Month: November 2022

As I mentioned in another post, my foray into genealogy was prompted by my wife, Laura’s request that I find a Revolutionary War ancestor for her so she could qualify for the Daughters of the American Revolution. As yet, I have not been able to do so. Laura’s mother’s folks come from New Brunswick, Canada,…

Artists depiction of John Hoar (sometimes spelled Hoare) negotiating the Nipmucks for the release of Mary Rowlandson from captivity. John Hoar, one of my ninth great-grandfathers, was born in 1622 in Gloucestershire, England. The exact date of his birth is unknown. It is believed that he emigrated to Scituate, Massachusetts when he was about 20…

People have always been fascinated with their family history. Even the Bible lists two genealogical lines for Jesus, one matriarchal and one patriarchal. The people of New England always have, in my experience, been particularly interested in their ancestry, many tracing their family history back to the Mayflower. The last few decades, however, have seen…

In 1851 Herman Melville wrote his classic novel, “Moby Dick.” One of the primary characters in the novel is 30-year-old Starbuck, a Nantucket Quaker who is chief mate aboard the Pequod, a whaler out of Nantucket. Many of Melville’s characters are named after people who can be found in the Bible (Ahab, captain of the ship, Ishmael, a…