Since I have a great time digging for history around the shore, I’ve set up a number of blogs that allow me to share some of the material I’m working on around the Peninsula. This page will help readers navigate around the history related blogs I’ve set up. Also below a listing of my blogs, you will find research links that I have found interesting and helpful.
- Mike’s History Blog — I reflect on my work as a historian, on this weblog.
- Reflections on Delmarva’s Past — On this weblog you will find articles on the history of the Peninsula, both old and modern, and the personal stories of its people, first and secondhand. Installments may include pieces on folkways, places, events, the built environment, people and about any aspect of our past that catches my attention.issues.
- Old Delmarva Photos Weblog – If you’re Interested in old photos from around the Delmarva Peninsula, check out this site. We’ll try to post fascinating old picture each week on this photo blog.
- Singerly Fire Company Museum Blog — This is a public history project I am working on with a fire department museum. The blog focuses on the history and traditions of the public safety agency.
Research Links
GenDiaster – A web site listing diasters from the past.
I am researching my mother’s family. They lived in Cecil County in Elkton. My mother’s cousin married Edgar Startt. I have an old photo of him as sherrif of Elkton in 1956. Can anyone give me more info on him? Thank you.
I know Edgar Startt’s nephew, Al Startt who lives in Elkton. His health isn’t good now but his daughter, Adelaide will help you with information. Hope this will help, Carol Hash
Thanks Carol. I’ll give him a call.
Searching for Jeff Ile, who married Pearl Ewing. Lived in Cecil County back in the 20’s. Thanks. pointlomalight@yahoo.com
Gary, I’ll keep an eye out of anything I might run across.
Hi I,m looking for Abram Allen Chambers who was in Cecil County in 1847 GGfather his wjfe is Sarah Brown.Thank You
Hi its me do someone known of a Herbert C Hawley who had a hired hand in 1920 name is Allen Chambers he was living with them I think in Calvert Cecil? I hope you can get back to me.
Off-topic and personal-to-Mike-Dixon, re the Frenchtown Maryland of the late 18th and early 19th centuries:
Dear Mike:
It is my understanding that there is more than one Cecil County Historian with your name, so please forgive my confusion as I ask the following:
Are you the Mike Dixon scheduled to speak at the New Castle Courthouse Museum during the weekend of September 18-20, 2021, or are you the Mike Dixon whom I met at the Cecil County Fair the Friday it opened,? The latter told me “Yes, I’m seriously into history, but I’m not that Mike Dixon”?
I ask, because, even though I must put my house on the market after 20 years in Cecil County, and move an hour or so North, I still plan to hang onto a project regarding Cecil County.
After growing up and living in Baltimore County for 49 years, I learned much more about U.S. history since moving to Cecil County – things not covered in Baltimore County schools.
It’s my hope to one day write a screen play worthy of PBS’s “Masterpiece Theater,” and I believe in my heart that Cecil County’s erstwhile Frenchtown is the perfect topic. So of course, I have joined the Cecil County Historical Society and the Eastern Shore Writer’s Association.
But also to this end, I am hoping someone might introduce my to whoever owns the property at the end of Frenchtown Road off Augustine Herman Highway, (which, based on map coordinates given by Wikipedia causes me to assume is the site of the former Frenchtown.) This property is VERY clearly marked “No trespassing” and warns of surveillance cameras.
I fear it might be rude to go ahead and drive down that overgrown driveway, hoping to explain my purpose and be forgiven when I arrive. It might also be downright unwise for reasons of personal and legal safety.
The gentleman I met at the fair is a professional exterminator who assured me he knows the owner of the property at the end of Frenchtown Road and said he was willing to help with introduction. But, I cannot remember if I gave him my contact information. I know I do not have his.
Also, Cindy Snyder, who runs the New Castle Courthouse Museum has promised me an introduction to the Mike Dixon who will be speaking there.
My hope is to view a family cemetery at the Frenchtown site, said to hold the remains of a fellow by the last name of Henderson and his mother, and the area where Admiral Cockburn is said to have burned vessels beside Frenchtown’s Wharf.
I’m thinking it was your article mentioning these things, and pointing out how Frenchtown was peopled with expelled Arcadians, that was handed to me by someone at the historical society.
I hope we will have the chance to meet or speak one day soon. Do you ever visit the historical society itself any more?
My email inbox is overflowing with mortgage offers these days, but I will keep an eye on it, hoping you may have seen this and found a moment to reply, despite what I’m told is an exhausting schedule.
Sincerely,
Dorothy Hamilton Sherman, currently still in Elkton, 09/03/2021
Dorothy I was speaking at the Court House museum. There are a couple of articles here on the blog about Frenchtown, and perhaps those are the items you are recalling. Just search Frenchtown on the search box on the home page and they’ll come up. Thanks for your interest in local history.
I had no idea the spacing in the previous would be eliminated. Under those circumstances, please excuse its length.