Happy birthday Great-grandmother Zulieka Granger Phillips Swasey

A repost of blog from last year's birthday with additions!

On July 30, 1858, Zulieka Granger Phillips Swasey was born.  Her mother Mary Phillips, had been a Granger before marriage.  Her father, William Phillips, was raised by a stepfather, Samuel Gainer in Georgia.  Her mother went from Texas back to Georgia to give birth, and I'm not clear whether she was with her own mother or her mother-in-law.

Baby Zulie was given a slave girl at her birth, with the papers written by hand by her paternal grandmother, Mary Phillips Gainer.  I wonder if any of them knew that the Civil War would be starting in just a few years.

She returned with her parents (Mary and Willian Phillips) to Sabine Pass, Texas or Beaumont, Texas, at a time when there were cotton plantations where now oil wells drill, and cities stand.

Front and back of Zulie G. Swasey portrait, mother of Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers

GG Zulieka was know to the family as "Dear Nan."  Her mother, Mary, had another child two years later, and Mary died within a year of that birth.  Julie's father William Phillips may have been sick, may have been grieving, or some other reason had him leaving the homestead, and sending his daughters to relatives in Galveston.  Within 6 months of his wife's death, he joined the Confederate forces, fighting early in the war with other Texans in a company from Alabama, and dying.

GG Zulieka and her younger sister, Ada Phillips, were raised by Granger and Gainer relatives who were the sisters of either their father or their mother.

When Zulieka married at age 24 to Alexander John Swasey, also of Galveston, she then had her own two girls, naming her first Ada Phillips Swasey, and her second Stella Zulieka Swasey.  Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers became my grandmother on my father's side.

Zulieka Swasey (Dear Nan) and her granddaughter Ada Mary Rogers. (Ada Mary Rogers died as a child)

And how do I know more than is available by census and city directory documents?  My relatives somehow kept copies of letters written by Zulieka's mother, her father, her grandmother Gainer, her grandfather Granger, and her uncle Marion Granger.  I've transcribed them into records for these people on Ancestry.com, which kind of makes these people more real.

The letters just before and during the Civil War are the most precious, because of the lack of true information that was available to people, and the privations they endured.  Letters were written on both sides of folded paper, then across the original writing at a 90 degree angle, as well as in the margins.  See HERE for some of the letters.

I've never known why GG-Grandmom Mary Phillips traveled to San Marcos, Hays County, TX from Galveston to give birth to my G-grandmother, Zulieka Granger Phillips Swasey on July 30, 1858.  Then she had her second daughter, Ada Pulsifer Phillips in Beaumont (or more likely Town Bluff) on Sept. 15, 1860. The second daughter, Great Aunt Ada, went by Auntie to the Swasey and Granger relatives, while Zulieka became Dear Nan.

The story my grandmother Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers told was that Dear Nan had been a 10 month pregnancy by her mother. I later learned that midwives were familiar with a second pregnancy actually starting within the first month of the earlier one, where a woman would lose the first pregnancy but keep the second one, and thus think she was pregnant 10 months.

Since GG Zulieka and her sister had been orphaned during the civil war, I don't know of any relations that might have lived in San Marcos.  Her Aunt Lizzie Granger Sweet who helped raise the 2 Phillips orphans, continued living in Galveston for many more years. As a matter of fact, when Zulieka was listed as living with her brother-in-law, Chauncey Sweet, Zulieka's 2 daughters were counted on the census as living with the Sweets, though they were also listed in Galveston living with their parents at another address.

So San Marcos remains a mystery.  I only know that her own mother, Mary Granger Phillips had traveled from Texas back to Georgia to give birth to Zulieka with her in-laws, but not with the second child.

Great grandmother Zulieka (aka Dear Nan) was a Christian Science practitioner, as was my grandmother Ada Swasey Rogers.  G-Gran Zulieka worked out of her apartment home in Houston and was listed in the city directory, as was her accountant husband, Alexander John Swasey, who may have gone by "A.J."

A.J. Swasey died in 1913.  GG Zulieka continued her practice until that year (1913.) In the 1920 census she was living with Chauncey Sweet in Galveston, but in 1930 she was back in Houston. She died in an automobile accident near Rosenburg, TX on April 21. 1935, and is buried in Galveston.

Happy birthday Grandpa Bud!

Granddad "Bud" Webb

Albert "Bud" James (Joe?) Webb

born July 30, 1891, died Sept. 15, 1919.

From my mother's photo album, showing a couple of portrait photos that may have been inside lockets.  She had been only 2 when he died.

