New England Weddings in my Ancestral Line: December 1st through 7th

Three of my direct ancestral couples married during the first week of December: 6X great grandparents Jonathan Palmer and Mercy Manwaring were united in Stonington, Connecticut, on December 1, 1706; 8X great grandparents John West and Renew Carpenter married in Rehoboth, Massachusetts on December 4, 1703; and 7X great grandparents Jonathan Aldrich and Mary Wilson wed on December 4, 1740 in Smithfield, Rhode Island.

The first paragraph of Old-Time Marriage Customs in New England by Alice Morse Earle published in The Journal of American Folklore in 1893 sets the stage for a wedding:

This excerpt from  Pamela McArthur Cole's article on New England Marriages,* gives us an idea of the traditional setting for weddings.*

Also my 7X great grandmother Sarah Nutting, left widowed by my ancestor Jonathan Farnsworth five years earlier, married John Stone on December 7, 1698, in Concord, Massachusetts.

*These two articles were originally published one after the other in the same issue of The Journal of American Folklore. Both are worth reading although I don't think either would meet modern standards of scholarship.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Sarah Talcott (1735 - 1809)

Sarah was only ten when her father John Talcott died in 1745. She and Obediah Willcox married in Hebron, Hartford County (now Tolland County), Connecticut* in February of 1749/50 when she was only thirteen.

[Title: Mack Genealogy : The Descendants of John Mack of Lyme, Connecticut.

Ancestry.com. North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:

Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.]

The couple had 13 children, the last six of them, including my ancestor Lydia Wilcox (Porter), were born after the family removed to Surry in Cheshire County, New Hampshire. Sarah and Obediah are my fifth great grandparents.

[Ancestry.com]

Sarah died a year before her husband and they are buried next to each other in the Surry Village Cemetery.

[Photo added to findagrave.com memorial of Sarah Willcox #63426137 by Cheshire #47921031]

*This link from the Hebron Historical Society shows a map of Hebron in 1744 with the homesites of early residents marked, including those of Talcot[t] and Wilcox.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Opal May Slater (1890 - 1973) Part 3

In previous posts we've had a view of my great aunt's teaching career which culminated in her becoming one of the first women to receive an advanced degree from Harvard.*

The next record we have for Opal is in the 1922 Denver City Directory where she was living with her mother Rufina on Marine Street. Opal is described as "with L&S D G Co" but I haven't been able to discover what company that was.

[Title : Denver, Colorado, City Directory, 1922. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: 

Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.]

Opal's name appears again the same year in a Denver Rocky Mountain News calendar of events and a Denver Post article about the local Y.M.C.A.'s "Annual Budget Week."

[Date: Friday, February 10, 1922   Paper: Denver Rocky Mountain News (Denver, Colorado)   Page: 13  

© This entire service and/or content portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or its content providers.

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

[Date: Sunday, January 29, 1922   Paper: Denver Post (Denver, Colorado)   Page: 20  

This entire product and/or portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004.

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

It's not clear to me when Opal returned to Massachusetts but in the Hartford Courant she was described as a graduate Yale Law School** Class of 1927 and had just been elected to the Order of the Coif.

[Hartford Courant Hartford, Connecticut. Tuesday, June 21, 1927

Source: Newspapers.com]

This 1928 Boston Herald piece includes her name among the 28 women who passed the state bar examination.

[Date: Wednesday, February 29, 1928   Paper: Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts)   Page: 6  

This entire product and/or portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004.

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

And here's her listing in the 1929 Boston City Directory.

[Title : Boston, Massachusetts, City Directory, 1929.

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:

Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.]

She was the only one of Lewis Logan Slater's children to follow him into the legal profession.


*Links here and here
**Yes, THAT Yale.
***You can read about its history here.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Webinar Free One More Day: Peggy Clemens Lauritzen presents"The Firelands, The Connecticut Western Reserve, and the Ohio Territory"

I have some vague memory of learning about the American westward expansion after the Revolution, but at that point I didn't realize that I had any connection to it, being from San Diego (I guess I'm California-centric).  That was before I got into genealogy.

