March 6: An Heirloom

I've been wearing Aunt Bess's initial ring for a while.  My mother wore it too, if I remember correctly.  It is quite nicely carved, with two tiny rubies or garnets.  The inscription: EC also looks a lot like a B when turned upside down.  That worked for Mom either way.  She was born Mary Elizabeth Coleman, named after her Aunt Bess, but she was always called Betty. I like the continuity of wearing a piece of jewelry for the third generation.

March 5: How Did They Meet?

The story was that Dad dated Mom's roommate in Albany, and he decided he liked Mom better.  They didn't talk much about the early days, but I know Mom was working as a surgical nurse at Albany Medical Center while Dad was at Albany College of Pharmacy.  They used to watch "the fights" at local bars.  I know Mom wasn't happy when I found a package of their love letters.  As a teen, it was interesting to find out that they were once silly kids in love.

Joseph Szymanowicz and Berry Coleman on their wedding day, 30 June 1951

Fearless Females, March 4: My Grandparents' Wedding

Coleman-Meeneghan Nuptials

Wedding of Well Known People Takes Place at Springfield Center in Church of Blessed Sacrament

Cooperstown, Oct. 28 -- On Saturday morning at 10 o'clock in the Church of Blessed Sacrament at Springfield Center, occurred the wedding of Miss Sarah Meeneghan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dominick Meeneghan, and T. William Coleman, son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Horace Coleman of Cooperstown.  The ceremony was performed by Rev. Father Francis Gustomski of Cherry Valley.

The bride was attended by Miss Elizabeth M. Coleman, sister of the groom, and William Meeneghan, brother of the bride, was the best man.  The ushers were Herbert Bradley and John Meeneghan, both of Schenectady. The bride's gown was blue canton crepe, embroidered in silver, and she wore a taupe hat and a corsage bouquet of white roses.  The bridesmaid was attired in black roshanara crepe. Her hat was black and silver and her corsage bouquet was of pink roses. Following the ceremony a wedding breakfast was served at the bride's home. Both house and church were decorated with yellow and white chrysanthemums.

Following the wedding trip Mr. and Mrs. Coleman will be at home in Cooperstown. Among the guests were persons from Cooperstown, Albany, Schenectady, Scranton and Washington, D.C. The following members of the clergy were present: Rev. William J. Donnelly and Rev. Maxine Sarrault of Ilion, Rev. Edward A Dalton of West Winfield, Rev. John A. Collins and Rev. William A Sheridan of Haines Falls.

Both Bride and groom are highly respected people whose many friends will wish them only happiness.

Photo of Blessed Sacrament Church, closed in 2009, from St.Thomas of Cherry Valley web site

The wedding announcement was printed in at least two newspapers, because two yellowed clippings remain, but the source has not been found.

Fearless Females March 3: H or No H?

We know that spelling variations for surnames are not unusual. I am named after my grandmother who seemed to vary the spelling of her first name with the wind. She was Sarah on her baptismal certificate. The Social Security Death Index lists her as Sara.  "Sarah" is carved on her gravestone, but the obituary calls her "Sara." The marriage register in Springfield, NY lists her as a Sarah. Nearly all of the censuses spell her name "Sarah," but who knows if the census taker would have asked if that was correct? In her will, her name was typed "Sarah M. Coleman," but was signed "Sara" in 1961. The inconsistency is noted on a probate document from the Otsego County Surrogate Court, which is written "Coleman, Sara (Sarah) M."

I can only assume that when I was born it was "Sara" because that is the name that I was given. I even remember having a discussion over the spelling with a girl named Sarah Heavenower in kindergarten, trying to convince her that the H belonged to her last name.

Then there is the question of her middle name, which she thought was Veronica, but that doesn't show up in any records. I'm guessing that was the name she took for Confirmation. In my world, she was "Gram" and that's all that really matters.

Grave photo from St. Mary's cemetery, Index, New York.

Fearless Females: Walerya Zawacka Szymanowicz

The March 2 prompt asks for a photo of a female ancestor.

I didn't know my grandmother. She died when my father was only eleven.  This shot was cropped from a family portrait taken about 1927.  The portrait is especially precious because it was sent to me from a relative in Drohiczyn, Poland several years ago.

