Audrey Mae Spencer ♦ Spencer Historical Cemetery ♦ Henry Straight / William Spencer Family Cemetery
Vaughn Historical Cemetery ♦ Spencers of East Greenwich, RI

Posts Tagged Anna Maria

4 July 2002
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Heather: Tell me again about my great-grandmother, Anna Maria [Anna Maria Spencer] and my great-grandfather, John Johnson Spencer.

Anna Maria (pronounced Mar-eye-ah) Spencer

 

Audrey: Richard Spencer, (Audrey’s paternal great,great-grandfather) and Roby (née Tarbox) had seven children. Their youngest child was Esther Amanda (née Spencer) Briggs (aka Aunt Mandy) and their oldest child was Richard Anthony*.  Richard Anthony died at age 27 when his child, Anna Maria (pronounced Mar-eye-ah) was only a year old.  The Spencers raised Anna Maria so she grew up with Esther Amanda as they were only eight years apart. They grew up like sisters.
 
*There are two Richard Anthony Spencers so the father was always referred to as Deacon Richard and his son was always called Richard Anthony.  This website distinguishes between the two by Richard Anthony (“Deacon”) Spencer  as the father and Richard Anthony Spencer as the son.
23 October 2002
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Heather: How is it that Anna Mirah* has Anna Maria written on her tombstone and in John Johnson Spencer’s Civil War pension plan, her name is also spelled with a “Y” as Anna Myriah?

Anna Maria Spencer

Audrey: I never remember seeing it with a Y! All I ever heard was Anna Mirah. The writing on stones was not professional. I don’t ever remember seeing a “y”, I was 1-1/2 years old when she died. I walked around the casket. I couldn’t see in but I walked around it.

*Anna Maria (pronounced Mar-eye-ah) was Audrey Mae’s paternal grandmother. Audrey always referred to her grandmother as Anna Mirah (aka Myriah).  An outside explanation of Maria being pronounced as Mar-eye-ah is in a book, “Play It As It Lays” by Joan Didion.
27 June 2004
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Heather: Hello Mother. Let’s talk ancestry today. Was “little sick grandma” – your grandmother, Anna Maria or was it her mother, Ann Almy Tarbox Spencer?

Audrey: Oh, I can’t remember, but I have it all written down somewhere. I just finished my breakfast. Oh yes, I feel much rested.

28 August 2004
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Heather: Didn’t aunt Mandy live with Grandma when she was aged?

Audrey: Yes, Mother took care of a lot of persons. She took care of Grandpa’s mother, Anna Maria, (when Anna Maria was aging.) Anna Maria had (a medical condition) where liquid would run off her legs because of all the years she stood in front of that hot old fashion stove, cooking and canning every summer. She would can every summer all summer. She would can all of the crops that Richard grew in the garden and send them all to Richard.  …  and Grandma (Mary Jane [née Vaughn] Spencer) bandaged Anna Maria’s (pronounced Mar-eye-ah’s) legs daily and took care of her.