Thomas Strangeway and Jennie Doig

One hundred and thirty-five years ago today (February 7, 1877), the home of Walter Doig was the scene of a wedding when his daughter Jennie married Thomas Strangeway.  Thomas, the son of Christopher Strangeway and Margaret Thompson, was born in Bovina November 26, 1852.  Jennie, whose full name was Margaret Jane, was born on the 20th of May 1854, also in Bovina, the daughter of Walter Andrew Doig and Margaret G. Armstrong.  The Doig home and farm was located near Teunis Lake.  Here's the notice from the February 20, 1877 Stamford Mirror:

 

Thomas and Jennie settled in Bovina on the family farm, off what is now Route 28 near Bread Fellows.  They had three daughters, Margaret Bell, Jennie E., and Nettie Helen.  Nettie Helen, better known as Helena, married John Hamilton Hilson in 1913.  Thomas and Jennie were married for 55 years when Thomas passed away on July 21, 1932.  Thomas had had a stroke in April of 1929.  By July, he was out and about again, according to the local newspapers, but had a relapse in August.  This first stroke must not have been too severe, for he was still serving as President of the Bovina Cooperative Fire Insurance Company a year later.  Jennie survived her husband by less than four years, dying on May 26, 1936 of heart disease.  Both are buried in the Bovina Cemetery.

This certificate of the marriage was graciously loaned to me by the family of Jack Hilson.  Signed by the minister, it was about 15 by 30 inches. Unfortunately, the photographs are badly faded.   Below are the photos with some enhancement.

And here is a picture of Thomas and Jennie with their three daughters.  It comes from the album of their daughter Helena Strangeway Hilson and dates from around 1890.

"Bovina Families" Album now on Flickr

Early in the last decade, I started a project to transcribe a transcription which is loosely called 'Bovina Families.' Some background: Early in the 20th Century, starting around 1914, Bovina native David Fletcher Hoy (1863-1930) created a very large card file to document all of Bovina's families. In the 1980s, David's nephew, Fletcher Davidson (1895-1987), took the files and created a large set of notebooks transcribing the information from the cards. Starting in September 2001, I took on the task of transcribing Fletcher's Davidson transcription, completing the project in February of 2003. I estimated that there were about 12,000 entries when the project was done. This is on the Delaware County Genealogy website at http://www.dcnyhistory.org/bfindex.html (And note, these families often go beyond just Bovina.)

As a companion to the Bovina Families transcription, I have started a collection on Flickr, unimaginatively called 'Bovina Families.' You can visit it at http://www.flickr.com/photos/30793716@N06/sets/72157624363530008/

The first set of pictures that I have uploaded come from the family of Jack Hilson. His children graciously allowed me access to two albums that had belonged to their grandmother, Helena Strangeway Hilson. The albums date from the late 19th/early 20th centuries. Someone, likely Helena herself, had written names on the portraits in the albums. Helena probably did these later in life, since the notations were done in ball point pen. I scanned the images from these albums and added further information, pulled from the Bovina families transcription and Bovina cemetery information provided by Ed and Dick Davidson. For a few of the pictures, I could find no information that would help confirm who the person was beyond the name. I would welcome any comments identifying the person. And I also will welcome further information and/or if I have a picture mislabeled.

The families represented in the albums, as well as the Strangeways, include Doig, Coulter, Gladstone and Burgin.

I hope to start regularly adding to this Bovina Families album. David Fletcher Hoy's grandson provided to me several years ago scans of a number of portraits from his family. I have similar portraits from my family and have access to some Russell family portraits. And I'm always looking for other such albums to scan so the images can be shared much more widely than they can sitting in an old album. Watch for further announcements on updates to the on-line Bovina Families Album.

And enjoy!