Feb 26, 2009

Historic Maps on Ancestry.com


Recently I've been working on developing a story about my grandmother Lizzie Spalding's autograph book. Many of the pages have the notation P.F.S. on them, and I wondered what that could stand for. It seemed to be a school, since most of the pages with the notation were from schoolmates, but I couldn't figure out what the F. would be. Portsmouth came to mind for the P, since she had been attending the Hampton Academy the year before. Hampton and Portsmouth are both on the New Hampshire coast.

Yesterday, I saw a blog entry about the Historic Land Ownership and Reference Atlases, 1507-2000 recently updated on Ancestry.com. Curious, I started checking town maps from Essex County, MA. I found a map of Newburyport, MA which dated 1884. Browsing it, I noticed a building labeled Putnam Free School. P.F.S.! A little more searching revealed that Lizzie's two older brothers graduated from Putnam Free School in 1885, and at that time, Lizzie's family lived in neighboring Salisbury. It's still an assumption to think that Lizzie attended the school, but I definitely have a good lead to follow now.

Feb 7, 2009

Everett Frothingham


On February 10th, 2009 two flags will fly over the US Capitol in Washington, DC to honor Everett Newell Frothingham. On Feb 10 1945, at age 23, he was lost at sea aboard the aircraft carrier USS Missouri. The flags will be given to his son and daughter. Please take a moment to think of him, and all the other young men over the years who have given their lives to fight for our country.