The Slovak Yankee

Anatomy of a Murder or Apologia Pro Vita Sua

In 2004 Caleb Johnson published the probable English origins of Peter Browne of the Mayflower [TAG 79:161-78].  In that article he abstracted the 1622 will of Margaret (Symons) (Dendy) Wood of Dorking who made bequests to her grandsons William and Jasper Dudley.  It looked good that William Dudley of  Guilford, Connecticut might be that William Dudley, so I started to research the subject.  I thoroughly abstracted all Dudley entries in the Dorking (co. Surrey) parish registers from 1538 to 1670.  As I worked on this project and I added in the probate records, I pieced together the entire Dudley family.  There was David Dudley and Joan Arnold who had been suggested as parents of the immigrants.  There was Thomas Dudley and Mary Dendy of the above-cited article.  However, as I searched, my analysis led me to William Dudley and  Eleanor Hooker.  I wrote up the results and it was published in TAG in late 2007, 82:63-74.  In this article I included footnote #32, which gave credit to the identification of Jane Lutman, wife of the immigrant, as the daughter of William and Jane Lutman to a Stephen Aberle who wrote about this in an obscure journal: The Dudley Family Newsletter in 2001-2002.  This journal is not in the collections of ANY major genealogical library.  In fact, it is only in the catalog of The Connecticut State Library.  Also, he found William Lutman's will naming his daughter Jane Dudley, but I found his marriage record in Sussex.

Somewhere, as I understand it, there is a happy genealogical community, who meet each other, share information and all is well and good.  That world has never intruded itself upon me.  After I published this article and to this very moment, no one has emailed me to say: thanks or good job.  No one.  However, two people have emailed.  This first accused me of stealing this.  The second was a screwball who still wanted the Dudleys to be noble, which they aren't and, in fact, never were.  So, if I act wary or unfriendly, it's because after a lifetime of experience, I've become shell-shocked from the responses of strangers to my work.

Evidently, Mr. Aberle [not the emailer, btw] continued his studies of the Dudleys in the 2004-5 Dudley Family Newsletter.  However, if one reads his articles, he and I come to different opinions.  He also doesn't piece the family together in the same way I did.  In any case, by reading his work, I did discover that I had erred in transcribing the name of Eleanor Hooker as Gooder.  I've now corrected that in a pending TAG article that gives three more generations of Hookers behind William Dudley.  So, did that article give me the "CLUE" or not?  Well, William Dudley (father of the immigrant) called William Hooker, his brother-in-law.  I remember when reading that will I had to be very careful and not jump to the usual conclusion, i.e. that Eleanor was a Hooker.  William Hooker could have married a Dudley or both men could have married sisters of a surname not known.  However, when I saw how Aberle had transcribed it, together with a search in the IGI, I realized I had goofed.  Sometimes Occam's Razor applies: the simplest solution is usually the correct one.

So, that's how all this happened.  I got inspired by an article; did my own research, which, IMHO, is better than anything else out there; published it; got shit on; realized I made an error; and corrected the error.  In that order.  As bizarre as it sounds, we did the same project, at the same time without realizing it.  Well, two people invented the television at the same time also, so anything is possible.  Mr. Aberle worked in England from the original records.  I worked in Salt Lake City from microfilm.  Sadly, even the vast Family History Library doesn't own the Dudley Family Newsletter.  That journal was called to my attention by another Dudley researcher when I sent him a draft copy of my article.  He kindly showed me the Lutman article, without telling me anything about the other articles.

So that was my first English origins article.  It would have been my last if I hadn't started another that was slated to be published before all this foofaraw began.  I have yet to write a third.  To date Mr. Aberle has never contacted me.  Just some angry bitch from Maine (of all places).

Polly Dudley Article Followup Part II

Part I is here.  The son that Josiah Dudley lived with in his old age was Jeremiah.  Josiah deeds for life support to Jeremiah at Cheshire County Deeds 68:3 dated 22 March 1806 and recorded 31 December 1814.  Jeremiah was alive on 19 October 1836 when he in turn deeded for life support to his son Harvey Dudley. [Sullivan County Deeds 19:209].  Jeremiah's wife is mistakenly given as Mary Robards in this source  Ezra A. Stearns, Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire (New York:  Lewis Publishing, 1908), 2001-2.  However, from Harvey's death certificate we learn her name was Mary (or Polly) Fisher.  Just to show you how bizarre this family is, guess where the marriage took place?  Boston.  Jeremiah Dudley and Polly Fisher were married at the Hollis Street Church in Boston, Mass. on March 26, 1799.  Knowing that now, I would make Jeremiah's birth ca. 1779 not 1783.  

So, follow this:  Josiah Dudley, born in Connecticut, married in Connecticut a woman, born in Connecticut.  They moved to Newport, New Hampshire and had eight children:  Josiah, who moved back to a different place in Connecticut and married there; Betsey who married in New Hampshire and moved to Vermont; Jeremiah above who married in Mass. a girl from Dedham and moved back to New Hampshire; George who married in Vermont and stayed there; Anna, who married in New Hampshire, and moved to Rhode Island then to Massachusetts; Polly B. [presumably] who married twice in New Hampshire and moved to Maine; Clarissa who married first in New Hampshire, was widowed and moved to Connecticut to marry the second time; and Minerva, who lived and travelled with her sister Anna until her death and then returned to New Hampshire.  That means that each child left a vital record in all six New England states.

And you wonder why I drink?

Polly Dudley Article Followup

Since my 2003 article on the Dudley's came out, no one has contacted me with any new or pertinent information.  In fact, no information at all!  I, on the other hand, still find things.  Here's some updates:

Josiah Dudley married Eizabeth Denison at Westbrook, Conn. on November 6, 1774. First Congregational Church of Westbrook, Connecticut: Baptisms, Marriages, Deaths, Memberships 1725-1899 by Jean Rumsey (Dixon, IL: The Printshop, 1979), p. 63.  Westbrook was set off from Saybrook and was in fact, the Second Church of Saybrook when Josiah married Elizabeth.

Josiah Dudley Jr. moved to Derby, Conn. and died there on December 27, 1818.  He married there on January 20, 1798, Sabra Dudley, probable daughter of Zebulon^5-4 William^3-2-1 Dudley and Abigail Jones.  Hence they were 3rd cousins.  She died on May 9, 1814.  They had three children: Henry, Elizabeth P. and Sophia Maria Dudley. Children all quitclaim land at Derby Deeds 24:49.

Minerva Dudley died after 1860 when she is listed in the U.S. Federal Census at Newport, N.H. in the alms house there (census, p. 1317).

Clarissa Dudley, as the widow Clarissa Eaton married second at East Windsor, Conn. on December 30, 1827, Josiah Bragg.  Both Josiah and Clarissa are alive up to 1840, but can't be accounted for thereafter.  Clarissa's first husband, David C. Eaton died at Sutton, N.H. in November 1824.  They had five children.