The Search for Lucy Gifford and Daniel Noyes Cookson #1

     As I mentioned in the last post, besides writing my family history of the Stefani and Tinetti families, I am starting to research Daniel Noyes Cookson and his wife, Lucy Gifford.  I don 't want to delineate everything I have done so far but I'll just say that I am starting in Aroostook County. This is a large county in the northeast of Maine. Much of it is still wilderness.  In his pension Civil War application, John Marshall Cookson says that he was born in Linneus here.  He was born about 1848. His family is never found in the Census for this area and he says that the only record of his birth is the Family Bible which his stepmother took with her to Seattle, Washington. I'm still looking for that but that is another story! I found his father's enlistment record in the Army for the Aroostook War in 1839(another fascinating story!), he enlisted at Houlton which is a town right next to Linneus. His mother's family is in the 1840 and 1850 Census in Linneus.  I believe that his father and mother are in the 1840 Census record of her father hidden in the numbers of males and females of certain ages. Daniel Noyes Cookson's oldest son, Daniel Cookson, is listed in the 1840 census in New Limerick (right next to Linneus) and in Linneus in the 1850 Census. Daniel's sister, Lucy, and her husband, William Townsend, had their first son born in Linneus in 1839. They do not appear in the 1840 Census, though, having moved to New Brunswick just over the border by then.  So it appears that the majority of the family was in Linneus in 1839.

     Unfortunately, I can't find either Daniel Noyes or Lucy around this time.  I believe that Daniel Noyes had died by then which is perhaps why the family was there (Lucy Ann married in Orland, Hancock County in 1838 so I was surprised to find her in Linneus in 1939). Linneus was incorporated in 1836 so it is hard to find vital records for this early period. However, in the 1850 Census, their son, Daniel is listed. In this family group is Lucy Corliss, age 72, born in Massachusetts. This has been assumed to be Lucy Gifford Cookson. Recently I noticed that it says Corliss not Cookson. Looking further one finds David Corliss two pages later, age 75 living with the Lilly family. I researched David Corliss and found him in the 1830 and 1840 Census of New Limerick or Linneus.  His wife, Polly, died in 1845.  So, my guess here is that Lucy had known David since the early 30's and they married after both their spouses died.  Why they are living separately I do not know but possibly economic reasons.  Neither appear in the 1860 Census. So I am now also researching the name Corliss for Lucy hoping to find a marriage or death record.

     So that's where we're at, lots to do.  However, in all the trees on Ancestry in which Lucy appears none have noted that her name is Corliss in 1850 and this marriage doesn't appear for her or David. I just think it happened!

2016, a new year! About my book.

     After two years of writing about a different ancestor (104 ancestors, except that I did two different ancestors twice by mistake, so 102! I liked both versions so I kept them.) the challenge has ended and it time for something new. Since I've got the blog I will use it to write about my book I am writing and ongoing research.

     My book! I am writing a book about my Stefani and Tinetti ancestors. I read Sharon DeBartolo Carmack's You Can Write Your Family History in which she tells you how to write a narrative story type family history. So I decided to do that and have the rough draft done.  I really enjoyed doing this! But since I didn't want to break the flow of writing I decided not to worry about sources as I wrote.  So I then had to go back and do footnote citations for everything. Actually I want to do endnotes at the end of every chapter as I think this reads better. Anyway, it turned out to be difficult at times to find the reference I had used (where did I get the population figure for the town of Sporminore in 1880, for instance!). Sometimes I had to find the information newly and use that reference.  Also, I realized that I need to interview myself and write it all down because in some places I used things I remembered my mother telling me. So, I'll do a self interview and get it all written down.

      Meanwhile, my sister found four tapes of family interviews and had them put on CD and sent them to me.  So, I transcribed them (wow! and that's a project and a half!). Now I need to add some stories and correct some dates and such in my manuscript.  There are some things I am still trying to research as well. Oh! and while doing the footnotes I realized that I need to get the image number for all the records that I found on FHL microfilms.  Take a hint and copy these down when you do research with microfilm!

     I've also starting researching Daniel Noyes Cookson (see 52 Ancestors Year 2 #52) so I'll be writing about that (hopefully about things I find...).

