Tintypes

Want to see one of my favorite old family photos?  It's from 1868.  

1868: My great-great grandmother Fannie Naomi Abby Gibbs, about 3 years old and her older brother.

Actually, my family has several pictures dating from the 1860s.  However this one stands out since it includes children.  Who are they?  

Family member name: Fannie Naomi Abby Gibbs

Lifetime: July 15, 1865 (born 155 years ago today) - July 11, 1941
Tree branch: Smith
Relation: My 2x great-grandmother (my dad's mom's dad's mom)

Family member name: Lysander Gibbs

Lifetime: 1856-1923
Tree branch: Smith
Relation: My 3rd great-uncle (my dad's mom's dad's mom's brother)

I love this picture.  It's a tintype.  What is that?

According to The Science and Media Museum:

A very underexposed negative image was produced on a thin iron plate. It was blackened by painting, lacquering or enamelling, and coated with a collodion photographic emulsion. The dark background gave the resulting image the appearance of a positive.

Believe it or not, that is the most non-technical definition I could find of a tintype. I really still have no idea what that means, but here's what I learned about tintypes:

• Tiny, usually 2x3 inches
• Made of thin iron, not flexible
• Mounted in paper or cardboard cases
• Developed in a darkroom in just minutes (a big advancement for the time)
• Inexpensive
• In use in the 1860s and 1870s

Notice this tintype has been ever so slightly hand tinted.  Do you notice the kids' pink cheeks? 

And how cute are they?  Isn't it great to see pictures of your grandparents and other ancestors as children? It reminds us that they had lives before we knew them.  Unfortunately, this darling girl's life probably didn't turn out the way she wanted it to.  Stay tuned for an upcoming post...

A Business Deal

They were not related, but they're both related to me.  I found their business contract in the Woodstock, Connecticut Town Hall labeled "Morey to Morris".  Let's read it.

Date

February 24, 1775 and in the 15th year of his Majesty's reign

What was Purchased

"A certain tract or parcel of land... by estimation thirty acres be the some more or less with the dwelling house and barn thereon standing and shop adjoining"

Where

"Woodstock in the County of Windham and Colony of Connecticut in New England"

The Seller

Family member name: Ephraim Morey

Lifetime: 1710-1794
Tree branch: Pearson
Relation: My 6x great-grandfather 

The Buyer

Family member name: William Morris

Lifetime: 1740-unknown date of death (after 1790)
Tree branch: Pearson
Relation: My 5x great-grandfather

Price
"The sum of One Hundred Pounds"

I love that my ancestors knew each other!

I scanned this document from a book of land records from the Woodstock Town Hall in 2016.

How I am related to the buyer and seller. You can see that William is from the Morris side and Ephraim is from the Titus side (both from my paternal line).

Here is the book.  There was an index at the front where I saw their names so I didn't have to look through every single page.  But I did end up looking through as many books as possible that day. This picture was taken in the 2 seconds that the lady left the room.  No pictures were allowed, but scanners were allowed. (huh?)

Source:

Woodstock Land Records, Vol 6, 1743-1787

The Big Reveal

I found a piece of interesting information about my dad's 2x great-grandfather and wanted to tell him in person to see his reaction.

Family member name: Charles H. Smith

Lifetime: 1825 - 1900
Tree branch: Smith
Relation: My 3x great-grandfather (my dad's mom's dad's dad's dad)

I was researching the Smith side of my family, and I found that the Smiths lived in an interesting place.

The next time my dad and step-mom came for a visit, I printed out the 1865 Massachusetts State Census and walked them through the process I had recently completed to let them find the information on their own.  

Here's the video.  I'm pretty sure they didn't see I was recording. :)

So fun!

My 3x great-grandfather was the light keeper of Chatham Light, a famous lighthouse on Cape Cod.  My dad has visited most of New England's lighthouses by land or by kayak, and I knew he was quite familiar with Chatham Light.  So to find out that his direct ancestor (his 2x great-grandfather) lived there and manned the lighthouse for 10 years, from 1862-1872, is pretty cool!  Also, my dad's great grandfather, Nelson, grew up in the light keeper's living quarters.

Why did no one in my family know about this??  Stay tuned.

This is what the Twin Lights in Chatham looked like when our ancestor was light keeper.

1841 brick towers.

To read more about the quest for the Smiths, read my previous blog post here.

