The Archive, Photographs from a Family Pilgrimage

III · The Record Room

Inside the archive itself.

Founded in 1845, the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston is the oldest genealogical society in America. Days there produced most of the hard facts behind this whole site, including a published sketch of the immigrant John Tidd, and a family tree drawn generations deep.

The Book of Record · flip through it

The Dawes-Gates account of John Tidd

The four pages that anchor this whole family history: the title page of Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines (Mary Walton Ferris, 1943) and its full "TIDD" chapter. Cleaned and flattened from the originals. Turn the pages, or tap Read the text for a large-print transcription.

Title page of Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines, 1943

Dawes-Gates page 197, TIDD family continued

The Line, generation by generation

“A Tidd Line”, the typescript genealogy

A second book from the reading room: a typed genealogy that walks the family down six generations, from Charlestown in 1637 to a Revolutionary War soldier. Turn the pages, or tap Read the text for the full large-print transcription of each page.

TIDD LINE typescript, page 511, first generation

TIDD LINE typescript, page 512, second generation

TIDD LINE typescript, page 513, third generation

TIDD LINE typescript, page 514, fourth and fifth generations

TIDD LINE typescript, page 515, sixth generation

A town’s tribute · flip through it

Resolutions on the death of a Lexington schoolmaster, 1882

When Charles Tidd (1807–1881, aged 74), a direct ancestor of this family, died, the Town of Lexington asked its School Committee to set down, in the town record, what he had meant to the place. He had taught its public schools for a quarter of a century, and served as School Committee man, assessor and town clerk. Turn the two pages, or tap Read the text.

First page of the 1882 Lexington resolutions on the death of Charles Tidd

Second page of the 1882 Lexington resolutions, with the signatures

The Grandfather's Letter

"A Letter to Jonathan and Stephen"

In 1998, at Pinehurst, Grandpa Joy (Joy Thomas Tidd, b. 1926) set down a hundred-page letter to his grandsons: a retired lawyer's honest reckoning with his hard Nebraska boyhood, and then a self-taught tour of relativity, cosmology, the Bible and the meaning of existence, with his brother's and sister's recollections and his father's farewell letters appended. It is the family's most personal document, and with his 1995 genealogy it is the research that made this site possible. Passages open below in the large-print reader.

From the opening pages

"A Letter to Jonathan and Stephen" · Joy Thomas Tidd · Pinehurst, N.C., 1998–2004

"The author of this book is a retired lawyer lacking any training in higher mathematics or physics… While lacking formal training in the sciences, I have been intrigued with the questions of existence since my teenage years… Most of my avocational reading over the last forty years has been in neither law nor fiction but of books written for laymen in the fields of religion, philosophy, and the physical and natural sciences."

"I do not believe anyone can seriously contemplate the cosmos without contemplating religious beliefs… My own interest in religion and the cosmos arises from an inner quest for answers to the 'what' and 'why' of human existence."

The universe as a single year

"A Letter to Jonathan and Stephen" · the Temporal Realm

"On that time scale, the 'Big Bang'… occurred at midnight, January 1. Our sun was not formed until about the 9th of September… It was not until 10:30 p.m. on New Year's Eve that the first humans appeared… Jesus was born just 4 seconds ago, and it was only one second before Guy Lombardo first played Auld Lang Syne that Columbus set sail for America. As you can see, on the cosmic time scale, we have yet to turn the first page of the book of recorded history."

"We always knew Mr. Tidd would take care of us"

His sister Dorothy's recollection of their father, appended to the letter

"Then came the depression years, and in 1932 the banks closed… Dad did all he could to help people, much of it privately, which we learned of only after his death.… I remember food coming in by train, and he would see it was distributed to the needy… He dressed those kids in winter clothes and had coal delivered to their homes, sometimes doing it himself, so they would be warm. Remember Mrs. Decker…? She said, 'We always knew Mr. Tidd would take care of us. He wouldn't let us go hungry.' He was a good, kind, generous man."

A father's last letter, and a son's reckoning

Charles W. Tidd's farewell letter, September 1935, appended to the letter; and Joy's own words

"…This is going to be a sad shock to you I know and I ask you and our dear children to forgive me and think as kindly of me as you can. You have been a wonderful wife. I love you dearly… I am going to pass out of the picture while there is at least enough left to assure you and the children of a competence."

And Joy, sixty years on: "I want to retract what I said earlier, among other things calling his act of suicide cowardice. His love and concern are made quite apparent in a reading of the letters.… Because I am trying to be honest, I will let it stand."

The abolitionists' great-great-grandson

"A Letter to Jonathan and Stephen" · on race in America

"Often, when I see a little 3 or 4 year old black child in a shopping center holding on to his mother's hand, I ask myself 'How would I feel were I his father or grandfather knowing what he has to face growing up in our society?' The answer is, 'I would be consumed with rage at the injustice of it.'"

