What a Register Can and Cannot Tell Us: teacher guide

Downloads

For students

Google Docs, Slides and Sheets copy links are coming. Until then, upload the Word, PowerPoint or Excel file to Google Drive and open it with Google Docs, Slides or Sheets.

For you only

Google Docs, Slides and Sheets copy links are coming. Until then, upload the Word, PowerPoint or Excel file to Google Drive and open it with Google Docs, Slides or Sheets.

Teacher page. Answers and rubrics are here only; the student page and student files have none.

Grade band

Grades 6-8

Subjects

History and Social Science, English Language Arts, Mathematics, Digital Literacy and Computer Science

Towns

Gloucester

Duration

Two 50-minute class periods (sequence totals 100 minutes)

Prerequisites

Students know the difference between a primary source and a secondary source.; Students can open a shared spreadsheet, select a column and use sort and filter (a two-minute demonstration is built into Day 2 for those who cannot).; Students can find a percent of a whole with a calculator.

Essential question

What can an official list of names tell us about the past, what can it not tell us, and how do historians check it?

Version

1.0, 2026-10-05

Review status

Draft: awaiting classroom teacher review

Lesson ID

CAC-LES-007

Objectives

Students will be able to:

• source the City of Gloucester Lost at Sea register by identifying who compiled it, when, from what earlier work and for what purpose.
• compare the crew of the schooner Joseph F. Allen as listed in the register with the 1882 Fishermen's Own Book and explain at least two differences, including a name variant, using specific evidence.
• explain what a date "as recorded" means and why a recorded date may not be the day an event happened.
• distinguish birthplace, residence and homeport in a record and avoid claims the record does not support.
• sort, filter and search a 211-row data table to answer at least five questions, reporting at least one result as a percent and one as a chart.
• tell a statistical question from a non-statistical one and judge whether the register can fully, partly or not at all answer it.

Massachusetts curriculum frameworks

6.SP.A.1 is a Grade 6 standard used here as a moderate fit for Grades 7 and 8 review. The register itself is protected by the City of Gloucester's copyright notice, so this lesson presents only facts from it, in a table Cape Ann Current built, and does not reproduce its pages or its compilers' notes.

Standards checked against the official Massachusetts DESE framework documents on Oct. 5, 2026.

Materials

• Student handout (one per student): Readings 1 to 5, the comparison chart and the questions
• Data sheet (data-sheet.xlsx) shared as one copy per student or per pair, opened in Google Sheets or Excel
• Devices for Day 2, one per student or per pair (see the print option if devices are not available)
• Projector for the Day 2 sort and filter demonstration
• Optional: a map of the North Atlantic showing Gloucester, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, Georges Bank, Western Bank, La Have Bank and Grand Bank

Setup

Share data-sheet.xlsx so each student or pair gets its own copy. Open it yourself and practice turning on a filter, sorting a column and using Find. Print the handout. Read the teacher background, especially the notes on the one 1876 entry left out of the table, the Ellen Francis vessel name and the two men named John McMillen. Decide whether students will finish the assessment in class or at home.

Teaching sequence

1. 5 minutes Day 1 warm up: What can a list hold?
   Teacher: Show the ten names of the Joseph F. Allen crew from Reading 2 with no other information. Ask: What do these names tell you? What questions do you have? Record questions on the board. Explain that Gloucester keeps an official list of people lost at sea and that today students will test what it can and cannot tell us.
   Students: Quick write: two things the names tell you and two questions you have.
2. 10 minutes Source the register
   Teacher: Have students read Reading 5. Model sourcing: who made it, when, from what, for what purpose. Point out that the city itself says the list cannot be complete.
   Students: Complete Activity A1 with a partner.
3. 22 minutes Two sources, one crew
   Teacher: Students read Reading 1 (the register table) and Reading 2 (the 1882 book) side by side, then Reading 3. Circulate and push for row numbers and exact words as evidence. Stop at the halfway point to discuss "Woodbury Lewis" and "Woodbury, Lewis" as a class.
   Students: Fill in the comparison chart and answer Activity A2.
4. 8 minutes Discussion: dates, birthplaces and names
   Teacher: Lead discussion prompts 1 to 3. Emphasize three habits: report dates as recorded, keep birthplace, residence and homeport separate and print names as each source prints them.
   Students: Discuss. Add one new idea to the comparison chart.
5. 5 minutes Exit ticket
   Teacher: Ask: The register says "1876 Oct 16." The book says "in October." Write one sentence that reports this honestly. Collect and sort responses to plan Day 2.
   Students: Write the exit ticket sentence.
6. 5 minutes Day 2 recap
   Teacher: Share two strong exit ticket sentences. Introduce the full 1876 table: 211 rows, one row per person or group, built by Cape Ann Current from register facts.
   Students: Listen and open the data sheet.
7. 8 minutes Statistical questions
   Teacher: Define a statistical question as one that expects the answers to vary and accounts for that variation. Work the first two items of Activity A3 together.
   Students: Complete Activity A3 with a partner.
8. 20 minutes Spreadsheet investigation
   Teacher: Demonstrate for two minutes on the projector: freeze the header row, turn on a filter, sort a column and use Find. Then circulate. When groups finish task 4, ask them to say aloud what a row is and what a row is not.
   Students: Complete Activity A4, recording each answer and how you found it.
9. 7 minutes Check the register against the book
   Teacher: Read Reading 4 aloud. Ask pairs to compare three of the book's 1876 numbers with what they found in the spreadsheet.
   Students: Complete Activity A5.
10. 10 minutes Assessment: Register report
    Teacher: Explain the task and rubric. Students begin in class and finish by the next class if needed. Close with a moment of respect: read the ten names of the Joseph F. Allen crew aloud.
    Students: Plan and draft the register report.

