Tombstone Tuesday - Solomon and Hephzibah Prentice

Old Burying Ground, Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Below are stones of my ancestors.  They were my 7th great-grandparents.

Solomon Prentice

Born:  September 23, 1646, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Died:  July 24, 1719, Cambridge, Massachusetts

(Much better photo at Find-A-Grave

His wife, Hephzibah Dunton

Born:  About 1653

Died:  January 15, 1741/42, Cambridge, Massachusetts

You can see the footstone (above) behind the headstone.

Cemetery is across the street from Harvard University.

Looking Forward

Photo by Joe Beine and used with permission.

I absolutely love the above photo and thought others would like seeing it as well.  It caught my eye when he posted it to facebook.  For other great photos, please view his site at Flicker.

My plans for February are not as aggressive as they were for January.  I'll write an article about the Barbour Collection, Connecticut researchers might like this, and reports about two lectures, on different days, I hope to attend, as long as the weather cooperates.  My first topics to write about when I began blogging in October, may finally get written as well.  Nothing too long or complex, but I hope entertaining.


A few people seemed to enjoy my last Wordless Wednesday with the photo of Ansel Adams.  For the month of February I will post photos of celebrities and/or various autographs.  Two presidents, a football player and a singer.


I am going to devote time entering photos into Find-A-Grave.  It needs to get done.  The process takes a long time, because I need to scan the photos, write cemetery information on the back, enter the information into the site, as well as put the photo into my Family Tree Maker.


Since the Winter Olympics will be on television for about two weeks, I will be spending a lot of time watching the events; therefore I will be cutting back on the posts.


I was hoping I was related to Scott Brown, the new Senator from Massachusetts, but I haven't found a connection yet.  However, Princess Diana and I share the same common American ancestor, and I think I will do a post about that.


Randy's Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, wasn't so fun for me.  I struggled to make the Ancestral Calendar of Birthdays (now changed from January to February).  If an entire name is in All Caps, it is a direct ancestor of mine.  Now, I hope I can remember how to do it for March, but if I do, this will be a part of Looking Forward every month.  Randy thanks for the information.  But, I need to work more with it, since it didn't pick up everybody born in February.

Looking Back

There is good news and not so good.  First, The Happy 101 Award was given to me by the following six people. Thank you to each of you.  Please visit these blogs and then follow them, if you don't already. Each is among the very best.

Bill West at West in New England
Dr. Bill Smith at Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories
Amanda Acquard at A Tale of Two Ancestors
Jenna Mills at Desperately Seeking Surnames
Heather Rojo at  Nutfield Genealogy
Travis LeMaster at TJLGenes: Preserving Our Family History

When Randy Seaver mentioned John Newmark's blog at Transylvanian Dutch on January 15th, I decided to read a few of his blogs before deciding to follow him.  In one post, he had a newspaper article from St. Louis dated 1917.  That is the same city and year that my great-grandfather, Yates Adams was either murdered or committed suicide of which I wrote about in the Monday Madness- A Suicide or a Murder blog.  Right after I posted my blog, Apple of Apple's Tree wrote a comment, "I would look to see if there are any St Louis papers you can access online. An account written where the death occurred may have more information."  Well, it took 11 years for me to try and solve this, so I got the nerve to write John Newmark personally and inquired if he had any suggestions for me.  (Ha, did he ever.) I told him about my ancestor's death in 1917 in St. Louis, exactly the same location and year that his blog pertained to. After hitting send, I went and got a drink, came back and there was a pdf of a newspaper article about my great-grandfather's death.  11 years vs. 17 minutes, what can I say?  But...that information contained some differing information from my original newspaper article.  Now I am trying to find yet a third newspaper article from Battle Creek, Michigan.  Thanks Apple for your comment and John for the newspaper article.

Heather Rojo of Nutfield Genealogy and I are  distant cousins through the Balch line. Also, Midge Frazel at Granite in my Blood and I seem to share quite a few surnames from Connecticut.

