Roger Conant had land where his son, Exercise built a  home. It still stands, It has been added to.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.5755838,-70.8957306,3a,90y,259.13h,75.39t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sNn5qvUqaBr2qfzo3XaT8_Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1

Views: 225

I start with one browser with my Ancestry tree open or whatever form you have your tree. I am specifically after the branches that contain ancestors born in the 1700’s. When I click an arrow next to a name, their branch opens like in this photo. Now I have column of people born in 1700’s.

As only men are listed in the DAR, I can now take each male name and pop them into the DAR Ancestor Search.

I open a second browser and go to the DAR. I want to choose the Ancestor button and you should find yourself at a page that looks like this one below.

Now take a name from your ancestry tree and add it to the DAR search. You only need the first and last names, adding the state will narrow the search but also limit it if you aren’t sure where they lived at the time. If the ancestor is already listed in the DAR as a qualified ancestor the information below will come up including an ancestor number. You will be able to compare birth and death and location to be sure it is your ancestor. You want to copy out this information as this is your DAR ancestor. You can see the Ancestor #.

If you click on that red icon next to your ancestors name, you will see the list of descended relatives who joined DAR under this person.

You can click on their red icon and even purchase their lineage. Doing this will complete a part of your work as the lineage is already qualified, then just add your specific branches. The lineages will vary in length deepening on when the person joined and how far down the descended tree branch they are.

Purchasing a copy of the lineage is also a great way to help with genealogy as any information here has been officially verified.

I hope this helps. It doesn’t cover all the aspects of the DAAR website. My hope is that it helps you know how to search your ancestors to see who is already listed.

Thanks for reading!

Views: 1078

Please note that this list is in process. The DAR website isn’t behaving very well so the end of this list are missing there pertinent information but are DAR recognized. But in the meantime, and as I am trying to dive back into the habit of posting, Here is the list as it stands today. It will be updated as I go along.

Views: 1001

    Verbal history tells us that she was orphaned in the Great Boston Fire and then raised by family. All research has failed to prove this. Questions remain; if she didn’t know her parents as all her documents state, then where did she get her last name? If family raised her, wouldn’t they have known her parents’ names? All census, marriage, and death records state Mary’s parents as unknown yet Mary states that she was born in Boston. How does she know where she was born if she doesn’t know anything about her parents? And if family raised her, why did her children never meet them or hear stories about them? Why did Mary have so little information on herself? We are left to conclude and the only thing that makes sense is that the story she told of being orphaned in the fire was to cover up the real story or that she knew no story.

   At this point, I am left with little with which to work. But I still have two pieces of information to research.

Verbal History also tells us that….

• the “D” as her middle initial stands for Delano. 
• The Vinal Family of Scituate raised her as a young girl and then she went onto the White Family in Abington. Her marriage certificate does state she lived in Abington at the time.

I have been taught that when you can’t research the person you want, then you need to research around them. Therefore I began to research the name Delano in Plymouth County, Massachusetts. I am assuming it is a last name and given to her must have some significance.

 IN a quick search, I found …

• Mary F. Delano  in 1880 Census Rockland, Mass. She was born 1842, now divorced, living as a housekeeper at the age of 38.

   It occurred to me that back in the 1800’s divorce was considered shameful and also limited choices were available for divorced women. It would not have been uncommon to surrender your children to family to raise. So I build a theory that Mary F. Delano had to surrender her daughter. I decided to play out this theory. So the above vital record was my jumping off point. I will list out what else I discovered. Each line item is backed by paper with verifying information and cross refenced.

