Author: joel@jmhartley.com

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The John Williams Family as Seen in Fall River Newspapers

Previously, I have looked at many of the Fall River newpaper entries for Officer Abe Pilling, the jeweler Abel Burrows and his wife Mary Ann Hartley Burrows. Abel and Mary Ann had one daughter out of three who survived and married. She was Elizabeth A Burrows born in 1874 in Fall River. She married John Williams who worked at Abel’s jewelry store. I suppose that a follow-up on the Pilling family will also be in order at some point.

What I found with Mary Ann Hartley Burrows was that most of her newspapers entries were listed under Mrs. Abel Burrows.

4 Sep 1900

I had shown this before, but missed the second part:

I had previously guessed that Joseph Hartley was really 9 year old James Hartley, my grandfather. The other guess is that the two women accompanied the two children back and stayed for a while in Rochester.

5 March 1903

23 February 1907

The Fall River Globe didn’t miss many events:

13 January 1912

I wonder who was there from Rochester. By the way, Orlando or Orleando Draper was the brother of Walter Draper mentioned in my previous Blog. Mary Ann Burrows was listed as Walter’s guardian. I believe that it was also Orelando Draper who traveled to New York with Abel Burrows when Abel got a telegram that his daughter was ill.

25 February 1913

13th and 18th birthdays were big deals for the Williams girls. I wonder who wrote up these stories. Did Fall River Evening Herald have a birthday party reporter?

3 September 1913

Of course, I know this was actually Mary Ann Burrows.

16 October 1913

Listed under Tiverton news:

10 July 1914

Under the heading of Tiverton:

20 January 1915

Elizabeth Burrows Williams’ father-in-law:

29 October 1915

Mary Ann Hartley Burrows is mentioned but as Burroughs. Some entries were mentioned in my previous Blog, so I will omit them here.

23 February 1918

I may have this elsewhere:

According to Google, $18 from 1918 would be worth about $310 today.

17 April 1918

My guess that Mrs. Mary Bellow above was actually Mary Burrows. Quite a few parties were held at this house. This is what Google shows at 585 Cherry Street  currently:

 

6 November 1919

18 October 1920

8 March 1921

14 January 1922

This tells me that John kept on as a jeweller. Mrs. Marion Wilmot sounds familiar.

Marion was the daughter of Marion Ann Pilling.

2 May 1922

I guess that my cousin was a member of the Central Baptist Always Busy Club.

19 Jun 1922

29 June 1922

Looks like the Fall River Evening News got the scoop on this one:

6 July 1922

5 April 1923

I wouldn’t want to miss any 18th birthdays:

12 July 1923

DNA Matches

Here are my matches at Ancestry to this side of the family:

 

Summary and Conclusions

I think that the availability of the Fall River Newspapers at newspapers.com stops about 1923. I have a few reasons for following Elizabeth Burrows Williams. One is that she is the daughter of Mary Ann Hartley Burrows. Mary Ann was the sister of my great-grandfather. Also I have DNA matches to two people through Mildred Williams.

Reading these newspaper articles give some details into the Williams family. Also it is interesting to see the differences between today and then. I can’t imagine a birthday party today including military marches and ending with the Star Spangled Banner. The Williams appeared to have had a less tragi life than the Burrows. The Burrows lost two of their three daughters to illiness. It appeared that all the Williams children survived.

 

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A New BigY Test for the Archibald Frazer Line

Back in August of 2020 a BigY test was ordered for Rick. I was just notified that his results have started to come in. Rick’s STR results came in last August and I wrote about them here. However, now we have the more important SNP results. SNPs are the part of a man’s YDNA that mutate in a way that give a precise indication of his line back to the earliest men on the planet.

Frazer YDNA

This is the YDNA tree for the Frazers who were from Roscommon, Ireland. They have lived there since the early 1700’s. It is believed that there were two brothers at that time: Archibald and James:

The older brother was Archibald. I am not a Frazer by YDNA as my grandmother was a Frazer, but I had my second cousin once removed Paul take a test. Paul, Rick and I and many others are on the Archibald Line. Rodney and Jonathan and many others are on the James Line. Paul, Rodney and Jonathan already have BigY tests, but they are the older BigY 500 tests. Rick has the newer more accurate and thorough BigY 700 test. Rick was needed to better define the Archibald Line specifically.

Rick’s New Results

Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) will likely perform a manual analysis of Rick’s results which will result in a further wait, but I’ll look at what the results show so far. Based on the tree above, Rick and Paul’s matching SNPs should show what SNPs their common ancestor James Frazer (born about 1804) had.

Rick’s Block Tree

Here is Rick’s Block Tree:

 

Right now, Rick is shown with Frazers from the Archibald Line and James Line. They share the SNP name of R-YP6849. I am hoping that, after FTDNA’s manual review, that Paul and Rick will form a new YDNA line with a new SNP name.

Rick’s BigY Matches

The next step is to look at Rick’s matches. He shows matches to Rodney, Jonathan, Paul and the Grant above. These results can be misleading due to the criteria that FTDNA uses for matching. For example, the Frazers, Stuarts, and Grant testers all share the common SNP of R-YP6488. Rick also matches Hayes with whom he shares the even older SNP of R-YP6480. However, Rick shows as a match to Grant and Hayes, but not to the two Stuart testers. This may be because the Stuarts also took the more expansive BigY 700 and thus have more Variants that don’t match.

Here are some more BigY match details:

 

FTDNA lists non-matching variants between Rick, Rodney and Jonathan. That may seem confusing but it is easier than listing the 600,000 plus matching Variants that go back to genetic Adam. A non-matching variant may be several things which is also confusing. It may be a variant that Rodney has and Rick doesn’t have. It may be a variant that Rick has and Rodney doesn’t have. It may be a variant that Rick’s newer test covered and Rodney’s didn’t. Then there are test results which may be inconclusive that complicate things.

