War: Death in King Philip's War, 1675 ~ 52 Ancestors #17

Thomas Cooper (my 8th great-grandfather) was born in England about 1617 and left London in March 1634/35 on the Christian as an apprentice of Francis Stiles, who was instructed to teach him the carpentry trade. Thomas was next found in Windsor, Connecticut.

By 1641, Thomas was married (to Sarah Slye) and he was settled in Springfield in 1642, where his youngest eight children's births were recorded. (It is unclear where his eldest child was born, but possibly in Connecticut where he resided briefly before moving to Springfield.) Thomas worked as a carpenter (among other things) in Springfield and he was contracted to build the meetinghouse in 1644.

View of Springfield from the Connecticut River by Alvan Fisher (Brooklyn Museum)

His nine children were Sarah, Timothy, Thomas, Elizabeth, Mary, John (died at age 2), a stillborn daughter, Rebecca, and John (killed by Indians in September 1677 in Hatfield).

Thomas was an Ensign in the Springfield company in 1657. (Remember at this time, all towns had militias in order to protect their communities). He became Lieutenant in 1667. He served in many capacities in Springfield, including serving as one of the first members of their Board of Selectmen in various (not all) years from 1644 through 1674. He served as Clerk of the Writs from 1662 until his death in 1675, suggesting a more than typical education. In 1662 he was also elected as Constable.

Step: Dad's Step-Siblings ~ 52 Ancestors #16

My grandmother, Elizabeth Adsit, known as Libby to everyone including her grandchildren, married Edgar Carter Rust on August 12, 1933, after divorcing my grandfather. 

They had been married for 29 years when this photo was taken.

Elizabeth (Adsit) Rust and Edgar Carter Rust
Summer 1962

Three years after they married, they traveled to Europe with my dad and Edgar's youngest son, Kenneth. I have a couple of photographs from this trip. This one has been enhanced and colorized by MyHeritage.

School Days: Poop-deck Pappy Pyle? ~ 52 Ancestors #15

Someone in my family probably has my dad's high school yearbook, but I can see it at Ancestry's U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-2016 database. He attended Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts, from 1937 to 1942.

The school used and still uses the British educational notations, Forms III, IV, V, and VI, though they now also refer to freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. (Form I and II, also known as seventh and eighth grades, were dropped many years ago.)

The 1942 yearbook includes a history of the class which covers over four pages of the yearbook. Near the end of the "Sixth Form History" was this paragraph.

Favorite Recipe: Spiced Pecans ~ 52 Ancestors #14

In recent years, my mother downsized a couple of times and had consolidated her recipes at the family summer house. When my siblings and I were emptying the kitchen for a renovation, I was given my mother's collection of recipe boxes. This week's theme prompted me to take them out of the bag and see what I have.

It appears that she copied recipes to have at two different residences (and possibly to give away), because I see multiple copies of the same recipes in these boxes. (One being Hermit Cookies, which I blogged about over a dozen years ago.) There are recipes in my grandmother's handwriting, recipes from other relatives and friends, and many cut from newspapers.

Here's a favorite of my mother, me, and my family, in my mother's handwriting.

SPICED PECANS

Worship: Margot Was Not a Methodist ~ 52 Ancestors #13

... in fact, she was never particularly religious.

After graduating from college in 1956, my mother moved to Boston where she met my father when they both worked at the Boston Safe Deposit & Trust Company. Over the course of several years, they fell in love and wished to marry.

In the spring of 1963, my grandmother, Helen (Hunter) Copeland, a devoted Presbyterian, contacted several ministers in the Pittsburgh area (where she lived and where my mother grew up) to ask if they were available to marry her daughter and fiancé in the late summer or early fall of 1963. When a minister would say yes, he was available, he would begin to collect information about Helen's daughter and her intended. 

At this point, Helen would let him know that the wedding would have to wait until her future son-in-law's divorce was final. According to the story, this horrified several ministers that Helen spoke with and they refused to officiate at the wedding of a woman to a man who had just been divorced. I believe some were willing to marry the couple, but told Helen that the couple had to wait a year after the divorce to marry.

My parents didn't want to wait.

Helen was able to find a young Methodist minister who was willing to marry my parents in September. My father's divorce decree was final on August 13, less than seven weeks before his wedding to my mother.

Technology: George Lysle Had an Early Telephone ~ 52 Ancestors #12

My second great-grandfather, George Lysle, was a coal merchant in Pittsburgh. A family story says that in the 1880s, George Lysle's office had one of the earliest telephones in Pittsburgh.

