A Quilting Queen: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “Homemade”

 

The Extraordinary Life of Mary Abbott Bridge’s Quilt

Mary Abbott Bridges: 1701-1774 (Maternal First Cousin 9x Removed)
 

Sometimes I run across a little story or piece of information that just delights or enlightens me so much that I need to blog about it, even though the ancestor in question is so distantly related to me that the connection seems ridiculous. Frankly, I don’t care. To me, the important thing about genealogy is learning about the past through my ancestors. History is my motivation. So here I am blogging about a first cousin NINE TIMES REMOVED. But this cousin was an artist with needle and thread, and she deserves to be remembered.

Mary Abbott was born March 23, 1701, to parents Nehemiah Abbott and Abigail Lovejoy. Abigail Lovejoy was the sister of Anne Lovejoy, my eighth-great-grandmother. The Abbott and Lovejoy families all lived in Andover, Massachusetts. Mary was one of Nehemiah and Abigail’s three children.

As the only daughter, Mary seems to have taken responsibility for her parents. She didn’t marry while she was a young woman but remained in the family home. On August 31, 1738, she married a widower with five children, James Bridges. She was 37 years old. She and James had three additional children.

During the 1700s, nearly all colonial women were accomplished seamstresses. They needed to make and mend clothing, bedding and any other fabric object needed in their homes. Some were even spinning their own thread and weaving their own fabrics, although during the early 17^th century most fabric was still being imported from England. Mary Abbott was more than just a good seamstress, however. She was a true artist. Around 1738, she finished a large whole-cloth quilt, which has, shockingly, survived for nearly three centuries. As a whole-cloth quilt, the quilt top is a single, solid-color piece of fabric. The artistry comes from the elaborate pattern Mary handstitched in a contrasting thread color to bind the quilt layers together.

The quilt was one of the historic quilts described and recorded as part of the Massachusetts Quilt Project, and the quilt was also included in Lynne Bassett’s book, Massachusetts Quilts: Our Common Wealth.  Bassett described Mary’s quilt as “the earliest bed quilt believed to have been made in Massachusetts”. 

The Quilt Index describes the quilt as being made of a “plain-weave” worsted wool fabric with wool batting and backing. The edges were turned in, so no separate binding fabric was used. The color is described variously as brown, green or “greenish brown”, which doesn’t sound very attractive. However, one source I read said that colonists in the early 1700s preferred basic, dark colors such as browns, dark blues, and greys, so Mary’s fabric choice was fairly standard for that era. Mary used a blue worsted thread to sew the pattern.

The Quilt index calls the stitching pattern a “motif design” with “feathering” and the design is described as a “framed center medallion.” The Bassett book provides a richer description, noting that the “elegant quilting pattern” was a “combination of English tradition and New England design innovation…Typical of English framed center-medallion design, a central quatrefoil motif—framed by feathered vines terminating in opposing curves at the corners—is surrounded by closely worked vines blooming in an impossible array of stylized flowers, leaves and fruit. A variety of feathered borders provides structure to this wild arrangement.”

The quilt in its current state is 86.5 x 65 inches. According to the Quilt Index, the quilt is structurally sound although worn. As you can see from the image above, the quilt’s pattern does not seem to be complete. The Quilt Index indicates the quilt was “cut down and patched.” I believe a quarter to one-third of the quilt has been cut off, probably due to some sort of damage, with parts of the lost section used to patch the remainder. You can see below that the pattern of the patch doesn’t match that of the surrounding area The original would have had a symmetrical pattern, with the center rosette complete instead of being cut off. I would guess the original dimensions were likely 86.5 x 90 or possibly 100 inches.

So how did Mary manage to create this piece of fabric art? One source I read suggested that most colonial women bought whole-cloth quilts from England, as they didn’t have time to sew for pleasure or beauty during days filled with cooking, childcare, laundry, gardening, etc. Any sewing would have involved maintaining the family’s clothes. Quilting was a pastime for wealthy women, the source said.

The Abbott family was not wealthy, but Mary would have been richer in terms of time than her contemporaries. She was unmarried during her twenties and early thirties, so had no children or husband to care for. Even so, the quilt must have taken an enormous amount of time to complete. Preparing the pattern would have been a huge task by itself. She may have drawn the pattern directly onto the fabric using charcoal, or she may have used a paper template and used a pin to poke the pattern into the fabric. Given the size of the quilt and the elaborate pattern, coupled with her other household responsibilities, I would estimate the project took her at least two years to complete—two years of squinting in poor light in a room either too hot or too cold.   