What I should be looking for is a SNP (or Variant) that Rick and Paul share and that Rodney and Jonathan don’t have. That would create the new Archibald Frazer Line that I am looking for. The goal is to get the newest or most recent SNP possible for the Frazer family.

Variant by Variant Analysis

Here are Rick’s non-matches to Rodney, Jonathan and Paul by Variant in a spreadsheet:

This shows why Paul shows as a match that is further away to Rick than he really is. Paul and Rick have the most non-matching Variants. Another point to the exercise, is that Rick will have have Variants that he validly does not share with Rodney, Jonathan and Paul. Those will be the Variants that Rick has that define his own line since James Frazer born about 1804.

Next, I separate out the Variants and compare them.

 

Candidates for a New Archibald Frazer Line

I would like to look at the two variants I have highlighted below:

It stands to reason that for a new branch to formm Rick should have non-matching variants with Rodney and Jonathan but not with Paul. The two highlighted Variants could meet that criteria. In order for these two or one of the two to meet that criteria, Rick and Paul would both have to have tested positive for these Variants and Rodney and Jonathan would have had to be tested negative for thes Variants.

Variants 8162400 and 21457649

Rick currently has 13 Private Variants. I think that these should change after FTDNA’s manual review. I’ll show what they look like now:

On Rick’s second page I see 8162400, so that is a start. 21457649 is on Rick’s first page of Private Variants.

Next, I have to log into Paul’s results:

Paul has 8162400 and 21457649 which mean that they are not really Private Variants after all. Or, they will no longer be Private Variants now that Rick’s results are in. That is because we are looking at preliminary results that will change.

To be really sure, I need to show that Rodney and Jonathan both tested for these two variants and the results showed that they did not have them. However, that is a little difficult. It involves looking at all their results. I know I have access to Jonathan’s results, so I’ll give that a shot. I think that I need to download Jonathan’s results as a csv file. That is a very large file.

Here is 8162400. The reference and Genotype are the same, so I think that means that Jonathan is not positive for mutated DNA at that position. Or in FTDNA terminology it is not derived. I assume that the fact that this Novel Variant is on Jonathan’s list means he was tested for this Variant. That means that 8162400 should form a new branch for the Archibald Frazers.

The same is true for 21457649 on Jonathan’s test list:

This makes sense because if Paul had these two Variants on his Private Variant list, it likely meant that Jonathan and Rodney did not test positive for derived Variants at these two positions. I included a known SNP above in Jonathan’s list to show that FTDNA only shows the derived information for those known SNPs. Both of these Variants show beyond line 600,000 on the spreadsheet for Jonathan’s BigY results.

Here is what my cousin Paul’s results look like for the same Novel Variant:

The reference T has changed to C. That is what should define the new Archibald Frazer Branch.

What Will Be the Name of the New Archibald Frazer Line?

Assuming my analysis is right, we can go to YBrowse to find the names for these two positions that Paul and Rick share. YBrowse is a YDNA Chromosome Browser.

This shows the Y Chromosome with over 50 million positions. The lighter regions are the ones best used for genetic genealogy. I put in the Variant that Rick and Paul share that is around 8,000,000 – where the red vertical line is on the depiction of the Y Chromosome. It turns out that 8162400 has two names:

I”m guessing that this name came out when I first did the BigY 500 for Paul in 2017. Note the derived is from T to C. That is what Paul had at this position:

This is also within the R1a Haplogroup which is where the Frazers are.

Here is the other SNP:

This is BY155971. Here the reference T has changed to G. Aslo the haplogroup is unknown. I would rule out this Haplogroup for the Archibald Frazer Line.

I’ll try the other position:

This only has one SNP associated with it but it is in a dark region. I thought that was not as reliable.

That means that the new branch for the Archibald Frazers (or even more specifically the James Frazer Line of 1804) will be Y85652 and Y112046. One of the two will have to be chosen to be representative of the line.

Anything Else?

Rick also has a bunch of Variants that don’t match with Rodney, Jonathan or Paul:

My guess is that these Variants are mostly due to Rick taking the BigY 700 test and testing regions that were not tested. These Variants may come into play when the results of the other Frazier test come in. Those results should be due any day now.

Rick Solves a Problem

The problem is with the existing R-YP6489. Here is what SNP Tracker shows:

This has R-YP6489 forming in the Middle Ages. That is because there are other SNPs within the group of R-YP6489:

Each one of the SNPs takes time to form. Up to 144 years based on the older BigY 500. Somewhat less with the newer BigY 700. Say it took about 100 years for each SNP in the top block to form. That would be 500 years. Then that is to the common ancestor who may have been born around 1690. That seems to compare well with what the SNP Tracker has:

That brings us to about the year 1200. According to thefraser.com:

The earliest Fraser found on record was Gilbert de Fraser, who, in 1109, witnessed a charter to the monastery at Coldstream, along the southern border. In 1160, Sir Simon Fraser, who possessed half of the territory of Keith in East Lothian, made a gift of the church to the monks of Kelso Abbey. Through marriage the Frasers acquired Castle Oliver on the Tweed and became the Sheriffs of Peebles.

That means that there were Frasers around before the year 1200. The question is, were they our Frasers and were our ancestors Frasers at that time? Some of the early Southern Frasers were interesting as I had thought that the earliest Frasers were from around Inverness. At any rate, the point is that even though our Frazer testers’ common ancestor was from around 1690, the origin of R-YP6489 is around the year 1200. If Rick creates a new Archibald Frazer branch, that should bring the Frazer YDNA ahead about 600 years to 1800.

