September birthdays… and some dirty laundry.

Okay. i’m abit late on this… but here’s September’s birthday list:

• John Nason: 1 September 1585
• Edmund Lockwood: 2 September 1574
• Christian Penn: 2 September 1613
• Abigail Aikin: 9 September 1721
• Jan Bosch: 12 Septemer 1599
• Cpt. Joseph Winchell: 13 September 1670
• Judith Maxon: 17 September 1720
• David Aikin: 19 September 1689
• Mary Smith: 26 September 1796

Three hundred and seventy-seven years ago this month Mayflower passenger, John Billington, was hung for murder. He was, in fact, the first white man hung in North America. He was also my great12  grandfather.  He was know as a ruffian and a “knave” fond of brawling and social turbulence.  The governor at the time, William Bradford, had an obvious distaste for the Billington family and wrote the following about John Billington in The History of Plymouth Colony:

    This year John Billington the elder, one of those who came over first, was arraigned, and both by grand and petty jury found guilty of willful murder by plain and notorious evidence, and was accordingly executed. This, the first execution among them was a great sadness to them. They took all possible pains in the trial, and consulted Mr. Winthrop, and the other leading men at the Bay of Massachusetts recently arrived, who concurred with them that he ought to die, and the land be purged of blood. He and some of his relatives had often been punished for misconduct before, being one of the profanest families among them. They came from London, and I know not by what influence they were shuffled into the first body of settlers. The charge against him was that he waylaid a young man, one John Newcomin, about a former quarrel, and shot him with a gun, whereof he died.

 Four years after John’s death, his son Francis married Christian Penn, who was born on September 2nd, 1613. It has been suggested that Christian’s cousin was Admiral William Penn, whose son, William, founded Pennsylvania. When Christian married Francis she was already a widow. Her new husband was likely not well received in the community, being the son of John the murderer, which makes one wonder why she would chose to marry him. Perhaps it was love? or perhaps a necessity to not be a widow supporting four children without support? We’ll never know. Here’s what we do know about her:

• she came to Plymouth aboard the “Anne” in 1623

• she was first married to Francis Eaton in 1624/25

• she married Francis Billington in 1634

• into her new marriage she brought 3 of her own children and one step-child from her deceased husbands first marriage.

• She had nine children with Francis Billington. Seven survived into adulthood.

• On December 4th, 1638 her husband Francis was fined for “drinking tobaccoe in the heighway”.

• In 1642, according to the records of the town of Plymouth, several (at least 5) of her children were “bound out” to other families.  This included Mary, my great10 grandmother at age five, and Joseph, who apparently ran away from his foster parents to return to his birth parents, Francis & Christian. It is written that they turned him away quite sternly. According to court documents of the time, Francis and Christian and step-son Benjamin were to be put into the stocks if they received run-away Joseph into their home.

• Between the years 1644-1650 death took two of her young children in a row (one is un-named or unknown, the other was Rebecca).

• In February 1665  her house burned down. Necessities were “collected for the Releife of ffrancis Billington hee haveing lately suffered great lose by the burning of his house“. Records of the Town of Plymouth, Vol. 1, p. 83.

• On June 7th, 1672 Christian’s daughter, Dorcas, was whipped for committing fornication (probably for being pregnant and unmarried). She had an illegitimate son that same year.

• In 1676 Christian’s  son-in-law, Robert Beere, was killed by Indians. (Her daughter Elizabeth’s next husband, Thomas Patey, drowned in the Seekonk River in 1695).

• In 1680 Christian’s daughter-in-law, Grace (wife to Joseph), was brought to stand before the courts, a second time, for theft. Joseph was ordered numerous times to find a job and support his family. He had the reputation of being a “lay-about”. Perhaps this was fueled by his anger at being “bound out” to another family.

• The final thing we know about Christian Penn Billington was that she died in 1684 at Middleboro, MA.

I can’t help but think that Christian’s story is a sad one. It started out with such grand adventure… leaving England for worlds unknown. I doubt she could’ve imagined how her life would end up. I hope there was some happiness in it. But happiness probably didn’t come easy when you married into, what Govenor Bradford called, “one of the profanest families among them“.

 

Bethelda Hannah Gavel

So, for a very long time now, I’ve been searching for the parents of Bethelda Hannah Gavel… my great great Gramma. I’ve had leads, but there was no certainty in them… until last night.

