Uncle Peg’s Chronicles
February 9, 2023
Thorns and Boilerplates
Number of pages in Outline Descendant Report: 159
(up from 153 last chronicle)
Number of pages in the basic Descendant Report:
241 (up from 238 last chronicle)
Francis
Holmes is # 1. I am now # 333. # 331, where I was last week, is now Mary Jane
Holmes Hamilton.
Jonathan
Marquez (Frances Anne Holmes Ballantyne line) is last at # 495.
#
491, where he was last week, is now Angela Dawn Wellman Brandenburg.
This
should change weekly, if I’m doing my job.
Something
new in stats, just for fun:
I put the
names of all descendants of Francis Holmes who are either in our Facebook group
or on my mailing list for chronicles, in a bag. Spouses and friends are not
included as they do not get numbered in the program’s default. Those who have
no descendants are also not numbered, but I’ll include them with their parent’s
number. I pull out three names, and include them for two weeks. Next week, I’ll
draw three more. This is for fun, but if the three names I drew were not in my
tree that I am using now, I insert them. Win-win exercise.
The three I
drew last week are:
·
Karl Holmes is now # 336. #
334, where Karl was last week, is now Paul Stewart Moore.
·
Elizabeth Steeves is now ii,
daughter of Jerome Steeves who is now # 215. Jerome was # 214 last week, who is
now Warren Alfred Steeves.
·
Celia Nolte Anklesaria is now #
420. Last week, she was # 416, who is now Kerry Smith Ritchie.
New this week are:
Mike Holmes (son of Bob) is # 454. I met Mike and his brother and
sisters, Mark, Michelle, and Melanie, when I reconnected with my first cousin
Bob, oh wow, has it been almost 20 years ago? Maybe 18. What a friendly bunch!
Mike joined our family when his mother, Leslie, married Bob. That puts him into
the Charles R. Holmes line through Floyd and Minnie, our grandparents. He’s
pretty quiet on Facebook, but a real friendly sort when you meet him in person!
So glad I met this whole family!
Betty MacKillop Sylvestre is # 324. She is also
in the Charles R Holmes line, and descends from Arletta Holmes and Jim
McKillop. We met in person at the 2014 reunion, when she came with her husband,
Roger, to New Brunswick. I’ve known about her for many years, as her Dad was
friends as well as cousins with my Mum. She’s bunches of fun. She was looking
forward to coming to the 2016 reunion but within days of that gathering, her
horse stomped on her foot and shattered bones. Because she couldn’t come, she
sent along her son, musician and magician and all round fun guy, Derek
Sylvestre. Derek has since met his wife, Joanna, and provided Betty and Roger
with two more grandchildren. Betty and Roger added seven children to our family
tree.
Jane Barber Williams, # 349, descends from Daniel’s sister, Betsy Marinda
Holmes Witheril Freeman. I met her virtually several years ago, and I don’t
remember how. Scratching my head; do you remember, Jane? Perhaps Ann Marie
found her first. She’s been working on the Holmes line and others for many
years, and has been a great help to us. She’s always willing to share her finds
and dares to dig deep. Thanks to her, we delved into a whole new line of family
and our history, and I’m grateful to know her.
FYI, this
takes a lot of time, but it’s kind of fun. I do it on Tuesdays rather than
Thursdays. Watch for your name.
~
My genealogy goals for this week were:
·
Write up the minutes from the genealogy society meeting.
·
Send story about Phoebe McMonagle Holmes and her recipe for Raspberry
Dumplings to Jeff. Outline: bread and milk for Christmas; a summer drink for
the grandkids; sharing the dumpling recipe.
·
Continue revising the Carrie Holmes line for the Lincoln project.
·
Chronicle several times, and publish on Thursday morning.
·
Add a few more people to the tree so the stats move.
·
Start researching and writing
about Jonathan Maltbie for the “Where There’s a Will” article.
·
Write a draft for the “About”
section in our group.
·
Continue working on my April
presentation for the genealogical society.
·
Advise Jeff that I need a month
off for “Where There’s a Will.” This means I’ll need to write one for
September, but that is fine. I like writing them, but I’m in the state of
writing/compiling overwhelm right now.
·
Revise Richard Holmes for Generations.
Those minutes
are going to be the death of me, but they are done.
I completed the
William line and started the Carrie line. I am working my way down, and I’m at
Fenwick.
As you will see,
I chronicled and moved the stats a bit.
I looked at the
Maltbie’s and stuck three sticky notes in my 2022 binder of chronicles.
I can’t seem to
change the About section, so I need to think about that.
I did a few
slides for my April presentation.
I wondered about
my sanity. See first chronicle post.
I am deep into
the life of Richard Holmes again.
~
There is
craziness swirling around in my brain. Is my list of goals too long, maybe? I
sent my Readers Digest article off to Jeff the editor. That’s the one I sent
you last week, in which Jeannie couldn’t find anything to correct -WOOHOO! He
replied.
