Jammer hoor dat het is agelopen, ik had nog wel iets meer van Martha willen horen, hoe ze verliefd werd, etc etc...... maar je hebt er mooie verslagen van gemaakt Mieke,
bedankt.
the Martha-years
-
Gast
-
Halfpint
- Site Admin
- Berichten: 3644
- Lid geworden op: 13-04-2011 22:25
Na grondig onderzoek blijkt nu dat de overgrootmoeder van Laura Ingalls Wilder helemaal niet in Schotland is geboren. Lees onderstaand stuk.
Ik ga zeer zeker het onderzoek naar de echte Martha Morse volgen. Kijken wat het ons voor nieuwe dingen brengt. Ik heb hier zin in, jullie ook?
The Search for the Real Martha Morse
by Leah Hickman
Growing up, the Little House books were some of my favorites. I loved hearing about the adventures that Laura had as a child and the beautiful places she got to visit. I loved the stories her Pa would tell and the stories that she herself got to live as a pioneer girl.
Not long after I finished the series, my mom got her hands on some of those rare copies of the other Little House books: the Martha Years, the Charlotte Years, the Caroline Years, and the Rose Years. I gobbled those up books too, delighted by the interesting stories of they told of Laura's great-grandma, grandmother, ma, and daughter, respectively.
The stories of Martha Morse were especially interesting to me since, according to these books, Martha was born and grew up in Scotland. However, as I recently discovered, research has shown that the real Martha Morse never even set foot in Scotland.
The thistle is the national flower of Scotland, Martha Morse's fictionalized birthplace.
As Melissa Wiley, the author of the Martha Years books, says, the books about Martha are historical fiction, not biography. The stories they tell of Martha Morse are based on an account of Martha that Grace Ingalls Dow, Laura's youngest sister, shared in a letter. As Wiley explains, Grace wrote in this letter "that her great-grandmother, Martha Morse, was the daughter of a Scottish laird who married someone the family considered beneath her station." That's the only "fact" about Martha that Wiley had to work with. From there, she used her imagination and some research of life in Scotland during the late 1700s to formulate her delightful stories. It turns out, however, that the information Grace shared in her letter does not fit with the facts we find in historical records. The story that Grace told must have arisen in the imaginations of her her tale-loving family members.
Thanks to Wiley's fun books, there's a lot we know about the fictional Martha Morse and perhaps about the person that Laura and her sisters thought Martha was. But what about the real Martha Morse? What do we know about her?
In the following series of posts, I will be sharing the things that I have discovered in my recent research of Martha Morse and her daughter, Charlotte Tucker. As we explore these two relatively elusive characters of history, you'll get a little more information about the background and childhood a slightly more well-known character of history, Caroline Lake Quiner, the girl who would one day become the mother of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge the work of all those curious individuals who have already compiled information about Martha's life, making my search that much easier. Thank you specifically to Dorla Tam from Ancestry.com and John Bass for their help in answering my questions and pointing me to helpful resources.
Be sure to stick around! I'm positive that this adventure through history will be one worth having.
Ik ga zeer zeker het onderzoek naar de echte Martha Morse volgen. Kijken wat het ons voor nieuwe dingen brengt. Ik heb hier zin in, jullie ook?
The Search for the Real Martha Morse
by Leah Hickman
Growing up, the Little House books were some of my favorites. I loved hearing about the adventures that Laura had as a child and the beautiful places she got to visit. I loved the stories her Pa would tell and the stories that she herself got to live as a pioneer girl.
Not long after I finished the series, my mom got her hands on some of those rare copies of the other Little House books: the Martha Years, the Charlotte Years, the Caroline Years, and the Rose Years. I gobbled those up books too, delighted by the interesting stories of they told of Laura's great-grandma, grandmother, ma, and daughter, respectively.
The stories of Martha Morse were especially interesting to me since, according to these books, Martha was born and grew up in Scotland. However, as I recently discovered, research has shown that the real Martha Morse never even set foot in Scotland.
The thistle is the national flower of Scotland, Martha Morse's fictionalized birthplace.
As Melissa Wiley, the author of the Martha Years books, says, the books about Martha are historical fiction, not biography. The stories they tell of Martha Morse are based on an account of Martha that Grace Ingalls Dow, Laura's youngest sister, shared in a letter. As Wiley explains, Grace wrote in this letter "that her great-grandmother, Martha Morse, was the daughter of a Scottish laird who married someone the family considered beneath her station." That's the only "fact" about Martha that Wiley had to work with. From there, she used her imagination and some research of life in Scotland during the late 1700s to formulate her delightful stories. It turns out, however, that the information Grace shared in her letter does not fit with the facts we find in historical records. The story that Grace told must have arisen in the imaginations of her her tale-loving family members.
