Remembering V.O. HYDE

V.O. Hyde, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Served in the Civil War 

My husband's great grandfather was Vergene Ovando HYDE (1844-1909). He preferred to be known by his initials V. O.

Recently, a family member gave us his obituary which we had not seen before. He lied about his age to join up. He was only 16, 17 not 21 as it says in this clip (below) from the Mass Soldiers and Sailors book (thanks to Molly Leavitt from Southborough Historical Society for helping me..)

It is this family's descendants that I have been working with, recording the shared ancestors, for more than 2 years.

This obituary tells us, that like many of those who served in the Civil War, he was very ill with a fever. His must have been so severe that he was discharged. He served in Co. I, 20th Regiment Massachusetts Infantry

I knew he was a shoemaker but I didn't know the name of the place he worked. For a long time, all we knew was that he was a milk dealer after his service.

I very much like the closing paragraph where it refers to his honesty and law abiding life. His family will long remember him. We are hoping to get a veteran flag marker for his grave site in Maplewood Cemetery in Marlborough, MA

Rest in peace, V.O. and thank you for your service to our country.

Happy Memorial Day to all my readers.

Cemetery Walk Ready!

Young Edmund HYDE, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

I am ready to pull up the curtain on the special cemetery walk and talk that I am leading tomorrow. Please keep your fingers crossed that the weather is not rainy.

It is too bad that this stone of the young man Edmund HYDE at Southborough Rural Cemetery is not upright. it is so ornately carved.

Cemetery Walk

Southborough Rural Cemetery Sign, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Hyde Family Cemetery Walk

It will be a "silent as a grave" here at Granite-in-MY-Blood this week, as I prepare for a mini cemetery walk through two cemeteries with cousin Eleanor and her niece Mary Linda.

Eleanor, the family historian, who has helped so much with hubs family tree and with the sharing of her family photos, has never seen the gravestone of Abraham HYDE and his father Ebenezer HYDE buried in the Southborough Rural Cemetery in not-so-distant Southborough. Her family didn't have a car to take here her. It is about 25 miles from where she grew up!

It was decided that we would take her to see the gravestones at Maplewood Cemetery in Marlborough, MA first and then get back in the car and go to Southborough. She is a very young 89.

I have done extensive research for her because some of the gravestones in this multi-generational family are in Pine Grove Cemetery in Boylston, MA and older ones in Newton Center Cemetery and in Dodge Cemetery in Sutton, MA. Those photos have been taken by other people.

It will take me most of this week to be ready for being the tour guide. I hope my back and hip cooperate for this special event.

See you later.

Tombstone Tuesday: Hyde Gravestone

Hyde Gravestone, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Unknown Hyde Gravestone

My husband's cousin took this gravestone photo but I am not sure what it says. I did find a list of gravestones for this cemetery and discovered that there are two Daniel HYDE gravestones listed. One should be David HYDE. You can see why that mistake could have been made with such a worn gravestone.


I think this may be a gravestone to mark the deaths of other children in this family.I can't find death or marriage records for other children. 

DANIEL HYDE, d. 1821, aged 23 years
RUTH HYDE, d. 1813, aged 5 years
RUTH HYDE, d. 1804, aged 18 years
EBENEZER HYDE, d. 1813, aged 58 years
RUTH HYDE, wife of Ebenezer, d. 1793, aged 29 years
ABIGAIL HYDE, d. 1828, aged 66 years
DANIEL HYDE, d. 1826, aged 21 years

Sutton, MA Web site

Sutton, MA Cemetery Page

Daniel HYDE

Daniel HYDE, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Daniel HYDE

Daniel was the first born son of Ebenezer Hyde, Sr. and his second wife, Abigail NEWTON.

This is a close-up shot of the stone.

Daniel was born 28 Sept 1797 in Sutton, MA and died 15 Mar 1821 (unmarried) also in Sutton, MA.

He lies buried in Dodge Cemetery with his parents.

