Qualifying for DAR Membership: 52 Ancestors 2021 Prompt “Groups”

 Surprise Discovery: I Qualify to Join the DAR Five Times Over

When I was a senior in high school, I was surprised to receive a modest scholarship from the New Ulm Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the DAR. I believe that the award was for $200, a nice amount for a work-study student. I didn’t understand why they had chosen me, the daughter of Norwegian and German immigrants who arrived in America long after the American Revolution. I won a National Merit Scholarship that year, which had received coverage in the local newspaper, so assumed they chose me to honor a local student’s achievement. I felt a little sorry that they weren’t able to find any real descendants of Revolutionary War soldiers to honor instead.

It turns out the joke is on me, for once I began to research my ancestry, I discovered that I qualify to become a member of the DAR several times over. While it is true that the majority of my ancestors came from Germany and Scandanavia in the 1800s, my grandfather Ivan Macbeth’s ancestors arrived in America far earlier, just a few years after the Pilgrims. Thus far, I have identified five direct ancestors who served in the Revolutionary War. They are as follows:

1.      Joseph Burtt 1726-1820. 5^th Great-Grandfather

Served as a private in Capt. Joshua Holt’s 4^th Andover Company.

2.      Nathaniel Mills Jr. 1743-1814. 5^th Great-Grandfather.

Served in Lt. Paine Converse’ Company of the Connecticut 11^th Regiment.

3.      Israel Randall 1743-1829. 5^th Great-Grandfather.

Served as a Lieutenant under Col. Reynolds’ company of militia from Nottingham, NH Aug. 1776.

4.      John Dane Jr. 1716-1801. 5^th Great Grandfather

Served in Capt. Joshua Holts’ 4^th Andover company as support—too old at 58 to bear arms.

5.      Francis Dane. 1750-1832. 4^th Great-Grandfather—John Dane’s son

Served in Capt. Joshua Holt’s Andover company of foot soldiers. 1775. With Capt, John Abbott, 1775, and in Col. Gage’s Andover regiment in 1777.

At some point I will have to decide which of these ancestors has the best paper trail so that I can prove both that I am their descendant, and that they served in the Revolution. Then I can begin the process of applying for membership with my local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter. In the meantime, I will continue to research other colonial ancestors to see if I have additional veterans of the Revolution in my family tree.

Edmund Ingalls Death by Bridge: 52 Ancestors 2021 Bridge

Possibly the First Wrongful Death Claim Against the Government

Edmund Ingalls: 1598-1648

Although I have previously written a blog post about the life of my ninth-great-grandfather Edmund Ingalls back in 2019, the post only briefly mentioned his dramatic death and the events that followed. Edmund was the only person in my tree who died as a result of a defective bridge.

Edmund Ingalls lived in and was one of the original settlers of Lynn, Massachusetts. In early March 1648, Edmund was returning home to Lynn from Boston, and was crossing the Saugus River on a bridge near Lynn. The bridge collapsed beneath Edmund and his horse and both plunged into the river.

1600s map of Lynn, Massachusetts area

I originally assumed Edmund drowned in the river, but apparently he was pulled out, seriously injured. He was able to write his will before dying from his injuries a few days after the accident. Although his birth date has not been verified, he was only around age fifty at the time of his death, and still had minor children at home. This death must have been a shocking blow to his family economically as well as emotionally.

The book The History of Lynn by Lewis and Newhall included a summary of events that occurred in the year 1648, which stated that “on the 23d of March, the Court allowed the town twenty pounds toward repairing the ‘great bridge’ over Saugus river. On the 18th of October thirty shillings were granted annually for the same purpose.” The repairs were obviously necessitated by the collapse that threw Edmund into the river.

Lynn, Massachusetts, 1800s, by John Bachelder

At some point after Edmund’s death, his eldest son Robert Ingalls, then age 27, filed a legal petition with the local courts on behalf of the family seeking compensation for Edmund’s death.

