Greeley / Bartlett Family

Here is my reasoning on how I pieced together who Fannie Greeley’s parents were by eliminating all other known possibilities.  So we can put it into perspective she is my husband’s great grandmother, who was born in Maine in 1855 and Died in Washington DC in 1882.

From the letter that Grandmother Bartlett wrote to Frances Maude Greeley (Fannie’s daughter) she states she was almost 85 in April 1906.  That gave me a rough birth year of 1821.  There were 2 families that had Fannie as a child in the same area of Maine within 2 years of each other.  I was able to rule out the other family as the mother’s birth year didn’t match up and that other Fannie did not get married until later in life and stayed in Maine from what I can tell.

Frances Lydia Bartlett (1860 Census) was born in Maine to William and Julia Bartlett in 1855.  They lived in several towns in Waldo County.  She had an older brother Rufus who was born in 1848.  William died between the 1880 and 1900 census (still looking up more info) and Julia died 9 Mar 1915 in Swanville Maine while living with her son and his wife (have Julia’s death certificate). 

From the death certificate I also now know that her parents were names John and Lucy.  John was born in Maine, but she gave various places for her mother’s birth on census and death records (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine) so I am not sure on her yet.  I found a record for William Bartlett from the Disable veterans national home.  It said he was in the Maine infantry and was wounded in the civil war with multiple gunshot wounds to the leg.  He was discharged from there in June 1879, with his closest relative listed as “Mrs. Julia A Bartlett, residence: Washington DC.” 

A guess at Fannie’s marriage date to Charles, or Chaz, is around 1879.  Phillip C Greeley was born in DC in 1879 and Frances Maude in 1882.

Also from the 1880 Census it has Charles, Fannie, and Phillip living at the reform school where he is the assistant Superintendent. “Reform School of the Dist. Columbia, Bladensburgh Rd.”  Bladensburg is just over the state line into Maryland, and Bladensburg Road starts there and travels west into DC through NE Washington where it becomes US-1 Alt.   The picture Shown is the reform school!

On the 1880 Census for DC I found:
CH Greeley:  26, Apt Sup, Born Maine, father born Maine, mother born Maine
Fannie C:  25, Matron, born Maine, father born Maine, mother born Maine
Phillip:  1, Boarder, born DC, father born Maine, mother born Maine

Then I found Charles and his parents/siblings on the 1860 and 1870 Swanville Maine censuses.  His parents were Phillip and Eliza. 

Richard Bartlett (4^th great grandfather to Frances Lydia Bartlett) was one of the first settlers of Newbury Massachusetts.  There is an image of the plaque at Newbury with the listing of the settlers in several places online.  It is important that when you go out searching for him that you get the right Bartlett line.  There are 3 New England Bartlett trees and they share names back and forth.

 *Image from Library of Congress Brady-Handy Collection

A treasure trove of letters

Late last week I received 13 letters from a cousin of my Mother in Law.  They are from 1902-1941 and were correspondence between her grandmother in Washington State and members of the family back in Maine.  Over the next few weeks I am going to transcribe these for the family and see what I can glean of the family history from them.

Last Spring I received 5 letters from my mother in law, which were written to her grandmother.  2 were from her grandmothers, and one from her father’s brother.  These letters proved very useful as they were full of names, dates and places that lead me to find 4 more generations of the family. 

Without these letters I would have been unable to make the leap into the prior generations as I had no idea how/where to look.  I knew Frances Maude Greeley’s grandmothers had the first names of Eliza (Elizabeth?) and Julia, but who were they?  Marriage records didn’t appear; birth records listed no maiden names.  I was stuck.  Then I read, and re-read the letters.  Finally I typed them out, and here are some of the things I found:

Letter from Grandma Greeley Smart to Frances Maude Greeley Crabb; Swanville Maine February 20, 1897:
 “But I know you will have charity for your grandmother when I tell you my Father died when I was a little girl, in Havana Cuba leaving my mother with four little girls and we did not have many school privileges.” 

 Letter from Julia Bartlett to Frances Maude Greeley Crabb; Swanville Maine April 1906:

 “I think of all my brothers and sisters.  They are all gone.  One brother only left there were 10 of us.  5 girls and 5 boys.  9 of us lived to have families of our own.”

Letter from Philip H. Greeley to Frances Maude Greeley Crabb; December 13, 1937:

“The Bartlett family were a strong NE race that were English stock and among the early settlers.  One was once governor of NH many of the them have information psrtim (?) like chaplain Bartlett of the Pearry polar expedition.” 

Letter from Phillip Greeley to Frances Maude Greeley Crabb; Tampa Florida January 19, 1941:

“On mother’s side the Cunninghams, Browns, and Nickersons are in the picture.  Sometime the latter part of the 18^th century John Cunningham went from Edgartown Martha’s Vinyard to Cape Cod and married the daughter of Slathiel Nickerson.  Two sons were all that resulted from this marriage.  William who lived in Belfast Maine.  The two brothers married sisters.  I think they were Scotch and belonged to that gang that England induced to go to Northern Ireland and made great promises for their prosperity and never kept them”

“The other son of John Cunningham was James who was you great grandfather. His home was in Belfast Maine.  [unknown] he reached the age of 10 yr when he went to sea with his mother’s brother, a Nickerson of course.”…“ Aforesaid James went around the world twice before he was 12 and continued to sail the seven seas till his death aged 40.  When he was 18 an uncle fitted out a schooner for him after which time he was Capt. Cunningham.  When about 40 he made a trip to Havana Cuba where he contracted yellow fever recovered started for N.Y. had a relapse died buried at sea.”

I have 13 more letters to read, and I can’t wait to see if they have any more confirmation on what my research has dug up!  Stay tuned…

*The image of Maine is from Classroom Clipart