Some Very Special Volunteers You Probably Never Knew About, But You Might Have Benefitted From Their Work And Not Even Known It

Susan (Walker) Tew (1828-1893)

Susan (Walker) Tew is my 2X great grandmother.  She is also the 2X great aunt of my cousin Bill Newcomb.

On April 16th of this year I received an email from Bill alerting me to the sad news that Susan's gravestone had been seriously damaged in a violent storm that swept through the Rice City area of Rhode Island where Susan is interred in a family burial ground.  Eerily, of the numerous graves and headstones, only Susan's headstone was damaged.

Susan had a rather difficult life.  She was the eldest of the ten children of Nathan Walker and Polly (Wells) Walker.  She had two younger sisters and seven younger brothers.  Susan was 17 years old when she married Adam Tew (age 20), in January 1846.  Less than seven months later she and Adam had their first of six children and almost a year to the day later her mother died leaving at least five minor children under 15 years old motherless.  Susan, who was married with an infant daughter, was unable to assist her father with the raising of her siblings and so they were farmed out to others willing to help.  When Susan was nearly 60 years old, she and her husband Adam separated and Adam remarried in April 1887.  He was 62 years old and his new wife was 43.  Adam Tew was her fifth husband.

When Bill sent me the news about Susan's damaged headstone, he and I communicated about what might be done to repair it.  Bill said he was going to reach out to the historical cemetery community and that reminded me that back in the fall of 2015, I was contacted by Diane Boumenot of the outstanding blog, One Rhode Island Family.  Diane shared the photo (below) of a damaged headstone in Cumberland Cemetery that was being repaired by volunteers who devoted their time, energy, and resources to caring for historic and often neglected and damaged cemeteries.  It turned out the the headstone was that of my 4X great uncle, Aurin Miller, brother of my 3X great grandfather, Eber Miller.  Eber was one of the incorporators of Cumberland Cemetery and he and his brother are both interred there.

I told Bill that I would try reaching out to Ken Postle and Robert Butler who were involved in the River Road, Blackstone River and Canal Group that did the above headstone repair at Cumberland Cemetery.  I would see if their group perchance knew of a similar group that cared for historic cemeteries in the Coventry, RI area or if their group did such work outside of Providence County.  Before I was able to make the inquiry, Bill found the volunteer group known as the Pawtuxet Valley Preservation and Historical Society (PVPHS).

PVPHS is located in the historic former Crompton Library in W. Warwick, RI.  In 2011 the Cemetery Committee of PVPHS became the fifth organization in Rhode Island to repair and preserve tombstones and burial sites.  The Cemetery Committee also joined a network consortium with the National Park Service in the Blackstone Valley in northern Rhode Island.

Within days of Bill making contact with the PVPHS, volunteers made the trip to Rice City and made repairs to Susan Tew's damaged headstone.  A description of the repairs and photographs by the volunteers below tell the story of the wonderful efforts by this group of dedicated volunteers.

          "This stone belongs to Susan (Walker) Tew and was brought to our attention by

           her second great nephew, William Newcomb. The stone had deteriorated around

          the pins causing multiple fractures. This, combined with a settling base, led to

          the breakage and falling seen here.

          The first step was to epoxy the stone fragment back in place.  Once this was

          cured, the remaining cracks will be filled to prevent water from freezing inside

          them, further damaging the stone.

          Next, the base had to be leveled.  Upon lifting the base, it can be seen that there

          was concrete used to help support it and prevent settling. Additionally,

          fragments of marble stone, one of them carved with a date, were used for

          support. This was almost certainly a discarded fragment from the stone carver's

          shop used instead of field stone for a foundation.

          The intermediate base with the pins was then epoxied to the lower base to be

          completely level in preparation for the next visit, after the epoxy has cured."

        

Once the epoxy cured on all the repairs described and pictured above, the dedicated volunteers of the PVPHS Cemetery Committee returned to the cemetery and restored the mended headstone of Susan A. (Walker) Tew to its full upright position on a secured and leveled foundation.  The completed repairs are shown below in a photo by Bill Newcomb.

