This past Saturday I was inducted into the Cooch’s Bridge Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.  It was overwhelmingly wonderful and quite surreal, and the culmination of nearly thirty years of research into my Bursley family.  It would never have been possible without the collaboration with my third and fourth cousins, and underscores the importance of finding others who are researching your lines.

The success with my D.A.R. application (and recent approval of my Mayflower Society application as well) has inspired me to dig back into the family of my 3rd great grandmother, Cynthia (Day) Bursley.  I’ve posted a bit about my dilemma previously, having miniscule info to go on to determine Cynthia’s parents, and even worse, a very common surname that also turns up zillions of hits in search engines.   However, by golly, I am feeling pretty darn confident in the following indirect evidence, which supports that Cynthia’s parents were Aaron Day and his wife, Martha:

• DNA evidence.  A FamilyTree DNA Family Finder autosomal test matched me to a descendant of

  I inherited a copy of this photo, which was also posted in an Ancestry.com user tree by another descendant of Aaron Day and his wife Martha

  Joseph Warren Day, the youngest son of Aaron Day and his wife Martha.   (We share 63.8 cM’s.)  An Ancestry.com autosomal test provided two additional genetic matches – both to two separate descendant’s of Aaron’s oldest son, Nathaniel.  Our shared, documented family trees demonstrate we are 4th cousins once removed, consistent with the relationship Ancestry predicted by the portion of shared DNA.

• Naming conventions.  Cynthia (Day) Bursley named her youngest children Aaron Day Bursley and Martha Eliza Bursley.  Cynthia’s presumed brother, Nathaniel, also named one of his daughters Cynthia.  This latter Cynthia, daughter of Nathaniel, married Benjamin Lovejoy on 9 Oct 1864 in Medford, Piscataquis County, Maine.
• Duplicate, original family photos.  A photograph of a woman labeled Cynthia Lovejoy was listed on the “Scott Kentish and Border” Ancestry.com tree posted by user “devorguilla.”  My heart just about stopped beating when I discovered this photo, as I immediately recognized it –  I have
  my own copy of it in the photo album originally owned by my great, great grandmother, Lavina (Bursley) Stanwood, daughter of Cynthia (Day) Bursley.  While the photo identification appears to be incorrect (Cynthia Lovejoy lived in Maine where she died in 1867, age 29, and the photo was taken in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1871 or later), it establishes an undeniable connection between my Cynthia (Day) Bursley and the Day family of Plymouth, Hennepin County, Minnesota, where Nathaniel Day, father of Cynthia (Day) Lovejoy, and presumed brother of Cynthia (Day) Bursley, resided.
• Physical proximity in Maine.  In 1854, Benjamin Bursley, husband of Cynthia Day, was the town clerk for Kilmarnock (now Medford) Maine, where Aaron Day was enumerated on the 1860 Federal Census.
• Physical proximity in Minnesota. Benjamin and Cynthia (Day) Bursley moved to Minnesota in 1854, about three years prior to Cynthia’s presumed nephews, Francis and Amos, and 11 years prior to her presumed brother, Nathaniel.
• Nearby cousins.  A family story was passed down to Cynthia (Day) Bursley’s great granddaughter, Goldie Simpson, regarding the 1862 Dakota Uprising.  The story states that Cynthia’s daughter, Lavina Bursley, witnessed the scalping of a cousin by Indians.  While no evidence has surfaced that this occurred, it is highly unlikely the story would have been rumored had there not been extended family and cousins in the region.

Thanks to collaboration with a newly discovered fifth cousin, I’m on my way to understanding who Cynthia (Day) Bursley’s ancestors were, and getting to know another branch on my family tree.

From The History of Milo, Vol. II, by Lloyd Treworgy:

“In 1827, nevertheless, only a step in time beyond the pioneers’ life-and-death struggle for subsistence in a hostile environment – and only four years after its organization as a town- Milo’s voters authorized the expenditure of $300, a large sum to them then, ‘To support the preaching of the gospel.’

“That same year, twelve of the old settlers united in organizing the town’s first religious group – the Free Will Baptist Society.

“Communications must have been poor, in those days, between the east and the west sides of the town, for no names of the west side residents – no Sargents, or Emerys, Tompson, Lees, Whiddens, or Shipleys – showed up on that 1827 list of members.

“That first group of twelve, as it was set down in the ‘Milo and Brownville Register,’ in 1905, included Moses Snow, Stephen Snow, Benjamin Boobar, Sr., Rufus Johnson, Aaron Day, James White, Jr., Nancy Snow, Fannie Snow, Sarah Roe, Abigail Johnson, Eliza Heath, and Mary Stevens.”

Minneapolis, Minnesota, about 1871

The photograph above was passed down to my in my great-great grandmother’s photo album.  Lavina (Bursley) Stanwood arranged the pictures with her children on the beginning pages, and this unknown woman, appeared on page 26.  I suspect it was a photo of her cousin, Isabel (Day) Libby, who lived in Minneapolis during that time.  The photo also appeared on the “Scott Kentish and Border” Ancestry.com tree posted by user “devorguilla,”  but was labeled as Cynthia Day Lovejoy, which seems unlikely – Cynthia Lovejoy  (Isabel’s sister) lived in Maine where she died in 1867, age 29, and the photo was taken in Minneapolis about 1871.

J. M. Adams, Photographer, in Elgin, Illinois

Now that I’ve got some clues on Day photo beginning this post, I thought I’d take a look at some additional pictures in Lavina’s photo album.  The picture above has  posed quite a mystery; to my knowledge, no family members resided in Illinois.  However, more research into the Day family finds James Day, Lavina’s mother’s cousin, lived in Esmen, Illinois, in 1860.  James’ son, John B. Day, died in Chicago 20 July 1902.  John, born about 1849, is the right age to be the subject of this photograph, which was taken about 1883-1885, the time frame that J. M. Adams was operating the photography studio in Elgin.

Are you a Day?

No identifying marks or photographer name were included on this picture, which was placed on the same page as a known Day photo.  Is he somehow related to Lavina’s mother, Cynthia (Day) Bursley?

Who is this well-dressed chap?

This photo appeared above the preceding one, on the same page as a known Day photo.  Comparing his attire to Civil War era photos, I’m guessing this gentleman was photographed sometime around 1865 or perhaps a little later?  If so, he is a candidate for Aaron Day, Cynthia Day’s father, or perhaps her father-in-law, Lemuel Bursley.

If you can help solve these mystery photos, please shoot me an email using the form below!

The new copy of my great-great grandparents’ gravestone, taken by a kind Find-A-Grave volunteer.

Good stuff starts with Find-A-Grave.  Okay, certainly not all good stuff, but lately it seems like LOTS of good stuff has made it’s way to me, complements of the wonderful people who post on Find-A-Grave.   Take, for example, the photo shown above, which awaited me in my email upon arising this morning.  Find-A-Grave volunteer Jaci happened to be at the Crystal Lake Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota, fulfilling a photo request for someone, when she took this picture of the headstone of my great-great grand parents, Albert and Lavina (Bursley) Stanwood.  She had no way of knowing that my yucky photo posted there was taken over twenty years ago, at sunset with a flash, later scanned with a low-res machine, and the original photo lost so I didn’t have any decent version of the precious gravestone.

Taken in 1991, this photo needed help!

What blows my mind even more is Crystal Lake Cemetery is HUGE, HUGE, HUGE!  What a kind person to be combing that large cemetery for someone, and then on top of it, to serendipitously stumble upon MY family’s gravestone that needed to be updated online.  Totally cool.

My Find-A-Grave stories don’t end there.  I have found the site to be one of the best for making cousin connections.  If it wasn’t for Find-A-Grave, and contacting the individual managing several Bursley memorials, I never would have met my fourth-cousin-once-removed, John.   It was largely John’s research that proved our family’s connection to Benjamin Bursley, a Revolutionary War patriot and a descendant of John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley, two of my Mayflower ancestors.

Most recently my Find-A-Grave connections put flesh on the bones of my Day ancestors.  It was another sort of serendipitous contact – Merrylyn had posted information on my Day family, and when I contacted her, I learned her great-great-great aunt’s sister, Elizabeth Skillings, married John Day, brother of my fourth great grandfather, Aaron Day.  We are both using the FAN principle, researching friends, associates and neighbors of our ancestors, and have had fun collaborating on the John Day/Elizabeth Skillings connection.  Merrylyn had previously obtained copies of some genealogical data on the Day family that had been submitted to the Starks (Maine) Historical Society where John and Elizabeth had lived.  The writer had spent time interviewing old relatives, and stories had passed on through the generations, with the following tidbit revealing the character and personality of John Day, Sr., father of John and Aaron:

“When the children were young they had two Grammy Days. John said his father told him to call his mother’s mother ‘Poverty Hill Grammy.’ He did and his mother spanked him!  Other family notes refer to his other Day grandmother as Pine Woods Grammy. Aaron Day from Waters History lived on what used to be Poverty Hill.  Jeremiah lived in the area today known as Pine Swamp. Hence the name Pine Woods Grammy.”

This simple little paragraph contains several bits of information:

1. Another confirmation that John Day married his cousin, Sarah Day, daughter of Aaron Day and Sarah Goodhue.
2. Aaron Day lived at Poverty Hill in Ipswich.
3. John Day was a character.  I can imagine similar banter in my own household – my husband would make similar jokes and find it hysterical.  Me, not so much.  I can relate to my fifth great grandmother’s dismay at having her mama called Poverty Hill Grammy.  :-)
4. John’s father Jeremiah Day lived at Pine Swamp, just outside Ipswich, Massachusetts, where he was born.

After learning about these Day family documents, I was able to obtain my own copy from the Starks Historical Society, but never would have known about them (or who to contact) if it wasn’t for my Find-A-Grave connection.  Yup, Find-A-Grave rocks.

I’m a homebody who prefers the company of my dogs and computer to travel. However, there is one thing that is sure to motivate me to hop on a plane, and that’s GENEALOGY! A week ago Thursday I flew to Maine to do some research on my Day family, and then met up with my husband in Boston the following Saturday. I had two goals for this trip:

1)   Find any additional documents that may list relationships for Cynthia Day’s parents, siblings, aunts and uncles; and

2)   Find the original church records that were used as the source of information for Aaron Day’s baptism, which was listed in the Vital Records of Ipswich, Massachusetts to the end of the Year 1849.

While I did find some early deeds, maps and other cool stuff, I bombed on goal #1. (I think I’ve pretty much gleaned all relevant records pertinent to Cynthia Day’s family and it’s time to start my proof argument for her parentage.)

All was not lost, however. I struck pay dirt big time on goal #2! Buried for several hours in the Ipswich, Massachusetts Archives, I was able to view the microfilmed church records for the First Church and the South Church. While not an original, these transcribed, hand-copied records are nearer to the original than the published vital records, which I highly suspected to be in error.

Below is the entry for Aaron Day’s baptism in the published Ipswich Vital Records. As you can see, it states he was the son of John and Eunice Day.