This is either George Lysle, Jr. (1845-1900) or his father George Lysle (1800-1877)

 

George's daughter, Marguerite, was born in 1876 and was not quite nine years old when her mother, Marion, died in 1885. At some point in the 1880s, her father George, who was the owner of George Lysle & Sons Coal Merchants and was briefly on the Pittsburgh School Committee, had a telephone installed in his office. 

Marguerite remembered visiting her father's office and seeing this new contraption and being fascinated by it and by watching her father speak into the device to another person in another location. This was a significant enough memory for her that she shared it with her granddaughter (my mother) sixty-some years later. And thirty or thirty-five years after that, my mother shared this story with me.

Achievement: Margot Wins Able Youth Award ~ 52 Ancestors #11

In 1952, my mother, a senior in high school, took an achievement test sponsored by the Civic Club of Allegheny County (Pennsylvania), the Exceptionally Able Youth Spring Competition.

This is a case where I'm glad I have the original newspaper clippings; they scanned better than the images I found on my favorite subscription newspaper website.

Margot Copeland, of Allison Park, won first place in this achievement test. My grandfather noted the date of this Pittsburgh Press article.

 

Tied for second place were John Trimble and Hugh Pendleton. Suzanne Collins came in fourth.

And here is another photo from the May 29, 1952, Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph of the top four winners.

Language: Dutch, German, French ~ 52 Ancestors #10

Most of my ancestors came from England, Scotland, and Ireland, so their original language was English. However, If I go back far enough in my family tree, I do have some ancestors who came from other locations in Europe.

My sixth great-grandmother, Elizabeth Wendell was born in August 1704 in the Colony of New York to Abraham Wendell and Catharina De Kalj / DeKay. (She was baptized in the Reformed Dutch Church of New Amsterdam on August 20, 1704.) Three of her four grandparents were born in New Amsterdam, New Netherlands, which is what New York City was known as from 1653 to 1664.

I have not researched this branch of my family tree in a long time. My tree in Family Tree Maker has several holes in Elizabeth Wendell's ancestry.

Screenshot Elizabeth Wendell's ancestors in Family Tree Maker

However, others have researched this branch and shared their research in the FamilySearch family tree.  (It is important to note that this is a crowd-sourced, open family tree that can be edited by anyone with a FamilySearch account. I have not verified any of the ancestral links in these generations.)

Changing Names: Frances or Adelaide ~ 52 Ancestors #9

 

This week's theme is Changing Names.

 

My great-grandmother was named Frances Adelaide McAlpin, after her mother, Frances Adelaide (Rose) McAlpin. 

Charles McA. Pyle, Jr. and his paternal grandmother, "Granny Pyle" circa 1927

Heirlooms: The Chapin Genealogy ~ 52 Ancestors #8

 

This week's theme is Heirlooms, and the heirloom I am sharing is a copy of The Chapin Genealogy compiled by Orange Chapin and published in 1862. Exploring this book about 35 years ago, I was fascinated by the fact that through my father's mother, we could trace our ancestry back to one of the founders of Springfield, Massachusetts!

It is this book that started my interest in genealogy.

The 1862 book is not under copyright and can be found online in many places including the Internet Archive, FamilySearch Books, and Ancestry.com, among others. 

However, the one that I have is an heirloom because there were slips of paper bookmarking the pages of one line from Orramel Chapin (1791-1866) back to Samuel Chapin with handwritten notes on those pages. This book has likely been handed down in my family for 125-150 years!

Deacon Samuel Chapin is noted G. G. G. G. G. Grandfather (no. 1), but the line that has been tracked in the book, he should have been noted as the note-taker's 4th great-grandfather. (Depending on which line is traced, he is also a 5th great-grandfather.)

Immigration: Thomas Lord, 1635 ~ 52 Ancestors #7

 

This week's theme is Immigration.

 

I have previously shared a list of some of my Great Migration ancestors who arrived in New England between 1620 and 1635, though the Great Migration period covers twenty years from 1620 to 1640, when the political situation changed in England. The Wikipedia page for the Great Migration has a summary.

One of those ancestors was Thomas Lord, one of the founders of Hartford, Connecticut. There is a lineage society for these descendants, but I am not a member. Thomas's son-in-law, Thomas Stanton, was also a founder of Hartford.

Earning a Living: Firefighter John Hunter ~ 52 Ancestors #6

This week's theme is Earning a Living.

 

There is one firefighter in my family tree of about 6,900 individuals. Great-great-great uncle John Kirk Hunter, third child and second son of my third great-grandparents, Samuel Hunter and Catherine (Carr) Hunter, was born December 1, 1845, in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania (later known as Old Allegheny or North Side Pittsburgh).

He held a few odd jobs before joining the Allegheny City fire department in the 1860s, after serving in the Civil War. He lived and worked in Allegheny City (later Pittsburgh) for the rest of his life.

