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For those who have been following my travel blogs, you will be aware of my trips in search of ancestors (see
Solving a Mystery In My Devon Ancestry and
My Old Way Pilgrimage to Canterbury). This theme gives me a personal perspective on the towns I visit and gets me off the tourist trail with its crowds and check off lists. In preparing for our trip to visit locations of our Scottish ancestors, and given the Covid-19 related lock-downs that lasted over a year, I had plenty of time to do a deep dive on Linda's and my ancestors going back five hundred years and more. I currently have almost 10,000 ancestors in our tree, and that is mostly the direct bloodline without aunts, uncles and cousins other than recent generations. In doing so, I was able to identify many ancestors who immigrated to the North American colonies during the 1600 and 1700's prior to the American Revolution.
My grandmother Anna Elizabeth Weaver proved to be a gold mine for colonial ancestors, with 105 who arrived to the New World between 1607 and 1776. These include the English who first settled Jamestown in 1607 who spread west to the Appalachian Mountains and south to the Carolinas; then the Pilgrims who came
to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620, and the Puritans who founded towns north of Plymouth who spread west across the state and south to found towns in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Long Island, New York; the Dutch who colonized New Netherlands in the Hudson River Valley and New Amsterdam on Manhattan in 1624; the Swedes who colonized New Sweden in 1638 in the lower Delaware River Valley, who were in turn absorbed by the Dutch and then the English in 1667, with many then moving west across Pennsylvania; and the Scottish Covenantors, English Quakers and Baptists, the French Huguenots, and the Swiss and German Moravians and Mennonites, all who were persecuted for the religious views in their home countries so took refuge in the new colony of Pennsylvania. My other three grandparents ancestors arrived in the United States and Canada in the 1800s from Norway and England, respectively.
On Linda's side, 46 of her father's paternal ancestors from England, Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands arrived prior to the American Revolution seeking liberty, economic relief and opportunities for a better future. His maternal ancestors arrived in America from Poland in 1888. Linda's maternal grandparents arrived in America from Slovakia in 1918.
Our colonial ancestors founded towns from Maine, Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Plymouth Colony, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New Amsterdam(New York), Pennsylvania, the New Sweden Colony and New Castle, Delaware; the Gunpowder River Colony in Maryland; and the Jamestown Colony in Virginia. As I planned our trip to the northeast and mid-Atlantic states, I realized that we wouldn't have time to visit every little town that was started by our ancestors, so would concentrate on the more interesting places and branches of our family tree.
As my oldest daughter and her family were now living with us until at least October 2021, we also had pet sitters that allowed Linda and me to travel together. With our trip to Scotland to visit our ancestral homeland there delayed until late August and early September 2021 (now delayed until Jun 2022), this provided us with an opportunity to visit our daughter Rosanna and her family in Connecticut and Linda's family in western Pennsylvania, and to visit the towns along the way where our colonial ancestors lived. So with both of us receiving our Covid-19 vaccines, we booked our flight to Connecticut departing on 26 April 2021.
26 - 30 Apr 2021 Monday through Friday. We had an uneventful flight via DFW to LGA where Evan picked us up at 10:15 PM and drove us to Ridgefield CT. We spent the week getting involved in the family daily routines...Rosanna getting her second Covid shot, picking up Connor at school, doing the gardening by digging the edges of the garden beds (I raked and bagged leaves), watching TV including all 8 episodes of "Men in Kilts," and celebrating Linda's birthday. We had a great time relaxing and getting to know our grandchildren. Then it was time for Rosanna, Linda and I to search for ancestors.
1-2 May 2021 Saturday and Sunday. We left Ridgefield at 10 AM and followed the CT coast to Watch Hill RI. No ancestors there, but Rosanna wanted to see Taylor Swift's beach "home." We then continued to Newport for lunch and drive by the many mansions and the Ocean Drive. Our last stop was Cape Cod where we checked into the Village Inn at Yarmouth...a beautiful B&B run by an Irishman. We had several hours before dinner, so we walked along Mayflower Beach collecting rocks for Connor and Logan...no seashells. Dinner was at the
Old Yarmouth Inn, the oldest tavern on Cape Cod built in 1690. The food was delicious.
Our first stop on Sunday morning was Plymouth Colony, a replica of the village built by the Pilgrims. We listened to the reenactors telling us stories of what it was like to live there. Our next stop was to board the full scale replica of the Mayflower. I couldn't imagine 102 people living together with animals below deck without fresh air for the two month voyage and then another three months until they could move ashore as Spring arrived and houses were built.
