Tuesday, July 26, 2011

William Howard Taft

There are many famous people who are descendants of the Samuel Chapin/ Cecily Penny linage.  Today I would like to focus on the pedigree of William Howard Taft, born September 15, 1857 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Not only was he our 27th U.S. President, serving just one term from 1909-1913. he also served as the Provisional Governor of Cuba, and also held the position as the Civil Governor of the Philippine Islands under Teddy Roosevelt.. Under Ulysses S. Grant, he served as Secretary of War and as Attorney General in his cabinet. President Warren Harding appointed him as Chief Justice of the United States in 1921 and he served in that capacity for nine years, resigning just shortly before his death in 1930 on March 8th in Washington D.C.

He married Helen Herron (her nickname was Nellie) in 1886 and they had three children, Robert Alphonso, Charles Phelps and Helen Herron  . President Taft led the way for his sons and grandsons, who also chose political careers.  His son, Senator Robert Alphonson Taft, his grandson Senator Robert Alphonso Taft II ,and his great grandson Robert Alphonso Taft III who served as Governor of Ohio.    .

William Howard Taft descends from Samuel Chapin, & Cecily Penny, their son Josiah Chapin and his wife Mary King, their son, Seth who married Bethia Thurston, their son John who married Dorcus, their son John who married Rhonda Albee and their daughter who married Levi Howard.

    Samuel Chapin and Cecily Penny
 Samuel CHAPIN (1598-1675)Paignton, Devonshire, England
 Cicely PENNY (1601-1682) Paignton, Devonshire England


    Son: Josiah CHAPIN (c1634-1726)Oct 29, 1634 in England
          and Mary KING (1639-1676) Jun 15, 1639 in Weymouth, Norfolk Co, MA 
          Married on Nov 30, 11658 in Weymouth, Norfolk Co, Ma
Children: Henry Feb 15, 1671-Mar 20, 1671 Weymouth, Norfolk MA
Deborah Jun 16, 1664 Weymouth, Norfolk Ma died Aug 16, 1668 Braintree Norolk MA
Deborah Feb 12, 1675 Braintree, Norfolk Ma died Apr 9, 1702 Uxbridge, Worchester Ma
Sherm May 11, 1667 Weymouth, Norfolk MA died Jun 6, 1667 Braintree, Norfolk, MA
John 11 Jun 1661 Weymouth, Norfolk, MA died 22 Feb 1686 At Sea
Joseph 17 May, 1670 Weymouth, Norfolk MA  died 1722
Josiah Jr Dec 17, 1665 Weymouth, Norfolk MA died May 20, 1693
Henry Feb 15, 1671 Weymouth, Norfolk MA  died Mar 20, 1671 Braintree, Norfolk Ma
Deborah Chapin Jun 16, 1664 Weymouth, Norfolk MA  died Aug 16, 1668
Seth (Captain) Aug 4, 1668 Braintree, Norfolk MA  died Apr 1, 1746, Mendon Worchester MA
   
Second wife: Lydia Brown Pratt
Married Sep 20, 1676 Braintree, Norfolk MA
And had 4 or 5 children.

   
  Sources:
Sources:

Title: Mendon, Worcester Co., Massachusetts Vital Records
Publication: Births, Marriages, and Deaths
Repository:
Media: Book
Page: Page: 455
Text: Death: Chapin, Josiah Esqr., Sept. 10, 1726. (In his 92d y. G.R.1.).
Title: Weymouth, Norfolk Co., Massachusetts Vital Records
Publication: Baptisms, Births, Marriages, and Deaths (Published 1910)
Repository:
Media: Book
Page: Vol. II Pages: 45; 108
Text: Marriage: Chapin, Josiah and Mary King, Nov. 30, 1658.* * Intention not recorded.

I did not give you the entire family tree of this family but if you go to rootsweb.com, ancestry.com or famiysearch.org I am sure you will find many records on him if you would like to complete his family tree.

William Howard Taft is just one of many historical people that descended from this family. Since there seems to be quite a bit of interest in this family particular line, I will put together some additional articles about other people.

In the meantime, happy digging!

Friday, July 15, 2011

Banging Your Head against Brick Walls

Every time I solve one problem, it seems like I create at least ten more when I am doing genealogy. I get one brick wall broken down and then whammy…..I am hit in the head with a zillion more! 

I am actually working on two different Parker lines, one from my family and one from my son-in law’s family and I am running into the same problems with both of them. I either can only get back so far in time on a generation or else I have some information on the families but not enough to figure out where they were born, where they lived or where they died. I have about exhausted every avenue I can think of on some of these people! 

Therefore, I am going to post here about one of the Parker families that is on my side of the family.

 This is the story of Ezra B.PARKER DOB unknown and Lydia Alta Decker; born 1856 in Bucyrus, OH and Died May 1930 Lydia was the daughter of David DECKER and Rebecca SCHRUM (M) . David’s parents were James Vandeveer (Cobe) DECKER  and Jane LUKE.

