My grandparents and mother in a NYC park, late fall, 1919.
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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.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Fellows -- Surname Saturday
There are two Fellows lines in my tree. The one below is my direct line, and I also have my male cousins Fellows line for 11 generations, to where it meets my first generation below. This line is from Massachusetts and Connecticut. My direct lines are bolded in green. Please write if you would like more information or sources.
Generation No. 1
Generation No. 2
Generation No. 3
Generation No. 4
| 1. | WILLIAM FELLOWS (NOBLE FELLOWS1) was born ABT 1610 in Foxton, Leicestershire Co., England, and died BET 29 NOV 1676 AND 21 DEC 1676 in Ipswich, Essex Co., Massachusetts. He married MARY AYRES ABT 1637 in Ipswich, Essex Co., Massachusetts, daughter of Mr. AYRES. She died AFT 29 NOV 1676. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Children of WILLIAM FELLOWS and MARY AYRES were:
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| 2. | Isaac FELLOWS (WILLIAM FELLOWS2, NOBLE FELLOWS1) was born ABT 1637, and died 6 APR 1721 in Ipswich, Essex Co., Massachusetts. He married Joanna BOREMAN 29 JAN 1672 in Ipswich, Essex Co., Massachusetts, daughter of Thomas BOREMAN. She was born ABT 1646 in Ipswich, Essex Co., Massachusetts, and died 20 MAR 1732 in Ipswich, Essex Co., Massachusetts. | ||||||||
Children of Isaac FELLOWS and Joanna BOREMAN were:
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| 3. | EPHRAIM FELLOWS (WILLIAM FELLOWS2, NOBLE FELLOWS1) was born MAR 1641, and died AFT 1713 in Prob. Plainfield, Windham Co., Connecticut. He married MARY BEF 1666 in Salisbury / Plainfield, Windham Co., Connecticut. She died 23 FEB 1671 in Ipswich, Essex Co., Massachusetts. He married Anne CROSS BEF 1685 in Ipswich, MA / Plainfield, CT, daughter of Robert CROSS. She was born 1651, and died AFT 1710. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Children of EPHRAIM FELLOWS and MARY were:
Children of EPHRAIM FELLOWS and Anne CROSS are:
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| 11. | Samuel FELLOWS (Isaac FELLOWS3, WILLIAM FELLOWS2, NOBLE FELLOWS1) was born 8 FEB 1676 in Ipswich, Essex Co., Massachusetts, and died 1707 in Hampton, Rockingham Co., New Hampshire. He married Deborah SANBORN 15 NOV 1698 in Hampton, Rockingham Co., New Hampshire. She was born 1681, and died 1725 in Hampton Falls, Rockingham Co., New Hampshire. | ||||
Child of Samuel FELLOWS and Deborah SANBORN was:
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| 13. | JOHN FELLOWS (EPHRAIM FELLOWS3, WILLIAM FELLOWS2, NOBLE FELLOWS1) was born ABT 1668 in Ipswich, Essex Co., Massachusetts, and died 20 OCT 1748 in Plainfield, Windham Co., Connecticut. He was buried in Old Plainfield Cemetery, Plainfield, Windham Co., Connecticut. He married RACHEL VARNEY 14 OCT 1692 in Chebacco (Ipswich), Essex Co., Massachusetts, daughter of THOMAS VARNEY and ABIGAIL PROCTOR. She was born ABT 1676 in Ipswich, Essex Co., Massachusetts, and died BEF 1731 in Plainfield, Windham Co., Connecticut. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Children of JOHN FELLOWS and RACHEL VARNEY were:
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| 17. | Isaac FELLOWS (Samuel FELLOWS4, Isaac FELLOWS3, WILLIAM FELLOWS2, NOBLE FELLOWS1) was born 20 JAN 1700 in Hampton, Rockingham Co., New Hampshire, and died 1773 in Exeter, Rockingham Co., New Hampshire. He married Abigail SLEEPER, daughter of Aron SLEEPER and Elizabeth w\o Aron SLEEPER. She was born 17 APR 1700 in Hampton, Rockingham Co., New Hampshire, and died 9 NOV 1779. | ||||
Child of Isaac FELLOWS and Abigail SLEEPER is:
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| 23. | JOHN FELLOWS (JOHN FELLOWS4, EPHRAIM FELLOWS3, WILLIAM FELLOWS2, NOBLE FELLOWS1) was born 3 MAR 1704 in Plainfield, Windham Co., Connecticut, and died AFT 30 AUG 1757 in Sheffield, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts. He married JERUSHA DOUGLAS 22 OCT 1728 in Plainfield, Windham Co., Connecticut, daughter of WILLIAM DOUGLAS and SARAH PROCTOR. She was born 26 APR 1706 in Plainfield, Windham Co., Connecticut, and died in Sheffield, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Children of JOHN FELLOWS and JERUSHA DOUGLAS are:
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Friday, June 22, 2012
One Little Delete
With 41,121 people in my family tree, I have a lot of source citations from the 99 repositories I've used. Thanks to RootsMagic4, they provided these statistics, but right now my source citations have been deleted by 703, all because of one little delete. Am I obsessed with having as many sources as possible, or do I just have too much free time?
