While browsing the scrapbook collections of the New Bedford Library, Massachusetts, I came across a photo of John Carney Mendes, performing in Footprints, a historical pageant created by Mrs. Ethel Riley Cark in 1925.

Mendes was portraying the role of his uncle, Sergeant William Harvey Carney (1840-1908), who served in Co. C, 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry Regiment. Carney is the famed Union hero of the Civil War’s Battle of Fort Wagner for saving the regimental colors during the battle on 18 July 1863. He received the Congressional Medal of Honor on 23 May 1900.

Below is a tintype of Sergeant Carney taken in 1864.

I found an article on Sgt. Carney in the Boston Journal that offers some background.

This article reports:

Sergeant William H. Carney, the hero of Fort Wagner, came to New Bedford from the South when quite a young man. He was mustered into Company C, Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteers, March 30, 1863. At Fort Wagner he was seriously wounded, as the following narrative tells, in the memorable assault of July 18, and was obliged to remain in the hospital at Beaufort, [South Carolina], until December of that year. Then he rejoined his regiment, participating in its fortunes until the command was mustered out, Aug. 20, 1865. Sergeant Carney helped organize Robert G. Shaw Post 146, G.A.R., of New Bedford, named in memory of his old Colonel, and was its first commander.

Among the most honored of New Bedford’s brave will ever be held the name of Sergeant William H. Carney, the hero of Fort Wagner, and as long as deeds of valor shall be told, the story of this colored soldier’s bravery will be repeated.

Many years has his familiar form been seen passing through New Bedford’s busiest streets, clad in the uniform which Uncle Sam furnishes for his letter carriers, and while time has generously sprinkled his beard with gray, and has forced upon him the use of spectacles, the springy step of the gallant Sergeant has lost little of his youthful vigor. It needs but a mention of Ford Wagner to cause the kindly eyes to snap and the well-knit form to straighten back proudly as befits one who remembered his duty to his country before himself.

Below is a scrapbook photo of William Harvey Carney and his fellow postal workers from 1877.

In 1863 a letter submitted by Colonel Milton Smith Littlefield was published in the Liberator newspaper regarding Sgt. Carney’s bravery in the battle of Fort Wagner.

This article reports:

The following letters have been received by the Military Secretary of Gov. Andrew, Albert G. Browne, Esq., who is now at Port Royal. They will be read with interest:

Headquarters 54th Mass. Vols.,
Morris Island, S. C., Oct. 15, 1863.

Colonel – I have the honor to forward you the following letter, received a few days since from Sergeant W. H. Carney, Co. C., of this regiment. Mention has before been made of his heroic conduct in preserving the American flag, and bearing it from the field, in the assault on Fort Wagner, on the 18th of July last; but that you may have the history complete, I send a simple statement of the facts, as I have obtained them from him and an officer who was an eyewitness:

When the Sergeant arrived to within about one hundred yards of the fort – he was with the first battalion which was in the advance of the storming column – he received the regimental colors, pressed forward to the front rank, near the Colonel, who was leading the men over the ditch. He says, as they ascended the wall of the fort, the ranks were full, but as soon as they reached the top, “they melted away” before the enemy’s fire “almost instantly.” He received a severe wound in the thigh but fell only upon his knees. He planted the flag on the parapet, lay down on the outer slope, that he might get as much shelter as possible; there he remained for over half an hour, till the 2d brigade came up. He kept the colors flying till the second conflict was ended. When our forces retired, he followed, creeping on one knee, still holding up the flag. It was thus that Sergeant Carney came from the field, having held the emblem of liberty over the walls of Fort Wagner during the sanguinary conflict of the two brigades, and having received two very severe wounds, one in the thigh and one in the head. Still he refused to give up his sacred trust until he found an officer of his regiment.

When he entered the field hospital, where his wounded comrades were being brought in, they cheered him and the colors. Though nearly exhausted with the loss of blood, he said, “Boys, the old flag never touched the ground!”

Of him, as a man and a soldier, I can speak in the highest terms of praise.

I have the honor to be, Colonel,
Very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

M. S. Littlefield,
Col. Commanding 54th Reg. Mass. Vols.

Below is a photo of Sgt. Carney wearing his Medal of Honor.

Here are front and rear views of William Harvey Carney’s Medal of Honor.

Note: some of the graphics in this article have been AI enhanced.

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Note on the header image: depiction of the Battle of Fort Wagner in the painting “The Old Flag Never Touched the Ground.” Credit: Rick Reeves; U.S. National Guard; Wikimedia Commons.

Related Articles:

• Incredible Bravery: African American Medal of Honor Recipients (part 1)
• Incredible Bravery: African American Medal of Honor Recipients (part 2)
• Incredible Bravery: African American Medal of Honor Recipients (part 3)

The post For Veterans Day: Tale of Color Bearer Sgt. William H. Carney, Hero of Fort Wagner appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

Colonial and early American research can be tricky. Before 1790, there was no federal census. Birth and death registration weren’t common until the early 20th century. The existence of these records makes more recent research easier. Different strategies are needed for researching the earlier days.

In New England, many towns recorded births, marriages, and deaths. If you know what town your ancestors lived in, you know where to search for the records. Some of these records are online. Some are on microfilm at the FamilySearch Library. Others can be ordered by contacting the town clerk.

Colonial New England is well covered in compiled sources, as many have already researched that time and place. These earlier researchers wrote books and histories, but many are not appropriately cited. Some books are compilations of births, marriages, and deaths, copied from other records. These types of records are prone to errors. Therefore, it’s advisable to use them as clues to find original records.

Starting with What Is Known

When embarking on any research project, you want to start with what is known and work your way into the unknown. I started this research project from the newspaper clipping below, which I found in GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives.

This news about Lieutenant Josiah Pierce and his wife hosting a large family dinner was published in Massachusetts and New York papers in January 1799, referring to the prior Christmas. The newspaper announcement states that Josiah Pierce is a lieutenant, that his wife is Sarah, that he’s 73 and she’s 69, and that they have 15 children together. The 15 children consisted of nine sons and six daughters, all married. The article does not name the children or the in-laws.

The article concludes:

What is somewhat remarkable, each of the sons began the world with nothing but their industry, and are now [situated] in prosperous circumstances, and each of the daughters have married men of respectable property. A circumstance so extraordinary cannot be found in the annals of our country.

The article states that the family is “of Worcester” [Massachusetts], so the search should begin with sources and records in Worcester for the Pierce family.

Historical context tells us how extraordinary this situation was. Mortality rates were high back then. Many children died young. Men or women died young, leaving behind minor children, and the surviving spouse often had to remarry. Josiah and Sarah not only had 15 children together, but all of them lived to adulthood.

It is essential to evaluate a source’s reliability. This family news was posted in at least two newspapers because people back then found it noteworthy. It is unknown who the informant was, whether it was a member of the Pierce family or someone else. The safest assumption is that the informant was in the same community as the Pierces.

Another side to consider in the reliability factor is whether anyone had reason to intentionally falsify information. This commonly happened when families were trying to cover up an illegitimate birth. This also happened if a boy tried to pass as a man to enlist in a war. There is no apparent reason for Josiah or Sarah Pierce to intentionally falsify information to the newspaper.

If there are errors in the newspaper report about Josiah and Sarah Pierce’s family, it’s most likely due to misinformation rather than intentional falsification. This is why it’s important to verify findings by checking other sources. Even with the possibility of errors, this newspaper clipping gives clues for further research.

New England Colonial Research Methodology

I began my research with history books about Worcester. Many of these books are digitized on FamilySearch. One history listed committee members chosen to inspect Loyalists in 1775. One of the committee members was Josiah Pierce, indicating he was on the Patriot side during the Revolution. Other committee members were Samuel McCracken, David Bigelow, Samuel Woodburn, and Nathan Baldwin. (1)

Another account described the establishment of the Second Church of Worcester. That church was established on 1 December 1785, and one of the original members was Sarah Pierce, wife of Josiah Pierce. The other people listed were her fellow churchgoers. (2) This is a clue indicating where to search for church records, which is very important in colonial American research.

That same history also listed elected officers of the Second Parish: Captain John Pierce and Lieutenant Josiah Pierce. (3) No relationship was stated; however, it is common to assume people with the same surname were related. (However: it is important to note that the more common the surname is, the less safe it is to assume a relation solely due to sharing the surname.)

I can speculate that Captain John Piece and Lieutenant Josiah Pierce were related, and that they were brothers or father and son. The important thing with such speculation is to develop a research plan to test my hypothesis.

Since I had a short research session, I could only go through a few histories. I identified several and made a list for the next research session. None of them identified all the children, but they did give me the names of associates.

I can search online family trees to see if other researchers have identified all the children of Josiah and Sarah Pierce. This requires the same cautious approach used for published histories and genealogies: I must verify that the information has sources to prove it.

Church Records

Church records are helpful when researching areas before civil registration was implemented. When it comes to church records, it’s important to learn the history of your ancestor’s church. The Second Church of Worcester was established in December 1785, so it won’t be helpful to look for records of that church earlier.

My research also revealed that the Second Church of Worster was also known as the Second Parish and the First Unitarian Church. Knowing these alternate names will help in looking for church record collections.

Name Variations

In my research, I came across several alternative spellings of the surname Pierce. Spelling back then wasn’t standardized, so it’s essential to know how to “misspell” your ancestor’s name. These are the other spellings I encountered:

• Pearce
• Piers
• Pierse
• Peers
• Peeres
• Pearse
• Perse
• Pearse
• Pearce

Do you have early or colonial American ancestors? Look for clues in online trees and published books, then continue to original records, including newspapers.

Create a free account at GenealogyBank for 7 days to start your journey and discover the stories your ancestors left behind.

Note on the header image: brick Josiah Day House, West Springfield, Massachusetts, c. 1754. Credit: Thomas E. Martin Jr.; Wikimedia Commons.

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(1) History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, embracing a Comprehensive History of the County from its First Settlement to the present Time with a History and Description of its Cities and Towns, Volume 2. (Boston, MA: C. F. Jewett and Company, 1879), p. 579; digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 22 July 2025), film no. 007492540 Item 3, image no. 331.
(2) Caleb A. Wall, Reminiscences of Worcester from the Earliest Period, Historical and Genealogical: With Notices of Early Settlers and Prominent Citizens, and Descriptions of Old Landmarks and Ancient Dwellings, Accompanied by a Map and Numerous Illustrations. (Worcester, MA: Tyler & Seagrave, 1877), p. 132 (image 139). FamilySearch books.
(3) Ibid., p. 133 (image 140). FamilySearch books.

Related Article:

• From Settlement to Independence: A Complete Guide through the Colonial America Timeline

The post Genealogy Tips: Researching an 18th-Century American Family appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

To celebrate Veterans Day, some photos of those who served through the years.

Photo credit: https://depositphotos.com/home.html

Civil War: A Soldier of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry

Here is Milton Robinson (1840-1930) in his Grand Army of the Republic uniform with his two sons William (left) and Frederick Douglas (right).

Robinson was born a slave in Kentucky in 1840. During the Civil War he escaped slavery and enlisted in the Union Army on 13 May 1863. He served in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. After the war he was a resident of Indianapolis.

1922: Veteran Tramps 614 Miles to See His Old Comrades

Civil War veteran George W. Sherman was still in great shape at 83 years old.

The photo caption reads:

The photo shows George W. Sherman, 83 years old, who hiked to Richmond from Georgia, 614 miles, to attend the reunion to meet his old comrades in arms. The picture was snapped as the veteran passed Centralia, Va., a few miles outside of Richmond. The trip required 31 days.

Not long ago this sturdy veteran issued a challenge to all comers for a walking match over any route.

Sherman entered the Civil War as a member of the First Georgia Volunteers and was transferred to the Fifty-third Regiment of Virginia Volunteers. His pension is filed in Lamar County, Georgia.

1923: Veterans of Four Wars Seated with Pershing

Veterans of four wars attended a speech by General John J. Pershing in Texas in 1923, covered by the Dallas Morning News.

The photo caption reads:

Fort Sam Houston, Texas, Aug. 5. – Upon the occasion of the address of Gen. John J. Pershing to the students of the Citizens’ Military Training Camp held at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, veterans of four wars were seated on the platform with Gen. Pershing.

Those in the picture are, from left to right: Top row – Maj. Ralph Durkee, commander [of] San Antonio post of American Legion; Miss Josephine Sims, Confederate War nurse; Miss Sophie Burns, World War nurse. Middle row – W. W. Herring, commander of Spanish War veterans; Charles R. Sickles, commander of Grand Army of [the] Republic; Gen. John J. Pershing, United States Army; Godfrey Peterson, commander of Confederate veterans; Amassa Clark, Mexican War veteran. Bottom row – Drury Wood, Alpine, Citizens Military Camp.

