Hello Ancestors

04/21/2026

Meet one of my 6th great grandfathers. Theophilus Wilder was born on May 16, 1740, in Hingham Massachusetts, the son of Theophilus Wilder and Mary Hersey.

On December 16, 1762, he married Lydia Cushing in Plymouth. In the years that followed, he established himself as a respected member of his community, serving as a constable in Hingham in 1768.

When the American Revolutionary War began, Theophilus took up arms in defense of the colonies. Between 1776 and 1778, and again in 1780, he served on multiple occasions, first as a lieutenant and later as a captain. On October 17, 1777, he commanded a company of militia at the surrender of British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga, a decisive moment in the war. He continued in service until the surrender of Charles Cornwallis in 1781, helping to secure American independence.

After the war, new opportunities drew him eastward. In May 1786, following the purchase of Plantations #1 and #2 by General Benjamin Lincoln and his associates, Theophilus moved to Dennysville with the first group of settlers from Hingham. His wife Lydia and their children joined him in June 1788, reuniting the family in their new home.

He settled in the Pennamaquan section of what is now Pembroke. There, his leadership remained evident. On March 24, 1800, he was chosen moderator of the plantation meeting—the first for which a record survives. Years later, in March 1818, he served again as moderator at the first official town meeting. At a second town meeting, the community formally expressed its gratitude, voting thanks to “Theophilus Wilder senior” for his service as moderator of all previous plantation and town meetings.

Theophilus and Lydia raised a large family, beginning with their daughter Lydia, born May 31, 1764, followed by Theophilius, born January 21, 1766; Mary, born July 15, 1768; Sarah, born August 7, 1770; Ebenezer Cushing, born August 20, 1772; Susannah, born August 9, 1774; Bella, born October 15, 1776; Persis, born October 13, 1780; and Deborah, born December 13, 1782, along with other children born later in Maine. Some, including an earlier Lydia and Persis, died in infancy. Theophilus Wilder Jr settled at the head of Hersey Cove, where the shore road turns southward down the point. He built a cape in 1814 and it remained until the 1940’s (at that time it was the oldest house in Pembroke).

After a long life of service to both his country and his community, Theophilus Wilder died on October 28, 1821—though some records suggest October 31, 1821—at Pennamaquan, in Pembroke, Maine, at the age of 81. He was laid to rest in Forest Hill Cemetery in Pembroke, leaving behind a legacy rooted in duty, leadership, and perseverance.

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03/19/2026

Jean Chartier (nee John Carter) is the son of Samuel Carter and Mercy Brooks. He is my paternal great grandfather. He was born in Deerfield MA on September 22 1695, and in 1704 he was captured in the Deerfield Raids. He was 9. The Raid on Deerfield in 1704 was one of the most dramatic and violent events of early colonial America, taking place during Queen Anne’s War. French soldiers and their Native American allies attacked the frontier town of Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing dozens of settlers and capturing more than 100 others. The captives were forced to march hundreds of miles through harsh winter conditions to Canada, where many were adopted into French or Native communities. John Carter was renamed Jean Chartier and raised in French society, eventually becoming fully assimilated in language, religion, and culture. As an adult, he married Marie Courtemanche and raised a large family of 10 children:
1) Joseph (1719-1789)
2) Marie-Renee (1721-1722)
3) Marie-Angelique (1723-1804)
4) Jacques (1725-1750)
5) Jean-Baptiste (1726-1804)
6) Pierre (1727-1727)
7) Marie-Josephe (1729-1750)
8) Pelagie (1731-1749)
9) Jacques* (1731-1750)
10) Theodore (1734-1796)

He kept in occasional contact with his New England family and even had the opportunity to return, he chose not to. His father had offered him a significant inheritance of 500 pounds if he would come back, but Carter declined, deciding instead to remain in Canada, where he had built his life. Two of his sons came to Connecticut and fought in the Revolutionary War on the US side, but John never returned to live in New England. John Carter died August 4, 1772.

