joanna whiting (whiton) french

Joanna Whiting, another one of my 4th great grandmothers, was born March 16, 1807, two-hundred and three years ago today. She was born to Benjamin Whiting and Lydia Stoddard in Scituate, in the part of that town that later became known as South Scituate (1849) and then Norwell. The Whiting (Whiton) family was not originally from Scituate though, but resided in Hingham. At some point, Joanna's father Benjamin Whiton moved to Scituate, maybe he started out there after his marriage to Lydia, as that is also where all of Joanna's siblings are born.

Joanna was the 5th child out of 10 that Benjamin and Lydia had. She married Freeman French on December 28, 1826, when she was about 19 years old. The marriage intention was recorded in Joanna's town of Scituate and the marriage was recorded in Benjamin's town of Hingham. I am not sure if this means the marriage took place in Hingham, but the couple did live in Hingham soon after their marriage as their first two children (Henry Freeman and Joanna Whiting) were born there in 1825 and 1827 respectively. Soon after, they must have made a move to Abington, as that is where they are living in the 1830 census. Joanna and her family made another move to South Scituate by 1841, when their daughter, Lydia Helen French (my 3rd great grandmother), was born there.

Here is an excerpt for Freeman and Joanna from The History of the Town of Hingham... on googlebooks, listing Joanna and Freeman's children:

It seems that Joanna and Freeman settled in South Scituate according to the 1850-1880 censuses. Joanna died at age of 80 of "chronic hepatitis" in South Scituate, two years before her husband Freeman died. It is happy to see they lived a long life together. Joanna's death record states she was buried at South Hingham. Since both the Whiton and French families resided in South Hingham, she was probably buried with either Freeman's family or her own.

Both families were from the "Liberty Plains" area of Hingham, near Accord pond, according to The History of the Town of Hingham. I did a general search on google for Hingham cemeteries to find a cemetery close to Accord Pond and the Liberty Plains area. I came across the USGenWeb site for Hingham, which includes a map for cemeteries located in Hingham. I did also check the larger Hingham Cemetery off of Water Street as there is a list of people buried there online, but Joanna and Freeman are not listed at this cemetery. There are a lot of other French families listed here though. So my next step will be to visit the Liberty Plains Cemetery, which is located on Main Street between Longmeadow Road and Ritter Road in South Hingham. Hopefully the stones will still be legible. UPDATE : found Joanna and her husband at Liberty Plains Cemetery, Hingham - see blog post here
I also wanted to see if I could find the property of Freeman French and Joanna on a map for Scituate during that time they lived there. The Historic Land Ownership database on ancestry also has a map for this town for 1879. I found a F. French listed on the "Scituate Town, Scituate Village South, South Village South" map on the border of Rockland and South Hingham, down the street from the other French and Whiting families in South Hingham, on Accord Pond.



For any locals that may know this area, it is about where the old Ground Round Restaurant was(now it is Not Your Average Joes), in Norwell, right up the street from the Home Depot in Rockland - across from the pond. It looks like this is also Main Street, although it is not labeled on the map. This does explain why they were buried in South Hingham, as they were living right down the road. So although the census information makes it seem like they moved from place to place, they really ended up close to home, only living in Abington for about 10 years in between.
to do list:
1. search the liberty plains cemetery to find joanna and freeman french. UPDATE : found Joanna and her husband at Liberty Plains Cemetery, Hingham - see blog post here