Background for the teacher

The vessel and its crew. The Fishermen's Own Book, published by Procter Brothers in Gloucester in 1882, records the schooner "J. F. Allen," 62.63 tons, owned by B. Maddocks & Co., as "lost on Western Bank in October" 1876, with a crew of ten: John Campbell, master; William McNare, Joseph Brown, James Brown, Alpheus Campbell, Woodbury Lewis, Angus McDonald, Smith McDonald, William Rogers and Thomas Russell. The full first name "Joseph" comes from the city register. Western Bank is a fishing ground off Nova Scotia. The book's 1876 summary counts one Gloucester vessel lost that year in the Western Bank fishery. Cape Ann Current checked the transcriptions on pages 70, 72 and 74 against the page images.

The register. The City of Gloucester's Lost at Sea register was compiled by the volunteer Gloucester Archives Committee, based on Roberta Sheedy's work for the memorial plaques at the Fisherman's Statue. The version used here is a PDF dated July 29, 2010. The city page says the list is incomplete and invites corrections. The register is under the city's copyright notice, so Cape Ann Current presents only facts from it in a table it built and does not reproduce the PDF or the compilers' notes. Suggested credit: "Source: City of Gloucester Archives Committee, Lost at Sea register (2010), based on the work of Roberta Sheedy."

What the register says about the crew. All ten October entries carry the recorded date 1876 Oct 16, list each man as single and born in Nova Scotia and note that the entire crew of 10 was lost with the vessel on Western Bank. The notes offer two possibilities (foundered or sank at anchor); no source found describes a witnessed sinking. The register indexes one man as "Woodbury, Lewis," surname first, while the book prints "Woodbury Lewis." Because the book prints given name first, its version implies a surname of Lewis; the register's implies a surname of Woodbury. Neither source settles it. Several men share surnames (two Browns, two Campbells, two McDonalds); the sources do not say whether they were related, and students should not assume it.

What the date means. No source found explains what Oct. 16 represents. A secondary website says the schooner sailed Oct. 2 and may have been lost in a gale Oct. 16, citing the Cape Ann Advertiser of Jan. 12, 1877. Cape Ann Current has not seen that newspaper and does not treat those details as fact. Do not teach them as fact. Also note that a newspaper dispatch from January 1877 (Portland Daily Press, Jan. 19, 1877, found in Cape Ann Current's story research) listed the "J. F. Allen" among overdue vessels and tied that group to the December gales, while the 1882 book places her loss in October. That is a further reason to say "recorded as" rather than state a day.

Birthplace, residence and homeport. The register records birthplace (Nova Scotia) for all ten but no residence. The vessel's homeport was Gloucester. So "born in Nova Scotia, sailed from Gloucester" is accurate; "Gloucester men" or "lived in Gloucester" is not supported. In the full 1876 table only 9 rows record a residence. Two record "Manchester" (Joseph Fritz and Joseph Fritz Jr. of the Kearsarge; the register does not say which Manchester, though Manchester-by-the-Sea is likely) and one records "Rockport" (Barnard P. Scanlan of the Howard Steele).

The April losses. The book (page 74) records John McMillan and John McAuley lost in a dory from the J. F. Allen on April 18, on Grand Bank. The register spells the first name "McMillen" (row 46: age 24, single, born Port Hood, Cape Breton) and records McAuley (row 73: age 45, single, born London, England) with the date "1876 Apr," no day. A different John McMillan/McMillen (row 79: master of the Saratoga, age 34, married, lost in May) appears in the same year. The book's Saratoga crew list also names "John McMillan, master." These are almost certainly two different men: different vessels, ages, marital status and roles.

