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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.

Friday, June 26, 2015

Castle Hill at the Crane Estate

(everything you want to know)
Ipswich, Essex Co., Massachusetts

This estate is where my husband likes to visit the most, as a matter of fact, he took me here almost 50 years ago. We subscribe to the organization, Trustees of Reservations, that maintains the house, thus, free admission. If the house isn't open for touring, you usually can walk the grounds any time. You may have seen the mansion in a movie before.

After these photos, there are two links, each for a year we went to see the house decorated at Christmas.


From this point, you can walk straight down to the ocean.

The above photo was taken many years earlier. A huge storm took down many of the trees. You can clearly see the difference in the above photos.

Very old photo I found in images from The Trustees for this castle.








  





















Friday, June 19, 2015

Taking a Break, but not From Summer

After five and a half years of blogging, and writing 1,133 posts, plus have 69 drafts in the can, I've decided to take a break. Genealogy research will continue, but no blogging about it, perhaps I'll do some posts about Lowell. My decision was made last week, and that is the reason I haven't posting anything this past week. Even with the lovely surprise of having my recent post selected by four fellow blog writers as one of their weekly favorites, I still decided to stop for a while.

My gratitude to those four women is shown by my putting their blog links below. It is my hope you will click on them and search around their sites. For my readers, I appreciate knowing many are still reading my posts, so with my time off, you are getting time off as well...I'm not cluttering your email box. Have a great summer. The photos on this post were taken last week.

Gail Dever of Genealogy à la carte

Jo Henn of Climbing My Family Tree

Jana Last of Jana's Genealogy and Family

Linda Stufflebean of Empty Branches on the Family Tree





Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Eleazer Wheelock of Medfield, Massachusetts -- Tombstone Tuesday

Eleazer Wheelock
Born: May 3, 1654, Medfield, Norfolk Co., MA
Died:  Mar. 24, 1731, Medfield, Norfolk Co., MA
Buried:  Vine Lake Cemetery
Eleazer was my 9th great-grandfather.

Cemetery stone for Eleazer Wheelock. Since I wasn't familiar with the cemetery and knew it was huge, I asked my friend, Sharon if she could help me. She lives in the town, so she enlisted the help of her friend, and he was kind enough to put an orange stick marker at the headstone for Eleazer. It is very hard to read because the sun casts a shadow. Sharon gave us a tour and provided a lot of cemetery information, including showing us an impressive stone belonging to her ancestors.

Medfield Vine Lake Preservation Trust has an excellent monthly newsletter called, Quiet Voices. In the March 2016 issue, there was a write-up about Eleazer and the excellent photo above. They kindly provided the option to save the photo, which I did, and is seen here. Thank you to the Preservation Trust. Feel free to subscribe to this newsletter, with exceptional articles and photos.


Vine Lake Cemetery has a lovely lake.

Sharon Gillis and my husband.

Below is the tombstone of Sharon's Samuel Morse of Dedham and Medfield.


Google map, showing Vine Lake Cemetery on the upper right-hand side.

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Canadian Resources I Use

If you are doing research in Canada, more specifically the Eastern Townships in Quebec, you might appreciate seeing my list of sites that I have frequently used. I figured after 19 years of doing research for my many lines in Missisquoi and Brome Counties in Quebec, it was time to put this together to help others. My surnames (including maiden names of wives) were: Pell, Currie / Curry, Jaquays, Johnson, Westover, Dumont, Knap, Alvord, Cross, Rosenberger, Bockus, Ten Eyck. My grandmother was born in Dunham , and 5-7 of my different lines were Loyalists from New York or Connecticut. Others were from England, Vermont and an unknown location. In 2000, I took a trip to visit where my grandmother grew up and where I once as a child spent a few days during a summer vacation at the family farm. During my September 2000 trip, I found 22 grave sites of my direct ancestors, spanning 4 generations. My ancestors were all English speaking and the research was relatively easy.