“Peggy, is
this for March? You already sent me one for February.” I had completely
forgotten, and was rushing madly to get the William Lotham/Francis Holmes
article ready for the February letter.
I made a
list of the seven promised articles in a notebook in a place where I can see it.
Five are done for the newsletter; two are done for the journal, and the third
is coming along nicely.
It helps
to be organized, and such a relief not to have to rush, but a bewilderment to
me that I forgot about sending him an article in mid-January. I am glad January
is over.
~
The New “ABOUT” Section for our Facebook Group: A Draft. I
welcome your comments and suggestions. If you think it is too long, it is. Part
of the writing process is cutting.
HOWEVER
I cannot for the life of me figure out how to change the
ABOUT feature. I can’t get rid of it. I can’t edit it. And that’s with going to
Facebook for help. I know it needs to be changed. What I said is not wrong, but
we have people from other lines as well and it needs to reflect their presence
in our group. But, no more time on this for now. This is my revision.
“I can never recall details and don’t know all of the people,
but it’s like a pulse, good to know it’s strong and steady.”
Thanks to Doug Holmes for this simile. It makes me smile.
We are a Holmes family and a few connections. Our immigrant
ancestor is Francis Holmes and we descend from his son and daughter-in-law,
John and Rachel. Francis’ fourteen generations of descendants are now spread
out all over the world.
In this small virtual space, we meet family or reacquaint,
learn our history, make plans, and share our news and accomplishments.
In the 1920s, the descendants of Daniel Holmes and Charlotte
Hoyt gathered several times in Petitcodiac, New Brunswick; Lincoln, Maine; and
China, Maine. They came from as far as California. Five of their twelve living
children, their children, and their grandchildren attended some or all of these
reunions. At that time, the descendants either knew or knew of each other.
Those who attended were instructed to write to those who couldn’t attend,
telling them about the gatherings.
In this new millennium, many of their descendants, including
me, no longer knew or knew about their kinfolk. We strive to change this. We
have some passionate genealogists working on the tree. We gathered in person in
2014 and 2016. We continue on, virtually.
I often hear, “I don’t know the people.” I don’t know you
all, either. The ones I know best are either cousins I have met or those who
comment and share in this group. Even if you don’t know them, keep in mind that
they are fellow descendants or interested connections, and read on.
The pulse got pretty weak, but it has picked up. Small family
groups join other groups, and with each joining, the Holmes pulse beats stronger
and steadier. You can help by asking your Holmes cousins if they would like to
join us in our private group. We want to welcome family members, so it is up to
us to advertise. You are also welcome to share your news and photographs here.
The administers ask that you help to keep this site a welcome
place for everyone in our family. We are a diverse group of individuals. The
place for our personal beliefs and points of view, which sometimes become
issues of contention and are unrelated to family history and news, is on our
own personal Facebooks. We appreciate your cooperation.
Rough draft: 1 page, 568 words, 10
paragraphs, 38 lines.
First revision: 1 page, 419 words, 9
paragraphs, 28 lines.
Today: 1 page, 400 words, 9 paragraphs
and 27 lines.
~
On January
26, I attended a Zoom conference hosted by American Ancestors on the topic of
deciphering old handwriting. To my great delight, most of it was based on
Secretary Hand, the style of handwriting that I have been using, but I didn’t
know its name. I found that what I spent months figuring out, and boring you
all with, was basically correct. And there were words to go along with what I
learned. This is a recap. Note to self, it’s in the burgundy Mead notebook.
Highlights
of what I learned:
Suggestions:
Use OCR. What? Optical Character Recognition. It’s not perfect, but it’s not
bad. OCR.net. I haven’t tried it yet.
She
mentioned Anachronistic terminology.
Anachronistic:
belonging or appropriate to an earlier period . . . (Google)
Thorn:
in Old English, a letter called ‘thorn’ represented the ‘th’ sound (as in
‘that’) in Modern English. In the Latin alphabet, the ‘Y’ was the symbol that
most closely resembled the character that represented ‘thorn.’ So, ‘thorn’ was
dropped and ‘Y’ took its place.
https://www.dictionary.com/e/letters-alphabet/#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20letter%20thorn,and%20Y%20took%20its%20place.
Boilerplate:
standard languages or phrases that are common to all documents. Especially in
genealogy, used in wills, legal documents and church records. So, if you cannot
read your document, check others. I called these templates – but from here on
in, they are boilerplates.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/boilerplate.asp#:~:text=The%20term%20boilerplate%20refers%20to,of%20written%20or%20digital%20documents.
Current
money – I remember spending much time figuring out
what this was. Simply – the currency of the day. Wampum, pounds, dollars, etc.
Recognize
a style – they blend into each other.
1.
Court hand 1200 – 1700 – upright and
angular, with flourishes
2.
Secretary hand 1400 – 1650 – more
print letters and abbreviations
3.