03/15/2026

Lieutenant Benjamin Daniel Mead was born on 7 May 1667 in Greenwich, Connecticut, then part of Fairfield County in the Connecticut Colony. He was the son of John Mead (1634–1699) and Hannah Potter Mead (1636–1700), members of one of the early Mead families established in the region. He is also my maternal 8th great grandfather. Benjamin grew up in colonial Connecticut during a period of frequent frontier conflict between English colonies and French forces allied with Native American tribes.

As an adult, Benjamin Mead served as an officer in the local militia and also held the civic position of Surveyor for Fairfield County, reflecting his standing in the community. Although some reports incorrectly associate him with the later French and Indian War (1754–1763), he died before that conflict began. However, he lived during earlier phases of the broader imperial struggle between Britain and France that occurred in North America. Because of his age and militia service, he may have seen action in King William's War (1689–1697) or Queen Anne's War (1702–1713), the first two of the colonial conflicts sometimes collectively referred to as the French and Indian Wars in North America.

Benjamin Mead married Sarah Waterbury (1677–1745), and later Rachel Brown (1680–1726), whom he married in 1716. Through these marriages he had several children, including Benjamin Mead (1701–1783), Eliphelet Mead (1704–1796), Elizabeth Mead Peck (1705–1783), Kezia Mead Howe (1707–1808), Obadiah Mead (1718–1759), Nehemiah Mead (1721–1791), Mary Mead Mead (1724–1787), and Hannah Mead Mead (1726–1815). He was also part of a large sibling group that included Ebenezer Mead, Hannah Mead Scofield, and Jonathan Mead.

Lieutenant Benjamin Daniel Mead spent his life in the community where he was born and died on 22 February 1746, at the age of 78, in Greenwich, Connecticut.

03/01/2026

Ancestor time...today i introduce you to....my dad! Renaud Lionel Bard was born in 1947 in Canada. What makes his birth story interesting? My father was born in Restigouche in New Brunswick in a Lumber Camp along the Restigouche River.... no hospital, no doctor....just a midwife, who was also his grandmother. In the early 20th century, the lumber camps of the Restigouche region in northern New Brunswick were isolated, carved out of dense forest along rivers and rail lines. These camps were usually made up of long, rough bunkhouses where dozens of men slept side by side on simple wooden bunks. Days began before dawn and ended after dark, with work that was physically demanding and often dangerous. Camps were remote, sometimes accessible only by river or rough tracks, and families who lived nearby experienced long stretches of isolation, especially during harsh winters. A central cookhouse was the heart of the camp, known for its constant heat and the steady production of filling meals needed to sustain men through long, exhausting days. While the camps were built for logging, they were also homes—places where women raised children, managed households, and created stability in an isolated and demanding environment. Women’s work was constant. They kept the family cabins warm through long winters, hauling wood, tending stoves, and making sure fires never went out. They cooked daily meals for the entire camp, men,children and each other. They preserved food when possible, and stretched limited supplies to feed growing families. Laundry was heavy physical labour, often done by hand, even in winter, and clothing had to be mended and re-used until it could be mended no more. For children, their mothers and other women in the camp were the center of life. They provided care, discipline, and comfort in a place far from doctors, schools, or extended family. Women taught children practical skills early—how to help with chores, stay safe around the woods and river, and respect the dangers of camp life. For the families life in a lumber camp was hard and often dangerous. Loggers felled trees by hand with axes and crosscut saws, then skidded the logs to riverbanks or rail lines to be moved downstream in spring drives. The camps were isolated, and families connected to them lived with long absences, harsh winters, and little outside contact.They also passed down stories, creating a sense of normalcy and belonging despite the isolation. For a child born in a Restigouche lumber camp in 1947, these women—mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and neighbours—were the anchors of daily life. Their labor, patience, and quiet strength formed the foundation of family life and left a lasting imprint on the generations that followed.
My grandparents eventually bought a farm and my dad last spent his time at the lumber camp when he was 4. He worked the farm as a young child, left school at a young age, and witnessed the family farm burn down. He was one of 14 children.....7 boys and 7 girls. No doubt life was hard for my granparents. When he was a young man he made the move to Connecticut for work. Aside from my husband, he is the hardest working man I've ever known. Love ya dad.