Bill West of West in New England and Gini Webb of Ginisology  spent quite a bit of time helping me with two different problems.  Bill tried to find the book, The Culture Club, about the Boston Athenaeum. We couldn't find it around here, so Bill, I finally ordered it from Amazon. Gini helped me for a long time assisting me in trying to post my blog to fb.  I still haven't been able to do it.  But on Jan. 29th, David Allen Lambert of NEHGS posted one for me, and I was pretty happy and very surprised.  That was the day before the big story about the relationship between President Obama and Scott Brown (new MA senator) appeared in the news, of which David was one of the two researchers.

I was in a genealogy mode this past week.  Went to the New England Historic Genealogical Society Library (NEHGS) this week and had a nice long talk with David Dearborn, librarian and then I called Eric Grundset, librarian at the DAR in Washington.  Neither blogs or are on face book.  And, both men were at the same ALA meeting this month as our own Amanda Acquard, of A Tale of Two Ancestors!

Thanks go to Apple for mentioning my blog articles about Cemetery Research in her Weekly Rewind post. It was nice being listed with Steve Danko's blog, as he is a pal of four years.

Now the sad news.  Another suggestion from Apple at Apple's Tree pertained to a November blog in which I mentioned I had donated a very large DAR membership certificate belonging to my ancestor, dated 1901. She suggested I contact the DAR. At long last, I made the call and spoke with the archivist, and we corresponded 10 times!  One of the last things she wrote was, "The other certificate from you that I came across in the accession records was number 90-275, a certificate given to those who attended the NSDAR Centennial dinner." At least I now know...it is missing!

The Amazing Eliza Bishop -- Surname Saturday

 Eliza Bishop was a young single woman who died at the age of 36, and buried in a cemetery plot all alone, all relatives in another state. She made a large contribution to society, so there is a fair amount of information about her. And locating her cemetery and grave were easy, as there are three different books and a town produced sheet that listed her burial site and death information (listed below). You can get very, very lucky sometimes. If you search and search, you can often find many sources with the information you are looking for. Always a good thing, until they conflict.


The small book, Memoir of Miss Eliza Bishop (listed in WorldCat.org) was published after her death. I grabbed the little leather bound book after my grandfather's death, and was always interested in this young woman. Not until I got into genealogy did I try to place her in the family, visited her grave and donated my book (see photo) to the Westfield Library, in Westfield, Massachusetts. Her parents and other family members are buried in Connecticut, see I Did Everything Right, but Couldn't Take a Photo!


Eliza's name appears in the below books and a pamphlet:


1.  Tombstone Inscriptions of the Older Cemeteries of Westfield, Massachusetts (Mass. DAR, 1946)  (Inscription given.)


2.  A List of Gravestones in the Mechanic Street Cemetery, Westfield, Massachusetts (Westfield Athenaeum, 1939)  (Inscription given.)

3.  Mechanic Street Cemetery, Alphabetical List by Family (Walter Ayers, Dir. of Parks, 1995) A detailed map with block number by all names, made it easy to find the monument.


4.  Bridgman, Thomas, transcribed by, Inscriptions of the Grave Stones in the Grave Yards of Northampton, and of Other Towns in the Valley, (Northampton, Mass., Pub. by Hopkins, Bridgman & Co. : 1850). Pg. 152. (See below.)

Eliza was my first cousin, 4 times removed.  And no, I don't have a photo.  My husband remembers I ran out of film.

 Last chapter

 

 

Many books have been published just with cemetery information, not just the names, and Lot number, but dates and inscriptions.  Examples of some books I've used are below.  And some don't even have the word "cemetery" in the title  So if you do a google search, also try a variant of that word, like Burial, Inscriptions and Tombstones.


Whitcomb, Esther K., Inscriptions from Burial Grounds of the Nashaway Towns: Lancaster, Harvard, (+6 more towns), (Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1989).


Dunkle, Robert J., and Ann S. Lainhart, Inscriptions and Records of The Old Cemeteries of Boston, (NEHGS, Boston: 2000).


Derby, Perly, Inscriptions from the Charter Street Burial Ground, Salem, MA, (Essex Institute of Historical Collections, Vol. 13, 1877).


