Week 5: Branching Out (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

 In week 2, I mentioned loving to find out how different people in my tree are related to seemingly unrelated other people in my tree.  An awkward way of describing this week's branching out theme.  It might be more like a tangled web or roots.  But to me, branching out is when I begin to investigate the families of an in law, a friend or a cousin's spouse or someone who has the same surname as one in my tree or even some famous individual or historical event.  And DNA matches, that I think is a whole other week's topic.  But the list goes on and on.   It seems the more I do this, the more connections I find.  It can be quite amazing to me how many connections there are.  Most of the time, I need to go way back to find them.  Sometimes it's just a marriage between this one's cousin and that one's cousin.    Other times we share a common ancestor.  My husband poo poos this as not related but I believe in the thought that we are all related.  We just don't know how unless we look. And therein lies my interest.  The fun is in the search and solving the HOW.  

The first unexpected connection that I uncovered was that my husband and I were 7th cousins thru shared ancestors named Robert(1616-1683)  & Sarah Allyn(1620-1683). Our 8th great grandparents, Robert and Sarah were both born in England and came over to America probably separately, Robert about 1637 to Salem, Massachusetts.  They married sometime between 1638 and 1641. My husband descends from two of their 5 children and I descend from 1 of their other children.  The family settled in New London county, Connecticut where both Robert and Sarah died.  

Happy Hunting!

Please give credit and post a link to my blog if you intend to use any of the information written here. My blog posts are © Ann M Sinton 2022. All rights reserved. 

The Butterfly Effect

I was going to save this topic for the summer, but an article that I read this morning prompted me to at least write about how I got started with this very interesting and gratifying activity.  One of my summer interests is raising Monarch butterflies.  June thru late September are spent tending to the Milkweed plants and looking for Monarch eggs and caterpillars on the milkweed.  

This all started innocently enough in 2005 when my husband and I stopped for a cone at the local ice cream stand one nice June evening.  Already being interested in nature, I spied a rather large and beautiful moth resting on the side of the trash can.  Our 2 oldest grandchildren were ages 4 and 2 at the time and I thought that they would really like to see this moth, so I took it home to keep just overnight to show them.  I placed the moth in one of those collapsible butterfly habitats that we already had.  I had bought one of the kits that let you raise Painted Lady Butterflies in 2003 for the grandkids to watch.

The Painted Lady

In the meantime, I, of course, went to the internet to identify this moth. It was a Polyphemus Moth, one of the largest moths in Pennsylvania.  I also found out that this moth does not eat like butterflies do, so I did not have to worry about feeding it.  The next morning I looked in on our overnight guest and was puzzled by a lot of small whitish dots spread all over the netting of the habitat.  Well guess what..... she, so it turns out, had laid eggs!  This was the moment when it all started.  I just could not ignore these eggs.  Back to the internet to see how long till they hatched and what they would eat.  Fortunately, one of the leaves that they eat was maple which I had plenty of in my yard.  About a week later, I had teeny tiny caterpillars to feed.  At first it was just a leaf or two, then a small branch, then I found myself practically giving my tree a good pruning! They were eating machines! My husband built me a larger screened box to protect the caterpillars from being eaten by birds. I had some rather large bright green caterpillars and then just like that they began wrapping themselves up in the leaves instead of eating them. This is where they would spend the next couple weeks.  So about a month and a half after finding that first moth, the new moths began emerging from their cocoons.  

The Polyphemus Moth

Very tiny eggs and caterpillars

Success!  Now just to release them and wish them luck!   Well guess what.... some of them were a little quicker than me and had already mated and left me more eggs!  Deja Vu, more leaves and more cocoons.  But this time I did not get any moths.  It turns out that depending upon what time of year they go into their cocoons, they may not come out until the following spring.  So they got a cozy sheltered spot on  my deck for the winter and I crossed my fingers.  

Spring arrived and the moths began emerging.  This time I was ready. As soon as their wings had dried and stiffened, I moved each one to the deck railing so they could leave as they wanted.  A few stayed around long enough to, guess what, mate. But this time they laid their eggs in a more natural spot somewhere in the maple tree I assume.  

This adventure was over, but I had already begun preparing to attract the Monarch butterflies to my yard.  I turned a small spot next to our shed into a garden, planted milkweed and waited.  