52 Ancestors Year 2 #52: Daniel Noyes Cookson

     Daniel Noyes Cookson is my 4th Great Grandfather and one of my resolutions this year is to find out more about him.  I have almost no documentary evidence of him.  He appears in Cutter's "New England Families Genealogical and Memorial" p. 455 as the father of Calvin Gray Cookson and his brothers and sister.  He does not appear in any US Census from 1790 to 1850 by name although I suspect he is listed in the family of  his brother or cousin at least once. The data from Cutter is that he was born in 1770 in Unity, Maine and died about 1850 in Linneus, Maine.  Actually the town of Unity didn't exist in 1770 although there were people living in Maine (then part of Massachusetts) at that time.  In Calvin Gray Cookson's enlistment record of 1839 his birthplace is given as Belmont, Maine.  There were people living there in 1770, in fact in a history of Belmont there is an anecdote from the Revolutionary War where a Cookson is mentioned by last name only. Unfortunately the early records of Belmont were destroyed in a fire. Records do show that one of the early leaders in the town was named Calvin Gray, perhaps the namesake of my 3rd Great Grandfather.

     Daniel married Lucy Gifford according to Cutter.  Per him she was his second wife but no data was available about the first wife.  I did find a marriage record dated 4 Jun 1801 for Daniel Noyes and Lucy Gifford in Whitefield, Lincoln, Maine. This was on Maine Genealogy.net and is a transcription.  There are two Daniel Noyeses in the area at the same time but they married a Rachel and a Susannah.  It seems possible that either the transcriber missed the name Cookson or the clerk omitted it.  Whitefield is not far from Unity and Belmont. However, it is 1801 and their first child was born 1811.  Perhaps there were earlier children or the transcriber transposed the date and it is actually 1810. So I will look for the original record.

     The family is living in Linneus around 1840.  Daniel, oldest son of Daniel Noyes Cookson, is listed in the 1840 Census.  His sister Lucy is there with her husband, Henry Townsend.  Calvin Gray is not listed in the Census but he enlisted in Houlton in 1839 and married in 1840.  I believe that he is listed in the family of his father-in-law, John Dow in 1840, also in Linneus.  The History of Linneus lists Daniel Noyes Cookson in the index and on the page noted it says that Daniel Cookson (no Noyes) bought land but I don't know if this is the father or son. The Aroostook Vital Records don't list his death but it likely was too early.

     So, my plan is to comb the probate and land records for all the counties where the family is noted at all and see if

I can find traces of him. Hopefully, next year I can post an update which gives the records!

52 Ancestors Year 2 # 51: Mary Victoria Stefani Emanuel, my Grandmother's youngest sister

     My sister and I always enjoyed visiting my mother's Aunt Mary, she was warm and welcoming and the food was great! I chiefly recall the big fireplace which was built on a platform of stone so that you could sit in front  of the fire. They had quite a bit of wooded land in back of the house, we used to pick blackberries there. Her son, my mother's Cousin Carl, had a house there that he had built himself, it had lots of custom hand made wooden shelves and such.And he was fun to visit as well.

     Mary Victoria Stefani was born on 14 March 1900 in Issaquah, Washington. She was the third daughter and fifth child of Frank and Angelina Stefani. I don't know anything specifically about her childhood except I did find a photo of her with other children in 1911 on a 4th of July float sponsored by the Ladies Temperance League. Her father was a coal miner but he also owned a laundry which she and her sisters worked in for awhile. She attended school in Issaquah but  only went through two years of High School according to the 1940 U.S. Census.  In 1940 she was a secretary at a brokerage firm. Perhaps she went back to work when her kds were grown as in the 1920 and 1930 Censuses she was not working.

     On 30 Mar 1918 (16 days past her 18th Birthday) she married Eric Emanuel, he was 33.  Eric was a Swedish immigrant who was working in the office of the Coal Mine.  I believe that her sister Edith also worked in the office and her father was a miner so they met through one or the other.  After marriage they lived on Hill St. in Issaquah close to her parents.  In 1922 Eric became co-owner of the Harris-Emanuel Fuel Co. which he ran until he retired in 1945. By the 1930 Census they were living in a house in the Ravenna neighborhood of Seattle. We have a photo of it, it was a large family home.I believe that Eric built it. Mary and Eric had two children: Anita Mae and Carl F. (Frank or possibly Francis, I have never seen it spelled out which suggests that it was Francis!). By 1940 they were living in Bellevue in another good sized family home, this time in a ranch style, also built by Eric.