02/27/2026

Perry Martin , here is the story of the first Bard's in our family line to come over from France ❤️

Our Bard family’s North American story begins in the village of Gardegan-et-Tourtirac in the old province of Guyenne, where Jean-Baptiste Bard was born around 1696 to Pierre Bard and Jeanne (or possibly Françoise) Barde. Life in late 17th-century France was marked by heavy taxation, limited land, and economic uncertainty, and like many young men of his generation Jean-Baptiste would have seen greater opportunity across the Atlantic in New France, where land was available to settlers willing to clear and farm it, so sometime before 1721 he departed from the port of Bordeaux aboard a wooden ship, crossing the Atlantic on a voyage that could last weeks. He arrived in Canada ready to begin a new life. On October 13, 1721 at Montmagny he married Marie-Josèphe Talon, and together they moved inland toward the developing Beauce region where he became a habitant farmer, clearing forest, building a home, and establishing a family that would remain rooted in Québec for more than three centuries, living through the growth of the colony, the upheaval of the Seven Years’ War, and the British Conquest of 1760, yet staying on the land and passing it to the next generation; from Jean-Baptiste and Marie-Josèphe descended Joseph Marie Bard, Augustin Jean Bard, Basile Bard, Louis Bard, Louis Paul Bard, Vital Bard, Iréné Bard, Jacinthe Bard, and eventually you, each generation carrying forward the legacy of that young man from Gironde who crossed an ocean not as a nobleman or soldier but as an ordinary farmer seeking land and opportunity, whose courage and decision to leave France ensured that the Bard name would become part of the enduring story of Québec and North America.

02/19/2026

Today's ancestor is the 4th great grandfather of Kasey Beck, mama of my twin granddaughters Everly and Scarlett.

Zinasas “Zina” Dwight Hotchkiss was born in 1814 in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Jonas Hotchkiss and Sally, whose maiden name is now lost to time. He grew up in Connecticut and, as a young man, made his living by manual work; by 1850 he was listed in the census as a laborer.

On March 16, 1845, he married Mary Elizabeth Dibble of Cornwall, Connecticut. After their marriage, Zina and Mary settled in her hometown of Cornwall, in the Litchfield Hills, where they built their family. Over the next years they welcomed six children: Dwight (born 1847), George (1849), Ellen (1851), Stephen (1859), Mary (1861), and Edward (1862).

By the time the American Civil War was underway, Zina was living in Cornwall with Mary and their growing family. On January 4, 1864, he enlisted in the Union Army and served with Company G of the 2nd Heavy Artillery (commonly known as the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery). He remained in service until 1865, when he mustered out and returned home to Cornwall.

After the war, Zina resumed civilian life with his family. The 1870 census lists him as a farmer, showing a shift from wage labor to working the land. Two more sons were born after his return from the war: John in 1868 and Charles in 1870, bringing the total number of children to eight.

Zina Hotchkiss died on October 11, 1875. His death was attributed to apoplexy, and the medical inqust held that the cause was the stress surrounding the kidnapping of his daughter Mary—an event that, sadly, has not yet turned up in surviving records. Whatever the full story behind that tragedy, Zina’s life traces a familiar 19th-century path: a Connecticut-born laborer and farmer, a husband and father of a large family in Cornwall, and a Union veteran who answered the call during the Civil War before returning home for his final years.

02/15/2026

Today's ancestor born on February 15th is the 5th great grandfather of Abby and Jasper, my youngest two, on thier dad's side.

James Thompson Donaldson was born on February day in 1791, in Wythe County, Virginia. He was the son of Hugh Donaldson and Sarah Jane King.

As a boy, James would have grown up with the sounds of axes in the woods and the rhythm of farm life—planting, harvesting, mending, and preparing for winter. Schooling, if he had much of it, would have been practical and intermittent.

