tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36993859071142995712024-02-18T20:46:11.501-05:00 PollyBlogNew England GenealogistPolly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.comBlogger137125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-74530107583846451482017-11-13T11:45:00.001-05:002017-11-13T11:45:01.892-05:00The Joys of DNA: It's a Girl!
This was my year to study DNA in more detail, so I enrolled in the Advanced Genetic Genealogy course at the July 2017 Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP). It was an informative and fun class, led by CeCe Moore and Blaine Bettinger. Late at night on the first day of class I visited 23andme.com to explore a tool mentioned in class that I hadn't played with much. When I navigatedPolly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-46035983043480497352017-09-13T11:55:00.000-04:002017-09-13T11:55:49.190-04:00Proof That You Can't Judge a Book By Its CoverI recently attend the 41st Triennial Congress of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants in Plymouth, Massachusetts, along with ~599 other enthusiastic descendants of our earliest Massachusetts settlers. It was a great experience and many exciting developments of genealogical import were announced. More on that in a later post.
One little fun aspect was a freebie book table. I don't need Polly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-32540366122987983792017-08-23T06:28:00.000-04:002017-08-23T06:29:15.166-04:00St. Patrick's Missionary Society, Kiltegan Fathers
Courtesy of Saint Patrick's Missionary Society, "Our Work."
When Myles' family lived in Africa (circa 1960-1980) they were friends with some Catholic missionaries, both in Kenya and later in Nigeria. They called them the "Catholic fathers." I was always a little surprised by this because father-in-law Brian was fairly rigid on his Church of Ireland theological doctrines. But he Polly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-88852035605571588312017-06-15T18:15:00.000-04:002017-06-15T18:15:00.938-04:00Sheelagh Leslie Churton, 1925-2017: Tribute to an Extraordinary Woman
We lost Myles' Aunt Sheelagh (Auntie Tealy) a few weeks ago. She was precious to us and to everyone who ever knew her. A highly unusual example of a completely selfless person––tolerant, kind, nurturing, hard working, capable, and fun! Here is the tribute I read at her funeral last week, on June 8th at the Chester Crematorium. Sadly, her church, St. Mary Without the Walls in Handbridge, wasPolly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-51226750983980083582016-07-19T21:04:00.002-04:002016-07-19T21:08:49.899-04:00Justice of the Peace Records and Silvanus "Who's Your Daddy" Savage, Part 3
Continued from previous two posts... This is Part Three of a Three-Part Post.
Click here for Post One
Click here for Post Two.
...in which we've seen the originals and transcriptions of two separate complaints of paternity sworn against one man, Silvanus Savage. The two complaints were sworn on the same day, 27 May 1802, in Princeton, Worcester County, Massachusetts, to a JusticePolly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-92069675568712853942016-05-03T12:18:00.001-04:002016-05-03T12:18:33.453-04:00Elsie's Receipt Book--The Heart of the Home
Good cooks have always collected recipes, or receipts as they were sometimes called. My mother-in-law's mother, Elizabeth Mary Stephens (Drapes) Churton, aka Elsie, was no exception. We recently uncovered a little journal, begun on 16 June 1918, eight months after she married, and about the time her husband was to return home from World War I, minus an arm and in need of much nurturing.
Elsie Polly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-24489604990282404412016-04-05T11:25:00.001-04:002016-04-09T16:11:37.875-04:00Brian Robert Rowland Kimmitt, RIP Dear Father-in-Law
I am completely saddened to say that my much loved father-in-law, Brian, passed away four days ago. Being a genealogist, one of my first concerns was to pull together his death notice and obituary.
