My Sanborn Connection

Heather Rojo at Nutfield Genealogy posted about her connection to John Sanborn of New Hampshire. On her Facebook post, she asked if her Facebook friends were descended from John, and my reply was "yes."

I thought it might be fun to include my line from John here. It would take "forever" to write a documented post so I'll leave documentation of the individuals and their parentage for future posts. I have not done extensive work on the Sanborn line, and I did learn the exact location in England where John was born from Heather's post! It's a post I've "pinned" for future reference.

Generation 1.
John Sanborn (son of John Sanborn and Ann Batchelder): born abt 1620 Brimpton, Berkshire, England; died 10 Oct 1692 Hampton, New Hampshire. I'm descended from his first wife Mary Tuck, daughter of Robert Tuck and his wife Joanna.

Generation 2.
Joseph Sanborn: born 13 Mar 1659; married Mary Gove 28 Dec 1682; died abt 1722, Hampton, New Hampshire.

Generation 3.
Abigail Sanborn: born 1 Apr 1686 Hampton, New Hampshire; married Ebenezer Dearborn 7 Oct 1703 Hampton, New Hampshire; died 26 Feb 1768 Hampton, New Hampshire.

Generation 4.
Benjamin Dearborn: born 13 Aug 1713 probably Chester, New Hampshire; married Susanna Colcord 31 Oct 1735; died 15 May 1772 Plymouth, Grafton County, New Hampshire. (County was formed in 1771.)

Generation 5.
Samuel Dearborn: born 15 Apr 1745 Chester, New Hampshire; married Abigail Ward, daughter of Rev. Nathan Ward and Tamasin Ireland Ward, 22 Jul 1777 Plymouth, Grafton County, New Hampshire; died 22 Jul 1833 Plymouth, Grafton County, New Hampshire.

Generation 6.
Nathan Dearborn: born 4 Sep 1785 Plymouth, Grafton County, New Hampshire; married 1 - Sarah Seeley 6 Feb 1812 Washington County, Ohio; married 2 - Lucy Perkins 26 Sep 1813 (probably in New Hampshire - there's a story about their wedding trip by horseback that is widely circulated); died 22 Feb 1847 Malta, Morgan County, Ohio. (I'm descended from Lucy.)

Generation 7.
Betsey Dearborn: born 4 Sep 1818 Malta, Morgan County, Ohio; married Stephen Taylor 8 Mar 1837 Morgan County, Ohio; died 12 Mar 1899 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Territory.

Betsey Dearborn Taylor, abt 1881

Generation 8.
Laura Lucy Taylor: born 25 Apr 1854 McLean County, Illinois; married Abraham Lowden Lantz 15 Feb 1874 McLean County, Illinois; died 25 Sep 1922 Monroe County, Mississippi.

Generation 9.
Irving Lee Lantz: born 19 Nov 1885 Oak Grove, McLean County, Illinois; married Gillie Mae Hester 5 Aug 1917 Monroe County, Mississippi; died 5 Sep 1971 Amory, Monroe County, Mississippi.

Generation 10.
Dorothy Ann Lantz: born 30 Aug 1924 Monroe County, Mississippi; married James Thomas Thornton, Jr. 17 Mar 1946 Amory, Monroe County, Mississippi; died 22 Mar 2010 Amory, Monroe County, Mississippi.

Generation 11.
Me!

