The Slovak Yankee

YouTube Interview

My interview for the New Hampshire Genealogical Society is up at YouTube.

Lineage Societies

I was fooling around on the Internet and found out there is a society of descendants of Lady Godiva.  It's real.  It's no mean feat to document a 1,000 year descent.  Of course what they do is have gateway ancestors that descend from Godiva and then you prove your descent from the gateway ancestor.  On the Godiva site, I descend from Thomas Bradbury and Peter Worden.  They should (but don't) include Elizabeth (Mansfield) Wilson and Rose (Stoughton) Otis.

I then found a page that listed all the different lineage societies one can join.  I, myself, am a member of three such societies.  I am in the Sons of the American Revolution which I joined myself.  I had an elderly widowed cousin who was is numerous such societies and she had me join the Pioneers of Piscataqua and Settlers of Old Plymouth.  To join Pioneers one must have an ancestor in the Piscataqua Valley by 1660 (or some such early date) and the Old Plymouth society was an ancestor in Plymouth by 1630.  That society is the also rans for people  like me who don't qualify for the Mayflower Society but had pilgrim ancestors who arrived 1621-1630.

I generally have a dim view of such societies because their historical formations is racist and xenophobic.  They were all started in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to exclude the newly arrived Irish, Jewish, southern and eastern European immigrants. These are groups that I proudly descend from.  But I also qualify for the lineage societies too.  Nowadays they can't keep out certain groups because of intermarriage.  Certainly Barack Obama qualifies for the SAR and Old Plymouth Descendants on his Dunham line.

So with the pandemic stretching out into more than a year, I have been thinking of occupying my time by joining certain societies.   I don't know.  There are so many that I qualify for.  But to what purpose other than wasting time while I'm indoors.

 

 

Law of Diminishing Returns

It seems the longer I pursue genealogy, the less I get out of it.  And it's more work I have to put in to it to get less out of it.  Let me explain.

Next month I'm going to Ireland for the first time (if you don't count being at the Dublin airport changing planes).  Up to now, I had always assumed that a trip to Ireland would entail at least one if not two days at the National Library in Dublin doing genealogy research.  But now with only eight days in Ireland, I'm not sure I want to give one up to research.  I think I'd be better off, walking around Dublin and having a pint of Guinness, rather than hunched over a microfilm reader.  So I was thinking what would I gain from this?  Well, the aim would be to place Thomas Stack (1819-1899) in his home village somewhere in Cork, Ireland.  What would that accomplish realistically? 

We know Thomas's parents from his death certificate.  We know his birth date of December 1819 and place of Cork Ireland from his citizenship papers.  I would have to look at Griffith's Valuation and the Tithe Applotments of 1821 and see which villages had a Thomas Stack (his father) in it and also had a Coleman in it (his mother).  Then I would take that list of villages and search them one by one to find my Thomas.  Say I do find him.  What do I learn?  Well, it would confirm or refute his parents names and place him definitely in Ireland.  But he's born in 1819 with parents born say before 1795.  What would I learn in the long run?  Would I get their parents' names?  Unlikely.  I would only get one generation confirmed in Ireland very likely.  Is that enough to give one day's worth of research for (with no promise of success)?

Likewise, I could hunt for the English origins of John Ferniside (ca. 1611-1693) of Boston, Massachusetts.  He married Elizabeth Starr who was baptized at Ashford in Kent.  Furthermore he was called a cousin in the will of James Couchman alias Cushman of Scituate, Massachusetts in 1648.  Also called cousin in that will was John Twisden of York, Maine whose English origins are known to be Denton in Kent.  He also moved to the village of Frittenden where his children were baptized.  Given these clues it seems more than likely that John Ferniside was also from Kent.  We could just triangularize the villages of Ashford and Denton and search all villages in between.  This is a finite task and most of the Kent villages are not in the IGI.  But again, what would we ultimately find if successful?  We would place John in his home village and find out his parents' names and possibly his grandparents' names.  Is it worth that to do all that work?

