Surname Saturday – Adams

ADAMS

1. Jeremy ADAMS was my 9th great-grandfather on my paternal side. He was born about 1604 in England. Henry Whitmore’s book, The History of the Adams Family, published by the Higgenson Book Company in 1893, gives a good deal of information about this man.  It reports that Adams arrived in America with Thomas Hooker and lived in Braintree, Cambridge and finally Hartford, Connecticut. His first wife, Rebecca Baseden, had previously been married to Samuel Greenhill.  The widow and Adams married in Hartford, Connecticut. When she died in 1678, and he married Rebecca Fletcher, widow of Andrew Warner, Jr. John ADAMS, son of Adams and the first Rebecca, became my 8th great-grandfather.  Jeremy ADAMS died on August 11, 1683 in Hartford and is buried in the Ancient Burying Ground in Hartford. His name is listed on the “Founders” Monument. Further information concerning this man and his family can be found in the book Genealogies of Connecticut Families: From the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 1 by Judith McGhan, published by the Genealogical Publishing Co., 1983, page 5.

2. John ADAMS, born 1637 in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut married Abigail Smith on August 24, 1657 in Connecticut.  She was born 1638 and died in New York after 1683. John and Abigail Adams are not to be confused with our second President and First Lady (they were born almost one hundred years apart). The couple had eight children: Rebecca (who I am descended from), Abigail, Sarah, Jeremiah, John, Jonathan, Thomas and Lydia. John Adams died on September 6, 1670 in Hartford.

3. Rebecca ADAMS,  my 7th great-grandmother, was born in August 1658 in Hartford and died before May 1726. She married Richard Risley in 1676 in Hartford. He was born August 2, 1645 and died in 1730 in Hartford. Eleven children were born to this union. Their son, Samuel, is my ancestor.

From Samuel to myself: Samuel Risley m. Rebecca Gaines; their son, Thomas Risley m. Elizabeth Burnham; their daughter, Rebecca Risley, m. Lazarus House; their son, Allen House, m. Editha Bigelow; their son, Florus Allen House, m. Julia Ann Lewis; their son, James Emory House, m. Frances Virginia Ogan; their daughter, Ella Maria House, m. Lloyd William Amore.  My dad is Ella and Lloyd’s son!