The Quilt Index record estimates the completion date of the quilt as 1738, which is the year she married James Bridges. Bassett believes the quilt may have been a trousseau piece, “evidence of her desire to bring elegance to her new home.” There is no way to know for certain when she made the piece.

Bassett also notes that James Bridges was a man of “great influence and considerable wealth” who owned several slaves. While her married life may have been financially comfortable, it ended tragically. Her husband James was a maltster, which involved soaking, germinating and then drying grains to produce malt, which was most often used for brewing beer. The drying process required the use of a large kiln. Apparently, James had some sort of accident involving the kiln, as his headstone states said he was “Being melted to death by extreem heat.” What a horrible fate! He was only fifty years old at the time of his death. Mary was left a widow with three young children, ages 8, 6 and 4, and a teenage stepdaughter and 18-year-old stepson. 

James Bridges' headstone with cause of death at bottom

I have been unable to find information about Mary’s life after her husband’s death. Some records claim she remarried in 1750 to a man named Fiske, and that she died in 1774, but I have not been able to confirm the marriage or death.

The history of the quilt is easier to trace. According to the Bassett book, Mary gave her daughter Chloe the quilt. Chloe married Timothy Osgood in 1765. Bassett wrote:

“At that time, it was still the height of fashion to have a whole-cloth quilt on the most important bed in the house, and certainly Chloe welcomed the gift. The quilt passed next to Chloe and Timothy’s son John Osgood (b. 1773), who married Betsy Fuller. John and Betsy’s daughter Harriot (b. 1812) brought the quilt with her to Canada when she married Ralph Rugg of Quebec in 1836.”

Bassett reported that the quilt was donated to the McCord Museum in Montreal, but the museum no longer lists the quilt as being in their collection. The Quilt Index states that the quilt is now in private hands. It is unclear if the quilt had merely been lent to the museum by Mary’s descendants who then reclaimed it, or whether the museum sold it to a private collector.

The location of Mary Abbott Bridges’ quilt is far less important than the fact that it has survived an amazing 288 years. This was not a piece of artwork carefully packed in an archival storage container. Instead, it was a practical household item, used for decades to keep family members warm on cold Massachusetts nights. I hope Mary’s descendants appreciated both the beauty of the quilt and the hard work and artistry that went into its creation.

Sources:

The Quilt Index. Record 11-37-6786. Mary Abbott Whole Cloth Quilt. https://quiltindex.org//view/?type=fullrec&kid=11-37-6786

Massachusetts Quilt Documentation Project (MassQuilts). https://www.massquilts.org/MassQuilts_Project.htm

Massachusetts Quilts: Our Common Wealth. Bassett, Lynne Z. University Press of New England. 2009.

Losing a Job Led to Lost Freedom: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “Working for a Living”

Former Cop Convicted of Crime of Spousal Non-Support

Cecil A. Banker: 1896-1939 (Maternal Second Cousin 2x Removed)

 

When I researched Cecil Banker’s work history, it led to some surprises. He had some fascinating work experiences, but his loss of employment ended up being even more fascinating to me. “Working for a living” had more than one meaning in Cecil’s life. He needed to work to live as a free man.

Cecil Banker was born August 12, 1896 in Janesville, Minnesota. His parents were Albert Banker and Jennie Anderson Banker. He was the second of their three children and was the only boy. While he was still a young child, his parents moved from Janesville back to Wisconsin, where his father had been born. The family settled in Superior, Wisconsin, at the northwest tip of the state on the shore of Lake Superior. Only a bridge separates Superior from the Duluth area of Minnesota.

Map of Superior, Wisconsin

Cecil’s father, Albert, died in 1914 when Cecil was eighteen. Cecil went to work for the Great Northern Railroad, working as a switchman. He married Helen Billmayer on September 8, 1917. He was twenty-one and Helen was two years older.

