Joseph Bartlett Maynard and family, 1860

I just love these old photos.  This one was probably an ambrotype taken about 1860,  which was copied and reprinted as a tintype.  I love that the tintype was put back in the casing for the ambrotype.  This is the Joseph Bartlett Maynard family of Leverett, Franklin, Massachusetts.  Joseph and his wife, Mary Glazier Maynard eventually had 10 children.  I can date the photo by the children as well as the clothes and hair styles.  The 3 boys were born in 1844, 1845 and 1848.  Then they had girls born in 1850, 1852, 1855 and 1858.  The youngest is about 2  and she was born in May, 1858.  The 8th child, a boy, was born in Oct. 1860.   The young girl in the back behind her father and baby sister is my great grandmother.  She doesn't look like she was very happy at having to stay still for the photographer.

Azubah Nye Glazier, 1756 - 1840

 My DNA result from 23&Me has probably solved an old family story.  Azubah Nye Glazier is my 4th great grandmother.  She is a descendant of John Howland of the Mayflower through her mother Hannah Botfish who married Caleb Nye.  Caleb's father was Nathan Nye, son of the immigrant Benjamin and Katherine (Tupper) Nye.  Nathan married a "Mercy" and no one has ever found a marriage or any other information for this woman.

Family lore has always said Azabuh was an "Indian lady".  Looking at my mother's genealogy, the only possible Native American is Mercy, wife of Nathan.  Mercy is the only brick wall I have in the lineage of my mother except for the Irish branch which immigrated in 1849.  A grandson of Azabah and Jonathan Glazier and cousin to my great grandmother, Sarah, Lyle Glazier, wrote a book poem about Azubah and he quoted from a memo he found written by his Uncle Forrest which stated ""Jonathan Glazier came to Brushy Mountain in 1790.  He married Azubah Nye, an indian girl."

In those days, if it was known you had even a small bit of "colored" blood, you were considered that race.   In the 1790 census Worcester Co., Caleb Nye from Hardwick (where Azuba had lived with her parents) is listed as a "person of color, African or Native American".  Her father Caleb died in 1787 so this could be her brother.  In any case, Azuba and Caleb would have only been 1/4 Native American but would have passed down the gene.  My DNA results say I am .1% Eastern European or Native American and I believe this is Azabuh's DNA.  Azubah Nye, daughter of Caleb and Hannah Nye was born in 1756, married Jonathan Glazier 23 June 1774 and died in 1840  They lived in Leverett, Massachusetts on Brushy Mountain.  Their 5th child was Ebenezer Nye Glazier who married Mary Spaulding and their daughter Mary,  my great great grandmother, married Joseph Bartlett Maynard in 1843.  They also lived on Brushy Mt.