Lydia Maria Child

TL;DR -- Over the 400 years of our interest, we will be looking at people and events, here, there and everywhere. That goes with the long reach of New England. This post looks at someone from the seventh generation who was involved with several matters of long-standing concern. L. M. Child is of long New England pedigree as is her husband.

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Book reviews can be a great resource. We don't always pay attention, as life is full of multiple areas of concern that need attention. But, the WSJ (weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal) has been a constant supplier of reviews of good books, that is, ones pertinent to our interests. For this post, we can point to three of these. One is that the childless can become lost as who pays attention down the pike? Lydia and her husband had no offspring. We have mentioned this interest several times, say with respect to Joseph and Ann - see Aunts, Uncles, Cousins which is from 2012 and needs some updating. Note, though, others have been added, such as Charles Alcott Flagg, friend of Dr. Frank and contributor to The Massachusetts Magazine. 

There are a couple more interests of many which we will itemize and discuss next year being motivated by the next 100 after the 400th commemorations cease, down the pike. The other two interests deal with identifying Essex County (Cape Ann) influences over the U.S. and the world, even today. So, that entails recognizing names of New England families in various contexts and looking for the specifics. The other is to find family associations within the large collection related to Thomas and Margaret (Fryer) Gardner. In this case, we have already found some but will keep those particularities out of focus for later. 

WBUR (news station, Boston) provides the following quote. 

BTW, we are finding that becoming stale is the norm for the web links and their offspring. This usually is only an inconvenience until one considers that what gets into place after the target of the scale link disappears. That can be problematic and will be covered under the topic of technology going forward. 

Here's the quote: 

• Lydia Moland: "Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life" tells the story of what brought Child to this moment and the extraordinary life she lived in response. Through Child’s example, philosopher Lydia Moland asks questions as pressing and personal in our time as they were in Child’s: What does it mean to change your life when the moral future of your country is at stake? When confronted by sanctioned evil and systematic injustice, how should a citizen live? Child’s lifetime of bravery, conviction, humility, and determination provides a wealth of spirited guidance for political engagement today. 

The Frugal Housewife
by Lydia M Child

Information about Lydia Child is available many places (Wikipedia, WikiTree). She is the author of a popular poem; too, she wrote The Frugal Housewife, an early example of self-help. Her parents were Convers Francis and Susanna Rand. With respect to point #1, WikiTree does not have her heritage filled in as it could be since she does had New England families in her tree. So, we'll look at that. 

 

It ought to be an interesting bit of research. We can start here, with the VR of Medford which is in Middlesex County under the "Francis" surname for which there are several entries. 

•  Lydia, d. Convers and Susanna, Feb. 11, 1802. ["took, when baptized, the name Lydia Maria" [w. David L. Child, Esq.] "the author of several valuable works," PR13]

The 'Francis' surname appears in Barnstable, Berkshire, Bristol, Dukes, Essex, Hampden, Middlesex, Nantucket, Norfolk, and Worcester Counties of Massachusetts. Okay?

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We have looked a little at Lydia and her family. Let's stop to consider the times that she was born into. Recently, we did a look at veterans throughout the time of the U.S. (see Veterans Day) and showed a graphic of the conflicts. According to that source, the Revolution ran from 1775 to 1783. Lydia was born 21 years after the end of the revolution. The next conflict started in 1812, so she would have been aware of that war. Also, we had next the Mexican War and the Civil War. Now, Lydia was an early abolitionist as was her husband. We will get back to that as the extended family had a lot to do with the opposition to slavery. 

As an aside, Great Britain started the anti-slavery effort which we will look into. The U.S. had some involvement in the industry of slavery but pulled out of it. Needless to say, slavery still exists in our world. We really need to give credit to the folks of New England (they are legion) who worked and gave their lives for the effort, as we continue the efforts toward a more just life for everyone.   

So expect that we will continue our efforts at identifying abolitionists and other positions to be applied to new material about new people plus we will be going back for another look at what has been done so far in this regard. 

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On the other side of things, 1804 was the year that Lewis & Clark got their sojourn going. They went down the Ohio River to St. Louis before running up the Missouri River. People were already going west, mostly for fur trading and exploring in the beginning. Boone himself was doing interesting things. We will be touching upon these themes as we continue our research. 

One category to keep in mind as we go forward deals with generations. The fifth were the core of the Revolution. The sixth were born but too young. The early seventh is where we would place Lydia. As we fill in more information about her, we will post updates. 

We will look at the family of Lydia's husband as well as that of the Francis family using the time of Lydia as a reflective point. 

Remarks: Modified: 12/29/2022

12/29/2022 -- Ipswich, MA led the way in settling Ohio post the Revolution.