1924: Boston Mayor Curley with Civil War Vets in Annual Encampment

In 1924 Lodge No. 556 organized a special 50-piece musical unit – which included a 16-piece fife and drum corps and an 8-piece jazz band – to travel across the country to Boston, Massachusetts.

The photo caption reads:

The Grand Army of the Republic are in their annual encampment this year at Boston, Mass. This photo shows Mayor Curley (bare-headed) with the Pasadena Fife and Drum corps. The white-bearded veteran on the steps is George C. Campbell, the original “Uncle Sam,” who lives at the Soldiers’ home in Washington, D.C.

1935: Hardy Civil War Veteran George W. Sherman Still at It

George W. Sherman is shown with fellow comrades in this 1935 Atlanta Journal newsclip.

The photo caption reads:

Confederate Veterans at the Soldiers’ Home, getting ready for the big Memorial Day parade of Friday afternoon. Left to right: J. R. Jordan, J. H. Morris, George W. Sherman, and George W. Russell. All the South marched with them in spirit, in tribute to the memory of the Confederate cause and the men who fought for it.

According to this article, “Only 500 now left of proud Georgia force of 130,000 men.”

1942: American Boys Win the Hearts of the British People

In 1942 the American soldiers won over the Brits.

The photo captions read:

(Upper right): There’s plenty of work in doughboy’s life in England. Above is Corp. Francis River[s] of Cambridge, using a motorcycle as a shield during maneuvers. [Francis Rivers served with the 167th General Hospital Detachment of the U.S. Army in the European theater, including Normandy, from 1943 until his honorable discharge as a staff sergeant in 1946.]

(Lower right): 26 years in the Navy, Chief Yeoman Louis Kendall of Boston (left) is a frequent visitor at the U.S. Red Cross Washington Club in London. Eating with him is Chief Yeoman Robert McLaughlin of Elizabeth, N. J. Our boys overseas are eating well.

(Left): And sitting amongst the leaves and turning his thoughts from war to the old days at home, Pvt. Paul Desjardins of Worcester relaxes in meditation in a London park.

Here are two more photos from this same collection.

The photo captions read:

(Right): Hospitality shown by British to American service men is returned in many ways by the appreciative Yankees. Above, Pvt. Robert Collins of Quincy entertains two English war orphans in a game of soldiers. The Stars and Stripes War Orphan Fund in London sponsors such recreation for more than 500 orphaned children.

(Left): Getting ready for maneuvers in Britain, Sergt. Lester C. McLaney of Hartford, Conn., Army paratrooper, does a neat job of packing his parachute. Many American troops in Britain took part in [the] African invasion.

I found a photo of Sergeant McLaney, who was one of the original members of the Airborne Test Platoon in 1940, helping lay the foundation for U.S. Army parachute units. He is in the front row, fourth from the right.

Their training at Fort Benning was grueling: seven weeks of parachute drills and relentless physical conditioning that pushed the men to their limits. After a week of tower training in New Jersey, the platoon returned to Fort Benning to make six jumps and proved the airborne concept could work.

McLaney wrote in a 1968 autobiography:

“I was 23 and single, and it promised to be something different, so I volunteered. It was quite strenuous, but we had a lot of fun.”

Sgt. Maj. McLaney went on to serve with distinction in the 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, making combat jumps in North Africa, Italy, and Southern France, and then serving through the Battle of the Bulge. His awards include a Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

Stay tuned for more!

Note: some of the graphics in this article have been AI enhanced.

Create a free account at GenealogyBank for 7 days to start your journey and discover the stories your ancestors left behind.

Note on the header image: Veterans Day. Credit: https://depositphotos.com/home.html

The post Veterans Day: Honoring Those Who Served (part 1) appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

When I started researching my family history, historical newspapers were not digitized. Without the ease of an online search engine, most of the time we focused our research on finding an obituary. After all, once we knew a death date, we could read through the newspapers the days or weeks after the death and hopefully find an obituary.

Notice I said “hopefully.” Even the most tenacious researcher learns a hard truth: not all ancestors had newspaper obituaries. And that truth has to do with several factors.

Photo credit: https://depositphotos.com/home.html

Why Does Someone Have an Obituary?

Before I get into why someone doesn’t have an obituary, let me address why someone might have an obituary. We assume everyone does, but in reality you’re lucky if your ancestor or family member’s life was memorialized with an obituary.

You can find an ancestor’s obituary if:

• The newspaper is available to research via website or physical form.
• The ancestor died at a time when obituaries were common.
• A family member, friend, funeral home, or newspaper wrote an obituary.
• The newspaper accepted the obituary.
• The deceased’s family was able to pay (if required) for an obituary.
• The deceased (or the family) wanted an obituary.

Why Your Ancestor or Family Member Doesn’t Have an Obituary

Now that I’ve listed some reasons why someone had a newspaper obituary, let’s look at why someone wouldn’t have an obituary.

• The newspaper isn’t available to research via website or physical form.

Not all historical newspapers are available. Some don’t exist anymore in any form, while others haven’t been stored in an archive or library, or haven’t yet been digitized. We are incredibly lucky to live in a time where we have access to so many historical newspapers online (GenealogyBank has over 16,000 digitized newspapers).

That’s why it’s important to first identify the location of your ancestor, and what newspapers were available at that time and location. Next, you would need to find where – and even if – the newspaper is extant (meaning still in existence), and if so, where it is archived.

Tip: To locate digitized historical newspapers available on GenealogyBank, click on Browse at the top of the GenealogyBank toolbar. The drop-down menu provides you with ways to search newspapers by state, titles, and date.

• They died at a time when obituaries were not common.

Keep in mind the history of newspapers. Although the first American newspaper was published in 1690, it only lasted one issue. After that, newspapers started cropping up in the American colonies in the early part of the 1700s. “At the end of the eighteenth century, the Reverend Samuel Miller boasted that the United States had more than two-thirds the number of newspapers available in England and yet had only half the population of England.” (1)

Even with such an early history for newspapers, that doesn’t mean obituaries were present. These early newspapers didn’t print obituaries. They did have some death notices for prominent people or those who died “newsworthy deaths,” but it’s not until later in the 1800s when you start seeing some obituaries and paid death notices. (2) It’s really the 20th century (especially 1900-1970) that is the “great age of obituaries” according to author James Beidler. (3)

Here’s an example of an “obituary” in a 1789 newspaper. From it, we learn that Miss Sarah Coles was from Norwich, England, was a Quaker, and died at the age of 25. She also had a brother, who left this poem in her memory.

But as you study it, you’ll see that it lacks much detail: it’s a memorial poem to an English woman who died at an unknown time and location. These early newspapers reported on national and international news and did not always closely document their community.

In reality, we don’t see many women memorialized with an obituary in the 18th century or even early 19th. This is especially true for immigrants, people of color, and the poor. In addition, it’s not until later in time that we start seeing more biographical obituaries in the newspaper.

Tip: Death resulted in more than just obituaries. Make sure to also check for probate notices in the legal section and mentions of illness or a funeral in the gossip columns.

• A family member, friend, funeral home, or newspaper didn’t write an obituary.

The problem with obituaries is you don’t know who wrote them or who the informant was. Now, there are exceptions; I’ve seen some more recent obituaries that make it apparent that the deceased or a specific family member wrote it. But, in general you won’t know who informed or wrote the obituary.

So, what that means is that it’s not always clear that there was someone to write, pay and ask the newspaper to print the obituary. Consider who, if anyone, survived the person. Maybe the deceased were last in their family to die, so there was no one to inform or write the obituary. Maybe the remaining family didn’t think it was necessary. Maybe they died in poverty and so they were unlikely to have an obituary.

• The newspaper did not accept the obituary.

Not all newspapers accepted or printed obituaries, historically. Some may have demanded money to publish one. They may not have accepted content about all citizens. For example, they may not have accepted an African American’s obituary. Some citizens may have published an obituary in a newspaper that represented their community – but that would only be if they had the money or the newspaper printed obituaries. There are so many factors to consider whether an obituary was published or not. Reading more about the history of your ancestor’s local newspaper or reading the newspaper itself can help in determining whether a death notice or obituary would have been published at all.

• They couldn’t pay (if required) for an obituary.

Today, newspaper obituaries can be so expensive that they can be an out-of-reach cost for many families. Paying for a death notice or an obituary isn’t just a modern-day issue. Yes, historical newspapers often charged for an obituary.

This notice in an 1889 newspaper states that “Marriages, deaths, and contributed obituary notices at the same rates.” What are those rates? Well above that sentence are a series of prices, including 25 cents for notices of five lines in length, with 5 cents for each additional line.

Assuming that a family was charged 25 cents for a 5-line obituary back in 1889, in today’s dollars that would be about $8 to $9. Not bad considering that today that same obituary may cost you $50 or more. But we need to remember that not everyone had the money to pay that $9 when you consider the other costs they would have incurred with a death.

• The deceased (or the family) did not want an obituary.

Are there people who don’t want a printed obituary after they die? Of course. Today, with funeral home pre-planning, a person can request or even write (and pay for) an obituary. But a person may have told their family they did not want an obituary for any number of reasons. In my family, one of my grandfathers did not want an obituary and neither he nor my grandmother had one. Why? I’m not sure but I think they may have felt that their death/life was information they did not want to share with the public. It’s just not a priority for everyone. Interestingly enough, he made sure his mother had a short obituary when she died.

Did They Have an Obituary?

I often say that I’m surprised when a researcher finds a grave marker on an ancestor’s burial place, because there are so many factors to consider when we think about whether a person gets a marker or not. Or even if it’s still legible and in the right place decades after their death.

The same could be said for newspaper obituaries. Not everyone had an obituary, so as you contemplate where your ancestor might appear in the newspaper, don’t stop at the obituary – look for other newspaper articles that document their death and life.

Create a free account at GenealogyBank for 7 days to start your journey and discover the stories your ancestors left behind.

Note on the header image: Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery in Newport, Rhode Island. Credit: Matt H. Wade; Wikimedia Commons. [081016]

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(1) Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death. Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. 20th Anniversary Edition. Penguin Books, 2005, p. 37.
(2) Beidler, James M. The Family Tree Historical Newspaper Guide. How to Find Your Ancestors in Archived Newspapers. Family Tree Books, 2018, p. 55.
(3) Ibid., p. 57.

The post Genealogy Tips: Why Does My Ancestor Not Have an Obituary? appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

Here are some of the details about our most recent U.S. newspaper additions:

• A total of 38 titles from 15 states, plus 1 from the District of Columbia and 3 national titles
• 39 of the 42 titles added this month are newspapers added to GenealogyBank for the first time!
• We’ve shown the newspaper issue date ranges in the lists below so that you can determine if the newly added content is relevant to your personal genealogy research.

To see our newspaper archives’ entire title list of more than 16,000 newspapers, click here.

Genealogy Tip: One of the ways to take advantage of the fact that GenealogyBank is always adding new content is to use a feature on the newspapers’ search results page that lets you search just on the content added since a certain time. With this feature, found along the left-hand side of the search results page, you can search only on the newest content – even newspaper articles GenealogyBank added within the past week!

GenealogyBank adds new content to its Historical Newspaper Archives constantly, so keep searching. And good luck with your family history research.

Explore your family history by creating your free account at GenealogyBank for 7 days, because every life deserves to be remembered, recorded, and rediscovered.

The post November 2026 Addition: GenealogyBank Just Added New Content from 42 Titles! appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

Today I continue my series on John Cuthbert Parker (1904-1997), architect, artist, and famous paranormal investigator, who bewitched a whole generation with his tales of ghost hunting on some of the most infamous haunted historical properties.

To recap: In Part 5, I covered the Legend of the Bowing Spectre that Parker reported when he visited the Manor House on Shelter Island in New York.

The Manor House was built by the descendants of Nathaniel Sylvester (1610-1680), who became known as the “Lord of Shelter” for harboring Quakers.

Read: “Nathaniel Sylvester, ‘Lord of Shelter’ for 17th Century Quakers.”

Parker wrote a narrative about his visit that includes a story of the famous Scottish privateer Captain William Kidd (1645-1701), who visited the Manor House.

Below is a section of John Parker’s notes that he wrote when investigating the ghost haunting the Manor House on Shelter Island. This passage concerns Captain William Kidd.

These notes read:

There is also told a story of famous Captain Kidd, who made an unexpected visit to this Manor House. Captain Kidd often sailed the waters of Long Island Sound.

On this particular sunny day, Captain Kidd put into shore on Shelter Island, with some of his men, landing near this Manor House. He was in search of some fresh meat, to replenish the larder of his sleek ship, flying the Jolly Roger.

When Captain Kidd ordered his men to seize two fat pigs he found meandering around the farmyard, the pigs put up a noisy objection. A most brave, almost belligerent maid servant came hurriedly out of the Manor House kitchen, and not the least awed by the presence of Captain Kidd and his men, she demanded payment for the two pigs.