     Anita married and had four children so eventually Mary had at least six grandchildren.  She enjoyed her children and grandchildren a great deal and often entertained them or other family members in her home. These are the meals that my sister and I remember fondly. Eric died in Mar 1975 and Mary went to live with her sisters in Seattle.  After the death of her oldest sister, Edith, in 1982, Mary and her sister Dell went to live in Bremerton near her daughter, Anita. Mary died on 5 Feb 1994, greatly beloved by her daughter, grandchildren and great gr

andchildren. In a recorded reminiscence my mother, Margaret Kells McDonald, said this about her: "Actually, Aunt Mary it seems played such a big part in Uncle Eric’s life.  She was by his side for many of the things he did.  I didn’t realize that they were really a team until I started writing and realized that that’s where Aunt Mary fit in—right by his side, all the way!" And I think her children and grandchildren would say the same as well! 

 

   

52 Ancestors Year 2 #50: Daniel Hudson, Mason

     Daniel Hudson was our immigrant ancestor in the Hudson line.  He came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1639, 376 years ago! Daniel was born on 30 Jul 1620 in Chatham, Kent, England.  His parents were Daniel Hudson and Anna Josselyn, both came from families of Knights and so were in the gentlemanly class.  Daniel's Great Grandfather, Henry Hudson was a member of the Muscovy Company seeking a Northeast route to China. Henry was also was the father of the Henry Hudson famous of his explorations of North America and the namesake for the Hudson River and Hudson's Bay. In 1628, Daniel's father, Daniel, was a subscriber to stock in the "Adventurers for a plantation intended at Massachusetts Bay in New England, America".  So it would seem that his son, Daniel, took him up on this plan.

    Daniel arrived about 1639 and is recorded in Watertown, Massachusetts in 1640. He was a brick maker and mason by trade and in 1647 he helped to build the first school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1653 he moved to Lancaster, where he held quite a bit of land.  In 1672 he moved to Cambridge, living "south of the river" but he returned to Lancaster after a few years. He was active in the town, frequently appearing in the records and referred to as "Goodman Hudson", a title of respect for a yeoman or farmer not of noble birth.  In 1647 he married Joanna White in Lancaster and they had 14 children.

    The story of the death of Daniel Hudson is somewhat shocking as we do not think of Massachusetts as a place where settlers were killed by Indians (I didn't, anyway). Bu at that time Lancaster was a frontier town.  In 1676 there had been an Indian massacre and the town had rebuilt after that and in 1692 there were eight garrisons set up in it.  Daniel Hudson and his sons were allowed to continue in their house, "it having a good fort." By 1697 the town had grown to about 275 people.  The Indians fearing the increasing encroachment, launched a new attack.  On 11 September they attacked surprising many in their fields. They killed nineteen settlers and took five captive. The minister was one of those killed. Daniel Hudson, his wife, Joanna, and two children of his son, Nathaniel, were also killed. two of Daniel's daughters, Joanna and Elizabeth were taken captive.  His surviving children signed an agreement on 2 Dec 1697, "For our sisters' wearing clothes we mutually agree to leave them undivided at present, hoping that one of them, namely: either Johanah or Elizabeth may be yet alive.  Also in case that either of our said sisters shall by God's goodness be againe Reduced from Captivity, that then we do farther oblige ourselves as aforesaid to allow & pay unto either of them that so Returne her portion doubly."  Neither of them returned.

     

52 Ancestors Year 2 #49: Adelina Justina Stefani, my mother's Aunt Dell

     When I think of the holidays I often think of going to my Aunt Dell's house to watch the Rose Bowl Parade on her color TV. Aunt Dell was always fun and she enjoyed my sister and I. She was born Adelina Justina Stefani on 29 Nov 1896 in Issaquah, Washington(then known as Gilman), the fourth child and second daughter of Frank and Angelina Stefani. She was named for her mother's younger sister, Adele Tinetti. Adele would've been called Adelina as a pet name in the family, in the same way that Dell's mother was named Angela but called Angelina all her life. I believe that Dell was also named for her Dad's sister, Adelaide, his only surviving sibling. Adelina Stefani was generally called Dell all her life but also sometimes called "Delina".  I have never heard her referred to as Adelina.