Aaron Day’s baptism in the published Vital Records of Ipswich, Massachusetts

This seemed highly unlikely. John Day and Eunice Burnum published marriage intentions on 5 May, 1722, more than 60 years before Aaron’s birth. The only John Day with a wife of childbearing age in Ipswich in 1793 when Aaron was baptized was married to his cousin, Sarah (Day) Day. Numerous other documents pointed to Sarah (Day) Day as Aaron’s mother, not Eunice. The transcribed, microfilmed church record is consistent with this – no mother was listed:

Microfilmed records from the South Church of Ipswich.

Where did the published Vital Records obtain the name of Eunice as Aaron’s mother? We will probably never know, but it seems likely that a tired transcriber simply added the mother’s name, having completed data entry for other children of the earlier couple. Unfortunately, as can be expected, multiple family trees published online and on paper erroneously list Aaron’s mother as the mysterious Eunice, wife of John Day. This exercise, however, underscores the importance of using original records, whenever possible.

After visiting the archives, my husband joined me in the hunt for Aaron’s maternal grandparents – Aaron Day and Sarah (Goodhue) Day. It was an overcast, rainy day, and the pictures turned out lovely. Cemeteries – some of my favorite places. Even more special when they contain an ancestor.  :-)

Headstone of Aaron Day who drowned in 1790.

Highland Cemetery, the new section of the Old Burying Ground.

Old Burying Ground where Aaron Day and his wife Sarah (Goodhue) Day are buried

As Elizabeth Shown Mills states, often we will never find the “smoking gun” – that single document which states the parentage of an individual. This is certainly the case with Cynthia (Day) Bursley, who was born in rural Maine in the early nineteenth century, in a place and time in which few records were kept. In fact, the first known record directly naming Cynthia was the 1850 Federal Census, in which she was enumerated in Bangor, Maine at the age of 37 with her husband, Benjamin Bursley.¹ Despite this obstacle, however, using evidence-based reasoning, along with the genealogical proof standard, one can deduce Cynthia’s parentage with a high degree of confidence.

Cynthia (Day) Bursley

Cynthia Bursley died 13 May, 1874, in Santiago, Sherburne County, Minnesota, at the age of 60 years and 3 months.²  (We can thus extrapolate her birth as approximately February 1814.) The certificate of her death states she was born in Maine to parents simply listed as “________ Day.”   This document also indicates her parents were natives of Maine as well.

Cynthia (Day) Bursley death certificate

Nearly twenty years later, in 1892, Cynthia’s daughter, Lavina (Bursley) Stanwood, began the process to probate Cynthia’s estate.³ These documents confirm that Benjamin Bursley, with whom Cynthia was enumerated on the 1850 and 1860 U.S. Federal Censuses, was in fact, her husband.

Cynthia (Day) Bursley probate

Probable marriage and birth of children in Lagrange, Penobscot, Maine

It is likely that Benjamin Bursley and Cynthia Day married about 1834 or 1835 in or near Lagrange, Penobscot County, Maine, where we find the following births recorded in the Lagrange Town and Vital Records:

• 18 Nov 1835 Julia A. Bursley⁴
• 5 Oct 1837 Arlette Bursley⁵
• 16 Sept 1839 Benjamin Bursley Jr⁶
• 10 Jan 1842 John Morris Bursley⁷

The oldest children appear to have died by 1850, when the U.S. Federal Census enumerated Benjamin and Cynthia with three children in Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine:⁸

• John W. (sic), age 8
• Susan H., age 6
• Lorina (sic), age 1

John Day, a close associate

John Day, a resident of nearby Kilmarnock (now Medford), Maine, was a close associate of Cynthia’s husband, Benjamin Bursley.  Attested to by John Day on 23 March 1841, is the following, which appears in the Lagrange town records:⁹

Know all men by these presents that I Benjamin Bursley of Lagrange County of Penobscot and state of Maine Joiner, in consideration of hand which Stephen Danforth of the same Lagrange hold against me March 23, 1841 for Eighty Dollars payable in three years from next December with interest, do sell and convey unto the said Danforth one Brown mare….

The next year, on 28 September 1842, Nathaniel Hatch sold to Joseph W. Day¹⁰

Lot 1 – North end and part of lot numbered one – in said Kilmarnock, being the remaining part of said Lot not set off to said town of Kilmarnock, being part of the same lot now occupied by Aaron & John Day, containing twenty acres.”

By 1854, Benjamin and Cynthia had apparently relocated to Kilmarnock, where Benjamin was the town clerk, completing two entries in the town records on 17 June 1854 and 27 October 1854.¹¹ After Benjamin’s move to Minnesota in November 1854, John Day assumed the role of town recorder, as his entry into the town records on 23 May 1855 follows Benjamin’s.

Benjamin Bursley’s entries as town clerk

Tying it all together to determine Cynthia’s parentage

While Cynthia (Day) Bursley left behind no records to definitively state the names of her parents, and no document suggests siblings or other extended family members, multiple sources lead researchers to one conclusion: Cynthia was the daughter of Aaron Day and his wife Martha, and the sister of her husband’s close associate, John Day.

Supporting Conclusion #1: Cynthia’s husband Benjamin Bursley resides near Aaron Day

Map of Days in Maine

Geography was perhaps the largest factor in the selection of a mate for those living in the nineteenth century. Potential marriage candidates were generally limited to nearby neighbors. Cynthia’s marriage to Benjamin Bursley, the son of Lemuel Bursley and Lavina Spencer, clearly places her and her family in the region surrounding Farmington, Franklin County, Maine, where Benjamin was born about 1811 and where his family continued to reside.

Aaron Day and his family are found in and around the Farmington area in the early 1800s. A timeline is shown below:

Lucy N. Hutchins (1882-1969), the great granddaughter of Aaron’s brother John Day, wrote extensively about the Day family, providing intimate details of their lives. Lucy’s notes reveal that Aaron’s daughter Harriet was raised by his unmarried siblings, Nathaniel and Sarah, who resided in Winthrop, Kennebec County, about 30 miles south of Farmington.²¹ Cynthia may also have spent time with Nathaniel and Sarah, or with Lucy’s own great grandfather, John Day, who continued to reside in Starks, about 19 miles from Farmington. Since Cynthia’s presumed family resided in towns surrounding Farmington, she was provided the opportunity to meet Benjamin Bursley, her future husband.

After their marriage, Benjamin and Cynthia resided in Lagrange, Maine, just south of Milo and Kilmarnock (now Medford). The births of their first four children, Julia, Arlette, Benjamin and John are recorded there between 1835 and 1842. ²² Milo, a ten-mile distance from Lagrange, was the town where we next find Aaron Day and his sons, John and Joseph Warren:

After moving northeast to the Lagrange area, Benjamin and Cynthia remained in close proximity to her presumed family, and by 1854 the couple resided in Kilmarnock, the same town that Aaron and his sons John and Joseph called home.

Supporting Conclusion #2: John Day was the son of Aaron Day and his wife, Martha

John Day was born in Starks, Somerset County, Maine on 24 February 1809 to Aaron Day and his wife Martha. John was close to his father, inhabiting with his father one portion of Lot No. 1, the other half of which was purchased by his brother Joseph. Aaron continued to reside with his son in 1860, when he was enumerated on Federal Census in Medford. John was a close associate of Benjamin Bursley, attesting to the note Benjamin obtained from Stephen Danforth, using his mare as collateral. He also succeeded Benjamin Bursley as town clerk after the Bursley family migrated west to Minnesota in November 1854.

Supporting Conclusion #3: No other parental candidates

In 1814, Aaron Day was the only married male of the Day surname residing in the region by which Cynthia could have been fathered. His oldest brother, John, resided in Starks and had children born in 1811, 1814 and 1816,²⁹ excluding him as a candidate. Francis Day, Aaron’s only other married brother, had his posterity recorded in the History of Monona County, Iowa, which states he “married Miss Elizabeth Hewins…having had only two children,” Franklin Augustus and Francis Jerome.³⁰ Aaron’s two uncles, Daniel and David, also were not candidates: Daniel’s wife, Sarah Ross, was 53 years of age in 1814, and no longer of childbearing age.³¹  David Day, a widower at the time of Cynthia’s birth, is similarly excluded as a potential father for our subject.³²

Supporting Conclusion 4: Five-year gap in birth of children

The known children of Aaron Day and Martha are:

• Nathaniel Day, b. 30 Nov 1807 in Starks, Somerset Co., Maine³³
• John Day, b. 24 Feb 1809 in Starks, Somerset Co., Maine³⁴
• Sarah Day, b. 31 Dec 1810 in Starks, Somerset Co., Maine³⁵
• Harriet Day, b. 31 Dec 1812 in Industry, Franklin Co, Maine^{36, 37}
• Joseph W. Day, b. about 1817³⁸

As demonstrated above, Aaron and Martha added a child to their family about every two years. However, there is an approximate five-year time span between the last two children, Harriet and Joseph, providing the window of opportunity for Cynthia’s birth about 1814.

Supporting Conclusion #5: Naming Conventions

Names have long been passed down from generation to generation. Such is the case with Benjamin Bursley and Cynthia Day, who named their fourth daughter after Benjamin’s mother, Lavina (Spencer.) Bursley. Not surprisingly, the two youngest children born to Benjamin and Cynthia were named Aaron Day Bursley and Martha Eliza Bursley, lending further weight to our argument that Aaron Day and his wife Martha are the parents of Cynthia (Day) Bursley.³⁹ Additionally, Cynthia was presumably the namesake for her niece, the second daughter of Nathaniel and Eunice (Boobar) Day, who was born in 1838.⁴⁰

Supporting Conclusion #6: A Shared Family Photograph

A photograph of a woman labeled Cynthia (Day) Lovejoy was listed on the “Scott Kentish and Border” Ancestry.com tree posted by user “devorguilla,” the great-great granddaughter of Cynthia’s presumed brother, Nathaniel. The photo provides another clue in tying Cynthia (Day) Bursley to her parents. An original of the same photograph is held by this author, contained in the photograph album passed down through the generations from its original owner, Lavina (Bursley) Stanwood, daughter of Benjamin Bursley and Cynthia Day. While the photo identification appearing on Ancestry.com seems incorrect (Cynthia [Day] Lovejoy died in Maine in 1867, age 29, and the photo was taken in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1871 or later), it establishes an undeniable connection between the family of Cynthia (Day) Bursley and her presumed brother, Nathaniel Day.⁴¹ Not only does the photo provide evidence of the family connection, geography further confirms their relationship; Nathaniel and his family moved to Plymouth, Minnesota, and resided 45 miles from Benjamin and Cynthia, who lived north of them in Santiago.⁴²

 Studio History from mhs.org:

Supporting Conclusion #7: Autosomal DNA evidence

Autosomal DNA testing has confirmed a relationship between this author, the third great granddaughter of Cynthia (Day) Bursley, and multiple other descendants of Aaron Day and his siblings:

• FamilyTree DNA Family Finder autosomal test links this author to D.W. with 63.8 shared cM’s. D.W. is the second great grandson of Joseph Warren Day, the youngest son of Aaron Day and his wife Martha.⁴³   The AncestryDNA autosomal test also linked this author with D.W., providing a relationship estimate of 4^th to 6^th cousins with a “Very High” confidence level.
• The Ancestry autosomal DNA test links this author to Ancestry member G.G., providing a relationship estimate of 5^th to 8^th cousins with a “High” confidence level.   G.G. is the fourth great granddaughter of Francis Day (brother of Aaron Day) and Elizabeth Hewins.⁴⁴
• The Ancestry autosomal DNA test links this author to Ancestry member L.C., providing a relationship estimate of 5^th to 8^th cousins with a “High” confidence level. L.C. was the second great granddaughter of Nathaniel Day, the son of Aaron Day and Martha his wife.⁴⁵
• The Ancestry autosomal DNA test links this author to Ancestry test user E.J., providing a relationship estimate of 5^th to 8^th cousin with a “High” confidence level. E.J. is the second great granddaughter of Nathaniel Day, the son of Aaron Day and Martha his wife.⁴⁶

CONCLUSION

All available evidence indicates that Aaron Day and his wife Martha were the parents of Cynthia Day, the wife of Benjamin Bursley. Because women were not commonly mentioned in legal documents and were included in few records besides censuses during the nineteenth century, Cynthia’s life is largely traced through that of her husband. The identification of Cynthia’s parents is based on the seven documented conclusions detailed above. No evidence contradicts these conclusions.

