I'd like to wish a Happy Birthday to my great great great
grandmother Lona Pullen.

Lona "Lonie" Pullen born 31 March 1813 in Anson, Somerset County,
Maine daughter of Jonathan Pullen (Stephen 4, James 3, Nicholas 2,
John 1) and Sylvia Bonney (Simeon 5, Isaac 4, William 3, Thomas 2,
Thomas 1). She died 14 April 1875.

Her husband was William Gamage born 20 March 1805 son of William
Gamage (Joshua 4, Nathaniel 3, Joshua 2, John 1) and Betsey Beal
(Samuel 5, Samuel 4, Samuel 3, Aaron 2, William 1). He died 19
October 1885.

Married 15 December 1831.

Children:

1. Sylvia Pullen Gamage born 9 November 1832 in North Anson,
Somerset County, Maine, died between 12 May 1915 and 1926 in
Madison, Somerset County, Maine. Married Orrington L Williams son
of Thomas B Williams and Elvira Briery. (my line)

2. Sarah A Gamage born 5 February 1834, married Austin Andrews.

3. Augustine H Gamage born 29 November 1835 in "West" Anson (Gamage
Hill), Maine, married Abbie Rowe.

4. Clara Gamage born 23 September 1837, died 20 March 187_. Married
Albert Potter.

5. Francis Gamage born 25 September 1839, died 21 March 1886.
Married Ellen Brama.

6. Ellen Gamage born 5 July 1841, died 5 July 1841.

7. John M Gamage born 25 November 1842, died 30 December 1883.
Married Mae Edgely.

8. William H Gamage born 23 January 1845, died 7 March 1875.

9. Ira D Gamage born 18 January 1852, died 8 June 1872.

10. Ida M Gamage born 28 September 1854, died 5 October 1864.


1-- Nicholas Pullen (1683-1723)             Mary Tucker (1690-1726)
2-- James Pullen (1720-1785)                Lydia Woodcock (1722-____)
3-- Stephen Pullen (1744-1815)              Mercy or Mary
Blackington (1748/9-1802)
4-- Jonathan Pullen (1771-____)             Sylvia Bonney (1771-____)
5-- Lona (Lonie) Pullen (1813-1875)         William Gamage (1805-1885)
6-- Sylvia Pullen Gamage (1832-____)        Orrington L Williams
(1837-1916)
7-- Alice Eldora Williams (1867-1950)       Edward Jones Washburn
(1861-1914)
8-- Evangeline Estelle Washburn (1895-1981) Vivian Daniel Sylvester
(1893-1968)
9-- Living Sylvester (1917-)                Living Merry (1924-)
10--David Wayne Sylvester (1951-)           Living (1955-)
11--Living Sylvester (1991-)

http://genealogy.about.com/od/basics/a/cluster.htm?nl=1

Our ancestors did not live in isolation, although we often research
them as if they did. They were part of a family, with siblings,
parents, aunts and uncles, cousins and other relatives. They were also
part of a community, with friends, neighbors, classmates, and
co-workers. This "cluster" of family, friends and neighbors can
provide valuable clues to the lives of our ancestors.

Cluster genealogy, sometimes referred to as whole family or extended
family genealogy, is the practice of extending your research on a
person to the individuals and families to which he was connected.
These connections could range from his brother or spouse, to the
neighbor who appeared as a witness on a land deed.

Why Cluster Genealogy?

Read more at

http://genealogy.about.com/od/basics/a/cluster.htm?nl=1

http://files.usgwarchives.net/ma/mastate/colonialmaine.txt


Thanks to Janice for transcribing!


David

http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=369


On This Day...

       ...in 1659, a law was passed by the General
Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony requiring a
five-shilling fine from anyone caught "observing
any such day as Christmas or the like, either by
forbearing of labor, feasting, or any other way."
Christmas Day was deemed by the Puritans to be a
time of seasonal excess with no Biblical
authority. The law was repealed in 1681 along
with several other laws, under pressure from the
government in London. It was not until 1856 that
Christmas Day became a state holiday in
Massachusetts. For two centuries preceding that
date, the observance of Christmas ­ or lack
thereof ­ represented a cultural tug of war
between Puritan ideals and British tradition.

Background


Like other Massachusetts Puritans, the Reverend
Increase Mather considered Christmas a "profane
and superstitious custom." The Boston minister
wrote in 1687 that December 25th was observed as
the birth date of Christ not because "Christ was
born in that Month, but because the Heathens
Saturnalia was at the time kept in Rome, and they
were willing to have those Pagan Holidays
metamorphosed into Christian [ones]." He was correct.

The English men and women who came to New England
in the 1600s were familiar with Christmas as it
was celebrated in Britain. The Christmas season
began in late November and continued well into
the New Year, coinciding with a natural break in
the agricultural cycle. It was a time of
feasting, excessive alcohol consumption, general
merry-making, and "misrule" (the turning of
social conventions upside down). Men of means
were expected to open their homes and furnish
those less well off with food and drink.

Massachusetts Puritans sought to put an end to
the celebration of Christmas with all of its
excesses. Almanacs published in the Bay Colony
did not mark December 25th as Christmas Day.

