Sunday, August 31, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Eliza's Writing Desk
This is a photograph of something that is very important to me. It is my 2nd great grandmother's writing desk. It is 147 years old. I was given this by my grandmother at an age when most children don't appreciate fragile and old things. I was about 11. She said my grandfather would have wanted me to have it. My grandparents were special people.
This is the open view to show the inkwell and compartment draw. I imagine the pen and nubs were kept in the drawer and the small compartment to the right was for sealing wax and the wax stamp or for postage stamps.
At one time, the writing surface was probably covered with felt or leather. The inscription on the underside of the upper compartment is written in her handwriting (just as in my family Bible) and states her name and the date July 1861 and the words "From Mother". The upper compartment held the paper and envelopes.
Eliza was a spinster when she married Dudley as she was twenty three. That's how old I was when I got married (but I didn't consider that old) but in this time period women were married earlier. Eliza was born into two prominent families of significant means: Fish and Denison. She bore three children, my great-grandfather Charles, my great-grand aunt Frances (my DAR ancestor) and "little Henry" who died as a baby.
I think this might have been an arranged marriage as Dudley was older and was in the same merchant business as Eliza's brother, Isaac Wheeler Denison. Eliza lived as an old lady in her son's household and told my grandfather, Evans, stories of his ancestors.
Perhaps it was obvious to my grandmother that I was going to be a writer and genealogist? Some of the money I inherited and spent on my Master's Degree was kept for me from this family. I think it is something to brag about and certainly fits the "school theme" of this carnival.
This is the open view to show the inkwell and compartment draw. I imagine the pen and nubs were kept in the drawer and the small compartment to the right was for sealing wax and the wax stamp or for postage stamps.
At one time, the writing surface was probably covered with felt or leather. The inscription on the underside of the upper compartment is written in her handwriting (just as in my family Bible) and states her name and the date July 1861 and the words "From Mother". The upper compartment held the paper and envelopes.
Eliza was a spinster when she married Dudley as she was twenty three. That's how old I was when I got married (but I didn't consider that old) but in this time period women were married earlier. Eliza was born into two prominent families of significant means: Fish and Denison. She bore three children, my great-grandfather Charles, my great-grand aunt Frances (my DAR ancestor) and "little Henry" who died as a baby.
I think this might have been an arranged marriage as Dudley was older and was in the same merchant business as Eliza's brother, Isaac Wheeler Denison. Eliza lived as an old lady in her son's household and told my grandfather, Evans, stories of his ancestors.
Perhaps it was obvious to my grandmother that I was going to be a writer and genealogist? Some of the money I inherited and spent on my Master's Degree was kept for me from this family. I think it is something to brag about and certainly fits the "school theme" of this carnival.
Breezy, Bright and Beautiful Gravestones
Terry Thornton, who is a fellow genea-bloggers has asked us to participate in his blogger-carnival, "A Getting to Know You Challenge for Bloggers". It took a long time for me to review my blog posts and come up with posts that fit this topic.
I'm easy to get to know because of my Web presence. I have been on-line since the last 1980s and bought my own name [http://midgefrazel.net] and began to write Web pages and books about educational technology. Being a professional genealogist is my fourth career after medical technologist, educational technologist and writer. I am a "child" genealogist and believe I was born to be the keeper of records for my family. I was about 8 years old when I first saw my family Bible and the photos of my grandfather's grandparents and clearly understood about generations. You may have read about this in the forum section of the current, September 2008, Family Tree Magazine [Sept. 2008, page 3]
My goals are to take photographs of the gravestones of my direct line ancestors whenever possible and to take additional family members when I can. I have authored an article in print for teachers and librarians titled, "Gravestone Reflections" to blend gravestone photography and research to teach students about respect, family, community and memorials. I am speaking on the topic of "Digital Storytelling" in April at NERGC. This topic is the subject of a book in progress to be published by ISTE. That book will be my tenth.
The brightest of my work in this blog is the transcription of a paper on the Barber family of Rhode Island. It was mailed to me by a relative in Utah. It had so many mistakes that I felt needed to be corrected and the research needed to be completed. But, in all, it is a valuable document and gives a picture of life in my native state in this time in history long gone. [Link]
The breeziest of my work is the photo of Eunice Williams grave and her love story for Isaac Denison, Sr. A charming story of teen-age love which can't be proven but does attest, if true, of love that lasts. Isaac and Eunice were the parents of a dozen children. Most are buried nearby and it is a great genealogical treasure hunt to find them all. I am working on proving Isaac's service in the Revolution. There was a transcription error in the book Connecticut Men in the Revolution. [Link]
The most beautiful of my work revolves around the finding of an article about two cousins, who like curious little boys sometimes behave, went out onto the ice one day and drowned. Their bodies were never recovered. There is a lovely memorial stone for them and I was lucky to find an article in a newspaper about their drowning. I have recently found the grave of one of their mothers and it looks like she died not long after that. My grandmother told me that the worst thing that can happen to you is to have your child die before you. At least these young boys will be remembered in a beautiful way. My work at this section of the cemetery is a beautiful labor of love.
[Link]
Writing for the Web is not yet as well respected as writing in print. Blog entries, mean to be journal entries, are not as long lasting as paper. Most people know me by my teaching and my published books. However, the generations to come will turn away from print and to the Web for information and I strive to write and record people's lives and to help other begin to find their family gravestones in this, the 21 century.
I'm easy to get to know because of my Web presence. I have been on-line since the last 1980s and bought my own name [http://midgefrazel.net] and began to write Web pages and books about educational technology. Being a professional genealogist is my fourth career after medical technologist, educational technologist and writer. I am a "child" genealogist and believe I was born to be the keeper of records for my family. I was about 8 years old when I first saw my family Bible and the photos of my grandfather's grandparents and clearly understood about generations. You may have read about this in the forum section of the current, September 2008, Family Tree Magazine [Sept. 2008, page 3]
My goals are to take photographs of the gravestones of my direct line ancestors whenever possible and to take additional family members when I can. I have authored an article in print for teachers and librarians titled, "Gravestone Reflections" to blend gravestone photography and research to teach students about respect, family, community and memorials. I am speaking on the topic of "Digital Storytelling" in April at NERGC. This topic is the subject of a book in progress to be published by ISTE. That book will be my tenth.
The brightest of my work in this blog is the transcription of a paper on the Barber family of Rhode Island. It was mailed to me by a relative in Utah. It had so many mistakes that I felt needed to be corrected and the research needed to be completed. But, in all, it is a valuable document and gives a picture of life in my native state in this time in history long gone. [Link]
The breeziest of my work is the photo of Eunice Williams grave and her love story for Isaac Denison, Sr. A charming story of teen-age love which can't be proven but does attest, if true, of love that lasts. Isaac and Eunice were the parents of a dozen children. Most are buried nearby and it is a great genealogical treasure hunt to find them all. I am working on proving Isaac's service in the Revolution. There was a transcription error in the book Connecticut Men in the Revolution. [Link]
The most beautiful of my work revolves around the finding of an article about two cousins, who like curious little boys sometimes behave, went out onto the ice one day and drowned. Their bodies were never recovered. There is a lovely memorial stone for them and I was lucky to find an article in a newspaper about their drowning. I have recently found the grave of one of their mothers and it looks like she died not long after that. My grandmother told me that the worst thing that can happen to you is to have your child die before you. At least these young boys will be remembered in a beautiful way. My work at this section of the cemetery is a beautiful labor of love.
[Link]
Writing for the Web is not yet as well respected as writing in print. Blog entries, mean to be journal entries, are not as long lasting as paper. Most people know me by my teaching and my published books. However, the generations to come will turn away from print and to the Web for information and I strive to write and record people's lives and to help other begin to find their family gravestones in this, the 21 century.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Perkins, Hall and Crandall
My gravestone photo of Stanton Hall and his wife Mercy Perkins has proved to cause quite a stir as three people researching either Perkins, Hall or Crandall lines have contacted me about these three surnames. It is so great to have help with these lines! This is the fun of genealogy.
It all began with Phebe Eliza Hall, the wife of Matthew Stillman Barber and mother of James Albert Barber, all of Westerly, Rhode Island. From there I discovered that young (1820-1842) Phebe was a child of Stanton Hall and his wife Mercy Perkins. That's as far as I got for a long time.
The Peckham genealogy lists the children of Theodoty Hall and his wife Mary Peckham (p. 299) as Mary "Polly", Theodoty, Jr., Stanton, Varnum, Free, Peckham and Margaret. This was the first clearly given record I had:
"Stanton Hall, b. 1784; m. Mercy Perkins in 1800"
It always pays to go back to the records you gather first in an ancestor investigation and take a longer look at them. I now see that Stanton Hall's brother married Caty Crandall which means the Hall, Peckham and Crandall lines cross over here too.
I am grateful to Barbara Fallon of Westerly for helping me locate the exact location of Stanton and Mercy's grave for this is proving to be a great "ancestor detective" adventure. Stay tuned for more information.
It all began with Phebe Eliza Hall, the wife of Matthew Stillman Barber and mother of James Albert Barber, all of Westerly, Rhode Island. From there I discovered that young (1820-1842) Phebe was a child of Stanton Hall and his wife Mercy Perkins. That's as far as I got for a long time.
The Peckham genealogy lists the children of Theodoty Hall and his wife Mary Peckham (p. 299) as Mary "Polly", Theodoty, Jr., Stanton, Varnum, Free, Peckham and Margaret. This was the first clearly given record I had:
"Stanton Hall, b. 1784; m. Mercy Perkins in 1800"
It always pays to go back to the records you gather first in an ancestor investigation and take a longer look at them. I now see that Stanton Hall's brother married Caty Crandall which means the Hall, Peckham and Crandall lines cross over here too.
I am grateful to Barbara Fallon of Westerly for helping me locate the exact location of Stanton and Mercy's grave for this is proving to be a great "ancestor detective" adventure. Stay tuned for more information.
Monday, August 25, 2008
GBG Platinum
See what I earned?
Category: “Reach Out & Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness”
Isn't it beautiful?
Category: “Reach Out & Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness”
Isn't it beautiful?
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Tally Ho!
Midge Frazel's Genea-Blogger 2008 Summer Games Tally and Links
Category: “Write, Write, Write”
4 Event Tasks: Diamond Medal
Category: “Write, Write, Write”
4 Event Tasks: Diamond Medal
Event A: write intent and purpose of blog (8/10) Bronze (posted)
Event B: participate in a blog carnival (8/11) Silver (posted)
Event C: prepare drafts for writing (8/12, 8/13, 8/14) Gold (posted) (5 total plus this link)
Event D: write biographical ancestor sketch (8/20, 8/21) Diamond (posted) (posted)
Category: “Reach Out & Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness”
5-6 Event Tasks: Platinum Medal
Event A: comment on a nu-2-u genea-blog (8/13) Silver (posted)
Event B: join another genea-blog network (8/21) Platinum1 (posted)
Event C: invite a genealogist to Facebook (8/16) Gold (posted)
Event D: assist another researcher (8/19) Diamond (posted, posted)
Event E: participate in an indexing project (8/18) Platinum2 (posted, posted)
Event F: joined a lineage society (8/9) (posted)
Be bold, Be wyse, Be Revolutionary
Category: "Write, Write, Write"
Event D: write biographical ancestor sketch (Part 2)
Diamond
Biography of Col. Benadam Gallup
The name Benadam may be a shortened version of the names Benjamin and Adam as is carved on this well- preserved gravestone as Ben Adam.
