SNGF – 4×6=24

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to participate in the Saturday Night Genealogy Fun until today. Six questions naming 4 people or items. This week will be the first three questions. For more information concerning what SNGF is please go to Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings post. The answers are of direct ancestors – not collateral lines.

What four places did my ancestors live that are geographically the farthest from where I am today?

• Hartford, Connecticut: my 2nd-7th great-grandfathers were born, lived or died there (William House 1642-1703 / William House 1684-1742 / William House 1713-1788 / Lazarus House 1748-1817 / Allen House 1791 in Connecticut – died Michigan 1845 / Florus Allen House 1813 in Connecticut – died Ohio 1891)
• Suffolk, England: my 9th great-grandparents John Bigelow was born there in 1617 and died Watertown, Massachusetts in 1703 and Mary Warren born in Suffolk about 1624 and died Massachusetts in 1691.
• Alsace, France: my 6th great-grandparents, Nicholas (Hans) Feuerstein and Anna Nonnemacher. He was born there in 1712 and died in Pennsylvania before 1768. She was born there in 1711 and died in York county, Pennsylvania about 1760.
• Baden-Württemberg, Germany: my 8th great-grandparents, Hans P Raudenbusch born about 1614 and died 1704, and Maria Bremm 1639-1711.

What are the four most unusual given names in my family tree? Any name that is not John, William, James, Michael, Jacob, or Mary!

• Eugene: my dad is the only direct line ancestor I have with that given name.
• Vesta: my maternal grandmother is the only direct line ancestor with that given name.
• Ella: my paternal grandmother is the only direct line ancestor with that given name.
• Wendy: I am the only one in my direct line with this given name (although I do have a few cousins named Wendy!)

What are the four most common given names in my family tree? I think I answered that one above but listing direct ancestors within 15 generations, they would be:

• Mary: 24
• William: 19
• John: 57
• Many Elizabeths, Margarets, Annas, Jacobs, and Michaels.

Next Saturday will be the final three questions. Did you play?

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Surname Saturday – Treat

Richard Treat, who came from England, has many notable descendants including: both Presidents Bush, John P. Morgan, Treat Williams, Tennessee Williams, and Thomas Edison. Treat, born in 1584, immigrated to Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut with his wife, the former Alice Gaylard, and their ten children. There has been much written about the Treat family and one predominant book is The Treat Family: A Genealogy of Trott, Tratt, and Treat for Fifteen Generations, and Four Hundred and Fifty Years in England and America, Containing More Than Fifteen Hundred Families in America by John Harvey Treat and published by the Salem Press Publishing and Printing Company in 1893 which is found online through Google Books.

Although, some online genealogies mention that Richard Treat was married to someone named “Joanna” prior to his marriage to Alice Gaylord on April 27, 1615 in Pitminster, England, there has been no documentation to support that. My ancestor, daughter Joanna Treat, was born just a few years after the marriage of Richard and Alice. Alice was still living at the time Richard’s will was proved in March 1669.

Wife, Alice, was the daughter of Hugh. Her surname at baptism was spelled Gaylaud and her father’s name is reported as Gaylard according to John Harvey Treat’s book. It has also been reported as Gaylord over time. Find a Grave lists her burial location by Richard in the Wethersfield Village Cemetery although a stone has not been located.

The photo above (Attribution: Derek Harper [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons) is of the church in Pitminster, Somerset, England where all of the children of Richard and Alice, including my ancestor, Joanna, were baptized.

Descendants of my 9th great-grandparents, Richard Treat and Alice Gaylard:

1. Honor Treat b. 1616
2. Joanna Treat b. 1618
3. Sarah Treat b. 1620
4. Richard Treat b. 1622
5. Robert Treat b. 1624
6. Elizabeth Treat b. 1627
7. Susanna Treat b. 1629
8. Alice Treat b. 1631/32
9. James Treat b. 1634
10. Katherine Treat b. 1637

My ancestor, Joanna Treat, was married to John Hollister in Hartford, Connecticut and  had eight children who were all born in Wethersfield. Their oldest son, John Hollister Jr., was my ancestor. Joanna Treat Hollister died in Wethersfield in October 1694. Her grave just like her husband’s is unknown although I’m sure it is somewhere in the Wethersfield area.

