Sidney Perley's Essex Antiquarian

Born in 1857, Sidney Perley was a well-known lawyer in Essex county, Massachusetts. He also wrote books and articles on history, genealogy, and the law. From 1897 to 1909 he published the Essex Antiquarian. These journals include so much valuable information, I've included the links below. Perley died in 1928. 

Essex Antiquarian, Vol. 1, 1897

Essex Antiquarian, Vol. 2, 1898

Essex Antiquarian, Vol. 3, 1899

Essex Antiquarian, Vol. 4, 1900

Essex Antiquarian, Vol. 5, 1901

Essex Antiquarian, Vol. 6, 1902

Essex Antiquarian, Vol. 7, 1903

Essex Antiquarian, Vol. 8, 1904

Essex Antiquarian, Vol. 9, 1905

Essex Antiquarian, Vol. 10, 1906

Essex Antiquarian, Vol. 11, 1907

Essex Antiquarian, Vol. 12, 1908

Essex Antiquarian, Vol. 13, 1909

For more articles published by Perley, check out my links to the Essex Institute Historical Collections (EIHC). He also wrote pieces for the New England Historic Genealogical Society (AmericanAncestors.org).

Top 5 Places to Visit in Salem, Massachusetts

When you visit the Witch City, there are many attractions, museums, tours, and events vying for your attention. I put together a list of five not-to-miss places that are worth the trip to Salem, Massachusetts, for people interested in the 1692 witch hunts in Essex county.

Site of the Salem Village Parsonage (behind 67 Centre Street, Danvers, MA).

The parsonage was built after February 1681, when Salem Village voted to build the parsonage for their second minister, George Burroughs (1650-1692). Here, strange fits first possessed nine-year-old Betty Parris and her 11-year-old cousin Abigail Williams, causing a local doctor to declare the girls were under an evil hand. The first accused witches lived close by, including in the parsonage itself, but it quickly spread to Salem Town and around Essex county.

In 1734, a new house was added to the old parsonage. In 1784, the original parsonage was demolished and the 1734 addition was moved. In time, the foundation filled in. In 1970, Richard Trask and a team of archeologists uncovered the foundation stones. Artifacts discovered at the site are located at the Danvers Archival Center (15 Sylvan Street, Danvers).

The archeological site not only gives you an idea of how small the house was, it also puts into perspective where Rev. Samuel Parris (1653-1720) and his family lived in relation to the First Meeting House and Ingersoll’s Ordinary—just a quick walk around the corner—and how far away Salem Town was by foot, horseback, or wagon. 

While you’re in the area, visit the Danvers witch memorial on Hobart street.

Rebecca Nurse Homestead (149 Pine St., Danvers, MA)

Rebecca Nurse Homestead

In 1678, Francis and Rebecca Nurse leased this 300-acre parcel from Rev. Allen. Their farm was productive and the terms of their lease were generous. In 1692, the afflicted girls accused Rebecca of being a witch, the jury failed to convict her, and the magistrate asked them to reconsider after the girls acted out in court. Even the villagers’ petition and the governor’s reprieve didn’t save her. She was hung on July 19, 1692.

The volunteers who give tours at the homestead are very knowledgeable, so you’ll get more out of your visit than a self-guided tour. The homestead includes the original house built about 1678, plus several additions; the 1681 Endecott barn; a 19th-century shoemaker’s shed; and a replica of the 1672 Salem Village Meeting House that was used in the film Three Sovereigns for Sarah. The property now consists of 27 acres, including the Nurse graveyard. It’s likely that Rebecca Nurse was buried in the graveyard, though the location is unknown. There are two memorials, from 1885 and 1992, erected in her memory. You’ll also find a 17^th-century-styled gravestone for George Jacobs, whose supposed body was reburied at the site.

Cry Innocent: The People vs. Bridget Bishop (Old Town Hall, 32 Derby Street, Salem, MA)

If you wander down Essex Street in Salem, you may come across a 17th-century town crier and a band of similarly dressed townspeople. After several arguments, they arrest Bridget Bishop for being a witch and bring her to the Town Hall for questioning. Like other attractions in town, you will hear dialogue taken from the witch trial papers, but in this case, you—the audience—become the jury and vote to determine whether she should be held for trial. You also get a chance to ask questions of the witnesses and Bridget herself. The performances are well done and there are no poorly made mannequins sitting in for the afflicted girls—just quiet chairs—so, unlike 1692, you can listen to the words spoken instead of the distraction caused by the afflicted girls. 

