Woburn, Mass. 2nd Burial Ground

Revolutionary War Soldiers buried in Woburn, Massachusetts’ 2nd Burial Ground (Montvale Ave).

Location: Woburn, Massachusetts
Address:   Montvale Ave
GPS Coord:  42.4787404,-71.1515233
Timeframe:  Revolutionary War, 1775-1783

Names:

• Ames, Jacob (1824)
• Brown, Joseph (1808)
• Buxton, John (1837)
• Clapp, Jeremiah (1817)
• Coggin, Jacob (1803)
• Converse, Benjamin (1824)
• Converse, Josiah (1840)
• Cummings, Ebenezer (1821)
• Davis, Nathaniel (1835)
• Davis, Thaddeus (1830)
• Eames, John (1813)
• Evans, Andrew (1799)
• Flagg, John (1825)
• Fowle, John (1834)
• Fowle, Josiah (1805)
• Fowle, Leonard (1798)
• Fox, Thomas (1816)
• Gardner, John (1820)
• Johnson, Josiah (1807)
• Johnson, Ruben (1804)
• Kendall, Obadiah (1811)
• Kendall, Obadiah (1841)
• Lawrence, Ebenezer (1842)
• Lawrence, Jonathan (1793)
• Lawrence, Joseph (1836)
• Leathe, Elijah (1835)
• Miller, Job (1832)
• Parker, Edmund (1840)

• Parker, Josiah (1830)
• Pierce, Jacob (1825)
• Plympton, Sylvanus (1836)
• Reed, Daniel (1814)
• Richardson, Abel (1831)
• Richardson, Barnabus (1816)
• Richardson, Bartmew (1812)
• Richardson, Edward (1837)
• Richardson, Jacob (1819)
• Richardson, Jeduthun (1815)
• Richardson, Jesse (1837)
• Richardson, Josiah (1795)
• Richardson, Oliver (1795)
• Richardson, Reuben (1818)
• Richardson, Samuel (1839)
• Richardson, Zachariah (1804)
• Richardson, Zachariah (1814)
• Symmes, William (1819)
• Tay, Joshua (1801)
• Tay, William (1827)
• Thompson, Abijah (1811)
• Thompson, Jonathan (1836)
• Thompson, Samuel (1820)
• Tidd, Samuel (1804)
• Tyler, Jonathan (1838)
• Walker, Josiah (1845)
• Wheeler, Abijah (1812)
• Wyman, Zebediah (1793)

Presumably the date in parenthesis is the date of death and/or burial, as shown on the plaque. Since the burial ground was not opened until after the end of the Revolution, those killed in the war would be in Woburn’s First Burial Ground. I see many of my family names – Converse, Fowle, Johnson, Kendall, Reed, Richardson, Thompson, Tidd, Wyman – in that list, so a good portion would be distant cousins.

Why Woburn?  My immigrant ancestor and 9th great-grandfather, John Wright (1601-1688) was one of the founders of Woburn in 1640, but by the time of the Revolution the family had migrated on, first to Ashford, Connecticut and then to the Hanover, New Hampshire area.  My 4th great-grandfather and patriot ancestor, David Wright (1759-1852), fought in the American Revolution.

Wakefield, Mass. Korea & Vietnam Memorial

Location: Wakefield, Massachusetts
Address:   Lower Common, Church & Main Streets
GPS Coord:  TBD
Timeframe:  Korean Conflict, 1950-53; Vietnam War, 1955-75

Inscription:  “Dedicated to those Wakefieldians who gave the supreme sacrifice in Korea and Vietnam.”

Names:

Korea:

Scott, Gerald L.
Marson, Richard W.
Meuse, Edward J.

Vietnam:

Velardo, Anthony G.
Schramm, Peter F.
Rich, Peter B.
Fitzgibbons, John J.
Legge, John P.
Duhy, Harvey A. Jr.

