AnceStory Archives: John Balch

My Blog List

Cause of Liberty

Do You Play with Your Children? - Families are happier and stronger when parents play with their children. According to my studies this week, play is the way that children learn. Therefor...
THE CABINET CARD GALLERY

PORTRAIT OF A PRETTY WOMAN : SHENANDOAH, IOWA : CABINET CARD - This cabinet card features a portrait of a pretty and fashionable young woman. This fashionista is wearing a dark dress with lace, earrings, collar pin, ri...
Daytonian in Manhattan

Schneider & Herter's 1889 229 East 10th Street - In the 1840s, the block of East 10th Street between First and Second Avenues was lined with elegant four-story brick homes. But the waves of immigra...
Abbeville Institute

Cowell to Judea - I pulled up to my great uncle’s house around 7:30 on a Saturday morning. Our goal was to find mushrooms, but what it evolved into was so much better than a...
The Magpie Mason

‘The Meaning of Masonry in the Reading Room’ - It’s been a long time since I visited W.L. Wilmshurst’s The Meaning of Masonry, but I’ll have to take it up again this month because the Reading Room at...
The Warrior Muse

IWSG - Taking Time for Myself - It's IWSG time again! Created by *Alex J. Cavanaugh*, the IWSG gives writers a place to air their insecurities and support other authors in their inse...
Lowell Doughboys and more...

Greater Lowell Normandy Honor Roll - On June 6th the United States participated in the Allied invasion of Europe at Normandy Beach. Much preperations were made and Greater Lowell was very in...
Nutfield Genealogy

The Rye, New Hampshire Quilt Project - Here is a project that I missed hearing about during the COVID pandemic. If you have ancestors from seacoast New Hampshire this will be of interest to y...
Yesterday’s Papers

Seven Men Who Draw Funny Pictures - Clare Briggs, Jan 19, 1916SEVEN MEN WHO DRAW FUNNY PICTURES—AND LARGE SALARIES Literary Digest, August 14, 1920, author unknown DRAWING A FINE PICTURE of ...
Civil War Notebook

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: November 28, 1864 - Calm and warm; clouds and sunshine, without wind. All quiet below. It is reported that one of our picket boats in the James River deserted last night. It...
Massachusetts and More Genealogy Blog

Richard Taylor ca 1620 to 1673 and wife Mary Whelden of Yarmouth/Dennis, Massachusetts - Richard Taylor was born about 1620, presumably in England. I have yet to find anything about his origins. He was at Yarmouth, Massachusetts on Cape Cod ...
Thomas Gardner of Salem, MA

US, by comparison - TL;DR -- What makes American great? It's more than a dream. -- On Quora, an older post (from four years ago) gave five reasons for the successes of the...
Historic New England

Stop by for a visit today - From house tours to open spaces to special events, you can explore New England with us. We have thirty-eight historic sites for you to visit, hundreds of...
Bookman's Log

The Birth of “Bad Actor” - [image: The Birth of “Bad Actor”] “How come you haven’t posted a new blog entry in a month?” “I’ve been finishing up another novel.” “A novel?” “Yes, a n...
Christopher Setterlund, In My Footsteps

Photographer's America: Cape Cod - Beyond the Beach -
In Times Past

We Remember Their Sacrifice - Journal Opinion May 24, 2023 Nineteen-year-old Nathaniel Westgate joined the 1st NH Calvary in 1863. He was taken and imprisoned in a Confederate prison ...
West in New England

ON THIS DATE: MAY 25TH - ON THIS DATE: MARRIAGES: 25 May 1894 ggp Philip J. West & Clara Ellingwood were married at Shelburne, N.H. 25 May 1687 8x ggp Joseph Dow & Hannah Challli...
Sandwalk

Chapter 10: Turning Genes On and Off - Francis Collins, and many others, believe that the concept of junk DNA is outmoded because recent discoveries have shown that most of the human genome is...
AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors

A Busy Day for Weddings in the HOLST and ROBBINS Families - I've been busy cleaning up items in the Downloads folder of my laptop. In many cases, I downloaded an image of a record from a genealogy or historical new...
Our New England Heritage

New England Colonists 1600-1700 Leach-Litherland - It is believed that the Leach family(in particular, Lawrence Leach's ancestors,) descended from John De Leche, who was King Edward III's surgeon. Law...
Betty's Boneyard Genealogy Blog

Mystery Man: JOHN RINES b 1730, Immigrant to Maitland, Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada - There's no doubt about it: my 5th great grandfather JOHN RINES is my most difficult brick wall, and definitely is a mystery man. There are THREE differ...
GenealogyMagazine.com