Sometime after reaching manhood, James joined the great stream of Virginians moving into Kentucky, where the land was richer and the future felt wider. Kentucky in the early 1800s was still rough-edged—thick forests, scattered settlements, muddy roads, and neighbors who might live miles away.

In 1821, James married Mary Jane Cox, beginning a partnership that would anchor the rest of his life. Together they built a household in Knox County, Kentucky, a region of ridges and creeks. The accounts vary on how many children they had, but I can confirm 4 through records.

At some point along the way, James answered a deeper calling and became a minister. He would have traveled by horseback or on foot to small churches and scattered homes, preaching in simple buildings—or sometimes in homes or under the open sky. His sermons were likely plainspoken, rooted in Scripture, and aimed at people who lived close to hardship and closer still to faith.

Being a minister in 19th-century Knox County meant knowing your community intimately—who was struggling, who was grieving, who needed help bringing in a crop or burying a loved one. It meant long days, hard travel, and little pay, but also deep respect. The title “Reverend” wasn’t lightly given on the frontier; it was earned through years of service and trust.

As the decades passed, James would have watched Kentucky change. Roads improved. Towns like Barbourville grew. The wilderness slowly gave way to farms, fences, and schools. He would have seen children grow into adults, families move on, and graves fill in churchyards where he had once preached weddings and baptisms.

In February of 1854, just days before his sixty-third birthday, James Thompson Donaldson died in Knox County, Kentucky. He was laid to rest in the area around Bailey Switch, remembered not just as a husband and father, but as a man who had given his life to faith and community. The stone that bears his name also bears his calling—Reverend—a simple word that speaks volumes about how he was known and how he lived.

02/14/2026

On a side note...My Uncle Normand was also born on Valentine's Day!

02/14/2026

Getting a headstart on February 14th. Born on February 14th was my 10th great grandfather Zerubbabel Endicott. He was born on February 14, 1635 in Salem, then part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second son of Governor John Endecott and Elizabeth (Cogan) Endicott. He lived in Salem in an area now known as Danvers, on what his father called the Orchard (“Old Orchard Farm” at 102 Endicott Street, Danvers, Massachusetts). His father, John Endicott, was one of the earliest and most influential leaders in the colony. A devout and determined Puritan, he helped establish Salem as one of New England’s first enduring settlements after arriving from England in 1628. He served multiple terms as governor or deputy governor and was deeply involved in shaping legal, religious, and civic life in the colony.

The Endicott Pear Tree, planted by Zerubbabel’s father in the 1630s, grew to become one of the oldest cultivated fruit trees in the United States—an enduring symbol of these early settlers’ efforts to acclimate Old World traditions to New England’s soil.

Unlike his father—who pursued public office—Zerubbabel chose a different path. Historical family records identify him as a physician and surgeon, one of the earliest in the colony, tending to the medical needs of settlers scattered among Salem, Danvers (then often considered part of Salem), and surrounding villages. Medical practice in the 17th-century New World was rudimentary by later standards, relying on traditional herbal remedies, surgical skills learned through apprenticeship, and knowledge shared among other practitioners. Zerubbabel’s work would have placed him in intimate contact with daily colonial life: childbirth, injuries, fevers, and chronic ailments of a community often isolated from European sources of treatment.

Zerubbabel married Mary Smith (likely in the mid-1650s) and later Elizabeth Winthrop after Mary’s death. Together he and his wives had at least ten children, including sons and daughters who would carry the Endicott name into later generations.

Some of his children married into other colonial families, spreading the Endicott lineage throughout Massachusetts and beyond. Genealogical records show the family continued to be active in civic and social affairs for generations, with many descendants migrating south and west as America expanded. Zerubbabel Endicott died in March 1684 in Salem at the age of 49.

While he did not enter the political leadership of the colony like his father, Zerubbabel’s contributions as a physician and as an ancestor to many later generations made him a notable figure in the tapestry of early New England history. His life reflects the challenges of frontier medicine, the responsibilities of family leadership, and the rootedness of English Puritan families in the early American experience.