Written a century and a half after Rebecca Tidd's letters under the emblem "Am I Not a Man and a Brother?" The conviction descended with the name.

Digging out

"A Letter to Jonathan and Stephen" · on winter, poetry, and his son

"Snowbound brings back the memories of family ties and Nebraska blizzards and, more recently, of a Virginia storm of some 20 years ago in which your dad and one of his friends had to dig our house out of a three-foot-deep snowdrift.… After surviving a blizzard, they really did have something to feel good about!"

Held by the family as a Word document; the "Lyman Years" and "War Years" chapters promised in its table of contents are missing from the surviving copy, a recovery project for the next family historian. Key passages are tagged to the people they describe on The Line.

Wood-panelled reading room with chandeliers at the NEHGS — **The reading room**NEHGS, Boston. Where the family history stopped being hearsay and started being sourced.

A hand-set genealogical chart of Tidd descendants — **The descendant chart**John Tidd at the crown, the branches spreading down through Daniel, Elizabeth, Joseph and the rest.
Tidd descendant chart
Hand-lettered genealogical chart · allied lines Tead / Wood / Fifield / Wyman / Faulkner / Goddard
At the head: **John Tead** (c. 1593), with his first wife **Margaret** and second wife **Alice**.
Beneath them the generations branch out with birth and death dates: **Rebecca Wood** (b. 1618, d. 1651), Samuel, Sarah, Elizabeth, Thomas Fuller, and **Mary who married Francis Kendall**; then Joseph Smith, John, Elizabeth Fifield, Mary, Samuel, Joseph and Daniel.
A third tier carries the line down through **Elizabeth (1679), John (1681), Joseph (1684), Rebecca (1687), Mary (1690), Ebenezer (1693)** and Martha Wyman; and a fourth through Samuel (1716), Ebenezer (1718–1765), Elizabeth Faulkner, Lucy “Polly,” and **Jonathan (1724)**.
The chart threads the same names that appear on the Lexington headstones and in the Dawes-Gates book.

A handwritten 1795 promissory note — **A 1795 promissory note**“Forty-eight dollars and seventeen cents in silver or gold, on demand.” Ordinary life, in ink.
Promissory note
Bedford, Massachusetts · 7 August 1795
“Bedford, August the 7^th, 1795.
For value received I promise to pay John Reed, or his order, the sum of **Forty-Eight Dollars and Seventeen Cents** in silver or gold on demand, with interest till paid, as witness my hand.
Attest: Jonas Farwell.”

NEHGS donor bookplate dated 1913 — **The bookplate**Donated to the society in 1913, a reminder that this record has been kept, and added to, for over a century.
Bookplate
New England Historic Genealogical Society
“New-England Historic Genealogical Society.
**Given by Winthrop Reed Kendall, LL.B.,** Oak Park, Illinois.
Dec. 12, 1913.”

A family Bible Family Record page for the Tidd family — **The family Bible**Births, marriages and deaths kept in the family’s own hand, generation after generation.
Family Record
Family Bible of the Tidds of Lexington
**Births.** Nathan Tidd was born June the 11th, 1789. Crissa Tidd was born Oct. the 21st, 1796. Caroline E. Tidd was born May 21st, 1827.
**Marriages.** Nathan Tidd was married to Crissa Farwell Sept. the 7th, 1817. Lyman M. Kingman was married to Caroline E. Tidd June 20th, 1850.
**Deaths.** Nathan Tidd died July 30th, 1873, aged 84 years, 1 month, 18 days. Crissa Tidd died May 2, 1870, aged 73 years.
Crissa’s maiden name, Farwell, is the same family as the Jonas Farwell who witnessed the 1795 note nearby.

Revolutionary War pay rolls for John Tidd — **A soldier’s pay rolls, 1776**John Tidd’s Revolutionary War service, abstracted from the muster rolls.
Revolutionary War pay rolls
John Tidd · Massachusetts Militia · 1775–1776
**Company Pay Roll**, “John Tidd, Private, Captain Edward Richardson’s Co. in the Regiment commanded by Col. Thomas Poor of the Massachusetts Militia in the service of the United States of America.” Roll dated Nov. 14, 177[8].
**Receipt Roll**, John Tidd, Corporal (Gardiner’s Regiment): “for pay received of Col. Wm. Bond, by the hand of Captain Lock, for service in the Continental Army for Nov. and Dec., 1775.” Roll dated Prospect Hill, Feb. 14, 1776.
**List** of non-commissioned officers and soldiers who appeared and repeated the oath required by Congress, dated Middlesex, June 20, 1775.