In 1870, he was living with his mother and working as Engineer, but I'm guessing that it was as an engineer for the local fire company. He was living with his widowed mother. (See Catherine Carr Hunter for more information about her.)

1870 U.S. Census Catherine Hunter household

Sometime in the very early 1870s, he married Emma Bailey and they had three or four children, only two living to adulthood. The 1880 census shows his household with two children (and a sister-in-law) and his occupation as a "City Fire Man."

1880 U.S. Census John K. Hunter household

Newspapers tell much more of the story than census records and city directories (which I'm not sharing here due to the already long post).

Influencer: Percy Hunter and Bridge Safety ~ 52 Ancestors #5

This week's theme is Influencer.

 

A very early post on this blog was about my great-grandfather, Percy Earle Hunter (1873-1937) and his occupation as a civil engineer. 

Percy E. Hunter, 1895

For many years, he was president of the Independent Bridge Company in Pittsburgh, a company that literally built one of the bridges over the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh (the Liberty Bridge), among many other bridges.

Between 1915 and 1937, Percy obtained several patents for annealing boxes, welding apparatuses, bridge structures, and other manufacturing tools.

It appears that he influenced the development of safety railing for bridges and other structures.

Percy E. Hunter has 29 patents to his name, discovered at the Patent Public Search (searching for Applicant Name = Percy AND Applicant Name = Hunter).  (You can also search for patents at Google Patent Search by entering Percy Hunter in the Google Search box provided.)

Witness to History: James Adsit and the Great Chicago Fire ~ 52 Ancestors #4

This week's theme is "Witness to History."

I have written about my second great grandfather, James Monroe Adsit a few times, at First Chicago Banker; when I shared his death certificate; about his New York roots; and also when I listed his children. (He had seven children, three grandchildren, and only one great-grandchild, my dad.)

A biography from Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois: with portraits (1899) states that he arrived in Chicago on April 2, 1838. He was definitely there by 1839 when he is listed in a city directory.

James Monroe Adsit
Born February 5, 1809, Spencertown, Columbia County, New York
Died September 4, 1894, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois

62-year-old James was a witness to the Great Chicago Fire in October 1871. In fact, he was right in the middle of it!

Currier & Ives lithograph from Library of Congress

Handed down in the family is a worn and torn newspaper clipping that had been saved in an envelope for many years. I now keep the paper unfolded, in an acid-free folder in an archival box.

Mr Adsit / Chicago Fire - 1871

Unfortunately, I don't know whose handwriting this is but the envelope and the enclosed newspaper were so important that it has been handed down in the family for over a century!

Favorite Photo: For Jack From Mama ~ 52 Ancestors #3

This week's theme for this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is "Favorite Photo."

I have many photos that I have previously shared under the Wordless Wednesday prompt. Here are a couple that I haven't previously shared.

This is a tiny envelope, about 2.5" x 3.5". On the front is written: "For Jack from Mama."

And on the back is my mother's handwriting identifying the individuals in the photos as James Hunter and Mary (Freeland) Hunter, who are my second great-grandparents. This suggests that the handwriting on the front is my second great-grandmother's, Mary (Freeland) Hunter. Inside this small envelope are four tiny pictures.

I previously shared portraits of them when they were younger.

Origins: John Morgan ~ 52 Ancestors #2

This week's theme for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is "Origins."

Because my ancestors have been in this country (or on the North American continent) for at least a couple hundred years, it's unclear where all of my immigrant ancestors came from. I do know that many came from England, Scotland, Ireland, and a few came from the Netherlands. 

However, my Loyalist ancestors who were in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia, in the latter half of the 18th century didn't all arrive in Guysborough from the former British colonies, now the United States of America. Some may not necessarily have been Loyalist, just immigrating to Canada to make better lives for themselves and their families.

John Morgan "is said to have been a Welsh millwright, and one of the first mills in which he was interested is said to have been on the Hadley property, on a brook east of the old Stiles Hart place." [1]

This is a good clue that my 4th great-grandfather, John Morgan very possibly came to Nova Scotia from Wales, which is now a part of the United Kingdom, but is its own country and has a distinct culture.

Family Lore: Justice Samuel Sewall ~ 52 Ancestors #1

The first week's theme for this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks (from Amy Johnson Crow) is "Family Lore."

Living in New England, we learned about the Salem Witch Trials in school. We also lived close enough to Salem, Massachusetts, that we visited the various historic sites as children. From a young age, we were told that we descended from Justice Samuel Sewall, one of the well-known judges at some of these witch trials.

This family lore is true; we do descend from Justice Samuel Sewall. He is both my 7th great-grandfather and my 8th great-grandfather. (See the ancestral line below.)

1729 painting by John Smibert