Cecil registered for the World War I draft in 1918. He listed his job as switchman, with a notation that he has “gasoline experience good”. This was probably a note made by the draft board regarding any work experience that could potentially be valuable to the army. It does not appear that Cecil was drafted or served. Interestingly, he listed his name on the draft form as Cecil Almond Banker. Some records, including his Social Security Application, list his middle name as Albert after his father, rather than the unusual Almond.

Cecil and Jennie had a son, Albert Cecil Banker, on August 17, 1918. They also had a second son, Roger Jay Banker, on February 17, 1923. Sadly, baby Roger died on August 12, 1923 at only six months of age.

At some point in late 1926 or early 1927, Cecil decided to change careers, and went to work for the police force in Superior, Wisconsin. At that point in time, Superior had a population of nearly 40,000 people, far more than today’s 26,000. 

Superior downtown in 1930s

Cecil appears in a few news articles about crimes and arrests in 1927 and 1928, and he is listed as a patrolman. The articles include his arrest of a drunk driver and his assisting a man who claimed to have been robbed and run over by a car.

Arrest notice from Oct 21, 1927 edition of the Superior Evening Telegram

Cecil was fortunate to be employed by the city government when the stock market crashed in 1929 and the country entered the Great Depression. He took and successfully passed the police exam in September 1929. The news article reported that “among those taking the policeman’s test were several who are on the force at present, but since they had not been confirmed, had to go through the exams for the second time.” I assume this is why Cecil took the exam in 1929 despite having worked as a patrol officer for two years.

Cecil was involved in a notorious criminal case in 1929. His commanding officer, a Sergeant Zimmerman, had chastised another officer, Patrolman Ben Meyers, for drinking on the job. Meyers pulled out his service weapon and shot the sergeant. Zimmerman ordered Cecil to arrest Meyers, and then walked to a nearby store to call in his injury. He died days later in the hospital, so the prosecution of Meyers rested in large part on Cecil’s testimony.

Headline from the December 2, 1929 edition of the Superior Evening Telegram

The Superior Evening Telegram reported on Cecil’s testimony in the January 14, 1930 edition:

“Patrolman Banker, the next witness on the stand, was questioned for about two hours and a half. He told of seeing Meyers shortly after midnight, and of seeing Zimmerman a short time later. At 3: 22 a.m., Banker met Zimmerman at Belknap Street and Tower Avenue, he related on the stand, and the two officers walked toward Fourteenth Street. ‘We saw Ben come out from behind the Kindy Optical Company while we were standing in front of the post office,’  Banker testified. ‘Zimmerman said ‘there’s Ben, I’m going over to meet him.’ … Banker watched the two men walk toward Thirteenth Street, he told the jury. Then, shortly after passing a lamp post a few feet from the northeast corner of the street, he saw them separate, he said, and then he heard a shot and saw a flash.

‘Did you watch the two men continually from then on?’ Attorney Cooper asked.

‘Almost, I was running and had to watch the ice a little,‘ Banker answered. ‘When I got in front of the Grand Rapids, I stopped for a few seconds, wondering what I had best do,’ Banker testified, ‘and then, drawing my gun from my pocket, I walked across the street, and told Ben I had my gun on him. I stuck my gun in his back and told him to give me his,’ Banker said. ‘Then Zimmerman grabbed my arm and pulled himself up. He led the way across the street. Meyers followed him and I followed Meyers,’ the patrolman said.

The consequent telephoning of the police department for the patrol wagon and ambulance were related by Patrolman Banker, and then he made his statement in regard to the final conversation between the two officers, one of whom had shot the other a few minutes previous.

It was a glowing tribute to Sergeant Zimmerman. A silent courtroom heard the gruff officer tell of the wounded police officer’s last utterance, ‘You shouldn’t have done it, Ben, you shouldn’t have shot me.’ While Banker made no statement in praise of Zimmerman’s action, his attitude portrayed an admiration of the dead sergeant’s manner of mildly rebuking the man who had shot him.”   

Cecil was still on the police force at the time of the 1930 census. However, he was no longer on the force by 1932, when he was sued for non-support by his wife. By that point, Cecil and Helen had a third child, a daughter, Beverly, who was born in 1929. The news article on the non-support arrest stated that Cecil was a “discharged” police officer. I am unsure whether this means he was fired for cause or if the city, facing financial problems during the Depression, layed him off. The result was the same: he had no job, so had no means to support his wife and children.

