Wells Siblings Stayed Close to Home ~ 52 Ancestors #4

This week's theme is Close to Home.

My third great-grandfather, Thomas Goodwin Wells (1804-1873), traveled from New Hampshire to California, and back to Massachusetts where he died. He was one of ten children of Dr. Thomas Goodwin Wells and Lucinda Lyman. Of these ten children, almost all of whom were born in Hopkinton, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, a few traveled hundreds of miles from New Hampshire (Georgia, Texas, California), but most remained in New Hampshire.

Siblings, Lucinda Lyman Wells (b. 1806), Edwin Ruthwin Wells (b. 1814), and Ruth Lyman Wells (b. 1816), all remained in Hopkinton, where they died within days of each other in 1882.

Brother, Edwin, actually did move around during his lifetime; he lived in Pittsburgh, California, and Georgia, before returning to New Hampshire. The two sisters, Lucinda and Ruth, lived together in Hopkinton for their entire lives.

This newspaper article from the Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers database (accessed using my AmericanAncestors.org subscription) lists each of the siblings who died within a week of each other in March 1882.

"Fatality from Pneumonia," Independent Statesman (Concord, New Hampshire), 23 March 1882, p. 196, col. 8;
digital images, Gale Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers via AmericanAncestors (https://www.americanancestors.org : accessed 25 January 2020).

"Mrs. Long," the surviving sibling in this household, was Marcia Emeline Wells, widow of Edward Long, who survived her brother and sisters by just over seven years.

Many members of the family are buried at Old Hopkinton Cemetery in Hopkinton, New Hampshire. The FindAGrave memorial for Edwin shows links to memorials for his parents and siblings.

Long Lines of Stantons ~ 52 Ancestors #3

This week's theme is Long Line. I have a lot of colonial New England ancestors and I thought I'd share my Stanton lines in a "Surname Saturday" styled post.

Generation 1: Thomas Stanton (1617-1677) married Anna Lord (1614-1688) about 1636 probably in Connecticut.

Stonington within New London, Conn.
image courtesy Wikipedia

Thomas Stanton has been written about extensively. He likely arrived in Massachusetts in 1635 and was in Hartford, Connecticut by 1636, as one of its original settlers. About 1651, he and his family moved to New London, Connecticut, and a few years later, moved to the area now known as Stonington, Connecticut. He and his family owned land on both sides of the Pawcatuck River which now divides Connecticut and Rhode Island. Many descendants were recorded as living in Stonington, but a few were recorded as living in Westerly, Rhode Island.

One of Thomas's special skills was that he mastered Indian dialects very quickly, which made him very helpful in negotiating with Indians. In 1643, he was appointed Indian Interpreter for all of New England by the Commissioners of the United Colonies.

There is a Thomas Stanton Society which is an organization with membership for those who can show that they descend from him and has a separate membership for those who cannot meet the pedigree requirement. (I am not a member.) Their website provides a lot of information about him and offers many resources for research.

Thomas Stanton died December 2, 1677, and is buried in Stonington. His FindAGrave memorial has additional information about him, as well as the memorials of his ten children linked to him (even though they don't all have burial locations).

Thomas and Anna had ten known children, and I descend from their sons Joseph, Robert, and Samuel.

1903 Photo Mary Adsit ~ 52 Ancestors #2

I am hoping to blog more, using Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks themes, and this week's theme is Favorite Photo. (And, no, you didn't miss post #1; I didn't post last week.)

I am very lucky to have many family photos and I have many favorites. See my many posts with the tag Wordless Wednesday.

Here is a portrait of my great-grandmother, Mary Bowman (Ashby) Adsit, taken in July 1903 according to a penciled notation on the back.

She would have been 40 years old.

Mary Bowman Ashby was born in Glasgow, Kentucky, in 1863 (though for most of her life, she lied about her age). She married Charles Chapin Adsit in 1890.  They settled in Chicago, where she gave birth to her son in July 1892 and to her daughter (my grandmother, Libby) in June 1897. I shared a photo of her with her son at M. B. Adsit and C. C. Adsit Jr. Circa 1893.

I also shared a photo of brother and sister at Wordless Wednesday ~ 1904 Car.

I have several portraits and photographs of Mary Adsit throughout her long life and she always looked very stylish.