A new start
Meet the people behind my favorite project: Adel, her husband David, and their children
I’ve been quiet for a few weeks, I know, but the lack of content on my blog does not reflect a lack of work! Since I left Marietta House Museum in mid-June, I’ve made it back to my favorite place in the world: Vinalhaven, an island off the coast of Maine. I’ve started work as a full-time freelance research historian, talking to lots of potential clients about their stories and questions. I’m someone who works best with a routine, so I’m trying to stay disciplined as I truly learn to work for myself, on my own schedule.
The highlight of the past few weeks has been staying at my family’s home on Vinalhaven. It’s an old house in the middle of a small town, built in the 1890s but modified over the decades. Living in it, looking around at the late-Victorian woodwork and falling asleep to the sounds of creaks and groans, it’s hard not to wonder about its history. Actually, I’ve felt much closer to my home since I acted on that curiosity and filled in the blanks.
We knew some things already, but nothing detailed. The house itself holds tiny clues – a downstairs broom closet must be part of a later addition, because one wall is made up of faded green siding. Years ago, my dad went to the local historical society to dig up some old photos of the neighborhood, which has shown us the evolution of our house. Over the years, we’ve found horseshoes in the yard.
As for the house’s original inhabitants – again, we had only small clues. It was easier to learn things about the more recent residents, who lived in the house just before my dad bought it in 1989. We had some names, some local recollections. Lots of older neighbors, who have lived in the town all their lives, remember taking piano lessons in our living room.
Still, it wasn’t the kind of detail I wanted. Who were the first family to live in the house? What were their names and professions? Did they commission its building? And how long did they live in it?
Though my family have been wondering for years, I didn’t ever think to investigate. Where could I even begin, when I had such few details to work with?
In the second half of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic left me searching for a new job, I was lucky enough to ride out the storm at my parents’ house in Maine. During a friend’s dinner party that September, inspiration finally struck. The friends had just uncovered a copy of their house’s original deed and framed it – it looked so good, I decided that I wanted to do the same thing for my parents, maybe for their Christmas present.
When I first started the project, I wasn’t even thinking about learning the names of our home’s first residents. I was fixated on finding the deed for purely aesthetic purposes! Halfway through, though, I think I knew that this was the beginning of a special, meaningful journey.
I started at the county registry of deeds – which, to my luck, has completely digitized their records. The database was searchable by name, so I started with the obvious: I put in my dad’s. I learned the full names of the people he bought from, then searched by their names. And so it went, working backwards through time, witnessing every sale and transaction. When I got back to 1960, I struck gold: the deed mentioned that the previous sale had been made in 1896. I knew the house must have been built around that time, so I was coming up to the end of the line.
Sure enough, I landed on the original deed, dated June 8, 1896. At that point, there was no house, just land. There was an extremely detailed description of the lot, the same that appeared in all subsequent deeds. And best of all: there were names. The buyer, the original owner of our house, was a woman named Adel. The first piece of the puzzle was in my hands.
So, naturally, my parents’ Christmas present took on a new size and scope. Instead of presenting them with the framed deed (which I still did), I could now provide them with an entire history of our house! That is, if I could find out more about Adel and her life.
Spoiler alert: I did. I have two notebooks and countless Word documents filled with my research into Adel and her family – to protect their privacy, let’s call them “the House family.”
I won’t go into too many details, since I’ll save their stories (and my research notes) for future posts. But I’ll tell you their names, at least. Here’s the cast:
Adel, the matriarch of the family
David, her second husband
Fred, Adel’s son from her first marriage
Allie, Adel’s daughter from her first marriage
Oscar, Allie’s husband
Evelyn, Adel and David’s daughter
Edith, Adel and David’s daughter
It’s hard to explain the rush I felt as I uncovered each name and added them to my messy family tree. It’s not just the rush that every historian and researcher gets when on the scent – there was something so exciting, so intimate, about learning the names of these people while sitting in their own home. I learned their birth and death dates while sitting in their dining room. When I went up to bed at night, holding the same bannister they did, I wondered whose bedroom I now use.
They’re not my family by blood. But we are connected, nonetheless. Learning their names and stories, saying them out loud within their home, makes me feel more connected to my home.
And, beyond that, their lives are dramatic. Really. There could be a Downton Abbey-esque drama show written about their lives.
So keep reading for more stories about “the House family,” the methods I used to uncover their lives, and all the things I’m still learning about them.