District of Columbia Society of Daughters of the American Revolution, Inscriptions from Tombstones in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C.


N.S.D.A.R., Cemetery Records and Tombstone Inscriptions, Kalamazoo Co., Michigan, (1959).

Ahnentafel for ELIZA BISHOP

52 Weeks To Better Genealogy - Challenge #4 Inter-Library Loan

My local library is shown at the left and you can read about it in  Challenge #1. In Challenge #4 our assignment is to, "Learn about your local public library’s inter-library loan (ILL) policy. Pick a genealogy-related book that you want to read that is not in your library’s collection. Ask the librarian how to request the book from another library. Find the different library systems from which you can request books through your own library, as this can dramatically increase the number of genealogy books to which you have access. If you have a genealogy blog, write about your experience with requesting items through your library’s ILL service."

I don't want to be fired because I didn't follow Amy's instructions exactly.  However, there just isn't time or the need for me to get a genealogy book, just for the sake of this challenge.  It is mid-winter which means snow, ice and cold in Massachusetts.  In addition, I have been told processing inter-library loans (ILL) is a very expensive process to deal with; a lot of wrapping, packing and mailing is involved.  Fortunately, they haven't begun to charge patrons, but it may be a reality someday, I heard $5 per request.

Our library belongs to the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium. along with quite a few other libraries (my guess is 30 towns).  That means, if I want a book that isn't in my library but is in one of the other libraries, I can get it rather quickly if it isn't checked out, otherwise, I am on a waiting list.  First, before I even think about ordering a book through ILL, I always check www.worldcat.org to see what libraries have it. Sometimes, you may determine it might not even be available to your library or it just isn't worth the time and effort, if the book is across the country.

In June of 2009, I did a guest blog for Cheryl Palmer Cutting Back on Spending, in which I discuss inter-library loans and Worldcat.

At my library, the inter-library loan requests are processed differently. The order request is sent to another library, where all the requests from the entire consortium are processed. In the past, I have ordered and received two books using this method. One book had to be used at the library under our librarian's eyes. The other I was able to check out.

The books I got were:
1. The Van den Berghs in America by Stockman, R. Grunwell and B. Grunwell, (Lynchburg, VA: Pub. Robert L. Grunwell, 1994) from the Jones Library, Lynchburg, VA and,
2.  Molson, The Birth of a Business Empire by Hunter, Douglas, (Canada: Penguin Books, 2001) it came from Univ. of Maine.

Cemeteries And More #2

Part two of my cemetery series covers more ideas about contacting a cemetery or Historical Society, and then a section about maps. If you live a distance from the cemetery, you want to be armed with the most information available prior to the trek. I like to know some of the history and the exact entrance to the grounds as well as the hours.

Not all cemeteries are privately run, some are abandoned, some are run by the town, some by the government.  Each has their own set of rules and what they share with the public.  Many will freely provide all their records on your ancestor, others charge a steep fee (like Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, DC).  Often you can find a volunteer to do some of the leg work for you.  In the past, if I received something from them, I always wrote a thank-you and enclosed a small token of $10. Always pay them in some way, either dollars or stamps, because you never know if you will need their service again, and they will remember you.  If their work is exceptional and they are employed, write a thank you letter, so it can go in the employee's human resources file (I did that once and even brought the administrative assistant a box of chocolates.)

The next time I need information; I will either call or email a request.  Personally, I like calling best.  Do it mid day, never just before closing.  I'll explain exactly what I am looking for, get right to the point.  Sometimes I'll have a check-list, so I don't forget to ask something.  Often on the phone, I get a little nervous or side tracked, then the call isn't completed in full. I would still do that, especially if it is a Historical Society (those people can be so nice)

A great source for locating historical societies is the book, The Genealogist's Address Book by Elizabeth P. Bentley.  The new 6th edition was published in 2009 and has 809 pages.  I used to own a copy, and referred to it frequently, mine didn't even have email addresses, it was that old.  A page snippet from the new book is below.

I was very lucky when I wrote to the Colchester Historical Society in Connecticut, because a volunteer drew up a perfect map showing where my ancestors were buried. This map is something I have been wanting to share for a long time.  What I received was 14" x 17" in size!