How could this happen with a source I should have known. Ever hear of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS)? Well, they have a library, a quarterly publication, bound yearly, called The Register (NEHGR) and a quarterly magazine called, "American Ancestors." As a member, you receive both publications. I use these frequently because of all my New England ancestors.
From day one, I used "NEHG Register" as my source, and I'm not sure why, but now realizing it needed to be corrected to "NEHGR," this was the day I decided to change the wrong to a right. My RootsWeb tree also had the wrong source name, and that's not all, each of the 703 NEHGR sources had the same incorrect footnote text (see below).
Below is my first printed page, and under NEHG Register, you'll see the text in the footnote, which appeared on all those 703 individual files. What am I going to do about it, nothing since there is no way possible I can redo each file. How did it happen? I wasn't paying 100% attention and thought the delete would apply to one file only, not all of them, all individual notations were lost. So, I learned a lesson, and I hope people who use other's trees with sources will learn that not all online trees are correct!
Now, I'm going to think about this instead.
How could this happen with a source I should have known. Ever hear of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS)? Well, they have a library, a quarterly publication, bound yearly, called The Register (NEHGR) and a quarterly magazine called, "American Ancestors." As a member, you receive both publications. I use these frequently because of all my New England ancestors.
From day one, I used "NEHG Register" as my source, and I'm not sure why, but now realizing it needed to be corrected to "NEHGR," this was the day I decided to change the wrong to a right. My RootsWeb tree also had the wrong source name, and that's not all, each of the 703 NEHGR sources had the same incorrect footnote text (see below).
Below is my first printed page, and under NEHG Register, you'll see the text in the footnote, which appeared on all those 703 individual files. What am I going to do about it, nothing since there is no way possible I can redo each file. How did it happen? I wasn't paying 100% attention and thought the delete would apply to one file only, not all of them, all individual notations were lost. So, I learned a lesson, and I hope people who use other's trees with sources will learn that not all online trees are correct!
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| This was entered for all 703 individuals. |
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
40 Nationalities of Lowell, Massachusetts
Polish monument in front of City Hall, the Greek and Irish monuments are to the side of City Hall.
Follow-up for September 16, 2015:
Since I first posted the above in June 2012, I have seen quite a few more memorials, and will post them soon. In the meantime, I want to share a piece about 40 nationalities in Lowell, and I took it this weekend, shown below.
This place card is located on the Northern Canal, near the Wannalancit Mills.
From Forty Nations
"Lowell's residents have emigrated from all around the world. Soon after the city's factories began operations, mill agents looked beyond Yankee farms and villages for workers and increasingly hired new immigrants.
Beginning with the Irish before the Civil War, Immigrants arrived in waves, often settling into ethnic enclaves. So many French Canadians settled here during the second half of the 19th century that this section of the city become known as Little Canada.
A 1912 map identified Little Canada as well as Greek, Polish, Portuguese, and Jewish neighborhoods. School records from this era listed children from forty nations.
