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Showing posts with label geneology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label geneology. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

"My" Trip To Bountiful

I discovered about 2 years ago that my landed settler,Thomas Eames, lived and pretty much owned Framingham at one time in history.Framingham is just outside of Boston. So you can imagine what ecstacy I felt when 6 months ago, my daughter's family relocated from Hawaii to Boston..I could just see myself getting my picture beside the Thomas Eames memorial and upon arriving in Framingham ,seeing a sea of family likenesses as I walked down the street.My daughter's last words as we walked out the door"Hope this won't be a trip to Bountiful,a movie where this elderly lady dreams of going back to her home and when she does nothing is as she imagined.
I had also found on the internet that many Ames's were buried in Sudbury..so since I was out that way I prevailed upon my husband to take me first to Sudbury... I found the History Society pretty easily and unfortunately it was closed..so I asked the ladies in the town clerk's office if they had heard of the Eames family name and they were very helpful. In fact we shared some great stories of our geneological jouneys. They kindly directed me to the cemetary,but as I began perusing the various tombstones from every era of our history and every family except Eames or Ames, I've finally come to the conclusion that I am not really a geneologist. I think I need to hire someone for this boring job.
At any rate ,I encouraged my husband to take me on to the promised  land,Framingham. Surely I would find something there...Meanwhile ,we were driving through georgeous fall leaved forests,bejeweled with manicured typically New England homes..which I couldn't fully enjoy becuse I'm looking for road signs and route numbers.
After asking a couple of Framinghamites directions,we found the History Society. It was closed and desolate. there was not a soul in site...Time for a coffeebreak..so we pulled into a minimall bearing a Starbucks sign. Imagine our dismay when we reached the door bearing the message",temporarily closed due to power outages"..Ah.. It's elementary, that's why we will not find much info . I didn't think power outages would effect areas so close to Boston.
Next stop..a barber,surely someone there has heard of our Gandfather Thomas. The man I talked to  kept looking at me quizically..had I really come all the way from Los Angeles for a historical placque...is this woman for real. I tried to ignore the look and asked if he knew any Eames's, he said yes but he didn't elaborate. Funny, this the second time this happened to me. Either they really didn't know them personally or they didn't really care for them.
I will definitely come back to Boston and yes I will make that trip to Framingham again.  The next time I will call ahead and make appointments with the History Society, and pray that there will be no power outages.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Ames Hotel




Ames Hotel, Boston,Mass
  We decided  to take advantage of a relatively pleasant afternoon and visit the Ames Hotel. It was built for offices of the famed Ames Tool company ,who made their initial fortune by coming up with a top notch shovel,just at the beginning of industialization and the expansion west of the United States and right around the Civil War..Only the outside bears any resemblance to it's origins,as it is now a ultra modern boutique hotel inside. I did get an Ames hat,though maybe $20.00 was a bit much for it.


detail of the Ames Building
For those of you who don't know, my maiden name was Ames. These Ames however were another Ames branch,although there is some speculation they may be cousins.My ancestors originated in Framingham and I hope to visit there tomorrow.
One of the period dressed tour guides that you see around the city
We decided to take a stroll down state street and I am including some more beautiful Boston pictures.

the Customs House...until this was built ,the Ames house,built in 1898, was considered the tallest skyscraper in Boston


A park was created in the spot where an elevated road way went through Boston. This roadway was replaced by The Big Dig, a tunnel and a source of great pride and accomplishment for Bostonians. The pillars light up in multi changing colors similar to the columns in LAX

another view of the park