Wakefield, Mass. WWI Memorial

Location: Wakefield, Massachusetts
Address: Lower Common, Church & Main Streets
GPS Coord: TBD
Timeframe: WWI, 1914-1919

Inscription: “The men and women of Wakefield who served in the World War and in memory of these who made the supreme sacrifice”

Names:

Baker, Robert
Biggs, Herbert E.
Brockbank, John C.
Buckley, Joseph
Burns, John T.
Cartland, William H.
Cartwright, Paul
De Felice, Nicola
Donegan, John P.
Duggan, John P.
Fay, Edward M.
Fish, Crowell G.
Gibbons, Michael
Gibbs, Robert H.
Gordon, Alvin W.
Heningar, Henry A.
Hughes, Ambrose
Johnson, Bert L.
Killorin, George W. Jr.
Lincoln, Clark R.
Martino, James
McLaughlin, Andrew P.
Merrill, Edward S.
Merrill, Richard P.
Nacella, Henry
Nelson, Harry E.
Neville, Patrick
Norton, Erland F.
Townley, Albert Ray

Wakefield, Mass. WWII Memorial

Location: Wakefield, Massachusetts
Address:   TBD
GPS Coord:  TBD
Timeframe:  WWII

Inscription:  “Wakefield’s honored sons who made the supreme sacrifice in World War II”
Names:

Adams, Edward A.
Amirault, Edwin F.
Anderson, Lawrence A.
Ashenden, James A.
Babine, Francis H.
Baril, Henry O.
Barthelmes, Ralph L.
Benedetto, John A.
Burness, Henry E.
Buzzell, Robert E.
Chepulis, Albert W.
Clement, Robert C.
Coccoro, Peter J.
Colantuonio, Peter
Corbett, Malcolm R.
Croce, Dominic A.
Curtis, Calvin W.
Dececca, Charles A.
Delrossi, John L.
Derenne, Arnold D.
Deroche, George B. Jr.
Driscoll, Frank J. Jr.
Eaton, Maxwell A.
Ebling, William H.
Francis, Russell H.
Gillen, Philip J.
Glassup, Charles F. Jr.
Glynn, John F. Jr.
Goodspeed, Harold N. Jr.
Goodwin, Warren D.
Haladay, John
Harper, Arthur A.
Hastings, James K.
Holden, Dudley F. Jr.
Hovey, Wendell R.
Hurton, Paul J.
Hurton, Thomas F. Jr.
Johnson, Ralph S. Jr.
Julian, Gustine T.
Kanchuga, Steven
Kelley, Frank A.
King, George W.
Krubel, Paul R.
Leblanc, Wilfred E.
Lindsay, Kenneth W.
Lombard, Perley W. Jr.
Malone, Edgar S.
Malonson, Frederick H. Jr.
Martin, Frank J.
Massman, Bernard K.
Merrill, William F.
Meuse, John Jr.
Miliner, George E.
Mills, Charles W.
Mills, Howard I.
Nutile, John A.
Peck, Jerry F.
Peterson, Gardner H. Jr.
Porter, Richard L.
Pratola, Victor J.
Reed, William J. Jr.
Rutledge, Robert G.
Schumann, Wayne
Smith, Raymond E.
Storti, Carmine A.
Talbot, John W.
Tedesco, Felix
Vidito, Wendell L.
Watts, George S.
Webb, Kenneth A.
Whitehouse, Donald L.
Yeuell, Robert V.

The Signers, explained

This article is part of a series journaling my progress with what I call The Presidential Project. The first article was posted on 25 May, 2017 and can be found here: Back to the Blog and you can read forward from there to today.

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Yesterday, I wrote about how I can claim kinship to at least 13 Signers of the Declaration of Independence. Yesterday and today I also saw how there were many Facebook posts about kinship to the Signers, so I thought it might be helpful to give a “how to” explanation of how I quickly identified those 13 brave Patriots.

I am using the website FamousKin.com as the resource to identify my relationships to various, well, Famous Kin. The key is to identify Gateway Ancestors. So let’s use the 3^rd President of the United States, “TJ” Thomas Jefferson, as an example. And let’s do this as his role as a Signer of the Declaration of Independence rather than his Presidency.

Go to the website and click on the Signers button, the 7^th one across near the top of the page. Up comes a list, not complete, of people who signed important historic documents. Find Thomas Jefferson in the list, the 17^th one down, and click on the “famous kin” link next to his name. Up comes a page with a list of famous people from various walks of life that are related to TJ.

The first entries are famous people from which TJ is directly descended, followed by people who have a kinship to him. As you peruse the list, perhaps your Surname Alarm starts going off. Yes, you recognize a name from your family tree. By definition, if you are related to, say, William the Conqueror, and TJ is related to him as well, then you are, by definition, related to Thomas Jefferson.