Bill Newcomb and I are very grateful for the altruistic volunteer efforts of the members of the Cemetery Committee of the PVPHS in repairing the damaged headstone of our family member.  It is comforting to know that there are such selfless people devoted to doing whatever they can to preserve, protect, and repair the final resting place of forebears–many of whom must be complete strangers.  They deserve our gratitude and our support whenever possible.

I am not sure how many states have organizations and volunteers that watch over historic and often forgotten cemeteries, but Rhode Island is fortunate indeed to have at least five including the Pawtuxet Valley Preservation and Historical Society and the River Road, Blackstone River and Canal Group.  They are due much praise and credit for the work they do in preserving a major resource for genealogists and historians!

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Photograph of Susan A. (Walker) Tew from the personal collection of the author.

Photograph of the initial damage to Susan's headstone and of the completd repairs courtesy of  William "Bill" Newcomb.

Description of the repairs and photographs of the repair process from the PVPHS. 

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Copyright 2020, John D. Tew

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Photographs Across The Generations -- How Far Can You Go? (October 16, 2014)

L to R:  Molly, Eulalie, Doreen and Jonathan (May 19, 1984)

Each week The Weekly Genealogist, newsletter of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), asks a survey question of its readers. This week the question is . . .

"What is the largest number of generations of your family pictured in a single photograph?"

The question led me to the photograph above, which shows four generations from our family in a single photograph. The snapshot was taken on May 19, 1984 -- just one week to the day after the birth of our first child, Jonathan. Pictured are Jonathan's great grandmother, Eulalie Jeffs; his grandmother, Doreen (Jeffs) O'Kane; and his mother, Molly (O'Kane) Tew. This photograph is the most recent of three such four-generation photographs I have been able to locate in our family photograph collection; the others involve earlier generations than depicted here.

On a related matter, this survey question led me to ponder another question, "What is the greatest number of generations back that I can go and still have a photographic depiction of an ancestor?" 

After a little research (and the very recent discovery of the photograph of an ancestor), I have determined that in eight instances our family can presently go back seven generations to photographs of: my sons' 4x great grandparents, Russell Cooke (b. 1810) and his wife Mary Vinal [Otis] Cooke (b. 1806); my sons' 4x great grandmother, Nancy Mason [Bullock] Carpenter (b. 1793); my sons'  4x great grandmother, Abby [Hunt] Miller (b. 1807); my sons' 4x great grandfather, William Wood (b. circa 1820); my sons' 4x great grandfather, Nathan Walker (b. 1808); and my sons' 4x great grandparents, John Bowen Shearman (b. 1799) and his wife Ann Eliza [Patt] Shearman (b. 1803). *

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Scan of the original snapshot in the family collection. 

*  And with the birth of our first grandchild within the next three weeks or so, the photographs of the named ancestors above will soon be extended back eight generations!

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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Treasure Chest Thursday (January 2, 2014) -- The Russell Cooke and Mary Vinal (Otis) Cooke Family Circa 1852

The Russell and Mary Vinal (Otis) Cooke family circa 1851.

Edith McIntyre's handwritten inscription on the reverse side of the photograph identifying the people in the photo. 

Well, 2014 is off to a great start from a genealogy point of view -- as this post will demonstrate!

Over the holiday season of the last two weeks, I have been busy doing some cleaning and rearranging of my home office space -- which is the repository for all my genealogy materials (books, documents, artifacts, etc.).  While cleaning up I came across a box that my mother gave me within the last year or two.  It contains mostly some old photographs, letters and notes from my mother's mother. Among the loose materials in the box -- that I obviously had not paid enough attention to previously -- was the undated letter from my grandmother to her daughter (my mother) shown above.  The letter was not in an envelope and was merely folded in half and placed in the middle of a stack of photos and notes in the box. [While it is a two-sided letter, only the front page is of any relevance to this post.] 

When I came across the letter in yet another quick review of the contents of the box during my cleaning, this time a photograph popped out and I paused to look at it, to examine the handwriting on the back, and then finally I focused in on the content of my grandmother's letter to my mother. And that was when I experienced my latest "Eureka Moment!" 

The photograph within the folded letter from my grandmother is shown above. The photograph my grandmother sent to my mother is old, but it is definitely NOT an original. It predates 1951, when my mother and father married, because the inscription on the back uses my mother's maiden name. I suspect from my grandmother's letter that the photograph is a copy made from an original daguerreotype and probably dates from the early 1930s when my mother (the oldest of three children) was a young girl. The photograph must have been sent as a gift to my mother with a duplicate provided to my grandmother (as she notes parenthetically in her letter).