When you are just starting out in genealogy, all the breakthroughs are major breakthroughs.  If you breakthrough on a 19th century ancestor with New England ancestry, you have 200 years worth of new ancestors to discover.  But after a while you are just chipping away at one or two generations' worth of new information.  Although every generation counts, the more time you put into the work, the less generations of new information you are getting out of it.

Lastly, I can now browse the Slovak parish records online thanks to familysearch.org/.  I should find the death date of an ancestor Juraj Balaz who is alive in 1869 and dies thereafter.  I just haven't had the will to browse through page after page of records.  He was born in 1828, so if he lived to be 70, that's 1898 and thirty years' worth of records, not all of which are online.  

You really have to be hungry to do genealogy and have a drive to put in the long hours for the little return you get.  For me, that drive is gone and I can't see putting in the time and effort anymore.

Jury Lists

Jury lists are great records to use for genealogy.  They pinpoint the residence of a male.  They also show the male to be over 21 years old and not yet dead.  These types of records are very useful.  The Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, uses these records extensively.  Sadly during the colonial period only men were allowed on juries so this doesn't help identifying the ladies at all.

And juries still exist.  In fact, I have jury duty today.  The last two times I have had jury duty I was selected and served in the jury for a 4-6 week trial.  In both cases they were murder trials.  I am hopeful that I can't be possibly picked three times in a row, but who knows.   When you're retired, there is no hiding the fact that you have free time.  So, I'm an ideal candidate.  That means waking up at 6 a.m. for a while and no free time during the day to blog.  So, we'll see how this all turns out.

At least I served on a Boston jury like my ancestors did nearly 400 years ago.  The tradition lives on.

Leiden, The Netherlands

Thirty minutes away by train from Amsterdam is the town of Leiden.  Leiden is where the Pilgrims settled from 1608 to 1620.  There is even a museum there for the Pilgrims.  It is in the oldest house in Leiden which dates from the 1300s.

The museum is not much in and of itself, but the curator is a font of knowledge on the Pilgrims.  It was great to discuss the Pilgrims with him.  He even showed me the marriage license of my ancestor George Morton from 1612.

In addition to George Morton and his wife, I also descend from Kenelm Winslow, brother of Edward, a Leiden resident.  Leiden is a charming town and I very much enjoyed wandering around its street.  By the way, we do know that William Brewster stood in the room above from records.  Otherwise, you just have to be content knowing your ancestors wandered the same streets 400 years ago.

 

Traveling

If you are following the families that I have been tracing since November (we are up to the letter W now), you might wonder where I've been for the last two weeks.  Far exceeding my interest in genealogy, is my interest in traveling.  In the last year, I have been to Alaska, Turkey, Mexico and now just returning from two weeks in Europe.

There was a time when my traveling actively intertwined with my genealogical research and I made many trips to Salt Lake City and ancestral places like Edinburgh, Scotland.  Now with my research complete for the large part, I enjoy the passive intertwining of genealogy and travel.  During this trip to Amsterdam and Brussels, I enjoyed two genealogical side trips to Leiden and Aachen.  I hope to visit more places in the upcoming years, especially villages in the Slovak Republic.  When I was a student in 1983, I visited the then communist state of Czechoslovakia, mainly seeing Prague.  Although I had cousins there, I was told not to contact them since it would be bad for them to be seen with an American.  Now, no such hindrances exist.

So, in separate posts, I'll detail my two visits.  Then starting next week we will switch gears totally and delve in to the world of medieval genealogy.  Eventually I will get back to the families and take up where I've left off and finish the alphabet.

 

Renald Fernald ca. 1600-1656 of New Castle, New Hampshire

1. Renald Fernald was born about 1600 in England and died before October 1656 at New Castle, New Hampshire. He married, probably in England, before 1630, Joanna (---) born say 1610 and died about 1660 at Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  Renald was a doctor.  He had seven children: Thomas, Elizabeth, Mary, Sarah, Samuel, William, and John.

