Best headstone yet!

This quintessential New England church is the First Congregational Church in Becket Massachusetts.  I think that it was built around 1850 as a replacement for the older church that had originally served this village.  There is a small plaque on the side, from the Becket Historical Commission that is dated 1850.  The cemetery behind the church, the Becket Center Cemetery,  is one of the oldest cemeteries in the village and has a number of Snows (my family), which is why I wanted to visit it.  So on a recent Sunday afternoon I set out toward western Massachusetts, with the goal of my friend’s house as an over-night stopping point.  Judy came up from southern Connecticut, so the three of us could go exploring the next day.  Luckily for me, both of them are interested in rambling through old cemeteries, whether they have family buried there or not – Judy because of her genealogical interest and Ann just because.  We all like reading the old stones.  Ann is also a photographer, and it was a good thing she was there.  Once again I had trouble with my camera’s battery running out in the middle of my picture-taking, even though it started out indicating a full charge.

I did find a number of Snow (and Wadsworth) headstones, some of which I know are relations and others which will require me to do more research.  Very satisfactory outcome!

This cemetery also has the distinction of having the best marker, from a genealogical perspective, that I have yet seen.  When we found it, we all stood in awe as we read the lines that detailed the family line of Origen Augustus Perkins back 5 generations, to the Perkins ancestor who came to this country in 1631.  Read it and weep.

So what is my family connection?  Nearby were two stones, one for Augustus M. Perkins and one for Ruth Susan Snow wife of Augustus M. Perkins.  But I did not know offhand what relation Ruth Susan Snow would be.  I knew she would be a collateral line but didn’t know which one or how far back the connection would be.  And there was no indication of Augustus M’s relationship to Origen.

A little research once I returned home and had time to focus on the question shows that in all likelihood Augustus M. was a son of Origen’s.  Ruth Susan (or Susannah) was likely the daughter of Sylvanus Snow who was a brother of my Samuel Snow.

And I finally learned my lesson:  I immediately went and bought 2 new batteries for my camera.