Author Topic: Discovering the "Mary" Spoon  (Read 3123 times)

talesofthesevenseas

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Discovering the "Mary" Spoon
« on: June 06, 2013, 05:37:47 pm »
As you folks all know, I've spent the last couple of years deeply involved in researching the Jenny Lind Disaster of 1853 which killed my great-great-great-grandfather John Bradbury and left my grandmother Mary a widow with a newborn daughter. I've long lamented the fact that we seemed to have no personal possessions that belonged to John and Mary. The photo we have of them is a late 19th century copy of the original (whereabouts unknown). The family bible I retrieved from Illinois was John's brother's and Although it surely would have passed through Mary's hands, it never belonged to her.

Well, a few days ago, my mother asked me to look though an unsorted box of silver pieces that had come from my grandfather's estate. We were going through them, making notes and talking when I picked up a silver spoon, and my jaw dropped. It was inscribed "Mary". There has only been one Mary in our family, Mary Bolles Bradbury. Researching the hallmarks gave me the confirmation I hoped for. It was inscribed with the hallmark of an early 19th century silversmith working in New York, where Mary and John were both born and lived. It was marked "pure coin" a term used to describe silver pieces that had been made by melting down from actual coins, a practice common the US prior to 1860. This all fit perfectly with Mary's geographic location and her lifespan from 1823-1860.

Never give up hope!



John and Mary in 1849

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frogpatch

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Re: Discovering the "Mary" Spoon
« Reply #1 on: June 06, 2013, 05:46:13 pm »
Congratulations Tales. That is awesome. The shape of the spoons bowl dates it also.
I have a spoon that is almost identical in form including the shape of the handle that is dated 1860.
« Last Edit: June 06, 2013, 05:55:26 pm by frogpatch »

talesofthesevenseas

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Re: Discovering the "Mary" Spoon
« Reply #2 on: June 06, 2013, 06:22:14 pm »
Thanks Frogpatch, yeah the bowl is definitely a little different than later spoons, with more of a point on tip on the bowl.
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KC

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Re: Discovering the "Mary" Spoon
« Reply #3 on: June 06, 2013, 06:25:24 pm »
What a wonderful find Talesof!!!!!

I have quite a few pieces as well...and they did make the teaspoons much more pointed!  They were multifuntional...be cause sugar used to be in lumps and it was used to break it up!

Soooooooo happy for you with another wonderful discovery!!!
I'm from the South - but please don't mistake my Southern Manners/Accent/Charm as a weakness!

sugarcube5419

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Re: Discovering the "Mary" Spoon
« Reply #4 on: June 06, 2013, 07:48:46 pm »
Tales--have you ever seen that show 'long island medium"--if you were ever read by her I can't imagine how many of your relatives would be talking to you at the same time........

greenacres

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Re: Discovering the "Mary" Spoon
« Reply #5 on: June 06, 2013, 08:28:11 pm »
That is fantastic! I love the photo and the spoon with her name is such a personal piece. I'm very happy for you. I know how much this must mean to you. We see how hard you've worked.
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mart

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Re: Discovering the "Mary" Spoon
« Reply #6 on: June 06, 2013, 08:41:31 pm »
I agree !!  And to think that you had it all the time,,just waiting for you to find it !!

talesofthesevenseas

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Re: Discovering the "Mary" Spoon
« Reply #7 on: June 06, 2013, 11:48:46 pm »
It is hard not to wonder what they would say if a medium could get a message trough! Even without a medium, I feel like I've gotten to know them. I think that is the real beauty of genealogy. It reaches beyond death and gives you a sense of who they were during their lives and enables you to love an ancestor that otherwise you could never have known. I have done so much on all the Jenny Lind stuff that I have seen John in a couple of dreams and that was really cool. In one, I told him I was his granddaughter and he threw his arms around me and hugged me. Maybe I don't need a medium? LOL!

It was my mom who had the box of unsorted silver. I don't think anyone quite put together who "Mary" was on the spoon, since it was in this box of odd and ends. I knew who it was the minute I saw it and I was totally floored. I still can't quite believe it.
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sapphire

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Re: Discovering the "Mary" Spoon
« Reply #8 on: June 07, 2013, 06:52:24 am »
Tales, that gave me chills! (the good kind) It could only be you who would zero in on the significance of such a common name and thank heaven it was you who did the sorting! It would have been horrible to think of those being sorted by someone else or worse yet just passed along and such a cherished and rare treasure overlooked. 

sugarcube5419

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Re: Discovering the "Mary" Spoon
« Reply #9 on: June 07, 2013, 07:51:54 am »
Tales--just so intriguing and rings so true.  Very cool dream--or was it just a dream?! 

Here's a question for you--how common was it to put your own name on your silverware/--imagine john had one of his own?  On just the spoon?  A gift?  One for each other?

KC

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Re: Discovering the "Mary" Spoon
« Reply #10 on: June 07, 2013, 08:24:59 am »
sugarcube5419...it was most often given by a loved one as a gift!!!  Very common and special to the ladies in 1700's and 1800's.  Remember during the WWI it was powder compacts and silks from the hubbies/honeys/etc!
I'm from the South - but please don't mistake my Southern Manners/Accent/Charm as a weakness!

talesofthesevenseas

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Re: Discovering the "Mary" Spoon
« Reply #11 on: June 07, 2013, 08:31:16 am »
Adding to KC's comment- Silver has the unique property of not harboring bacteria and a lot of baby things were made from it. In our family the spoons support this, they are almost all maiden name initials of the women. It also is a continuing tradition to give a silver spoon to a new baby. When my son was born my grandmother took a gold-dipped demitasse spoon from her wedding silver and gave it to me for his baby spoon. My silver piece was a porringer given to me by my great-grandmother when I was born in 1962. It's an old tradition.

Most likely this was Mary's baby spoon. It could have been from a different occasion, but odds are it was a baby gift which would date it to the early 1820s. That is neat because it would have been there throughout her life and her courtship and marriage to John.

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talesofthesevenseas

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Re: Discovering the "Mary" Spoon
« Reply #12 on: June 07, 2013, 10:59:12 am »
I'm going to ask my family to check the silver they have for John's initials. If he has a spoon, I would love to find it. This also got me thinking that the new babies in the family probably were not given spoons after my grandmother passed away. I think I will give each one an unmarked piece of family silver that their mother's can take and have engraved. This has been a good reminder of what an important genealogical record these old spoons are, and this is a tradition we should not let go of.
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sugarcube5419

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Re: Discovering the "Mary" Spoon
« Reply #13 on: June 07, 2013, 12:26:56 pm »
you are guided from beyond I am convinced.

Thanks for taking the time to explain, it was most interesting.  And might I say, the couple in the pic are quite attractive.