In the late 20th century, Latinos, southeast Asians, Africans, Brazilians and others settled in Lowell's old neighborhoods and introduced new customs to the city."
Canadian workers, 1900 Chinese immigrant, 1890s Portuguese worker, 1910 Syrian couple, 1917 Vietnamese woman, 1980s Russian Jewish couple, 1910
City Hall is located on the far left.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Historical Society -- Boothbay, Maine
Over the past two years, I've taken a lot of Historical Society photos. Sometimes I couldn't remember if I had, because I also do a series on Libraries with genealogy collections. Below, is a running list of all the societies with appropriate links. (The list will be applied to each new Historical Society photo I post.)
CONNECTICUT
Wethersfield, Connecticut
Windsor, Connecticut
MAINE
MASSACHUSETTS
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Friday, June 15, 2012
Boston from the Top of the Prudential Building
The Prudential Center
800 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02199
Boston, MA 02199
Red Sox display.
Fenway Park above.
There were numerous flower boxes throughout the building. Nothing could be nicer than pink orchids.
Out of the Blue came Julia Ann Jaquays and her husband, James G. Pell
James Gibbins Pell and wife, Julia Ann Jaquays
My great-grandparents
Julia Ann Jaquays parents were William Cross Jaquays and Lydia Johnson, both "brick walls." The photo was probably taken in Frelighsburg or Dunham, Quebec, Canada.
My 2nd cousin who lives in Quebec forwarded this lovely photo via her mother-in-law (her cousin's internet service is terrible). What a total surprise. You never know what you are going to get when you open an email.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Whiting Sweeting (Nothing Sweet About This Murderer)
I'm sure Mary Clara Worden Wilcox had no clue that one of her ancestors was a murderer when she applied for membership into the DAR*. Mary was my 3rd cousin 3 times removed. One of her ancestor's was Whiting Sweeting, and that name just demanded that I find out something about him. I'm not sure if it was just the name or the fact that I had a copy of Mary's DAR application (see online copy, page 16 for Mrs. Mary Clara Worden Wilcox) in my hand, obtained when I actually worked at the DAR in Washington, DC. We both shared the same Revolutionary War ancestor, but not used as our patriot.
Mary Clara's great-grandfather Whiting Sweeting, the murderer, was married to Sarah Kilborn, my 4th great aunt. Mary and I have Sarah's father, Jonathan Kilborn as our Revolutionary War ancestor.
Why would a young man of 27 years old from Stephentown, Rensselaer Co., New York and from a good family kill Darius Quimby on January 3, 1791? From Wikipedia: "Constable Quimby was shot and killed while attempting to arrest a man named Whiting Sweeting of Stephentown, Rensselaer County, N.Y., on a trespassing warrant. The suspect was found guilty of murdering Constable Quimby in the July session of the New York State Supreme Court and was hanged on August 26, 1791." From various records, his first name, Whiting, was his mother's maiden name, his father was a prominent doctor in the Revolutionary war, and much of the family left Massachusetts to settle in New York.
"While incarcerated, Sweeting wrote his book and was visited frequently by William Carter who thereafter authored a small book entitled: A Remarkable narrative of Whiting Sweeting; who was executed at Albany … for murder," written in 1791 and printed in 1793.(See 1791 timeline on New York State Executions by Hanging).
There are 40 pages with lots of rambling and include messages to his parents, siblings, wife and to her parents (my 5th great-grandparents). Along with the messages were poems to each of them. Obtained online as an ebook from Cornell University, Courtesy of Cornell University Library, Trial Pamphlets Collection.
Mary Clara's great-grandfather Whiting Sweeting, the murderer, was married to Sarah Kilborn, my 4th great aunt. Mary and I have Sarah's father, Jonathan Kilborn as our Revolutionary War ancestor.
