Boston/Maine/Canada July 2013

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There is always something particularly enchanting about arising at 3 A.M. in order to get to an early flight. The rest of the day is spent dozing.



We arrived in Boston with only a short delay for a jetway malfunction, and headed immediately for Riverside RI to visit Little Neck Cemetery.This old cemetery, founded in 1655, contains one area known as Medbery Path, and a tradition of visiting it has been handed down through our family for some time.I have not had time to thoroughly research this, but apparently the Medbery/Medbury/Medberry family was prominent in this area, and members of the family are listed in the first census of 1670.

The Medbery family, present company excepted, apparently did not put great store in consistent spelling. The original John Medbury had three sons and they used all three variations of the name, and the spelling continued to change with successive generations. I am actually descended from a Medbury of that second generation. This is illustrated at Medbery Path. In one of the sadder collections of tombstones I have seen, Hezekiah and Deborah Medbery are buried side by side, and next to them are the tombstones of their four children who all died within days of one another over thirty years later. I assume there was some sort of epidemic that affected primarily children.Hard to imagine going on for decades after watching all four of your children within a week. Interestingly, Hezekiah and Deborah spelled their name Medbery and all the four children's names are spelled Medbury on the tombstones.

After checking into our hotel, we went to dinner at Durgin Park. It is not the best restaurant in Boston, but it is an old tradition, know best for its roast beef (prime rib), which comes in great slabs up to 32 ounces. Of course, this being Boston, some chose lobster.

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Comments

[Laura Lee]

Spelling Medbery
My limited experience with "Medbery" would lead me to think it was not so much that the owners changed the spelling as that others spelled it differently and it was often too difficult or impossible to get it changed. How many times in your life have you said "one r"? Can you imagine Deborah and Hezekiah wanting to take on the challenge of getting new tombstones after their children's names had been incorrectly chiseled into granite?

[AlexPappas]

Itinerary
Where all u going to this trip.? Did not realize u were a Puritan. Hello to Jennie.

[D MJ Binkley]

Now that's a dinner
Wish we had one of those.