Contextualizing the Life of Simon Eaton Gilman (ca. 1783-1853)
Mt. Pico, Mt. Killington, and Mt. Shrewsbury from Rutland R.R., Green Mountains(Picture credit: loc.gov)[1] I read an article this morning that got me thinking about the inherent acceptance of the family farm in the history of the American psyche. It seems to be a given that Americans just farmed. It's an idea that is backed … Continue reading Context: Family Farming
(Photo © Casey Jennings) [Editor's Note: I am excited to have my first guest contributor! Introducing Casey Jennings, a Gilman cousin, possibly by birth but most definitely by practice, to talk about his experience and to give some historical context about maple sugaring in Vermont. I first met Casey on this blog a few months … Continue reading Context: Maple Sugaring in Vermont
My 4th great grandfather Simon Gilman's actual signature on a promissory note from 1817. Back on 1 March when I went to the Grafton County Register of Deeds in Haverhill, NH, I came across a listing for a document in the deed index that was not a land deed and was not located in the … Continue reading Bartlett v Gilman
Photo by Anna Kaminova on Unsplash Simon had a small apple orchard in Shrewsbury, VT and the town where he was most likely born, Meredith, NH, was known for its apple orchards, so I'm going down the apple rabbit hole in hopes of contextualizing his life around the apple. In the apple-growing North, rural Americans used most of … Continue reading Context: Apples!
Stone wall bounding an old overgrown apple orchard at the Gilman Farm in Shrewsbury, VT One thing that I learned in grad school (thank you Goddard College!) is that interdisciplinarity underlies all successful research. Any topic can be looked at under the light of any discipline. Maybe that's too broad of a brush, but why … Continue reading Interdisciplinarity and Perspectives
Simon Gilman lived on that little peninsula sticking out to the right of "Salem" into Lake "Winnipissioki". I have other maps from various eras of this same location on the post Range 1 Lot 1 Near the Great Wares. Go back and take a look to see this map in context with the maps I … Continue reading Context: 1812 New Hampshire
On 19 Jan 1803 Simon Eaton Gilman purchased "A Certain forty Acre Lott of land laying in Gilmanton," NH from Abel Dudley for the "Sum of Forty Dollars." The said lot's location was "number three in the Sixth Range Second Division."[1] Lot 3 is the block below the word "Wares" that includes the four houses. … Continue reading Simon Eaton Gilman of Merideth
As much as I consume true crime documentaries and podcasts, I know that DNA is proof beyond doubt that once upon a time a certain individual was in a certain place to commit a crime. In genealogy a DNA match means that once upon a time two individuals were in the same place to create … Continue reading Examining an Ancestry.com ThruLines DNA Connection
On Friday March 1st, I trekked up to North Haverhill, NH to the Grafton County Register of Deeds to see if Simon Gilman owned land in Alexandria, NH. After finding his daughter Harriet's obituary recently that said they moved to Shrewsbury, VT from Alexandria, I had to see if, in fact, he owned land there. … Continue reading Know All Men By These Presents
Recently, I have been creating some collages in which the motifs include birds, music, and circles. I was looking through the bookshelf in the office to see if there was a book that wouldn't be missed that I could tear up to use as collage material. I found a collection of Ralph Waldo Emerson's essays … Continue reading Context: Emerson’s “Circles”