Endnotes:

1. Cynthia Bursley, 1850 U.S. Census, Penobscot County, Maine, population, Bangor, 57A, 844; National Archives micropublication M432, M432_264.
2. Cynthia Bursley, death certificate (1874), Sherburne County District Court, Elk River, Sherburne County, Minnesota.
3. Cynthia S. (Day) Bursley, Final Decree, Sherburne County probate file dated 13 Nov, 1893, County Clerk’s Office, Elk River, Sherburne Co, Minnesota.
4. Lagrange, Penobscot, Maine, Item 2: 48, Julia A Bursley b. 18 Nov 1835; FHL microfilm 11532.
5. Lagrange, Penobscot, Maine, Item 2: 48, Arlette Bursley b. Oct 5th 1837; FHL microfilm 11532.
6. Lagrange, Penobscot, Maine, Item 2: 48, Benjamin Bursley Jr b. Sep 16th 1839; FHL microfilm 11532.
7. Lagrange, Penobscot, Maine, Item 2: 49, John M. Bursley b. Jany 10^th 1842; FHL microfilm 11532.
8. Benjamin Bursley, 1850 U.S. Census, Penobscot Co, ME, population, Bangor, 57A, 844.
9. Note, Benjamin Bursley, grantee; Stephen Danforth, grantor; “one brown mare” collateral, 1832, pg 111; Town Clerk, Lagrange, Penobscot Co, ME.  FHL film#0011532.
10. Piscataquis County, Maine, Deed Book, 7:420, Nathaniel Hatch to Joseph W. Day, 28 Sept 1842; Register of Deeds Office, Dover-Foxcroft.
11. Benjamin Bursley, Town Clerk, 1844-1891, 12; Family History Library, Newark, Delaware. FHL film #0011544; two entries by Benjamin Bursley, both on page 12, dated 17 June 1854 and 27 Oct 1854. The next entry is by John Day, likely his brother in law.
12. Starks, Somerset, Maine, Town and Vital Records, 1830-1887. FHL microfilm 12060., Item 3, Page 90; “Nethaniell (sic) Day, son of Aaron and Martha Day born the thirtieth Day of November. D. 1807″.
13. Starks, Somerset, Maine, Town and Vital Records, 1830-1887. FHL microfilm 12060., Item 3, Page 90; “John Day, son of Aaron and Martha Day born the twenty fourth Day of february. D. 1809″.
14. 1810, Somerset County, Maine, Starks, 539, Aaron Day; NARA microfilm publication M252, 12.
15. Starks, Somerset, Maine, Town and Vital Records, 1830-1887. FHL microfilm 12060., Item 3, Page 90; “Sarah Day, Daughter of Aaron and Martha Day born the thirty first Day of December. D. 1810″.
16. Manchester, Kennebec, Maine, Vital Records, 1808-1908. FHL microfilm 11545., p 118.
17. Ancestry.com, “Maine Death Records, 1617-1922,” database, Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: database online 12 April 2014), Helen Freeman Grant, d. 13 Nov 1920; mother Harriet L. Day b. Industry, Maine; citing Maine Death Records, 1617-1922. Augusta, Maine: Maine State Archives.
18. Ancestry.com, “Maine Marriage Records, 1713-1937,” database, Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: database online 12 April 2014), William C. Grant and H. F. Freeman, m. 5 Apr 1892; mo. Harriet Day b. Industry; citing Maine Marriage Records, 1705-1922. Augusta, Maine: Maine State Archives.
19. Starks, Maine town records, “March 1814 The Annuell Town Meeting…Voted to except a road as laid out from Thomas Lovejoys to the west line of Starks near Capt. Wests Mills and agreable to the following return as follows viz, laid out for the use of the town of Starks a town road as follows viz, Began at a hemlock stump on the end of the town road against Thomas Lovejoys house and run west seven degrs south to Aaron Days”; transcriber unknown; page unknown; copy provided by Cheryl Patten 28 Mar 2014.
20. Survey Plat: Readfield, Maine, 1816; Map FF 921.13. Special Collections, Maine Historical Society, Portland, Maine.
21. Day, David R., “Day Family Nine Generations: Special Library Edition,” copy held by Starks Historical Society, Starks, Maine.
22. Lagrange Vital Records, FHL microfilm 11532, Item 2.
23. Milo Historical Society, Milo Historical Society, “Milo Historical Society Early History,” (http://www.milohistorical.org/history/west.php : accessed 20 February 2014), Aaron Day, 1823 tax payer in Milo.
24. Treworgy, Lloyd The Milo Story, Vol. II. (Milo: The Milo Printing Company, 1988), 372.
25. 1830 U.S., Piscataquis County, Maine, Milo, 295, Aaron Day; NARA microfilm publication M19, 51.
26. 1840 U.S., Piscataquis County, Maine, Kilmarnock, 56, Aaron Day; NARA microfilm publication M704, 151.
27. Piscataquis Co., Me., Deed Book 7:420.
28. Aaron Day, enumerated with John and Mary A. Day, 1860 US, Piscataquis County, Maine, population, Medford, 1075, 577; National Archives micropublication M653, 433.
29. Day, “Day Family,” family detail for John Day and Elizabeth Skillings.
30. History of Monona County, Iowa: Containing Full-Page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the County (Chicago: National Publishing Company, 1890), 517-518; images online, Mocavo, Mocavo (http://www.mocavo.com : database online 26 March 2014; Genealogy of Franklin Augustus Day, descendant of Robert Day of Ipswich.
31. Find A Grave, Find A Grave, online database (www.findagrave.com : database online 3 May 2014), “Sarah Day, wife of Daniel Day, Dec 19, 1851, AEt 90.”
32. Haskell, Jessica J., and Charles D. Townsend. Hallowell, Maine History, Tax List, 1850 Census, Marriage Intentions, Family History: From Newspaper Columns by Jessica J. Haskell Published in Daily Eastern Argus, 1916-1917. Sarasota, FL: Aceto Bookmen, 1995. 27.
33. FHL microfilm 12060., Item 3, Page 90.
34. FHL microfilm 12060, Item 3, Page 90.
35. FHL microfilm 12060, Item 3, Page 90.
36. Manchester, Kennebec, Maine, Vital Records, 1808-1908. FHL microfilm 11545., p 118.
37. Ancestry.com, Helen Freeman Grant, d. 13 Nov 1920; mother Harriet L. Day b. Industry, Maine.
38. Sawtell, William R. Medford Revisited. Dover-Foxcroft, Maine: D&B Printing Services, 1996. 34.
39. Find-a-Grave.com, Find A Grave, digital images (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 27 Oct 2013), photograph, gravestone for Aaron Day Bursley (1852-1915).
40. Nathaniel Day, Jr, (Private, Co. L, 1st Maine Cav; Co. G, 1st D.C. Cav., Civil War) pension no. 972,501, Case Files of Approved Pension Applications, 1861-1934; Civil War and Later Pension Files; Department of Veteran’s Affairs, Record Group 15; National Archives, Washington, D.C.
41. Find-a-Grave.com, Find A Grave, digital images (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 2 February 2014), photograph, gravestone for Cynthia D. wife of Benj R. Lovejoy d. Jan 31, 1867.
42. Final certificate no. 1589 (Sherburne County), in Benjamin Bursley (Itasca County) homestead file bearing final certificate no. 1590, Saint Cloud, Minnesota, Land Office; Land Entry Papers, 1800-1908; Records of the Bureau of Land Management, Record Group 49; National Archives, Washington, D.C.
43. “Family Finder,” database, FamilyTreeDNA (http://www.FamilyTreeDNA.com : downloaded 17 Mar 2011), using the “Matches” and options to query for DAY surname; results from this dynamic database require the private passcode and kit number of this individual.
44. “AncestryDNA database, AncestryDNA (http://www.Ancestry.com : downloaded 1 Dec 2014), using the DNA Circles options to query for matches with descendants of Aaron Day and Martha (?) Day; results from this dynamic database require the private passcode and kit number of this individual.
45. AncestryDNA, 1 Dec 2014 DNA Circles query.
46. AncestryDNA, 1 Dec 2014 DNA Circles query.

Autosomal DNA. One of the most powerful tools in the genealogist’s toolbox! No, it will never, ever replace the elbow grease required in completing an accurate family tree (nor would I want it to – it would spoil the fun of the hunt!), but used correctly, the results are incredible!

I’ve previously shared how I used autosomal DNA to determine the parents my third great grandmother, Cynthia Day.   (You can read the post here.)  No, the DNA itself didn’t tell me who they were, but cousin connections put me on the right path. I can now state with confidence that Cynthia’s parents were Aaron Day and his wife, Martha.

As we all know, one answered question often leads to several more inquiries. So now: who is Martha? While I was hopeful that maybe one day DNA would provide clues to that answer, I put the question on the shelf and didn’t pursue it further. I figured it would be a puzzle to be solved some time in the future. However, the future came considerably faster than anticipated! Thanks to an email from another cousin connection on FamilyTreeDNA, I was given a few hints.

First, some background info. What was known about Martha was minimal:

• Her headstone read, “Martha, wife of Aaron Day, died Feb. 16, 1844, AE 66.” Short and sweet. However, from this, we know Martha was born about 1778.ⁱ

Headstone of Martha, wife of Aaron Day. Upper Ferry Cemetery, Medford, ME. (Photo courtesy of Sherece Lamke)

• Aaron and Martha’s first three children (Nathaniel, John and Sarah) were born in Starks, Somerset County, Maine, where Aaron, was also enumerated on the 1810 census.ⁱⁱ It seemed likely that Martha lived and married in that region.