Searching through the Nova Scotia online archival database I found nothing by way of the name Bethelda Hannah Gavel… so I decided to just put the name Gavel in and sift through countless entries. It paid off. She was listed as Bethuld. And her parents, my newly discovered great great great Grandparents are Jacob William Gavel and Elizabeth Spavold (although the in the hand written archives it looks more like Spavil….).

This has opened up a whole barrage of new ancestors… a great many of them named Sarah, not surprisingly.

There will certainly be more to follow…

Bears, Grey Howlers and the Women Who Faced Them

A “reprint” from October 3rd, old blog…All my life I’ve been afraid of mice. Little scurrying creatures that some people describe as cute, I fear them like nothing else. I am a little embarrassed about this, especially when I read about some of my past grandmothers who faced much larger creatures head on. On the 1st of January 1698/99 my Great9 Grandfather, Samuel Smith, wrote a letter to his son, my Great8 Grandfather, Ichabod Smith. In the letter he describes what life was like for him as a child and a young man. After the Red Skins, the great terror of our lives at Weathersfield, and for many years after we had moved to Hadley to live, was the wolves. Catamounts were bad eno’ and so was the bears, but it was the wolves that was the worst. The noise of their howlings was eno’ to curdle the blood of the stoutest and I have never seen the man that did not shiver at the sound of a pack of them… My Mother and Sister did each of them kill more than one of the gray howlers and once my oldest sister shot a bear that came too near the house. He was a good fat one and kept us all in meat for a good while. I guess one of her daughters has got the skin.   Samuel never says that he, or any man in his family, killed a bear or a wolf or a catamount (mountain lion), only his sisters and his mother Dorothy (my Great10 Grandmother) are mentioned. In fact, throughout all of my family research I have no outstanding mention of man against beast.  Perhaps this was because it was a common occurance for men, but that certainly does not take away from the courage and strength these women must have possessed. The women cared for the home, and that included keeping the big bads away. More recently, my Great3 Grandmother, Lydia Mosher Beyea (1827-1892), bravely faced a beast. She was described as a “miniature woman” who could stand erect beneath her husbands outstretched arms. Her husband, John Beyea, was 6′2″… I’m sure they made an interesting looking pair. According to the Beyea Genealogy, compiled by Maurice E. Peck:  On one occasion, shortly after their marriage, she [Lydia] chased a bear away from their sheep with a broom. Lydia and John were married on the 27th of December 1846. So, if I share DNA with these women, if our blood is connected through time, then why am I afraid of mice? I’m sure Dorothy and Lydia and all my past grandmothers bravely faced many a mouse with indifference. As a final note, in my life I have had one recurring dream. I have it about once a year. In it I face a bear. A “reprint” from October 18th, old blog, (posted just after returning from NB)… I should mention that Karl Beyea helped contribute to Maurice E. Peck’s Beyea Genealogy. He contributed the story of Lydia chasing the bear away from the family sheep that I commented about in my October 3rd blog. When Karl’s mother read through the book for the first time she told him he had made an error. Lydia wasn’t chasing the bear away from sheep, it was the family pigs she was protecting.

 

August birthdays and the name Van Kleek

Well, it’s the least busiest month for birthdays. Just three days in August cover the birthdates of our ancestors and no direct grandparents were born in August after 1703. Maybe the gloomy November grey skys have something to do with that? Regardless, here’s our list for this months ancestral birthdays:

• Baltus B. Van Kleek: 6 August 1645
• Jan Cornelius Buys: 20 August 1629
• Ebenezer Jones: 20 August 1646
• Elizabeth Salter: 26 August 1610
• Jeremiah Sabin: 26 August 1703

Baltus Berensten Van Kleek was born in Haarlem Holland and sailed across the Atlantic, likely with his parents and siblings, to start a new life. We are unsure of his age when her landed in the New World. He was listed in the Flatbush, NY assessment rolls on the 22nd of August 1675, his 30th year. Eventually he made his way to Poughkeepsie NY.  There he built a stone house in 1702 . On the stone lintel above the door he carved “1702 B VK T VK” the date of the completion of the house and his and his wife’s initials (Baltus & Tryntje). The house was torn down in 1835 to make way for progress but the stone lintel was saved by the family and can, apparently,  still be seen in Poughkeepsie.

Although I have listed him as Baltus B. Van Kleek, his father was named Barent Baltus van der Lippstadt. There was no Van Kleek associated with his name. So where does the name Van Kleek come from?

To this day there really is no answer.