2. William Fernald was born 5 March 1646/7 on Doctor's Island, New Hamsphire and died 5 July 1728 at Kittery, Maine.  He married 16 November 1671 at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Elizabeth Langdon, born about 1657 and died at Portsmouth 11 May 1740, daughter of Tobias and Elizabeth (Sherburne) Langdon.  William was a shipwright.   He had eleven children:  Elizabeth, William, Tobias, Margaret, Temperance, William, Joseph, Sarah, Lydia, Benjamin, and Nathaniel.

3. William Fernald (Jr.) was born 11 May 1686 at Portsmouth, New Hampshire and died 12 January 1727/8 at Layclaim Island, New Hampshire.  He married 31 July 1707 at Portsmouth, Elizabeth Cotton, born about 1689 at Portsmouth and died there about July 1761, daughter of William and Abigail (Pickering) Cotton.  Like his father William was a shipwright.  William and Elizabeth had seven children: Mary, William, Abigail, John, Elizabeth, George, and Abigail.

4. Mary Fernald was born 13 March 1711 at Portsmouth, New Hampshire and died before 1744.  She married 17 April 1727 at Kittery, Maine, Jonathan Mendum (III), born about 1705 at Kittery and died there about December 1762, son of Jonathan and Sarah (Downing) Mendum.  Jonathan married secondly on 17 April 1744 at Kittery, Rachel Powers, born about 1720 and died after 1763.  Jonathan was a shipwright.  Jonathan and Mary had six children: Jonathan, William, Mary, Dorothy, Joshua, and Sarah.  Jonathan and Rachel had two children: Patience and Robert.

Sources:

Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis by Walter Goodwin Davis (Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1996), I:535-551.

Genealogical Dictionary of ME and NH by Sybil Noyes, Charles Thornton Libby, and Walter Goodwin Davis (Portland, 1939, reprinted Baltimore, 1988), p. 230-1.

John Elderkin ca. 1612-1687 of Norwich, Connecticut

1. John Elderkin was born about 1612 and died 23 June 1687 at Norwich, Connecticut.  He married about 1638, Abigail (---) [possibly Kingsland] born 1615 and died about 1660 at New London, Connecticut.  John married secondly 1 March 1660 at Norwich, Elizabeth Drake born 9 January 1625 at Hampton in Arden, England and died 8 June 1716 at Norwich, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Rogers) Drake.  John was a millwright and carpenter.  By his first wife he was the father of Abigail, Hannah, Pelatiah, and John.  By his second wife he was the father of Ann, John, Bathshuah, James, and Joseph.

2. Joseph Elderkin was born 27 December 1672 at Windham, Connecticut.  He married 27 July 1703 at Norwich, Connecticut, Deborah Brockway, born 1 May 1682 at Lyme, Connecticut and living after 1722, daughter of Wolstone and Hannah (Briggs) Brockway.  Together Joseph and Deborah had five children:  Joseph, Benjamin, Elizabeth, Jeptha, and Deborah.

3. Joseph Elderkin (Jr.) was born 6 March 1706/7 at Norwich, Connecticut and died 5 October 1767 at Windsor, Nova Scotia.  He married at Norwich on 28 April 1731, Mary Story, born 20 June 1714 at Norwich and died after 1789 in Nova Scotia, daughter of Samuel and Mary (Burnham) Story.  Joseph and Mary removed to Nova Scotia where they are listed in the 1765 tax assessment list for Horton.  Joseph had ten children: Rachel, Mary, James, Elizabeth, John, Jemima, Japtha, Joseph, Frederick, and Rowena.

4. Mary Elderkin was born 9 December 1736 at Windham, Connecticut and died 24 April 1783 at Falmouth, Nova Scotia.  She married 20 February 1754 at Windham, Benjamin Cleveland (Jr.) born 30 August 1733 at  Windham and died 19 March 1811 at Horton, Nova Scotia, son of Benjamin and Ann (Clark) Cleveland.  Together Mary and Benjamin had twelve children: Anne, Roxalena, Martin Luther, Mary, Olive, Enoch, Cynthia, Eunice, Jerusha, Sarah, Nathan, and Aaron.

