Hertford Museum, England

Got sucked down a wonderful rabbit hole this morning. I just finished the bibliography for the Tidd book and someone thought I needed a break. Twenty pages of books, articles, websites, etc. found in the research preparation for the book. Then this morning I had an odd email from the Hertford Museum group about a bill. I can't open it and maybe for the best as it might be a scam, but what it did was lead me to explore hundreds of pictures of a town I visited while in England in 1997. It is amazing what has happened in this town. Our ancestors the Tidd brothers left there in 1637 and came to Charlestown, Massachusetts. The day we were there they were having a celebration and most places were closed that day. It is one of my most treasured genealogy serendipity moments. The pictures and written history now available online is just amazing. If you want a fun adventure go down the rabbit hole. I have twenty pages of notes to add to the project.

Mail Box Full of Book Packages

Got some great books in the mail today. There are five, three related to work on the book. The fifth is the book, The Foundlings Book by Nathan Dylan Goodwin from Amazon. There is a webinar April 29, 2002, which includes Diahan Southard This is the most recent in his series and this time I ordered a copy for me which I will share back to the library. This is a great book for relaxing my mind before I move onto the next phase of the book. The other books include two for Quaker research and one about Gentle Tamers, Woman of the Old Wild West. These three came from the Genealogical Forum of Oregon surplus book sales. Great prices and as a Life Member they are half price. The last book and maybe the most exciting is, The Register Book of the Lands and Houses in the New Towne, and the Towne of Cambridge and the Records of the Proprietors of the Common Lands, Being Generally Called "The Proprietors Records" in 1635, printed in 1896, 410 pages, from ABE Books. The index is rather brief, but does list two Tidd family members, Lydia Teed and John Tidd. So now to take some down time and do a little reading. I now have town books for all of the ancestral towns where the Tidds lived from 1637 to 1860. These are rare books and capture the true nature of each town. Now back to the Foundlings!

March Madness 2022

This week I went through and rearranged some of my notebooks. Putting those that I use more often in a place where they are easier to get at. The other notebooks, mostly from my BYU classes and conferences are moving to the bottom shelf. Don't know that I will ever use them again. Later I may scan some of them. In the process I found some important records, like land deeds and census, that are now moving into upper shelves as I use them in the book I am working on. Plan to finish this project today. That leaves one other lateral file to search and a few boxes. I did place some loose papers in bags so I can either use them or toss them. Great way to kick off March Madness!

The Tidd Family Old Violin - Family Treasures

 

To those who can truly appreciate a fantastic find:

I just had to share this. After 20+ years of research and gathering family relics the highlight came last night. My Aunt by marriage called yesterday (10 August 1999) and said she had an old violin she would like to pass on to me. I had read of the Old Violin of Daniel Tidd of 1824 of Holliston, Mass. and Independence, Iowa, but never did I ever dream that I would see it. It was the thrill of a true genealogist to be given possession of such a treasure. My Aunt had been given it by my grandmother Zella Straw Olsen, whose mother was Lucy Tidd Straw, whose father was Daniel Tidd. "He bought it in 1842 on the island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean when he was an eighteen year old sailor on the whaling ship the Endeavor. He bought it from another sailor for $8.00 and who said he had stolen it from a Negro. Daniel played it his entire life until passing on in 1913. He brought it with him when he came to Independence in 1860. His son Herbert H. Tidd inherited it. It was cracked so it was sent to be repaired in 1917 to Greeley, Colorado to Geo. Fisk. Herb Tidd played it for several years before he gave it to the family of Abby Tidd Darling of Greeley in 1937. Cora Darling Bliss sent it to my grandmother in 1955." My grandmother in turn passed it on to my Aunt who played the violin. I am not sure why she choose to pass it on to me when she has children of her own, but I am very grateful she did. It is in a handmade wood case with the trademark G&B. The violin has initials carved into the side that are difficult to make out. It is battered and scared like in the story of the old violin. I know nothing of violins, but I know it will always be one of our family treasures.

Susan LeBlanc, Oregon

Story of the Old Violin

 

            These words were given by Herbert H. Tidd when he brought the violin to Greeley, Colo. to be given to Donald E. Bliss.

            Summer of 1937

            Father sailed on a whaling ship, the “Endeavor” in 1842 from New Bedford, Mass. They were three months reaching Madagaskar Island in the Indian Ocean.

            He was a lad of 18 years.

            He had left home unknown to his parents and sisters at Holliston, Mass. When they went to his room they found these words on the chest- “Gone to Sea”.

            While in the Island he made a bargain with another sailor giving him the sum of $8.00 for this violin. This sailor said he had stolen the violin form a Negro.

