John Crandall

John Crandall
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

Graveyard Rabbits Carnival, August 2009 edition

When I first started to take gravestone photographs, I took this photograph not knowing anything about the surname Crandall [Crandal]. I took this photo because I was surprised to see how remarkably clear and unbroken this gravestone was compared to the other gravestones in this burying ground. It has to be special, I thought!

Because I have so many ancestors buried in this, the Whitehall Burying Ground #21 in Mystic, CT, I kept it in my gravestone folder and never researched it.

When my cousin, Fred Burdick, showed me his photographs, on CD, all researched and browse-able and shared his method and map of how he went about organizing his work to take the photos, I started to work on the gravestones that he couldn't find out anymore about (at that time).

This is the problem with research. It is never done and once you put what you know "out there" in print or on the Web, people think that is all there is to find out.

Last summer, my cousin, Scott Bill Hirst, kept asking me if I was a Crandall descendant. He was so insistent that I look into this, I began to feel that probably he was right. Not long after that, I found out that I was, yes indeedy, a Crandall descendant!

Suddenly, I remembered this gravestone. I pulled up the genealogy of Elder John Crandall and found the entry for this young man. His parents were Samuel Crandall (son of Elder John) and his wife Sarah COLBY. [Crandall Family Burial Ground]

John is listed in the genealogy as being born 11 January 1693 and there is nothing else written there. I am assuming John was born in Rhode Island, so why he was in Mystic at the time of his death? I don't know. Was he an apprentice to a family in Mystic? I guess we will never know.

This gravestone photograph is a favorite because it was carved by John Stevens I (1647-1736) of Newport, RI. The engraving looks scratched in and the top of the skull is described as a "baker's hat". The Farber Collection of gravestones carved by this gravestone carber seems to confirm this. I am not an expert in who the carvers were but I am reading "Graven Images" and it is an interesting textbook of New England Gravestone research.

I am wondering today if the genealogist for the Crandall Family Association knows that young John's gravestone exists?

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.