us “Good news/ bad news!”   The good news was that George’s signature was authentic.  It was not an engraved facsimile or filled in by an amanuensis.  The bad news was that since it was authentic, it was now “in the vault” and unavailable.  Ms. Blanton then gave us quite an interesting story about the document.  I had previously thought it was given to Abner  Poland, Jr. as a certificate to accompany his Badge of Merit, but it was actually his discharge papers.  He had given these papers with George Washington’s signature back to the government as part of his pension application.  Had Abner decided at that time to keep this particular paper as a souvenir it might have been lost.  But since it had been carefully preserved in Washington, DC, it had survived 200 years.
Good News/ Bad News- It was an authentic Washington signature, and thus a very valuable document.  We were still unable to see the paper because it had been removed for special storage, but we now had quite an interesting story and history to tell about Abner Poland, Jr., a farmer from Essex, Massachusetts who gave away his most valuable possession to earn a Revolutionary War pension.  It was not a lost morning at the National Archives.  Even though I did not see Abner’s document, I now know more about it than I had ever previously imagined.


This is carved into the wall
by the research entrance to NARA
Washington, DC
 Read this blog post by "Dear Myrtle" on all the details of researching at the National Archives, how to prepare, what to expect, and more at this link: http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2011/04/myrts-day-at-archives.html 

UPDATE! -  read a new blog post for some good news from NARA, who read this blog post and sent me an interesting email message on 8 April 2011.... http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/04/national-archives-they-read-my-blog.html

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The National Archives - Good News/ Bad News", Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 6, 2011, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/04/national-archives-good-news-bad-news.html: accessed [access date]).