Billy Crudup and Tamera Mowry on “Finding Your Roots” - Actors Billy Crudup and Tamera Mowry are guests on Finding Your Roots, hosted by Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., airing April 4, 2023, at 8 [...] The post Bill...
Erica's Adventures in Genealogy

Remember the Women! Part 3 - I made the decision to focus on the women when I head up our family tree. So many family history books tell you about the vital records of the men, ...
OLD PHOTOS FOUND

WILENSKY-WILLENS, Samuel (Chicago IL) - "Sam Wilensky" IDENTIFICATION ON PHOTO: Sam Wilensky PHOTO TAKEN: illegible studio signature, dated 1942 PHOTO ACQUIRED: 2023 March, Palm Beach Count...
Life From The Roots

Wow is All I can say, Imagine Finding Clues this Way - Family Photo of William Frederick Poole. February 4, 1882 lasted two days for my gg-grandfather, William Frederick Poole, as this is how long it took him...
Letters to My Grandparents

Helen Louise (Werst) (Pearce) Caldwell 1928-2019 - Dear Grandparents, I started writing this post in March of 2020 and then COVID happened and all of our lives changed. I'm just getting back to it this year...
Heirlooms Reunited

1835 Letter from E. Richardson, Cashier at Bangor Commercial Bank, Bangor, Maine; to C. Dole, Cashier at Citizens Bank in Augusta, Maine; Richardson is Resigning to become Cashier at Bank of Portland, Maine - August 17, 1835 letter from Edward Richardson (1809-1876), Cashier at *Bangor Commercial Bank* in *Bangor, Maine*, to *Carleton Dole (1798-1870)*, Cashier ...
Library History Buff Blog

Library Postcards for the Holidays - As a collector of postcards featuring libraries, I seek out those that are less typical. Few are less typical than those that have a winter holiday theme...
My Tapley Tree...and its Branches

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - My Thanksgiving Day - *From Randy (a cousin discovery!!) over at **Genea-Musings:* it's *Saturday Night* - time for more *Genealogy Fun!!!* Your mission, should you decide t...
My Other Blog

1950 Census - Another Milestone - Back in 2012, I was really excited about the release of the 1940 US Census - I called it once in a lifetime and it was. But low and behold, these past 10...
Genealogical Musings

Eurogenes K13 Charts and Maps - I know for many people like myself who are visual people, seeing a map of where exactly each region covers can be really beneficial to understanding your ...
Ancestry Island

New User-Friendly Website for Alabama Department of Archives and History Resources - *[Chris Pruitt, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons]* Earlier this month, the Alabama Department of Archi...
AT THE RIVERBEND

Confusing Cousins - *It seems like a struggle to me to classify cousins into first, second, third, once removed, etc. * *It was always obvious to me that my first cousins w...
William & Mary Dyer

How did Mary Dyer ride away after her prison release? - *© 2022 Christy K Robinson* In the winter or early spring of 1657, Mary Dyer had returned from a four-year stay in England. Based on the timeline of a s...
Phelps Family Research Team

Looking for the family of a George Phelps whose name was given for Lake Phelps of Jackson Hole, Wyoming - Lake Phelps of Wyoming was named after a trapper, George Phelps, prospector and hunter (see the references below). If anyone has information about his...
Quixotic Joust

The Uvalde Connection to JFK Assassination - Back in 2015 (already seven years ago), I was following up for my own interest what I'd learned about Red Bird Airport in Dallas from Daniel Hopsicker's ...
Olive Tree Genealogy Blog

Obituary William Hanna 1920 - In Dunn Township Ontario William Hanna age 83 interment Riverside CemeterySearch for more information in genealogy records on Ancestry.com, Ancestry.ca ...
Old Blue Genes

Shaws & Plummers of Raymond Maine - I will try to assemble information about these interrelated old families in Raymond & Windham Maine. Barbara Plummer (born 1923) was an 'adopted' daughte...
The Accidental Genealogist

Preserving a Female Ancestor's Photographs with Vivid-Pix Memory Station - Are precious details about the lives of your female ancestors hidden in old family photographs? Most of us have bins or boxes of treasured memories just...
Black Raven Genealogy

1921 Census of England & Wales - Wynne household - There was huge excitement among many genealogists this week with the publication of the 1921 census for England & Wales. I didn't expect to find any direc...
James Pylant

