Whistling at Sea is Never Tolerated Except in a Calm

 

Uncle Peg’s Chronicles

September 7, 2023

“Whistling at Sea is Never Tolerated Except in a Calm”

 

 

Many back to school photos made me smile this week, but I chose this one of Keith Burden and his daughter, Eliza, all gussied up for a Daddy/Daughter dance. I just had to include two photos.

 

 

I am grateful to Annmarie Driscoll Holmes for going to the library for me. She went with a list, fortunately, as her library visit was fruitless in regards to my quest and I’d hate to send her on a wild goose chase. Perhaps she found a good book to read.

 

New this week are Carol Holmes Marand and Michael Holmes. I don’t know these cousins well, but I know who they belong to. Please let me know of any errors.

Carol Marand is in the Peter Holmes line, and is the daughter of David W Holmes and Constance Ann Whittier. She has two sons, Evan and Sean Deyerle, and is married to Herve Merand. She is a cousin to Eleanor Wilson and Janet Griffith, who are also in our Facebook group. She lives in Roanoke, Virginia.

Michael Holmes is the son of Stephen Holmes and Winona Wong, and grandson of Fenwicke W Holmes and Bette Hoon, of the William Holmes line. He has a sister, Kimberly, and is married to Natasha Lifa. In 1921, during the pandemic, Steve Holmes and I both became grandparents for the first time, and Doug Holmes, for the second time. We all had boys. Michael was one of the dads. His Facebook profile says he works at Red Hat.

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My genealogy goals for this week were:

 

• Chronicle several times, and publish on Thursday morning.
• Keep writing my next article for Generations, which is about the will of William Lotham. Francis Holmes is mentioned in his inventory both as owing money and being owed money.
• Continue indexing old New Brunswick obituaries and death notices for the NBGS website project.
• Spend a bit of time on Moore family research.
• Think about and make lists for a welcome back in person party for our genealogy society branch in October. It will have a book theme – old genealogy/history books on a popup library display, and a for sale table for books we longer need. Two short speakers, five to ten minutes each tops. Leftover time will be for reacquainting and meeting new people, and looking at books.
• Find four speakers for January to May of 2024, for the genealogy society.
• In the evening, after chores are done, edit the Fanny Holmes Ballantyne family (first daughter of Daniel and Charlotte) the same way I did the Louisa, William and Carrie lines. No rush on that.
• Visit with Carolyn Brown of Ottawa, Ontario; a distant Holmes cousin.

 

I’m still working on the James W Ballantyne family and conversing via email with Marvin Davis. Marvin is new to genealogy, but he’s taking his time with his ancestry tree and does his due diligence in comparing records. So far, he’s working on his Davis and Avansino trees, which includes Goodenoughs and Ballantynes on our side of the family. I recommended Brenda’s tree, “The Family Vine;” I believe she is a careful and thorough researcher. Marvin is taking his time with it and looking carefully at the sources, it seems to me.

“Slow but steady wins the race.” Aesop. When someone, with the exception of a relative novice, brags about the number of people in their tree, I get suspicious. If they are relatively new at it, I suggest they slow down and smell the roses read the record. Common sense makes all the difference in genealogy.

One thing I know: “It’s a small world, after all.” I usually hum it when I make a discovery like this. One thing I discovered this week. Samuel Holmes Jr. lived in Brownville, Jefferson County, New York, from sometime in the 1820s and by 1850, he was in Cattaraugus County, New York. Sources for that are census records and the two old letters that I have posted before.  Marvin’s 8^th great-grandfather, Adino Goodenough, died in Watertown, Jefferson County, New York, in 1843. Source for that is Find a Grave, and there is a photo of his tombstone attached to it. I’m not sure how long he was there, as he appears to be in another county in 1840. These two towns are approximately five miles apart. Perhaps Sam and Adino bumped into each other back in 1840.

William Lotham’s story is coming along.  I found this, and included it so I don’t lose the links, which is what a research journal/chronicle is for. But, just for your entertainment, why not have a peek and give a page a read.

 https://collections.ctdigitalarchive.org/islandora/object/50002:10931#page/1/mode/2up

I looked at it. It had a search box. This is the “Original Distribution of the Lands in Hartford Among the Settlers.” 440 pages of 1600s script and who knows what the paper was made of. It is amazing and probably no one can touch it now. The search box did not work. I looked at it some more. After all, I only have about four months to complete my William Lotham article, and I don’t really want to spend four months reading something that will be a humongous challenge for my eyes. Luckily, after more digging, I found this:

 

https://archive.org/details/collectionsofcon14conn/page/n13/mode/2up

 

Same book, transcribed records, and has an index. Big sigh of relief. I can go to the index, find pages of the characters, and then go to the original page and read it. I don’t have to read the entire thing. Something you can do in genealogy, if you can’t unravel a mystery, is eliminate stuff. I originally thought that William Lotham lived in Hartford, but then I realized that his will was probated in Hartford County. That covered quite a lot of territory. Maps help. Only a few of the 27 fellows seemed to be in the town of Hartford in 1645. So, now I know that neither Holmes nor Lotham had land in the town of Hartford. I have my work cut out for me, but it will only involve a couple of days, not weeks or months.

 

I don’t even include it in my goals right now, but I did update Fairfield in a Colossal Collection of Cousins, to include my find of Frances Homes (sic) who was mentioned in Lotham’s will. For those of you who are new or forgetful, Colossal Collection of Cousins is the family history work in progress.