Some say that the name Van Kleek first shows up in Holland in 1651 when Baltus’ stepbrother uses it for his son Peter. Others say that Baltus himself first formally adopts the name it in 1685 for his 6th child Peter. Whoever did decide to use it first left no indication why they chose the name.

Van Kleek it is not a familiar name in Holland and it is not associated with any town or diocese or location. Perhaps it is a descriptive word adopted to represent the family, in the same way that Fisher or Miller or Short would be used. According to a sixteenth century Dutch-Latin dictionary ‘kleeck’ is given as meaning a crack, a slap or a blow. An odd, and rather violent, choice of word for a last name. Perhaps the little baby Peter made some sort of cute slapping gesture that would be the genesis of a proud family name. It seems that the person responsible for picking the name, Van Kleek, took that secret to their grave.

In the book, The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova writes:

“…I like a puzzle. So does every scholar worth his salt. It’s the reward… to look history in the eye and say, ‘I know who you are. You can’t fool me’”.

Genealogy really is a constant puzzle. I’m determined to discover all the answers… the name Van Kleek is no exception. I’ll just have to add it to my list.

Takes all my nice kisses…

This was originally published on my old blog on the 4th of October 2006… On the 13th of January 1928, my Great Uncle Keith was born. Four days after that my Gramma, Ewilda Elizabeth Beyea, celebrated her 6th birthday. For almost 6 years (apart from the 5+ months when little baby Warren Clayton Eldon graced their lives) Gramma had been the youngest child of six, just two years younger than big sister Ruth. So when Keith entered the picture my Gramma, often called Ibby when she was young, was none too thrilled. In jest, her Grandfather, James Henry Beyea, wrote a little poem to reflect Ibby’s feelings: Mother’s got a baby, little bit of a thing. Think I could almost put him thru me rubber ring. Ain’t he awful little, ain’t he awful pink, Just come down from Heaven that’s a fib, I think. Doctor told another great big awful lie, My nose ain’t out of joint that ain’t why I cry. Send me off with Ruthie every single day, “Be a good girl Ibby run away and play”. Takes all my nice kisses takes my place in bed, I think I’ll take the poker stick and hit him over the head.   My Gramma recited this poem to me on what would be my last summer visit with her, in August 2004. My 16 month old daughter, Grace, (Gramma’s first great granddaughter) was also there. I wondered if this was how Grace might feel about a sibling. Later that month I became pregnant with my second child.

Indigenous

Years ago, before I had ever really dappled with genealogy, I came across a little poem.  It captured my attention, mostly because of one little line… something about being born 4 days apart. My Gramma was born on January 17th. I was born on the 21st. I liked the sound of the poem and the connection, so I wrote it down in my book of favourite quotes and poems.

The little book is filled with great words from Victor Hugo, Phil Ochs, Tennyson, Ghandi, Christine de Pisan, the Psalms… a wonderful assortment of inspirational words all sorted out and dazzling with meaning.  Yesterday I pulled out the book again… for some inspiration. Amongst the heavyweights of the poetic world I rediscovered this little poem. I read it in a whole new light… as a genealogist. It seems I was meant to wait this long for it’s true meaning to shine through. Today, it makes more sense than ever to share it with you…

INDIGENOUS

Searching your family tree,

The facts puzzled

in layered pieces.

Relative association;

Our surnames shared,

we were born

four days/one lifetime

apart/together.

Discovery

of her leaf and branch

draws me

to the forest clearing.

Affinity guided;

Each step a brush with life.

Hers.

Mine.

Close enough,

Long enough,

to see my own reflection

in your grandmother’s eyes.

Jill Meriel Fox             

 

 

July birthdays and the boys names list

It’s Canada’s birthday! It’s also time to remember the July birthdays of the following grandparents:

• Elizabeth Hathorne: 5 July 1649
• Sarah Taylor: 6 July 1679
• Martha Curry Sherwood: 12 July 1765
• Annie Elizabeth Barr: 18 July 1887
• Lydia L. Mosher: 19 July 1827
• Samuel Doty: 25 July 1759
• Phoebe Sophia Smith: 25 July 1856
• Richard Ormsby: 28 July 1602
• Bethia Maxon: 31 July 1693

Surprisingly only two men on the July list… both with popular family names. Samuel is #8 on the list & Richard hits the bronze spot with #3. Here’s the rest of the list:

I should mention that these lists include only ancestors from my Gramma’s side. This does not include the Fisher side (because what I have, presently, is so limited). The most popular boys name on the Fisher side, as far as I can tell, is John (John Marshall, in fact)… and the same goes for the following list:

