Fieldstone Common Season 1

This Thursday on Fieldstone Common we will speak well known New England Genealogist David Allen Lambert. During this interview we will discuss some of David's favorite research topics such as New England cemeteries, Native Americans and African Americans. We'll probably even talk a bit about baseball too! David has been a staff member at the New England Historic Genealogical Society since 1993, having been a member previously. His interest in genealogy started at the young age of seven, and has increased over the past four decades. He has published several articles in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register; the New Hampshire Genealogical Record, Rhode Island Roots, The Mayflower Descendant, and New England Ancestors magazine. His genealogical expertise includes New England and Atlantic Canadian records of the 17th through 21st century; military records; and Native American and African American genealogical research in New England. He has published A Guide to Massachusetts Cemeteries (NEHGS, 2009), and ), and various volumes of his hometown of Stoughton, Massachusetts. He recently collaborated with historian Maureen Taylor on a volume of photographic images of the Revolutionary war period – The Last Muster (Kent State University, 2010). David has been a Civil War re-enactor for the 12th Massachusetts Infantry. He is a Life Member of the New Hampshire Society of the Cincinnati. He is currently the tribal genealogist for the Massachuset-Punkapoag Indians of Massachusetts. He serves as Vice President and served on the Board of Directors for the Stoughton Historical Society, of which he has been a member since the age of 10. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com

This Thursday on Fieldstone Common we will speak with jeweler and curator Sarah Nehama about In Death Lamented, an exhibit about mourning jewelry. Mourning jewels, tangible expressions of love and sorrow, are the focus of In Death Lamented on view at the Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) through 31 January 2013. The exhibition features more than 80 objects representing some of the best examples of this type of jewelry. The jewelry included in the exhibition illustrates some of the most exemplary types, from early gold bands with death’s head iconography to bejeweled brooches and the intricately woven hairwork pieces of the Civil War era. Displayed within the larger context of the mourning rites that our New England ancestors brought with them, these relics attest to the basic human emotion of grief and the need to remain connected to those gone before. A full-color companion book, In Death Lamented: The Tradition of Anglo-American Mourning Jewelry features photographs and descriptions of all of the Nehama and MHS pieces, along with historical and stylistic backgrounds and essays pertaining to cultural practices around death and mourning in England and America. About the Guest Curator and Author Sarah Nehama is a designer/jeweler who works in precious metals and gemstones. She sells her work through galleries, at juried shows, and to private customers. Sarah has a degree in art history and studied jewelry making in Boston and New York. She is a collector of antique mourning and sentimental jewelry and currently resides in Boston. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com

This Thursday on Fieldstone Common we will speak with author Christian McBurney about The Rhode Island Campaign: The First French and American Operation in the Revolutionary War. On July 29, 1778, a powerful French naval squadron sailed confidently to the entrance of Narragansett Bay. Its appearance commenced the first joint French and American campaign of the Revolutionary War. The new allies’ goal was to capture the British garrison at Newport, Rhode Island. With British resolve reeling from the striking patriot victory at Saratoga the previous autumn, this French and American effort might just end the war. The Rhode Island Campaign: The First French and American Operation of the Revolutionary War unravels one of the most complex and multi-faceted events of the war, one which combined land and sea strategies and featured controversial decisions on both sides. Many prominent patriots participated, including Nathanael Greene, Marquis de Lafayette, John Hancock, and Paul Revere. Relying on in-depth research from American, French, British, and German original sources, author Christian McBurney has written the most authoritative book on this fascinating episode in American history. CHRISTIAN M. McBURNEY, a graduate of Brown University, is a partner in a Washington, DC, law firm. He is the author of several books and articles on early Rhode Island history, including A History of Kingston, Rhode Island, 1700–1900 and British Treatment of Prisoners During the Occupation of Newport, 1776–1779. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com

