Back in July 2003 Paul and I started working on Genealogy. I really wanted to find out when and where both sides of Paul's and my family came to America.
Paul's family is relatively easy. His father's people came from Germany, in fact, both of his father's parents were born in Germany. His mother's people came from England. Paul's Uncle George has been doing a lot of family Genealogy and has gone all the way back to England on Paul's mother's mother's side. As far as I know, Uncle George has not gone all the way back to England on Paul's mother's father's side, but the general consensus is that they did. Get all that?
Anyhow, back in 2003 we decided to concentrate on my family.
We have found out that:
- On my father's father's side: My grandfather's father's family came to America from England in 1638 and first settled in Malden, MA. My grandfather's mother's parents were born in Germany.
- On my father's mother's side: They came from Chateaugay, Quebec, Canada near the St. Lawrence River in the mid 1800's and settled in Malone, NY.
- On my mother's mother's side: They came from Ireland in 1767 and first settled in South Carolina.
In the last couple of weeks, starting on Memorial Day, we have been getting involved in my mother's father's family. We found out that they came from England in 1632 and first settled in Plymouth, MA.
It has been so much fun finding all of this out and then following how they eventually ended up living in this area. We have Family Tree Maker on our computer and have added all of our information there.
Today we went to the Blandford Historical Society and the Blandford Public Library and they gave me so much information.
One of the neat stories that I found out is that my great-great grandfather, William C. Higgins, (the picture of his grave is on my Memorial Day post), served in the Civil War and on his return moved from Worthington, MA to Blandford, MA and started a basket factory.
This is a picture that my mother gave me years ago of his basket factory.
Through the help of the historical society and the library we were able to find the address of the old basket factory. It has been remodeled into a private home. We left a picture of the old factory for the new owners (they were not home at the time) and they called us back to thank us. They knew their home had been a basket factory at one time but had never seen a picture of it. The man said that when he and his son were building a patio a few years ago they actually found remnants of basket making in the ground.
This is what it looks like now.
The historical society also told us there was a relative in Chesterfield who still operated a basket shop. We located it, but to my dismay, it was closed up. We found out that this had been the basket shop of Benjamin C. Higgins, and his son-in-law had been making baskets there since 1974. He is no longer able to do it and the shop is closed.
This is a picture of The Basket Shop.
I just love doing this. I like all the facts, but I like the stories the most. I am always trying to find out new stories. I guess that is why I like blogging and scrapbooking so much. Maybe some day my "descendants" will be interested in the stories too.
