The Musical Connection

One of the other advantages to the discoveries that came along after jumping into our genealogy rabbit hole was finding out that from the Gillette side of the family, there is a creditable line of musicians, both amateur and professional.

I studied the piano and organ for 12 years, and kept playing until a few years ago. My brother is a DJ at KX 93.5 FM in Laguna Beach, and regularly plays the guitar in bands around Orange County. I vaguely knew that my cousin Jack Forsha (second cousin) was a musician (more later). My grandmother Margaret Morris Gillette played the piano for silent movies. But what I didn’t know is that my grandmother’s brother Thomas Gillette was a big band leader in the Salt Lake City area.

Through Ancestry.com I have become e-acquainted with Thomas’ grandson Chris, who lives in Montana. He has shared several pictures of Thomas, who was a pretty handsome dude.

The Gillette Silver Sentinels Band in the Majestic Theater, probably Salt Lake City

What stimulated my interest in this musical connection was Ancestry letting me know that Aunt Daisy Gillette (my great aunt) was born 141 years ago today, June 23. She was my grandmother’s older sister. They were close, moving with their family from Salt Lake City to Pasadena, CA in the 1920s. We grew up visiting Aunt Daisy who was shorter than my grandmother, and just the sweetest person. My sister and I loved her. She never left Pasadena, marrying her husband John Forsha. Their only son was John G. “Jack” Forsha.

Daisy Gillette Forsha, Margaret Gillette Ford, Mary Ann Morris Gillette, Birdie Gillette Perlywitz

So John G. or Jack, as we knew him, was he really a musician? Well, turns out he actually was pretty well known. He was a member of the New Christy Minstrels, and later the Stone Poneys, Linda Ronstadt’s band. If you read the information below this video on You Tube, there is more information about his musical career.

Brief Blues for John Forsha, played with his steel guitar.

Which brings me to genealogy research…If the YouTube comments here are correct, Jack didn’t die until 2007. That’s not what my tree says…and so NOW I have some research to do. Find Jack’s actual death date and then correct my tree. The adventure continues!

It’s a good time to sign off, at least to correct my Forsha tree, if the information above is correct.

Addendum: There were three John “Jacks”! John Abel, Daisy’s husband, John Georges, their son, and John Taylor the musician! And now I know he died in 2008. Pays to keep digging!

The Bear Bible

“Bear Bible” Returns After 355 Years

The Bear Bible…what is that! (click on the link above and you’ll see the whole story of the Bear Bible’s travels!) I’d been reading about this bible for awhile, here and there in written Gillette genealogies. Stories of this 17th century surviving relic captured my imagination. In the back of my mind, I wondered where it was and if it still existed.

My discovery of the answer to this question, long way around, is as follows: this April, Judy and I took a genealogy trip back to Massachusetts. We had intended to go in 2018, but life circumstances meant we couldn’t make the trip. So when Daren announced he was running in the 2019 Boston Marathon, I jumped at the chance to head back to the New England Historical and Genealogy Society’s headquarters in Boston. Without any idea of what she was getting into, Judy agreed to go with me.

In preparation for our trip, I contacted the staff genealogist at Windsor Historical Society, Michele Tom. She sent me the link to their published story of the Bear Bible above.

As an aside, if you are ever making a genealogy trip, I highly recommending contacting local genealogists ahead of time. I’ve found, as in this case, they are more than willing to compile information for visiting GERDS (AKA genealogy nerds). Not only do you meet really nice people, but you significantly shorten your research time by using their knowledge of local resources. This method worked for our Irish trip a few years ago, and it has been really helpful for our upcoming Welsh trip.

In any case, I was amazed that not only did the bible exist, but it actually resides in the little museum at the Windsor Historical Society (Connecticut). So on our second day in Boston, Judy and I rented a car and made the drive West to Windsor, Connecticut.

Michele pulled out numerous resources which Judy and I spent hours going over and copying, where they were relevant to our branch of the Gillettes. I discovered that the Gillette family is much larger than I’d known, and we came away with lots of material, only part of which I’ve digested.

And we saw the Bear Bible, albeit behind glass! Another name for this bible is the Geneva Bible or the Breeches Bible. The Breeches Bible refers to how this edition calls Adam and Eve’s “fig leaf” — “breeches”. I guess the Calvinists in Geneva thought breeches would cover more territory than fig leaves!

If you look carefully, you can see indentations in the pages on the right side of the bible. Apparently, the bible was used to support a lower window sash so the summer breeze could cool the cabin. A bear trying to gain entry took a swipe at the bible and left a mark that remains 300 years later. Hence the name Bear Bible.

Here’s one of the first references I found to the Bear Bible in written genealogies, described here as the Gillette Bible, at the top of the second column.

