Having requested a microfilm some weeks ago, I headed off to the LDS Family History Center (FHC) in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, to review the vital records of Waterbury, Connecticut. The initial goal was to confirm the name and origins of Ellen Holland (3rd GGM), husband of John Wallace Stickney and mother to Ellen Augusta Stickney (my 2nd GGM), and to get the birth information for Ellen. Continue reading Wire Drawer: My first trip to an FHC
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Headstone Poetry
The longest day of mortal life
Is sure to set in Death’s dark night
Farewell vain world, your joy deceive
Pure pleasures lie beyond the grave.
The beautiful poem found on the headstone for Moses Chapin (Aug. 24, 1712 – Nov. 3, 1793), my 5th great grandfather. He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, and died in Somers, Connecticut. His daughter Elizabeth Chapin Alfred (1766 – 1851) is my 4th great grandmother. Continue reading Headstone Poetry
Ellen Holland’s parents, Come On Down!
While Google and Ancestry.com have gotten me to incredible places on my family tree, I am at a point now where it’ll take a few more dollars to break down the brick walls and add another generation. Case in point, requested the Marriage Certificate for John Wallace Stickney and Ellen Holland. Date of Marriage: 2 November 1868 in New York. Up until this point, I knew almost nothing beyond Ellen’s name. Here is the new information:
- Father’s Name: John Holland
- Mother’s Name: Ma* Donnelly
- Place of Birth: (illegible)
- Age at Marriage: 22 (birth abt 1846)
In addition to the brand spankin’ new info above, I also got these oddities about “John Wallace”:
- For some reason, his name is listed at Jaques W. Stickney.
- His birthplace is listed as Illinois, though I have other documentation listing Massachusetts.
Why did he list his name as Jaques? One of his siblings was born in Illinois, so it’s not out of the questions, just a surprise. His parents are confirmed as John Stickney and Sarah Caty (sp – Cady).
Can someone help me figure out where Ellen Holland listed her birthplace? To me it doesn’t look like any known state. Leave a comment with you best guess please. 🙂
Death certificates provide some, limited information
I recently wrote to the New Jersey State Archives for copies of the death certificates of Mathias Boehm and Catherine Boehm to see what information they may contain, especially regarding birth dates, birth places and parents. Unfortunately, they weren’t as descriptive as I had hoped.
What did I find out about Mathias Boehm?
- Father’s Name: Phillipp Boehm
- Mother’s Name: Elizabeth
- Death Date: 25 Sep 1881
- Age At Death: 73 years, 2 months, 4 days
- Occupation: Privatier
- Cause of Death: Pneumonia
- Length of Residency: 33 years
Continue reading Death certificates provide some, limited information
Some adverts for Daniel P. Boehm, Inc.
The area where the addresses of these adverts would be located today is nothing like it would have been in 1917 and 1919 when the business was operating. Here is an excerpt from Forgotten New York about the Washington Street markets:
Time hasn’t been kind to the southern reaches of the street named for the father of our country, as multiple construction, destruction, and construction again has sundered it to pieces beginning in the 1950s, when first the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, then the World Trade Center, and then the Independence Plaza housing complex were built in succession. Yet, bits of Washington Street are still holding firm in some areas, and a piece of it only recently was built over.
Though Washington Street runs continuously north of Hubert Street, it only runs intermittently south of that. For our first piece of Washington we look in the heart of the housing complex known as Independence Plaza, completed in 1975, which replaced most of the old Washington Market area. For over 190 years, from the 1770s through the 1960s, this was the heart of Manhattan’s produce market; goods loaded off the docks at the Hudson River would be trundled over the Belgian-blocked streets by horse and cart, later by truck, to dozens of busy wholesalers who crowded the blocks from Fulton north to Hubert and from the river to Greenwich. The original market occupied a the block formed by Washington Street, West, Fulton and Vesey. Beginning in the late 1960s, as the World Trade Center came closer to being, NYC’s wholesale produce market relocated to Hunts Point in the Bronx (where, 30 years later, the Fulton Fish Market also decamped). When these institutions left Manhattan they took some of the borough’s character with them.
Read some more about it HERE too.
This is what the area looked like in 1907:
Photo: Three Generations
A really incredible picture of my father, Geoff, with his mother, and both his maternal and paternal grandmothers. From Left to Right: Bertha (Koch) Gaudy, Lillian (Gaudy) Boehm and Elizabeth (Mitchell) Boehm. Photo was likely taken in 1949.
