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Ancestors and Descendants of Watson T. Fisher and Barbara A Fisher of Massachusetts
Introduction:
This research so far has been done by John R. Fisher, son of Watson Thomas(Doc)Fisher and Barbara Ann Fisher (Pierce). As with all genealogy it is a work in progress and I am actively researching and updating this site. I am always looking to share what I have with others and help where I can. In my short time doing this I've been amazed at the help I've received thru the Ancestry.com forums from complete strangers and will always help anyone wherever I can. Much of what you see here is built upon the work of others and I will try to acknowledge such where ever possible.
My goal here is of course to document our families history but to also give my other family members, nieces and nephews and any other relations, no matter how distant, a solid foundation to carry our history forward to the next generations. In the future I plan to ad info for the Rizzo and Bard families (my sister's husband family names) to help complete this work for their children. We can only all thank Al Gore for inventing the internet and making this so much more easy for us:)
As I build this site I will do all I can to also provide links to my sources and sites I have found useful to help others with their research.
Family Tree Maker 2008!
Well thought I'd share a little IMHO with anyone thinking about using or upgrading to this program. I have been using FTM2005 and while I always thought it was a bit "clunky" and the user interface could be better it was and is a reliable program that worked and one that I was not afraid to spend weeks and months entering data into. First FTM2008 is not an upgrade as they have promoted. Its a brand spanking new piece of software. It does not add onto or change your old FTM2005 (which turns out to be a very good thing). You can run both separately. That said, I really like the look and layout of it. It gives you resizable windows that allow you to customize what you have on the screen. I find it easier to use and keep track of things in the program and in my head. The problem is what it doesn't have and the bugs. This sucker is buggier than a legless cat trapped in a flea farm. I spent almost 12 nights trying it out and each night was a trip to the forums to see if anyone else was having the same bugs. Second, it has NO book publishing capability and limited tree publishing and for that they want you to go to their new web site and publish it there. After an outcry they are going to put all that back into the program but from what I read that won't be until next summer (2008). So.....I'm not sending it back for a refund as they won't reimburse for shipping both ways and I imagine they'll get it right but I refuse to help them debug something I paid for. I also have ZERO confidence that if I spend months entering data into it that its going to be of any use to me due to all the bugs I know about and more frightening the ones I do not know about. I'm back to FTM2005 and will be there until I read on the forums that others have spent 6 months testing this software for Ancestry. Its funny reading the forums on Ancestry.com about this. There are the cheerleaders that to me have to be employees because no one can be that blind:), there are the people who act like they just shot their puppy and then there's the "but its software, all software has bugs" crowd. The problem with the latter is that software companies, like network TV, have systematically lowered our standards to the point that we think poop tastes like a Taco!
Warning Will Robinson!
Ok here's the deal. Genealogy should always be error free. In reality its not. I strive to be accurate and to document everything from multiple and reliable sources. Still, I'm sure I've made some mistakes! Probably some whoppers! But...I am committed to documenting and proving everything I can so if you find an error please share it with me. If there are no references for people you find on this site I've grabbed them from Rootsweb, One World Tree or some other source that did not provide its reference sources and they may be right or they may be fiction. I'm working on documenting everything so again check back. If you have stuff to share let me know. I'm learning from the fine Genealogy community that some people are very protective of their research and accept that (but wish they'd GET OVER IT) but I'm not. I could care less if you grabbed all this stuff and did not give me credit. Not a biggie for me. I'd in fact get a kick out of seeing my work used again and again. Cripes I hope I get it right though:)
Of interest in general about our history so far
What has surprised me most is that I have not found a single "Fisherman" yet on my Fisher side. Oh, many of us, me and my dad and his brothers are/were avid sport fishermen, but none of our ancestors were fishermen by trade so far. On my mother's Pierce side I've found many fishermen living in Gloucester MA, Southport ME and Nova Scotia. So far I have found 3 Gloucester fishermen I am descended from that were lost along with their boats at sea.
I've been finding more and more Mayflower ancestors so I've added a button for them and will put more on as I find them.
The other interesting character I need to do some more work on is Julius Johanne Spect who was a German mercenary brought to Canada by the English to fight, was captured and kept someplace in New Hampshire before finally being released and moving to Nova Scotia where there is a cove named after him. See the Ancestors of Note section on the right .
Why do this?
Well my standard smart ars answer would be "Why not!" But really, because its knowledge and knowledge is never wasted. Its interesting and fascinating. I think for me its also great brain food! Its a detective story and search, with frustrations, excitement and triumph. Its something we can leave for our relatives and descendants to continue and grow. Its like that old question: "If you could have dinner with 3 people from the past who would it be?" except I suspect for us Genealogy types it won't be Charles Darwin or Jesus.
What this is for me is that I get to have that cup of coffee with my great-great-great-great-great Grandmother and get a tiny glimpse into her life. I get to tip back a mug of ale with my GGGmany Grandfather Hugh Parkhurst of Gloucester before he lost his ship and his life plying his fishing trade. I get to meet Albion Pierce and see what his fish processing business was like in Gloucester. I get to speak with David and Cornelius Fish and ask them why the hell they kept changing their name from Fisher to Fish! I get to peek into the Pilgrims lives and see if that stupid little rock in Plymouth really has any historical significance or is it just like fortune cookies and truly an American invention (yes sorry to burst that bubble folks- there are no fortune cookies in China either:) I'd like to have a chance to smack, right in his fat nose, Gov. Winthrop for being a intolerant, religious zealot who took the original ideals of religious tolerance and did nothing more than make the colonies into a preview of the Taliban. I'd like to give a high five to William Vassall for standing up to whacko's like Winthrop and others before finally giving them the finger and moving to Barbados (I imagine him slurping down Rum and Cokes and laughing his butt off in the middle of February and thinking about the whacko's back in Mass freezing their butts off!Well - Bottoms Up!