Having said that, SNP Tracker has a new feature for the ‘British Isle’:

This seems to contradict the previous SNP Tracker Map. However, the legend at the top says ‘SNP Formation Eroas for Descendants of YP6489’. So this SNP Tracker feature has a bit of prediction to it. I can’t say I get how this works but it is interesting.

The problem that Rick solves is that his test should form a Haplogroup for the Frazers that is undoubtably Frazer and even specific to the Archibald Branch and James Frazer Line of 1804.

Paul’s Private Variants

Right now Paul has 4 private variants which is a lot considering the time between his birth and 1690 is about 260 years. It would have been more likely that two SNPs would have formed in that time.

Here are Paul’s current Private SNPs:

As mentioned above, Paul’s private Variants should go down to two. That means that in 140 years, Paul’s line had two SNPs which seems a little more reasonable. On the other hand, the James Frazer Line seems to have had fewer SNPs or Variants, so perhaps it all averages out.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Currently the YDNA defining SNP for Roscommon Ireland Frazers is R-YP6489. This haplogroup is assumed to be unique for these Frazers but that is not known for sure due to the age of its formation.
  • Now that Rick has tested, it appears that there will be two new defining SNPs for the Archibald Frazer line and even more specifically the James Frazer Line of 1804. This gives a concrete date that will define these two SNPs.
  • I think that the FTDNA manual review will confirm my findings.
  • The next BigY 700 test for Frazier that is coming in should further define early Frazer genealogy and history.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mary Ann Hartley Burrows in Fall River Newspapers After 1903

In my previous Blog, I looked at Abel Burrows, the husband of Mary Ann Hartley. He died in 1903, so that was a natural ending for that Blog. I’ll look to see what else the Fall River newspapers have to say about my relatives after 1903 in this Blog. In my previous Blog, by looking at Abel, I found out some more about other relatives, such as the Hartley family who visited him and he visited in Rochester. Also, of course, I learned about his wife, Mary Ann. I’ll look some more at Mary Ann in this Blog.

6 Jun 1904

This article raises some questions. What relatives did she visit? I assume that they were Bacup relatives on the Emmet side.  Mary Ann Hartley was born in Bacup where her mother Ann Emmet was from. She could have also visited Abel Burrows’ relatives. Mary Ann returned on the SS Saxonia on September 8. This was the same ship that Abe Pilling and his family took to England a few years previous. Here the ship is called the RMS Saxonia:

12 Sep 1904

I wonder if Bank St is a typo. I have her at Oak Street in the 1906 Fall River Directory:

22 September 1905

Listed under real estate transactions:

See below for more information. Stetson St goes by the Western side of Oak Grove Cemetery:

3 Apr 1906

This was some kind of infection.

4 August 1909

There is an Island Park Beach and Island Park Cove in Portsmouth, RI not too far from Fall River.

4 July 1912

According to the 1900 Census, Mary Cowgill was a widow living with her son William Marshall at 210 Franklin Street, Fall River.

7 August 1912

From the Fall River Globe under the heading of Tiverton:

There is a Riverside Drive on the current Google Map of Tiverton:

Annie Hartley was born November 1902, so she would be 9. Margaret was born May 1906, so she would be just 6 years old. Florence and Mildred were Mary Ann’s granddaughters. Florence was 12 and 8. That leaves Sadie Edmundson of Providence. Who is she?

Here she is in 1910:

Sarah or Sadie was born in Massachusetts which makes sense. Sadie was actually born in 1897 in Fall River. Her father was a barber. The mother was Elizabeth Barlow. I think that William was from Blackburn, Lancashire so perhaps a friend of the Burrows family?

Actually, this newpaper article from the Fall River Evening News from 8 September 1905 sheds some light:

I assume that means that Mary Ann’s relationship was with Elizabeth Barlow who was a Draper before she was an Edmundson. Here is Orange Street:

More on Walter Draper

Although Walter is said to be born in Rhode Island in the Census above, I find a record of his birth in Fall River on June 22, 1885. His father was Oswald, a weaver. As might be expected, Oswald died in 1894. At that time, he was a restaurant keeper. Elizabeth Barlow Draper then married William Edmundson in 1897. It was William’s second marriage also. One question is why was Mary Ann Walter’s guardian if Elizabeth remarried? As may be guessed, Walter Draper poses more questions than answers.

This could be Walter’s grave stone:

This is interesting unless it is coincidental. My third great-grandmother Mary Pilling’s mother was a Shackleton. I take this to be the same Walter:

Here is a photo that gives some dates of these burial mates:

Edmundson can be explained. He was Walter’s step father. Albert Shackleton married Sarah. The Shakleton name looks like a coincidence. These Shackletons were from Yorkshire, so perhaps distantly related to my Lancashire Shackletons. However, none of this suggests why Mary Ann Hartley Burrows would be the guardian of Walter Draper.

3 Sep 1913

Under the heading of Tiverton:

Here is Quaker Ave., Tiverton:

12 November 1913

23 February 1918

16 April 1918

Here is the Fall River Globe version:

World War I ended November 11, 1918.

30 October 1920

2 December 1920

I have that Mary Ann was born 30 April 1855, so she would be 65 in 1920. Findagrave.com has her birth on 1 December 1854, so that makes more sense.