Starks, Maine Town & Vital Records, FHL microfilm #12060

I searched through a dozen rolls of microfilm, starting with Starks and working outward, hoping to find the marriage record of Aaron and Martha. My search was in vain, but I became very, very familiar with families that lived in the locations around them, and one name in particular stuck with me: BUMPS/BUMPAS.

So it was with considerable interest that I learned of a FamilyTreeDNA match who had a BUMPS in her family tree. Even more interesting, her ancestor, Mary (Tibbetts) Bumps named a son, AARON DAY Bumps. Bingo.

As exciting as this find was, we know that DNA does not replace a paper trail. We still need a healthy dose of elbow grease (and many hours of lost sleep!) to verify whether or not our hunch is correct. After all, our suspected DNA connection may be in a different branch of the family tree.

THE PAPER TRAIL

Here is the evidence gleaned that supports my conclusion: Martha Tibbetts was the daughter of Rev. Nathaniel Tibbetts and his wife, Elizabeth Alley.

• Nathaniel Tibbetts and his family moved from Boothbay, Maine to New Sharon about 1790. ^iii,iv He was the only male enumerated in that town in 1800 and 1810. ^v,vi New Sharon is about nine miles south of Starks, where Aaron and Martha Day’s children were born.

Declaration in Revolutionary War pension file of Nathaniel “Tebbets” dated 28 Aug 1832.  He states he had lived in New Sharon about 40 years.

• May (Tibbetts) Jarvis, in “Henry Tibbetts of Dover, New Hampshire and some of his descendants” (Vol. I) writes of Nathaniel, “He was a minister and settled in New Sharon, Maine, on a farm on ‘Hampshire Hill’, which is still known as ‘Tibbetts farm’ locally…He died here at his home farm near New Sharon, Me Sept. 23, 1845, aged 93 ½ years.”^vii

East New Sharon, Maine, 1861 map (source: Library of Congress)

• Jarvis included in the list of Nathaniel’s children a daughter, Martha, born, 24 Sept. 1777, citing a family Bible then (1937) in the possession of Nathaniel’s descendants as the source of birth information. Jarvis states Martha “married a Mr. Day.”
• Recorded in the Embden, Somerset County, Maine town records is the 9 September 1806 marriage of “Patty Tibbets” of New Sharon to “Aaron Daye.”^viii (Patty is a known nickname for “Martha”.)^ix Embden is 18 miles north of Starks.

The map below shows the locations of the Days and Tibbetts, along with those of the family’s friends, associates and neighbors (FAN Club).

Click to enlarge

FAN Club:

Martha Tibbetts had several sisters, all of whom married local men. As expected in a small region, the families intermarried and clearly had close relationships. The chart below shows these connections in relationship to Aaron and Martha’s family.

The Tibbetts, Days, Spencers, Bursleys and Bumps clearly intermarried.

• Eunice Tibbetts, sister of Martha, married John P. Spencer. The couple lived near Aaron Day:
  • William Hatch’s History of the town of Industry states John Spencer lived “further east, in the town of Stark [sic]…in a log-house just across the Lemon Stream bridge.”^x
  • The March 1814 Starks town records state the Aaron Day lived near West’s Mills at Lemon Stream, neighboring Thomas Lovejoy.^xi
  • On the 1830 census, John P. Spencer is enumerated in Starks, just two houses past Thomas Lovejoy.^xii
• As demonstrated in the chart above, John P. Spencer’s presumed sister, Lavina Spencer, married Lemuel Bursley. Their son, Benjamin Bursley, married Cynthia, daughter of Aaron Day and his wife Martha.^xiii
• Mary Tibbetts, Martha’s younger sister, married Asa W. Bumps.^xiv
  • Asa W. Bumps was listed, along with Aaron Day, as one of the first taxpayers of the town of Milo, Maine, to which Aaron had moved by 1823.^xv
  • Asa W. and Mary (Tibbetts) Bumps named their son, Aaron DAY Bumps, presumably after Mary’s brother –in-law, Aaron Day, husband of Martha.^xvi
• Jesse L. Tibbetts, Martha’s youngest brother, had several sons who moved to Minnesota. Among them was James W. Tibbetts, who settled with his brothers in the same region as Martha’s daughter, Cynthia (Day) Bursley.^xvii
  • Benjamin Bursley, Cynthia’s husband, stayed with J.W. Tibbetts in 1854, presumably James W. Tibbetts.^xviii
  • Aaron and Martha’s grandson, Francis Day (son of Nathaniel Day), living in Crow Wing County, Minnesota, attested to the 1851 marriage of James W. Tibbetts to his wife Hannah:^xix
    

    I hereby certify that I have known the above named James W. Tibbetts and Hannah M. Tibbetts ever since they were of marriageable age and know of their marriage in Sep 1851 at Milo, Maine, being in said town but was not present at the wedding. And I know of their leaving for the west immediately after being married…

Affidavit of Francis Day dated 24 Mar 1906

Pension files – what a great source of information! The affidavit of Francis Day above is another piece of solid evidence that the Day and Tibbetts families were related.  While I have many more rolls of microfilm on order to obtain original copies of the information presented here, I’m confident that Martha’s family has been found.

Alex Haley admonished:

In all of us there is a hunger, marrow deep, to know our heritage – to know who we are and where we came from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hallow yearning.

I think that our ancestors, on the other side, also yearn – they yearn to be found. Perhaps Martha is resting a bit more easily these days.

Special note of thanks:

• David Weymouth, my initial “Day” DNA connection, and who generously shared with me several year’s worth of research into the Day family line.
• Sherece Lamke, who also gave me invaluable information on our branch of the Minnesota Days, connecting back to Robert Day of Ipswich.  (And who is a great collaborator, one I hope to meet soon in person!)
• John Bursley, an excellent researcher, who freely shared his wealth of data on the Bursley and Spencer lines.
• James Christopherson, who made the initial Bursley/Day connection.

End notes:

i.  Martha, wife of Aaron Day, Upper Ferry Cemetery, Milo, Piscataquis, Maine (GPS Latitude: 45.24231, Longitude: -68.89413); Original photo taken and held by Sherece Lamke, provided via email 27 Feb 2014.

ii. 1810, Somerset County, Maine, Starks, 539, Aaron Day; NARA microfilm publication M252, 12.

iii. 1790 U.S. Census, Lincoln County, Maine, population schedule, Unity Plantation, 10, Nathaniel Tibbetts; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com. : downloaded 12 February 2015); NARA microfilm publication M637, 12 rolls.

iv. Fold3, “Revolutionary War Pension,” database, Fold3, Fold3 (http://www.fold3.com: image downloaded 10 February 2015), Nathaniel Tibbets pension application with declaration dated 28 Aug 1832; citing NARA, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files.

v. Nathaniel Tibbetts, 1800 Population, Kennebec County, Maine, New Sharon, 52; National Archives micropublication M32, M32-7.

vi.  “Nathaniel Tibbits”, 1810 US Census, Kennebec County, Maine, New Sharon, 877; National Archives micropublication M252, 11.

vii. Jarvis, May Tibbetts. Henry Tibbetts of Dover, New Hampshire, and some of his descendants. Privately published, 1937. Copy held by Daughters of the American Revolution Library, Washington, D.C.

viii. Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints, “Maine Marriages, 1771-1907,” database, Church of Jesus Christ, Latter Day Saints, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org: database online 11 February 2015), Aaron Daye and Patty Tibets m. 9 Sep 1806; citing Index includes the IGI, digital copies of original records, and compiled records. FHL digital and microfilm copies. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

ix. Powell, Kimberly. “Common Nicknames Used By Our Ancestors – Nicknames & Genealogy.” Web log post. Genealogy. About.com, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2015. <http://genealogy.about.com/library/bl_nicknames.htm&gt;

x. Hatch, William C. A History of the Town of Industry, Franklin County, Maine, from the Earliest Settlement in 1787 down to the Present Time by William Collins Hatch A History of the Town of Industry, Franklin County, Maine, from the Earliest Settlement in 1787 down to the Present Time. Farmington: Press of Knowlton, McLeary, 1893. Images online. https://archive.org/stream/historyoftownofi00hatc#page/n3/mode/2up.

xi. Cheryl W. Patten, “Days in Starks and Industry Maine,” attached, transcribed town records for Starks, Maine from [e-mail for private use] ([street address for private use], Smithfield, Maine), to Lauren Rogers Mahieu, 28 March 2014.

xii. 1830 U.S., Somerset County, Maine, Starks, 119, John P. Spencer; NARA microfilm publication M19, 51.

xiii. Mahieu, Lauren Rogers. “December 5, 2014 Evidence-based Reasoning Reveals the Parents of Cynthia (Day) Bursley.” Web log post. GeneJourneys. N.p., 5 Dec. 2014. Web. <http://www.genejourneys.com&gt;.

xiv.  FamilySearch.org, “Maine, Marriages, 1771-1907,” database, FamilySearch.org, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org: database online 8 February 2015), Asa W. Bumps m. Mary Tibbetts 8 November 1813; citing Thorndike, Waldo, Maine, United States, reference ; FHL microfilm 12,265.

xv.  Milo Historical Society, Milo Historical Society, Milo Historical Society Early History (http://www.milohistorical.org/history/west.php : accessed 20 February 2014), Aaron Day, 1823 tax payer in Milo.

xvi.  Find A Grave, Find A Grave, online database (www.findagrave.com : database online 15 February 2015), Aaron Day Bursley, 1827-1898.

xvii.  1850 U.S. Census, Benton County, Minnesota Territory, population schedule, Sauk Rapis, 4B, Nathaniel James W. and Joshua A. Tibbets; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 2 February 2015); NARA.

xviii.  John Bursley writes for Princeton Union: “My father, Benjamin Bursley, came to Minnesota on November 18, 1854, arriving at the home of J.W. Tibbetts, one mile north of what is now Bailey’s station.” Library of Congress, “Chronicling America,” database, Library of Congress, Chronicling America (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov: images online 19 January 2013), John M. Bursley, “Slain by Redskins”; citing Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN.

xix.  Deposition of Francis Day, 24 March 1906. Hannah Tibbetts, widow’s pension application no. 839,039, certificate no. 624,905; service of James W. Tibbetts   (Private, Co. A, 8th Reg’t Minn. Inf., Civil War); Case Files of Approved Pension Applications…, 1861-1934; Civil War and Later Pension Files; Department of Veteran’s Affairs, Record Group 15; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Beaver hats

Apparently, making hats could be a lucrative business in the 19^th century. Several of the brothers of Aaron Day, my fourth great grandfather, had taken up the trade, which they likely learned from their uncle, Daniel Day. Aaron’s oldest brother, John, resided in Starks, Maine, and his great granddaughter, Lucy Hutchkins, wrote the following:

John Day “The Hatter” was Grandpa Day’s father.  Born in Mass. (Ipswich, I think)…Perhaps it was in Hallowell that he learned the hatter’s trade.  He had a brother Aaron living in Starks at that time, he went there and met and married Elizabeth (Betsy) Skillings the oldest child of Lewis Skillings- May 1809.  They lived for a time on “Mount Hunger” in Starks.  Perhaps he gave it the name…

Grandpa told me once how his father made the felt hats.  Wish I could remember it better.  The washed wool was pulled apart very fine and the strands pressed down evenly into a large circular form, it was wet, under pressure (perhaps steamed) I think and shrunk until it became firm.  Then it had to be blocked by shaping it over a “block” of wood.  I suppose it was dyed, don’t remember just when but before it was blocked I guess.  Grandfather, the hatter, was only 56 when he died.

