Tombstone Tuesday: Daniel Dexter FAY

DSC06108, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Daniel Dexter FAY 

In the midst of life, we are in death

This simple stone stood out in yesterday's fall sunshine. With no matching graves around him, I wondered why he is buried here alone without a wife or daughter.

His death record stated that he was married and was the son of Daniel P. and Wealthy of Marlborough, born 2 Nov 1831. The 1880 census lists him with a wife and child, working as a stone mason.(wife named Carrie and daughter age 12 named Cora J.)

The death records says he died of alcoholic poisoning and paralysis of the heart. No wife listed but the parents are listed as Daniel P. Fay and Wealthy Morse. The gravestones behind him are of the Morse family.

I hope someone has been looking for this gravestone. He is buried in the Wilson St. section of Evergreen Cemetery.

Ruth RICE

Ruth RICE, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Ruth RICE, wife of Nathaniel FAY 

Old Southborough Burial Ground, October 9, 2011. Strong sunlight in the afternoon made the lettering on this tall slate gravestone clearly readable.

Ruth RICE, daughter of Jonathan RICE and his wife Ruth EAMES born 4 April 1755 in Framingham [VR] She was the wife of Nathaniel FAY, son of Robert FAY and Elizabeth JOSLIN. She married Nathaniel FAY on 18 Aug 1774 in Southborough [VR] and she died in Southborough 12 Feb 1812 [VR] as shown below:

Her death is recorded in the Vital Records of Southborough:
Ruth FAY
Ruth, w. Nathaniel, Feb. 12, 1812, in her 57th y. C.R.
Death/ Southborough, MA 


Source: The RICE family by Andrew Henshaw Ward [1858] p. 85 #1032

Ruth6 (Jonathan5, Hezekiah4, Jonathan3, Henry2, Deac. Edmund1)

By their Side: Lucy BEMIS

Lucy BEMIS, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Lucy BEAMAS/BEMIS was the daughter of Elisha BEAMAS and his wife Lucy ELTON. I haven't been able to find her birth record but I am still working on that.

Lucy's gravestone is right next to her husband Nathan Fay. She was one of my husband's 4th great grandparents. She was a widow and the mother of a dozen children.

Tombstone Tuesday: 4th Great Grandparents

Steve with Nathan and Lucy FAY, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

My husband was so proud that he found the gravestones of Nathan FAY and his wife Lucy BEMIS at the Old Southborough Burial Ground in Southborough, MA.

He is standing at military attention in honor of his Revolutionary War ancestor.It just HAD to be my Tombstone Tuesday post...

He took this great photo of me with one of my Revolutionary War ancestors, so now it was my turn to take his photo.

Nathan FAY

Nathan FAY, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Photograph of this gravestone of Nathan FAY was taken in the 

Old Southborough Burial Ground in Southborough, Worcester, Massachusetts on 21 June 2011.
  
I sprayed water on this gravestone so it could be more easily read and we used the reflecting circle to take this photo.

In Memory of
NATHAN FAY

who died

21 Feb 1831

AEt. 84

We went to the Old Southborough Burial Ground to specifically search for the graves of Nathan Fay and his wife Lucy Bemis. The Fay Family Web page (which is no longer maintained by anyone as the person who created it has died) offered quite a lot of information on this branch of my husband's family. The list of Fay surnames gave me hope that we could find them but as it was not a complete listing, I didn't know who else was buried there. Find-a-Grave has a listing for this cemetery but there are no gravestones listed!

This is a snippet from the Fay genealogy of page 236 This genealogy is available at Ancestry.com.

The last child of Nathan and Lucy was my husband's ancestor. She, Rebecca, married Ebenezer Hyde and they are buried just up the road at the Southborough Rural Cemetery. [Mother and Father] 

Archive.org holds a copy of the Massachusetts Soldier and Sailors and on page 597 of Volume 5 it simply states:

NEHGS holds the vital records for Southborough as well as Archive.org: 

FAY

Nathan, s. Aaron and Thankfull, Feb. 6, 1747-8. Birth: Southborough [She was a NEWTON]

Nathan, Feb. 21, 1831, a. 84  Death: Southborough