The Unofficial Family Archivist advocates for the value, recording and care of your family memories. Are you passing on a well-rounded collection of personal papers, photographs and memorabilia or are you passing on bits that leave more questions than answers? Keep and maintain the good stuff that highlights your life story. Get rid of the clutter. Within every home is a treasure trove of information. Unfortunately, many irreplaceable documents that help tell individual stories, and the stories of our communities, are deteriorating among our personal belongings. With that warning in mind, The Unofficial Family Archivist focuses on the care of personal papers, photographs, and memorabilia found in the typical home. Written for individuals who hope to protect family history, this book provides everything an unofficial archivist needs to ensure materials that connect us with our past are available for future generations. Its goal is to help you create and maintain a valuable family and community resource of recorded information about your world from the unique point of view of you and your loved ones. Author Melissa Mannon is an archivist, cultural heritage consultant and author of the ArchivesInfo blog and newsletter. The Unofficial Family Archivist expands the information from her previous publication, Cultural Heritage Collaborators: A Manual for Community Documentation. Melissa's consulting work, projects and workshops encourage cultural heritage organizations to work collaboratively with local governments, businesses, and individuals who keep records in order to identify archives and plan for their care. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com

Louisa May Alcott was one of the most successful and bestselling authors of her day, earning more than any of her male contemporaries. Her classic Little Women has been a mainstay of American literature since its release nearly 150 years ago, as Jo March and her calm, beloved “Marmee” have shaped and inspired generations of young women. Biographers have consistently attributed Louisa’s uncommon success to her father, Bronson Alcott, assuming that this outspoken idealist was the source of his daughter’s progressive thinking and remarkable independence. But in this riveting dual biography, award-winning biographer Eve LaPlante explodes these myths, drawing from a trove of surprising new documents to show that it was Louisa’s actual “Marmee,” Abigail May Alcott, who formed the intellectual and emotional center of her world. Abigail, whose difficult life both inspired and served as a warning to her devoted daughters, pushed Louisa to excel at writing and to chase her unconventional dreams in a male-dominated world. In this groundbreaking work, LaPlante paints an exquisitely moving and utterly convincing portrait of a woman decades ahead of her time, and the fiercely independent daughter whose life was deeply entwined with her mother’s dreams of freedom. This gorgeously written story of two extraordinary women is guaranteed to transform our view of one of America’s most beloved authors. Eve LaPlante is the author of Seized, American Jezebel, and Salem Witch Judge, the winner of the 2008 Massachusetts Book Award for Nonfiction. She is also the editor of a collection of Abigail May Alcott's private papers. She lives with her family in New England. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com

Part forensic scientist, part master sleuth, Megan Smolenyak2 has solved some of America's oldest and most fascinating genealogical mysteries. You've read the headlines; now get the inside story as the "Indiana Jones of genealogy" reveals how she cracked her news-making cases, became the face of this increasingly popular field—and redefined history along the way. Whether she's scouring websites to uncover the surprising connections between famous figures or using cutting-edge DNA tests to locate family members of fallen soldiers dating back to the Civil War, Smolenyak2's historical sleuthing is as provocative, richly layered, and exciting as America itself. Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak (yes, that's her real name) is a genealogical adventurer who loves solving mysteries, making unexpected discoveries and pushing the boundaries of conventional genealogy. A popular writer, speaker and TV guest, Megan has appeared on Good Morning America, the Today Show, among others. In addition to consulting on shows ranging from Who Do You Think You Are? to Top Chef, she is the author of six books and former Chief Family Historian and spokesperson for Ancestry.com. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com Broadcast Time: THURSDAY, 6 December 2012 at 1:00pm EST  

In 1970 Professor Ken Lockridge published a book called A New England Town: The First Hundred Years. This book established an innovative way to examine and interpret developing 17th century New England towns. The book allowed us to look at these early colonists as people rather than simply names and dates. In addition, works published at the same time by his colleagues Demos, Greven and Zuckerman helped set off a new interest in the history of early America. Join Marian Pierre-Louis, host of Fieldstone Common, as she discusses the start of Professor Lockridge's career with A New England Town and then progresses through 40 years of his fascinating historical projects.    For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com LIVE: THURSDAY, 29 November 2012 at 1:00pm EST

Fieldstone Common Host Marian Pierre-Louis will interview Plimoth Plantation culinarian Kathleen Wall about the First Thanksgiving and all the traditions that surround the holiday.  Join us for a fascinating discussion about traditional food, the history of Thanksgiving and the myths that just won't go away. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com   LIVE: THURSDAY, 22 November 2012 at 1:00pm EST