Before his death, John had much difficulty feeding his family; at least one of his children (Jonathan, the grandfather of Lucy who wrote the history above) was sent to be raised by relatives when he couldn’t manage to support all nine of them.

While the trade of a hatter was not so promising in the tiny town of Starks, John’s brothers Francis and Moses had much better success.  From the book, Manchester Maine 1775-1975, we learn the following:

In the early 1800’s the Crossroads [in Manchester, Maine] had its own hat shop, owned by Francis and Moses Day. An old “hatter’s iron” from there was in Mrs. Henrietta Sampson’s possession in 1902, and deeds for Day land definitely say where the hat shop was. We have no records of what kinds of hats they made, but in Winthrop “the making of fur and wool hats was begun in 1809” – “the manufacturing the various kinds of hats then in demand and dealing in furs.”

Early land transactions provide Francis’ occupation as hatter, while in later Kennebec county deeds his title is “gentleman,” a term usually reserved for those few individuals who were quite financially well off and did not have to work for a living.  Moses, on the other hand, did not fare so well. Lucy Hutchins wrote that Moses had a head injury as a child. It may have been this, or it could have been the trade of hatter that resulted in his institution in the Augusta “insane asylum” by the time he was enumerated on the 1850 census.

Wikipedia states:

Mad hatter disease, or mad hatter syndrome, is a commonly used name for occupational chronic mercury poisoning among hatmakers whose felting work involved prolonged exposure to mercury vapours. The neurotoxic effects included tremor and the pathological shyness and irritability characteristic of erethism…By the Victorian era the hatters’ condition had become proverbial, as reflected in popular expressions like “mad as a hatter” and “the hatters’ shakes”.

Perhaps this contributed to John’s relatively early death as well, and his inability to care for his family financially.  Now, someday, maybe I will learn if Aaron also followed this family trade!

John Day, my 5th great grandfather, was baptized in Ipswich, Essex County, Massachusetts on 24 February 1750/1.  In earlier documents John was referred to as John Day Jr., so obviously other men of the same name lived in Ipswich.  To ensure my research centered on the correct John Day, I decided to do a bit more digging into taxes, deeds and other records.

The John Days of Ipswich, from the Vital records of Ipswich, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849:

As noted in the chart above, 10 individuals named John Day are recorded in the Ipswich vital records, with three dying in infancy. My ancestor, John Day #7, was born in 1750/1, and was the son of Jeremiah and Mary (Caldwell) Day. The only other adult male of the same name during my ancestor’s life was John Day #3, the husband of Eunice Burnham. John Day #7 is often referred to in town records and deeds as John Day Jr, distinguishing him from the elder John Day #3. The two men, both descended from sons of Robert Day and his wife Hannah, appear in red below.

Cousins John Day #3 and John Day #7 lived in Ipswich at the same time.

In addition to the use of the suffix “Jr,” the two Johns may also be distinguished in other ways. John Day #3, the elder, was sometimes referred to as “Mr. John Day,” a term often used to denote an established man of esteem. A young man typically would not have earned the title “Mr.” Therefore, references to Mr. John Day must refer to the elder John #3, born in 1696, and 55 years older than our subject, John Day #7.

The place of residence also provides clues to the identity of subjects in town records. John Day #3 is found living in the south part of the town, below the river, while John #7 resided near his family in Pine Swamp, north of the river and listed in the north town lists.

Mr. John Day appears third from the bottom on this 1770 South List Province Tax in Ipswich.

1832 map of Ipswich

1768, 1770, and 1771 Tax Valuation Lists

Only one John Day was listed in the tax lists in Ipswich for the years 1768 and 1770, and he was residing in the south part of town, across the river from our subject’s family.   He is referred to as “Mr. John Day,” ruling out our subject, John Day #7, who was a teenager during these tax assessment years.   Additionally, only one John Day appears in the 1771 tax valuation list, and it is most certainly John Day #3 who is taxed in all three assessments. John #3 would have been 75 years of age in 1771, with a well-established real and personal estate. The tax list appraises his real estate at £26 18s., and he had £100 lent at interest. Animals taxed were 2 horses, 2 oxen, 5 cattle, 20 goats and sheep, and 4 swine.   His land included 20 acres of pasture able to accommodate 150 cattle; his farm produced 150 bushels of grain annually; he owned 37 acres of salt marsh; produced 20 tons of salt marsh hay annually; had 4 acres of English and Upland mowing grass, and produced 4 tons of English and Upland hay annually.   Since our subject, John Day #7, was only 21 years of age, it seems quite unlikely the 1771 tax list refers to him. Additionally, December 1780 probate records show that John Day #3 was a man of means; land holdings were valued at £554, with his entire estate totaling £658.

1779 Tax List?

Unfortunately, the town clerks did not clearly label each tax book during the years 1780-1850.   Because of this, we cannot ascertain in exactly which year the following tax was collected.   John Day #7 is still referred to as John Day Jr., so John Day #3 was still alive.  We do know that John Day #3 had his will probated 5 December 1780, and since John #3 appears in the following tax year, it seems likely that the entry below is actually for 1779, and not for 1780 as indicated on the microfilmed roll.

John Day #7 is assessed for one poll, likely in 1779

While the above image is not clearly legible, thankfully “Jr” was added to the name, denoting John #7, the youngest adult male of the name in Ipswich. The amount is illegible, but from this image we learn that John had money lent at interest, and appears to have been financially comfortable.

The next image is apparently from the subsequent tax year.   (The tax book and film was not paginated.)  Shown is John Day #3, who died before 5 December 1780 when his will was probated, so this tax year was very likely in 1780.

John Day #3 Tax Valuation

The tax records also provide clues to the when my ancestor’s father died.  In the same tax year appears “Heirs Jeremiah Day”, helping narrow Jeremiah’s death date, which is still unknown.

“Heirs of Jeremiah Day, “listed above John Day #

Jeremiah’s son, John #7, is listed at the bottom of the page with his poll crossed out.   Others in the town who had served in the militia during the war were noted in the town records to have their taxes abated, which is likely the case with John, who served at least twice in the state militia during the Revolutionary War.

Descendants of Ipswich settlers Humphrey Bradstreet and Robert Day met in Minnesota and married in 1781

Lavina S. Bursley’s fifth great grandfather, Robert Day, was made a freeman in Ipswich in 1641.  In Robert’s will, he wrote:

“I give to my son John Day after my decease…ye parcell of land lying near the common fence gate w[hi]ch was part of Mr. Bradstreets his lot…”

Humphrey Bradstreet arrived in Ipswich in 1635.  From this will, we know that Humphrey Bradstreet not only knew Robert Day, but had also lived nearby and conducted land transactions with him.  He would never have guessed that two and half centuries later, his sixth great grandson, Albert J. Stanwood, would meet and marry Robert’s fifth great granddaughter, Lavina Bursley, in the small town of Elk River in Minnesota.

Albert and Lavina are my second great grand parents, and Ipswich, the home of both of their ancestors, one of my favorite places.

Me with the headstones of Lavina (Bursley) Stanwood’s great grandparents, Aaron and Sarah (Goodhue) Day

Ipswich Town Historian led a walking tour of the town in June 2015. The Caldwell house was home to Lavina (Bursley) Stanwood’s ancestors.

The Bradstreet Farm was originally in the town of Ipswich but was later annexed to neighboring Rowley. This portion of Humphrey Bradstreet’s land remained in the family until 2007!

Helen (Freeman) Grant wrote to her cousin, Elsie (Day) Hansen about Jeremiah Day’s Highboy Chest of Drawers

Jeremiah Day.  Yeoman.  And, apparently, cabinetmaker.

Featured on the Yale University web site is a photo of a Highboy Chest of Drawers which was attributed to Jeremiah and which stayed in the Day family for at least two hundred years. (Since the image is copyrighted, you will have to visit the Yale web site for the picture.

Yale University sent the documentation for the Highboy to Winterthur Library in Wilmington, Delaware, where it has been safely preserved.  Included was a letter penned by Helen F. (Freeman) Grant, from which we learn the provenance of the Highboy.  Helen describes how her great grandmother, Sarah Day, used the chest as her original housekeeping furniture, and then gave it to her daughter Abigail Day, whom Helen calls “Aunt Nabby.”  It was Abigail who in turn gave the piece to Helen, and in 1910 Helen entrusted the cherished family heirloom to her cousin, Elsie (Day) Hansen.  Helen’s letter describing the history of the Highboy and its provenance is transcribed in its entirety below:

Manchester Maine Aug 13, 1911

My Dear Elsie [illegible]

I received a nice long letter date June 1^st from you, and should have answered directly but for my negligence – a great fault of mine!

Was glad you had found the Old “High Case of Drawers” as our old people used to call it and hope they are now all dressed anew and gracing or furnishing your Dining room; I would love to see them.  I miss their familiar presence have not yet got anything to take their place.  I was sorry you found them so much an article of expense to move to your home.  Mabel’s did not cost her as much and were considered more valuable wood.  However, yours, I liked better.

I did not place any record of the date when or by whom made as you wished me to do – but will prepare a copy for you to now place inside some drawer as on back, one of great grandmother Sarah Day’s brother, was a “Cabinet Maker.”  (Also an Uncle of hers) and I always heard the old aunts say “Uncle Aaron” made the drawers.  I think their mother’s brother but am not positive.  However they must be considerable more than a hundred years old as the drawers were part of her original housekeeping furniture while in “Old Ipswich Mass.”

These drawers were presented to me by our great Aunt Abigail or “Aunt Nabby” Day a sister of my grandfather Aaron Day and your great grandfather Francis Day.  She receiving them directly from her mother (great grandmother Sarah Day).  I have a chair (one of Capt. David Days, who lived in Hallowell (brother of great grandmother Sarah, whose furniture came from same source, and same make given me by a friend for wedding present.)

However I will look up papers and find dates which can place the building of Highboy somewhere near correct.