3 March 1921

I like these pleasant little articles:

Again, I think by Marion is actually meant Rochester. Here is a photo with Mary – possibly from that trip:

 

I believe Mary Ann is to the left of my grandmother. My grandmother is near the middle of the photo and has dark hair and is holding a child – probably my Aunt Sybil. My Aunt Sybil was born 8 September 1920, so the photo may be from 1922. Here is a close-up of Mary Ann:

Eighth Street was not far from Oak Street:

7 July 1921

This was under the heading of Ocean Grove:

15 April 1923

Here is Cherry Street:

That about covers what I could find on Mary Ann Hartley Burrows. Here is her grave stone taken from Ancestry:

I’ll look into the Williams family more in my next Blog.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Between this Blog and the one on Abel Burrows, I have a better picture of who Mary Ann Hartley was and the type of things that she did.
  • At some point, she must have gone from Episcopal to Baptist, perhaps due to Abe?
  • I was disappointed to not find her obituary at newspapers.com. The note said that the obituary had been removed or relocated.
  • The social customs of the day were interesting. Apparently social gatherings were very important and newsworthy
  • Mary Ann had a high regard for her daughter and granddaughter based on parties given for them and the gifts given to them
  • Mary Ann was also brave as she apparently traveled alone to England, Scotland and France.

 

 

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Another Hartley Relative in Fall River Newspapers: Abel Burrows

In my previous Blog, I wrote about Abe Pilling who was a policeman in Fall River from about 1890 until 1925. I had good luck with finding out a lot about this very public man. Next I thought that I’d check around for other relatives. This Blog will focus in on Abel Burrows who was the husband of Mary Ann Hartley. However, some other Hartley relatives will be mentioned.

1 Nov 1870 – Death of Twelve Year Old Esther Hartley

 

One of the first entries was a sad one. The Hartley family arrived in the US not much more than a year before this time.

Other Wilkinsons were listed on the previous page. Mary Wilkinson was Greenwood’s mother. The ship arrived in Boston on  25 Ocober 1869. The Hartley family lived in Fall River for only a year or less before moving to New Bedford.

Mary Ann Hartley and Abel Burrows

I had to find this 16 February 1874 article by searching for Burrows. Hartley was hypeneated in the paper. Mary Ann looked to be 18 but is listed as 19 on the State Marriage record. Abel was a weaver at the time. I wonder how the two met as Mary Ann lived in New Bedford and Abel in Fall River.

Mary Ann’s grandmother Mary Pilling Hartley Wilkinson died not too soon after the wedding:

The above is from 25 Mar 1874.

18 May 1878

14 April 1880

7 June 1880

5 August 1880

19 June 1882

21 June 1882

Was Abel a cricket player? Cricket is a very English game, but there were many English in Fall River.

13 Feb 1884

30 April 1884

27 June 1884

Friends of the family?

Here is Linden Street:

6 Sep 1884

Here are Abel’s wife and children:

8 Sep 1884

Now we know Nancy’s nickname.

29 Jana 1885

Here is a map:

There is a balloon located at 47 South Main located at the intersection of at least two streets. I circled where the old business was and Linden Street. I wonder if the family home moved also at this time. If he did move, it was not right away. Here is the 1885 Fall River Directory:

20 Mar 1885

That would explain how Abel came by the jewelry business. Emanuel decided to stay. According to the 1900 census he arrived in the US in 1885 with his wife and daughter.

24 March 1885

24 April 1885

Here was a way to get people to Abel’s store:

25 June 1885

23 Dec 1886

 

8 Mar 1887

I guess I didn’t expect to find out so much about Abel.

15 July 1887

10 August 1887

This is of interest to me as I grew up in Rochester. Perhaps Mary Ann visited her brother James Hartley while in Rochester. According to the 1885 Fall River Directory, John Slinn was in the insurance business.

It turns out that John Slinn wrote an article of his trip to Rochester in the Fall River Daily Herald published 12 August 1887.

That is quite the fish story and I had to chuckle picturing where most of this took place. My guess is that the fishing took place at Snow’s Pond not too far from the Hartley farm. What the article doesn’t mention is that Annie Hartley was due to give birth to her 2nd child later in September of that year and already had a one year old Daniel Emmet Hartley.

8 Nov 1887

15 Dec 1887

19 June 1888

30 July 1888

24 Sep 1888

1 Jan 1889

Apparently Abel owed some money.

25 Jan 1889

15 Feb 1889

28 Feb 1889

17 Sep 1889

14 May 1891

12 June 1891

20 August 1891

Mrs. David Wilkinson is Marion Ann nee PIllng the sister of Abe Pillng who lived in New Bedford. She was born in 1861. I wonder if the vacation was actually in Rochester at the Hartley farm.

30 Jan 1992

More problems for Abel:

The same day:

15 Feb 1894

15 May 1894

9 Feb 1895

25 Feb 1895

Tessie must have been a nickname for Esther.

13 Jan 1897

I assume that the Burrows attended the Baptist Church.

1 Oct 1897

29 Dec 1897

27 Jan 1899

4 Feb 1899

15 FEb 1899

21 August 1900

Who knew my great-grandfather was in the Fall River Daily Herald or that he had visited Niagara Falls? I can’t tell if James was travellng alone or not.

5 Sep 1900

This is a bit of a mystery as there is no Joseph Hartley. My guess is that this was my 9 year old grandfather James Hartley and his 7 year old sister Nellie. Henry Bradford was born January 1900 and would have been the 7th chlld in the house, so perhaps James’ and Nellie’s trip to Fall River gave their mom a break.

14 Feb 1901

8 Jun 1901

The follow-up article two days later:

My guess was that they went to visit the Hartley family. This is the type of article I was not expecting – a story about Rochester in a Fall River paper.  Mrs. Williams must be Elizabeth Burrows Williams:

The child must be Florence Williams.

6 Sep 1901

16 Jan 1902

5 Mar 1903

So that was the end of Abel. His son-in-law became exectutor and sold off the contents of his jewelry business. I felt I got to know Abel a bit through the eyes of the Fall River newspapers. He was very active in sports and a supporter of cricket, polo and biking. He was in good shape and an avid biker until near his premature death. He had his share of problems with the death of two of his daughters and more than his share of robberies.

