How I Got Started
or
How I Know What I Know

I've always had an interest in history, especially about the small town of Hopedale, Massachusetts where I grew up. One day I found an old book that chronicled that history. In the back of the book was a small genealogy of some of the founding citizens. One of those people turned out to be my great great grandfather. The book mentioned that he had come from Berwick, Maine and had arrived in Hopedale in 1865. It also listed his parents, his wife and her parents, and his children, listing dates of birth where known. I filed that tidbit of information away thinking that someday I'd do some digging and find some more data on my ancestors.

In late 1990 or early 1991, I obtained the names and address of several other Dennetts. I put together what very little I knew about my ancestors and wrote a letter to these other Dennetts asking if they were interested in tracing the name and if they were willing to share any information about themselves or their ancestors. It turned out I hit the proverbial gold mine. One person I wrote to, a Joey Dennett in Colorado, gave the letter to his grandfather, Stewart Dennett in Utah. Stewart is Mormon and he had a great deal of information on his ancestors back to two brothers, Alexander and John Dennett, who had arrived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in the mid 1600's. Since this line of Dennetts had spread out into the coastal New Hampshire/southern Maine area and since my great great grandfather had come from the same area, I have assumed all along that I just need to find that missing link.

The other area I've become interested in is my Whitney line. My mother's maiden name is Whitney and I can go back to my gr-gr-gr-grandfather Whitney. I also have a book on "The Descendants of John Whitney, who came from England to Watertown, Massachusetts in 1635" by Frederick C. Pierce and published in 1895. I have not found any of my Whitney's in the book, yet, and in fact I may not be descended from that line.

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Contents Copyright © by Charles R. Dennett.

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