Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Our Women

This journey can get emotional.  Because of technology, multiple stunning revelations can happen in a very short period of time and create a profound and heartfelt appreciation for the lives of  2nd, 3rd... even 9th and 10th great grandparents that I'd never even heard of before.  These direct ancestors were very real people who lived in houses that I can see up close on my computer.  They loved, and married, and had children, many of whom died at a young age.  Some died in childbirth.  Some women were helpmates to husbands who were prominent leaders in their towns, churches, businesses, cities, states or military.  Others were leaders in their own right, in classrooms, newsrooms, publishing, inventing, and professional careers long before it was fashionable for women to do these things. Some women traveled across the country in a covered wagon and had to defend their homes from Indian attacks.  Some sent their men off to war - French and Indian War, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, Mexican War, Wars against Cherokees, Apaches, Lakota Sioux, and other Indian nations, ...WWI and WWII.  Women carefully recorded births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths in their family Bibles.  Some had husbands who had affairs and broke their hearts; I just found out last night that my 3rd great grandmother had her three children taken away from her by her ex-husband. This woman was my Nanny Zaun's grandmother.

It was a nostalgic moment last night when I discovered the address of my Nanny Zaun's home.  We had looked for the house last fall but could not identify it which was distressing to me and to my sister.  We drove up and down the street several times looking for a familiar house.  We finally concluded that it had probably been torn down.  Last night I stumbled on the house number in an old city directory and looked it up on Google Maps.  It took a minute, but soon it was all clear.  The memories came flooding back.  The house is pretty much the same... the yard is more neatly manicured now and the concrete animal sculptures and benches are gone.  There is a garage where the fish pond used to be.  The fenced area across the street where we used to visit the playful palomino is still there but no horse.  Here are some snapshots from the satellite photos:

At the corner of Penick and Fernwood

The reason we had trouble identifying the house last fall is because as children we always came into the house from this side entrance on Fernwood.  We never used the front door on Penick Rd.  

Holly and I spent many long boring hours wandering outside while the adults visited.  The most interesting thing to do was watch the goldfish in the pond right here.  This yard was more overgrown with grass and trees then.  It seemed much bigger than it looks here.  My great grandfather's business was concrete statuary and garden ornaments, so the yard was full of concrete chickens, squirrels, and turtles.

View of the horse's yard across the corner.  The little palomino loved company and would run up and down the fence playing with us.
Entire family at the Zaun house on Penick Road, circa 1953.  Virginia and John Zaun, Joe and Gail Watson, unknown couple. 
This couch backed up to the front window on the Penick Rd. side of the house. My dad and mom (before kids) sitting there with a cousin.  This is where they sat and visited with Nanny and Poppoo for hours and hours on our biannual trips to Richmond.  Mom asked for some of Nanny's glass figurines when she died - the ones behind the lace curtain in the window - but all she got was a box of mason jars.



The picture of the little girl on the steps with a collie was a favorite of mine.  The girl looked like Shirley Temple.  Wonder what became of it?  The portrait in the back room was of Nanny's grand? great? grandmother.  I remember that she looked like me.  That portrait was the only thing I wanted of Nanny's when she died, but some evil step-aunt got hold of everything. Nanny and Poppoo had a small but strange assortment of antique toys that she kept by the hearth - a cannon, a grotesque bullfrog, and a pickaninny doll that had two heads, one black and one white.  I treasure the items that I inherited - Poppoo's tobacco cannister and jar for matches.  The tobacco lid is worn from his gnarled hand caressing it as he sat in his big leather chair and smoked his pipe.

50th wedding anniversary.
I now have the picture frame shown above their heads.  Dad discovered a hidden portrait of four year old Nanny behind the picture in the frame.

In the yard by the pond.  On a concrete bench, of course.



Saturday, February 22, 2014

Illustrious ancestors from the Colonies

There are so many significant persons in our ancestry that it has become tedium to sift through all of the documents and photos.  I find myself wishing that there was a simple way to present the lineage from all parents in a visual way to show how they are interconnected in history.  My mother and father's ancestors surely knew each other.  There just weren't that many people around at that time!  Ancestors from both sides played prominent roles in the founding and leadership of places such as Hartford, New Haven, and Providence.  Sometimes their names are juxtaposed on monuments or in graveyards.