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Abraham L Pilling of Fall River as Seen in Newspaper Articles.

I have been looking at Newpapers.com lately for articles of genealogical interest. Some people have more written about them in the newspaper than others. Abe Pilling had a lot written about him.

Pilling

My 3rd great-grandmother was a Pilling. Her son was John Pilling. He had Abraham Pilling who lived in Fall River. Newspapers.com covers Fall River. This article is 02 May 1925 from the Berkshire Eagle:

Those were a lot of vetoes. Abraham had actually died in February 2nd before this veto took place. Here is an article that preceded the above from the Boston Globe on 14 April 1925:

Here is an article from the Fall River Daily Evening News from 6 September 1907:

Here is some basick information on John Pilling and his family:

Abraham was born in 1865 and was the son of John Pilling. Mary Pilling had John before she married Robert Hartley, my ancestor. Abraham was born five days after the Civil War was over.

This is probably an early mention of Abraham in the Fall River Globe on 6 May 1889:

Abraham was apparently on a sports team called the Olympics. Abraham was not afraid to get into a fight.

Here an entry from 19 July 1889:

A day later Pilling was in the paper for a quarter mile race:

More from July 23:

22 Feb 1890

7 April 1890

Sounds like an exciting game.

Now I’m curious about his trip to England as Abe’s father abandoned the family and took off to England in 1877 when Abe was only 12.

Here is one record:

This must be Abe’s return. At this time, he was a weaver:

 

Here is a later trip:

Here he took his wife and two children:

25 Jul 1890

31 July 1890

A report of the annual Sons of St. George Day at Rocky Point:

11 Nov 1890

James Pilling

26 October 1891

James’ obituary was posted in the Fall River Daily Evening News on 1 April 1919:

 

In 1891 and 1892 as Abe worked on the police force, he changed from footballer to referee.

25 Nov 1892

16 Oct 1895

The Fall River Daily Herald reported:

5 Mar 1896

15 Aug 1898

28 Jul 1899

31 Jul 1899

Perhaps Abe’s wife needed a break from the police force drama. Marion was Abe’s sister.

14 Sep 1899

Some criticism of Abe on the baseball team:

10 Apr 1900

25 Jul 1901

Abe also played quoits:

Quoits was a type of ring toss game:

15 May 1902

More problems for Abe:

 

5 Sep 1907

From the Fall River Daily Evening News:

9 Jul 1902

I mentioned this trip the Abe took with his family above. I’m curious as to whom he visited. His father was dead by now. It seems that I recall that my great Aunt Nellie aslo traveled to England at some point.

24 Sep 1902

Here is some more news on Abe’s trip:

The name Thomas Wilkinson is interesting. The article doesn’t mention the purpose of the visit.

21 May 1903

19 Jul 1906

I like how the paper covers the local news:

I still have a few years to go.

26 Jan 1907

15 August 1913

The next day’s paper:

4 Sep 1918

    • My guess is that at least one of Abe’s visits to England was to visit the Halliwell family.

20 Oct 1920

There are many more details. Alice’s brother Everett was an usher.

2 Nov 1920

After this time, there are few significant newspaper articles about Abe.

Here is Abe with my Hartley relatives around 1921 or 1922:

Abe is in the back row with white hair, a mustache and bow-tie.

24 June 1922

Actually, there were a few later articles that I mention at the top of this Blog. That article mentioned injuries that Pilling sustained in the line of duty. I wonder if these were part of those injuries.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Abe certainly had a difficult start in life as his father deserted his family when Abe was 12
  • Abe lived a very public life as seen through his appearances in many newspaper articles
  • Abe was apparently a very physical man charged with what today would be called police brutality. He was also fond of playing sports and traveling. Of course these were different times. He also seemed to like to drink and was accused of being intoxicated on the job, but never found guilty of the charges. However, Abe stayed with his family, so in that way was a better man than his father.

 

 

 

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Newpaper Articles on My Mother’s Side

My mom was from the Philadelphia area.

Rathfelder

Here is something from the Philadelphia Enquirer on 30 August 1936:

Various people then answer my grandmother’s question.

The Philadelphia Inquirer on September 17, 1943 announced the death of my mother’s brother:

My Uncle Russel’s death noted 12 January 1999:

Lentz

Here are some Lentz names from my mother’s ancestry:

This appears to be an early mention of George Lentz of Northern Liberties in 27 September 1805:

George was a butcher in Northern Liberties, so it would make sense that he would want to be on a vigilance committee. Here is George listed in the 1810 Census in East Northern Liberties:

Here is the translation:

I have that Georg (or George) was born in 1770, so he would be 40 in 1810. The two older people would be George and his wife. The four younger ones could be George’s children.

Here is the 1800 Census:

This indicates perhaps a son under 10. So he would have been born between 1790 and 1800. Here is what I have on my web page:

This does not seem to match with the Census. As I have my line through John above, then Georg born 1798 may not be right. However, based on the 1810 Census, there were two males who were between 16 and 25. That means that they were born between 1785 and 1794. Something still seems off.

This John is probably George’s brother:

He is listed near George in the Direct Tax of 1798:

Here George was living at New 4th and Coats. It looks like John was on West 3rd Street. Here is an 1802 map of Northern Liberties:

4th Street is the Street on the left going up and down. 3rd Street is the next long Street to the right of 4th. As I only see one house on the corner of 4th and Coates, I assume that is the George Lentz house. In the newspaper ad above John lives on 3rd Street above the Coates Burying Ground, which I assume is on Coate’s Street. So using a newspaper, tax records and an old map, it seems we get an idea of where some of these Lentz families lived. There is another John Lentz listed in Philadelphia newpaper articles but he lives in Passyunk.