There are at least three reasons why this photograph is so thrilling and important to me and my family genealogy: (1) it represents the oldest visual evidence I have of any ancestor -- my great, great, great grandparents in my maternal line; (2) it provides photo images of two ancestors I had never seen pictures of before along with a childhood photo of my great great grandfather and his six siblings that I had also never seen before; and (3) it shows a picture of Mary Vinal Otis (the mother in the photograph holding the baby) who is the link to my second proven line of descent from Richard Warren of the Mayflower! 

The identities of the people in the photograph are handwritten on the back by Edith McIntyre, the daughter of Abby Ann Ruth Cooke (1842 - 1923, the girl bottom right in the photo with the pig tails) and her husband James Harvey McIntyre. According to my grandmother's letter, Edith gifted copies of the photograph to my grandmother and my mother.  I believe the original daguerreotype/photograph was taken in 1852 because the baby in the photo, Charles Willis Cooke, was born in 1851 and looks to be about a year old as he sits on his mother's lap. The people in the photograph, left to right, are:

            Russell Cooke (1810 - 1884) my great, great, great grandfather.

            Charles Willis Cooke (1851 -     ) in the arms of his mother.

            Mary Vinal Cooke, nee Otis (1806 - 1881) -- my great, great, great grandmother.

            William Russell Cooke (1836 - 1899)

            Albert Frances Cooke (1848 -    ) sitting to the left of his mother.

            Edward Otis Cooke (1839 -    ) standing behind his brother Albert.

            Abby Ann Ruth Cooke (1842 - 1923) in pig tails sitting to the left of Albert.

            Mary Thomas Cooke (1834 -    ) standing behind Abby.

            George Henry Cooke (1843 - 1872) my great great grandfather.

Mary Vinal Otis is the 5th great granddaughter of Richard Warren, who came over on the Mayflower, and his wife Elizabeth Walker.

                                   Richard Warren m. Elizabeth Walker

                                   Anna Warren m. Thomas Little

                                   Ephraim Little m. Mary Sturtevant

                                   Mercy Little m. Job Otis, Sr.

                                   Job Otis, Jr. m. Prince  __________

                                   David Otis, Sr. m. Mary Vinal

                                   David Otis, Jr. m. Ruthy Otis

                                   Mary Vinal Otis m. Russell Cooke

My descent from the Cooke family is as follows:

                                  Benjamin Cooke m. Abigail Church*

                                  Russell Cooke m. Mary Vinal Otis

                                  George Henry Cooke m. Susannah C. Appell

                                  Walter Wilson Cooke m. Florence Leonette Flagg

                                  Ruth Eaton Cooke m. Everett Shearman Carpenter

                                  Shirley Carpenter m. Arnold G. Tew, Jr. (my parents)

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Original letter and photograph in the collection of the author.

* Abigail Church was a descendant of Richard Warren through his daughter Elizabeth and her marriage to Richard Church.  Abigail was the 4th great granddaughter of Richard and Elizabeth (Walker) Warren.

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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Maritime Monday (December 30, 2013) : The "Flying Santa," An 84-Year New England Tradition

While "Christmastide" (the "Twelve Days of Christmas") is still with us, it is an appropriate time to recall an 84-year New England tradition of the "Flying Santa" for those who know about it (and to introduce the tradition to those who have never heard of it).

I first stumbled across the tradition of the Flying Santa while researching Benjamin W. Walker (1838 - aft. 1900), a younger brother of my great great grandmother, Susan A. (Walker) Tew, (1828 - 1893). Benjamin was born in Coventry, Rhode Island and for a time (circa 1862) served as an Assistant Keeper at the famed Beavertail Lighthouse at the tip of Conanicut Island in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island.

