Memory in old age

 We all suffer from some memory loss, and often joke about it. But when I consider, at the end of the day, that I spent about an hour when broken into all the different times then pulled together, when I was trying to remember something, I want to cut back on memory difficulties.

I've heard a good technique is actively learning something. Not repeating words as crossword workers are doing, or adding numbers as Sodoku workers are doing (though I think those are definitely work!) - and certainly not playing "find the..." games. I need to push myself to learn something new.

So I had to drop out of our Spanish Conversation class, thanks to a pandemic. I don't know how, but I want to learn Gaellic.

Then I found out there are 2 major ones, and probably one of those is broken into 3, and the other broken into 2 very different dialects...and they might not be able to understand each other's Celtic brogue.

Now I started to say, Irish would be good. But maybe Scottish would be a better idea.

Flag of Scotland

And I looked on some Irish pronunciation sites with common phrases, and geese, I couldn't remember one of them, even after saying them out loud. 

Well, I admit I seldom remember any names or phrases I had just heard, even by saying them.

This is going to take a lot of effort, and time (of which I have plenty daily, though not so much yearly).

So if anyone should have some good techniques or suggestions, please let me know. I think I'm going to see if any language learning tapes on CDs are available through the library. I need to repeat and repeat after hearing the correct pronunciation. Maybe one phrase a week...or one word!

My Irish ancestor was Francis Beattie, (1715-1791) But come to find out, he was also a Scottish man, with the Ulster Scotts...though the birth of fathers and grandfathers is confusingly either Ireland or Scotland.

But I had other ancestors who were Ulster Scotts...or Scotch Irish as they are now called.

So I think Scottish Gaelic is the way to go after all!

"The Winthrop Woman"

 I just finished listening to the audio version of this book. When I tried to read it many years ago, I lost myself and lost interest. But this time I was captivated by it.

It was a very long digital audio book, but I was supposed to be sitting with my legs elevated a lot, so it fit right into my life at this time. (A foot injury is still not treated, but I have appointments coming.)

 I really enjoyed getting to know Elizabeth Winthrop, an early colonist to America, whose uncle John Winthrop was a governor of Massachusetts for some years of his life. 

I had many relatives in early Massachusetts and Connecticut, but have no knowledge of all the trials and tribulations they went through until I read The Winthrop Woman.

Elizabeth had many problems in her life, and somehow surmounted them all. She befriended a First Nation Indian woman who appeared several times through the book.  Elizabeth has romances, religious doubts, and a large family.  

Though this is a historical fiction, the actual woman, Elizabeth Winthrop, existed and was cited in many records through her life...records which still exist. I don't know how many things have been inserted to provide links to these records. But she dealt with early Puritans, and politics during King Charles I reign and the revolution of Cromwell. She dealt with the Dutch who had different laws to be followed when she lived in Greenwich CT, which was on the border and eventually became part of the English Connecticut Colony.

I remembered an ancestor of mine had a sister (Ann Brinley Coddington, 1628-1708) who married a Connecticut governor, and just looked up her mention on my blog HERE. The Brinley sister married Gov. William Coddington (1601-1678), while my ancestress was Grissell Brinley Sylvester (1635-1687) who lived on Long Island. I had many ancestors who settled in Boston MA, Andover MA, Newbury MA, Sudbury RI, Hartford CT, and Stratford CT, from both my father's and my mother's ancestry.

I wish on a certain level that I still lived in New England, and had access to all the many documents which still talk of the early colonists.  Of course there are lots of resources on line these days and I find many hints on my Ancestry trees every time I look at them!

Thanks to fellow blogger, Vicki Lane who recommended this book.

More on Alice Harris Farnum Martin

 I don't know why I left Alice Harris Farnum's children out of my last post!

She and her first husband, Ralph Farnum I, had 7 children. His occupation that he had recorded on their passage to America said he was a barber. The first four children came with the Farnums from England, where they had been born. The next were all born in the Colonies. The last was John Farnum, (abt. 1640--17 June 1723.) His line four generations later brought a Sarah Farnum who married Jacob Granger, a line which extended from New England to Texas just before the Civil War...my grandmother's grandmother.

But another of Alice Harris Farnum's children, their oldest by the name of Mary Farnum, married Daniel Poore. And Mary and Daniel's family included a daughter, Martha Poore, who married Capt. John Granger. So it was their grandson Jacob who married Sarah Farnum.  I wonder if they knew they had some kind of cousin relationship. And I don't dare figure it out!

When Alice married a second time to Solomon, the ship's carpenter, Martin, they had 2 children. The first had probably not been Alice's son, having been born in 1645 when she was married to Ralph (I presume). The second was born in 1648, after the date of her marriage to Solomon Martin. But we don't have a date of death for Ralph Farnum, just that it was before Alice married Solomon in 1648. So both of these Martin children could have been hers. Then Solomon died in 1655. Alice herself may have died in1652 as some Ancestry trees say, or may have lived until 8 Jan. 1691. Many of her children lived past that date, so she would have had someone to care for her in her old age.

More grandparents from England

 These ancestors are actually on my dad's mother's tree, Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers. 

Her New England branch included immigrants Ralph Farnham/Farnum I, and his wife Alice Harris Farnum Martin. She had been born in 1607 in Braunstone England. She died in 1652 (or maybe in 1691) in Andover, Essex County, Massachusetts Colony.

Alice Harris Fanhum and Ralph Farnum had been among the early colonists who had passage to America on the James, landing in Boston June 3, 1635. (There was more than one ship by that name, just to confuse the various stories.) They were my 9 times great grandparents.

Let's go up the Harris lineage for a moment.

Her parents were Sir Thomas Harris of Maldon (5 Dec 1562- 6 Mar 1621) and Eleanore Silverthorn Harris (1520-1565), though one tree on Ancestry calls her mother Joan Wrighte Harris, who we only know died in Oct. 1600.  I'll stay with the majority for Eleanore Silverthorn. But unfortunately there's no more known about her. So let's take a break here, with these, my 10 times great grandparents.

Oh actually, I forgot to post the dates for Alice Harris Farnhum's husband, Ralph I.

It explains how she married Martin after he died.

The following was found in Massachusetts' Find A Grave, which unfortunately posted 1692 as a death date, then quotes below that he died by 1648 when his widow remarried!

Born about 1603 (aged 32 in 1635). Barber from Rochester, Kent who came to Massachusetts Bay in 1635 on the "James" & settled in Ipswich. Died by 1648 (when his widow remarried).

Married by 1628 Alice _____. She married (2) Gloucester 18 June 1648 Solomon Martin ("Solloman Martin, ship carpenter, and Ales Varnam, widow, of Ipswich").

On 13 July 1635, "Ralph Farman," barber, aged 32, "Alice Farman," aged 28, "Mary Farman," aged 7, "Tho[mas] Farman," aged 4, and "Ralph Farman," aged 2, were enrolled at London as passengers for New England on the "James."

Source: Anderson's Great Migration Study Project

As this is a closer to original source, I'm changing my tree to reflect that date (1648) for his death, rather than the 1642 one that is not given any source.

And now we know a good reason that Alice remarried to Solomon Martin. I interpret the quote as giving Solomon the status of widow of Ales Varnam, of Ipwich. Does that make sense? 

Or perhaps it's saying widow, Alice Farnum of Ipswich?

Don't you just love the flexible spelling of early America?

More about Alice Harris Farnum Martin soon.