So for yesterday’s blog post, I keyed in on two very famous ancestors of mine, William the Conqueror and King Edward I, my 27^th and 21^st great-grandfathers respectively. I then looked at the famous kin of each Signer, looking for those names in their list and that is how I developed my own list. Note that if you claim King Edward “Longshanks” I in your family tree, you too are related to those same 13 signers … and me! Hello Cousin.

Tomorrow I will get into how you determine the exact relationship between yourself and the Signer of the Declaration of Independence. But I must end with this caveat. The data on FamousKin.com does not contain source references. You need to treat it as you would data from Ancestry or the IGI, as a clue, not as fact. There are better, well sourced, genealogies of various famous people, especially the Presidents. It is there that you can bump up the confidence in claiming your relationship. Perhaps a reader or two will respond with a comment about those more definitive resources.

Next Installment: The Signers, explained, part 2

(c) 2017 Philip G Wright, all rights reserved

Happy Independence Day, 2017

This article is part of a series journaling my progress with what I call The Presidential Project. The first article was posted on 25 May, 2017 and can be found here: Back to the Blog and you can read forward from there to today.

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

As we enjoy this special American holiday (the original Brexit!), have our hamburgers and hotdogs, salmon and peasⁱ, and watch the fireworks display, remember to give thanks to those patriots who pledged their “our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor” to ensure the freedom we enjoy.

This article is about a list of kin who were Signers of the Declaration of Independence and that will be a natural outgrowth of The Presidential Project. FamousKin,com does contain the necessary Gateway Ancestor information, but not all 56 Signers are covered by that resource.

A quick scan of the Signers listed using the most common Gateway Ancestors reveals the following Signers of the Declaration are my kin:

Through King Edward I:

Rhode Island: William Ellery
New York: William Floyd
Massachusetts: John Hancock
Virginia: Benjamin Harrison
Virginia: Thomas Jefferson
Virginia: Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Massachusetts: Robert Treat Paine
Delaware: Caesar Rodney
Connecticut: Roger Sherman
New Hampshire: William Whipple

Through William I “the Conqueror”:

Georgia: Button Gwinnett
Georgia: Lyman Hall
New York: Philip Livingston

I am sure there are closer relationships and I still need to work out the kinship, not to mention look up the Signers that are not listed at FamousKin.com.

Hopefully I can get my writing back on track and I do apologize for the time gap. Hard to encourage readership with random posts, eh? (My Canadian side peeks out). But if you choose to follow this blog, you will be alerted to new postings.

Next Installment: The Signers, explained

iSalmon and Peas have been a New England traditional Independence Day meal for centuries. See:

https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/07/fourth-of-july-peas-and-salmon.html and http://archive.boston.com/lifestyle/food/articles/2011/06/29/a_fourth_of_july_tradition_salmon_and_peas/

(c) 2017 Philip G Wright, all rights reserved

Genealogical Time

This article is part of a series journaling my progress with what I call The Presidential Project. The first article was posted on 25 May, 2017 and can be found here: Back to the Blog and you can read forward from there to today.

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Wow, I really hit the wall there. Writing every day is hard! When I started out with this series, I had plenty of material to cover and it was easy to plan out a week’s worth of articles. But once I cleared the backlog, coming up with new material was quite the challenge. Especially since writing was supplanting research. Then life intervened, hence the gap in material. So maybe I alter my editorial policy and cut back to three times a week. I tip my hat to those of you who are able to daily post content. It definitely isn’t as easy as it looks.

But as I sit here, typing my excuse for missing a few days of posting, a topic idea came to mind, that of time. Maybe that is the secret to writing daily – just start typing! You can always go back and rewrite the first few paragraphs after a topic suggests itself to you. So on to today’s subject: Genealogical Time.

How many of you who have been at this for a while have performed an Internet name search and came across a query posted on one of the many message boards. You have that little “ah ha” moment when you say, “hey, that’s my ancestor!” You open the link only to find that it was a query posted by yourself several years back. A little disappointing at first but you might actually find that someone has posted an answer! Or the query itself reminds you of a research thread that you started but set aside while you were chasing a Genealogical Rabbit or two. And maybe in the interim, you have answered your own question through your research. Don’t forget to post that information as an answer to your own question.

