Sentimental Sunday: Watch Hill Bracelet

Sentimental Sunday: Watch Hill Bracelet

The Coral Watch Hill Bracelet, circa 1927, photo by Midge Frazel
Scanned with Flip-Pal

This little girls bracelet belonged to my mother. She bought it in a shop at historic (my video) Watch Hill which is in Westerly, Rhode Island. Her grandfather, Charles Edward Stewart, was her favorite grandpa because he was always giving her money to spend. She gave it to me and I have worn it. Because my wrists are so small, it still fits me. The clasp is not secure and I was sure I'd lost it.

I must have put it in my writing desk. I did look everywhere, even there. But, because of the space under the pen and inkwell area, it easily slipped out of sight. I went looking for something in the desk and that's when it moved just enough to me to tilt the desk and safely get it out. (I put this orange envelope under it just enough so you can see how it happened. See the blue arrow). I cleaned the bracelet and then took everything out of the desk and put the items either in the orange envelope or in small plastic bags.

Space under the pen and inkwell, photo by Midge Frazel, 2015

Important items  in bags ready to be labeled and not lost
 photo by Midge Frazel, 2015

Our family history is not just about names and dates. Photographs help tell stories but there is nothing like holding a small object that belonged to an ancestor. It is a lot of responsibility to pass these items on to another generation. You may have heard the story but it is important to write them down. 

I feel so much better having found the bracelet. 

Genealogists LOVE Office Supplies

Photo by Midge Frazel 28 May 2015

Why Do Genealogists Love Office Supplies?

It is scary how much my genea-friends love office supply stores. All of us even the #iamnextgen people. The Organized Genealogist Facebook page is one of the most popular. 

I have always loved anything paper and next to going to bookstores, I would say that when places like Staples and Office Max started to appear like pop-up cards in small malls, I couldn't get there fast enough. I even love that section in Walmart and Target. Of course, then they decided to sell electronics. Yum. This is MY kind of shopping. Online is good too but not a much fun as walking around one of these places and then getting a highly caffeinated drink. 

My favorite time of year is back to school because I can go inside one of these air conditioned stores and start my Christmas shopping. After this horrible winter, I was looking forward to sales before they start the school supplies madness. So, today, I went to Office Max. Wheeeeeeeeee!

I really got some great bargains. The big black box is so I can organize the files I need handy for medical and banking. When I moved here and had to find new banks and medical people, it really cut into my genealogy time. It is almost five years later and I am still trying to solve this problem without buying a real filing cabinet. Believe it or not The Container Store did not have anything I liked. 

The rest of the stuff you see in this photo is now put away for my birthday and Christmas bags. Hubs replenished his they-aren't-permanent hooks and velcro. Hey, we all have our needs.

My worry was that this store looked quite empty of stock. I hope they are just getting ready for fall. 

The Tablet Lift was on sale! Wasn't I lucky?

Why do genealogists love this kind of shopping?

I started a Pinterest board

Being NextGen

Moving Forward to the Next Generation of Genealogy
 photos by Midge Frazel, 25 May 2015


Descendants R #IAMNEXTGEN

It is important to recognize that genealogy is changing with the next generations. I clearly remember that I was, at one time, one of those young genealogists. My love and knowledge of technology used to set me apart from the genealogists and family historians around me. People actually asked me what the Internet had to do with genealogy. I smiled sweetly and explained. People thought I was younger than I really am. #iamnextgen

In my own family past, there were genealogists and historians leaving me clues to uncover. I am grateful to them. Now, I must recognize how things have changed for my daughter and grandsons. 

My daughter inherited her creative interests from my mother and grandmother. My daughter was seventeen when her great grandmother died and remembers her well. As a young teenager, she started scrapbooking her future. She took a high school course in family and scrapbooked a wedding and then used what she learned to plan her own wedding. Her teaching portfolio was a timeline scrapbook and was passed around and well received by the women at the oral comprehensive she had to pass to receive her M.Ed.  

Then, an amazing thing happened. She married a man whose sisters scrapbooked their children's lives. These women work on these scrapbooks like a quilting bee of the past. How did I get so lucky? She is #iamnextgen

My grandsons like to watch their mother make these scrapbooks. They know that grandma is recording the ancestors for them using tools they will grow up with and use everyday. They can use the digital camera and the iPad with ease. How did get so lucky? They are #iamnextgen

We use the tools of tomorrow to discover the past in present day life, we are #iamnextgen

NextGen Genealogy Network

Taken Prisoner from the Schooner Nimble

Service Pension War of 1812 Widow's Brief Found!