Sources
Wikipedia > Chatham Light
National Register of Historic Places in Barnstable County
Tours of Chatham Light

Namesakes: My five Euphemias

Euphemia (pronounced you-FEM-ee-ah or oh-FEM-ee-ah) is not a common name these days.  According to the Social Security Administration, its peak popularity as a baby name in the US was between 1903 and 1915.  However, it is more popular in Scotland.

I'm happy to have FIVE Euphemias in my family.

Euphemia #1

Family member name: Euphemia McMillen

Lifetime: 1785 - unknown
Tree branch: Boyle
Relation: My 4x great-grandmother (my mom's dad's mom's mom's mom's mom)

Born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1785.  We don't know much about her except that one of her children was Agnes Gilchrest, who named her own daughter after her mother.  (See Euphemia #2)

Euphemia #2

Family member name: Euphemia Crosser Anderson

Lifetime: 1859 - 1918
Tree branch: Boyle
Relation: My great-great-grandmother (my mom's dad's mom's mom)

Named after her grandmother, she was born in Scotland and married Robert Anderson there. At the age of 35, they moved to the United States and settled in Indiana.  Among their 15 (!) children, they named their 8th Euphemia.

Euphemia #3 - nicknamed Effie
Family member name: Euphemia Anderson Moss
Lifetime: 1887 - 1917
Tree branch: Boyle
Relation: My 2nd great-aunt (my mom's dad's mom's sister)

Named after her mother, she was also born in Scotland and was 7 when she came to the US.  She married and had a daughter, named Mildred Euphemia.  Unfortunately, both she and her 6-year old daughter were killed in a tragic car accident on May 10, 1917, which is 103 years ago today.

Euphemia #4 - nicknamed Famie
Family member name: Euphemia Catherine Boyle Koos
Lifetime: 1918 - 1988
Tree branch: Boyle
Relation: My great-aunt (my mom's dad's sister)

Named after her grandmother or aunt who both passed away shortly before her birth. I remember Aunt Famie from our visits to grandma and grandpa's in Michigan.  My mom describes her as "bright and opinionated and suffered no fools." For her husband Vic's work, they moved their young family to Geneva, Switzerland for several years.  

Euphemia #5 - nicknamed Phemie (Phemia in Spanish)
Family member name: Euphemia Melissa Hight Hargreaves
Lifetime: 1975 - 
Tree branch: Hargreaves
Relation: My sister-in-law

A completely British name for my wonderful sister-in-law with Mexican heritage. She was named after her great-grandmother, Eufemia Rosales Osuna from Sinaloa, Mexico.  Fun-loving and smart, she's raising her two lovely daughters in sunny California.

I'm happy to have a picture of 3 out of 5 of my Euphemias.

The Lexington Alarm

Today is April 19.  245 years ago today the Battle of Concord and Lexington began the American Revolution.  A newspaper article written in 1902 about my family said that one of my ancestors fought in those battles.  Did he?

Family member name: William Morris
Tree branch: Pearson
Lifetime: 1740 - died sometime after 1794
Relation: My 5x great-grandfather (my dad's dad's mom's mom's mom's dad's dad)

See my previous blog post with a full transcription of the article. The article stated,

"Mrs. Titus, too, seems to have come from a family as patriotic as that of her husband, for her paternal grandfather, William Morris, was in the battle of Concord and Lexington and rose in the service until he became a first lieutenant."

Wow! Imagine that, what are the odds?!  Upon reading it, my emotions went from awe to disbelief in about one minute.  (But it was a fun minute!)  I had to investigate this William Morris person.

William Morris was born and lived in Woodstock, Connecticut, not to be confused with Woodstock, New York of music festival fame.  Woodstock is 68 miles from Lexington, Massachusetts.  In April 1775, William could not have fought in the Battle of Concord and Lexington because those battles were fought by Minutemen who lived in those towns and who mustered to Lexington Green in a minute after being awakened by Paul Revere.  Grandpa Morris was simply not there.  The article was incorrect.

However, here is the excerpt from William Morris' military service which may be the cause of the confusion.

"William was clerk of the company which marched from Woodstock in response to the Lexington Alarm."

What is the Lexington Alarm? Once Paul Revere stopped riding, other messengers got on their horses to pick up where he left off.  They rode to other towns to give them the news about Lexington and Concord.  Town militias had already been organized all over New England and the other colonies.  When these volunteer soldiers heard of the fighting, they marched "for the Relief of Boston," including 34-year-old William.  The Lexington Alarm began with Paul Revere's ride and continued with the colonies' response to the beginning of the war.  The Lexington Alarm is not the name of the battle on April 19.  (See timeline on nps.gov)

About 10,000 men marched for days to help defend Boston from the British.  Besides the Rhode Island volunteers, who were somewhat equipped and organized, the rest of the men could hardly be described as "in the military." After reading firsthand accounts of the situation, the camps in the fields and meadows around Boston can only be described as makeshift shelters full of filthy, drunk men. (OK, now you can think about Woodstock the music festival, but with no women or music.)

