Fearless Females Blog Post: March 3 ~ What’s In My Name?

I have always believed that my parents did a darn good job at naming their four children. They even managed to add a couple of “y”s just to be different.

For instance, they put a “y” in my middle name, Gayle, and a “y” in my sister Robyn’s name. My sister Laura was named for the 1944 classic film by that name, starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews, and/or the song written by Johnny Mercer from that film.  My brother, Howard Ross, was named for both of our grandfathers.

Pamela was a very popular female first name in the 1950’s. Along with all those Patricias, Deborahs, Karens, and Donnas, the Pamelas abounded during my school years. I probably had half a dozen friends growing up who were named Pamela. It was sometimes hard to keep track of them all, and so we always were distinguishing one from another by using our last names in conversation.  By contrast, you almost never hear of a baby girl being named Pamela these days.

Apparently, the name Pamela was invented in the late 16th century by the poet Sir Philip Sidney for use in his poem “Arcadia.”  Perhaps he wanted to combine two Greek words for “sweet” and “honey.” It was later used by the 18th-century novelist Samuel Richardson for his heroine in Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded.

I have found a couple of uses of variants of Pamela in researching my family tree:

Pamelia Lovell (1834-1904) was my 3rd great grand aunt.
Parmelia Stetson (1826-1904) was the sister-in-law of a half 1st great grand aunt



Lisa Alzo of  The Accidental Genealogist blog is presenting her Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month series in honor of National Women’s History Month.

Fearless Females Blog Post: March 2 ~ Picture of Mary Ross of Mechanic Settlement

Mary Elizabeth Ross

(1848-1904)

Born in Mechanic Settlement, Elgin Parish

Albert County, New Brunswick

Wife of Samuel Bustin

My 2nd Great Grandmother

I am guessing that this picture was taken when Mary was in her 40’s, so perhaps around the turn of the century. She was the wife of a butcher, 30 years her senior, and the mother of nine children.

I chose this picture of her because it is the only picture I have of her. I love this picture because she portrays a life of hard work raising a large family, yet she is dignified and serious in her high collar blouse.

Lisa Alzo of  The Accidental Genealogist blog is presenting her Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month series in honor of National Women’s History Month.

Fearless Females Blog Post: March 1 ~ Favorite Female Ancestor

Pauline Lovell (1880-1958)

It only stands to reason that my favorite female ancestor would be one whom I have written about before. I have referred to my great grand aunt Pauline Lovell in earlier posts, but have now picked her out of the line as my favorite female ancestor to celebrate Women’s History Month 2013 (a daily blog prompt launched by Lisa Alzo, the Accidental Genealogist).

I am drawn to Great Aunt Polly because of her impact on my father in his youth, and by the fact that, as a single woman living around the turn of the century, she seems to have been indispensible to so many family members in their hour of need.

She, along with my great grandmother Alice, was born in Lewiston,  Maine, on April 3, 1880, the eldest daughter of Wallace Lovell and Louisa Brackley. By 20, however, she was a maid for the Herbert Harmons of Noyes Street in Portland, and domestic work seems to have been her lot in life.

By 1910, she was still in Portland, but an important event had occurred in those intervening 10 years. A child had been born to her sister Alice, and this child was my grandmother Mattie. The reason this is significant is that Pauline would play a major role in Mattie’s life, almost from birth, and this influence was evident to me even in my own childhood.

You see, Alice and their cousin Mark Leighton were Mattie’s parents, and because of that circumstance, Mattie was practically abandoned by her mother. It was Pauline, or Polly as she was known, who, for all intents and purposes, raised Mattie to adulthood and beyond, with the attention being returned in kind to her in her later years. The proof lies in the census record for 1910, showing Polly living with her own grandmother and little Mattie, age 4, on Olympia Street, in East Deering, in Portland.

Although I have few records of where she lived and/or worked for the following 20 years, I have to assume that she was assisting greatly in the upbringing of my grandmother. Her own mother, Louisa Washburn, widowed from her third husband, was living in Portland in the 1920 census, and would die later that year. But Pauline was not living with her at this point. I am told she worked as a housekeeper for several doctors' families in Portland. I believe she made frequent trips to New York City, where her mother lived for a time. Some signers in an old autograph book of hers that I found attest to friends she had there. There is no evidence that she ever married.

Thanks to the digitized 1924 Portland Tax Records, I did find that she owned a residence in 1924, in East Deering at 36 Olympia Street, and I believe this is the house my grandmother called home. My grandmother reminisced quite often about swimming in the nearby water off East Deering as a child, and she instilled a love of swimming in my dad, my aunt, and us grandchildren.

Pauline Lovell's
36 Olympia St.
Portland, Maine
1924

These may have been difficult “mothering” years, since family lore says Mattie was sent to St. Joseph’s Convent in Portland at one point. This move wasn't permanent, however, because, by 1930, Mattie had met and married Howard Seavey, and my father was born in November of that year.

I have always heard that Mattie’s 50-year-old Aunt Polly came with the marriage, moving in and living with Mattie, Howard, and their two children for the rest of her active life. By the 1940 census, they were all living at 81 Pine St., in South Portland. My dad remembered her living with them at an earlier (1936-37) address at 77 Deake St. in Portland,

I can only assume that this was “pay back” on my grandmother’s part. My father remembered Aunt Polly chewing tobacco, which I think is wonderful. What a household it must have been to grow up in.  She was also diabetic apparently, and this left a deep impression on my dad. In his later life, when he acquired this disease, memories of his aunt’s suffering haunted him.

Pauline Lovell, 77 years old, sunk into a diabetic coma at Maine General Hospital and passed away on February 23, 1958, just shy of my 3rd birthday. I am sorry I have no personal memories of this strong, determined woman who played such a crucial role in the lives of my grandmother and my dad.

Mattie Leighton Seavey with her Aunt Polly
circa 1930

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Mrs. Lois Cross Libby

Mrs.

LOIS

Wife of

ALLISON LIBBY

DIED

Mar. 25 1860

AE. 76 yrs.

North Street Cemetery

Gorham, Maine

Died of Consumption¹

 

^{1  Maine State Archives; Augusta, Maine; U.S. Census Mortality Schedules, Maine, 1850-1880; Archive Collection: 2; Census Year: 1860; Census Location: Gorham, Cumberland, Maine; Page: 1; Line: 17.}

^{My Third Great Grandmother}

^{N.B. The jury is still out on the my interpretation of the script preceding  the name LOIS. Hopefully, during my next trip to Maine, I will be able to give it a second look. Stay tuned!}