Descendants of Rev. James Keith of Bridgewater, MA

Edward H Keith

The name Keith has been a conspicuous one in the history of this Commonwealth since the first interior settlement was made, and the descendants of this time-honored family have been prominently identified with the development and growth of this community from the time of the ordination of the first minister of the settlement – Rev. James Keith, in 1664 – down to the present time, covering a period of nearly 250 years. This article is to treat particularly of the branch of descendants of Rev. James Keith to which belonged the late Simeon Cary Keith, who was an honored citizen of West Bridgewater, and his three sons, Warren R. Keith, who is president of the Independent Oil Company, of Brockton; Edward H. Keith, who is ex-mayor of the city of Brockton, and general inspector of the George E. Keith Company’s shoe factories; and S. Elliott Keith, who was a foreman in the extensive shoe manufacturing plant of the George E. Keith Company for a number of years and is now secretary of the Independent Oil Company. The ancestry of this branch of the family follows in chronological order.

Descendants of Thomas Tobey of Sandwich, MA

The earliest record of a Toby or Tobey in our American annals is that of one Francis of Boston, who was in court on July 7, 1635.

The first known and credited ancestor of this family was Thomas Tobey, of Scituate, Mass. He removed to Sandwich, Mass., and was a member of church there in 1694. He married at Sandwich Nov. 18, 1650, Martha Knott, daughter of George Knott, deceased

Cushman Family of Acushnet, MA

For perhaps fifty years there has lived in what is now Acushnet and figured largely in the industrial life of the locality a branch of the ancient and historic Cushman family of the Old Colony, in the immediate family of the late Emery Cushman, whose early life was passed in Duxbury; himself the founder of an enterprise here in which he was succeeded by his son and the latter by his sons, all of whom contributed through the manufacturing plant to the material progress and welfare of their locality.

It will be remembered that Robert Cushman was one of the most active and influential men in all of the preliminary movements of the Pilgrims in going to Leyden and thence to New England, he the ancestor of the Cushman family here in question, the marriage of whose son into the Howland family further identifies it with the “Mayflower” party.

There follows the history and genealogy of this Acushnet Cushman family in chronological order from this first American ancestor.

Ancestors of Frederick Macy of New Bedford Massachusetts

Edwin B. Macy at his Blacksmith Shop

The Macy family of New Bedford is among the oldest and most prominent families of Nantucket, the name having been identified with the business interests of New Bedford for the past seventy years. The first American ancestor of the family was Thomas Macy, clothier merchant, who came, it is said, from the county of Wilts, England, and was in Newbury, Mass., a proprietor; he was a freeman of Sept. 6, 1639. He removed to Salisbury and was town officer and deputy. He removed about 1659 from there to Chilmark; his was the first family on Nantucket island. He was a … Read more

Ponca Tribe

Chief Standing Bear

Ponca Indians. One of the five tribes of the so-called Dhegiha group of the Siouan family, forming with the Omaha, Osage, and Kansa, the upper Dhegiha or Omaha division. The Ponca and Omaha have the same language, differing only in some dialectic forms and approximating the Quapaw rather than the Kansa and Osage languages. The early history of the tribe is the same as that of the other tribes of the group, and, after the first separation, is identical with that, of the Omaha. After the migration of the combined body to the mouth of Osage river the first division of the Omaha group … Read more

Vital records of Southborough, Massachusetts

Vital records of Southborough, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849 title page

The list of vital records of Southborough, Massachusetts, comprised in this volume includes all which were entered in the Town Books during the period from the earliest date there found to the end of the year 1849. Some additions and corrections of names and dates have been made from the records of the First Church, these being indicated in each instance by proper reference. There are a total of 6,297 births, marriages, and deaths recorded. This book is free to read or download.

