Last Friday I got a great early birthday present in my mail: two cds from

my West cousin Lewis Wuori containing photographs and other images.

As I told him in an email, it was like discovering a treasure trove. There

are pictures of ancestors whose faces I've never seen before! I've been

sharing them with my various cousins from the Wests and Richardson

families(alas, no Barker or Ellingwood pictures) and posting them on

Facebook on my profile page…

Discovering the Upton (Maine) Historical Society page on Facebook has

put me in touch with several new found cousins and it has been a lot of

fun sharing pictures back and forth. One particular set of images were of

special interest to me.

When Dad married my Mom he converted to Roman Catholicism from

Protestantism. I don't know which Protestant denomination Dad was

brought up in; it just never came up in any conversation that I can…

Last week after I posted the anniversary reunion picture of Jonathan P West

and his wife Louisa Almata Richardson I discovered that the Upton, Maine

Historical Society has a Facebook page. The picture had been taken on

Back Street in Upton so I thought perhaps a member of the Facebook

page might recognize some of the other people in the picture. Unfortunately

no one has as yet but there was another benefit, namely meeting some

more cousins. One of…

Prior to attending the Ellingwood Reunion in Norway, Me. today, Cheryl

and I took a swing through Upton Maine on business pertaining to the

West side of the family. As we drove along Route 26 Cheryl pointed out a small

cemetery we passed in or near Newry, Maine, but we didn't have time to stop

at the moment  and I didn't think there were any relatives buried there anyway,

Our business required us to keep going west on 26 through the Grafton…

Today (August 13th) was the 85th Ellingwood family Reunion. Originally

begun by the children and descendants of Asa Freeman Ellingwood and

Florilla Dunham Ellingwood, it is also open to any descendants of Ralph

Elinwood  who came to America and settled in Beverly, Ma. in the 1600's.

In fact anyone Ellinwood, Ellingwood, Ellenwood or Ellwood are descended

from Ralph. The reunion is always held Saturday in August and for some time

at the home of Jerry…

Just a reminder the Ellingwood Reunion is tomorrow, August13th

in Norway Maine. Details are available at the Ellingwood Reunions

page on Facebook

Back when I first started doing genealogy online I made contact with Lewis, who is

descended from my great granduncle Paul Leroy West.  Then the motherboard

on my computer crashed and I lost everything  on it, including email addresses

(and learned the hard way to back up EVERYTHING!). Recently Lewis found me

again (I'm guessing through my blog) and we exchanged discoveries since the

last time we'd been in touch.

Lewis is sharing some family…

One of those testifying in April 1884 was Asa's eldest child, my great granduncle

Walter Fred Ellingwood. I'm don't know why he testified. He could have

asked to do so, of course, but considering the little amount of…

The next witness was his cousin Oliver Pratt. On the affidavit he

says "his age is 64 years. P.O. address West Paris Me. Occupation

carriage maker by trade and painter."

Q: How long have you known the claimant Asa F. Ellingwood

A: Ever since we was a little boy

Q: Did you ever work with him

A: Yes sir from 1853 to 1860 we worked for a chair mfg. co. and he did the

lifting part of the work

Q: What was his…

In my last post in this series on my 2xgreat grandfather Asa Freeman

Ellingwood's Civil War Pension file, I talked about the revelation in the

testimony of his cousin James Barrows that he(Barrows) had testified

before in the case and in fact there were two previous afidavits!  When

I checked the testimony of several other witnesses on Asa's behalf, I found

they had also testified on earlier occasions.

So how did I miss…

The next person to testify in Asa Ellingwood's pension claim case was his

cousin James Barrows.

According to the statement,  James "says  his age  52 years, P.O. address

 West Paris, Maine occupation  mfg of chairs

Q: How long have you known the claimant Asa F.Ellingwood

A: Ever since 1850

Q: Did you work with him at that time

A: I worked with him from 1850 to 1860

Q: What was his physical condition in those…

One of the little mysteries of the precedings on 3Apr 1884 is that there

is no indication as to what order the various witnesses testified nor is

there any notation of time of day. If Asa's wife, my 2x great grandmother

Florilla Dunham Ellingwood, gave her statement late in  the day after all

the others it might possibly explain the somewhat (I think) prosecutorial

tone of the questioning. Despite that Florilla's responses steadily agree

with those Asa…

Before I move on to Florilla Dunham Ellingwood's testimony, I wanted to share what

I've found about two of the witnesses Asa asked to have interviewed on his behalf.

The first is James Barrows. As I previously mentioned,  Asa Ellingwood's mother

was Rachel Barrows and after her death, he went to live with his Aunt Polly Barrows

and her husband Morton Curtis. Given that fact, I was fairly sure that witness James

Barrows was a relative.

  

On p.501 of…

A few comments on what we've seen so far from 2x great grandfather Asa

Ellingwood's testimony:



I am extremely fortunate to have a copy of  cousin Florence O'Connor's  book

The Ancestors and Descendants of Asa Freeman Ellingwood and Florilla

(Dunham) Ellingwood (West Paris, Me 1979) to draw upon in my family research.

In her section on Asa himself, she writes of how Asa and his brother Oscar were

sent to live with their Aunt Polly Barrows Curtis and…

This is the second part of my 2x great grandfather Asa Freeman Ellingwood's

testimony on behalf of his Civil War Disability Pension claim. There are some

parts that I wasn't able to make out and other words which are my best guesses

at  meaning, The latter are indicated by (?). Other that that the grammar and

punctuation are as they appear on the original document.



I will discuss what I learned from this testimony in my next post. 



Q:…

On May 1st, 1861, barely three weeks after the firing on Fort Sumter,

my great great grandfather Asa Freeman Ellingwood enlisted in the

Union Army. Seven months later he was…

In the final installment of excerpts from a 1975 interview,

GrandUncle Clarence recalls more about his life as a

logger in Oxford County, Maine.

Thanks once again to Alan Johnson for sharing the

interview with me. Alan is working on a book about the

region in Maine my West…

In this excerpt from the 1975 interview, GrandUncle Clarence

talks about water power and some of the aspects of logging

and lumber drives. I've seen some of those rafts of logs on

the rivers and lakes up in Maine and New Hampshire but

never knew just how much wood they could contain!…