In the 1900 census of Goliad, Texas, he was 8 years old, living with parents Annie E. (age 37) and Larry F. Webb (age 42), who had been married for 22 years.  Others in the household included a 16 year old sister, Maggie, a 13 year old brother, Thomas, and an 11 year old sister Clara.  The census said his father had been born in Texas, and his father's father was from Maryland and his mother from Ohio.  His mother, Annie E. Williams had been born in Missouri, and her father was born was born in Kentucky.  Larry F. Webb has as his occupation " head" of (inscription is slightly hard to read) "General Merch" which I think would be a general store. There was also a "lodger" in the home, 25 year old Katy Ayers, whose occupation was house servant.

I always look at the original census data, because otherwise I would have missed seeing the next household listed was headed by James E. Webb, age 21, living with his brother, John L. Webb, age 20.  Since their parents were born in the same places as Annie and Larry Webb, I believe these were elder brothers of Albert.  James was a bookkeeper at the time, and John as salesman.  They were born in DeWitt County, Weesatche, Texas.  

Bud Webb at 18 (in the Census of 1910) was working in a real estate office in San Antonio.  His father owned and operated a "confectionery."  The family still had a servant who lived with them.  Incidentally, my records show Bud having been born in "Huisache, Texas" which is a Hispanic way to spell Weesatche.  Apparently this was difficult for the Anglos to sound out, so they phonetically altered the spelling.

When something happened in 1894, this photo of Bud's father's Store in Weesatche commemorates it with  the friends and employees.  Larry F. Webb himself outlived his son by many years, dying in 1921. So perhaps this was when the family moved to San Antonio since it says "In Memory of..."



The San Antonio City Directory in 1910 listed the Webbs who lived at the same address, 130 Lewis, and the first alphabetically was Albert (Bud).  He was a solicitor for Conness Realty.  The other Webbs were his sister, Miss Clara Webb, and his parents Leary F. and Anna Webb (he running the Confectionery on San Pedro Av. SW) 

Albert and my grandmother, Mozelle Miller, married Aug 7, 1915, in San Antonio.  He was 24, and she was a month shy of her 17th birthday.

Albert's draft card for World War I, dated June 15, 1917, lists his birthday but a year younger in 1892. And maybe the typist had some problems, because he's listed as Albert Joe not James.  (He may have prefered that name, since he had an older brother named James.) He was living now at 95 Lewis St. and proclaims he has a wife and child.  The registration just says he's "tall" and medium build, blue eyes, light colored hair, slightly bald. He just signed the card A. J. Webb.  He never went to the war.

So what killed him?  Apparently not the Influenza epidemic.  My mother's story as I grew up, was that a bad extension cord on Christmas lights electrocuted him.  What's wrong with this picture?  He died Sept. 15, 1919, not in December.  Maybe there was a bad electrical cord, and my mother was reminded of it when we strung lights at Christmas, and I've blended the time she shared about it into my own rendition.  Early electric wiring was certainly not that good.  Whatever took this young man's life, my mother had to be told about him by her mother and her aunts and grandmother.  I don't think the Webbs had much contact with her throughout her life. His death certificate does say "electrical, not at business."

I also remember her saying that her grandmother, Annie Elizabeth Williams Webb, had been an heiress to the Woolworth fortune.  And there was some connection with the Little Church Around the Corner in New York City.  My sister may have found out more about these stories, and I never heard what they were.

For many years my genealogy records gave Joe as his middle name, but his death certificate says Albert James Webb.  Perhaps either one could be right.

Here's a picture of his brother, another salesman (according to his 1938 death certificate), John Leroy Webb.  (Apparently Larry was spelled that way, or Leary by these Webb gentlemen.)

John Leroy Webb

Webb plot San Antonio TX.

"He Is Not Dead, He Is Just Away," Inscription on grave marker (Albert J. Webb 1891-1919) 

(David William Carroll was buried next to him, his sister Mattie Webb Carroll's husband.)

Marker is in Mission Burial Park South, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, Plot: Block 2, Masonic Garden 

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Yes

I'll be back.
Have taken on a new editing job for newsletter...and it's gotten a bit more difficult.

A German immigrant in the 1800s

My mother's grandfather was Charles Herman Mueller (Miller) born in Mecklenburg, Germany. He has several posts already about him...so I'm reposting from the 2018 one.
I found it interesting that he applied for US citizenship 3 times before apparently becoming a US citizen in 1939.  There was a large German population in the San Antonio region of Texas, most of them immigrants who had been welcomed to settle in the former Mexican territory.  But I imagine the politics of Hitler's Germany may have affected the Americans of German descent.
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I mentioned him in one of my early posts (2014) about ancestors (Here) and hoped to hear from my cousin Leslie again, but it never happened (yet).  She suggested that he had been a stow-away on a ship from Mecklenburg Germany.

