Heather Wilkinson Rojo's Blog

The Illiterate Colonel

Last week I blogged about Colonel Joshua Burnham, and the fine mansion house he built in Milford, New Hampshire. His house was later sold to the Hutchinson family. Because of their fame as singers, I’ve been able to find many documents about my ancestor the Colonel. You would think that as a Revolutionary War officer, and as someone wealthy enough to build a large estate, he would have left documents for me, the future genealogist, to uncover. But that is not the case with Joshua… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on January 18, 2010 at 9:40am — No Comments

The Hutchinson Family Singers of Milford, New Hampshire

My 5x great grandfather, Colonel Joshua Burnham, built a fine home in Milford, New Hampshire in 1824. He sold the home to fund his retirement, and it was purchased by Jesse Hutchinson to house his large family. The children and grandchildren used it as a summer home until the mid 1900’s. It still stands in Milford, and is down the street from a small cemetery where Colonel Burnham, and many members of the Hutchinson family, is buried.

It turns out that the Hutchinson family was quite… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on January 12, 2010 at 9:30am — 1 Comment

Moooore Cows in the family tree!

Searching the family tree for more cow stories, I began to notice cows in wills and other legal records. Obviously, a cow was important to a colonial era family, and so cows were lovingly given to family members, and often called by their pet name in legal documents.

A typical document can be summarized like this:

Isaac Allen is on the 1799-1800 tax list in Essex, Massachusetts assessed for 1 poll, $60 in buildings, 1 cow-right of $40, 1 cow $10, 1 swine $3.33, and $37.50 for… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on January 9, 2010 at 6:17pm — No Comments

Another Cow, a Salmon, and Sam Adams

Yesterday I blogged about a cow, so I thought I’d try another cow story from the family tree…

Sam Adams, the revolutionary firebrand, and John Hancock (no wallflower, himself) were in Lexington, Massachusetts the night Paul Revere rode into town to warn them that the British regulars were approaching. They were at the home of the Reverend Jonas Clarke of Lexington when they heard the British regulars were on the march. So Sgt. William Munroe led… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on January 6, 2010 at 4:17pm — No Comments

Have a cow? Win a wife!

This is a cute story from my family tree…

“William Cogswell, when a lad, was out from home by the highway, where some men were trying in vain to relieve a cow who had become choked with a potato. There stood by, also, a young girl, eight or ten years old, who watched with interest every effort made. When all experiments failed, and it was suggested that only by someone thrusting his hand down the cow's throat would the cow be saved, she at once said, "My arm is small; I can do it… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on January 4, 2010 at 9:26am — No Comments

Happy New Year! - Double Dating Explained

No, not the double dating you did in high school when you didn’t have a date for the dance, this is the double dating that shows up in history books and genealogies. If you use a good genealogy data base like Family Tree Maker, your software may actually change or challenge any dates you put in pre- 1752 between January and March 24. Or you may have tried to figure out how to calculate a date during this time period, only to notice that you were off by three months somehow when you finally find… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on January 1, 2010 at 4:21pm — No Comments

Annie Londonderry and her “Extraordinary Ride”

Last year Peter Zheutlin, the author of the nonfiction book “Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry’s Extraordinary Ride,” came to the Leach Library, here in Londonderry, New Hampshire,

to give an interesting lecture about his ancestor. Annie Kopchovsky, was “Annie Londonderry,” the first woman to go around the world on a bicycle. She was actually paid $100 by Londonderry Lithia Water, a very popular drink of the era, to carry their logo on… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on December 18, 2009 at 8:30am — No Comments

Astronaut Alan Shepard, of Derry, New Hampshire

The first American in space was born in Derry, New Hampshire in 1923. Alan Bartlett Shepard grew up on the family farm, which is now just a house on East Derry Road. He ran errands at Grenier Field (now Manchester Airport) when he was still just a Pinkerton high school student. The Shepard family attended the First Parish church in East Derry, and his father was the organist. He graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis and served during the… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on December 15, 2009 at 6:30pm — 2 Comments

Samuel Eliot Morison’s Nutfield Connection

My daughter lives in Back Bay, Boston. It’s a lovely neighborhood for walking, and my favorite section has always been the Commonwealth Mall. It’s a green oasis in the city, a long avenue divided by a green park dotted with statuary of famous Bostonians. I had never examined these statues up close until recently, when I noticed that all the statues seemed to be literary figures. One of my favorite statues is that of Samuel Eliot Morison.

Morison… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on December 12, 2009 at 6:15pm — No Comments

Flying Santa- the Historian Edward Rowe Snow

Last year I saw a TV newscast about the work of Edward Rowe Snow and the Flying Santa program in New England. It was a service provided by Wiggins Airways, and every time I pass by the Manchester Airport and see the Wiggins sign, I think of the Flying Santas – even in the heat of summer!

