Samuel Boardman's book about the Boardman descendants gives John's a birth date of Dec 14, 1829 in Newmarket, New Hampshire and we find John in the 1850 census in Lowell prior to his marriage working as a manufacturer.
By 1860 we find John and Mary in Andover, Mass with three children: Henry G, Charles W, and Ida L. where he is working as a machinist but he moved to Concord by 1867 where he worked as an overseer of a carding room and lists his home in Fisherville that year when he was exalted into the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of New Hampshire.
By 1870 the family has grown significantly - the census lists John working as a life insurance agent with property value of $2,500 with children Henry J, age 15, Charles W, age 12, Alice, age 10, Fred, age 8; Burt, age 6, Mary, age 4; and Frank age 1. We believe that daughter Ida L is living with Mary Jane's sister Clara Batchelder in Massachusetts.
The early 1870s show John living at Valley near Forest in Concord working as a life insurance agent working for Phoenix Mutal Life Insurance Company out of Hartford, Connecticut but by 1877 he is listed in the City of Concord Annual Report as a city pauper who received $14.00 from the city and by the 1880 census, the children who are not old enough to be living on their own are either in orphanages or living in other family homes working as servants or laborers. We have not found an 1880 census listing John.
Our next record of John is a record of his death on September 22, 1892 at the age of 62 in Lowell. He is listed as widowed although his wife Mary Jane was still living. His cause of death was due to paralysis -- we do not know when the paralysis occurred nor what caused the change in the family's living situation in the 1870s.
We think we found Mary Jane in the 1880 census in Concord with her youngest son Harry Shackford, age five but that census oddly states that this Mary Shackford was born in England and the father of Harry was born in Canada. We suspect that she was trying to hide from authorities but she or someone from the family had to answer the door when a census taker showed up so they made up the responses. We do know that Mary Jane started working as a nurse in Concord in the 1880s and moved from Valley to 59 N Spring in Concord, then to 18 Pearl St. In 1900, we find her with son Alfred Laurent in Worcester, Massachusetts on June 1, 1900 and on June 8, 1900 at the Old Ladies' Home on 96 Pleasant. Both censuses state that she had eleven children, ten of which were still living (he eldest son Henry was the first child to die). Mary died on April 2, 1901 at the Institution Home for the Aged in 1901 of a cerebral hemorrhage. According to city records, the city of Concord or her estate paid $3.00 for her burial at the Blossom Hill Cemetery.
CHILDREN:
Henry Gardiner Shackford (1855-1884) - butcher in Concord, teamster, mason in Lowell, married Ida Louella Leighton
Charles Wilbur Shackford (1858-1912) - moved to Brooklyn New York where he became superintendent of Chelsea Jute Mills, married Amelia Myrtle Blow
Ida Lulu Shackford (1859-1965) - married Alpha Turner Dunn, lived in St Paul MN, Malden, MA, then settled in Portland, Maine
Alice M Shackford (1861-1920) - married Charles W Moore, lived in Lowell, MA
Alfred Laurent Shackford (1863-1953) - florist in Concord, NH; moved to Worcester, MA, believe he changed his name to Alfred Lawrence, married Elizabeth Pope
Mary Annette Shackford (1865-1934) - never married, worked as housekeeper, servant, and seamstress in Leominster MA, Concord, NH, Epsom, NH, died at New Hampshire State Hospital
Albert Louis Shackford (1867-1941) - moved to Brooklyn, NY where he worked as electrician and engineer, married Jessica Speed
Frank Arthur Shackford (1868-1935) - served in Spanish-American War, moved to Brooklyn New York where he worked as a mason, married Maime Deutche
Clara Edith Shackford (1870-1941) - married Albert E Spaulding, lived in Boston, Lyndonville, VT, and New Haven, CT
John Leon Shackford (1872-1960) - married (1) Emma L Dodge and (2) Caroline Jenette Miller, worked various jobs
Walter Harold Shackford (1874-1937) - married (1) Alice V Hughes (2) Sophia May Milsaps, enlisted in US Army, worked as State Prison, Concord NH, switchman at the railroad in Kansas and settled in California
SOURCES: (only includes sources for John and Mary J, those for their eleven children will appear in articles about each child)
1850 United States Federal Census, Middlesex, Massachusetts, population schedule, Lowell, page 543 (penned, calculated from previous page), dwelling 738, family 903, John Shackford; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 May 2015).
