First and Third Cousins Sharing Their Old Family Albums, and Look What I Got!

My first Poole cousin shared many of the photos with me in 2021.

In December 2001, I received an email from a rather young researcher inquiring if I was related to a particular member of his Poole family. David found me through a Rootsweb Gedcom and provided quite a bit of information about his line. We emailed back and forth several times and he reluctantly shared some photos of his line, which I am showing at the end of this post. It wasn't his album and the owner wasn't keen on his sharing. David and I are third cousins once removed. When family trees online came into our lives, I often thought about these pictures, but always kept them private. We didn't correspond again until I wrote him recently, fortunately, he had the same address and email.

In the past few months, I have been talking genealogy with my two first cousins, one living in Illinois and the other in Colorado. I met the Illinois cousin when she was about three in 1953 at our grandfather's house. Several years ago, she and her husband photographed a large family album, with about 100 small pictures all glued on! Each page was sent to me, but it was put aside until now since I did no genealogy last year. I knew it would be a big project because I couldn't read some writing and it was difficult cropping individual photos out of groups of 4 or more tiny pictures.

This year through a discussion with my two cousin sisters, I learned they were going to get together and plan to talk about their genealogy. Since I am a first cousin, with a lot of information, and they have the album, I told them I would send quite a bit of information to them before they meet. They don't use a database like my RootsWeb. I'm not sure either about FamilySearch.org or the other genealogy companies, I won't name them.

I realize these albums and the story will mean little to anybody else, but it is important to me to share what I have and what they have, and our relationship with each other. The lineage chart was done in order to figure out their relationships for this post. I wish more writers would do lineage charts to help readers follow their complicated family stories.

William Frederick Poole and his wife Fanny (Frances) Gleason. I can't tell which of the two photos of him is the oldest. I think he is younger than the below picture. He is one of my most famous ancestors. I've written a lot about him, but here is Wikipedia's information.

There are many photos of William, see my post The Aging of My Great-Grandfather. Now I have a few additional photos to add.

Clarence Frederick Poole was my grandfather. His wife was Marjory, her name and ancestry aren't shown, because I didn't want anything about my father shown. I have photos of two grandparents (Clarence and Marjory), two greats (Charles Clarence Poole and Anna Poole), four great-grandparents (Charles, Mary, William, and Frances), and two great-great-grandmothers (Eliza Cutler Poole and Elizabeth Wilder Poole).

I believe the oldest photo is of Eliza Cutler Poole, dau. of Manassah Cutler (Wikipedia article) who was born on 4 July 1779 and died on 22 April 1854. Mother of Charles Henry Poole.

Mary Abbie / Abby Daniels Poole (wife of Charles Henry Poole) Born 5 Feb. 1825. Below, she is with her granddaughter, Frances.

Nurse Frances and the Flu was a popular blog post of mine, it might be of interest to you.

I'm not sure if we ever met, but I was lucky to inherit my great aunt's dining room table when my mother died in 1990. Dorothy died in 1965 in Florida. Her death was noted in my diary which I still have.

Charles Henry Poole went to West Point. He married Mary Abbie Daniels, her father was Stephen Daniels of Salem, MA. (There are six direct lines of Stephen Daniels in her line.) He was a civil engineer and surveyed San Diego, Roxbury, MA, and Long Island, MA. Also wrote the 250+ page manuscript of the Poole family located at the New England Historic Genealogy Society, and I copied it, and then a friend transcribed it for my blog.

Charles Clarence Poole married Annie Poole, they were my great-grandparents. He was a patent lawyer.

Annie Poole and Charles Clarence Poole, perhaps before they married. At least some names were clearly written with dates in this album.

My Great-grandmother, Annie Poole married Charles Clarence Poole in 1884.

Clarence Frederick Poole, my grandfather. He was a patent attorney like his father, Charles Clarence.

I feel this is a sweet page. The pictures at the upper right show of my grandmother Marjory Adams Poole holding my father in 1919. I have the original photo, so apparently, copies were made. The photo below was enlarged so you could read why these pictures were taken.

Below are photos from the second album. I selected just a few to show.

The Family of William Frederick Poole, his wife Fanny, daughters, Alice and Anna (their husbands), son William Frederick and grandchildren.

Elizabeth Wilder, mother of William F. Poole

Born 1801 in Keene, New Hampshire

Died January 1859 in So. Danvers, Massachusetts

Two photos of Alice Poole, born in 1855. She was a sister of Annie.

 

Fanny's Diamonds and Silverware, Who Has Them Now?

I felt like I was going back in time during my process of obtaining the below will for my 2nd great-grandmother, Frances "Fanny" Maria (Gleason) Poole. Recently, I transcribed parts of a large will for her husband, and noticed he had as an asset, 2,600 books (blog post). Naturally, I wondered what happened to them, and then decided to obtain the will of his wife. To request her will should have been easy and quick once I got the clerk on the phone to tell me the process. Although a nice person, he said I had to write a letter! It was my first letter in well over a year. No word from the clerk in abt. a week, so I called back, and was then promised he'd get right to it. More waiting, and calling, (yes, clerks get sick, and take vacation time during the holidays). During my last phone tag, he said he had it on his desk, and since it was only 3 pages long, he would send it out, free of charge! Glad I was nice to him and very patient, although it was hard.