A 2013 post talked about Mecklenburg and his life here.  (included at the end of this post today in 2019)

I also posted on his birthday Here (2014 post July 18.) showing his application for citizenship which shows his photo as well  He was born somewhere around 1870.

Here's my first birthday post about him...

Thursday, July 18, 2013

"Charley" Charles Herman Miller

My great grandfather:

• Charles Herman Miller (Mueller) 

  B: 18 Jul 1868  Mecklenberg, , Schwerin, Germany  

  D: 7 Nov 1946  San Antonio, Bexar, Texas    

 That's what Ancestry DOT com says about him.

I have searched through lots of immigration records to try to find info about when he arrived in the US.  I think he was pretty young.

A census report of Smithfield, in Bastrop County, Texas in 1910 says the family lived on Neudgins St, (maybe something spelled somewhat like that) number 244.  It has Charles listed as head of household, age 41, married 14 years, and all his 4 daughters had been born.

His wife Eugenia Booth Miller was 36 at the time, and the census says her father was born in Illinois and her mother was born in Alabama. (I've honored her on my blog HERE) They were married Oct 28, 1896, according to Ancestry (though I don't see the actual date on the census report, which Ancestry uses as its source.  I think this came from another descendant - cousin?).

It (1910 census) clearly says Charles immigrated to the US in 1865, and that he is a naturalized citizen.  Do you notice any problem yet?

His grave marker says he was born in 1868.  His census record in 1910 says he is 41, which works if the census was taken before his July 18 birthday. And it is dated (by hand on that actual sheet) April 27, 1910. But  this census says he immigrated 3 years before he was born.

OK, there's also a listing of him in the census of 1900, living in Hill County, Texas, which is the home of his wife's family, the Booths.  They have been married 3 years, and have my grandmother already, a 2 year old at that time.  Charley is his listed name, showing that he probably had that as his nickname.  His birth includes the month, July 1868 thus verifying two other sources.  But does it list a date he immigrated?  No, nor how long he's been in the US, nor that he's naturalized.

Another strange listing is how Eugenia has a father now from Indiana, and her mother from Louisiana.  At least Charley's occupation is consistent, a conductor on the railroad.  I can just see him wearing his hat and uniform, and I'd gladly give him my ticket.  Can you say "All Aboard!"   (If this phrase has no meaning for you, you were born too late for the railroad.)

In 1920, another anomaly about Eugenia's parents  (which I can actually correct, but for now I'm just enjoying how they skirted around on these census reports.)  Her father was born in Illinois, but mother was born in Georgia.  And he's a conductor but has no date of immigration given.  The census taker must have gotten tired of asking questions because naturalization is given, but the date of same, or date of immigration are just scribbles...not years.)

Fast forward to 1930 census... (I looked very briefly at a Charley Miller in the census of 1870, who was 2 years old in Texas, but race was black.)  In 1930 Charley was 61, his wife Eugenia is 57, and two of his daughters in their 20's still live at home, in the house pictured below.  (Eugenia's parents are now from Indiana and Alabama,)

And now the immigration date is given as a believable 1871.   He hasn't retired, but is still a passenger conductor.

The 1940 census included Charles Miller, age 71, at the same house.  He no longer lives with my great grandmother, who died in '36, but the two younger daughters are still at home now in their 30's, and my grandmother has moved back as well, now age 42 and twice widowed.  (My mother had married and moved into her own home several years  in with her in-laws the year before.)

Has Charles retired at 71? No, and he's listed as a RR Passenger Conductor for Steam M.K.T. Railroad, Co.  He is listed as having complete 4th grade level of school.  2 of his daughters are now seamstresses at home, and the other is a Jr. High School teacher.

After reading this obituary (below) I searched a bit for a sister who was Mrs. Dora Lawnon, but without results. 

The sleuthing about these people will continue! 

Obit: Charles Herman Miller, 78, member of Central Christian Church, died at his home at 111 Davis Court, Thursday, November 7, 1946, He is survived by his daughters, Mrs Mozelle Miller Munhall, Mrs Rowena Miller Rogers, Miss Dorothy D. Miller, and Miss Margaret E. Miller, all of San Antonio; a sister Mrs Dora Lawnon, (my italics) three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.Services will be held Saturday November 9 at 10 am at McCollum Chapel with Dr. Floyd A. Bash officiating. Interment will be at Mission Burial Park under the auspices of San Antonio Lodge No. 1079 A. P. A. A. M.

SOURCE: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=56841312

 

 Miller Family Monument

I never met this great grandfather.  I never heard any stories about him.  Happy Birthday Pop Pop Charley.

Please spend time learning what you can from the elders in your family, now, before they're gone

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Here's the 1939 photo of him on his Naturalization application.

