BREAKING NEWS: McCain Drops Palin

Following a week a bad reviews of the Sarah Palin interviews by conservative voices, the McCain campaign announced today that Sen. McCain will drop Gov. Palin from the number two spot on the Republic ticket. Campaign insiders explained that after reviewing the interviews Sen. McCain had decided that Gov. Palin should return to Alaska and spare any further embarrassment to his campaign. To replace Gov. Palin as the Vice Presidential candidate, Sen. McCain has announced that he has chosen Tina Fey of Saturday Night Live as his running mate. Ms. Fey, reached at her home, said that she was thrilled to be chosen. She added, "I am a bit surprised at this as I can't see any foreign countries from my house. Even from the attic windows."

In a related item, a spokesman for NBC has stated that Lorne Michaels is in talks with Sarah Palin concerning her replacing Ms. Fey on Saturday Night Live.

Rochester: A City of Quality - Part II

Here is Part II after the jump.

Rochester: A City of Quality - Part I

The Internet Archive has movies, still photos, music, etc. to view, listen to and download. Among these is a two-part film about Rochester, NY. Filmed in the 1960's it shows parts of Rochester that I can remember from that period 40 years ago - Southtown Plaza, Midtown Plaza, etc. Here is the first part:

The video is after the jump.

Sarah Palin - The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Like everyone else on the planet my first question when John McCain picked Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate was, "Gov. Who?" Since then I have had the opportunity to see and hear the two sessions she had with news persons. (Conservatives like to include the session with Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity but that session might as well have been conducted by Rick Davis - McCain's campaign manager - or someone from the Republican National Committee.) Recently some prominent conservatives have raised concerns about the agonizing interviews. Some have even suggested that she be replaced. As a Democrat, I say, "Keep her! She is a gift that keeps on giving!" However, I must admit that watching some of her interviews makes me feel sorry for her. She seems like a school kid who is giving a oral book report when she had neglected to read the book or even to read the Cliffs Notes!

Each time I see a rerun of some of her atrocious answers I have a vague feeling that I have seen it before. And then it dawned on me what it was. See after the jump.

From Miami to Athens: An Adventure

Toward the end of Ocrober my wife and I are taking a three and a half week cruise that starts in Athens, Greece and ends in Fort Lauderdale. Getting home at the end of the cruise is fairly easy. A limo will pick us up at Port Everglades and we will be home in about 45 minutes. Getting to Athens requires a bit of planning and scheduling.

More after the jump . . .

There are a couple of rules that I impose on myself when making schedules like this. (1) Use stand-by passes (our daughter is a flight attendant) to get to Europe, (2) once in Europe, use the cheapest flight to final destination, (3) arrive at the cruise embarkation location at least a day before the cruise starts. Not a rule but this time we would like to be in Athens a couple of days before the cruise. We have been in Athens before and love the city.

Miami to London

For this leg of the trip we will be "non-revenue" passangers which means that we will fly only if there is space. Sometimes that means that we may not take our first choice but the second choice (or even third or fourth choice). We also like to fly first class or at least business class. An eight hour flight in coach is not something I would look forward to! Therefore I listed all flights on Oct 26 via American Airlines from Miami to London and there are about nine or so flights. Only one is direct and the others fly from Miami to London via NYC, Chicago, Dallas and Boston. Therefore we will be "wait-listed" for the first flight out of Miami and see what happens.

Overnight in London

We will arrive in Heathrow early in the morning after and overnight flight from Miami (or NYC, or Chicago, . . .). We know that the flights that we would take to Athens we fly from Gatwick so we take the bus for Heathrow to Gatwick (about an hour and a half trip) and will spend the night there. We have done this before so I booked a room at the Copthorne Hotel outside the Gatwick Airport. The hotel is a refurbished manor house with gardens, a stream, swans, etc. Nice place.