Captain Kidd saw this was a case calling for some degree of diplomacy, so he removed a heavy gold chain he wore about his neck, and releasing several links, he handed them to the unruffled servant as payment for the two seized pigs. These heavy gold links are a prized reminder of this visit of Captain Kidd and his men and are still in safe keeping at the Manor House.

It is said some of Captain Kidd’s treasure is buried on Shelter Island. Many have searched for the treasure without success.

However, there is also proof that Captain Kidd visited the Gardiner family on their island not far from Shelter Island and may have hidden his treasure there.

Here is an illustration of Captain Kidd depicted in The Pirates Own Book by Charles Ellms.

Below is an image of the original receipt given to John Gardiner when he turned over Captain Kidd’s treasure to Governor Bellomont as ordered. The receipt can be seen at the East Hampton Library.

This curio linked to Captain Kidd, shown in the photo below, was hidden away in the Sylvester Manor House: a frayed scrap of green and yellow fabric from a gift given by Captain Kidd to Mrs. Gardiner.

The handwritten note of provenance with the cloth reads:

“a piece of the ‘Gold Blanket’ presented by the Pirate Kidd to Madame Gardiner of Gardiners Island, presented by Mrs. Kimball to Mrs. Horsford [of Shelter Island], descendants of [illegible] Gardiner.”

As noted in Part 5, the Sylvester Manor House has remained in the family throughout its history. When the male Sylvester line ended, the property passed through the female line to the Gardiners and, by the same pattern of inheritance, to the Horsford family.

Now here is a version of Capt. Kidd’s visit to Gardiner’s Island, published in the San Franscisco Chronicle, as told by Charles B. Driscoll in a chapter of his book Pirates Ahoy.

According to Driscoll’s story, Captain Kidd’s ship lay off Gardiner’s Island, three miles north of the eastern end of Long Island. John Gardiner, grandson of Lion Gardiner, who had been made manorial proprietor of the island by a special grant from the British Crown, went aboard.

John Gardiner made an affidavit concerning his meeting and subsequent relations with Kidd, which includes various exchanges of gifts and Captain Kidd asking Gardiner to “care for three Negro children.” Kidd also asked Gardiner to safeguard some of his treasure.

This article reports:

It was then, according to the affidavit, that Kidd turned over to Gardiner to hold for him “a chest and a box of gold and a bundle of quilts and four bayles of goods.” Gardiner took all this loot ashore. It was Kidd’s plan to leave this portion of the treasure with Gardiner and return to claim it in case he should need ready money after meeting with Governor Bellomont.

Gardiner adds that Kidd’s men delivered to him on the island two bags of silver weighing thirty pounds, “a small bundle of gold, and gold dust of about a pound weight, to keep for him, and did also present the Narrator with a sash and a pair of worsted stockings. And just before the sloop sayled Captain Kidd presented the Narrator with a bag of sugar, and then took leave and sayled for Boston.”

Poor Kidd never returned from Boston to claim his treasure. It was to Lord Bellomont’s political advantage to get him out of the way, so he was taken to England illegally, there being no provision for capital punishment for piracy in New England, and railroaded to the gallows.

The Boston Herald published an account of Gardiner’s story, also written by Charles B. Driscoll, with this illustration.

This article gives more details about Kidd’s treasure left on Gardiner’s Island. Note this account says Kidd buried his loot on the island, whereas the San Francisco Chronicle report says Kidd turned his loot over to John Gardiner for safekeeping:

Kidd explained that he was on his way to report to Lord Bellomont in Boston, but that he wished to leave on the island some personal things before he ventured to put himself into the Governor’s power. Lord John consented, and Kidd went ashore with his men, who buried a box of gold, a chest of treasure of various sorts, and several bales of goods.

Kidd was arrested in Boston [for piracy], upon Bellomont’s orders, and was immediately questioned about his loot. He gave the Governor a list of the goods buried on Gardiner’s Island, but insisted that all of this was his personal property, and should be sent to his wife to defray the expense of his trial.

Bellomont sent out to Lord John a demand for surrender of the loot, and Gardiner brought the box, the chest and the bales in to Boston, and received the Governor’s receipt for the same [shown below]. He did salvage one large diamond out of the lot, according to a tradition of the island, and this he gave to his daughter, who became Mrs. Thomas Green of Boston…

The receipt for the Kidd loot is still among the Gardiner possessions. It was dated July 7, 1699, and itemizes the contents of the treasure chest of Kidd. There were three bags of gold dust, one of gold coins, one of silver coins, a bag of silver rings and precious stones of several kinds, a bag of unpolished gems, a bag of silver buttons and fragments of broken silver objects, two agates, two carnelians, two amethysts, gold bars, silver bars, and 69 precious stones in bulk.

This newsclip also mentions the gifts of gold cloth to Gardiner’s wife.

Captain Kidd never returned from Boston to claim his treasure. That story is for another day. What is known is that John C. Parker visited the Sylvester Manor House and found some wandering spirits among the beauty and splendid architecture of Shelter Island.

Note: some of the graphics in this article have been AI enhanced.

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Note on the header image: “Captain Kidd, Burying Treasure,” from the Pirates of the Spanish Main series for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes, c. 1888. Credit: George S. Harris & Sons; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Wikimedia Commons.

Related Articles:

• It’s Haunted! The Ghosts at the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Mansion?
• Spooky Tales: The Ayers-Allen Haunted Tavern
• New England Ghost Hunter and His Haunted Houses (part 1)
• New England Ghost Hunter and His Haunted Houses (part 2)
• New England Ghost Hunter and His Haunted Houses (part 3)
• New England Ghost Hunter and His Haunted Houses (part 4)
• New England Ghost Hunter and His Haunted Houses (part 5)
• The Ghosts of Dent’s Palace in Maryland
• Writer Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Real-Life ‘Ghost Story’
• Ohio Specter Haunts Newlywed Cottage
• The Great Nantucket Bank Robbery & the Haunting of William Coffin

The post New England Ghost Hunter and His Haunted Houses (part 6) appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

October is National Cookbook Month and it’s a good time to consider compiling a family cookbook – or at least share a few family favorite recipes so that those food traditions can continue for generations.

Recipe writing may seem like an easy task, but like most kinds of writing, there are rules and formats that make the result easier to follow for your reader/cook. As you consider what recipes to pass down, take note of the following format to make it a recipe that your family can follow and will use.

Recipe Template

If you’ve ever looked at recipes in older cookbooks you may have noticed that they look different than those that are published in modern-day books. Today’s cookbooks include recipes designed to make acquiring and cooking the ingredients easier. Most cookbooks today include recipes that utilize the following components.

According to Dianne Jacob’s Will Write for Food: Pursue Your Passion and Bring Home the Dough Writing Recipes, Cookbooks, Blogs, and More, recipes should include the following: (1)

• Recipe Title
• The Headnote or Introduction
• Attribution and Copyright
• Yield
• Ingredient List
• Method or Directions

Jacobs’ recipe-writing chapter in Will Write for Food: Pursue Your Passion and Bring Home the Dough Writing Recipes, Cookbooks, Blogs, and More explains what words to use, what to avoid, and other information you’ll need to put together any kind of cookbook. While her book is aimed at writers, I think it has a lot to offer family historians interested in their food history. (2)

A Recipe Example

So, let’s put this recipe template into action. The following recipe utilizes the components mentioned above.

Photo credit: https://depositphotos.com/home.html

Soupy Macaroni

This example of goulash was one I grew up with. Most likely it originates from one of my mom’s Campbell’s Soup cookbooks. Although my version does not use soup, hers used tomato soup. I remember eating this in the 1970s.

Recipe attributed to Gena Philibert-Ortega.

Makes 6 servings.

Ingredients

• 1 package, large elbow macaroni
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 24-ounce jar of spaghetti sauce (use your favorite red sauce)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions

Boil water to cook elbow macaroni. While the water is boiling, pre-heat a large, deep pan. Pour olive oil in pan. Sauté onions and green peppers until the onions are clear. Add ground beef and brown. Use a paper towel or some other method to remove excess oil in pan. To the pan, add cooked macaroni and stir. (You may not need to use all of the cooked macaroni.) Add jar of spaghetti sauce to pan, stir. Add salt and pepper to taste (can be omitted). Serve in bowls with grated parmesan cheese on top.

What’s Your Family’s Favorite Recipe?

Re-read your written recipe several times as you write and edit it to make sure you remember everything someone has to know to follow it. Consider sharing it with someone to see if they understand how to cook that recipe. They may ask questions that you haven’t considered.

What’s your family’s favorite recipe? What can you pass on to them to keep that family food tradition alive? Share your recipe in the comments below.

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Note on the header image: National Cookbook Month. Credit: https://depositphotos.com/home.html

_____________

(1) Jacob, Dianne. Will Write for Food: Pursue Your Passion and Bring Home the Dough Writing Recipes, Cookbooks, Blogs, and More. Fourth edition. Hachette Books, 2021, pp. 205-240.
(2) I used her book’s 4th edition for this article, but any edition of her book can be helpful in learning to write recipes.

The post How to Write a Recipe: National Cookbook Month appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

Dig deep into our online archives and search for articles about your ancestors from California in these newspapers. Our CA newspapers are divided into two collections, each with their own search page:

• Newspaper Archives (complete paper with all articles, including historical obituaries, with a number of very rare single-issue newspapers – many of them are the only known issues of the paper)
• Obituaries (including both historical and recent obituaries, if obits are specifically what you are searching for)

Search California Newspaper Archives (1846 – 2019)

Search California Obituaries (1865 – Today)

Here is a partial list of California newspapers in the online archives; to see the full list, click here. Each newspaper title in this list is an active link that will take you directly to that paper’s search page, where you can begin searching for your ancestors by surnames, dates, keywords and more. The CA newspaper titles are listed alphabetically by city.

*Date Ranges may have selected coverage unavailable.

Explore your family history by creating your free account at GenealogyBank for 7 days, because every life deserves to be remembered, recorded, and rediscovered.

Note on the header image: the California State Capitol, Sacramento, California. Credit: Andre m; Wikimedia Commons.

Related Resource:

• U.S. State History (GenealogyBank Pinterest Board)

The post California Archives: 988 Newspapers for Genealogy Research appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

Today I continue my series on John Cuthbert Parker (1904-1997), architect, artist, and famous paranormal investigator, who bewitched a whole generation with his tales of ghost hunting on some of the most infamous haunted historical properties.

One haunting locale Parker visited during his days of dabbling in the paranormal was the Manor House located on Shelter Island, New York.

A magazine published this illustration about Parker’s visit to investigate the Manor House ghost:

“…where a tall, white-robed figure is supposed to appear… her appearance is supposed to portend misfortune.”

Below is a watercolor of the Manor House painted by John Parker.

Parker furnished a narrative for his audience which is featured below. I will include some background history, along with genealogy ties showing two prominent families who first settled on the shores of Long Island: the Sylvester and Gardiner lines.

Shelter Island is a name derived from the Manhasset Indians, who called it “Manhansack-aha-quash-awamock,” meaning “island sheltered by islands.”

The island was also a safe harbor for 17th century Quakers (Society of Friends) who were persecuted by the Puritan authorities.

The owner of the island, Nathaniel Sylvester (1610-1680), became known as the “Lord of Shelter.”

Below is a news clip from the New York Post that briefly describes Sylvester’s role in sheltering the Quakers.

The Quaker Cemetery, commemorated in 1884 by Cornelia Conway Felton Horsford (a lineal descendant of Nathaniel Sylvester) to all residents of the property over the centuries, including several persecuted Quakers who found refuge with the Sylvesters in the 17th century.

Read: “Nathaniel Sylvester, ‘Lord of Shelter’ for 17th Century Quakers.”

Today, the site (specifically, the Quaker monument on the Sylvester Manor grounds) is the Shelter Island chapter of The Society of Friends.

Note on the incorrect date in the above New York Post article: Brinley Sylvester, grandson of Nathaniel, built the present Manor House in 1737, not 1773, and incorporated some of the material that could be taken from the old house before its demolition.

A stone marks the spot today where Nathaniel Sylvester’s original 1652 house stood, and the lines of its foundations can still be traced in the turf.

A rock on the Sylvester Manor property has an indentation known as the “Devil’s Footprint.”

John Taylor, a Quaker from Barbados, wrote in his journal about Shelter Island:

“And then when I was Clear of those Parts, I returned to Shelter-Island to the Friends there, who received me Joyfully. So, I stayed there awhile, until our Ship that I went in was loaded and ready to go to Sea again, for the Island of Barbados: And there came several Friends from other Parts in New England, to see us: One was Mary Dyer, who afterwards was put to Death by the Cruel Persecutors and Processors of New-England…”

Salem Quakers Lawrence and Cassander Southwick retreated to Shelter Island.

