This page summarizes the changes to the "Towne/Bowditch Family History" starting in October 2010.

February 2024
Bowditch Side

January 2024
Bowditch Side

December 2023
Bowditch Side

November 2023
Bowditch Side

October 2023
General

Bowditch Side

September 2023
Bowditch Side

July 2023
Towne Side
  • Corrected death info for Ephraim Stiles and added death info for his wife Esther Moseley. Thanks to Susan Meints for pointing me to the new info.

June 2023
Bowditch Side

April 2023
Towne Side
  • Eliminated ancestry of the immigrant William Billing, which was shown to be fraudulent in an American Genealogist article by Paul Read in 1999.

March 2023
General
  • Eliminated (or put inside sensitivity brackets in TMG so they don't appear) all email addresses in source citations. This wasn't a problem for the web site, where they were disguised by Second Site, but could be an issue in other cases (like when uploading to Ancestry).

February 2023
General
  • Modified the layout to list people's parents as part of their page header, instead of in the body of the narrative.

Towne Side

December 2022
General
  • Modified the copyright notice slightly to allow use of the material with written permission of the copyright holder.

October 2022
General

Towne Side

July 2022
Towne Side

May 2022
Towne Side

January 2022
Towne Side

Bowditch Side

December 2021
Towne Side

Bowditch Side
November 2021
Towne Side
  • Updated info on the date of Luke Phillips's first marriage, on the birth date of his first wife Patience Simmons, and on his second marriage and divorce.

Bowditch Side

August 2021
Towne Side

May 2021
Bowditch Side

January 2021
Towne Side

December 2020
Towne Side

Bowditch Side

October 2020
General
  • Added icons to identify direct ancestors of Charles Towne and Jane Bowditch.
  • For blood relatives of Charles Towne and Jane Bowditch, added a "Relationship" note at the start of their narrative showing the relationship.

Towne Side

September 2020
Towne Side

August 2020
General
  • On each person's page, changed "Family Chart" to "Pedigree," which opens a new page with an interactive pedigree chart for that person.
  • On the Charts page, the ancestor charts are now expandable and collapsible, and include the person's birth and death years.

Towne Side

Bowditch Side

May 2020
General
  • Added attribution info for all portrait images that were obtained/received from outside our immediate families.

Bowditch Side

February 2020
Bowditch Side

October 2019
Bowditch Side

May 2019
Bowditch Side

March 2019
Bowditch Side

February 2019
Towne Side

Bowditch Side

July 2018
General
  • Back online! After all the RootsWeb web sites were taken offline back in December 2017 due to a potential security issue, many of them, including this one, are now again online, although with a different address. The old URL was http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cetowne/Towne_Bowditch, and the new URL is https://sites.rootsweb.com/~cetowne/Towne_Bowditch.

Towne Side

January 2018
Towne Side
  • Determined that the Philip Burlingham who married Polly Babcock was indeed the same person as the Philip Burlingham who married Cynthia (Woods) Montgomery, and that Philip and Polly were the parents of Squire Burlingham. See the write-up "Philip Burlingham, and His Son Squire" for details. This eliminates one of the items formerly listed on the "Mysteries" page! (But we still don't know the details about when and where Philip, Polly, or Cynthia died.)
  • Deleted the document "Who Were Squire Burlingham’s Parents?"
  • Added info on Philip Burlingham's (abt 1781-?) service in the War of 1812.
  • Added a little more info on Philip Burlingham (1749-1804)
    • Clarification of his military service during the Revolutionary War
    • A few details on the sale of his assets in 1789
    • Info on taxes he paid from 1799-1803
    • Info on his estate inventory
  • Added info on an 1836 land sale by Nathan Huntly Burlingham in Warren Co., Pennsylvania.

December 2017
Bowditch Side

October 2017
General
  • Modified the format of many sources and citations, for better conciseness and consistency.

Towne Side
  • Added info on land sales by John Swikert in Stark Co. and Hancock Co., Ohio.
  • Added info about Philip Burlingham's land transactions in Allegan Co., Michigan, including the creation of the Burlingham Addition to Otsego Village. Also noted that he and (his brother?) Squire Burlingham both purchased land in Section 21 on the same day in 1839, and that Squire sold his land in 1841, and updated the document "Who Were Squire Burlingham’s Parents?" to include this info.

August 2017
Towne Side

April 2017
Towne Side
  • Added more information on Mariah Burlingham, Nathan Huntly Burlingham, and Susan Burlingham, and their families and descendants. All three were children of Philip Burlingham and Polly Babcock. In particular, for Nathan Huntly Burlingham, this includes:
    • Clarification on his number of marriages, the identification of his second wife, and clarification on which of his children were from each marriage.
    • Information about his planing business, and possible financial problems.
    • A few details about his daughter Nellie's career with Gilman Brothers department store in Kalamazoo, and on her travels.
    For Susan Burlingham, the additions include:
    • More information on her son John Allen's Civil War service.
    • The addition of John Allen's children, including his daughter Lizzie and her husband George Andrus, who participated in two Oklahoma land runs, and his son Henry, a successful newspaper man, Governor of Kansas, and U. S. Senator.
    • Information on her son Charles Allen's Civil War service, and more details about his career with the Kalamazoo police department.