Herbert Joel Sherman

Q. M. (Navy); of Pender County; son of Mr. and Mrs. T. J. Sherman. Husband of Mrs. Annie Elizabeth Sherman. Entered service Sept. 4, 1913, at Atkinson, N.C. Sent to U. S. S. Antilla. Made four trips overseas. Was in the Central American Revolution, Honduras, 1913; Mexican, at Vera Cruz, 1914; Haitien, 1915; Santo Domingo, 1914; Cuban uprising, 1917. From there to the U. S. S. Antilla. Mustered out at New York Feb. 17, 1919.

Slave Narrative of George Conrad, Jr.

Person Interviewed: George Conrad, Jr. Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Place of Birth: Connersville, Harrison County, Kentucky Date of Birth: February 23, 1860 Age: 77 I was born February 23, 1860 at Connersville, Harrison County, Kentucky. I was born and lived just 13 miles from Pariah. My mother’s name is Rachel Conrad, born at Bourbon County, Kentucky. My father, George Conrad, was born at Bourbon County Kentucky. My grandmother’s name is Sallie Amos, and grandfather’s name is Peter Amos. My grandfather, his old Master freed his and he bought my grandmother, Aunt Liza and Uncle Cy. He made the money by … Read more

Biographical Sketch of William Sherman

Sherman, William; supt. of mails; born, Cleveland, O., Dec. 25, 1868; son of John and Elizabeth Mitchell Sherman; educated, Cleveland public schools; married, Cleveland, Feb. 8, 1905, Mary L. Smith; first venture was in the coal business, but associations in that line being uncongenial and having a natural desire for mechanics, was about to engage in the machine and engineering business; at this time, was offered a position in the U. S. Post Office; embracing the opportunity for temporary employment, entered the postal service under Maj. W. W. Armstrong, who was the postmaster; that was in August, 1888, since which … Read more

Slave Narrative of William Sherman

Interviewer: J. M. Johnson Person Interviewed: William Sherman Location: Chaseville, Florida In Chaseville, Florida, about twelve miles from Jacksonville on the south side of the Saint Johns River lives William Sherman (locally pronounced Schumann,) a former slave of Jack Davis, nephew of President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy. William Sherman was born on the plantation of Jack Davis, about five miles from Robertsville, South Carolina, at a place called “Black Swamp,” June 12, 1842, twenty-three years prior to Emancipation. His father who was also named William Sherman, was a free man, having bought his freedom for eighteen hundred dollars from … Read more

Jackson Family of Fall River, MA

Here in this article it is the purpose to treat of but one branch or family of the Massachusetts Jacksons – the family of John Jackson, who was a descendant of the Middleboro settler of the name, one John Jackson, and who in time removed to the State of Maine, the home State for several generations of the Fall River Jacksons in question. The first John Jackson came from England to New England and settled in Middleboro, where in May, 1714, he was married to Mary Smith. They had two children (if not more), John and Cornelius, the latter of whom was born in Middleboro Sept. 11, 1716. The father died in 1731.

Genealogy of Elizabeth Caroline Seymour Brown

Genealogy of Elizabeth Caroline Seymour Brown

Over a period of many years Mrs. Elizabeth Caroline Seymour Brown, early member of Linares Chapter, D.A.R., collected genealogy of her forebears. It was her wish that her work be sent to the library of the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution. This collection was painstakingly copied, with some additions and corrections, maintaining the same general form as used in the original notes. Elizabeth’s family originated in England moving to New England in the 1600’s. Her family lines involve many of the early lines in Connecticut, Massachusets, and New Hampshire. The families are arranged mostly in alphabetical order, and contain information from a simple direct line descendancy, to more elaborate genealogy.

