Walk Down Memory Lane

After becoming frustrated trying to access the 1940 Census Images yesterday, I got up at 3:30 AM Pacific Time this morning, in an attempt to beat the East coast rush. It paid off, or at least that's what I tell myself. It's probably more likely that the servers at Archives.com were upgraded to accommodate the enormous amount of interest that this census has generated. So was I pleased with what I found?? You Betcha!

I've only searched a dozen or so Enumeration districts so far. Since I came from a very small town, I've already found most of my immediate family. But what I'm also noticing is how familiar the other local names are, compared to what I've seen on the earlier censuses. Although I am young enough that I won't be included in the next census release, I do recognize many, many names. Several of my older siblings friends are listed. Also listed are many of the people I did business with when I was a young wife and mother. The realtor that sold us our first house shows up. The couple who ran the little grocery where I bought bologna for my mother (and pretzels for me). My banker, and his mother! Several of my co-workers from my first job are listed. How could I have forgotten those names until seeing them on the census? Dozens of the patients I treated as a new Respiratory Therapist at our local hospital are there as well.

I always heard that some people have been missed on censuses, and some have been counted twice. I was never able to find my mother-in-law on the 1930 census, but there she is on the 1940 census, not once, but twice!

After a wonderful day of searching, I will probably put this to rest until the indexes come out. Meanwhile I'll pop on over to FamilySearch.org and help them with the enormous task of indexing every name in the Census. Don't forget, anyone can help. Just follow this link to get started. FamilySearch.org Indexing It's easy, it's fun and it helps others find their family members.

Servers overworked at 1940 Census Online

I've been eagerly awaiting the release today of the 1940 US Census images. The information to be posted should help me fill in some gaps in the family tree. However, it's almost 8PM and I haven't yet seen a single image from my home state of Massachusetts. I've been trying all day, different browsers, different websites, even resetting my router. No luck! The servers at the National Archives are overwhelmed by the interest in the images. Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org have posted some of the images on their sites, but nothing yet from Massachusetts or New Hampshire, the states I am most interested in.

The day wasn't a total waste though. I spent some time indexing the Delaware images for FamilySearch.org this evening. And this afternoon, I did some long postponed ironing!

Why is Gilbert Baker on the front page of this?

I've had this album in my possession for over 20 years, but I've never been able to put the puzzle together. The first photo in this album is labelled Gilbert Baker, father of Sarah Barrett. The second photo is labelled George N Frothingham (my grandfather) and the third is Samuel Foster Frothingham, who could be either my great-grandfather or his uncle. For years, I've searched Ancestry.com for a clue to who Gilbert Baker might be. This week, I've been spending more time on FamilySearch.org after my daughter-in-law mentioned it at lunch on Saturday. They have indexed a huge amount of images lately and I was finally able to find some clues.

First, I found Sarah Baker's marriage to James Barrett. Her parents were Gilbert Baker and Sarah. That looked promising. She was 20 years old at the marriage in 1874, so now I had an approximate birth date. Some more searching found Sarah Baker, born 1854, father Gilbert S Baker, and mother Sarah who was born in Nova Scotia.

A little more research found Gilbert S Baker's marriage to Sarah McIntire in 1851. Sarah's father was listed as Edward McIntire. However, I also found a death record for Sarah which listed her father as John MacIntire and her birth as occurring in Prince Edward Island.

My great-grandfather, Samuel F Frothingham was married to Jane McIntire. Jane was born in Prince Edward Island in 1838. Her death record lists her father as Edward MacIntyre. I can't be positive, but I believe Sarah (McIntire) Baker was either Jane McIntire's sister, or possibly her cousin, depending on which record of her father's name is correct.

Now if I could just find clues to some of the 31 unlabelled photos in the album.

1940 Census Countdown

For those like me who are eagerly awaiting the release of the 1940 Federal Census, here is a countdown monitor until the big DAY. Add 9 hours to this for the exact TIME the census schedule images will be available on April 2, 2012, at 9:00 AM EDT.

1940 Census Countdown

Photo Albums Are Back!

After much frustration and a few curse words all the photo albums are back online. The link from Frothingham.us should bring you to them, but if not, this link will work.

Heritage Gallery

They still need some details fixed. The captions all disappeared when I re-loaded the pictures, and they reverted to the original file names. I'll try to make them prettier soon. For now, they are organized in albums, mostly by family or contributor. The gravestones are in a separate album, grouped by cemetery name and can be found at this link:

Virtual Cemetery

Gagnon-Poulin Connection

I know that Aurore (Poulin) Gilman's mother was Mary Gagnon. I'm trying to make the connection to the Gagnons that I knew when I was growing up in Salisbury MA. I think possibly Mary Gagnon and Louis Gagnon, whose wife was Rosanna, may be brother and sister but the final piece is eluding me. Can anyone help?