Well Elsie you will think me rather stupid.  I am so and the other day while looking over some newspapers I found a letter written to you last Jan. and which I supposed was mailed and you had received months ago.  It’s old!  But I send it to you today that you may know I wrote you, it’s shameful!  I have aged in looks very much since you were here, my hair is now getting so white, hardly any gray hair, last year at the time time.  Am better of lameness but have lost my quick step now – when try to hasten I tremble so so move about rather slowly.  Have not been a bout much this summer, to church but once, to city 2 or 3 times was to brother Edwin’s 50^th anniversary June 30^th.  Have not been there since, only 2 ½ miles away.  Was over to Henrietta’s in July while Waldo & Mabel were there.  Mabel desired a visit from Will C. and I this month but I don’t feel like taking the trip a get so very tired, am going much and wish the summer could be longer.  Have enjoyed being out of doors most of time.  Had lots of very warm weather but such lovely shade in our yard could stay out much of time.

There is no “Place like Home” and the dear “Old Day Homestead” is an ideal home for me.  Wish you could stop in every day and enjoy awhile with me.

I think over & over again of the pleasure of your visit last summer you & Charles T and some of our pleasure trips, out on the lake with [Buk Farr?] for one, and the auto ride about Augusta also our call in the establishment of Buzzell & Weston of Weston disagreeableness.  So hateful in him; his father is living very low, with heart trouble (if alive) Dr. said yesterday was doubtful if he rallied from this attack.

I received a beautiful letter from your father other day, so descriptive of Montana the part he is visiting, and I am so glad they (J.B.P. & Sophie) can be out there this summer and enjoying visiting with all the children together.  So nice, and for you too, to have privilege of meeting there with them, when I wish to you want Chas T. to have a share with you too.  I think of him with love, also as with you, and hope to see him again sometime if life is spared.  Have got to be [illegible] of page, think have written enough will write your father soon. Now with great [illegible] and much love for you & Charles S. [illegible],

Helen F. Grant

Until recently this branch of the Day family had no knowledge of Helen F. (Freeman) Grant, or her mother, Harriet Luzetta (Day) Freeman.  Harriet was the sister of my 2^nd great grandmother, Cynthia (Day) Bursley, and was raised by her father’s brother and sister, Nathaniel and Sarah.  Harriet clearly loved her aunts and uncles, and passed down information on the history of the family to her daughter, Helen.  In 1828 Harriet also commissioned the painting of a watercolor memorial of her grandfather, John Day.  (The piece was listed as part of an auction on Invaluable.com, but the auctioneer is out of business.  Someday, perhaps, this watercolor or the original oil painting will surface!)

Many of the women in the Day family remained single, beginning in the late 18^th century.  It appeared that Helen was going to continue this trend as well, but at the age of 55, married William C. Grant, 24 years her junior.  She continued to live on the “Old Day Homestead,” originally settled by her great grandparents, John Sarah (Day) Day.  She was surrounded by her family’s heritage, enjoying nature.  I think I would have been quite fond of Helen.

Sarah.  Abigail.  “Aunt Nabby.”  Lucy.  Mary.  Hannah.  Elizabeth.  These are the names of just a few of the Day family women residing as “single women” in Ipswich, Massachusetts in the 18^th and early 19^th centuries.  They clearly did not espouse the joys of marriage as depicted in the c. 1790 picture above.  What on earth would cause so many women of the Day family to remain single in an era where women could not easily support themselves, and opportunities for the unmarried female were scarce?

The obvious explanations could certainly justify a spinster or two in the family tree, but TEN?

Jeremiah Day had three daughters.  Two were known as “single women” at the time of probate.  No marriage records have been located for his third and youngest daughter, Elizabeth, who is also presumed to have died unmarried.  Jeremiah’s son Nathaniel had three daughters.  None of them married.  Jeremiah’s third son John had three daughters.  Two remained single, and no marriage records have been found for the third, who is also presumed to have remained single.

A summary of women’s history in early America is necessary before speculating on potential causes for their decision to refrain from marriage.

The Puritan Woman

Martha Saxton in her superb work, Being Good, describes the repressed Purtitan woman, who was both ruled by her husband and devoid of nearly any modern-day rights.  She states:

Puritans, whose faith was born in criticism, came simultaneously to celebrate and to constitute women in a vocabulary emphasizing modesty, timidity, obedience to authority, and self-doubt.  Within a moral system devised with many purposes in mind, from the glorification of God to the control and ordering of work and family life, men publicly assigned significance to behavior.  The result was a complex of beliefs designed to restrain women in a number of areas, including the expression of aggression, the assertion of sexuality, the pursuit of advanced intellectual activity, the independent acquisition of wealth, and the attainment of secular authority.  Although church and state enforcement varied over time, and much depended on the personality of individual fathers and husbands, women grew up in a society that could be both repressive and punitive. [i]

A Woman’s Role in Colonial America

In the colonial era, the family unit was integral to the welfare of the community.   Families were interdependent for support, and between 1650 and 1750 the relationships between a husband and wife were “far more crucial than most scholars have supported.”[ii]  Men assisted each other in the construction of houses, harvesting, and other tasks that required extensive manpower.  They toiled outside spring through fall on their farms, and typically enjoyed a respite from hard labor during the winter months.  Not so for the wife, whose chores were never ending.

Girls were prepared for their roles as wives at an early age.  In New England, spinning and sewing were some of the first tasks taught to colonial daughters.  Of course, cooking, cleaning, and child-rearing (by assisting with the care of younger siblings) came soon after.  Schooling or formal education beyond learning to read was thought to be unnecessary and, until 1789, was reserved for boys.  Furthermore, “unusual learning” was considered a “moral embarrassment” for women! [iii]

The colonial woman, regardless of her social position, was responsible for such tasks as cooking, sewing, washing and mending clothes, caring for the cows, chickens and swine, tending the family garden, and, of course, raising the children.  Many often had other specialties such as spinning wool, knitting, cheese making, or cultivating flax.  Sklar and Dublin provide the following additional details of the New England woman’s role:

In America, as in England, women might also be involved in a second broad category of work, tasks they performed as assistants to or surrogates for their husbands.  In northern New England, for example, women, on occasion, would plant corn, gather thatch, trade with the Indians, or fill orders for planks and staves…They show the persistence of a traditional obligation – to provide ‘meet help’ to one’s husband. [iv]

Sklar and Dublin also assert that a woman’s ability to supplement the family’s support through special skills such as raising fat hens or making tasty cheese or butter influenced not only her relationship with her husband but also impacted her reputation within her community.  That was not enough, however; a woman must also “establish herself as an ‘obedient wife’ and a ‘friendly neighbor.’”[v]    Women were interdependent, relying on each other and exchanging assistance in both household labors and tasks in the yard.

Pre-Victorian Changes

As in most countries, early American women faced marriages that were not made of love, but of economic and strategic necessity.  Men relied on women to maintain the household, bear children, and to advance in society.  A good wife positioned the husband well for future success, both in her contribution to the family unit as well as in social position, depending on the bride’s wealth and family privilege.  However, during the 1700s, this approach to selection of a marriage partner slowly began to change, and men and women began to view marriage as a union of two individuals who loved each other.

Buhle, Murphy and Gerhard (2015) write, “Journals of the time thus suggested that men look for wisdom and patience in a wife rather than beauty and wealth.  And women were urged to wed men who would treat them as friends.  These would be marriages in which men and women could share advice and contemplate problems….”[vi]

Abigail Adams promoted women’s equality in marriage

Abigail Adams was quite outspoken about the need for marital reform, advocating for a redistribution of authority in families, and “curing absolute power over wives.” [vii]  She proposed that wives be elevated to a position of life partner and companion.  By the 1780s and 1790s, a new view of marriage had taken hold:  instead of a patriarchal and hierarchical model, the ideal marriage was one based on mutual esteem, friendship, affection and obligation.  Both reformers and feminists argued for this new marriage, based on love, and stressed that “training girls for marriage drove them into uncongenial unions, degrading both women and marriage.”[viii]

For the first time in history, marriage was elevated to a spiritual union based on love.  Zsuzsa Berend writes:

At the same time a religiously grounded morality informed the ideal of character, in the sense not simply of a ‘complex of mental and ethical traits” but also of “moral excellence.’ High ideals of love and marriage came together with high standards of character, and it became socially and personally acceptable not to marry if marriage involved compromising one’s moral standards.

She continues:

As a consequence of the above developments we see a strikingly novel portrayal of spinsters and spinsterhood: the image of the spinster as a highly moral and fully womanly creature. This implied a change in the conception of the purported reasons for remaining single–that spinsters could have married if they had chosen to compromise their moral principles for the sake of matrimony. They remained unmarried not because of individual shortcomings but because they didn’t find the one ‘who could be all things to the heart.’ Spinsterhood was increasingly viewed as an outcome of intricate choices and spinsters as champions of uncompromising morality.

Berend cautions 21^st century readers that the spinsters of the 18^th and 19^th centuries were not seeking self-actualization.  Rather, they considered their autonomy as a duty, and were convinced they must use their lives to serve a higher purpose.  They sought a vocation that would allow them to help others, and in doing so, were fulfilling their God-given purpose.

Woloch writes:

In the colonial era, remaining a spinster had been a mark of opprobrium; it usually meant a dismal life of quasi-dependence, living in relatives’ homes.  But in the 1780s and 1790s, spinsterhood became an option – or at least more of a likelihood.  The increase of spinsters in eastern regions may have reflected a rise in the autonomy of daughters, who had gained the right to refuse proposals, or a paucity of eligible candidates, or, most likely, a combination of both factors.[ix]

Yes, spinsters or single women were likely affected by a multitude of factors that impacted their decision to remain unmarried.  In New England, young men often migrated west in search for land.  Subsequently, women outnumbered men 5 to 4.  The pool of potential suitors was dwindling.  Additionally, “with the separation of church and state after 1800 and the end of public support for ministerial salaries, ministers became dependent upon the laity for financial support, and since the majority of the laity were women, many ministers developed new respect for them, encouraging women to seek greater social influence.”[x]  Remaining single certainly allowed them to do so.

Singlehood was certainly an option for women who sought to protect any property or real estate they possessed, whose ownership otherwise would have been transferred to their husbands upon marriage.  A life as a spinster protected the woman from the risks of childbirth, which was a frequent cause of early mortality.

Day Family Spinsters

One can only speculate why so many of John Day’s aunts, sisters, daughters and nieces remained unmarried.   While the changing attitudes towards marriage may have played a significant role, the number of single women in the family was out of proportion to the population.  One thing is certain:  these women had supportive families and the means to remain unattached for life.

Take, for example, John’s daughters, Abigail, Sarah and Lucy, who in 1820, for the price of $1,  each received 1/4 portion of their father’s former residence, deeded to them by their brother Nathaniel, with the condition that they would forfeit their interest in the residence upon marriage.

The Day family was close-knit, and the men were dedicated to the welfare of their female kinfolk.  They clearly had the means to assist their sisters, aunts, and nieces, who did not have to marry out of financial necessity.  In an era when marriage was still the norm, the Day family women weren’t afraid to break out of the mold.

[i] Saxton, Martha. Being Good. New York: Hill and Wang, 2003.

[ii] Sklar, Kathryh K., and Thomas Dublin. Women and Power in American History: A Reader, Vol. I to 1880. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1991.