Read: “Quaker Letter from 1660 Reveals Troubled Time.”

Here is an image of Parker’s notes about the haunted Manor House.

These notes read:

Manor House of Shelter Island, Long Island, N.Y.

The Legend of the Bowing Spectre and of Captain Kidd & His Treasure

The spectre of the legend of the Shelter Island Manor House is that of a tall, white-robed figure that appears to announce the death of the Lady of the Manor. This robed figure appears far down an avenue of trees, leading to the Manor House, and walks toward the house with stately grace.

The spectre comes forward and bows to the ground three times, raises itself, and stepping forward to the lawn before the entrance to the manor house, the spectre stops and bows once more. After this final bow, the spectre disappears, with the same mystery as cloaks the initial appearance of this ghostly figure, far down the avenue of cherry trees.

Who is this mysterious female spirit? Was it a Quakeress who stayed on the island? Perhaps…no one really knows.

There is also a story of the famous Captain Kidd who made an unexpected visit to this Manor House. That will be covered in my next article this Friday.

Below is genealogy of descendants who resided on Shelter Island.

• Nathaniel Sylvester married Grissell Brinley.
• Benjamin L’Hommedieu married Patience Sylvester and 2nd, Martha Bourne.
• Ezra L’Hommedieu married Mary Catherine Havens.
• Judge Samuel Smith Gardiner married Mary Catherine L’Hommedieu.
• Phoebe Dayton Gardiner married Eben Norton Horsford.
• Their daughter Cornelia Conway Felton Horsford was among the descendants who helped erect the Quaker Monument at Shelter Island.

Here is a photo of the Horsford family in the Sylvester Manor garden (from left to right): Mary Gardiner Horsford Curtis, Eben Norton Horsford, Mary L’Hommedieu Horsford, and Gertrude Hubbard Horsford Fiske.

Stay tuned for more…

Note: some of the graphics in this article have been AI enhanced.

Create a free account at GenealogyBank for 7 days to start your journey and discover the stories your ancestors left behind.

Note on the header image: the ghost of Manor House. Credit: AI-generated art by Melissa Davenport Berry.

Related Articles:

• It’s Haunted! The Ghosts at the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Mansion?
• Spooky Tales: The Ayers-Allen Haunted Tavern
• New England Ghost Hunter and His Haunted Houses (part 1)
• New England Ghost Hunter and His Haunted Houses (part 2)
• New England Ghost Hunter and His Haunted Houses (part 3)
• New England Ghost Hunter and His Haunted Houses (part 4)
• The Ghosts of Dent’s Palace in Maryland
• Writer Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Real-Life ‘Ghost Story’
• Ohio Specter Haunts Newlywed Cottage
• The Great Nantucket Bank Robbery & the Haunting of William Coffin

The post New England Ghost Hunter and His Haunted Houses (part 5) appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

Halloween is the time for ghosts. Traditionally, All Hallow’s Eve was believed to be the night when the spirits of the dead could return. Now, people visit haunted houses and tell ghost stories, finding these activities entertaining whether or not they believe in ghosts.

Photo credit: https://depositphotos.com/home.html

Ghost stories are not new. A 1740 newspaper printed a song about a ghost. Before recorded music, lyrics to new songs circulated through newspapers. If you know the tune “Come and Listen to My Ditty,” you can sing this song. Here are the first four stanzas of this nine-stanza song.

The song opens with the English Navy, led by Vice-Admiral Vernon, celebrating its victory against the Spanish at Porto Bello. But then:

“On a sudden, shrilly sounding,
Hideous yells and shrieks were heard;
Then, each heart with fears confounding,
A sad troop of ghosts appeared.”

Leading them was “Hosier’s injured ghost.”

The song continues with Hosier’s ghost telling his tragic tale. Admiral Hosier had previously taken 20 ships there against the Spanish town. Orders not to fight rendered Hosier’s mission a failure. The ghost laments that it would have been better to die fighting for his country than of a broken heart, bitter with disappointment at the lost chance at glory. At the end of the song, Hosier’s ghost urges Vernon to remember him on his return to England.

The song was based on historical events. In 1726, Admiral Hosier was sent with 20 ships to blockade Porto Bello. The intent was to prevent Spain from taking treasure home to fund its wars. Because England and Spain were not officially enemies, Hosier was forbidden to capture the port. He and his men died of tropical fever in 1727.

Vice-Admiral Vernon successfully took Porto Bello 12 years after Hosier’s failure. In response, and to preserve Hosier’s memory, the song above was written.*

Another ghostly anecdote comes from a 1762 newspaper report about a ghost supposedly revealing a murder. Sadly for genealogists, no names were named. But it’s quite a story!

In the town of Southam in Warwickshire, England, a farmer was murdered on his return from the market. The next morning, a man asked the wife about her husband. She replied that he hadn’t come home last night and that she “was under the utmost anxiety and terror on that account.” The man then said that her husband’s ghost had appeared to him during the night and showed him “several ghastly stabs in his body,” and said he’d been murdered and his carcass thrown into a pit.

The article goes on to report:

The alarm was given, the pit searched, the body found, and the wounds answered the description of them. The man whom the ghost had accused, was apprehended and committed on a violent suspicion of murder.

During the trial, the jury was ready to convict the accused. The judge called out the jury for giving more weight to a ghost’s evidence than it should; no laws admitted the testimony of an apparition. The ghost was called but did not appear. The judge addressed the jury again:

“Gentlemen of the jury, the prisoner at the bar, as you have heard, by undeniable witnesses, is a man of a most unblemished character; nor hath it appeared, in the course of the examination, that there was any manner of quarrel or grudge between him and the party deceased… I do verily believe him to be perfectly innocent; and, as there is no evidence against him, either positive or circumstantial, he must be acquitted. But from many circumstances which have arose during the trial, I do strongly suspect that the gentleman who saw the apparition was himself the murderer; in which case, he might easily ascertain the pit, stabs, &c., without any supernatural assistance; and on such suspicion, I shall think myself justified in committing him to close custody, till the matter can be further enquired into.”

This was immediately done, and a warrant granted for searching his house, when such strong proofs of guilt appeared against him, that he confessed the murder, and was executed at the next [court of] assize.

In this case, the murderer’s purpose in spreading the ghost story is clear. However, his plan backfired because the judge saw through the scheme.

Some ghost stories, such as this one from 1767, circulated in newspapers for entertainment. It is uncertain if this story was fictitious or factual.

A yeoman’s niece was soon to wed, so guests arrived for the wedding. One guest was a young man, an unexpected yet welcome guest. The yeoman only had one bed available, but it was haunted. The young man agreed to sleep in it. During the night, a female ghost came into the room and lay on the bed. The young man noticed that she was breathing and felt that her hand was warm. He removed her ring. The young woman got up, walked about the room, and left.

The next morning, the other guests wanted to hear about the ghost. The young man asked if anyone was missing a ring. It belonged to the yeoman’s daughter; she had been the wandering ghost, for it turned out she was a sleepwalker:

No sooner did the morn appear,
Than all were met the youth to hear,
Expecting that he would recite,
The dreadful visions of the night.
The modest youth then bowing low,
Begged of the assembled fair to know,
Which of them all a ring had lost,
With diamonds set; a ring of cost;
The yeoman’s daughter glad to gain,
What she much valued once again
Replied ’tis mine, – then you my dear
Was the kind ghost that did appear;
The secret I’ll no longer keep;
But what you did, was done asleep.
Then told the story to them all,
And mirth and laughter shook the hall.

Not all ghost stories are easy to explain. Reports of a ghost scaring schoolchildren were published in a 1904 newspaper.

The ghost, apparently female, was known to chase people with outstretched arms, pop out of the ground, say creepy things, and fade from view. Brookfield and West Brookfield residents were terrified. The police and citizens had been searching for the ghost.

A party of girls met the ghost at the corner of Central and River Streets. They had been walking along Central Street when the ghost rose from the ground. The girls turned and ran, screaming. A group from the post office heard them and ran to meet them. The hysterical girls struggled to tell their story. They reported that the ghost had glided after them 100 yards before disappearing.

The frightened girls were taken home, and citizens went looking for the ghost. They found a high school student, Thomas McNamara, who had just been frightened. Unaware of the girls’ incident, he described the same ghost that had chased them. That same ghost had chased others, too.

Citizens continued their search. No one could remember any deceased person who matched the ghost’s description: a short, stout woman wearing filmy white, with a hideous face. No one knew why the ghost was haunting Brookfield. Was it a real ghost?

* Richard Lea, “Ranger’s House and Admiral Hosier’s Ghost,” English Heritage (https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/rangers-house-the-wernher-collection/history-and-stories/admiral-hosiers-ghost/: accessed 6 October 2026).

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Note on the header image: representation of a ghost. Credit: https://depositphotos.com/home.html

The post Ghost Stories for Halloween! appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

It’s hard to believe that October is almost over. How are you progressing with your Family History Month tasks? If you’ve been following along you should have made some progress with your first four generations. As a reminder: Week 1: Conduct a 4-Generation Audit; Week 2: Create a Timeline; and Week 3: What Am I Missing?

This isn’t a contest, so if you didn’t start at the beginning of the month or are taking longer (I know I am) just keep going. Having those tasks completed will mean your family history is in much better shape than when you started.

Now, we are ready for Week 4.

Write a Short Narrative

When this Family History Month challenge started, I wrote this:

Week 4: Write a Short Narrative

Genealogy can be overwhelming and there’s no doubt that research is more fun than writing it all down to share. Instead of thinking about writing a book or an ancestor’s story, I’m going to choose one event and write up something that I can then add images to and share with my family. Having done my audit, created a timeline, and identified what is missing, this step should be easier than starting from scratch.

Why did I stress a “short narrative”?

When I started family history research decades ago, a family history magazine I read had advertisements for family history book publishers. The publishers would pose with these large tomes, hundreds of pages of someone’s life work about their family.

Back then I was convinced that was the end goal: publish a huge book on everyone in the family tree. Not only would this be costly (most likely $50 or more 30 years ago), it was also something that other family members weren’t as excited about. We keep hearing that people don’t read anymore and my guess is that a book of hundreds of pages of names, dates, and places isn’t a fun summer read for most family members.

My family is most likely like yours. They aren’t interested in family history. Sure, when I tell one story or show a photograph, they are interested. Or when we are watching a movie and I explain that a family member fought in that war or experienced something similar, they are appreciative – but to haul out a 500-page encyclopedia about their ancestral roots, not so much…

So instead of a dense book, I’m focusing on a few stories, heavily illustrated, to interest them. If they want more information I can share more, maybe even a longer narrative of the ancestor’s life. I want to start with more recent ancestors because I think they are more easily relatable.

Example #1 Ben McNeil

Last week I mentioned my ancestor Banjamin McNeil. I wrote:

One of the narratives I’d like to enhance is one written by a cousin about my grandmother’s father, my great-grandfather Benjamin McNeil (1881-1956). This three-page history was read at his funeral on 2 June 1956. One of the sentences in the funeral sketch reads:

“During this time, besides providing for his own family, Ben helped his mother file and prove up her homestead, and he helped his brothers build her a home.”

I’m interested in writing more about this homestead, so I am going to take his mother’s homestead file, add information from it and a map to show exactly where it is. I also want to add a photo of the area that it was in. I don’t have a photo of that, but it’s possible I can use Google Maps to locate it and use a satellite image. I also don’t have a photo of the home, so reaching out to other family members or looking through the family history book about her life might help with that. Other than that, I can identify which brothers were in the area during that time and add their names to that narrative. I still have information I need to gather so it’s not quite ready yet.

Example #2 Oscar Philibert

Another way I can write up a narrative is to take one document and explain it further. Years ago, I wrote an article for the GenealogyBank blog about my great-grandfather Oscar Philibert: Family Research Mystery: Great-Grandfather’s Kewpie Doll Tattoo?

I discovered the information about this tattoo on his WWII draft registration card. My family doesn’t know about WWII draft registration cards or even what they were for. So now, I need to take what I learned about this tattoo and write about the draft registration, why a Navy veteran would have a kewpie doll tattoo, and add some illustrations of what it might have looked like. I will also add the images of the registration card and him in his navy uniform. The blog post is a good starting point, but I still have more work to do.

A Few Tips

Writing can be intimidating to most people. As you consider writing up your family history keep the following in mind.

• Writing isn’t a one-draft process. Just get the words on paper. You can go back and edit later. Don’t worry if you can’t spell well, that’s what computer or online spell and grammar checks are for.
• Consider writing as you research. Creating sentences about your research as you research can help make the process easier.
• You don’t need pages of text. Keep it simple. Keep it to one or two paragraphs. Use bullet points.
• Use images to illustrate. People love images, whether it’s maps, photographs, postcards, or images of documents. Use what you have or what you can find.
• Ask a family member to “proof” your writing and make suggestions. They may have questions that you can answer in your text.
• Remember that you know this research, but your family doesn’t. Explain what the document means, label all family members in the photograph (stay away from general identifiers like “grandmother”). Act as though the reader knows absolutely nothing about what you are writing about.

