From The North Adams Evening Transcript, January 10, 1914: Clergyman Gives History of Stafford Hill Settlement

Any history of the Baptists in Western Massachusetts would have to include my 6X great grandfather Peter Werden (Worden) and after a general description of the area, Rev. Pease discussed the important position my ancestor had in his community.*

[10 Jan 1914, Page 8 - The North Adams Transcript at Newspapers.com]

 *There's even a mention of my 4x great grandfather Richmond.


© 2019 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

From the Probate Files: Peter Worden - Berkshire County, Massachusetts - 1808

Note: This afternoon Christine asked me if I was ready to resume blogging and my answer was a firm "NO." However...

The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) through its American Ancestors website has been a useful source for a large part of my early American family tree. An email from their blog today reminded me to check if I could find any more information about my 6X great grandfather Elder Peter Worden (or Werden as he spelled it) who died in western Massachusetts in 1808.

The results are too good not to share:

Berkshire County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1761-1917.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2017. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. Digitized mages provided by FamilySearch.org)

https://www.americanancestors.org/DB2725/i/48367/2541-co2/68553665

The file's 20 pages include his original 1804 will and the March 9, 1808 inventory. I'll share more findings at a later date but here's the sum total of his worldly estate:

You can read more about Peter Worden here and here.







© 2019 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Weddings in my Ancestral Line: December 8th through 14th

Two of my known direct ancestral couples were married during the second week of December:
maternal 6X great grandparents Moses Cooper and Mary Mathewson were wed in Glocester, Rhode Island, on December 10, 1732; and maternal great grandparents Lewis Logan Slater and Rufina Tomlinson in Severy, Kansas, on December 13, 1885.

[Lewis Logan Slater & Rufina Tomlinson Slater-undated double portrait

courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

The following two couples also married during the second week of December but I'm less certain of my relationship to them: paternal 10X great grandparents Thomas Ford and his first wife Joan Way wed in England on December 13, 1610*; and maternal 5X great grandparents William White and Jemima Wright were married on December 13, 1781 in Adams, Massachusetts, by my 6X great grandfather Elder Peter Worden.**

*This is a line that I haven't looked at in years and so I'm not certain of my connection. In any case, I would be descended from his second wife Elizabeth Charde.
**This couple's relationship to me is entirely speculative and not to be relied on. If it's true they are the grandparents of Hannah Leonard, the wife of Porter Worden (my 3X great grandparents)



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

New England Weddings in my Ancestral Line: December 1st through 7th

Three of my direct ancestral couples married during the first week of December: 6X great grandparents Jonathan Palmer and Mercy Manwaring were united in Stonington, Connecticut, on December 1, 1706; 8X great grandparents John West and Renew Carpenter married in Rehoboth, Massachusetts on December 4, 1703; and 7X great grandparents Jonathan Aldrich and Mary Wilson wed on December 4, 1740 in Smithfield, Rhode Island.

The first paragraph of Old-Time Marriage Customs in New England by Alice Morse Earle published in The Journal of American Folklore in 1893 sets the stage for a wedding:

This excerpt from  Pamela McArthur Cole's article on New England Marriages,* gives us an idea of the traditional setting for weddings.*

Also my 7X great grandmother Sarah Nutting, left widowed by my ancestor Jonathan Farnsworth five years earlier, married John Stone on December 7, 1698, in Concord, Massachusetts.

*These two articles were originally published one after the other in the same issue of The Journal of American Folklore. Both are worth reading although I don't think either would meet modern standards of scholarship.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Gone for Soldiers: Richmond Worden (1758 - 1837) Soldier with the Green Mountain Boys, Vermont

Richmond Worden*, my fifth great grandfather, served in the Vermont Militia under Seth Warner during the American Revolution.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files (NARA microfilm publication M804, 2,670 rolls). Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Richmond volunteered at several different times, serving in militias in Massachusetts and Vermont as this 1834 Massachusetts document describes:

[NARA M804. Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files. Fold3.com]

But the index card shown at the top of the page only credits him with his service as a Green Mountain Boy.


You can read more about my ancestor's military history here.

Here's how I'm descended from Richard Worden.

[Ancestry.com]

*Note the three different ways his surname was spelled in records.






© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Celebrations: Labor Day

If you have 3-1/2 minutes to spare I highly recommend that you watch this 1904 Labor Day parade in Massachusetts which the Library of Congress describes this way:

Shows a parade through bunting-draped streets, probably in the town of Leominster, Mass. First, a decorated grandstand bearing the banner "Leominster heartily greets its guests" is seen, and then the camera pans to the street where the parade is to be photographed. The sidewalks are crowded with people, including many little girls in white or light-colored dresses. People run back and forth across the street, and then the parade starts. Automobiles decorated with flowers, flags, and ribbons pass in review. Next come horse-drawn fire engines, followed by horse-drawn carts, carriages, and floats of assorted shapes and sizes.

