Genealogy
Griswold Ancestry:
102 years after Jens Winsnes(s)
(click above)
"Family Photo"
Over the past 20 years, I have been tracing my lineage back to Norway on my paternal side, and on my mothers side, to Wales, and to the earliest settlers of America in the 1600's.
I was stuck at my 3rd great grandparents on my maternal Shaw lineage until Roberta Heorman found my posting on the Internet and graciously provided the rest of the genealogy to the family! Following the Shaw genealogy back 2 more generations found Joseph Shaw, a Revolutionary War Veteran!
That led to the quest to obtain proof documents for each generation back to Joseph and to my submittal of an application to join the Sons of the American Revolution based on those proof documents. The application was submitted in April 2007, and approved May 10, 2007 and I have been presented a certificate with member number 169357. Any relatives wishing to apply for SAR or DAR membership only have to prove their lineage back to a person defined in my application.
Joseph Shaw was the father of John Shaw who was among the earliest of settlers in Benson Vermont. Joseph was in the 1790 census at the home of his son John in Benson but no record after that date has been located defining his date of death or place of death. John began burying family members on his property at the base of Shaw Mountain and just a few months before his own death in 1810, he deeded the cemetery to the town of Benson. Later, evidently after the Shaw families were no longer living there, the cemetery was used by people of the Mormon faith and became known as Temple Cemetery. It has been long abandoned.
We found the cemetery in the mid 1990's and placed a sign at the cemetery telling of it's history.
On June 19th, 2007, we placed in the cemetery, directly behind the headstones of John and Kezia Shaw, a memorial headstone for Joseph. The stone was placed by Jim Winsness, his daughter Amy Winsness Droste, and grandsons Benjamin and Lucas Droste. Photos of the activity of the 19th are in a slideshow link at the top of this page.
The cemetery is across a field from an abandoned road and we could only get within 1/4 mile of the cemetery with great difficulty in the van. Amy and Jim pulled a dolly with the headstone down the final 1/4 mile of road, through the woods, across a field, and through the cemetery. All 4 were involved in deciding where to place the stone, and the actual placement. Ben and Lucas brought with them their Boy Scout Uniforms for the photo opportunity.
It was wonderful having 3 generations involved. To Ben and Lucas, Joseph is their 7th great grandfather!
Jim
6/19/2007
PS - below ground level, on the front, all of us signed our names!