02/11/2026

Today's ancestor born on February 11th is Isaac Mead Howe, my 6th great grandfather on my mother's side.
He was born on February 11, 1749 in Greenwich, Connecticut, the son of Isaac W. Howe and Keziah Mead, and one of five children. He grew up in a coastal Connecticut community that, within a few decades, would be drawn directly into the struggle for American independence.

When the Revolutionary War began, Isaac answered the call to service. As a young man, he served several enlistments in the Connecticut militia and held the rank of ensign, a junior officer position that carried real responsibility in training and leading men from his community. He is documented serving in a Greenwich-area militia company that was ordered into the New York campaign of 1776. His unit was sent to New York and took part in the operations surrounding the Battle of Long Island (August 1776), one of the first major engagements of the war. After the American defeat there, Isaac and his fellow militiamen were part of the dangerous retreat northward, moving through Harlem Heights and later fighting at the Battle of White Plains (October 1776). Like many Connecticut militiamen, his service came in rotations or “details,” returning home between periods of active duty and then being called out again as the war required.

The war in Fairfield County and Greenwich was not only fought against distant British troops—it was also deeply personal and local. Communities were divided between Patriots and Loyalists, and violence sometimes came from neighbors. Family tradition records that Isaac was shot and severely wounded by a Tory neighbor, a grim reminder of how the Revolution could split towns and families as well as armies. On May 8, 1778, in the midst of the war years, Isaac married Lucy Mead. Together they built a large family, eventually becoming the parents of fourteen children, raising them during the uncertain years of the Revolution and the early days of the new nation:

Sally Howe (1779–1846)

Laura Howe (1780–1789)

Betsy Howe (1782–1864)

Keziah Howe (1784–1864)

Rachel Howe (1784–1865), twin to Keziah

Esther Howe (1786–1849)

Jonas Howe (1787–1867)

Laura Howe (1789–1872), named after her earlier sister

Lucy Howe (born 5 March 1791)

Isaac Howe (1793–1823)

Nehemiah Howe (1795– ), who married Samantha R. Holly

Cornelia Howe (born 1797)

Samuel Howe (1799–1800)

Samuel Howe (born 1803), who married Eloise L. Buffett, named in memory of the first Samuel

After the war, Isaac returned fully to civilian life but did not step away from public service. He went on to serve several terms in the legislature, helping to shape local and state affairs in the new republic he had helped defend as a soldier. Over time, he is also remembered as having attained the rank of captain, reflecting his leadership and standing in the militia and community.

Isaac Mead Howe lived through the birth of the United States and into its early decades, carrying both the scars of war and the responsibilities of citizenship. He died on December 29, 1823, leaving behind a large family and a legacy rooted in Revolutionary service, community leadership, and endurance through one of the most turbulent periods in American history.

02/10/2026

Today's ancestor, born on February 10th, is the 3rd great grandfather of my daughter in law Stephanie.

Daniel Hemingway was born on February 10, 1797, in Birstall, Yorkshire, England, the son of Samuel Hemingway and Hannah Sheard. He grew up during a time of enormous change, as the Industrial Revolution was transforming northern England. The West Riding of Yorkshire, where Birstall is located, was a center of textile production, with woolen mills, workshops, and hand-loom weaving shaping everyday life. For working families, life required long hours and steady labor, and economic security was often uncertain as new machinery and factory systems replaced older ways of working.

On February 18, 1822, Daniel married Hannah Holt. Over the next eighteen years, they welcomed nine children: William (1822), John (1825), Harriet (1827), Mary Ann (1828), Jane (1831), Eliza (1833), Nancy (1835), Elizabeth (1838), and Samuel (1840). Supporting such a large family in industrial Yorkshire would have demanded constant work and careful management of household resources. Like many families of their time, the Hemingways lived in a world where employment could be unstable and where competition for wages increased as industrialization advanced.

Sometime in the 1840s, Daniel made the life-changing decision to leave England and seek opportunity in America. It appears Daniel traveled first, likely with his sons, to establish himself before sending for the rest of the family.

