I can't help but become sentimental when it comes to uncovering the secrets that lead to who you are.
These are just a few of the miracles of DNA that I have uncovered. What can you find?
My mother donated some old photographs of the Cocoa and Eau Gallie area. They asked her to write about her life as she remembered it which they published. She was a Roesch afterall. Now my family history was beginning to intrigue me. Inside the front entrance of the FHS hangs a plaque with my mother's name engraved upon it. My sisters and I were happy to make this happen for her to leave a lasting memory of her existence to the history of this area.![]() |
| My 9th Great Grandfather |
Rev.
John Lothrop, my 9th great grandfather was born in England in 1854
to a prestigious family. He was educated
at Oxford and then Cambridge University. Upon graduation he was ordained a
Deacon in the Church of England.
Years
later his views began to shift toward Protestant views. During the 17th
Century it was crime to practice anything but the Church of England. This put
himself at odds with the King on the topic of religious freedom. This put Lothrop subject to severe
punishment.
He
was arrested and imprisoned in 1632 under terrible conditions and treatment.
Two years later he was released on the condition he remove himself to the New
World. He set sail on the Griffin along with 30 of his followers, arriving in
Boston in 1634.
During
the voyage, while at evening devotions, the Reverend Lothrop spilled hot candle
wax on the open book which burned through several pages, causing holes about
the size of a shilling. Before landing, he carefully repaired most of the
damaged paper and filled in the missing text from memory. A few of the holes in
the pages remain." The Bible is on display at the Sturgis Library in Barnstable, MA
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| Kathryn Smith Lockhard |
Carl Zachariah Pierce, my great
grandfather, was born in 1872. He was a handsome young man who
played baseball on the Middleboro, MA town league. In 1897 at the age of
25 he married 16 year old, Mary Catherine Wilbur just before
Christmas. Six weeks later, on February 2nd, she
gave birth to their daughter, my grandmother, Mary Ann.
According to divorce records, the marriage ended in April 1909 due to gross and
confirmed habits of intoxication that began on or about December 1, 1898.
This addiction held on tightly for the rest of his life, causing many
confrontations with police and acquaintances. It also caused him to not
only lose his job in his father's hardware store but also caused him many
health problems.
In 1912, Carl was earning money by sawing blocks of ice out of the Carver pond
in Bridgewater. The pond sat at the bottom of hill surrounded by
trees and accessible only by a path from the road. One
day while Carl was sawing out a block of ice he accidently
amputated part of three fingers.
Carl Z. Pierce died on July 29, 1927 at the age of 55 of a root
canal pharysurgical abscess, myocarditis acute while incarcerated at the Bridgewater State Hospital for
alcoholism. Myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of the heart muscle
(myocardium). He died from inflammation of the heart muscle caused
by an infection, namely his abscessed tooth.
He is buried at Hillside Cemetery, Auburn Street, Bridgewater, MA. He has no
marker but was told he rests to the right of his daughter, Mary Ann.
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| Cora Ella Pierce |
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| Grace Gordon Pierce |
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| Arodi Peirce, 4th great grandfather |
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| Arodi's brother, Eliphalet Pierce |