Tag: Everson

Mysteries, Plymouth, Research7 Comments

Mystery Monday: The Disappearance of George Roderic McClellan: His Roots

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Imogene (Everson) McClellan was an avid genealogist. About 1903, several years after her husband George Roderic McClellan disappeared, Imogene began compiling her own genealogy. While doing so, she wrote on a small slip of paper all that she could remember about George McClellan’s immediate family, and gave it to her daughter Lillian McClellan. Lillian’s grandniece Maria McClellan discovered it years later, when she inherited Lillian’s papers. It was the first clue to discovering the origins of George Roderic McClellan. It reads: McClellan Family Dougal McClellan, son of Dougal McClellan and Mary Scott, born in Edinburg, Scotland married Christina Cameron, b. I[n]verness, Scotland Oct. … Continue reading Mystery Monday: The Disappearance of George Roderic McClellan: His Roots

Mysteries, Plymouth, Research, True Crime8 Comments

Mystery Monday: The Disappearance of George Roderic McClellan

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Part One: Family Traditions: The Disappearance of George Roderic McClellan My grandmother’s house, the childhood home of my father, has been in the family for several generations. It holds countless memories and stories, and the story of its origin looms large in family lore. My grandmother is a McClellan from Hanson, Mass., but the introduction of the family surname to Hanson was surrounded in a century-old scandal. Built in 1903 for my great-grandmother Imogene Lillian (Everson) McClellan, the house was intended to be a fresh start for Imogene and her three children. Her husband, Nova Scotian-born (with Scottish roots) George … Continue reading Mystery Monday: The Disappearance of George Roderic McClellan

Plymouth, ResearchLeave a comment

Surname Saturday: John Everson of Plymouth, Massachusetts

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As NEHGS celebrates its 170th anniversary, this week the New England Historical and Genealogical Register launched a beautiful new format and style. This Register features my article “Descendants of John Everson of Plymouth, Massachusetts” which identifies and untangles the early Everson family of Plymouth Colony. In the 17th century, John Everson was an unwelcome transient in both Massachusetts Bay Colony and Plymouth Colony, and he ultimately gave up custody of his three young children, who were each taken in and raised by separate Plymouth families. Very little has been published on the family up until now, and the few publications … Continue reading Surname Saturday: John Everson of Plymouth, Massachusetts

Artifacts, Plymouth4 Comments

Sibling Saturday: 1860 Letter from Ellen J. Bonney of Hanson, Mass. to her brother Otis L. Bonney of Boston, Mass.

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Below are scanned images, a transcription, and explanatory footnotes of a letter written on 18 March 1860 by fifteen-year old Ellen Josephine Bonney (b. 22 Feb. 1845) of Bonney Hill, South Hanson, Mass. to her older brother, twenty-one year old Otis Lafayette Bonney (b. 2 Dec. 1838) who at the time was working for Daniel Allen & Co. in Boston, Mass. They were both the children of Ezekiel Bonney and Angeline White of Hanson, Mass. Three years after writing this letter, Ellen J. Bonney married Noah A. Ford at East Bridgewater in 1863. In addition to reporting local news relating … Continue reading Sibling Saturday: 1860 Letter from Ellen J. Bonney of Hanson, Mass. to her brother Otis L. Bonney of Boston, Mass.

DNA2 Comments

Weekend Surprise: Unraveling Royal Descent

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I  received my eagerly-anticipated copy of Martin Hollick’s revised edition of New Englanders in the 1600s. It now sits beside its well-used predecessor, and contains even more families, detailing all modern scholarship which has been performed on a given individual or family from 1980-2010. I use it constantly for work, but rarely ever sat down with it to review my own early New England lines, and became inspired to do so this weekend. I’m always touting the significance of using current, scholarly research, since so many early genealogical works contained errors, small or large, which were then repeated ad nauseum … Continue reading Weekend Surprise: Unraveling Royal Descent

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Welcome, readers of "Touch the Elbow"!