This photograph was proudly sent back to the family in Poland fifteen years after she emigrated.  It is a classic photographer's portrait, with formal attire, down to the twins in their sailor suits. She left Poland with a toddler in her arms, having lost her first son a year before.She may not have been fearless, but she faced those fears as she sailed from Antwerp, following her husband and her brothers and sister to Easthampton, Massachusetts.

She had six more children born in Easthampton. She kept house, learned English, applied for citizenship, and was a founding member and President of the Polish Women's Aliance when a new chapter was formed. They bought a house and moved to Northampton, where they opened a neighborhood grocery store. She faced uterine cancer, and traveled to Boston hoping for a cure.

When you look into her eyes, you know she faced it all head-on.

Fearless Females 2016

March is Women's History Month and Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist has compiled some prompts to encourage blogging about female ancestors.

On the first of March we are challenged to write about a favorite ancestor. Rachel Andrews Colman is a woman who comes to mind immediately. Rachel lived through almost the entire eighteenth century and left very few records for a lifetime of experiences.  I first wrote about her here.

As I go over the research I have done over the years, I have been forced to reevaluate the assumptions I made even a few years ago.  I have visited Rachel's grave in Ashby, Middlesex, MA.  She is buried in the front row in the center of town with her husband James.  A tree has grown up around her headstone, obscuring the inscription. According to the headstone, she was 92 when she died in 180? She is not listed in the Ashby death records, and I am not certain of the year of her death.  That means her birth could have been between 1708 and 1717. She is not found in the Ipswich births or marriages, where her first known child was born in 1734.

As are most women of that time, her existence is noted only by the births of her children between 1734 and 1758 in Ipswich, Lunenburg, and Ashburnham. There were eleven recorded, with biblical names of Job, Rachel, Solomon and Ruth.  They moved away from the coastal settlement of Ipswich to the frontier sixty miles to the west with their young family to an area first known as "Dorchester Canada." It was so remote that records were kept for years at the more secure town of Lunenburg.

Her child-bearing years were times of hard work building a farm and establishing a new town, with a near constant fear of attack, disease, or other hardships caused by weather or natural disasters. She was pregnant almost half of the time, with children born in two year increments.  James was a Selectman, and held other positions of responsibility in the local government.

Although her husband lived into his sixties, she lived thirty years longer. Their youngest daughter was 15 and other children were settled nearby when she was widowed in 1773. Although I wish I knew more about her life in those years, her experiences would have been much like any woman of that time.  But after James' death, where did she go?  Did she remain in their home for a time, or live with one or more of her children or grandchildren? She saw four sons respond to "the Alarm" of 1775 and join in the rebellion against the British. She saw the growth of her community, the birth of the new nation,and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

I would like to know where she was when she died, when she was brought to rest beside her husband. I would like to picture her in her old age, and know who was with her. When I visit her in Ashby, I surely wish she would speak to me.

Signature from Middlesex County probate file for James Colman

Patriot Francis Lester

In April of 1818, Francis Lester applied for a pension as a Revolutionary War soldier. At 76, he states that he is "destitute of property and from my reduced circumstances I need assistance of my country for support." He was a resident of Deerfield, MA when he enlisted, and later a resident of Greenfield.

By his statement describing his service, he enlisted first in the Massachusetts Militia in March of 1775 and served in Cambridge for six months. A few months later, he volunteered for an additional six months, which he served at Ticonderoga. Before his time was up, he enlisted in the Continental Army for three years and joined Captain Torrey's company of the Congress Regiment in Lancaster, PA. He served for the balance of the war until June of 1783.  Interestingly, he states that his discharge papers were destroyed "about twenty years since" by his children when he and his wife were not home.

He received $96 annually until his death in 1832. The local newspaper contained the following obituary:

Died, in this town, on Wednesday evening last, Mr. Francis Lester, a revolutionary pensioner, aged 94 years.  He was probably the oldest surviving member of the revolutionary worthies in this section, if not in this state.  On the evening of his death he went to bed in his usual health and in the morning was found dead in his bed.

His march of the field of time was long and arduous, and well, we believe, particularly during the latter years of his life, did he sustain it.

He enjoyed uncommon health, and was remarkably vigorous for his years.  But a day or two before his death, we saw him walking, erect and with almost as firm a step as when, in the days of youth, with the legions of revolutionary fame, he charged home upon the enemy, and made the plains ring with the shout of victory.  But his earthly campaign is finished, and we trust he is gone to share the rewards of the righteous.