Benjamin W. Walker, younger brother of Susan A. (Walker) Tew

Beavertail Lighthouse (1749) was the third lighthouse built in the American colonies after the lights at Boston Harbor and Brant Point on the island of Nantucket.  Its name comes from the shape of the southern end of Conanicut Island, which resembles a beaver's tail. The early settlers of Rhode Island recognized the strategic importance of the southern tip of Conanicut Island because it looked over the passages into Narragansett Bay.  As early as 1705 a "watch house" was erected at Beavertail Point. During the Revolutionary War, the British occupied Newport, Rhode Island for almost three years (December 1776 - October 1779), but when they evacuated one of the last things they did was to set fire to the original wooden lighthouse tower. 

Photographs of Beavertail Lighthouse at Beavertail Point, Conanicut Island

1846 map of "Connanicut" Island showing Beaver Tail Point and
the lighthouse location. Note also in the northwest section
 of the island just under the word "JAMES" the Tew family property. 

An early pioneer of aviation in New England was a Friendship, Maine pilot by the name of William H. Wincapaw. Since Capt. Wincapaw often had to rely on the light beacons from coastal lighthouses to guide his navigation, he came to greatly appreciate and admire the service that lighthouse keepers provided to maritime travelers on the sea and in the air. In many ways a symbiotic relationship developed between pilots such as Capt. Wincapaw and the lighthouse keepers. The pilots could provide quick visual contact and communication with keepers on isolated islands or peninsulas in case of emergency and the keepers would watch for pilots and their planes. When Capt. Wincapaw and other pilots were known to be on a mission, keepers would always try to relay information to airfields whenever planes safely passed their position. 

Capt. Wincapaw in particular developed close relationships with lighthouse keepers along routes he flew in maritime New England. On occasion Capt. Wincapaw would land at some of the lights and spend time visiting with the isolated keepers and their families (if they had them).  In time, William Wincapaw decided he should try to do something significant to recognize and show appreciation for lighthouse keepers and the important, often lonely and sometimes dangerous service they provided. On December 25, 1929 William Wincapaw determined that he would deliver some small holiday gifts of things such as coffee, candy, magazines and sundries.  He loaded his plane and on that Christmas Day he flew low over lights in the Rockland, Maine area and dropped surprise packages to the keepers and their families. These acts of kindness and holiday cheer were so appreciated that Capt. Wincapaw realized he would need to repeat the Christmas flights and so an 84-year tradition began and spread around maritime New England and eventually along the eastern coastline of North America.

In time William Wincapaw, his son and others -- like author Edward Rowe Snow -- came to be referred to as the "Flying Santa" and the pilots and their successors began to dress the part.  Various aircraft have been used over the decades including single and twin-engine airplanes and helicopters.

There is now an organization called "Friends of Flying Santa, Inc." and they maintain a website here. They can be contacted by mail at PO Box 80047, Stoneham, MA 02180-0001, or by phone at (781)438-4587, or via email at Info@flyingsanta.org. Their website has a detailed link to the origin and history of the Flying Santa tradition.  The site also has numerous photographs of Capt. William "Bill" Wincapaw and his family members, Edward Rowe Snow and his participating family members, the various aircraft that have been used over the decades, and some of the lighthouses that have been visited by the Flying Santas.  The photos are copyrighted and I do not have permission to share them  on The Prism, but you can easily view them here while learning all about William H. Wincapaw, the original "Flying Santa," and how what he started has continued and expanded into its ninth decade.

Merry Christmastide and a Happy New Year!

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Image of Santa and his bi-plane from Open Clip Art Library as obtained from The Washington Herald (1914).

Photograph of Benjamin W. Walker courtesy of Joshua Oehler from his Oehler Tree.

Photographs of Beavertail Lighthouse from the virtual archives of the State of Rhode Island  and from the U.S. Coast Guard respectively. Both images are believed to be in the public domain.

For more information on the history of the "Flying Santa" and to see copyrighted photogrsaphs and other images of the planes, pilots and supporters of the program go to The Origins and History of the Flying Santa.
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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew
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Friday Fotos (May 10, 2013)

Maidford River -- Newport, Rhode Island (March 29, 2010)

Maidford River -- Newport, Rhode Island (March 29, 2010)

My ancestor, Richard Tew, was born in Maidford, Northhamptonshire, England in 1605.  He was wed to Mary Clarke of Priors Hardwick (about 9 miles from Maidford) around 1639.  They ventured together across the Atlantic to arrive in Newport, Rhode Island in 1640.  Mary was pregnant when they left England and she gave birth to a daughter during the crossing. Appropriately, Richard and Mary named their first-born child, Seaborn Tew.  

