Resolution: Susan Rood (Again) ~ 52 Ancestors #52

I'm not a huge fan of New Year's Resolutions, but I do have a goal for 2025. I have signed up for the Research Like a Pro e-course in which I will spend a year working on a genealogical research question using the Research Like a Pro process. (The year-long e-course will be more manageable for me than their usual 9-week study group.)

Of course, my longstanding brick wall ancestor is going to be my research question: Who are the parents of Susan (Rood) Chapin, born 26 January 1799, who married Orramel Chapin on 17 September 1816, in Ludlow, Massachusetts?

I wrote about Susan in 2012 (Susan Rood's Parents), and again in 2015 (Susan Rood Chapin - A Challenging to Research Ancestor).

The key sources I have include an embroidered sampler, created by her daughter, Susan Arville Chapin, which I wrote about in 2011 (Chapin Family Sampler).

Lost at Sea: Lyman Morey ~ 52 Ancestors #44

I have been building out the family tree of my paternal line to help to determine the biological father of James Pyle, my second great-grandfather. (See Narrowing Down the Non Paternal Event.)

James Pyle's sister Elizabeth married William Scott in the 1840s, probably in Guysborough, Nova Scotia. (Maybe James's son, William Scott Pyle was named after this uncle?) 

William and Elizabeth had several daughters, one of whom, Annetta (Netty), married a Maine-born fisherman, Lyman Morey, in 1873 in Gloucester, Massachusetts. This was not uncommon; many fishermen sailed between Massachusetts, Maine, and Nova Scotia, and likely found their love interests in a community away from home.

In 1880, widow Annetta Morey was living in Gloucester with two young sons. by 1881, she had returned with her two young sons to her parents' home in Guysborough. How was it that a 29-year-old mother of two was already a widow? 

Her husband died in February 1879, which has been referred to as the deadliest month for the Gloucester fishing fleet. He was a fisherman on the Schooner Gwendolen.

The Boston Globe Evening Edition, 12 March 1879 (Newspapers.com), p. 4, col. 4.

John Hull, Mintmaster ~ 52 Ancestors #39

Earlier this week, while reading an article in The Boston Globe about one of the oldest American coins being put up for auction, I thought I saw a familiar name and checked my family tree.

John Hull, authorized as "mintmaster" by the Massachusetts General Court in 1652, is my 8th great grandfather.

He and a colleague, Robert Sanderson, established a mint in Boston, about where Macy's currently is located, according to the Boston Globe article. The earliest coins minted in America were at this mint in Boston in 1652. The men continued to mint coins for several decades, but all were dated 1652 to be able to claim that the coins were made during the period right after the English Civil War. (Otherwise minting of coins in the colonies was a treasonous act!)

Image from The Boston Globe article

John Hull was born in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, England, on December 18, 1624, to Robert and Elizabeth Hull. The family immigrated to Boston in 1635, where his father, was granted 25 acres for farming, though he primarily worked as a blacksmith. 

Copeland Cenotaphs in Maine ~ 52 Ancestors #37

A cenotaph is a cemetery marker placed in honor of a person whose remains are elsewhere.

I have a few ancestors who have what appear to be two burial locations, but it turns out that they are buried in one place and have a cenotaph in another.

My second great-grandmother, Sarah (Lowell) Copeland, was born in Calais, Maine, in 1833, living there until the death of her husband, Henry Clay Copeland in 1912 (in Calais). Soon after, she moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to live with her daughter, Katherine (Copeland) Dunbar and her husband, William Dunbar. When she died on January 9, 1916, her remains were buried in the Copeland-Dunbar plot (Cherry Avenue, Section 6, Lot 49) in Forest Hills Cemetery, in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, a neighborhood of Boston, not too far from Cambridge.

S. L. C.
1833 - 1916

Louisa May Greeley, Health Teacher ~ 52 Ancestors #23

Louisa May Greeley was born in December 1895, in Winnetka, Illinois, to Morris Larned Greeley and Anne Sophia Foote. She was half first cousin of my grandfather, Lowell Townsend Copeland.

She attended Wellesley College, graduating in 1918 with a BA degree from the "department of hygiene."

Wellesley College Yearbook, 1918, p. 115

The one other yearbook page that I find her on is the Running page. I have placed a blue star to identify who I believe is Louisa.

Wellesley College Yearbook, 1918, p. 172

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.

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.

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

Stories From the Census ~ Libby in 1950

My paternal grandmother (born Elizabeth Adsit) was called by her nickname, Libby, even by her grandchildren. I found her under the name Elizabeth A. Rust relatively easily in the 1950 census using the National Archives index.

