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STONE FAMILY ASSOCIATION
NEWSLETTER: January 2007
www.stonefamilyassociation.org
Updates to the Web Site
Slowly we have been adding information to our member’s only section, specifically, as of late, to the “Stones by Region” area. This has been our most frequented page and our goal is to provide as much primary information (deeds, B/M/D, wills, etc.) on as many early “Stone” family lines as possible.
Currently the “ENGLISH STONE” lines are being added. Years of research pertaining to STONE families in many English Counties and Shires will be shared. Most of these highlighted families have direct connection to the early colonies of our country. We have been fortunate not only to visit and research in England ourselves, but in the course of our ventures have met UK residents who have provided and/or offered services to continue our research.
Tony Bower and the Hurst History Study Group of Sussex, UK has been phenomenally helpful with Sussex research. Their website and contact info can be found at www.hurst-hsg.net . Many of the wills associated with the Stones of the “Nunnery” in Rusper Sussex were received from them.
Another UK connection e-mailed me in the late spring offering to do look-ups in London repositories for my continuing 16th and 17th century STONE family research. Lee Stone, who himself descends from Hugh Stone of Rhode Island, was living abroad in London until recently. Lee had done quite a little research of his own and generously offered his services this past year while he maintained a residence there. Lee has provided numerous hours in research and travel for our research effort and has copied/mailed over 35 wills, many of which he has transcribed!!
(See his bio below… quite the interesting fellow to say the least!)
Lee Stone
Lee was born in Binghamton, NY in 1947 and lived his early life in south-central New York State. He writes:
Both my parents have passed away; I have two surviving younger sisters. I graduated from Owego Free Academy in 1965; AB in Government from Cornell University in 1969. Conscripted into the US Army, I enlisted for an additional year to guarantee Intelligence School. I served the obligatory year in Viet Nam (1970-71), including a few months in Thailand and a week in Sydney, Australia. I asked to be sent next to Europe, and was stationed near Stuttgart, Germany ('West' Germany as it then was) for the rest of my Army service.
I asked for discharge in Germany, moved to Munich and studied the language with the Goethe-Institut, then spent four semesters (no degree) studying ancient and medieval history at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet in the same city. Hence I can claim reasonable fluency in German. I returned to the US in the mid-1970s and got a job with the US Government in northern Virginia, near Washington, DC. Most of my service was in various branches of Information Technology. Toward the end of my Government service my assignments included assisting our allies in the UK, Canada, and Australia, traveling repeatedly to all three nations.
I lived in Arlington, VA for over 12 years, and in Reston, VA for another 15. During my time in the Washington area I volunteered with the National Park Service at Ford's Theatre National Historic Site for 23 years. I joined the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War in the early 1980s, serving in positions at the local and regional levels. I also served as the treasurer of my condominium complex for over eight years.
Retiring with 30 years of Government service (three Army years and 27 as a civilian), I applied to a number of British universities to earn a postgraduate degree. Choosing the University of Essex in Colchester from those that accepted me, I completed a Master of Arts in History (dissertation: "A Terrible Labyrinth: British Policy in South Africa 1870-1887") from October 2004 through September 2005. Graduation ceremony was this past 21 July. This winter I expect to repatriate to the US, most likely back to northern Virginia, perhaps a bit further away from Washington.
I'm directly descended from Hugh Stone of Rhode Island, to wit: Lee (me), Grover, Grover, Eugene, Knight, Knight, Henry, Jeremiah, William, John, Hugh. On my mother's side of my family, another family of Stones figures, namely a line from William Stone of Connecticut. My maternal grandmother was born a Woolsey, descended from Asbury and Permelia (Stone) Woolsey. Permelia Stone was the eldest daughter of Lory Stone and his first wife Permelia (Mallory or Mallery). From there back, I believe the line reads: Lory, Benajah, Benajah, Benajah, Benajah, Benajah, William. I have not been able to identify links (other than myself, of course) between the two Stone families, at least this side of the Big Pond.