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Reposted from Dec. 2013 with edits

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

More roots across the seas

How about another area from which ancestors came?  Germany is easy.  My very great-grandfather (who I never knew) came from Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany, which is a large area much like a state in the US.  Unfortunately I don't know much beyond his census records.

I know he changed his name from Mueller to Miller, the anglicized version of the same name.  And there were a lot of Germans coming to central Texas both before and after the Civil War.

I do believe he was a Mason.  And my family told me he was a conductor for the railroad all his life...which is substantiated on various census records.

But let me learn a bit about German roots now.

There was a census taken "... of citizens of Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin as of 2/3 December 1867. Authorized enumerators, went from house to house in their appointed areas, recording in a “household list” of each person who was present at the time in the apartment or house."  If my grandfather had left in 1865, his household would no longer have been there.  (The link is here, giving another link to a German language list by area.  Since I have no idea of the area within Mecklenuerg-Schwerin that the Muellers came from, I'm up the proverbial creek without a paddle.  There are several hundred lists to chose from.)


Wikipedia speaks of Mecklenburg-Schwerin thus:

History, 1621–1933

"Like many German territories, Mecklenburg was sometimes partitioned and re-partitioned among different members of the ruling dynasty. In 1621 it was divided into the two duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Güstrow. With the extinction of the Güstrow line in 1701, the Güstrow lands were redivided, part going to the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and part going to the new line of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
In 1815, the two Mecklenburgian duchies were raised to Grand Duchies, and subsequently existed separately as such in Germany under enlightened but absolute rule (constitutions being granted on the eve of World War I) until the revolution of 1918. Life in Mecklenburg could be quite harsh. Practices such as having to ask for permission from the Grand Duke to get married, or having to apply for permission to emigrate, would linger late into the history of Mecklenburg (i.e. 1918), long after such practices had been abandoned in other German areas. Even as late as the later half of the 19th century the Grand Duke personally owned half of the countryside. The last Duke abdicated in 1918, as monarchies fell throughout Europe. The Duke's ruling house reigned in Mecklenburg uninterrupted (except for two years) from its incorporation into the Holy Roman Empire until 1918. From 1918 to 1933, the duchies were free states in the Weimar Republic.
Traditionally Mecklenburg has always been one of the poorer German areas, and later the poorer of the provinces, or Länder, within a unified Germany. The reasons for this may be varied, but one factor stands out: agriculturally the land is poor and can not produce at the same level as other parts of Germany. The two Mecklenburgs made attempts at being independent states after 1918, but eventually this failed as their dependence on the rest of the German lands became apparent."

I won't assume that my grandfather had any relations who were royal, so we can skip all the hooplah about family crests.  The family name speaks of being Millers, at some point in his ancestry.  So my conjecture is that someone he was descended from had milled either grains or lumber.

Here's some great information about immigration... 

The (Texas) German Belt is the product of concepts and processes well known to students of migration, particularly the concept of "dominant personality," the process called "chain migration," and the device of "America letters." Voluntary migrations generally were begun by a dominant personality, or "true pioneer." This individual was forceful and ambitious, a natural leader, who perceived emigration as a solution to economic, social, political, or religious problems in his homeland. He used his personality to convince others to follow him in migration. In the case of the Texas Germans, Friedrich Diercks, known in Texas under his alias, Johann Friedrich Ernst, was the dominant personality. Ernst had been a professional gardener in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg in northwestern Germany. He immigrated to America intending to settle in Missouri, but in New Orleans he learned that large land grants were available to Europeans in Stephen F. Austin's colony in Texas. Ernst applied for and in 1831 received a grant of more than 4,000 acres that lay in the northwest corner of what is now Austin County. It formed the nucleus of the German Belt. 

In the late 1830s German immigration to Texas was widely publicized in the Fatherland. The publicity attracted a group of petty noblemen who envisioned a project to colonize German peasants in Texas. The nobles hoped the project would bring them wealth, power, and prestige. It could also, they thought, alleviate overpopulation in rural Germany. Their organization, variously called the Adelsverein, the Verein zum Schutze Deutscher Einwanderer in Texas, or the German Emigration Company, began work in the early 1840s. They chose Texas as the site for their colony, in part because of the favorable publicity surrounding the Ernst-inspired migration and perhaps because Texas was an independent republic where the princes might exercise some political control. Though the Mainzer Adelsverein was a financial disaster, it transported thousands of Germans, mostly peasants, to Texas. Between 1844 and 1847 more than 7,000 Germans reached the new land. Some of the immigrants perished in epidemics, many stayed in cities such as Galveston, Houston, and San Antonio, and others settled in the rugged Texas Hill Country to form the western end of the German Belt. The Adelsverein founded the towns of New Braunfels and Fredericksburg.

