Author Archives: jimsandford

For ninety years, the primary record of the genealogy of our branch of the Sandford family has been the book Robert Sandford and His Wife Ann Adams Sandford with Some of Their Descendants, 1615-1930, written by Josephine Sandford Ware.  This 85 page account has been floating around our family since its 1930 publication.  It canContinue reading “The Sandford Family Genealogy, written by Josephine Sandford Ware”

Third great grandfather Thomas Gelston Sandford was born in Portland, Maine in 1781, the middle of seven children of Thomas and Jerusha Gelston Sandford.  He was married at age 32 to Maria Halsey Head from Warren, Maine.  The 1783 marriage notice cites Thomas Gelston as a resident of Topsham (the ‘h’ is silent), so heContinue reading “The Topsham Generations”

After Long Island and before Vermont and California, four generations of Sandford ancestors lived in Maine between 1768 and the 1860s, first in Portland, Maine (originally known as “Falmouth” or “Falmouth in Casco Bay” to distinguish it from Falmouth, Massachusetts on Cape Cod), later in Topsham (the ‘h’ is silent) thirty miles to the north. Continue reading “The Sandford Family in Portland”

Sometimes the answer is right in front of your nose. The tree from the 2002 family reunion says “Edward”. If there was a more familiar form, like “Ed”, it would surely be there next to “Annie”. So “E.T.” for formal situations, “Edward” for informal.

There are big mysteries in genealogical research and there are small ones.  Great grandfather Edward Thomas Sandford lived a life spanning 82 years and a half dozen major chapters, any one of which would rank at the “good as it gets” level for rating of family stories.  It would take years of research to getContinue reading “How Should We Refer to E.T. Sandford?”