An 1881 letter from the Town of Lexington on the death of a Tidd — **The town clerk’s letter**Leonard A. Saville transmits the Resolutions to the schoolmaster’s children, among them Charles L. Tidd, the next rung of the line.
A letter from Lexington
Lexington, Massachusetts · 9 March 1881
“Lexington, March 9, 1881. Mr Charles L. Tidd and others.
It becomes my duty to transmit to you the enclosed Resolutions passed by the Town of Lexington, in town meeting assembled, on the death of your honored father.
Permit me also to add my individual testimony as to his worth as a man, a citizen and a friend. I remain very respectfully, **Leonard A. Saville.**”

A 1782 deed signed by John Tidd of Lexington — **A deed, 1782**Signed by John Tidd (1749–1812), the direct ancestor who stood on Lexington Green on April 19, 1775; Elizabeth is his wife Elizabeth Reed.
A deed of land
Lexington & Woburn, Massachusetts · 29 March 1782
“Know all Men by these Presents, that I **John Tidd of Lexington**, in the County of Middlesex and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Yeoman, in consideration of **one hundred and ten pounds** lawful money paid me by **David Blanchard of Woburn**… do give, grant, sell and convey unto the said David Blanchard and to his heirs and assigns for ever **one certain wood lot lying in Woburn**, formerly owned by Joseph Kendall, near Deacon Samuel Reed, containing **eleven acres and an half** by measure…”
“In witness whereof I the said John Tidd, with **Elizabeth my now married wife** consenting hereto and giving up her right of dower and power of thirds in the same, have hereunto set our hands and seal this twenty-ninth day of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-two.”
“Signed, sealed and delivered in presence of us: **William Tidd, Joseph Simonds.**” Acknowledged before Samuel Thompson, Justice of the Peace.

A colonial layout of a town way, copied from the Cambridge records — **A road, laid out by oak trees, 1729**The old way from Concord to Woburn, surveyed through the land the Tidds farmed.
The laying out of a town way
Cambridge (now Lexington), Massachusetts · 13 June 1729
The bounds are walked from tree to tree: “…to a white oak stump with three branches growing upon it… then across said path to a black oak with a bunch on it near the ground… to a white oak stump where said way meets with **the way leading from Concord to Woburn**, which way we have stated four rod all along on the northerly side.”
Signed by the selectmen: **Amos Marret, William Russell, Francis Bowman.** “Copy of Record, examined per **Andrew Bordman, Town Clerk of the Town of Cambridge.**”
The record notes that a certain town way was laid out in that part of Cambridge “which is now Lexington,” a reminder that Lexington began as Cambridge Farms.

A 1798 receipt signed with a mark by Polly Farrar — **A receipt, signed with a mark, 1798**Paid in full, and signed with an X by a woman who could not write her name.
A receipt in full
Lexington, Massachusetts · 28 August 1798
“Lexington, August 28th, 1798. Received of **John Tidd eleven dollars and fifty cents**, in full of all demands or accounts between him and me to the present time.”
“Received by me, her **× mark**, **Polly Farrar.** Attest: John Tidd, Junr.”
Polly Farrar signs with an X between her names, the mark of someone who never learned to write. The “John Tidd, Junr” who attests is the son, John Tidd (1779–1842), the next rung of the direct line.

An 1815 mourning card for Joseph Tidd with a memorial verse — **A mourning verse, 1815**A death noted, and a couplet to go with it, kept folded among the family papers.
A note of death
Among the Tidd family papers · 1815
“**Joseph Tidd died September 1815, in the 66th year of his age.**”
“From Death’s arrests no age is free, / My friends prepare to follow me.”
The couplet is a common New England gravestone verse, copied out here by hand as a private memorial.

An 1806 Charlestown bill to John Tidd for a chaise boot — **A tradesman’s bill, 1806**“One chaise boot, nine pounds.” A carriage part, bought and receipted.
A tradesman’s bill
Charlestown, Massachusetts · 11 October 1806
“Charlestown, Oct. 11, 1806. **Mr. John Tidd, bought of Joseph Reed:** one **chaise boot** … £9-0-0; to sundries … £0-2-0; total … £9-2-0.”
“By sundries… received payment, **Joseph Reed.**”
A “chaise boot” was the leather apron and cover of a light two-wheeled carriage, a small window onto how the family got about.