• Mary F. Delano was born Sept 6, 1841 in Duxbury.
• Her neighbors were the Vinal Family. 
• Mary’s father and the Vinal’s Dad were both blacksmiths. Did they work together as well as live as neighbors? (This would create a bond of trust for surrendering a child)
• Mary F. married at 17 in 1858 to David Henry Lincoln of East Bridgewater.
• David H. Lincoln went away to war. Mary F. Lincoln shows up on Census 1860 as living with her parents.
• 1862 David H. Lincoln dies in war.
• 1863 Mary F. Lincoln files for pension as widow of David H. Lincoln.
• 1865 May 28. Mary F. Lincoln marries Marton Whitman Bourne.
• 1870 Census states Martin W. Bourne and wife Mary F Bourne live in Hanson.
• 1880 Martin Bourne lives with his mother and other family in Hanson,Mass.
• 1880 Census also shows Mary F.Delano living with a family as a housekeeper and listed as divorced.

Notes: 

• Martin Bourne’s grave does not mention his wife. His interment states his wife was Mary F  Bourne and that there were no children.
• Our Mary D. Hudson would have been born in 1872. 

These are my possibilities.

• Mary F. remarried Martin Bourne and then gave birth to Mary D which caused the divorce. 
• Mary F. remarried only to be divorced soon after and then out of wedlock had Mary D.
• Mary F. remarried only to find herself divorced with a number of children and unable to raise them, surrendered them all.

Either way, I theorize that she then surrendered Mary D as a baby or young child to the Vinal family who had been friends with her family for years. Were there other children? The above information doesn’t not connect our Marys together but it is at least promising. There is work yet to do.

I plan to seek out the actual divorce papers to prove that and see dates as compared to Mary D’s birth. I also seek to find further census records to show Mary D. living with Vinals. It makes sense that Mary D. would be named Mary as was commonly done to name after the mother. Delano would be her mother’s family name.  I need to search out Hudsons in the area if this is all a viable story then there should be a male Hudson of the right age nearby. 

DNA matches on Ancestry could possibly then prove out my theory.

It is complicated. I am writing it out here for myself and also for others in hopes of anyone connecting something that I missed or dont see. All I can think to do with so little to go on and to invent theories and play them out.

And I had to add this…. wouldn’t it be romantic to believe that Mary F had an affair that resulted in Mary D. And even though she had to surrender her, she named her after herself and then gave her the last names of each of her parents, as a way of having both her parents at least in name. Mary Delano Hudson. That would make it seem that she was very loved and surrendered only due to cultural norms at the time.

I press onward.

Views: 793

To mark her grave, I had to take a long investigative journey that began with family lore and ended within the cemetery office and its incredible amount of files and papers and maps. Family lore is always curious. It’s always a bunch of facts that have morphed over the years as families pass the stories onward. As stories pass, truth fades and new conclusions are made. Family lore then becomes a collection of hints to follow and prove. Ending my journey with actual burial cards and plot deeds tells a clear and distinct set of facts from which to move forward.

Laura lays where my Grandfather always showed me. But in the process I also found her mother Mary Hudson Whitman and changed family lore.

The story was told that there was no plot for Laura so the Wyatts donated a side piece of their plot. Actually the opposite is true. When Laura died, she was simply buried next to her mother in their own Whitman family plot. Her sister Blanch passed later and joined her sister and mother. Alfred, the father and husband then joined the women. Many years later, it was Blanche’s husband that was given a side plot to the Whitman family so that Earl could lay with his wife, Blanch.

I not only corrected the back story. I identified both Laura and Mary’s Grave. I have marked them temporarily and in spring will return with headstones.

Also, worth noting here is the fact that Mary Hudson Whitman is the family brick wall. We have only sketchy unproven family lore, no proof of birth, we can’t even identify her parents. She seemed to have crept into the world quietly and unidentified. And since 1912, she had existed the same way, lain to rest unidentified. Now she will receive a headstone along with her daughters.

I have photos. Here I am standing on the plot that I understood to be Laura May Whitman Balentine. The flowers in front sit on the gravestone of her father Alfred Whitman. The space behind me was at the time of photo, an unknown space and where I would later discover to be the plot of Mary Hudson Whitman.

Here are the plots now with temporary markers on them. Alfred in front, then his daughter Laura behind him. His wife Mary in the back.

Here is a close up of each marker.

When the headstones are placed, I will write a follow up and share photos.