Great Newsome Brewery Comment

I received a message from Matthew Hodgson at my Frothingham.us guestbook. He and I have been corresponding for several years. I recently had a chance to try some of their Frothingham Best beer while in London.  He's wondering if the Frothingham Family in the United States would have enough interest in their beer to start sending some here. I think we should all support him!

Here is his message:

See our link about Frothingham success and the Yorkshire Taste awards here in the UK. If we get lots of interest from the Frothingham family may be one day we will be able in distribute this wonderful beer in the U.S.
See our site www.greatnewsomebrewery.co.uk
Let us know what you think via our Facebook and Twitter Page

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New Update but the Galleries are not working (yet!)

I just released an updated version of Frothingham.us. to more accurately portray my focus on my children's heritage instead of the Frothingham family alone. The Frothingham name is still the major player on the site, but I've added a huge amount of Richard, Welch, Poulin, Gilman, and Patenaude lines as well.

As with any change there have been some glitches. I think I have fixed a few of the bugs already, but for the next few days, the galleries are not working. I should be able to get the photos back on-line as soon as I get a block of free time. There are some wonderful photos of the family of Ephrem Gilman that haven't been on the site before. They were sent by Albert Gilman who also contributed a large amount of pedigree information.  I hope to get everything fixed within the next week. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this picture of Ephrem Gilman as a young man. Thank you for being patient. Please check back soon.

Slow going with the Windows 7 but I'm getting there.

I managed to get comfortable with my new version of Family Tree Maker. Today, I decided to convert my information to a Ged-com file and post it on my website. Surprise!! Windows 7 doesn't recognize my website settings. Arggh!  So the update to the website will need to wait a while longer until I get the navigation links established. I have a lot of new information on the Gilman ancestors and some new Gilman family photos to post. Hope to get everything online soon. Thanks for your patience.

New computer and old Family Tree Maker don't mix

I've been very happy with my Family Tree Maker 2006. I've been using it, and previous versions of Family Tree Maker for over 10 years and they have all worked well for me. Recently, I decided to buy a new computer to replace my older, slow desktop. The new one came with Windows 7. Unfortunately, Family Tree Maker 2006 is NOT compatible with Windows 7, so for several weeks, I've been without access to my research. Of course, that is when several new contacts posted to my website with questions. Today my new Family Tree Maker 2011 arrived. I just installed it, and there goes my comfort zone! It's an entirely new interface. I'm not saying it's better or worse, but I'll need some time to get used to it. So to those people who have recently posted questions, my apologies. I will get back to you as soon as I figure out this new software. Meanwhile, feel free to stop by frothingham.us and give it a look-see. There is a lot of information posted, and I WILL get back to you soon.

Frothingham Best

About 3 years ago, I received this entry in my website guest book from Matt at Great Newsome Brewery.

"We are a small brewery based on a farm in East Yorkshire, England in the village of South Frodingham, which I believe is possibly the original home of the Frothingham family name. I know this because we released a new ale in January called Frothingham Best named after the forefathers of our village/hamlet. Details of the beer and why we used the name can be seen on our website www.greatnewsomebrewery.co.uk. It is only available in casks, for supply to local pubs etc but we hope to bottle it in the near future.
Great Newsome is the name of our farm in South Frodingham and our neighbours live at Frodingham Hall once the home of the Frothingham family."

At that time, we were planning a trip to France and Italy, so I wrote back and asked if the ale would be available in Paris. Unfortunately, it was not! Recently, I heard from him again. Frothingham Best is available in bottles now and is sold in London. Yep! We are going on a road trip, or rather a very long plane trip! I won't be able to bring any home on the plane, but I will be able to keep the bottle as a souvenir.

My elusive Great-grandmother Emeline

Early on in my research, all I knew was that my great-grandmother was born Emeline Amelia Smith in Abington, MA. I also knew she died in 1945 and is buried in Salisbury. Putting the rest of her life together has been the hardest puzzle I've had so far. I've been able to make a lot of assumptions from bits of information I've gathered, but still no "Ah Ha, here's the proof" moment until yesterday.

In 1880, Henry Welch was living with his parents Jacob and Esther in Sanford, Maine. His marital status was listed as widowed. Emeline Smith could not be found. By the 1900 US Federal Census, Emeline and Henry Welch were living in Sanford and had 3 sons. Emeline's birthplace is Massachusetts and her parents were born in England. The family also appeared on the 1910 and 1920 censuses. By 1930, Emeline was widowed.

During the time I was searching for information a cousin sent me an e-mail. She told me she had seen the death record in Salisbury, but didn't say anymore about what was in the record. In another e-mail, she thought Emeline's father was named Jacob but didn't say where that information came from. Soon after, I heard that she had passed away.