Happy Family History Month!

I hope all went well with your family history research this month. Give us an update in the comments below. This is a great opportunity for us all to learn from each other.

Create a free account at GenealogyBank for 7 days to start your journey and discover the stories your ancestors left behind.

Note on the header image: Family History Month graphic. Credit: https://depositphotos.com/home.html

Related Articles:

• October: 4 Weeks of Family History Month
• Family History Month, Week 1: Conduct a 4-Generation Audit
• Family History Month, Week 2: Create a Timeline
• Family History Month, Week 3: What Am I Missing?

The post Family History Month, Week 4: Write a Short Narrative About 1 Ancestor appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

Today I continue to look at some of the history of the Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) with some AI enhanced photo features gathered from newspaper clips and archives.

The Wampanoag, the “People of the First Light,” are comprised of two federally recognized tribes: the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe located in Mashpee, Massachusetts; and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) located on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Their people have inhabited this land for 12,000 years.

My subject today is Mashpee Chief of Police Louis/Lewis Francis Mills (1881-1952).

Here is a photo of Chief Mills (center) taken in 1928 during his time serving on the Mashpee Police with Ted Gardner (left) and William James (right).

In this next photo we see Police Chief Louis/Lewis Francis Mills (center), with Running Cloud (right) a Mashpee Indian resident, and Sergeant John F. Dempsey of the Massachusetts State Police (left), who is discussing the latest news regarding the investigation of the kidnapping of Peggy McMath, a high-profile case in Harwich, Massachusetts, in 1933.

Chief Mills was born 8 August 1881 to James S. Mills and Delscena Jennette (Anderson) Mills.

Chief Mills married Melissa Godfry Coombs (1884-1927), born to Darius Coombs and Martha Ann (Mye) Coombs, in 1904. Melissa is a descendant of Deacon Isaac Coombs (1774-1848), a Mashpee Wampanoag, born to Joshua Coombs and Patience (Newcomb) Coombs, whose records are preserved in the archives including the Crocker account book.

Below is a photo of Melissa with three of her children, taken in the early 1920s.

Below is a 1920 census listing Chief Mills, his wife Melissa, and their children Richard, Alice, and William. Living with the Mills family is Darius Coombs, father-in-law, and Bertha M. Pocknett, sister-in-law.

Chief Mills’ brother Ferdinand Wilson Mills lived right next door with his family.

Louis and Melissa’s daughter Alice J. “Bright Moon Beam” Mills (1917-2014) married Roy E. Burrill (1912-1950) on 24 April 1936.

Alice belonged to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and the Ladies Auxiliary and was a founding member of the Mashpee Baptist Church. She was also an NAACP member and active supporter. She began serving on Mashpee’s Board of Library Trustees in 1961 and worked at the Popponesset Inn for many years.

Roy E. Burrill died a hero on 23 September 1950 while on duty for Boston Fire Department Ladder 14. Here is a newspaper report on what occurred and a photo of Roy.

This article reports:

Lt. Roy E. Burrill, 38, of 107 Sterling St., Roxbury, was one of two firemen killed fighting a $100 fire in a cellar boiler room of the Eagle Mattress factory, Allston, last Saturday morning. Four others were overcome by fumes.

Wearing masks, the six men had descended by ladders through a small window from which poured a thick volume of smoke. Hose lines were let down and [the] men battled in the semi-darkness until the suffocating fumes forced them to leave.

The firemen started up the ladders to escape but when a quick check-up was made in the open Lt. Burrill and Ladderman William R. Benson, 25, of 72 Perthshire St., Allston, were missing.

Then Lieut. John Sullivan donned a special-type mask and life-line and went down into the boiler room. He located one of the unconscious men and carried him to a door which by this time had been forced open by other firemen.

Lt. Frank A. Sikora found the other stricken fireman, who was hauled up the ladder to the small cellar window.

The two unconscious men were rushed to the City Hospital where they were pronounced dead.

They were found in three feet of water, and it was first thought they had been drowned. A medical examiner’s autopsy revealed they had had died from carbon monoxide and smoke.

I found a newspaper clip listing the relatives who attended Roy’s funeral, including the Mills family.

This article reports:

Among the many relatives of the late Roy E. Burrill who were present at his funeral held at the Twelfth Baptist Church, Tuesday, September 26, were the following: Mrs. Gladys Irving, aunt; Mr. and Mrs. McKerrow Anderson, uncle and aunt; Mrs. Mary Beansoleil, aunt; and [the] following cousins: Mrs. Edna Rose, Mrs. Hilda Irving, Miss Judith Irving, Mrs. Edith Barbour, Mrs. Delores Burton, Miss Dorothy Anderson, Mr. and Mrs. Earl Beansoleil, all of Boston; Mrs. Lillian Robinson, aunt; Mrs. Kathleen Anderson, and Mrs. Dudley Anderson, of New York; Herbert Wozencroft, cousin, of Newport, R. I.; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Burrell, uncle and aunt, of Lynn, Mass.; Louis Mills, William [Wadsworth] Mills, father and brother of Mrs. Burrill of Mashpee; Richard Mills of Bournedale, Mass., brother of Mrs. Burrill; Mr. and Mrs. James Mendes [Melendez]*, brother-in-law and sister of Mrs. Burrill, of Hyannis; Miss Stella Hicks, Miss Pauline Hicks, and Mrs. Gladys McKamey, cousins of Mrs. Burrill, of Mashpee. Besides these, there were many friends from the Cape who attended the funeral, among them Mr. and Mrs. Robert Johnson (Theresa Barco).

*Melissa A. Mills married Ernest S. Furey and 2nd James Melendez.

Alice (Mills) Burrill married 2nd Frank Edward Hicks, aka “Many Moons,” a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council and one of Mashpee’s leading civil servants, and a longtime Mashpee selectman who held more than 20 town offices in his lifetime.

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Note on the header image: Ousamequin, or “Massasoit” (Wampanoag term for “Great Sachem”) and Governor John Carver smoking a ceremonial pipe at Plymouth Colony in 1621. Credit: Sutro Library; Wikimedia Commons. [052825]

Related Articles:

• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 1)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 2)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 3)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 4)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 5)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 6)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 7)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 8)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 9)

The post Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 10) appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

Edgar Allan Poe, who died at the age of 40 under mysterious circumstances on 7 October 1849, was an American writer, editor and critic. He helped create the genres of detective fiction and science fiction. Most of all, he was known for his poetry and short stories, and is referred to as the “Father of the Macabre” for the Gothic horror in many of his poems and stories – such as “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

In Part 1 of this two-part series, we explored some stories by Edgar Allan Poe that were published in newspapers. With Part 2 today, the series concludes with articles posted about him and his works after his death.

An Infamous Obituary

Edgar Allan Poe died on 7 October 1849 in Baltimore. Below is the opening paragraph of a very long obituary, written by a man named “Ludwig,” that appeared the day after Poe was buried on Oct. 8.

This opening paragraph reads:

Edgar Allan Poe is dead. He died in Baltimore the day before yesterday. This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it. The poet was known, personally or by reputation, in all this country; he had readers in England, and in several of the states of Continental Europe, but he had few or no friends, and the regrets for his death will be suggested principally by the consideration that in him literary art has lost one of its most brilliant but erratic stars.

“Ludwig” turned out to be Poe’s literary rival Rufus Wilmot Griswold, and he wrote the obituary, filled with falsehoods, to harm Poe’s reputation.

The obituary describes his family as “one of the oldest and most respectable in Baltimore.” His grandfather, David Poe, served as a quartermaster-general during the Revolutionary War and was a friend of Lafayette.

His great-grandfather, John Poe, married Jane, the daughter of Admiral James McBride. McBride was noted in British naval history and was connected to “some of the most illustrious English families.”

Edgar Allan Poe’s father abandoned the family the year after Edgar was born, and his mother died of consumption the next year. John Allan, a wealthy gentleman of Richmond, Virginia, “took a fancy to him and persuaded Poe’s grandfather to [let] him adopt him.” Mr. Allan had no children of his own and regarded Edgar as a son – though he never formally adopted him. Edgar went to school in England from 1816 to 1822 and, in 1825, attended Jefferson University in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Poe left the country for Europe after college and returned home in 1829.

Meanwhile, Mr. Allan’s first wife died, and he remarried someone much younger.

Poe did not get along with the new wife, and they quarreled. Mr.  Allan took his wife’s side, which led to angry letters. By the time Mr. Allan died, he’d had a child, who became his heir. Poe was left with nothing.

Poe began making his living by writing, publishing poems from his youth in 1827. The obituary then details his writing career. He was a brilliant writer, but his journal articles received little attention.

In 1831, Poe submitted articles for a writing contest held by the proprietor of the Baltimore Gazette. The committee was impressed with Poe’s work. Poe then became an editor of a recently established periodical, where he worked for a year and a half. He married during that time. He later went to Philadelphia to help edit a periodical, then to New York for another job.

His wife died in 1847, and Poe lived quietly off his writing income.

Griswold’s obituary of Poe includes this paragraph:

As a writer of tales it will be admitted generally, that he was scarcely surpassed in ingenuity of construction or effective painting. As a critic, he was more remarkable as a dissector of sentences than as a commenter upon ideas; he was little better than a carping grammarian. As a poet, he will retain a most honorable rank.

Cause of Death

We do not know what caused Poe’s death – it remains a mystery. This newspaper speculated that he, like other geniuses, died of intemperance.

Decades later, the Philadelphia Inquirer published a very different story of how Edgar Allan Poe died.

This article reports:

A former Baltimorean, recently living in San Francisco, gives what he claims to be a true account of the poet’s last days. This is the story:

“I was an intimate associate of Edgar Allan Poe for many years. Much that has been said and written regarding his death is false.

“…It was the night before election, and four of us, including Poe, started up town [in Baltimore]. We had not gone half a dozen squares when we were nabbed by a gang of men, who were on the lookout for voters to ‘coop.’

“It was a practice in those days to seize people, whether drunk or sober, lock them up until the polls were opened, and then march them around to every precinct, where they were made to vote the ticket of the party that controlled the coop. Our coop was in the rear of an engine house on Calvert Street. It was part of the game to stupefy the prisoners with drugged liquor. Well, the next day we were voted at thirty-one different places, and over and over, it being as much as a man’s life was worth to rebel. Poe was so badly drugged that after he was carried on two or three different rounds the gang said it was no use to vote a dead man any longer, so they shoved him into a cab and sent him into a hospital to get him out of the way.

“The commonly accepted story that Poe died from dissipation is bosh. He died from laudanum or some other poison that was forced upon him in the coop. He was in a dying condition while he was being voted around the city. The story by Griswold of Poe’s having been on a week’s spree, and being picked up on the street, is false. I saw him shoved into the cab myself and he told me he had just arrived in the city.”

Post-Mortem Book Publication

A publisher, Mr. Redfield, printed the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe, along with a memoir of his life, just weeks after Poe died.

Monument

A monument to honor Edgar Allan Poe was erected on his grave in 1875 in Baltimore.

Celebrate Halloween by reading Edgar Allan Poe’s works. Some of his stories are macabre enough to give an edginess to your celebrations.

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Note on the header image: a drawing of Edgar Allan Poe made from the “Ultima Thule” daguerreotype by Mathew Benjamin Brady, before 1849. Credit: National Archives at College Park.

Related Articles:

• Edgar Allan Poe, Father of the Macabre: Perfect for Halloween (part 1)
• Edgar Allan Poe’s Death as Mysterious as His Stories

The post Edgar Allan Poe, Father of the Macabre: Perfect for Halloween (part 2) appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

Edgar Allan Poe, who died at the age of 40 under mysterious circumstances on 7 October 1849, was an American writer, editor and critic. He helped create the genres of detective fiction and science fiction. Most of all, he was known for his poetry and short stories, and is referred to as the “Father of the Macabre” for the Gothic horror in many of his poems and stories – such as “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

Many people celebrate Halloween by watching horror movies and reading horror stories. Edgar Allan Poe was well known for his creepy writings, so his works are perfect entertainment for Halloween. So are the newspaper articles written about him.

Advertisements

James Stringer, editor of the Pioneer magazine, advertised the newly released February 1843 issue in the newspaper. The ad listed contributors, including Edgar Allan Poe, author of the poem “Lenore.”

Another newspaper ran an advertisement announcing that it contained “the whole of a capital Original Story, called ‘The Spectacles,’ from the pen of Edgar Allan Poe, Esq.”

