Digging Down East: Scarborough

Showing posts with label Scarborough. Show all posts

Saturday, April 23, 2016

My 64 ~ Researching My 4th Great Grandparents : Allison Libby and Sarah Dam

My 4th great grandfather, Allison Libby, was born in Gorham, Maine, on April 6, 1755. He was the 3rd great grandson of John Libby, "The Immigrant," who arrived on the eastern shores from England in the 1630's.

John Libby (1602-1682) Memorial Stone, Scarborough, Maine

He was the 2nd son of Allison Libby and Sarah Skillings, one of 11 children born to them. At the age of 21, Allison enlisted at Scarborough, for a term of 3 years, in the Revolutionary War, with the rank of Private. He served in Captain Samuel Thoms' Company, in the 15th Massachusetts Regiment, commanded by Col. Benjamin Tupper. He was discharged on December 13, 1779.

A little over a year later, on February 15, 1781, in Scarborough, Allison took Sarah Dam as his bride. Sarah was born in Gorham on December 12, 1760, the daughter of John Dam and Abigail Libby. As described in The Libby Family in America,":

"After the war, he became one of the first settlers of the northern part of Gorham. The removal took place in February. There was no road from Scarborough to Gorham Corner, nor to Saccarappa. His only route was by Stroudwater Village. From Stroudwater he went back to Saccarappa, thence by a logging road into Windham, crossed the river on the ice at Horse-beef falls, and then by another logging road, with all his possessions loaded upon an ox-sled, reached his lonely home."

Together, Allison and Sarah Libby had 13 children, the first three in Scarborough, and the rest in Gorham. Following Allison's death, in 1825, Sarah married for the second time widower Daniel Small, another veteran of the Revolutionary War. He is buried in what is now an apple orchard on the Shaving Hill Road, in Limington, Maine.

Allison and Sarah Libby are buried in the North Street Cemetery, in Gorham, Maine.

Allison Libby's Grave, North Street Cemetery, Gorham, Maine

Sarah Libby's Grave, North Street Cemetery, Gorham, Maine

Most Maine Libby descendants pride themselves on knowing their "Libby number." This number is based on a numbering system devised by the author of "The Libby Family in America," Charles T. Libby. His explanation reads thus:

Following this system, my own number is 10-5-4-2-4-2-5-5-1-1.

John the Immigrant

David - 10th child of John

John - 5th child of David

Allison I - 4th child of John

Allison II - 2nd child of Allison (1733-1813)

Allison III - 4th child of Allison (1755-1816)

Harriet - 2nd child of Allison (1787-1869)

Clarence - 5th child of Harriet

Howard - 5th child of Clarence

Richard - 1st child of Howard

Me - 1st child of Richard

Allison Libby is a Patriot in the DAR's Genealogical Research System (GRS), Ancestor #A070199. Now that I am a Daughter, I plan to add him as one of my supplementals.

Sources:

Ancestry.com, Maine, Birth Records, 1621-1922 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010), Ancestry.com, Maine State Archives; Cultural Building, 84 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0084; Pre 1892 Delayed Returns; Roll #: 66

Ancestry.com, Maine Revolutionary War Bounty Applications, 1835-36 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000), Ancestry.com.

Ancestry.com, U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012), Ancestry.com

Libby, Charles Thornton. The Libby Family in America, 1602-1881 (Portland, B. Thurston and Co., 1881), p. 167.

"Maine, Veterans Cemetery Records, 1676-1918", index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KXQ8-QQZ : accessed 14 Aug 2014), Allison Libby, 1806.

“Revolutionary War Service Records,” database and images, Fold3 (www.fold3.com/image/17719508/ : accessed 13 April 2016); service of Allison Libby (Capt. Samuel Thoms’ Co., in the 15th Battalion of Massachusetts Bay Forces commanded by Col. Benjamin Tupper, Revolutionary War); citing Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, compiled 1894 - ca. 1912, documenting the period 1775 - 1784, Record Group 93, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

52 Ancestors: #51 Josiah Skillings (1734-1745)

Josiah Skillings, my fifth great grand uncle, was born on this date in 1747 in Scarborough, Maine, the second of thirteen children born to Edward Skillings and Sarah Mills, and their first son.

At the age of nearly 10 years, on May 30, 1745, Josiah passed away. There is no record of the cause. But, at the time of his death, his mother Sarah was expecting her seventh child. As was the custom, this next child, born in the fall of 1745, was given the name of the older brother who had died.