The Murders at Starved Rock: Prosecutor’s Son Reexamines 1960 Crime - David Raccuglia is best known as the founder of American Crew, the leading professional men’s grooming brand in the world. He’s also known for capturing f...
Boston 1775

“My Daughter, which she really is, tho’ but an adopted one” - This story came up (in my head at least) during yesterday’s online presentation from King’s Chapel about how the Revolution affected members of that Angli...
Miller-Anderson Histories

Jonathan Hastings - A record quoted in "The Connecticut Magazine," states his death occurred "13 August 1798. Jonathan Hastings (son of Lieut. Josiah Hastings of Chesterfie...
Quilt Crossing

The one you don't want to have to write - I have been a bit adrift lately. My lovely mother recently passed away. She was 90 years old, but it came as a shock just the same. Her passing was not C...
Northeastern North Carolina Stories

- *Every Town Has* A liar. A sponger. A smart Aleck. A blatherskite. Its richest man. Some pretty girls. A girl who giggles. A weather profet. A neighborhood ...
Adventures with Jesus and Nemo

Jesus and Nemo visit New Zealand - Hello friends, this seems like an appropriate time to write a post about last year's spring break; when we are all staycationing due to being quarantined. ...
Compass

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JDP News

Hug a Medievalist Day 2019 - winners! - Updated 4/12/19 Thank you to everyone who entered my 2019 Hug a Medievalist Day giveaway! Here are the winners: Joy S. won a print copy of my medieval rom...
Recollecting Nemasket

Russell's Cabins, 1950 - During the period between the 1930s and 1950s, before motels became popular, tourists passing through Middleborough were provided accommodation in overnigh...
Wadleigh-Brown-Plymale-Bixby

Murder in Tennessee - In February 1897, in a crowded court room in Clarksville, Tennessee, David Halliburton (a Confederate Civil War veteran) was found *Not Guilty* of commit...
Great Historicals

Live for Me by Colin Falconer - Amazon Link *The Back Cover:* *It should have been boy meets girl. But this is Nazi Germany in 1933, and things like love don’t count for much any more....
Collectible Old Stocks and Bonds

News from the Field - George H. LaBarre Galleries, Inc. - Article 1-1 - News From the Field [image: lincolnheadflaglogoarticles] *We often look back to the beginnings of the stock and bond hobby. Times were quit...
INKSPOT Crime Fiction Blog | A Place for Mystery, Mayhem, Writing and Life

Seven Sinister Sisters on Genres - *Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day here. The Seven Sinister Sisters are on a blog tour and we're giving away books!* We are seven authors with new books coming out ...
Schow-Bickmore Histories

EZEKIEL GILLHAM (1732-1799) - *found on FamilySearch.org (contributed by bobbysworld 15 February 2018)* *(image started:)* ...seems to come from personal letters written by their great-g...
And This Is Good Old Boston

Boston's (Original) South End - On the 28th of July, 1888, the Boston Globe ran an article titled South End, 60 Years Ago, with the typical subtitles: *Time and People Erase Its Former Be...
My Maine Ancestry

Tombstone Tuesday - Charles H. N. & Loan (Churchill) Rowe - Charles H. N. and Loan Parsons (Churchill) Rowe are my 3rd great-grandparents. They are buried in the Upper Gloucester Cemetery in New Gloucester, Maine. C...
The Northeast House Historian

The Benjamin Caryl House c. 1774 - One of my most favorite activities is discovering old houses that I never knew existed. Unexpectedly coming across an historic house is like getting an ext...
The Gloucester I Love

Gloucester's Golden Age of Fishing - Click Here to View Parts 1 and 2 on YouTube! Gloucester's Golden Age of Fishing: Part 1 Gloucester's Golden Age of Fishing: Part 2
Your Brisbane: Past and Present

Brisbane flood problems - There's been some rather full-on marine construction work happening on the Brisbane River at Bulimba River Park. A few weeks ago a barge toting workmen's h...
Digging Down East

My 64 ~ Researching My Fourth Great Grandparents : Hugh Cowperthwaite III and Mary "Polly" Newcomb - My fourth great grandfather, Hugh Cowperthwaite, was born in Pittsgrove, in Salem County, New Jersey, in 1776, the second son and the third of 10 childr...
The Kith and Kin Chronicles

Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney and Lord of Shetland - Robert Stewart (1553-1593) Robert Stewart, Earl of Caithness and Orkney (1553-93), was a natural son of King James V of Scotland by Euphemia Elphinstone (...
American History Now