London to Athens

Remember one of my rules: use the cheapest airline! As a result of this rule we have been able to fly from Miami to Shannon, Ireland on Aeroflot (the Russian National airline), and from Copenhagen to London on Maersk. (That's right, Maersk the Danish ocean shipping company. They also had a small airline division but sold it a couple of years ago.) So what is the cheapest airline flying from London to Athens - EasyJet! Kayak.com shows rates from about $200 per person to $3,000 per person. It also shows EasyJet at $102 per person. Such a deal! Unfortunately, the flight is at 6:20 AM and EasyJet does not assign seats before hand so we will have to get to the airport about 4:00 AM to get to the head of the line. Also free luggage is limited to about 20 lbs per. Our cruise is three and a half weeks! I suspect extra luggage will cost us about another $100. Still a bargain.

In Athens

We will arrive in Athens on the afternoon of the 28th and want to spend some time there until the cruise that starts the afternoon of the 30th. Previously we had stayed at the Attalos Hotel in the Plaka area, the old section of Athens near the Acropolis. Every travel search site I used (Kayak, Travelocity, Hotels.com, etc.) shows no rooms available on the dates we need. Therefore, we found a hotel in the downtown area but not in Plaka and we thought we could walk or metro from there anyplace we wanted to. Booked it for two nights through Travelocity. Then I was looking for something about Athens and came across comments from persons who had stayed at the hotel I had just booked. The first comment was, "Don't ever stay at this place!" The next was, "I am a fairly big guy but I was leary about going out in the neighborhood at night." Next just said, "A vice hotel." Gee, maybe I don't want to stay there. Went back to Travelocity, cancelled my reservation (still cost me $25), found another hotel with fairly good reviews and so we're all set.

All in all it only took three and a half hours to make reservations!

Joseph Weed and Deborah Moses

Joseph Weed and Deborah Moses of Simsbury, CT are descendants of two Puritan immigrants that came to New England during the Great Migration of the 1630's.

Joseph was the great-grandson of Jonas Weed who came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the late spring of 1630 with the Gov. John Winthrop fleet. Jonas settled in Watertown, MA and moved with others in 1636 and 1637 south along the Connecticut River and settled the town of Wethersfield, CT, the oldest established settlement in the Colony of Connecticut. In 1641 he was an early settler in Stamford, CT and he died there in 1676. Descendants of the line of Jonas Weed to Joseph Weed were in Stamford, Derby, Waterbury and finally Simsbury, where the subject Joseph settled by 1757.

Deborah Moses was the second great-granddaughter of John Moses of Plymouth, MA who came to New England between 1630 and 1640. Her great-grandfather, also named John, was in Windsor, CT in 1647. Her grandfather, another John Moses, was also born in Windsor and was the first of the Moses family to came to Simsbury, CT about 1681.

I am a fifth great-grandson of Joseph Weed and Deborah Moses through my mother, Mary Frances Maloney, my grandfather, Frederick George Maloney, and my great-grandmother, Sarah Weed.

SIMSBURY AND GRANBY, CONNECTICUT

In the seventeenth century, Simsbury - or Massacoe, as it was originally known - comprised all of that area that today includes the Hartford County towns of Simsbury, Granby, East Granby, West Granby, Canton and North Canton. Although never included within the town limits of Windsor, it was generally considered a parish of that town and the early settlers of Simsbury were from Windsor. In 1642, an act of the General Court specified that, "It is ordered, that the Governor and Mr. Haynes shall have liberty to dispose of the ground upon that part of Tunxus river, called Massacoe, to such inhabitants of Windsor, as they shall see cause."

The first Indian deed for any of this area was given in 1648 by three Indians, Pacatoco, Pamatacount and Youngcoout, to John Griffin with the two witnesses to this deed given on the 28th day of June, 1648 were Windsor residents, George Abbet and John Moses, the great-grandfather of Deborah Moses. Grants of land were made by the General Court to numerous persons but a permanent settlement was not established until about 1664, and it was not until 1666 that a committee, appointed by the General Court, specified the terms upon which Windsor residents may take up land in Massacoe. The first grants of land were made by that committee the following year and it is believed that all of the first settlers were there by 1669. One of those grants in "Weatogue, east" was to John Moses, Sr., Deborah's great-grandfather.