This may not have been the best decision, if one were at all superstitious. This seventh child, named Josiah, did not live to his second birthday.

When a set of male twins was born to Edward and Sarah in 1752, one of the twin brothers was named Josiah, again!

Many 18th century families consisted of a large number of children, as insurance against the high childhood mortality rate.

The re-use of first names, as this example shows, was also very common.

Sources:

Descendants of Thomas and Deborah (?) Skillings of Cumberland Co, Maine (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~arlene/Skillings/sources.htm#f418b)

Sargent, William M., Esq, "Records of the First Congregational Church in Scarborough, Maine," Maine Historical and Genealogical Recorder multiple (Baptisms: 2:162; 3:8-12; Marriages: 2:83-90; 144-150; 238-243).

Skillings, Franklin. Memoir of Robert F. Skillings, with genealogy and poems (Portland: Smith & Sale, printers, 1911), pp.8-9.

“The Skillings Family,” Maine Historical and Genealogical Record, Vol. II, No. 2 (1885), p. 106.

***

This is the 51st in a series, “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks,” coordinated by Amy Johnson Crow at

No Story Too Small.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

52 Ancestors: #20 Edward Skillings (1711-1779)

Edward Skillings, my sixth great grandfather, was born on this date in 1711, in either Scarborough or Kittery, Maine, the second of five children born to Josiah Skillings and Elizabeth Lydston, and their second son. His older brother John had died at age 10, and his youngest two siblings both died so young there is no record of their names. His sister Elizabeth lived to adulthood, married twice, and had a large family.

Edward married Sarah Mills (some sources say Miller) in Scarborough or Kittery, Maine, on March 23, 1731/2. It is recorded in the records of Scarborough's Congregational Church. Sarah was born December 25, 1712, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the daughter of Benjamin Mills and Lydia Fernald.

Edward and Sarah lived in Scarborough and attended the First Congregational Church there.

In December of his marriage year, Edward was given a deed of land by his mother's second husband, Roger Deering, consisting of 100 acres of land in Scarborough, 1/6 of 1/2 of a sawmill on the Nonesuch River, and 1/6 of 1/2 of the stream.

Photo credit: Doug Kerr / Creative Commons

Edward and Sarah had 13 children, three of whom they named Josiah:

Elizabeth, b. 1733

Josiah, b. 1734; d. 1745

Lydia, b. 1736

Sarah, b.1738

John, b.1740

Catherine, b.1743

Josiah, b.1745; d. 1747

Simeon, b. 1747

Mark, b. 1750

Josiah (twin), b. 1752

Benjamin (twin), b. 1752

Rebecca, b. 1754

Edward, Jr., b.1756

Edward died in Scarborough on November 3, 1779 of smallpox, at 68 years of age. Although it is unknown when Sarah passed away, both Edward and Sarah were buried in what is known as a "lost cemetery," on Pig Knoll, on a crest alongside Running Hill Road.

Photo credit:

U.S. History Images

(http://ushistoryimages.com/colonial-times.shtm)

Scarborough, Maine

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougtone/8184832579/);

[CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Sources:

Davis Walter Goodwin, Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis, 3 volumes. (Baltimore, MD, Genealogical Publishing Co., 1996), 2:605-606.

Descendants of Thomas and Deborah (?) Skillings of Cumberland Co, Maine (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~arlene/Skillings/sources.htm#f418b)

Find-a-Grave memorials for Edward and Sarah (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gsr&GScid=2368981)

Libby, Charles Thornton. The Libby Family in America, 1602-1881 (Portland, B. Thurston and Co., 1881), p. 97.

Sargent, William M., Esq, "Records of the First Congregational Church in Scarborough, Maine," Maine Historical and Genealogical Recorder multiple (Baptisms: 2:162; 3:8-12; Marriages: 2:83-90; 144-150; 238-243).

***

This is the 20th in a series, “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks,” coordinated by Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Mappy Monday ~ The Lost Cemetery on Pig Knoll in Scarborough, Maine

My 6th great grandparents, Edward and Sarah (Mills) Skillings are buried in a "lost cemetery." Pig Knoll lies along the present Running Hill Road in Scarborough, Maine, a two-lane route located near the present Maine Mall and the Portland International Jetport. It is 167 feet above sea level, is entirely overgrown and dwarfed by the commercial development surrounding it. There is no evidence that it was ever used as a burial ground.