On November 20, 1847, Hannah and the daughters arrived in America aboard the ship Jane Glassin, completing a long and difficult Atlantic crossing. The family settled in Simsbury, Connecticut, a town that, like many in New England, was becoming increasingly shaped by mills and manufacturing. Rivers powered factories, and textile and other industries provided employment for both native-born residents and newcomers from abroad. Daniel found work in a fabric mill, continuing in the trade he would have known in England, but now within the expanding industrial economy of the United States.

Hannah’s time in America was brief. She died of a strangulated hernia in 1858, only about five years after the family’s arrival. Daniel never remarried. In his later years, he lived with his daughter Mary Ann and her husband, George, at 176 Washington Street in New Britain, Connecticut. The 1870 census records him in their household, and by 1880 he was retired, still living with them and spending his final years surrounded by family.

Daniel Hemingway died on February 14, 1882—Valentine’s Day—closing a life that had spanned two continents and one of the most transformative periods in modern history. From the textile towns of Yorkshire to the mill communities of Connecticut, his story reflects the journey of a working family seeking opportunity, stability, and a better future for the generations that followed.

02/09/2026

Decided to do ancestors that were born on the day I post. February 9th.....

Sarah A. Day was born on February 9, 1755, in Colchester, Connecticut, into a household that must have been as noisy as it was busy. She was one of seventeen children born to Adonijah Day—a Revolutionary War patriot—and his wife, Sarah Loomis. In mid-18th-century Connecticut, large families were both a blessing and a necessity. Children meant helping hands in the fields, at the hearth, and in the endless work of daily survival.

Sarah grew up in Tolland County. She would have learned early how to stretch scarce resources. The shadow of the coming Revolution fell across her youth, and her father’s service placed the family firmly inside the great upheaval that reshaped the colonies into a new nation.

On November 19, 1772, before the war had fully erupted, Sarah married Ozias Benton. They settled in Tolland, a hilly, rural town where farms were carved out of stubborn New England soil.

Over the years, Sarah gave birth to nine children: Rachael, Solomon, Adonijah, Ozias Jr., Ira, Alvin, Alfred, Benjamin, and Levi. Her days would have been full from before sunrise until long after dark—cooking over open hearths, preserving food, mending clothes, tending gardens, nursing the sick, and guiding children through both childhood and grief. Infant and childhood death were common in that era, and the family already knew sorrow when their daughter Rachael died before her parents. Still, the household endured. Children grew, work continued, seasons turned.

Then came the terrible winter of 1816.

That year is remembered across New England as part of “the Year Without a Summer,” when strange cold, crop failures, and sickness swept through the region. Physicians of the time called the outbreak a “congestive pneumonia” epidemic—a fast-moving, often fatal illness that could overwhelm entire households in days. In Sarah’s home, the epidemic struck with devastating force. Within just a few days, Sarah lost her husband Ozias and three of her sons—Adonijah, Ozias Jr., and Benjamin. And Sarah herself was taken as well.

It is hard to imagine the speed and shock of it: a full household brought to silence in less than a week. Beds that had held the sick were suddenly empty.

Their youngest son, Levi, survived—but he was left an orphan. He came under the guardianship of Eliakim Chapman, who, in December of that same year, reported Levi as a runaway. Whether the boy fled from grief, hardship, or fear, we can only guess. What is certain is that the epidemic did not end with the deaths—it fractured what remained of the family.

Some of Sarah’s children did go on to live long lives. Solomon survived the epidemic and died in 1834. Ira died in 1818, Alvin in 1850, and Alfred in 1865. Their lives stretched into a new century, carrying forward the memory—whether spoken or unspoken—of the winter that took their parents and brothers.

But at the center of it all stands Sarah. Born into a Revolutionary household, wife, mother of nine, keeper of a hardworking New England home—her life reflects the quiet strength of countless women whose names rarely appear in history books, yet whose endurance held families together. Her story is not only about tragedy, but about the fragile, fierce persistence of family in a time when survival was never guaranteed and love was measured as much in labor and loss as in years.

Sarah is my husband's 6th great grandmother.