The Salem Witch Trials Memorial (between Charter and Derby streets, adjacent to Old Burying Point, Salem, MA)

Salem Witch Trials Memorial

Built 300 years after the witch trials, the memorial consists of 20 granite benches that float in the middle of a low stone wall. Each bench is inscribed with the victim’s name and date of execution. Unlike the cemetery next to the memorial, there are no bodies here (they are cenotaphs) and the benches hovering above the ground remind us of that fact.

Over the years, Salem tried to bury its witchcraft past, so we don’t know where the witch-hunt victims were hanged (though most people assume it’s somewhere on Gallows Hill) or buried. The memorial serves as a contemplative spot to honor these brave women and men who stood up for their religious beliefs and wouldn’t condemn their souls by lying to save their lives. At the threshold of the memorial, you’ll see some of their poignant words cut off, just like their lives were. 

While you’re in the area, stop by the repaired gravestone of Judge John Hathorne (1641-1717) at Old Burying Point. It’s hard to miss.

The Salem Witch Walk (Crow Haven Corner, 125 Essex Street, Salem)

Having been on a trolley tour and a historical 1692 walking tour, I’ve learned where Bridget Bishop’s house or apple orchard stood (43 Church Street) and where the 1684 jail once existed (corner of Federal Street and St. Peter’s Street, formerly known as Prison Lane). But much of the tour guides’ scripts have not kept up with current research and often repeat myths and misconceptions.

The Salem Witch Walk is different, right from the start. The walk begins with a magic circle, in which the tourists are invited to participate. As Tom, a practicing witch and our tour guide, explains during the ceremony, witches hold true to two words: “Harm none.” Tom says none of the accused in 1692 were witches, but 17th-century cultural beliefs, superstitions, and magic came into play, turning neighbor against neighbor and ending in a land grab. He explains what some witch symbols mean, including the pentagram, and why Laurie Cabot and other witches came to Salem. There’s no scary hocus pocus. 

In the end, you may realize the juxtaposition of Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery and Elizabeth Montgomery’s Bewitched statue with the Salem Witch Museum, the maritime heyday of the Peabody Essex Museum, and Salem’s leather manufacturing history are not that strange. It’s how Salem survives its past and moves into the future.

NOTE: Some of these places have limited, seasonal hours. Check the websites for details.

Want to read more about Salem and the witch trials? Click on the keyword "witch-hunt" on the right-hand column to see other articles, from a short genealogy of the victims and a timeline of the witch-hunt to books and tourist attractions. 

Hawthorne and the Guilt-Ridden W?

Nathaniel Hawthorne c. 1860-1865 by Mathew Brady

Numerous articles and books repeat that Nathaniel Hawthorne added a W to his surname to distance himself from his ancestor, the hanging judge John Hathorne (1641-1717) of the Salem witch trials—without offering any proof. But is it really true? Did he ever tell someone or write down why? 

Or did people assume they could peer into his psyche—through reading his short stories and romances, perhaps—and say ancestral guilt led him to add a letter to his surname? It doesn’t make sense. 

From “Young Goodman Brown” to The House of Seven Gables, Salem permeates Hawthorne’s writings, whether it’s the setting itself, the story line, or even the Puritan mentality. Hawthorne couldn’t escape the ghosts in his past, whether he believed actual ghosts meandered through the headstones at the Old Burying Point or whether he felt ancestral eyes were watching him, much like the judge’s painting in Seven Gables.

During the early 19th century, Salem was a busy seaport. Surrounded by wealth and worldliness, Hawthorne’s family relied on relatives for support after his father died of yellow fever in Surinam when the author was four years old. And those relatives, no doubt, regaled the young boy with stories of his ancestors, to keep alive the Hathorne legacy.

Legends of the Tree

Hawthorn flowers

The author’s long-ago ancestors lived near Binfield and Bray, co. Berks, in England, where there’s a legend of two pots of gold buried beneath the hawthorn tree on Hawthorn Hill (p. 110). Genealogist Henry F. Waters, himself a son of Salem, regretted he didn’t make this discovery earlier, when Hawthorne was still alive. Waters wrote: “How eagerly [Hawthorne’s] quaint and vivid fancy would have seized even upon the scanty materials offered to it in the Legend of Hawthorn Hill and its pots of gold, to weave therefrom a story that should rival in weirdness any of his ‘Legends of New England’” (Register, Vol. 38, p. 203).