The one entry left out. The register's 1876 section has 212 rows. Cape Ann Classroom does not feature entries about children, so one entry for a 15-year-old crew member of the Henrietta Greenleaf is not in the classroom table, which therefore has 211 rows. If students ask, say that one entry about a teenager was left out of the classroom table out of care, and that it is in the city's register.

Notes on the full table for answering questions. One row (row 132) stands for 4 unnamed men of the trading schooner Ellen Francis; another (row 158) is a single "Unknown" of the D. E. Woodbury. The Ellen Francis is recorded under two vessel names, "Ellen Francis" and "Ellen Francis/Turner." The Janet Middleton has 12 rows although the register says her crew was 11; the book's crew list (page 71) has 11 names, including "his brother, name unknown" for the master, and does not include a "Jerry Landry" (row 61), so row 61 may be a duplicate or an error. Cape Ann Current has not resolved it. Other spelling differences between the book and the register that advanced students can explore: Chester W. Denton (book) and Dunton, Chester W. (register); James Sigsworth and Sigworth, James; Edward McGuire and Maguire, Edward; Harry Beck and Beck, Henry.

Handling sensitive topics

Many Gloucester students have relatives who fish or have fished, and some families have names on the Fisherman's Statue plaques. Introduce the lesson as remembrance and careful record keeping. Keep the focus on what the records say and on the men as people, not on how they died. The classroom table deliberately leaves out the register's detailed circumstance notes, family details beyond marital status and one entry about a teenager. Do not add graphic detail or speculation; when students ask how the Joseph F. Allen was lost, the honest answer is that no one knows and that no source describes a witness. Reading 4 mentions widows and children left without fathers; acknowledge that losses at sea changed families and the whole city, and pause if students need it. If a student finds a family name in the data, let the student decide whether to share; do not assume a connection. Offer a quiet option, such as reading the ten names aloud at the end of Day 2, and let students know they can talk with you or a counselor.

Discussion prompts

• Why does it matter whether we write "lost Oct. 16, 1876" or "recorded as lost Oct. 16, 1876"? Who could be misled by the first version?
• The ten men of the Joseph F. Allen were born in Nova Scotia and sailed from Gloucester. What is the difference between saying they were "Gloucester men" and saying they "sailed from Gloucester"?
• When two sources spell a name differently, which one should a memorial use? Who should decide?
• The register leaves out some things on purpose and misses others by accident. Give an example of each.
• The city invites the public to send corrections. What kind of evidence would you need before asking the city to change an entry?
• Why do you think a town keeps a list like this at all, more than a century later?

Formative checks

• Exit ticket (Day 1): Write one sentence that reports the Joseph F. Allen date honestly, using both sources.
• Quick poll: Is "How old was John McMillen?" a statistical question? Hands up for yes, down for no; call on one student from each side to explain.
• Spreadsheet checkpoint after A4 task 3: Each pair shows the filtered count and the percent on screen before moving on.
• Cold call: In the table, what is the difference between a blank Residence cell and a residence of "Gloucester"?

Assessment

Write a register report of two to three paragraphs to the Gloucester Archives Committee explaining what the Lost at Sea register can and cannot tell us. Use the Joseph F. Allen and the 1876 table as your evidence. Your report must (1) make a clear claim; (2) cite at least three specific pieces of evidence, including at least one row number from the register table and one quotation from the 1882 book; (3) explain one name variant and what a date "as recorded" means; (4) report at least one spreadsheet finding as a number or percent; (5) name one reason the register is incomplete and one way it could be checked or improved; and (6) keep birthplace, residence and homeport separate and use respectful language about the men.

Points: 32

Answer guidance

A1

• 1. The volunteer Gloucester Archives Committee, based on research by Roberta Sheedy.
• 2. For the memorial plaques at the Fisherman's Statue. Strong answers note that a memorial for fishermen would focus on Gloucester fishermen, so other people might have been missed at first, and the list was later widened.
• 3. Any of: people who drowned in the harbor, rivers or lakes; people on shore whose deaths were connected to the sea.
• 4. The city says the list cannot be complete and that all the names will probably never be recovered. Reasons: records were lost or never kept, many men were born elsewhere and not recorded in Gloucester, names were spelled many ways and volunteers can only add what they find. Saying so builds trust and invites corrections.
• 5. Age 24, not married, born in Port Hood, Cape Breton.
• 6. Accept a well-defended answer. Best answers say it is a modern compilation (secondary in form, made in the 2000s) built from primary sources (death records, newspapers, earlier lists), so it should be checked against those sources when possible.

