--- title: Remembered in stone description: Remembered in stone image: https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Mary-Pearson-Palmer-300x225-1.png --- # [Vita Brevis A resource for family history from AmericanAncestors.org](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/) - [Home](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/) - [About](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2014/01/generatio-longa-vita-brevis/) - [Authors](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/#) - [Robert Charles Anderson](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/randerson) - [Scott Steward](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/ssteward) - [Alicia Crane Williams](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/acwilliams) - [A-F](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/#) - [Robert Charles Anderson](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/randerson) - [Jason Amos](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/jamos) - [Emily Baldoni](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/ebaldoni) - [Sally Benny](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/sbenny) - [Nancy Bernard](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/nbernard) - [Lynn Betlock](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/lbetlock) - [Kristin Britanik](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/kbritanik) - [Laura Brown](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/lbrown) - [Stephanie Call](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/scall) - [Christopher C. Child](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/cchild) - [Ralph Crandall](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/rcrandall) - [Lael Dalal](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/ldalal) - [Marie Daly](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/mdaly) - [David Dearborn](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/ddearborn) - [Sheilagh Doerfler](http://http://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/sdoerfler) - Tom Dreyer - [Katrina Fahy](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/kfahy) - [Lindsay Fulton](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/lfulton) - [G-M](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/#) - [Zachary Garceau](http://http://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/zgarceau) - [Judi Garner](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/jgarner) - [Andy Hanson-Dvoracek](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/andyhd) - [Helen Herzer](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/hherzer) - [Henry Hoff](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/hhoff) - [Alice Kane](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/akane/) - [Johnna Kaplan](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/jkaplan) - [Andrew Krea](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/akrea) - [David Allen Lambert](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/dalambert/) - [Ann Lawthers](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/alawthers) - [Don LeClair](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/dleclair) - [Christopher Lee](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/cclee) - [Katherine Lonergan](http://http://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/klonergan) - [Judith Lucey](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/jlucey) - [Jean Maguire](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/jmaguire) - [Rhonda McClure](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/rmcclure) - [Anne Meringolo](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/ameringolo) - [P-Z](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/#) - [Eileen Pironti](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/epironti) - [Molly Rogers](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/mrogers) - [Deb Rossi](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/drossi) - [Timothy Salls](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/tsalls) - [Meaghan E. H. Siekman](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/msiekman) - [D. Brenton Simons](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/dbsimons) - [Susan Sloan](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/ssloan) - [Scott Steward](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/ssteward) - [Penny Stratton](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/pstratton) - [Sam Sturgis](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/ssturgis) - [Helen Schatvet Ullmann](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/hsullmann) - [Roger Thompson](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/rthompson) - [Leah Walczak](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/lwalczak/) - [Leslie A. Weston](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/lweston) - [Alicia Crane Williams](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/acwilliams) - [Ryan Woods](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/author/rwoods) - [Subscribe](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/blog/subscribe/) - [AmericanAncestors.org](https://americanancestors.org) This is a search field with an auto-suggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. # Remembered in stone [December 01, 2021](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2021/12/remembered-in-stone) [Critical Analysis](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/critical-analysis), [Genealogical Writing](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/genealogical-writing), [American History](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/american-history), [Technology](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/technology), [Serendipity](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/serendipity), [Research Methods](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/research-methods), [Brick Walls](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/brick-walls), [A Genealogist's Diary](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/a-genealogists-diary), [Object Lessons](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/object-lessons), [Family stories](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/family-stories), [Road Trips](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/road-trips) [Scott C. Steward](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/author/ssteward) [![](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Mary-Pearson-Palmer-300x225-1.png?width=300&height=225&name=Mary-Pearson-Palmer-300x225-1.png)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Mary-Pearson-Palmer-1.png) Mary Pearson Palmer's gravestone in Rowley. Images courtesy of Findagrave My family tried something new for Thanksgiving: lunch at a (very nice) restaurant in Rowley, up the road from my father’s house in neighboring Topsfield, Massachusetts. As I was there early, I went for a walk up Main Street, past the [Rowley Burial Ground](https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/91528/rowley-burial-ground). Most of the stones nearest the road were well-weathered, but two popped out at me: stones for a Pearson and a Pickard. Both are names in my seventeenth-century New England ancestry, so I sat beside a fire pit next to the restaurant and did some online digging. ### [Two] popped out at me: stones for a Pearson and a Pickard. [![](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Ayer-Monument-Lowell-169x300-1.jpg?width=169&height=300&name=Ayer-Monument-Lowell-169x300-1.jpg)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Ayer-Monument-Lowell-1.jpg) The Frederick Ayer monument at Lowell Cemetery. My paternal grandmother, [Anne Beekman Ayer](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2021/10/icymi-surrounded-by-family/), was the great-granddaughter of Persis (Cook) (Ayer) Parke, a native of Preston, Connecticut. Persis’s grandmother, Mary (Palmer) Cook, descended from the Palmers of Rowley, and her great-grandparents — [Samuel Palmer](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11554114/samuel-palmer) and [Mary Pearson](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11554089/mary-palmer) — are indeed buried in the Rowley Burial Ground. (Mary Pearson’s mother, in turn, was [Dorcas