Daughter Ruth HYDE

Ruth HYDE, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Ebenezer Hyde, Sr. and his first wife's second child was named Ruth. She was born 19 Dec 1786 and died at age 17 on 11 Jan 1804. This is a close-up photo of the faded carving on this gravestone.

Abigail NEWTON

Abigail NEWTON, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Abigail NEWTON

Abigail NEWTON, second wife of Ebenezer HYDE, Sr. like many women of her day, married a man whose wife died and left him with small children. (photographed by William Dunbar) Close-up of her name on the stone.

Unlike the record of his first marriage, which I can't find, are TWO "records" of marriage for Ebenezer and Abigail. This might be because the NEWTON family was a prominent family in this area.

Marriage Banns, although common, are not something I have consistently found as I search vital records. This one looks like this:

HYDE: (see Hide), Ebenezer and Abigail Newton of Southborough, int. May 4, 1794. Town Page Detail: Sutton Marriage Sutton, MA

Since Ruth ONTHANK, his first wife died at age 28 on 8 Sept, 1793, this intention to marry the following May in 1794, may seem hasty. But, Ebenezer had Ebenezer (age 9), Ruth (age 8), and little William (age 5) who needed a mother. I always feel sympathetic toward these previously maiden women who took on an established household. Such in life in the 1700s in New England.

Abigail married Ebenezer the following July as evidenced by the vital record of their marriage:


NEWTON: Abigail and Ebenezer Hide of Sutton, July 13, 1794. Town Page Detail: Southborough Marriage Southborough, MA

They had five more children. How did New England women manage this many children?


Ebenezer's gravestone and his second wife Abigail have matching gravestones obviously carved by the same stone cutter.

Abigail was born 20 June 1762 in Southborough , a daughter of David NEWTON and his wife Abigail. She died at the age of 66 in 1828, as a widow and is buried in Dodge Cemetery  in Sutton.

Hyde Family Records

Hyde Family Records, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Found during a search for Hyde ancestors was the clip of a transcribed journal which belonged to Ebenezer Hyde, Sr.

Ruth ONTHANK

Ruth ONTHANK, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Ruth ONTHANK

Ruth ONTHANK, first wife of Ebenezer Hyde,Sr. is buried in Dodge Cemetery in Sutton, Worcester, MA. I discovered as I researched her, that she was the daughter of William ONTHANK and his wife Elizabeth JAMES. She was the sister of William ONTHANK who is buried at Old Southborough Burial Ground. I took a photo of his gravestone before I knew that my husband was an ONTHANK/UNTHANK descendant! I posted that blog post on July 1st.

Ruth was born on July 1st in 1765 in Southborough.
ONTHANK: Ruth, d. William and Elisabeth, July 1, 1765. Town Page Detail: Southborough [Mass VR to 1850 Southborough, MA NEHGS]

She married Ebenezer HYDE, Sr. about 1784 (no marriage record found as yet) and had three children, Ebenezer (my hubs ancestor in 1785), Ruth (1786) and William (1789). She died in Sutton, MA at the young age of 28 years on 8 Sept 1793. Ebenezer married again, as was the custom, in 1794.

HYDE: Ruth, w. Ebenezer, Sept. 8, 1793, in her 28th year. [a. 29, G.S.] Death: Sutton, MA [Mass VR to 1850 NEHGS] 


This slate gravestone is hard to read. I used the one posted at Find-a-Grave to help read it as accurately as I can.


Erected/ to the memory/ of Mrs. Ruth Hyde/ who died Sept. 8, 1793/in ye 28th year/of her age.


Photo by William Dunbar. Used with permission.

Ebenezer HYDE, Sr.

Ebenezer HYDE, Sr., a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Ebenezer Hyde, Sr. 

Repost (with additions) of December so I can add the other gravestones from this cemetery to my blog

Steve's cousin, William Dunbar of Marlborough went to the Dodge Cemetery in Sutton, MA in search of the gravestone of Ebenezer Hyde, Sr., his wives and children. It was great to have family help on this project.

