If you live in Bernards Township, New Jersey, the Mr. Local History Project has written a few stories about the founding families of Basking Ridge for new residents to learn the history of the early Scottish and Dutch settlers to the region. Thanks to Nettie Allen’s nephew Allan H. Connolly, the collection is now available online for all to research. So, let’s dig in a bit and see what kind of learning tool we have here.
Nettie the Genealogist
Nettie Allen was one of 7 sisters and 3 brothers, who was born on March 3, 1871, to John J. and Sarah DeCosta Allen, in Basking Ridge and was the youngest of the family’s ten children. Her family were descendants of Samuel Allen, one of the founders of the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church, the first house of worship in the community.
Nettie spent her life in Basking Ridge, as a child in her family home on South Finley Avenue, and later, as a live-in housekeeper for the Roberts, a Township family. As a longtime member of Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church, she served as the Sunday school teacher/superintendent, a trustee of the congregation, and the church historian.
New Digital Genealogy Card Collection
The Nettie Allen Card Collection is the culmination of her life-long passion for genealogy and local history and includes the family lineages and historical details of the founding families of Bernards Township and the Somerset Hills of New Jersey. Endorsed and funded by the Somerset County Cultural and Heritage Commission the digital cards are organized by surname, with the most common spelling of each surname representing each group. Some families may be described in one or two cards, while others include dozens on the various branches of a family.
MLH took an obvious path to try the collection and selected the Allen card collection. Click to enlarge any card below:
Back when Nettie was a history volunteer at the local Basking Ridge Historical Society, she and other ladies would join together at the Brick Academy every Tuesday and clip newspaper articles for archiving.
Nettie was very close to Mildred (Millie) Van Dyke. I would stick some super old photo in front of Millie, and she’d say ‘Oh, I know who they are….look at what Nettie Allen wrote.” Then Millie would fill in the blanks.
Mr. Local History
Using the New Digital Collection
The Nettie Allen Card Collection comprises roughly 2,800 digitized file cards, all handwritten by Nettie over the years. So far, it’s a great collection, and fun to look into a few key families famous to the area’s founding. Are your relatives in there? Take a look.
Help Us Confirm Nettie’s Journey
June Kennedy, a former Bernards Township historian, claimed that Allen Street (not Allen Road) in Basking Ridge was named after William L. Allen.
William Allen owned much land in Basking Ridge Village in the mid-19th Century. So here’s the question; Is Nettie Allen related to William L. Allen, one of the area’s largest landowners? Our 2nd question is if Nettie’s funeral was at the Basking Ridge Presbyterian church, why is she buried at the nearby Evergreen Cemetery, traditionally the Methodist graveyard of Bishop Janes church? Is it a coincidence that Allen Street starts at the BRPC cemetery and ends at the Evergreen cemetery? Maybe not……
Let us know and we’ll report what you find. And remember, you can’t spell “Challenge” without “Allen.”
Interested in Learning / Sharing Local History?
For interested locals, MLH will add a section to our “Elder Voices” discussion series. The series is free and open to anyone who’d like to join the roundtable to discuss local history in the Somerset Hills. We’re curious about her dedication to BRPC history, yet she’s buried at Evergreen Cemetery, aka the Methodist Cemetery on Oak Street. We have honored Nettie Allen with a memorial on Find A Grave.
Additional Related History Stories
Nettie Allen was my great aunt. Her brother, Samuel Allen, was my grandfather.
Aunt Nettie lived in an apartment at grandpa Allen’s home (160 S.Finley Ave.) when I was young. I lived across the street at 161 S. Finley Ave. My parents
were John & Margaret Carswell. My mother was a daughter of Samuel Allen.
My father led the Christmas Eve carol sing for 40 years. I enjoyed spending time with aunt Nettie. She was interesting, full of stories of our family, Basking Ridge &
our church, the BR Presbyterian church, where she taught Sunday School for many years. She wasn’t buried in the church’s cemetery because there was no space available at that time. The current ‘northern’ cemetery behind the church hadn’t been developed as yet. That’s why grandpa Allen was buried there too.
Hi to Project Members and to Cousin Betsy!
I didn’t know most of these great things that Betty had to tell us… I think I was about 6 months old the last time that I “saw” Aunt Nettie. Nettie’s brother John McCollum Allen, my great-grandfather, was a bit younger, born in 1874, but passed away before I was born.
JJ was a local builder, and area houses built in the mid to late 1800s might have been the work of his teams. I have a photo of one such house, belonging to another of my ancestors, Ezra Dayton. IMO though it was on Mt. Airy Road, it belonged on Mockingbird Lane.
According to notes that I have from Nettie, “William Allen came to America from Scotland in the company of John McCollum around 1702”. JJ’s father Alexander was born in 1800, and his grandfather Samuel (RWV) was born in 1750, so there appears to be a missing generation in the story. John McCollum, aka “Old John”, ~1657 – 1760, whose headstone is at the church, is an ancestor of many BR families but the links are at best obscure – at least to me!
JJ’s mother was Mary McCollum, b 1797, daughter of (RWV) Malachi McCollum, b 1760. JJ was baptised, “John McCollum Allen”, and grew up on Malachi’s farm earning him the nickname, “JJ”, or “John Jr”, to differentiate him from Mary’s brother John McCollum who also lived on the farm.
I would be happy to share more of what I am able to substantiate of the Allen family history, including a great deal of Nettie’s other original material with anyone interested, under the single proviso that they agree not to allow it into the hands of Ancestry.com and similar.