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I was contacted the other day by Donald Thompson, one of three Civil War researchers who run a wonderful website and related blog about the Civil War, and specifically the 18th Regiment of Massachusetts. Donald Thompson, Tom Churchill, and Stephen McManus research and collect records, memorabilia, letters, etc. about the men who served in the regiment, and have compiled great biographies of the men. One of those men from the 18th, my great-great-great uncle Erastus Everson, was recently featured on this blog as the subject of one of my genealogical biographies. He served in three regiments, and sustained head, chest, … Continue reading Welcome, readers of "Touch the Elbow"!

Research1 Comment

Mini-Genealogical Biography of Adelia Deborah Everson

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Adelia Deborah Everson (1849-1867) Adelia D. Everson was born on June 3, 1849 in the town of Hanson, MA. Her parents, Barnabas Everson and Deborah Bates, had married the previous August of 1848. Adelia was Barnabas’s first child, but the second for Deborah. 1846 had been a terrible year for Deborah, in which she first lost her husband Warren in January of consumption, and then lost her 9 month old son, also named Warren, of “cholera infantum”. The widowed Deborah lived next to Maquan Pond, and she remarried Barnabas Everson, a neighbor who owned a large property across the street … Continue reading Mini-Genealogical Biography of Adelia Deborah Everson

BIPOC, Research2 Comments

Erastus Everson and the Laurens County, SC Riot

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In 1871, Massachusetts-born Erastus Watson Everson was summoned by a government committee which was investigating the “Ku-Klux Klan conspiracy”. Erastus had worked for the Freedman’s Bureau after the Civil War throughout South Carolina. In particular, he was summoned for an experience he had after his duty in the Freedman’s Bureau, when he was working again for the army as an assessor. Erastus was an inadvertent witness to the Laurens County, SC riot in October 1870. He testified his belief that the riot was planned in advance in part by the Ku Klux Klan. He testified that he had traveled to Laurens county … Continue reading Erastus Everson and the Laurens County, SC Riot

Research2 Comments

Mini-Genealogical Biography of Erastus W. Everson

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Erastus W. Everson (1837-1897) Erastus W. Everson was the eldest child of William F. Everson and his wife, Salome B. Crocker. He was born about 1837 probably in Hanson, MA. Three years later, his brother Frederic O. Everson was born, followed by his sister Sylvania Everson. They grew up on Pleasant Street in Hanson. In 1850, at the age of 13, Erastus was living in Hanson with his family, and a 17 year old servant (or boarder) named Fidelia Hunt. He and his siblings were attending one of the small schoolhouses in South Hanson. Next door to them, extended Everson … Continue reading Mini-Genealogical Biography of Erastus W. Everson

Artifacts2 Comments

McClellan Sterling Silverware

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Here’s a story with many questions still left unanswered. Nevertheless, it is amazing what a bit of oral tradition, combined with document research and material culture can reveal. For my bridal shower, I was blessed to receive from my aunt Maria a set of silverware that belonged to my great aunt Lillian McClellan, the sister of my great-great grandfather, Roddy McClellan. I also received a family bible that had also once belonged to Lillian (although the bible, along with the bookmarks within it, will be an interesting story for another time!) This is the silverware, with a note from Maria: … Continue reading McClellan Sterling Silverware

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Howland Cemetery, Hanson, MA

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Every summer I explore this cemetery, as it is on my aunt’s property, and never ceases ceases to captivate. I also try to photograph it each summer, keeping records over time of the state of the stones. Per the advice and sharp eye of my Aunt Maria, we uncovered a broken headstone in the small Howland plot so that I could photograph it. Fending off the swarms of mosquitoes, I took several good photographs of it before reburying it, in attempts to longer preserve the stone from thieving hands. Several stones have disappeared over the years, with visitors to the … Continue reading Howland Cemetery, Hanson, MA