Until 1668 Massacoe was still associated with the town of Windsor but that year the General Court "doth desire that Massacoe, which hitherto hath been an appendix to the town of Windsor, may be improved for the making of a plantation." Further, the Court went on to order the previosly appointed committee to "make such just orders as they shall judge requisite for the well ordering of the said plantation, so they be not be repugnant to the public order of this Colony." As a result of this order, Massacoe had some measure of local control as a plantation and in 1670 the General Court incorporated it as a separate town and the name changed to Simsbury. The Court set Simsbury's boundaries as running "from Farmington bounds to the northward tenn miles, and from Windsor bounds, on the east, to run westward tenn miles."

In 1679, grants of land were made to thirteen families in the Salmon Brook area that was later to become Granby and in 1688 additional lots were granted in the area of Turkey Hills. However, despite the granting of land the population of this section of Simsbury remained quitesmall. In 1709 there were but eleven families, nine on the west side of the Salmon Creek and only two on the east. In 1728 the number of families on the west side had increased to twenty-seven, on the east it had increased to eleven and there were now twenty-four families on the east side of the mountain.

Even though these families had settled a quite distance from the meeting house in Simsbury they still travelled for Sabath and midweek meetings to Simsbury. As a result, two Ecclesiastical Societies were established in 1736 at Salmon Brook and Turkey Hills, and the first meeting of the Salmon Brook Society was held in May of 1739. The following year a Congregational Meeting House was constructed to serve the families of Salmon Brook and Turkey Hills. Finally, on October 12, 1786 the Salmon Brook and Turkey Hills Ecclesiastic Societies were incorporated as the Town of Granby.

In Granby, Joseph Weed and his family lived in the western portion of Granby near the West Branch of the Salmon Brook and an elevation called Tree Hill. Tree Hill is today, I believe, the Weed Hill shown on current maps of Hartford County, Connecticut. As a result of subdividing and creating new towns, the family of Joseph and Deborah Weed lived in three towns - Simsbury, Granby and West Granby - without ever having to move!



Joseph Weed and Deborah Moses

Joseph WEED, the son of John Weed and Mary Jackson Beaman, was born on 2 Nov 1708, in Derby, New Haven, CT. Joseph was the great-grandson of Jonas Weed, the first of the Weed family in New England who came from England with the Winthrop Fleet in the Spring of 1630. Joseph's father and his family had come from Derby to the Oxford Parish of Waterbury, CT and it was in Waterbury that he married on 5 Jun 1740, Deborah MOSES. At the time of their marriage in Waterbury, Joseph was noted as being "of Derby".

Joseph's wife, Deborah, was born on 3 Nov 1718, in Simsbury, Hartford, CT, the daughter of John MOSES and Hannah HOSKINS ("Debrath Moses third daughter of John Moses of Simsbury was born the third day of November 1718."). She was the great-great-granddaughter of John Moses of Plymouth, MA who came to New England between 1630 and 1640.

On 29 August 1749, Joseph paid Timothy Moses (probably his brother-in-law, and his wife's step-brother) £300 for a 113 acre parcel of land located in "1/2 mi. tier lying on Mt. south of Joseph Cases house." The land was bounded on the south on a division lot laid out to the heirs of John Slater; west on the division land; north to a parcel owned by Josiah and Joel Case; and east on land of Josiah and Joel Case, fromerly granted to John Humphrey, long deceased. On 25 June 1763, he deeded a portion of that parcel near the east side of West Mt. to Josiah Case. This parcel was described as, "begin at the West End of tier lots wh. I now live upon at ye N.W. corner of my sd. Lots and bounds on my own land, West on the next tier, North on Joel Cases land, S. on undivided land being 8 rods 3/4 in breadth the same in length and number of A[cres] m or l [more or less]." Finally, on 8 January 1768, Joseph deeded to Elijah Tuller the "land bought of Timothy Moses with house barn and orchards, etc."

