So here I am. The relentless researcher behind this site. My name is Kimberly Hayden. My research on Private Daniel H. Otis and his family began at my home in Dallas, Texas (in December 2018) after a very vivid dream and chance encounter. What followed in the coming months was a series of serendipitous events that led my family and I to Middletown in April 2019, where I continued my research on Daniel Otis and his family.
Middletown, Connecticut is now my home, and I live in a lovely 1900 vintage-house with my husband, and son.
I've been a Civil War Nerd since a young girl, with my passion being the personal stories and accounts of the "common soldier." My 2-times, great-grandfather, William Henry Hayden, was a full-blooded Irishman, and Marine, who served from April 1859 to June 1865. He finished out his service aboard the sloop-of-war, USS Constellation, which is the only Civil War-era vessel still afloat, and now permanently docked at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
For the curious, it's easiest for me to just quickly jot down a handful of words that best describe myself, and not over-think it too much :
Genealogist (non-professional), Writer, Relentless Researcher, Cemetery Conservationist, Grave-tender, Taphophile (which is a fancy word for an individual who has a passion for and enjoyment of cemeteries, epitaphs, and gravestones), Watercolor Artist, Nature-lover, Star-gazer, Beach-comber, Plant-lover, Book-worm, and long-time Civil War Nerd.
Favorite Quote: “The majority believes that everything hard to comprehend must be very profound. This is incorrect. What is hard to understand is what is immature, unclear and often false. The highest wisdom is simple and passes through the brain directly into the heart” Viktor Schauberger
Walk in Beauty,
Kimberly
CONTACT ME:
I enjoy hearing from readers!
dragonflyandrose<at>gmail<dot>com
OR:
willowandrose<at>protonmail<dot>com
Me, about age 14 (which was a *very* long time ago), posing in my "Civil War" getup.
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Mark with his tri-pod and half-ton hoist. Repairing the Hezekiah Merwin grave at Maromas Cemetery, Middletown, CT |
Mark chauffeured me to cemeteries, and then walked row-by-row through the graves in the hot summer sun, helping me search for the two eldest Otis brother graves. He was a long-suffering champ, scrolling through pages of "archaic" script on microfilm, looking for the "Otis" and "Young" names. He was a patient sounding-board, listening to me as I bounced ideas and possible scenarios off of him while I tried to get into Daniel Otis' head.
Mark is a volunteer cemetery conservationist who is educated in the correct methods and materials needed to repair, reset, restore, and clean historic gravestones. He has trained with conservator, Jonathan Appell. Besides his full-time job as a mapping specialist, Mark serves as President of the Middletown Old Burying Ground Association (Est. 1895). The former President, for 26-years, was August De France IV.
My research on the Otis and Young families would not have gone as far as it did if it wasn't for Mark's help.
....Also, I can't forget my "Junior Assistant," and occasional rabble-rouser, our son.
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| On the granite boulders of Maromas |
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