She and her (second) husband, Edgar C. Rust, lived in Newton, Massachusetts.

Not all their information in the census is accurate, making me wonder who provided the details to the census enumerator. Perhaps Libby provided the information and didn't want to be truthful because she was about 15 years younger than her husband. The census reported that they were five years apart in age.

1950 U.S. census, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Newton, ED 26-89, sheet 8, lines 1-5, household 51 (Edgar C Rust & family); U.S. National Archives, 1950 Census (https://1950census.archives.gov/search/).

Edgar C. Rust, age 65 [actually 67], and Elizabeth A. Rust, age 60 [actually 52], both born in Massachusetts [actually Libby was born in Illinois], lived at 22 Gatehouse Rd. in Newton. (Not quite the right address - more about that below.)

Edgar worked 45 hours the previous week as an Executor in a Banking Firm. Libby is listed as "H" (keeping house). Three maids lived with them: 65-year-old Katherine M. Fannon, a widow, born in Ireland; 50-year-old Theresa Walsh, never married, born in Ireland; and 45-year-old Susan H. MacWhister, never married, born in Scotland. These women worked 60 (!) hours during the previous week as maids for a private family. (Libby's "keeping house" was likely telling the maids what needed to be done.)

The 1950 census included space either at the top or the bottom of each page for the enumerator to write additional notes about the households on that page. Be sure to take a look at any notes on the page.

Stories from the Census ~ Dad (Again!) in 1950

 Last week, I shared my dad's story from the 1950 census.

A couple of days later, I learned that Ancestry.com has made their 1950 US Census index available for all states and territories, due to confidence in their proprietary artificial intelligence technology that created a separate index than what NARA has (both created by using OCR on handwriting but using their own technology). You do have to set up a free account, but that provides you with access to not only the 1950 US Census, but the 1940 US Census and the 1880 US Census among other free indexes.

You can hear Ancestry's Crista Cowen excitedly explain what Ancestry has done in a YouTube video from last Wednesday.

So to check out this newly-available index, I entered Dad's name into the search boxes. He appeared at the top of the results page... twice! Notice the differences in the column "Home in 1950."

The first result is the one I shared last week. Dad was living at 156 Thornton Road in Brookline, Norfolk County, Massachusetts.

The second result (Jeannette's name was spelled incorrectly in both indexes), shows that he lived at 156 Thornton Road, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts.

Stories From the Census ~ Dad in 1950

Finding my dad in the recently released 1950 U.S. Census was a challenge, as he wasn't living where I thought he would be living.

He was in Brookline, Massachusetts, at 156 Thornton Road, which is about as close to the border of the Boston neighborhood of West Roxbury as you can get. The red line on the enumeration district (ED) map below represents the town/city line for Brookline and West Roxbury.

The map suggests that Thornton Road was quite new. Look closely at the lettering where the white arrow is pointing in ED 11-137 - it looks like it was added after the rest of the lettering on the map.

This was and still is known as the Hancock Village apartments. These low-rise brick apartment buildings were built in the late 1940s for returning WWII veterans. Some more history of this area can be found at the Preserve Brookline website.

Same Name: Ruth ~ 52 Ancestors #6

This week's theme is Same Name. I have several branches of my family where I have trouble remembering different generations of ancestors because of names being repeated.

Here is a case where the name Ruth appears in seven generations. As I've noted before, a picture helps visualize this.

Edward Randolph Gay Married Two of My Cousins

Edward Randolph Gay was born in September 1898 to Edwin Francis Gay and Louise Randolph. In 1902, his father started teaching at Harvard, and in 1906 became Professor of Economic History. He was the first Dean of the Harvard Business School from 1908 to 1919 and was president of the New York Evening Post from 1920 to 1923. [1]

Edward graduated from Harvard University in 1919 and from the Business School in 1920. He served in World War I. [2]

By 1923, he was an assistant dean of Harvard College. Although Ancestry's Yearbook collection doesn't currently include Harvard University's 1919 yearbook, it does include 1923, with Edward's photo on the page with the other deans of the college.

Harvard Class Album 1923 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1923), p. 11; image, "U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-1999," Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 September 2019)

Edward married Rose Dunbar, on 20 July 1923, at Northeast Harbor, Maine. The Boston Globe description of the wedding is full of Harvard references. Edward's best man was Charles Franklin Dunbar, a Harvard junior, and Rose's brother. [see note 2]

Rose's paternal grandfather, Charles F. Dunbar, founded the department of political economy at Harvard, was dean of the college and, later, dean of the faculty. [see note 2]

Charles and Rose's mother was Katherine Copeland, younger sister of Lowell Copeland (my great-grandfather), and Charles Townsend Copeland, Harvard English professor. Katherine died just over a year later. Rose was my first cousin twice removed.