Joseph died 30 Nov 1771, in Simsbury ("Jofeph Weed Departed this Life November 30th 1771."). Following his death, his estate was inventoried by Abel Gofard and Simeon Holcomb on 13 January 1772. "The Inv. of the real & personal estate of Joseph Weed as followeth, viz:

                   £   s   d
1 yoke Oxen        10  0   0
2 Sheep             7  14  0
1 Cow               2  10  0
1 Mare              6  0   0
2 Barrels           0  3   0
1 Pitch Fork        0  1   6
1 Dung Fork         0  2   6
Horse Traces        0  5   0
3 Pieces Old Chains 0  3   0
Caps & Pins         0  2   0
2 Geese             0  5   0
Sett of Dragg Teeth 1  0   0
Horse Collar & Hook 0  2   6
1 Iron Skillet      0  2   6
1 Iron Pot          0  7   0
Frying Pan          0  3   0
Iron Kettle         0  10  0
Gun Barrel & Fork   0  5   0
Slice & Tongs       0  2   6
1 Trammel           0  4   2
1 Trammel           0  5   2
4 Chairs            0  4   0
1 Iron Wedge        0  1   0
1 Pewter Porringer  0  0   8
2 ditto             0  1   0
6 Pewter Plates     0  7   6
2 Pewter Basons     0  2   0
1 Pewter Platter    0  6   0
1 ditto             0  3   0
1 Pewter Basin      0  2   0
1 Pewter Basin      0  2   9
1 Quart Cup         0  4   3
1 Teapot            0  2   6
1 Old Pewter Bason  0  2   0
1 ditto             0  1   6
1 ditto             0  1   6
1 Old Pewter Platter0  2   0
4 Lbs of Old Pewter 0  4   8
1 Psalm Book        0  1   9
1 Sermon Book       0  1   0
1 Glass Bottle      0  0   6
1 Old Quart Cup     0  1   9
1 Knott Dish        0  1   6
1 ditto             0  0   9
1 ditto             0  1   0
4 Milk Trays        0  9   0
2 Small ditto       0  3   0
1 Saddle            1  10  0
Pulion              0  5   0
1 Pair Sheets       0  8   0
3 Sheets            0  8   0
3 Moslin Sheets     0  15  0
1 Table Cloth       0  3   0
2 Old Towels        0  1   0
4 Pillow Cases      0  1   6
2 Caps              0  0   6
1 Shagg Rugg        0  12  0
Dutch Blanket       0  4   0
1 Pillow            0  1   6
2 ditto             0  2   0
1 Bed               2  5   0
1 Bedsted           0  5   0
1 Bed Rope          0  1   0
1 Bed               2  5   0
1 Rag Rugg          0  8   0
Old Coat            0  10  0
4 Baggs             0  16  0
Ftetchets           0  6   0
Set of Cart Bands   0  14  0
Cart Boxes 
10 Linch Pins
4 Washers           0  14  0
Dutch Wheel
A Gun               1  19  0
3 Reeds             0  9   0
Loom/Spindle        1  1   0
1 Pair Stilhards    0  3   6
2 Barrels           0  3   0
Butter Churn        0  1   6

On the 15th of October, 1772, Dorcas and Hannah, the two daughters of Joseph and Deborah, executes the following, "I Dorcas Weed and Hannah Weed have recd of our Brothers Aaron Weed & Moses Weed of Simsbury the sum of Thirty Pounds lawful money which is in full of our Dues and Demands we have or ever had or ought to have to all or any of our honoured Father Joseph Weed's late of Simsbury Dec'd Estate that is especially two Notes the said Aaron & Moses took of Elijah Tuller of our one hundred and Seventy pounds money which money belonged to our said Father and we do hereby discharge the sd Aaron & Moses from said money and from all other Demands we have or had sd estate Excepting that has been set out & Distributed to us this the above 15th day of Oct as our sd Fathers moveable Estate." Dorcas signed the document, Hannah made her mark and it was witnessed by Francis Barnard and Peter Rice.

The distribution of Joseph's estate was distributed on 19 October 1772 and the distribution was exhibited on 3 November of the same year.