Non-Support Charge from May 24, 1932 edition of the Superior Evening Telegram

To my surprise, I discovered that being unemployed and unable to provide for your family was a crime in Wisconsin in the early 1930s, and was punishable by a prison sentence! That seems patently ridiculous, as a prisoner had no ability to provide for his or her family from jail, so the family still suffered. Certainly Cecil was not the only man unable to find a job in 1932, when the unemployment rate was a horrifying 23.6 percent! However, on January 6, 1933, Cecil was convicted by a jury on a charge of non-support and was jailed. There was no newspaper story on the sentencing portion of the trial, so I don’t know how long a sentence he received. He did file a motion for a new trial on January 28, 1933, but the newspaper did not have any further articles about this effort.

Helen Banker was granted a divorce from Cecil in December 1936. Cecil was released from jail at some point, as he remarried June 1, 1938. He married a woman named Ella Schroeder in Carlton, Minnesota. Carlton is less than twenty miles from Superior, so obviously he stayed in the Superior area following his release.

Divorce notice from the Dec 19, 1936 edition of the Superior Evening Telegram

Sadly, Cecil died on September 17, 1939 after a brief illness. He was only forty-three years old. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Superior.

Obituary from the Sept 18, 1939 edition of the Superior Evening Telegram

Cecil’s story was a revelation for me. Working for a living was essential in the early twentieth century, not just as a means of supporting oneself and one’s family, but to keep one’s freedom. Failure to work and provide support for family members was a criminal offense punishable by jail time. Cecil tried to provide for his family, but during the Great Depression, it proved impossible once he lost his job as a policeman.

 

Sources:

U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Registration State: Wisconsin; Registration County: Douglas. Ancestry.com

Articles from the Superior Evening Telegram, Superior, Wisconsin. 1927-1939. Accessed from Newspapers.com.

Findagrave.com. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/64587526/cecil-albert-banker?_gl=1*1cgwa9n*_gcl_dc*R0NMLjE3NzMwMjg1NTguMmFkMjdiYWI1M2UyMTM4ODkzMDIxMjA1NGVkNjc5YzU.*_gcl_au*NDkwNDQ5MTA0LjE3NjcxMzEzNzA.*_ga*MzAzMzcxNzI0LjE3NjcxMzEzNzE.*_ga_4QT8FMEX30*c2JlNzY4NTQ0LWJmYzYtNDg4MC1iYmZmLTE4ZDYzYzRjZmQ0MyRvMTE4JGcxJHQxNzc0MTkxNzMxJGo1OCRsMCRoMA..*_ga_LMK6K2LSJH*c2JlNzY4NTQ0LWJmYzYtNDg4MC1iYmZmLTE4ZDYzYzRjZmQ0MyRvMTE3JGcxJHQxNzc0MTkxNzMxJGo1OCRsMCRoMA..

Different Parents on Different Genealogy Sites: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “Conflicting Clues”

 

Family Search vs Ancestry: Are Sarah White’s Parents from Otterton in Devon or West Bagborough in Somerset?

Sarah White: 1795-1880 (Maternal Third Great-Grandmother)
Isaac White: 1742-1819 (Maternal Fourth-Great-Grandfather)
Elizabeth Cox: 1755-1841 (Maternal Fourth-Great-Grandmother)
John White: 1743-1809 (Purported Maternal Fourth-Great-Grandfather)
Sarah Gooding: 1772-1841 (Purported Maternal Fourth-Great-Grandfather)
 

Every once in a while, I receive an email from Family Search telling me about a new Source or a Memory for an ancestor in my tree. Sometimes these emails lead to a new, valuable piece of information or a new family photo. But sometimes, they simply lead to confusion. That was the case with my third-great-grandmother, Sarah White Herniman. I clicked on the link in the email I received about her, and was surprised to discover that Sarah White had completely different parents and siblings on FamilySearch than the parents and siblings I had found on Ancestry. This conflicting information left me confused and worried. Had I missed something critical in my Ancestry research?

So how did the two sets of purported parents for Sarah White compare? FamilySearch showed Sarah as the second child of John White and Sarah Gooding, and said she was born in 1796 in Otterton, Devon, England. John White, born in Otterton in 1743, had married Sarah Gooding on August 16, 1792. Sarah Gooding was born in Devon in 1772 and was christened at Collaton Raleigh, Devon on October 6 of that year. The couple had eight children between 1795 and 1807.

