Early Vermont Settlers: new Fort Dummer sketches

          An excerpt from a 1724 letter containing a plan of Fort Dummer (Thomas Stoddard)

Today we’ve added eight new sketches to Early Vermont Settlers, 1700-1784, highlighting families who lived at Fort Dummer. The new sketches include Major John Arms, Valentine Butler, Joseph Kellogg, Col. Josiah Willard, Col. Josiah Willard, Jr., Nathan Willard, Wilder Willard, and William Willard. We’ve also added “Fort Dummer Soldiers“, a document containing shorter notes regarding the lives of soldiers who served at Fort Dummer (but did not become residents of Vermont). See the first page of “Fort Dummer Soldiers” for more information on who is included and why. Scholars of this region and time period should also consult Scott Andrew Bartley’s article, “The Connecticut River Valley Before Settlement and the Soldiers of Fort Dummer,” in Vermont Genealogy, (24 [2019]: 135-162).

Scott Andrew Bartley’s study project tracks heads of families who lived in Vermont prior to the Revolutionary War.  His sketches so far have focused on Windham and Windsor counties.

The latest cluster of sketches focus on families who lived in Fort Dummer, the precursor to Brattleboro, Vermont. Fort Dummer was established during Dummer’s War, a series of conflicts between settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Native Americans. The main conflict of Dummer’s War centered around boundaries–what belonged to the American colonists? What land belonged to the Native Americans? What land belonged to the British? These conflicts took place from 1722-1725 along the Kennebec River in Maine, in Nova Scotia, and in western Massachusetts. Brattleboro was established in 1753 as part of the New Hampshire land grants (when both New Hampshire and New York laid claim to the present state of Vermont).

Steel Smith‘s sketch (from Windsor) was also updated.

Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.

Archdiocese of Boston: new searchable records from Foxborough and Georgetown

by Molly Rogers

 St. Mary's church in Foxborough from 100 Years of Progress, page 753

Today we’ve added six new volumes to Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920 from St. Mary in Foxborough and St. Mary in Georgetown. This update adds over 6,400 records and over 24,000 names to search.
St. Mary's in Foxborough became an independent parish in 1880. Prior to this date, various priests from a few different parishes would come to say mass in this area. They had a church in this town as early as 1859.
In 1873 the church of St. Mary's in Georgetown was dedicated. For some time, it was a mission of the church in Haverhill. As the Catholic population in this area grew, St. Patrick's in Groveland began as a mission of this parish.
We’d like to thank Sam Sturgis for his help making these parishes available online.
The new volumes are listed below:
St. Mary (Foxborough) Baptisms and Marriages, 1880-1901
St. Mary (Foxborough) Baptisms, 1896-1901
St. Mary (Georgetown) Baptisms and Marriages, 1874-1890
St. Mary (Georgetown) Baptisms and Marriages, 1874-1890 (copy)
St. Mary (Georgetown) Baptisms and Marriages, 1891-1898
St. Mary (Georgetown) Various, 1898-1916

Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
https://wp.me/p8jE0N-Em 
photo/https://www.stmarysfoxboro.org/

How Two 1950's Kids Playing on the Railroad Tracks Found a National Treasure

By Bethanee Bemis, Harry R. Rubenstein
SMITHSONIANMAG.COM
February 12, 2020

Sixty years later, curators at the National Museum of American History talked to the brothers who found a relic of the 1800 Adams and Jefferson election

In 1959, the Smithsonian Institution received a letter from Mrs. James “Shirley C.” Wade offering to sell a linen banner bearing an ink portrait of the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. An eagle carried the Jefferson portrait victoriously aloft framed in a halo of seven-pointed stars. From the bird’s beak streamed a ribbon proclaiming: “T. Jefferson President of the United States. John Adams is No More.”