Facebook Cousins

Yesterday morning, I decided to check Facebook before heading out to church. There was the beginning of a discussion on a photo that Pam Sayre had posted about a photograph of Linda Woodward Geiger and a Perkins cousin and his wife that she had met at the Museum of Appalachia during the FGS Conference in Knoxville. Linda had posted a comment about being descended from John Perkins and Judith Gater of Ipswich, Massachusetts. I quickly chimed in "Cousin Linda" for I, too, am descended from that couple. It wasn't long until Polly Kimmitt joined those claiming kinship. After comparing lines of descent, we discovered that Linda & I are 9th cousins once removed (with the common ancestor being the immigrant John Perkins and his wife Judith Gater), Polly & I are 9th cousins once removed (with the common ancestor being the immigrant's son John Perkins and his wife Elizabeth Evelith), and Linda & Polly are 9th cousins twice removed with the common ancestor being the immigrant once again. Since then, Bill West has also claimed to be our cousin. We'll have to calculate the degree of kinship when we have his line of descent. Now the really interesting thing was coming up with a way to cite a comment on a Facebook photograph that would meet Evidence Explained standards. I don't claim to have done it the way Elizabeth might have, but I came up with a way to do it since it is temporary documentation anyway (and not on my direct line).

Update (9/7/2010): Bill and me are 10th cousins once removed. Bill & Polly are 11th cousins. Bill and Linda are 9th cousins twice removed. Other Perkins cousins found are Melinde Lutz Sanborn, Natalie Cottrill, and Randy Seaver. We don't have enough info at the moment to calculate the degree of relationship to the last three. Natalie and Bill do share a descent through John & Judith's daughter Mary.

Update (9/9/2010): Randy Seaver and Linda are 9th cousins twice removed. Randy, Bill, and Polly are 11th cousins. Randy and me are 10th cousins once removed.

Dear Genea-Santa

I hear that you look a lot like Randy Seaver. If you live in San Diego like he does, you might want to shed that red suit you always wear. It might be a little warm in such a warm climate. You will, however, need it for your trip to East Tennessee if the weather is like today's which included some snow. Our weather seems a little colder than usual, so I just want to make sure that you are prepared for it!

I think this is where I'm supposed to say that I've been a good girl this year. However, since the song says that "he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake," that seems a bit redundant. I'll let you make your own assessment!

Here is my list of 3 wishes for Christmas. I understand that you only grant heirlooms and not clues to genealogy or current things like journal subscriptions. I have arranged them in order of priority for your convenience.

Richard & Agnes Thornton family Bible . I just know that if you'll send this along to me that it will hold the answers to the parentage of both Richard and Agnes among many other important family dates that would have been recorded.

Quilt made by Lucy Perkins Dearborn. I would love to have a quilt made by this 3rd great-grandmother. She's one of my New England ancestors that moved to the Midwest. I think an old quilt would be a wonderful heirloom.

Medical implements that belonged to Elizabeth "Betsy" Murry Mosely. I think it would be interesting to have some mid-19th century medical implements that belonged to my 3rd great-grandmother. There weren't that many females practicing medicine back then, but the family tradition that she practiced medicine is backed up by census records so I want these implements to treasure.

This concludes my wish list for Christmas 2008. I'll skip the part about the snack for Santa. Some would say that you need to go on a diet, but I think you really feed most of those snacks to the reindeer or you'd be gaining far more weight than your pictures reveal.

Sincerely,
Lori

Boston Diary - June 3

NEHGS Library didn't open until 9:00 so I had plenty of time beforehand to chart out what I wanted to accomplish on day 1. I looked at the list of resources that I definitely wanted to consult before I left town because I didn't have access to them otherwise and decided that there were several Essex County records that I could probably cover by just spending a few hours in the morning studying. There were several unique family titles that I wanted to peruse for clues but not necessarily use as proof. There were a few manuscripts that I wanted to use. Then there were some microfilm sources, some of which were also available in Family History Centers (although I understand that the delay in receiving those is getting to be quite long these days).

The hotel's breakfast was supposed to be served beginning at 7:30. Let me just say that I think that is very late for breakfast in the first place! They were 25 minutes late getting it out this morning. It was just a continental breakfast. I could have walked to Dunkin Donuts and back and stil had time to spare in the time it took for that! (Dunkin would have been better too.) This hotel served a hot breakfast when I was here in September 2006. They also had continental items, but that wasn't the only thing. Let's just say that I preferred the old breakfast! The continental breakfast has not been anything to write home about either time I've eaten there. They have changed the dining arrangements downstairs and now offer a French restaurant in the evenings (at least on some evenings). I have decided that I am going to try a breakfast place that I read about tomorrow rather than waiting on them to get breakfast out when I'm starved to death!

