Back Death Notice

Back Death Notice, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

On the back of a death notice for Margaret Harcomb, wife of Thomas Broadfoot, my great grandfather John Broadfoot wrote (from Scotland) his mother's brother William and his wife Annabella's death dates.

This William HARCOMB is the first man named William in my Scottish family. In this case, of course, HARCOMB is a surname.

Nesting Robots

Nesting Robots, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

You are probably wondering about this blog post's photo? I collect nesting toys/dolls. I like the ones that are holiday themed but sometimes, I like to buy ones that are easily played with. This is one of those. I think my grandson will like this one as it is plastic and easily to take apart and put together.

Because they are grey they make me think of gravestones. Well, you knew I could work that in, right?

Capt. John Stanton and family

Elm Grove Stanton Graves plus text, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Tombstone Tuesday: Why Photography is Important

Elm Grove Cemetery in Mystic, New London, CT. 
Photograph by Fred Burdick

Overlaid text on a digital image can significantly improve the understanding of a family plot. These gravestones, moved from another cemetery some time ago, are important to the family of descendants of Thomas Stanton. Most descendants of the Thomas Stanton Society can lay claim to this line.

Some of the sandstone graves are completely unreadable and without a transcription or a photograph of how the grave once looked, it can only be a guess at what was once carved on them.

This is the classic example of why gravestone photography is important. By taking digital images of gravestone, the information will never be lost. That's our job to preserve history.

Divorce in the Family

 Divorced in 1869

While researching the gravestones in the Denison plot at Elm Grove Cemetery in Mystic, New London, CT. I came upon the graves of Hannah Burrows (Denison) Meservey and  two of her children. Hannah was my first cousin 3x removed, daughter of Isaac Wheeler Denison and his wife Eunice Eldridge Burrows. 

Research of this family has led me on a merry chase from Maine to Massachusetts to Connecticut. I knew that there was a connection to East Bridgewater, MA (source: Denison genealogy) and while living in neighboring Bridgewater,  I met Margaret Alexander, town historian and local cemetery expert. 

She helped me find the grave of one of Hannah's children, researched one child's death by drowning and drove me to the location where Hannah and her family lived while in East Bridgewater. It doesn't get better than having this expert help.

My Denison ancestors tended to stay put in Connecticut so this is really an unusual case. I am fascinated by this "messy" family.


Hannah married a man named Jefferson Bethel MESERVEY (1829-1883) as his second wife. I found out today that he was DIVORCED from his first wife. This divorce took place in January of 1869.  (source: Maine Divorces 1799-1903) The first wife was named Margianna Lovinia BARROWS and possibly there was a child named Martha from this marriage. They were married 13 Sept 1860 and the child was born in 1863. I certainly need more proof of these events but I have added this to my tree at Ancestry.com to see if I can find any new leads. I also joined the Maine Genealogy Network.


The killer fact is that Jefferson was both a teacher and a LAWYER besides a farmer. After he died in East Bridgewater, I have no idea where he might be buried. (Not in East Bridgewater, according to Margaret) For a long time, I suspected she sent him back to Maine to be buried with this first wife. Now, I am guessing he may be buried with his parents, possible in Bradford or Brewer Maine. I don't think he'd want to be buried with a wife he divorced.


Hannah returned to her native Stonington and went back to teaching. She sold the farm in East Bridgewater that they bought in 1876 before she moved back to her Denison family. Her daughter married and stayed in Massachusetts. Apparently, this daughter married a disabled man. He may have been a polio victim.

But, I keep wondering why Jefferson and his first wife were divorced... 


Genealogists love a good mystery.

Searching for William

William Broadfoot, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

William Harcomb BROADFOOT 

This is a photo of the second of my hand drawn family trees from the 1970s where I added in William from the conversation with an elderly great aunt. As you can see, she knew William had a wife named Eliza and possibly an only daughter named Helen.



When I wrote this, I found out, some months later more about my Harcomb family. This William's mother, Margaret Harcomb Broadfoot had a brother named William, so that man was William HARCOMB.

My uncle's name was William and my first cousin's name is John William.

Cottar

Cottar, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

What is the word under Cottar? 