Father owned and played on it until his death in 1913. I used it for a number of years in orchestra, the Allerton Orchestra of Independence, Iowa.

            When on the return trip to New Bedford, Mass. in 1845 they stopped at the historic Island of St. Helena in the Southern Atlantic visiting the building in which Napoleon lived during his exile.

            After that return Father ran on ships sailing between Boston and Caracas, Venezuela.

            His trade was that of a shoe maker while at home.

            In 1860 he came to Iowa – brought the violin with him.

            At the time the violin being cracked and became quite unusable. It was about 1917 that it was sent to Geo. Fisk, Greeley, Colo. violin maker. He did a good job of repairing it.

            Happy memories of seeing and hearing Uncle Daniel play on his violin will remain long with his friends and relatives.

 

C.D.B.

(Cora Darling Bliss)

Discovering Massachusetts Wills and Probate Records

 It has been an amazing couple of days for research for our book. One of my goals was to find wills for the three principle men that were the original settlers. Each step I take for discovery seems to magically provide the information that we need. So two days ago I googled for possible access to wills. While ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org each provided some indexed information about the wills I was not locating the wills. Then yesterday I decided to check out AmericanAncestors.org. and made an amazing discovery. They had copies of wills and probate records for both of the original immigrants in Massachusetts, and also for every male descendant in the pedigree chart. The only two lacking information was the male immigrant for my line and the one who moved to Vermont. I contacted NEHGS/AmericanAncestors to see if they could help with that male immigrant as it was only showing envelopes and then repeats of the last envelope. They very promptly replied that they could not find the missing information, but they did provide a different copy of the will and inventory for this ancestor. The database at AmericanAncestors.org is "Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871 and is a collaboration between the MA Supreme Judicial Court Archives, FamilySearch.org and AmericanAncestors.org. What was gained from this wonderful database for just one ancestral line includes 78 pages, 11 wills and probate information (one 14 pages and another 21 pages for a Rev. War Veteran), 15 pages of other information. When I wished for wills for these ancestors I never imagined finding all of this.

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Revolutionary War Books

I did it, I finished the 776 page book, The British are Coming by Rick Atkinson. It is like the never ending book 564 pages and for me it will be the end as I am going to skip reading the notes 135 pages and sources 42 pages. The print in these two sections is way too small for my eyes. Then there is the index 22 pages. The best part of the book are the maps 24 pages. If these numbers don't add up to the total pages it's okay. I also recently read books by Nathaniel Philbrick and David Hackett Fischer about the Revolutionary War. Do you have any favorite books about this war?

Putting Off Writing Blog Posts

Sometimes one does not feel like writing or things get in the way of getting the words to flow in writing a post. Lately I have been doing a lot of reading, more as a distraction from dealing with my mother's probate and the selling of her home. Even though we are working with a potential buyer and have had several offers, my anxiety is running rather high. Over the weekend I spent about three hours re-doing the power point presentation for this week's class.

Mother's Day Serendipity Find

This past weekend Mocavo offered free access to their records, and having never used the website, it was time to give it a try. My test subject was Daniel Tidd, my favorite ancestor for such work. There were 223 results and looking over them page by page many were repeats or various pages from the same works. Two in particular found in NEHGS publication XIV and a Lineage Book will be investigated more fully today.

Surprising Serendipity Moments through the Portal

In honor of the blogiversary of GopherGenealogy@blogspot.com
I want to share two wonderful articles about two of my great grandmothers. Two weeks ago while working at the local Family Search (History) Center we were not busy, so I took some time to explore our premium websites.  The premium websites are accessible on the computers in Family Search Centers and then through the Portal provided through the familysearch.org website.

Amos Tidd Family Revolutionary War Patriots Update

A few months back I posted the page for the Amos Tidd Family Revolutionary War Patriots, which is an article I wrote for the Bulletin, the quarterly of the Genealogical Forum of Oregon. Due to the length and footnotes I prefer to post these articles as individual pages. Ever since I wondered why no one ever viewed this page and today discovered that it never posted properly. Just a short time ago this was corrected and the page is available for reading. It is one of my favorite family history stories of my favorite ancestral family.

This family had seven sons and at least six and possibly the father served in the Revolutionary War. Two sons died at Valley Forge. Abijah died March 30, 1778 and Nathan died October 28, 1778. The oldest son Amos and/or the father served in 1775. John, Oliver, and Daniel my direct ancestor, were serving for lengthy periods and all received pensions. Thaddeus the youngest son was only about ten at the time and does not appear to have served.

