House Plaque

Photo by Brian Zoldak, used with permission, 2013

Sign, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

House at 6 Willow St. in Mystic, CT

No matter how long I do genealogy research, I am always amazed at what can be found out about my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents beyond what I knew in the early 1990s when the Internet began to explode with genealogical information. But, what I am NEVER expecting is to find out is information about my 2nd and 3rd great grandparents and yet, that is exactly what I have been learning on both sides of my family. 

I heard at RootsTech, there was a statement made that you will be forgotten when four generations have passed after your death. Of course, this means that people will not have actually known you but I feel that I can speak for genealogists everywhere that we are unlikely to not leave behind traces of remembrance of ourselves and four generations before us.

Recently, I got a big surprise when my photographer friend, Brain Zoldak, went out with his camera and photographed scenes of where my ancestors walked in Mystic, CT. This plaque is on a house at 6 Willow St. in downtown Mystic (not on Denison Ave. but nearby) where my 3rd great grandparents lived their last years together as husband and wife. 

Levina Fish Denison, whose name is frequently misspelled as Levinia (which oddly was the name of one of her granddaughters) was born in 1790 and died, probably at the home of her son, the Rev. Frederic Denison, in Providence, RI in 1890. That was 123 years ago. She was my third great grandmother. I have copies of not one but two photographs of her.

It was news to me that she lived in this house. For the next two days, I will blog about my adventure with finding out about this house.