I walked down the street to NEHGS, arriving a few minutes before 9 a.m. I decided to spend the morning in published Essex County records and finding aids. I took many pages of notes, but one of the highlights was a transcription of a couple of wills. I plan to get copies of the originals later. One of the things that I had to keep reminding myself about is that in the old calendar the 1st month was March. In most cases, dates were written with the date, then the month, and then the year (e.g. 28: 1: 1665).

I will have to admit that my favorite find of the morning was the will of Alexander Knight, the father of Hannah who married Isaac Perkins. I'm not going to attempt to reproduce the will here even though the transcription was done in 1916. However, I will tell you why this will was my favorite of the morning. It's really quite simple. I have never run across a will that reads like a sermon before until I read this one! I also learned that Hannah was the "eldest daughter" and that her siblings were Sarah, Mary, and "Nathaniell". The will confirms that his wife's name was "Hanna" as well. Being the oldest child, Hannah (future wife of Isaac Perkins), received more land than her siblings. She got 6 acres of marsh land and 6 acres of planting land. Of course, her brother was to get the house after the death of his mother. The sermon was interesting to me. I wondered if he felt that some of his children were straying and that he was going to have one last chance to get their attention about spiritual matters during the reading of his will. The original can be found in the Essex County Probate Files in docket 15, 941. [The Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts. Volume 1, 1635-1664. Salem, Mass: Essex Institute, 1916. pages 439-441]

I had a "business lunch" with a member of the NEHGS staff. We ate at Tealuxe, a little tea and sandwich shop diagonally across from the library. The sandwich was very good. The service was great. I ordered an iced tea that had vanilla, peach, and apricot. I'll be honest. I didn't taste the flavors that much. They had an excellent tea menu though. It reminded me of Laura Childs' "Indigo Tea Shop" in her Theodosia Browning tea shop mystery series set in Charleston, South Carolina.

I spent the afternoon going through some unique Perkins family material that the library had. I went through all the issues of the Perkins Family Newsletter that the library owned. I found a few helpful items and recorded those. Perhaps the most interesting book that I ran across was one written by Robert A. Perkins, who appears to be a professor emeritus of social work from Louisiana State University. It is entitled Seeds of a Planter and appears to have been self-published in 1997. I would love to have my own copy of this book. Prof. Perkins did the most marvelous job of incorporating medieval history into the Perkins family narrative for the oldest known generations. The writing is a little to the academic side, but it really does a fantastic job of describing the family in the social context of the day, explaining what might have been happening that would cause them to want to leave England. I would exceed copyright if I copied the book so I really want to try to track this book down.

These tidbits are far from all I found today, but I just wanted to hit a few highlights.

I decided that it was time to try the North End and one of its Italian restaurants. I came back to the hotel room to do a little research. I knew that I wanted to do dessert at Mike's Pastry because EVERYONE keeps recommending it. I just didn't know which restaurant to try. I founds that the reviews for Giacomos were really good. In fact, I'm pretty sure that it is one that a lady on the plane mentioned to me as being really good. The reviews recommended lots of their items but one of them stood out to me in the reviews and on the menu itself--the butternut squash ravioli. Standing in line waiting to get in, there was a lady right behind me who was telling people "Yes, it's worth the wait; this is the best Italian place in Boston!" I will say that the prices seemed more reasonable than some of the others I had seen, and the food reviews were all really excellent.

Yes, that's asparagus. That's a mascarpone cheese cream sauce with a few bits of prosciutto in it. It was absolutely wonderful! The red sauces in various places in the dining room smelled divine with the aroma of garlic in the air!