King's Survey: The Sound of Hope - *in which we hear that truth is something that happens to an idea* OK, gang, I have something I want you to listen to. This is president Franklin D. Roos...
Civil War Days & Those Surnames

Asa W. S. Rix. - Pus.*Asa W. S. Rix.* Birth:1841, Marblehead, Massachusetts.. Death: Nov. 26, 1919. Parents: James A, Sally Rix. Married 1872. Merchant. Age 79 years. ...
American Folk Art @ Cooperstown

Found in Collections - A Painted Box - A couple of weeks ago I was touring a group from the Historical Society of Early American Decoration through our collections storage and came across this...
Pauline's Pirates & Privateers

History: A Call for Help - Hale and fair winds to one and all! This is a shout-out to my distant cousins who come from the far flung clan Beluche and to pirates and lover of histo...
BIG OLD HOUSES

Moving On -
Naval Heritage Society Dockyard

The Return of Commodore Biddle - Here it is – PENGUIN DAY. On this day, 200 years ago, the United States Sloop of War HORNET, James Biddle commanding, captured His Majesty’s Brig PENGUIN...
Arkansas in the Civil War

Battle of Jenkins' Ferry 150th Anniversary - Monument at Jenkins' Ferry State ParkToday (April 30, 2014) marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry, Arkansas. The last significant ac...
Christopher T. George's War of 1812 Blog

17th National War of 1812 Symposium, Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Saturday, October 5, 2013 - *Rapidly filling up. Only fifty places available, including speakers. Don't miss out!* [image: 17th National War of 1812 Symposium Flyer]
Travels with Nathaniel

Welcome to "Travels With Nathaniel"! - Hi, my name is Nathaniel, you might remember me from such great literary works as "A Scarlet Letter", "The House of the Seven Gables", and "Twice Told Tal...
PRL Open Forum

Is Conscription the Answer? - Our system of justice is based on the theory that we have a fundamental right to be judged by a panel of our peers, versus by the king’s (or state’s) re...
Pine Grove Cemetery of Brunswick, Maine

New Exhibit at PHS - If you are as interested in hair art as I am or just want to check out some beautiful Victorian art made by a prominent Brunswick family, be sure not to mi...
Fantastic Family Findings

Richard Raymond Peerboom - Part 1 - There are often people in your family tree who tell an important story about your family, although they are not related through blood or marriage. One such...
The Great Ancestral Hunt

What's in my DNA? - The results are in! What a fascinating thing, this DNA. On Ancestry.com, it gives a break down of where I am from using both my paternal and maternal DNA b...
Quinn Bradlee's Ancestors

The Greene Family - *1.) John Greene*, surgeon (Bowridge Hill, Gillingham, County Dorset, England; abt. 1590 - Jan 1659; Warwick, Rhode Island) son of Richard Greene and Mary ...
Rainy Mountains

Social Media, iPhones and Journalism - This clip discusses the impact of social media and how it is used in the journalism workplace. "It's old but it's new now that news organizations have begu...
Jacobus Books

"Perhaps one of the most thorough studies of frontier dens of sin ever compiled" - Ross McSwain, book reviewer for the San Angelo Times-Standard, praises James Pylant and Sherri Knight's book, The Oldest Profession in Texas. "The 380-page...
History—Now and Then

Settlements of Friends’ Meetings in New Jersey - by Jerseyman ©2011 I have extracted the following article on New Jersey Friends’ Meetings from the weekly journal, *The Friend. *This publication serially ...
Pulled Through the Knothole of Time

Quickest Microfilm Lookups Ever - ...and Brent Finds his Great Great Grandfather Yesterday my husband and I went to Anderson, Indiana for the funeral of my Great Aunt Rosie. It was a sa...
A Grand Adventure - Looking for Relatives

Day 152 - I am home. I hit the Colorado border about 1pm (MDT) and was at Ray's by 4pm. It was glorious to see the mountains. They are snow covered and lined the who...
Into the Wilderness

Augustinian Tradition - When the wave of religious assertion which we call Puritanism is considered in the broad perspective of Christian history, it appears no longer as a uniq...
A Couple Of Bubbles Off Center

It's 1635 and a glorious May day in Dorset.... - Imagine you're 24, and there's no future in the Somersetshire village where you grew up and where your family has lived for at least a hundred years. You, ...
historyreader

"The Greatest Battle" Adam Nagorski - The scale of Russian death in WWII boggles the mind. Twenty five to thirty million, more or less, died in the Soviet Union--several million more if you inc...
a3Genealogy

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