[iii] Saxton, 2003.

[iv] Sklar and Dublin, 1991.

[v] Ibid.

[vi] Buhle, Mari Jo, Terry Murphy, and Jane F. Gerhard. A Concise Women’s History. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2015.

[vii] Woloch, Nancy. Women and the American Experience, 5th ed. New York: Knopf, 1984.

[viii] Berend, Zsuzsa. 2000. ““The best or none!” Spinsterhood in nineteenth-century New England.” Journal Of Social History 33, no. 4: 935-957. Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed August 12, 2015).

[ix] Woloch, 1984

[x] Sklar and Dublin, 1991

Call the genealogy police!  An impostor has posed for the wife of my 4^th great grandfather, Aaron Day!    Who the heck is Marion Harris?  How on earth did she make it into SO MANY family trees???

46 Ancestry trees erroneously include Marion Harris as wife of Aaron Day

Marion Harris was sneaky.  She saw an opportunity and she joyfully GRABBED it!  Yup, she knew that many genealogists despise empty blanks on their pedigree charts and family group sheets.  Somehow she planted the message in someone’s mind that Aaron Day had not married Martha, who is listed in Starks, Maine records as the mother of his three oldest children.  Nope, of course it was Marion. And Marion needs a last name – so….let’s call her…Smith?  No, too common!  Mitchell?  Naw….how about Harris?  Yes!  That has a good ring to it…Marion Harris!!

While the above is all in jest, I have seriously wondered how the whole Marion Harris thing got started.  She is listed in no fewer than 46 Ancestry.com public trees, and likely in a hoard of private ones as well.  I have yet to find any record with her name on it that links her to Aaron Day, aside from the undocumented trees such as those listed above.

Finally, I think I have my answer:

Oscar L. Day married Edna Marion Harris in 1919

Shown above is a snapshot of a portion of the 20 July 1919 marriage record for Aaron Day’s great grandson, Oscar Lorenzo Day, who wed Edna Marion Harris in Lagrange, Penobscot County, Maine.

Seems pretty darn likely whoever began the Marion myth did so quite innocently and easily.  Most likely an aged family member went by memory to provide the names of ancestors, and confused Edna Marion Harris with Aaron’s (now) known wife, Martha Tibbetts.  (You can read more about Aaron’s wife REAL wife Martha here!)

Yes, I know I have such errors in my files too – and hopefully only in my oldest work, begun in the 1980s as my grandmother recited to me the names, dates and places she had in her memory, and which I dutifully transcribed onto my Family Group Sheets.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to finding the impostors in my own tree!

Five years ago I took a DNA test with one goal in mind: to solve the mystery of Cynthia (Day) Bursley’s parentage.  If you’ve been following this blog, you know that the last couple of years I’ve been just a *tad* bit focused on researching Cynthia’s parents, and published a proof argument linking her to parents Aaron Day and Martha Tibbetts.  You can find posts about Cynthia’s parentage here, and the discovery of her mother’s maiden name here.

However, besides my own proof argument that demonstrated there was no other plausible set of parents for Cynthia, there was no paper that directly linked to her to this branch of the Days.   Until yesterday.  Well, it existed before, but I didn’t know about it!  :-)

While many moan and groan about the accuracy of online family trees, I have found them to be an invaluable source of clues.  Some of the leads pan out, and some of them don’t.  Regardless, it’s always a good idea to contact those with trees similar to our own.  You never know what treasures the poster may have, and what information that you may glean!

Thankfully, I followed my own advice, and met up with a newly-found cousin while in Maine this past week.  She had a picture of Harriet Luzetta Day, sister to Cynthia Day, my third great grandmother.

Harriet L. (Day) Freeman (right), Lucy Ann Day (Freeman) Whitten (left), Carrie (Whitten) Whitten standing, and Guy Whitten, center.  Photo courtesy of Nora Quinn.

And the BIG prize was a hand-written note transcribing records kept by Harriet’s granddaughter, Lucy A. (Whitten) Berry Loring, and which listed information on all of Harriet’s siblings, including Cynthia.

Transcribed notes listing the births of the children of Aaron Day and Martha Tibbetts; copy courtesy of Nora Quinn.

This is the ONLY paper I’ve yet found that includes Cynthia with her family, and, in a strange, quite odd way provided closure for me.  Cynthia is finally “home” – recognized as a bona fide member of the Day family.  Finally, a piece of paper supports what I’ve discovered:  Cynthia S. Day is the daughter of Aaron Day and Martha Tibbetts.

For the genealogist, little can compare to finding the homestead of your ancestor.  And with the help of Dale Potter-Clark of the Readfield Historical Society in Maine that is exactly what we did!

This house is believed to be the homestead of John Day

First, some background:

On 24 October, 1796, John Day purchased from Benjamin Allen a portion of Lot 41, then described as Winthrop, in the County of Lincoln, Maine.

Book 4:529 of Lincoln County deeds, held at Kennebec Registry of Deeds

In 1813, for the sum of $500, John deeds the land to his son Nathaniel.  Then, in 1820, for receipt of $1.00 Nathaniel deeds a 1/4th part interest in the home to each of his unmarried sisters, Abigail, Sarah and Lucy.  He describes it as the home in which John Day continues to reside.  In 1845, Nathaniel then deeds a portion of the land to his niece, Harriet (Day) Freeman, giving her a house lot for the huge sum of – you guessed it –  $1.00.  Finally, in 1870, four years before his death, Nathaniel sold all of the lot, in addition to two others, to Harriet and her husband, Rowland Freeman.

Nathaniel deeded all of his land to Harriet’s husband, Rowland, before his death

Eventually, the property made it’s way to Harriet and Rowland’s daughter, Helen (Freeman) Grant. In 1911, Helen wrote in a letter to her cousin Elsie, “There is no ‘Place like Home’ and the dear ‘Old Day Homestead’ is an ideal home for me.”   The property remained with family until 1929.  It is now part of Lakeside Orchards.  See the old trees below:

Old trees behind the Day homestead

Yes, finding this home was quite an experience indeed.  Here is a picture of five Day descendants with the “Old Day Homestead.”

Left to right: Lynn, Shari, Fritsie, me and my son, Jeremy. (We all descend from John’s son, Aaron.)

A visit to the Maine State Archives last week provided the following priceless document:

Signatures of those petitioning for the incorporation of Milo, Maine

To the honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Maine in Legislature assembled January 1823.

The undersigned Inhabitants of the Township  No. three i the seventh range of Township north of the Waldo Patent in the County of Penobscott Respectfully request that we labour under all the inconveniences incident to the unincorporated places To remedy which they respectfully request the Hon. Senate & House of Representatives to incorporate the said township into a town by the name of Milo with  the powers privileges and immunities which other Towns in this State injoy as in duty bound we ever pray

Benjamin Sargent

Stephen Snow

Moses Snow

Lemuel Shipley

Theople Sargent

John W Tompson

Henry B Sargent

Winborn A Swett

Ichabod W Mitchell

Daniel Cook

James Whidden

James H. Haines

Lemuel Y Shipley

George W Whidden

Asa W Bump

Luther Keen

Isaac Harding

Josiah Swett

Jacob Mayo

Elijah Johnston

Solemon Howlier

Isaac Pray

John Whidden

Samuel Livermore

Aaron Day

Jonathan Day.  Photo courtesy of Margaret Bienart.

Jonathan Day was born 3 September 1820 to John and Elizabeth (Skillings) Day.  He was beloved by his family.  Lucy Hutchins, the granddaughter of Jonathan Day, wrote:

It was 23rd of February in the year 1851. Young Jonathan day tiptoed carefully into the newly finished room parentheses built in the southern end of the addition to the little old house.

There his Aunt Sarah Nichols with his baby daughter into his arms. Smiling into the tiny face he laid her down tenderly beside her mother, sweet Lucy Sherburne Day. Telling of it long afterward he said, “I did just as Aunt Polly (with whom he lived) told me to do.”   She had said that to do that instead of handing the child back to the nurse meant that he owned her as his. And how happy he was to greet his firstborn!

In his old age he wrote as an acrostic on her name:

Feb. 23, 1908

Ere the short day was gone
My little girl was born.
My sakes! How proud we felt
And full of sweet content

Long years have passed since then.

Days weeks and months have flown,
And does this woman live?

Yes with her husband lives.

How great our mercies are
Under our Makers care.
Then let us pass our days
Considering wisdom’s ways
Homeward our steps we’ll bend
In heaven our troubles and.
Nearer to Him we’ll be,
So near to Thee.

Jonathan and Lucy had been married nearly a year. She had come in the winter of 1849-50 to visit her mother, who years after her first husband’s death, had married, second “Uncle Ira Young” and was living in the Starks neighborhood.

That was a winter of much sickness. Aunt Polly’s husband sickened and died. She herself was ill and Jonathan needed help. Lucy Sherburne came the stranger but the acquaintance quickly ripened from mutual respect and when she left it was with the promise of returning as a bride. She went down to Mount Vernon her former home and returned in late March with her sister and a “pung” load of her possessions. The going was “breaking up” that is, the hardpacked snow in the road was softening making traveling hazardous and the young women had a hard time near the end of the journey.

The sister Sarah after they were safely arrived got to laughing hysterically over their mishaps and “couldn’t stop” for a long time.

They went to their mothers and their on the 27th of March 1850 Grandpa Jonathan went to claim his bride. He had lived with Aunt Polly and her husband Uncle Wm. Sutherland since 1825, they having no children of their own took him when he was a child of five.

So now the whole care of the farm came to him and he built an addition to the old house. In the southern part of this he finished off the best room where the baby was born. Here was grandmother Lucy’s bureau, her Boston rocker and stand, etc.  The bed was cleverly contrived so it could be lifted up and fastened to the wall by hooks when not in use.

There was a passageway from the old house extending the length of the addition. A door from it opened into the best room- beyond that led to the woodshed part

On the very day that little Emma was two years old another great event came to the family. A little boy was born and a happy mother gave him the name of her own father, Samuel Sherburne. He was called Sherburne, mostly abbreviated to Sherb. In later years he signed himself S. S. Day except in family letters when it was “Sherb” or perhaps “Uncle Sam”.

Lucy Hutchins continues her biography of her grandfather:

Grandpa had a sweet tooth and he liked honey and so he had several hives of bees.  The children would be happy when he took up the honey. And there was pretty good fishing in the brook the children sometimes went with their father when he could get time off. I do not know that he ever went hunting or shot a deer in his life. The Maine countryside was more thickly settled then and the deer, not being protected by law probably kept mostly in the great North Woods.

He had started an orchard of grafted apple trees at the foot of Millstone Hill, going over to Thurston Hill in Madison for nursery stock and grafts. Wild berries were plentiful, some were made into a rich preserve that would keep without being airtight.

Grandpa sister Aunt Mary Day used to appear sometimes walking from the village.  She worked in the city and delighted to get out into the country, and the children were enthusiastic accompanists in her tramps, remembering them with great pleasure.

