How Would They Feel About Us?

 

Uncle Peg’s Chronicles

April 20, 2023

“How Would They Feel About Us”

 

This week has been a Facebook watch along of two families who sit vigil, waiting the final breaths of their loved ones. One is a man about my age, and one is a 102-year-old woman. They are not in our family. I feel sad and blessed to read of their journeys, and I think too of my vigil with Mum last year.

 

The heart of genealogy is not those vital statistical dates – birth marriage death – but the individual who lived and breathed and fathered or gave birth and loved and hurt and rejoiced and cried and now rests, perhaps below a stone bearing his or her name. What legacy did they leave us? How do we feel about them as we learn about their lives. Do we feel that we could have loved them if we knew them? Are we ashamed to be their descendant? More importantly – as I read recently – how would they feel about us?

 

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This photo of Sandra Wellman and Donna Watson walking their kitties made me smile this week.

 

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I still cannot update my Family Tree Maker Program.

 

 

Number of pages in Outline Descendant Report: 163, up from 161.

Number of pages in the basic Descendant Report: 246 (up from 246 last chronicle)

 

Francis Holmes is # 1. I am still # 339.

Jonathan Marquez (Frances Anne Holmes Ballantyne line) is last at # 503.

# 502, where he was last week, is now Derrick Hurde.

This should change weekly, if I’m doing my job.

 

Stats and Introductions

 

The names I drew last week were:

 

·         Joseph Booth is still # 472.

·         Elaine Enochs is still # ii, daughter of # 219.

 

New this week are Neil Duncan and Heather Duncan Last name.  How about that? Father and daughter.

 

Neil Duncan is # 332. My mother and Neil’s mother were double cousins. What, I wonder does that make Neil and I? Second, I guess. I remember early Christmases, when I guess I was old enough to remember . . . in the days after Christmas, Dad and Mum would take us around to visit their friends and relatives. Everyone left gifts around the tree for a few days for this purpose. Even though we could play with our new toys, we’d put them back under the tree as we tired of playing with them. One of those places we went was to the Duncan home. We reconnected years later when we went to the same church for a while, and at the reunions held in Hill Grove.

I decided to look at my DNA results, knowing that Neil’s brother, Bruce, had tested. Bruce is number four on the list of close family members on my maternal side.

 

Here are the first four close family members:

 

1.       My first cousin, Douglas Holmes, son of Uncle Jim and Aunt Phyl Holmes. 962 cM, 14% shared DNA

2.       My first cousin, Brenda Holmes Batchelor, daughter of Jim and Phyl Holmes and sister of Douglas, 793 cM, 11% shared DNA

3.       Randi Hamilton, first cousin once removed, daughter of Mary Jane Holmes Hamilton and granddaughter of Uncle Bryce and Aunt Inez Holmes. 342 cM, 5% shared DNA

4.       Bruce Duncan, second or third cousin (according to Ancestry DNA), son of Phoebe Colpitts Holmes, and common granddaughter with my mother of Charles and Phoebe Holmes and Ben and Lauretta Colpitts, 318 cM, 5 % shared DNA

 

So, we are pretty close to being first cousins once removed.

 

Heather Duncan Kervin is # 457. She is the daughter of Neil and Roxanne (Hopper) Duncan. She married Jason Kervin and has two elementary school children, a son and a daughter.

 

I do this on Tuesdays rather than Thursdays. Watch for your name.

 

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My genealogy goals for this week were:

 

·         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.

·         Put away my April presentation. Yeah!

·         Get the Carrie Steeves project off my to-do list for the Lincoln Historical Society. Complete the William Holmes line and get it ready to go.

·         Continue indexing old New Brunswick obituaries and death notices for the NBGS website project.

·         Get ready to scan Uncle Billy’s guest book for the NBGS website.

I revised people in our tree, mostly in the William Holmes line, so stats didn’t move much. Can’t check them anyway. I sent the second portion of the Carrie Holmes Steeves line off to Liz, and I will cross that off my list. I sent off a request to Brian Holmes for a genealogy of the Heath line, so I am working on that. More later. I have a decent start on Jonathan and Abigail (Holmes) Maltbie – such a sad story. I should be able to get the short version off to News and Notes by the end of the month.  My presentation is done, and eleven people requested a copy of the power point presentation. Worked on the newspaper index a bit.

I received a thank-you card in the mail from Jeff, of our program committee. I do love impressionist paintings. This is a Renoir, “Two Sisters (On the Terrace), 1881.” Isn’t it pretty?

“I wish to thank you for your facilitating of the workshop to our members yesterday. It sparked engaging conversation among the attendees and may result in the budding of future authors in genealogy.” And, an email from Pauline. “Many thanks for your power point on how to write a genealogical article.  You’ve inspired me to continue my project started two years ago.  So far, the only results I have are the timelines for many of my ancestors.  I’ve realized that I need to add an extra page or two of written memories and discoveries to bring them to life. Since you asked for a show of our chosen ancestor at the end of your presentation, I have included my maternal grandfather’s page.  As you can see, it’s missing a lot of sub-points!”

 

An update on Mary Ellen Fielding. I don’t really have an update, but she has posted a few times on Facebook.

 

My gratitude this week to Brian and Jolynda (Tresner) Holmes. Brian sent me the genealogy of the Heath Line, which his father, Fen Holmes, compiled. Jolynda showed up at my presentation. So nice to see you, Jolynda. As I told her, seeing you at my presentations is great moral support. Not sure when I will do it again.