And why do I suggest answering your own question? Because, as you have discovered, the Internet is forever. That query you found could have been posted a decade ago. But there it is, right there in your search results. And that is how I define Genealogical Time. Chances are pretty good that you will not get a response to a message board query in a day or two. Enough time may pass that you have forgotten you asked the question in the first place. But there are new entrants to this avocation every day and that next person to do a search might just have an answer for you. That gap in time between question and answer could be years – that’s Genealogical Time.

So how did you miss the answer in the first place? Maybe you stopped checking that message board as you moved on to other things. Perhaps the email account you used for notification of activity is a dormant one. And that brings me to my methodology tip. Use a separate, persistent email account dedicated to your genealogy. Don’t use one linked to your Internet Service Provider (ISP). You may change providers because of a relocation or even cost. You don’t want to have that email address to turn into a dead letter office.

By persistent, I mean an email not tied to your ISP. There are several free email opportunities, with Google’s Gmail being the leader of the pack. Then there’s Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, and several others. I choose to use Google as I like their spam filters, it can be integrated to my smart phone, and I don’t expect it to go away any time soon.

So keep on posting those queries and updating them as time goes on. You never know when the next distant cousin you never even knew you had will find your question and post an answer. Genealogical Time is a turtle, not a rabbit.

Next Installment: Happy Independence Day, 2017

(c) 2017 Philip G Wright, all rights reserved

Fathers Day, 2017

This article is part of a series journaling my progress with what I call The Presidential Project. The first article was posted on 25 May, 2017 and can be found here: Back to the Blog and you can read forward to today.

Sunday, June 18, 2017

12 Generations of Paternal Fathers

Generation 1, self

Wright, Philip George

Generation 2, father

Wright, Allen Lewis

Generation 3, grandfather

Wright, Forrest Ladd

Generation 4, great-grandfather

Wright, William Burns

Lewis, William Eugene

Generation 5, 2nd great-grandfather

Wright, Henry Chandler

Rich, James D.

Lewis, Allen

McKown, Joseph Reed

Generation 6, 3rd great-grandfather

Wright, David Jr.

Morse, Amos

Rich, Jared M

McNeil, Alexander

Lewis, Nathan

Fossett, William Henry

McKown, William Jr.

Grover, Freeman

Generation 7, 4th great-grandfather

Wright, David

Ladd, John I

Morse, William

Morse, Gideon

Rich, Justus

Russell, Thomas

Macomber, Ebenezer

Fossett, Henry

Colman, Joseph

McKown, William

Reed, Joseph

Grover, Ebenezer

Maddocks, Palgrave G Jr.

Generation 8, 5th great-grandfather

Wright, John Jr.

Tenney, John

Ladd, Daniel I

Eastman, William

Morse, Henry

Young, John

Johnson, Timothy

Rich, Thomas

Russell, Thomas

Baldwin, Ebenezer

Lewis, Joseph

Tibbetts, Nathaniel

Macomber, Job

Robinson, John

Fossett, Henry

Fossett, William

Colman, John

Cross, William

McKown, Patrick

Thompson, Samuel

Grover, Thomas

Maddocks, Palsgrave

Pierce, Samuel

Generation 9, 6th great-grandfather

Wright, John

Stowell, David

Tenney, Joseph

Armstrong, John Jr.

Ladd, Daniel Corliss

Roberts, Ephraim Jr.

Eastman, Jonathan

Jewett, Aaron

Morse, William Jr.

Cottle, Thomas

Young, Benajah

Johnson, Daniel

Greeley, Benjamin

Rich, Thomas

Cheney, John

Russell, Joseph

Baldwin, Daniel

Swift, John

Lewis, Isaac

Hasey, John

Tibbetts, Ichabod

Giles, Mark

Macomber, Nathaniel

Pitts, Ebenezer

Robinson, Bryant

Brown, Samuel

Nichols, James

Fossett, Alexander

Colman, Benjamin

Danforth, Samuel

Cross, Noah

McKown, Robert

Fullerton, William Jr.

Thompson, Joseph

Reed, David

Grover, Ebenezer

Dinslow, Benjamin

Maddocks, Henry

Huff, Thomas Jr.

Pierce, Samuel Jr.

Generation 10, 7th great-grandfather

Wright, John

Wyman, Timothy

Stowell, David

Foster, Abram

Tenney, Samuel

Wood, John

Armstrong, John

Durkee, John Jr.

Ladd, Samuel

Hartshorne, John Sr.