In August, about the time the I had finished raising the moths, I saw the first Monarch caterpillar on my milkweed.  I was very excited, but at this time I did not collect them and left them to nature.  One of these caterpillars had decided that the overhang of the shed roof was a good place to form his chrysalis.  I watched and waited and about 2 weeks later a gorgeous Monarch emerged.  Hooked again and I began collecting and feeding several more caterpillars that I found hoping to help the population along.  I had unknowingly become a citizen scientist. 

The first Monarch

At first I used the screened box  that had housed the moths the year before.  I was only raising a few the first few years and soon found out that my box did not keep the caterpillars in and the predators out very well.   So I invested in a larger mesh habitat.  It was perfect!  About this time I had learned how to spot the extremely tiny eggs.  This gave me many more monarchs to raise. 

Monarch eggs

Monarch tags

 In 2010, I sent away for tiny tags that you apply to the wing before you release the butterfly.  This was a way to help scientists learn more about the Monarchs that were able to complete the annual migration to Mexico.  At this point, I was raising enough that I was able to give some to the grandkids so that they too could watch a butterfly emerged from it's chrysalis at home.  

For a few years, we were happily raising Monarchs each summer. Releasing as many as 50 a year.  I found that I was not growing enough Milkweed of my own and needed to take walks to places near me where I could collect milkweed leaves to feed the caterpillars. Fortunately, that would be enough. The road leading into our neighborhood has many plants growing along the roadside.  Then 2013 and 2014 came.  I had not one Monarch those years.  There had been a huge decline in the winter population of Monarchs making them scarce.  In 2015, things seemed to be back to normal with about 45 Monarchs released from my yard.  But again in 2016,  there were none.  The next 3 years were good for me. 

In 2018, I had learned about a disease that can spread among the Monarchs.  I learned how to test my Monarchs before releasing them.  This involves getting a few of the scales from the wing under a microscope to look for the disease spores. Although I never had any of my Monarchs test positive for this disease, I was still losing many more than I ever had before.  Apparently, my Milkweed patch had been found by a few of the predators that can parasitize a monarch egg or caterpillar which causes it to eventually die before becoming a butterfly.  

In 2019 I released 72!  A 60% success rate!  The most ever for me.  2020 was another disappointment because I had none once again.  In 2021, I only released 19, but better than none.  My daughter had also begun raising Monarchs at her home and eventually using them for her preschool classes as an educational tool. She has had really good years even when I did not until last year.  Even though she had quite a few, there were not nearly as many for her either.  

This brings me to the article that I read this morning saying that there is predicted to be another large decline in the Monarch population this year. So sad and disappointing.  I share a link to the article below.  

 https://dailynorthwestern.com/2022/01/25/city/the-monarch-butterfly-population-might-be-declining-heres-what-you-can-do/?fbclid=IwAR0Nhrn-DEsDst4rn9Nit7AhSR9e2dSV4drt2LDzoYIbW03QmtZMe_exgJc

I am not an extreme environmentalist but there are certain things, like the Monarchs, that I do care a bit more about.  I believe that some of the solutions can be very simple acts by us humans.  Such as not needing so much manicured lawn, mowing less and planting native plants that will be much better for us and nature.  If we all could just start with a little corner of our yards, I think we could start making a difference. We are part of the natural world as much as the Monarchs are. We all depend on each other. I hope that it is not too late for the Monarchs. 

Please give credit and post a link to my blog if you intend to use any of the information written here. My blog posts are © Ann M Sinton 2022. All rights reserved. 

Week 4: Curious (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

 

Curiosity …. Where would we humans be without it.  It really is the foundation of everything. From figuring out how to do things to what's good to eat to "Don't touch that", we are full of questions.  Today, we go into space with thoughts of settling there someday, just as people settled America's West or the Pilgrims came to Plymouth 400 years ago.  But we are not only curious about where else we can go, but also about where we've been or more specifically, where we come from.  My story this week originates with my Dad.  As a child, I was aware of his frequent questioning whether  we were related to one of the Mayflower Pilgrims, Myles Standish and whether we were related to Pres. Richard Nixon.  I think that I can call this the foundation of my later interest in family history.  I came to find out that my Dad's family had a little bit of family history already due to his Aunt Helen's research and the names Julia (Standish) Martin and Sarah (Nixon) Heacock both appeared as my Dad's great grandmothers.  But IF & HOW might we be related to Myles Standish and Richard Nixon were the great questions.  

