Treasure Chest Thursday: Framing the Past: Identifying Crapo Family Ambrotypes

I recently had an article published in American Ancestors (published by NEHGS) which explored my journey of identifying a mysterious set of ambrotypes which were found in my grandfather’s workshop. These were the ambrotypes that were discovered tucked away in my grandfather’s desk, placed out of sight for years, which had never been seen by my grandmother: Click on the image below to read the full article and discover how this mystery was solved! As I stated in the article,  Henry Emerson Crapo and Isabella Frances Lannigan’s daughter Ada Marion (Crapo) Howland had three children. So if any cousins have labeled duplicates of these ambrotypes … Continue reading Treasure Chest Thursday: Framing the Past: Identifying Crapo Family Ambrotypes

Mini-Genealogical Biography of Adelia Deborah Everson

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

Howland Cemetery, Hanson, MA

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

Burial Hill, Plymouth, MA

Went on a visit today to the Pilgrim Hall Museum, then took a stroll through downtown Plymouth and ended up at Burial Hill, overlooking Plymouth Harbor. Nearby Cole’s Hill has the monument which always comes to mind: “ The Monument marks the First Burying Ground in Plymouth of the passengers of the Mayflower. Here under cover of darkness the fast dwindling company laid their dead, leveling the earth above them lest the Indians should know how many were the graves.” Cole’s Hill also has the large statue of Massasoit, as well as a sarcophagus which holds the bones of Pilgrims … Continue reading Burial Hill, Plymouth, MA

Howland Smallpox Cemetery, Hanson, MA

My family owns a portion of land along Maquan Pond, which has been owned by the family for many generations. In the 1800s it used to be a combination farmland and unusable bogs. For a time it belonged to the Howland family, and their farm was not far from the pond. An isolated uprising of smallpox hit the town in the mid 1800s, and Lewis Howland and his family were affected. Lewis Howland was a furnaceman, and he was the son of Warren and Peddy Howland. He was born 31 MAR 1806 in Pembroke, MA (which was soon to become … Continue reading Howland Smallpox Cemetery, Hanson, MA