Database News
Roger Stone, database administrator, continues to update, maintain and answer numerous queries with both of our linked “Rootsweb” databases. In an effort to provide information and represent as many STONE family lines as possible, Simon Stone line data has been added, as well as our most recent addition, the Philip STONE/STEIN (arriving in Pennsylvania ca. 1740). Priscilla Sharp has generously provided a gedcom (which is linked on our Home Page) and has volunteered to be our Pennsylvania Stone/Stein coordinator. (See her bio below)
Priscilla Stone Sharp
Born in Brattleboro, VT in 1945, I lived in AZ for 42 years until 2004 when we moved to State College, PA. I worked mainly for attorneys and took up genealogy when my youngest daughter left home and took our precious baby granddaughter with her. Husband Bill brought me to the LDS FHC one day, pointed to the books and micro readers (it was before computers) and said, “Here! Get a life!” Well, 20 years later I have about 20,000 lives in my database — ancestors, aunts, uncles, cousins, and some other folks who, frankly, I wish I was related to!
On the Stone side, I originally thought we were English and came over on the Mayflower (of course, who doesn’t?!) but was shortly taken aback when I realized they were “Pennsylvania Dutch.,” originally “Stein.” Philip Stein, Sr., the immigrant ancestor, born Germany 1716, was in Northern Liberties and Bucks County as early as 1740. I have since gone down-line and identified 725 direct descendants of Philip and Elizabeth (?) Stein/Stone in America.
In the meantime, I wrote a biographical/historical novel about Bucks County through the story of Philip’s great-granddaughter, Mary Stone (one of 17 children of Jacob and Mary (Trullinger) Stone) and her husband, Langhorn Wellings. “Langhorn and Mary—A 19th Century American Love Story” was published by Amber Books in 2003. I am continuing my research and working on a biography of Rowena Granice Steele, a 19th century actress, novelist, social activist, suffragist, and newspaper publisher in California (one of those wonderful people I wish I was related to).
VOLUNTEERS SOUGHT!
In order to increase the flow of information and provide a more thorough coverage of STONE families, I am looking for volunteers to be “point” persons for different lines Examples:
· Descendents of Simon and Gregory Stone
· William and John Stone of Guilford, Ct.
· Gov. William Stone of Maryland
· Robert Stone of Salem, MA
· John Stone of Beverly, MA
Volunteers would help organize family records to be inserted on our “Stones by Region” section, possibly developing a gedcom database and assisting others researching that particular line. You can put in as much time into as you’d like, there are no minimum requirements other than a love of genealogy and helping others with their research. E-mail me if you’re interested! Laurie@stonefamilyassociation.org
Another future area of expansion is the “collateral” lines of descendent, (Busicott, Barnes, Relph, West, Utter, etc. for Hugh’s line), and the same for other STONE families. If anyone has knowledge or an interest in collecting/sending us information in this area I’d be THRILLED to hear from you!
BYRON’S BYLINE:
Byron T. Stone, our Stone Family Association website co-founder, continues to research and organize our collected notes into an edited manuscript. I’ve asked him to take a bit of a break from his routine and update us in each newsletter with his own column: “Byron’s Byline”.
DISCOVERING A FEW STONES IN MICHIGAN
Byron T. Stone
About 15 years ago, I retired and choose Baroda, Michigan, just 90 miles from my former home in Chicago, as my retirement home. At the same time I made two other decisions, first was to make genealogy my retirement hobby and second was to discover if any members of “my” Stone family had migrated from their New England roots to Michigan.
These two decisions, along with many others have made my retirement years filled with excitement, activity, satisfactions, and a deeper appreciation for historical events and the people who were at the center of these events. I have discovered many of the surname Stone who were at the center of great historical events, long since forgotten.
This article and hopefully others that will follow, will once again “put the spot light” on some of the name Stone who made great contributions to the development of America, it’s towns, villages, cities and states in the fields of religion, education, business, industry, health, government, law and many others.
This series will begin with one of the most remarkable, successful and tragic stories of human endeavor. It is the story of AMASA STONE.
Amasa Stone
1818-1883
Amasa Stone was born on April 27, 1818 in Charlton, Massachusetts and had worked with his brother-in-law constructing the Howe iron truss bridge which was designed to carry heavy train loads over a short distance. He came to Cleveland at the age of 32 to build the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad line. He built and managed other railroad lines and invested his wealth in the Cleveland Rolling Mill as well as other mills and businesses throughout the country. Amasa Stone built Cleveland’s first Union Depot and was involved in much of the progress that Cleveland was making at that time.
