“I Know a Guy who Knows a Guy”
“I know a guy who knows a guy.” And that’s how we ended up in Boston May 7 – 11, 2022. It’s also how my 9th great grandfather, Anthony Colby, ended up in Boston in 1630, 392 years earlier. Anthony Colby knew John Winthrop who knew John Endecott, one of the fathers of New England. Anthony Colby joined John Winthrop (the leader of the expedition and new governor) in the Puritan Migration. The fleet met up with John Endecott, the current governor, in Salem. “Winthrop and his fleet arrived in June 1630 and were greeted by Endecott at Salem. Winthrop dismissed Salem as lacking for his purposes and established a new settlement at a spot which Captain John Smith of Jamestown fame had noted on his maps of 1614 as the best; this became the city of Boston (Mark, Joshua J.)”
Anthony was a staunch Puritan and according to the Macy-Colby House website was listed as being #93 in the records of First Church of Boston. (I wrote more about Anthony Colby and the Puritan Migration in my blog post dated December 3, 2021.)
One of the pleasures of genealogy research is visiting sites that you’ve discovered through ancestor research. On our current trip to Boston, we visited the First Church of Boston which had so much significance to Anthony. The church has paid homage to its Puritan roots.
In our current iteration of “I know a guy who knows a guy” our friend John knows David Mellor, the head groundskeeper of Fenway Park. They met through the filming of the 2005 movie, Fever Pitch. “As the leading innovator of elaborate patterns used on athletic turf, and turf in general (Grass Care),” David has written a couple of books about lawn care and landscaping. He told us that every time he goes to Home Depot someone stops him to ask questions about their lawn and he’s always ready to help. However the most amazing aspect of David is his personal story. His current journey began when he was just 18 years old and “violently struck by a car that sent him hurtling into a wall where it hit him again, severely damaging his knee and destroying his hope of ever being a professional pitcher (Mellor, David R.).” When you hear his story, you just cannot believe that he was able to endure tragedy after tragedy.
David states on his website, “Many people have told me they think I’m one of the most unlucky people in the world since I’ve been hit by a car 3 times and had 43 surgeries (when we met him he had 50 surgeries) and PTSD to name a few things (including a horrible event affecting his daughter). But I strongly disagree; I think I’m one of the luckiest people in the world. It’s up to us how we turn our challenges into opportunities to not only help ourselves but help others too.
Always remember you have the power to choose to never give up. Wishing you all much strength as you take on and conquer your own challenges!”
David truly is just the nicest guy ever and is very kind and generous. He gave us a private tour of Fenway Park including the historical Green Monster which was built in 1912 when Fenway was constructed (it was rebuilt in 1934) on May 8, 2022 before the Red Sox/White Sox game. Then we had amazing seats to watch the game. We went back to Fenway on Tuesday where David presented our friends and us with bases used in a game.
Even though our circumstances and purposes were completely different, my 9th great grandfather Anthony Colby and I ended up in Boston because “we knew a guy who knew a guy.”
Sources
“Anthony Colby.” Anthony Colby Born 1605 | The Macy-Colby House Amesbury MA, 2012, https://www.macycolbyhouse.org/Anthony-Colby/.
Coble, Jacquelyn. “Strength – Week 48 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.” Journeying with Jacque, 3 Dec. 2021, https://journeyingwithjacque.com/strength-week-48-of-52-ancestors-in-52-weeks/.
“Grass Care: David R. Mellor: Norfolk, MA.” Davidmellor, https://www.davidrmellor.com/.
“John Endecott.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Apr. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Endecott.
“John Winthrop.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Apr. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Winthrop.
Mark, Joshua J. “John Winthrop.” World History Encyclopedia, World History Encyclopedia, 18 May 2022, https://www.worldhistory.org/John_Winthrop/.
Mellor, David R. One Base at a Time: How I Survived PTSD and Found My Field of Dreams. Post Hill Press, 2019.