Now, one place that has been recommended to me at least a half dozen times since I've arrived in Boston is Mike's Pastry. I've heard that I should get the ricotta pie and that I should get a cannoli. I decided to get both and box them up and bring them back to the hotel. This is the package that rode with me on the subway. I decided to try the ricotta pie first because I'd heard Rachael Ray talking about what a bargain this was and how good it was at one point. It's in my del.icio.us bookmarks for that very reason. I ate part of it. It was very good.
However, I had to try the cannoli. Someone at NEHGS told me that I absolutely had to try the cannoli, but they failed to tell me that they offered many varieties that all looked equally decadent. I settled on the Florentine Cannoli. Let me just say that I intended to only eat part of it after eating part of that ricotta pie, but it was so decadent that I just kept eating and kept eating and kept eating until it was all gone! They supposedly ship their goods, and I may have to take them up on this.
I noticed that they also had gelato, marzipan, and other goodies. I will definitely stop here again before I head home. Besides - I get to use that Charlie Card that I've got too much value on!

Italian night was very tasty!

P.S. Jasia has the 49th edition (a.k.a. the Swimsuit edition) of the Carnival of Genealogy posted.

There's a Thief Among Us . . .

When I was browsing Google Books, I ran across a snippet view book that contained information on my Perkins family. The snippet appeared to be pretty interesting so I decided to order the book via interlibrary loan. The book was Richard P. Gildrie's The Profane, the Civil, & the Godly: The Reformation of Manners in Orthodox New England, 1679-1749 (University Park, Penn.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994). What I found on pages 40-42 was a very interesting story about the wife of my seventh great grand uncle. Her father-in-law John Perkins, quartermaster, ran one of the two licensed taverns in Ipswich. By the late 1670s, he was "retirement age" as we'd say now so he'd turned the operations of the tavern over to his son Abraham and the farm to his son Luke. Luke's wife was named Elizabeth. Her maiden name is usually seen as Jaquith or Jaques. She had quite the reputation (or lack of it). Apparently she didn't really care that much for her in-laws. She had quite a tongue and used it against her mother-in-law as often as she could. [You can find an account of one trial and some of the comments in Dow's Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts via Google Books beginning around page 89 of the March 1681 proceedings.] Luke's wife Elizabeth apparently spent quite a bit of time around the inn and tavern. She gained a reputation for paying more attention to other men in the community than to her own husband. However, the thing that really caught my attention was that in September 1683, she "stole three pounds in cash and goods" from the room of a Boston trader who was staying at the inn. She must have had tastes for the finer things in life as most of the items she took involved either silk or lace. Some of the items listed were "satin ribbons, stockings, a silk hood, a lace handkerchief, a lace cap, a silk neckcloth, and a pair of "fall" [hairpieces]." She did serve a brief prison term before being released after paying a hefty fine, court costs, and damages. It makes you wonder how many of the inn's guests over the years had items go missing during their stay.

Genealogy Parade

Bill West has challenged geneabloggers to claim their float in the genealogy parade. I've decided that my float will show the heritage of my Perkins Family of Ipswich who came to the United States in 1630/1631 (although it is sometimes said to be 1629/1630) aboard the Lyon. The float will have a replica of the ship on it. There's a photo of a replica of the ship on the Deacon Stephen Hart page. I think I'd also have a few of the ship's other passengers aboard this ship as Roger Williams, the Baptist minister who founded Rhode Island, was also aboard the same ship at the same time. Why did I choose this? I just think a ship would make a nice float!

Family Feud . . . 17th century Style

Today I was entering some information into my genealogy database regarding my Perkins family in Essex County, Massachusetts. The source for the information came from Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County Massachusetts; volume IV, 1667-1671. Salem, Mass.: Essex Institute, 1914. I found what appears to be a feud between the Perkins and Brabrooke families.