People often use the term obituary to refer to a death notice. They are not the same thing. The death notice is much shorter and serves just to give the critical information that someone has died,Polly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-25911361024790628272016-02-19T20:46:00.000-05:002016-02-19T20:46:18.477-05:00I'll Warrant Not Much Has ChangedI sing in a chorus that rehearses in a church hall in Worcester, Mass. On my way into chorus rehearsal a few weeks ago I came across this notice on the door. I was struck by how little has changed since the earliest days in Central Massachusetts when it was required to post the warrant for the annual meeting on the front door of the church. We're still electing a moderator and other officers, Polly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-49226294299440260442016-02-11T19:22:00.000-05:002016-02-11T19:22:47.880-05:00"Colored Citizens of Worcester" Honor Roll, World War II
Worcester professor Thomas Doughton recently brought my attention to the fact that this "Colored Citizens" of Worcester [Massachusetts] Honor Roll from World War II is currently missing. It was installed outside the AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Zion Church at the corner of Clayton and Belmont Streets, but was removed during the construction of Route 290. I have asked for and receivedPolly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-20190595966519484322015-11-29T19:04:00.001-05:002015-11-29T19:05:03.169-05:00Garrald Fitzgerald, Goldsmith of Galway
In April of 1979 on a twenty hour train journey from Rome to London I met a chatty but cordial gentleman from Rainham, Kent. Amongst many, many other things, he told me that he was a coin collector. He had a metal detector and spent his time scanning dried up riverbeds and other places for his favorite treasure––Roman coins. When he found out my surname was FitzGerald he was delighted to presentPolly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-23622662505106210622015-11-23T20:27:00.003-05:002015-11-23T20:27:45.133-05:00Where Were You the Day JFK Was Shot?
"JFK limousine" by Walt Cisco, Dallas Morning News - JFK-Motorcadee.gif, Penn Jones Photographs. Baylor University Collections of Political Materials. Waco, Texas.. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons
It's strange to think that when John FitzGerald Kennedy (no relation) died I was only eight years old. I didn't yet have a strong grasp on what that meant. I had experienced the death of myPolly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-68625845987863062022015-11-10T15:36:00.000-05:002015-11-10T15:39:44.953-05:00The Last Fighting Tommy: Private Henry John Patch
The last fighting Tommy
Pte. Henry John Patch (Harry)
C Company 7th D.C.L.I. [Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry]
17th June 1898-25th July 2009
Age 111
Fought in the battle of Passchendaele
During the 1914-1918 war
Freeman of the City of Wells
also representing all the brave young men
lost in The Great War.
Harry Patch, 1898-2009
from Abroad in the Yard
Private Harry Polly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-1898370458172540892015-09-20T15:41:00.001-04:002015-09-23T09:37:14.998-04:00Would You Be Loyalist or a Patriot?
Sudbury Company Of Militia, Mountain View Cemetery, Shrewsbury, Massachusetts,
photo by Tina Clegg, 2007.
Have you ever stopped to wonder which side you would have chosen during the Revolutionary War? Would you have been a Whig (Rebel /Patriot) or a Tory (Royalist/Loyalist)?
I found a little Wikipedia article that discusses motivations for choosing a side. Not everyone actively made a Polly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-82709229788606813242015-09-14T23:23:00.000-04:002015-09-15T20:58:02.410-04:00GenStock 2015: On Being An Early Adapter
Yesterday was the final day of GenStock 2015, a three-day retreat for professional genealogists. GenStock was the brainchild of Billie Fogarty and Matthew McCormack who managed to bring to fruition a dreamy vision first conjured up 18 months ago after years of what-ifs discussed at conventional genealogical conferences.
What if we could get together for longer periods of time, Polly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-21031591779226645182015-05-10T23:00:00.000-04:002015-05-11T13:11:26.459-04:00Week #11 of 52 Ancestors: James Cudworth, A most Prominent and Good Man
Much has already been written about one of my all-time favorite ancestors: James Cudworth. It was during my first forays into genealogy, reading Samuel Deane's History of Scituate, that I read of Cudworth and his defiant stance, and immediately fell in love with him (as a grandfather (8th-great), of course! [1] And all because he stood up for the Quakers. But early authors seemPolly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-34494557180613291332015-04-19T10:45:00.001-04:002015-04-19T10:45:35.533-04:00Week #10 of 52 Ancestors: Arthur Howland--"Close, But No Cigar"
Mayflower II at dock in Plymouth, Summer 2014© Polly Kimmitt
A quarter of all Americans believe they are descended from a Mayflower passenger. In 1999, the Historian General of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants estimated that there were 35 million people alive with Pilgrim ancestry. So you'd think that a person born twenty miles from Plymouth, with ancestors who settled the towns ofPolly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-2737214572055765592015-03-09T23:31:00.000-04:002015-03-09T23:31:03.320-04:00Week #9 of 52 Ancestors: Annie Josephine (O'Sullivan) FitzGerald
Anne Josephine (O'Sullivan) FitzGerald18 December 1869 to 2 August 1949
I never met my paternal grandmother Annie, since she died before I was born, My father was not one to talk much about his family and I was such an oblivious child that it took me a long time to realize that both of his parents had spoken in a thick Irish brogue.