"By 1850, when the organized projects ended, the German Belt in Texas was well established. America letters and chain migration continued through the 1850s but stopped with the Union blockade of Confederate ports. During the 1850s the number of German-born persons in Texas more than doubled, surpassing 20,000.

"From 1865 to the early 1890s, more Germans arrived in Texas than during the thirty years before the war. The number probably reached 40,000. Many of them settled in the rural areas and towns of the German Belt.Interestingly, the postbellum immigrants generally avoided the Hill Country.

SOURCE: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/png02

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The original German settlers in Texas weren't from Mecklenberg-Schwerin however, so it stands to reason that the Miller family came after hearing about the success stories of other Germans in central Texas.

Since he married a woman (non-German descent) in Hillsboro, Texas (in the Hill Country) when he was 28, I was looking into the families from Germany which settled there.  But my source (above) says there wasn't much influx of German immigrants into Hill Country Texas after the Civil War.  
It goes on to say...

By the 1880s German ethnic-islands dotted north central, northern, and western Texas. Ethnic islands failed to develop in East Texas, the Trans-Pecos, and the Rio Grande valley, however. 

 By the 1890s sizable German elements had appeared in Texas cities, particularly in San Antonio, Galveston, and Houston. As late as 1880 the population of San Antonio was one-third German. By then a greater percentage of Germans lived in towns and cities than was true of the Texas population at large. German immigration to Texas tapered off during the 1890s. 

But being a railroad conductor was already his occupation when Charley H. Miller (as his census name is listed) had been married just 3 years, as listed in the 1900 Census of Hill County, TX which includes his oldest daughter at 2, who would become my grandmother.  That census also states that he'd been born in Texas, (not true) though his parents had been born in Germany.  Their neighbors tended to be tradesmen and laborers.  A nearby baker with 7 children came from Bohemia, which I think of as Czech, but everyone else was from a southern US state.

Later Census reports show his family in Smithfield, Texas and then San Antonio, Texas. 


How about the Texas railroad history?
The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company was known as M-K-T or Katy.  I saw and heard of Katy, but never remembered it was the name of the railroad.  It was the first railroad to enter Texas from the north, replacing the cattle trails that had historically brought beef to the northern packing houses. It took many years, many political and corporate squabbles to work out ownership, taxation, leases and all kinds of typical Texas power struggles over who owned what.  It was part of the struggles of a new empire in Texas.  Passenger trains were where my great grandfather worked, however, as a conductor.

Will of Joseph Granger, blacksmith, who died in 1847

I just found the hand written will of Joseph Granger, blacksmith. This is not the  birthday of my 5th great grandfather born Dec. 7,1765 in Andover, Essex County, Massachusetts.  I'm updating a post from 2013 in his honor.

Just added this will on Ancestry to my family tree.  Joseph Granger leaves the following items to his descendants:

1st -3 dollars to daughter Fannie Coolidge

2nd - daughter Sarah Granger, 1/2 of dwelling house - the western half, with land and furniture. (He doesn't give any information about the eastern half of the house.)

3rd - son Joseph Granger, 3 dollars

4th - daughter Mary S. Chase, 3 dollars

5th - children of son Farnam, 3 dollars each

6th - son George T Granger, 3 dollars

7th - after all debts paid, remainder of estate divided equally among son George T. Granger, daughter Mary Chase and son Daniel Granger

Signed 19 May 1842

He didn't die until 1847.  And his son Daniel Granger was the executor of his will.  George T. Granger had also been appointed to do so, but doesn't appear in the probate documents of 1847, though he was still living in Newburyport MA at the time.

I'll add the previous post about Joseph Granger to this one, so these records are kept together. 

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Joseph Granger is my grandmother's (Ada Swasey Rogers) grandmother's father.

He was a little boy during the American Revolution.  He had 6 siblings.

His parents were Jacob (1735-1795) and Sarah Farnam Granger (1730-1806) whose grave markers still may be found in Old North Parish Burying Ground, North Andover, MA.   Sarah Farnam Granger had descended from her great grandfather Hopestill Tyler (1646-1734). 

A brief post was on my blog Here for Jacob Granger's birthday in August.  Jacob had been a soldier in the Revolutionary war.





Back to Joseph.  He married at age 28 in 1794, in Newburyport, Essex, MA..  The writing of the record is almost illegible, so it's either Jan 20, or 29, or June 20.  His wife was Sarah Tyler Granger (1768 – 1831) She is of the family of Job Tyler's descendents as described in North America, Family Histories 1500-2000, p82. I gave some of Job Tyler's history HERE.

