Is Meets Was

  When religious and political differences in England tore the country apart with anger and hate, twenty thousand people left England and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to America. One of the people was my 7th Great Grandfather, Aquila Chase. Aquila was born about 1618 in England. Aquila may have been born about thirty-five miles from London in the town of Chesham. Today you could drive from Chesham to London in about an hour.  There were no cars when Aquila was alive. If Aquila went to London, he walked, rode a horse, or maybe took a carriage. The trip took a whole day. I don’t know if Aquila ever went to London, but I do know that Aquila and his brother, Thomas, sailed to America, arriving by 1640. When Aquila and Thomas arrived, my 10th Great Grandfather, Rev. Stephen Bachiler, was already in America.  The Rev. Bachiler was a tall, thin man with white hair, very dark eyes, and a prominent nose. He was obstinate and had firm beliefs. Although he moved and...

After Apple Picking by Robert Frost My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree Toward heaven still. And there's a barrel that I didn't fill Beside it, and there may be two or three Apples I didn't pick upon some bough. But I am done with apple-picking now.  On Saturday, March 20th, my first cousin once removed,   Kathryn (Munson) Toscano ,  passed away. Separated by the breadth of the country and a generation, our paths crossed only once or twice.  Yet, I feel especially sad to say goodbye to Kathie, as she is from a younger generation and has left us much too soon. I began today's post with words from Robert Frost.  Robert Frost is the sixth great-grandson of Nicholas Noyes (1615-1701) of Wiltshire, England, and Newbury, Massachusetts.  Kathie is the ninth great-granddaughter of Nicholas Noyes. * *ancestry.com, One World Tree, viewed on March 24, 2010. © 2010, Cathy H Paris