Annie was born 18 December 1869, the daughter of Philip Polly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-78044586887359510692015-03-09T22:05:00.000-04:002015-03-09T22:05:33.852-04:00Week #8 of 52 Ancestors: Vernetta Gertrude (Jones) Barnes
Vernetta Gertrude (Jones) Barnes13 June 1892 to 1 August 1962(Not sure when this was taken, perhaps 1946?)
I'm so far behind that I must whip out three of these blog posts asap! So forgive me if I merely skim over what I know about my mother's mother, Vernetta Gertrude (Jones) Barnes. I've written about her before, especially in "Growing Up in a Massachusetts Mill Town." I was very fond of Polly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-73066036686651120012015-02-20T14:49:00.001-05:002023-01-06T10:46:02.519-05:00Week #7 of 52 Ancestors: Brick Wall Woman Hannah Woodman (ca. 1775-ca 1821) of Durham, NH
My lovely fan chart stops dead at 4th g-grandparents Hannah Woodman and husband William Jackson. It's quite unsightly. Hannah has been the most distant ancestor in her line on my charts since I inherited my mother's genealogical research.
How Not to Research
Over the years I've gathered a lot of information on Hannah and associates at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, the Polly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-23728860667108133102015-02-10T11:46:00.000-05:002015-02-10T11:48:57.338-05:00Week #6 of 52 Ancestors: Samuel Cox of Beaminster, Dorset, England
I'm working in Salt Lake City at the Family History Library for ten days. In recent years, the way we research has changed considerably, and it will continue to change. Today when I search the library catalog I'm just as likely to find the records I seek on the FamilySearch website as in the microfilm. It speeds up my research tremendously to have it online, but also makes me think I shouldn't Polly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-67484124882804044412015-02-09T00:46:00.000-05:002015-03-30T17:27:26.461-04:00Week #5 of 52 Ancestors: Rev. Robert Fitzgerald Meredith of Dicksgrove, Co. KerryI'm finding it nearly impossible to write about some of my favorite ancestors simply because I have too much information on them for one little blog post. So just be aware, family members reading this, that there is more information! And genealogists, there is more evidence, so hush, now. You'll be the first to know when I write "the book."
"Landed Estates," database, Estate: Meredith (DysertPolly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-73829592886384687562015-01-28T20:02:00.001-05:002015-02-20T14:45:03.586-05:00Week #4 of 52 Ancestors: Emily (Churton) Churton (1847-1918)
Emily Churton was the granddaughter of William Churton, daughter of William Churton, wife of William Churton, sister of William Churton, and mother of William Churton.
She was born 21 November 1847 in Whitchurch, Shropshire, England, the daughter of William Parker Churton and Jane Weaver. (1) She was my husband Myles's great-grandmother: his mother's father's mother. So he will not have Polly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-64133346011469047042015-01-19T22:45:00.000-05:002015-02-20T14:44:04.764-05:00Week #3 of 52 Ancestors: Philip Joseph Sullivan (1911-1969)First, let me just effuse about what a good exercise this is! By writing about an ancestor I take a critical look at what I've gathered so far. Things I may have neglected for years look completely fresh and I am inspired to search in the many databases that have been created since I last investigated. I find this preferable to starting over completely.
I get a lot of clients looking for Polly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-2698082838216301492015-01-14T18:13:00.001-05:002015-01-15T18:21:21.613-05:00How My Quiet Afternoon Devolved into Chaos, Yet Still Had a Happy EndingWhen I started my blog I announced it was going to be about juggling genealogy and everyday life. So today I'll tell you a story about weight loss, aging, mental decline and frustration.
I had a bunch of errands to do today: dropping things off at three friends' houses and picking things up at another, picking up all 3 sons' framed high school photos from the framer, grocery shopping, but Polly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3699385907114299571.post-6403890840547718702015-01-13T15:29:00.002-05:002015-02-20T14:42:32.905-05:00Week #2 of 52 Ancestors: Robert Robertson Kimmitt, 1871-1951, Man of Many Titles
Robert Robertson Kimmitt, O.B.E (Mil.), T.D., D.L
This is my second post in the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" blogger challenge. So far, so good!
This week I'm switching to the Kimmitt side. I get many inquiries from Kimmitt cousins around the world and I'm afraid I've been telling them all the same thing since 1993: when I retire I hope to tie together all those loose cousin Polly F. Kimmitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13401885413321517787noreply@blogger.com1