Joseph and Sarah Tyler Granger had seven children, and George Tyler Granger (1806-?) was to become my great times 4 grandfather, (see post here.)

Upper left notation is "Children of Joseph and Sarah Grainger" which indicates his son and my ancestor, George Tyler, was born in 1806 rather than,1804, the date which all the other records on Ancestry show.  Oh my.  This is how records are messed up.

Joseph lived to be 81, which is outstanding in and of itself.  He died Mar 21, 1847.  He had outlived his wife, and at least 2 of his children.  

The 1840 Newburyport, MA census has a household under the name of Joseph Grainger, where he would be the male age 75, living with one female age 30-40.   His youngest daughter, Mary S. Granger Chase would have been 41, but since she apparently had 8 children, and she moved to Maine at some point, I doubt that she was living with him.  It could have been an employed housekeeper.

One of the two written death records about him states he was a blacksmith, and had palsy at the time of death as a widower.  It also lists Daniel and Sarah Granger as survivors. Daniel was his youngest son.  

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His daughter Sarah never married, and died around age 50 (from cancer) in May, 1846. So she didn't benefit from the 1842 will, and apparently his death in March of 1847 was probated back to that will.

Samuel Swasey 1682-1739 Salem MA Shipwright

Samuel Swasey was born 14 July 1682!

I first will include information copied from a book about the Swasey family...

Samuel Swasey     Birth 14 July 1682 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, United States 
    Death 1739 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, United States  Samuel Swasey, Shipwright, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1682, died in Salem 1739;  Samuel, married Ammi Ayers, daughter of Nathaniel Ayers of Boston, on Jan. 16, 1711.  He is mentioned both in Boston & Salem as shipbuilder.  On Feb. 20, 1709-10, he bought of Mary & Elizabeth Lambert of Boston, heirs of Daniel Lambert of Sallem, their interest in their father's estate including house & lot, building yard, wharf, etc.  In 1710, he bought the interest of  Daniel Lambert Jr. & also of John Lambert Jr. fishermen.  In 1742, his widow the remainder of the Lambert estate.  He also bought extensive tracts of land including salt marshes in the Southfield.

These lots including house, shipyard & wharf, borrowed sererally in Salem on Summer Street, Norman Street, on the Creek, now Creek Street, & included Marstons whart where the present B. & M. Station stands.  At his decease, two of his sons: Nathaniel, a cooper of Salem, & Samuel Of  Ipswich, Mass; divided the house between them; Nathaniel taking the western & Samuel the eastern half.  In 1713, he bought a house & lot in Boston where he lived 3 years & where his first 3 children were born  The same year bought l 3/4 acres on Castle Or Gallows Hill in Salem, a high & extensive mound of land reduced in 1904, to a level of the streets for purposes of the B. & M. Railroad.

As a contribution to the early settlement of Salem we quote his several sales of land in the Southfield.  Dec 9, 1719, he secured by mortgage of 50 pds land of  Benjamin Holmes, known as Holmes Hill.  Dec 3, 1730 he sold to Edward Pickering for 40 pds two acres of land in which his wife joins.  Nov 21. 1734, he sold for 17 pds a small lot of land  to John Leach..  Aug. 12, 1734. for 46 pds he sold to John Gardner, yeoman, l acre of land bounded by Gardner's Marsh & upland & by Brown's marsh & Holmes Hill.  Feb 25, 1734, Samuel Swasey &8 olthers convey land including Holmes Hill to the town of Salem--being that land granted by ye Selectmen of Salem, Feb 28, 1672, to the proprietors of ye Southfield through whose land ye county highway was laid out ( the road to Marblehead).  He also conveyed for 55 pds 2 1/2  acres to Walter Smith on the Andover road, also several acres of salt marsh in ye Southfield.

After his death, his widow, Ammi, lived wht the son, Joseph at Swanses (Somerset, Mass), where she died at nearly 100 years of age.  She made her will Jan. 02, 1783.    Will of Samuel Swasey: Shipwright, made his will Jan. 29, 1738-9; proved Feb. 26. 1738.  Wife: Ammi, to have the house, etc, homestead during her life & to lhave about 11 acres purchased of Joseph Hardy & to be executrix of the will.  Children:  Samuel Swasey & Nathaniel Swasey---They to have hand in Southfield purchased of widow Hannah Pickering; also a piece near Long Wharf, Salem ( about 1/2 acre), & two common rights in great pasture; also they to have the dwelling house, barn, etc.  Joseph & Stephen Swasey, to have a piece of about 2 acres purchased of Susannah Daniels; also salt marsh next to Col. Brown's land;  also two common rights in the great pasture--likewise they to have the dwelling house in Salem bought of Eben Lambert, deceased after the widow deceased.  Ammi & Elidabeth Swasey, to ahve a small piece of land in Salem lying between ye estate of wm. Luscomb, deceased, & eben Glover;   each a common right in great pasture; also they to each a silver tankard, itc, including his house & land in Boston, to be sold to pay his debts.  It had been purchased of Nathaniel Ayers, blacksmith, etc.  Inventory,  Guardian to Stephen, app. June 16, 1749, when upwards of 14 years, was the widow Ammi Swasey. wife of Samuel Swasey