A2

• Comparison chart: nine names match exactly once the register's surname-first order is reversed: John Campbell (master), William McNare, Joseph Brown, James Brown, Alpheus Campbell, Angus McDonald, Smith McDonald, William Rogers, Thomas Russell. The tenth differs: book "Woodbury Lewis," register "Woodbury, Lewis" (row 109).
• 1. Woodbury Lewis (book) and Woodbury, Lewis (register, row 109).
• 2. Woodbury Lewis (first name Woodbury, surname Lewis) or Lewis Woodbury (first name Lewis, surname Woodbury). These sources cannot settle it; a careful writer reports both versions and names the source of each.
• 3. "As recorded" means this is the date written in the register, not proof of the day the vessel sank. Neither source explains what Oct. 16 marks. Honest wording: "lost on Western Bank in October 1876; the city register records the date as Oct. 16."
• 4. The register records no residence for any of the ten. Model sentence: "The ten men were born in Nova Scotia, according to the city register, and sailed on a Gloucester schooner; the sources do not say where they lived."
• 5. Two other men, John McMillan (McMillen) and John McAuley, were lost in a dory from the J. F. Allen on April 18 on Grand Bank, on an earlier trip. The register gives them their own rows (46 and 73), so the schooner has 12 rows.
• 6. Probably not the same man. Row 46: age 24, single, born Port Hood, Cape Breton, lost April 18 from the Joseph F. Allen, not the master. Row 79: age 34, married, master of the Saratoga, lost in May. Same name, different men; this shows why names alone are not enough to identify people.
• 7. Register adds: birthplace, marital status, the full vessel name Joseph F., a specific recorded day, ages for the April men. Book adds: tonnage, owner and the value and insurance figures; it also says the April men were lost in a dory. Accept other accurate examples.

A3

• 1. Not statistical (one person, one answer). Fully answerable: row 46 records age 24.
• 2. Statistical (ages vary). Only partly answerable: just 36 of 211 rows record an age (ages range from 20 to 57, and one is recorded as "48 or 44").
• 3. Statistical. Mostly answerable: La Have Bank has 62 rows and Grand Bank 56, but some rows give no place or an uncertain one.
• 4. Statistical. Partly answerable: only 75 rows record a birthplace.
• 5. Not statistical. Not answerable from the table. (A secondary website says Essex in 1867, but that has not been confirmed in a primary source.)
• 6. Statistical (crew sizes vary). Answerable for the 15 vessels with a recorded crew size, with one recorded as "9 or 11."
• 7. Not statistical. Not answerable; no letters or diaries of the crew are known.
• 8. Statistical. Partly answerable: only 69 rows give an exact day, and many dates name two possible months (for example "Dec/Nov") or a range.

A4

• 1. 211 rows. A row is one register entry, usually one person. Row 132 stands for 4 unnamed men of the Ellen Francis. A row is not proof of a separate person: some may be duplicates.
• 2. 12 rows: two in April (rows 46 and 73) and ten on 1876 Oct 16 (rows 100 to 109).
• 3. 69 rows; 69 / 211 = 0.327, about 33 percent.
• 4. La Have Bank 62 and Grand Bank 56. Next: at sea (place not given) 27, Georges Bank 25, Western Bank 15. Check that the chart has a title, labeled axes and categories that match these labels.
• 5. 150 rows. There are 16 vessel names, but "Ellen Francis" and "Ellen Francis/Turner" are the same schooner recorded two ways, so 15 vessels. Students who notice this have done real data cleaning.
• 6. 9 rows record a residence; 75 rows record a birthplace. Residences: Manchester (2 rows, Joseph Fritz and Joseph Fritz Jr. of the Kearsarge); Cape Breton (2 rows); Rockport (Barnard P. Scanlan of the Howard Steele); Beverly; Southport, Maine; Deer Isle, Maine; Mansfield Street.
• 7. Two different men named Charles Anderson (row 44, Fitz J. Babson, April, born Russia; row 137, William T. Merchant, born Nova Scotia) and two men named John McMillen (rows 46 and 79). Names alone cannot identify people; historians use vessel, date, age and birthplace together.
• 8. Accept any question the columns cannot answer, paired with a plausible source: where a vessel was built (lists of merchant vessels, shipbuilding records), what happened in a storm (newspapers from the time), who the men's families were (death and census records, Nova Scotia records).