1. John (57)
2. Thomas (32)
3. Richard (25)
4. William (24)
5. Robert (15)
6. Henry & James (13)
7. Joseph (10)
8. Johannes & Samuel (
9. Jan (6)
10. Cornelius, Isaac, Jonathan & Nicholas (5)
11. David, Edward, Michael/Michiel, Peter (4)
12. Nathaniel (3)

Nothing too surprising there. Some people may be surprised to see the high amount of Dutch names. We have a pretty extensive Dutch side and they didn’t get too creative with their names. I personally love alot of those names (is that genetically ingrained in me?). Had our Bridget been a boy, she would have been Samuel… and Kevin has lately said if we were ever to have a boy now, he’d fight for the name Isaac. (Although, please note that we plan on having NO more children!).

With summer in full swing, my busiest time at work begins! So, in the next little while I will be reposting some of my old entries from my old blog site, before it went south. To some it will be a repeat (hopefully worth re-reading), to others it’s a chance to see what you missed. For me it will be a chance to look like I’m doing something without feeling guilty for doing nothing. Such is life.

So let’s hear it agian, “Happy weekend Canada!”… I’m still proud to be a Loyalist!

June Birthdays and popular names…

Welcome to June, and the transition from Spring to Summer. As predicted I have a birthday list for you. Interesting to note that there was only one direct ancestors born in June after 1692 and it’s the second smallest birthday list of the year. Even in my family today, I have only one cousin born in June. Regardless of all that, here’s the list:

•  Sarah Upham: 4 June 1610
• Sarah Allen: 6 June 1692
• Israel Sabin: 8 June 1673
• Joseph Galpin: 17 June 1652
• John A. Mullen: 18 June 1782
• John Batchelder: 23 June 1650
• Mary Endicott: 23 June 1668

Usually at this point I write a little ditty about one of the above names. There are 2 Sarah’s in this list and it occured to me that I could write about a 3rd Sarah in a row. Perhaps, though, I might appear a tad ego-centric, so I’ve come up with a different plan. Why so many Sarah’s in the family tree? Is it the most popular girls name in the family? What are the most popular names? Well I’m here to tell you… (keep in mind this list contains only the names of direct grandmothers… and it is followed the amount that carried that name). So the #1 name is:

1. Mary/Marie/Maria (33)
2. Elizabeth (25)
3. Sarah (13)
4. Margaret/Margarita (12)
5. Agnes/Agnetta ( & Ann/Anna/Annie (
6. Alice (7)
7. Martha (6)
8. Katherine/Catherine/Catryntje (5) & Joan/Joane (5)
9. Dorcas & Eleanor & Judith & Rachel (4)
10. Aeltje & Bethia/Bethiah & Edith/Editha & Isabella & Jane/Jaine & Lydia & Phoebe & Rebecca & Ruth & Susanna (3)

Certainly some interesting names! Perhaps some of my kid-free cousins could consider some of these ancestral names when the time comes?!… And in case you think you’ll be having  boys, I’ll post that list asap!

May birthdays… and another Sarah

Well, I was hoping to have this listed yesterday… as it was the first day of a May ancestral birthday. So to make it up to Sarah Brooks, I’ll pass on all I know of her.

Actually it isn’t much. She was born on May 4th, 1658 in Springfield, MA. She had at least 16 siblings. Her father had come from London on the ship, “Blessing”, in 1635, and eventually settled in Springfield (moving to Deerfield MA near the end of his life).

It was a dangerous time to be living in that area. Native dissent was at it’s peak. A gruesome and devastating war, known as King Philip’s War, had everyone fearing for their lives. Sarah’s family was particularily struck hard. On October 5th, 1675 (Sarah would have been 17) Springfield was burned down by the natives. The town lost everything, including the sawmill and the gristmill, so residents had to carry their grain 10 miles to Westfield for grinding. According to the diary of Rev. Edward Taylor, Sarah’s two oldest brothers, William and John, were killed by natives on the 27th of October while visiting Westfield.

A few years later, on July 11th, 1678, Sarah married Jonathan Taylor and by 1680 they had moved to Suffield, CT. Their union produced three daughters: Sarah (my ancestory), Mary and Mercy. According to the records their middle daughter, Mary, died in 1692 at the age of eight.