Edward Skillings had acquired about 110 acres in this part of Scarborough in the 1730's. This land included plots located near the crest of Running Hill. He was at times both a farmer and a fisherman. He had married Sarah Mills in Kittery, Maine in the early 1730's. She was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the daughter of Benjamin Mills and Lydia Fernald. They attended the Scarborough Congregational Church. Edward and Sarah had 13 children, all born in Scarborough.

Edward died in Scarborough on November 3, 1779, possibly of smallpox. There is no record of when his wife Sarah died. Both were buried on Pig Knoll.

Pig Knoll (43.6301 N - 70.3589 W)

Sources:

Descendants of Thomas and Deborah (?) Skillings of Cumberland Co, Maine (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~arlene/Skillings/sources.htm#f418b

Find-a-Grave memorials for Edward and Sarah (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gsr&GScid=2368981

Henley, Thomas Shaw, Descendants of Thomas Skillin of Falmouth (Now Portland), Maine and Allied Familes. (Tavares, Florida, March 2010).

Libby, Charles Thornton. The Libby Family in America, 1602-1881 (Portland, B. Thurston and Co., 1881), p. 83.

Map:

http://www.mountainzone.com/mountains/detail.asp?fid=7758856

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Treasure Chest Thursday ~ A Class Ring Restored (Or: Why I Blog About My Family)

There are times (we hate to admit it) when it seems we are blogging in the great World Wide Web to no one in particular. Maybe no else in the family has really taken an interest in this quest that keeps you up till the wee hours of the night, and you begin to wonder if anyone else, besides you, really cares.

Then, out of the blue, you receive that email.

Mine arrived on April 1st of this year. It read something like this:

Hi Pam,

My name is Gary ... I live in Scarborough, Maine. My wife Deb was going through her "old" family jewelry box and came across a Portland High School class ring dated 1930 with an inscription inside. As we could not put any of Deb's relatives in Portland High at that time (I am an outsider, or "from away" as they say, even after living here for 45 years!) I contacted the Portland Public Library and gave them the info I had on the ring. the lady I spoke to ... came up with a young lady in the 1930 Totem yearbook with a last name of Parsons. Being the family chaser of ghost, I did some Ancestry.com searching and found your entry on her passage and interment at Evergreen Cemetery.

I've attached a pix of the ring, albeit a bit fuzzy. My wife would like to return the ring to a family member, no strings attached. If you are open to a telephone call we can be reached ...

Sincerely,

Gary and Deb

Attached to the email was a picture of the ring:

What followed was a series of emails and phone calls between myself and Gary and Deb, in which Gary described the engraved "FEP" on the inside of the band. These exchanges solidified my suspicion that the ring belonged to my great aunt Flora Elizabeth Parsons Bustin. We also tried to come up with various possible scenarios as to how the ring came into Deb's possession.

Deb's father had been a Scarborough police officer, and, as I have chronicled in this space, my great aunt Flora Parsons Bustin lived and worked at the Atlantic House in Scarborough as a young woman. Perhaps Deb's dad found it somewhere in Scarborough and hung onto it. Maybe Flora removed it from her finger at the Atlantic House while cooking (she started out as a "salad girl" and became the Head Pastry Chef).

These conversations ultimately led to my calling Flora's daughter and my cousin Laurine, who now lives in Michigan. Although I was the flower girl in her wedding in 1960, we had not spoken in many years. She was absolutely thrilled to hear about the discovery of her mother's class ring, and we had a wonderful conversation about her mother's early life. She told me that her mother actually transferred from Deering High School for her Junior and Senior years, because Portland High School had a better selection of cooking classes. She has no memory of seeing the Portland High School ring, and doesn't remember her mother speaking of losing it.

As we reminisced about days gone by, we talked about my flower girl debut, her mom and dad, and many other fond memories.* She and her husband have one daughter, so it is appropriate and meaningful that the ring be given to her. Following an exchange of addresses, the ring was promptly mailed to my cousin Laurine by Gary and Deb in a beautiful quilted box, and a wonderful restoration of a family heirloom was celebrated.

Here's the page of the 1930 Portland High School yearbook, the Totem, where Flora's senior picture and profile appeared:

Ancestry.com.U.S. School Yearbooks

Who knows what would have happened to this treasure if I had not become interested in genealogy, started a genealogy blog, and began adding memorials to Find A Grave, which are now available on Ancestry.com.

It's the totally random connections like this one that keep me blogging about my family, because I will never know what will ultimately come of all my efforts.

*My mother was Flora's flower girl in 1937, at the age of 5.