Since Grandpa Morris only served six days in the Lexington Alarm, they probably marched to Boston, saw they were not needed, then went home to Connecticut. He later served in other regiments.

Here is the link to his page on the Daughters of the American Revolution website: Ancestor #A080956

Researching family history in Woodstock, Connecticut, 2016.

The other respiratory illness

While the world is gripped with the Coronavirus, here is a post about another respiratory illness that one of my family members lived through, tuberculosis.

Family member name: Eleanor Webber
Tree branch: Webber
Lifetime: 1921-2010
Relation: My great-aunt (my father's father's sister)

Unfortunately I never spoke with Auntie Eleanor about her ordeal with tuberculosis.  All I know is a couple stories from my dad and some entries from Eleanor's mother's diary.

Eleanor's mother (my great grandmother), Mattie, kept a little diary of important events in her life. One was November 16, 1942: "E. goes to Channing Home"

Mattie's diary

Channing Home was originally named Channing Street Home for Sick and Destitute Women.  (Source: Brigham and Women's Hospital) Founded in 1857 as a refuge for poor women, it later became a nationally known center for the treatment of women with tuberculosis.  As my father recalls, Eleanor spent years (perhaps seven years!) in an institution for her treatment of TB.  Perhaps Channing Home was that institution.

The treatment for TB involved complete and horizontal bed rest and, believe it or not, social distancing and separation from family, especially children.  

A screen shot from Google Maps of the address of Channing Home.

Also from Mattie's diary: "April 30, 1946 - Dr. Overholt at Deaconess removes E's lung.  Successful. Oxygen tent."

Who was Dr. Overholt? In the 1930's he performed the first successful removal of a right lung on a cancer patient.  Eleanor had one of the best doctors in the country.  Here is the link to his obituary in The New York Times.

Poor Eleanor.  She perhaps started her treatment at age 21 and had her lung removed at age 25.  Basically her 20's were gone.  How sad to spend some of the prime years of your life in a hospital, and some in an oxygen tent. Thankfully, she recovered and lived a long life.  She was a sweet, beloved piano teacher in her hometown, Needham, Massachusetts.  She passed away just one week short of her 89th birthday.

Mattie and Eleanor Webber

400 years since the Mayflower: Captain Shrimp

I'm so disappointed.  

The one thing that I've always known about my heritage is that I'm a descendant of those who came over on the Mayflower, the Pilgrims.  The only ancestor's name I knew for many years was Myles Standish and I was proud of that ancestry.

But I just read up on Grandpa Myles.  Sigh.

Family member name: Myles Standish
Tree branch: Smith
Lifetime: 1584-1656
Relation: My 10x great-grandfather (my dad's mom's dad's mom's mom's mom's mom's mom's dad's mom's dad's dad)

The good news

* Myles Standish was hired by the Pilgrims as a military adviser.  

* Admittedly, he agreed to go on a very dangerous journey across the ocean in 1620, from which many before him had not returned. And he stayed in Plymouth when he had the option to return.

* He did his job.  He protected them in many situations.  For example, he forced them to build a protective wall around the village and organized the men into a militia.
* He was loyal to the Pilgrims.

The bad news

* He was not a Pilgrim, but instead accompanied the Pilgrims.  He did not emigrate to the new world for religious freedom.  It was a job.

* He was very short.  He was called Captain Shrimp.  Yes.

* What a psychopath!  On one mission to defend another small European village called Wessagusset, he brutally killed one of the threatening warriors, and brought the head of another back to Plymouth and displayed it at the fort for months to come.  He did this because that Indian had insulted him beforehand.  These actions had negative consequences on the Colony and the friendly local Indians for years to come.

In summary, Captain Shrimp was a loyal, non-Pilgrim sadist.  But yes, he came over on the Mayflower, and he is my 10x great-grandfather.

Standish is a well-known name in Plymouth County, Massachusetts to this day.  Here are some pictures of when my dad and I visited in 2012.

Standish Monument and my dad.  Duxbury, MA

Plaque for the Myles Standish burying ground.

The gravestone of Myles Standish.  Died 1656, Duxbury, MA.