Heather Wilkinson Rojo's Blog (118)

The Derry Civil War Memorial is located in front of the First Parish Church in East Derry. The other war memorials to Derry soldiers are all located at MacGregor Park, next to the public library on Broadway.

According to T.J. Cullinane of the "Friends of the Forest Hill Cemetery" group, there are about another 100 missing names that should be on the Civil War monument. He is working on identifying all the Civil War tombstones in the Forest Hill Cemetery, which is located right…

Last weekend we were in Washington DC, and at the top of my list of things to do in our capital city was to visit the National Archives.  If you read my blog story from last October, “Did George Washington Sign Here?”  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/10/amanuensis-monday-george-washington.html  you will know that I was questioning the authenticity of George Washington’s signature…

My 5x great grandfather Abner Poland served in Revolutionary War, but so did his father, Abner Poland, Sr., and so the records have always been difficult to separate when I started to research the Poland family.   He was born in 1761, and was only fifteen when the Battles of Lexington and Concord occurred in 1775.  He enlisted not long after, on 15 January 1776 as a private in Captain Abraham Dodge’s Company in Ipswich, Massachusetts.   He reenlisted in 1777 for another two years, and…

My great great grandfather Caleb Rand Bill was a music professor in Salem, Massachusetts before the turn of the 20th century.  Whilst researching his story, I found out about two other early music teachers in Salem, who were both Spanish immigrants.  It is interesting that they became ardent abolitionists around the time of the American Civil War.

Manuel Fenollosa came to Salem from Spain with his brother in law, Manuel Emilio in 1838 on the US navel frigate United States. …

There has been an ongoing discussion about the “new” NEHGS website at www.americanancestors.org  and on their Facebook group. Lots of folks are having trouble navigating the new search site, and finding their favorite databases.   Actually, this website is no longer new, since it has been around since late last summer.  The way things move so quickly with technology, I wouldn’t be surprised to see additional changes by now at the NEHGS site…

When we first moved to Londonderry, New Hampshire I was surprised to find there was no Congregational church.  Nearly every town in Massachusetts has one!  Almost every New Hampshire town has one, too, but since Nutfield was founded by the Presbyterians, the churches remained Presbyterian for a long time.  The First Church in Derry changed to Congregational in the 1800s, and I tried a few services there.  My husband was working in Nashua, and he said several co-workers attended the First…

The schooner Fame is moored in Salem, Massachusetts at Pickering Wharf.  She was built in Essex, Massachusetts by Harold Burnham, and launched in 2003.  The Burnhams have been building boats in Essex since the 1640s.  The original schooner Fame was an Essex fishing schooner used as a privateer in the War of 1812.  

The interesting connection is that Abner Poland III served on board the Fame in the War of 1812 by Abner Poland III of Essex, Massachusetts.  I’m descended of his sister,…

Deadline February 15, 2011

The 2010 New Hampshire Mayflower Society Memorial Scholarships are available to any college student (undergraduate or graduate) or high school senior. You don’t need to be a member of the Mayflower Society, but members and relatives of members will receive preference (defined as members, junior members, siblings, children, grandchildren, great grandchildren). Applicants with no affiliation to the NH Mayflower Society are also invited to apply.

This is…

Matthew Taylor and his wife Janet Wilson came from Northern Ireland in 1721 and settled in Nutfield, now Derry, New Hampshire.   Matthew was one of the original proprietors of the settlement.  He was born in 1690 and he died 26 January 1770 near Beaver Lake.  They had ten children and many descendants who lived in New Hampshire and Nova Scotia.  Matthew and his sons, Adam and Samuel Taylor, are buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Derry.

The descendants are planning a reunion for August…

Boston July 24. 1867



Dear Aunt,



I received your letter dated May 22/67 and

It was gladly received day before yesterday.

We are having pretty warm weather here now

although it Is not quite as warm today as it usually

is. Sara has been married just one year ago last

Thursday, her husband’s name is William Pierce.

Grandma was very much opposed to the…

My 3x great Grandfather Peter Hoogerzeil was born on 28 October 1803 in Dordrecht, Netherlands. He had stowed away on a Rotterdam ship to America. It was supposedly full of hemp bound for the ropewalk in Salem, Massachusetts. According to family lore, he married the Captain’s daughter. This story always bothered me because of two…

Red Sox outfielder, Dom DiMaggio (brother to the more famous Joe DiMaggio), and current San Francisco Giant closer Brian Wilson both resided in Londonderry, New Hampshire. Brian Wilson, “The Bearded One” is well known recently for his popularity…

21 February 1873, Cape Ann Advertiser "On Friday afternoon, as one of the workmen in the shipyard of A. O. Burnham was hoisting the bow hasping, it got the best of him and fell striking Mr. Gilman P. Allen (about 63 years old) a glancing blow on the shoulder and head, and knocking him down. Fortunately no bones were broken, but it was a…

Obituaries (on file at the Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem)

May 20,…