Taphophile Twins

07/20/2025

https://www.taphophiletwins.com/post/a-posthumous-apology-for-the-atrocities-of-the-rum-trade-in-the-colonies?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR5YGSZHi7f2qdANX18grkh_XoX_oKAAtPYiR2mEA_QiGaITuKo8RhCwhRJqXw_aem_NygvqGqKeyKJD4jMmUt-hg

07/20/2025

Do you like Piña Coladas and getting caught in the…notorious rum trade in 18th century colonial New England? Peter Bowen of Salisbury, New Hampshire made himself quite a name in a small New England village before transporting his family to Corinth, Vermont.

“What’s wrong with being thankful?”On the surface, it seems like an innocent question. Placed within its context – asked on a lineage page for a historic New England couple on the day prior to Thanksgiving and accompanied by a diatribe on their wondrous works, it was less so. The inquirer pr...

06/25/2025

That’s…not what I meant.

05/24/2025

Distant cousin Joseph Lincoln was the father of Elisha Lincoln who made his way to Abington, MA and is buried at Mount Zion Cemetery. Mount Zion is now located in Whitman since the town annexed in 1875 and we are celebrating our 150th anniversary this year.

Elisha married Rachel Tirrel of Weymouth in 1718 and they had 13 children, about half of whom survived to adulthood.

In researching the lives of Rachel and her children, I (Taphophile 1) reached out to a gentleman on Ancestry who had them listed in his tree to inquire about some information I hadn’t yet encountered and learn of its source. A few weeks back, he visited us at Mount Zion and I had the privilege of introducing him to his many times over great grandparents, Elisha and Rachel.

Rachel’s grave marker touches me deeply as it is different from so many others of her day and reads, “seven children lay at her right hand and 2 other children in distant burying places.” It is unusual to see for its day and age where maternal grief was, by and large, ignored due to a Calvinist belief system.

Please visit our website to learn more about her, her children, and the Lincoln’s connection to the American Revolution.

https://www.taphophiletwins.com/post/seven-children-at-her-right-hand-and-two-in-distant-burying-places

05/24/2025

So much fun to be had in Hingham, MA last weekend. We even located a Lincoln gravestone for a super distant cousin.

The DiOrio kiddos are descendants of Thomas and John Loring on their dad’s side. Dad, Chris, used to insist that he is 100% Italian until I (Taphophile 1) built out his family tree. Turns out he has Old New England roots just like his wife.

Maple syrup with prosciutto sounds pretty tasty. 💕

-Leslie DiOrio

05/03/2025

03/23/2025

I don’t begrudge society for the fact that manners are not what they used to be. Sometimes, that’s a good thing. We should question the status quo and ask ourselves Why traditions are what they are and if they should continue. There’s a phrase that, ‘traditions are bullying from past generations.’ 😂 Okay, fair. When those traditions are helpful, create a kinder world, or a bring about peace without ignoring another person’s pain though, they may be a good thing.

Yesterday, I witnessed some behavior that I found wildly inappropriate. I was in a cemetery, arms full of plastic containers from old plants that had long since gone the way of the residents they had been given to as gravestone adornments. A group of six or seven 10-12 year olds came through, yelling, running, and one even climbed up onto a stone and stood on it. I have to wonder why it didn’t cross any of their minds that this was not the thing to do in their present location. I’m 46 now, but at that age I can’t imagine I would have done that in a cemetery.

I let them know, when the standing took place, that it was not okay to stand on a gravestone, and this was a place where families visited the remains of their loved ones, so running and yelling was not the thing to do. Not for nothing, there is a couple who visits their child every day in this place and it would be incredibly disturbing to them.

By the third time I spoke up and was just about to call the police (it is a historic site and damage to a historic gravestone is a felony), they all ran over to one of their parents’ van and hopped in. The parent gave me quite a bit of side eye (it’s okay. I’ll take it.).

I asked my eight year old later what he thought about that and he couldn’t explain what was wrong about it but he said, “no. You don’t do that. You just don’t. People…they don’t Live there, but they…I dunno…they sort of Live there? and their families come see them there and they stay there forever even though they’re not really there anymore. We have to be…kind of quiet and careful but I don’t really know why.”

No matter what your beliefs are regarding an afterlife and the eternal destination of the human soul, it’s important to remember two things:
- it is a felony to vandalize a historic marker and they are sometimes extremely sensitive
- families visit their loved ones in cemeteries. If the dead don’t need respect then the living do.

02/04/2025

I recently watched a few episodes of the show ‘Salem’ and the line, “the devil made her do it” immediately caught me off guard. That line in that time and place meant one thing and I thought: no. They wouldn’t…and then they did.

It’s not every day that you watch something like that play out on a screen. I don’t usually have such a visceral reaction to quasi-fiction, but having one of the characters then say that Mrs. Trask deserved it really riled me up.

~

On 3 June 1689, our 9th great grandmother, Christian (Woodbury) Trask, “being violently asalted by the temtations of satan, cut her owne throte with a paire of sisers to the astonishment and grief of all, especially her most nere relations.”

Christian’s youngest child, William, was five months old at the time. Historians typically avoid diagnosing people but having experienced postpartum depression myself (Taphophile 1), there is no way she did not have postpartum depression or psychosis. As events were described, she heard voices at the same time each night and experienced a sense of foreboding. I’m thankful for the mental health resources we have today. Sans voices, I empathize with the foreboding feeling and can’t imagine what that would have been like if the local preacher tried to treat me instead of my then-CNM. Christian expressed a strong aversion to her neighbor, Sarah Bishop, suspecting that Bishop had bewitched her.

Christian’s tragic death occurred during a period of heightened fear of witchcraft in New England. In 1692, Bridget Bishop was accused of bewitching Christian, allegedly causing her su***de. Bishop was subsequently executed, becoming the first official ex*****on of the Salem witch trials despite no direct connection between Bridget and Christian.

~

The Abbot Street Burial Ground was cut in half by a road at some point in the 1800s leaving two distinct sides. We’ll likely never know the exact location of Christian’s burial site, but there are many Woodburys and Trasks so we know that she is with family. Also notable at this location is Reverend John Hale who assisted Christian and brought the witch trials to an end. Thanks for trying, John.

12/26/2024

The apple jack has stopped freezing so into bottles it goes for its first round of clarifying. It will get skimmed a few times and then bottled in a final round when nothing else settles to the bottom. The reason for the multiple bottles instead of a single carboy is that we want as little oxygen in there as possible.

12/22/2024

Phases of Apple Jack. Straining ice on the left. Trash bin on the right.

12/04/2024

Taphophile 1 paid a visit to Holy Cross Cemetery & Mausoleum in Malden, MA to visit some family, namely great grandparents Lawrence Edward Murphy Sr. and Hazel Marguerite (Moore) Murphy plus their three daughters who didn’t survive childhood. Rest in eternal peace, great aunties.
The new burial locator for this site is excellent. If you have family located at Holy Cross, it is highly recommended. Still a work in progress and memorials are being added to it weekly.

11/10/2024

Taphophile 1 paid a visit to the Old Ordinary in Hingham, MA last week for one of their candle light tours. Hingham was the home of Revolutionary War Patriot Major General Benjamin Lincoln who accepted the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown and the Old Ordinary is right next to the original Lincoln home. As we approach 250(!!!), we’ll be writing more on the relationships among the families who were major players during the war. More than who fought, how they became involved, what they wrote, what was going on at home, and what they ate and drank. One of the questions our tour guide asked was, “has anyone made applejack?” Next time that question comes up, the answer will be Yes!