Journeying with Jacque

“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.

The Meckley Connection

One of my DNA matches on MyHeritage has the surname of Meckley.

Meckley is a well known name to me. My husband Gary’s paternal grandmother was born Anna Mae Meckley on March 3, 1911 in Elizabethtown, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Her parents were Samuel Kulp and Annie (Geib) Meckley. The Meckley family including her grandparents, Levi (1842-1897) and Catherine; her great grandparents, Samuel (1811-1886) and Mary Ann; and her 2nd great grandparents, Melchior (1775-1824) and Elizabeth, settled in Lancaster and Dauphin Counties in Pennsylvania. (Melchior may have been born in Germany.)

My DNA match with the surname of Meckley is estimated to be my 3rd to 5th cousin so the connection is not very close. She only has 12 people in her tree so there is not a lot of information  there. We have no  surnames in common. However, her line can be traced to her  great grandparents, Joseph Ray (known as Ray) Meckley and his wife Ida Rebecca Phleeger who was born in either Pennsylvania or Maryland (I have many ancestors from Maryland). Joseph was born on September 24, 1891 in Green Castle, Pennsylvania which is in Franklin County to Daniel M. Meckley and Maude E. Myers. Franklin County is in southern Pennsylvania.

If this DNA match is a 3rd cousin, then she has a great grandparent whose sibling is my great grandparent which means that we would share a set of great-great grandparents (the average person has approximately 190 third cousins). If however, this connection is actually a 5th cousin then that increases the possibilities to over 17,000 possible cousin matches and we would share a 4th great grandparent (which means that there are 12 degrees of separation between us). With maternal lines involved it is likely that the connection is not even a Meckley: “In the US and in most other countries, surnames are passed down from a father to his children, but only those male children will pass down their father’s surname to their children.  If the father only has female children, then the surname does not continue on his line.  If he has two sons and a daughter only the sons will carry the surname.  The daughter will take her husband’s name, and her children, the grandchildren of her father, will not share his surname (Mercedes).”

Geographically however, we very well may have an ancestor in common. I wrote about the two cousins with the same name, John Calvin Watkins, in my blog entry of February 11, 2022 https://journeyingwithjacque.com/maps-generations-cafe-ancestry-challenge/  My great grandfather was John Calvin son of Samuel and John’s cousin was John Calvin son of William. Both Samuel and William were born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania (which is a county in southern Pennsylvania) as was John Calvin son of William.

Any family connection? Who knows…but it was a fun discovery.

Sources

McDermott, Marc. “What Is a Fifth Cousin? Are They Considered Family?” Genealogy Explained, 22 Feb. 2022, https://www.genealogyexplained.com/what-is-a-fifth-cousin/.

McDermott, Marc. “What Is a Third Cousin? Are They Considered Family?” Genealogy Explained, 22 Feb. 2022, https://www.genealogyexplained.com/what-is-a-third-cousin/.

Mercedes. “Should You Have Surname Matches with Distant Cousin DNA Matches?” Who Are You Made Of?, 16 Jan. 2022, https://whoareyoumadeof.com/blog/should-you-have-surname-matches-with-distant-cousin-dna-matches/.