This ad from 31 August 1812 in the Aurora General Advertiser mentions the George Lentz property:

It appears that this property just happened to be next to where George Lent lived.

Here is an ad from 20 December 1851:

I recognize the firm of Lentz & Young as a place one of my ancestors worked. I found that Lentz and Geisler also had many contracts with the almshouse such as this one recorded on 13 August 1861:

Jacob Lentz was my third great-grandfather. Here is part of a poster that one of my relatives sent me from 1851:

10 July 1863:

Here is Jacob’s death notice from the Evening Telegraph on Saturday 6 Feruary 1869:

Jacob’s wife died over thirty years later. Here is the 1 May 1900 Notice:

George Washington Lentz

Here is George death notice:

This was from the Philadelphia Inquirer on 20 February 1888. Here is another notice from the Philadelphia Times from February 17:

Baker

I have that my 2nd great-grandmother was Mary Baker. Her father was Conrad Baker (1800-1881). Here is the notice from 28 February 1881:

Here is East Mongomery Ave in Fishtown:

Nicholson

I can start with my mother’s grandmother. This is from 24 September 1951:

This appears to be the Cemetery:

Here is Annie’s father in the paper of 11 June 1919:

He was also buried in the same cemetery.

Agnes D Nicholson

I have that Agnes who was Annie’s sister married David Vickery. She died at the same place that Annie died. This was at a Presbyterian Home for Widows and Single Women on 58th and Greenway Ave.

Agnes died about 7 years after Annie.

Summar and Conclusions

  • There could be many other paths to follow in the newspaper aritcles
  • The newer articles have the most information, so they are important in bringing the various family lines forward
  • Reading these newpaper articles spurs research using sources other than newspaper.com which also helps to fill in missing family information.

 

 

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Looking in Newspapers for My Wife’s Ancestors in the Boston Area

Some of wife’s ancestors were Butler, Ellis and Upshall. I have already found some interesting information from newspapers. I have a trial at newspapers.com, so I’ll take a look

Upshall

This name should be fairly easy to find as it is unusual. I have found an article previously on my wife’s great-grandfather Fred Upshall. Let’s see if I can find it again.

Fred Upshall was a ship captain. He was mentioned in the paper several times. Here is a random entry from the Boston Globe on Monday 22 September 1913:

Here we learn what Fred was up to in 1913. Here is another article from the Globe on 27 October 1911:

This article involved a race and bets.

In 1910 Captain Upshall was sailing the Schooner Romance:

This is from a 2 September 1910 article in the Boston Globe.

Here is a scary article from 21 Mar 1911:

Here is an engagement notice for Fred’s daughter Esther dated 16 May 1948:

Fred had died by this point and the Mrs was his second wife.

I found this notice by entering the year of Fred Upshall’s death:

All these articles are from the Boston Globe. This one is dated 8 January 1937. Here is an article from the day before:

My wife says that Fred actually died when the boat was fumigated.

I assume that this is the same Fred Upshall in a 21 February 1928 article:

This was about a month before the birth of his daughter Esther.

Wensley Street is South of the McLaughlin Playground on the map above. Here is where the accident occured:

Here is an article about the death of George Upshall from 1945:

Butler

I found quite a bit on the Upshall family. I think that it will be more diffiult to find articles on the Butler family. Here is the death record for my wife’s 2nd great-grandfather:

This was published in the Globe on October 18, 1915.

Here are Edward’s wife and children:

This may be one reason I am having trouble finding women in newspapers.

Julia Ann Butler is listed as Mrs. Silas Deshon. I didn’t find this entry. Someone else had put this image in Ancestry.

Here is an entry for an Ellen Butler from the Cincinnati Enquirer 11 October 1867:

As Edward’s daughter would have been about 8 years old at this time it would not be her. The mother is a possibility as she was probably Mary Ellen. Who knows?

George Butler

This appears to be the death record for George Butler:

This Boston Globe ariticle was from March 28, 1925. Here is George’s death notice:

Here is a 27 August 1912 article about the unfortunate death of Geoge’s son Edward:

Edward Butler Born 1875

This was published Friday, February 6, 1925.

Ellis Family

My wife’s Ellis family was from Prince Edward Island, but moved to the Boston area.

George, like Fred above, met an unfortunate death.

George’s first wife Lillian Rayner died in New York City in 1910. George apparently remarried:

Here is some more on George Ellis:

Here is some more on Marion:

Willard Ellis

Here is Willard’s WWII Registion Card:

I get the impression that Willard was single as he gives his sister as his contact.

This may be Willard in the 1930 Census in Boston:

I wonder who Willard’s cousin was.

 

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Looking for Some of My Boston Ancestors at Newspaper.com

I recently signed up for a free 7 day trial of Newspaper.com to see if I like it. I’ll try it out here. I have been interested in a good newspaper website. However, I watched a recent video on bringing famiiles forward that got me to try this trial.

Boston Ancestors

Some of my ancestors who lived in the Boston area were Frazer, Clarke and McMaster. I am a bit stuck on my Clarke ancestors. I have that an early Clarke, Celia married Charles McGarry and lived in Boston.

Clarke

Celia married Charles McGarry:

This appears to be his funeral record:

Although this gives some interesting information, there appears to be no family information other than the fact that the McGarry family lot was in Dorchester.

Here is another Newspaper entry I found through Ancestry which is affiliated with Newspaper.com:

This is also from the Boston Globe but on January 20, 1894. I wasn’t able to find any newpaper entries for Celia. However, searching for a female with a married and maiden name is more difficult. I see that Celia aslo went by Cecilia or Sadie which makes searching difficult.

