TREE TALK

Thinking about home and ancestors, I was tempted to write about the home I grew up in but will save that for another time.  This story is about the home my mother cherished while growing up in Hayward, California.    55 Main Street      My mother often shared fond memories of her childhood where the family would gather after dinner and make music together.  Horns (trumpet and trombone), Strings (violin banjo, mandolin, and violin), Piano, and Drums were all mentioned at one time or another.  My mother did not play an instrument; however, she loved to dance and would add to the fun with dancing and acrobatics while the music played.        This tradition morphed a bit when the three siblings left the nest to establish their own families. The oldest, my Uncle Jim kept the music alive.  I remember trips to their mountain home in the forest of Lake Tahoe, and after dinner, we would all gather around wh...

  Reverend Samuel Willard, circa 1692 For this story, we must climb the highest limbs of our ancestral family tree, going back eleven generations to the Reverend Samuel Willard (1640-1707).  Samuel was born January 31, 1640, to Major Simon Willard and Mary  Sharpe  Willard in Concord, Massachusetts Bay Colony.  Samuel may be the first of our direct ancestors born in the “new world.”   The theme for this week is “Historical Events” and Samuel Willard found himself deeply entwined in the events of the famed Salem Witch Trials.  Samuel was a graduate of Harvard University, class of 1659, and he began preaching at Groton, Massachusetts.  He later became the pastor of the Third Church in Boston in 1678 and remained there until he died in 1707.   During that time (1692-93) the Salem Witch Trials were taking place.   Samuel was opposed to the trials and is believed to be the author of “Some Miscellan...

Our theme for this week is  Brick Wall .     Brick Wall  is an expression genealogists use when they get to a place in the tree where the evidence stops and the research on that line comes to a standstill.  The  Brick Wall  prevents us from going further in understanding that part of our family history.   The deeper one gets into history, the more branches explored; the more  Brick Walls  pop up.   Image generated using Chat GPT In tracing the Grandon branch of our family tree one gets to an interesting juncture.  If we start at the latest generation (Felix Grandon, son of Jeremy) ) and work our way back, we can trace 10 generations to Bernard Grandon.  We have a copy of his marriage license showing he married Sarah Poincett in Burlington, New Jersey in 1740, however, our  Brick Wall  pops up when trying to go any further.   Tradition has it that Bernard was born to Da...

  The Smith Brothers: Five brothers fight in the War of Rebellion Seth Smith (1813-1901)      A common name like Smith makes for tedious research in genealogy, especially when they live in a large city.  Fortunately for our family, Smith branch research was simplified by a small town, activity in civic affairs, and a robust personality.        Seth Smith, my 3G-Grandfather was born Jan 1, 1813, in Woodstock, Connecticut.  According to his grandson, Grant Stearns-Smith*, Seth was a renowned storyteller, therefore we are well advised to carefully consider each tale, looking for supporting facts, before accepting accounting as truth.  Nevertheless, his storytelling prowess kept young Grant enthralled for hours on end growing up at his side.      The Smith name was so common, that Grant changed his last name to Stearns-Smith to set himself apart and increase the chances of receiving his mail.    ...

 From L: Edith Grandon Holland, May Grandon,  Lillian Grandon, Charles Allen Grandon Olney IL 1959 Manuel Santos, Lillian Grandon, Julia Santos  Olney, IL 1959      My cousin Pam and I share a passion for genealogy.  One evening she called with a shocking message.   She  had discovered my grandfather’s “secret,” and wanted to share it with me cousin to cousin.           Incredible as it was, I was not shocked.  I had discovered a marriage and birth certificates several years earlier which s howed a man likely to be my grandfather had a wife and two sons in West Virginia before coming to California in the early 1930s.     Even with that information, I never reached a point of certainty because there was another man with the same name, similar in age, in that part of the country at the same time.     However, with the advent of DNA testing and forensic genealogy,  I was now certain thi...