My grandfather, Milford Reverdy Irving, emmigrated from Albert County, New Brunswick, Canada and worked in greenhouses in Billerica and Tewksbury. He married my grandmother, Alice Gertrude Chandler, whose family lived and owned greenhouses in Tewksbury. After my mother was born, my grandmother, Alice Gertrude Chandler Irving, spent much of her life in an institution suffering from postpartum depression.
Alice's parents , Catherina Lina Schmid Chandler and Jeremiah Kittredge Chandler, cared for my mother. When my mother married, she became her Uncle William Chandler 's sister-in-law. His wife Mary Lacy, my father's sister, died of a heart attack leaving 6 young children and a crippled husband. My parents took some of the children in and raised them. Some lived in Tewksbury with their father and Uncle Larkin and Aunt MamieChandler.
I was a late comer not arriving until 4 years later, 8 years after my parents were married. So although not all six of the Chandlers lived with us, they were a big part of my childhood family. They all married and lived and raised their individual families in Tewksbury. Three of the six were boys and between they they had 13 children, so the Chandler name was well represented in my hometown.
In addition, Jeremiah had 10 sibling who lived in Tewksbury and many are buried in Tewksbury.
On Memorial Day when my mother would decorate her mother's grave she would point out the fenced-in area at the front of the cemetery where older generation Chandler's were buried. The fence has been removed but the graves remain....of my great grandparents, grand aunts, grand uncles, 2nd and 3rd cousins, etc. Those were the easy to find graves (but not easy to read), when I started searching a couple of years ago.
So Chandlers surrounded me, both the living and the dead, and were a much greater presence in my childhood than the Irvings. So that's why I've called my blog Chandlacy.
No comments:
Post a Comment