Home to the faerie folk, hawthorn is linked to courtship and May Day celebrations. At the same time, the tree is considered unlucky. It’s protected with thorns and blossoms that smell of illness or death—and, ironically, it’s supposed to be a favored wood used to make witches’ brooms.

It’s possible that centuries ago the family took its name from the hawthorn tree. And, like many words, some surnames evolved and changed spellings over time. Reviewing vital records, probate proceedings, and histories, the surname has appeared as Harthone, Harthorn(e), Hathorn, Hatthorn, Haughthorne, Hauthorn(e), Hawthorn(e), Horthorne, Hotharn, Hothorn(e), and Hothornne, among others. Between handwriting, literacy, and clerical errors, it’s easy to see how names change on paper.

Take it one step further and consider how the surname is pronounced. Try saying “Hathorne” with an English accent, specifically with the intonations of someone from 17th century London or co. Berks. Then try it with a 19th century Massachusetts accent. Would it sound differently?

Without the Story, It’s Guesswork

Without knowing the story behind the change in spelling, we cannot assume it’s because of guilt by association.

Who’s to say that it wasn’t Hawthorne’s publisher who added the W? Not necessarily separating the brooding author from his heritage but because the hawthorn tree, with its white flowers and red berries, added a touch of romance to the author’s persona? Or because the printer made a typographical mistake on the book cover?

And who’s to say that maybe Hawthorne, inspired by his family tree, did a little genealogical research in the Salem church records and found his father was baptized as “Nathanael Hawthorne” in 1775 and his great grandfather as “Joseph Hauthorn” in 1692?

We may never know the truth, but let’s stop guessing that ancestral disassociation was behind the decision to add the W in Hawthorne.

Ancestors of Nathaniel Hawthorne in America

Nathaniel Hawthorne, b. 4 July 1804, Salem, Mass.; d. 19 May 1864, Plymouth, NH; m. 9 July 1842, Sophia Amelia Peabody (1809-1871). Author.

Capt. Nathaniel Hathorne, bapt. 21 May 1775, Salem, as “Nathanael Hawthorne”; d. 1808 in Surinam; m. 2 August 1801, Salem, Elizabeth C. Manning (1780-1849).

John Hathorne's grave at Old Burying Point, Charter Street, Salem.

Daniel Hathorne, bapt. 22 August 1731, Salem; d. 18 April 1796, Salem; m. 21 Oct. 1756, Salem, Rachel Phelps (1733-1813).

Joseph Hathorne, bapt. May 1692, Salem, as “Joseph Hauthorn”; d. 23 June 1762, Salem; m. 30 June 1715, Salem, Sarah Bowditch.

Col. John Hathorne, bapt. 2 Aug. 1641, Salem; d. 10 May 1717, Salem; m. 22 March 1674/5, Ruth Gardner. Known as “the hanging judge” for his part in the 1692 Salem witch trials.

Major William Hathorne, born about 1606/1607, Bray, co. Berks, England; emigrated about 1633; died April 1681, Salem, Mass.; married Ann.

Sources

Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850: Salem (NEHGS online)

French, Elizabeth, “Genealogical Research in England,” in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 67, pp. 248-260 (1913).

Kerry, Charles, The History and Antiquities of the Hundred of Bray, in the County of Berks (London: Savill and Edwards, 1861).

Moriarty, G. Andrews, “Genealogical Gleanings in England VII,” in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 79, pp. 311-316 (1925).

Waters, Henry F., “Genealogical Gleanings in England,” in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 38, pp. 201-204 (1884).

Written in Stone: Proof of the Hazen/Gibson Marriage

Note: previously publishe in the New England Historic Genealogical Society's magazine in 2009.

---

New England Ancestors (Fall 2009): 40.

For the last decade, I’ve overturned rocks in my efforts to find the parents of John Gibson, a miller in the North End of Boston, who died in 1721. I often collaborated with my newly-found fifth cousin twice removed, Ruby (Gibson) White. One of her common refrains was: “What about Hannah Hazen’s Gibson children?” At first, I dismissed this lead. In New England Marriages Prior to 1700, [i] Clarence Almon Torrey listed her marriage with an extra editorial: “GIBSON, William & Hannah HAZEN?, dau Edward (very doubtful).”