Julia Standish & her husband Merritt Martin in 1852  

Sarah Nixon Heacock  1835 - 1911

I lived with this information for quite awhile, but with our purchase of a computer in 1998, I was able to access an entire new world of information which led me to the answers of HOW.  It turned out that Julia was the 4th great granddaughter of Capt. Myles Standish of the Mayflower!  Before I shared this discovery, I checked and rechecked to be sure that I had it right.  I was satisfied, so I shared with my Dad.  I sent him a printout of all that I had found and he was happy to have it.   At this time, I had no interest in joining the Mayflower Society.  I was happy just to have proven the connection.  But as the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower Landing approached in 2020, I thought to myself that I would go ahead with the application for membership, feeling that it would be good to have it officially recognized for future family members who may have these same curiosities.  After a little additional work to meet the requirements of the society, as far as having possession of documents that prove each generation, I was approved for membership.  A nice feeling of accomplishment.

Myles Standish 1586 - 1656

my 8th great grandfather

Now the Nixon question required me to not only find as much out about my Nixon line as I could, but to also research Richard Nixon's line as well, hoping that they intersected at some point.  In week 1 of this challenge, I spoke a little about Zachariah Nixon of North Carolina.  He is Sarah Nixon Heacock's grandfather. This line of Nixons goes into very early North Carolina and is an English Quaker family.  Next on to Richard Nixon.  

In looking at Richard Nixon's family, I found that his Quaker Nixon roots came through Pennsylvania and Delaware, but they were originally from Ireland.  I was unable to find anything that could connect the two Nixon families.  BUT, while looking at his entire family, I started seeing a few familiar surnames.  One, on his mother's side, stood out.  Mendenhall.  I already knew that we had Quaker Mendenhall ancestors so it was just a matter of satisfying my curiosity as to whether his and mine were related.  Aaron Mendenhall who was born in 1690 in Pennsylvania was the connection.   He is my 7th great grandfather and Richard Nixon's 5th great grandfather.  So even though the Nixon connection was not there, we were still related to Richard Nixon.  My Dad was pleased.

Richard M Nixon 1913 - 1994

my 6th cousin 2 times removed

So actually, my dad's curiosity led to my proving his suspicions of two relationships. But my curiosity is a forever condition. As all family historians know, answering one question always leads to another question which curiosity cannot ignore.   

Happy searching!

Please give credit and post a link to my blog if you intend to use any of the information written here. My blog posts are © Ann M Sinton 2022. All rights reserved. 

 18 January 2022

I read something today that is very true.  It involved the reason why I am so resistant to going through all of our physical items saved throughout our life.  I am a very sentimental person when it comes to saving every little thing that has a memory attached to it or made me feel happy in the moment.  I also look at this from a family archivist viewpoint and want to document as many who, what, when, where and hows that I can.  It leads to what some would call my being a packrat. I prefer Keeper of Memories.  But as the story that I read says, each and every item that you have kept triggers those memories from the past.  That's why you kept it. Something that maybe you do not think of or talk about very often, but important to who you are and simple reminders of times gone by.  It feels the same as a familiar song or smell does.  A ticket stub from one of hundreds of kids and grandkids activities makes me smile.  A dried flower from a long ago high school dance.  A child's drawing given with love.  A child's  homemade stuffed pillow in my favorite color.  Even some trip souvenirs. Family heirlooms passed down till someone doesn't want them anymore.  Granted, my children and grandchildren won't know what the dried flower means to me but for now, I can look at it and it takes me back to great memories that will be gone one day with me.  It's kind of sad when no one else but me seems interested in these memories, but that's because they are mine and not theirs.  So be gentle with us oldsters when the time comes to let go of the physical reminders of those memories.  And maybe make just a few of them yours as well.  

Please give credit and post a link to my blog if you intend to use any of the information written here. My blog posts are © Ann M Sinton 2022. All rights reserved. 

Week 3: Favorite Photo (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

I love the photo aspect of genealogy.  It is so exciting to run across a photo of an ancestor who you've never seen before.  It adds so much to their story to be able to see what they looked like and their resemblance, if any, to current family members.  I am fortunate to be the current caretaker of many family photos from my family and a few from my husband's family.  I have been able to have access to photos in other family members possession and made digital copies of them as well.  And of course, when you begin a correspondence with a new genealogy friend who shares photos that they possess with you.  Sometimes that is the most exciting thing because you might never have seen those shared photos otherwise.  I know when I share my photos with others, they have that same excitement as I.  