I think, judging from the other records on the page that it is a place. Location of Record: Kirkinner Year: 1829

[Cottar: A tenant occupying a cottage with or without land attached to it, a married farmworker who has a cottage as part of his contract (cot-house - tied farmworker's cottage) ]

Update: today, 25 February 2012
Opened the Scottish Proverbs book by Colin Walker to page 177 and here is the proverb: "Like the links 'o the cruik". Translation below: "Spoken of one who looks emaciated" 


I think this may be, as someone suggested, a cottage near the banks of running water. In this proverb's case a drought.

William Harcomb Broadfoot

William Harcomb Broadfoot, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

William Harcomb Broadfoot 

Shared with me by Ruth Robb of Scotland and family member of my California cousins is this gravestone of my great grand uncle, William Harcomb Broadfoot. This gravestone is in the Dalbeattie Cemetery along with other gravestones of my Broadfoot family. His mother was Margaret Harcomb and his father was Thomas Broadfoot.

I wish my Dad and his brother and sisters could see these great photos. We worked so hard on writing down what we knew. We turned to a older member of our family to find out if what we recorded was correct. She made some additions but she told us that there were family members that she did not know or know much about.

This was one family member that we knew little about but what we did know helped me find out about William. In the next few blog posts, I will show you the process.

This gravestone is granite and very hard to read. Ruth transcribes it as the following:

"In memory of my husband William Harcomb Broadfoot died 1st November 1918 aged 50 years. Also my three children who died in infancy."

Waterton House Housemaid

Annie AIKEN, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Housemaid, Waterton House

This is the headstone of my paternal grandmother, Annie Aiken, wife of Thomas Broadfoot.

I have been unable to location her birth record. She came, with her parents to America in the late 1880s and returned to Scotland with them. She was not listed in the 1901 Scotland census, so I have been assuming that she was out working as a domestic.

Well, yesterday, I found her at age 17, working as a housemaid in Waterton House, Stonywood, North Aberdeen, Scotland in the 1901 Scotland census. I raced to Scotland's People's Web site to find the census image as Ancestry.com just has the index.

Bingo!. Now, I know I watch too much Downton Abbey. I was rewarded with a house history and several photos of the mansion as it looks today. I have her place of birth as listed in this census but I still haven't found it yet. 

1940 Census: Not Excited

1939 Westerly City DIR, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Why I am not excited by the 1940 census!

 

Most people I know are excited by the upcoming release of the 1940 census. But, I am not. Surprised? (me, too)

This snippet of a  page from the 1939 Westerly, RI City Directory explains my lack of interest in spending time searching for ED's and making list of people to look up before the indexing process is complete.

Oh, I started a list. I did. When I pulled it out this weekend, it suddenly dawned on me why it was so short.

By 1940, my family was becoming smaller and smaller. Even my immigrant Scottish grandparents had died. 

This snippet shows my Aunt as head of household as my grandfather, Thomas, her father, died on 21 April 1937. What I didn't notice the first time I read this was that my father, also named Thomas, is listed as "Harcom" which was what  his middle name sounded like.

 My father, given the same name as his father, was given a family surname, Harcomb for his middle name, in memory of his great grandmother, Margaret Harcomb, wife of Thomas Broadfoot.

It pays to go back over your previous research. Despite knowing that he was called that, I didn't notice this listing. I was too excited to have the exact date of my grandfather's death so that a friend could find his death record for me.

In 1939, my father was still living at home, so now I have the address. The only mystery was where is my father's brother, who also lived at this address. He didn't marry until 1951 and he suffered from epilepsy. I think he should be living here.

On my mother's side, I know where she is in 1940. She is living at home and going to college. My maternal grandparents bought a house while she was in high school, so I know they still live there. My family on that side kept great records so I know exactly who was living in Heaven by 1940. I don't think that location was enumerated.

Why don't I care? Well, because the 1940 census substitute of the city directories of many places in Rhode Island are so great and because so much of my family was dead by 1940.

Oh, yes, and because I wasn't born yet.  Yes, it is all about me.

James B. BROWN

James B. BROWN, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Tombstone Tuesday

Teaching Cemetery Research: Photograph Gravestone with Common Names

If you see any Brown or Smith families, you should take a photo of those graves and post them for all to see. New England is full of these families and it can be hard to be sure you have the right ones in your family. The Brown family is prominent in Stow, MA.