The imagery was crafted in the foment of a bitter campaign that was barely resolved by a voting system so flawed (a problem later clarified by the 12th amendment) that it required congressional intervention to deliver Jefferson’s victory. During the campaign, Jeffersonian Republicans accused John Adams of conspiring to establish a new monarchy aligned with the British, and the Federalist supporters of Adams warned that the godless Jefferson would bring an end to religion in the republic. The candidates’ campaigns were so contentious in their rhetoric and accusations that historians often referred to them as an extreme example of how low presidential contests can be.

Fascinating story from Smithsonian magazine at: https://tinyurl.com/vuzfstn

Dozens of Historic Mexican Cookbooks Are Now Available Online

The University of Texas San Antonio’s vast collection makes traditional Mexican and Mexican-American cooking accessible

The oldest Mexican cookbook in the University of Texas at San Antonio’s (UTSA) collection was never meant for public consumption. Handwritten in 1789 by Don?a Ignacita, a woman who probably served as the kitchen manager for a well-to-do family, the manuscript includes recipes for such specialties as “hidden vegetable stew,” or potaje escondido, and an orange-hued soup called zopa de naranja.

Volumes like this 200-year-old specimen—many boasting scribbled notes and stains on their owners’ favorite recipes—form the heart of the university’s collection. Now, thanks to a renewed digitization campaign, around half of the school’s approximately 100 manuscript cookbooks are available for anyone to browse online, reports Nils Bernstein for Atlas Obscura.

“I’ve had students in tears going through these, because it’s so powerful to see that connection with how their family makes certain dishes and where they originated,” UTSA Special Collections Librarian Stephanie Noell tells Atlas Obscura. “I want anybody with an internet connection to be able to see these works.”

Additional story at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dozens-old-mexican-cookbooks-now-available-online-180974186/

Finding a Stronger Sense of Self through family history

I Spent a Month Uncovering My Family History, and I Found a Stronger Sense of Self

As part of a monthly resolution challenge, I wanted to learn more about my family's past and how it could shape my future.

BY KELSEY HURWITZ
Feb 21, 2020

This article is part of WomansDay.com’s series on mini monthly resolutions and challenges. The first challenge is all about discovering and recording your family history.

An idea seems to persist that family history, like the study of history in general, is mostly about the discovery of names and dates. But tracing your family history should be about so much more than filling in the branches of a family tree. For genealogist and historian David Allen Lambert, it’s all about the dash. “The years on someone’s gravestone are when they lived,” he told Woman's Day. “The dash represents how they lived.”

Additional story at: https://www.womansday.com/life/a30928747/mini-monthly-resolutions-family-history/

Ancestry® Expands Reference Panel to Deliver More Precise Results and New Regions

Consumer genomics is a new and evolving field and Ancestry® is at the forefront, constantly developing new ways for you to learn about yourself through DNA. Today, we’re proud to announce that our team of scientists have increased the AncestryDNA® reference panel to more than double its previous size with samples from more places around the world, resulting in the latest update to AncestryDNA ethnicity estimates.

Over the next several months, AncestryDNA customers may receive updated ethnicity estimates, thanks to our expanded reference panel, which allows us to determine ethnic breakdowns with a higher degree of precision. This means there may be some changes to your results.
Additional story at: https://tinyurl.com/y2lu9ybr

Ancestry's DNA health screening will require doctor's order

Ancestry.com is entering the growing field of genetic health screenings with a strategy that’s markedly different from that of its biggest competitor.

Ancestry said Tuesday that its new consumer health tests will require authorization by a physician. Its main competitor, 23andMe, went through the lengthy and expensive process of getting approval from the Food and Drug Administration so it can sell its tests directly to customers without a prescription.

The involvement of doctors in Ancestry’s tests places it in the midst of a debate over whether physician-ordered genetic screening is merely a way for companies to avoid the regulatory scrutiny of the FDA. Several other DNA startups, including Color and Veritas, also require a doctor to order health tests.

Additional story at Health Watch: https://www.healthdatamanagement.com/articles/ancestrys-dna-health-screening-will-require-doctors-order