Benadam Gallup (Benadam, Benadam, John II, John I) was born 26 Oct 1716 in Groton, New London, CT, son of Lieut. Benadam Gallup and his wife Eunice Cobb. His father was called Sr. and he was called Jr. even though there was a Benadam already!
[link]
"Gallup, Benadam, s. Benadam & Eunice, b. Oct. 26, 1716"
Groton Vital records (Barbour Index) Vol 1, Page 118.
Lieut. Benadam Gallup (1693-1755) and his wife Eunice Cobb (1693-1759) produced eleven children (one set of twins) with their son Benadam being the oldest. [Benadam Gallup #73, pages 36 (birth), 44-45 (family).
Gallup, John D. The Genealogical History of the Gallup Family of the United States also, biographical sketches of members of the family. Hartford, CT: Hartford Printing Company. 1893.
Benadam Gallup married Hannah Avery of Groton, CT. on 11 August 1740. Hannah (Christopher, Capt. James Jr, , Capt. James Sr, Christopher Jr., Christopher) was born into the well-known Avery Family of Connecticut.
Taylor, Maureen Alice. The Avery Family: The Ancestors and Descendants of Christopher Avery. Boston, MA: Newbury Street Press. 2004.
"Gallup, Benadam, Jr. m. Hannah Avery, Aug. 11, 1740."
Groton Vital records (Barbour Index) Vol 1, Page 177.
Benadam and Hannah had an even dozen children but four died within one year (1770-1771) of typhoid fever. Their first born, Benadam is my ancestor and married Bridget Palmer.
Benadam and Hannah are buried between the father/grandfather Benadam and wife Eunice and Benadam and Bridget. A few miles away in Stonington rests the remains of the most senior Benadam and a memorial stone for John II.
John Gallup II fought in the Great Swamp Fight and is buried in a mass grave in Rhode Island where he was slain.
This Gallup family came to America on the ship "Mary & John" in 1630 from Mosterne, Dorset, England and the surname is also spelled Gallop, Gollop, Gollope and Golop, and may be dervived from the German words "Gott" and "Lobe" meaning God and Praise. The family motto, "Be bold, be wyse" certainly describes this family.
Wheeler, Richard Anson. History of the Town of Stonington, county of New London, Connecticut, from its first settlement in 1649 to 1900 with a genealogical register of Stonington families. Baltimore, Md. : Genealogical Publishing Co, Inc. 1977 (reprint of 1900). Gallup Family pps. 381-396. [Col. Benadam #77 p.388]
The family orginally landed at Nantasket, MA [now Hull], sailing from Plymouth, England and then they went to Dorchester and Boston. The first John Gallop [John II] owned Gallup's Island (near Long Island, NY) where he kept a sheep farm as well as his house in Boston. The family eventually moved to what is now Connecticut and occupied land in Stonington/Groton near the other prominent families of Denison, Miner and Stanton.
Grace Denison Wheeler, in her book "Old Homes of Stonington" states that in 1902 (pps-65-66) that the house, was "about one quarter mile" from the Denison land and all that remained was the crumbling great stone chimney. That house was inhabited by "Benadam and John, the grandson and son of the famous Capt. John Gallup of the famous swamp fight."
The land and farm of this Col. Benadam Gallup must have been on the Groton side of the land allotment. He probably was a farmer, and probably a slave owner not unlike other families in the area. In the section of the Vital Records for the many Benadam Gallup men, it lists this mysterious record:
"Gallup, Benadam, Col. had negro girl Lydia, b. Oct 27, 1788."
Groton Vital records (Barbour Index) Vol 1, Page 177.
It is unknown as to whether he fathered this child or that if he just wanted the birth of this child recorded in the town records. Lydia appears nowhere else. If he was the father he would have been 72 at her birth.
"A brave officer of the Revolution", is stated in several sources and he is my proved DAR Patriot. [link]
"Served with the militia, second battallion, Wadsworth Brigade, raised June 1776. At the Brooklyn front battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776; in the retreat to New York, August 29-30; in retreat from New York City, September 15, with the main army at White Plains."
He was 60 years old at this time [same age I am now!]
Gallup, John D. The Genealogical History of the Gallup Family of the United States also, biographical sketches of members of the family. Hartford, CT: Hartford Printing Company. 1893. pages 44-45.
The Battle of Brooklyn, also called the Battle of Long Island was one of the largest battles of the Revolution. [link] We did not win this battle but the retreat plan is still studied by historians.
Col. Bendam Gallup died at Groton on 29 May 1800, aged 84 and lies buried in the Gallup Burying Ground. His wife Hannah died 28 July 1799, aged 81. [They were my 6th great grandparents]
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Event D: write biographical ancestor sketch (Part 2)
Diamond
Biography of Col. Benadam Gallup
The name Benadam may be a shortened version of the names Benjamin and Adam as is carved on this well- preserved gravestone as Ben Adam.
Benadam Gallup (Benadam, Benadam, John II, John I) was born 26 Oct 1716 in Groton, New London, CT, son of Lieut. Benadam Gallup and his wife Eunice Cobb. His father was called Sr. and he was called Jr. even though there was a Benadam already!
[link]
"Gallup, Benadam, s. Benadam & Eunice, b. Oct. 26, 1716"
Groton Vital records (Barbour Index) Vol 1, Page 118.
Lieut. Benadam Gallup (1693-1755) and his wife Eunice Cobb (1693-1759) produced eleven children (one set of twins) with their son Benadam being the oldest. [Benadam Gallup #73, pages 36 (birth), 44-45 (family).
Gallup, John D. The Genealogical History of the Gallup Family of the United States also, biographical sketches of members of the family. Hartford, CT: Hartford Printing Company. 1893.
Benadam Gallup married Hannah Avery of Groton, CT. on 11 August 1740. Hannah (Christopher, Capt. James Jr, , Capt. James Sr, Christopher Jr., Christopher) was born into the well-known Avery Family of Connecticut.
Taylor, Maureen Alice. The Avery Family: The Ancestors and Descendants of Christopher Avery. Boston, MA: Newbury Street Press. 2004.
"Gallup, Benadam, Jr. m. Hannah Avery, Aug. 11, 1740."
Groton Vital records (Barbour Index) Vol 1, Page 177.
Benadam and Hannah had an even dozen children but four died within one year (1770-1771) of typhoid fever. Their first born, Benadam is my ancestor and married Bridget Palmer.
Benadam and Hannah are buried between the father/grandfather Benadam and wife Eunice and Benadam and Bridget. A few miles away in Stonington rests the remains of the most senior Benadam and a memorial stone for John II.
John Gallup II fought in the Great Swamp Fight and is buried in a mass grave in Rhode Island where he was slain.
This Gallup family came to America on the ship "Mary & John" in 1630 from Mosterne, Dorset, England and the surname is also spelled Gallop, Gollop, Gollope and Golop, and may be dervived from the German words "Gott" and "Lobe" meaning God and Praise. The family motto, "Be bold, be wyse" certainly describes this family.
Wheeler, Richard Anson. History of the Town of Stonington, county of New London, Connecticut, from its first settlement in 1649 to 1900 with a genealogical register of Stonington families. Baltimore, Md. : Genealogical Publishing Co, Inc. 1977 (reprint of 1900). Gallup Family pps. 381-396. [Col. Benadam #77 p.388]
The family orginally landed at Nantasket, MA [now Hull], sailing from Plymouth, England and then they went to Dorchester and Boston. The first John Gallop [John II] owned Gallup's Island (near Long Island, NY) where he kept a sheep farm as well as his house in Boston. The family eventually moved to what is now Connecticut and occupied land in Stonington/Groton near the other prominent families of Denison, Miner and Stanton.
Grace Denison Wheeler, in her book "Old Homes of Stonington" states that in 1902 (pps-65-66) that the house, was "about one quarter mile" from the Denison land and all that remained was the crumbling great stone chimney. That house was inhabited by "Benadam and John, the grandson and son of the famous Capt. John Gallup of the famous swamp fight."
The land and farm of this Col. Benadam Gallup must have been on the Groton side of the land allotment. He probably was a farmer, and probably a slave owner not unlike other families in the area. In the section of the Vital Records for the many Benadam Gallup men, it lists this mysterious record:
"Gallup, Benadam, Col. had negro girl Lydia, b. Oct 27, 1788."
Groton Vital records (Barbour Index) Vol 1, Page 177.
It is unknown as to whether he fathered this child or that if he just wanted the birth of this child recorded in the town records. Lydia appears nowhere else. If he was the father he would have been 72 at her birth.
"A brave officer of the Revolution", is stated in several sources and he is my proved DAR Patriot. [link]
"Served with the militia, second battallion, Wadsworth Brigade, raised June 1776. At the Brooklyn front battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776; in the retreat to New York, August 29-30; in retreat from New York City, September 15, with the main army at White Plains."
He was 60 years old at this time [same age I am now!]
Gallup, John D. The Genealogical History of the Gallup Family of the United States also, biographical sketches of members of the family. Hartford, CT: Hartford Printing Company. 1893. pages 44-45.
The Battle of Brooklyn, also called the Battle of Long Island was one of the largest battles of the Revolution. [link] We did not win this battle but the retreat plan is still studied by historians.
Col. Bendam Gallup died at Groton on 29 May 1800, aged 84 and lies buried in the Gallup Burying Ground. His wife Hannah died 28 July 1799, aged 81. [They were my 6th great grandparents]
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Journey to an Ancestor
Category: "Write, Write, Write"
Event D: write biographical ancestor sketch (Part 1)
Diamond
To begin telling the story of one of my ancestors in a biographical sketch, I must tell you how I found out about this ancestor and the steps it took to learn about him.
Family history told me about this lady, my 2nd great- grand aunt, my great grandfather Charlie's sister. Her name was Frances Denison Stewart before she married. Her mother was a Denison and her father was a Stewart.
They called her Fannie and as you can see by her gravestone (1866-1963) she was still living in my lifetime. Many women in my family live a very long time.
I do have a vague memory of visiting her because she never allowed women to be in her house wearing slacks. My mother put a dress on me and we went to see her. I remember the huge horse chestnut tree outside her house and my father and I gathered up the horse chestnuts while my grandmother and mother spent more time with her. That was fun.
She was VERY proud of being a DAR member. She lived in Groton, CT and was the wife of George Owen Miner. I have no photos of her but I did contact her DAR Chapter and they told me all about her even to the part where no woman could wear slacks in her presence. They were kind enough to direct me to her grave in the Starr Burying Ground. My grandmother and my mother were not interested in the DAR but I have found other family members from CT who have belonged to that chapter and must have known her.