When the New England Historic Genealogical Society published Torrey’s 12-volume manuscript on CD a few years ago, I checked his sources. I found it odd that he referenced the major Hazen genealogy,[ii] while doubting is accuracy in his concise synopsis.

Hannah Hazen was born the seventh month of 1653 in Rowley, Massachusetts,[iii] daughter of Edward Hazen (b. 1614[iv]; buried 22 July 1683 in Rowley[v]) and his second wife, Hannah Grant (b. 1631[vi]; d. Feb. 1715 in Haverill as widow of Capt. George Brown[vii]). The Hazen volume claimed that Hannah Hazen married William Gibson and died before 1683, leaving three children. When Hannah’s father died intestate, the inventory of his estate by his widow Hannah and son Edward was attested in Ipswich court 25 September 1683, and recorded 12 March 1683/4. The settlement gave the names of his children, including “Hannah Gibson deceased (3 children living) hath received 15.18.” After debts and the widow’s thirds, the estate was divided between the 10 Hazen children, with the eldest son receiving a double portion. Each child was entitled to 33 pounds and 10 shillings, with “William Gibson having = Rstd [received] 15.18.8/ Rest. [remained to be paid] short of a share 17.11.4.” [viii]

After Hannah (Grant) (Hazen) Brown died in February 1715, land that was part of her widow’s thirds was distributed to her children. This agreement, dated 20 June 1716, makes provision for her grandchildren, “brother Gibson’s children . . . they having their share with the others.”[ix] Unfortunately, the probate records do not mention the Gibson children by name nor identify their residence, but the plural “children” means at least two and possibly all three, Gibson children were still alive by this date.

Hannah (Hazen) Gibson gravestone, Granary Burial Ground (2008)

In addition to these two probate records, an additional source now confirms the Gibson-Hazen marriage. In early August 2008, I was taking cemetery photos for the Halloween issue of a local parenting magazine in the Granary Burial Ground in Boston, when I stumbled by chance across Hannah’s gravestone alongside the path near the wall by Tremont Place (by wall tomb 103):

“Hannah wife to/ William Gibson/& daughter to Edward Hazen/aged about 25….”[x]

Prior to this cemetery visit, I had checked the NEHGS database, Old Cemeteries of Boston, [xi] to see if any of my ancestral connections were buried there, so I knew Hannah’s stone was not included. Nor is the stone mentioned in the 1856 survey or the 1905 inscriptions compiled by Henry A. May, both of which were consulted for Ogden Codman’s Gravestone Inscriptions and Records of Tomb Burials in the Granary Burial Ground. [xii] Hannah’s grave was not included in the 1980s survey by the Historic Burial Grounds Initiative (HBGI) nor can it be found on HBGI’s map. When I contacted HBGI, project director Kelly Thomas had no record of the grave and could not say whether it was found during recent conservation.[xiii] Since the grave had been forgotten or misplaced for the last 150 years (since the 1856 survey), on 22 August 2008, Kelly Thomas and conservators at the cemetery lifted the stone to reveal the rest of the inscription:

“Hannah wife to/ William Gibson/& daughter to Edward Hazen/aged about 25/ years dec’d October ye 10/1678/Also 2 sons lyes by her.”

How the gravestone was overlooked for generations is a mystery. Clearly, it is not new. The fan-sunburst motif on Hannah’s gravestone can be attributed to an unnamed carver “whose works are to be seen primarily in Charlestown, Cambridge, Watertown, Malden, Wakefield, Woburn, the Granary, and King’s Chapel.” This design by the “Charlestown carver” was only used in the 1670s and 1680s, making the gravestone contemporary with her death date. “From the extant evidence it would seem that the [Charlestown carver’s] earliest carving, stemming from broadsides, developed north of the Charles River possibly as early as 1674 and certainly by 1678.”[xiv]

Given that the gravestone was probably placed shortly after her death in 1678 and before her father’s 1683 probate, Hannah and William Gibson had at least five children, born between say 1670 and 1678. Five Gibson children (none named John) are recorded in Boston records during this time but belong to another couple with the same names: William Gibson, often referred to as “the Scotchman” or by his occupation as cordwainer or shoemaker, [xv] and his second wife, Hannah Phippen.