But the tragedy did not end there. Years later, on the 29th of February 1703/04, Sarah’s younger brother Nathaniel, of Deerfield, MA, and his wife and two children were captured during a French/Indian raid. The town was burned and 112 residents were taken captive and marched 300+ miles to Quebec. Nathaniel’s wife, Mary, died on route (miscarried) and the two children, Mary (7)  and William (6) were separated from Nathaniel and never returned. Nathaniel, himself, was released four years later in 1707 and returned to Deerfield MA alone.

 Sarah died at Suffield CT on the 6th of January 1733 at age 74, with grandchildren and great grandchildren to carry on her legacy and name.

The Birthday List…

• Sarah Brooks: 4 May 1658
• Samuel Hubbard: 10 May 1610
• Resolved Waldron: 10 May 1610
• Nicholas Knapp: 16 May 1592
• Samuel Jr. Balch: 16 May 1678
• (Robert) Henry Barr: 16 May 1860
• Gilbert Hatfield Dykeman: 17 May 1769
• Sophia Beyea: 18 May 1808
• Bridget Eilidh Fisher Langille: 19 May 2005
• Gerard Spencer: 20 May 1576
• Richard Bull: 29 May 1743

Sarah Wells

So much has been said about the stunning Sarah Wells… Her early life is well documented. At 18 she travelled bravely through uncharted New England land, at the whim of her guardian, with only Indian guides and a few carpenters guiding her way. She did this without complaint and, seemingly, without fear. As a reward her guardian Christopher Denn shared 100 acres of claimed land with her.

Her story is legendary. And I cannot do it justice here. If you are her descendant, and even if you are not, you owe it to yourself to read a more interesting account listed here:  http://www.nickell.tierranet.com/bulllore.htm

 But for a woman who lived to be 102, her teen years were a relatively small portion of her life. It was her years as a young mother that took a larger part of her time. 

Sarah and William had 12 children. Their oldest was born on the 3rd of May, 1721 and their youngest was born on the 4th of March, 1745. That’s 24 years of childbearing. Sarah was one month and two days short of turning 51 when the youngest little Eleanor was born. Remarkable, especially considering the risk of childbirth in those times. Five of the twelve children were born in May. My own Great6 Grandfather, Richard, was born on his twelve year old sister, Esther’s, birthday on the 29th of May 1743. If they did celebrate birthdays May would have been a festive month!

Sarah Wells lived to be 102. She outlived four of her children: William(d.1759), Richard my Great6 grandfather (d.1785), Isaac, and Esther. These last two died on the same day: August 11th, 1794. Sarah would have been 100 years old. What a blow to loose two of your children… and on the same day! Sarah, herself, passed away on the 21st of April 1796. Her fifth daughter, Catherine, died five days later.

When Sarah passed on she left behind her remaining children, 98 grandchildren, 212 great grandchildren and 13 great great grandchildren. What a legacy! Add the 12 children to those numbers and you have 335 descendants that lived during her lifetime! Can you imagine trying to remember all those names?!

I am a descendant of Sarah’s through her youngest son Richard. In 1783 he gathered his red-headed wife Jemima and their four children and boarded the “Sally” as United Empire Loyalists. What would his mother have thought? How did she feel about the American Revolution? Were there tearful goodbyes or did they leave silently without incident? 

My Great5 Grandmother, Elizabeth Bull (Smith), was 8 years old when she boarded the ship leading to a new country and a new exsistence. She was old enough to remember her grandmother. I wonder if she thought of her grandmother as she held in her arms her very first daugther born 5 months and 5 days after the passing of Sarah Wells. This new little great granddaughter was my red-haired Great4 Grandmother Mary Smith. I have a copy of her picture and I wonder if she shares any resemblance to Elizabeth or Jemima or even her Great Grandmother Sarah Wells. The description that Samuel W. EAger gives of Sarah Wells is this:

Her eyes were… dark, playful and sparkling…When excited to reply to some rude remark or impertinent inquiry, her eyes would flash like fire, and the presumptuous intruder was sure to be wounded in the conflict, and carry the scar home with him for reflection.

The red hair of Jemima Budd Bull and Mary Smith still plays a prominent role in my family, but what really excites me is the description of Sarah Wells eyes. I have dark brown eyes and so do both of my daughters. I’ve seen those playful, sparkling eyes… and the flash of fire too!

I am proud to be a descendant of Sarah Wells, and I like to think that I can see a bit of her spirit in my daughters eyes.

Sarah

ps. thank to Michael Brown for sending me a wonderful array of information regarding Sarah & William. We are true cousins. And thank you to the Bull Stone House web site, http://www.bullhouse.org/, and the wonderful people that frequent the message board. Cheers!