Italic hand 1500 – 1800 – originated
in Italy, connected letters, fewer pen strokes per letter
4.
Round hand 1650 – 1900 – used metal
nibs, sloping letters, varying thicknesses
(In my day,
we learned cursive. Nowadays, they seem to stop after learning to print.)
That’s
enough scribbles about that topic. If you want more details, or if you want to
transcribe something, ask and I will try to help. The book she recommended was
Hilary Marshall’s “Paleography for Family and Local Historians,” 2021 reprint.
The document samples she used go up to the 18th century. It is in
the mail, coming to me from England. Should arrive today.
~
I refer to
my chronicles quite often. I go to them whilst writing my series on wills.
Right now, I have three sticky notes sticking out of my binder as I prepare to
write my next “Where There’s A Will” article on the little Maltbie family. You
may recall that Abigail Holmes Maltbie was struck by lightning, two years after
her husband died during the epidemic of 1645. They left behind a son, Jonathan
Maltbie Jr. I try to do a different twist for each will, and in this case, I
have a court ordered guardian record for Jonathan after his father died, but
before his mother died. I have a bit of research to redo about what happened to
orphan Puritan children. Even though I don’t personally consider a child an
orphan who still has one parent, it seems like there were guidelines set up for
children in this situation.
Jonathan’s
grandfather Maltbie became his guardian after his father died. He was also the
clerk of the court, and he had to document everything. Thankfully, he did,
although some of his writing is a challenge to figure out. I can’t imagine
doing that. How he must have suffered. Perhaps some of the blots are teardrops.
~
Paul W
Prindle
I am in
touch with a lady named Maureen, who descends from Francis Holmes through his
son John (as do we) via John’s son Stephen. We descend through John’s son
Richard (allegedly – researched by Genealogist Gordon Remington who was hired
by cousin Fen Holmes, and evidence is circumstantial) and John’s son Jonathan
(paper proven and through a female line of descent).
She owns
the Prindle book, “Ancestry of Elizabeth Barrett Gillespie.” I have looked for
that for years. I see it is for sale at Abe Books for $200 US (about $270
Canadian). It is very rare, and still under copyright so not on line. Available
in American libraries, but I am in Canada. Maureen was kind enough to send me
the Holmes chapter. I printed 25 pages this morning. I read the Francis part
and skimmed the rest, about the children. I have placed it in a sleeve for now
to protect it, but I will keep the emailed pdf. Much of what Prindle used came
from Jacobus and some from Huntington. He also used original records, which is
what is important. He transcribed most of the will, if not all. I need to
compare it.
Do I
regret the time I spent transcribing this will? Not one bit. I only hope that
Prindle figured out the few words that I couldn’t. That will be an evening
task.
~
We lived
through the Arctic blast but lost two birds, a dove and a blue jay. The poor
jay, his leg was gone. He must have been frozen to a branch and had to leave it
behind. He didn’t make it. Simon Says spent about an hour on a two-inch window
sill, watching these fluffy goldfinches and chickadees. They fluff their
feathers when they are cold. Photo taken through the window and screen.
~
An Opinion
of the Appraisers of the Inventory of Sarah Grant Holmes in 1706.
Generally,
a will and the probate papers just state dry facts. In this case, and the
reason I chose this will for my series, the appraisers, who appear to know the
Richard and Sarah Holmes family well, inserted their feelings and opinions.
They must have been aware that something was amiss in the execution of these
two wills. Here is their collective opinion. From the Probates of Fairfield
County, Image 863 at Ancestry.
https://www.ancestry.ca/imageviewer/collections/9049/images/007628167_00863?pId=1252071
These may Further inform the Honnored Court Now
sitting in Fairfield that this therin one Mehittibell Warner now ( ) who was ( ) nearly ReLatted this sarah holms above
named and was her own sisters Child and soon after the death of the Childs
mother this Richard Holmes and his then wife Sarah Sarah hoLms the Child
owne ant went up to Midilltown and Brought this Child home to her Husband and
as we have offin heard them say that thay ded tak itt as there own Child and
ever senc to our knowlidg thay have Carfully Cared for her she namely the
aforesaid Mehittabell Warner and She hath Caried very Duttifull and
Resepectivly towards Her uncell and ant unto ther diying day and as her Honnred
uncell hath acknowlided Her also ( )
an Haier to his estate we pray she may nott Be dened her wright to this Her own
aunt and adopted mother estate whom she so dearly loved.
John Bouton, Samuell Hayes, and William Haines
I am thinking of paraphrasing it for the introductory
quote for my essay.
John Bouton,
Samuell Hayes, and William Haines
The will of Richard Holmes was not honored. Mehitabel
received an amount equivalent to that of her siblings, who were not even named
in the will. Going by the orders for the distribution of the estate, none of
the other people mentioned received their portion, either.
~
Wishing
you new things to learn this week.
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