Thanks to Wiley's fun books, there's a lot we know about the fictional Martha Morse and perhaps about the person that Laura and her sisters thought Martha was. But what about the real Martha Morse? What do we know about her?
In the following series of posts, I will be sharing the things that I have discovered in my recent research of Martha Morse and her daughter, Charlotte Tucker. As we explore these two relatively elusive characters of history, you'll get a little more information about the background and childhood a slightly more well-known character of history, Caroline Lake Quiner, the girl who would one day become the mother of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge the work of all those curious individuals who have already compiled information about Martha's life, making my search that much easier. Thank you specifically to Dorla Tam from Ancestry.com and John Bass for their help in answering my questions and pointing me to helpful resources.
Be sure to stick around! I'm positive that this adventure through history will be one worth having.
-
Halfpint
- Site Admin
- Berichten: 3644
- Lid geworden op: 13-04-2011 22:25
What We Know about Martha Morse
by Leah Hickman
In the last post, I spent some time debunking some of the myths about Laura Ingalls Wilder's great-grandmother, Martha Morse, and attempted to draw a distinction between the real Martha and the fictional Martha of the Little House books. This time, I'm going to tell you some stuff that we actually do know about Martha's life.
I guess the best place to begin our story of Martha is at the beginning... with Martha's birth.
Martha was born on February 7, 1779, in Walpole, Massachusetts, sharing a birthday with her famous great-granddaughter, Laura Ingalls Wilder. Her parents were Martha and Jathenal Morse. A Boston marriage account states that "Jethniel Morse of Boston" married "Martha Hayden of Brainbree" in January 1772. I could not find a record of Martha Hayden's birth, but I did find a record of the birth of a "Jethanil Morse" in the lists of Walpole births. He was born on June 25, 1746. Assuming that this "Jethanil" is the same as Martha Morse's father, "Jathenal," then we know that Martha's father had twelve siblings. All thirteen of these Morse children were named after people from the Bible. Some of them had some more obscure Bible names, such as Ichabod, Bennoni, and Mehetabel. Just imagine how many nieces and nephews Jathenal had because of all of these siblings... and how many cousins Martha Morse would have had too! I bet family get-togethers were pretty crazy.
Before Martha's birth, Jathenal and Martha Hayden had at least one other child while they were in Walpole. His name was George Morse, and his birthday was January 18, 1778. He would have been Martha's older brother by about eleven months. Although I could find no other children born to Martha and Jathenal in the Walpole birth records, our Martha may have had other siblings born elsewhere if she and her family moved around. This is very likely, in fact, because Jathenal and Martha Hayden were not married in Walpole, and the Walpole death records do not include an account of Jathenal or Martha Hayden's death. This means that they may have moved in the years after George and Martha were born.
The next big thing we know about Martha is that she married a man named Joseph Tucker. Although even the date of her wedding is uncertain, we do know that she married a Tucker, thanks to her death records. We also know her husband's first name because, in the death records of her children, the name of the father is listed as "Joseph."
During my search to find the Joseph Tucker, I looked mainly in three different places. The first place was Walpole, since that is Martha's birthplace. When I looked here, I found a Joseph Tucker born to Joseph and Abigail Tucker on October 18, 1779. If this is the right Joseph Tucker, then he would have had five older siblings, all girls. Poor little Joseph.
The other two towns I looked in were Roxbury and Norton, Massachusetts. I looked in Roxbury because that is the place of Martha's death, and a Joseph Tucker also dies in Roxbury around the right period of time. I was unable to find a Joseph Tucker born in Roxbury during the right years. Then I looked in the Norton records because the death record of one of Martha's children lists the father's birthplace as Norton. This information could likely be incorrect, especially since the father's name isn't even listed in this death record. However, I decided to give it a shot. In those birth records, I found another close fit and strong possibility for the Joseph Tucker. This guy was born on December 4, 1777, to Amos and Ziporah Tucker. He was the third of four kids, and he had an older brother and sister and one younger sister.
In a record of Roxbury marriages, I found an account of a marriage between Joseph Tucker “of Roxbury” and Patty Morse “of Walpole” on December 29, 1799. Since no Patty Morses appear in the Walpole birth records and since Martha herself was from Walpole, there's a chance that this "Patty" is actually Martha Morse herself. In fact, as Dorla, a fellow Ancestry.com user, explained to me, the name "Patty" was often used as a nickname for "Martha." She referred me to a site of nicknames from the 18th and 19th centuries to confirm. This fact makes it even more likely that "Patty Morse" is the woman we're looking for.