Missisquoi Archives and Historical Society, Stanbridge East is on a postage stamp.

The first three sites are useful for searching census records, all are free.

1825 Canada Census (free)
http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1825/Pages/1825.aspx

1831 Canada Census (free)
http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1831/Pages/1831.aspx 


Canadian free census for 1851, 1901, 1906, 1911

The next 5 links are my favorite sites for information.

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~qceastwn/ (This site is 19 years old, and I've used it many times.)


http://quebecroots.weebly.com/ (New site for Marlene Simmons) The first site I used in 1999 and ordered 40 abstracts from Marlene. She was great to work with, and I highly recommend her services.

Cemeteries of Quebec

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~qceastwn/archives.html  **A great site for the Eastern Townships. (The below census extracts are from this site.)
Census Extracts:

Some of these pages require that your browser accept Java script and permit pop up windows. If you find that the page does not seem to display properly, check your browser settings. Each census transcription is accessed from its index.

Bolton 1825 Census - extracted & submitted by Elaine Morris, Sept 1999.

Potton 1825 Census - extracted & submitted by Elaine Morris, Sept 1999.

1825 Ascot Census - in PDF format - based on Jay Mack Holbrook's 1976 paper found in LDS' Salt Lake City Library, w/ corrections made by the submitter, Mat Ardron (Nov 2000).

1825 Census for Bedford District, Quebec. This indexed transcription has Stanbridge, St George, St Thomas, St Armand, Dunham, Sutton, Potton, Brome and Farnham. Contributed by David J. Ellis, updated Feb 2009.

1830 Census for Foucault, Noyan, and Sabrevois, Quebec. This is NOT the the 1831 provincial census, but rather another, taken between Nov and Dec of 1830. Further description included within. Contributed by David J. Ellis, updated Feb 2009.

1831 Census for Missisquoi Co, Quebec. This indexed transcription has Seigneurie de St. Armand, Sutton, Stanbridge and Dunham. Contributed by David J. Ellis, updated Feb 2009.

1831 Census for Rouville Co, Quebec. This indexed transcription has Seigneurie de Noyan, Seigneurie de Foucault, and Seigneurie de Sabrevois. Contributed by David J. Ellis, added Feb 2009.

A Cross Reference Between 1825, 1830 and 1831. This index cross references entries in the 1825, 1830 and 1831 censuses for Seigneurie de Noyan, Seigneurie de Foucault, and Seigneurie de Sabrevois. Contributed by David J. Ellis, added Feb 2009.

1852 Census for Missisquoi Co, Quebec and for Clarenceville, Rouville Co., Quebec. This indexed transcription has Stanbridge, St. Armand (East, West and Phillipsburg) Dunham, Sutton, and St. George de Clarenceville. Many may know this as the 1851 census. The title is being listed as the 1852 census, since it was actually taken during the early months of that year. Each transcription is fully indexed and also contains individual page links to the original images on Library and Archives Canada so that potential transcription errors can be easily checked. Contributed by David J. Ellis, updated Feb 2009.

Clarenceville 1852: Surname Index District 10

Dunham 1852: Surname Index District 1District 2 and District 3

St. Armand East 1852: Surname Index District 1 and District 2

St. Armand West 1852: Surname Index District 1 PhillipsburgDistrict 2 and District 3

Stanbridge 1852: Surname Index District 1 and District 2

Sutton 1852: Surname Index District 1 and District 2

Full Name Index With Ages: [illeg.] to BC to DE to HI to LM to OP to RS and T to Z

Cleveland 1901 census - extracted by Russell Saffin.

C1C2C3C4 and Index.

Shipton 1901 census - extracted by Russell Saffin.

K1K2K3K4 and Index.
Tingwick 1901 census - extracted by Russell Saffin (May 2000).
L1L2 and Index.
Census image browser. This browser provides access to the Missisquoi census images at Library and Archives Canada for the years 1825 through 1891. Contributed by David J. Ellis, added Oct 2014. 