I have to say that this was the by far the most rewarding investigation I have done so far. I hope I have helped.

A big Thank you! to Barbara Shepherd, John and the Mount Vernon Cemetery!

Thanks for reading!

Views: 1996

Here is this log, you can see that my objective was to identify Abijah Allens home. And in the middle column you can see that I listed sources that I had searched.

As if that wasn’t a enough of a gift to my research life, I have discovered a further use of the template. I discovered that it also works for group investigation. For instance, I have two separate unrelated lines of family that resided in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, each for multiple generations. Also, I found a couple of vintage maps of the town that name residents and their house lots. Not all maps name all people but I would like to find as many ancestral homes as possible.

What I managed to do was under the purpose/objective column, I made a list of every head of household that lived in East Bridgewater. Then I used the wider columns to respond to each map. With a map in hand, I simply went down the column of names and checked off if they were listed on that particular map or not.

And since in genealogy, we often run into secondary information that can distract us from our focused path, I was able to use the margins for secondary info that I ran into on the map. This kept the secondary info neatly out of the main body of which I was focused on but available for later attention.

This is going to work well in a number of ways.I have quite a number of towns that had many family members living there for multiple generations. I also have cemeteries, church records, more maps, schools, etc that can be searched in this way.

Normally I research individually but now when I acquire, for example, a church’s records in a particular town, I can in the same way, list my ancestors that lived in that church area, and then go down the list and check off who is mentioned there or not. I can then add the Research Log to that towns file so I can see what I already researched.

I am learning how to better organize my research and that makes me much more productive in that work.

Thanks for reading.

Views: 1040

In 2017, year my research stalled due to lack of time. This year, I turned to online groups and looked for help from collective strangers. I wanted to explore ways to achieve what I could in the available time that I had. I got great response from those with like issues. I was taught about research logs, outlines and organization. I was told that genealogical research is really a head game. It requires great puzzle skills in thinking. I learned that taking page after page of notes that lay randomly across my desk may have momentary meaning, but little value at a later date.

I was introduced to research logs. So many from which to choose, I discovered one that felt embraceable and I printed out dozens of copies. I thought to include one in each file I owned. This would solve hours of uselessness. For when I did find a few hours in which to research, half would be spent figuring out where I was and what I was doing. Even the pages of hand written notes that I had left in each file made little sense months later. Research logs were an outline or index of where I had been, what I had been hoping to achieve and what information had been acquired. It was an exact map of my time spent. How such a simple paper could change everything is quite amazing but there it was.

My first quest with my newly acquired techniques was to identify the home in a vintage photo that I had. I knew it was the home of Abijah and Susannah Allen in East Braintree. I had searched for this house for decades. I searched census records, town papers, maps etc. Nothing was found. Surely it wasn’t even still standing. But still, I could feel it. I knew it was standing there. I could feel it.

Research log properly positioned on my desk, I entered my purpose in the first column; Identifying the House. I checked for an address in every census that I knew Abijah would be in. I entered each census that I found my family but under results wrote, no street address. I wrote down the information good or bad. No mention of Abijah’s address in Soldier records, death or marriage, either. I listed each on my log. I thoughtfully pressed onward. On to maps, where I had been before but with research log at my side, I felt more confident, professional and able to be more accurate in my search, instead of a hap hazard, unintentional stumble upon way, I felt purposeful and intentional. I was moving through each category.

I discovered the a number of maps of Braintree which listed home owners. None mentioning Abijah Allen. I checked every map I could find. Carefully browsing each and every home and road, I found an A.Allen on a main road, which in the photograph, looks like a main road. When I crossed referenced this place on google maps, I found the home address to be 404 Commercial street, which matches the #404 on the Census records. I was excited with possibilities. Google maps street view then showed me the house and it looked amazingly like the one in my photograph. My mind raced, my goodness it may be the very same house still standing! As I zoomed in, I started to cry. Not only did it look to be the very same house, unchanged but there on the edge of the house was a historical marker. It listed the owner as Jacob Allen 1777. Jacob was Abijah’s Grandfather. And he married in 1777.Not only had I found Abijah and Susannah’s home but Jacob’s as well. Abijah had his Grandfathers house.

