Comments on: A Window into the Past: Ancestors’ Letters as Genealogical Records

By: Mary Ellen Aube

Mary Ellen Aube — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 19:57:07 +0000

Thank you I will try that.

By: Forgotten New England

Forgotten New England — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 12:58:36 +0000

Hi Mary Ellen – the town hall in Eaton, NH will likely have the birth record for your second-great-grandmother that should include the full names of her parents (and maybe a place of birth). The further back you go, the sparser the records get with details. I did a quick search on Ancestry and found a Parker Spaulding, born abt. 1801, and wife Elizabeth Spaulding, born abt. 1805, living in Belgrade, Maine at the time of the 1860 census. They had two children living with them in 1860: 20-year-old Marah and 17-year-old Jesse. It looks like this Parker Spaulding was born in Mass; Elizabeth’s place of birth is listed as New Hampshire. That could be them, if they moved on from Eaton, NH at some point after they married.

By: Mary Ellen Aube

Mary Ellen Aube — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 22:39:46 +0000

I have pictures of the parents of my X3 grandparents. I only have their surname no given name, no given name, or name of the photographer, or any identifying marks. All I know is X2 great grandmother, their daughter was born in Eaton, NH in 1804 and she married Parker Spaulding in Eaton also. Where do I go next? I have checked the census, and everywhere else I could think. Thanks, Mary Ellen

By: Karen K

Karen K — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 19:33:39 +0000

Ryan, it’s funny, I’ve been thinking about how nice it would be to have some letters written by ancestors– those who are fortunate enough to have some really have a treasure, for these provide great insight into their personalities and lives.

By: Forgotten New England

Forgotten New England — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 13:48:11 +0000

Hi Mary Ellen, I feel like school records are a relatively unexplored area of family tree research, but they can provide some great insight into the childhood/early years of family members. A few years ago, in a stack of photographs, I found some grade school report cards from the late 1910′s/early 1920′s; besides providing grades, the commentaries from the teachers were great. It turned out that Aunt Marge was kind of a chatterbox even in sixth grade too.

A lot of historical societies/local research centers will have old school records, but as far as which schools/years they have, it’s kind of hit-or-miss. I’d recommend calling a few research centers in the area of those schools. If they don’t have the records, they might know who will. Another possibility for student records for schools that have closed is that they’ve been rolled into another nearby school. For Kents Hill, which is still open, they might still have records and be willing to share them with a descendant of the student. It’ll depend on their policy.

Ancestry.com has a collection called “U.S. School Yearbooks” – which has yearbooks for (mostly) high schools and colleges located within the US.
I’ve found a few cousins in them, from as far back as 1928. I looked for yearbooks for the two towns you mentioned, but didn’t find anything.

One of the most promising, free leads might be a “Google books” search. I did a quick search on Google Books for – “Kents Hill” Maine – and got about 1500 hits in free Google e-books.

Thanks for the comment – and good luck!

By: Mary Ellen Aube

Mary Ellen Aube — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 05:11:33 +0000

By the time I found these letters my Mother was deceased. So that makes them doubly precious. I wish I could find out more about her school life but the only school that is still in existence is Kents Hill in Readfield, Maine. The other school I can’t even name, but they are in Mt Vernon, Kennebec, Maine, USA. Any ideas how I could do this? Thanks, Mary Ellen

By: Forgotten New England

Forgotten New England — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 04:35:50 +0000

Hello – and thanks for the comment. I came across another letter, from WWII, where my wife’s grandfather had kept a set of letters sent to him from his mother while he was serving in the military overseas during the War. The pack of letters were all clustered around a short time in 1944. I later found out that his mother had died suddenly while he was away at war. I now think that those were the letters he had when the news reached him. At any rate, the letters provide some great insight into who she was and how she thought; since she died in 1944 and he died in 1995, they are really the only window we have into who she was as a person, beyond the photographs and vital/census records she left behind.

By: Forgotten New England

Forgotten New England — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 04:29:02 +0000

I’m finding that the Hamletts were somewhat prolific letter writers. In that same collection of letters, there’s another, to Bessie, dating from 1903, written partially in a pig-latin type of code and signed “from the one who has found you worthy of his love”. I’m told that the letter was not from her husband, but actually from another man she had dated before him. Those Hamletts were good at saving letters! The “pig latin” letter would’ve made a good post too, but transcribing an 8 page letter was a little more than I was planning to do for a mid-week post!

By: Barbara Ann

Barbara Ann — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:03:51 +0000

The part of this letter that resolnated with me was that they popped corn. I once read the entire 1969 journal of Bessie’s husband and he ate popcorn. Popcorn is my biggest food weakness and as their great-grand-daughter and the girl that lives in the house Bessie and her husband built, I feel especially connected to that statement.

By: Mary Ellen Aube

Mary Ellen Aube — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:04:32 +0000

I found letters in the early 1900′s from my grandmother (who I never knew) she died in 1924 in a polio epidemic. It was great to get a chance to see her as a person and see also how her thought patterns worked. She was writing to my mother (her only daughter). So precious.