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| Family Record found in the front cover of the Ingraham/Wardwell bible. Courtesy of the Bates County Museum. |
Showing posts with label Thomas Swan Ingraham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thomas Swan Ingraham. Show all posts
10 February 2013
Scrap Day Sunday
08 January 2013
A Bag and Three Abigails!
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| The Abigail (Dewolf) Ingraham Bag. Courtesy of the Bates County Museum. |
Today I'm going to share yet another find from the Bates County Museum. Being a volunteer there does have it's perks! Pictured here is a small silk bag that was once owned by Mrs. Abigail (DeWolf) Ingraham, the second wife of Capt. Jeremiah Ingraham. Abigail (DeWolf Ingraham presented this bag to her grandaughter Abigail Rebecca Ingraham in 1818. Abigail Rebecca Ingraham was the daughter of Thomas and Peggy (Wardwell) Ingraham. Abigail Rebecca then presented this bag to her niece, yet another Abigail Rebecca Ingraham in 1852. This Abigail was the daughter of Thomas Swan and Julia (Balis) Ingraham. After Rebecca (as the last Abigail Rebecca was known) passed away in 1856 at the age of 18, it then passed to her sister, Mrs. Mary (Baldwin) Ingraham and then filtered down to my great great grandmother Maud (VanSant) Grimes who then donated it to the museum.
The bag is is remarkable condition considering it's almost 200 years old!
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| Julia (Balis) Ingraham with daughter Rebecca. Rebecca was the last Abigail Rebecca to own the bag. |
01 January 2013
A Conundrum of Sorts
For the past two years I have been working tirelessly to complete my application to The General Society of Mayflower Descendants. I filled out the preliminary application. I got a positive answer from the State Historian who informed me of the application process and the types of documentation that would be needed. Generation one (John Howland) through generation seven (Thomas Swan Ingraham) had already been accepted by the Society. That left generations 8-14 for me to prove. I was off and running! It was that generation 8 that was giving me problems. Mary (Ingraham) Baldwin, daughter of Thomas Swan and Julia (Balis) Ingraham. I just wasn't having any luck finding the primary (or secondary for that matter) documents that I needed. I sent off for death certificates. I searched high and low for a missing family bible. I found the bloody thing too, I might add! I sent out emails to the four corners of the world. I virtually stalked anyone that could help me with my search. And now it has all come together. I can prove my case. I am a descendant of four passenger of the Mayflower. John Howland and his wife Elizabeth Tilley and Elizabeth's parents John and Joan (Hurst) Tilley.
So what's my conundrum you ask? Well, now that I have pulled all this information together and put in all the hours of research, I don't really know that I want to finalize my application. I don't need a certificate to tell me my heritage. Sure, it would make it official, but do I really need a society to tell me who I am? Joining would also preserve my research for posterity and make it easier for my descendants to join. But then again, it's my research. I've tracked down the original documents and done the legwork. If I join, am I robbing future generations of the joy of tracking down who they are?
I still haven't decided one way or the other. I might make it official or I might not. That's my prerogative. For me it was all the thrill of the hunt. All that time digging and analyzing and creeping around in dark, dank basements made it worth it. Not to mention all the wonderful people I have met along the way! I will let my nieces and nephew know their ties to the beginning of this country. I want them to own their heritage. I'm just not sure if I want to hand them the proof. I think they can become little researchers themselves.
So what's my conundrum you ask? Well, now that I have pulled all this information together and put in all the hours of research, I don't really know that I want to finalize my application. I don't need a certificate to tell me my heritage. Sure, it would make it official, but do I really need a society to tell me who I am? Joining would also preserve my research for posterity and make it easier for my descendants to join. But then again, it's my research. I've tracked down the original documents and done the legwork. If I join, am I robbing future generations of the joy of tracking down who they are?
I still haven't decided one way or the other. I might make it official or I might not. That's my prerogative. For me it was all the thrill of the hunt. All that time digging and analyzing and creeping around in dark, dank basements made it worth it. Not to mention all the wonderful people I have met along the way! I will let my nieces and nephew know their ties to the beginning of this country. I want them to own their heritage. I'm just not sure if I want to hand them the proof. I think they can become little researchers themselves.
04 December 2012
A Bible and locks of love.
I mentioned in my last post that Aunt Kate had also donated a bible to the Bates County museum along with the unidentified photographs. This is the story of my hunt for that very bible.