So for this week's theme, Favorite Photo, I chose a photo that was not necessarily THE favorite one, but one that has a story and is interesting from a technical aspect.  This photo is of ten siblings from a Bedford, Pennsylvania  Arnold family that includes my 2nd great grandfather, William Henry Arnold.  William was born in 1856, the son of Henry Wertz Arnold and his 2nd wife Margaret Over. They had 12 children, two of whom passed away before this photo. Henry W Arnold and his first wife had 8 children.  We think the photo was taken in the late 1920's to early 1930's, but not later than 1935 when one of the sisters died. If that is the case, that may be why there are only 10 of the 20 children in the photo as all but one of the first wife's children would have passed on by then.  

In the photo, William Henry Arnold is in the front seated on the left end. William was a carpenter and in the construction business for 62 years in Bedford, PA. He learned his trade from his father.  In 1878, at age 22, William enlisted in the Pennsylvania National Guard.  He was discharged in 1887 and married Elnorah Amos, who by the way, led me to my first Civil War ancestor, her father.  But that is a story for another week.  William passed away in 1939.

If you look closely at this photo, you will notice something a little odd looking about one of the men.  I have taken to calling this our photoshopped picture.  It turns out that James Arnold, in the front row 2nd from the right, was added after the fact.  Back in 2009, I received a message from a woman who found my tree and wanted to let me know that it was her father who added James to the photo!  Her father is a grandson of Jake Arnold, on the far right standing and he seems to remember adding James to the photo in the 1950's sometime.  His father, Jake's son John Herbert Arnold, had possession of the group photo that was missing a person and he also had an individual photo of the missing man, James.  So the grandson, John Herbert Arnold Jr, made a copy of the man's photo and resized it to fit the group photo and added him.  He then made a copy of the photo with the added man and made prints from there.  I often  wonder if the group photo was taken in mid April 1929, when James, the added man died?  It certainly could have been chilly enough in Pennsylvania then for them to be wearing overcoats.  And a funeral would have been an event where all of the siblings were together and they left a spot open for James in the photo.  

I guess we'll never know exactly when the photo was taken, but at least we know how James was added.  Vintage photoshop!

Please give credit and post a link to my blog if you intend to use any of the information written here. My blog posts are © Ann M Sinton 2022. All rights reserved. 

  

Week 2: Favorite Finds (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

 Week 2: Favorite Find (52 Ancestors)

This topic is hard because I don't have one favorite find.  Everything I find is a favorite at the time and is soon replaced or should I say added to the favorite list.  But here are a few examples.

Right now, I am reading a book called "Abraham Lincoln: His Life and Public Services by Mrs. P.A.Hanaford. This book was published  in 1866 and is said to probably be the first biography of Lincoln after his assassination.  I found this book in my parent's home when the house was being readied for sale.  It along with some other books found there came home with me and they have sat on my bookshelf since.  But the other day, I was looking for the next book to read and finally decided to see what this one had to say.  The reason that I kept this book whose spine was missing and whose pages were rust spotted was, of course, because I love old books like this if not simply for their age or their old appearance, but also that it appeared to have been handed down in my family.  When my grandmother died in 1996, my Dad must have brought these books home.  There were many old books to choose from in that house as well.  His Dad was born a Quaker and came from a long line of Quakers.  Many of them were teachers, both males and females and I can see why a book like this would have been of interest to one of them.  

Phebe Hanaford's book about Abraham Lincoln

When I first brought this book home, I immediately did a little research on it and it's author. The author's maiden name was Phebe Ann Coffin. That got my attention right away because one of my ancestral lines goes back to the Coffin family of Nantucket, Massachusetts.  Phebe was born a Quaker  in 1829 on Nantucket Island and was well educated. She would go on to become a teacher, author and an ordained minister and be very involved with abolitionist and women's suffragist activities.  Phebe married and had two children but her life was not without controversy.  You see, her marriage failed and she began a relationship with another woman in 1870 which lasted 44 years.   Phebe persevered thru all of  her controversies and died in 1921.  She is my 4th cousin 4 times removed.

               Phebe Ann (Coffin) Hanaford

In Phebe's Lincoln book, another Coffin name is mentioned. C.C. Coffin or Charles Carleton Coffin, who turned out to be a correspondent during the Civil War for the Boston Journal.  Phebe mentions that he was present in Springfield, Illinois when Lincoln was informed of his nomination to run for President.  He was part of a group that traveled from the Convention to Springfield. Charles was born in 1823 in New Hampshire. In contrast to Phebe, he was home schooled by his parents. He would go on to become a journalist, author and politician.  He was one of the best known newspaper correspondents during the Civil war.  Charles died in 1892 in Massachusetts.  He is my 5th cousin 5 times removed.  Phebe and Charles are 5th cousins 1 time removed to each other. 