Listen in to Fieldstone Common this week as host Marian Pierre-Louis talks to Heli Meltsner, author of The Poorhouses of Massachusetts. Ever since the English settled in America, extreme poverty and the inability of individuals to support themselves and their families have been persistent problems. In the early nineteenth century, many communities established almshouses, or "poorhouses," in a valiant but ultimately failed attempt to assist the destitute, including the sick, elderly, unemployed, mentally ill and orphaned, as well as unwed mothers, petty criminals and alcoholics. This work details the rise and decline of poorhouses in Massachusetts, painting a portrait of life inside these institutions and revealing a history of constant political and social turmoil over issues that dominate the conversation about welfare recipients even today. The first study to address the role of architecture in shaping as well as reflecting the treatment of paupers, it also provides photographs and histories of dozens of former poorhouses across the state, many of which still stand. Heli Meltsner, the curator of the Cambridge Historical Society, has been a town planner and a preservation consultant, undertaking numerous nominations to the National Register of Historic Places and historic resource inventories for municipalities and state agencies. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.     For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com LIVE: THURSDAY, 15 November 2012 at 1:00pm EST

Listen in to Fieldstone Common this week as host Marian Pierre-Louis talks to Prof. Jennifer L. Anderson, author of Mahogany: The Costs of Luxury in Early America. In the mid-eighteenth century, colonial Americans became enamored with the rich colors and silky surface of mahogany. This exotic wood, imported from the West Indies and Central America, quickly displaced local furniture woods as the height of fashion. Over the next century, consumer demand for mahogany set in motion elaborate schemes to secure the trees and transform their rough-hewn logs into exquisite objects. But beneath the polished gleam of this furniture lies a darker, hidden story of human and environmental exploitation. Mahogany traces the path of this wood through many hands, from source to sale: from the enslaved African woodcutters, including skilled “huntsmen” who located the elusive trees amidst dense rainforest, to the ship captains, merchants, and timber dealers who scrambled after the best logs, to the skilled cabinetmakers who crafted the wood, and with it the tastes and aspirations of their diverse clientele. As the trees became scarce, however, the search for new sources led to expanded slave labor, vicious competition, and intense international conflicts over this diminishing natural resource. When nineteenth-century American furniture makers turned to other materials, surviving mahogany objects were revalued as antiques evocative of the nation’s past. Jennifer Anderson is Assistant Professor of History at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com LIVE: THURSDAY, 8 November 2012 at 1:00pm EST

Listen in to Fieldstone Common this week as host Marian Pierre-Louis talks to Eric Jay Dolin, author of When America First Met China. Brilliantly illuminating one of the least understood areas of American history, bestselling author Eric Jay Dolin now traces our fraught relationship with China back to its roots: the unforgiving nineteenth-century seas that separated a brash, rising naval power from a battered ancient empire. It is a prescient fable for our time, one that surprisingly continues to shed light on our modern relationship with China. Indeed, the furious trade in furs, opium, and bêche-de-mer-a rare sea cucumber delicacy-might have catalyzed America's emerging economy, but it also sparked an ecological and human rights catastrophe of such epic proportions, the reverberations can still be felt today. Peopled with fascinating characters-from the "Financier of the Revolution" Robert Morris to the Chinese emperor Qianlong, who considered foreigners inferior beings-When America First Met China is a page-turning saga that explores a time many years ago when the desire for trade and profit first brought America to China's door. Much of Dolin’s writing reflects his interest in wildlife, the environment, and American history. His books include Fur, Fortune, and  Empire: The EpicHistory of the Fur Trade in America (W. W. Norton), Leviathan: The History of  Whaling in America (W. W. Norton), the Smithsonian Book of National Wildlife Refuges, Snakehead: A Fish Out of Water, and Political Waters, a history of the degradation and cleanup of Boston Harbor.   For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com LIVE: THURSDAY, 1 November 2012 at 1:00pm EST