I have two ancestors who arrived in Plymouth aboard the Mayflower in 1620. John Clarke was the 1st Mate/Pilot (10th great grandfather) and his son, Thomas (9th great grandfather) was a member of the crew. Neither were Pilgrims who were Separatists as distinct from the Puritans. Separatists believed that they should completely separate from the Church of England as it was a lost cause, while the Puritans believed they could reform the Church from within. John was very familiar with the Caribbean, where he had been a privateer, and the east coast of North America, having participated in the
colonization of Jamestown as captain of a resupply ship in 1609. Clark's Island in Duxbury Bay is named for John as he was the first to explore the island as a possible site for their colony. However, there wasn't enough water, so they settled at the present site of Plymouth. There wasn't much water there either so never thrived as did the other towns which were at the mouth of major rivers. After the first winter when half the Pilgrims died, John and Thomas returned to England for supplies. Upon their return, Thomas remained in Plymouth, but John preferred Jamestown so continued there. Thomas made the right choice. He married Susanna Ring (9th great grandmother) and they both lived into their 90's. John, however, was killed by Powhatan, along with 346 other colonists, in the Jamestown Massacre of 1622.
Linda has three ancestors who were early Pilgrims; Catherine Holdrick (9th great grandmother) (her husband Robert Finney was lost at sea during the crossing), and her son, John Edmund Finney and his wife Christiana Patten (8th great grandparents), all who arrived at Plymouth in 1637. They were Quakers, whose doctrines and religious practices were far beyond the bounds that other
dissidents could accept. They rejected the fundamentals of Christianity and engaged in outrageous behavior, with one woman parading nude through the streets of Boston. Even Roger Williams belief in freedom of religion was put to the test whether to accept this sect into Rhode Island. Quakers eventually found a home in Pennsylvania, established by Quaker William Penn. More about this is my next blog.
I had wanted to visit the burial ground to find the tombstones of these ancestors, but Rosanna and Linda wanted to press on. Our next and final stop of the day was Windsor CT, the first settlement in Connecticut by the English in the 1630's. Pilgrims went from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to settle this town because the Dutch in New Amsterdam had just set up a trading post just south where Hartford is now located. Linda has two ancestors, Thomas Moore and Elizabeth Ann Young (10th great grandparents), who first settled the town. I thought I had four ancestors who helped found the town: John Williams Sr and his wife Mary Anne Bulkeley (8th great grandparents) and John Williams Jr and his wife Anna Alcock (7th great grandparents). However, their daughter Joanna Williams' connection
to Rev. George Aeneas Ross, 5th Laird of Balblair (6th great grandfather), proved to be wrong.
At first I thought Joanna was the granddaughter of Roger Williams, the Founder of Rhode Island, so I read a book about him. The book was very interesting...Rhode Island was the first truly free jurisdiction in the world and the principles of liberty served as the model for the United States of America one hundred and fifty years later. But further research clarified that her father was John Williams Jr. so I had to erase generations of Roger Williams ancestors and enter John Williams ancestors. In doing so, I found a hint that took me all the way back to Charlemagne (36th great grandfather) through King Henry II of England. Well, further research identified that Joanna Williams was indeed the granddaughter of Roger Williams, through his son Joseph and his wife Lydia Olney. The connection to Charlemagne still stands. I'm always re-confirming my data so that my ancestry is as correct as possible.
Curiously, the monument to these early settlers include Roger and John Williams so I will have to contact the historical society for them to identify whether this is the
Roger Williams I just erased and now have to add back in!
We got back to Ridgefield about 4:15 PM for Rosanna to reunite with her family...I think this was her first time being away from them!
I invite you to read my next blog that follows various branches of our family tree from where they started at the mouth of the Delaware River, to the counties northwest of Philadelphia, then following the Susquehanna River north and then west to the headwaters of the West Branch, where the many branches of my family tree merged to my grandmother Anna Elizabeth Weaver. We will also visit the cemeteries of Linda's ancestors who arrived from Scotland and were among the earliest settlers west of the Allegheny Mountains where the French and Indian War was being waged.
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Kuan Yin
Karen Johnson
Myth or History?
Reading about the wild Quakers, I have to wonder if the story about the naked Quaker lady parading through town might be apocryphal, much as a the story of Lady Godiva is now thought to be more legend than fact. But hey, never let facts get in the way of a good story, especially if it makes history more colorful.