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Category Archives: GenTales
Another sad Lincoln family tale
I’m still working on the extended Lincoln lineage book, but I ran across a story of loss among the Lincoln family of Mills County in 1896.
Scarlet fever took three of George Washington Lincoln’s children in March of that year.
Read about the family’s bad week in March at Medium.
New in GenTales on Medium – English Nobility
Whether they were created by marriage alliances or political arrangements, names were important legacies to medieval aristocratic English families. They laid claim to lands, castles, positions of prestige, and/or lordships, even more so than they laid claim to their own children.
Read more about Aristocratic Pendulum and Effects on Lineages and Names in GenTales.
How did George Martin die in Shanghai?
Another part of the Lincoln that will be in my next genealogy book includes George Martin who, according to his mother’s headstone, died in Shanghai in 1867.
How did an American end up in Shanghai shortly after the Civil War? I answer that in GenTales on Substack.
The search for Cornelia Martin led to an asylum
On Medium I recently asked, Who was Cornelia Martin? And in answering that question, I found a good example of the type of loss suffered by families in 19th century America.
While working on an upcoming book on the Lincoln line of Windham, Connecticut, I found the children of Nathaniel Martin listed in his will. I was able to find his daughter Cornelia’s birth record, but then she’s gone.
I couldn’t find any other vital records, though her siblings’ fates were all well documented. But I did find a woman of the same name in an asylum in Vermont. Was that her?
Extremes of age and progeny in one family
I’ve written before about the Lincolns of Windham – in today’s Substack, I highlight the extremes one Lincoln family of Windham reached in loss and longevity.
The Myth of Pocahontas’ Daughter
New in GenTales on Medium, I offer a case study in carefully navigating family stories and anecdotal evidence. The myth of Pocahontas’ daughter Ka-okee has been the subject of debate for 20 years. Which is part of the problem. In 400 years of history, we only just now learn about a child? Read more in GenTales.
New in GenTales: Husbands of Anna Martin
The Lincoln line of my family had already been documented by the time I was the one doing the research. My grandmother had joined DAR via John Lincoln before I was born. In our passed down notes, his wife was always given as Anna Martin Stowell (or Anna M. Stowell or simply Anna Stowell) and there was a bit of time where it wasn’t clear if it was a middle name (likely from her maternal line) or a previous marriage that gave her the two-barrel moniker. Eventually, it got sorted, and her first marriage came to light. Here’s what we know about her now.
Read about the marriages and children of Anna Martin (b. 1725) on Substack.
The Life of Orilla Lincoln Ellis
New in GenTales on Medium: The Life and Death of Orilla Lincoln Ellis
She was a pioneer girl, married off at 14 to suffer through the ill fates of her children and poverty, only to spend her final days asking her neighbors to put her out of her misery. The puzzle pieces of her story don’t make the way things were seem like the Good Ol’ Days
Resources for collecting family history
In GenTales today, I offer a few shout-outs to helpful advice on collecting family history. If you get together with family this year, regardless of how you record the information – video, audio, or transcription – the information can be helpful in filling in gaps in vital records.
Read Holidays and family on Substack