Roberts, Ephraim

Smith, Samuel

Eastman, Thomas

Green, Peter

Jewett, Jeremiah

Perley, Samuel

Morse, William Sr.

Hale, Henry

Cottle, Ezra

Lowell, Gideon Sr

Johnson, Thomas

Bixby, Jonathan

Greeley, Joseph

Whittier, Joseph

Rich, Thomas

Cheney, Thomas

Baldwin, Benjamin

Partridge, Samuel

Swift, Thomas

Clarke, Aaron

Lewis, Isaac

Hallett, Joseph

Hasey, William

Dexter, Richard

Tibbetts, Samuel

Tibbetts, Thomas

Giles, Mark

Tibbetts, Joseph

Macomber, John

Southworth, Ichabod

Pitts, Samuel

Hannover, Grenfell

Savage, James

Thompson, Robert

Young, [male]

Colman, Thomas

Brown, Thomas Jr.

Danforth, John

Brown, Joseph III

Cross, Robert

Cromwell, Joseph

Fullerton, William

Andrews, Soloman

Reed, Andrew

Wylie, Robert

Grover, Matthew

Grant, William

Densloe, Benjamin

Moulten, Job

Maddocks, John

Wells, John

Huff, Thomas Sr.

Banfield, George

Peirce, Samuel

Pulsifer, David

Generation 11, 8th great-grandfather

Wright, Joseph

Kendall, John

Wyman, Francis

Wiswall, Enoch

Stowell, Samuel

Stedman, Nathaniel

Foster, Jacob

Parsons, Jeffrey

Tenney, John

Boynton, Joseph

Wood, Thomas

Hazen, Edward

Armstrong, Benjamin

Worth, James

Durkee, John

Lee, Samuel Esq.

Ladd, Daniel Sr.

Corliss, George

Hartshorne, Thomas

Swan, Robert

Roberts, Robert

Hendrick, Daniel

Smith, Nathanial

Emerson, Michael

Eastman, Roger

Green, John

Dustin, Thomas Jr.

Jewett, Jeremiah

Kimball, Caleb

Morse, Benjamin Sr.

Merrill, Daniel

Hale, John

Kelly, John

Cottle, William

Woodbridge, Thomas

Lowell, Percival

Swett, John

Johnson, John Jr.

Ordway, Edward

Bixby, Joseph

Smith, William

Greeley, Andrew

Wilford, Gilbert

Whittier, Thomas

Peasley, Joseph

Petty, John

Cheney, Thomas

Woodis, Henry

Baldwin, Henry

Knowlton, Thomas

Partridge, John

Rose, Thomas

Swift, Thomas

Stockbridge, Charles Jr.

Clark, Daniel

Wade, Robert Jr.

Lewis, John

Davis, Samuel

Gorham, John

Hasey, William

Tuttle, John

Cross, Stephen

Tibbetts, Jeremiah

Tuttle, John

Dam, John

Giles, Mark

Macomber, John Jr.

Williams, Nathaniel

Southworth, Nathaniel

Hodges, Henry Sr.

Pitts, Peter

Bobbitt, Edward

French, Nathaniel

Hunter, John

Whittemore, John Sr.

Coleman, Tobias

Chute, James

Danforth, William

White, Nathaniel

Thurston, Hannah

Graves, Samuel

Andrews, William

Murray, John

McIntyre, William

Grover, Thomas

Freethy, James

Grant, William

Kennard, Edward

Maddocks, Henry

Church, Caleb

Wells, John

Huff, Ferdinando

Banfield, John

Shortridge, Richard

Peirce, Abraham

Pulsifer, Benedict

Generation 12, 9th great-grandfather

Wright, John

Hassell, Richard

Kendall, Francis

Bartlett, Thomas

Wymant, Francis

Reade, William

Wiswall, Thomas

Oliver, John

Stowell, Samuel

Farrow, John

Stedman, Isaac

Willis, Michael

Foster, Reginald

Lord, Robert

Parsons, James

Vinson, William

Tenney, Thomas

Parratt, Francis

Boynton, John

Swan, Richard

Grant, Thomas

Armstrong, Jonathan

Worth, Lionel

Durgy, William

Lee, Henry

Masters, Nathaniel

Ladd, Nathaniel

Corliss, Thomas

Davis, Thomas

Hartshorne, [male]

Acy, William

Smith, Robert

Emerson, Thomas

Webster, John Sr.

