I made family history pilgrimages in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Such sacred ground to stand on! And what an honor to hear all the stories that poured forth in response to my curiosity and photos.
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- First to NH! My first-cousin-once-removed, Jim and his wife Carol, my second cousin Bruce and his wife Wanda, and my second cousin Debra. Except for Jim, this was my first time meeting them! Laconia, NH
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- The former family homestead in Manchester, NH. My Great Aunt “Ted” lived here until she died, so I had many a happy visit here as a child and young adult.
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- My great grandparents on each end. In the back great uncle “Bud,” my grandfather Sefton, and great uncle Charles. On the couch, my grandmother Jean, great aunt “Ted” and great aunt Ruth. On the floor, first-cousin-once-removed Bruce, my uncle David, my Dad, and first-cousin-once-removed Jim.
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- My great aunt Frances (“Ted”) was a legendary lay leader in the Episcopal church for decades. On the national level, she was one of the leaders of the movement to adopt the ordination of women at General Convention. On the diocesan level, she was a great friend and supporter of Gene Robinson who, when he became the Bishop of New Hampshire, also became the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church. And Grace Church in Manchester was the family’s home parish. I met people there who still remember her respectfully and fondly. She was unique in all the world. I adored her.
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- Grace Church’s Road to Emmaus window, the Abbott family plaque below.
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- The Abbott family plaque under the Road to Emmaus stained glass window
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- Pine Grove Cemetery, Manchester, NH
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- Pine Grove Cemetery, Manchester, NH
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- Then in the Boston area… My paternal grandfather Sefton as a young management trainee at Jordan Marsh.
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- My smashingly stylish paternal grandmother, Helen Jean Williams, was a model at Jordan Marsh. Fewer clothes were prêt-à-porter then, so she modeled clothing made from patterns and cloth in that area of the store. My grandfather was attracted to her, but didn’t know anything about her. Once he followed her on her lunch break to the section of Jordan Marsh that sold music, and heard her listening to classical music in a listening booth – he knew she was the one!
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- The commemorative plaque to the flagship Jordan Marsh – where my paternal grandparents met – now Macy’s, in downtown Boston
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- My grandparents’ wedding announcement. I don’t know if this was from the Boston Globe or the Manchester Union Leader, or…?
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- Where my grandparents were married, Trinity Episcopal Church, Newton Centre, MA
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- The parish administrator at Trinity was so welcoming and helpful to me, even though he had just popped in himself to get a few things done ON HIS DAY OFF! He found the Service Record Book for 1926-1941, and there was the entry for my grandparents’ wedding on Saturday, September 19, 1936! It makes me weep just to look at it. And then I giggle, when I see the column for weather. How nice that it was “Fine.”
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- My father’s maternal grandparents – Helen Frances Rochat Williams and Myron Olcott Williams lived at this house in Wellesley Hills when he was growing up. My Dad writes: “I have such fond memories of our yearly two-week vacation to New England, first to Wellesley Hills and then to Manchester and Northwood Lake! Here, at 8 Windemere Road, I’m remembering their collie, Minch, who apparently kept walking between me and the road when I was a toddler, to keep me safe. And the little red wagon that Grandap made especially for me with the name “Chip” on the side. And Grandap’s paying me either a penny or a dime (I can’t remember) for every 100 crab apples I picked up from the apple tree in the back yard…and how I’d put them in piles of hundred and keep count before putting them in my wagon and taking them to wherever it was he told me to put them. And how we’d meet him at the commuter train station after his work at General Electric in Boston and walk home with him. And how he’d take us to the amusement park and to Red Sox games. FOND memories! Les, I’m SO glad you’re exploring all these dimensions of your New England roots, not only your own but also ours and those of these ancestors of ours! Wagons and WAGONS of love!”
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- My great grandparents, my father’s maternal grandparents. Helen Frances Rochat Williams, “Granny” and Myron Olcott Williams, “Grandap”
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- My uncle David, my aunt Jean (called Jinx when she was young) and my Dad (called Chip when he was young)
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- My parents started dating when they were sophomores at Duke University in Durham, NC. They spent one year apart -1963 – after graduation, Dad at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, VA and Mom nursing at New England Center Hospital in Boston. During that year, they would scrape together the money for Dad to take the shuttle up from DC every six weeks. They didn’t have much money, so they walked, for free! – through beautiful Boston. They married on August 22, 1964.
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- Garden Street on Beacon Hill, where Mom lived with my aunt Judy in 1963. Judy was in medical school at Tufts, and Mom was a nurse at New England Center Hospital, associated with Tufts Medical School. Mom says she would work a month of days and then two weeks of nights. She would sleep 4-5 hours in the morning “until the Beatles’ music would start blaring nearby in the afternoon.” She says about this photo: “That was my walk, up and over Beacon Hill, and down to and across the Boston Common and over to the hospital and then reverse the process at the end of the day. If I was on the night shift, I would take a taxi.”
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- Mom was confirmed at Trinity Episcopal Church, Copley Square in the spring before she and Dad were married in August 1964.
