My Family

I created this blog to keep track of my family history research. I do most of my research online.

The Francis name is my husband's which was originally Francisco from Sao Miguel, Azores, Portugal. He also has ancestors from Sweden and England. So far, I have found that my family has come from Italy, England, French Canada, Scotland, and Ulster Ireland (Scotch Irish).

I have also taken a DNA test, which shows mostly Italian, but also England and France.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

rhode island families

I have been trying to write a post about my great grandparents that lived in MA, but it is taking me longer than expected. In the meantime, while data gathering, I found a great grand uncle that moved to Rhode Island. I have not done much research yet in Rhode Island, even though my husband's family is from that state, so I searched to see what kind of online databases were out there. I found a very useful one on familysearch.org, Rhode Island Deaths and Burials, 1802-1950.

I was able to find the death of my great grand uncle mentioned above. I will write about that in another post; but since I was in this database I could not stop myself from plugging in some names on my husband's side of the family. I was so excited to find some new information. I wanted to note it all down here, even though I did also enter it into my family tree. I like to have a record of what I have searched and what new information I found; sometimes that can get lost in all the names in my family tree. 

I started with my husband's maternal line. I already knew his great great grandmother, Hilma Sofia Myrhman, had died in Rhode Island sometime after 1920, as that is the last census I found her in. I found her very quickly in the above mentioned Rhode Island database under the name Hilma Sofia Anderson, with a death date of July 23, 1947 in Coventry, RI. Now I can search for her in the 1930 census, and look for her obituary. The death record also listed her father's name, which I did not have, as Per Mirhman (a little different spelling). I will also look for any other of her children which could be listed in this database, although their deaths may have occurred after 1950. Perhaps she had siblings that came to the US though?

I also new my husband's other great great grandparents probably died in Rhode Island in the early 1900s, so I searched for their names. I found Alfrid Carlson's death on March 25, 1914 in West Warwick, RI. This date is a year off from the transcrition of his stone I found online from The Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries Transcription Project. I also found his wife in the database with a death date of July 25, 1935 in West Warwick, RI. I already had the names of both sets of parents, which was the same as I found in the database. I will next have to search for their nine children in this database.

My husband's paternal side of his family also has people I was interested in finding in this Rhode Island Death database. This side of his family is Portuguese, and I have had trouble in the past searching in online databases because I find the names unfamiliar and a little confusing. They seem to switch between two surnames in the census, and sometimes use a name as a middle name. I was a bit hesitant to search, but I think I did find some new information that seems to fit in with this family. 
Here is the family chart to refer back to if need be :



My first search on this side of the family was for my husband's great grandfather Ernesto Francisco, (he has the easiest name). I have only seen his name written a couple of different ways, Ernesto Francisco and Ernest/o Francis. In this database, he is listed as Ernest E Francis. I believe his middle name is Gilbert, the E may be a transcription error. According to this database, Ernest died on October 28, 1941 in East Providence, RI. I did not have Ernest's parents' names before I searched this database, so that was another great find. They are listed as Joseph Francis and Frances Mattos. I had some indication that his father's name was Joseph, when I found what I think are Ernest's sisters on a ship passenger list; naming Joseph as their father and Ernest as their brother. It does seem likely that these are his sisters that came to Rhode Island from Sao Miguel, Azores. I did a quick search for these sisters in the Rhode Island database, but was unable to locate them. Their names on the passenger list are Maria Conceicao Tereira and Maria Ernestina, arriving in Boston, MA in 1914. Strange that their father's surname of Francisco is not listed. They travelled with an older woman, but I am not sure of her relationship to them.

Ernesto's wife, Aldina Pereira, died in 1971, so she would not be listed in this database. I do already have her parent's names from Aldina's social security application. According to Aldina's passenger record, she traveled to Boston with her brother, Annibal, whose death date I do not have. I am not sure where he was living or if he died after 1950, but he is not listed in the Rhode Island Death database either.

The more confusing side of my husband's portuguese family is another set of great great grandparents, the Gouveia/Martin's. I have found this family listed as Joseph Gouveia, Joseph Govey, Joseph Martin, Joseph Martin Govey; the last entry is how he is listed in the Rhode Island Death database. I previously had not had a death date for Joseph or his wife Theresa. Joseph died February 1, 1901 in Cranston, RI. The birth date for Joseph does seem to be a bit off from what I have in my family tree, I am not sure why the discrepancy, but perhaps this is not the correct death information after all. My original source for Joseph's birth was the 1900 census, which gave his birth about 1854. His death record shows his birth as 1865. If the Rhode Island Death database is correct, then Joseph's parents are Manuel Gouveia and Theresa. In this database, there is also a Frank Martin Govey born in 1879 with the same parents, perhaps Joseph's brother.