Margaret Clarke Frazer

I was able to find an entry for Margaret in the Boston Globe on Saturday, September 20, 1902, but only by spelling her married name the wrong way:

I was determined to find this entry as I knew that it existed – having found this entry before.

Here is a map that I took from an earlier Blog:

The lower circle was where my great-grandfather was a clerk around 1891 and 1892. This was at 1961 Washington Street. Note that Newcomb Street where Margaret’s funeral service was held, was very close to this circle.

Funeral Announcement for Catherine Clarke’s Husband William McMaster

This was from the Thursday May 4, 1899 edition of the Boston Globe. For some reason, I had not picked up that William was living at Northampton Street. Here is William’s death record:

William was a Chef working at ‘Quincy Houses’. In my Walking the Streets of Boston Blog I had William at Gainborough Street in 1893. He appeared to move in there when my great-grandfather (William’s nephew) moved out.

William moved from Camden Street to Gainsborough Street to Northampton Street:

Northampton is one Street North of Camden which I have circled in blue above. So while I am not finding out a lot about the Clarke family, I am finding out where the William McMaster family lived (with his Clarke wife). Because Northeastern University is in this area now, the streets will look a bit different.

This raises the question of what happened to this family after William McMaster died? Here is the 1900 Census:

The family moved to 103 Sterling Street. Sterling can be seen in an image I have already shown:

Sterling is inside the yellowish circle above.

Celia Clarke and Edward McMaster

Here are Edward and Celia in 1920:

This extended McMaster family was living in Boston. At this time, Edward gave his birth as Scotland and Celia gave her birthplace as England. However, I believe that they both were from Ireland. They also go by McMasters with an ‘s’ now. Here is some more information about Edward posted at Ancestry:

Edward’s mother’s name is given as Mary Bolles. I am not finding much in newspaper.com on this family:

However, I can start to fill in some details about the family. For example, Alice J McMasters married on April 25, 1906:

I don’t think that this Clarke was related to the other Clarkes.

Summary and Conclusions

  • Newspaper.com has a good selection of newspapers for my use – which for now has been a few papers in the Boston area
  • Searching these papers is a bit difficult due to variations and mistakes in the spelling of names.
  • There were also difficulties in searching for women. This is probably due to the fact that historically women were not mentioned as much in newspapers.
  • So far, looking at newspapers.com has provided some interesting information and shown connections, but it has not broken through any of the older brick walls.
  • The newspaper web site has just given a different angle to the research and goes well with other research I have done.

 

 

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Pilgrim 400th Anniversary: My Brewster Ancestors

I have quite a few Pilgrim Ancestors. They tended to marry other Pilgrims. I descend from Elder William Brewster in two different ways. All my Pilgrim ancestors come from my third great grandfather, Harvey Bradford. Harvey was born almost 250 years after Elder William Brewster.

Harvey descends from William Brewster on his father and mother’s side.

Harvey’s Paternal Brewster Connection

Harvery was the youngest son of Samuel Bradford. Unfortunately, I have that Samuel died in 1812, when Harvey was about three years old.

In the above image, we finally see a Brewster. Here is Sarah Brewster who married Benjamin Bartlett. Here is an expansion of her tree:

Sarah must be my 8th great grandmother and Elder William Brewster is my 10th great-grandfather.

Elder William Brewster Born About 1566/67

I’ll start will William to keep the Blog in chronological order. Doncaster looks to be about 12 miles NorthEast of Sheffield. Some of my mother’s ancestors lived in Sheffield in the 1700’s and 1800’s.

Although I have that William was born in Doncaster, I see that the Mayflower Families Book on Brewster has him born in or near Scrooby, Nottinghamshire – to the South of Doncaster:

Scrooby is quite small with a current population of about 329. According to the Mayflower families book, William’s father who was also William Brewster was appointed to the office of Baliff-receiver of Scrooby manor by Archbiship Grindal on 4 january 1575/6. So when William, Jr. was about 9 years old.

Here is a photo of Scrooby Manor:

This home was later occupied by William Brewster (Jr.) who served as did his father as Master of the Royal Post. This house played an important part in formation of Separatists later to be called the Pilgrims. Brewster and Bradford would meet in this house to pursue their religious freedom while in England.

In addition, William was unique in some ways compared to the other Pilgrims:

  • The only Pilgrim known to have had a college education
  • The first Pilgrim to visit Holland
  • The only Pilgrim with Government experience
  • William also held the highest non-pastoral Church position as Elder and very often filled in as preacher to the Pilgrims.

William was a much respected part of the Pilgrims. He nursed the sick to health in the first winter the Pilgrims were in Plymouth – even including William Bradford. At the time of his death, he had over 400 books in collection.

William Brewster Places

I have already mentioned Scrooby where William came from. While at Cambridge University, William was at Peterhouse Hall built in 1290, so already old when William attended.

Here is Peterhouse Hall:

In Leiden, William lived in the “stinksteeg” or stink alley in the Pieterskerk section.

The alley William lived on is now named William Brewstersteeg.

Here is Mr. Brewster’s location in Plymouth:

Isaac Allerton was William’s son-in-law. From Plymouth, William moved to Duxbury where he lived with his son Love. This is the likely location of his house:

The location of the house is known as Elder Brewster Lilacs:

Wililam died on 10 April 1644.

Love Brewster Born about 1614

Love was born in Holland and would have lived near or with his father William most of his life. Love and his brother Wrasling (or Wrestling) were on board the Mayflower accompanying their father. Love’s older brother Jonathan and his two sisters Patience and Fear arrived not too long after.  Jonathan, Patience and Fear were likely born in Scrooby. Love married Sarah Collier in Plymouth on 15 May 1634.