This opens up possibilities for me. Now I can look at that house and compare it to census records again. I can think about how may people really lived there. I can look back at Jacob and see the family he raised there as well. I can figure out how many of my family were born in raised in that house. I also see that two neighboring houses had the last name of Allen. I can investigate these as maybe home of relatives.

I am so excited and peaceful at the same time. I have solved a puzzle that has plagued me for decades. And now with its information, I can move forward and discover more about this branch of my family. And when spring comes, I will be there to take my picture in front of the house. And if the family is lovely, maybe they will allow me a tour. And maybe I will get to walk my Grandmothers garden, stand in her kitchen and walk the road as they must have done so many times.

I press onward.

Susannah

Views: 1303

I am excited. My copy is 100 years old!

If you aren’t familiar, The Allen Gazette was written by the Allen Family as a family newspaper. All of it is written in sarcasm, which was apparently their base language. It is themed in dry witted humor with a tendency to mock the English language.It is am amazing peephole into their lives and voices. I consider this one of my greatest treasures entrusted to me. Few people have such resource into the personalities of their ancestors.

It you read the Gazette beginning to end, you gain a good insight into their personalities and playfulness with each other. Here is a link to the post containing the original typed version I provided here.

Best,

Susannah

The Original Allen Gazette

Views: 441

Massachusetts Quilting.. I was browsing only as I love quilting and like a gift from the heavens, I saw a quilt by Deborah Hobart. It mentions a few facts of her family allowing me to cross reference and Lo and behold, it is a photograph of a small quilt that my ancestral grandmother made with reference to its location. The day felt worthwhile and gifted.

As I research another maternal name, popping into Google their names to see what pops up, I typed Elizabeth Hawthorne. I not only found additional resources that state she was the sister of the infamous hanging judge during the Salem Witch trials but I started to wonder. Elizabeth would have been early 40’s during that time. Certainly not a child, she must have been deeply, entrenched in the gossip, talk and drama that played out. I had to wonder what it must have been like for her, on one hand being part of a family seeking out and hanging witches, and also being a women, was she afraid of being accused?

I have collected dates and facts for years. I am thrilled to be at the point of collecting history and stories. I was taught to focus on the paternal names but luckily I will continue to find information on my ancestral Grandmothers. I press onward.

Views: 434

Instead of sharing my enthusiasm, I have watched non-researchers stare blankly at gathered lineages. I have watched vacant stares trying desparately to connect to documents and files. I have come to face the truth. Unless you are a researcher, amatuer or not, the information falls on blind eyes and therefore, there  is no way for the information to pass generation to generation. No one embraces it, and if they can’t embrace it, they won’t pass it on with enthusiasm.

What does pass through hands are stories and interesting tidbits of information. I am making this my platform. Armed with too many papers and documents. I plan to assemble the book my Grandmothers hoped that I would write.

So tonight I finally figured out a format. The book will be a history of me. It will be divided into parts, each stemming from one of my four grandparents;maternal grandmother’s line, paternal grandmother’s line,maternal grandfather’s line and paternal grandfather’s line.

I will tell the story of each history that lead me to my grandparent. I will write the story of the settlers, their where and who and what they did and the towns where they lived. It’s conclusion is how it all leads to each of my Grandparents.

I plan to self publish. I hope it is easy to read enough that the future generations will embrace its information. I can end the book with a chapter filled with documents and sources. I can add a page of addresses of homesites, statues and important documents.There can also be a chapter in the end with photographs of each grandparent and their home.But I am confident that it will be the narratives that will stay with each reader.

I feel better now in that I have a defined plan. I feel better that I have written the framework of chapter heads and the index page. As I writer, I feel it’s so much easier to concentrate and enjoy the writing, once I have the frame in place. I have a beginning. I love beginnings. They are filled with hope and enthusiasm.

Views: 571