Joseph's wife Theresa has been a little more difficult to find. I have Theresa's maiden name as Andrade, from her daughter Mary's social security application. The death database does list a Theresa Martin Amorel Govey with a death date of 24 Feb 1912 in Warwick, RI. The parents listed though do not match her maiden name of Andrade - but are Antonio and Clara Amorel. The birthdate of 1868 is also different than the Theresa from the 1900 census of around 1856. I am not sure I am finding the correct couple with these different birth dates, but I am now beginning to think that the census was incorrect. I checked to see if I had Theresa in the 1910 census, and I did. This census does list her birth date of 1870, much closer to the death record I found. She is also living in Warwick, RI, the place the "other" Theresa died only 2 years later. I am inclined to believe this is the correct death record of Theresa. Perhaps the social security application noted her maiden name incorrectly, or some Azorean naming custom which I do not understand has come into play. Once again, the Gouveia's/Martins are giving me some difficulty.

Overall, I was happy with the information I found in this database. I am not done searching through it yet, but I do want to move on to my other task of writing about one set of my great grandparents.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

cemetery at the green (parish cemetery), middleboro, ma

I happened to be going through Middleboro again last week, and took the kids on a letterbox that was located at the Cemetery at the Green, also known as Parish Cemetery. After looking up where Priscilla (Raymond) Glazier was buried, I knew we would be looking for her here. Luckily we found her pretty quickly. A friend brought me to an older section of the graveyard and we first came across her brother Zephania Ellis Raymond. I knew she would be close by, and there she was. I was so excited I instantly started snapping pictures.

in memory of / priscilla s / wife of benj a glasur / who died / march 24 1832 / aged 33 years


z. ellis raymond / died mar 31 / 1873 / aged 71 yrs


My goal in finding Priscilla was to find her parents Samuel and Sylvia Raymond or her sister Silvia (Raymond) McConihe. I have no idea which cemetery they are buried in, but was hoping they might be with Priscilla. However, I was not able to find them in our brief visit.

I have mentioned before that I feel there must be a connection to Harlows, Shaws, and Ellis surnames with either Sylvia (Dunham) Raymond or Samuel Raymond as they named some of their children with these middle names. In some of Sylvia's children's death records, her maiden name is listed as Shaw. I have been going by her marriage record, which lists her maiden name as Dunham, assuming that to be more accurate as she probably recorded her name herself. Of course there is always a possibility of error, so I am keeping both options open for her maiden name. I did notice around Priscilla and Zephania's headstones other stones with the names of Harlow and Shaw. I took some pictures and made some connections between this Harlow family and Shaw family that is buried around them, but I still have not been able to connect them to either Samuel or Sylvia.

Located in the same area of Priscilla and Z. Ellis were many Harlow headstones. I looked into vital records on familysearch.org to try to understand their relationship, and I came up with the following. William Harlow died in 1793 and is buried at the Cemetery at the Green with his wife, Hannah Bartlett.

in memory of / Mr. William Harlow / ?

in memory of / mrs Hannah Harlow / wife of / Mr. William Harlow / who died April 1787 / ?


I was also able to find 5 of their children also buried here:

Joseph (1739-1759)

Ezra (1741-1808)

Mary (1745-1829)

William (1748-1780)

Josiah (1750-1798)


William and Hannah Harlow also had at least two other children, Hannah and Ephraim, but I did not see their headstones. Hannah Harlow's married Josiah Clarke, and it is very possible I missed their headstones as I was not looking for Clarkes at this time. Their daughter (William Harlow's granddaughter), Deborah Clarke; however, is buried close to the Harlow family at the cemetery. The Shaw connection comes along when William's granddaughter, Deborah Clarke, marries Elijah Shaw.

deborah / wife of / elijah shaw / born mar 27 1770 / died mar 21 1864

in the memory of / elijah shaw / who died / dec 14 1840 / aged 77 years


Deborah and Elijah Shaw had four children that I found in the records, at least one of which, Elijah Shaw, is also buried at this cemetery:

elijah shaw / died / june 26 1858 / aged 62 years


The Elijah Shaw that marries Deborah would have been about the same age as my Sylvia (Dunham) Raymond. Since there is some evidence that Sylvia could be a Shaw, I looked at Elijah's family to see if he maybe had a sister Sylvia born around Sylvia's birth year. Elijah Shaw's parents are Elijah Shaw and Phebe Sampson. I checked some family trees on ancestry.com to quickly see if there was a Sylvia born to this couple. According to these family trees, they did have many children, but none named Sylvia. This obviously is not proof that Sylvia was not a child of theirs, I will want to find a probate record of Elijah to see if there is any mention of Sylvia or any Dunhams. I would also need to go a step further back and look to see if Elijah had any brothers that had children named Sylvia. I realize this is a reach, as I have not even looked at probate and land records for the Dunhams in Plymouth County, but I will eventually do that too. Maybe there is a Dunham out there that married a Shaw in Middleboro and Plymouth area. I have not found one yet, but that might explain why Shaw was listed as Sylvia's maiden name, maybe it was her mother's maiden name.

I am guessing someday I will find the connection between these families and perhaps Sylvia (Dunham) Raymond, but so far I have not. I did notice in the Cemeteries in Southeastern MA book, there is a small cemetery in Plymouth with many Harlows, Ellis, and Shaws buried together. That will be another stop next time we are in the area.