February 2017
Bowditch Side
  • Added several baptisms for people affiliated with the Tryon family, from transcribed records of of the First Congregational Parish in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Thanks to Lynn McManus for finding and pointing me to the online source.

January 2017
Towne Side

December 2016
General

Bowditch Side

Towne Side

November 2016
Bowditch Side

September 2016
Towne Side

August 2016
Towne Side

April 2016
Towne Side

March 2016
Towne Side

Bowditch Side
  • Added information on Emily Hooper, wife of George William Abbot, and her second marriage.
  • Added information on the children and grandchildren of Frederick Abbot and Emily Lynde Whiting. Of particular interest in this group is the family of their daughter Edith Lynde Abbot, which included four U. S. Navy Rear Admirals.
    • Her husband Albert Montgomery Dupuy McCormick (1866-1932), was fleet surgeon for the Atlantic Fleet, and served simultaneously as President of the Navy's Board of Medical Examiners, the Naval Retirement Board, and the Navy Examining Board.
    • Her son Lynde Dupuy McCormick (1895-1956) served in both World Wars, commanded the Atlantic Fleet, was named the first Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic in charge of all NATO Naval forces, served as President of the Naval War College, and had a destroyer named for him.
    • Her daughter Edith's husband John Reginald Beardall (1887-1967) also served in both World Wars, was Naval Aide to Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt at the start of World War II, and was Superintendent of the U. S. Naval Academy.
    • Her daughter Ellen's husband Frank Lucius Pinney (1913-1999) served on the battleship USS Iowa in the Pacific during World War II, commanded at least three different ships, and was Deputy Director of the Polaris missile program.

February 2016
Bowditch Side

November 2015
Towne Side

Bowditch Side

July 2015
Towne Side

February 2015
Towne Side
  • Added Adam and Sarah Magdalena (Poff) Artman as parents of Phoebe Artman, plus their children and grandchildren. This eliminates one of the items formerly listed on the "Mysteries" page! This group of people includes George W. Artman (1837-1889), who served during the Civil War, and Birdie Hale, adopted daughter of James Artman (1852-1934), who left her husband and with another man was arrested for forgery and passing bad checks.
  • Added details (mostly specific dates) for several divorces, from the Ancestry database Michigan, Divorce Records, 1897-1952.

December 2014
Towne Side
  • Added additional details, people, and corrections, for the immigrants William Towne and Joanna Blessing, and their descendants through five generations, from the recently-published Towne genealogy by Lois Payne Hoover.

October 2014
Towne Side

Bowditch Side
  • The Abbot/Bowditch Family Letters have (finally) been indexed. In addition, people mentioned in the letters are now identified using footnotes, with links to the expanded name index containing additional details about each person.
  • In the index to the Abbot Letters to Hannah Rantoul, the names of people who are in our genealogy database are now links to that person's page.

July 2014
Bowditch Side

June 2014
Bowditch Side
  • Made corrections and added details for the families of William Tryon and his children, including the addition of several new grandchildren, primarily from the article "William Tryon of Hartford and Wethersfield, Connecticut" by Gale Ion Harris in the July/October 2008 issue of The American Genealogist.
  • Added a few details for the children and grandchildren of Nathaniel Tryon and Mary Strickland, and George Tryon and Flora Strickland. Thanks to Lynn McManus for sending it.

May 2014
General
  • Eliminated the list of "Earliest" ancestors. It was of little usefulness or interest, and I often forgot to update it.

Bowditch Side
  • Corrected the list of children of Joseph Tryon and Sarah Treat, and added several new grandchildren, as well as additional information about some of their lives. Recent and extensive research by Lynn McManus has clarified the details for this family, and shows that some of Joseph and Sarah's children listed in The Tryon Family In America were actually children of their son Joseph. Thanks to her for letting me know about the correction, and prompting the additional research.

March 2014
Towne Side
  • In the Philip Burlingham Letters, people mentioned in the letters are now identified using footnotes, with links to the expanded name index containing additional details about each person.

Bowditch Side
  • In the Abbot Letters to Hannah Rantoul, people mentioned in the letters are now identified using footnotes, with links to the expanded name index containing additional details about each person. The indexing has also been extended to include everyone mentioned in the letters, other than those who have not been identified.

January 2014
Bowditch Side

December 2013
Towne Side
  • Added additional details for the family of Benjamin Farnham and Mary Town. Thanks to Stan Hickerson for identifying and passing along the info (and source) for their daughter Lura, and prompting the additional research.

November 2013
Bowditch Side
  • Added information about an incident in which Arthur Dobbeck and some companions were rescued on Lake Michigan after running out of fuel on a boating trip.
  • Added additional details for Albertina Hanson's husband Albert W. Peterson,warrant including his death while trying to serve an arrest warrant on a bootlegging suspect.

