The following was written by Rebekah Jackson after interviewing her friend Denny Lawhern about his own investigation into his family history. It focuses on Denny’s 8th Great Grandfather, (1607 – 1692), Thomas Doggett who came to the colonies in 1637. PART I- Thomas Doggett was born in Wendover, Buckinghamshire England July 4th 1607. In May 1637 at age 30, Thomas ... Read More »
Hirzel, Canton Zurich, Switzerland – the home village Winter’s Landis family from 1488 until they were forced to flee Switzerland in the 1640’s. In 1614, in Zurich, Switzerland, Winter Dellenbach’s ancestor, Hans Landis, an Anabaptist minister, was martyred for his beliefs which threatened both the establishment church and state – there was no separation between the two then. He is ... Read More »
Kent County, England, 1630. In the midst of farmland and trees lies a farm, with big fields and crops that would rise up to waist height. A man named Walter Woodworth finds himself poor, despite all the back-breaking work he has put in. He tries to make due with what he has, but finds that he is not making enough ... Read More »
Piecing together a family’s story of immigration to the United States can be a challenge for many people. Richard Sherman Gordon’s family tree has roots that reach back hundreds of years in America, but most of their stories have been lost over the generations. What remains are tidbits of family lore, and for Rich’s family, there is also a lovingly ... Read More »
I believe my family came from France. We have heard the Lanpheres were Protestants and left France after the massacre by Catholics in the early 1600’s. We have heard the family spent some time in Belgium, Holland, and England before coming to the U.S. in the 1790’s. I’ve been told that the first boy born in this country was named ... Read More »
My ancestor William Peck was among the first of the early settlers to New England. With his wife Elizabeth and one son, he came to this country in company with Governor Eaton, Reverend John Davenport, and others in the ship Hector, arriving at Boston from London, June 26, 1637. While Massachusetts was desirous of such settlers, they preferred a separate ... Read More »
For the most part my family comes from the British Isles. We have been on this continent for 300 plus years, that I have been able to document. For the bulk of that, in what is now Grayson County, Virginia and just over the border in Ashe County, North Carolina. All came here due to religious presecution and generally getting ... Read More »
(Editor’s Note: Many folks have only the sketchiest of details about their family’s immigration to the U.S. The following account captures “the missing years” through a creative, entertaining perspective imagined through the mind of a descendent who in turn is imagined by an even later descendent – the author of this account.) Rudolph Lupien sharpens his pencils methodically, as though ... Read More »
John Edminster was a young soldier in the English Civil War. He fought with a Scottish army allied with Charles II of England, against the English Puritan leader, Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell won the war, and John was captured by the Puritans at the Battle of Worcester in 1651. Cromwell wanted to sell the prisoners as slaves. Some were sent to ... Read More »
Stukely, a farmer from Yeovil, England, came to America in June, 1635 and settled in Salem, Massachusetts with his wife Julianna and their six children. While living in Salem he became close friends with Roger Williams, who was subsequently banished from the Salem colony for his advocacy of the separation of civil and religious authority. In 1638 Stukely was also ... Read More »