I’m excited that the church where my eighth great-grandmother was baptized is still standing. Perhaps someday I’ll be able to travel to England to visit this building and walk among the stones in the graveyard and pay my respects to other ancestors who are buried there.

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Those Places Thursday – Connecticut

The John Hollister House in Glastonbury, Connecticut was built about 1649 according to “The HIstorical Society of Glastonbury” (Architecture page). It is located at 14 Tryon Street. This was the ancestral home for the Hollister family for many generations.  Lieutenant John Hollister was born in 1612 in England and came to America around 1642 (1). Lt. Hollister married Joanna Treat, daughter of Richard and Joanna Treat, and eight children were born to this union: Elizabeth, John Jr, Thomas, Joseph, Lazarus, Mary, Sarah, and Stephen. Hollister Sr. died after April 3. 1665 and left a will naming his widow and living children and the children of daughter, Elizabeth. His burial location is unknown.

John and Joanna Hollister are my 8th great-grandparents through their son, John Jr. He married Sarah Goodrich and through their son Thomas who married Dorothy Hills. Their daughter, Hannah Hollister, married William House and through their son, my 4th great-grandfather, Lazarus House. He married Rebecca Risley and their son, Allen House, married Editha Bigelow. Their son, Florus Allen House, married Julia Ann Lewis, and their son, James Emory House, was the father of my paternal grandmother, Ella Maria House, with his second wife, Frances Virginia Ogan.

My House and Hollister ancestors all lived in Hartford, Connecticut since the mid-1600’s. They were founders of Wethersfield and many are buried in the Ancient Burying Ground in Hartford county. I would like to visit the area to walk the same places they did; view the historical John Hollister House; and pay my respects to all my many times great-grandparents in the cemeteries there.

 

(1). The Hollister Family of America: Lieut. John Hollister, of Wethersfield, Conn., and His Descendants; Case, Lafayette Wallace; 1886; Fergus Printing Company; p 19; Digitzed 19 Sep 2006; American Libraries; Internet Archive.

 

(Photo credt: Connecticut Historical Society)

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52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #3 Editha Bigelow

Amy Johnson Crow, of No Story Too Small issued a challenge to the geneablogging world recently: to write a blog post weekly on one ancestor. This could be a photo, a story, biography, etc. To read her challenge please go to Challenge: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

Editha Bigelow, born on April 8, 1791 in Brookfield, Vermont, is my three times great-grandmother on my father’s side. Her parents, Eli Bigelow and Anna Freeman, were married on September 10, 1778 in Brookfield (Source: Vermont, Vermont State Archives and Records Administration, Montpelier, Vital Records, 1760-2003; Ancestry.com.) by Rev. Elijah Lyman.

Editha was their seventh child preceded by Asa (born 1779), Anna (born 1781), Amasa (born 1783), Asa (born 1785), Mergit (born 1787), and Eli (born 1788) and followed by Susanna (born 1793) and Seth Gilbert.  Editha’s oldest sibling Asa died at less than 2 years old, and as was more common in that time, the parents went on to name another child Asa several years later. The father, Eli, died on March 22, 1836 in Chatham, Connecticut (Source:index, FamilySearch, https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F7CC-TPX : accessed 05 Aug 2013, Eli Bigelow, 22 Mar 1836; citing reference p 102, FHL microfilm 3089.) and is buried at Mount Parnassus Burying Ground (Source: Find a Grave, Memorial #36942989). Anna’s date of death is unknown.