The reason Richard and Mary left England for America and why their destination appears to have been Newport, is unknown.  Thus far, I have discovered no definitive evidence that they owned any property in Newport prior to their arrival, nor that they knew anyone who lived in Newport before relocating there.  There were some Clarkes in Newport at the time, but there presently is nothing to connect Richard and Mary to those Clarkes.

Lacking any evidence so far that Richard and Mary knew any established residents of Newport who were from the Maidford area, it appears that Richard Tew of Maidford, England may have been at least partially responsible for the naming of at least two features of present-day Newport, Rhode Island -- the Maidford River and Maidford River Road (pictured above).

My descent from Richard Tew of Maidford, Northamptonshire, England is as follows:

               Richard Tew (1605 - 1673) m. Mary Clarke (1618 - 1687)

               Henry Tew (1654 - 1718) m. Dorcas _____ (1657 - 1694)

               Richard Tew (1678 -     ) m. Ruth Sisson (1680 - 1775)

               William Tew (1720 -     ) m. Jane Carr (1723 - 1800)

               John Tew (1746 - 1827) m. Hannah "Anna" Stafford (1743 - 1827)

               John Tew, Jr. (1784 - 1873) m. Anna (Nancy) Kenyon (1787 - 1868)

               Adam Tew (1825 - 1908) m. Susan A. Walker (1828 - 1893)

               John Andrew Tew (1853 - 1903) m. Margaret "Maggie" Conner (1860 - 1935)

               Arnold G. Tew (1896 - 1958) m. Huldah A. Hasselbaum (1898 - 1983) -- my grandparents

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Photographs taken by the author during the damaging March 2010 rain storms.

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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew

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Military Monday -- Arnold A. Walker (1841 - 1863)

Arnold A. Walker

Arnold A. Walker is my 2nd great grand uncle.  He served in the Union Army during the Civil War and was a casualty of that war having died at the age of 21 years, 2 months and 28 days (according to his gravestone).  I was not aware of Arnold's relationship to me until less than four months ago, but it turns out he played a very influential part in the life of my paternal grandfather, my father, and, not insignificantly, in my very identity!  [See yesterday's post, Discovering Where My Father's Name Came From. ]

Arnold was one of the younger brothers of my 2X great grandmother, Susan (Walker) Tew.  As explained in yesterday's post, Arnold was only six years old when his mother, Polly (Wells) Walker, died in Coventry, Rhode Island at age 38.  At this point I know nothing about what Arnold's life was like in the immediate aftermath of his mother's death and the almost complete shattering of his nuclear family that resulted from that tragedy.  I know only that when Arnold Walker reached young adulthood, he was enlisted in the Union Army and fought in the Civil War.  He died on February 19, 1863 in Washington, DC according to his gravestone. 

Arnold A. Walker was born in Coventry, Rhode Island on November 24, 1841 . . . almost 81 years to the day before the birth of my father, Arnold G. Tew, Jr.   Because of the newly discovered role Arnold Walker plays in my genealogy, I plan to do more inquiry into his life this year and hope to make any results the subject of a future blog post.

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The photo of Arnold A. Walker is taken from the Oehler Tree at Ancestry.com, which is owned by Joshua Oehler of Phoenix, Arizona.  Thank you Joshua!

Photograph of Arnold A. Walker's gravestone in Rhode Island Historical Cemetery Town of Coventry, 14, by the author.

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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew

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Discovering Where My Father’s Name Came From

Arnold G. Tew, Sr.

Margaret "Maggie" (Conner) Tew

John Andrew Tew

As I have posted in other places on this blog, my paternal grandfather’s name is Arnold George Tew.  He was the son of John Andrew Tew and Margaret “Maggie” (Conner) Tew.  My father is a Junior and so is also named Arnold.  [My mother says that there was some vigorous lobbying for me to be named Arnold George Tew, III – but she nixed it and thus I am named John David Tew after my father’s brother and my mother’s brother respectively! ]

Other than my father and his father, the only Arnolds I knew of while growing up were celebrities –- Arnold Palmer, Arnold Stang, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and, of course, Arnold Ziffel, the “son” of Fred and Doris Ziffel on the 1960s sitcom Green Acres.  Arnold Ziffel just happened to also be a pig.  But the point is, that based on this small sample I determined early on that in the U.S. the name Arnold is rather rare and so it always made me wonder about where my grandfather’s -- and hence my father’s – first name came from.  About five months ago I solved the mystery of how my father and my grandfather came to be named "Arnold."  [HINT:  It was not after Arnold Ziffel!]