The advertisement sang Poe’s praises:

“We have rarely read a more interesting production than this, and being from the pen of Mr. Poe, whose powers as a story writer are so universally admitted, we need say nothing more to induce a demand for it.”

Stories

Some of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories were published in newspapers, such as “The Gold Bug; Or, The Treasures of Kidd,” in an 1849 newspaper.

In this story, a Mr. William Legrand, from an old Huguenot family, had lost his wealth and moved from New Orleans to Sullivan’s Island near Charlestown, South Carolina, where he lived in a hut and befriended the narrator.

Another character, Jupiter, had been freed before the Legrand family lost its fortune but stayed with “Massa Will” on the island.

The story begins when the narrator visits Legrand. Legrand arrives with Jupiter, excited about a scarab beetle. Days later, Legrand sends Jupiter to bring the narrator back, persuading him to join an expedition with them and their dog.

The expedition enters a dense mainland forest, where Legrand sends Jupiter up an oak tree to drop the beetle through the eye of a skull nailed to a branch.

After measuring from where the beetle falls, they dig unsuccessfully, realize Jupiter used the wrong eye hole, remeasure, and uncover skeletons and treasure, which takes several trips to carry home.

Another story, called “The Business Man,” was published in an 1843 newspaper. In this story, the narrator is the main character, Peter Proffit. The story begins with an essay on method versus genius; Peter claims not to be a genius and disdains genius in general.

Here is an interesting passage in the story about his childhood:

“My notions upon this head might not have been so clear as they are, nor should I have been so well to do in the world as I am, but for a fortunate accident which happened to me when I was a very little boy. A good-hearted old Irish nurse (whom I shall not forget in my will) took me up one day by my heels, when I was making more noise than was necessary, and swinging me round two or three times… then knocked my head into a cocked hat against the bed-post. This, I say, decided my fate, and made my fortune. A tremendous bump got up at once on my [head], and turned out to be as pretty an organ of order as one shall see on a summer’s day. Hence that positive appetite for system and regularity which has made me the distinguished man of business that I am.”

At age 15, Peter’s father got him a job in the countinghouse of a hardware merchant, which the narrator called “a capital bit of fiddlestick!” A few days later, he had to be sent home to his “button-headed family” due to a fever. This sickness prevented him from continuing work with that employer.

Peter ran away from home at age 16, after overhearing his mother’s plans to set him up to work for a grocer. He determined to secure himself a decent occupation.

Peter ran a business as a Tailors’ Walking Advertisement, which involved going out wearing a suit made by the tailor and sending customers to that tailor. He left that employer over a price discrepancy of one or two pennies.

Peter’s next business was the Eye-Sore trade, which consisted of setting up shop near building projects and commissioning “an ornamental mud hovel right against it.” They could not afford to take these down, and the narrator thought being asked to do so was unreasonable. This business ended with his imprisonment.

The next business was the Assault and Battery business, “into which I was now forced to adventure for a livelihood.” Peter would antagonize people until they assaulted him, then consult his lawyer on how much to sue for. This wasn’t very profitable, and the narrator found it “too much for my delicate state of body.”

Peter’s next business was Mud-Dabbling, which he did with his dog. The dog, covered in mud, would get a dandy to pet him. The dandy, covered in mud, would look for someone to clean him up. This is where Peter came in with his blacking and brushes. He split the profits with his dog:

“I allowed him a third of the profits, but he was advised to insist upon half. This I couldn’t stand – so we quarreled and parted.”

The next business venture was Organ-Grinding, which he also eventually abandoned.

The next business venture was Sham Post, which consisted of writing fake letters from faraway places, delivering them to big houses, and collecting the postage. This gave him “serious scruples of conscience,” and people began cursing his fake names.

His final venture was in cats. The town, being overrun with cats, petitioned for relief. The Cat Act first took cat heads, then changed it to tails. So, Peter Proffit invested his whole estate in buying cats and kittens, and made an annual profit selling their tails to the government.

Stay tuned for more from Edgar Allan Poe!

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Note on the header image: Edgar Allan Poe, c. May-June 1849. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Related Article:

• Edgar Allan Poe’s Death as Mysterious as His Stories

The post Edgar Allan Poe, Father of the Macabre: Perfect for Halloween (part 1) appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

Today I resume my series on John Cuthbert Parker (1904-1997), architect, artist, and famous paranormal investigator, who bewitched a whole generation of New Englanders with his tales of ghost hunting on some of the most infamous haunted historical properties.

Parker’s lectures, known as “Ghost Houses of New England: Their Legends and Architecture,” were booked solid and included an illustrated slide show, his watercolor sketches of the homes he investigated, and pamphlets on ghost hunting with a full survey road map.

Below is a photo of Parker with members of the Holyoke Women’s Club, taken on 6 April 1968 after his lecture on New England ghost houses.

During his career Parker covered over 30 spook dens, which included Jonathan Moulton House in Hampton, New Hampshire, Green Mountain Tavern (aka the Second Bowker Tavern) in Savoy, Massachusetts, the Ocean-Born Mary House in Henniker, New Hampshire, and Porter-Phelps-Huntington House in Hadley, Massachusetts, where he became director and official historian.

Here is a news clip reporting on one of Parker’s lectures, presented to the Penelope Terry Abbey Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) at the Enfield, Connecticut, Congregational Church in 1960.

This article reports:

The speaker’s [Parker] interest in colonial architecture stems from his youth when he lived in the Joshual Hale House, Newburyport, Mass. [He had his first ghost encounter there.]

He is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was for 10 years architect at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. While there he designed many of its buildings including the stone north entrance and Memorial Arch in “flirtation walk.”

During World War II, he was architect and officer engineer at Westover Field [in Chicopee, Massachusetts.] He has painted eight life-size murals in oils for New York City churches. He has written feature articles for New England newspapers and national magazines.

Some of his most interesting experiences were investigating haunted houses. This Springfield Union article reports on a poltergeist (noisy ghost) investigation that started out with real promise – but ended up creating a situation that Parker called a real “Stinkeroo.”

Parker was called to visit a home at 13 Butler Street in Springfield, Massachusetts, on 12 January 1959, where 39 windows were mysteriously blown out from the inside.

The owner, Mrs. Charles Papineau, was an 80-year-old widow who was scared and perplexed. Her home was under siege by an unexplainable phenomenon and a legion of reporters.

At first the woman thought vandals were responsible. Then a pane quivered and broke right before her eyes.

The mysterious window shattering began on January 6, and Captain James J. Collins of the Crime Prevention Bureau detected no criminal activity.

A team of expert engineers, meteorologists, and architects had no scientific explanation.

However, Parker was convinced that a demonic attack had caused the breakage and his solution was to prepare a “poltergeist trap.” He referenced a similar case in Seaforth, Long Island, where objects were exploding.

According to Parker’s daughter Wilma, who accompanied her father at the scene, the poltergeist was manifested by a mix of opposite energy forces. In the Papineau case, an older energy generating from Mrs. P. opposed a younger energy, which would be her 13-year-old grandson, Wayne, who lived on the 2nd floor of the house with his parents.

Wilma recalls her father also noted that animals can sense poltergeists and suspected that “Skippie,” the family dog, knew before a strike came.

Parker prepared for a full-scale psychic stakeout, as seen in the photograph published in the Springfield Union news clip shown above.

However, the local press turned spooky on Parker. A photo of him with a figure of a sheet-clad ghost superimposed into the picture appeared on the front page in another Springfield paper later that afternoon, in an obvious attempt to ridicule and embarrass Parker.

The following day Parker shared his thoughts with the press, telling the Springfield Union he was “dropping his investigation in disgust” and said the picture was “very unfair.”

He called the Springfield Daily News picture a “real Stinkaroo of a job,” said other papers had been objective, and he decided to discontinue his interest in the matter to avoid further ridicule.

Wilma says her father stood by his theory of a poltergeist breaking the windows, but never publicly spoke of it again.

To this day the event remains a mystery.

Stay tuned for more on Parker, who explored spectral evidence on Shelter Island among other places.

Note: some of the graphics in this article have been AI enhanced.

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Note on the header image: John C. Parker and his daughter Wilma Parker outside his family home in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Credit: Wilma Parker.

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• New England Ghost Hunter and His Haunted Houses (part 2)
• New England Ghost Hunter and His Haunted Houses (part 3)
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The post New England Ghost Hunter and His Haunted Houses (part 4) appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

How are you doing with your Family History Month goals? I’m slowly getting through my genealogy to-do list. One thing I’m noticing in my timelines is that there are decades of information that I’m missing. It’s easy to add things like the census, but what’s more difficult and takes more time are records for the in-between census years.

I took some time looking at my paternal grandfather’s timeline and realized I needed to add more about his life after the 1950 census – specifically, his time working for the Southern Pacific Railroad. While I do have a few records, the majority of what I need will most likely come from historical context and social history. His descendants don’t understand what his life was like working for the railroad, so I need to do some historical research to help with that.

In addition to that research, I realized that there was some information from my maternal side that needed more work. I decided to start with that goal for Week 3 of my Family History Month challenge.

Learning More About My Maternal Great-Grandfather

My maternal grandmother was a genealogist. She and other family members spent time tracing family and writing up family history narratives. These narratives are helpful in learning about my ancestors, but they lack references to records and source citations.

These narratives could be enhanced by adding records that were not available to past generations of genealogists. I’d like to take these writings and add to them so that there is more to the story for descendants to discover.

One of the narratives I’d like to enhance is one written by a cousin about my grandmother’s father, my great-grandfather Benjamin McNeil (1881-1956). This three-page history was read at his funeral on 2 June 1956. There’s quite a bit that can’t be enhanced with records, such as information about his personality, but there is some information that records could help with (and source citations).

For example, one of the sentences in the funeral sketch reads:

During this time, besides providing for his own family, Ben helped his mother file and prove up her homestead, and he helped his brothers build her a home.*

This is information I can add to with homestead records and newspaper notices.

The Homestead

First, to clarify this sentence I might add a few details not found in the original sentence based on the narrative and my own knowledge. Namely, the time period and his mother’s name. Now it reads:

During this time, between 1913-1939, besides providing for his own family, Ben helped his mother, Mary Ann Smith McNeil, file and prove up her homestead, and he helped his brothers build her a home.

A search through GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives for his mother’s name provides results that include notices regarding her homestead, which in turn provide us with some dates.

Her local newspaper, the Snowflake Herald in Snowflake, Arizona, has several notices about her homestead, including this one that appeared on 8 November 1918.

From this notice we see that on 20 May 1914 Mary McNeil made a homestead entry and has now “filed notice of intention to make three-year proof, to establish claim to the land.” The witnesses include her son Benjamin McNeil.

So, between 1914-1918 Benjamin might have been helping her with her claim and improvements, and also serving as a witness. This notice isn’t the only one I found; I found several that date back to 1914 when she first filed. I also found this mention in the “gossip column” about her filing.

So now I have more to help me add to the information about his mother’s homestead and to provide a source citation. I had previously contacted a regional branch of NARA (National Archives) to obtain her homestead claim, so I can include that information as well. Best of all, if Benjamin was helping her, I can narrow down that time period to approximately 1914-1918 – more information for my timeline about his life!

In a paragraph prior to the sentence about helping his mother, there is a reference to him “homesteading” but not much other information.

It was at this time that they began to homestead the McNeil Ranch where they lived for so many years.

I have no idea where this is or if it was a government homestead or just a reference to living in a place. Once again, searching GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives provides more information: the published notice of the land he was homesteading.

Now I can add information about his homestead based on this newspaper article, searching the Bureau of Land Management General Land Office website, and requesting his homestead records through NARA.

Enhancing the Benjamin McNeil Sketch

The more I read this funeral sketch about Benajmin McNeil’s life, the more I realize that it was a great piece of nostalgia for those at his funeral – but for later generations it leaves a lot of questions. Historical context and sources for some of the information presented is needed to help present-day family better understand his life more than half a century after his death.

Yes, I have a great biographic sketch for my great-grandfather, but it is missing information. It’s time for me to update it. Technology and access to records have evolved, which means that we can take older research and make it more complete.

What are you working on for week 3? Let me know in the comments below.

* Frost, Jane. Story of the Life of Benjamin McNeil. 2 June 1956. Pg 3. Photocopies in the collection of Gena Philibert-Ortega.

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Note on the header image: Family History Month graphic. Credit: https://depositphotos.com/home.html

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• October: 4 Weeks of Family History Month
• Family History Month, Week 1: Conduct a 4-Generation Audit
• Family History Month, Week 2: Create a Timeline

The post Family History Month, Week 3: What Am I Missing? appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

The Wamps

We are the four directions
We are East, West, North and South
We are Punkhorn Point, Popponesset Bay
We are the Mashpee River
We are the Flume that separates the pond from the ocean
We are the herring and the scup
And the venison and the rabbit
We are the scrub pine and scrub oak
We are the protectors of the land
We are the Mashpee Wampanoag

–Russell Peters, 1993

Today I continue to look at some of the history of the Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) with some AI enhanced photo features gathered from newspaper clips and archives.

