Ancestry DNA Update

Ancestry recently updated the DNA profiles of their customers. I've seen a number of postings on Facebook and on blogs about how things changed. I checked mine yesterday. Originally, my estimate was very generic and boring, but not unexpected. My own research reveals that virtually all of my ancestors came from England with a sprinkling from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and a lone French Huguenot. 

I was hoping to at least reveal a little bit of biodiversity from the Viking, Germanic, or Norman invasions. When the update was released, Ireland was separated from Great Britain and more detail was added. This did, indeed, reveal some Scandinavian, Western European, and Irish ancestry. What was completely unexpected was the 5% from the Iberian Peninsula. The site says that Iberian DNA is common among those with British ancestry. Here are my updated results. 

I am just beginning to understand some of the uses of DNA in genealogy. I do know that the more information that is put into the system, the more refined the results will be. I like the fact that Ancestry.com will continue to refine my results without charging more money for each update. I was a bit disappointed that the original results were not more specific but this is more interesting and reflects what I know about my origins. I look forward to learning more and more about DNA and how to interpret and use DNA results in genealogy. 

Surname Saturday - Gibbs

George Albert Gibbs was born October 20, 1862 on Prince Edward Island in Canada. According to the 1900 census, he came to the United States in 1884. He is my most recent immigrant ancestor. The next year, he married Nina K. Ellingwood and they had a family. He died on November 26, 1919 in West Paris, Maine. His death record lists his parents as John and Annie and says John was a farmer. The cause of death is listed as crerbral (sic) hemorrhage - and the duration is 5 years! I wish my grandmother was still alive because I know she knew more about his family. I remember her visiting relatives on Prince Edward Island and showing me pictures of their farms. I wasn't old enough to realize that I should pay attention to their names and the place names and now it's too late to ask. 

My Great-Grandmother:

Annie Florilla Gibbs was born in 1892. She was one of three great-grandparents I got to know and the only one on my father's side. On July 21, 1909, Annie married Ray Everett Cotton. He was born in 1888 and died in 1962. She died in 1987. 

Her siblings were:
James Williamson Gibbs 1887-1952
Albert Harris Gibbs 1889-1936
Herbert Freeman Gibbs 1895-1960
Ada Polly Gibbs 1897-1986

Related posts
http://mymaineancestry.blogspot.com/2013/05/wordless-wednesday-nina-k-ellingwoods.html
http://mymaineancestry.blogspot.com/2012/03/gambling-on-research.html
http://mymaineancestry.blogspot.com/2013/03/sundays-obituary-annie-gibbs-cotton.html
http://mymaineancestry.blogspot.com/2012/04/turn-page.html

Matrilineal Monday - A Colonial Dress Code

A few times I have come across court records stating a female ancestor was hauled into court for wearing silk or lace so I knew there was some law in Massachusetts that restricted what certain women were allowed to wear. I have listed my connections below. I found that a sumptuary law was passed in Massachusetts in 1651. According to About.com, such laws can be found as far back in history as ancient Greece and Rome. In fact, I had heard of them, i.e. the restriction of purple cloth to royalty, but I didn't know what they were called or that these laws extended to other time periods. The purpose of the laws throughout history seems to be linked to the fear that excessive spending was morally wrong and flaunting one's wealth could be morally corrupting. It may have also been used to force the average person to buy locally and thereby enrich the local economy. 

The full text of the Massachusetts law can be found here. The gist of it is that the Puritan leaders were upset by the "intolerable excess...especially among people of mean condition." They decided to make issue a reminder to be "sober and moderate" and express their "utter detestation and dislike that men and women of mean condition should take upon them the garb gentlemen by wearing gold or silver lace, or buttons, or points at their knees, or to walk in great boots; or women of the same rank to wear silk or tiffany hoods, or scarves which, though allowable to persons of greater estates or more liberal education, we cannot but judge it intolerable..." 

The standard of wealth sufficient to be allowed to wear such finery?  An estate valued at or above £200.  Today, that would be about $304 using a direct exchange rate but Economic Heritage has a series of interesting calculators. Perhaps the simplest is the real value of commodities which gives a modern equivalent of £23,200 or $35374. 

Who got to be the fashion police? The selectmen of the town were "required" to "take notice of the apparel of the inhabitants.." and "whosoever they shall judge to exceed their ranks and abilities in costliness or fashion of their apparel in any respect, expecially in the wearing of ribbons or great boots (leather being so scarce a commodity in this country) lace, points, etc..." 

And the icing on the cake? 
"...this law shall not extend to the restraint of any magistrate or public officer of this jurisdiction, their wives and children, who are left to their discretion in wearing of apparel, or any settled militia officer or soldier in the time of military service, or any other whose education and employment have been above the ordinary degree, or whose estate have been considerable, though now decayed." 

So when you go to get dressed today, remember...

From Ancestral Lines From Maine to Virginia, by Carl Boyer, page 132:
"Nicholas Noyes' wife, Hugh March's wife, and William Chandler's wife were each presented for wearing a silk hood and scarf; but were discharged on proof that their husbands were worth two hundred pounds each. John Hutchins' wife was also discharged upon testifying that she was brought up above the ordinary rank."