It all started about three years ago. I was working on my Baldwin/Ingraham line and I had reached a dead end with one Peggy Wardell. I searched and searched for any info relating to this Peggy Wardell but kept coming up empty handed. A cousin of mine had done some research in the early 70's and it was his chart that I was working from. On a hunch, I contacted his daughter to see if she had any other information that her dad had collected. A few weeks later I received the same chart but with a few differences. He had Peggy Wardell as Peggy Wardwell. Ah ha! I should have thought of that! But more importantly he listed an Ingraham/Wardwell bible as his reference. He also stated that the bible had been given to the Bates County Museum by Aunt Kate. Hmmmm. So where was the bible?
Fast forward three years later. I now volunteer at the museum. During a search for an object listed in a script of an old walking tour, I come across a box of books. There in the bottom of the box sat my bible! The bible was printed circa 1825. It has a family record that has been pasted inside the front cover. It lists Thomas Ingraham b. 1773 and his wife Margaret "Peggy" (Wardwell) as well as their children. Towards the middle of the bible is listed Thomas Swan Ingraham and his wife Julia (Balis) Ingraham and their children. There in gorgeous handwriting was the info I had been looking for! A primary source to help prove my Mayflower line.
Ah but my ancestors had more in store for me! Tucked between the pages of the bible were little clipping and scraps of fabric. Some little notes that only make sense to those who wrote them and a book. This book was handmade and just a few pages thick. I opened the front cover and there inside was written "Mary I Baldwin", the name of my fourth great grandmother. It was she that has caused me to pull my hair out due to the lack of documentation she left behind. She was the weak link in my Mayflower line. So, I turned the page and there they were! My fourth great grandmother had made a small book of hair clippings. The first page held three separate locks of hair, each neatly labelled. Francis Baldwin. J. Baldwin and Samuel Baldwin. The hair of her husband Samuel and his parents Francis and Jane (Lee) Baldwin. The next page contained even more. This page was dedicated to Mary's family, Thomas Swan Ingraham, Julia (Balis) Ingraham and her siblings, Monroe, Major, her own, and her youngest sister Rebecca. Rebecca's having been woven into a little hair wreath!
The bible was a find just from a primary source point of view. The bible became a real treasure when I could look at these locks of hair and actually have a physical connection to the ancestors that up until this time, had just been a name and a date plugged into a family tree program. This is why I love genealogy. The little finds that remind us that there is a full history behind those names and dates. Most of whom had reddish-brown hair!
The Baldwin Family Locks
It all started about three years ago. I was working on my Baldwin/Ingraham line and I had reached a dead end with one Peggy Wardell. I searched and searched for any info relating to this Peggy Wardell but kept coming up empty handed. A cousin of mine had done some research in the early 70's and it was his chart that I was working from. On a hunch, I contacted his daughter to see if she had any other information that her dad had collected. A few weeks later I received the same chart but with a few differences. He had Peggy Wardell as Peggy Wardwell. Ah ha! I should have thought of that! But more importantly he listed an Ingraham/Wardwell bible as his reference. He also stated that the bible had been given to the Bates County Museum by Aunt Kate. Hmmmm. So where was the bible?
Fast forward three years later. I now volunteer at the museum. During a search for an object listed in a script of an old walking tour, I come across a box of books. There in the bottom of the box sat my bible! The bible was printed circa 1825. It has a family record that has been pasted inside the front cover. It lists Thomas Ingraham b. 1773 and his wife Margaret "Peggy" (Wardwell) as well as their children. Towards the middle of the bible is listed Thomas Swan Ingraham and his wife Julia (Balis) Ingraham and their children. There in gorgeous handwriting was the info I had been looking for! A primary source to help prove my Mayflower line.
Ah but my ancestors had more in store for me! Tucked between the pages of the bible were little clipping and scraps of fabric. Some little notes that only make sense to those who wrote them and a book. This book was handmade and just a few pages thick. I opened the front cover and there inside was written "Mary I Baldwin", the name of my fourth great grandmother. It was she that has caused me to pull my hair out due to the lack of documentation she left behind. She was the weak link in my Mayflower line. So, I turned the page and there they were! My fourth great grandmother had made a small book of hair clippings. The first page held three separate locks of hair, each neatly labelled. Francis Baldwin. J. Baldwin and Samuel Baldwin. The hair of her husband Samuel and his parents Francis and Jane (Lee) Baldwin. The next page contained even more. This page was dedicated to Mary's family, Thomas Swan Ingraham, Julia (Balis) Ingraham and her siblings, Monroe, Major, her own, and her youngest sister Rebecca. Rebecca's having been woven into a little hair wreath!
The bible was a find just from a primary source point of view. The bible became a real treasure when I could look at these locks of hair and actually have a physical connection to the ancestors that up until this time, had just been a name and a date plugged into a family tree program. This is why I love genealogy. The little finds that remind us that there is a full history behind those names and dates. Most of whom had reddish-brown hair!
The Baldwin Family Locks
The Ingraham Family Locks
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