Amasa Stone married Julia Gleason Stone and they had a son, Adelbert, and 2 daughters. One of their daughters, Clara, married Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary, John Hay, and their other daughter, Flora Amelia, married Samuel Mather.
Although Amasa Stone was very wealthy, he could not escape tragedy in his life. His son, Adelbert, drowned in a swimming accident while a student at Yale University. Stone later gave 500 thousand dollars to Western Reserve College in Hudson to move its college to Cleveland and name it after his son.
Another tragedy that affected Amasa Stone occurred on December 29, 1876 when the Lake Shore Road truss bridge collapsed at Ashtabula and the train plunged into a ravine. Ninety-two people died in the wreck and another 67 were injured. Upon investigation of the accident, Amasa Stone was accused of ignoring the advice of professional engineers who had told Stone that the span was too long for the truss bridge. He was publicly attacked and the chief engineer of the railroad committed suicide. The tragedy continued to bother Amasa Stone for the rest of his life. He eventually committed suicide on May 11, 1883, leaving a multi-million dollar estate. Amasa Stone Chapel was built on the Cleveland Western Reserve campus at University Circle in his memory. He is buried in Lake View Cemetery.
Source: http://www.hb.edu/school/primary/resources/Early_Cleveland/stone.htm
http://www.deadohio.com/AshTrain.htm
COUSINS MEET!
This past September Loren and I were finally able to meet “cousin” Roger Stone and his lovely wife Marilyn. It was a brief meeting, in the lobby of the Logan International Airport’s Hilton Hotel, but one that was long coming and overdue! Roger, as many of you may know from past newsletters is one of our website founders and Stone database administrator. He and his wife are avid traveler/cruisers and one of their recent cruises brought them to the port of Boston. Not wanting to miss an opportunity, Loren and I drove the 30 minutes from home to the airport to meet Roger and Marilyn between their departing the ship and boarding an airplane back to their home in Reston, Virginia. It was great to finally meet beyond the computer screen! Roger had someone snap a photo (below).
RESEARCH UPDATES:
This past year Byron and I have been concentrating on various English Stone lines. I’ve been busy downloading (and retrieving from Lee in London) dozens upon dozens of 16th and 17th century Stone wills from across England. Slowly we are translating these in hopes further clues can be found.
While we do our best (and often at great cost) to provide our members with research results, original wills, primary documents, etc. there are expenses to providing and maintaining this web site as well. To date membership has been free. We have gently encouraged those of you who use our site to donate, even a small amount, to help offset these expenses. To date this has been unsuccessful.
To help us continue to provide you with our research, documents, wills, etc. (which can get quite expensive) we will be initiating a few changes. Membership will be on a new “tiered” level. This should be activated by the end of January.
Basic Membership: This will continue to be free and will allow members to access databases, receive newsletters, etc.
Advanced Membership: This tier will provide members with downloadable will/deed documents. Translations, where completed, will be available and research on various UK lines that have been refined, edited and sourced will be available. Eventually Chancery Indexes, Visitation scans and other hard to get sources will be made available. The membership fee will be minimal, due annually and renewable each year.
This will allow us to continue our research and expand our web pages. If you are (or have been) a research volunteer for us, contributing your time and information, any/all fees will be waived.
We are also contemplating an online store where various STONE family products will be made available: various Coats Of Arms (coffee mugs, plaques, etc., DVDs of Stone places of interest and publications related to the Stone families). Information will be forth coming on our web page.
Check out the new “Links” page. As we find good research sites, helpful web pages, we’ll add them to our list! (For Hugh Stone descendents a wonderful site is the Rhode Island Historical Cemetery Database, a volunteer based effort begun and coordinated by John Sterling in the 1990s.)
New Research Briefs
Byron and I continue to unravel the Stones of England. We have made some great headway in establishing who Sir Robert Stone, Cup Bearer to the Queen of Bohemia, was. His story and information can be found within our membership section under UK Stones.
Father Nicholas Spicer, Rector of St. George’s Great Bromley, Essex has extended his hand of help for Gregory and Simon Stone Descendents. He has recently been in New England involved with reunions and invites those with Simon/Gregory ties to visit the web site www.greatbromley.org.uk/
Wishing you all a healthy, happy research-filled 2007! Keep in touch, volunteer- comments, questions always welcomed!
Laurie Carpenter
Web Administrator www.stonefamilyassociation.org
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