I looked up her lineage to prove her DAR membership exisited and found out the Revolutionary War ancestor was named Col. Benadam Gallup. While my papers were being processed in Washington, I set out to find her grave and to find the graves of the people in the Gallup line.
I am thrilled to tell you that I have taken ALL of the gravestones from the immigrant ancestor John Gallup down to my mother. Every single one! (husbands and wives) I wish I could do this for all my lines.
To join the DAR you must first send for birth, marriage and death certificates back for three generations. In the line of my records, then my parents, then my grandparents, it only took about 3 weeks to send for (by mail) and receive back (by mail). The longest time taken and most expensive was the death record of my grandfather from Boston ($28).
Using the magic of the Web, I found that Col. Benadam Gallup was buried (when he died) in Groton. That location is now Ledyard. It took me a while to get the right location by figuring out Town incorporation dates.
It took some more time to get directions to find the graveyard. Many people helped. No one told me it was gated and locked or I might not have gone. Climbing over stone walls is not in my plan. (But, I have had to do that since that day to go back there with a town historian!)
Because it was the weekend before Memorial Day, the men mowing the grass were in the graveyard. The gates were wide open and they took a break so I could find his grave. Isn't that amazing? I think it was meant to be. I'd found him!
Now, that you know about my journey, I can write my ancestor sketch.
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Event D: write biographical ancestor sketch (Part 1)
Diamond
To begin telling the story of one of my ancestors in a biographical sketch, I must tell you how I found out about this ancestor and the steps it took to learn about him.
Family history told me about this lady, my 2nd great- grand aunt, my great grandfather Charlie's sister. Her name was Frances Denison Stewart before she married. Her mother was a Denison and her father was a Stewart.
They called her Fannie and as you can see by her gravestone (1866-1963) she was still living in my lifetime. Many women in my family live a very long time.
I do have a vague memory of visiting her because she never allowed women to be in her house wearing slacks. My mother put a dress on me and we went to see her. I remember the huge horse chestnut tree outside her house and my father and I gathered up the horse chestnuts while my grandmother and mother spent more time with her. That was fun.
She was VERY proud of being a DAR member. She lived in Groton, CT and was the wife of George Owen Miner. I have no photos of her but I did contact her DAR Chapter and they told me all about her even to the part where no woman could wear slacks in her presence. They were kind enough to direct me to her grave in the Starr Burying Ground. My grandmother and my mother were not interested in the DAR but I have found other family members from CT who have belonged to that chapter and must have known her.
I looked up her lineage to prove her DAR membership exisited and found out the Revolutionary War ancestor was named Col. Benadam Gallup. While my papers were being processed in Washington, I set out to find her grave and to find the graves of the people in the Gallup line.
I am thrilled to tell you that I have taken ALL of the gravestones from the immigrant ancestor John Gallup down to my mother. Every single one! (husbands and wives) I wish I could do this for all my lines.
To join the DAR you must first send for birth, marriage and death certificates back for three generations. In the line of my records, then my parents, then my grandparents, it only took about 3 weeks to send for (by mail) and receive back (by mail). The longest time taken and most expensive was the death record of my grandfather from Boston ($28).
Using the magic of the Web, I found that Col. Benadam Gallup was buried (when he died) in Groton. That location is now Ledyard. It took me a while to get the right location by figuring out Town incorporation dates.
It took some more time to get directions to find the graveyard. Many people helped. No one told me it was gated and locked or I might not have gone. Climbing over stone walls is not in my plan. (But, I have had to do that since that day to go back there with a town historian!)
Because it was the weekend before Memorial Day, the men mowing the grass were in the graveyard. The gates were wide open and they took a break so I could find his grave. Isn't that amazing? I think it was meant to be. I'd found him!
Now, that you know about my journey, I can write my ancestor sketch.
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Denison Society Collage
Category: "Reach out and Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness"
Event D: assist another researcher
Diamond
As the assistant genealogist for The Denison Society, it is my job to provide research help beyond the checking of the lineage lines for membership to the Society. In this way, I help those who have questions about their already proved line or who need help with finding an ancestor. This is a new job for me. I assist other researchers all the time, like Carmen Johnson, Fred Burdick, Larry Chesebro and pretty much anyone who emails me! (Not as many as you may think)
Let me tell you about my recent project. At the yearly (August) Denison Family Reunion, we each took a turn talking about who we are and what we do. I went first but I didn't talk about my genealogy just my other job as ed tech consultant and writer. They stopped me and wanted to know what a professional genealogist did! After trying to explain that, each person had their turn. Many are retired and talked about their relationship with the Denison family.
Something happened that I have not been able to remove from my head. One of the older ladies talked about how she has been coming to this reunion ever since she was a liitle girl. (Wow) She is in poor health and did not think that she could come back again. A while later, she motioned me over and asked me if I could tell her which sons or daughters she is descended from!
It seems that in "the good old days", when people joined these types of lineage societies, someone sat with them and asked them about their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents and then looked up their line in the print genealogy book (in this case, the old Denison genealogy) and said OK, you're a descendant! That was it. The person never found out what lines they had or who they were. Imagine that!
I decided that I would "run her line" which means that I use the private database of names in Family Tree Maker format typed in by a previous genealogist, to find out how many Denison lines she has. This is EASY. It only took a few minutes. (But the records only come down so far, so many of us are not even in this database.) She may not know she is also a Stanton descendant.
I made an outline descendant report and got it ready for her. I also made this collage that appears in this post so she can take it out and put it on display (I printed it.) just in case she doesn't make it to the reunion next August. That way she won't be sad and miss it too much.
So, dear reader, I must go and finish this envelope I am making for her and get it ready to mail. Then, I have to research and write my last event...the biographical sketch. Stay tuned!
Event D: assist another researcher
Diamond
As the assistant genealogist for The Denison Society, it is my job to provide research help beyond the checking of the lineage lines for membership to the Society. In this way, I help those who have questions about their already proved line or who need help with finding an ancestor. This is a new job for me. I assist other researchers all the time, like Carmen Johnson, Fred Burdick, Larry Chesebro and pretty much anyone who emails me! (Not as many as you may think)
Let me tell you about my recent project. At the yearly (August) Denison Family Reunion, we each took a turn talking about who we are and what we do. I went first but I didn't talk about my genealogy just my other job as ed tech consultant and writer. They stopped me and wanted to know what a professional genealogist did! After trying to explain that, each person had their turn. Many are retired and talked about their relationship with the Denison family.
Something happened that I have not been able to remove from my head. One of the older ladies talked about how she has been coming to this reunion ever since she was a liitle girl. (Wow) She is in poor health and did not think that she could come back again. A while later, she motioned me over and asked me if I could tell her which sons or daughters she is descended from!
It seems that in "the good old days", when people joined these types of lineage societies, someone sat with them and asked them about their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents and then looked up their line in the print genealogy book (in this case, the old Denison genealogy) and said OK, you're a descendant! That was it. The person never found out what lines they had or who they were. Imagine that!
I decided that I would "run her line" which means that I use the private database of names in Family Tree Maker format typed in by a previous genealogist, to find out how many Denison lines she has. This is EASY. It only took a few minutes. (But the records only come down so far, so many of us are not even in this database.) She may not know she is also a Stanton descendant.
I made an outline descendant report and got it ready for her. I also made this collage that appears in this post so she can take it out and put it on display (I printed it.) just in case she doesn't make it to the reunion next August. That way she won't be sad and miss it too much.
So, dear reader, I must go and finish this envelope I am making for her and get it ready to mail. Then, I have to research and write my last event...the biographical sketch. Stay tuned!
Carnival Time (#54)
Category: "Write, Write, Write"
Event B: participate in a blog carnival (continued)
Carnival #54 is posted!
Event B: participate in a blog carnival (continued)
Carnival #54 is posted!
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Indexing
Category: "Write, Write, Write"
Event E: participate in an indexing project
Platinum (2d)
Participating in an indexing project usually takes weeks or months of work. As I photograph and research gravestones, this is my contribution to an indexing project. Other indexing projects include transcribing records from books, from the census, or from genealogies mostly to help others find accurate information. Today, most indexing projects are designed either for publication in print, for the Web or both.
As part of my Stanton family research, I began working on learning how the Davis family blended into the Stanton family. At a recent family reunion, I visited, briefly, a small cemetery on the farmland of the Davis family. Time only permitted me to take a few gravestone shots but it was enough to question the entries in Grace Denison Wheeler's book, "Old Homes Of Stonington".
After looking over the names on just a few stones, I discovered that some of the surnames were listed in the Bradford and Dickens Yard (p. 321-322) and some were listed in The Davis Yard (p. 300-301). I immediately asked my cousin Fred Burdick for some help and he's promised to look into it.
The gravestone shown here in this blog entry is one of John "Whit" Davis who is still living. He describes himself as "the last old Yankee farmer". He's quite the character. I am reading a book called The Davis Homestead written by his father. It is about life on the farm in the area of Stonington, CT. Whit and I are 7th cousins, 1 times removed as a Stanton in my line married into this Davis family.
Books like this, although historical and not genealogical in nature, can give you great clues as to the life and times of any ancestor you had in the area. My family in Westerly, RI is only a few miles away from this farm and Mr. Davis (Whit's dad) sold milk to the people living in Watch Hill. He even talks about the "Great Hurricane of 1938". Watch Hill and the hurricane are always on my mind especially in the summer.
By the way, the horse on this gravestone was named Blaze and Whit's favorite. I love taking photos of gravestones and yes, it is not unusual for a New Englander to have a gravestone "up and ready" before we die. You never know....
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Event E: participate in an indexing project
Platinum (2d)
Participating in an indexing project usually takes weeks or months of work. As I photograph and research gravestones, this is my contribution to an indexing project. Other indexing projects include transcribing records from books, from the census, or from genealogies mostly to help others find accurate information. Today, most indexing projects are designed either for publication in print, for the Web or both.
As part of my Stanton family research, I began working on learning how the Davis family blended into the Stanton family. At a recent family reunion, I visited, briefly, a small cemetery on the farmland of the Davis family. Time only permitted me to take a few gravestone shots but it was enough to question the entries in Grace Denison Wheeler's book, "Old Homes Of Stonington".
After looking over the names on just a few stones, I discovered that some of the surnames were listed in the Bradford and Dickens Yard (p. 321-322) and some were listed in The Davis Yard (p. 300-301). I immediately asked my cousin Fred Burdick for some help and he's promised to look into it.
The gravestone shown here in this blog entry is one of John "Whit" Davis who is still living. He describes himself as "the last old Yankee farmer". He's quite the character. I am reading a book called The Davis Homestead written by his father. It is about life on the farm in the area of Stonington, CT. Whit and I are 7th cousins, 1 times removed as a Stanton in my line married into this Davis family.
Books like this, although historical and not genealogical in nature, can give you great clues as to the life and times of any ancestor you had in the area. My family in Westerly, RI is only a few miles away from this farm and Mr. Davis (Whit's dad) sold milk to the people living in Watch Hill. He even talks about the "Great Hurricane of 1938". Watch Hill and the hurricane are always on my mind especially in the summer.