June 1st, 1859 – a travelling (sic) photographer had come to “the bridge,” to take ambrotypes which were an improvement in some ways on the earlier daguerreotypes and probably less expense.  Grandpa and Grandmother decided they must have the children’s pictures, so they all went dressed in their best to sit for the man with the camera.  Emma and Sherburn were taken together, and Grandpa carefully marked the date on the back of the mounted picture.  Then a picture was made of Jonathan and Lucy together (Grandpa and grandmother).  That one was put into a daguerreotype case….

Grandpa Day’s second wife, “Grandma Phoebe” and Uncle Sherb both died in the spring of 1902, so Grandpa came to New Portland to live and made his home there with us the last 12 years of his life.

Always patient, always cheerful he was a blessing to us all.  He made the garden, worked on the woodpile and kept the wood box full and in the winter tended the fire in the fireplace.  When we would draw up close to get warm he would pile on more wood and then chuckle “I thought I could make you hitch back.”  He loved to play games – checkers, dominoes, fox and geese, “go-bang,” donkey, etc. with Thurston or any of us who had time.

Portrait of Jonathan Day, courtesy of Margaret Bienart.

When Jonathan was 92 years of age, he was interviewed by an unidentified journalist, who wrote:

Mr. Day usually enjoys “extra good” health and with the exception of poor hearing and eyesight has nothing of which to complain and he bears these misfortunes silently and bravely.

He has a jovial disposition and a pastime which he greatly enjoys is whistling.  He is also fond of music of all kinds especially singing.

Surely Mr. Day is a grand old man and to fully appreciate his merits one must have a personal chat with him.  “If I had always drank coffee and tea and smoked as a great many do or had not been strictly temperate I believe I should have been dead long ago.”

The American Civil War, or War of the Rebellion, was a long, bloody war.  Certainly many deaths were the result of combat, but just as significant is the numbers of soldiers who died due to disease.  Such was the case for Alson L. Day, who was drafted into the 16^th Maine on 30 September 1864.  It appears that he did not actually begin his service until the beginning of the following year.  What follows are letters written by Alson to his family:

24 February 1865 – Page 1

24 February 1865 – Page 2

24 February 1865

Camp of 16^th Maine

Dear Father

Having a few leisure moments I will [write] a few lines to let you know where I am[.]  I left Camp Distribution the 18^th and arived at the Regiment the 21^st, I was paid three months pay yesterday.  I shall send home about twenty dollars.  If you have a chance I wish yo would exchange my bounty money for green backs.  I should lik[e] to know what Osgood has done about paying that note.  Uncle George [Grover] went to the Hospital before they started on this last move[.]  I don’t know what Hospital he is in[.]  you can send me a pair of stockins by mail by puting on about six cents postage you can roll them up in a news paper or do them up snug and put a wraper around them.  I don’t think of any thing more now to write so I will bid you

Good By

Alson L. Day

Please write as soon as you get this.

Shortly after his letter home, Alson is hospitalized.  After joining his regiment, he writes another letter to his mother:

March 12th, 1865 – Page 1

March 12th, 1865 – Page 2

Camp 16^th Me Near Hatcher’s Run,

March 12^th, 1865

Dear Mother

I received Cynthia and Albert’s letter this morning and was glad to hear from home[.]  you ask how my health is well it is about the same as it was a month ago[.]  I have been so hoars for a week past that I could not speak out lowd but am some better now.  I don’t think I shall ever get entirely well of this cold.  I have not received the letter with the dollar in it as yet you sent it about the time I left the Hospital I guess.  I thought after I was paid off I would send what money I sent home in a letter but I had a chance to express it so I expressed 25 dollar[.]  Please write as soon as you get this and let me know if the money comes safe to hand.  I have not done any duty since came to the Regiment except a little fatigue.  I cannot think of any thing more to write this time so I will close.

Yours Affectionately

A. L. Day

P.S. please send a chew of gum when you write again.  They say the pack mules have been ordered to be packed ready for a move but I guess it is only a camp story.

Alson’s next letter home shows he is showing the signs of his illness.  His spelling and writing isn’t nearly as clear as the previous two letters:

June 10th 1865 – Page 1

June 10th 1865 – Page 2

Farfax Seminary Hospital

June 10th 1865

Dear Mother

I thought I would try and write aline to day to let you know where I am and how I am a getting along.  I have had the meassels and it has taken me down very weak ther is no flesh on my bones now at all.

June 12^th

I am going up to head quarters to be examined for a discharge.  I was up this forenoon and was examined but I don’t know what they will do with me but I guess they will discharge me after I get a little stronger[.]  I am in hopes to get home in a fortnight from this time[.]  I must close by hopeing that will find you all well and hearty

Yours,

A.L. Day

Alson continued to decline, and the next letter is from the chaplain, sent on his behalf:

June 19th, 1865 – Page 1

June 19th, 1865 – Page 2

Fairfax Seminary Hospl

Near Alexandria, Va.

June 19^th, 1865

Dear Sir,

I write at the request of your Son, Alson L. Day.  He has been here since the 21^st of May, quite ill with Diarrhea.  He is a good deal run down in strength & much emaciated.  He says though that within a day or two the disease has been some what checked, and I trust that he will be carried safely through.  He wishes you should know that he has good nursing and a good Dr.  How is Jasper?  He wishes you would make some Currant Wine against his coming home, as it will be good for him.

He has not heard from you for a long time.  Write at once, directing to Faifax Seminary Hospital Near Alexandria, Va. (Ward C.) This Hospl is 8 miles from Washington, D.C.  Your Son sends love to all.

Sincerely Yours,

John A. Jerome

Chaplain U.S.A.

Unfortunately, Alson did not recover.  Chaplain Jerome sent the following letter to Alson’s parents, notifying them of their son’s death:

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Fairfax Seminary Hospl
Near Alexandria, Va

June 26, 1865

Mr. Jno Day
Medford, Me.

My Dear Sir

I wrote you some days ago, stating that your Son, Alson L. Day, was very ill.  Now I must send you the sad tidings of his death.  He passed away on the 24^th, at 4.20 P.M. Cause of death, Consumption of the Lungs.  We buried him last evening in the U.S. Cemetery, Alexandria, Va., with Religious Services and Military Honors.  His grave is marked by a decend head board, bearing his name, Co., Regt., and date of death.  He left $2.50, a Corps Badge, 2 ambrotypes, 1 Pocket Book, and several articles of clothing; all of which I will forward to you by Adams Express, if so desired.

On the 1^st of this month, I had quite a long conversation with your Son on the subject of religion.  H said it was a good thing to be a Christian and not backslide, and then showed considerable feeling when I urged him to seek Christ with all his heart.  I was afraid then that he would not recover; indeed he was too weak to travel, had his Discharge Papers been here.  I spoke to the Main Surgeon (a kind hearted Christian man) about hurrying up his Papers, so that he might start at once if he got strong.  And he spoke to the Chief Surgeon, but they did not come until a few days ago.  However, he could not have gone, if they had come sooner.

Saturday prenoon last I saw that he could not live many hours, and told him so, or rather, that I feared so.  He had been sinking indeed, quite rapidly from the evening previous.  His mind was unhinged, and he talked one minute, as though you were present and the next (in answer to my question where I should not write you), as though you were at home.  And so about getting off, he was just as incoherent.  Poor fellow, he was near his end truly.  He said he would like to have me write you, and send love toyou and Brothers and Sisters.  He said that his mother died here last night.  This, of course, showed that he was not in his right mind.  When I spoke of casting himself on Jesus, he replied that he “would do it.”  I said I want you to trust Him as your Savior; he replied, “Yes, I will.”  I prayed that his would be very gracious to our departing Brother, and left him.  I was so occupied in the afternoon that I could not see him again.  This is a sore affliction to you.  May God sustain and comfort you and sanctify it to you eternal good.  He always chastens us for our profit.”

Sincerely Yours

Jno. A. Jerome Chaplain U.S.A.

Alson should never have been drafted. His uncle, Joseph W. Day, voiced his surprise when the Union accepted him into service, as Alson had been plagued “lung trouble” for years.  Indeed, the documents in his Mother’s Pension application file showed he suffered from Tuberculosis (“Consumption”).  Alson’s immune system was not able to fight off the many diseases common to camp life, and so the life of this Union soldier ended without ever having been in battle.

Source:

Mary Ann Day, Widow’s pension application no. 258,789, Civil War, RG 15; NA-Washington.

Cynthia (Day) Bursley death certificate

Death certificates are great sources of info – but the one above was frustrating to me.  I wanted to see the original death register from which the data had been taken.  However, I was told that privacy laws prohibited me from viewing the nearly 150-year-old book containing the death of Cynthia (Day) Bursley, my 3rd great grandmother.  After contemplating this dilemma, last week I found my nicest, kindest voice and called the County Recorder.  I followed my call up with a sweet-as-pie email thanking the Recorder for her time and asking for additional clarification as the state statutes showed that death records in Minnesota are actually public.  My persistence paid off.  Today I received the following:

Copy of the death register showing Cynthia (Day) Bursley’s parents: Aaron and Martha Day!

Talk about Christmas in July!  Since the certificate above completed by the Clerk of Court did not list Cynthia’s parents, I assumed the register also did not have this info.  I was wrong!  After 2 1/2 years of working on a proof argument for Cynthia’s parentage, I finally have the smoking gun:  a piece of paper clearly stating Cynthia Bursley was the daughter of Aaron Day and his wife, Martha.  That brick wall wasn’t so thick after all!

Yup, it’s Christmas in July. 

Harriet Luzetta Day was the sister of my third great grandmother, Cynthia Sears Day.  She was born about 1812 in Industry, Somerset County, Maine, and became a teacher, probably giving up her occupation when she married Rowland Freeman in 1834.  Shown below is an arithmetic book owned by Harriet L. Day which I recently purchased off of eBay – another stroke of genealogical serendipity!

Cover of the Arithmetic Book owned by Harriet L. Day, born 1812 in Industry, Maine.

We know that Harriet was raised by her aunt and uncle, Nathaniel Day and Sarah Day, who were both unmarried and lived at home their parents.  Therefore, she would have known both her grandparents, but especially grandmother Sarah (Day) Day, who lived until 1845.  (Harriet would have been about 33 when her grandmother passed away.)

Inside the cover of Harriet’s arithmetic book is written Brownville, Milo, Kilmarnock, [-?-], and Kirkland

In the upper right corner Harriet wrote her name, town (“Hallowell x Road”) and the year, 1825.

Exercises fill the arithmetic book.

It appears this family treasure was likely passed down to Harriet’s grandson, Rowland Pease.  Rowland married Mary Martha Wilson, who was the daughter Harriet L. Maynard.  Included in the book is the teacher’s certificate for Miss Harriet L. Maynard, and three Rewards of Merit for Harriet Maynard, Henry Maynard and Cyrus Maynard.

Miss Harriet L. Maynard teacher’s certificate.

Rewards of Merit for Harriet L. Maynard and her brothers, Henry and Cyrus.