Finding Hannah (Hazen) Gibson’s grave not only confirms her marriage but also gives her exact death date and narrows the time period for her children’s births—all information not found in contemporary records. Based on the grave inscription, I can conclude that Hannah Hazen is less likely than Ruby and I hoped to be the mother of our John Gibson of Boston, who filed a marriage intention on 18 December 1708 to Margaret Wood of Ipswich. [xvi]

So the search continues—for my John Gibson’s parents as well as “brother Gibson’s children.”

Footnotes

[i] Clarence Almon Torrey, New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1985, 1997), 301.

[ii] Tracy Elliot Hazen, The Hazen Family in America (New Haven, Conn.: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Co., 1947).

[iii] Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2009).

[iv] Torrey, New England Marriages, 361, and Hazen, The Hazen Family, 4-5, 7-8.

[v] Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850.

[vi] Torrey, New England Marriages, 361, and Hazen, The Hazen Family, 10-11, 14.

[vii] “Descendants of Henry Brown of Salisbury” in Essex Antiquarian, 12 (1908), 97.

[viii] Hazen, The Hazen Family, 21-23.

[ix] Hazen, The Hazen Family, 24.

[x] Since 1660, more than 5,000 people have been buried at Granary Burying Ground, though less than half are marked by gravestones, which have sometimes been moved in an effort to straighten the rows. Hannah (Hazen) Gibson’s grave is located in a row with three unrelated and also relocated graves, for Susannah Reynolds (died 5 May 1746, aged 26); Windsor Goulding (d. 26 August 1702, aged 13 months and eight days); and Mary Coney (d. 17 June 1697, aged 21 months). There are no known Hazen graves in Granary, and the other Gibson burials are probably unrelated.

[xi] Old Cemeteries of Boston (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, NEHGS, 2007), taken from Robert J. Dunkle and Ann S. Lainhart, Inscriptions and Records of the Old Cemeteries of Boston (Boston, MA: NEHGS, 2000).

[xii] Ogden Codman, Gravestone Inscriptions and Records of Tomb Burials in the Granary Burying Ground, Boston, Mass. (Salem, Mass.: The Essex Institute, 1918).

[xiii] The Historic Burying Grounds Initiative is part of the city of Boston’s Parks & Recreation Department. HBGI has an online database of burials (http://www.cityofboston.gov/parks/hbgi/). Email correspondence with Kelly Thomas, 11 Aug. 2008; 15 Aug. 2008.

[xiv] Allan I. Ludwig, Graven Images: New England Stonecarving and Its Symbols, 1650-1815 (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1999), 291.

[xv] See Annie Haven Thwing, Inhabitants and Estates of the Town of Boston, 1630-1800 & The Crooked and Narrow Streets of Boston, 1630-1822 (Boston: NEHGS, CD-ROM 2002) for his profile. From 1663, this William Gibson is credited with at least 20 children, including 15 with Hannah Phippen, listed in The American Genealogist 17 (1940): 12. The Scotchman was actively involved in the community and more likely to record his children’s births. None of the gestational periods overlap. His wife Hannah Phippen was born 25 July 1653, just two months before Hannah Hazen, according to Boston Births, Baptisms, Marriages, and Deaths, 1630-1699 (Boston: Rockwell and Churchill City Printers, 1883), 41.

[xvi] The average age at marriage for males during this period is 25. If John Gibson were Hannah Hazen’s son, he would have been between 30 and 38 in 1708. Vital Records of Ipswich, Massachusetts to the End of the Year 1849 (Salem, Mass.: The Essex Institute, 1910) 2:181.

Reprinted by permission of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Robin Chalmers Mason, “Written in Stone: Proof of the Hazen/Gibson Marriage,” (New England Ancestors, vol. 10, no. 4 (fall 2009): 40-42. For more information about the magazine, now known as American Ancestors, and the New England Historic Genealogical Society, please visit www.americanancestors.org. 

The genealogy of Adams National Historical Park

133 Franklin Street, Quincy, Massachusetts

How does a house reflect a genealogy? When it's part of the Adams National Historical Park.

The National Park Service owns three homes associated with John Adams (1735-1826), the second president of the United States, in Quincy, Massachusetts. The park includes the country's oldest (two) presidential birthplaces and the first presidential library. (Built of stone in 1873 according to John Quincy Adams' will, the library was designed as a fireproof place to house 14,000 volumes of books. It is not an open research library and most of the presidential papers are not included in the archives.)