Sometimes a larger cemetery will have a pamphlet with a map inside. What a blessing, when I discovered my ancestor listed on the map! Locating him could not have been easier.

My ancestor is # 59

Example of a pamphlet.

Cemeteries And More #1

Several months ago I posted my Cemetery List in a Google Spreadsheet and explained I was going to enter all the names and photos into the Find-A-Grave database.  As I began going through the huge pile of 10 year old photos (none digital), I realized there were some tidbits I could share regarding cemetery research.  The photo at the left was taken last month in the main reading room of the Boston Public Library.  I went there to get the correct title of a cemetery book, listed below.

Before going to any cemetery, especially if it involves some travel, you should do your homework first.  There are several ways.  The most important thing is, you need to is there a cemetery in the area you are interested in.  Of course if you have the name and phone number, call the cemetery to determine what records they have, if there is a flyer or leaflet of their cemetery and if there is a map. (Part 2 will cover this.)  Ok, how does somebody find out their address, phone number and what cemeteries may be in the ancestor's town?  Here are my methods; use the internet and use books.

One of the quickest and least expensive way to get a listing of burials is by using the internet.  A simple google search using key words such as Cemetery + name of town.  You do not even need to know the name of the cemetery.  An example is using the words "cemetery" + "Enosburgh Falls"  A great listing of all those buried there appears in the Main Street Cemetery.  I have used this list many times since 2004.

Those using the internet, you can locate cemeteries, and photos from the last three sources:
Cyndi's List  Cyndislist
The popular FindAGrave (begun in 1995)  41 million records now online.
I also like A Very Grave Matter (since before 2003)
For Quebec, Canada and the United States I like Interment.net  (begun in 1998)

There are some excellent books that list cemeteries. The ones I especially like are:
1.  Cemeteries of the U.S. : a guide to contact information for U.S. cemeteries and their records is a wonderful resource, as it lists more than 22,600 currently operating or inactive cemeteries in the United States and its territories, and major military cemeteries in foreign countries. Provides the cemetery's address, contact information, former names, years of operation, affiliation, records location, historical notes, and references to publications concerning that cemetery.  There are more than 1,000 pages and it is quite heavy.  When I first found out about it, it was only available in my area at the Boston Public Library.  I made many copies of various cemetery locations (copy below gives you an idea of what is on a page).  It has been a good eight years since I last used the book.  So, on December 29th when I went to the Library to get the correct title, and other information, there it was, right where it had been 10 years before, like it was waiting for me.  It was sharing a low shelf with three other over-sized books.  Glad some things never change.

If you want to locate the above book through www.worldcat.org you have two options, when the title appears, you can select either the editor Deborah M. Burek or the publisher, Gale Research.  Check out both to see where the nearest library is to you.  This appears to be a case in which the librarians didn't know how to categorize it.

Example page for Vermont

2.  A Guide to Massachusetts Cemeteries by David Allen Lambert, published 2002 by the New England Historic Genealogical Society.  Since I have many Massachusetts ancestors, I use this book a lot.  David signed my copy, and I have #98 from his first printing, so it is already nine years old.  There is a nice index included in the 272 pages.  There is now a revised edition.

3.  A Guide to Cemeteries in Essex County Massachusetts by the Essex Society of Genealogists.  The book has 136 pages, a map for each town with cemetery markers and information about the cemetery.  This is a must for those with ancestors in Essex County.  This guide can be ordered from the Society Form for Cemetery Book.

In closing, try to do as much homework before you go to a cemetery, especially if you are going to travel a distance.  What a nice feeling to easily locate the cemetery and then walk directly to the grave.  Tomorrow I will continue with Part 2.

Leaving the Boston Public Library.

Tombstone Tuesday - Stephen Daniels. Salem, Massachusetts

Stephen Daniels

Born:  Abt. 1798, (bp. Oct. 17, 1798), Salem, Essex Co., Massachusetts

Died: August 06, 1872, Salem, Essex Co., Massachusetts

Stephen and his wife, Abigail Floyd were my 3rd great-grandparents.