Eastman, Nicholas

Wheeler, John

Jewett, Joseph

Dickenson, Thomas

Kimball, Richard

Haseltine, Robert

Morse, Anthony

Sawyer, William

Merrill, Nathaniel

Clough, John Sr.

Hale, Thomas

Somerby, Henry

Kelly, John

Knight, Richard

Woodbridge, John Esq.

Jones, Thomas

Lowell, Richard

Chandler, William

Swett, Stephen

Plummer, Samuel

Johnson, John

Mousall, Thomas

Ordway, James

Wood, Isaiah

Bixby, George

Keyes, Robert

Moyse, Joseph

Dow, Thomas

Peasley, Joseph

Barnard, Thomas

Cheney, William

Richardson, Ezekiel

Knowlton, William

Partridge, George

Seabury, Samuel

Rose, Thomas

Allyn, Robert

Swift, Thomas

Tomson, John

Stockbridge, Charles

Tilden, Stephen

Clark, Daniel

Pratt, Daniel

Wade, Robert

Royce, Jonathan

Hasey, William

Lewis, Edward

Browne, Abraham

Howland, John

Jacobs, Richard

Cheney, John

Tibbetts, Henry

Canney, Thomas

Tuttle, John

Pomphret, William

Giles, Matthew

Macomber, John Sr.

Evans, William

Williams, Richard

Rogers, John

Southworth, Constant

Gray, Edward

Andrews, Henry

French, John

Tisdale, John Sr.

Whittemore, Daniel

Bassett, Joseph

Coleman, Thomas

Jackson, Nicholas

Thurloe, Francis

White, unknown

Pearson, John

Thurston, Daniel

Andrews, John

Grover, Thomas

Chadwick, John

Freethy, William

Milberry, Henry

Grant, Peter

Wellington, Roger

Church, Richard

Sprague, William

Wells, Thomas

Littlefield, Francis Sr.

Hough, Atherton

Moses, John

Pickering, John Sr.

Peirce, Abraham

Waters, Richard

Next Installment: TBD

(c) 2017 Philip G Wright, all rights reserved

Family Friday: The Family Food

This article is part of a series journaling my progress with what I call The Presidential Project. The first article was posted on 25 May, 2017 and can be found here: Back to the Blog and you can read forward day by day.

Friday, June 16, 2017

I suppose every family has a favorite dish or two that could be thought of as the “family food.” But can they claim a genealogical tie to a special holiday dish and a lunch box staple? I can! I’ll start with the genealogy story and you should soon be able to see where this is going …

One of my immigrant ancestors is William Durgy (c. 1632-1704). His origin is believed to be County Meath, Ireland. William was captured by Cromwell’s forces and sent to the Barbadoes, likely as a slave. Earning his freedom, he signed on as an indentured servant to Thomas Bishop of Ipswich.¹ Bishop was a ship captain and was very prosperous,² Also employed in the Bishop household was Martha Cross (1643-1727). Her father sued Durgy for “abusing” his daughter and Durgy counter-sued for Robert withdrawing his consent to marriage. Durgy won the case and their first child, John (1665-1739), was born two weeks later.. Practical justice, I presume.

William and Martha had as many as 10 children and their surname became the Americanized “Durkee,” My line is descended from their first son, John. You can learn more about the Durkee clan via The Society of Genealogy of Durkee website, here. They have published a book documenting the first six generations and back issues of their newsletter are also helpful in learning more about the Durkee family.

My line of descent is William Durgy, John Durkee, John Durkee Jr., Mary (Durkee) Armstrong, Olive (Armstrong) Tenney, Lydia (Tenney) Wright. Lydia married my patriot ancestor, David Wright. William Durgy is my 9^th great-grandfather. So where’s the beef, you might ask?

According to The Society of Genealogy of Durkee, William and Martha are the progenitors of almost all the Durkees in America. One of their descendants was Eugene R. Durkee, who founded Durkee Foods in 1851 in Buffalo, New York. There is an interesting history for the Durkee Bottlers published by the Society for historical Archaeology, Inc. here. Eugene is descended from William and Martha’s son Thomas and is my 5^th cousin, 5 times removed.