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I spent Tuesday evening following one line of the Heath family. In case you aren’t familiar with this line: Anna Columbia Heath was the wife of William Nelson Holmes, son of Daniel and Charlotte Holmes. I was especially intrigued by the Stetson line, which moved right along until it joined up with some Witherils. (There are many variations of the spelling of that name. As you may or may not recall, Jane (Barber) Williams is a Witheril descendant from Betsy Marinda Holmes Witheril, daughter of our common Samuel Holmes Jr. So, where did they connect? I wondered. Not being able to get much farther than Jared Witheril, I did some BAD genealogy: I used other people’s trees. Mind you, my intention was to delete names if I found no sources. But, I did find sources. I still have some verifying to do, but I found a common ancestor.

 

Still a WIP – use with caution and do your own research if you use this. If my program was working, I’d print it off, but you will have to settle for my scratching.

 

 

William Witherell 1565 – 1626 and Mary Ann Rogers

Born and died in England

 

John Witherell                                                                                   William Witherell

1594 – 1672                                                                                        1600 - 1684

And Grace Fosdick                                                                           and Mary Fisher

 

William Wetherell                                                                           Mary Witherell

1625 – 1691 and                                                                               1635 – 1710 and

Dorothy                                                                                               Thomas Oldham

 

William Wetherell                                                                           Hannah Oldham

1659 – 1729 and                                                                               1665 – 1711 and

Elizabeth Newland                                                                          Joseph Stetson Jr

 

John Wetherell                                                                                 Joseph Stetson III

1688 – 1755 and                                                                               1698 – 1775 and

Hannah Brintnell                                                                              Abigail Hatch

 

Benjamin Witherell                                                                         Abel Stetson

1716 – 1801 and                                                                               1729 – 1776

Sarah Gilbert                                                                                      Lydia Washburn

 

William Witherell                                                                             Hezekiah Stetson

c. 1760 – c. 1795 and                                                                      1752 – 1833 and

Hannah Easton                                                                                  Elizabeth Tilson

 

Jared Witheril                                                                                    Abel Stetson

1781 – 1857 and                                                                               1784/5 – 1850 and

Sally Haling                                                                                         Hannah Benson

 

Henry G Witheril                                                                               Columbia Stetson

1810 – 1851 and                                                                               1812 – 1854 and

Betsy Marinda Holmes   c. 1828 – c. 1865                               Alexander Ryerson

 

                                                                                                                Hannah Jeannette Ryerson

                                                                                                                1833 – 1917 and

                                                                                                                James Sullivan Heath

 

                                                                                                                who disappeared on his way to seek his fortune.

 

                                                                                                                Anna C Heath

                                                                                                              1851 – 1949 and                                                                                                                                                                               William Nelson Holmes

 

                                                                                                                Daniel Holmes

                                                                                                                1813 – 1883 and

                                                                                                                Charlotte Hoyt

                                                                                                               

Daniel was the half-brother of Betsy Marinda Holmes      .

 As this went off kilter while transitioning from Word to Blogspot, if you wish a copy I can email it to you. 

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Here is my introduction for my newsletter story about Abigail Holmes and Jonathan Maltbie. Subject to revision when I finish. My first paragraph, beginning “Two years, Abigail remembered . . .” is creative writing based on my research. I have endnotes. Each piece of clothing I mention was in her inventory. The silver buckle and tea party story and the red hair is Maltbie family lore.

 

Where There’s a Will

The Maltbie Family of Stamford, Connecticut

1698 to 1798

 

It made its first appearance in the month of June;

in August and September rose to its highest pitch . . .^[1]

 

Shafts of lightning will fly with true aim and will leap

from the clouds to the target, as from a well-drawn bow.^[1]

 

 

Two years, Abigail remembered, since they lowered her Jonathan into his grave in the burial ground. She hung her mourning gown on the hook, squeezed herself into her stays, and put on the pretty calico gown Jonathan had loved, covering it with her fine linen apron. She attached her buckles to her shoes and danced around her bedroom, glancing into the looking glass and smiling. She covered her hair, damp and unruly in the humidity, with her best bonnet, and brushed her napping son’s cheek with a kiss, tousling his red curls.^[1] Glancing out the window, she noted the storm clouds gathering and rumbling. Quickly, she donned her gloves^[1] and stepped out on the porch to run next door and join her friends for an afternoon tea.  A rogue streak of lightning sliced the sky and spotted Abigail’s shiny buckle. ^[1]

 

In this year, the town of Stamford in Connecticut was severely distressed

by a malignant dysentery, which swept away seventy inhabitants out of

a few hundreds. The disease was confined to one street.^[1]

 

Up and down that street, the Stamford residents succumbed one by one to the dysentery epidemic of 1745. It struck in late spring and continued well into the fall, if everyone in the 1745 town record’s cause of death was indeed malignant dysentery. As one went to help a neighbour, it wasn’t long before they too fell ill or died: seventy of them, family members and neighbours. Recently married and father of a baby, Jonathan Maltbie Jr died on August 13^th, but somehow, his wife, his parents, and his son were spared the dread disease. Being a young man, he had not written his will, and the dysentery acted quickly, leaving him no time or energy to dictate a few thoughts. These intestate decisions were left to the court; in Jonathan’s case, his father, Jonathan Maltbie Sr, clerk of the court, was involved in the process. He listened and recorded. He wrote every word into the Stamford probate book. With heavy heart, he added Jonathan’s name to the growing list. He recorded the inventory takers’ list of his son’s clothing and furnishings. He recorded the discussion about his infant grandson. He recorded that he accepted the decision of the court to become wee Jonathan’s guardian. Every letter of every word of every sentence; every detail, he managed to write into that record book until it was his turn to go, and other clerks took up his torch.

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Let’s strive to make our ancestors proud of us this week.

Copy of this genealogy available, just ask.