Pickard](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/40043139/dorcas-pearson); her place of burial is likely in Rowley, but not demonstrably in the town burial ground.) It was an interesting exercise, using modern research tools while sitting in the brisk outdoors scant yards from the seventeenth-century Rowley Burial Ground. My father’s family has lived in the area for the last century or more, but there is another century’s gap in there where the Palmer and Cook families moved south to Connecticut. It was my great-great-grandfather,[ Frederick Ayer](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/32597742/charles-'frederick'-ayer) (1822-1918; erroneously listed as Charles "Frederick" Ayer at Findagrave), who left the Preston area for Syracuse, New York, and then Lowell, Massachusetts, although he died in far-away Thomasville, Georgia, which affords no clue about an earlier family connection to Essex County! ### Share this: - [mailto:?body=https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2021/12/remembered-in-stone](mailto:?body=https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2021/12/remembered-in-stone) - - - More - - ![Scott C. Steward](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hubfs/Imported%20images/f0ca00236a2eb95f2a42a6692ce1ee9c%3Fs=96%26d=identicon%26r=g.jpeg) ## About Scott C. Steward Scott C. Steward has been NEHGS’ Editor-in-Chief since 2013. He is the author, co-author, or editor of genealogies of the Ayer, Le Roy, Lowell, Saltonstall, Thorndike, and Winthrop families. His articles have appeared in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, NEXUS, New England Ancestors, American Ancestors, and The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine, and he has written book reviews for the Register, The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, and the National Genealogical Society Quarterly.[View all posts by Scott C. Steward →](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/author/ssteward) [← Seeing double](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2021/12/seeing-double-2) [Pastel portraits →](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2021/11/pastel-portraits) This is a search field with an auto-suggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. ### Recent Posts [How Bronzed Baby Shoes Became More Than Just a Mother’s Treasure!](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/bronzed-baby-shoes) [Charles Bulfinch – A Father of Federal Style Architecture](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/charles-bulfinch) [Sailor Bill and His Forgotten Wife](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/sailor-bill-and-his-forgotten-wife) [Professor X](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/professor-x) [Part I: Malaga Island, Maine](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/part-i-malaga-island-maine) ### Archives - [October 2014 (27)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/10) - [December 2015 (24)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/12) - [July 2020 (24)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2020/07) - [April 2014 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/04) - [July 2014 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/07) - [December 2014 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/12) - [July 2015 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/07) - [March 2017 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/03) - [May 2017 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/05) - [August 2017 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/08) - [January 2018 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2018/01) - [March 2014 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/03) - [August 2014 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/08) - [April 2015 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/04) - [September 2015 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/09) - [October 2015 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/10) - [March 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/03) - [June 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/06) - [August 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/08) - [September 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/09) - [November 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/11) - [December 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/12) - [January 2017 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/01) - [June 2017 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/06) - [November 2017 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/11) ### Categories - [Family stories (1261)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/family-stories) - [American History (1137)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/american-history) - [Critical Analysis (1126)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/critical-analysis) - [Research Methods (881)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/research-methods) - [Brick Walls (674)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/brick-walls) - [Object Lessons (617)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/object-lessons) - [Spotlight (617)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/spotlight) - [Genealogical Writing (554)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/genealogical-writing) - [Research tips (510)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/research-tips) - [Serendipity (479)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/serendipity) - [Road Trips (393)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/road-trips) ### Recent Posts [How Bronzed Baby Shoes Became More Than Just a Mother’s Treasure!](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/bronzed-baby-shoes) [Charles Bulfinch – A Father of Federal Style Architecture](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/charles-bulfinch) [Sailor Bill and His Forgotten Wife](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/sailor-bill-and-his-forgotten-wife) [Professor X](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/professor-x) [Part I: Malaga Island, Maine](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/part-i-malaga-island-maine) ### Meta - [Log in](https://vita-brevis.org/wp-login.php) - [Entries RSS](https://vita-brevis.org/feed/) - [Comments RSS](https://vita-brevis.org/comments/feed/) - [WordPress.org](https://wordpress.org/) ### Subscribe to Blog via Email Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. ### Archives - [October 2014 (27)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/10) - [December 2015 (24)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/12) - [July 2020 (24)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2020/07) - [April 2014 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/04) - [July 2014 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/07) - [December 2014 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/12) - [July 2015 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/07) - [March 2017 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/03) - [May 2017 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/05) - [August 2017 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/08) - [January 2018 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2018/01) - [March 2014 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/03) - [August 2014 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/08) - [April 2015 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/04) - [September 2015 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/09) - [October 2015 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/10) - [March 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/03) - [June 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/06) - [August 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/08) - [September 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/09) - [November 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/11) - [December 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/12) - [January 2017 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/01) - [June 2017 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/06) - [November 2017 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/11)