Tried and true since 1972 Pennsylvania Pumpkin Cookies

                     Another Halloween and only one Halloween Tradition is left in the Petersen household. Gone by the wayside is carving eight or nine pumpkins into the many faces of jack-0 lanterns to make a Pumpkin Totem Pole. 
     Baking Pennsylvania Pumpkin Cookies I still do; a recipe given to me by a neighbor when we lived in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania a borough of Pittsburgh.  Since 1972 I have baked these cookies only at Halloween time.  I give them to my neighbors (instead of cookies at Christmas; they love it.) and the last few years I bake about 175 cookies for the high school students of daughter Nicole who teaches English at Southridge in Kennewick.  (They love them too.)
     Last week I tried doing something different with the recipe by adding more spices other than cinnamon like cloves, nutmeg and ginger.  I got this idea from a recipe I saw on Pinterest.  Not a good Idea. Yesterday, I spent the day baking and frosting over two hundred cookies using the tried and true original recipe.   This is the best recipe ever.  

Happy Halloween!        Renée

More information of families left behind.

        Mary and Frances Amelia's parents were James Fletcher and Julia Lightfoot.  James was born on 16 Feb 1807.  

Birthday for James I found using FamilySearch.org  on a Christening record that records his birth date and christening date which you don't always find both dates on such a record. Always happy when this happens.   His christening occurred at Saint Peter Church in Liverpool, England on the

 5 April 1807.  

     Julia's  birth date is not exactly known.  It was just in the last year that I found her maiden name of Lightfoot.  Yeah!  

I have found a christening record for a Julia Lightfoot for the date 1 Feb 1801 and listed only one parent, William Lightfoot.  If this is her, she would have been twenty five when she married James who is nineteen.  

Below is James and Julia's record of marriage.  

 This record is from the Church of St. Anne, in the Parish of Liverpool and County of Lancaster in the year 1826 reads like this:

James Fletcher of this Parish, Painter and Julia Lightfoot of this Parish, Spinster were married in this Church by Banns with consent of _______(blank)________________ this twenty ninth day of

June  in the year of One Thousand eight hundred and twenty six 

by me Wm. Blundell Minst. 

This Marriage was solemnized between us James Fletcher Julia Lightfoot

in the Presence of  Charles Fletcher, Lydia Saulby. 

It's always a thrill to see signatures of my very own 

Great Great Great Grandparents. 

Both can write their names which means they were educated. 

It is hard to make out the J in  Julia.  To me it looks like maybe the pen skipped or it didn't copy well.  I see the same Minister that married James and Julia married James's parents Samuel and Ann Fletcher who are (I'm guessing) dead by 1826.

The witnesses Charles Fletcher I do not have information if he is a brother to James or an Uncle and Lydia I have no clue who she is. 

I'm quite sure Julia dies before 1841; I have found an indexed record in the year 1840 for a Julia Fletcher in Liverpool. I  would need to send for the original record to know for sure.  It should list her husband's name and occupation.  

In the 1841 English Census I found James Fletcher (Indexed as a Janet Fletcher)

a painter, with daughter Mary age nine living in Liverpool.  They are living  with another family named Scholey.     I beleive Frances Amelia who is about thirteen is working as a servant in another household. 

When Mary and Frances Amelia leave for America in 1852 it's a possibility their father James is still living.     

Next post:  Thomas and John's families who were left behind in England. 

Renée

The families left behind in England

     Before taking the Hepworth/Fletcher families across the plains towards the Great Salt Lake Territory I decided to do more research in England on their families.    

Marriage record for Samuel Fletcher and Anne Jackson
19 Apr 1804  St. Annes, Liverpool, Lancashire, England

       In my search I  was very pleased to find a marriage record of Mary's and Francis Amelia's paternal grandparents! My fourth great-grandparents. 
     This is the year of 1804.  And, this is the  actual digital image out of the Liverpool, Lancashire, England record book of marriages posted on Ancestry.com. Couples were usually married in the bride's parish and in the case it is the parish of Richmond St. Anne.
     It reads like this;
Samuel Fletcher of the parish of Liverpool, Cabinet Maker and Anne Jackson of the same parish, Widow, married in this Church by Licence this Nineteenth Day of April in the year One Thousand Eight Hundred and four by me Wm Blundell Minst. 
     This marriage was solemnized between us,
                                                                             Samuel Fletcher
                                                    the mark x of Anne Jackson
       In the Presence of Tho' Holden

   Notice the signature of 'Samuel Fletcher;" beautiful and notes that he is educated where Anne cannot write and more than likely cannot read.  

     Sam is a cabinet maker which is very important in research; there are lots of Samuel Fletcher's but, maybe only one that is a cabinet maker which would be 'my guy.'  Anne is recorded as a widow which makes me wonder; is her maiden name 'Jackson' or is this her last marriage name?

(I'm thinking it is her maiden name, yet to be proven)

     Sadly, I cannot find them in the 1841 England Census.  I even sent this information to my friend Tony in England.  Tony knows his stuff in genealogy research and he could not find them in the 1841 Census either.    It's most likely neither are alive in 1841.  Guessing they were in their  twenties or older when they married they would be in their  fifties or early sixties in 1841 when life expectancy was only in peoples early forties. 

                            

      RENEE