In 2007, I visited the Massachusetts Archives in Boston in hopes of finding Emeline's birth record. I viewed the entire microfilm of the Abington birth records for 1854 and found only one possibility. A Smith child, no first name listed, was born in May but neither parent was born in England. Another disappointment.

Bit by bit, I found more information. Her first son was born in Windsor, VT and the other two were born in Sanford, Maine. Although her age was not consistent on the various censuses, one record showed that she was born in October. Searching for her on the 1860 and 1870 censuses, the only Emeline A Smith I found that might be her was a child of Patrick and Rose Smith, both from Ireland. The age was right and they were living in Abington, MA. By the 1880 census, Emeline Smith did not show up in the indexes, but Patrick and Rose Smith had a daughter, Emeline Griffin, listed as married, living with them. I had no knowledge that Emeline was married before Henry, so again I dismissed this connection. Too much didn't add up.

Then a few months ago, I found the Abington Birth Records on Footnote. I decided to try again. I searched for Emeline A Smith and this time there was a record. The birth had been recorded late and was included in the 1855 records. The date of birth was Oct 6 1854. The parents are Patrick and Rose Smith both from Ireland. I was becoming more convinced that this was my Emeline.

Yesterday, I visited the Town Hall in Salisbury to view her death record. I wanted to see if her parents names or birth places were listed. At first glance I was disappointed. The record lists her father's name as Jacob and mother as Unknown. Their birthplaces were also unknown.
But then I noticed that her death date was July 16 1945, and her age at death, 90 years, 9 months, 10 days. That would make her date of birth.....October 6 1854! I believe I have found my great-great grandparents.

How do I reconcile the fact that the death record names her father Jacob? Information for Death Records is often obtained from family members who are giving it from memory. The grandfather that they knew, Emeline's father-in-law, was named Jacob.

Finding Family on Facebook: Part 2

In an earlier post, I mentioned getting in touch with family through Facebook. Since then, I've been corresponding with two of my husband's cousins, both through Facebook. We took this picture last Saturday, when we had lunch with one of them, Sue. She was also my high school classmate. We hadn't seen each other for close to 40 years. We had a very enjoyable visit catching up on old times and family news. Tomorrow, we'll visit the other cousin, Bob, who has generously donated wonderful pictures of my husband's great-grandparents and their children. They are in the family gallery at Frothingham.us

New Name for Frothingham.us

New this week at Frothingham.us:

Since the family tree now contains over 3000 people and includes much more than just the Frothingham family, the new name of the site is Family History of Arlene Frothingham and Her Related Lines. Also, some of the pages have been combined to make the site easier to navigate. The location is still the same at www.frothingham.us

The Family Tree was updated to include new information, including several generations of the Richard and Ouellette lines. I've also added genealogy reports of "The Ancestors of Randolph Frothingham and Evelyn Welch" and "Ancestors of Arthur Gilman and Angeline Lusignant".

In the Gallery, there is a Richard Family Album of photos contributed by Bob Richard.

Finding family on Facebook

This post is not technically about genealogy. However, I've been using Facebook for a couple months now, and I've been able to connect with a lot of family members who I haven't seen in years. It's also put me in touch with some high school friends, and friends of friends. There is even a group called "Frothingham, It's not that hard to spell, just sound it out." Most of my genealogy research up to now has been "digging up dead people", so it's fun to get in touch with my living relatives for a change. If you haven't tried Facebook, it's easy and fun. Best of all, it's free.

Update to Frothingham.us

I spent today working on my website at Frothingham.us I added a new story titled Lizzie Spalding's Autograph Book. I also updated the Family Tree and the PDF file of William Frothingham's descendants. Recently I added a Biography of Jacob F Spalding to the site. I still have some things that were sent to me that I haven't had a chance to work on yet. Hopefully, there will be more stories in the next few months.

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.

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.

Back from Break

The weddings are over, and things are getting back to normal, giving me time to do some work on my webpage. I've made some corrections to the family tree, and added a few new names. There is an updated PDF file of "The Descendants of William Frothingham" available, as well as a new family story submitted by Richard Frothingham. It recounts Dick and Tom Frothingham's years on a ranch in Ellsworth County, Kansas during the late 1880's. Look for more pictures in the Heritage Gallery in the near future.

Too busy to Blog

After a burst of genealogy activity in August, I've been taking a break. This is the season of weddings in our family, and the festivities have been taking up a lot of my time. Richard and Barney Frothingham have both sent me a great deal of information that I am sorting through and slowly getting into the website. I have added many new pictures to the Heritage Pictures Gallery like this photo of my mother holding one of my brothers. There is an updated family tree and PDF file. Also, through the website, Ive been in touch with a distant family family who lives nearby, and I hope to meet her for lunch soon. By the end of October, I should be able to get back to my research. I have a few films I want to order from the Family History Center that I think will help with some questions I've been pondering.