[Labor Day parade, Fitchburg, Mass. Source: Library of Congress]

It looks like everyone in town who owned an automobile participated.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Book Shelf: Plymouth Colony: Its History & People 1629 - 1691

Although my Worden ancestors rate just two mentions* in this book, I'm looking forward to reading Eugene Aubrey Stratton's history of Yarmouth. After all, the Wordens weren't my only ancestors who lived there and I've been neglecting them while concentrating on my favorite lineage.**

[Image: Amazon.com]

The book is described as "the first comprehensive guide to Plymouth Colony" and I alway enjoy learning more about the daily life of my ancestors.


*"Old Worden (dead)" on page 66 and his son Peter Worden II in a list on page 445.
**You can be sure if I find out anything, I'll be sharing it here.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

From the Probate Files: Peter Worden II - New Plymouth, New England, 1680 (Part IV)

If you look closely at the inventory of this 10X great grandfather's estate you may understand why I've been postponing my consideration of it. Handwriting from the late 17th century is hard to decypher.

["Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Probate Records, 1633-1967," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-997D-V3ZQ?cc=2018320&wc=M6BX-F29%3A338083801 : 20 May 2014), Wills 1633-1686 vol 1-4 > image 514 & 515 of 616; State Archives, Boston.]

In fact I'm going to take advantage of a printed version of the inventory taken from "Specific Ancestral Lines of the Boaz, Paul, Welty & Fishel Families" by Adrienne Boaz.

[Specific Ancestral Lines of the Boaz, Paul, Welty & Fishel Families, page 401.

By Adrienne Boaz. Source: Google Books]

From this inventory we can see that Peter II had amassed a respectable amount of worldly goods, including livestock, beds, other furniture and cooking utensils, tools, a gun with powder and bullets, and two bibles. But there's one item I particularly want to draw your attention to in the original:

Item an Indian servant that cost att first                 04 -- 10 --- 0

This is the person referred to in this phrase of the codicil to Peter's will: "I give my Indian servant to my son Samuell after my wife's decease."

I've already covered the land in Old England left him by his father Peter I here.

Peter II's wife Mary survived him by about seven years, making her own will in 1686 which we'll look at next time.


© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Thanklord Perkins (About 1610 - After 1675)

In the first record we have of this 8X great grandmother, Thanklord Perkins was married to Ralph Shepard at St. Bride's, Fleet Street in London on the 21st of May, 1632.

[Ancestry.com. London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Church of England Parish Registers, 1538-1812. London, England: London Metropolitan Archives. Images produced by permission of the City of London Corporation Libraries, Archives. ]

A year later the baptismal record for the couple's first child, Sarah, at St. Dunstan's in Stepney lists only her father's name, giving his occupation as tailor residing in Limehouse.

[Ancestry.com. London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Church of England Parish Registers, 1538-1812. London, England: London Metropolitan Archives. Images produced by permission of the City of London Corporation Libraries, Archives.]

The couple's non-conformist religious beliefs led to Ralph, Thanklord and Sarah's departure from London on June 30, 1635 aboard the ship Abigail bound for New England. Thanklord's age was given as 23 and she was pregnant with her second child, Thomas, who is one of my 7X great grandfathers.*

Their first residence was in Watertown (presumably where Thomas was born), followed by removals to Dedham in 1637, then Weymouth in 1639, on to Malden by 1650 and ending up in Concord by 1666.

In 1651 Thankslord joined with 35 other women in a petition in defense of their minister Rev. Marmaduke Matthews.

[Ancestry.com. The history of Malden, Massachusetts, 1633-1785 [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Original data: Corey, Deloraine Pendre,. The history of Malden, Massachusetts, 1633-1785. Malden: The author, 1899.]

Here's a tracing of her signature from that document.

[From Ralph Shephard, Puritan by Ralph Hamilton Shepard, 1893.

Source: Google Books]

Several land records in Malden name Ralph "with the assent and consent of Thankslord my wife" and she "acknowledged" a deed giving some property in Concord to their son-in-law Walter Power** on March 28, 1675. This is the last date we have for her. Her date of death and place of burial are unknown.



*My descent from Thomas.

[Ancestry.com]

**Walter Power married their daughter Trial (1641-1708) who's my 7th great grandmother.

[Ancestry.com]

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

From the Probate Files: Peter Worden II - New Plymouth, New England, 1680 (Part III)

When the elder Peter Worden left everything including "all my lands Leases tenaments with goods movable and unmovable in ye Towne of Clayton in ye County of Lankester" to his only son Peter Worden II (who accompanied his father to Massachusetts in about 1638) both men would have known what that property was and had some idea of its worth. 

