Governors Island Cemeteries

BroadHopper · 08-12-2009, 10:51 PM

My mother's best friend is a descendant of Nathaniel Davis, who at one time owned all of Governors Island. She is seeking help in establishing her family tree.
We found the Davis Cemetery. It only has Nathaniel Davis' stone, his two wives and daughter. We believe there is a Nathaniel Davis II and a Nathaniel Davis III buried on the island. Does anyone knows of another cemetery on the island? Where are the other Davis family members buried?

Any help is appreciated.

An interesting tidbit is that there is a record at the Gilford Public library that the Davis family sold the entire island in the 1800's for $400!

trfour · 08-12-2009, 11:28 PM

Try Ancestry.com
Hope this helps, it is a great website!

fmgate · 08-13-2009, 06:29 AM

Check with the Thompson-Ames Historical Society in Gilford. Originally, cemetery surveys in Gilford were conducted in 1950 and 1978. I believe the Gilford library has a copy of these surveys. But most recently, a project in 2005 was conducted by an Eagle Scout candidate combining those two surveys with additional new data, such as a site plan for each cemetery, row numbers, photos of graves, etc.

WinnDixie · 08-13-2009, 12:14 PM

Broadhopper, we were just up there the last two weeks. My husband's three-greats grandfather was John Page Davis, a Civil War Veteran. My husband and his cousin had a Veterans marker installed for him. There is an article about this in the Oct. 31, 2008 Laconia Daily Sun. My husband and I have now also had markers installed for his second wife, his son and son's wife. They were in unmarked graves in plot # 641 at Union Cemetery in Laconia. While there we were able to find John Page's father's plot (#590)--not far from #641. The workers there can guide you to these locations. They were VERY helpful to us. The father, Josiah M.'s plot does have stones, for himself, his wife, Mehitable, and two of his sons, Edward and Frank. He also did have other sons besides John, and one was Nathaniel. The Union Cemetery Secretary, Mrs. Perley, can get you a printout of names you want. If you have not done this already, Stearn's Genealogy of NH, Vol One, starting page 214, has the whole genealogy of this family. Eleazor, father of the Governor's Island Nathanial, is buried on New Durham Ridge, but we did not get there, so not really sure where. We spent some time looking for the graves of John Page Davis' mother-in-law, Sally Maloon, and her daughter, Mary--John P's first wife and mother of his children. She died in 1876. We had no luck...these two don't seem to be at Union Cemetery. Thanks very much to fmgate for the info about the Historical Society and the Gilford library. We will write to them and see if Sally and Mary turn up in their records. If these two names should cross your path at all, we'd love the information.

08-12-2009, 10:51 PM	#1
BroadHopper Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Laconia NH Posts: 5,592 Thanks: 3,232 Thanked 1,109 Times in 798 Posts	Governors Island Cemeteries My mother's best friend is a descendant of Nathaniel Davis, who at one time owned all of Governors Island. She is seeking help in establishing her family tree. We found the Davis Cemetery. It only has Nathaniel Davis' stone, his two wives and daughter. We believe there is a Nathaniel Davis II and a Nathaniel Davis III buried on the island. Does anyone knows of another cemetery on the island? Where are the other Davis family members buried? Any help is appreciated. An interesting tidbit is that there is a record at the Gilford Public library that the Davis family sold the entire island in the 1800's for $400! __________________ Someday may never be an actual day.

08-12-2009, 11:28 PM	#2
trfour Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: The Lakes, Central NH. and Dallas/Fort Worth TX. Posts: 3,694 Blog Entries: 3 Thanks: 3,069 Thanked 472 Times in 236 Posts	Try Ancestry.com Hope this helps, it is a great website! __________________ *trfour* Always Remember, The Best Safety Device In The Boat, or on a PWC Snowmobile etc., Is YOU! Safe sledding tips and much more; http://www.snowmobile.org/snowmobiling-safety.html

08-13-2009, 12:14 PM	#4
WinnDixie Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Huntsville, AL Posts: 239 Thanks: 44 Thanked 75 Times in 17 Posts	Also descendants Broadhopper, we were just up there the last two weeks. My husband's three-greats grandfather was John Page Davis, a Civil War Veteran. My husband and his cousin had a Veterans marker installed for him. There is an article about this in the Oct. 31, 2008 Laconia Daily Sun. My husband and I have now also had markers installed for his second wife, his son and son's wife. They were in unmarked graves in plot # 641 at Union Cemetery in Laconia. While there we were able to find John Page's father's plot (#590)--not far from #641. The workers there can guide you to these locations. They were VERY helpful to us. The father, Josiah M.'s plot does have stones, for himself, his wife, Mehitable, and two of his sons, Edward and Frank. He also did have other sons besides John, and one was Nathaniel. The Union Cemetery Secretary, Mrs. Perley, can get you a printout of names you want. If you have not done this already, Stearn's Genealogy of NH, Vol One, starting page 214, has the whole genealogy of this family. Eleazor, father of the Governor's Island Nathanial, is buried on New Durham Ridge, but we did not get there, so not really sure where. We spent some time looking for the graves of John Page Davis' mother-in-law, Sally Maloon, and her daughter, Mary--John P's first wife and mother of his children. She died in 1876. We had no luck...these two don't seem to be at Union Cemetery. Thanks very much to fmgate for the info about the Historical Society and the Gilford library. We will write to them and see if Sally and Mary turn up in their records. If these two names should cross your path at all, we'd love the information.

08-13-2009, 06:29 AM	#3
fmgate Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Gilford, NH Posts: 43 Thanks: 10 Thanked 10 Times in 4 Posts	Check with the Thompson-Ames Historical Society in Gilford. Originally, cemetery surveys in Gilford were conducted in 1950 and 1978. I believe the Gilford library has a copy of these surveys. But most recently, a project in 2005 was conducted by an Eagle Scout candidate combining those two surveys with additional new data, such as a site plan for each cemetery, row numbers, photos of graves, etc.