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The Life From The Roots blog topics have changed several times since I began this blog in 2009. I initially wrote only about the family history I had been working on for 20 years. Years later, I was into visiting gardens, historical homes, churches, libraries that had genealogical collections, historical societies, war memorials, and travel/tourism places. I also enjoy posting autographs and photos of famous people I've met or have seen.

Along with my New England roots, other areas include New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada.

Please check out the labels on the right side for topics (please note, they need work). Below the labels and pageviews is a listing of my top nine posts, according to Google. Four of them pertain to Lowell, MA. These posts change often because they are based on what people are reading.

Thursday, July 20, 2017

President Lincoln Died in Pvt. Clark's Room...See Clark's Unusual Shaped Tombstone

President Abraham Lincoln died in a room that belonged to a Lowell, MA resident, Pvt. William Tilton Clark. When I discovered several years ago that Pvt. Clark was buried in Lowell, Massachusetts, I knew I had to locate his stone in the city I now live. Please read what was written on FindAGrave (below) for an interesting account, to see his photo and learn what Pvt. Clark took that belonged to President Lincoln. A link to a 2010 Boston.com newspaper article, "Lincoln’s boots made journey to Lynn," gives the history about all the artifacts that Clark took and what happened to them in Lynn, MA. Very interesting article.

I have taken several hundred cemetery photos for this blog, and there still can be surprises when I go searching for stone, but this one was among the most difficult to find.

What steps did I take to locate it?

1. Checked FindAGrave. Yes, nice write up and photo of stone. However, it was taken in 2005, and the photo was rather clear, so I thought it would be a piece of cake to find.

2. Went to the Cemetery, and met with a cemetery employee who told me where the burial site was. This is a huge cemetery, you always should try to get directions first. Map and photos of the Lowell Cemetery.

3. Couldn't locate it, went another day with husband, who usually has good luck, and better eyes. But had to go back to the office for the exact location drawn on a map (the plot number was of no use to me without the map).

4. Found it! So what was the problem? The shape of the stone determined what it looked like from two side views. The picture below shows the full design, and the following two photos show a shot from each angle. Figure 2 is the angle taken in 2005 by the FindAGrave photographer.

Figure 1
See distance from the Chapel.

Figure 2.
Stone covered in shadows


William T. Clark
Died Apr. 4, 1888
Boston
Suffolk County
Massachusetts, USA
(My image shows death date as April 1, so I looked up his death record, just to be sure it was the 4th.)

Figure 3
Another view, with family members listed.

Other views, still with shadows.

Below is the Peterson House at 453 Tenth Street, Washington, DC
My photo taken in 1975. Wish I had taken more of the photograph.

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Philadelphia's Great City Hall - One of the 10 most beautiful city halls in the U.S.


Imagine a city hall with 700 rooms. This place is huge. Interesting history may be seen at

An article found on facebook caught my eye today, titled, "The 10 most beautiful city halls in the U.S." Memories of my trip to the top in 2012 were shared on one of my older blogs. Since it made the top 10 in the article, I'm posting, just in case you want to visit or see if your city hall is on the list.

We saw the mayor, Michael Nutter, 98th mayor, run down all these stairs.

Lovely tiled hallway, almost ghost-like, without a person around.


Clock tower, where few tourists go. I was very fortunate that I was  able to see all 4 clocks. If I remember correctly, only 4 visitors at a time. We were there during a week in February. The entire building is closed on weekends and holidays.




37-foot bronze statue of William Penn.