Fortunately, we can just make out the name of this gravestone. Ebenezer was my husband's fourth great grandfather.

His son was also Ebenezer (so I have added Sr. to his name) and he's buried in Southborough Rural Cemetery and was the first gravestone we located when we moved to this area.

I was excited to see this gravestone. He left behind a family journal with a brief genealogy. I don't have it but it was transcribed and I found it online at NEHGS. 

Ebenezer's birth record in the Vital Records of Massachusetts to 1850 is found under the name HIDE. His parents, Job and Prudence were cousins. Her maiden name was Hyde/Hide too. They are buried in a large cemetery in Newton Center.

HIDE: Ebenezer [dup. Hyde], s. Job and Prudence, Apr. 30, 1755. Birth: Newton, MA [Mass VR to 1850 NEHGS]

Ebenezer's first wife, Ruth is his direct ancestor.

Hyde Family Chart

Hyde Family Chart, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

You probably won't be able to read this clearly but I wanted you to see that sometimes the only road to understanding complex families is by using a low-tech approach. 

I am entering this information into my tree at Ancestry.com. I have to be careful to get the relationships linked correctly.  

But, first, I need some proof of the death of Samuel Hyde. According to the Hyde Family publication, he died in Newton, 12 Sept 1689. The Vital records tell me the name could be Hyde, Hide, Hides or Hids. I first look under Hide and I am rewarded by this death record with his burial in GR#1 (G.R.1.— gravestone record, Centre Street Cemetery, Newton)

Samuell, Samuel HIDE
Sam[ue]ll [dup. Samuel Hyde], Dea., Sept 12, 1689. [a. 79, G. R. 1. ]

Death
Newton, MA

Founder's Monument in Newton

I have been researching the earliest Hyde/Hide ancestors who came to America. Interment.net offers a list of those who are buried in "downtown" Newton, Massachusetts in a cemetery known as East Parish Cemetery.

One resource in print gives the genealogy of the earliest Hyde family that came to America. I located it some time ago on Ancestry.com.

Warner, Rufus S. Hyde Family: a partial record of one branch, descendants of Samuel, who came from London to Boston in 1639 and Jonathan, who came to America in 1647. The Tuttle Company, Rutland, VT 1931.

It appears by the source listing at Ancestry.com that this publication was acquired by them in 1990.

Ancestry.com. Hyde family [database on-line]. Provo, UT: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004.
Original data: Hyde family : a partial record of one branch, descendants of Samuel, who came from London to Boston in 1639, and Jonathan, who came to America in 1647.. Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle Co., 1990.

This resource mostly focuses on the author's ancestors. But, the beginning few pages really demonstrates how complex New England families can be in the early years. I am going to offer this clipping of one part of the first page for the purpose of educating non New Englanders. Notice the sentence that reads, "Four daughters of Job married four sons of Jonathan..."

This Samuel and the man referenced named Jonathan were brothers. I knew I was going to need a big piece of paper to chart this out so that I would be able to understand this cousin relationship.I will post it in the next blog post.

Henry and his granddaughter

Henry Jewell HYDE, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Henry Jewell HYDE was the oldest child of Abraham HYDE and his first wife Elener PARMENTER. Henry was my husband's 1st great grand uncle. Henry's brother Vergene Ovando Hyde was my husband's great grandfather. Recently, I blogged about finding the gravestone of Angeline Sophia HYDE and her husband and his family.She was one of Henry and Vergene's sisters.

The vital records of Southborough list him as HENERY. He was born on 31 August 1836. NEHGS lists this vital record in the Massachusetts Vital record to 1850, V1: 45 for Southborough:


HYDE Henery Jewell, s. Abraham and Elener, Aug. 31, 1836.