However, by May of 1925, Edward and Rose Dunbar were divorced, as he married Rose (Greeley) Pritchard, as her second husband, in Santa Ana, California. [3] She was my half first cousin twice removed.

Rose Greeley was the adopted daughter of Louis May Greeley and his wife Anna Lowell Dunbar.

With all the repeating names and multiple marriages, I had to draw a picture to see how Edward Randolph Gay's wives were related to my grandfather, Lowell Townsend Copeland.

Frederick Greeley Crocker Died in 1942

The younger son of Harriet Greeley and her first husband, Alvah Crocker, Jr., was Frederick Greeley Crocker. He was born in 1911 in France and married Mary Jane Bigelow in June 1934, just before his graduation from Harvard. They settled in Milton, Massachusetts.

During their first years of marriage, Frederick attended Harvard Business School, graduating in 1936.

Harvard University, "Harvard Business School Yearbook, 1934-35," p. 109, "Frederick Greeley Crocker"; image,
"U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-1999," Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 26 August 2019).

This yearbook entry suggests that although his home was "The Hilltop" in Fitchburg, he was possibly living in Brookline while attending Harvard.

At Harvard, Frederick was a member of the naval R.O.T.C. and was commissioned an ensign in the naval reserve at the time of his graduation. While in the naval reserve, he worked for a Boston investment banking firm and then with a manufacturing firm. Three sons were born to the couple, with the third born during World War II.

He was called into service in the summer of 1940 and was assigned to active sea duty in the summer of 1941. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant (J G) in December 1941, and then to Lieutenant (S G) in the spring of 1942.

Greeley Half Cousins - Harriet's Second Marriage

Harriet (Greeley) Crocker became a widow at 32 years old with four children under the age of ten. It was another three years before she remarried.

She married Norman Harrower of Fitchburg and had one son with him. In 1930, they were living on Flat Rock Road, either next door or very close to her former parents-in-law in Fitchburg. The Alvah Crocker household immediately preceded the Norman Harrower household in the census.

1930 U.S. Census, Worcester County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Fitchburg Ward 3, enumeration district 174, sheet 14A, dwelling 166, family 357, Norman Harrower; image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 July 2019); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 963.

Alvah Crocker Died in the Great War

My grandfather, Lowell Townsend Copeland, had several half first-cousins because his grandfather, Samuel Sewall Greeley, married twice and had many more descendants from his first marriage than his second. I have found several DNA matches among these descendants, as well as some interesting stories that I think tell me a little more about my grandfather.

One of grandfather's cousins, Harriet Greeley, was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1885. She was daughter of Frederick Greeley, the oldest son of Samuel Sewall Greeley. (See Surname Saturday ~ Greeley for my Greeley line.)

She married Alvah Crocker, of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, in 1907, in what sounded like a lovely wedding in Winnetka, Illinois.

"Country Wedding in Winnetka," Chicago Tribune, 20 October 1907, p. 4, col. 1; image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/350217401/ : accessed 25 August 2019).

The couple settled in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, after their marriage, where the Crocker family had been prominent in Fitchburg for many decades. Alvah Jr.'s father was a manufacturer of paper and his great-grandfather (also named Alvah) in addition to being a paper manufacturer, was a U.S. Congressman.

Alvah, Jr. was studying to be an architect and by 1909, was in Paris, France, to study art and architecture, bringing his wife and first child with him. The youngest was born in early 1917, just before her father, Alvah, joined the military.

Bonus Birthplaces in the 1865 Massachusetts State Census

The availability of state censuses varies tremendously. They were usually taken in between federal censuses. State censuses for 1855 and 1865 are the only ones that survive for Massachusetts.

While working on the last assignment for my ProGen Study group, I realized that I had never looked for my Willis and Wells family in these state censuses. It turns out that the family didn't move from New Hampshire to Massachusetts until after the 1855 Massachusetts census enumeration.

But here they are in 1865, living in Brookline.

1865 Massachusetts State Census, Norfolk County, population schedule, Brookline, p. 88, dwelling 499, family 620, Benjamin Willis; image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 May 2019).

Reverend Joseph Sewall, 1688-1769 ~ 52 Ancestors #36

I am participating in this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from Amy Johnson Crow. Each week has an optional writing prompt and last week's writing prompt was Work.

