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Sunday, June 24, 2012

Saltonstall Roots in Salem Massachusetts


 Today we took a road trip to Salem Massachusetts to find the grave of Nora Saltonstall. A large number of Patrick's ancestors are buried in Harmony Grove, including his great uncles and great aunts. Nora Saltonstall lived in the early 1900's, and was an ambulance driver in world war I. She died in California of typhoid fever when she was in her early 30's. Today we found her grave in Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem Massachusetts.

Finding her grave was a bit of an adventure. The cemetery did not have a map of where various families were buried, so we looked on line for where the grave of Leverett Saltonstall was a relative of hers.  Using google in the cemetery,  we found a picture of a LARGE celtic cross, which was over Leverett Saltonstalls grave.  It took an hour of walking through the large cemetery, looking for this distinct, large celtic cross.
And Patrick finally found it.  We were ESTATIC!

Next to the cross was a myriad of Saltonstall graves. And they were so beautifully maintained with geraniums planted in front of them, and American Flags next to several of them.


 Nora noticed right away that Nora Saltonstall's grave read "Eleanor" Saltonstall, instead of Nora Saltonstall. We explained to her how Nora was a shorter version of her formal name, Eleanor.


 Here Patrick sits next to his great grandparents graves, Richard Middlecott Saltonstall and Eleanor Saltonstall.

The cemetery was beautiful and it was something else looking for the graves amongst acres of plots. Patrick and I were both a bit teary eyed upon arrival of finally finding the plots of his ancestors.



After finding the graves, we ventured to the town of Salem for lunch at a great organic eatery. Leona posed in front of the sign for "Kombucha on tap". Seeing Kombucha on tap was fun, as Leona knows how to make home-made Kombucha! 
We then went to the Peabody museum and walked through the town of Salem. I had my first Tarot Card reading, which was a fabulous experience. Really enjoyed the lady who read my cards.  She told me all about what to expect with work, finances, kids, marriage, etc. 



 When we returned to back to Sherborn, Mass, Patrick and Leona went to Whole foods to buy some food for dinner. They have a great meat rating system to indicate how well the various animals were treated before their demise. We had good discussions about where Elk hunting would fit into their system...  We decided it is probably a 5+ or even off the charts...


At Whole Foods there was also a car charging station....SO Wellesley, Mass!!  Its for charging up your electric car.  
We pulled into the parking in our Expedition rental car. For a minute I was worried we would find a "large car" surcharge on our food bill, or worse yet, be boycotted from the establishment all together for driving such an environmentally unfriendly beast. 

Zoya


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