Check in next time to hear what we know about Joseph and Martha's children and the end of Martha's life.
by Leah Hickman
In the last post, I spent some time debunking some of the myths about Laura Ingalls Wilder's great-grandmother, Martha Morse, and attempted to draw a distinction between the real Martha and the fictional Martha of the Little House books. This time, I'm going to tell you some stuff that we actually do know about Martha's life.
I guess the best place to begin our story of Martha is at the beginning... with Martha's birth.
Martha was born on February 7, 1779, in Walpole, Massachusetts, sharing a birthday with her famous great-granddaughter, Laura Ingalls Wilder. Her parents were Martha and Jathenal Morse. A Boston marriage account states that "Jethniel Morse of Boston" married "Martha Hayden of Brainbree" in January 1772. I could not find a record of Martha Hayden's birth, but I did find a record of the birth of a "Jethanil Morse" in the lists of Walpole births. He was born on June 25, 1746. Assuming that this "Jethanil" is the same as Martha Morse's father, "Jathenal," then we know that Martha's father had twelve siblings. All thirteen of these Morse children were named after people from the Bible. Some of them had some more obscure Bible names, such as Ichabod, Bennoni, and Mehetabel. Just imagine how many nieces and nephews Jathenal had because of all of these siblings... and how many cousins Martha Morse would have had too! I bet family get-togethers were pretty crazy.
Before Martha's birth, Jathenal and Martha Hayden had at least one other child while they were in Walpole. His name was George Morse, and his birthday was January 18, 1778. He would have been Martha's older brother by about eleven months. Although I could find no other children born to Martha and Jathenal in the Walpole birth records, our Martha may have had other siblings born elsewhere if she and her family moved around. This is very likely, in fact, because Jathenal and Martha Hayden were not married in Walpole, and the Walpole death records do not include an account of Jathenal or Martha Hayden's death. This means that they may have moved in the years after George and Martha were born.
The next big thing we know about Martha is that she married a man named Joseph Tucker. Although even the date of her wedding is uncertain, we do know that she married a Tucker, thanks to her death records. We also know her husband's first name because, in the death records of her children, the name of the father is listed as "Joseph."
During my search to find the Joseph Tucker, I looked mainly in three different places. The first place was Walpole, since that is Martha's birthplace. When I looked here, I found a Joseph Tucker born to Joseph and Abigail Tucker on October 18, 1779. If this is the right Joseph Tucker, then he would have had five older siblings, all girls. Poor little Joseph.
The other two towns I looked in were Roxbury and Norton, Massachusetts. I looked in Roxbury because that is the place of Martha's death, and a Joseph Tucker also dies in Roxbury around the right period of time. I was unable to find a Joseph Tucker born in Roxbury during the right years. Then I looked in the Norton records because the death record of one of Martha's children lists the father's birthplace as Norton. This information could likely be incorrect, especially since the father's name isn't even listed in this death record. However, I decided to give it a shot. In those birth records, I found another close fit and strong possibility for the Joseph Tucker. This guy was born on December 4, 1777, to Amos and Ziporah Tucker. He was the third of four kids, and he had an older brother and sister and one younger sister.
In a record of Roxbury marriages, I found an account of a marriage between Joseph Tucker “of Roxbury” and Patty Morse “of Walpole” on December 29, 1799. Since no Patty Morses appear in the Walpole birth records and since Martha herself was from Walpole, there's a chance that this "Patty" is actually Martha Morse herself. In fact, as Dorla, a fellow Ancestry.com user, explained to me, the name "Patty" was often used as a nickname for "Martha." She referred me to a site of nicknames from the 18th and 19th centuries to confirm. This fact makes it even more likely that "Patty Morse" is the woman we're looking for.
Check in next time to hear what we know about Joseph and Martha's children and the end of Martha's life.
-
Halfpint
- Site Admin
- Berichten: 3644
- Lid geworden op: 13-04-2011 22:25
Great-Grandma “Patty” and Her Kids
by Leah Hickman
Last time, we learned that the great-grandmother of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Martha Morse, actually shared a birthday with her famous great-granddaughter, the author of the beloved Little House books. We also learned some things about her family, the location of her birth, and even that she likely had the nickname "Patty." This time, we're going to explore some facts about Martha's children and the later part of her life.
