Amanuensis Monday - Will of Mary Smith 1863

Mary Smith

In the name of God Amen

I Mary Smith of Burrillville in the County of Providence and

State of Rhode Island, Widow being weak in body but of sane

mind, in view of my of my approaching dissolution do make this

my last will and Testament in manner following that is to say:

First I give & bequeath to my Nephew Daniel S Sayles son of

Pitts Sayles, my large Silver spoons marked D. S.

Second I give and bequeath to Mary D. Stokes, Daughter of Daniel

S. Shumway twenty five dollars in money.

Third I give & bequeath to James S. Shumway Son of Daniel S.

twenty five Dollars.

Fourth I give and bequeath to Sarah S. Coggswell, Henry H.

Shumway & Louisa R. Shumway, Children of Daniel S. Shumway

Ten dollars each, all the above named legaries are to be paid out of

my personal estate by my executors herein named within one year

after my deceased.

Fifth I give devise & bequeath unto my Nephews Daniel S. Shumway

& unto my Niece Lucy Sayles wife of Pitt Sayles all the rest and

residue of my estate of every kind and wheresoever situate or lying 

equally between them share and share alike to them & their heirs

and assigns forever, they paying out of the same all my just debts 

funeral charges and expenses of settling my estate.

Lastly, I hereby nominate and appoint Daniel S. Shumway and

Lucy Sayles aforenamed sole Executors of this my last Will & Testa-

ment and do hereby revoke all other and former wills by me made

and publish and establish this and this only as my last Will

and Testament.

In Testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand at Burrill-

ville this fifth day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand

eight Hundred & Sixty two.

Signed published and and declared by Mary Smith as and for her last 

Will and Testament in our presence who have at her request and in

her presence and in presence of each other hereunto set our names

as Witnesses.

Whipple Walling                          Mary Smith

John A. Field

John Walling

I Mary Smith of Burrillville in the County of Providence &

State of Rhode Island do this 20^th day of May A. D. 1863 make

& publish this codicle to my last Will and testament in manner 

following that is to say.

Whereas in my said Will I have given to my Nephew Daniel S. Shum-

way and Lucy Sayles wife of Pitts Sayles the remainder of my estate

of every kind which I have not named above & given away.  I do hereby 

order and declare and my Will is that portion of my estate which I

give to my Nephew Daniel S. Shumway.  I give devise & bequeath to 

Thomas D. Sayles & his heirs & assigns forever.  I do hereby nominate 

and appoint the said Thomas D. Sayles in connection with Lucy

Sayles to be Executors in lieu of Daniel S. Shumway.

And I hereby order this my codicil to be ammened to and make a

part of my last Will and Testament to all intents and purposes. 

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand at Burrillville

this 20^th day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hun-

dred & Sixty three.

Signed published & declared by Mary Smith as & for her last Will &

 Testament in our presence who have at her request in her presence

& in presence of each other hereunto set our names as Witnesses.

Charles Moore                                                Mary Smith

John Walling

Martha S. Walling

I ordered this Will from SAMPUBCO from a list of Massachusetts Will Testators Index.  It turned out to be the wrong Mary Smith for me.  If this Mary Smith is in your tree, let me know!

Charles Gaisford from Hilperton, U. K.

Hilperton is a village in the County of Wiltshire in southwestern England.  It's about 110 miles west of London and only about 25 miles northwest of Stonehenge.  My Great Great Grandfather Charles Gaisford was born in or near Hilperton on January 26, 1842. 

In 2001, I connected with a descendant of Charles' sister Hannah, Cindy Pickard.  She shared with me some Gaisford family history.  Charles' parents were James and Anna (Rich) Gaisford.  Six children were born to James and Anna before they came to the U.S. in about 1855, then a couple more in Rhode Island.

The children of James and Anna were:

1. Emma Jane  (1840-1915)
2. Charles Henry  (1842-1920)
3. James  (1845-1909)
4. Hannah  (1847-1918)
5. William  (1850-1827)
6. Anna  (1854-1913)
7. Samuel  (1857-1921)
8. Jean  (1860 - ?)

Back in the day before census records were available to search online, I had to either inter-library loan microfilm, or request lookups from others.  In March 2004, I posted a request on the Rootsweb Mailing list for Providence county, Rhode Island for the 1860 census showing James Gaisford, listing his family members by name.  My request was answered the same day!  It would have taken me a long time to find them in a search at Ancestry or Heritage Quest since they were listed by the name "Gaskill".   They were in Burrillville, Rhode Island, James was a "cloth finisher".  The family moved to Minonk, Illinois in about 1868. 

In 1860, Charles was 19, living with his parents in Burrillville, working as a weaver.  His marriage record in 1867 shows his residence as Putnam, Connecticut, so it looks like he had gone out on his own, moved to Putnam and was making his living as a spindle maker. You can see a copy of the marriage record here.

After their marriage, Charles & Henrietta moved to La Salle County, Illinois about 1868 where he took up farming.  Charles became a Naturalized citizen in Woodford County in 1872.  In about 1876, they moved to Nebraska, first to Ellis in Gage County then filing a homestead claim in Jefferson County.  One of my goals this year is to take a vacation day and get to two or three county courthouses and look for homestead records.  If you have a homesteader story to tell, the Homestead National Monument in Beatrice is collecting them.  

Beatrice Daily Sun, February 4, 1903

This article from the Beatrice Daily Sun tells me two things:  1) that Charles did all right financially and 2) the reason for Charles Jr's move to Oklahoma.  Interesting coincidence - Charles Jr moved from Ellis in Gage County, Nebraska to Gage in Ellis County, Oklahoma. 

From the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota website, the 1920 census Instructions to Enumerators were:

 "Column 5. Name of each person enumerated.-Enter the name of every person whose usual place of abode on January 1, 1920, was with the family or in the dwelling place for which the enumeration is being made."

The Gaisford household was enumerated on February 4th, just two weeks after Charles' death on January 20, 1920.  He is listed as head of household with Henrietta and their daughter Mary ("Maime").  

Charles left the English countryside at about age 13, lived and worked in eastern cities for a while, then left there to help settle the west.  The Gaisford family was the first of my ancestors to settle here in Nebraska.  The state was 9 years old.

Charles Gaisford