What was baffling was that my mom shared very little of this information before now. I knew my great grandfather went to Brown and that my grandfather was a research chemist for DuPont with numerous patents to his name and even that my mother cut her leg on the beach while on vacation. It wasn’t until last week that she revealed that the beach was on Martha’s Vineyard. This past week I also discovered that my grandmother went to high school with Rose Kennedy. Additionally my mother also revealed that her family would often hear of the Kennedy gossip through their neighbors in Oak Bluffs. I never found out exactly what happened to the farm. My grandmother wrote that it was sold, but she did not say when nor did she say if the big house stayed in the family and if so who retained the deed. A search on the address my grandmother remembered did not match the current town records. My assumption was that it was sold to a developer and the original road no longer exists. The McCreery Department store went out of business in 1953 after 116 years in operation. It survived the Depression, but closed its doors amidst the news of Stalin’s death, the execution of the Rosenbergs, and the end of the Korean War when Dwight D. Eisenhower served as President.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Family Matters Part 6
The information was confusing at times because names like Charles and Isabel are repeated in different generations. My initial research also had some discrepancies as well. There were two different dates for Isabel Turner’s voyage to America more than thirty years apart. The family Bible anchors the 1881 date for the Turners. After more research I determined the other date of 1850 to be when the McCreery side of the family came to America. While it is much more difficult to research women because of the changing of their last name in marriage, I also believe there was more information on the McCreery side partially due to socioeconomic status. The wealth of the McCreerys makes them more fascinating to research. This coupled with the fact that the McCreerys had more news articles and other records written about them made information easier to find. My grandmother’s brothers were also well established, one a surgeon, another a civil engineer that helped build part of Boston, and a third brother who was a principal at a school. This was documented in more letters in my grandmother’s hand, but I could not authenticate the information on the internet.
What was baffling was that my mom shared very little of this information before now. I knew my great grandfather went to Brown and that my grandfather was a research chemist for DuPont with numerous patents to his name and even that my mother cut her leg on the beach while on vacation. It wasn’t until last week that she revealed that the beach was on Martha’s Vineyard. This past week I also discovered that my grandmother went to high school with Rose Kennedy. Additionally my mother also revealed that her family would often hear of the Kennedy gossip through their neighbors in Oak Bluffs. I never found out exactly what happened to the farm. My grandmother wrote that it was sold, but she did not say when nor did she say if the big house stayed in the family and if so who retained the deed. A search on the address my grandmother remembered did not match the current town records. My assumption was that it was sold to a developer and the original road no longer exists. The McCreery Department store went out of business in 1953 after 116 years in operation. It survived the Depression, but closed its doors amidst the news of Stalin’s death, the execution of the Rosenbergs, and the end of the Korean War when Dwight D. Eisenhower served as President.
What was baffling was that my mom shared very little of this information before now. I knew my great grandfather went to Brown and that my grandfather was a research chemist for DuPont with numerous patents to his name and even that my mother cut her leg on the beach while on vacation. It wasn’t until last week that she revealed that the beach was on Martha’s Vineyard. This past week I also discovered that my grandmother went to high school with Rose Kennedy. Additionally my mother also revealed that her family would often hear of the Kennedy gossip through their neighbors in Oak Bluffs. I never found out exactly what happened to the farm. My grandmother wrote that it was sold, but she did not say when nor did she say if the big house stayed in the family and if so who retained the deed. A search on the address my grandmother remembered did not match the current town records. My assumption was that it was sold to a developer and the original road no longer exists. The McCreery Department store went out of business in 1953 after 116 years in operation. It survived the Depression, but closed its doors amidst the news of Stalin’s death, the execution of the Rosenbergs, and the end of the Korean War when Dwight D. Eisenhower served as President.
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