Listen in to Fieldstone Common this week as host Marian Pierre-Louis talks to Deborah Navas, author of Murdered by His Wife. In March 1778, Joshua Spooner, a wealthy gentleman farmer in Brookfield, Massachusetts, was beaten to death and his body stuffed down a well. Four people were hanged for the crime: two British soldiers, a young Continental soldier, and Spooner's wife, Bathsheba, who was charged with instigating the murder. She was thirty-two years old and five months pregnant when executed. Newspapers described the case as "the most extraordinary crime ever perpetrated in New England." Murdered by His Wife provides a vivid reconstruction of this dramatic but little-known episode. Beautiful, intelligent, high-spirited, and witty, Bathsheba was the mother of three young children and in her own words felt "an utter aversion" for her husband, who was known to be an abusive drunk. The plots, the crime, the trial, and the aftermath are presented against a backdrop of revolutionary turmoil in Massachusetts. As the daughter of the state's most prominent and despised Loyalist, Bathsheba bore the brunt of the political, cultural, and gender prejudices of her day. When she sought a stay of execution to deliver her baby, the Massachusetts Council rejected her petition and she was promptly hanged before a crowd of 5,000 spectators. An independent scholar, Deborah Navas worked as a magazine editor for twenty years. She is author of a short story collection, Things We Lost, Gave Away, Bought High and Sold Low, and won the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award and the New Hampshire Writers Project Emerging Writer Award. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com LIVE: THURSDAY, 25 OCTOBER 2012 at 1:00pm EST

Listen in to Fieldstone Common this week as host Marian Pierre-Louis talks to Richard G. Tomlinson, author of Witchcraft Prosecution: Chasing the Devil in Connecticut. Mercy Disbrow was convicted. A date was set for her hanging. An appeal was made. Then something extraordinary happened. Mercy was granted a reprieve that became a pardon, because of a technical error in the composition of the jury. The court said, "If a real and apparent murderer be condemned and executed outside of due form of law, it is indictable against them that do it." The place was Hartford, Connecticut. The offense was witchcraft. The year was 1693. Connecticut's colonial settlers feared witches. They came from an England where the prosecution of witches was rising to its peak, and they were anxious about the possible threats to their new settlements that witchcraft might represent. This book presents the evolution of witchcraft prosecution in Connecticut from the enactment of the law making it a capital offence in 1642 to its disappearance in the early 1700s. Richard G. Tomlinson, is a founder and director of the Connecticut Society of Genealogists, Inc and currently serves as Chair of the Publication Committee and as vice president. He created the annual CSG Literary Awards for Genealogy and Family History, and the CSG magazine, Connecticut Genealogy News, and has published many genealogical and family history articles. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Connecticut Historical Society. He is a descendant of Henry Tomlinson of Derby, England who settled in Milford, CT in 1650. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com LIVE: THURSDAY, 18 OCTOBER 2012 at 1:00pm EST

Listen in to Fieldstone Common this week as host Marian Pierre-Louis talks to Jonathan Kruk, author of  Legends and Lore of Sleepy Hollow and the Hudson Valley. Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is one of the best-known works of American literature. But what other myths lie hidden behind the landscape of New York's Hudson Valley? Imps cause mischief on the Hudson River; a white lady haunts Raven Rock, Major Andre's ghost seeks redemption and real headless Hessians search for their severed skulls. Storyteller Jonathan Kruk tells these and other tales of the lore of the Hudson Valley--the stories that have created an atmosphere of mystery that helped inspire Irving's legend. Studying English, and educational theater, Kruk earned a B.A. from Holy Cross College, and a M.A. from New York University. He performed Ritual Urban Theater with Gabrielle Roth, and entertained at over 1000 children’s birthday parties. The Freeport Schools on Long Island made him storyteller in residence. Now, he enchants children every year at hundreds of schools, libraries, historic sites and festivals performing finger fables, story theater and New York lore. His book “Legends and Lore of Sleepy Hollow and the Hudson Valley” was published in 2011 by The History Press. He has keynoted for New York State reading teachers, environmental educators, national native plants conference, and the Hudson River Quadricentennial, and American Revolution’s 225th anniversary. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com LIVE: THURSDAY, 11 OCTOBER 2012 at 1:00pm EST

Listen in to Fieldstone Common this week as host Marian Pierre-Louis talks to John Thomas Grant, author of Final Thoughts: Eternal Beauty in Stone. Photographer, Author, John Thomas Grant's conceptualization of Final Thoughts was the consequence  of the unraveling of some old letters, a personal journey in search of his family roots, and the chance meeting with a young man in a small New England town. John interprets and connects with history through the camera lens. He reminds us that the past resides with us, sometimes forgotten and sometimes celebrated. The unique quality of John's photos blends the past and the present together showing they are inseparably entwined. Join us as we talk with John Thomas Grant about his book, his beautiful interpretation through photography and the impact it has had on his life and that of his readers. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com LIVE: THURSDAY, 4 OCTOBER 2012 at 1:00pm EST