By the way, the horse on this gravestone was named Blaze and Whit's favorite. I love taking photos of gravestones and yes, it is not unusual for a New Englander to have a gravestone "up and ready" before we die. You never know....
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Thinking about Random Acts
Category: "Reach out and Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness"
Event D: assist another researcher
Diamond
I really don't think there is such a thing as "Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness". I think things are meant to be found when they are ready and sometimes it means you have to wait for just the right event, day, person, or situation to come along.
While I write some of my last entries for this "Summer Games", I'd like to take the time to talk with you about what this means.
Recently at a family reunion, I noticed a fellow genealogist and "cousin" Scott Bill Hirst struggle with his film camera. It suddenly hit me that this was the person who needed my "old" digital camera. That's a random thought, I suppose, but I pulled him aside and told him that I thought it would be a good idea for me to mail it to him. He looked very surprised and wanted to know how much I wanted for it. We settled on a small amount IF he would learn to use it and take some photos of my family graves which are located in the next town to him in Rhode Island AND if he would take photos of family reunions I couldn't go to and share them with me. He got the camera fine and after a few days of struggling (I kept making him read the manual!), he went out and took some pictures and took them to Walmart and put them on CD. He's going to mail them to me this week. This is a "Win-Win" situation.
This morning, as I tried to clean up my desk to get ready to work plus get some groceries, I just opened the tree I have posted at Ancestry.com and picked an ancestor to look at. I couldn't believe it, someone has found the photo of the grave of that ancestor which I posted that we have in common and had taken the line back several generations (with citations). I followed the line and discovered that one ancestor is BURIED IN MY TOWN. I couldn't get there fast enough to photograph the gravestone! Here's the photo of me with the graves behind me.
I have been there many times and taken a lot of photos of this very old graveyard hoping I could find a connection to that place as I feel drawn to it. I wondered why I wanted to live here. I needed to find these now as we are thinking of moving away from here when we retire. See what I mean by the right time and place and not being random at all?
I have emailed the other researcher and am impatiently waiting!
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Event D: assist another researcher
Diamond
I really don't think there is such a thing as "Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness". I think things are meant to be found when they are ready and sometimes it means you have to wait for just the right event, day, person, or situation to come along.
While I write some of my last entries for this "Summer Games", I'd like to take the time to talk with you about what this means.
Recently at a family reunion, I noticed a fellow genealogist and "cousin" Scott Bill Hirst struggle with his film camera. It suddenly hit me that this was the person who needed my "old" digital camera. That's a random thought, I suppose, but I pulled him aside and told him that I thought it would be a good idea for me to mail it to him. He looked very surprised and wanted to know how much I wanted for it. We settled on a small amount IF he would learn to use it and take some photos of my family graves which are located in the next town to him in Rhode Island AND if he would take photos of family reunions I couldn't go to and share them with me. He got the camera fine and after a few days of struggling (I kept making him read the manual!), he went out and took some pictures and took them to Walmart and put them on CD. He's going to mail them to me this week. This is a "Win-Win" situation.
This morning, as I tried to clean up my desk to get ready to work plus get some groceries, I just opened the tree I have posted at Ancestry.com and picked an ancestor to look at. I couldn't believe it, someone has found the photo of the grave of that ancestor which I posted that we have in common and had taken the line back several generations (with citations). I followed the line and discovered that one ancestor is BURIED IN MY TOWN. I couldn't get there fast enough to photograph the gravestone! Here's the photo of me with the graves behind me.
I have been there many times and taken a lot of photos of this very old graveyard hoping I could find a connection to that place as I feel drawn to it. I wondered why I wanted to live here. I needed to find these now as we are thinking of moving away from here when we retire. See what I mean by the right time and place and not being random at all?
I have emailed the other researcher and am impatiently waiting!
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Inviting Genealogists
Category: "Reach Out & Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness"
Event C: invite a genealogist to Facebook
Gold
I belong to several genealogically related organizations, but I have learned that there are more persons in these groups that "are done" with their genealogies than those who do active reasearch. I found this out by preparing presentations and speaking to groups. Many people I have met inherited their charts from a parent or another a family member. Don't get me wrong; they ARE interested in family history and genealogy but they come to meeting and events for the socialization and not to learn or share information.
A couple years ago, I attended a regional genealogical conference and met some very important people involved in genealogy and history and that DID make a difference in my attitude about what makes up a genealogist. Since then, I have proved three Mayflower lines and one DAR line (and have uncovered more too but I haven't finsihed the work to do so.
To complete this event, I invited two women who "do genealogy" to join Facebook and to take a look at this genea-bloggers group. Carmen Johnson of Idaho, has created a Web site for her Gallup ancestors. As she lived there and I live nearer to Connecticut, I have visited a few graveyards, written directions to them and taken photographs. All of these graveyards have Gallups sprinked like confetti in them and are quite ancient. (the graveyards are ancient...not Carmen) Carmen's Web site is great. Until now, the Gallup Family Association didn't have a Web site for people to use to do their research. They still don't require proof of lineage to join. (This is the organization I joined for that event.)
I asked Carmen to join Facebook and she did so immediately. I was really surprised. Maybe she and I can work together on a blog someday. Say, "Hi" to her, will you?
I did ask other people to join Facebook but there has been no reply. So I asked Shelia Connolly, the vice Regent of my DAR chapter and found that she already belonged. She is a writer and has recently had two books published. She's on a roll! I don't know if she has time to genea-blog but since she is a gravestone groupie like me, perhaps she can post her gravestone collection online. Welcome her, will you, since she has joined the Genea-Bloggers group?
Well, that's it for this event. I'm off to the wedding of a friend, who has never been married and is my age! Not something you see everyday!
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Event C: invite a genealogist to Facebook
Gold
I belong to several genealogically related organizations, but I have learned that there are more persons in these groups that "are done" with their genealogies than those who do active reasearch. I found this out by preparing presentations and speaking to groups. Many people I have met inherited their charts from a parent or another a family member. Don't get me wrong; they ARE interested in family history and genealogy but they come to meeting and events for the socialization and not to learn or share information.
A couple years ago, I attended a regional genealogical conference and met some very important people involved in genealogy and history and that DID make a difference in my attitude about what makes up a genealogist. Since then, I have proved three Mayflower lines and one DAR line (and have uncovered more too but I haven't finsihed the work to do so.
To complete this event, I invited two women who "do genealogy" to join Facebook and to take a look at this genea-bloggers group. Carmen Johnson of Idaho, has created a Web site for her Gallup ancestors. As she lived there and I live nearer to Connecticut, I have visited a few graveyards, written directions to them and taken photographs. All of these graveyards have Gallups sprinked like confetti in them and are quite ancient. (the graveyards are ancient...not Carmen) Carmen's Web site is great. Until now, the Gallup Family Association didn't have a Web site for people to use to do their research. They still don't require proof of lineage to join. (This is the organization I joined for that event.)
I asked Carmen to join Facebook and she did so immediately. I was really surprised. Maybe she and I can work together on a blog someday. Say, "Hi" to her, will you?
I did ask other people to join Facebook but there has been no reply. So I asked Shelia Connolly, the vice Regent of my DAR chapter and found that she already belonged. She is a writer and has recently had two books published. She's on a roll! I don't know if she has time to genea-blog but since she is a gravestone groupie like me, perhaps she can post her gravestone collection online. Welcome her, will you, since she has joined the Genea-Bloggers group?
Well, that's it for this event. I'm off to the wedding of a friend, who has never been married and is my age! Not something you see everyday!
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Friday, August 15, 2008
Genea-Blog Networks Nu-2-Me
Category: "Reach Out & Perform Random Genealogical Acts of Kindness"
Event B: join another genea-blog network
Platinum
In the three weeks or so since I joined the Genea-Bloggers group at Facebook, I have added quite a few blogs to my blog network. I am losing track of who asked me to join or if I found them on my own so I will write this blog post about two I have examined closely.
Jean-Yves Baxter asked me to join his blog on the blog network. His blog name is quite long "GeneaNet Genealogy Blog - GeneaSofts". It will help me learn more about genealogy software. As a "geek" I have a longtime interest in software in my alter-life as an educational technologist. I use PAF as my main desktop software app but I also use Family Tree Maker in my role as an assistant genealogist to a large society. The first software I ever saw was Reunion when I was a Mac person.
Janet Hovorka's blog, "The Chart Chick" is colorful and interesting. She is the Development Director for Generation Maps, an online genealogy chart printing service. Her blog is quite technical which I am sure I will enjoy. Maybe someday, I will be ready for big charts!
I think the Blog Networks on Facebook is a good idea, especially if you are not well versed in using an RSS Reader like Google Reader or Bloglines. The trouble with blogs is that the links contained in them are seldom checked for "freshness" (dead-non-working) and it is harder to go back and check your links in your own blog postings.
Yesterday, I took my laptop outside to my small porch and alternated preparing links in my 5 posting, posting and checking them, and reading the blog postings of others. I am now sure it is harder to perform the backing -up and organizing events than doing the research and writing ones I have chosen.
I think I have three or four more events to work with!
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Event B: join another genea-blog network
Platinum
In the three weeks or so since I joined the Genea-Bloggers group at Facebook, I have added quite a few blogs to my blog network. I am losing track of who asked me to join or if I found them on my own so I will write this blog post about two I have examined closely.
Jean-Yves Baxter asked me to join his blog on the blog network. His blog name is quite long "GeneaNet Genealogy Blog - GeneaSofts". It will help me learn more about genealogy software. As a "geek" I have a longtime interest in software in my alter-life as an educational technologist. I use PAF as my main desktop software app but I also use Family Tree Maker in my role as an assistant genealogist to a large society. The first software I ever saw was Reunion when I was a Mac person.
Janet Hovorka's blog, "The Chart Chick" is colorful and interesting. She is the Development Director for Generation Maps, an online genealogy chart printing service. Her blog is quite technical which I am sure I will enjoy. Maybe someday, I will be ready for big charts!
I think the Blog Networks on Facebook is a good idea, especially if you are not well versed in using an RSS Reader like Google Reader or Bloglines. The trouble with blogs is that the links contained in them are seldom checked for "freshness" (dead-non-working) and it is harder to go back and check your links in your own blog postings.
Yesterday, I took my laptop outside to my small porch and alternated preparing links in my 5 posting, posting and checking them, and reading the blog postings of others. I am now sure it is harder to perform the backing -up and organizing events than doing the research and writing ones I have chosen.
I think I have three or four more events to work with!
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Venture SMITH's "Little" Rock
Category: “Write, Write, Write”
Event: compose drafts and post them later
Gold
Venture, whose African name was Broteer, was a child when he was captured by the slave trade and brought to this country. [Link]
He was once owned by Thomas Stanton, 2d. (Robert2, Thomas1) and his wife Thankful Denison (George2, Capt. George1) who bought him because he was said to be able to “outwork three men” as he grew to be a huge man with unusual strength.