Sources:

Genealogy of the Elderkin Family by D.W. Elderkin (1888).

“Wolston Brockway of Lyme, CT, with Further Analysis of His Associations” by Gale Ion Harris New England Historical & Genealogical Register 162 (2008):37-46, 140-48.

Pratt, Robert L. The Descendants of William Story Who Came to Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1637, The First Eight Generations (Gateway Press, Baltimore, 2000).

The American Genealogist 66 (1991):236.

The 1899 Cleveland Genealogy: Some Additions and Corrections, by Martin E. Hollick, NEHGS NEXUS Vol. X (1993):102-4.

History of Kings County, Nova Scotia by Arthur W.H. Eaton (Salem, MA, 1910).

Moses Cox ca. 1595-1687 of Hampton, New Hampshire

Although I'm trying to go in alphabetical order, some families just don't have paper files and I just discovered one I've skipped.  It's rather important since this family appears in my ancestry three times over.

1. Moses Cox born about 1595 and died at Hampton, New Hampshire 28 May 1687.  He married before 1641, Alice (---) who died at Hampton on 20 October 1657.  Moses married secondly at Hampton on 16 June 1658, Prudence (Marston) Swain, born about 1624 and died at Hampton after 1687, widow of William Swain and daughter of William Marston by an unknown wife.  By his first wife Alice, Moses was the father of John, Mary, Sarah, Moses, and Rachel.  By his second wife he had Leah.

2. Rachel Cox born about 1650 at Hampton, New Hamsphire and died after 1706 at Exeter, New Hampshire.  She married about 1670, Thomas Rawlings, born about 1641 and died before October 1706 at Exeter, of unknown origins.  Rachel and Thomas had ten children: Thomas, Moses, Joseph, Mary, Benjamin, Aaron, John, Alice, Rachel, and Samuel.

Sources:

Genealogical Dictionary of ME and NH by Sybil Noyes, Charles Thornton Libby, and Walter Goodwin Davis (Portland, 1939, reprinted Baltimore, 1988), p. 167, 596.

Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis by Walter Goodwin Davis (Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1996), II: 582-5. [Marston]

John Drake ca. 1590-1659 of Windsor, Connecticut

This is the other Drake family from which I descend.  I have previously written about John Drake here and here.  I won't get into the English origins of John Drake anymore.  The debate is the debate.  Choose your side.

1. John Drake was born about 1590 and died 17 August 1659 at Windsor, Connecticut.  He married first at Hampton in Arden, England on 25 June 1616, Lettice Shakespeare who died there 10 November 1623.  John married secondly about 1624 Elizabeth Rogers born say 1600 and died 7 October 1681 at Windsor, Connecticut.  By his first wife, John was the father of: John, Esther, Job, and Jacob.  By his second wife he was the father of: Elizabeth and Mary.

2. Elizabeth Drake was born 9 January 1625 at Hampton in Arden, England and died 8 June 1716 at Norwich, Connecticut.  She married first at Windsor, Connecticut 9 February 1653, William Gaylord (Jr.) who died at Windsor 14 December 1656.  Elizabeth married secondly at Norwich 1 March 1660 as his second wife, John Elderkin born about 1612 and died 23 June 1687 at Norwich.  John had a first wife named Abigail (---) who may or may not have been Abigail Kingsland.  By his first wife John was the father of: Abigail, Hannah, Pelatiah, and John.  John and Elizabeth (Drake) had Ann, John, Bathshuah, James, and Joseph.  William and Elizabeth (Drake) had Josiah and Nathaniel.

Sources:

Unpublished resesearch by Douglas Richardson.

Descendants of John Drake of Windsor, Connecticut by Frank B. Gay (Rutland, VT, 1933), p.1-13.

The American Genealogist 65 (1990):87-8.

The American Genealogist 63 (1988):193-206.

New York Genealogical & Biographical Record 2 (1871):99-101.

Genealogy of the Elderkin Family by D.W. Elderkin (1888).