Love had four children probably all born in present-day Duxbury:

  • Sarah born about 1635 – probably named for her mother
  • Nathaniel born about 1637
  • William born about 1645
  • Wrestling

Love died late in 1650. His brother Jonathan wrote a letter to Love’s wife Sarah after the death of Love and gave her some land in Duxbury. Jonathan desired to return to England but never made it back. Based on the number of books in Love’s inventory at the time of his death, he appears to have been educated. This education was likely from his father Elder William Brewster.

Sarah Brewster Born about 1635

Sarah was last in my line of Brewster ancestors and still born in the early 1600’s. She was actually twice my ancestor. Here she is as my 8th great-grandmother on my 3rd great-grandfather Harvey’s paternal side:

Here she is as my 9th great-grandmother on Harvey’s maternal side:

It makes more sense that Sarah would be further back on Harvey’s maternal side as women tended to marry at an earlier age. Sarah grew up in her father Love’s house in Duxbury as noted above. In 1654 or 1655, Sarah married Benjamin Bartlett. He had been married previously to Susannah Jenny. In 1656, Sarah received a gift of land from her Uncle Jonathan Brewster. The birth record and marriage record for Sarah are missing. So wills and land records are used to patch the information together. Benjamin’s mother was Mary Warren also of Mayflower lineage.

Sarah’s husband Benjamin Bartlett was a cooper. Here is an excerpt from werelate.org:

The matchmakers were soon at work again, and in 1655, Benjamin married Sarah Brewster, daughter of Love Brewster and Sarah (Collier) Brewster, and grand-daughter of the spiritual leader of the Plymouth Colony, Elder William Brewster. They moved to Waiting Hill in Duxbury, near the Collier home on North Hill, where the North Hill Country Club now stands. Sarah’s maternal grandfather, William Collier, had been one of the original merchant adventurers who financed the Colony and an assistant governor. Benjamin was soon active in politics and was elected Constable in 1662. He was elected a Selectman in 1666 and was reelected for 14 terms, until 1686. In 1685 he was representative from Duxbury to the General Court of the Colony.

Here is a three mile walk near Waiting Hill that also shows North Hill:

Put this walk on my bucket list. Here is the actual Waitin Hill shown between Routes 3 and 3A:

Before there were so many trees in the area, the story goes that people would wait for ships returning from England on this Hill where they could see the Ocean.

Sarah died before 21 January 1678.

Summary and Conclusions

  • I have three Brewster ancestors who lived in early Plymouth and what is now Duxbury.
  • I have always been interested in Elder William Brewster due to his education and spiritual role and other roles he played in the life of the early colony.
  • These three people are fairly well documented as to where they lived and the lives they lived. I have a special interest in where my ancestors lived.
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An Update On My Mitochondrial DNA from 2020

While looking over my old draft Blogs, I came upon this one last updated in November of 2020. I had not finished it, but I wanted to post this now to show the progression of my Mitochondrial DNA Matches.

My last Blog on my Mitochondrial DNA or MtDNA was in 2018. I won’t go over everthing I wrote there. At that time I had four perfect MtDNA matches:

At that time, I noted that I was getting about one perfect (or Genetic Distance of zero) match per year. That rate has kept up and now I have seven perfect matches:

My three new matches are with Anne, Elizabeth and Ann. The two additional female surnames noted are for Gallagher and McLaughlin.

Triangulation of Female Ancestors – Back to Ireland, or Not?

At the time of my previous 2018 Blog, it seemed like my mother’s female line went back to Ireland based on the common ancestors. FTDNA has a map of my current matches, but only the ones who have listed a location for their female line oldest ancestor:

Here is a key to the pins:

However, along with the map, the dates have to be considered. My female line, from what I can tell goes back to the 1700’s:

Ann Nicholson is my great-grandmother. Ann Scott was certainly born in the 1700’s. I am not certain of Roebuck and Scott, but onely mostly sure. My MtDNA Haplogroup of H5’36 certainly goes back to the British Isles, but I would like to know more than that.

However, 9 people list an earliest known ancestor. These are:

  1. Gallagher
  2. McLaughlin
  3. McKelvey
  4. Jennings
  5. Coleman
  6. Francis
  7. Chiffink
  8. Roberts, Jolly
  9. Touhey

These names are helpful, but adding dates and places would be more helpful.

My MtDNA Matches’ Genealogy

The map above only shows the location of most distant female ancestor where that was added. Most people don’t add this information. Out of 21 matches:

  • four people made it to the map
  • 10 show that they have family trees at FTDNA
  • 9 list an earliest known ancestor (see above)

The last two bullets have some overlap but some are only in one category or the other.

I’ll start a spreadsheet:

Already I have an issue. Anne’s tree has Anne O’Donnell as the oldest on her female-only line. But she listes Annie Gallagher.

A Tree for Newest MtDNA Match Anne

I can build a quick tree at Ancestry Here is Anne’s grandmother:

Anne’s great-grandmother is Margaret Campbell who was born in Ireland. Here is Maggie in 1900 in Philadelphia:

If this is right, Maggie came to the US as a baby in 1862. This appears to be Margaret’s death record:

Conlin is transcribed as Coulin.

This appears to be the passenger list for Maggie and her family:

It is more likely that Maggie was born in December 1862 than 1861. This ship, the Hecla, arrived June 29, 1863.

Summary and Conclusions

  • The rate continues that I get about 1 new perfect Mitochondrial DNA match per year.
  • Going through the genealogy on the maternal side for these matches – if these matches  have provided trees – takes time
  • So far, I have not found a genealogical connection in any of my matches