Why would a young man of 27 years old from Stephentown, Rensselaer Co., New York and from a good family kill Darius Quimby on January 3, 1791? From Wikipedia: "Constable Quimby was shot and killed while attempting to arrest a man named Whiting Sweeting of Stephentown, Rensselaer County, N.Y., on a trespassing warrant. The suspect was found guilty of murdering Constable Quimby in the July session of the New York State Supreme Court and was hanged on August 26, 1791." From various records, his first name, Whiting, was his mother's maiden name, his father was a prominent doctor in the Revolutionary war, and much of the family left Massachusetts to settle in New York.
"While incarcerated, Sweeting wrote his book and was visited frequently by William Carter who thereafter authored a small book entitled: A Remarkable narrative of Whiting Sweeting; who was executed at Albany … for murder," written in 1791 and printed in 1793.(See 1791 timeline on New York State Executions by Hanging).
There are 40 pages with lots of rambling and include messages to his parents, siblings, wife and to her parents (my 5th great-grandparents). Along with the messages were poems to each of them. Obtained online as an ebook from Cornell University, Courtesy of Cornell University Library, Trial Pamphlets Collection.
"This is probably the most frequently reprinted murder pamphlet in American criminal history, with at least a dozen editions. The main interest in the story seems to have been the severe penalty for an unpremeditated murder. A small posse was pursuing Sweeting to serve a warrant for trespass. Cornered in the woods at night, he lashed out at his pursuers and struck one of them with a knife, inflicting a deadly wound." From The Bottom Up.
*DAR membership appl. of Mary C. Worden Wilcox (#41,034) on Jonathan Kilborn (1742-1807), Oct. 29, 1902.
Generation No. 1
1.
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Whiting SWEETING (Lewis SWEETING3, Lewis SWEETING2, Henry SWEETING1) was born ABT 5 AUG 1764 in Norton, Bristol Co.,
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Children of Whiting SWEETING and Sarah KILBORN were:
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Generation No. 2
2.
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Abiah SWEETING (Whiting SWEETING4, Lewis SWEETING3, Lewis SWEETING2, Henry SWEETING1) was born 11 MAY 1785 in Stephentown, Rensselaer Co.,
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Children of Abiah SWEETING and Jesse WORDEN were:
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Generation No. 3
4.
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Sweeting Whiting WORDEN (Abiah SWEETING5, Whiting SWEETING4, Lewis SWEETING3, Lewis SWEETING2, Henry SWEETING1) was born 11 NOV 1809 in
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Children of Sweeting Whiting WORDEN and Charlotte BREED\BLANCHARD? were:
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5.
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DeWitt Clinton WORDEN (Abiah SWEETING5, Whiting SWEETING4, Lewis SWEETING3, Lewis SWEETING2, Henry SWEETING1) was born 1 MAY 1811 in
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Children of DeWitt Clinton WORDEN and Mary White WILD were:
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7.
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Child of Monroe P. WORDEN and Susan NORTHRUP was:
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Generation No. 4
10.
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Whiting Sweeting WORDEN (Sweeting Whiting WORDEN6, Abiah SWEETING5, Whiting SWEETING4, Lewis SWEETING3, Lewis SWEETING2, Henry SWEETING1) was born 8 DEC 1858 in
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Children of Whiting Sweeting WORDEN and
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12.
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Salter D.W. WORDEN (DeWitt Clinton WORDEN6, Abiah SWEETING5, Whiting SWEETING4, Lewis SWEETING3, Lewis SWEETING2, Henry SWEETING1) was born MAR 1850 in
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Children of Salter D.W. WORDEN and Frankie were:
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13.
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Mary Clara WORDEN* (DeWitt Clinton WORDEN6, Abiah SWEETING5, Whiting SWEETING4, Lewis SWEETING3, Lewis SWEETING2, Henry SWEETING1) was born MAR 1855 in
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Child of Mary Clara WORDEN and Frank Z. WILCOX was:
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10.
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Whiting Sweeting WORDEN (Sweeting Whiting WORDEN6, Abiah SWEETING5, Whiting SWEETING4, Lewis SWEETING3, Lewis SWEETING2, Henry SWEETING1) was born 8 DEC 1858 in
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Children of Whiting Sweeting WORDEN and
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14.
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Lester A WORDEN (
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Child of Lester A WORDEN and Julie E. WELTON was:
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