The Wampanoag, the “People of the First Light,” are comprised of two federally recognized tribes: the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe located in Mashpee, Massachusetts; and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) located on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Their people have inhabited this land for 12,000 years.

My subject today is Amelia Grace (Peters) Bingham (1923-2021), a former Elder of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe who preserved the history and tradition of her people. She was the Turtle Clan Mother “Seaweed.” She was the great granddaughter of Rev. Joseph “Blind Joe” Amos (1806-1869) and Abigail (Wickham) Amos (1804-1853).

According to her obituary, in addition to her civic duties Amelia was a talented, renowned artist specializing in interior design. Her work as an interior decorator for the New Seabury Model Homes was featured in Better Homes and Gardens Magazine, highlighting her creative expertise and flare for color seen in many Cape Cod homes.

She was the founding director of the Mashpee Historical Commission and campaigned to preserve several historic buildings including the Parsonage, the Avant homestead, the One Room Schoolhouse, and the Old Indian Meetinghouse. She spearheaded efforts to restore the Meetinghouse for community use and the Avant house, where she established the Mashpee Wampanoag Museum (also becoming the Founding Director).

Amelia was the eldest of eight children born to Mashpee Selectman Steven Amos Peters Sr. and Clara Jane (Miles) Peters. (A photo of the children can be found at the end of this story.)

Here is a photo of Steven Amos “Happy” Peters Sr. (1897-1954), son of Charles Holmes Peters and Cordelia “Amelia” Babcock (Amos) Peters.

The poem at the beginning of this article was written by Amelia’s brother Russell M. Peters Sr. (1929-2002), known as “Fast Turtle,” author of The Wampanoags of Mashpee, and former Wampanoag chief and president of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council.

Another sibling is former spiritual leader and supreme medicine man for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, John A. Peters (1930-1997) aka “Slow Turtle – Cjegktoonuppa.” He was also a police officer for the Mashpee Police Department.

Amelia married Lt. Col. George Gulian Bingham Jr. (1917-2000), son of George Bingham and Ruth (Gould) Bingham, and the couple had eight children.

I found an article on George published in the Sturgis Public Library archives, entitled “Former Cantabrigian Earns Higher Spurs in U.S. Army,” that provides some early history on his career as a military man and how he met Amelia:

The meteoric rise of Lieutenant Colonel George G. “Dewey” Bingham, formerly of Cambridge, but at present military science teacher R.O.T.C. at Virginia State College, would be one of the most interesting true stories for a movie or play.

Lt. Col. Bingham, who recently received the promotion, is one of the youngest men to hold the rank of lieutenant colonel and is to be highly commended. We knew this soldier of fame when he was a stripling in the Mass. National Guard, 372nd Infantry, and also had the pleasure of working with him in the playgrounds in the city.

He was first, last, and always a soldier, a devoted son to his parents and lastly a gentleman.

During the early 40s, a youngster with a West Point carriage and the ambition to rise to greater heights, [he] married the beautiful and talented Amelia Peters, daughter of the late Steven and Mrs. Clara Peters of Mashpee, Mass.

Today Mrs. Amelia Bingham is as beautiful as ever despite the fact she is the happy mother of eight children.

To Lt. Col. Bingham my sincere congratulations and may you continue to advance in the armed services of our country; and to Mrs. Bingham may you continue to be a source of inspiration to your husband.

To Mrs. Bingham, your mother, the early training you gave your son has borne forth good fruit and you can be both proud and happy.

Below is a photo of Amelia and George’s gravestone located in the Mashpee Town Cemetery which features the couple’s photos.

In 1938 at age 15 Amelia made headlines across the country. Her father sought scholarships and entrance for her and her 13-year-old brother Steven A. Peters Jr. because the laws by which Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, was founded in 1769 stipulated that Indians should be educated.

Here is a photo of 15-year-old Amelia published in the Lowell Sun with the headline “Dartmouth Maid?”

As it turned out, Amelia was not accepted into Dartmouth College because in 1938 it was all-male, not becoming coeducational until 1972.

Below is a photo of Amelia (center) with her brother Steven A. Jr. (left) and their mother Mrs. Steven A. Peters (right). Their mother was born Clara J. Miles, daughter of Oscar Columbus Miles and Amanda C. (Hill) Miles, and she married Steven Amos Peters Sr. on 22 February 1922.

My next story will cover more of Dartmouth and the Peters, which provides some very interesting history.

Below is a photo of the children of Selectman Steven Amos Peters Sr. and his wife Clara, courtesy of Mashpee 125th Anniversary: A Pictorial History by Rosemary H. Burns, edited by Ann Whitlow. Many of the Peters family have served Mashpee in various positions.

In this photo we see (from left to right): Anne, Randy, John, Russell, Muriel, Clara, Steven, and Amelia.

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Note on the header image: Ousamequin, or “Massasoit” (Wampanoag term for “Great Sachem”) and Governor John Carver smoking a ceremonial pipe at Plymouth Colony in 1621. Credit: Sutro Library; Wikimedia Commons. [052825]

Related Articles:

• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 1)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 2)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 3)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 4)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 5)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 6)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 7)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 8)

The post Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 9) appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

Benjamin Franklin (1650-1727) of Boston – the brother of Josiah Franklin and the uncle and godfather of the renowned Founding Father named after him – became embroiled in a court dispute with Newbury, Massachusetts, residents in the summer of 1683.

According to court records, Benjamin Franklin hired two Newbury men – Benjamin Cocker (son of Robert Cocker/Coker) and John Rolfe – to repair his sloop Benjamin and Katherine.

Here is a photo of the Benjamin Cocker House, 172 State Street, Newburyport.

According to Wikipedia:

The oldest portion of the house, the central chimney and the rooms to its left, were built c. 1700 on a site at the corner of High and Federal Streets. The building was widened in the mid-18th century, adding the rooms to the right. The building was moved to its present location in 1856 and enlarged with a two-story addition on the rear. It underwent a major rehabilitation in 1989.

Cocker and Rolfe, both skilled carpenters and shipwrights who built Franklin’s sloop, found the leaks could not be mended quickly, creating one hull of a problem!

Impatient Franklin shacked up onboard for 14 days waiting for the shipwrights to make their repairs.

Eventually Franklin headed over to John March’s Blue Anchor Tavern and racked up a bill for seven weeks’ worth of drinks, dinners, and lodging at the establishment.

The Blue Anchor Tavern is now known as the Swett-Ilsley House and is located at 4-6 High Street in Newbury, Massachusetts, and owned by Historic New England.

I found a mention of the tavern in this news clip from the Boston Herald.

This article reports:

The nearby Swett-Ilsley House at 4 and 6 High Rd. is believed to have been the first ordinary or inn in Essex County. The first newspaper for the area was printed there. Built in 1670, it was enlarged about 1700 for the tap room of the Blue Anchor Tavern. It still houses refreshment, a tea room being operated there today. Admittance is free.

Below is a photo of the tavern as it looks today.

When the sloop was finally mended Franklin refused to pay up. He insisted that Cocker and Rolfe should pay because the genesis of the leak was their fault. Franklin sued for breach of contract and Cocker countersued for nonpayment.

Here is a court document from the case.

Franklin also tried to stiff John March on his tavern bill. This made waves, and a heated dispute followed. March sued for payment and won.

According to one testimony, both parties – Cocker and Franklin – sought an amicable resolution and asked Captain Stephen Greenleaf Jr. and Nathaniel Clark to serve as mediators. This was arranged to take place at the home of John Hale, but no “gentlemen’s agreement” was forged that day as Franklin was a no-show.

Here is Stephen Greenleaf Jr.’s obituary published in the Boston Gazette.

This article reports:

Newbury, Octob. 11. On Friday last died here and yesterday was decently interred the oldest person in this town, Capt. Stephen Greenleaf, in the 92d year of his age. He was a gentleman of superior intellectual powers, continuing at a surprising degree of strength and vivacity to the last weeks of his life. His natural temper was easy & pleasant, his disposition courteous and hospitable; his piety which was without affection, and his many personal & social virtues rendered him greatly esteemed and beloved. He had frequently exposed himself and was twice dangerously wounded in the service of his King and Country (for which he had commissions) against the Indians. At length with resignation to the will of God and calmness of spirit, in faith in the great redeemer, and hope of eternal life, he yielded up the ghost. He has had ten children, 59 grandchildren, and 92 great-grandchildren.

Soon after Franklin’s no-show, a levy was ordered on Franklin’s sloop for payment past due as well as a warrant for his arrest.

Leaving a trail of debenture, Franklin attempted to sail away before his next court date, but his debtees were no dinghies – they capsized Franklin in Boston Harbor.

The disputes went to court, where Newbury-area residents testified for the plaintiffs.

The names mentioned in the documents associated with either the court or as witness are as follows: John Hale, Jethro Coffin, Hugh March, James March, Richard Brown, Pennel Titcomb, Samuel Waters, Abraham Merrill, Mary Sanders, Robert Sanders, and Abraham Clemens.

The legal matters were settled in favor of Cocker and Rolfe, as well as March. Franklin made good on his debts to the shipwrights as well as to John March for “seven weeks diet and use of his home.”

Benjamin Franklin died on 17 March 1727 and is buried in Boston with the Franklin family. Here is his obituary, published in the New England Weekly Journal.

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Note on the header image: Franklin family monument at the Granary Burial Ground in Boston, Massachusetts.

The post Leaky Court Drama in Newbury appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

In October 1937, bestselling author Laura Ingalls Wilder gave a speech at Hudson’s Book Fair in Detroit, Michigan, with the release of her fourth book, On the Banks of Plumb Creek. She explained that while the stories in her books were true, one compelling episode had been excluded from the “Little House” series. It concerned another little house – or rather a tavern – belonging to the Bender family near Cherryvale, Kansas.

Wilder said:

“We stopped there, on our way into the Little House, while Pa watered the horses and brought us all a drink from the well near the door of the house. I saw Kate Bender standing in the doorway. We did not go in because we could not afford to stop at a tavern.”

Wilder didn’t describe Kate – if she caught more than a glimpse of her. Others did, and those portraits varied wildly, from “buxom, good-looking” and “slender but most voluptuously molded” to “an infernal hag” who was “repulsive” and “dirty-looking.” (1)

Who Were the Benders?

Early reporting was chaotic. The Weekly Kansas Chief (15 May 1873) published a garbled story describing the Benders as two brothers, William and Thomas, and their wives. One of the Bender women – a supposed Spiritualist – was called a “she-devil” by neighbors:

She was forty-two, with iron-gray hair, ragged at the ends and thin over the temples. Her eyes were steel-gray and hard. The light that came from them was sinister and forbidding. She had not a single prepossessing feature. Her form, angular and tall, seemed to lift itself up when the Spiritual influences took possession of it, and to become not only gigantic in height, but supernatural as well…

However, clairvoyant Kate was not a gray-haired woman in her 40s; she was a teenager. Also, the family of four was not two brothers and their wives, but a husband and wife – John and Maria – and their two children, John Jr. and Kate.

Chroniclers portrayed the family as grotesque. “The old man was a repulsive, hideous-looking brute,” wrote Col. Frank Triplett. “His wife was a dirty old Dutch crone.” John Jr., Kate’s brother, was “a rather good-natured dolt” when smiling, but when excited “the greenish glare of the eyes and the fierce lines about the treacherous mouth recalled the grave-robbing hyena.” He and Kate supposedly had an incestuous relationship. (2)

The York Mystery

Kansans first became aware of the Benders in early May 1873, when stories of the strange family began appearing in newspapers across the state. Word spread nationwide, and the Benders morphed into legend almost overnight. As Deputy Sheriff John R. Brunt of Neosho County, Kansas, remarked, “much has been written about the Benders, four-fifths of which is pure fiction.” (3)

Their downfall began in late March 1873 when Senator A. M. York of Independence, Missouri, organized a search party for his missing brother, Dr. William H. York. By his own account, Civil War veteran Leroy Dick suggested that they investigate the Benders, “one very unpopular family in our midst.” (4)

At first, the Benders denied knowing Dr. York, but Kate admitted she remembered him stopping at their tavern. She served him dinner, and then “he had gone on his way.” (5)

According to one newspaper’s account, Kate answered Senator York’s questions:

“in a mysterious and unnatural manner, but the Senator never suspected that he was talking with the real murderers.”

That meeting occurred on May 2. Finding no evidence of foul play, Senator York dismissed the Benders as suspects. (6) Yet on June 5, the senator returned after hearing that the Bender home had been found abandoned. Neighbors were already scouring the home and grounds when the York party arrived. (7)

Then the body of Dr. William H. York was found buried in a field near the tavern, and other corpses were found buried nearby.