A printed page of Samuel Tidd's will from the 1890 Tidd family history — **Samuel Tidd’s will, the cooper**The old Woburn trade, still followed: Samuel Tidd, cooper, divides his estate among his daughters.
The will of Samuel Tidd
Woburn, Massachusetts · printed in Edward F. Johnson, *The Story of the Tidd Family of Woburn*, 1890
“In this instrument, **Samuel Tidd is referred to as a ‘cooper,’** so that the old family occupation was still followed. Samuel Tidd’s will is on record and reads as follows:”
“I, **Samuel Tidd, of Woburn** in the County of Middlesex and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, yeoman, otherwise gentleman… do make and ordain this my last will and testament. That is to say, principally and first of all I give and recommend my soul into the hands of God who gave it, and my body to be buried in a decent and Christian-like manner…”
“My will is that my daughters, viz. **Phebe, Sarah, Ruth, Betty, Abigail and Mehitable**, have my household furniture… and that my son Samuel pay my granddaughter Phebe, daughter of my son **Benjamin Tidd, deceased**, the sum of twenty shillings when she arrives to eighteen years of age.”

IV · In the Thick of It

The family and the
anti-slavery cause.

Among the papers is one that stops you cold. A family letter from Lexington, December 1840, written on stationery printed with the era’s great anti-slavery emblem: a chained, kneeling figure and the words “Am I Not a Man and a Brother?” The writer is Rebecca M. (Nourse) Tidd, wife of the Lexington schoolmaster Charles Tidd, and a direct ancestor of this family: the kids’ own five-times-great-grandmother. The news inside is ordinary, a wedding, a schoolteacher’s term, a new baby. The paper it is written on is not.

The letter under the broken chain

“Am I Not a Man and a Brother?” · Lexington, 1840

Written by R. M. Tidd, Rebecca M. (Nourse) Tidd of Waterford, Maine, to her uncle back home, on printed abolitionist letterhead. Hudson’s town genealogy confirms every name in it: her husband Charles taught the Centre District school, and “sister Mary” married David T. Watson of Franklin, N.H., on 19 November 1840, seventeen days before this letter. The emblem at the top, the kneeling enslaved man in chains, was the seal of the movement to end slavery, first cut for Josiah Wedgwood in 1787 and reproduced on paper, ribbons and tokens for half a century. To choose it for ordinary family letters was to nail your colours to the mast. Turn the pages, or tap Read the text for a large-print transcription.

First page of the 1840 Tidd letter, printed with the Am I Not a Man and a Brother anti-slavery emblem

Second page of the 1840 Tidd letter, naming Rev. S. J. May and the Presidential election

Third page of the 1840 Tidd letter, signed R. M. Tidd

“They have a very excellent man for their minister, and withal a good Abolitionist… Only four felt it their duty to carry Freedom’s ticket at the Presidential Election.”R. M. Tidd → her uncle · Lexington · 6 December 1840

The everyday news carries the movement inside it. A Lexington family in 1840 counting the four neighbours who dared vote the abolitionist Liberty ticket, turning out to hear Samuel J. May lecture against slavery, noting which relations are “beginning to feel considerable interest in Abolition,” and packing “an Antislavery Library” to carry west. And all of it set down on paper that announces the household’s convictions before a single word is read.

This is the letter the family long remembered. Nearly eighty years later the baby it anticipated, Aunt Esther, sent it west to her brother’s family with the words: “you see how the letter in 1840 seemed to me very full of magic power.” It has descended the direct line ever since.

A generation on, the same conviction.

Writing in 1918 to her nephew in California, the family’s Aunt Esther, Esther Mary Tidd, born five months after the 1840 letter above, its writer’s own daughter, looks back on the years before the Civil War and puts the Tidds squarely inside the fight against slavery. She married Hayward Barrett, great-grandson of Col. James Barrett of Concord, who commanded at the Old North Bridge.

Opening spread of Aunt Esther's 1918 letter

Inner spread of Aunt Esther's 1918 letter

Closing spread of Aunt Esther's 1918 letter

A further spread of Aunt Esther's 1918 letter

Aunt Esther (Esther Mary Tidd, m. Barrett) to C. W. Tidd · Lincoln, Mass. · 26 Nov 1918

“…well do I remember ‘Squatter Sovereignty,’ and all the Kansas trouble; and was a worker in the ‘Emigrant Aid’ Society, as well as in ‘Soldiers’ Aid Society’ through the Civil War.”Esther Mary (Tidd) Barrett → C. W. Tidd · Lincoln, Mass. · 26 Nov 1918

The New England Emigrant Aid Company was no quiet charity. Backed by the era’s most famous abolitionists (Henry Ward Beecher and Wendell Phillips are both named elsewhere in these same letters), it armed and funded free-state settlers to pour into Kansas and keep it out of slavery. It was the movement that lit “Bleeding Kansas,” and the same current that carried John Brown’s men, among them the family’s own Charles Plummer Tidd.

To have a Tidd relative write, in her own hand, that she worked in the Emigrant Aid and Soldiers’ Aid societies is about as direct a line to the anti-slavery cause as a family can hope to hold.

What They Brought
Home

A polaroid, a grandfather,
and Google Street View.

Where the colonial Tidds lie.

Four generations, still standing side by side.

A house and a street
that still bear the name.