Tag Archives: Spotlight

Putting your best foot forward

Family Stories, Research Methods, ,
Ellis Island image
Image source: http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/generationemigration/2011/11/02/traditions-of-emigration-the-irish-habit-of-going-away/irish-immigrants-ellis-island/

It is difficult to imagine leaving everything you have ever known behind. Yet millions of our ancestors did just that in search of a better life for themselves and their families. Many were stricken by poverty, famine, and disease, and were forced to leave their homelands behind in search of better opportunities. Already in dire circumstances, they endured long journeys and were faced with many challenges upon their arrival.

To assist these immigrants, many benevolent and aid societies were created. They offered resources to the newly arrived, and helped many establish themselves in the United States. Continue reading Putting your best foot forward →

A “Good Life,” indeed

Family Stories,

Ben BradleeFor my 2013 book on the Saltonstall family, I wrote 23 biographical essays on family members, from GilbertB Saltonstall (grandfather of the American immigrant) to Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee, the legendary Washington Post editor. The Saltonstalls have produced a number of prominent and important public figures, including Sir Richard1 Saltonstall, who brought the family to Massachusetts Bay; Gurdon4 Saltonstall, the New London minister who became Governor of Connecticut; Congressman Leverett7 Saltonstall; and long-time Governor and Senator Leverett10 Saltonstall of Massachusetts. Still, there is no question that Ben Bradlee was the most fun subject about whom to write: he managed to pack several lifetimes’ worth of adventure into just one, spanning 93 years. His death in October drew a line under an era. Continue reading A “Good Life,” indeed →

Tips for using the Social Security Death Index

News, Research Methods, ,
SSDI application Szucs
Courtesy of Ancestry.com

The Social Security Death Index (SSDI) is a widely used collection for modern genealogical research. It is composed of information provided by the Social Security Administration (SSA) for those individuals (with Social Security numbers) who died between 1962* and the present. The SSDI often provides the following information about a deceased individual: Continue reading Tips for using the Social Security Death Index →

Witches Brew: Part Three

Family Stories,

Witches Rakes and RoguesMemorable for her encounter with Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter, Mistress Hibbins was not simply a figment of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s imagination. Long a controversial woman in Boston, she was a real person who in May 1656 was sentenced to death for the crime of witchcraft. The widow of an affluent merchant and office holder, Ann Hibbins was, in the words of historian Samuel Adams Drake, a “person of superior quality in life,” and not, as the popular imagination conceives of a witch, a “wretched hag.” Continue reading Witches Brew: Part Three →

Dead Men (and Women) Tell a Tale

Family Stories, Research Methods, ,

Burgess Family PlotWhen I was in elementary school, my class went on a field trip to the Old Village Cemetery in Dedham, Massachusetts, my hometown. I remember running around trying to complete tasks, such as finding the earliest death date and the oldest age listed on a headstone, as well as doing several grave rubbings. Though I’m sure there was a history lesson embedded somewhere in the chaos of twenty nine-year-olds running amok in a cemetery, I have long since forgotten it. What has stayed with me, however, is a love for older cemeteries. Continue reading Dead Men (and Women) Tell a Tale →

Thomas M. Menino 1942-2014

News,
Menino volume 2
The Ancestry of The Honorable Thomas Michael Menino, Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts. R. Stanton Avery Special Collections, NEHGS

In April 2009, the New England Historic Genealogical Society presented Mayor Thomas Michael Menino of Boston (1942–2014) with a specially-bound book on his ancestry compiled by David Allen Lambert. The families of Mayor Menino’s parents – the Mennino/Meninno/Meninos of Grottaminarda (Avellino) and the Sacchettis of Roccagorga (Latina) – were traced back from Boston through Hyde Park and thence to Italy. David identified all of the mayor’s great-grandparents (Tomaso Meninno, Eleonora Del Grosso, Carmine Russo, Raffaela Uva, Stefano Sacchetti, Angela Materocci, Antonio Palumbo, and Tomasina Patrucci) and took the Del Grossos, the Palumbos, and the Patruccis back one more generation.

With Mayor Menino’s death this morning, I am reminded of the production of the book and the evening on which it was presented to Tom and Angela Menino. In the story of the Meninos and the Sacchettis there is much of the history of Italian families in Massachusetts: Continue reading Thomas M. Menino 1942-2014 →

Witches Brew: Part Two

Family Stories,

Witches Rakes and RoguesAlice Lake of Dorchester became the second person tried and executed in Boston as a witch. While few details of her offenses survive – she was executed circa 1650 – she had two potent strikes against her: she had committed fornication prior to marriage, and she was reputed to have killed an infant she was carrying.

In 1673, Ann Martin Edmonds, a healer from Lynn with Boston associations, appeared before the Court of Assistants on witchcraft charges, but here the script changes. Continue reading Witches Brew: Part Two →

A legacy of witchcraft

Family Stories,
John Hathorne
Engraving by S. S. Kilburn. From The Poetical Works of Longfellow (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1902).

The legacy of Salem-born author Nathaniel Hawthorne is that of a great American writer, one whose tales of New England life and Puritanism were a focal point of the Romantic literary movement. His 1835 short story “Young Goodman Brown” became one of his most well-known works. Inspiration for this work was derived from a family history that haunted Hawthorne throughout his life and resulted in a number of literary classics that dismiss or re-evaluate this legacy. Continue reading A legacy of witchcraft →

Witches Brew: Part One

Family Stories,

Witches Rakes and RoguesOvershadowed by the hysteria that gripped the townspeople of Salem in 1692, Boston’s considerable witchcraft record has received relatively little attention. From the late 1630s to the 1690s, the town intermittently fell into witch-hunting fervor as accusations coalesced around individual women. (Men in Boston were seldom the subject of witchcraft accusations.) In all, four local women were convicted and executed in Boston witchcraft trials. Their stories – and the stories of other accusations that did not end in execution – reveal aspects of long-forgotten Boston history and the perils of life in a puritanical society that believed in the possibility of such events. Continue reading Witches Brew: Part One →

Tackling Hingham vital records

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Alicia Crane WilliamsHaving lived in Hingham the majority of my life, and with ancestors who lived there three centuries ago, I ought to have a good grasp of the Hingham records – but not so much. The problem begins with the fact that the Hingham vital records have not been published. For 121 years researchers of Hingham families have relied on George Lincoln’s 1893 History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts, as the “go to” source. Because his two-volume section on genealogies is impressive and the vital records are not in print, Lincoln’s work functions as a substitute “vital records.” I used to receive town certificates that referred to the book and page of Lincoln’s History as their source – I should note that I do not know whether that practice is still in use; I hope not. Continue reading Tackling Hingham vital records →