                                                         

                                                              Charles Carleton Coffin

So not only did I find a great book, I was surprised to find my connection to the book as well.  One other thing with this book, was a news clipping that was inside the front cover. I traced it to an Indianapolis newspaper from June 19, 1913.  It was reporting on an honorary degree granted to a Miss Nebraska Cropsey by Indiana University.  At the time, she was the only woman to have this honor.   So naturally, I did some research on her, but did not find a connection to her. She was a well known educator in the Indianapolis School District and wrote several textbooks as well as trained new teachers.  I am assuming that the owner of this book was either an acquaintance of Miss Cropsey or was an admirer.  Coincidentally, she was both born(1845) and died(1916) in locations very near the Pittsburgh, PA area where I live now, but buried in Indiana where some of my ancestors lived. 

Nebraska Cropsey Clipping

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I always find myself delving into other families than my own, such as an in law.  So another favorite find was when I inadvertently and at least partially proved a family story from my son in law's family.  My son in law's mother said that her father's family was said to be Jewish or have Jewish roots.  But no one could find out if it was true or not and her father was not active in the Jewish religion and did not talk about it.  Her father was a soldier during World War II and one day I was looking into some of his hints on Ancestry and ran across a card entitled " National Jewish Welfare Board".   Lo and behold, there was his name, his mother's name, her location and that he was in the Army.  All these facts matched.  I passed this card on to my son in law's mom and she was surprised and happy to know that the family story held some truth.  

Coincidentally, a book that is in my stack of ones that I am going to read is about the Battle of the Bulge, which Robert Hahn fought in.  It is called "The Alamo of the Ardennes". I'll pass it along to my son in law when I'm finished with it.  

 ****************************************************************************

One last favorite find is when I see that many of  the people in my tree are related to each other in ways that I did not expect.  Such as that my husband and I are 7th cousins thru common 8th great grandparents and a second time as 8th cousins on another common grandparent pair. That both of us are distant cousins to our son in law on two different family lines.  I am a 5th cousin 3 times removed of my daughter in law on yet another family line.  My Dad is a 7th cousin to his childhood best friend who lived next door to him.  They never knew.  This best friend is also a distant cousin of our daughter in law and my husband's sister in law. I have found so many of these that I needed to add a category to my spreadsheet to keep track of them.  The amazing thing is that none of our families are, in recent generations, from the same area.  

It is finds like these that keep me searching for more favorite finds!

Please give credit and post a link to my blog if you intend to use any of the information written here. My blog posts are © Ann M Sinton 2022. All rights reserved. 
 

 9 Jan 2022

I am looking forward to the Season 2 Premier of the PBS series "All Creatures Great and Small" tonight.  It has been one of my favorites for years, both in the original PBS series and the books that the series is based on.  I have read the set of books by James Herriot numerous times and the stories never get boring.  He has such a down to earth way of telling his stories that just keep you reading.  This new series lives up to the books.  I have also just read that the series has been renewed for two more seasons after this one!  Great news!  Tonight at 9pm Eastern. 

Books have been present in one way or another all of my life.  From the Little Golden books of my childhood to obscure history books that no one but a history buff would be interested in.  Once I was old enough to walk our town by myself, I often found my way to our local library. It was just off of my route home from school up until I was in 8th grade.  Mary and I would meet there often in the summers, as she lived on the other side of town from me.  We would join the Summer Reading Program and always leave the library with an armful of books and be back the next week for more.  High school found me in the library more for homework and, yes, meeting my boyfriend after school. After we were married, I read less but still went to our library occasionally.  I will always remember my introduction to the history section.  I picked up a book called "Andersonville" that told about the infamous southern Civil War prison camp.  It wasn't stuff that they taught you in history class in those days.  I had entered a whole new world of reading.  Learning things I never imagined.  But when we moved away, I had less access to a local library.  Some books traveled with me, so I could still read them again.  Eventually, I discovered paperback romance novels. I read quite a few of those in my younger days.  I moved on from them as the stories always follow the same theme. My interest in History stayed with me though and I was always drawn to anything historic, a book or a place to go.  Then I discovered Genealogy.  The perfect match and my bookshelf is now groaning with books that I just cannot part with.  And the rest is, well, history. 