Begin Your Tour

Start early at the visitor center (1250 Hancock Street) in order to hop on the trolley for a two-hour tour of five generations of the Adams family. The future second president was born in a typical clapboarded saltbox house at 133 Franklin Street, with huge fireplaces and not-quite-level floors. His father was a farmer and deacon of the local Congregational church who also made shoes during the winter. At one point, the family owned many acres surrounding the house, and yet only 75 feet separates the birthplace from the older house where lawyer John Adams lived after marrying his third cousin, Abigail (Smith) Adams (1744-1818), in 1764.

It's in the second home where John and Abigail's children were born, including future diplomat and sixth president of the U.S., John Quincy Adams (1767-1848). Being embroiled in the causes of independence and freedom meant that John didn't spend all that much time in this house during the American Revolution, leaving Abigail to write her many famous letters while melting her spoons into musket balls. 

In 1788, John Adams returned from abroad and the family moved to the Old House at Peace Field at 135 Adams Street, a much more stately home than their farmhouse. Still, it wasn't big enough for their family and social lives, so they expanded the original 1731 foundation by nearly double.

Four generations called Peace Field home, from 1788 to 1927. The house reflects the different time periods, furniture styles, and family interests throughout—as well as the many visitors who were entertained. There are stories as to which portraits hung where, from George Washington's in a place of honor in the dining room to the portrait of John Quincy Adam's wife Louisa (1775-1852) being relegated to the back hallway due to her English birth (and maybe some mother-in-law issues). There's the spacious second-floor office with its celestial globe where the second president died on the 4th of July, hours after his friend and rival Thomas Jefferson died. Through a late-addition hallway, created for an early-rising Adams didn't want to walk through the guest room, and to the right are several famous pieces of art, near the modernized (to some extent!) bathroom and servants' quarters just over the kitchen.

All together, the three homes portray a family growing and widening its circle, from local farmers and lawyers to diplomats and presidents.

Final Resting Places

Along with many other local notables, the Adams were buried in Hancock cemetery, across the street from their local church. However, one descendant decided that wasn't quite good enough for two U.S. presidents and their ladies. Their bodies were removed and put into four huge stone tombs in the specially created crypt beneath the United First Parish Church at 1306 Hancock Street. 

Massachusetts genealogy and history blogs part 2

History of Massachusetts blog

Below are more blogs to bookmark, covering historic Massachusetts in stories and photos as well as its graveyards, Redcoats, and folklore.

• And This Is Good Old Boston. "Boston history - sort of." Mark B. tells stories and shares photos of Boston, enhanced with maps to pinpoint the landmarks.
• Retro Boston Remembered. "Charles Boston’s scrumptious scrapbook of events and places from good old Retro Boston." A blog by the cultural historian who created Shopping Days in Retro Boston blog.
• History of Massachusetts by Rebecca Brooks. Articles, animated timelines, photos, scanned books, and puzzles covering 17th to 20th century Massachusetts history, with an emphasis on 1692 witch trials and the American Revolution.
• The Old Colony Graveyard Rabbit. "A blog devoted mainly to the cemeteries of Southeastern Massachusetts with occasional forays elsewhere in New England. A member of the Association of Graveyard Rabbits."
• New England Folklore. Peter Muise is an "avid folklore fan and New England native" who likes "exploring and writing about New England legends, folklore, and traditions." Sites like these can help you understand some of your ancestral quirks and odd beliefs.
• Muddy River Musings. Join Ken Liss on his "meanderings through the thickets of Brookline's past." A "researcher and amateur historian," he offers "an idiosyncratic assortment: people, places, and events, big and small, ... interesting, amusing, poignant, or peculiar, or that otherwise caught [his] eye."
• British Soldiers, American Revolution. "A place for information about British soldiers who served during the American Revolution, 1775-1783. Thousands of soldiers wore red coats, but little is known about them as individuals. This site will change that, soldier by soldier."

You can find more than 3,000 genealogy blogs listed on the Geneabloggers site and on the blogfinder at Genealogue. New England GeneaBloggers have a Facebook page. (To see a list of members and links to their blogs, click on the "about" tab.) And when you find a blog you like, check its blog roll for other interesting sites the blogger follows.

In case you want to delve into blogging yourself, Geneabloggers includes blog resources and daily blogging prompts.

See also:

• Massachusetts genealogy and history blogs part 1
• Massachusetts society and library blogs

Death in all its details

Obituaries and death records often provide unexpected details that require further research.