Nicholas Noyes' wife, Mary Cutting, is my 11th great-grandmother.
Hugh March's wife, Judith is my 8th great-grandmother

While I have a William Chandler in my line, this refers to Mary (Fowler) Chandler and I am not related to her.
Frances Alcock was the wife of John Hutchins. She was later accused and arrested during the Salem Witchcraft hysteria and released on bond as the hysteria was dying down in December 1692. The use of spectral evidence had been ruled inadmissible and in January 1693, 49 of the 52 surviving prisoners were released. Love, the daughter of John & Frances, married my 9th great-granduncle, Capt. Samuel Sherborn.

Noyes Line:
Nicholas & Mary (Cutting) Noyes
Peter & Hannah (Noyes) Cheney
John & Mary (Chute) Cheney
Edmund & Mary (Plummer) Cheney
Edmund & Susanna (Middleton) Cheney
Stephen & Mehitable (Cheney) Blaisdell
William & Susannah (Blaisdell) Rowe
Stephen & Elizabeth (Hilton) Rowe
Charles & Loann (Churchill) Rowe
George & Anna (Rowe) Hayes
Estes & Eva (Hayes) Yates
Linona Alice Yates - my grandmother

March Line:
Hugh & Judith March
George & Mary (Folsom) March
Humphrey & Sarah (March) Deering
Ebenezer & Elizabeth (Deering) Emmons
Eliakim & Molly (Wildes) Emmons
Jacob & Sarah (Shepard) Emmons
Gilbert & Laura (Emmons) Yates
Estes & Eva (Hayes) Yates - see above

Sherburne/Sherborn Connections: Sisters of Capt. Samuel, who married Love Hutchins
Elizabeth (Sherburne) Langdon - 10th great-grandmother traces to Fern Lyndell Cotton - my grandmother
Ruth (Sherburne) Moses - 9th great-grandmother traces to Linona Alice Yates

Obituary Sunday - Ada Gibbs Balentine

The Lewiston Daily Sun - Oct. 6, 1986
Ada Balentine
Bryant Pond - Ada Gibbs Balentine, 89, of Woodstock and Bethel, died Sunday at Market Square Health Facility in South Paris. 

She was born on Jan. 3, 1897, at Paris, daughter of George and Nina Ellingwood Gibbs. She received her education in schools at Paris and Hallowell. She was married to Walter G. Balentine on Dec. 12, 1916, and resided at Middle Intervale in East Bethel. Mr. Balentine died on July 27, 1943. She spent 36 summers at her log cabin on North Pond in Woodstock. She spent her winters with her daughter and granddaughters in New Jersey and Bethel. Mrs. Balentine was one of the first persons in the area to operate a foster home for young people. She was a practical nurse and devoted much of her time taking care of sick persons in the area. She also was well-known for her ability in handcrafting and carving toy animals. She was an active participant in community affairs and was a member of West Paris Grange, the Eastern Star of Bethel, Sunset Rebekah Lodge of Bethel, a past president of both Jackson-Silver Post and Ring-McKeen Post American Legion Auxiliaries. She was past president to the Oxford County Council American Legion Auxiliary an past president of La Boutique Bes Huit Chateaux et Quartant Fannes, 8/40. She was a member of the Woodstock Senior Citizens. She was a Gold Star Mother. 

She is survived by a niece whom she raised as a daughter from infancy, Mrs. Philip (Ada) Cummings of Roselle Park, N.J.; two granddaughters, Mrs. John (Debra) Swick of Lyndon, N.J., and Mrs. Howard (Macky) Chapman of Bethel; a sister Mrs. Annie F. Cotton of West Paris; three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. She was pre-deceased by two sons, Lester Balentine, who died in 1968 and W. Linwood Balentine, who was killed in action in March of 1945 while serving with the U.S. Army in Germany. 

Google News Archive

Ada Gibbs Balentine was my great-grandmother's sister. She was a very special woman. I remember her most for her generosity and hospitality. Many family reunions and smaller get togethers were held at her camp on North Pond. 

Thriller Thursday - Murder in Charlestown

We tend to associate slavery with the Southern colonies  and forget that slavery was legal in all thirteen colonies. The more I research, the more records I find involving slaves in New England. Like this story, they usually do not involve my ancestors but I get caught up in reading the accounts and this story in particular seemed worth sharing. It is shocking in many ways. 

In 1755 in Charlestown, Massachusetts, three of Capt. John Codman's slaves, Mark, Phillis, and Phebe, decided to poison him...although there is no primary record that tells why, it appears that Mark was separated from his family. The deposition, of Phillis, indicates that Mark came up with the idea because he really wanted a different master. The conspirators tried a less direct approach at first - working together Mark and Phillis burned down part of the property, hoping it would force a sale but that didn't happen.  Some secondary accounts say Capt. Codman was a strict taskmaster and a stern disciplinarian who had been violent on occasion.  The mastermind of the plot was Mark and he was able to read the Bible. He came to the conclusion that it was not a sin to kill if it was accomplished without spilling any blood. It might also be harder to detect. Mark was joined by fellow slaves, Phillis and Phebe, who put the poison in the food and drink. Other slaves belonging to other masters were accessories as they helped procure the arsenic and kept quiet about the plot. It did not take long after Capt. Codman's death for the crime to be traced back to Mark and Phillis. 