I explored my tree for unusual occupations, and found a somewhat famous minister in my ancestry.

Son of Justice Samuel Sewall of Boston, Joseph Sewall, my 6th great-grandfather, was the fourth minister of Old South Church in Boston, serving from 1713 until his death in 1769. [Church website and Wikipedia]

Old South Church is one of the older religious communities in the United States. It was organized by Congregationalist dissenters from Boston's First Church and was known as the Third Church (to distinguish it from the First and Second Congregational Churches in the city). The Third Church's congregation met first in their Cedar Meeting House (1670), then at the Old South Meeting House (1729) at the corner of Washington and Milk Streets in Boston.

The following image, in the public domain, is a John Smibert (1688-1751) oil on canvas painting done about 1735 of the Reverend Joseph Sewall. Photo credit: Yale University Art Gallery.

Son of Justice Samuel Sewall and his wife, Hannah Hull, Joseph was born at Boston on August 15, 1688, and baptized at the Old South Church on August 19, 1688. He was his parents' eighth child and sixth son. He attended Harvard College, graduating in 1707 and completing his second degree in 1710.

He was elected as associate minister of Old South in 1712 and ordained in September of 1713. About six weeks later, he married Elizabeth Walley, daughter of Hon. John Walley and Sarah Blossom. (Justice John Walley was an associate of Joseph's father, Samuel, for many years.) He and Elizabeth had two children; only one survived infancy: Samuel, born in 1715.

He was offered the presidency of Harvard College, which he declined (he wanted to remain in Boston), but did serve as a fellow of the college from 1728 to 1765.

He served as minister at Old South for 56 years, from 1713 until his death in 1769.  He baptized so many children that when I perform a search for his name in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register at AmericanAncestors.org, there are thousands of results.

Only three of his father's 14 children outlived him, and Joseph outlived all his siblings. He died at Boston on June 27, 1769 and two days later, was buried at the Granary Burying Ground in Boston. See his FindAGrave memorial, where there is a brief biography, though no gravestone photo. An obituary in the Boston Post-Boy reports that "Scarce any one ever passed through life with a more unblemished character, or performed its various duties with more universal esteem."

Sources include:
Hamilton Andrews Hill, "The Rev. Joseph Sewall: His Youth and Early Manhood," The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 46 (1896): 3-10; digital images, American Ancestors (http://www.americanancestors.org : accessed 11 September 2018).

Obituary, Joseph Sewall, Boston Post-Boy, 3 July 1769, issue 393, p. 2; digital image, GenealogyBank (https://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 11 September 2018).

"Old South Church," Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_South_Church : accessed 11 September 2018).

"Old South Meeting House," Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_South_Meeting_House : accessed 11 September 2018).

~~~~~~~

My descent from Reverend Joseph Sewall is as follows. His third great-grandson, Samuel Sewall Greeley, married his fourth great-granddaughter, Eliza May Wells.

Joseph Sewall

|

Samuel Sewall

|

Dorothy Sewall

|

Louisa May (sister of Elizabeth Sewall May)

|

Samuel Sewall Greeley (married Eliza May Wells)

|

Ethel May Greeley

|

Lowell Townsend Copeland
|
my mother

|

me

Second line:

Joseph Sewall

|

Samuel Sewall

|

Dorothy Sewall

|

Elizabeth Sewall May (sister of Louisa May)

|

Elizabeth Sewall Willis

|

Eliza May Wells (married Samuel Sewall Greeley)

|

Ethel May Greeley, see above

Samuel Sewall Greeley and Eliza May Wells were first cousins once removed.

Ruth Lyman Wells ~ 52 Ancestors #18

I am participating in this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from Amy Johnson Crow. Each week has an optional writing prompt and this week's writing prompt is Close Up.

I feel like I know an ancestor "close up" when I have many photographs of that ancestor in addition to other documents.

My third great aunt, Ruth Lyman Wells (1862-1943), not to be confused with her father's sister, my fourth great aunt, Ruth Lyman Wells (1816-1882), was a much younger sister of my second great-grandmother, Eliza May Wells (1839-1880), who married Samuel Sewall Greeley.

Following are just a few of several photographs that I have of Ruth, who was born July 28, 1862.

This photograph has a Civil War revenue stamp on the back with a May 29 date, suggesting a year 1865. (Revenue stamps were in use from July 1864 to July 1866.)

Ruth was born in Brookline, Massachusetts (close to me; this is just a few miles from where I live) and lived there, in Cambridge, or in Boston all of her life.

However, she did travel.