Solving Genealogy Problems With DNA
This “Tip of the Week” was in a recent email newsletter from Family Tree Magazine, but I can’t find it posted anywhere online, so I am posting it here so that I can share it. It has some very good information about using DNA evidence to break down a brick wall, and the differences in DNA testing for genealogical purposes. Continue reading Solving Genealogy Problems With DNA
J. W. Stickney, Mutual Waterbury Hook and Ladder company
Found this little nugget in “The Town and City of Waterbury, Connecticut, from the aboriginal period to the year eighteen hundred and ninety-five”
A meeting was called, September 28, 1872, in the rooms of “Phoenix, No. i,” for the purpose of forming a Hook and Ladder company, the city having before this date purchased a Leaverich truck. The company was organized with the following members:
E. L. Cook, C. L. Tinker, Charles Lawton,
I. A. Spencer, Robert Philip, E. E. Cargill,
T. D. Bassett, William Cowel, Charles Olmstead,
B. F. Merrill, Theodore Rogers, J. W. Stickney,
J. W. Gaffney, R. P. Smith, Frank White,
F. A. Hoyt, Alexander Connison, Stephen Hosier,
C. L. White, Edward Barritt, Daniel Nehemiah.
F. L. Wallace, G. W. Roberts,
The officers elected were as follows :
Foreman, Theodore D. Bassett.
First assistant. E. S. Cooke.
Second assistant, G. W. Roberts.
Secretary, R. P. Smith.
Treasurer, Imri A. Spencer.
At a meeting September 28, 1872, in the rooms of “Phoenix No. 1”, a Hook and Ladder Company was formed, the city having before this date purchased a Leaverich truck. The company took possession of its first house, on the corner of Scovill and South Main Streets in August, 1873.
For twelve years the truck was hauled to fires by the men themselves, but in 1884 an arrangement was made, by which hack horses could be used for fires occurring at a distance from the centre. In 1887 two horses were purchased for the use of the truck, and William Goucher was installed as driver. In the same year the company removed to the present house on Scovill Street under the same roof with Engine No. 2. In May, 1889, the city purchased a Preston aerial truck, sixty-five feet long, and was drawn for a time by two horses, but later it was arranged for a “three horse hitch”.
Hook and Ladder Company No. 1, was the first to adopt the regulation uniforms, it also possesses portraits in oil of all the foremen of the company up to the present time, and a large picture of the company taken in 1881.
Paying my respects to John Stickney
On a recent trip to the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts with my wife for our third wedding anniversary, I took advantage of being in South Hadley to visit to the relocated Old Burial Ground at the Evergreen Cemetery. Having rushed in preparing for a few genealogical stops on this trip, I didn’t know what the layout of the cemetery was, or where my ancestor’s headstone was in relation to the entrance.
Upon entering the cemetery, I noticed that there were many historic headstones mixed with more recent headstones throughout, so I determined I would have to look at each one in the hopes of finding the right one. After about 20 minutes or so, I thought I would check Find-a-Grave for a picture of the headstone so I would have a better idea of what I was looking for. After doing that, and noting the stones and trees in the background of the posted image, I knew it had to be on the edges.
It was about this time that I noticed over a hill an area that was set aside from everything else with a marker on a large boulder at the entrance of this hallowed ground. Sure enough, this was the relocated old burial ground. After another 20 minutes of seemingly looking at each row twice, and on the verge of giving up since it was hot and my wife and dog were patiently waiting for me on a bench at the entrance of the cemetery, I took a look at one row one last time, and that’s when I saw what I had hoped to find:
Ralph Hammersley & “Jane”
Who is the “Jane” that was married to Ralph Hammersley, and mother to my 4th GGF William Shufflebottom Hammersley? Don’t know yet, but here are two candidates:
- Stevenson, Jane – Married a Ralph Hammersley on 12 August 1798 in Uttoxeter, Stafford, England (Source)
- Greatback (or Greatbatch), Jane – Married a Ralph Hammersley on 9 November 1804 in Stoke-Upon-Trent, Stafford, England (Source) (Source)
With William’s birth coming on 23 August 1805 in Hanley, Stafford, England, either of these “Jane’s” could be his mother based strictly on the years of their marriages. The notation that the Ralph that married Jane Greatbatch was a Pot Dealer is a nice link given William’s career path, but still not proof enough. Hot on the trail …