At the age of 21, Editha married Allen House on June 15, 1812 in East Hampton, Connecticut. Her new husband was 2 months her junior. The couple had five children: Florus Allen (my 2nd great-grandfather; born in 1813), Nelson W. (born 1815), Amasa (born 1817), Eli (born 1824), and Abigail (born 1826). Due to the seven years between Amasa’s and Eli’s birth, I suspect that there was at least one if not two other children who were born and died – or perhaps miscarried and/or stillborn – between them. The family had moved to New York and then to Milford, Michigan by the mid-1830s, where they remained until their deaths. Allen died on September 1, 1845 and was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Milford (Source: Find a Grave, Memorial #55024034).  Editha died on October 20, 1865 and was buried next to her husband (Source: Find a Grave, Memorial #55024034).

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Bigelow Branch

My third great-grandfather, Allen House (b. June 13, 1791 d. Sep 1, 1845) married Editha Bigelow (b. Apr 19, 1791 d. Oct 20, 1865) on June 15, 1812 in Middlesex County, Connecticut.  They had five children: Florus Allen (my 2nd great-grandfather), Nelson W., Amasa G., Eli H., and Abigail. Allen was enumerated in the 1820 Census as living in Jerusalem, Ontario, New York. The household included 4 free white males under the age of 10, 1 free white male between 10-44, and 1 free white female between 10-44. By the 1830 Census, Allen was living in Ovid, Seneca, New York with a household that included: 1 free white male ages 5-9; 3 white males 10-14; 2 free white males 15-19; and 1 free white male 30-39. It also included 1 free white female 5-9 and 1 free white female ages 30-39. Since that makes two more males and one more female, the couple either had other children or relatives/roomers living with them.

Editha Bigelow was the daughter of Eli Bigelow and Anna Freeman. Eli was born on May 29, 1756 in Colchester, Connecticut and died March 22, 1836 in Brookfield, Vermont. On Find a Grave, Eli is listed as buried in Mount Parnassus Burying Ground in East Haddam, Middlesex County, Connecticut.

Eli was the son of Amasa Bigelow and Jemima Strong who married the end of December 1754 in New London, Connecticut.

The Bigelow family stretches back reportedly to Ralph of O Baugley in England. According to the Bigelow Family Site, (webmaster is Rob Bigelow of New York), the immigrant ancestor is John Biglo.

If you want to see if you are a member of this prominent New England family, please go to the Bigelow Family Site (link above). There are many links to information concerning the Bigelow family including published genealogies.

(Bigelow Coat of Arms image is from the Bigelow Family Site – no copyright infringement intended).

(Sources for most of the names and dates for this post came from The Bigelow Society, the Bigelow Family Site; copyright 2009 Bigelow Society, Inc).

(Census information obtained from the 1820 and 1830 United States Censuses on Heritage Quest; digital images).

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Who’s Your Daddy?

Each Saturday evening, Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings posts Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – a little game for all the geneabloggers. Unfortunately due to my recent schedule I haven’t been able to play as often as I’d like. But when I saw this post on Your Paternal Grandmother’s Patrileneal Line”, I couldn’t resist. So what if I’m a couple days late!

What was your father’s mother’s maiden name?
My paternal grandmother was Ella Maria HOUSE.  She was born June 22, 1882 and died on July 3, 1946 in Coshocton, Ohio.

What was your father’s mother’s father’s name?
Ella’s father was James Emory HOUSE.  I wrote a biography that you can find here.  He was born May 2, 1842 and died October 1, 1924 in Coshocton, Ohio.

What is your father’s mother’s father’s patrilineal line? That is, his father’s father’s father’s … back to the most distant male ancestor in that line?
The father of James Emory HOUSE was Florus Allen House born January 5, 1813 in New York and died June 25, 1891 in Coshocton, Ohio.

The father of Florus was Allen HOUSE born June 13, 1791 in Hartford County, Connecticut and died September 1, 1845 in Milford, Michigan.

Allen’s father was Lazarus HOUSE born April 14, 1748 and died after 1817 in Hartford County, Connecticut.

