Francis Harold Potter, 1921-2009

When I asked my grandmother to tell me about how she named my Dad, she giggled. She liked Frank, she said, but it sounded so hard for such a little baby. So they settled on Francis. So what about the Harold, I asked? She really giggled then and said it was for an old boyfriend and Mel (her husband) never knew.  Whether that story is true or not, it does make for a good family story. Dad came from a depression-poor background and when I was a year old he jumped at the opportunity to join the Army Air Corps and get an education and learn to fly. He had a 30 year career in the Air Force retiring in 1969 as a Colonel. He wrote up many of his Air Force memories and stories and they were published in The Air Force Magazine publication of the Wright-Patterson AFB Historical Museum. What really fun thing do I remember about my dad? That he loved to change rocks into candy with his magical incantation before little childrens' queezed-tight eyes. He's been gone two years; I still miss him.


I invite you to write up the stories of your Potter father or grandfather or ancestor and post them as a comment for sharing with other Potter researchers. Doesn't this seem like a good idea?

Potters Field........... where did this term originate?

Being a Potter, the term "potter's field," as used in "they buried him in the potter's field," always intrigued me. What was, what is, a potter's field? Are there still some today?

Found the term in Matthew 27:7. After betraying Jesus, Judas gave the 30 pieces of silver back to the priests to buy a "potters field to bury strangers in." is that the first use of the term? And why there? Did the potters toss their broken pottery pieces onto this "worthless" field and so it was available for a burying ground?

Webster's says:  "a burial ground for paupers or unknown persons." 

Anybody have any answers or ideas to share?

Potter Profiles Posts

Let's get going! Post your comment in the form of a complete query........... a pedigree! I'll go first:

1. Donna Ruth POTTER
2. Francis Harold POTTER, 1921-2009, IL-WA
3. Henry Melville POTTER, 1888-1952, KS-IL
4. Francis Matthew POTTER, 1862-1894, IL-KS
5, Matthew J. POTTER, 1838-1902, IL-IL
6. Matthew POTTER, 1796-1875, ME-IL
7. Robert POTTER, 1766-1819, ME-IL
8. James POTTER, 1734-1815, ME-ME
9. William POTTER, 1715-1747, MA-ME
10. David POTTER, 1685-1714, MA-MA
11. Samuel POTTER, 1656-1714, MA-MA
12. Anthony POTTER, 1627-1689, MA-MA
13. Robert POTTER, 1610-1654, Eng-MA

My idea here is that if we will post our pedigree as a comment, and if I make the blog searchable (which I have) then anybody can search for any name. Think this will work??  Let's see!! 

(Yes, I know full well that Anthony as the son of Robert is still in dispute.... stay tuned.)

Potter Profiles in the beginning......................

This was the very first issue of Potter Profiles way back in 1986. In those days, I used first a typewriter, then a Kaypro 10 and and SkyIndex and finally in the early 90s I "graduated" to a desktop Gateway. Each issue/volume/booklet was about 30-50 pages with an every-name index in the back. I posted the information exactly as folks sent their data to me (except for re-typing) and did not do any research as to what was correct and what was not; I figured that was for my readers to figure out as I was presenting many different Potter lines other than my own.  I did try to "plug in" the lineages that folks shared with me into numbered Potter lines. I began with Branch 1 as my branch and just numbered up from there. I think Branch 3 had more submissions that any other but the numbers went up nearly to 100. If I could not figure out what branch a submission was, then I just gave it a new number. With the advent of computer databases, I could hear the death knell for a paper-form surname publication. With issue 50 in 1996, I wrapped up the project. I did pay a private party in the late 90s to digitize all 3000 pages and (bless him!) Ilya D'Addezio posted the entire database (in its "dinosaur" form) on his LiveRoots website.  So now you know "the rest of the story," and we're ready to move forward, right???

Guidelines to comment?

Wow, great response within 24 hours; I'm excited! Two things already apparent to my mind:  Please feel free to comment but if you wish to submit a "query" (for isn't that what it is??) then submit it as a complete query: full names, dates and places and spouse name. Please no long ramblings. As Sgt. Joe Friday used to say on Dragnet, "Just the facts." 

Welcome to Potter Profiles!

I was born a POTTER.......... Donna Ruth Potter, d/o Francis Harold Potter and June Magdalen Gurney. Back about 1980 when I began my genealogical research and in an effort to learn my Potter lineage, I collected anything and everything on folks named Potter (especially in New England). Soon I had learned about my ancestors but had a huge amount of information that deserved to be shared to help others. Thus POTTER PROFILES was begun. In the 15 years of its existence, I published 50 little booklets comprising nearly 3000 pages of Potter-only information. Then the Internet took over! All that information was digitized and Illya D'Addezio has included it in his www.liveroots.com database where you may search it for free. I've begun this blog in hopes that it will be a forum to continue the sharing that began a decade ago. How might best we all share information? Please indicate by your comments below what you think and I'll decide where to go with this Potter Profiles blog. I think it will be fun and worthwhile!