Inquisitive Minds Part III Corrections

After viewing the notes today I discovered that I had overlooked the Long Family in the third post on this work. Working too long on one project can lead to mistakes, but I am pleased to say this is corrected. That is the beauty of writing a blog versus posting on facebook, I can make corrections. Please refer to the original post and look for the Long Family.

Addendum for families not listed on the map.

There were thirty-four others who were not on the map, but were listed in the "Charlestown Immigrant Origins 1630-1640" in the book, From Deference to Defiance, Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1629-1692. They are as follows:

Inquisitive Minds Want to Know - Part III

By now you are probably wondering if Part III of this series is ever going to be posted. Rest assured that this inquisitive mind has been hard at work comparing the families who settled in Charlestown, MA by 1640. Twenty-three of them are on the map of the town created in 1638 and are the focus of the study.

Inquisitive Minds Want to Know Part II

Charlestown, Massachusetts – Comparing Compiled Data

In the book from Deference to Defiance, Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1629-1692 author Roger Thompson (2012) shares four items of special significance.

Of the twenty-three surnames indicated on the 1638 land map of Charlestown Town Center on page 100, all of them show up in later town records. Some individuals held positions of governing responsibilities, while others were dedicated to their occupations. Their financial standing is also indicative of their place in the community. This map was published in A Century of Town Life: A History of Charlestown 1775-1887 by James Frothingham Hunnewell, which includes a chapter on “The Village in 1638.”

Inquisitive Minds Want to Know - Part I

Are all genealogists slightly crazy? Well, maybe not crazy, but truly those that dig are very inquisitive and maybe a little obsessive compulsive. We push for details that the average person would not even consider the possibility of finding. Like digging in old post office records for months to find tidbits about ancestors and their neighbors. This includes doing the FAN type of searching for Friends, Associates, and Neighbors, as first taught by Elizabeth Shown Mills.

BobBoston Fills a Findagrave Request for Joshua Tedd

Less than twenty-four hours is all it took for BobBoston of Findagrave.com to fulfill my request for a picture of the grave marker for Joshua Tedd. The original information on findagrave was limited. It showed: his birth as unknown, his death Sep. 15, 1678, buried in Phipps Street Burying Ground in Charlestown, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA, in plot 4L47, created by BobBoston, record added Apr. 15, 2010, findagrave memorial number 51164287.

Fascinated by Charlestown, MA and the Tidd Family

When studying the Tidd family, who seem to have first come to the colonies in about 1637, I reviewed the works of many authors. Recently I purchased two books relative to the town of Charlestown, Massachusetts where they are known to have first inhabited. The first book is From Deference to Defiance, Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1629-1692 by Roger Thompson, published by the New England Historical Genealogical Society, Boston, 2012, 593 pages. The second book is Charlestown, Mass. Vol. 1Vital Records to 1850 by Roger D. Joslyn, published by the New England Historical Genealogical Society, Boston, 1984, 919 pages.

Phase Two: Updating and Comparing Your Family History Research

My research brief case has not left my office for a long time. It has been gathering dust and papers that need to be reviewed, discarded or filed in the right notebook. Now that the computer database has been updated, I am moving on to family group records (FGR). For the Tidd family there were printouts for four generations, Daniel Tidd Jr. 1824-1913, Daniel Tidd Sr. 1799-1869, Daniel Tidd R.W.1760- 1806, and Amos Tidd 1729-abt. 1800. Amos lived through the Revolutionary War and probably moved to New Hampshire. His death and that of his wife remain one of the unsolved mysteries in this family.

Remembrances of the Tidd Family

By Annie Hosmer Sherk (1960)

 

 

            I am writing a history of the Tidd family, for Zella, at her request. I hope my children will find it interesting, also, so I am making copies for them.

 

            Daniel Tidd, our grandfather, was born at Holliston, Massachusetts, July 11, 1825. His family had been in this country for at least one hundred years before that – perhaps longer than that. They had come from England by way of Holland, and there is a tradition in the family that there was an Irish ancestor, named Sir Daniel Tidd, somewhere along the line. At any rate there was a Daniel Tidd in each generation. Our grandfather’s father was Daniel Tidd, and back as far as we know, there is a Daniel in the family. When Earl and I visited Holliston, which is a small village, we found many graves of the Tidd family in the cemetery adjacent to the Congregational Church building. This was the church to which our grandmother Tidd belonged. One grave was that of a Daniel Tidd, who was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. It was marked by the emblem, which is placed on the graves of all veterans of the Revolution.

 

Revolutionary War Patriots of the Amos Tidd Family

I posted a new page on gophergenealogy@blogger.com. Due to our busy couple of weeks with family I am posting articles previously written for other publications. Look for the "Revolutionary War Patriots of the Amos Tidd Family" at the top of the blog under that page.