According to my Ancestry research, Sarah White was the daughter of Isaac White and Elizabeth Cox. Isaac and Elizabeth were born in Somerset, England, Isaac in 1742 and Elizabeth in 1755. They were married November 16, 1773 in Hillfarrance, Somerset. They had eleven children between 1773 and 1798. Sarah was the tenth of those eleven children, born in 1795. She may have been born in Sidmouth (one record suggests that) but her baptism took place in West Bagborough in Somerset, where most of her siblings were also baptized.  

Sarah White, daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth White, baptism record.

Both the FamilySearch tree and my Ancestry tree agree that Sarah White married James How Herniman on March 28, 1819 in Taunton St. Mary, Somerset. The marriage record states that Sarah White was from Sidmouth, Devonshire.

Marriage Record for James Herniman and Sarah White, showing she was from the Sidmouth Parish

So how can I determine which set of parents is most likely correct? First, I looked at locations. The FamilySearch Sarah was supposedly born in Otterton, Devon, but married a man from Somerset, at Taunton St. Mary, a church in Taunton, Somerset. I looked at the distance from Taunton to Otterton, and discovered the towns were 35 miles apart. That would be quite a distance in the early nineteenth century. How would an Otterton woman meet a man from the Taunton region of Somerset?

James How Herniman, Sarah’s husband, was actually born in Crowcombe, Somerset, which is only three miles from West Bagborough, where my Ancestry Sarah White was baptized and where her siblings were born and baptized. It is easy to understand how a West Bagborough woman could meet someone from a town barely three miles away.

Still, the marriage record states that Sarah White is from Sidmouth, which is on the coast of Devonshire not far from Otterton. That supports the FamilySearch parentage.

One additional piece of information makes me more confident that my Ancestry tree is correct. I have a DNA match to a distant cousin who is a descendant of Jacob White, a son of Isaac White and Elizabeth Cox. Jacob was therefore Sarah White’s older brother. I checked the FamilySearch records, and John White and Sarah Gooding had no sons named Jacob, nor does John White seem to be related to Isaac White. That indicates that the only way my DNA could match a descendant of Jacob White is if we shared the same ancestor, Isaac White.

When I examined Ancestry’s ThruLines, I found even more DNA connections. I have distant cousins who are descended from four additional siblings of Jacob White and Sarah White. These siblings are Mary White, Hannah White, William White, and Elizabeth White.

DNA really doesn’t lie. Therefore it is doubtful that John White and Sarah Gooding’s daughter, Sarah White, could be my third-great-grandmother. My DNA connection to the descendants of Isaac White’s children is indisputable.  Isaac White is clearly my fourth-great-grandfather, not John White of Otterton.

I am confident that my Ancestry tree correctly identifies Sarah’s parents as Isaac White and Elizabeth Cox. Apparently Sarah must have spent time in Sidmouth before her marriage, despite her family being from Somerset. Perhaps the family had relatives there, which would explain why her birth record also shows she was born in Sidmouth even though she was later baptized in West Bagborough.

I have found it difficult to change parentage on FamilySearch. People just change it right back. I will probably attempt to correct it at some point noting the DNA evidence, but for now I am content to have come to my own conclusion about the conflicting clues relating to Sarah White’s parentage.

Sources:

Somerset, England, Marriage Registers, Bonds and Allegations, 1754-1914 for Sarah White. Marriage Registers, Taunton St. Mary, 1813-1828. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60858/images/42886_1831115184_0991-00111?_gl=1*1r6sio9*_up*MQ..&gclid=65117a15095f10dbfb8c13bb1b2b7843&gclsrc=3p.ds&pId=903444864

Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1531-1812 for Sarah White. West Bagborough, 1701-1812. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60856/images/engl78030_d-p-w-bag-2-1-3_m_00022?_gl=1*56y138*_up*MQ..&gclid=65117a15095f10dbfb8c13bb1b2b7843&gclsrc=3p.ds&pId=366409

Ancestry ThruLines for Isaac White. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-geneticfamily/thrulines/tree/134748591:9009:66/for/38B5E694-2D64-4CC7-BEFE-4FE8A7F44961