Lazarus’ father was William HOUSE born September 9, 1713 and died March 20, 1788 in Hartford County, Connecticut.

William’s father was also William HOUSE born abt. 1684 and died in 1742 in Hartford County, Connecticut.

William’s father was another William HOUSE born in 1642 and died 1703/1704 in Hartford County, Connecticut.  He may have been born either in Connecticut or England.  It is thought that he traveled from England to America as a crewmember on board ship.  Very little is documented about this man.

William’s father was John HOUSE (HOWSE) born about 1610 in Somersetshire, England and died in 1644 in Connecticut.  This informaton is still speculation and has never been documented.

Can you identify male sibling(s) of your father’s mother, and any living male descendants from those male sibling(s)? If so, you have a candidate to do a Y-DNA test on that patrilineal line. If not, you may have to find male siblings, and their descendants, of the next generation back, or even further.
Ella had six brothers and one half-brother (through her father). 

Her half-brother, Edward HOUSE had one son, Waldo, who died in 1966.  Waldo has two sons – still believed to be living – Richard and Donald and Donald has one son – Dan.

Ella’s oldest full brother, Florus (named after his grandfather), had 3 sons.  It is believed there are still several male descendents still living.

Brother, John, had one son who died in 1983.  I don’t know if he had any male descendents.

Brother, Alford Elmer, died at age 4.

Brother, James, had two sons – Raymond and Wilbur.  The latter died at age 1.  I have no further information on Raymond.

Brother, Charles, died at age 12 in a farming accident.

Brother, Alva Lester (see Part One and Part Two of his biography), had three sons.  Arthur died at age 2 months from pneumonia.  His last child, an unnamed male, was stillborn.  His fourth child, Jarold, had four sons – all presumed to still be living.  Jarold died in 1980.

The conclusion is that there are still several males to do a Y-DNA test on – however, I’ve never actually met any of these men so the odds of the test being done are slim to none!

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Roadmap to New Cousins!

Tuesday when I posted my submission for the 59th Carnival of Genealogy, I didn’t realize that several of my genea-blogger friends would suddenly realize we are related! Julie Cahill Tarr from GenBlog and Becky Wiseman from kinexxions and Whitley County Kinexxions Blog are my newly found distant cousins! We are related through our ancestor, Richard Treat, one of the first settlers of Wethersfield, Connecticut.  So for full disclosure, I thought I would list how I am related to Richard Treat.

Richard and Joanna Treat – 9th great-grandparents
 parents of Joanna Treat married John Hollister (8th gr-grand)
   parents of John Hollister Jr. married Sarah Goodrich (7th gr-grand)
      parents of Thomas Hollister married Dorothy Hills (6th gr-grand)
         parents of Hannah Hollister married William House (5th gr-grand)
            parents of Lazarus House married Rebecca Risley (4th gr-grand)
               parents of Allen House married Editha Bigelow (3rd gr-grand)
                  parents of Florus Allen House married Julia Anna Lewis (2nd)
                     parents of James Emory House married Frances V. Ogan (great)
                        parents of Ella Maria House married William Lloyd Amore (grand)
                           parents of my dad married my mom (parents)
                               parents of ME!

Richard was born around 1584 in Pitsminster, Somerset, England.  He was married first to Joanna (maiden name unknown) – who was the mother to several of his children, including their daughter, Joanna (my ancestor).  Many refer to his second wife, Alice Gaylord, as the mother of Robert and Joanna.  Alice outlived Richard and was named in his will.  (Source information:  The Hollister Family of America.  Compiled by Lafayette Wallace Case M.D.; Chicago, Fergus Printing Company; 1886 and The Treat Family, A Genealogy of Trott, Tratt and Treat.  By John Harvey Treat, A.M.; Salem, Massachussets; The Salem Press Publishing & Printing Company; The Salem Press; 1893.)

St. Mary and St. Andrew Church, located in Pitsminster, Somerset, England where Richard Treat was baptized.  (Picture from The Pitminster Church.)

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