Here is one monument that features several names of our direct ancestors, located in Hartford Connecticut.
Thomas Welles (10th great grandfather - paternal), John Bidwell (9th great grandfather - paternal), John Hopkins (7th great grandfather - maternal), Thomas Judd (9th great grandfather - paternal)

A list of names on the monument:  http://josfamilyhistory.com/stories/founders-monument.htm

The Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford

The original Founders Monument is located in the Ancient Burying Ground, also sometimes referred to at the "Old" or "Center" Cemetery. The cemetery is located at the rear of the First Congregational ("Center") Church at the corner of Main and Gold Streets in Hartford. The original brownstone Monument erected in 1837 was replaced by one of pink Connecticut granite in 1986. The Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford maintains a list of names found on the new monument and biographical information about each of the Founders.
The Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford maintains a list of names found on the new monument and biographical information about each of the Founders. Those descended from an ancestor who settled in Hartford before February 1640, may be eligible for membership.   http://www.ctstatelibrary.org/node/3531

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Henry Plantagenet, Sarah Palin, and Me

We share a line of ancestry with Sarah Palin apparently.  We are mutually descended from Audrey Barlow who was descended from Henry II (1133 –1189) by way of his mistress, Ida De Tony.


scan0003-Elizabeth Audrey Barlowe
Audrey Barlow (paternal 9th great grandmother)
m.
William Almy, Colony assessor for Portsmouth, MA
Also descended from Audrey are former presidents, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. 

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Major John Greene (Abbott > Whitfield > Godfrey > Greene)

  • With his father, surgeon John Greene, purchased land from Indian Chief Miontonomi in 1642 and called it "Greene's Hold" alias Occupasituxet
  • Built a corn mill with three others in Warwick, RI, 1651
  • General Record keeper for the town, 1652-54
  • Commissioner 1652-63
  • Deputy for Newport to the RI General Court 1679-1690
  • General Solicitor in 1655
  • Attorney General in 1657-1660
  • Warden, 1658
  • Commissioned Captain 1664
  • Agent to the king in England to discuss the RI Charter, 1670
  • Governor's Council 1683
  • Major of the Main 1683-96
  • Agent for RI to the King of England 1685-87
  • Sent a letter of congratulations to the throne (William & Mary) 1690
  • Deputy Governor of RI 1690-1700
Archaeology site:  http://proteus.brown.edu/greenefarm/Home
"Five generations of Greenes owned the estate until 1782, when John Brown (1736-1803, a wealthy, powerful Providence merchant and co-founder of Brown University, bought it.  the farm was then worked by tenant farmers, and the Brown family used it as a country retreat.  Brown's grandson, Governor John Brown Francis (1791-1864), returned to the property, where he and his descendants remain today."
Screen capture of the site of Greene Hold from 2014 Google Maps.
Major John Greene is buried in Spring Greene Burial Ground, the family plot on the homestead. 

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

New Jersey


Some of our ancestors were early colonists, but many came to America just a few generations ago from England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, and the Netherlands. So it is no surprise that our lineage can be traced back to the area in and around New York City.

Fort Lee, NJ keeps coming up as a common place of origin, particularly on my father's side.  Thomas Whitfield came from England, married Betsy Godfrey from Providence RI, and settled in New York.  Their daughter Sarah married John Abbott from Newark, NJ.  The Abbotts' son Whitfield married Sadie Wright from Brooklyn and settled in Fort Lee. Their son, my great grandfather, George Abbott, was born there.

Orrin Bishop Judd, my dad's paternal ancestor from Hartford, Connecticut, lived in Brooklyn at different times in his life and married Elizabeth MacDonald from Bronx, NY.  My mother's great grandmother, Miriam Olivia Wandell, was born in Brooklyn of parents with a Dutch heritage.

I have always felt a draw to that part of the world, especially to Long Island and Rhode Island.  Never thought much about New Jersey, but it's looking more and more interesting now.