This is important for two reasons, the first being that I have not found this name written as Henery and I still have no idea where the Jewell came from! I have found a descendant online and I hope she will be able to tell me more about this. The second reason is that it is clear from this that he was born in 1836. As he is first born, it is important to look at the parent's marriage date. (Ahem...) Abraham and Elenor/Elener/Eleanor were married in Framingham on 7 May 1835. This is a plausible date for a first born child.

Henry's gravestone doesn't list any months or days on it. Here is a cropped shot of the dates.  Notice that the birth year says 1837.

The next child born in this family does share a gravestone with his family but there are no dates on it for confirming evidence.

Henry married Amanda DAVIDSON on 1 May 1861 in Southborough. Now, that you know that, we can take a look at the whole gravestone.

Henry Jewell HYDE

Hyde_Young_Front, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.
Photos by Bruce Filgates (filgates@verizon.net) Used with permission 

HYDE-YOUNG monument
Pine Grove Cemetery, Bolyston, Worcester, MA

I hold my breath when I go looking for gravestones at Find-a-Grave! Sometimes, I can't believe what good luck I have finding exactly what I am looking for.

This is the front of the gravestone for Henry Jewell HYDE and his family. It is located in Section 3 of the Pine Grove Cemetery in Boylston, MA 

You will want to go click that link and take a look at the wonderful information listed for the cemetery! I'll wait here while you go look.

This photo (and the others I will be showing) were taken as part of a whole cemetery photographing project at the cemetery in cooperation with the Town of Boylston, MA. This was great news and I didn't have to move from my computer to take the photos.(I love going to cemeteries but not every day!)

Bruce Filgate responded almost immediately to my questions about the gravestones he took by calling me on the phone. I had a great chat with him about the photos and the cemetery project in general. He was very gracious to let me use any of his photos as long as I put his name credited as photographer. Please respect his work.

Artemas JONES

Artemas JONES, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

This is the back side of the gravestone of Charles Jones and Angeline S. Hyde.

It has been my practice to also take the back side of any gravestone that I have taken a photograph of the front side. Very often  it gives a clue to who the people are buried in that plot.


Because Angeline husband's name was JONES I thought it might be hard to find out who her husband's family was. So I was glad to see the inscription on the reverse side of the stone. I assumed that this was Charles Jones's father, mother and perhaps the mother's sister. [Making the mother's maiden name BARNES]

Little did I know that it would take me three days to find out exactly who these people were! It seemed like it was going to be easy because his name is Artemas. Really, how many people do you know that bear this first name?


Yes, it turns out that this Artemas was married to Lucy Barnes and that this is her unmarried sister Ruth buried with them. Artemas and Lucy had no children and so they became the couple that took in Lucy's mother when the father died. This mother, was Lucy BRIGHAM before she married. She was born in 1787.

This is the 1885 Massachusetts census for the household of Artemas JONES. Notice the woman Lucy Barnes, his mother-in-law is listed at age 67 as a widow. She was Insane.


She was still alive in 1860 but living in Sudbury, alone. Does this make sense?



 

Charles JONES and Angeline HYDE

Charles H. JONES

Angeline Sophia HYDE

Yesterday, I located the gravestone for Charles H. JONES and Angeline Sophia HYDE. These are their photos cropped from the HYDE Family reunion photo that I am working with. It is interesting to visit a grave when you have a photo of the people buried there.

The marriage record for this couple indicates that they were married in Southborough, by Sumner Latham, Clergyman, on 18 May 1871. He was 30, a farmer, born in Shrewsbury to Artemus and Lucy T. JONES.

She was from Southborough, born there and she is 29. Her parents are listed as Abraham and Eleanor T. HYDE. It is a first marriage for both.

Massachusetts Vital Records 1841-1910 [NEHGS] 237:304

Tombstone Tuesday: Angeline

Angeline Sophia HYDE Jones, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

As I continue researching the HYDE family, I am, of course, finding the married names of many of the women. When I got to this name, JONES, I muttered to myself, "Well, it is better than SMITH or BROWN, I guess."

