Chris Dunham's Page

Thank you so much.  I never would have found this in a zillion years.  You are so good at this.  I so appricate your taking the time to find this for me...

Oh thank you very much....I was haveing a problem their with that, but I thought I saw that you had a link or connection to the Fox Family up in Fortfair Field, Eaton area. 

Chris are u connected to the Luney Family from Westfield, Maine and If so do you have any information on Lizzy Fox and her husband Frank Shorey married around 8 Nov 1919.  Frank was born sometime in 1853 and came down from Canada.  Lizzy is from canada to.  They had sons Melvin and Erman and may have had other children.  Any information you could give would be greatly appriciated. 

Dear Chris, how did you find out this information so quickly?  Do you have any more information about William Wood, where he was from etc., also if you knew, Lucius Henry Woods.  On Lucius' death certificate he names Lemuel as his father.  According to vital records, Lemuel had three sons and one daughter who died.  I can not find the connection between Lemuel and Lucius.  I did read that there was a Lucius Brainard where Lemuel was living but the dates of birth do not line us with Lucius' birth.  I can't find a birth certificate for Lucius.  Death cert. says he was born in Charlestown with Lemuel's other sons but Boston does not have anyone with that name and date of birth. 1869 January.  He would be the same age as Percival Lemuel's son.  I would love to think he adopted his young cousin but the DOB does not line up.  thanks again for filling in some blanks, I was stuck!

Thanks so much for the newspaper article you posted for me. I am definitely interested! You've been a great help to me and I've been promoting this site on my blog (I just started in late February) and by word of mouth. 

Hi Chris,

I am curious how you are related to the Coolidge line. The newest addition to the Coolidge Clan from Bethel is my grandson. I will try to go to your website and see if anything rings a bell.

Another potential site for obituaries SVWEEKLY

At 10:59pm on February 21, 2012, Curtis Dalrymplesaid…

The Hodsdon/Penney marriage certificate does not state the place of the ceremony, but the minister signs as George Boynton, North Yarmouth, so quite possibly the marriage took place there. 

I became aware of the link between Sarah Grant and the Jim Ring place once you identified her by maiden name, and that helped me understand how the paper got to me.  Sorry, Chris, but you've expressed just enough interest in this to entice me to tell the whole (abbreviated) story.  I am a Ring descendant too, which I believe you already know. 

Earlier this year, Ken Ring (son of Keith, grandson of James Ring) gave me a bag full of old letters and documents which, he said, his father had salvaged from the Portland home of our great aunt Iva Ring Packard after her death in 1969.  I could pretty quickly sort the material into two piles -- one pertaining to the family of Iva's husband, Arthur Ward Packard of Somerset County, the other pertaining to the family of Iva's aunt Martha Spalding, who married Francis Milliken of Portland.  (By the way, if you have anything in your files about these Millikens or Spaldings, I'm interested.) 

Then there was this marriage certificate, which didn't seem to fit with either of the above mentioned piles.  I knew there were Hodsdons around Greenwood, but couldn't see any link to Packards, Millikens or Spaldings.  It didn't make sense that these documents would be commingled as they were.  Your comments allowed me to make an educated guess as to what's going on here. 

The Hodsdon/Penney marriage certificate was, I believe, never in Aunt Iva's Portland house.  It was probably preserved by Sarah Penney's sister Harriet after Sarah's death.  From Harriet Grant (Herrick) it went down to daughter Mabel Herrick (Farrington), then to daughter Ruth Farrington (Ring), and thus to Keith Ring who probably threw it into the same bag with the papers he rescued from Portland.  Keith's son, Ken, didn't know there had been any mixing of sources here and so told me all the papers came from the Portland house.  

So, Chris, thanks again for a satisfying conclusion to this episode. Now I just have to locate someone who might like to have the certificate.  I'm determined that it shall not end up in the trash.

PS:  Do you know of any historical societies in the Skowhegan area who might take the Arthur Ward Packard papers?