They married in Aug 1877, probably either in OH or in IL since they lived in Cornell, IL for a time. I do not know if Ezra died but my records show that she later married William ANDERSON. There were two children of this union Cleopatra PARKER born in 1879 in Iowa, and Charles Albert PARKER born in 1884, I have no children listed for her marriage to William Anderson.

Cleo had a brother Charles Albert PARKER, he was born Sept 1884 and in 1905, he married Golda KINNEY. They had three children, Madge Evelyn, George Leverne and Marjory Bernice.

Cleopatra (Cleo) PARKER married A. J. BURT (no known info) in 1894 and then later married G. W. HUNTER. With A. J. she had the following children: Iris Lorena born 1899, Lelah Montress born 1897, Charles Emery born July 1895 (he married Mary Casson, had two daughters Montress Vanetta Burt born 1920 and June Lee Burt born 1926.


Iris Lorena BURT (1899-1918 Peoria IL) married Howard TALBOT in Nov 1914. They had at least two children that I know of, Audrey Berdette born Oct 1917 and Eugene Burt born Dec 1920. Eugene married Helen Elizabeth HAWKINS

I have searched and searched for records on this family from stem to stern and have come up empty handed. It is interesting how actually you can find more on some of the older generations than you can on the newer ones. 

I hope that there is someone out there on the Internet who is related and going through the same frustrations that I am of not finding much information.

Is there anyone out there related to this family?




I think I am going to have to invest in these books, they look like they might help me.
     

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Documenting Now For Future Generations

Back in November 2010, I wrote an article about Continuing Family History and  how we often get so caught up in researching all our ancestors from the past that we are neglecting to keep up with documenting current generations and stories and mementos of today. Terri left me a comment which has taken me some time to formulate a good answer. She stated, “It's interesting Kay that you talk about preserving our history now for future generations. It is more difficult today to do that with technology the way it is. I have so many letters from my ancestors but today we just text, email or phone. We don't write things down. We need to think about how to preserve heirlooms and record events for our future children.”

Here are some things that I have been doing for my children and my grandchildren that might also be helpful to you.

First of all, I have set up several family trees using tribal pages.com where I have first a master tree with all the connecting family branches and then trees also set up for each of my children and their spouses and their group tree. This way, they can see how everything connects together on the master tree and then if they want to just concentrate on their own tree along with that of their spouse, they can do that also. The nice thing about tribal pages is that you can enter information about each person in the notes section and you can also include photographs if you have them.

As a security measure, I also have these trees on my computer as well as copied onto discs along with a copy of my family tree maker, which is the program off of the LDS website, so that they can install this program on their own computers if they want to continue to do additional work on the lines. This also ensures that if for some reason the Internet site is no longer available that all of my work will not have been done in vain.

The next thing I have done is created genealogy books for each family so that they can have a hard copy that they can physically hold and read and absorb all the information that it contains. In some cases, there is so much information more than one book is required.

As for heirlooms to pass onto future generations, I began by going through my photographs, labeling as many as I could on the backs and placing them into individual envelopes for each of my children.  There are some personal items that I want them to have and I have told them that I would like them to have those right now so that I am sure that they will receive them. If there are certain items that I just have to have, then I will be sure that those things are listed in my will and that their names will be listed on the physical item so that they will assuredly receive them.

I also have heirlooms that once belonged to my grandparents, some of which will also be disturbed the same way. If no one wants those items, then I will have them donate them to a museum, or I will handle it myself before I leave this beautiful world.

At present, there are four boxes in my hall closet, labeled with the name of each of my children. Inside they are going to find a collection of items that we have previously discussed that are to be theirs, along with some other items that I’ve saved over the years that I think they will be pleased to have.

I started a journal of my life for my children and my grandchildren. I want them to know about my growing up years as well as all the marvelous things that I have been privy to in the history of  this world and our country. Thank you Terri for your comment to my post because it has reminded me that I really need to be more diligent, working on this on a regular basis.

Like Terri, I also regret that nowadays so much of our communication is handled by the impersonal emails, the twitters and by phone. We no longer often hold a physical letter or greeting card in our hands and see the writing of that person, which by the way, really does tell so much about their personality! But graphoanalysis is another subject and maybe something I will post about at a later date if some interest is shown by my readers. 

I personally am probably the worlds worst pack-rat when it comes to saving things from my children and their growing years such as pictures that they created and were lovingly hung on the refrigerator, to handmade birthday cards and  Christmas gifts that they have given me over the years. I have their graduation announcements from school and even came across their old vaccination records when I was cleaning out my keepsake drawer. I’ve saved Mother’s Day, birthday and  Valentine’s Day cards that they have given me over the years, all stored in a special box.

I do know of one father who was stationed overseas in Iraq for over a year and he kept every single email that his wife and children sent to him. He plans on including that into his genealogy records. I am sure those will be very interesting reading for his grandchildren some day.

So even though communications of today have gotten away from the handwritten word, there are still ways of preserving precious memories and I hope that this will give all of you some new ideas for saving yours.