The History of Lynn by Lewis and Newhall includes a transcription of the petition, which reads as follows:

“The humble petition of Robert Ingalls with the rest of his brethren and sisters, being eight in number, humbly sheweth, that whereas your poor petitioners father hath been deprived of life by the insufficiency of Lynne Bridge, so called, to the great impoverishinge of your poore petitioners mother and themselves, and there being a Court order that any person soe dyeing through such insufficiency of any bridge in the countrye, that there should be an hundred pounds forfeit to the next heire, may it therefore please this honorable Court to take your poore petitioners case into consideration.” (page 112)

Further in the history, the outcome of the petition is reported:

“This was granted. It was in conformity with an old British law, established by Howell the Good, King of Wales, by which the value of each person’s life was nominally fixed, and so much money paid, in case of his being killed.” (page 223)

This petition may be the earliest example of a wrongful death suit in colonial America.

Note that the cost of repairing the bridge was one fifth the amount paid to the Ingalls family for his death. This helps to show what a large sum one hundred pounds really was in 1648. Edmund’s tragic and untimely death shows that infrastructure maintenance was as critical in colonial America as it is today, and that governments were just as reluctant then to pay for this maintenance as now.

Sources:

History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscott, and Nahant

by Lewis, Alonzo, 1794-1861; Newhall, James R. (James Robinson), 1809-1893, pgs. 110 and 223,

https://archive.org/details/historyoflynness01lewi/page/110/mode/2up

 

Incredible summary of sources for life of Edmund Ingalls

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ingalls-52#_note-Burleigh

Burleigh, Charles: The Genealogy and History of the Ingalls Family in America Giving the descendants of Edmund Ingalls who settled in Lynn, Mass, in 1629, Published by Geo. E. Dunbar, Malden, Mass., 1903. https://archive.org/details/genealogyhistory01burl/page/16/mode/2up?view=theater

Some English Material Pertaining to Edmund and Francis Ingalls of Lynn, Mass by John Brooks Threlfall, published in Volume 52 (1976), pages 241-3 of The American Genealogist. New Haven, CT: D. L. Jacobus, 1937-.

https://www.americanancestors.org/databases/american-genealogist-the/image/?volumeId=12344&pageName=241&rId=24157683

Additional English Data on Ingalls by Rosalyn Davenport Gibbs, published in Volume 56 (1979), pages 109-110 of The American Genealogist. New Haven, CT: D. L. Jacobus, 1937-. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009 - .)

https://www.americanancestors.org/databases/american-genealogist-the/image/?volumeId=12605&pageName=110&rId=24379154

Lynn, Mass [art original] : west view from near High Rock Subject: Highs Rock Cottage and High Rock are depicted in a circular vignette beneath the image. John Bachelder, painter. Out of copyright.

Bachelder, John B. (John Badger), 1825-1894Endicott & Co. (New York, N.Y.)

At Home in Hanska: 52 Ancestors 2021 Prompt “Cousin Bait”

 Learning About Ancestors from My Hometown’s Facebook Group

 

            About a year and half ago, an old high school classmate from my hometown invited me to join a Facebook Group called “At Home in Hanska”. I joined out of curiosity, and I am so happy I did.

            Hanska is my hometown. It is a small Norwegian community located in Brown County, Minnesota. The current population is around 400—it has always been home to only a few hundred people, with a large number of additional families scattered on farms that surround the town.

            I’m not sure who set up the Facebook group in the first place. Here is the “About” description of the group:

“Welcome to "At Home in Hanska"! A group created for anyone who grew up in; lives in; has lived in; or wants to live in HANSKA! If none of these apply, you're still welcome here! Please invite anyone who might be interested in joining this group. The more the merrier! Anything goes: memories, announcements, questions, photos, etc.”

            In practice, a lot of members have taken to posting 19^th and early 20^th century photos of their ancestors from the community. They seek to share them with any cousins who might be members would appreciate seeing them. Sometimes they ask for help identifying the people and location in the photos.

An example of a typical post--but one without people to protect others' privacy...

            I have learned so much from the comments the photos generate—people generously share information about family relationships, areas of Norway that families immigrated from, original homesteads that those families settled on when they arrived in Minnesota, and more. I have shared a few photos myself, and got appreciative comments from several cousins who are also members.

            One of my most exciting recent discoveries was a photo of my dad’s oldest sister, Anna Peterson, who died before he was even born. This church confirmation photo from 1910 was the earliest photo of her I’d ever seen—all other photos show her at age 16, just a year before her death.

            So this wonderful little Facebook Group has truly served as “cousin bait”—it lured me in, and connected me with family members I haven’t seen in person for years, and helped me identify more distant cousins and understand how we are related. I really enjoy visiting the page to see what new treasures have been posted.