1860 United States Federal Census, Merrimack County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Andover, Page No 23, dwelling 470, family 470, John L Shackford; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 January 2014).
1870 United States Federal Census, Merrimack County, New Hampshire, population schedule, Concord, Page No 57-58, dwelling 440, family 542, John L Shackford; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 May 2015).
1880 United States Federal Census, Merrimack County, population schedule, Concord, enumeration district (ED) Enumeration District No 170, Page No 38, Valley St, dwelling 332, family 421, Mary Shackforda; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 May 2015).
1900 United States Federal Census, Merrimack County, New Hampshire, population schedule, Concord, enumeration district (ED) Enumeration District No 154, Sheet No 7, O N Messant Street,, Mary J Shackford; digital images, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : accessed 11 May 2015).
1901. Forty-ninth Annual Report of the Receipts and Expenditures of the City of Concord for the Year Ending December 31, 1901, Together with other Annual Reports and Papers Relating to the Affars of the City (Concord, N. H.: Rumford Printing Co, 1906), page 444-448; digital images, Google Books (https://books.google.com : accessed 5 June 2015
Boardman Samuel Lane, 1836-1914, Family memorial: records of the Boreman, Bordman and Boardman families of New Hampshire and Maine (Augusta, Maine: no date given, before 1876), page 57; digital image, Archive.org (https://archive.org : accessed 13 April 2015
Concord City and Merrimack County Directory For 1900-01, Containing A General Directory of Each City or Town by Itself, ... (Boston, Mass: Union Publishing Co, 1900), page 234, Mrs Mary J Shackford; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 June 2015).
The Concord Directory for 1874-5; Containing a General Directory of the Inhabitants, and a Business Directory of Concord, Fisherville and Boscawen Village; City and County Registers, Map, Etc., Etc. (Concord:n.p., 1874), page 132, John L Shackford; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 May 2015
The Concord Directory Containing a General Directory of the Inhabitants, Institutions, Public Offices, Business, Societies State Census, Map, &c., &c. No 10 (Boston: W. A. Greenough & Co, 1885), page 170-171, Mrs Mary Shackford; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 May 2015).
"DEATHS.," Lowell Sun (Lowell Massachusetts), 26 September 1892; digital images, Newspaper Archives (http://access.newspaperarchives.com : accessed 12 May 2015).
Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Deaths, 1841-1915, DEATHS REGISTERED in the City of Lowell for the Year eighteen hundred and ninety-two, page 413, John L. Shackford, death, 22 September 1892; digital images, Family Search (http://familysearch.org : accessed 11 August 2013).
Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Marriages, 1841-1915, MARRIAGES REGISTERED in the City of Lowell for the year, 1854, John L Shackford m Mary J Rollins, 18 March 1854; digital images, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 31 March 2014)
Proceedings of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of New Hampshire from the Annual Convocation Held June 8th, 1857 to the Annual Convocation Held June 11th, 1867. Volume II (Manchester: W E Moore, 1896), page 459; digital images, Google Books (https://books.google.com : accessed 12 May 2015
Report of the State Treasurer of the State of New Hampshire for the Fiscal Year Ending May 31, 1872 (Manchester: James M Campbell, State Printer, 1872), page 183; digital images, Google Books (http://books.google.com : accessed 23 May 2015
The Twenty-Fourth Annual Report of the Receipts and Expenditures of the City of Concord for the Fiscal Year Ending February 1, 1877, Together with Other Annual Reports and Papers Relating to the Affairs of the City (Concord, N.H.: Republican Press Association, 1877), page 72; digital images, Google Books (https://books.google.com : accessed 11 May 2015.