However by 1680 no one seems to have been able to judge what value to put on the property described as "all my estate in old England both land and other estate that came by my wife*" in the Peter II's will. 

["Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Probate Records, 1633-1967," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-997D-V3D1?cc=2018320&wc=M6BX-F29%3A338083801 : 20 May 2014), Wills 1633-1686 vol 1-4 > image 516 of 616; State Archives, Boston.]

Item an Interest in house and land and mony in old England
not knowing what it may be worth                                              xxx--00---0
Item an house and land both upland and meddows
in the Towne of Yarmouth                                                            500--00--0


Peter II's oldest son Samuel Worden was the main beneficiary of his father's will and he and his mother Mary acted as executors of his estate, giving their oath that the inventory** was true.

["Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Probate Records, 1633-1967," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-997D-V3D1?cc=2018320&wc=M6BX-F29%3A338083801 : 20 May 2014), Wills 1633-1686 vol 1-4 > image 516 of 616; State Archives, Boston.]

This  2i of March 1680
Samuell Worden and Mary Worden the Relict of the
said Peter Worden maid oath to the truth of this inventory
Before mee John Freeman Assistant?;                   John Miller
                                                                               John Hall Junior:
                                                                               Paul Sears: ????


*Although there are claims made that Peter II's wife Mary's maiden name was Winslow or Seares, I'm not comfortable with either name. In any case, we don't know what property in England she had brought to the marriage.
**I will cover the complete inventory of Peter II in a later post.


© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Opal May Slater (1890 - 1973) Part 3

In previous posts we've had a view of my great aunt's teaching career which culminated in her becoming one of the first women to receive an advanced degree from Harvard.*

The next record we have for Opal is in the 1922 Denver City Directory where she was living with her mother Rufina on Marine Street. Opal is described as "with L&S D G Co" but I haven't been able to discover what company that was.

[Title : Denver, Colorado, City Directory, 1922. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: 

Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.]

Opal's name appears again the same year in a Denver Rocky Mountain News calendar of events and a Denver Post article about the local Y.M.C.A.'s "Annual Budget Week."

[Date: Friday, February 10, 1922   Paper: Denver Rocky Mountain News (Denver, Colorado)   Page: 13  

© This entire service and/or content portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or its content providers.

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

[Date: Sunday, January 29, 1922   Paper: Denver Post (Denver, Colorado)   Page: 20  

This entire product and/or portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004.

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

It's not clear to me when Opal returned to Massachusetts but in the Hartford Courant she was described as a graduate Yale Law School** Class of 1927 and had just been elected to the Order of the Coif.

[Hartford Courant Hartford, Connecticut. Tuesday, June 21, 1927

Source: Newspapers.com]

This 1928 Boston Herald piece includes her name among the 28 women who passed the state bar examination.

[Date: Wednesday, February 29, 1928   Paper: Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts)   Page: 6  

This entire product and/or portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004.

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

And here's her listing in the 1929 Boston City Directory.

[Title : Boston, Massachusetts, City Directory, 1929.

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:

Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.]

She was the only one of Lewis Logan Slater's children to follow him into the legal profession.


*Links here and here
**Yes, THAT Yale.
***You can read about its history here.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

From the Probate Files: Peter Worden - Yarmouth, Massachusetts - 1638/39

One of my maternal 11X great grandfathers, Peter Worden disappears from available records between 1629 when he lent eight shillings to the Borough of Preston in Lancashire, England, and 1638 when he made his will in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, on February 9, 1638/39, later described as the first "English" to die in that location.

 A month later this will was probated and was the first will written in Plymouth's court records. Here's what that record looks like, written in the handwriting of the day.

["Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Probate Records, 1633-1967," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-31878-2725-41?cc=2018320&wc=M6BX-F29:338083801 : accessed 22 Oct 2014), Wills 1633-1686 vol 1-4 > image 43 of 616;

citing State Archives, Boston.]

However legible the original record may have been, in the late 19th century Barnstable County hired Mary R. Lovell and G.A. Hinchley to transcribe them.

[Wills, Inventories, Etc, 1637 to 1685, County of Barnstable; Probate Place: Plymouth, Massachusetts. Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

Original data: Massachusetts County, District and Probate Courts.]

And here's what they produced.

[Wills, Inventories, Etc, 1637 to 1685, County of Barnstable; Probate Place: Plymouth, Massachusetts. Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

Original data: Massachusetts County, District and Probate Courts.]

Here's my transcription of the original document. Comparing it with the 1893 version I think Miss Mary R. normalized some of the spelling--which I can understand as it's all to easy to do. Also she and other transcriptions tend to add punctuation which is missing in the 17th century original.