A5

• 1. 211 rows; one row stands for 4 men, so 214 people, plus the 1 entry left out of the classroom table = 215. The book says 212. They are close but do not match. Possible reasons: duplicates (such as row 61), different counting rules, names added from other sources after 1882 or men the book counted elsewhere.
• 2. 58 rows record "married"; 3 more say "married or widower," "single or married" or "married or single." The book says 54 widows. Close, not equal: marital status is missing in 53 rows, some wives may have died earlier and the two sources used different records.
• 3. 150 rows (153 people, since row 132 stands for 4). The book says 167. Different definitions: the book may count men who died aboard vessels whose crews were partly saved, such as the Henrietta Greenleaf, which the register does not mark as "whole crew lost."
• 4. Western Bank rows: the Joseph F. Allen (10 crew rows); Polar Wave (2) and Restless (2), where men were lost in dories but the book does not list the vessels as lost; and the master of the Ellen Francis, which the register marks as a trading vessel, not a fishing vessel. So only one fishing vessel, the J. F. Allen, was lost in the Western Bank fishery. Both sources can be right.

Rubric

Differentiation

Multilingual learners

• Preteach key words with visuals or gestures: register, vessel, schooner, crew, master, birthplace, residence, homeport, filter, sort.
• Provide a two-column glossary of the abbreviations in Reading 5 with home-language equivalents where possible.
• Give sentence frames: "The register records ___, but it does not say ___." "According to the 1882 book, ___." "This number is a percent of ___."
• Allow students to draft the register report in their home language first, then write the final in English with a partner, or accept a bilingual report.

Students with disabilities

• Provide the R1 comparison chart partly filled in, with the book's names already entered, so students focus on comparing.
• Offer a printed checklist of spreadsheet steps (freeze header, turn on filter, choose a value, read the count at the bottom of the screen, clear filter).
• Reduce A4 to tasks 1, 2, 3 and 5, and A5 to items 1 and 2, while keeping the same core concepts.
• Allow the assessment as an oral report recorded on a device, or as a graphic organizer with labeled evidence boxes.
• All tables can be read by a screen reader in the spreadsheet; directions never depend on color. Enlarge the handout to 150 percent for low vision.

Advanced learners

• Compare the Kearsarge or Saratoga crew lists on page 72 of the Fishermen's Own Book (Internet Archive scan) with their rows in the data sheet, and list every spelling difference.
• Investigate the Janet Middleton: why does the register have 12 rows for a crew of 11? Write a correction request explaining the evidence and what would be needed to confirm it.
• Build a pivot table that counts rows by vessel and by where lost, and write a paragraph about what it shows and does not show.
• Read the Cape Ann Current story on the Joseph F. Allen and evaluate how well it reports uncertainty.

Print, low-bandwidth and extension options

Print: Print the handout and the data sheet (the 211-row table fits on about six pages in landscape). Students sort and filter by hand: highlight with a pencil mark in the margin, count with tally marks and use a calculator for the percent. Give pairs one copy each of the full table and cut-apart strips for the Joseph F. Allen rows.

Low bandwidth: The data sheet is a small file that works offline in Excel or LibreOffice. Download it once; no internet is needed during class. The Internet Archive scans are optional.

Extensions:

• Write a respectful 150-word remembrance for the ten men of the Joseph F. Allen that uses only facts the sources support, and attach a source note.
• Repeat the A4 investigation for another year chosen by the teacher from the Cape Ann Current maritime archive and compare the two years.
• Prepare a correction or question to send to the Gloucester Archives Committee, with evidence, after teacher review.

Google Classroom: ready to paste

Citations and rights

• City of Gloucester Archives Committee, Lost at Sea register (PDF dated July 29, 2010), based on the work of Roberta Sheedy; 1876 entries. https://gloucester-ma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/404/LOST-AT-SEA-DOCUMENT?bidId=. Facts only, cited; table compiled by Cape Ann Current; register pages and compilers' notes not reproduced
• City of Gloucester Archives, Lost at Sea page (scope, completeness statement and abbreviation key). https://gloucester-ma.gov/74/Lost-at-Sea. Facts summarized in Cape Ann Current's words
• Procter Brothers, The Fishermen's Own Book (Gloucester, 1882), pages 70, 72 and 74. https://archive.org/details/fishermensownboo00procrich. Public domain (published 1882)

Lesson text by Cape Ann Current, free to use and adapt under our Free Access and Attribution Policy. Credit: "Source: Cape Ann Current." with a link to https://capeanncurrent.com/classroom/what-a-register-can-tell-us/. Public domain excerpts remain public domain; other sources keep their own terms, listed above. Version 1.0, 2026-10-05. Draft: awaiting classroom teacher review.