This couple known for being demanding and for their mean-spirited nature (nice legacy, huh?) , not only made Venture perform feats of strength for the amusement of their friends had a son who, when given the chance, mistreated him further. It is said that Venture lifted this rock weighing 442 pounds and moved it around whenever told to.
The Stanton Homestead, known today as the Stanton-Davis Farm Homestead was doubled in size two years after Venture’s purchase because they needed more room for the slaves to live and work in the house. The attic of this house has drawings on the walls made by slaves.
Venture was an amazing person who gained his freedom, owned land, arranged for the freedom of his family and other slaves too.
In 1798, at the age of 69 he dictated his story to a schoolteacher who had it published. Venture’s gravestone is in the First Church Cemetery in East Haddam, Middlesex county, Connecticut with his wife by his side. [Article]
Worth reading, there are many articles and of course, his book by those who are interested in how this man did such impossible things for the time.
The people directly involved with Venture were not my direct descendants but are part of the Stanton-Denison family connection. If you read the article by Dr. Steenburg and Elizabeth Kading, (“The Venture Adventure”) you will learn about two other (also not direct) ancestors of mine, Rev. Frederick Denison and Cyrus Henry Stewart (a member of my Stewart Family of North Stonington, CT) who contributed to the lasting legacy of this man.
While it is disturbing to learn of slavery in your own family, it is important for us to learn about, discuss and remember those who we can find information about so that their descendants can discover their family history too.
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Thankful DENISON Clift: Female Entrepreneur
Category: “Write, Write, Write”
Event: compose drafts and post them later
Gold
Portrait of Thankful DENISON, wife of Capt. Amos CLIFT taken in the Denison Homestead [2 Aug 2008 by Midge Frazel]
Thankful DENISON, daughter of Isaac DENISON, Sr. and his wife Eunice WILLIAMS was born in 1780 married Capt. Amos CLIFT (1769-1818] as his second wife.
I have taken a photo of her gravestone but until I watched the DVD Mystic An American Journey, I didn't know that when her husband died SHE took over his business.
Capt. CLIFT laid out the streets on the west side of the Mystic River and created the house lots. His gravestone (not posted yet) clearly reads Capt. so he may have been a sea captain or a military man and his gravestone also bears a Masonic symbol.
Pretty impressive for a woman of this era. Doesn't she look determined?
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Capt. John STANTON and his son Joseph STANTON
Category: “Write, Write, Write”
Event: compose drafts and post them later
Gold
What do you do when you see neatly placed brownstone gravestones that are in this badly decomposed state and are clearly unreadable?
Well, in this case, a whole section of graves from one line of STANTON family was moved to Elm Grove from the earlier Denison Burying Ground a short distance away. Clearly, research is need to figure out who these gravestone belong to.
Here the term, "Location, Location, Location" is in order.
The grave that you can't see in this shot is another brownstone but it has been carved with a woman's name and the term "wife of ". So, my cousin Fred Burdick identified the grave on the left in this photo as the husband of that woman. The grave here on the right is the father of the man on the left.
Identified by my cousin Fred Burdick, Town Historian of Stonington:
Left grave is Joseph Stanton, husband of Margaret Chesebro The Hale Collection (page 246 from the year 1933) says, Joseph Stanton died Aug. 1749 age 84 Years.
Right grave is Cap't John Stanton, son of Thomas Stanton and Anna Lord The Hale Collection (page 246 from the year 1933) says, Capt. John Stanton died 1711, Age 72 Years.
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Isaac and Levina: Dynamic Duo
Isaac DENISON and Levina FISH
The marriage on 18 Feb 1817 of Isaac DENISON, Jr. and Levina FISH brought together two prominent families in the Stonington-Groton, Connecticut area. This couple was such a “dynamic duo” of their time that they had their portraits published in the earliest Denison genealogy by Baldwin & Clift (1881) which is now in the public domain at Google Books. (see page 156) They were staunch Baptists; members of the Baptist Church in Mystic.
One of their sons, the Rev. Frederick Denison, A.M., was a prolific writer, Baptist minister, and chaplain in the Civil War. His book, Westerly & Its Witnesses, is also in the
public domain at Google Books is filled with pages of interesting stories about Westerly, Rhode Island. [Rev. Denison is listed as a descendant of Roger Williams but I have not been able to prove that connection to myself.]
Rev. Denison visited and catalogued cemeteries in the town of Westerly and I have needed those records to find the original resting places of many people in my family as many of the graves and their stones have been disinterred and moved to River Bend Cemetery. I so wish he had recorded the maiden name of Maria, wife of John Taugee (Tourgee) as I am unable to find out anything much about her.
This large Denison monument at Elm Grove Cemetery in Mystic, places Isaac and Levina’s names and dates directly under the Denison crest. I have photographed all of the stones in this large extended plot. Most all of the names on the large stone have corresponding headstones to indicate where they are actually buried. I missed the one for Isaac since it is not inscribed on the back as is Levina’s. Levina’s gives her parent’s name in addition to her husband’s which was the clue to my finding out more about my Fish ancestors.
But, I don’t know why Isaac’s headstone just bears his initials.
Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Denison, Jr. were my third great grandparents.
A Record of the Descendants of Capt. George Denison, of Stonington, Conn: With Notices of His Father and Brothers, and Some Account of Other Denisons who Settled in America in the Colony Times By John Denison Baldwin, William Clift Compiled by John Denison Baldwin, William Clift Published by Printed by Tyler & Seagrave, 1881
The marriage on 18 Feb 1817 of Isaac DENISON, Jr. and Levina FISH brought together two prominent families in the Stonington-Groton, Connecticut area. This couple was such a “dynamic duo” of their time that they had their portraits published in the earliest Denison genealogy by Baldwin & Clift (1881) which is now in the public domain at Google Books. (see page 156) They were staunch Baptists; members of the Baptist Church in Mystic.
One of their sons, the Rev. Frederick Denison, A.M., was a prolific writer, Baptist minister, and chaplain in the Civil War. His book, Westerly & Its Witnesses, is also in the
public domain at Google Books is filled with pages of interesting stories about Westerly, Rhode Island. [Rev. Denison is listed as a descendant of Roger Williams but I have not been able to prove that connection to myself.]
Rev. Denison visited and catalogued cemeteries in the town of Westerly and I have needed those records to find the original resting places of many people in my family as many of the graves and their stones have been disinterred and moved to River Bend Cemetery. I so wish he had recorded the maiden name of Maria, wife of John Taugee (Tourgee) as I am unable to find out anything much about her.
This large Denison monument at Elm Grove Cemetery in Mystic, places Isaac and Levina’s names and dates directly under the Denison crest. I have photographed all of the stones in this large extended plot. Most all of the names on the large stone have corresponding headstones to indicate where they are actually buried. I missed the one for Isaac since it is not inscribed on the back as is Levina’s. Levina’s gives her parent’s name in addition to her husband’s which was the clue to my finding out more about my Fish ancestors.
But, I don’t know why Isaac’s headstone just bears his initials.
Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Denison, Jr. were my third great grandparents.
A Record of the Descendants of Capt. George Denison, of Stonington, Conn: With Notices of His Father and Brothers, and Some Account of Other Denisons who Settled in America in the Colony Times By John Denison Baldwin, William Clift Compiled by John Denison Baldwin, William Clift Published by Printed by Tyler & Seagrave, 1881
Levina FISH Dension (Headstone)
Category: “Write, Write, Write”
Event: compose drafts and post them later
Gold
This is the top of the headstone for Levina Fish Denison. The back of this stone is inscribed and was posted previously along with a scanned photo of her courtesy of The Denison Society.
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Event: compose drafts and post them later
Gold
This is the top of the headstone for Levina Fish Denison. The back of this stone is inscribed and was posted previously along with a scanned photo of her courtesy of The Denison Society.
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Isaac DENISON, Jr. (headstone)
Category: “Write, Write, Write”
Event: compose drafts and post them later
Gold
This is the headstone for Isaac Dension, Jr. There is no inscription on the back but I took a photo of it anyway just to remind me but I don't think you need to see the blank side!
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Event: compose drafts and post them later
Gold
This is the headstone for Isaac Dension, Jr. There is no inscription on the back but I took a photo of it anyway just to remind me but I don't think you need to see the blank side!
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Blog Drafts Complete!
Category: ""Write, Write, Write"
Gold
Event C: prepare drafts for writing (8/11 to 8/14)
Today, I completed the five drafts I set as a goal for this week of the 2008 Genea-Bloggers Summer Games. This is a screenshot of what the blog drafts look like in the Blogger interface.
In keeping with the flag that I created before the games began, these posts are all about persons who were either members of the Stanton or Denison extended families.
I decided it was quite comfortable sitting on my back porch with my wireless laptop working on posting them today. Thanks, Becky for the comment. I never use the post later feature. I did know about it, too.
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Writing Drafts is Harder
For the past couple of days and hopefully tomorrow too, I have been working with Event C in the category "Write, Write, Write". I have three prepared and two more to go. I have learned that writing my draft in Word, saving them, and then copying and pasting them into a blog posting places extra "code" from Word that I must delete before saving them here at Bloggger.
As I almost always post a photo from Flickr to this blog with my posting, I thought I might try a new method and satisfy the requirements of this event but it is taking longer to do! I do know that each blogging interface is different. I used another method to blog in graduate school and liked that one even less. I will be glad when this event is completed.
Doesn't this look boring without a photo?
As I almost always post a photo from Flickr to this blog with my posting, I thought I might try a new method and satisfy the requirements of this event but it is taking longer to do! I do know that each blogging interface is different. I used another method to blog in graduate school and liked that one even less. I will be glad when this event is completed.
Doesn't this look boring without a photo?
Nu-2-U Genea-Bloggers Rhyming: Sheri and Terry
Category: "Reach Out and Perform Random Acts of Kindness"
Event: comment on a new to you genea-blog
Event A: Silver
As there is an extra event in this group of tasks, I decided to start working on commenting on other genealogists blogs. Most of the people in the Facebook Genea-Bloggers group are new to me. I read my blogs in Bloglines (a RSS newsfeed reader) so I don't get to see the design of their blog or write comments. I do need to get better at commenting. I put Sheri Fenley's Blog, "The Educated Genealogist" into Bloglines two days ago and this morning I commented under Randy's comment. Sheri and I are both blondes but on different coasts. Like bookends, I figure. She was worried nobody would comment ["Hello, is anyone out there?"] so I decided I'd better compete in this event now rather than next week.
I made a list of blogs to read and comment on. Some are in my Bloglines and some I just bookmarked. I will comment later on Terry's blog since he and I both blog about gravestones and that seems to fit with my purpose.
Update! (8/14): I needed to be inspired to work with some of the gravestones I have gathered this spring and summer. I do keep wondering what cemeteries are like that are not in New England. Early on in the games, Terry Thornton and I exchanged a couple emails about the process of recording a whole cemetery. I have only done this once and I keep finding out more about the folks buried there as I continue to research them. Terry's new blog, Lann Cemetery, is just getting going and it is going to be great for me to watch it build up.
