Family History Project – dannypeck.net

This is the hub of information for the Bennett/Jefferson/Cleveland and Peck/Marentette/Small/Gannon family history project I’m working on. If you are related to me and would like to view my ancestry family tree, email me for an invite to collaborate.

I am working on a few of things simultaneously.

Project One is the Ancestry family tree. It is both a source (thanks to its Hints system) and a repository (thanks to the ability to upload photos and documents) of information. If you’re here to help, use this Dropbox Request Folder to upload photos/documents.

Project Two is connecting with people. My grandfathers on both sides were historians, with Grandpa Ken Jefferson writing down many of his memories, particularly about life in Vermont, and my Grandpa Bill Peck participating in some family history projects for members of both his Marentette ancestors and his wife’s Gannon ancestors, and identifying lots of old photos that his son, my Uncle Michael, still has. Neither of my grandfathers had the wonders of modern internet connections, Facebook, Ancestry, or uploaded public records when they started their own projects in the late 1990s. Particularly thanks to Facebook, I have found lots of extended family members and as I get brave and have some time, I plan to reach out to them to say hello, and see if any of them want to join in this project.

Project Three is writing and editing. Grandpa Ken wrote an autobiographical document about North Hero and other places in Vermont. He also wrote a newsletter for years, titled the North Hero News & World Review (when he was writing Stateside) and the Ottawa Outlook (when he was north of the border). My writing projects are going to start with compiling/editing these and work out from there. I hope collecting data inspires me to write down some stories. But my immediate goal is to have a nicely-formatted, edited compilation of Ken Jefferson’s writings to distribute to his family before what would have been his 100th birthday in March 2026.

Project Four: Reading/Watching/Cooking. I’m obviously reading a ton of records and writings. But particularly as I go through Grandpa Ken’s writing, I have come across a few other things I have wanted to read or watch. He also included in the Appendix of his book some recipes that he enjoyed or referenced in his writing, and occasionally included a recipe in his newsletter. I’m making some of them and I’ll write about the results.

The Dawn Patrol This is a 1938 film starring Errol Flynn. Grandpa Ken mentioned it in a chapter of his book as being one of his favorites when he was growing up. I had never seen it, so I ordered a DVD copy on Amazon. I enjoyed it, and I am guessing that this movie was the start of Grandpa Ken’s interest in the Red Baron. There was a pilot in North Hero he referred to as the Red Baron, and he wrote about his shock upon discovering that the Red Baron was the mascot of a pizza brand. All this made me smile.

Swing, Swing, Swing I found an old email Grandpa Ken wrote just to me talking about his piano playing, my clarinet and saxophone playing, and the fact that he was reading a book about jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman. I ordered this to read as well.

Return of the Founding Fathers An errant Google search led me to stumble upon a review that Grandpa Ken wrote for this book… which was written by his childhood (and lifelong) friend (and NHN&WR subscriber and Poet Laureate) Art Ward.

Joshua Montefiore’s book. Mom and I were always curious where the name Montefiore came from. She knew it as her grandfather Paul Montefiore Cleveland’s middle name. Thanks to Ancestry, I discovered that it was also his grandmother’s (Lydia Swift Montefiore’s) maiden name. Her father, and my 4th great grandfather, Joshua Vita Montefiore, who was an English-American lawyer, son of Italian-English parents (so the name came with them from Italy to the U.K. and then with their son to the New World) and the first Jewish lawyer to have a law book published in the United States. He was also a participant in an expedition to start a slavery-free colony on what he knew as the island of Bulam, now called Bolama Island, part of present-day Guinea-Bissau. He wrote a report of the 1792 expedition, published in 1794 as An Authentic Account of the Late Expedition to Bulam on the Coast of Africa: With a Description of the Present Settlement of Sierra Leone and the Adjacent Country. I got a copy on Amazon through a very cool company called Forgotten Books which republishes obscure things. Also, fun fact: Joshua Montefiore was Jewish, but his third wife (from whom I’m descended) was Irish Catholic. But they decided the best thing to do with their American children was raise them Protestant.