The Progress Continues

The success of last week continued into this week. Richard Frothingham, whose uncle Thomas Goddard Frothingham, Jr was responsible for publishing Thomas Wyman's "The Genealogy of Frothingham in New England 1850" signed my guest book at Frothingham.us and we've been corresponding by e-mail ever since. He has sent me a wealth of information about his line of descent from the original emigrant to America, William Frothingham. I have added the genealogy to my family tree and updated the website. He also sent a lot of anecdotal material, some of which I plan to post in the next few months as time permits. I'm still trying to find time to finish scanning the pictures from my sister, and typing in some of the stories I received from Barney Frothingham. So much to do! I may not get much sleep for a while. But it's certainly been an interesting few weeks.

Fruitful Week

What a week it's been! I was finally able to make contact with my cousin John Frothingham, who was responsible for my interest in genealogy, although he didn't know it until now. It was his research, a copy of which my Aunt Gertrude gave to me about 12 years ago, that started me on this journey. A big thank you to Barney Frothingham, for making it happen. Barney also sent me a wonderful packet of information about the John Luther Frothingham line. John Luther was the brother of my great-great-grandfather Thomas Frothingham. A few days after that arrived, I got two large packets of family photos in the mail from my sister. In it were many photos of my parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins and aunts and uncles. I've been busy the last few days trying to post some of the information onto my website at Frothingham.us. I'm a bit overwhelmed with the task, but hopefully it will all be on-line soon. Meanwhile, you can see some of the new postings at Frothingham Gallery: Heritage Photos

Looking for Lawrence

A visitor to my website at Frothingham.us recently asked if I am related to Lawrence P Frothingham from New Canaan, Connecticut, circa 1909. His family has something they would like to return to a family member. The other person mentioned was H. D. Montgomery. If you have any information about Lawrence, H. D. or their descendants, please let me know. The item is not valuable, but might mean something to a family member.

Family History Center Visit

A few weeks ago, I visited one of the Family History Centers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I am not a member of the church, but I was welcomed to the center and enjoyed the resources for family research that they offer. While I was there, I was able to order a microfilm of the Vital Records for my hometown in Massachusetts. The film came in this week, and I spent this morning at the center viewing it. Two hours passed in a flash, and I had to put the film away for another day. I was fascinated by the names. Most of the families I remember from my grade school days were represented in the mid 1800's. Births, marriages, deaths marked the passage of time, but the names were still familiar. I hated to part with the film, but the center was closing for the day, and won't reopen until fall. They are going to keep the film until then, instead of sending it back to Salt Lake City. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of it.

For anyone interested in checking out the Family History Center nearest to you, here's the link:

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp

Meanwhile, I updated the information I have, and posted it on my website at Frothingham.us Mostly, I added sources for some of my assumptions, but there are a few new people.

Happy Patriots Day

With Patriots Day coming up this weekend for residents of Massachusetts and Maine, I thought about the wonderful time we had in Massachusetts last spring. A group of us spent the day at Minuteman National Historical Park in Lexington and Concord. Although I didn't find any Frothingham graves, we all enjoyed walking through the cemetery in Concord, and visiting the site of the first battle of the American Revolution.

During our trip, Dale and I also visited the Massachusetts Archives. We were able to find several birth and death records to help me verify some of my guesses. I highly recommend a visit if you are looking for records of your Massachusetts ancestors. Later in the trip, we spent a few hours at the NH Vital Records in Concord, NH. The building was brand new, and they were still organizing the boxes of records. We were able to photocopy the actual records of many of my Spalding/Spaulding ancestors. It didn't clear up the question of which spelling is correct however.

WW1 Draft Card Image

 

Ancestry.com has images of the WW1 Draft cards available on its site. They provide a lot of useful information, and as a bonus, a sample of your ancestors handwriting. This image is of my great-uncle's draft card.

Huntington and Wolcott

Whenever I do research on the Frothingham family, Wolcott and Huntington keep appearing, either as marriages or as first and middle names. I decided to research that line today, and found a former Governor of Massachusetts in the family. Roger Wolcott, Governor from 1897-1899, was a descendant of William and Anna Frothingham. He was born in 1847, the son of Joshua Huntington Wolcott and Cornelia Frothingham, (Samuel, Nathaniel, Nathaniel, Nathaniel, Nathaniel, Nathaniel, William).