So many stones in New England are becoming unreadable due to weather, acid rain, neglect and vandalism that I am glad to see other places in the country start to catalogue and photograph theirs. I read that in the past burning coal in New England for heat in buliding near graveyards has done more damage then we will do. In my own town, there is a very old burying ground that is being damaged, I am sure my the emissions from the cars that idle in traffic nearby. Well, I am going to go look more at Terry's other postings and at the ones that Joe Beine has posted in his Cemeteries and Cemetery Symbols blog. I can do this from my laptop outside on my back porch. OMG, I love technology!
I'd also like to comment here that I am surprised at the number of folks who decided to get organized and to write citations for these "Summer Games". I decided it wasn't entertaining enough for others to read but maybe that's just me being a writer.
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Event: comment on a new to you genea-blog
Event A: Silver
As there is an extra event in this group of tasks, I decided to start working on commenting on other genealogists blogs. Most of the people in the Facebook Genea-Bloggers group are new to me. I read my blogs in Bloglines (a RSS newsfeed reader) so I don't get to see the design of their blog or write comments. I do need to get better at commenting. I put Sheri Fenley's Blog, "The Educated Genealogist" into Bloglines two days ago and this morning I commented under Randy's comment. Sheri and I are both blondes but on different coasts. Like bookends, I figure. She was worried nobody would comment ["Hello, is anyone out there?"] so I decided I'd better compete in this event now rather than next week.
I made a list of blogs to read and comment on. Some are in my Bloglines and some I just bookmarked. I will comment later on Terry's blog since he and I both blog about gravestones and that seems to fit with my purpose.
Update! (8/14): I needed to be inspired to work with some of the gravestones I have gathered this spring and summer. I do keep wondering what cemeteries are like that are not in New England. Early on in the games, Terry Thornton and I exchanged a couple emails about the process of recording a whole cemetery. I have only done this once and I keep finding out more about the folks buried there as I continue to research them. Terry's new blog, Lann Cemetery, is just getting going and it is going to be great for me to watch it build up.
So many stones in New England are becoming unreadable due to weather, acid rain, neglect and vandalism that I am glad to see other places in the country start to catalogue and photograph theirs. I read that in the past burning coal in New England for heat in buliding near graveyards has done more damage then we will do. In my own town, there is a very old burying ground that is being damaged, I am sure my the emissions from the cars that idle in traffic nearby. Well, I am going to go look more at Terry's other postings and at the ones that Joe Beine has posted in his Cemeteries and Cemetery Symbols blog. I can do this from my laptop outside on my back porch. OMG, I love technology!
I'd also like to comment here that I am surprised at the number of folks who decided to get organized and to write citations for these "Summer Games". I decided it wasn't entertaining enough for others to read but maybe that's just me being a writer.
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Death of Shepard's Department Store [Providence , RI]
My first job was as a teen sales clerk at the Shepard's Department Store, (built between 1880 and 1903) in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. This was in between my freshman and sophomore year at Rhode Island College. As I did not own a car, I rode the bus from home in Cranston into the city. As a young child, I'd spent many hours shopping with my mother and grandmother in the city. In those days, you could shop and have your purchases sent by delivery truck to your home if you lived near the city. My grandmother always had her packages sent and one of those boxes holds some of my Christmas ornaments. Every year, I smile at it when I go to decorate the tree.
My mother loved to shop and thought it was wonderful that I was going to work as a salesgirl. She took fashion design in college and knew one of the women who was a buyer in this store. Unfortunately for me, this woman signed me up for the Seventeen magazine fashion modeling for the store. I hated it; my mother thought it was glorious.
The city of Providence was filled with stores! The Outlet Co. was probably the largest. My grandfather opened a storefront for his laundry and dry cleaning business. I can still remember the line on the wall marking the spot where The Great Hurricane of 1938 flooded the city and all the stores. In the sixties, people still talked about the hurricane and still do now.
Not long after I spent that summer as a salesclerk, they built a mall near my home. Providence started to suffer. Shopping was more convenient and closer to home but somehow lacked the excitement. I miss the store where I used to buy stamps for my stamp collection and the hours spent at the wonderful Providence Public Library.
Writing this meme made me take a look at some of the articles on the Web that were about the city. So much has changed. Shepard's looks like this now, I guess. I haven't been to the city in thirty-six years.
My mother loved to shop and thought it was wonderful that I was going to work as a salesgirl. She took fashion design in college and knew one of the women who was a buyer in this store. Unfortunately for me, this woman signed me up for the Seventeen magazine fashion modeling for the store. I hated it; my mother thought it was glorious.
The city of Providence was filled with stores! The Outlet Co. was probably the largest. My grandfather opened a storefront for his laundry and dry cleaning business. I can still remember the line on the wall marking the spot where The Great Hurricane of 1938 flooded the city and all the stores. In the sixties, people still talked about the hurricane and still do now.
Not long after I spent that summer as a salesclerk, they built a mall near my home. Providence started to suffer. Shopping was more convenient and closer to home but somehow lacked the excitement. I miss the store where I used to buy stamps for my stamp collection and the hours spent at the wonderful Providence Public Library.
Writing this meme made me take a look at some of the articles on the Web that were about the city. So much has changed. Shepard's looks like this now, I guess. I haven't been to the city in thirty-six years.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Making Friends, Making Plans
Most of the traffic to this blog has been from those seeking a grave of an ancestor or for information and directions to a cemetery where I have a gravestone posted. Last night, I spent some time reading Elizabeth Shown Mills huge book, Evidence Explained, concentrating on the section for cemeteries. Although this is not part of the events I am competing in, to do the events I am work on in I must keep performing the skills of the other events!
I don't know as many of the other genea-bloggers because I haven't been traveling to other states for genealogy conferences. I read about 10 blogs in this field and subscribe to several publications. (Did you see me mentioned in the July and September issues of Family Tree Magazine and in American Spirit (May/June)? Thanks to Maureen Taylor and Joe Bott, I feel quite famous. That's fun.
For the next 5 days, I will be writing the required drafts for events in "Write, Write, Write". I am going to write them offline in Word after doing the research. Then I will store them as drafts in my blog space. Normally, I first connect the photo at Flickr to my blog add a few lines and publish it. Then, I go to what I have written offline and add it to the posting in the blog interface, I add tags for Technorati, put labels on each post and post the finished product.
Yesterday, because I have Bloglines automatically searching for my name [that's ego-surfing], I discoved that Randy Seaver, chose one of last week's postings, The Danger of Historical Books, for his "Best of the Week" section of his blog! Then, he "used my blog" for his event as posting to a nu-2-u genea-blog! Thanks, Randy!
As you saw in my Olympic flag, I am concentrating on blog post for the Stanton-Davis family and the Denison family. Watch for my new postings!
I don't know as many of the other genea-bloggers because I haven't been traveling to other states for genealogy conferences. I read about 10 blogs in this field and subscribe to several publications. (Did you see me mentioned in the July and September issues of Family Tree Magazine and in American Spirit (May/June)? Thanks to Maureen Taylor and Joe Bott, I feel quite famous. That's fun.
For the next 5 days, I will be writing the required drafts for events in "Write, Write, Write". I am going to write them offline in Word after doing the research. Then I will store them as drafts in my blog space. Normally, I first connect the photo at Flickr to my blog add a few lines and publish it. Then, I go to what I have written offline and add it to the posting in the blog interface, I add tags for Technorati, put labels on each post and post the finished product.
Yesterday, because I have Bloglines automatically searching for my name [that's ego-surfing], I discoved that Randy Seaver, chose one of last week's postings, The Danger of Historical Books, for his "Best of the Week" section of his blog! Then, he "used my blog" for his event as posting to a nu-2-u genea-blog! Thanks, Randy!
As you saw in my Olympic flag, I am concentrating on blog post for the Stanton-Davis family and the Denison family. Watch for my new postings!
Right You Are!
Category: “Write, Write, Write”
Silver Medal
Event B: participate in a blog carnival (Carnival of Genealogy - 54th Edition)
“Right You Are!”
Just because my family came to America from locations in Scotland and England doesn’t mean that you can understand them even though they are speaking English. As a small child, I went with my father, Tom, a first-generation American, to visit his mother’s family whose surname was Aiken. At one house, a woman threw open an upstairs window, leaned out and called out to my father. She called my father by his middle name and spoke to him in her loud “Scottish voice”! I was confused and asked my father if she was speaking French. I still remember his laughter.
The “wee bairn” (that’s what they called me) was a hit with the family from that point on. I was so sure it was French because I knew my father took French in high school and could speak it well enough to talk to the children during his time in Europe during WWII.
Aren’t we supposed to listen to family stories and make sense of them?
Athletic and gregarious, Tom inherited a habit of saying, “Right you are!” and nodding emphatically when he spoke the words. It meant he was agreeing with what you said and appreciated your conversation. I don’t think my father fully understood my desire for getting the ancestor names and dates down on paper. He would have been impressed and given me a “Right you are!” for researching back four more generations past his own father. I did it in his memory and learned that Scottish women (these are my great-grandparents) are a forceful influence on family and are determined and frugal. I love being right.
About a month before she died, my mother told a story about her great-grandmother Sarah who lived to be ninety-nine. One Sunday, she was out for a ride in the car with her family. Whoever was driving drove past the local evangelical church. They were being spiritual by singing and shouting on the lawn of the church and throwing themselves down on the ground. (“Holy Rollers”) It is said, that upon viewing this somewhat alarming event in conservative New England, whoever was driving wanted to stop and see if anyone was injured. Sarah told them to keep driving and remarked, “Leave ‘em lay where Jesus flung ‘em!”. In my family, we have now adopted this saying as a measure of tolerance for things we don’t fully understand but accept.
You know what my father would say, don’t you? “Right you are!”
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Silver Medal
Event B: participate in a blog carnival (Carnival of Genealogy - 54th Edition)
“Right You Are!”
Just because my family came to America from locations in Scotland and England doesn’t mean that you can understand them even though they are speaking English. As a small child, I went with my father, Tom, a first-generation American, to visit his mother’s family whose surname was Aiken. At one house, a woman threw open an upstairs window, leaned out and called out to my father. She called my father by his middle name and spoke to him in her loud “Scottish voice”! I was confused and asked my father if she was speaking French. I still remember his laughter.
The “wee bairn” (that’s what they called me) was a hit with the family from that point on. I was so sure it was French because I knew my father took French in high school and could speak it well enough to talk to the children during his time in Europe during WWII.
Aren’t we supposed to listen to family stories and make sense of them?
Athletic and gregarious, Tom inherited a habit of saying, “Right you are!” and nodding emphatically when he spoke the words. It meant he was agreeing with what you said and appreciated your conversation. I don’t think my father fully understood my desire for getting the ancestor names and dates down on paper. He would have been impressed and given me a “Right you are!” for researching back four more generations past his own father. I did it in his memory and learned that Scottish women (these are my great-grandparents) are a forceful influence on family and are determined and frugal. I love being right.