     The last will and Testament of Peter Worden of
     Yarmouth ye elder deceased proved at ye generall
     Court held at Plymouth the fift day of March in ye xiiiith
     year of ye Reigne of our Sovereigne Lord Charles King of
     England ca 1638 by ye oathes of Mr Nicholas Sympkins
     Hugh Tillie & Giles Hopkins, as followith, viz 
Be it knowne unto all men to whome this doth or
may concerne That I Peter Worden of Yarmouth in New
England in Plymouth, Hatter being very sicke in this yeare
of Our Lord 1638 and on ye viiith day of February do make
my last will to testify unto all that I Peter Worden doe
give and bequeath unto Peter Worden, my only sonne &
sonne & heir and in the presense of Nicholas Sympkins
Hugh Tillie & Giles Hopkins I do make him my whole Executor
to whom I doe give all my lands Leases tenaments with
goods movable and unmovable in ye Towne of Clayton in
ye County of Lankester likewise I doe give unto
Peter my sonn all my goods which I have at this present
in New England My will is my sonn is to give John
Lewis one Nete Goate also my will is my sonn is to give
my Grandchild such money as is due for the keeping of
Goates and Calves until this day and that my sonn is
with the money to buy a Kid or dispose it otherwise
for his use also one bed or bolster three blankets also
my sonn is to have ye tuition of my grandchild untill
he be at ye age of one and twenty yeares of age also
my will is he shall fynd him with meate drinke and
clouthes and at ye three last yeares of the xxith years
also to have forty shillings the yeare after & above
for to add to his stock with the sow pigg when the sowe piggs
In witness we present set out hande
                                                            Nicholas Sympkins
Peter {his/seal} Worden                           Hugh Tillie H mark
                                                            Giles Hopkins $$
Mr Nicholas Sympkins Hugh Tillie and Giles Hopkins
weer all deposed (in open Court) to this will ye fift day of'
March 1638. xiiiith Caroli We[?] See Court order P-194

On what turned out to be his deathbed, Peter Worden left all his property in both New and Old England to his only son Peter, directing the younger Peter to take care of his grandson John Lewis whose mother was Peter's oldest child Elizabeth Worden. Young John was named after his London-born father John Lewis, a married preacher with some scandalous habits. (You can read more about him here.) This will seems to be the only reference to John who would have been about 14 at the time of his grandfather's death. Nothing further is know about him.




© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Elizabeth Brown (About 1794 - 1857)

Last week I posted about my third great grandfather Porter Worden so I felt this week was a good time to take a look at his ancestry starting with his mother Elizabeth, the daughter of Jeremiah Brown.*

Although there are several accounts claiming Cayuga County, New York, as her birthplace both the 1850 federal census and 1855 New York State census list Elizabeth's home state as Massachusetts. The Browns were living in Cayuga County by the 1800 U.S. Census and her husband-to-be Lyman Worden's family moved there about seven years later. Both families appear in the 1810 U.S. Census.

[Map Of The Northern Part of the State Of New York. Compiled from actual Survey By Amos Lay 1812. Entered ... 16th day of July 1812 by Amos Lay ... New-York. Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]

[Detail of above map--Cayuga County is outlined in pink.]

[Year: 1810; Census Place:Cayuga, New York; Ancestry.com. 1810 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Third Census of the United States, 1810.

(NARA microfilm publication M252, 71 rolls). Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29.

National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

[Year: 1810; Census Place:Cayuga, New York; Ancestry.com. 1810 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Third Census of the United States, 1810.

(NARA microfilm publication M252, 71 rolls). Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29.

National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

We haven't found a marriage record for Elizabeth and Lyman but their first child Porter was born on May 12, 1811. By 1820 the family was living in neighboring Oswego County where Elizabeth and her husband would live the rest of their lives.

In the 1850 U.S. Census we have the first official record naming Elizabeth. She and Lyman are living with their son Joseph and next door to Porter and Hannah and their growing family.**

[Year: 1850; Census Place: Oswego, Oswego, New York. Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29;

National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

In the New York State census five years later we have a last glimpse of Elizabeth.

["New York State Census, 1855," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-8BP2-BM?cc=1937366&wc=M6GQ-C6D%3A237408001%2C237541501 : 22 May 2014), Oswego > image 9 of 28; count clerk offices, New York.]

Elizabeth Brown Worden died on September 19, 1857, and is buried in the Rural Cemetery in Oswego. Lyman would join her there in 1883.


*In the Records of the First Baptist Church in Cheshire (formerly New Providence) whose presiding Elder was Peter Worden there is this entry:

Unfortunately Brown is a very common surname and we can't be sure this Jeremiah Brown is Elizabeth's father but it points to a possible previous connection between the Browns and the Wordens in Massachusetts.

**This is the only time in census records that my great great grandfather Willet Orlando Worden is called by that name. 

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.