Additional useful sites for the Eastern Townships and Canada.

Library and Archives Canada  www.collectionscanada.gc.ca


Library and Archives Canada -- border entry records, 1908-1918 and 1925-1935

History of Compton County, Eastern Townships

http://missisquoigenealogy.blogspot.com/ ** See message in comment section.

Quebec Family History Society
http://www.qfhs.ca/cpage.php?pt=53

Some Cemetery Locations Around Missisquoi Bay  http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~qceastwn/archives/CemeteryLocations.html 


Brief Account of the Fenian Raids 1877

http://www.scribd.com/doc/126205199/Brief-Account-of-the-Fenian-Raids-1877

In 2010, I wrote a post called, "My Favorite Historical Society is on a Stamp!" It's about the Missisquoi Historical Society, in Stanbridge East, Quebec, Canada, and why I like it.

In addition to the above, I frequently use FamilySearch.org (link for Quebec, non-Catholic parish registers, 1763-1967) and the international edition of Ancestry.com (subscription).

January 2018 edition of ‘Facebook for Canadian Genealogy’


UPDATE: JULY 7, 2015: Gail Dever posted a link to her blog, "Genealogy à la carte," telling us about "Drouin Institute’s free online database now holds more than 1.6 million Canadian obits. The Drouin Institute has added 246,000 recent obituaries to its bilingual website GenealogyQuebec for a total of 1,685,650 Canadian obituaries, from 1999 to 2015." UPDATE: Gail Dever posted, My 10 favourite genealogy collections and initiatives in 2015, please click on the link to view her post.

UPDATE: October 21, 2016: From Ancestry.com Blog, "10 Things to Know About Quebec Notarial Records"  and read Learn more about our new collection of Quebec, Canada, Notarial Records, 1626-1935 collection with these helpful research guides—English (US) version and French version.

UPDATE: JULY 29, 2016: David Graham submitted the following bits of information and links:

Canadian families. Basically the are which in 1830 was 20% French and 80%
English by 1930 became 80 % French and 20% English. The book *A Village in
Transition: Compton Quebec 1880-1920, *
http://parkscanadahistory.com/series/saah/compton-transition.pdf, available
online, tells the story poignantly. In it there are five references to
Irish settlement of the area.

For more references please consult my website at Clinton Community College:
http://faculty.clinton.edu/faculty/David.Graham/FRE%20250%20web%20page%202012.htm

October 2017...
Search: Census of Canada, 1921
http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1921/Pages/search.aspx

Drouin Institute launches new blog and updates baptisms/burials database

https://www.genealogiequebec.com/blog/en/


January 2018

From: Northern New York American-Canadian Genealogical Society. A 1 page listing of their library holdings of  books in their CANADIAN INVENTORY AS OF MARCH 1, 2016.

http://nnyacgs.com/files/2016_Canadian_Books_1_.pdf

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Marston of Salem, Massachusetts -- Tombstone Tuesday

HERE LYETH BURIED
Ye BODY OF
JOHN MARSTON SENIOR
AGED 66 YEARS
DECD DECEMBER Ye
19 1681

Buried in the Charter Street Cemetery aka Burying Point Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts
He was my 9th great-grandfather.
His foot stone was discovered when I pulled back a lot of the vine growing on the fence.
Two photos of the head and foot stones.

Photos taken May 23, 2015.
The above diagram is from the book, Charter Street Cemetery Burial Records: Salem,Massachusetts by William Carlson, Compiler, (Salem, MA: Higginson Book Co., 2009). I've used this book quite a few times, since I have five ancestors buried in this cemetery.

On pg. 38, you can see the entry for my ancestor, "Marston, John I. Born about 1615 Died December 19, 1681 age 66 years. The son of Thomas and Margaret (Salter) and the husband of Alice (Eden). D 163 (Note: D 163 is the section in the cemetery.)"