Category Archives: Sandford

On August 6, 1866, the General Sherman, an armored and armed side-wheel steamer schooner left Cheefoo, China on a trading mission to Korea, carrying a cargo of cotton, tin and glass. The ship sailed under the United States flag although the venture was undertaken by a British company, Meadows and Co, based in China, andContinue reading “The General Sherman Incident”

The close of 1864 found Edward T. Sandford in Waterville, Maine, about 40 miles north of his home town of Topsham, serving as a Provost Marshall, tending to local military matters and recovering from being wounded in Virginia. The war was coming to an end, and President Lincoln was looking ahead to rebuilding the country.Continue reading “Edward Sandford returns to China”

After publishing the previous entry on this subject, I rediscovered an item that Claire and I found last summer in the Ontario Model Colony History Room, a page of handwritten notes which it appears to be notes taken by grandfather Joe for one of the speeches he liked to give about his father. A notationContinue reading “New Discoveries on Edward Thomas Sandford and the Civil War”

Great grandfather Edward Thomas Sandford was 20 years old, at sea near China, when the Civil War broke out.  We continue to follow his story as told by his son, our grandfather Joe Sandford, in his 1966 talk to the First Baptist Church of Corona, CA, where Edward would later preach. His Uncle Thomas SandfordContinue reading “Edward Thomas Sandford’s Civil War Odyssey”

Recall that we have two genealogies describing the Sandford family history.  Robert Sandford and His Wife Ann Adams Sandford with Some of Their Descendants, 1615-1930, written by Josephine Sandford Ware is the one known by our branch of the family since its 1930 publication.  The Sandford/Sanford Families of Long Island, Their Ancestors and Descendants byContinue reading “The Lacuna”

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?”