Dear Grammy,
Boy, do I wish you were sitting here with me right now. I found Jemina Allen. I wish you were sitting here at my computer with me so I could show you. She did stump us, didn’t she? There we sat so many years ago with dozens of pages of Allen genealogy. We could not figure her out. You had so many good suggestions for research, and even after you left us, I kept at it. I plugged along and couldn’t figure it out.
Even in the 80’s and 90’s when I spent so many days each month in libraries researching. I could not find her. We knew she married Ebenezer Newcomb in Braintree, we knew she was born in Bridgewater. We searched Bridgewater records and could not officially document a line. We followed possibilities to Rhode Island and Connecticut. You even tried Ethan Allen in Vermont.So many close calls but nothing that we could safely document.
You always said, it’s only a puzzle, the pieces are there, you just aren’t seeing them yet. Keep looking. I did, Grammy, and the right moment, the right piece of information went sailing by today and I grabbed it and tried to see if it fit and it did.
These moments always excited you so, as you understood the work involved. You asked me to carry on your work, and I did, and today I solved her lineage. Not only that but she is the great granddaughter of Samuel Allen, who was the first landowner in Middleboro. The land is now conservation land. It’s another place that I can photograph as an ancestral homesite. I wish you were here for a celebratory hug. I always loved how you smiled so big when we solved something. Our work would make Inez so proud, wouldn’t it?
I miss you so much.
Love,
Susannah
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