So there is the food connection but there are two items in particular to discuss. First we have the special holiday dish. In 1955, Dorcas Reilly, working in the home economics department of the Campbell Soup Company, came up with the recipe for Green Bean Casserole. The idea was to make use of two staples people had on hand: green beans and Campbell’s Mushroom Soup³ But what would a green bean casserole be without a topping of Durkee’s French Fried Onions??? Alas, in 1995 French’s Famous Foods, Inc. rebranded Durkee’s French Fried Onions with the French’s name.⁴

Meanwhile, from Swampscott, Massachusetts, another Durkee descendant, H. Allen Durkee, partnered with fellow WWI veteran Fred L. Mower to form Durkee-Mower, Inc., headquartered in Lynn, Massachusetts. They purchased the recipe for a sweet marshmallow cream and eventually branded it Marshmallow Fluff. A 1960 marketing campaign coined the name Fluffebutter for that lunch box favorite, a sandwich of peanut butter and Marshmallow Fluff.⁵ 2017 marks the 100 year anniversary of marshmallow cream now universally known as Marshmallow Fluff. There is an interesting article in the March 7, 2017 Boston Globe about Fluff and other New England confections Why Marshmallow Fluff couldn’t have been created anywhere other than Massachusetts by Mimi Graney, author and the founder of Somerville’s annual What the Fluff? Festival.⁶
H Alan Durkee is William Durgy’s 7^th great-grandson and my 7^th cousin, 2 times removed.

_________________________

1 http://durkee.org/history.htm

2New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation, Volume 4, William Richard Cutter p, 1772

3“Green bean casserole” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_bean_casserole

4“French’s History” http://www.frenchs.com/our-story/

5Fluffernutter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluffernutter

6Graney, M. (2017, March 7). Why Marshmallow Fluff couldn’t have been created anywhere other than Massachusetts. The Boston Globe. Lifestyle section.

 

Next Installment: TBD

(c) 2017 Philip G Wright, all rights reserved

Arrival of John Wright, My Direct Immigrant Ancestor, part 1

This article is part of a series journaling my progress with what I call The Presidential Project. The first article was posted on 25 May, 2017 and can be found here: Back to the Blog and you can read forward to today.

Thursday, June 15, 2017

I was originally going to write for Thursday about my immigrant ancestors and the ships that brought them to America, but I realized that my data needs a little more cleanup in that respect, so I am deferring the subject to a later date. But that work suggested the following update. Consider this a Family Friday extra 🙂

I wrote about Deacon John Wright (1601-1688) last Friday. He is my direct paternal 9^th great-grandfather and an immigrant to America from England. As I work with this blog, I am realizing there is much more to learn about John and am considering moving him up on my to-do list.

As I said on Friday, many secondary sources place John and his wife Priscilla in Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1630. That suggests he was part of the Winthrop Fleet migration but his name appears on no passenger manifest that has been found to date. I did find once source stating he was part of the fleet, but it requires supporting documentation.¹

John first appeared in official records in 1640: “John, a first settler of Woburn, ]Mass.,] subscribed the “town orders” (at Charlestown) Dec. 18, 1640; selectman of Woburn, 1645-47, 1649-58, 1660-64, 1670, 1680-81; commissioner of the rate, 1646, 1671; deacon of Woburn church from Nov. 10, 1664, to his death.”² A thank you to William R Cutter, esq., the town librarian of Woburn Massachusetts for his research into the town founders! There is a linear foot of papers on the Wright family in the Woburn Public Library awaiting my review. Some day …

Interestingly enough, John is not mentioned in The Great Migration series nor does he appear in the 1638 land records of Charlestown. One possible explanation is that he arrived after 1638 or, if the other sources that place him there in 1630 are correct, then it is likely he arrived as a servant, perhaps indentured. I wonder if a household census or survey exists for the 1630’s.

My curiosity is up and I will need to work this further. More to come at a later date.

Next Installment: Family Friday: The Family Food

1“Carr-Harris – History & Genealogy” by Carr-Harris, Gordon Grant Macdonnel, (Printed in 1966 for private circulation) Wright Pt I – App I p 1 Woburn [Mass.] Public Library, special collection, Call number: G2 C31C

2“Wright Family of Woburn, Mass.” By William R. Cutter, Esq., Librarian of the Public Library, Woburn, Mass. New England Historic Genealogical Register, Jan. 1883, Vol. 37, p. 76

(c) 2017 Philip G Wright, all rights reserved