Seven years after Joseph's death a series of documents were executed by his children that would "give and devise" to their mother all of their father's estate. The first in May of 1778 was as follows: "Know all men by these pre that whas - we the Subsc. of Sims in Co. Hart. heirs at law of the Estate of Joseph Weed late of sd Simsbury Decd find by cert. memo, under the hands of said Dec'd signifying that it was his last will and purpose to give and devise to his and our honoured Mother Deborah Weed of sd Simsbury all ye estate both real & personal that belonged to sd Joseph Weed at the time of his death and we being willing to comply with ye will of ye sd Decd do realise qtclaim, resign and relinquish to our sd Honoured Mother all Right Title Claim & Interest we or other of us had have or may have hereafter to any of ye sd estate in manner aforesaid for us and our Heirs and assigns forever. In Witness Thereof we have set our hds and Seals." The document was signed by Aaron Weed, Moses Weed, Dorcas [Weed] Matson, Otheniel Gillet, Jr., and Hannah [Weed] Gillet made her mark. To one side of this is the following note, "Benjamin Weed Signed on the 6th day of Sept. 1795." This note may account for the following in the Granby town records that reads: "Granby October 27 1795 Recvid of Diborah Weed & aron Weed & Moses Weed & Benjamin Weed & Dorcas Matson one Pound Lawfull money in full of all Demands of Law or Equity Whatsoever in witness our hands

Zebah Matson: } Othenial Gillett Jur
Hannah (her mark) Gillett"

Zebah Matson was the grandson of Joseph and Deborah, and is the son of Dorcas (Weed) Matson.

The following month, 15 June 1778, Deborah deeds land to her sons Moses and Benjamin. "For love and good will of my son Moses & Benj. Weed of their Mother Deborah widow and relict Joseph Weed give to my two sons M[oses] & B[enjamin] I pc land - Tree Hill." This parcel was bounded on the North by Thomas Holcomb's land, on the South by Benjamin's land, on the East by her daughter Hannah's land, and on the West by the common or undivided land and lying West of the so-called "long lots." This was a 20 acre parcel that he deceased son Joseph had purchased of his brother Aaron. Of the 20 acres, Moses was given 5 acres and Benjamin was given 15 acres.

Deborah and her children, Aaron, Moses, Benjamin and Dorcas Matson, are listed in order in the 1790 census for Granby and she died on 15 Dec 1809, in Simsbury.

Children of Joseph Weed and Deborah Moses:

i Isaac WEED born 22 Mar 1741, Waterbury, New Haven, CT, died 18 May 1741, Waterbury, New Haven, CT.

ii Aaron born 28 May 1742.

iii Moses born 5 Jan 1745.

iv Dorcas born 19 Mar 1747/8.

v Joseph WEED born 8 May 1757, Simsbury, Hartford, CT, Simsbury town records note: "Joseph Weed the son of Joseph Weed was born the 8th day of May Anno Domini 1757." In October, 1772, following the death of his father, Joseph appeared at the Court of Probate held in Simsbury. "Present Joseph Weed a minor of 15 years of age the 8th day of May last. Apprd before the Ct. and made choice of Moses Weed of sd Sims to be Guardian of his person & estate until he shall arrive to the ae of 21 yrs and the sd Moses apprd and accptd trust to take the care and guardianship of said Joseph until he shall arrive to the ae of 21 yrs. and render and acct of his Gdship to the Ct. when required or to the sd minor when he shall arrive to the ae aforesaid and the sd. Moses entered Recogt. in bond £ 50-0-0 lawful money to fulfill sd Trust."
Joseph died sometime prior to 15 June 1778. "Deborah Weed moves to take Admin. of the Est. of Joseph Weed the younger late of Sims Decd which was granted and she and Moses Weed gave bonds of som of 80 £ Lawful money in manner accustomed to fulfill sd Trust and took out letters of Adm. and also exhibited Inventory of Est. of the Decd which was accepted and ordered to be recorded and kept on file."

vi Benjamin born 18 Sep 1761.

vii Hannah WEED married 28 Jan 1778, in Simsbury, Hartford, CT,19 Othniel GILLETT Jr.. A record for Hannah's birth has not been found but she is mentioned in her father's will and subsequent probate documents.