 

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Outline Descendant Chart of James W Ballantyne and Frances Ann Holmes

 

I have about completed my review of this family. I sent it out on Monday to Brenda M, Leanne G, and Marvin D, the three people from this line I am in contact with, and Annmarie H, who researches generally like I do. This is for family members only, and includes five generations. Several individuals are still very much alive, so I ask that you don’t share it outside the family for that reason, plus, it is still a work in progress. Should you ever wish to have a document like this for a public place like a historical society, library, or archive, I will provide one with the generations that don’t include the living, with the possible exception of the very elderly who are the last of their generation. I will work with you individually.

 

Thanks to Marvin, who sent me a list of additions and corrections.

 

 

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Questions, observations, and rabbit trails re Lotham

 

A refresher, for those who are new:

 

I am writing a series of articles for my New Brunswick Genealogical Society on will probates, called “Where There’s A Will.” Although William Lotham is no relation to us, his probate mentions Frances Homes (sic), our immigrant ancestor. It appears to me that no one else knows about this, at least on the internet. All references to Francis Holmes point to the Stamford town record of 1648, when Holmes was accosted and wounded by the perpetually drunken Robert Penoyer as a night watchman. This mention of Holmes is dated 1645, three years earlier. It is my goal to study all the men mentioned in the probate. (No women were mentioned.) I wanted to find a common location for these men, but my results are inconclusive. The best I can conclude is that early colony families were often on the move to new places, and that Lotham probably lived on his boat. Where, I wonder, did he store 3500 planks? If he didn’t have a home, did he have a place for his shipbuilding? It became a great probate study for me, with lengthy and deep rabbit holes to draw my attention. I feel honoured to tell the story of William Lotham. It would make a great work of fiction, if anyone was so inclined.

 

 

My questions – not all of which have an answer, but some I must find.

 

• Why did he transport Bedle to Fishers Island? Was it a place for really bad criminals at the time?
• How big was a planke?
• Where did he get his tobacco?
• Was his name really Lotham? Or, was it Latham? Spelling wasn’t a big deal in that day.
• Who in the world was Sticlins? I know he kept Lotham’s sow, so he probably was a farmer.
• Since I cannot locate the original copy of the will, I probably won’t know the answer to the last two questions.
• What does this mean? “Latham, as long as he is mine”?
• If he lived on his boat, did his servant, Elias, also formerly live on the boat? Was he an indentured servant, learning shipbuilding and sailing?
• Where did the elusive William Wells live? I don’t think I can figure that out. There was a famous Thomas Wells in Hartford, but I can’t pinpoint a William.
• Did all the witnesses of the will live in the same place?
• Did all the appraisers live in the same place?
• Does the answer to the last two questions really make any difference, either to Lotham or to Holmes’s place of residence? I happen to think that Lotham had no fixed address.

 

 

What did I learn?

 

• An overview of the colonies of Connecticut and Long Island. I have sailed several times across the sound from New London to Orient Point. On a beautiful day, it is a wonderful sail, and I spend my time on the deck. On a stormy day, it’s a stomach churner.
• A timely map is an essential tool of a genealogist.
• An overview of the justice system and means of punishment in Puritan times.
• An overview of colonial tools.

 

 

Which of my guidelines for my genealogist self did I follow?

 

·         Know much more than you write.

·         Do your own research.

·         Compare your sources.

·         Cite your sources as you go, not after the fact.

·         Use those words “likely, probably, maybe, perhaps” frequently. If you don’t know, don’t state as fact.

·         Use the Fan method of research for this type of project.

·         Use your imagination (carefully).

 

 

 

 

 

Write a descriptive paragraph about Lotham.

 

I do not have a photograph of William Lotham, so of course I don’t know what he looked like or was like. I picture him as the typical “old salt.” But, was he an old salt? Likely not literally, as I don’t think the phrase existed then and it seems it was and is an American term, not British. I absolutely loved this blog post and I suggest you have a quick read – https://marine-cafe.com/a-deep-dive-into-the-meaning-and-origin-of-old-salt/  His description of an old salt is so perfect – excellent word weaving. I’m jealous. The blogger does quote from an old book that is in the public domain:

 

“The exact origin of the term is rather hazy. The earliest published work I could find that mentions the term is the second edition of ‘A Mariner’s Sketches’, a book by American author and sailor Nathaniel Ames published in 1830. Two excerpts:

The ceremony of shaving on crossing the line was omitted, to the manifest disappointment of the “old salts” and great relief and gratification of us who were uninitiated.

* * *

Whistling at sea is never tolerated except in a calm. “A whistling sailor, a crowing hen and a swearing woman ought all three to go to hell together,” so say the old salts.”

 

That was research. Let me begin again . . . with a picture in my mind.

This is not part of my article. I just need to know him, or at least, imagine him.

 

He knows the waters as well as he knows the back of his hand. He knows the weather: what to expect from it, and how to predict it. He knows the men at each waterside, and I won’t speculate if he knows the women well or shies away from them. His cheeks are weathered; his mouth is in a permanent pipe-holding pucker. He’s one big muscle, and lying still on his death bed is one of the hardest things he has ever done. He knows every nook and cranny from the great Connecticut River, up and down the Long Island Sound, and the eastern coast to the West Indies. He’s as comfortable in southern breezes as he is in northern winter storms. His docked boat rocks like a cradle, as safe at a waterside as Moses was in the bullrushes. He sleeps soundly and dreams of the sea. He’s as comfortable adjusting his rigging as he is pounding tree nails into planks. Pin him down to one place, other than where he builds a new ship, and that not for too long - he gets edgy. He knows Wethersfield, Hartford, New Haven, Norwalk, Norwich, Stamford, Groton, the islands in the sound, Hempstead, and the Hamptons and calls none of them home. He moves with the tides and the waves of the ocean. His eyes pin you as he tells tales that make your hair stand on end. Shiver me timbers.

 

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No answers to last week’s question, so, why don’t you ask me a question this week.