     Dell was famous (notorious perhaps) in the family for being very popular with the boys.  On a family taped recollection her older sister, Edith, recalls that every year at the 4th of July each kid was given a dollar. Edith could never decide what to spend hers on and ended up putting it in the piggy bank.  But Dell always spent hers and didn't come home until late in the day having had a great deal of fun.  Her niece Marian tells the story that she used to leave and receive notes from boys hidden in the wood pile behind the house. If her father had found them he would have been quite angry with her! It is a family mystery as to why the men didn't treat her as well as they ought to have (at least from the family's perspective!).

     Dell was the first daughter to get married, marrying John Burr Adams on 22 Mar 1916 at the County Court House. Her sister, Edith, signed as a witness on the Marriage Certificate.  They lived in Seattle and soon had two sons, Harold Lewis, born 9 Feb 1917 and Samuel John born 3 Nov 1918.  John worked as a fireman for the City of Seattle.  All did not go well for John and Adelina and in 1927 she walked out and they were divorced.  The boys lived with him.  In the 1930 Federal Census they are living with their Dad and Angelina is living in Seattle in a Boarding House and working in a laundry.  She would have had experience in this line of work from working in the family laundry back in Issaquah. Both boys followed in their father's footsteps career-wise and became firemen.

     Dell married again on 2 Jun 1934 to Frank "Shorty" Dorner. In the 1940 Census he is listed as a "machinist" in the plumbing industry.  Interestingly enough, in the 1940 Census his wife, Florence and her daughter, Myrtle, are listed as working in a laundry. So perhaps Dell met Shorty through her. Florence and Shorty apparently were divorced as she remarries the same year as Frank and Dell, in November. Frank and Dell were happily married until his death in 1985.  In her last years Dell lived with her sisters, Edith and Mary, in Seattle and then Bremerton. She died on 18  Jul 1995, at the age of 98. She outlived all her brothers and sisters.

     I didn't really know Aunt Dell until we moved to Seattle when I was 11 in 1960. She had taken our mother and her sister's old dolls and refurbished them and made dresses for them for my sister and I. I was thrilled and impressed by that.  Dell was always fun to be with and she had a great love of life. She, my grandmother, Edith, and their sister, Mary were great friends all their lives, talking on the phone daily. When my sister and I visited our Great Grandfather's hometown of Sporminore we met a Stefani cousin and discovered that she and her sisters also talk on the phone every day! So it seems to be a family trait! I hope I have inherited at least some of the enjoyment of life that characterized Aunt Dell!

   

52 Ancestors Year 2 #48: William Bassett, Pilgrim, arrived on the Fortune

     It has been a source of some frustration to me that I have not been able to find a Mayflower passenger among my ancestors. This despite the fact that many ancestral lines go back to the 1600's in New England in both my father's and my mother's families. Even some in Plymouth. You'd think you'd somebody could have married a descendant of a Mayflower Passenger, right? So every year at Thanksgiving I review all the lines again  and look to see if I've missed a Mayflower ancestor. So this year I didn't find that (I did find a couple of spouses of cousins who had Mayflower ancestry but that doesn't count.). But I did find William Bassett, who came on the SECOND ship, the Fortune which arrived a year after the Mayflower in 1621.  It arrived on 9 Nov 1621, according to what I've read, after the first Thanksgiving.  The truth, though, is that no one has an exact date for that feast, it's thought to have been somewhere in October or early November 1621.  So it's possible he was there. But I think my father would find it amusing and a telling part of family lore to say that he missed it!

     William Bassett was born in Sandwich, Kent, England in 1600, possibly the son of William Bassett and Cecily Light.  He came to the Plymouth Colony in 1621 aboard The Fortune as noted above.  His wife, Elizabeth, was also on the ship and they married shortly after arrival. They had five children.  William was a blacksmith and was one of the wealthier and more prominent men in the town.  He acquired land in Duxbury and in Bridgewater and was one of the proprietors of Bridgewater.  He served in several town and court positions.  He had the largest library of any of the Pilgrims. His inventory after death lists more than twenty books, mostly theological, at a value of over 9 pounds. His wife died prior to 1651 when he married a widow, Mary Tilden Lapham. He died on 4 Apr 1667 in Bridgewater, leaving a last will and testament.

     William didn't come on the Mayflower but he was one of the earliest Pilgrims, a leader in the community and one of the founders of this country. The Pilgrims who came on the first four ships, with the Fortune being the second, called themselves the "First Comers", S

o he was a first comer to this country. And he was a reader which makes me feel a kinship even over the centuries!