Major families researched include: Alverson, Arms, Arnold, Ballou, Barden, Barker, Barnard, Bassett, Belden, Benedict, Betts, Blakeslee, Blanchard, Bradstreet, Brigham, Bronson, Buckmaster, Bull, Butterfield, Carpenter, Clark, Clerke, Cooke, Coombs, Cornwall, Corbin, Curitss, Dickerman, Dickson, Doolittle, Downey, Dudley, Eastman, Easton, Errington, Evarts, Fairbank, Foote, Gilbert, Goodrich, Graves, Gregory, Groves, Hale, Hand, Hall, Hawkes, Hawkins, Hills, Holmes, Hopkins, Hoyt, Huitt, Hurd, Keayne, Keene, Lockwood, Lupton, Lord, Manning, Marvin, Mayo, Merriman, Miller, Morris, Morton, Mosse, Moulton, Munger, Needham, Parker, Parkhurst, Potter, Peck, Pettiplace, Purefoy, Priest, Rusco, St John, Scofield, Seymour, Sherman, Smith, Strong, Swinnerton, Symonds, Threlkell, Thorne, Ventriss, Wade, Watson, Weed, White, and Yorke.

Ancestry of William Bowers Moison Chace of Taunton Massachusetts

Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts

William Bowers Moison Chace, senior member of W. B. M. Chace & Co., real estate, insurance, stocks and bonds, prominently identified with manufacturing and financial concerns, his position won through his own energy, integrity and general worth, is a worthy representative of a family planted in America but a decade later than the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. He was born in Somerset, Mass., Dec. 5, 1854, and is of the ninth generation of the family in the New World.

Ancestors of Charles Jarvis Holmes of Marshfield and Rochester MA

Charles Jarvis Holmes

The purpose of this article to treat with one branch only of the Marshfield-Rochester family, the head of which was the late Hon. Charles Jarvis Holmes, lawyer and public servant of distinguished official relation, as was his father before him, Hon. Abraham Holmes, and as was also the former’s son excepting that he was a banker and financier instead of a member of the legal profession, and a man of high standing and long service in his calling at Fall River, where he was succeeded by his only son, Charles L. Holmes, now treasurer of the Fall River Five Cents Savings Bank, an institution his father had served in the same official relation for approximately fifty years, and who is worthily wearing the family name and sustaining its reputation.

French Genealogy of Fall River Massachusetts

Job B. French

The Fall River French family here considered springs from the early Rehoboth family of the name, and it, as will be observed further on, according to Savage, perhaps from the Dorchester family. John French, the head of the Dorchester family and the immigrant ancestor, was a native of England, born in 1612. He had land granted him at what became Braintree for five heads Feb. 24, 1639-40. He was admitted to the church in the adjoining town of Dorchester, Jan. 27, 1642, and the births of his first two children are recorded in Dorchester. He became a freeman May 29, 1639. He was active and prominent among the early settlers. His son John was born Feb. 28, 1641.

Biography of Maurice Sinclair Sherman

In the present-day development of the publicational plans of the Springfield “Union,” one of the foremost of the long established newspapers of Massachusetts and of New England, Maurice Sinclair Sherman, editor-in-chief of that journal, himself a successor to many editors who had already borne a notable share in the history of publicity in the Bay State, is a thoroughgoing interpreter of the value of the news and of the newspaper of to-day. That the “Union” continues in its robust and progressive pace with the demands of these times, as it ever has in other eras of its career, is due … Read more

Descendants of Rev. George Shove of Fall River, MA

SHOVE. Rev. George Shove, gentleman, son of Margery, who was admitted to the church at Boston as a widow in 1638, and who subsequently was of Rowley and a proprietor and still later of Roxbury, where she married in 1654 Richard Peacock, became the third minister of Taunton, ordained Nov. 17, 1665. Of his ministerial life little is known except that be “preached acceptably,” and taught the Taunton school; and it is said that “no rumor of strife or discord in connection with him comes down to us.” His fame, however, as a land bolder and dealer in real estate … Read more

The Hazard family of Rhode Island 1635-1894

The Hazard family of Rhode Island 1635-1894

The Hazard family of Rhode Island 1635-1894 – Being a genealogy and history of the descendants of Thomas Hazard, with sketches of the worthies of this family, and anecdotes illustrative of their traits and also of the times in which they lived.