“Yesterday the veil of mystery was drawn aside, and the sad fate of a long-lost citizen fully settled,” reported the Emporia News.

This article concludes:

The most intense excitement prevailed at Cherryvale over the startling discovery, and people were assembling from every direction as they learned of the event.

We hope the pursuit of this Bender family will be as vigorously inaugurated and kept up as has been the search for Mr. York, until the last one of them feels the vengeance of an outraged law and an exasperated community. Let the most expert detectives be put on the trail, if necessary, and ferret out the blood-thirsty perpetrators of these premeditated and unprovoked murders. We shall await with interest the further unearthing of the dark deeds.

Other newspapers published similar stories on the same date.

More grisly details surfaced days later.

Scene of the Crime

The Bender tavern was described as a one-story dwelling divided into two sections. Meals were served in the large front room. In the back was a sleeping room with two beds and “scant additional furniture.”

As the investigation continued, authorities were able to reconstruct the method of execution.

This article reports:

The table, to which the guests of the fiends were seated, was placed directly over the trap door, so that the guest’s back was to and against the white curtain. In this position it was an easy thing for the male villains in the front apartment to strike the form clearly lined and resting against the white cloth, and when the blows of the sledge and the hammer had knocked the victim, with a crushed and broken skull, senseless and helpless to the floor, for the female fiends in the back room to cut the throat [then drop the body through the trap door, so the blood didn’t soak the tavern’s floor]. The execution was as simple as it was dreadful, but, though it would seem resistance to such well planned murder of the trusting and unsuspecting was impossible, the walls gave silent evidence that some of the murdered ones had not been sent to their doom without an effort to defend their lives. No less than a dozen bullet holes in the sides and roof of the house attest that armed men, when struck down so relentlessly, had attempted to shoot their murderers, but, unfortunately, the aims had been wild, and the murderers are reserved for the hempen halter.

The Victims

The article went on to identify eight victims of the bloody Benders.

Aftermath

What became of the murderous family? Many theories emerged, but no one knows the Benders’ fate following their escape. The most authoritative source on the subject is Lee Ralph’s Hell Comes to Play, published in 2023 and revised in 2026. The author, a genealogist, traced the Bender family tree and uncovered new details about their background.

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Note on the header image: Bender victims’ graves, Dr. York’s grave at far right, 1873. Credit: George R. Gamble; Wikimedia Commons.

______________

(1) Lee Ralph, Hell Comes to Play (Tecumseh, Kansas: Furman House Publishing, 2026), p. 40.
(2) Col. Frank Triplett, History, Romance and Philosophy of Great American Crimes and Criminals (New York and St. Louis: N. D. Thompson Publishing Company, 1885), p. 560.
(3) Ralph, Hell Comes to Play, p. 65.
(4) Jean McEwen, “The Bender Hills Mystery,” The Parsons [KS] Sun, 16 June 1934, p. 14.
(5) John T. James, The Benders in Kansas (Wichita, KS: Kan-Okla Publishing Company, 1913), p. 37.
(6) Ralph, Hell Comes to Play, p. 73.
(7) James, The Benders in Kansas, p. 39.

The post Little Horror House on the Prairie: The Bender Murders appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

Week 2 of my Family History Month schedule focuses on creating a timeline. Last week I conducted a four-generation genealogy audit and identified what I was missing. This week I want to choose at least one person from my four generations to create a timeline for.

As I mentioned in my Family History Month introduction, a timeline is an important genealogy tool that too few of us use. A timeline can help you keep track of what you know about an ancestor, what you are missing, and historical events they lived through. Later, a timeline can be used to help you identify documents to find during a research trip and to write a story about that ancestor’s life.

Timelines

Timelines are one of those flexible tools that can be created in whatever way works best for you. The way I do it might not be what makes sense to you, so take some time to identify what tools you want to use and then stick to it.

You can make a timeline via:

• Your genealogy software program.
• Your online family tree program (it might have a way to show facts in a timeline).
• Your word processing software (I like to create a timeline using a Table).
• A genealogy form via a free or paid website.
• A spreadsheet program.
• A notebook and pencil. (Not everything has to be created via the computer – you do what is easiest for you. If that means using paper, pens, rulers and highlighters, then do it that way).

However you decide to create a timeline, you’ll want to make sure it includes columns for the information you want to document. This might include:

• Name of ancestor
• Date of event or document
• Type of event or document
• Abstract of what the document says
• Comments
• Source citation

Is this the only information to capture on your timeline? No, it should include whatever information you think you’ll want as you research.

My Timelines

I mentioned in my Family History Month introduction article that I didn’t think I had time this week to create 23 timelines for everyone in my four generations. Because of this, I decided to concentrate on one person that I’ve been working on: my paternal grandfather. If I have more time, I’ll create one for each of my four grandparents.

I am using two different types of timelines. One is my “working” timeline. This is the timeline I use to research. It’s the one that includes my sources and source citations. I use a word processing program and create a table with 4-5 columns that cover date, place, events, source citations, and comments (I vary this according to whom I am researching).

You can learn more about how to create this type of timeline and download a template form via this article on the GenealogyBank blog.

My other timeline is one that I am creating via Family Tree Notebooks that will be used in a family history book.* This one is more decorative and meant to only show age, date, place and event. It’s the one I think my family is going to be more interested in seeing. Although this is decorative, viewing it has helped me see which decades of my grandfather’s life are not documented that I need to work on.

Leo Philibert Timeline: Here is the start of my Family Tree Notebooks timeline for a book about my grandfather’s life.

Your Timeline

Now it’s your turn. Are you following along with your research? What do your timelines look like? Share your Family History Month journey in the comments below.

* Family Tree Notebooks offers forms for a fee. Family Tree Notebooks’ forms are found at https://familytreenotebooks.com/.

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Note on the header image: Family History Month graphic. Credit: https://depositphotos.com/home.html

Related Articles:

• October: 4 Weeks of Family History Month
• Family History Month, Week 1: Conduct a 4-Generation Audit

The post Family History Month, Week 2: Create a Timeline appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

Today I continue Goody Cole’s story: a woman who had been accused of witchcraft in Hampton, New Hampshire, in the mid to late 1600s – years before the infamous Salem witch trials – was cleared in time for the town’s 1938 tercentenary celebration by the Goody Cole Society.

Drawing on the Los Angeles Examiner article “Poor Old ‘Goody’ Cole Cleansed of Witchcraft After 300 Years,” I present an account of her ordeal and the effort to clear her name [see Goody Cole Cleared of Witchcraft (part 1)].

This article reports:

The first symptom of the infection [witch hysteria] in the Colonies seems to have been the behavior of children in church. Considering that small boys and girls were forced to sit in uncomfortable pews through a three-hour morning service, their actions were not so strange.

One or two finally started it by breaking out with catcalls and irreverent remarks. It was merely hysteria, but such startling behavior seemed to those devout Puritans the work of the Devil and at once they wondered if he was doing it through those witches they had heard about [in England]. They questioned the children, who, finding themselves important personages, played up to the role and obligingly pointed out the old woman who had bewitched them, and other youngsters were quick to follow their example.

It was full-grown persons who testified against Goody Cole, 36 years before the superstitious craze came to its peak in the Salem witch trials in which they actually convicted and executed a minister and Harvard graduate, the Reverend George Burroughs. Eunice [Goody] Cole was no longer young, had a sharp tongue for which she might well have deserved the ducking stool, and in her clashes with men, women and teasing children, often took advantage of their superstitious credulity by making terrifying prophecies.

Unfortunately, she seems to have been such a good prophet of evil as to be accounted for only on the theory of diabolic assistance, so she was brought to trial as “a witch and familiar of the Devil” before the Court of Oyer and Terminer of Norfolk County.

In the below photo we see Phyllis Tucker in a pillory as “Goody” Cole. Looking on (from left to right): Jackie and Peter Brooks, sons of John W. R. Brooks; Mrs. G. Roland Janvrin; Eleanor Palmer; Alta Gillmore; and Shirlie Adele Arnold.

Thomas Philbrick, whose present-day descendant didn’t want his sturdy ancestor criticized, testified that Goody Cole had warned him that if his calves should eat any more of her grass, “she wished it might poyson them or choak them.” After this unkind wish, he never saw one of his calves again.

Abraham Drake deposed that “aboute this time twelvemonth, my neighbor Giles lost a cowe and wen we had found it, I and others brought the cowe to his house and shee desired mee to flee this cowe and presently she charged me with killing her cowe, and said they should know that hee (Drake) had killed her cowe and forthwith I lost two cattell and the latter end of the somer I lost one cowe.”

[Note: Sobriety, the wife of Henry Moulton, and goodwife Sleeper, the wife of Thomas, also deposed against Goody Cole.]

In the face of this and similar testimony from other respected citizens it was useless for poor Goody Cole to deny even a speaking acquaintance with Beelzebub, and if more tolerant persons expressed doubts, they were at once looked upon with suspicion.

The mass of the people were certain that she was a witch and clamored for protection. A jury found her guilty and the judge sentenced her to a flogging and life imprisonment.

The flogging on her bare back was administered forthwith but the life imprisonment was a more complicated matter. There being no accommodations in Hampton for imprisoning anyone for life, Eunice was sent to Boston.

But even this important community was not rolling in wealth and could not afford to feed and lodge convicts for the rest of the Colony free. Therefore, it was understood that Hampton was to pay Boston the sum of eight pounds a year ($40) for her board.

Hampton, all except Eunice’s aged husband, who vainly begged to have her released so she could take care of him, seems to have forgotten about her. Alas, the town also forgot to pay anything on that jail board bill until, after eight years, the arrears had amounted to the staggering sum of $320. In the good old days public officials could be imprisoned for non-payment of a civic debt.

Therefore, William Salter, Keeper of the Prison at Boston, wishing to balance his budget for the fiscal year of 1664, arrested Thomas Marston, one of the selectmen of Hampton, and threatened to board him under the same roof as Goody Cole. This brought results – his brother officials promptly voted to pay.

In 1671 Hampton wearied of that annual $40 overhead and Goody was released, after nearly 15 years behind the bars. She was assigned to a little shack and placed on the relief, but not out of the public treasury. Instead, 52 families were appointed to supply her needs, one week at a time.

But in 1672 she was again charged with witchcraft, appearing to little Ann Smith as an eagle, a dog and a cat. She was tried and barely escaped with the following verdict:

“In ye case of Unis Cole now prisoner at ye Bar not guilty according to inditement butt just ground for vehement susspissyon of her having had familyarryty with the devil. (Signed) Jonas Clarke in the name of the rest.”

Below is an image of the court record for the witchcraft prosecution of Eunice Cole in 1673.

In 1680 there was another witch-drive in Hampton and Goody Cole, though too feeble to leave her bed, was indicted with several other “Goodies,” but all were discharged the following year. People in those days must have had characters and constitutions of iron, because this hated, tormented, friendless old pariah managed to hold body and soul together until well into her eighties and then die peacefully.

When word sped through the town that “the Devil had taken Goody Cole at last,” a “welfare committee,” trembling for fear of what Satan might do to them, gave the aged body a witch’s burial.

Here are two examples of memorabilia from Hampton’s 1938 vindication of Goody Cole: an arrowhead coin, and the Goody Cole Society membership card of Philip N. Blake Jr., 1938.

In 1938 Mrs. Harry Houdini, widow of the famed magician, attended a ceremony to burn the court records of Goody Cole’s witchcraft conviction. There were 3,000 people at the ceremony including Arnold D. Philbrick, a descendant of one of Cole’s accusers. Below is a news clip.

Note: some of the graphics in this article have been AI enhanced.

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Note on the header image: an article about Goody Cole’s vindication, from the St. Louis Sunday Magazine, 3 April 1938. Credit: Lane Memorial Library.

Related Article:

• Goody Cole Cleared of Witchcraft (part 1)

The post Goody Cole Cleared of Witchcraft (part 2) appeared first on GenealogyBank Blog.

Dig deep into our online archives and search for articles about your ancestors from Arkansas in these newspapers. Our AR newspapers are divided into two collections, each with their own search page:

• Newspaper Archives (complete paper with all articles, including historical obituaries, with a number of very rare single-issue newspapers – many of them are the only known issues of the paper)
• Obituaries (including both historical and recent obituaries, if obits are specifically what you are searching for)

Search Arkansas Newspaper Archives (1819 – 2024)

Search Arkansas Obituaries (1820 – Today)

Here is the complete list of Arkansas newspapers in the online archives. Each newspaper title in this list is an active link that will take you directly to that paper’s search page, where you can begin searching for your ancestors by surnames, dates, keywords and more. The AR newspaper titles are listed alphabetically by city.