My great grandfather, John Andrew Tew, was born in Coventry, Rhode Island in 1853.  He was the son of Adam Tew (1865 - 1908) and his wife, Susan (Walker) Tew (1828 - 1893).  Susan was born in Rhode Island on April 14, 1828 and she married Adam Tew on January 8, 1846 when she was only 17 years old.

Adam Tew

Susan (Walker) Tew

Susan was the daughter of Nathan Walker (1808 - 1885) and his wife Polly (Wells) Walker (1809 - 1847).  Nathan and Polly had nine children including my 2X great grandmother Susan, who was the eldest.  Nathan and Polly had three daughters and five sons.  Until late December of last year I knew nothing about Susan's siblings and while I had a picture of Susan in middle age, I had no photographs or pictures of other members of the Nathan and Polly Walker family.  And then on or about December 20, 2012 I stumbled across the Oehler Tree on Ancestry.com.  The tree is owned and maintained by Joshua Oehler of Phoenix, Arizona -- and the Nathan and Polly Walker family of Coventry, Rhode Island is part of his family tree.  Mr. Oehler had lots of information about Nathan and Polly's other children, but he had virtually nothing about Susan, the eldest.  He did not have the fact of Susan's marriage to Adam Tew, anything about their children or of her death -- but perhaps for good reason.

As I pieced together from information on Joshua Oelher's tree and in my Tew genealogy, the Walker family suffered a number of tragedies by July 1847 when Polly, mother of at least six living children, died in Coventry, RI at age 38.  In 1830 Nathan and Polly's second daughter had died before reaching her first birthday.  In 1846, their third daughter and third eldest child, Mary (born in 1832), died at age 14.  This left Susan Walker, the eldest child, as the only surviving daughter of the three girls of Nathan and Polly Walker.

Of the six boys of Nathan and Polly, at least five were living at the time of their mother's death.  Edmund Walker might have been Mary's twin brother for he was also born in 1832.  Edmund was 15 when his mother died.  Stephen Walker, named for his paternal grandfather, was born in 1835 and was 12 years old when his mother died.  Benjamin, born in 1838, and another boy born in 1841, were 9 and 6 respectively when their mother passed away.  A son whose name is presently unknown was born in 1844 and would have been just under 3 years old when his mother died if he himself was still living. Finally, Joseph Manchester Walker, born in Coventry, RI on November 14, 1846 was a mere 8 months old when his mother died on July 19, 1847 in Coventry.

Nathan Walker

So, in the summer of 1847, when Nathan Walker was not yet 39, he found himself a widower with five or six sons all 15 years old or younger and a sole surviving daughter who was 19 years old.  In many cases this would have left the family of underage boys to be raised by their father and their older sister, except that in 1847 the eldest child and only daughter, my 2X great grandmother Susan, was already married to Adam Tew and was herself the mother of a daughter, Mary D. Tew, born in Rhode Island on July 20, 1846.  Susan's first child, Mary, turned 1 year old the day after her grandmother Polly died.

Nathan's solution for making sure his children were cared for was to turn to others for assistance.  As a result, his young family was dispersed across Rhode Island and Massachusetts.  Infant Joseph went to live on a farm in Foster, Rhode Island with the Daniel Battey family.  In 1850 Benjamin was living with the John Corey family in Coventry.  The whereabouts of the other children during the first years after their mother's death is presently unknown.  The dispersal of the sons, and the fact that eldest child, Susan, was married and the mother of an infant daughter, probably explains why Mr. Oehler had little information about my great, great grandmother Susan (Walker) Tew in his Oehler Tree -- when the young boys were dispersed among other homes after their mother's death, Susan was already married and had a family of her own to care for.