(Source: Geneology of the Swasey Family 1910 by Benjamin Swasey an ebook that is available on line)

Samuel Swasey was a second generation American colonial, his grandfather, Joseph Swasey, Sr.  having immigrated from England in 1632.  His father,  Joseph II, also had been born in Salem Mass.  He had many relatives who were Quakers, most of whom settled in Southold, Long Island, New York, and it is not known if Samuel was a Quaker.

Samuel Swasey married in 1710 to Ammi (Annie) Ayers Swasey (1687-1783) and they had 6 children. Samuel and Ammi are my six times great grandparents.

I had long thought that these 2 houses were homes of Samuel's relatives...but they appear to be in Newburyport, and Samuel lived in Salem, and Boston.  After looking at all the property changing hands in the above quote, I don't find an ounce of evidence that he lived in Newburyport MA.  So now I'll go looking at cousins.

An ancestor born July 13, 1600,

Happy birthday to Anna Rosanna White Porter 

 BIRTH 13 JULY 1600 • Shalford, Essex, England 

DEATH 11 MAY 1647 • Windsor, Hartford, Conn

She was the mother of Sarah Porter Judson, grandmother of Sarah Judson Curtiss, and great grandmother of Anna Curtiss Booth, wife of  Zachariah Booth.  So my middle name of Booth, harkens back to the surname of my ancestors.

Anna White Porter was the daughter of Robert & Bridget (Allgar) White, and sister of three other New England immigrants: John White, Elizabeth (White) Goodwin, & Mary (White) Loomis.

She and John Porter had eleven known children. The Parish records of Shalford & Messing, Essex, England list Anne Whighte baptised July 13, 1600 in Shalford, daughter of Robert Wheight. SOURCE: American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI) vol 138, Pg. 460.

And she's one of the few of my ancestors that has a birth date (actually her baptism date) for a great times 10 grandmother!

It's fun to look back at any of the New England ancestors, especially those who were in leadership positions, because there are so many records about them, and if they came from a family in England (which most of them did!) who had church records about birth/baptism, marriage and death, then there are lots of records to check.  However, when all the records say a man was married at 4 years of age, and another record at least lets him get to be 27 before marrying, which one am I to believe?  So at this juncture, I've been looking at John Porter's father, and finding some of the dates of his death are based upon a written text (thank heavens I could find and read it) where it says, "John Porter a boy."  So I doubt that this is our ancestor.  I can only do this research for about a half hour at a time, because it really gives me a headache.

Welcome to the Sherlock side of Genealogy!

And in honor of Anna (Rosanna) White Porter, the records that I have give her birth, her marriage, and a whole list of children's names.

Burke's American Families with British Ancestry (pg. 2869) says her husband,

John Porter of Windsor Conn, born 1590; emigrated to America from Felsted, Essex, England ca. 1637, to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, later moving to Windsor in 1639; married Anna (who d. 1647) dau. of Robert White, and d, 1648, leaving issue, 1. Samuel, 2. Nathaniel, 3. Eleazar Porter, 4, William Porter (physician.)

Her father, Robert White, left a will, which gives a lot of information about the family in England.  I already posted about Robert White, and Lady Bridget Algar White.

Anna Rosanna married John Porter of Windsor Connecticut,  and she was the 6th of 8 children of Robert and his wife Brydgette Algar. Source: Descendants of Joseph Loomis in America, and his antecedents in the Old World, pg 104 in Loomis Genealogy.

Anna and John Porter had their first 9 children born in England.  They are listed in records of their baptisms from 1621 to 1637.  One son, Samuel, died at 2 months of age.  This is interesting because the Burke's publication quoted above has him continuing to live, and being the head of a family.  Yes, having lost the first Samuel in 1632, the Porters named another son Samuel who was born in 1635. Source: English Origins of New England Families, Second Series Vol. III, pg. 736.

In the same source, page 732, Anna White Porter and her sister, Mary White Loomis, are described living in homes next to each other in Windsor, CT.

And on page 731, same source, Anna White of Messing (England) is married to John Porter of Felsted on 18 Oct 1620.  That same page talks of Anna's death (as John Porter's wife, in 1647) and her husband's will, when he died in 1648.