If you've read the series Little House: The Charlotte Years, you'll remember that, in these books, Charlotte has four siblings: Lewis, Lydia, Thomas, and Mary. According to my recent research, Martha may have had even more children than just those five. One family tree on Ancestry.com suggests that she actually had a total of ten children of which Charlotte was number 6. However, I have only found records confirming that six of those children actually existed, and these children are Lewis L., Lydia V., Thomas J., Charlotte Wallis, Caroline C., and Mary W. I could find no birth records for these children, which means that we can't be certain about their birthdays. However, death records tell us the approximate years of their births, and each child has at least one record that connects them to parents with the names "Joseph and Martha Tucker," confirming that they are, in fact, the children of our very own Joseph and Patty.
Although it's hard to tell if we're looking at the right Tuckers in every case since "Tucker" is a pretty common name, there are marriage records that suggest that each of these six Tuckers married and that every one of them, except for Lydia, had children. One of Charlotte's children was given the name Caroline Lake. Caroline Lake would one day become Laura's "Ma." Interestingly enough, her name actually comes from Charlotte's sister Caroline, who married a Mr. Lake.
Sadly, Martha's husband Joseph passed away around the age of 60 in Roxbury, Massachusetts. The date of his death is listed as June 12, 1837 and, elsewhere, as June 17 of the same year. Regardless of the exact day, his death would have left 58-year-old Martha alone. Apparently, however, she was able to find comfort in the refuge offered to her by her children. In an 1850 Roxbury census, Martha Tucker, age 73, is said to be living in the household of a 38-year-old "Nathaniel Jenkins," a jeweler, and his 36-year-old wife "Mary Jenkins." This Mary is Martha's daughter, Mary W. Tucker, who married Mr. Jenkins in 1835. During this time in her daughter's house, Martha would have been able to spend quality time with her three Jenkins grandsons, George, Charles, and Alfred, who were 13, 6, and 3 in 1850.
In April of 1859, Martha lost another family member. This time, it was her daughter Mary, the very daughter who had opened up her home to her widowed mother. Mary was only 45 when she died. After Mary's death, rather than staying on with her son-in-law and the three boys, Martha moved in with her other daughter, Lydia. Lydia V. had married a "James A. Morse of Roxbury" in 1851. (Considering that Lydia's husband shares Martha's maiden name, there's a chance that James was some distant relation of Martha's.) In the 1860 census of Roxbury, Martha Tucker is listed as living with Lydia and James, who are both in their forties at this time and have no children listed as living in their household.
Martha only spent around two or three years in Lydia's house, however. According to Roxbury death records, she passed away on October 12, 1862, around the age of 84. The site of her grave is unknown.
Check back in a few more weeks to learn about one of Martha's children, Charlotte Tucker, the woman who would one day become the grandmother of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
by Leah Hickman
Last time, we learned that the great-grandmother of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Martha Morse, actually shared a birthday with her famous great-granddaughter, the author of the beloved Little House books. We also learned some things about her family, the location of her birth, and even that she likely had the nickname "Patty." This time, we're going to explore some facts about Martha's children and the later part of her life.
If you've read the series Little House: The Charlotte Years, you'll remember that, in these books, Charlotte has four siblings: Lewis, Lydia, Thomas, and Mary. According to my recent research, Martha may have had even more children than just those five. One family tree on Ancestry.com suggests that she actually had a total of ten children of which Charlotte was number 6. However, I have only found records confirming that six of those children actually existed, and these children are Lewis L., Lydia V., Thomas J., Charlotte Wallis, Caroline C., and Mary W. I could find no birth records for these children, which means that we can't be certain about their birthdays. However, death records tell us the approximate years of their births, and each child has at least one record that connects them to parents with the names "Joseph and Martha Tucker," confirming that they are, in fact, the children of our very own Joseph and Patty.
Although it's hard to tell if we're looking at the right Tuckers in every case since "Tucker" is a pretty common name, there are marriage records that suggest that each of these six Tuckers married and that every one of them, except for Lydia, had children. One of Charlotte's children was given the name Caroline Lake. Caroline Lake would one day become Laura's "Ma." Interestingly enough, her name actually comes from Charlotte's sister Caroline, who married a Mr. Lake.
Sadly, Martha's husband Joseph passed away around the age of 60 in Roxbury, Massachusetts. The date of his death is listed as June 12, 1837 and, elsewhere, as June 17 of the same year. Regardless of the exact day, his death would have left 58-year-old Martha alone. Apparently, however, she was able to find comfort in the refuge offered to her by her children. In an 1850 Roxbury census, Martha Tucker, age 73, is said to be living in the household of a 38-year-old "Nathaniel Jenkins," a jeweler, and his 36-year-old wife "Mary Jenkins." This Mary is Martha's daughter, Mary W. Tucker, who married Mr. Jenkins in 1835. During this time in her daughter's house, Martha would have been able to spend quality time with her three Jenkins grandsons, George, Charles, and Alfred, who were 13, 6, and 3 in 1850.
