From Nabby Blasdel to Abigail Gilman

I have yet to find an obituary for either Simon or for Abigail Gilman. Pretty much the only reason I know Simon even existed is because he has a headstone in Northam Cemetery in Shrewsbury, VT. Abigail has her own stone there as well, but her birth is recorded in the town of East Kingston, …

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Hannah Gilman Gould & Chester Gould Obituaries

According to Hannah Gilman Gould's death record she was 67 years, 5 months, and 3 days old when she died on Monday 21 May 1877 in Shrewsbury, Vermont of "numb palsy," essentially, a stroke. This would make her date of birth 18 December 1809, also a Monday. She was born in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. Her …

Strafford County Deeds Book 11 Page 506

Above there is a 1770 plat map of Meredith, NH overlayed onto a current day map of the same place. This post is a continuation of one I did back in April of 2018 when I looked at the 1800 census in this town because there is a Simon Gilman listed living by himself at …

The Yankee exodus : an account of migration from New England

In an effort to find obituaries of more of Simon and Abigail's children and their respective spouses, I purchased a six month subscription to Newspapers.com. I have found several already, and will elaborate on them more in future posts. In the process of searching for their son's, Simon's, obituary, I found Stewart H. Holbrook's book …

Polly Gilman’s Obituary

Today as I was revisiting my family tree on Ancestry.com, I noticed that I also have a clipping of Polly Gilman's obituary. Polly is my third great grandmother. She was married to Simon and Abigail's son John whose obituary I posted prior to this. Here it is transcribed: North Shrewsbury Mrs. Polly Gillman died Sunday …

John Gilman Obituary

John Gilman's obituary John Gilman is my 3rd great grandfather and Simon and Abigail's son. I found this obituary in May 2020, but had never posted it. Here it is transcribed ... North Shrewsbury On his way home from the cheese factory, Tuesday morning, Uncle John Gilman, as he was familiarly called, was found dead …

Cool or Creepy?

https://youtu.be/t_GuCuqixPo I just found MyHeritage's Deep Nostalgia page where it's possible to upload a photograph of an ancestor and get a short animated video of what they may have looked like moving in real life. It's freaking cool, but a bit creepy, too. Here is the photograph I uploaded of my 2nd great grandfather, Deforest …

William Gilman’s Obituary

One of the best finds for a family historian is a long narrative obituary. The details within it can illuminate the dark passages of a distant relative's life. It's been a long while, almost a year and 2 months, since I posted on this blog. I had let my Ancestry.com account lapse because I was …

Great Grandma Gilman’s Ginger Cookie Recipe

Great Grandma Clara Doty Gilman's recipe for ginger cookies. The recipe above is out of a family cookbook that Ella Gilman Jones' family put together. Ella was my grandmother's, Gladys Gilman Heselton's, younger sister. My dad and his cousin, Frank (Nina Gilman Morgan's son), remember sneaking some of these cookies from their grandmother's freezer at …

Context: The Historical Currents that Moved Them … Maybe …

I drove over to Middletown Springs, Vermont on Sunday to a memorial gathering for my Dad's cousin, Corinne, who had passed away the previous Tuesday. The family in attendance all descended from the daughters of Leon Elstine and Clara Doty Gilman, my great grandparents. One of my Dad's cousins, Frank, is a lay preacher and …