Clip of Pension Packet from Fold3, War of 1812

Dated 15 July 1878, this widow's pension, states that Isaac Denison, Jr. served, in Stonington, at the waterfront on patrol, one battle, 2 days, 10th and 11th August 1814. The pension packet is 10 pages. This pension was admitted 21 January 1879 for $8 per month (about $110 today) to Levina Fish Denison, widow. She was 85 years old. She lived until 1890 to age 95.

This service was named "Defence of Stonington" and it much written about. (free source: ebook p. 49)

In the books about the War of 1812 and this pension record, I can find no mention of the capture of the schooner Nimble and the sloop Revenue that is told in the booklet I inherited about Isaac Denison, Jr. service at the age of 23 in March 1813. This is probably why Rev. Frederic Denison wanted his father's story told.

He tells of the capture, by Admiral Warren, and the months of imprisonment in Bermuda and the release on Sunday, fourth of July 1813. Many names and ships are mentioned.  It has a patriotic feeling to its tone.

I still have much to read about this War.

More references:

The Pictorial Field-book of the War of 1812: Or, Illustrations, by Pen and Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the Last War for American Independence by Benson John Lossing 1868 Google Books, page 896.

Stonington by the Sea Henry Robinson Palmer, 1913

Sentimental Sunday: The Purple Heart

Photo by Midge Frazel, 2015

The Purple Heart

There's no question that my dad was a brave soldier of World War II. This shadow box of his medals and ribbons hung on the wall near his armchair in his home. I did notice that he would look up at them, like other people look out the window. My dad died in that chair with his shadow box looking on. They hung silently there while my mom continued to live there and fall deeper and deeper into the world of dementia.

When my mother passed away, I decided that I should make sure that all the important items were removed from the house in case of a break-in or fire. Like all genealogists, I suppose, the family photos, the Bible and my father's medals were thought of first and went in our car to our home. They hang in my office and my Dad's burial flag is in a flag holder in our living room. 

My husband, a veteran himself who went to War, decorates our house on both Memorial Day and the 4th of July with flags and bunting. He puts out our flag everyday he can.

 He didn't wonder when I bought this single serve sized Frosted Flakes cereal today. He's outside now putting out a small flag under our only tree in memory of my father.

Like me, my Dad loved the quiet of the morning with his favorite cereal and coffee. I guess he was highly caffeinated too. In his final years, suffering in silence of cancer, he may have thought of the men with whom he served. Those who came home and those who didn't are on our minds each Memorial Day. 

Freedom is essential. Never take it for granted.

Penned From the Lips of my Father

To find out when this narrative was written down, I simply did a Google search for "Isaac Denison and the War of 1812" and this magazine article magically appeared. Most of it is word for word of the booklet I own.

The first paragraph on the lower left bottom gave me the answer I was seeking, which was the summer of 1846. This part is not in my booklet.

 I think Rev. Frederic Denison was frustrated that no one had mentioned his father or this adventure in any published form. (published in 1858 after Isaac Denison, Jr. had died) 

The phrase "penned from the lips of my father" is definitely the words of a minister.

Historical Magazine at Google Books

I also found another reference to it, but it did not include a date the oral history was written down. It  says "to be concluded next week" and was published in 1860. 

So, we now have a date to answer the first question, but how old was everyone involved in the making of this narrative?

In 1846:
Isaac Denison, Jr. was 56
Rev. Frederic Denison was 27 (and just graduated from Brown University)
Frances Levina Denison (youngest daughter of Isaac) was 11

I can safely conclude that my copy was typewritten by Frances sometime before her death in 1922. 

What Can Be Proved?

"It was a bright day and the wind blew freshly from the land."

Photos by Midge Frazel and Brian Zoldak

Strange things happen when you try to transcribe and prove family documents that you inherit. Well, it was already transcribed, printed in a magazine and it is for sale in a family society gift shop. 

It is a small, typewritten book placed in my family Bible for me to find. Since the transcriber was a minister, Civil War chaplain, genealogist, cemetery transcriber and graduate of Brown University plus he authored many books of his own, who am I to nit-pick the content in this booklet?

However, the booklet and the magazine article do differ in one very big way. It is big to me anyway since in my copy, there is no date of when Rev. Frederic Denison (1819-1901) wrote down the story from the "lips of his father", Isaac Denison, Jr. (1790-1855)

I know where the "long hand" original of the document is archived. Have I ever seen it? No, I have not. Here's a collage of the frontispiece, the end paper and the first page of the booklet. My maternal grandfather, Evans Stewart (1886-1955) donated it to the Denison Society of Mystic, CT. That was the correct thing to do. No complaints from me.

Collage by Midge Frazel, 2015

But, when did Rev. Frederic Denison gather this oral history?

Who was Frances L. Denison?

Did Isaac's wife collect his pension?

These are ordinary questions that every family historian or genealogist needs answers to. Sometimes, it is an adventure, so stay tuned while I try to find out....