Travel Log: Vacation '26 (Part 2 of 4): Arthur's Way

Editor's Note - This is the second of a four-part series summarizing our wonderful vacation of 2026. I will return to #CoachJeff's regular format next week.

In yesterday's edition, I hinted at my family's ancestral roots. Today, I'll tell you one of the driving forces behind why we went to New England for our 2026 Vacation.

In the 1630s, our family's patriarch, Arthur Gary, made the Atlantic Crossing. Along with his wife Frances and his two oldest sons, William and Nathaniel, Arthur landed in Nantucket, MA and settled in Roxbury, a suburb of Boston. A third son, Samuel, was born in the New World. 

Born and baptised in 1599 in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England, Arthur became a town leader once he settled in Roxbury. His son, William, also became a town leader.

Later, William's son William was born in Prince George County, Virginia, thus beginning our family's Southern migration. First to Virginia, then South Carolina. And on to Northern Mississippi/West Tennessee. Fourteen Generations. I'm in the 12th. My adult children are in the 13th. My cousin's son recently welcomed a baby girl earlier this spring. 

The 14th generation of Garys in America.

But, I digress. With all due respect to southern states, the #CoachJeff focus today is on Massachusetts!

In tracing Arthur's way a bit further, we found he passed away at the age of 67 and was buried in Roxbury in 1666 in the Eliot Burying Ground. His wife, Frances Warman Gary (also spelled Fransis, in some references) passed away a few years later in 1672. Sbe was also buried in the same cemetery.

During our last trip to Boston (2019), we took an Uber ride from downtown to Fenway Park for the Red Sox Memorial Day game with Cleveland. If we didn't drive just past the Eliot Burying Ground, we were awfully close. According to Google Maps, the Eliot Burying Ground is 1.8 miles away from Fenway Park. 

Sadly, we didn't know Arthur and Frances were buried in Roxbury when we made that 2019 trip. In fact, I think Holly ran across that fact sometime in the following year.

So, you see where I am going with all of this. Holly's fact-finding informs the "sequel" to our Boston trips. (Or whatever the third installment is as, technically, this was our third Boston trip. We were there, first, in 2007).

Anyway, in planning Vacation '26, we knew we wanted to build time for a couple day-trips from Southern Maine to Boston for lineage and line drives.  Once we determined how close the two entities are co-located, it made sense to bundle them. And we knew we needed to visit Arthur's grave and pay our respects.

Visitors to the Eliot Burying Ground actually needed to reach out to the City of Boston Parks and Recreation department in order to gain access. I made that contact a few weeks in advance. So, during the day of our visit, we were set. Gray, rainy skies in the morning gave way to electric blue in the afternoon.

So much the better.

We didn't have a record of where to find the graves of Frances and Arthur. So, upon entering the space, the four of us decided to fan out. After we had covered all parts of the graveyard with no success, I pulled up the listing for Frances in Find-a-Grave.com and saw there was a small building in the background.

That helped us orient ourselves to the location.

Find-a-Grave also noted that Arthur's stone was partially broken off and was unmarked. So, finding the tombstone for Frances was the key. And, sure enough, with the building in the background of the online photo, we honed in on the location.

It was a spiritual moment. 

Right in front of us was more than 400 years of family lore and text etched on the stone told the story. 

Frances Warman 

Aged 71

Dyed 1672

 

Can you imagine? Someone etched those words on that stone some 354 years ago. And the text is still legible today. The moment was moving, to say the least.

We all paid our respects. I said a few words. Then, I offered up a prayer. 

The prayer thanked God for keeping them safe during their travels; served as a devotion for their bravery; included a benediction on behalf of 14 generations in North America that have survived and prospered over the centuries. 

We owe a lot to that courageous couple. And on a brisk day in Boston, a group of modern Garys made their own pilgrimage to pay tribute. 

JG

Looking ahead: More on our 2026 visit to Fenway Park in tomorrow's edition.