About a month before she died, my mother told a story about her great-grandmother Sarah who lived to be ninety-nine. One Sunday, she was out for a ride in the car with her family. Whoever was driving drove past the local evangelical church. They were being spiritual by singing and shouting on the lawn of the church and throwing themselves down on the ground. (“Holy Rollers”) It is said, that upon viewing this somewhat alarming event in conservative New England, whoever was driving wanted to stop and see if anyone was injured. Sarah told them to keep driving and remarked, “Leave ‘em lay where Jesus flung ‘em!”. In my family, we have now adopted this saying as a measure of tolerance for things we don’t fully understand but accept.
You know what my father would say, don’t you? “Right you are!”
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Midge Frazel, Gravestone Maven
Category: "Write, Write, Write"
Bronze Medal: Event A: Blog Summary
For this event, I am required to write a blog post about this blog, describing the intent and purpose and what I have done so far.
In June 2006, I decided to post some of the photographs I have been taking of gravestones in my direct line ancestors.
At that time, the only practical way was to post them was by using the photo-hosting site Flickr. In a short period of time, I purchased a Pro account and began organizing my photos in sets which made it easier to find photos taken in the same cemetery over time. My husband helps me with the driving and the traipsing all over the place. He holds the mirror and carries my gravestone bag.
In addition to posting single and group gravestone photos, I have been researching them and posting that information in my blog. I have only researched one whole cemetery with family members buried there. The rest are photographed while looking for specific graves. I belong to several groups (this is one) on Flickr where members research and discuss difference topics of interest to “gravestone groupies”. I learned from Sharon Carmack’s book and others and I belong to the AGS.
My cousin, Fred Burdick, town historian for Stonington, CT has been photographing and producing CD’s of photos and research on several ancient graveyards in Stonington, CT. I have learned much from him about making a plan, mapping the cemetery and photographing a cemetery by section and correctly using the mirror.
I have found gravestones for others as I go along and delight in giving a photograph of someone else’s ancestor to them! My blog is not sequential and I post gravestone photographs whenever I have time or if I find the grave of an ancestor that I own a photo of that person in my collection.
Oh, yes, and this photo of me is at the grave of one of my 2nd great grandfathers, James Albert Barber. He was awarded the medal of honor for his service in the Civil War. I have been helping in a small way to contribute to book about his unit written by Robert Grandchamp, a graduate student at Rhode Island College (where I also got a degree). Rob is a great guy and very serious about his obsession with all things Civil War. Rob lives in the town next to the one where I grew up. It was meant to be.
How did he find me? I made a Web page and posted his photo and this was before I became a gravestone groupie! Isn't the Web wonderful?
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Bronze Medal: Event A: Blog Summary
For this event, I am required to write a blog post about this blog, describing the intent and purpose and what I have done so far.
In June 2006, I decided to post some of the photographs I have been taking of gravestones in my direct line ancestors.
At that time, the only practical way was to post them was by using the photo-hosting site Flickr. In a short period of time, I purchased a Pro account and began organizing my photos in sets which made it easier to find photos taken in the same cemetery over time. My husband helps me with the driving and the traipsing all over the place. He holds the mirror and carries my gravestone bag.
In addition to posting single and group gravestone photos, I have been researching them and posting that information in my blog. I have only researched one whole cemetery with family members buried there. The rest are photographed while looking for specific graves. I belong to several groups (this is one) on Flickr where members research and discuss difference topics of interest to “gravestone groupies”. I learned from Sharon Carmack’s book and others and I belong to the AGS.
My cousin, Fred Burdick, town historian for Stonington, CT has been photographing and producing CD’s of photos and research on several ancient graveyards in Stonington, CT. I have learned much from him about making a plan, mapping the cemetery and photographing a cemetery by section and correctly using the mirror.
I have found gravestones for others as I go along and delight in giving a photograph of someone else’s ancestor to them! My blog is not sequential and I post gravestone photographs whenever I have time or if I find the grave of an ancestor that I own a photo of that person in my collection.
Oh, yes, and this photo of me is at the grave of one of my 2nd great grandfathers, James Albert Barber. He was awarded the medal of honor for his service in the Civil War. I have been helping in a small way to contribute to book about his unit written by Robert Grandchamp, a graduate student at Rhode Island College (where I also got a degree). Rob is a great guy and very serious about his obsession with all things Civil War. Rob lives in the town next to the one where I grew up. It was meant to be.
How did he find me? I made a Web page and posted his photo and this was before I became a gravestone groupie! Isn't the Web wonderful?
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Saturday, August 09, 2008
100 friends at FaceBook
Cheer! I have 100 friends a Facebook. I hope they will all cheer me (and my fellow bloggers) on for the Summer Games!
Now, how do I get 200 friends?
Now, how do I get 200 friends?
Join the Team!
Category “Reach Out & Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness”
Event F: Bronze Medal: Join the Team
For this event, I am required to join a genealogical, historical, heritage or lineage society. As I belong to other organizations like this, I checked my list and found that I do not belong to the Gallup Family Association. [Yes, this is the Gallup poll, Gallup, New Mexico…]
Not knowing how long it might take to get back to me, I went to their new Web page and filled out the form for information. I created a screenshot of part of that page and kept it in my folder for the 2008 Genea-Bloggers Summer Games on my desktop.
I promptly received a reply from the membership chairperson with instructions on where to send my membership fee. I created a screenshot (see photo) of that and put both into a Word document to print out for my files for that lineage society. Using my genealogy software, I printed an outline descendant chart of my descendency from that ancestor even though it was not required. I printed out a photo of myself with the ancestor’s gravestone.
This is a photo of the process of the items I included for membership. I wrote the check and put everything together and put it out to be mailed. I emailed the membership chairperson saying “The check is in the mail!” I have joined the team.
I belong to the DAR, the Mayflower Society, two local genealogical (Plymouth County, South Shore) societies, one historical society (North Stonington, Connecticut) and have life memberships in three other lineage societies (The Denison Society, The Thomas Stanton Society and the Avery Memorial Association). I am a member of the National Genealogical Society and the Association of Professional Genealogists.
It is an event in itself to keep them all straight!
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Event F: Bronze Medal: Join the Team
For this event, I am required to join a genealogical, historical, heritage or lineage society. As I belong to other organizations like this, I checked my list and found that I do not belong to the Gallup Family Association. [Yes, this is the Gallup poll, Gallup, New Mexico…]
Not knowing how long it might take to get back to me, I went to their new Web page and filled out the form for information. I created a screenshot of part of that page and kept it in my folder for the 2008 Genea-Bloggers Summer Games on my desktop.
I promptly received a reply from the membership chairperson with instructions on where to send my membership fee. I created a screenshot (see photo) of that and put both into a Word document to print out for my files for that lineage society. Using my genealogy software, I printed an outline descendant chart of my descendency from that ancestor even though it was not required. I printed out a photo of myself with the ancestor’s gravestone.
This is a photo of the process of the items I included for membership. I wrote the check and put everything together and put it out to be mailed. I emailed the membership chairperson saying “The check is in the mail!” I have joined the team.
I belong to the DAR, the Mayflower Society, two local genealogical (Plymouth County, South Shore) societies, one historical society (North Stonington, Connecticut) and have life memberships in three other lineage societies (The Denison Society, The Thomas Stanton Society and the Avery Memorial Association). I am a member of the National Genealogical Society and the Association of Professional Genealogists.
It is an event in itself to keep them all straight!
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Friday, August 08, 2008
Let the Summer [Genea-Bloggers] Games Begin!
Opening Ceremonies [Flag]
In my recent post, I blogged about the categories of competition in which I will be participating. As this blog is devoted to gravestone photography and research, those who visit here may be mystified by why there are no gravestones in some of these entries and so they can take a few days off from visiting here until I start posting the events which have gravestone references.
Rules are rules and I have specific tasks set by the “Genea-Bloggers Summer Games” on the social networking Web site Facebook to follow. Being neither an athlete nor a “rules follower”, this is sure to be a lot of hard work!
Genealogy research is about writing, research and sharing what you uncover.
This is the logo of the games which is from today, Friday August 8, 2008 to Saturday, August 23, 2008. I will be posting daily in this time period. These posts will either meet the event requirements or they will be about the process that genealogists must follow to do research. I will be keeping a daily tally of the tasks in which it took to compete and accomplish my goals. Feel free to ask questions about this via the comment section here or directly to me in an email.
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
In my recent post, I blogged about the categories of competition in which I will be participating. As this blog is devoted to gravestone photography and research, those who visit here may be mystified by why there are no gravestones in some of these entries and so they can take a few days off from visiting here until I start posting the events which have gravestone references.
Rules are rules and I have specific tasks set by the “Genea-Bloggers Summer Games” on the social networking Web site Facebook to follow. Being neither an athlete nor a “rules follower”, this is sure to be a lot of hard work!
Genealogy research is about writing, research and sharing what you uncover.
This is the logo of the games which is from today, Friday August 8, 2008 to Saturday, August 23, 2008. I will be posting daily in this time period. These posts will either meet the event requirements or they will be about the process that genealogists must follow to do research. I will be keeping a daily tally of the tasks in which it took to compete and accomplish my goals. Feel free to ask questions about this via the comment section here or directly to me in an email.
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Genea-Bloggers Flag Frazel
Warming Up!
As today is the day before the official games beginning and the first posting, I thought I'd blog about the flag I created for the games.
The flag I made, as part of the rules, Is purposefully not perfect because as everyone knows, ancestors were imperfect people. I have chosen two of my most interesting lines for my flag, both families came to America in The Great Migration of the 1630s.
I made the lines of the flag of the UK a bit out of alignment to signify how England was losing control of the Colonies even at that point. The American flag here is only slightly off track to signify the situation in America today. I put a ten pointed star in colonial blue color to represent the 5 lines I have of both these families down to me. Thomas Stanton and George Denison lived in the same area of colonial Connecticut and knew each other. In fact, these two families intermarried. I took these photos of their family crests at the back-to-back family reunions I went to these past two weekends. Both men played a significant part in history.
I will be choosing a different ancestor for my "ancestor profile" as I have been doing more research on that family. In that line, I have a gravestone for each ancestor! Well, you'll see....
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
As today is the day before the official games beginning and the first posting, I thought I'd blog about the flag I created for the games.
The flag I made, as part of the rules, Is purposefully not perfect because as everyone knows, ancestors were imperfect people. I have chosen two of my most interesting lines for my flag, both families came to America in The Great Migration of the 1630s.
I made the lines of the flag of the UK a bit out of alignment to signify how England was losing control of the Colonies even at that point. The American flag here is only slightly off track to signify the situation in America today. I put a ten pointed star in colonial blue color to represent the 5 lines I have of both these families down to me. Thomas Stanton and George Denison lived in the same area of colonial Connecticut and knew each other. In fact, these two families intermarried. I took these photos of their family crests at the back-to-back family reunions I went to these past two weekends. Both men played a significant part in history.
I will be choosing a different ancestor for my "ancestor profile" as I have been doing more research on that family. In that line, I have a gravestone for each ancestor! Well, you'll see....