In the Palisado Cemetery, Judy and I found the gravesite for Mary Gillette Brown and Peter Brown, husband and wife, who lived in the mid 1600s. Mary was the daughter of the original immigrants Jonathan Gillette and Mary Dolbere, who arrived in the New World in 1630. While many histories say they arrived on the ship Mary and John, the NEHGS doesn’t believe their presence on this ship is positively proven. We know they lived in Dorcester with those who were on the ship. We know they moved further West to Windsor with these same people, but before that it’s a bit murky. Darn that pesky genealogy proof standard! It makes for a better story in any case!

Another fun aside: I get brain dead when I’ve looked at too many documents. I was ready to go, cooling the neural connections, standing beside a bookshelf waiting to see another gem, an original deed of land from Josiah Ellsworth to Cornelius Gillette (my ninth great uncle), (the land being bounded by the land of Jonathan Gillette) when I happened to glance down. Hmm, a book about Winchell genealogy. Our grandmother was an Everett, and her grandfather married a Winchell. I wonder…and there they were in the almost 3″ thick genealogy: Henry Everett and Phoebe Winchell. Luckily this book is online, because there’s no way I could dive down that rabbit hole at the end of a research day!

Deed of land bounded by Jonathan Gillette’s land, from Josiah Ellsworth to Cornelius Gillette. 1658

A Pleasant surprise

Here’s an example of the kinds of cool things that happen when you enter the world of genealogy. A few weeks ago I received an envelope from someone I’d never heard of before. When I opened it I found a picture of a 12 month old girl named Mabel Eade. The photographer was Alderson from Warren, IL. There were notes from the sender indicating that her father was Josiah Alcott Eade and her mother Carrie Kilburn Earl. She lived from 1886-1888, not a long time.

I had to look her up, but there she was in my Nana’s Earl lineage. Her mother’s name Carrie Earl clearly was connected to my great grandmother. In fact, my Nana, Carrie Earl McFadden, was born in 1867. So they were contemporaries, little Mabel in IL and baby Carrie in San Leandro, CA. Knowing the naming traditions that are common in Irish families, I’m betting there are other Carries further back in the Earl-Kilburn tree.

I was thrilled. The sender had found her picture in a Peru, IL antique mall and taken the trouble to find her on Ancestry, and then to find me and send me this picture. I scanned it and uploaded it to my ancestry tree.

Here’s the response I received, “I got your thank you card and I’m glad you received the photo and that you’re happy with it. I’m ecstatic to see it posted on Ancestry–that’s what makes it all worthwhile for me. Continued success with your tree(s)!”

At his entreaty, Mabel has been given a good home amongst our family photos.

There’s something interesting around every corner

Welcome to the Ford Family Genealogy Trails or Down the Rabbit Hole! I hope to share with you genealogy discoveries from the Ford family, but also from the Johnsons, the Cobbeys, the McFaddens, the Earls, the Gillettes and more. Currently I am working on the Morris side of the family, in preparation for July trip to Wales.

Sharing what I learn feels important to me. First, I spend a lot of time researching the various genealogy strands. I’m learning a lot and I want my family to know what I’m learning, if they are interested. Secondly, this is our family heritage. It is rich and deep. Just in this county alone, several of our lines go back to the mid 1600s. That is not to mention the Irish, English and Welsh roots that go even deeper. Thirdly, most people can’t listen to the depth and details I unearth without their eyes glazing over. So, maybe if I can dose it into blog posts, members of my family will be able to access the stories when they are able to absorb them.

I first began this journey in my teens, sitting in my grandfather’s “hoopey” house in his back yard on Beverly Drive in Fullerton, CA. We would sit and play cribbage and he’d tell me stories of how he drove a mule train out into the desert to homestead, or of how his grandfather first settled the Placentia area. I loved the stories, but now I wish I’d asked more questions, of him, my grandmother and my parents.

My grandparents were very modern by grandparent standards. I lived with them part-time while my parents were in Bolivia with my other five siblings and I was getting ready to go to nursing school. So we had time, and I am grateful that we did.

Here’s my grandfather’s immediate lineage.

Herbert Alvin Ford, who died when my grandfather was only three.
Carrie Earl McFadden Ford, at age 16, who raised three boys on her own after her husband’s death.
William McCormick McFadden, Carrie’s father, who helped to found the city of Placentia.
My grandfather, Maurice Earl Ford Sr.

By way of introduction, my name is Marilee Ford. I’m a retired nurse and artist (www.marileeford.com) living in Petaluma with my husband Rob Hendricksen, our two kitties Gypsy and Pearl and our three chickens. In my retirement I have joined my cousin Carol Johnston Snow in venturing down into the rabbit hole of DNA, DNA connections, family stories, pictures, land plots, maps and family bibles. We support one another in going after the proverbial road blocks as we try to get back yet another generation in our various family lines.

I have an Ancestry.com family tree, where I am most active. I have started trees in MyHeritage and on Family Search. I have taken several genealogy classes through the local JC and online. I think my genealogy habit feeds my curious mind. It certainly keeps me occupied and endlessly looking around yet another corner. I hope you will enjoy the stories I share as time moves along. Thanks for reading.