Much of the same information is repeated in Families of Ancient Windsor, under John Porter, Sr.

Though there was a date of death in Windsor CT for Mrs. Porter (her given name wasn't mentioned), her burial is unknown.  Her third child was Sara Porter, who married Joseph Judson, and they were my 9 times great grandparents.  But their story is posted about here.

As a footnote, I must mention the fact that I lived in Windsor Connecticut in the 1960s, where the Porter family had lived and Anna and her husband died.  I admit I didn't walk the same paths that she did, but I probably drove the same roads that were part of her life.  Just 322 years later!  I must mention that my husband had grown up in the Hartford, Connecticut area in the 1950s and attended a "prep school" named Loomis.  I'm sure it was founded by the same family as Anna's sister's husband.

Our Windsor CT home in 1968-69. We painted it a nice colonial blue, but it had been cream when we moved there, and apparently the present owners (2013) liked that color as well.

No answers for a 5 times great grandmother

Continuing to meet my ancestors on my mother's mother's tree, the Booth Family Tree...today I explore Ancestry for my 5 times great grandmother Mary Sarah Polly Hyde Hansford.

She may have been born in 1729 or 1739, in Surry County VA.  If she was born on the later date, she would have been 14 when she married William Hansford Jr.  He was born in 1727, and that is the date recorded when he married Mary Sarah Hyde in 1753, where she is listed as having been born in 1730, making her the great age of 23.

But when I check her parent's birth dates, her father, Robert T. Hyde had been born in 1716, and could not very likely have had a daughter born when he was 13 in 1729.  So I'm leaning toward the later date of her birth.  Women might have married at 14, but men certainly didn't.

Oh dear, here we go again.  Robert Hyde of Virginia is listed (possibly) as an attorney who married Jane Underhill (mother that is listed of Mary Sarah) but this Robert died in 1718.  And he had a son Samuel, and a daughter who married a John Saunders who was well known in Virginia.  Oops. that's about Virginia Biographical information anyway.  

The Ancestry trees I've been following have him being born in North Carolina in 1716...so he certainly wasn't the same man as the Virginia one listed.  Poor guy, one or the other of them might have been Mary Sarah Hyde's father, now I have to do some work on Ancestry, mainly looking for source materials.  Are there any?

So it's time to start from scratch.  No wonder I've never followed this branch of the tree before!  

The 1676 American Rebellion

My ancestor Hansfords from Virginia included Uncle Thomas (times about 8 greats) who was part of Bacon's Rebellion which burned Jamestown.  (This is a repost from 2014)

The Burning of Jamestown by Howard Pyle, ca. 1905.

Thomas Hansford was born in 1646 in Virginia
Death 13 November 1676 in York County, Virginia

FATHER: John Hansford 1590-1661
MOTHER: Elizabeth Jands
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Thomas was hanged by Gov. Berkley of Virginia for his participation in Bacon's Rebellion. He is said to be the first American-born person to be executed in the Colonies.

Southside Virginia Families, Vol. 1, by John Bennett Boddie, Genealogical Pub. Co, 1966, page 157.

NOTE: one souce says as many as 23 Men were hung. Did not state Names.
His land was confiscated by the government.
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Wikipedia says:

Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion in 1676 by Virginia settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon against the rule of Governor William Berkeley. The colony's disorganized frontier political structure, combined with accumulating grievances (including leaving Bacon out of his inner circle, refusing to allow Bacon to be a part of his fur trade with the Native Americans, and Doeg tribe Indian attacks), helped to motivate a popular uprising against Berkeley, who had failed to address the demands of the colonists regarding their safety.

About a thousand Virginians of all classes rose up in arms against Berkeley, attacking Native Americans, chasing Berkeley from Jamestown, Virginia, and ultimately torching the capital. The rebellion was first suppressed by a few armed merchant ships from London whose captains sided with Berkeley and the loyalists.^[2] Government forces from England arrived soon after and spent several years defeating pockets of resistance and reforming the colonial government to one more directly under royal control.^[3]

It was the first rebellion in the American colonies in which discontented frontiersmen took part; a similar uprising in Maryland took place later that year. The alliance between former indentured servants and Africans against bond-servitude disturbed the ruling class, who responded by hardening the racial caste of slavery.^[4][5][6] While the farmers did not succeed in their initial goal of driving Native Americans from Virginia, the rebellion did result in Berkeley being recalled to England.

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Thomas Hansford had a younger brother, Charles, born May 9, 1654.  He married Elizabeth Folliet Moody, and their son William Hansford is a direct ancestor of mine.  Six generations later was born my grandfather, Albert J. "Bud" Webb.

So my rebellious spirit might have been well tamed, but the blood runs true!