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Midge Frazel
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
As I am not known for my athletic ability, I expect that signing up for the Genea-Bloggers Games is going to take a lot of brain gymnastics with a side of organizational skills thrown in. The Genea-Bloggers is a group of genealogical and family history enthusiasts on the popular social-networking site Facebook.
Step One:
I have signed up to compete by RSVP-ing on the group games page. After doing so, I made sure I am "in-training" by running up and down the stairs in my house organizing my genealogy files as I have just been to 2 family reunions this past two weekends. At sixty, running up and down the stairs is a major event!
Step Two:
Publish a posting on your blog. (OK, you are reading this now, right?) by Friday, August 8th at 3PM PDT. Today is Tuesday, August 5, so I guess I will meet this deadline! I am supposed to list the categories in which I will be competing, so here goes:
Category 4: "Write, Write, Write"
I will go for four of the five posted tasks competing for the Diamond Medal. I will have to forgo the Platinum Medal because I have a book in progress, a possible teaching job on the line and a presentation to write so I will be unable to do the task marked "Sign up to host a future carnival". I am an over-achiever, yes, but I am not crazy.
Category 5: "Reach Out and Perform a Genealogical Acts of Kindness!"
I will go for five of the six (Did you know you listed 6 tasks?) I will skip requesting another genealogist to join Facebook because everyone I know who is a genealogist is already on-board as Facebook experienced a deluge of genealogy enthusiasts this month! (Wow, where have you guys been? I've been here since February 2007) Update: I emailed Carmen Johnson and she was very excited to join Facebook if there was going to be other genealogy enthusiasts here! Yippeeeeeeeeeee! Now I can blog about her and her contribution to our mutual ancestors!
I have decided that this will have to be enough for me at the moment and I am skipping the categories that are obviously my strengths: Organizing and Backing-Up Data. As an educational technologist, I have been a geek for twenty years and have an unfair advantage in these categories. My data is backed up to flash drive, I own a portable hard drive just for my genealogy data, I already post my photos to Flickr, and I have backups on CD in a fire-proof box. I have a tree at Ancestry where I am storing my data (plus census records, etc.) and I have a full surname-notebook system and a paper-printout filing plan in place.
Mill's Evidence book is sitting next to the family Bible and I strive to read and comply by it. I am a member of APG, after all!
Step Three:
Start Competing on Saturday, August 9 at 12N PDT. OK so, I have started early. Hey, I'm sixty and slower than I used to be. Besides one of my genealogical kindness projects is for a lady who was born in 1922. Do you really think I should wait?
Midge
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
Step One:
I have signed up to compete by RSVP-ing on the group games page. After doing so, I made sure I am "in-training" by running up and down the stairs in my house organizing my genealogy files as I have just been to 2 family reunions this past two weekends. At sixty, running up and down the stairs is a major event!
Step Two:
Publish a posting on your blog. (OK, you are reading this now, right?) by Friday, August 8th at 3PM PDT. Today is Tuesday, August 5, so I guess I will meet this deadline! I am supposed to list the categories in which I will be competing, so here goes:
Category 4: "Write, Write, Write"
I will go for four of the five posted tasks competing for the Diamond Medal. I will have to forgo the Platinum Medal because I have a book in progress, a possible teaching job on the line and a presentation to write so I will be unable to do the task marked "Sign up to host a future carnival". I am an over-achiever, yes, but I am not crazy.
Category 5: "Reach Out and Perform a Genealogical Acts of Kindness!"
I will go for five of the six (Did you know you listed 6 tasks?) I will skip requesting another genealogist to join Facebook because everyone I know who is a genealogist is already on-board as Facebook experienced a deluge of genealogy enthusiasts this month! (Wow, where have you guys been? I've been here since February 2007) Update: I emailed Carmen Johnson and she was very excited to join Facebook if there was going to be other genealogy enthusiasts here! Yippeeeeeeeeeee! Now I can blog about her and her contribution to our mutual ancestors!
I have decided that this will have to be enough for me at the moment and I am skipping the categories that are obviously my strengths: Organizing and Backing-Up Data. As an educational technologist, I have been a geek for twenty years and have an unfair advantage in these categories. My data is backed up to flash drive, I own a portable hard drive just for my genealogy data, I already post my photos to Flickr, and I have backups on CD in a fire-proof box. I have a tree at Ancestry where I am storing my data (plus census records, etc.) and I have a full surname-notebook system and a paper-printout filing plan in place.
Mill's Evidence book is sitting next to the family Bible and I strive to read and comply by it. I am a member of APG, after all!
Step Three:
Start Competing on Saturday, August 9 at 12N PDT. OK so, I have started early. Hey, I'm sixty and slower than I used to be. Besides one of my genealogical kindness projects is for a lady who was born in 1922. Do you really think I should wait?
Midge
2008 Genea-Bloggers Games
Midge Frazel
The Davis Genealogy
If you haven't looked at Google Books, you should. There are many resources for books that are out of print that you can download for free.
My Stanton ancestors have a close and lasting relationship with the Davis family of Pawcatuck, CT. This resource is a downloadable book in Adobe Acrobat format.
My Stanton ancestors have a close and lasting relationship with the Davis family of Pawcatuck, CT. This resource is a downloadable book in Adobe Acrobat format.
The Danger of Historical Books
So much is written about the value of reading and citing the information in historical books and print genealogies as opposed to finding data on your ancestors through the Internet. Certainly, the information in print is more reliable, especially if it is cited correctly so others can find it. The Internet with its Web pages, discussion boards, mailing lists, blogs, social networks and online photo sharing and of course, email bring those who crave information about their ancestors closer together to share, reflect upon and discuss the past. Today's genealogist must be capable of using all resources possible.
Upon the recommendation of a friend, I purchased a copy of Grace Denison Wheeler's 1903 book, "Old Homes of Stonington". What I didn't know is that the reprinting of this book has eliminated three chapters and a whole section with graveyard inscriptions! My copy purchased in 2006, from the bookseller, Alibris, a reputable, reliable and speedy delivery company does not contain the entire contents of the original volume. It is, however, cleanly and sturdily bound and can be carried easily on my travels from home to Stonington, CT with no problems. It cost $52.44 and was worth every penny. (or so I thought...)
It is a wonderful book, filled with photographs of homes of my ancestors and stories and is a great companion to fleshing out lives of the people. Grace was the town historian and daughter of Richard Wheeler whose book "History of Stonington" is an amazing work of its time. My copy is in use daily in my work for my own ancestors and in my work as assistant genealogist to the Denison Society.
Grace's work is vastly different from her father's approach and reflects the perspective of a female historian. Imagine my delight at finding her gravestone at Elm Grove Cemetery in Mystic, CT. I have printed it and use it as a bookmark in my book.
Last weekend, I was offered the opportunity to borrow an original edition from the Denison Society's library as long as I took good care of it and sent it back promptly (which I have done). It is fragile, yellowing and easily damaged just by reading never mind scanning or photocopying.
As I opened it, I discovered that there is a photograph of Grace on the first page! I gasped aloud; how could they leave that out? I carefully photocopied that page for my personal collection. Grace was single, so she has no direct descendants for me to contact.
Chapters eleven, twelve and thirteen are missing from my reprinted copy and both are of high interest to me. One is about Denisons, the second is written by a Chesebrough and the third is about the Rev. James Noyes. All of these surnames are prominent in my charts!
Most annoying is the many missing pages of gravestone transcriptions. Without this important information, many gravestones will be impossible to identify in the future. Some are hard to locate and read today.
The moral to this story is that even information in print can be deceptive. If I had investigated more closely in 2006, I would have found the correct edition available for purchase via The Stonington Historical Society. The cost is $35 with shipping. Notice it says "with missing chapters and gravestone inscriptions".
Upon the recommendation of a friend, I purchased a copy of Grace Denison Wheeler's 1903 book, "Old Homes of Stonington". What I didn't know is that the reprinting of this book has eliminated three chapters and a whole section with graveyard inscriptions! My copy purchased in 2006, from the bookseller, Alibris, a reputable, reliable and speedy delivery company does not contain the entire contents of the original volume. It is, however, cleanly and sturdily bound and can be carried easily on my travels from home to Stonington, CT with no problems. It cost $52.44 and was worth every penny. (or so I thought...)
It is a wonderful book, filled with photographs of homes of my ancestors and stories and is a great companion to fleshing out lives of the people. Grace was the town historian and daughter of Richard Wheeler whose book "History of Stonington" is an amazing work of its time. My copy is in use daily in my work for my own ancestors and in my work as assistant genealogist to the Denison Society.
Grace's work is vastly different from her father's approach and reflects the perspective of a female historian. Imagine my delight at finding her gravestone at Elm Grove Cemetery in Mystic, CT. I have printed it and use it as a bookmark in my book.
Last weekend, I was offered the opportunity to borrow an original edition from the Denison Society's library as long as I took good care of it and sent it back promptly (which I have done). It is fragile, yellowing and easily damaged just by reading never mind scanning or photocopying.
As I opened it, I discovered that there is a photograph of Grace on the first page! I gasped aloud; how could they leave that out? I carefully photocopied that page for my personal collection. Grace was single, so she has no direct descendants for me to contact.
Chapters eleven, twelve and thirteen are missing from my reprinted copy and both are of high interest to me. One is about Denisons, the second is written by a Chesebrough and the third is about the Rev. James Noyes. All of these surnames are prominent in my charts!
Most annoying is the many missing pages of gravestone transcriptions. Without this important information, many gravestones will be impossible to identify in the future. Some are hard to locate and read today.
The moral to this story is that even information in print can be deceptive. If I had investigated more closely in 2006, I would have found the correct edition available for purchase via The Stonington Historical Society. The cost is $35 with shipping. Notice it says "with missing chapters and gravestone inscriptions".
Friday, August 01, 2008
Reunion Tent and Meadow
This past weekend I attended my first reunion of the Thomas Stanton Society in Pawcatuck, CT. I have chosen to show you this photo so you can see the lovely countryside and the big tent we had to hold all of us. Many things were of interest. Many people came a very long way to attend and some are members of the other families in the area and are people I see at the Denison reunion (which is tomorrow).
The land is now (and has been for a long time) the Davis farm. The Stanton family "lost the farm" and the Davis family snatched it up and as it goes in New England, a Stanton woman married into the family bringing this family together once again. The Davis farm is the oldest continuously farmed land in all of Connecticut! That's a lot of hay.
The Farmhouse Cemetery is, of course, situated right on the farm property. I dashed over to it and snapped a few photos which I will be blogging about in the future.
The land is now (and has been for a long time) the Davis farm. The Stanton family "lost the farm" and the Davis family snatched it up and as it goes in New England, a Stanton woman married into the family bringing this family together once again. The Davis farm is the oldest continuously farmed land in all of Connecticut! That's a lot of hay.
The Farmhouse Cemetery is, of course, situated right on the farm property. I dashed over to it and snapped a few photos which I will be blogging about in the future.
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