Turns out, there is no mention of her husband's books, but then, I didn't think she's have them shipped from Illinois to her new living quarters in Massachusetts.

I found it strange she didn't go through a lawyer to write the will, since her son, who lived nearby, was a lawyer. The will was filed January 25, 1904 and proved February 10, 1904. She died January 19th. This must be a record, as I've never seen a will proved so quickly.

I have seen several pictures of Fanny (one is above), but none with her wearing diamonds. It's nice to know several of her pieces remained in the family...not to my line though. My direct line, Annie got to share Fanny's silverware with her brother! Unfortunately, I've never seen the pattern, and I wonder who has it now. The same goes for the diamonds, it would be lovely to just see a picture of them.

My next steps are:

1. Contact several distant cousins to see if they want a copy of the will mailed.
2. Since I determined the relationships of all three witnesses, work on their lineage. They were were directly related to Fanny's sister, Alma. Although Alma isn't directly related to me, her parents were my 3rd great-grandparents.
3. Write a post about where Fanny lived in Brookline, MA.

                                                        Will

I, Fanny M. Poole of the town of Brookline, County of Norfolk, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, declare this to be my last will and testament, hereby revoking all former wills and testamentary writings by me heretofore made.

        First, I desire that my just debts and funeral expenses shall be first paid.

        Second, I appoint my son, William F. Poole the execution hereof, and Trustee for purposes set out in Section Third hereof, and direct that he shall not be required to give bonds.

        Third, I hereby bequeath to my son, William F. Poole, as trustee, all my right titles and interest whatsoever it may be, in and to the publication known as ‘Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature’ and all supplements thereof and abridgments thereto, and all rights to further publications which may be made in connection therewith, and all right title and interests in the name of said publication, and all agreements in connections with said Index, Supplements, and name and I direct him, as trustee, to pay the income from said property in equal shares to my children, Alice P. Holbrook, Annie Poole, Mary Poole, and William F. Poole. In the event of the death of any of the said children, then her or his share shall be paid to her or his children, then her or his share shall be paid to her or his children, if any; otherwise the said share shall be paid to the survivor or survivors of any said children in equal shares.

        I hereby direct my said Trustee, or his successor, to transfer to the sole survivor of my said children, as soon as he or she shall become the sole survivor, the legal title to all the property herein shown in this action set out. For the purposes of this trust I give my Trustee and his successor the full legal title to and in said property and full power control over and management of the same. In view of the uncertainty of the productiveness of said property in future years, and the possibility that it may be advisable to dispose of said property or a part thereof. I hereby give my said Trustee or his successor full power and authority, at any time, if he deems it advisable, to sell and transfer said property, wholly or in part, in such way and under such terms as he may deem best, the proceeds thereof to be distributed among my said children in accordance with the terms of division of the income herein above set forth.

        Fourth, I give the sum of Twenty Five Dollars each to each of my grandchildren as are living at my death.

        I give my diamond pin to my grandchild Frances Poole.

        I give my diamond ring to my grandchild Grace Holbrook.

        I give my large vases to my sister Alma.

I give my piano, the large family clock, and such other of my household effects as he may desire to my son.

I give my silver ware to my daughter Annie and my son in equal shares.

Fifth, All the rest of my property, of whatsoever nature, kind and description, I give to my children, of which Mary and her heirs is to receive their sixths, and Alice, Annie and William F. and their respective heirs are each to receive one sixth.

In the event of the marriage of my daughter, Mary before my death, or in the event of her death, unmarried, before my death, then the property under this action shall be divided equally among my said four children and their heirs, the heirs of each of my children to receive according to the laws of descent the shares such child would be entitled to if living.

In testimony whereof I herewith set my hand and seal this tenth day of June A. D. 1901.

                                                Fanny M. Poole

Signed and declared by the testatrix, as and for her last will and testament in the presence and sight of us, who at her request, and in her sight, and presence, and in the sight and presence of one another, have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses.

                                              Arthur K. Brown VF.

                                                Sidney H. Goodrich

                                                Elizabeth P. Brown

Hint for Taking Cemetery Photos

If you see a stone on Find-A-Grave and want to locate it in a cemetery, print a copy to take with you. If you are lucky, the photographer took both a close-up and one from about 10 feet away. A wide shot gives you more of an idea where she or he found it in that cemetery. With your printed copy, you can see what the shape of the stone is, don't rely on your memory, if you are looking for a lot of them.


Be sure to check and see if the FindAGrave site has additional photos not shown on the home page, which has a limit of three. My second photo clearly gives you an idea of where this stone is.

Solomon Glezen (also spelled Gleason)

Born:  March 14, 1734, Worcester, Worcester Co., Massachusetts

Died:  August 10, 1810, Lenox, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts

and his wife

Lydia Whittelsey

Born:  September 10, 1739, Wethersfield, Hartford Co., Massachusetts

Died: September 6, 1810, Lenox, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts

They are my 5th great-grandparents.

They died within a month of each other and are buried, along with their son, Amasa Glezen, who died in 1808.

Church on the Hill Cemetery

Lenox, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts