I knew there was a reason that I liked Sam Adams beer!

Must be that fact that after spending just about all day yesterday working on my tree I discovered that I am a 4th cousin 9x removed of John Adams [yup, the President John Adams]

 and Sam Adams [yup, Sons of Liberty Sam Adams]!

I just sat there for the longest time time thinking 'how cool is that'!?!?

Here's how it started.................

I received a hint on a Henry Adams for my tree at Ancestry.com. Curious as to who this Henry Adams might be, I started to investigate.

This particular Henry Adams had been born in England in 1531 and was my 13th great grandfather!! Talk about a hint! Sheesh! 

I started researching him and the first thing that pops up is a FindAGrave.com reference, so I click on the link............

Not very interesting until I read the source material at the bottom which reads "Source: Henry Adams of Somersetshire, England and Braintree, Mass., compiled by J. Gardner Bartlett for Edward Dean Adams, 1927

Being a history buff I honed in on Braintree right away. Anyone knowing a bit of history knows that President John Adams came from Braintree [now Quincy] Massachusetts. That's when the spark ignited and this little tiny voice in my head said 'just maybe!!!'

So, a million pieces of paper later...............

this is what I came up with:

Henry Adams was my 13th great grandfather, he had a son,

Richard Adams, my 12th great grandfather, he had a son,

Robert Adams, my 11th great grandfather, he had a son,

Robert Adams, my 10th great grandfather, he had a daughter,

Elizabeth Adams Phelps, my 9th great grandmother, she had a daughter,

Eleanor Phelps Chandler, my 8th great grandmother, she had a son,

William Moses Chandler, Jr, my 7th great grandfather, he had a daughter, 

Lydia Chandler Crosby, my 6th great grandmother, she had a son,

Ezra Crosby, my 5th great grandfather, he had a daughter,

Sybil Crosby Wheeler, my 4th great grandmother, she had a daughter,

Martha Wheeler Bryant, my 3rd great grandmother, she had a son,

Walter Roland Bryant, my 2nd great grandfather, he had a daughter,

Martha Ada Bryant White, my great grandmother, who had a daughter,

Mildred Ada White Tingley Van Keuren, who had a daughter,

June Carole Tingley Roth, who had a daughter............

ME!!

You should be asking now - so where does John Adams come in?

Well, Richard, mentioned above had a bunch of sons, we descend through his son, Robert, and John Adams descends through his son, Henry.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, Sam Adams also descends through Henry, so I am also a 4th cousin 9x removed from him also!

Whew!!

Family Historian shoes are being worn today by...............

Cousin Kenny!

The above picture was taken yesterday, June 28, 2014, at Greenfield Cemetery #2, Greenfield, ME, where Kenny's grandparents, Kenneth and Esther White are buried. To the right of Kenny is my mother, June and my grandmother, Millie, is sitting in her walker. Kenneth was Millie's older brother. We were happy to see that someone had left a hanging geranium by the stone and Kenny's wife, Diane, and I quickly picked off all of the spent blooms and dead leaves!

There is also a small stone in the plot with only the word 'White' upon it. Kenny said that his grandfather told him that Franklin [Kenneth's brother] and a stillborn baby were both buried there. Franklin also died very young. I knew this, but I hadn't been able to find out where he was buried. Grammie [Martha White] doesn't mention the stillbirth in her autobiography, but I knew of it from my genealogical research. I also hadn't been able to find out if the child had been buried. So TWO family mysteries solved thanks to Kenny!

Next stop was Number One Cemetery. Kenny said that he was there often as a child and they would picnic at the cemetery. We are related to just about everyone buried in this cemetery.

My nephew, Joshua, hanging out with relatives!

Kenny was also able to take us to the house where he says his grandfather told him my grandmother, Millie, was born. My grandmother doesn't remember the house as she was 3 when they moved away, but Kenny said he remembered it was the house by the well that is out front. We turned off of Greenfield Road and went about 5.5 miles and the house was on the left.

I thought I had gotten some better pictures of my grandmother by the house, but apparently not. The present owner has done quite a bit of work to it, but says the original stone foundation is intact. He said that his father bought the property in 1968 from the Hall family.  I have a map of Greenfield in 1860, but it is at home in Minnesota. Now that I have physically been to this house, it will be interesting to take that map and try to figure out who lived where.


Needed a water break and in between the cemetery and my grandmother's birthplace, on Crocker Turn Rd. Kenny remembered that there was a camp with a water pump. He said that he and his grandfather would stop here often. The kids had a great time and 3 yr old Joshua even took a turn.

It was a beautiful, sunny day and after a small adventure on a typical Maine backwoods dirt road, we found our way to the building that was the local schoolhouse. We all wondered how in the world they got to this building about 100 years ago, since it was a good 6 mile drive from my grandmother's birthplace and figured they must have walked, but they way I walk I'd get there just in time to turn around and walk back home!

Good times were had by all. I hope we have many more............

Days just fly by, don't they?

Can't believe it's been so many days since I posted! My mother is visiting from Maine and the days are going quickly. We've been talking about the neat family facts and stories I've found out over the past year, but  I don't seem to be getting much actual genealogy done!

I did get some frustrating news yesterday. I received a 'no record found' notice in the mail from the State of Pennsylvania on my great grandfather, Arthur Lawless. I'm about 99% positive that he died in Pennsylvania so this is not the news I was expecting. He was living in Milford, PA when he passed and his social security checks were going to Milford. Hmmmm, guess I will have to try to get a copy of his social security application. I'll also check New Jersey since Milford was right on the border, but it doesn't seem likely as the nearest big town to Milford is Scranton, PA, which is to the west of Milford. Oh well, guess I have more digging to do!

I know I promised to talk about our visit with Drew's Aunt Suzie, but haven't gotten my notes organized yet!!

ttfn

Suzie who?

Yes, it's an obvious pun on the CCR song Suzue Q, but I couldn't resist!

Short and sweet today. Picking my mother up at the airport today and it's a 4 hour drive. Had a wonderful time visiting with Drew's Aunt Suzie yesterday. Got quite a bit of information that I didn't know. If I know myself though it will be Monday before I get to writing about it. If I really really organized I'd take my laptop and write something this evening from the hotel. Yup, not that organized!

Later!

PS: Aunt Suzie's given name is Helen and I now know why she's called Suzie!!

You want WHO to come to dinner?

I've often been asked the question 'if you could have dinner with anyone in the world, living or dead, who would that be?'

Over the years my answer has changed little except for the fact that it keeps getting longer!
Eleanor of Aquitaine, Eleanor Roosevelt, Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great and a few others, all incredibly smart, strong women who persevered in a man's world. I'd like to add my 3rd great grandmother to this list, Martha D Wheeler Bryant.

She was born in 1825 in Hampden, Maine, which is just south of Bangor. Hampden had only been Hampden for about 30 years. Before that it was known as Wheelersborough, after Benjamin Wheeler, who I believe was Martha's great grandfather [still researching this].  I can't even imagine what it would be like living in Maine in 1825. I thought Maine was isolated and out of touch in the 1980's!

She married John F. Bryant, a cooper, in 1847 and they promptly moved to Castine, ME, where her first son, Horatio, was born in 1850. They must have moved to Fairfield, ME soon after that because Horatio died in January of 1853, not quite two and a half years old. Then, to top that off, she had her second son, Lewellyn in August 1853.

I lose them for a bit after that, but I know that her next child Roland Walter [or Walter Roland depending on what document you are reading] was born in 1855 and then her last child, Ada, was born in 1857.

Then comes the Civil War and off John goes on June 24, 1861. They were living in Bethel at the time. John gets killed in action in Maryland in 1862, so she was left with 3 children under 10 years of age.  That's hard enough in today's world, just ask my sister! I can't even imagine the hardship doing it 150 years ago all by yourself! But she did it.

Then, along comes Jonas Flye and her strength and courage are put to the test. You see, she had been getting a widow's pension for her and the children, but somewhere along the way he and/or she decided their lives would be better off if they merged. So, on March 19, 1867 Martha and Jonas married. Only problem was that Jonas was already married!! Yup, ALREADY MARRIED!

Interesting, huh? Yeah, I thought so, too! So, more searching, searching, searching and without going through all the boring stuff, I've pieced together what happened as best I can.

She must have been furious when she found out, as she went right to a lawyer, who must have been a pretty progressive lawyer because back in the 1860's women didn't have many rights. Hubby held all the cards. She went after him with a vengence. She tracked down his first wife [real wife?] and then got the wife to swear to the courts that Jonas had abandoned her. So, fine, marriage is annulled and all is right with the world, right? WRONG!

