I discovered Helen (Capron) Greenwood’s obituary while searching for fellow descendants of Mayflower Pilgrim John Howland, and learned about how this cousin gave back to the community.
I found Helen by searching GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives for John Howland’s name and the keyword “Descendant.”
According to her obituary, she was indeed a direct descendant of John Howland, in addition to serving in many Mayflower-descendant organizations throughout her life:
“She was secretary-treasurer of the Pilgrim John Howland Society, former secretary of the Rhode Island Society of Mayflower Descendants, a member of the Beacon Pole Hill Chapter, DAR, the Daughters of the Founders and Patriots of America, the society of Old Plimouth Colony Descendants, the Pilgrim Society Plimoth Plantations of Pilgrims, the Rhode Island Historical Society and the Woonsocket Historical Society.”
She was “…a daughter of the late Carlile W. and Blanche (Smith) Capron, she had lived in North Smithfield most of her life.” Good catch: the family tree did not include the name of her mother, so based on this I was able to add that information to the tree.
With a little more research, I found her mother’s full name, Blanche Evelyn Smith (1873-1940) – and that she was born in Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Canada. Hmm – I have a lot of relatives from that county who have lived there since the 1700s. I’ll have to look into her family lines to see if I have additional connections via that side of the family.
The obituary reported that Helen was a graduate of the Katharine Gibbs Secretarial School and worked as a secretary in many capacities throughout her life, both professionally and in her volunteer positions.
Katharine Gibbs founded her secretarial school in 1911 after being widowed two years earlier at age 46 with two young children to support. According to Wikipedia:
“In 1910 Gibbs’ sister, Mary (Capron) Ryan, enrolled in the Providence School for Secretaries in Providence, Rhode Island, and became an assistant teacher at the school. The school’s owner asked Mary if she would like to purchase the school, and Mary and Katharine decided to purchase it together for $1000 with Mary teaching and Katharine serving as an administrator.”
A household name institution was born.
Katharine Gibbs died in 1934, and by her death the school had produced thousands of highly trained secretaries.
In an effort to learn more about the school, I decided to search for Katharine Gibbs’ name in GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives, too, along with the keyword “secretary.”
This search produced a 1971 advertisement for scholarships at a Katharine Gibbs school: 57 $800 scholarships for high school seniors.
The Gibbs School’s excellent reputation is well reflected in the second-to-last paragraph of the advertisement:
“Each year thousands of employers call Gibbs requesting ‘A Gibbs Girl, please!’ We can’t begin to fill all these openings.”
What a great story. Helen (Capron) Greenwood pursued her career and applied it not only in her employment, but to the benefit of family history – I’m glad to count Helen as a cousin.
Genealogy Tip: When searching the names of your cousins, look into the schools they attended and the groups they supported to round out your understanding of their lives. Note every clue in their obituary notice – you might find that you are cousins on multiple family lines.
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