In April of 1859, Martha lost another family member. This time, it was her daughter Mary, the very daughter who had opened up her home to her widowed mother. Mary was only 45 when she died. After Mary's death, rather than staying on with her son-in-law and the three boys, Martha moved in with her other daughter, Lydia. Lydia V. had married a "James A. Morse of Roxbury" in 1851. (Considering that Lydia's husband shares Martha's maiden name, there's a chance that James was some distant relation of Martha's.) In the 1860 census of Roxbury, Martha Tucker is listed as living with Lydia and James, who are both in their forties at this time and have no children listed as living in their household.
Martha only spent around two or three years in Lydia's house, however. According to Roxbury death records, she passed away on October 12, 1862, around the age of 84. The site of her grave is unknown.
Check back in a few more weeks to learn about one of Martha's children, Charlotte Tucker, the woman who would one day become the grandmother of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
-
Juud
- Berichten: 529
- Lid geworden op: 28-08-2011 20:03
Deze informatie was ik ook al tegengekomen in mijn zoektocht naar Laura's voorouders. Dat Martha niet in Schotland is geboren had ik eerder ergens gelezen, maar dat werd verder niet onderbouwd door bewijzen. Fijn dat die er nu dus wel zijn en erg leuk ook om meer te weten te komen over de echte Martha. Grappig dat ze op dezelfde dag jarig was als Laura.
Ik ben de afgelopen jaren bezig geweest met het uitpluizen van Laura's voorouders en het blijft heel frappant dat dit de enige familietak is waarbij tot nu toe de sporen aardig doodlopen. Ik heb de families Ingalls en Quiner goed uit kunnen zoeken, maar over de Tucker en Morse families is niets bekend.
Wel stammen Charles en Caroline (via de Colby en Quiner families) beiden ook af van een familie Morse nabij Boston, en zelf vermoed ik dat Martha van dezelfde familie afstamt. Ik ben zelfs de plaats Walpole regelmatig tegengekomen. Tot nu toe is dat onderzoek echter ook nog op niets uitgelopen m.b.t. het vinden van Martha. Ik moet het ook met de sites op internet doen i.p.v. een echt archief en sommige personen zijn daar afgeschermd, of de informatie is simpelweg nog nooit gedeeld.
Het kan overigens best zo zijn dat Martha's familie Schotse roots heeft, maar dat dit een aantal generaties nog terug was. Bij de familieverhalen die van generatie op generatie worden doorgegeven kunnen tussen de jaren door wat onduidelijkheden en ruis ontstaan.
Ik heb laatst Donald Zochert's biografie nog eens herlezen en daarin staat ook dat de familie van Margaret Delano - Charles' oma van vaderskant - van Franse afkomst was. Dit klopt weliswaar wel, maar voor de eerste Franse voorouder moet je ook al vijf generaties terug.
Ik ben de afgelopen jaren bezig geweest met het uitpluizen van Laura's voorouders en het blijft heel frappant dat dit de enige familietak is waarbij tot nu toe de sporen aardig doodlopen. Ik heb de families Ingalls en Quiner goed uit kunnen zoeken, maar over de Tucker en Morse families is niets bekend.
Wel stammen Charles en Caroline (via de Colby en Quiner families) beiden ook af van een familie Morse nabij Boston, en zelf vermoed ik dat Martha van dezelfde familie afstamt. Ik ben zelfs de plaats Walpole regelmatig tegengekomen. Tot nu toe is dat onderzoek echter ook nog op niets uitgelopen m.b.t. het vinden van Martha. Ik moet het ook met de sites op internet doen i.p.v. een echt archief en sommige personen zijn daar afgeschermd, of de informatie is simpelweg nog nooit gedeeld.
Het kan overigens best zo zijn dat Martha's familie Schotse roots heeft, maar dat dit een aantal generaties nog terug was. Bij de familieverhalen die van generatie op generatie worden doorgegeven kunnen tussen de jaren door wat onduidelijkheden en ruis ontstaan.
Ik heb laatst Donald Zochert's biografie nog eens herlezen en daarin staat ook dat de familie van Margaret Delano - Charles' oma van vaderskant - van Franse afkomst was. Dit klopt weliswaar wel, maar voor de eerste Franse voorouder moet je ook al vijf generaties terug.