October 2013
Towne Side
  • Corrected the name of John Bryce Mobley's mother. Thanks to Con Mobley for sending the information.

September 2013
Bowditch Side
  • Added additional details to the entries for Abbot McClure, Frederick Abbot, and Emily Whiting. Thanks to Roy Nordin for passing along the info on Emily Whiting.
  • Added a picture of Martha Abbot, and a new picture of her husband William Thorndike. Thanks to the First Parish Church, Unitarian Universalist, in Beverly, Massachusetts, for allowing their use.

July 2013
General
  • Expanded the narrative section for each individual to include the events in their lives (residence, occupation, etc.), rather than just birth, marriage, death, and burial information. This includes, for a few people, a section after their narrative titled "More Information / Background" with links to web sites about historical events, places, organizations, etc., that are related to that person. For examples, see Rebecca Towne on the Towne side of the family, or Nathaniel Ingersoll Bowditch on the Bowditch side of the family.
  • Added menu items containing letters from various sources, poetry, and wedding pictures.
  • Made various style changes. The most noticeable are: (1) links are denoted by a bold font, rather than underlined; (2) children are shown in a numbered list instead of a bullet list; and (3) clicking on a citation superscript highlights the corresponding source in the "Citations" list, and clicking the source number in the "Citations" list displays the source page with the details of corresponding source highlighted.

Towne Side
  • Added some additional details on the families of the children of Charles Blades and Frances Woodin. Thanks to Paula Taylor for sending the information.

Bowditch Side

March 2013
Towne Side
  • Added ancestors of Eli Sowle, back to the Mayflower immigrant George Soule. This eliminates one of the items formerly listed on the "Mysteries" page!

February 2013
Towne Side
  • Corrected death date for Sophia Towne, and added burial locations for her and her husband Abner Davis. Thanks to Wayne Hallet for sending the correction.

Bowditch Side
  • Added many additional descendants of the immigrant Nathaniel Wallis, who was in Falmouth, Maine, by 1657.

November 2012
Bowditch Side

October 2012
Towne Side
  • Added details about Lauren and Prudence (Town) Norton and their children. Thanks to Darlene Joyce for sending info and corrections, and for prompting additional research.

September 2012
Towne Side

Bowditch Side

  • Added/corrected birth dates and spelling of names for Nanne Nilsson and his wife Christina and their children. Thanks to Edwin Priest for sending the information, obtained from original birth records and household examinations at the Arkiv Digital web site.

July 2012
Bowditch Side

June 2012
General
  • Corrected an error in the Search capability that had prevented women from being found using their married names.

Towne Side

Bowditch Side

May 2012
General
  • When displaying the information for a person, only that person's entry is now shown. Previously, each page showed the details of as many as 30 people.
  • The Master Index menu option has been replaced by a Search capability.

Towne Side

  • Corrected a few details for some of the descendants of Charles Blades.

February 2012
Bowditch Side

January 2012
Bowditch Side
  • Added additional details about the children and grandchildren of Hans Svenson and Anna Person, including a few pictures from a family photo album.
  • Added additional details about the children and grandchildren of Nanne Nilsson and Cristina Johnson, including a few pictures from a family photo album.

December 2011
Towne Side
  • Added additional details about the children and grandchildren of Luke Phillips and Patience Simmons.
  • Added additional details about the children and grandchildren of Luke's son William Phillips, including a previously unknown son William from his first marriage with Hannah Sickles. Thanks to Betsy Phillips of Nashville, Tennessee, for sending along info on her Luke Phillips line, finding the new William, and prompting the additional research.

November 2011
Towne Side
  • Added additional details about the children and grandchildren of Solomon Woodin, including his son Milton and Milton's son Ira, who moved together from Michigan to Washington Territory by wagon train in 1853.
  • Added additional details about the children and grandchildren of Solomon's son Federal Woodin.

June 2011
Bowditch Side
  • Added ancestors and additional information about Thomas Fiske and his second cousin once removed William Fiske, back to Hugh Fiske who was born about 1370. Thomas was the jury foreman during the 1692 Salem witchcraft trials, and William was a jury member. Thomas's son Thomas was also a jury member.
  • Added info on the 1637 immigrant Austin Kilham and his family. He was the father of Sarah Kilham, who married William Fiske.

May 2011
Towne Side

March 2011
Bowditch Side

February 2011
Towne Side

January 2011
Towne Side

Bowditch Side

  • Added ancestors of Martha White, who married William Abbot, back to the immigrant John White. John White's daughters Elizabeth, Mary, and Hannah were all present (as Elizabeth Kerley, Mary Rowlandson, and Hannah Divoll) when the Rowlandson garrison in Lancaster, Massachusetts, was attacked by Indians during King Philip's War on 10 February 1675/76. Elizabeth was killed, and Mary and Hannah were taken captive.

December 2010
Towne Side

Bowditch Side

November 2010
Towne Side

Bowditch Side

October 2010
Towne Side