Recently I made a trip to a place I've wanted to go for a long time, The New England Historical Genealogical Society!
I packed my list of Birth dates, marriage dates and death dates, my pens and magnifying glass, my camera, quarters (for copying) and of course, Bridget!
My wonderful, lovely and awesome Mommy, Thea came too!
We left at around noon, and arrived at one, we walked through the Public Garden and Bridget got her photo taken:
Make Way For Bridget!
We arrived a little while later, just in time for Bridget to get another photograph,
After a brief introduction to the facility by the front desk receptionist, we made our way to the sixth floor. I already had a game plan: I wanted most of all to read The Rise of the Temples: A Millenium of Power and Progress. 716 AD to the Present by Albert R. Temple and Danny D. Smith.
However, I did not find it to be as amazing as it was said to be, perhaps because a lot of the data is on the Temple family website. My favorite book was Descendants of Levi Temple, 1751-1821 of Bowdoin and Montville Maine by Danny D. Smith.
It contained interesting and helpful information: on the day of his 70th birthday, Levi Temple predicted he would not survive the day and one month later, he dropped dead in the door of his home! I also found out about family death causes and medical history, which is a good thing to have.
After I had read what was needed to be read, I wanted to find out about my Irish Great Grandfather, who immigrated to America in the early 20th century. We were told to visit a woman on the fourth floor, who was an expert on Irish genealogy, I gave her my great grandfathers birthdate, and she found out that in Ireland my great grandfathers birthday was fake! Because people used to think that if you weren't baptized and you died your soul would be in limbo, if your child wasn't baptized within two weeks of their birth, you would be fined by your town, so lots of people lied, my great great grandparents among them!
We looked up my great great grandfather, Robert and found his father, Patrick. We checked the 1901 census of Ireland and found out that Patrick was a servant for a manor in Castlecooke, Ireland. A few years later, my great great grandmother is listed on the Census, a widow living in a 3 room slate cottage with a thatched roof, with 5 children!
The librarian genealogist at the NEHGS was extremely helpful, without her help, I would have never found out what part of Ireland my family comes from!
After we left the society, we got some hot chocolate and made our way home! The next day Thea told me that she was up until 2 am researching Castlecooke!