On Monday 26 September 2011, we zipped over to the nearby Maplewood Cemetery to see if the gravestone for Cousin Eleanor's husband had been set in place. It had. She will be happy about that.

I turned around and started back for the car when I realized I was looking at the gravestone of Angeline Sophia HYDE and her husband Charles H. JONES.

This couple was childless so they really could have been buried anywhere in one of the area cemeteries so I was quite glad to see them here with a clearly readable stone.

Angeline Sophia HYDE (Abraham, Ebenezer, Ebenezer, Job, Daniel, Jonathan) was the fourth child and second daughter born to Abraham HYDE and his first wife Eleanor PARMENTER. She was born 11 Aug 1842, according to the Mass Vital Records of Southborough. (note the stone gives the year as 1841). Angeline is listed in the 1850 and 1860 as a child in her father's household. Eleanor, her mother, died shortly after giving birth to Nellie HYDE in 1856. (She is also buried here). Angeline probably had to help take care of baby Nellie as Abraham did not marry again until 1862.

Angeline and Charles were married (source: year from census) in 1872 when she was thirty. Adelaide, Angeline's older sister by two years, died at the age of 14 in 1855 making Angeline the oldest girl in the household, having to clean, cook and take care of younger siblings forever.

But, the story continues on the back side of this stone... Stay tuned.

Wordless Wednesday; Twins

Twins, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Norval and Lillian (Hyde) Lamprey's twin children, Clarence and Rachel. Don't you love the baby carriage?

Tombstone Tuesday: Lamprey Family

Tombstone Tuesday: Lamprey Family, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

If you have been following along as I find the gravestones for my husband's family, you are probably trying to figure out how this family fits in.

Looking at these names you wouldn't easily see the connection to the people on the other side of this monument who are named Hyde.

The woman on this side who is the Hyde is named Lillian. Now you can see that she married the man named Norval LAMPREY (the "his wife" helps us out here) whose parents are listed above him.

That much I figured out before I took the photo (avoiding the poison ivy).

Lillian's middle initial is given as B. Her mother's maiden name is BRIGHAM. It is a big name in this area. A descendant of that Brigham family was Peter Bent Brigham who was associated with a hospital in Boston (in which my maternal grandfather died). Things just keep snapping into place and this isn't even my family.

Norval was a farmer. Notice that he died before his parents. Lillian was already dead as she died in 1898. So, who was Clarence? Most likely the infant son of Norval and Lillian, right?

On this gravestone, Clarence died in 1896. That is not correct. Clarence died in 1895. This makes me think this gravestone was erected by a Hyde-Lamprey descendant.

I really had to spend time with the Massachusetts Vital Record of Southborough to get a picture of this family. That's when I found out that Norval and Lillian had three children. Clarence had an older brother and a twin sister.

Poor Lillian. Her baby son, Clarence died (of "teething") and then consumption got her. Norval remarried to have a mother for the two remaining children and then, he died. This is a nightmare.

Just to make it creepier, his second wife was born on the same day, the same year in the same town as his first wife. They must have known each other. I hope they were friends because she had to raise the first wife's children.

New England cemetery work can be very sad.

Troublesome Spelling

LAMPREY, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Even without the poison ivy, I knew I was going to have to do a lot of work with this family. As soon as I saw this side of the gravestone, one thing was obvious.

This family name is LAMPREY, not LAMPHREY or LAMPHEY as they are identified in the family records of the Hyde family of Southborough.

I was working from the handwritten records of the family, typing away in my family tree. Well, I couldn't find this family in the vital records or in the census.

Clearly, something was wrong.

Sometimes, a gravestone can be a huge help with a simple problem. "There, I thought, Gotcha." Don't make spelling assumptions. I felt very smug.

So once I got the spelling in correctly, the records literally leapt off the monitor.

But, there was still problems ahead.