Obituaries often give details about relationships, education, memberships, occupations, and even interests, but some gloss over death itself, with words like “after a lingering illness” or “suddenly.” Sometimes you can tell the cause of death by “in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to” a specific charity, such as a cancer foundation or a local hospice.

In some cases, cause of death is the headline, such as “Charlton Girl Dies of Spinal Meningitis.” Interestingly, when I contacted the cemetery for information on the girl’s family plot, I was given an official burial (or removal) permit that notes the cause of death was acute mastoiditis instead. The nine-year-old girl had been at the hospital for two months.

Fifteen years later, the girl's mother died in Connecticut—according to the removal, transit, and burial permit—of “compound fracture skull, laceration of brain (gunshot wound – suicide).” She was 42 and apparently remarried, though her gravestone shows her first husband’s surname. No obituary was written, but there must be police reports that I haven’t tracked down yet.

Over the last few weeks, I have been indexing death records for the FamilySearch Indexing project. Since cause of death is not needed for indexing, I don’t always look at the physician’s notes. However, a few were memorable.

• A 23-year-old married man died at the local drive-in theater of a severed spinal cord. How? He died of a gunshot wound.
• A 27-year-old man died of cancer, after suffering from the disease for seven years. At his young age, he already was a widower.
• In 1937, two men died in a highway car crash. One died of a punctured lung, though the physician also noted he had “broken legs, etc.” The other died of shock, having broken both arms and legs.

Imagine if these were your relatives. You’d be digging into the newspaper accounts, police inquest reports, and probate records, trying to fill in the blanks. And, oh my, what stories would you find?!

Weaving families together in Lowell, Massachusetts

Boott Cotton Mill (credit: Jlpapple)

Recently, my neighbor asked if I could research her father’s genealogy so she could present him with a framed pedigree chart. She had a few names, some dates, all centered on Irish families who settled in Lowell, Massachusetts, years after the Irish potato famine (1845-1852).In the 1820s, Lowell started as a planned textile manufacturing community on the shores of the Merrimack River. In the decades following the Great Hunger, I’ve noticed an uptick in the number of individuals arriving on our shores, specifically to work in mills and factories in Lowell. Known as the “cradle of the Industrial Revolution,” it was a popular destination on ship manifests. Brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, aunts, uncles, and cousins sometimes arrived separately, lured by the promise of steady employment. Trying to weave these families back together becomes the challenge, but it can be done.

I started with a husband and wife who married in the 1930s. Luckily, the man had a somewhat uncommon name, so it was easy finding them on the Social Security Death Index. With birth dates in hand, I found their birth records on FamilySearch.com and AmericanAncestors.org. Both were born in Lowell. However, the husband’s parents came in the 1870s and 1880s in family groups, while the wife’s parents came here seemingly alone.

Using censuses, obituaries, and online cemetery indexes, I was able to recreate these families—not as mere pedigrees but as trees with branches. Without collateral relatives, I would have been lost. Sure, I was able to fill in the pedigree chart to the 5th or 6th generation (21 individuals), but that required a total of 137 individuals and 48 marriages to complete!

Resources in Lowell

Here are a few resources that will help you find relatives in Lowell.

• Pollard Memorial Library (newspapers, city directories, etc.) 
• Center for Lowell History (BMD newspaper indexes and so much more) 
• Lowell City Clerk (vital records) 
• Lowell USGenWeb

Cemeteries in Lowell:

• City of Lowell cemeteries 
• Edson, Westlawn I, and Westlawn II (active) 
• Mammoth Road, School Street, and Old English (inactive) 
• Holy Trinity 
• Lowell Cemetery
• St. Patrick Cemetery

Broken Branch

I spent many, many months trying to fit another family from the same small-town cemetery in the Dakota Territory into my tree, only to discover there's no relation. It was just an odd coincidence that the other couple lived there and were married in another small town in Illinois where my third great-grandparents lived. 

Maureen, the wonderful person who posted the original Find a Grave entries, wrote: "There is a note in cemetery records, '$50 P.C. provided for in will of Mrs. W.F. Halfpenny (Graves 1-5).'" This clue was so helpful because I was able to connect my third great-grandfather Henry not only with his daughter-in-law, but with his great-granddaughter Dunkel, the daughter of Mrs. Halfpenny and her first husband. Prior to this clue, I had no idea my second great grand uncle had any children. Now I know he had at least four, including Mrs. Halfpenny. 

