New Boston Historical Society
New Boston, New Hampshire

Carolyn Agenjo
Carolyn Agenjo (1941-2021)

Carolyn Agenjo and the Smith Family Website
Documenting the family of Lt. Thomas Smith, New Boston's first settler

In 1734 or 1735, Thomas Smith became the first person of European descent to settle the land that is now New Boston. 270 years later (or seven generations) Thomas's 5th-great-grandaughter Carolyn Smith Agenjo created the Smith Family Website to document the story of Thomas Smith and his descendants. After Carolyn passed in 2021, her family asked the Historical Society to help preserve the contents of Carolyn's website.

Who was Thomas Smith?

Lt. Thomas Smith (1688-1768) was born in Londonderry Ireland and emigrated to New Hampshire in the early 1700s. Around 1735 he moved from Chester NH to New Boston. Thomas and his wife Mary Ann Karr had four sons: John, Samuel, James, and Reuben. They may have had daughters, too — that is a question that the Historical Society hopes to answer some day.

Byron Smith, whom we believe to be the last of Thomas Smith's descendants to live in New Boston, was descended from John Smith. Byron lived until the 1940s at the Great Meadow Farm built by Thomas (or one of his sons) two centuries earlier. Carolyn Agenjo was a descendant of Thomas Smith's son Samuel.

Who was Carolyn Smith Agenjo?

Carolyn Agenjo was the daughter of Earl and Dorothea (Yates) Smith. She worked at the West Islip (NY) Public Library, first as a volunteer and later as the Director of Computer Services. Carolyn taught herself HTML, the computer language which defines web pages, and created the first public library web page in Suffolk County. She installed the library's computer network, pulling cables herself when necessary, and later upgraded to wireless technology.

library photo
Carolyn at work — West Islip Public Library photo

Carolyn and her husband Robert J. Agenjo had three children, Frederick, Debra, and Darlene. Darlene wrote to us: "Mom has been interested in family history and genealogy for a few decades now. I can't remember what actually started it, but she got bit by the bug and kept going. She was very thorough and her passion to find and preserve the information was amazing. She was a true historian. She most loved sharing every scrap of info, photo, etc she could find. Her goal was always to connect the dots, then share to keep the history alive."

Carolyn's "Smith Family Website" was one of the first websites about New Boston history, which is why the Historical Society created this page in her memory. Carolyn visited New Boston in 2003; when you explore her website you'll notice that her cemetery photos show gravestones in a better state of preservation than they are today.
Click here to enter Carolyn Agenjo's
Smith Family Website
Please note: This copy of Carolyn's website www.smithfamilypages.org was created in 2022 by the New Boston Historical Society with the permission of Carolyn's family and will not be updated. For up-to-date Smith Family genealogy please visit Roots of Eoghann, which is managed by Carolyn's cousin. The website requires a no-charge registration to access its contents.

Further reading:
New Boston in the 1700s (Historical Society)
New Boston Cemetery (Historical Society)
New Boston Cemetery (FindAGrave)
Smith/North Side Cemetery (FindAGrave)
Colburn-Balch Cemetery (FindAGrave)
Thomas Smith in the History of Chester p.593 (Benjamin Chase, 1869)
Thomas Smith in the History of New Boston p.349 (Elliott Cogswell, 1864)