In the September 1668 minutes, there was the case of "Richard Brabrooke v. Abraham Perkins. Trespass upon a replevin. Verdict for defendant. Court did not accept the verdict."

In the footnotes, this is further explained that there was a writ of replevin dated 11 August 1668 which was for 15 or 16 cattle belonging to Richard Brabrook (his name is spelled several ways throughout the proceedings recorded) which had been impounded by Abraham Perkins. I wish I knew a little more about the case, but it appears that some cows got into the corn. Some of the statements in the footnotes are rather interesting. "John Willestone and Jacob Perkins deposed that none of the cattle that went on the common were known to break into this corn, etc. Sworn in court." "James Giddings and John Anddruse deposed that they were present when Abr. Perkins sent his man John Williestone to Brabrock, etc. They appraised the damage at twenty bushels." "John Burnam, sr. deposed that he saw Perkins drive this unruly bullock to the pound, which animal had taken a post out of the ground from a fence and carried it away. Sworn in court." "Thomas Watts deposed concerning Brabrok's cattle. Sworn in court." Wouldn't you love to know what he said about those cows? Here's my favorite line: "Samuell Roggers and John Browne, sr., deposed that they being appointed by the town to view a fence adjoining the common in the new pasture, when they came near, said how can any man expect to save any corn by such a fence, etc. Sworn in court." [p. 49]

That was rather interesting, in and of itself, but a few pages over, also in the September 1668 minutes is something even more fascinating. It involves a 16 year old Brabrooke and Jacob Perkins, which I presume to be the uncle of Abraham rather than his brother. "Mehittabell Brabrooke, complained of for suspicion of setting a house on fire, being convicted of extreme carelessness if not wilfully burning the house, was ordered to be severely whipped, and to pay 40li. damage to Jacob Perkins." The footnotes tell the story that while her Master Jacob Perkins and his wife were in town that she basically burned the house down with her pipe. I read over the way she claims it happened, and I'm afraid that I have to agree that there is no way that she was telling the truth that it was an accident. In fact, it seems odd that she looked back and saw the fire, and then didn't tell Abraham Perkins' wife Hannah when she went across the field. Instead she appears to have been trying to keep the fire from being discovered until it was well underway. She did finally make a comment about the fire. My favorite deposition in the case is from Goodwife Brag who testified that "she heard Goodwife Brabrock say that Mehitabell was a filthy, unchaste creature." [pp. 56-57]

It doesn't stop there . . . I've read ahead and have already found a case involving the same names and their witnesses at odds with one another in a slander suit. [pp. 76-77]

It sounds to me like a family feud. I suspect that those on both sides of this dispute would have never imagined that a little over 100 years later that members on both sides of the feud would marry one another.

Nathan Dearborn Household in 1820

Betsey Dearborn's father was Deacon Nathan Dearborn. He was one of the early members of the Windsor Baptist Church in Windsor Township, Morgan County, Ohio. In 1820, he can be found right there in Windsor Township with his family. There is one male 26-45 (Nathan); one female 26-45 (wife, Lucy Perkins); one male under 10 (son, Henry Perkins); and two females under 10 (daughters Betsey and Elsina). The Dearborns have one son Samuel Ward Dearborn who was born and died in 1817 according to family members.

Sources: 1820 U.S. census, Windsor Twp., Morgan County, Ohio, p. 74, line 6, Nathan Derborn; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 September 2007); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm M33, roll 92.

Robertson, Charles. History of the Windsor Baptist Church. Published online at Morgan County OHGenWeb <http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohmorgan/brick.htm>, accessed 27 Jul 2002. Originally published in History of Morgan County, Ohio (1886), p. 412.

Stearns, Ezra S. Plymouth New Hampshire Families. Baltimore, Md.: Clearfield Company, 2001. Orig. pub. as vol. 2 of The History of Plymouth, New Hampshire (Cambridge, Mass., 1906), p. 199.