While the Puritans succeeded in suppressing most
holiday revelry, they could not quell it
completely. The authorities condemned
<http://www.massmoments.org/index.cfm?mid=135>fishermen
and other residents of the region's coastal
villages as irreligious; they behaved in
unacceptable ways, from heavy drinking to "keeping Christmas."

One Christmas conflict occurred in Salem in 1679.
On the night of December 25th, four men entered
the home of farmer John Rowden and helped
themselves to seats by the fire, began to sing,
and then demanded cups of the Rowdens' pear wine.
After being repeatedly refused, they pretended to
leave the house, only to return and demand money.
Turned out again, they continued their
harassment, throwing "stones, bones, and other
things" at the house and stealing several pecks
of apples. These men were re-enacting the
time-honored English tradition of "wassailing,"
where lower-class revelers entered the homes of
their social superiors at Christmas time. In
exchange for singing and mumming, the uninvited
guests generally received gifts of food, drink,
or money. In England, the tradition had long
fostered good will between people who occupied
different rungs of the social ladder, but as the
events in Salem indicate, this was not so in Puritan New England.

Under pressure from the British government,
Massachusetts repealed the law against Christmas
festivities in 1681. The holiday was widely, and
sometimes wildly, celebrated from 1687 to 1689,
the period after Massachusetts Bay lost its
charter and was governed by an English official.
When the colony regained its charter in 1689,
public expressions of Christmas cheer ended, at
least for the time being.

The observance of Christmas did not disappear
altogether, and soon a movement was afoot to
purify and temper the custom, rather than stamp
it out altogether. By the 1750s the most common
New England hymnal, the Bay Psalm Book, included
Christmas hymns, and by 1760 most almanacs named
December 25th Christmas Day. Christmas music by
New England composers appeared in song books
published in the second half of the eighteenth
century; the Worcester Collection of Sacred
Harmony, published by
<http://www.massmoments.org/index.cfm?mid=24>Isaiah
Thomas in 1786, even included Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus."

In the early nineteenth century, fear that
excessive drinking, aggressive begging, and
riotous processions associated with Christmas
posed a threat to public order moved middle- and
upper-class Americans to re-make Christmas as a
family holiday. The social and business elite
collaborated with the press to reshape Christmas
into a well-regulated domestic celebration. The
chief beneficiaries of this kind of Christmas were children.

The new, child-centered Christmas was idealized
by Clement Clarke Moore's 1822 poem, "A Visit
from St. Nicholas," which introduced Santa Claus
into American lore. A few years later,
Stockbridge writer
<http://www.massmoments.org/index.cfm?mid=244>Catharine
Maria Sedgwick published a story that created an
indelible image of wide-eyed children discovering
a Christmas tree surrounded by gifts.

The gift-bearing St. Nick and present-laden fir
tree coincided with a consumer revolution in
nineteenth-century New England. Merchants and
shopkeepers capitalized on the new materialism by
advertising "thoughtful gifts" for children and
others within the domestic circle.

By the 1840s many states began to make Christmas
a legal holiday. An 1856 Massachusetts law
accorded this status to Christmas, Washington's
Birthday, and July 4th. The success of this
measure was due to the growing number of Irish
Catholics in the electorate. Public offices were
also to be closed on these days, and it was
expected that businesses would follow suit. In
time they did. Early in the twenty-first century,
December 25th remains one of the few days that
the nation's economic engine is still.

Sources

The Battle for Christmas, by Stephen Nissenbaum
(Alfred A. Knopf, 1996).

Testimony against Several Profane and
Superstitious Customs, Now Practiced by Some in
New-England, by Increase Mather (1687).


http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=369



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Retracing my steps: Gamage - Pullen connection -
http://www.feliixplace.com/genealogy/washburn.html

William Gamage born 20 March 1805 son of William Gamage (Joshua 4,
Nathaniel 3, Joshua 2, John 1) and Betsey Beal (Samuel 5, Samuel 4,
Samuel 3, Aaron 2, William 1). He died 19 October 1885.

Lona "Lonie" Pullen born 31 March 1813 in Anson, Somerset County,
Maine daughter of Jonathan Pullen (Stephen 4, James 3, Nicholas 2,
John 1) and Sylvia Bonney (Simeon 5, Isaac 4, William 3, Thomas 2,
Thomas 1). She died 14 April 1875.

Married 15 December 1831.

Children:

1. Sylvia Pullen Gamage born 9 November 1832 in North Anson,
Somerset County, Maine, died between 12 May 1915 and 1926 in
Madison, Somerset County, Maine. Married Orrington L Williams son
of Thomas B Williams and Elvira Briery.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GamageNewEnglandRoots/message/1

2. Sarah A Gamage born 5 February 1834, married Austin Andrews.

3. Augustine H Gamage born 29 November 1835 in "West" Anson (Gamage
Hill), Maine, married Abbie Rowe.

4. Clara Gamage born 23 September 1837, died 20 March 187_. Married
Albert Potter.

5. Francis Gamage born 25 September 1839, died 21 March 1886.
Married Ellen Brama.

6. Ellen Gamage born 5 July 1841, died 5 July 1841.

7. John M Gamage born 25 November 1842, died 30 December 1883.
Married Mae Edgely.

8. William H Gamage born 23 January 1845, died 7 March 1875.

9. Ira D Gamage born 18 January 1852, died 8 June 1872.

10. Ida M Gamage born 28 September 1854, died 5 October 1864.


If you have anything to add, subtract, confirm or refute or if you
have any connection with this family I'd like to hear from you.