At the trial, they were both found guilty and sentenced to different, but equally gruesome, deaths. On September 18, 1755, Phillis was burned at the stake. She was one of only two people in colonial Massachusetts to receive this punishment. The other was another female slave, Maria, who in 1681,  tried to kill her master by setting his house on fire. On the same date, Mark was tarred, and gibbeted, or hanged in chains or a cage. Gibbeting involved leaving the body hanging as a warning to others and was most often used with pirates, as seen in this image of the pirate, William Kidd.  

The tarring may have acted as a preservative - read this excerpt from Pirates of the New England Coast.

Nearly twenty years later, Paul Revere even used the spot as a landmark when describing the route he took that fateful night in 1775. "I set off upon a very good Horse; it was then about 11 o'Clock, and very pleasant. After I had passed Charlestown Neck and go nearly opposite where Mark was hung in chains, I was two men on Horse back, under a Tree. when I got near them, I discovered they were British officers."

Phebe appears to have been sold in the Caribbean - a place notorious for its brutality and others may have also suffered the same fate. 

Some sources for further investigation:
From The Freedom Trail, Celebrate Boston and New England's Hidden History at Boston.com.
Gibbeting in Colonial America
The Trial and Execution for Petit Treason of Mark and Phillis
Pirates of the New England Coast

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Annis Pabodie

On September 14, 2013, Randy Seaver issued his weekly Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge. This is titled "Do Some Semi-Random Research." Here is my entry.

1. Use the first two letters in your first name and look in your genealogy database for the first surname that starts with those two letters. My first name is Pamela and the surname in my database is Pabodie. Alphabetically, the first Pabodie in my database is Annis Pabodie.

2. What do I know about her? Not much at first but I did a little digging and got a bit more information. So here goes!

Annis was the daughter of John & Isabel (Harper or Brittaine) Pabodie. All of my information about her family comes from the Great Migration Project and was accessed on www. americanancestors.org. Annis is my 10th great-aunt and the sister of my 10X great-grandfather, William Pabodie. William was born between 1616 and 1619 and his brother, Francis was born between 1612 and 1614. There appears to be one other brother, Thomas without a known birthdate. I will surmise that Annis was born between 1610 and 1625 and probably closer to 1618-1625.

Annis married John Rouse (or Rowse, spelling was not standardized at the time) about 1638 or 1639. John Rouse came to Massachusetts about 1634 and his origins are unknown. He was a servant to Gov. Thomas Prince and in August 1634, Gov. Prince traded him for Richard Willis, servant of John Barnes. He is later called a planter. In June 1658, Rouse and Humphrey Norton were brought before the court for their Quaker beliefs and whipped when they refused to swear an oath of allegiance.

Unfortunately, records for women are scarce. The Great Migration profile of her husband states that her will was dated 10 November 1687 and proved on 12 September 1688 so we know she died sometime between those two dates. In her will she bequeaths a gun, sword, and belt to "my servant Samuel Cornish" and various other items to her daughters, Elizabeth Bourn, Mary Price, and Anna Holmes. It also mentions two sons, Simon and John. These children are also listed in the Great Migration profile of John Rouse along with a son, George, of whom there is no further record.

The only other record I could find for Annis comes from the database on Ancestry.com, U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700. This data come from the book of the same title by Clarence A. Torrey. It lists her death date as 1688 and marriage as 1640. I could not find any record for Annis on Findagrave.

My descent from William Pabodie:
Mary Pabodie & Edward Southworth
Mercy Southworth & Moses Soule
Alice Soule & Barnabas Perry
Diman Perry & Susannah Lincoln
Apphia Perry & Moses Judkins
Betsy Judkins & Calvin Cole
Apphia Delphinia Cole & Sydney Hayes
George Hayes & Anna Rowe
Eva Delphinia Hayes & Estes Gilbert Yates
Linona Yates - my grandmother

Friday Funny - Not My Ancestor - First Installment

One comes across a lot of names when researching one's family tree. Occasionally, those names ring a bell or bring certain image to mind and it makes me smile. Here are a few from my tree to start you off.

Isaac Hayes, son of William & Olive (Garland) Hayes, was born in 1774 and died in 1812. Not be be confused with Isaac Hayes, the musician, although I feel certain my 5th great-grandfather had a lot of soul!

Robert Barker, my 10th great-grandfather, was born about 1616 in England and died between February 18, 1689 and March 14, 1692, in Duxbury, Massachusetts. He came to Plymouth in 1632 and worked as a ferryman and innkeeper. I wonder if he ever went by "Bob" Barker or if his price was right?

Mary Buckett was the wife of Pilgrim George Soule and my 10th great-grandmother. Of course, her mother was Mrs. Buckett or was her mother a Mrs. Bouquet, like Hyacinth?

William Wallis was the husband of my first cousin 9X removed, Comfort Cotton (can't make this stuff up). I wonder if he was brave like William Wallace or looked like Mel Gibson?