Please give credit and post a link to my blog if you intend to use any of the information written here. My blog posts are © Ann M Sinton 2022. All rights reserved. 

 5 Jan 2022

I spent the last year taking up knitting again.  I learned at the YWCA in the town where I lived.  My best friend, Mary,  and I signed up for classes and the first thing I completed was a sweater for our dog.  It was bright blue.  From there on, I was hooked on crafts.  I learned embroidery in the Girl Scouts and completed a pillowcase or two which I still possess.  I also learned how to sew, making some of my clothing.  I tried an Art class, but that didn't work out too well.  I found out that I am not a creative artist.  In later years, after I was married, I taught myself to crochet and cross stitch.  Many, many gifts for others were the product of all of those skills.  Crafting, in whatever form, provided me with an escape into my own world and gave me a sense of accomplishment with my finished projects.  This has served me well in recent years, especially with returning to knitting again, in that I needed something to occupy my mind and hands in the hours when I wasn't being a caregiver.

Over the years, I had knitted or crocheted Christmas stockings for me, my husband, 2 kids, their spouses and now 6 grandchildren.  But as the grandchildren grew older, they have begun to add boyfriends and girlfriends, so I planned ahead and set a goal of knitting 6 new stockings, one for each of the grandkids future spouses.  My daughter also requested a few for her family.  Surprisingly, I accomplished this fairly quickly.  At the time, I had a few books and patterns for us to choose from.  One day, I wanted to find something specific and on to Google I went.  Well, this just opened up a universe of all things knitting!  I began collecting patterns of all kinds of stockings that I liked.  Then I started knitting them saying to myself - Well, I'll have great grandkids some day too!   So when I finally said, I think that I have enough, I had knitted over 35 full size stockings and many many mini stockings.  And in the course of searching for these patterns, of course, other types of projects appeared. So needless to say, I have tackled them as well. Mostly Christmas themed items, useful and sometimes humorous, such as the tangerine cosies that I made for the tangerines that the grandkids groan at and tease me about every year in their stockings.  No groans this year, just smiles.  

Between the stockings and the cosies, I have unintentionally created new traditions for our family.  The new stockings were brought out at Thanksgiving so everyone could choose a new one if they wanted to.  It will be done every Thanksgiving now. And the cosies may be back next year, although, I will have to make more because alot of them were taken home, which makes me smile.  

                                                     Just a few of the stockings and cosies.

I'm moving on to other holidays now......

Please give credit and post a link to my blog if you intend to use any of the information written here. My blog posts are © Ann M Sinton 2022. All rights reserved. 

Week 1: Foundations (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

 ec·lec·tic

/əˈklektik/

Learn to pronounce

adjective

1. 1.

   deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources.

That's me.  And this blog is a huge leap for me.  So hopefully, over time, it will get better and better and the things that I share are of interest. 

Genealogy is one of my interests and is why I have decided to try out blogging.  I've joined a challenge called "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" where you write a genealogy based story following a theme provided each week or month if that works better for you.  Here is a link to the Facebook group, Generations Cafe, for this challenge.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1488191681482028/?hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen&multi_permalinks=2794382800862903

#52ancestors

4 Jan 2022

Week 1 - Foundations - 52 Ancestors

I want to keep this short till I get the hang of things. 

It just happens that this morning, I had a genealogy query that had me looking at one of my 4th great grandfathers.  And then I remembered the theme for this week's 52 Ancestors.  Seemed a perfect fit.

His name is Zachariah Nixon and he was born into a Quaker family in 1770 in Pasquotank County, North Carolina.  About 1809, Zachariah, his wife and 7 children and many other Quaker families moved from North Carolina to Indiana.  In 1812, he settled permanently in Washington County, Indiana.  Zachariah bought the first lots in the new town that would become Salem, Indiana.  He also owned a tract of land called Nixon's Addition in Salem.  Zachariah was a leader among the settlers, an Overseer of the Poor and a trustee of the Salem Peace Society. He would be part of the foundation of Salem, Indiana along with his fellow settlers. He was among the original information our family had on our roots - something to build on - and he is also part of the foundation of my interest in genealogy.   

And last this story is the foundation of this new blogging thing I'm trying!

Thanks for reading!

Please give credit and post a link to my blog if you intend to use any of the information written here. My blog posts are © Ann M Sinton 2022. All rights reserved.