Genealogy research often turns up interesting finds unrelated to our own ancestors. Most are just distractions. But when finding real gold that belongs to someone else, it’s wrong to nonchalantly toss it aside and walk away.
While sifting through mid-19th century newspaper articles, I glanced up and was intrigued to find this article:
Published on 14 June 1848 in the [Boston] Daily Chronotype, it’s unlikely that anyone besides me had since taken note of the article. The idea of abandoning such valuable genealogical information didn’t sit well with me. To quote YouTube’s The History Guy, it is history that deserves to be remembered.
Despite knowing she was not related to my family, I set out to find Mary Martin and see if her death had been chronicled elsewhere. Given the year of her death and the sorry fate of her gravestone (and therefore her gravesite), I wasn’t optimistic.
The Martin Family
A surprisingly quick search on FamilySearch.org turned up a Mary Martin born in Boston on 7 June 1655 to Richard and Sarah Martin. Another daughter, Sarah, was also born in Boston, on 2 July 1657. I then found Mary, her parents, and six siblings listed in The New England Historical & Genealogical Register published in 1853. The birth dates of both Mary and her sister exactly match the Boston record, although birthplaces are not mentioned.
That her gravestone was found in Boston makes it certain that is where Mary died. However, according to a 1908 publication about Boston vital records, “no deaths were recorded 1665-88,” so the date on her gravestone is the only reference we have of her death. A 2021 note posted on an Ancestry.com profile page states Mary is not mentioned in her father’s 1693 will*, and the establishment of her death in 1676 would explain why.
The odds that someone else would one day stumble over the article were small. To make its existence better known, I posted a note about the article on Mary’s FamilySearch page before writing about it here.
Location, Location
Incredibly, just a few days after discovering the news article, a photo popped up in my Pinterest feed. Found in the Boston Public Library’s digital collection, it is a ca. 1860 view of the corner of Water and Devonshire Streets, the very place where Mary Martin’s gravestone was unearthed almost 172 years after her death.
Of course it’s fanciful, but I like to think that the photograph showing up when it did was Mary Martin reaching from The Great Beyond to thank me for letting the world know that, in a way, she had been found after having been lost for so long.
* I wasn’t able to confirm that the Richard Martin in the will is Mary’s father. However, records appear to establish that the Martin family relocated from Boston to New Hampshire, where his will was recorded.