Susan and her husband, Adam Tew, had at least five children in addition to their first-born, Mary Tew.   They had three girls and three boys that I know of.   The oldest of their three sons was my great grandfather, John Andrew Tew, born in Coventry on August 27, 1853.  John Andrew was only about 11 years younger than one of his mother's brothers -- the one that was born in 1841and who was only 6 years old when his mother Polly died in July 1847.  It is quite possible, therefore, that John Andrew spent some time around this uncle until the uncle died at age 21 in 1863.  In any event, John Andrew Tew and his wife, Maggie, named the only one of their four sons to survive beyond age two after this particular brother of John Andrew's mother Susan.  They named their son Arnold George Tew after John Andrew's maternal uncle, Arnold A. Walker!  John Andrew Tew's "Uncle Arnold," one of his mother's younger brothers, died in the Civil War at age 21 and so it becomes almost certain that my grandfather, Arnold George Tew, was not randomly named Arnold, but rather was named in honor and in memory of his grand uncle, Arnold A. Walker, a casualty of the Civil War.  In turn, my father, Arnold George Tew, Jr., was named Arnold after his father and, by extension, after the younger brother of his great grandmother who died while serving in the Union Army during the Civil War!

My 90-year-old father learned for the first time how he came to be named Arnold when I shared this genealogical insight with him in mid-December last year.

Arnold A. Walker (1841 - 1863)

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Photos of Nathan Walker and Arnold Walker courtesy of Joshua Oehler as posted on his Oehler Tree at Ancestry.com.  Thank you Joshua!

Picture of Susan (Walker) Tew courtesy of my cousin, Bruce O. Marquardt, who is a great great grandson of Susan (Walker) Tew and her husband, Adam Tew.

Picture of Adam Tew courtesy of my cousin, Don Benoit, who is a descendant of Adam and Susan Tew.

All other photos from the collection of the author.
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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew
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Finding A Cousin -- Kismet, Karma, Fate or Simple Serendipity Made Possible By The New Golden Age of Genealogy??

The modern era of digital genealogy research, and the growing popularity of genealogy as a hobby, leads to many stories of discovery that would have been almost impossible in years past absent a near obsession with genealogy -- and some serious wealth that allowed the luxury of time and travel to indulge the obsession!  It is fun to read about the discoveries of previously unknown family connections made by others, but it is quite a different matter when you get to experience it yourself.  This is the story of how I found a 9^th cousin 1x removed through the modern world of genealogy blogging! 

The January 11, 2012 issue of NEHGS’s The Weekly Genealogist, Vol. 15, No. 2, introduced a new occasional feature by Editor Lynn Betlock.  Based on a popular article by Randy Seaver about blogs and blogging in the November 30, 2011 issue of the newsletter, Lynn decided to feature, from time to time, blogs that focus on genealogy.  The first featured blog was one based in New Hampshire, but that also covers other parts of New England.  Because I was born in New England and lived for more than six years in New Hampshire, I immediately checked out the inaugural featured blog.  Since I was new to genealogy blogs, I spent some time perusing some of the postings to familiarize myself with the content and lay out.  Much to my surprise, I discovered the surname links under the blog’s “Labels” list included a link for the Tew surname – a fairly rare, but always welcome discovery in a genealogy resource.  Following the link, I found a posting about the Rhode Island Pirate, Thomas Tew.  Ol’ Thomas was my entry character into genealogy back when I was a teenager.

Meeting between Thomas Tew and the Royal Governor

of New York, Benjamin Fletcher, as imagined by American

 illustrator Howard Pyle (1853 – 1911) 

It was discovery of the huge success of Thomas Tew, coupled with the fact that Ol' Thomas was known to be from Newport, Rhode Island, that captured my interest long ago.  My 8x great grandfather, Richard Tew, came to Newport from Maidford, Northamptonshire, England in 1640 – about 50 years before the storied piracy exploits of Ol’ Thomas!

