First trip to Chester, NH

A quick refresher:  Our ancestor who first came to Detroit and settled this land is my Four Times Great Grandfather, Nathaniel Basford.  It is his and his wife's and daughter's headstones that we have in the barn that we WILL put into the renovated Basford Family Cemetery one day, hopefully soon.
Nathaniel's father was Ebenezer, his mother Mehitable (Young) Basford.  Ebenezer's father was Jacob (the younger), who died fighting in Canada.  No one knows where his body is buried.  Jacob's father was James and James' father was Jacob (the elder).
Based on Aaron's research they also died in the Chester, NH area.  I did not find their headstones today but I did find Ebenezer's and Mehitable's!  It's not say they aren't in the Chester Village Cemetery but, if they are, their headstones are not legible.  I suspect they're probably buried in an old family cemetery.  I wonder if there is one near that house we found -- the 3rd oldest in Chester, owned by a Mary Basford who married a Lane.  I think I know which Mary Basford this is but the records aren't good enough to prove it...yet.  This house sits on Route 102 at the corner of Lane Road.
So I'm going to share here the photos I took of the Basfords I found in the Chester Village Cemetery, as well as a couple of pictures of old buildings in the town center -- or what was probably the town center back in those days.  It's the Congregation Church that our ancestors would've gone to and a meeting house across the road, all at that intersection where the village cemetery sits.

Food, Family and Fire, The Trifecta of a great day

Saturday May 16th, 2015

Hannah and I went to Detroit to see the family for a day of clearing for the family cemetery.  It is part of the deed of the Basford property, on the most beautiful piece of land I have ever seen.

A wonderful few hours of walking in the woods with Hannah and Mom, Hannah asking lots of great questions about what she saw and Mom telling her many of the same things she taught me at the same age. At one point, Hannah holding my hand and her gram-gram's hand.

Zeb bought a new gas grill which Kimmy, Wes and Zeb spend a few hours putting together. They put in the pick-up truck to move out to the bonfire so  H got her first ride in the back of a pick-up and is now sold that its the way to travel!

Uncle Wayne,  Zeb, the skidda, and chainsaw started clearing.  Aaron and Jen arrived. As a side note, if anyone hasn't been watching Aaron and Jen's year of fitness and health, you have to go check our their Facebook pages, truly amazing!

I, Grace, twisted my ankle on my second trip out in the field as part of my master plan to not have to work so I set up near the grill but no I didn't cook.  Aunt Ginny arrived driven by McKenna with her newly acquired license.  Jeremy and JJ's and children arrived by bike and ATV.  Great conversations about where the road used to be, where the different generations ice skated in the field, where the paths between the farm and the "little" house were and who used them along with current activity of cheer-leading, who has a girlfriend (wont embarrass Ian) and how many kiddos graduate next year from the family. There was plenty of food, beer and fire

As I write this, I try to think if there was something remarkable about the day that makes it worth a blog and I realized yes, Family. No One cares if you comb your hair (ask Hannah) or if you have a huge hole in the butt of your pants (ask Zeb), they just care. No matter how long since you have seen each other, you belong.   

Nathaniel Basford has the right idea, live there, die there then let your body go back to the land there

The Family Cemetery & Isaiah Basford Huff Mysteries

This will be two posts in one.  First off, Kim and Shelly and I went out back yesterday with Kim's metal detector again looking for evidence of the Basford Family Cemetery.  This time armed with  evidence derived from Wayne, who took me to the spot that was shown to him by my grandfather a handful of years before his death.  At that time Grampy was looking for remnants of a page wire fence that he recalled being around the cemetery.  Unfortunately, we found no remnants of page wire, even with the metal detector.  We did find two bent spikes that COULD have been used to nail wire to a tree.  They were found in the ground maybe 30 feet apart, in areas that you could make the argument COULD have been two corners of the fencing...not much to go on as far as proof.
If you have not seen this, I think you'll find it interesting.  The following link is of the deed from Nathaniel Basford to James Basford which mentions the cemetery.  Unfortunately, all of the descriptions are from the grave of his daughter Maryetta, whose headstone is in the barn.  And since it is very difficult to read, I'll translate as best I can as follows:

Note that this is a deed from 1857 transferring the property from Nathaniel to his youngest son James and it mentions that Nathaniel has lived here 32 years.  So he would've bought the first piece of this land in about 1825!

"Reserving however a piece of ground four rods square commencing at the north side of the grave of my daughter Maryetta and extending southerly four rods and easterly two rods from the centre of said grave and extending westerly two rods fromt he centre of said grave, making sixteen square rods of ground for a family burying yard."  (a rod being 5 1/2 yards or 16 1/2 feet)  Four rods equaling 66 feet.

So while coming back to do some more research, Shelly and I notice something that I had only paid minimal attention to before; that being the fact that Nathaniel's eldest son, Isaiah, ends up being adopted by his maternal grandfather, Moses Huff, at the age of seven.  Why in that day in age especially would you "adopt out" your eldest son, at the time still retaining three daughters?  This occurs just a few years before Nathaniel buys the first piece of what becomes the family farm and about a year after his second son, Reuben, is born.

My Ancestors' Graves

On Saturday, July 30, Dad and I went to the Roger's Road cemetery in Troy, as well as the Detroit Village cemetery. We cleaned up a couple of the stones in the Troy cemetery and took photos of them.  We took photos of the stones in the Detroit cemetery as well.  I wanted to share the photos of the stones of the ancestors in my direct line.  Another time I will share the photos from all of the other Basfords in the Detroit cemetery.


These first two photos are of my great-great grandparents, buried in Troy.

These next two photos are of the gravestone of my great-great-great grandfather and his in-laws, parents of Addie Merrill (my great-great-great grandmother).

These next photos are the graves of my great grandparents and the other set of my great-great grandparents, buried in Detroit.

This next photo is the grave of my great-great-great grandparents, buried in Detroit.  Notice how young Rosa was when she died, a year after my great-great grandfather was born.

The next stone is of my great-great-great-great grandparents, buried in Detroit. It's pretty cool to have found the grave of my four times great grandparents.

I also took many photos of other Basfords buried in the Detroit cemetery that are not in my direct lineage.
And finally, the last two photos are of the headstone of my five times great grandfather.