Nickname: Townsend Toby Lowell ~ 52 Ancestors #21

My grandfather was born Lowell Townsend Copeland on December 21, 1900, to Lowell Copeland and Ethel May Greeley. This is his Cook County, Illinois, birth certificate.

He was called Townsend, to differentiate himself from his father. He is Townsend in census records, on the back of photographs, and in school yearbooks.

In this labeled photograph, Grandfather was 2 years, 9 months old. His nurse / nanny was Elvira and he was very fond of her. This was likely taken at his home or his maternal grandfather's home in Winnetka, Illinois.

For Aunt Ruth [Ruth Lyman Wells, 1862-1943]
Townsend and his Elvira
Sept 1902

Taking Care of Business: Martin Adsit ~ 52 Ancestors #20

My second great grandfather, James Monroe Adsit, was born in Spencertown, Columbia County, New York, and was in Chicago, Illinois by 1838, becoming one of its earliest bankers. I previously shared his photograph and I share it again here.

James Monroe Adsit (1809-1894)

His younger brother, Martin Noah Adsit, also born in Spencertown, was in Hornellsville, Steuben County, New York by 1826 (according to obituaries) with his uncle Ira Davenport (brother of my third great-grandmother, Fanny (Davenport) (Adsit) Davis). He remained in Hornellsville until his death in December 1903, just shy of his 91st birthday.

Hornellsville is about 300 miles west of Spencertown.

I found great information about this third great uncle in New York newspapers.

Preserve: Mary Lois Hunter ~ 52 Ancestors #19

This week's theme is Preserve. I have so many items that have been saved and handed down to me as the family historian, so it was hard (but fun) to choose one item to share.

My second great-grandparents, James Hunter and Mary (Freeland) Hunter, had ten children. Their ninth child (my great great aunt) died at age 22.

Pennsylvania, U..S., Death Certificates, 1906-1970, courtesy Ancestry.com

Her death certificate reports that she died on April 14, 1911, at Allegheny General Hospital, of "General Peritonitis following operation for appendicitis & floating kidney." Interestingly, her oldest brother, H.L. Hunter, of Cincinnati, Ohio, was the informant. Her parents both died in 1902.

What is the preserved item here? I have a copy of her original will, written about three weeks before her death.

Love and Marriage: Henry and Sarah, 1858 ~ 52 Ancestors #18

Maine Marriages, 1771-1907, FamilySearch

My second great-grandparents, Henry C. Copeland and Sarah Lowell, both of Calais, Maine, were married on Wednesday, December 15, 1858. They submitted their intention to marry with the city clerk on December 9. (By the way, the City Clerk's name is Samuel Lambe; it took some creativity to confirm that signature.)

Calais, Washington County, Maine, is one of the northernmost locations in my family tree. It is 330 miles from Boston, a long way to travel in the mid-19th century.