But I had two graves unaccounted for, or so I thought. And, conveniently, there were two young children surnamed Henry in the same cemetery—with no other family nearby. So I researched those two children, found their parents and many siblings, and grandparents, and great-grandparents, and...well, I admit, I was starting to think someone else's research into the earlier generations wasn't correct.

I located the cemetery spreadsheet on the town web site (oh, how convenient and forward-thinking!). After doing a plot number search, I found no other bodies using that plot location. A quick email last night resulted in a note from Heather at City Hall saying no one is buried in graves 2 and 4 next to my relatives in graves 1, 3, and 5. She also included the scan of the 1880s plot map. 

Had I emailed City Hall earlier, I still would have researched that other Henry family. Why? The probability of two intersecting locations in two small towns opened up possibilities, especially when my third great-grandparents had three sons, and I needed to follow the line to a conclusion. Now that I have my answers, I can move on, searching for more dead relatives. 

Honorable mention

In the March 2011 issue of Family Tree Magazine, I'm mentioned in the pull-out section of the Boston City Guide for providing cemetery links. Thanks, Sunny!

Finding cemetery inscriptions and photographs online

Down the street from my house, there was an old cemetery that my sister and I visited—when we dared. We didn’t expect ghosts to rise up or bones to rattle, but it was a disconcerting place. After all, in the first row, there were granite markers for young children who had died, apparently from a contagious disease that nearly wiped out the entire family. We rarely saw anyone else visit the graves or leave flowers. It was a forgotten place, until John Fipphen published Cemetery Inscriptions, Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.

Some cemeteries were visited by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) or Works Progress Administration (WPA), by family or cemetery associations like Friends of Abandoned Cemeteries Inc. Staten Island (FACSI), or by individuals like Fipphen—and their transcriptions may be available in microfilm, book, manuscript, or database format. To help you find such listings, check out books like David Allen Lambert's A Guide to Massachusetts Cemeteries and Janice Kohl Sarapin's Old Burial Grounds of New Jersey. 

However, it's the Internet, which attracts volunteers from all over the world, that has become an essential place to look for transcriptions, gravestone photos, and much more. My favorite site is Find a Grave, which I’ve watched grow exponentially over the years. Below, I’ve listed some national, New England, and local cemetery web sites. Also try search engines such as Google for cemetery listings. You may find currently operating cemeteries have databases online, such as the Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, Maine. Some old cemeteries have been transcribed and posted online too, such as the Hampton, New Hampshire, cemetery database. Or you may find an old book, like Ogden Codman's Gravestone inscriptions and records of tomb burials in the Granary Burying Ground, Boston, Mass., which has the benefit of being published before some vagaries of time and weather erased tombstone details.

No luck finding transcriptions? Search for the cemetery name and location online to find out who owns or maintains it. I've had success contacting cemeteries, funeral homes, churches and religious societies, local libraries, and historical societies for manuscript transcriptions and burial records. For abandoned or town-owned graveyards, contact the town's cemetery division or department of public works.

Don't know where your ancestors are buried? Check if the death certificate or obituary mentions your ancestor's final resting place.  

National/International

Find a Grave

Interment.net Cemetery Records Online

Political Graveyard

USGenWeb Tombstone Transcription Project (see also USGenWeb state and county sites) 

Cemetery Junction

The Association for Gravestone Studies

The Gravestone Project

The Association of Graveyard Rabbits

Grave Addiction

JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry

Tombstones & Monumental Inscriptions - links by Guy Etchells

Military

U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs Nationwide Gravesite Locator

American Battle Monuments Commission

Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System - National Park Service

Patriot & Grave Index - National Society Sons of the American Revolution

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

New England

Farber Gravestone Collection

A Very Grave Matter

New England Cemetery Association

Connecticut

Connecticut Gravestone Network 

New Hampshire

New Hampshire OldGraveyard Association

New Hampshire Cemetery Association

Maine

Maine Old Cemetery Association (MOCA)

Maine Cemetery Association

Massachusetts

Historic Burying Grounds Initiative (HBGI)

17th, 18th, & 19th Century Cape Cod Gravestones

Massachusetts Cemetery Association

Rhode Island

Rhode Island Historical Cemetery Commission

Vermont

Vermont Cemetery Association