A street in the small village of Maidford, Northamptonshire, England 

Maidford, Northamptonshire, England still surrounded by farmland

English road sign to "The Tews" -- three villages in Oxfordshire
adjacent to Northamptonshire and roughly 20 miles from Maidford 

English road signs to the villages of Great Tew, Little Tew and Duns Tew 

Great Tew is known for its fine examples of thatch roofs.
This shows the thatched roof of the Great Tew Post Office

At the linked Tew post, the owner of the featured blog raised possibilities about descendants of Thomas Tew, the Rhode Island Pirate.  After reading the post I engaged in some email exchanges with the blog owner and the exchange resulted in a kind invitation to me to do a guest post on the blog about the mysteries surrounding the genealogy of Thomas Tew.  I noted in passing that the blog owner mentioned personal descent from Seaborn Tew and her husband Owen Higgins, but to be honest, I was focused more on drafting a readable guest post for the blog than on the implications of the revelation about Seaborn Tew.  In my Tew tree, I only showed Seaborn as having two daughters by her first husband, Samuel Billings, and the blog owner was revealing a descent from Seaborn and her second husband, Owen Higgins, about whom I had little information.   Seaborn came by her unusual but entirely appropriate name because she was born to Richard Tew and his wife, Mary (Clarke) Tew, on the voyage to America in 1640.  Seaborn was the older sister of my 7x great grandfather, Henry Tew, a Deputy Governor of colonial Rhode Island.

My guest piece on the mysteries of the genealogy of Thomas Tew was posted on the featured blog on February 16, 2012 and I then became immersed in other projects on my genealogy “to do” list.  One of the top items on the list was to consider starting my own blog based on inspiration from the featured blog and the invitation to write a guest post there.  My blog, “The Prism,” was born on the very last day of 2012 and one of the earliest posts on The Prism (January 2, 2013) was an approved re-posting of The Genealogical Mystery of Thomas Tew, the Rhode Island Pirate.

Last week I finally contacted the owner of the featured blog to inquire about sharing a full lineage from Seaborn Tew and Owen Higgins to the present.  The response providing the requested lineage arrived within three hours!  After entering the lineage information into my database yesterday, my suspicion was confirmed by the thorough nature of the lineage facts.  The featured blogger I stumbled across due to a lead from Lynn Betlock in The Weekly Genealogist . . . the blogger who had invited me to submit a guest post . . . the blogger who introduced me to the world of genealogy blogging and inspired the creation of The Prism turns out to be my 9^th cousin 1x removed!

And who is this featured blogger and my distant cousin?  She is none other than Heather Wilkinson Rojo, genealogy blogger extraordinaire of Nutfield Genealogy fame!  Heather is the 9x great granddaughter of Richard Tew and Mary (Clarke) Tew through their daughter Seaborn.  I am the 8x great grandson of Richard and Mary (Clarke) Tew through their son Henry.

It is indeed a small, interconnected genealogy world – but this serendipitous discovery is one that in all likelihood would never have been discovered before this new digital golden age of genealogy! 

Heather’s and my lineage from our common ancestors Richard and Mary (Clarke) Tew:

                        Richard Tew                        m.                        Mary Clarke

                        (1605 – 1673)                                                   (1618 – 1687)

1.             Seaborn Tew (b. 1640)

2.             Elnathan Tew (b. 1644)

3.              Mary Tew (b. 1647)

4.             Henry Tew (b. 1654 – d. 1718)

Seaborn Tew m. Owen Higgins                                    Henry Tew m. Dorcas _?_ (2^nd)

Mehitable Higgins m. John Mayhew                              Richard Tew m. Ruth Sisson

John Mayhew m. Ruth Davis                                         William Tew m. Jane Carr

Mary Mayhew m. Caleb Rand                                        John Tew m. Hannah Stafford

Mary Rand m. Asahel Bill                                              John Tew m. Anna Kenyon

Ingraham E. Bill m. Isabella Lyons                                Adam Tew m. Susan A. Walker

Caleb R. Bill m. Ann Margaret Bollman                        John A. Tew m. Margaret Conner

Isabella Lyons Bill m. Albert M. Wilkinson                  Arnold Tew m. Huldah

                                                                                      Hasselbaum [my grandparents]

Donald M. Wilkinson m. Bertha L. Roberts

[Heather’s grandparents]

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The Howard Pyle illustration above is from the Time-Life Seafarers volume, The Pirates (p. 68).

Photographs above of Maidford, Northamptonshire, England; road signs to the three villages known as The Tews in nearby Oxfordshire; and, the Post Office in Great Tew, are by the author, John D. Tew (2004).

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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew

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