If you'd like to add this information to your database or share it
with others feel free to do so and please cite the source.  If you
would like to publish this information in your web site, your own
book, CD or other publication I would appreciate a note from you
saying so. This data is not to be submitted to any person,
organization or firm that in the business of collecting data to put
on commercial CD's or commercial web sites for the purpose of
selling it to their patrons.



Best wishes,
David


David Sylvester
28 North Searsport Road
Searsport, Maine 04974

Free Genealogy -- Roots should be shared.

Retracing my steps: Williams - Briery connection -
http://www.feliixplace.com/genealogy/washburn.html

Thomas B Williams born 6 January 1815 son of Nathaniel Hall
Williams (George 3, Samuel 2, Thomas 1) and Judith Brieryhurst
(Thomas Bryeryhurst 2, John Brierhurst 1). He died 2 October 1891
in Pittsfield, Somerset County, Maine.

Elvira Briery born 1817 in Bowdoin, Sagadahoc County, Maine
daughter of John Briery (Thomas Bryeryhurst 2, John Brierhurst 1)
and Hannah Hough (parents unknown). She died 8 October 1881 in
Pittsfield.

Married 1833. (first cousins)

Children:

1. Martha W. Williams born 1836 in Bowdoin, married Levi Taylor Jr.

2. Orrington L Williams born 25 October 1837 in Bowdoin, died 1916
in Madison, Somerset County, Maine. Married Sylvia Pullen Gamage
daughter of William Gamage and Lonie or Lona Pullen.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WilliamsNewEnglandRoots/message/2

3. Jane H. Williams born 26 October 1842 in Pittsfield. Married
Frank Hannaford.

4. Abby F Williams born 29 October 1845 in Pittsfield. Married
Samuel Taylor. Three children.

5. Emma Williams born November 1847 in Pittsfield. Married William
A Pushor.


If you have anything to add, subtract, confirm or refute or if you
have any connection with this family I'd like to hear from you.

If you'd like to add this information to your database or share it
with others feel free to do so and please cite the source.  If you
would like to publish this information in your web site, your own
book, CD or other publication I would appreciate a note from you
saying so. This data is not to be submitted to any person,
organization or firm that in the business of collecting data to put
on commercial CD's or commercial web sites for the purpose of
selling it to their patrons.



Best wishes,
David


David Sylvester
28 North Searsport Road
Searsport, Maine 04974

Free Genealogy -- Roots should be shared.

Video: Early Settlers of New England

In 1940 Encyclopaedia Britannica Films created an educational film
that shows the life of the early settlers of Naumkeag, a village that
later was renamed to Salem, Massachusetts. It shows the lifestyles of
1626 through 1629. This video is now available online and certainly
will interest anyone who had ancestors most anywhere in New England.
You can see how your ancestors lived.

http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2008/07/video-early-set.html




Feel free to forward this message.

David

Retracing my steps: Williams - Gamage connection -
http://www.feliixplace.com/genealogy/washburn.html

Orrington L Williams born 25 October 1837 in Bowdoin, Sagadahoc
County, Maine son of Thomas B Williams (Nathaniel Hall Williams 4,
George 3, Samuel 2, Thomas 1) and Elvira Briery daughter of John
Briery (Thomas [Bryeryhurst] 2, John [Brierhurst] 1). He died 1916
in Madison, Somerset County, Maine.

Sylvia Pullen Gamage born 9 November 1832 in North Anson, Somerset
County, Maine daughter of William Gamage (William 5, Joshua 4,
Nathaniel 3, Joshua 2, John 1) and Lonie or Lona Pullen (Jonathan
5, Stephen 4, James 3, Nicholas 2, John 1). She died between 12 May
1915 and 1926 in Madison.

Married 9 September 1860.

Children:

1. Cora Estelle Williams born 24 July 1863, died 17 September 1928.
Married Mr. Fogg.

2. Alice Eldora Williams born 3 July 1867 or 1968 in Madison.
Married Edward Jones Washburn son of Alden F Washburn and Judith L
Jones. Three daughters.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WilliamsNewEnglandRoots/message/1

3. Willard Williams born 1869/70, died 1942.


If you have anything to add, subtract, confirm or refute or if you
have any connection with this family I'd like to hear from you.

If you'd like to add this information to your database or share it
with others feel free to do so and please cite the source.  If you
would like to publish this information in your web site, your own
book, CD or other publication I would appreciate a note from you
saying so. This data is not to be submitted to any person,
organization or firm that in the business of collecting data to put
on commercial CD's or commercial web sites for the purpose of
selling it to their patrons.



Best wishes,
David


David Sylvester
28 North Searsport Road
Searsport, Maine 04974

Free Genealogy -- Roots should be shared.