When she married Jonas she automatically lost her widow's pension, On top of that, she had made Jonas guardian of her minor children. So she had her annulment, but now she had to get guardianship of her children back and THEN she had prove to the US government that she deserved to have her widow's pension re-instated. Yeah, right. Might as well grow wings. Most widow's pension applications are between 5 and 8 pages long. Martha's was 72!!

She never gave up. I can just picture her marching into her attorney's office and telling him in no uncertain terms that they were going to keep on until she got justice. And she did it. She got her children back [not that they physically left her, but you know what I mean] and she got her pension re-instated.

She then went on to outlive all of her children......Ada was 17 when she passed in 1874 and then Walter Roland, who is my direct descendant, passed in 1899.

All have markers in Maplewood Cemetery in Fairfield, ME. Whether they are all actually buried there is a story for another day!

Now you know why I'd want to invite this incredible woman to dinner!!

Thank goodness for my mother-in-law !

My MIL, may she rest in peace, kept a lot of stuff that we didn't know about until we were sorting through her things after she passed.  What a goldmine of genealogical information! So I've been scanning my little butt off this weekend. Figured I'd better get to it before we get some nice weather. It's a bit of a pain that I have to import the scans to my laptop, edit them there, put them on a flashdrive and then import them onto my desktop. I have Photoshop on my desktop, but I've never really taken the time to figure it all out. Much easier for me right now to just use the windows program on my laptop. Lazy, I know, but it does the trick for now. As soon as I get them all gussied up I'll share!

Short and sweet today, I'm pooped!

Oh, you can sign up by email now, so every time I post something you'll know about it!

11 children.......really???!!??

Received my great grandfather's birth certificate from New York a few days ago and just really got to looking at it today. This is on my father's mother's side, so we're talking about my Nana's father.  His name was Arthur Lawless and I've been trying to track him down for awhile. Turns out his name on his birth certificate is spelled Artis Lawliss. No wonder I couldn't find him before this! The fact that I DID find him now let's me know that my sleuthing skills are improving. I have confirmation of his date of birth and it states that he is my great  great grandmother's 11th child!! Sheesh....................

I only know about 8 so I'll have to do some digging. I suspect that they didn't all make it to adulthood. I was proud of her for having 8 make it through their childhood. We're talking Brooklyn in the 1870's and 80's and they were definitely not wealthy.  My great great grandfather's death certificate states he was living in a tenement.

So another piece of the large puzzle is now in place. a small piece, but a piece nonetheless!!

til next time..................

Ok, here goes nothing [gulp!]

My first blog post! Don't know quite where to start! My brain was full of things to write about until I actually sat down to write!

Guess Ill start with my latest adventure - a trip to Elmhurst Cemetery in St. Paul, MN.  This adventure truly started when my niece, Kimberly, made an extraordinary discovery.  Drew received a phone call from her asking if we knew someone named Anna Solberg or William Bley. Hubby said that Anna was his grandmother and Bill Bley was his grand uncle. Imagine our surprise when Kimmie said that she was cleaning out a closet at the Veteran's Administration where she works and came across a grave marker for William Bley!! So after some phone calls and digging into family papers we determined that William was buried at Elmhurst Cemetery. 

Our daughter, Caity, turned 21 on April 23rd and she wanted her father and I to come down to the Cities for a couple of days to celebrate. She wasn't too happy about having to make a pit stop at a cemetery, but gave in graciously and was a trooper. As we were going to be there on the weekend, I had called the cemetery during the week looking for some plot numbers to help us locate the gravesite. Nice man said that he would tape the info to the front door of the office for us.

Upon arrival I quick jumped out and took a picture of the entry sign

True to his word, there was an envelope taped to the door! Inside was a map of the cemetery and highlighted were William Bley and Martin Solberg [hubby's grandfather]. And what a treat, he had even put copies of the burial cards in the envelope, too! I learned early on to try to get copies of the burial cards for a plot. It is a great way to know for sure who is buried in a plot even if they don't have a marker, which we ran into in this case, but I digress.....

Back to Bill Bley! Easily found the family marker and Bill's marker.

Hmmm, did hubby know he was a Bugler? Nope!

And guess who else we found! Hubby's great grandparents, Adolph Bley and Frances Port Bley!

Not a very good cleaning job. Like an idiot I forgot my cemetery bucket!

So back in the car we get and hunt down Drew's Solberg grandparents, Martin and Anna. We were able to find Martin, but sadly, Anna has no marker.

We know she is buried next to Martin though from the burial card. We'll have to see what we can do about getting her a marker!