Since colonial times the New England lighthouses were manned by families, and in 1929 William Wincapaw started a tradition of dropping presents… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on December 9, 2009 at 9:00pm — 1 Comment

Robert Frost, Derry resident

Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, California, taught school in Massachusetts, and died in Vermont, yet he will forever be loved as a New Hampshire Poet. He lived in New Hampshire between 1895 and 1938. His first book was title “North of Boston” and his fifth book was titled “New Hampshire”.

As another nod to his Derry residence, Frost’s eighth book was titled “West Running Brook” after the stream near his farmstead. This fame has caused a… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on December 4, 2009 at 10:06am — No Comments

Healys and Crosbys from Massachusetts to Chebogue, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

From Cape Code to Nova Scotia to Beverly, Massachusetts

My ancestor Joseph Edwin Healey arrived in Massachusetts from Nova Scotia sometime between his marriage in 1848 and the birth of his first child in Beverly, in 1852. I’m not sure if he arrived on a boat, but being a mariner, he probably sailed to his new home with his new bride. He is listed as a sailor or mariner on his children’s birth records in Beverly, and as a fisherman on the… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on December 1, 2009 at 4:00pm — 5 Comments

A Big Appetite, He must have loved Thanksgiving!

My mom found this little news clipping amongst her mother’s things. We finally figured out that the main character in the little story was her great grandmother’s brother. John Edwin Healey worked in the family business, Hoogerzeil Express Company. This was a Beverly, Massachusetts trucking and moving business started in the days before motorized vehicles. In the 1949 article it says he just celebrated his 92nd birthday, but I found him in the… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on November 25, 2009 at 3:04pm — No Comments

The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 5

The Wreck of the "Angel Gabriel"

The Great migration was an exodus of Puritans from England to New England between 1620 and 1640. During this time John Winthrop sailed on the “Arabella” and wrote his famous sermon about the “City on a Hill” during the voyage. Most of my ancestors arrived in this period, on many ships, mostly unrecorded by passenger lists. One ship carried the most ancestors (besides the Mayflower), and that was the… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on November 23, 2009 at 9:41am — No Comments

The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 4

The Hessian Soldier who stayed in the New World

Part four in my Thanksgiving series about ancestors who DIDN’T arrive in the New World on the Mayflower. My 4x great grandfather Johann Daniel Bollman was a surgeon from Hammersleben in Saxony, Germany. He came to North America with Baron de Riedesel’s Brunswick Regiment of Hessian Soldiers in 1776. The Duke of Brunswick had contracted with England to send 3,964 foot soldiers and cavalry to America.… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on November 19, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 3

Prisoner of War aboard the ship “John and Sara”

From Scotland to Boston, 1651

This is part three of my miniseries of Thanksgiving blogs on the immigration of certain ancestors to America, during the week when our thoughts usually rest with our Mayflower passenger ancestors. My 7x great grandfather William Munroe arrived in Massachusetts a little more than thirty years after the Pilgrims settled in Plymouth. His immigration was forced as a prisoner of war and indentured servant,… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on November 18, 2009 at 9:30pm — No Comments

The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 2

Unknown Ship, from Rotterdam to Salem, Massachusetts

This is part two of a series of Thanksgiving blogs for my ancestors who DIDN’T come on the Mayflower. Today I’m thinking about my 3x great grandfather Peter Hoogerzeil. We don’t know the name of the ship he took to arrive in America, and we don’t know the date, but the other details of his immigration are so interesting my cousin wants to write them into a historical romance. I’ll… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on November 17, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

The Other Mayflowers Series

1960 Lockheed Constellation- Madrid to New York City

This week before Thanksgiving will be dedicated to blogging about my other family members and ancestors who came to the New World, not just my Mayflower ancestors. There are a lot to choose from, but I’m going to start with my mother and father-in-law, who arrived in New York City in 1960 aboard an Iberia Airlines Lockheed Constellation prop plane from Madrid, Spain. It was 340… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on November 16, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

How to find your American Veteran Ancestors

Abijah Franklin Hitchings, Civil War, Co. I, 8th Reg. Mass. Vol. Inf.

Veterans Day 2009

The further your family tree goes back in time, the more chances you have of finding an ancestor, sibling, or distant cousin who served as a soldier or sailor. My first advice is to continue collecting oral histories, and asking all your older relatives about anyone they might have known who served in the military. Use those oral… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on November 11, 2009 at 10:30am — No Comments

The Ballad of Cassandra Southwick

“Ballad of Cassandra Southwick”

For Bill West's Great American Local Poem Genealogy Challenge

There are lots of interesting characters in New England, like Cassandra, and many have had their stories made into poems. Longfellow tangled the story of another ancestor, Myles Standish, in his famous courtship poem, and the story of Paul Revere was one of his most famous, and most inaccurate, poems. In this poem, John Greenleaf Whittier got… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on November 9, 2009 at 8:00am — No Comments

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