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: 1296

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: 437

The added difficulty was that we have a vast amount of information on the Allen Family settling in Braintree,Mass. There were Jeminas there but not one matched the one we searched.

Today I solved the lineage.

Samuel Allen came to America and landed in Braintree in1632 being a first settler there. I descend from Samuel’s second wife Margaret French, through their son Joseph b. 1650. This line is complete and well documented.

But Jemina Allen has proven a second line to the Immigrant Samuel Allen. Upon further research, Samuel Allen came to America originally with first wife Ann Whitmore in 1632. Their first child was born that same year, Samuel Allen.Jr. When Samuel Jr. married Sara Patridge from Duxbury, they moved to Bridgewater and became one of the first settlers there. The East Bridgwater Library, I am told, has a plaque in his honor.(trip planned)

This is significant due to the Pratt Farm (trip planned). Pratt Farm is said to be the land that Nehemiah Allen sold to the Pratt family. There is mention of Nehemiah being the original owner of the land, in fact it was willed to him by his father, Samuel Allen Jr..Jemina Allen is the great granddaugher of Samuel Allen of Bridgewater, the original owner of the Pratt Farm. It is now conservation land. We can walk it knowing our heritage is there.

Confused? I’m about to make it worse.Here are three lineages to Samuel Allen, the immigrant. Jemina’s line is the third. I have highlighted in red the differences. The two Braintree lines are nearly the same except for 4 generations.

Two Braintree Lines…

Susannah (me)>Ruth Balentine> Sara Kohler>Inez Vinton Allen b.1889>John Vinton Allen b.1856>Abijah Allen b.1822>Abijah Allen b.1787> Jacob Allen b. 1754> Abijah Allen b.1726> Joseph Allen b. 1671>Dea. Joseph Allen b. 1650 > Samuel Allen b. 1598 U.K.

Susannah (me)>Ruth Balentine> Sara Kohler>Inez Vinton Allen b.1889>John Vinton Allen b.1856>Abijah Allen b.1822>Sara Allen b.1781> Col. William Allen b. 1746 > Thomas Allen b.1711> Benjamin Allen b. 1679>Dea. Joseph Allen b. 1650 > Samuel Allen b. 1598 U.K.

Bridgewater Line…….

Susannah (me)>Ruth Balentine> Sara Kohler>Inez Vinton Allen b.1889> Mary Page b.1861> John Page Jr b.1834> Mary Newcomb b. 1809> Capt. John Newcomb b.1761> Jemina Allen b. 1732> Jacob Allen b. 1702> Ebenezer Allen b. 1674> Samuel Allen Jr. B. 1632> Samuel Allen b. 1598 U.K.

FYI – I underlined Mary Page and John Allen . They married and if I calculated correctly, were cousins 4th removed.

FYI- I get to say that both my Great, Great Grandparents descend from Samuel Allen the immigrant. Mary Page descndes from Samel Allen’s first wife,Ann and John Vinton Allen descends from Samuel Allen’s second wife, Margaret. Isn’t it interesting that a line from each wife married 7 generations later.

Views: 740

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

Views: 623

How marvelous, wondrous and fleeting is Tim.

Scarce has the ink of our last editorial dried seemingly before it is time once more to buy a ream of paper, bottle of ink, box of pens and start again that exciting and interesting paper known as the Allen Gazette of which modesty forbids us saying that the Editorial is not the least part.

The most obvious subject – the problem against which we constantly find ourselves striving – the nightmare which makes our sleep broken and turns our hair gray and our pockets empty – that subject is H.C.L. THE HIGH COST OF LIVING.

Economy is a word of which we long thought we knew the meaning but the present situation shows us that alas! we are only too ignorant of the A.B.C.’s of it.

Today we feed a family of four on what fed a family of eight a few years ago. We buy one dress for what we used to get several. We see one show where we used to go weekly;we have one child where we used to have twins. What, we ask, is the reason of these things? The answer is H.C.L.

The various members of this highly original family  have already solved to their own satisfaction this problem so vital to the community.

IN EAST BRAINTREE

Inez Delirious Merrill uses hen manure tea as fertilizer.

Laura Lane Lynx uses old necktie ends for her marvelous needle work

Sarah Old Oaken Bucket lacking carfare will make a trip to Maine on foot.

IN SOUTH WEYMOUTH

John Vinton  wears the same shoes he wore last week.

Mary Cataline Allen only goes to the movies once a week.

Picker Populous Allen is planning to have his next spectacles made of tin instead of glass to avoid breakage.

William Artichoke Allen wears rubber soled garden shoes.

Jenny Frankfort Allen wears the same dress twice.

Elizabeth Montgomery Allen cuts her own corns and is much surprised when in the morning she gets dressed-down instead of dressed-up as is her usual procedure.

Barbara Bellevue Allen dyes her hair ribbons and wear made overs. It’s a lucky sister of B. is long of limb.

Harold Hamlet Allen forgoes a new bicycle rim and visits the junk pile.

Henry Grasshopper Allen denies himself the solace of a smoke except when his wife finds his tobacco.

Inez Angular Kohler uses only one piece of toilet paper.

John Angular Kohler is raising his own teeth this saving the price of a false set.

IN NORTH WEYMOUTH

Stanley Thirsty makes one pair of pants to the work of two.

Mary Asking Torry sells her clothing and jewels.

Marjorie Asking Torrey wears only one pair of stockings at a time.

Ronald Greenhorn Torrey chops his own wood.

IN WOLLASTON

Harold Bumpus Burrell uses the same water for rinsing patient’s mouths.

Ruth Georgette Crepe Burrell by using the broad Atlantic saves soap as well as H2o

IN WORCESTER

Charles Angelous and Eve Bibulous Fischer are obliged to take their vacation on a farm where they will work for their board.

Views: 315

(From Google Ebook)
The Vinton memorial, comprising a genealogy of the descendants of John Vinton of Lynn, 1648: also, genealogical sketches of several allied families, namely, those bearing the names of Alden, Adams, Allen, Boylston, Faxon, French, Hayden, Holbrook, Mills, Niles, Penniman, Thayer, White, Richardson, Baldwin, Carpenter, Safford, Putnam, and Green : interspersed with notices of many other ancient families with an appendix containing a history of the Braintree Iron Works, and other historical matter (Google eBook)

This was one of the most helpful books I have come across written by our ancestor for us to know our family. John comprised an extensive collection of family geneology in hopes of it being important to future generations., I am honored to include his book here and can only think of how pleased he would be of his work being recognized down through so many generations.Here is the link for purchase.

http://books.google.com/books?id=swVaAAAAMAAJ&source=gbs_similarbooks_s&cad=1

Views: 864