Abigail Floyd

Born: June 16, 1798, Danvers, Essex Co., Massachusetts

Died: July 03, 1854, Salem, Essex Co., Massachusetts

They are buried at Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts.

Note:  The top photo was entered into Find-A-Grave .

See my Six Lines of Stephen Daniels in Massachusetts blog.

Monday Madness - Blogging and Google Alerts - A Great Combination?

Can't have it both ways.  That is what I am finding out.  I love blogging and Google Alerts, but on some days I just don't.

I use Google Alerts for several surnames, with the word obituary, as well as certain town names.  In addition, I use my name + blog.  As a result, just about every day there is a listing of alerts with my name.  Often it is for my blog, but sometimes for another blog owned by another Barbara Poole.  So far, I have determined there are three other Barbara Pooles with blogs.  I decided to list them below, and maybe some day down the road, I will write each of them to see if they are interested in the Poole genealogy, as in my genealogy.  Quite possibly they are using their husband's surname, but maybe they are like me, in that I don't use my husband's name.  Barbara Poole blogs I've discovered are:

http://employaidblog.com/

http://barbarapoole.blogspot.com/ (Boston artist who lives in my area.)

http://www.bfelt.com/ Lots about felt...it is her business.

Readers have also contacted me, perhaps because of Google Alerts. In my Can't Get to a Conference? blog, I received a very nice comment from a well-known Certified Genealogist, actually the one mentioned in the article (I am not mentioning her name again, because I don't want this to show up in Google Alerts on her computer).  If you go to the link, you will see her comment.  Another instance, my blog showed up because of their Google Alert when I posted 52 Weeks to Better Genealogy Challenge #1 a blog about my local library, the reference librarian wrote me.

Now the madness.  It isn't that I don't like Google Alerts, I do, as a matter of fact I love them.  What I don't like are the fact that often my comments show up.  I am still a little naive in that I think a comment to so and so, is pretty much private, except other bloggers can view them.  But the whole world, that I don't want.  I've been pretty careful about what I write recently.  When I first discovered this happens was about four years ago, when I was commenting a lot on Steve Danko's site.  I had him remove my last name.  Later I changed my mind, now I am rethinking that again.

An example is what I replied to Earline Hines Bradt of Ancestral Notes on November 16, 2009, my comment to her showed up in a Google search with my name + blog.  "Earline, Congratulations, I read your blog every time you write, and you deserve the award. Also, .............."

Nope, I don't like that, that the world can see my comments.

Six Lines of Stephen Daniels in Massachusetts

Stephen Daniels seems to be everywhere in my family...for six (6) straight generations.  The name applies to all my direct lines and they are from the same area in Massachusetts.  Fortunately, for me, Essex County has excellent records, plus I have visited two cemeteries where they are buried.  There is a Stephen Daniels House, now a bed and breakfast located at 1 Daniels Street in Salem. A reviewer wrote, "This lovely 300-year-old captain's house is one of the few three-story homes of this vintage still intact. Two large walk-in fireplaces grace the common rooms, and each guest room includes antique furnishings, a canopy bed and a wood-burning fireplace." I have been by it, but not in it.

My six-generation genealogy for Stephen will open to a Google doc in pdf format.

The vital records from which I obtained my birth, marriage and death records are in the six volume set for Salem, Massachusetts, sometimes known as the tan books.  Although if you look at the picture at the left, taken at my local library, you can see that many are now being rebound in orange.


Last week, I posted a cemetery stone photo of my first Steven Daniel, who died February 14, 1686/87.  This coming Tuesday there will be another cemetery stone photo for my 6th Steven Daniels.  I know where three others are buried, because of records, but haven't been able to locate their stones.  And for one, I have no idea where he is buried.


From Google books, I'm displaying a page from one of the Vital Record books for Salem, showing several  Stephen Daniel names spelled various ways, such as Steephen, and Daniell and Daniels.
Another great online source, The History of Salem, Massachusetts by Sidney Perley has a nice genealogy. Images below.