Although I don't appear to have any direct ancestors who went from Connecticut to the areas claimed by Connecticut, I do have many collateral relatives who did (mostly branches of upstate New Yorkers originally from Connecticut), and I also have New Englanders (Tibbetts folks in Maine) who came to the southern Ohio area (Dearborn County, Indiana in Indiana's Gore) after the traumatizing 1816 cold snap (the year known as "1800 and froze to death").***

I have found learning anything about early Ohio is key to understanding much of later American westward expansion, and why my ancestors and relatives were where they were when.

Peggy Clemens Lauritzen covers the history of the northern development in Ohio previously claimed by Connecticut, in "The Firelands, The Connecticut Western Reserve, and the Ohio Territory":

The northeastern lands of Ohio are aptly named “The Firelands”, and “The Western Reserve”. How did they come to be called that? And, what connection do they have to the northeastern states? “Ohio fever” brought a lot of settlers to the state following the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. A section of Ohio named “The Western Reserve” will be of particular interest to those having ties to Connecticut.

Runs 1 hour 17 minutes.

Free to non-subscribers through July 26, 2017.


***The Tibbetts lived in (then) Hancock County, Maine, in an area actually called "Ohio" (renamed Corinth in 1811).


© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Mehitable Leonard (1747 - 1808)

Mehitable was born on September 28, 1747, in Preston in New London County in southeastern Connecticut and was baptized 14 months later in nearby Griswold. She was the daughter of Captain Samuel Leonard and his wife Lydia Stanton, both of whom came from families who had lived in Connecticut for generations.

[Connecticut. (to accompany) Harriet E. Baker's Book of Penmanship & Map. At Mr. Dunham's School Windsor Vermont March 31, 1819. Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]

Mehitable was only 12 when her parents died within a few days of each other in the spring of 1760. Since Captain Leonard left no will, her two oldest surviving brothers Samuel and Ebenezer were named administrators of their father's estate on June 9th. In the division of the estate filed with the Court in April of 1761, Mehitable share was the 7th item listed.

[Probate Files Collection, Early to 1880; Author: Connecticut State Library (Hartford, Connecticut); Probate Place: Hartford, Connecticut. Ancestry.com. Connecticut, Wills and Probate Records, 1609-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Connecticut County, District and Probate Courts.]

7th Wee Set out to mehitable Lenard the Daughter of the
Said Dec'st a Lot of Said Land Containing about fourteen
acres and is Buted and Bounded as followeth 
(the text here is a long and complicated description of
the boundaries to the property allotted to Mehitable
which I'm not going to attempt to transcribe here)
Wee also Set out to the Said mehitable of the Personal
Estate of the Said Dec'st Sundrey goods to the value of
L49 = 13 S = 0 d at Inventory Price

Existing online records are silent about Mehitable until her marriage to Aaron Baldwin in 1771 but she almost certainly lived with some of her relatives in Preston. After the wedding she moved to Aaron's home in Canterbury, Windham County, Connecticut. One of their seven children was one of my maternal fourth great grandmothers Olive Baldwin.

[Ancestry.com. Early Connecticut Marriages [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: Bailey, Frederic W. Early Connecticut Marriages as Found on Ancient Church Records Prior to 1800.

Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1997.]

Mehitable Leonard Baldwin died on April 6, 1808, and is buried in Joseph Roode Farm Cemetery in Windham County, Connecticut.

[Ancestry.com. Connecticut, Hale Collection of Cemetery Inscriptions and Newspaper Notices, 1629-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: The Charles R. Hale Collection. Hale Collection of Connecticut Cemetery Inscriptions. Hartford, Connecticut: Connecticut State Library.]

[Find A Grave Memorial# 84270575. Photo by Nate Bramlett (#46874243)]

The last record we have for Aaron is the 1810 U.S. Census but we don't have a death date or place of burial for him.

It turns out that I wrote an earlier post about Mehitable Leonard. (And I forgot to add the link to Christine's Ancestors' Page--lesson learned.)


© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Olive Baldwin (1778 - 1843)

Olive Baldwin and her husband Joseph Gates (1779-1854) are the parents of my great great great grandmother Mary "Polly" Gates. As you will find if you follow the link to my post about Polly Gates, Olive was added to this line in 2015.*

[Hyde genealogy; or, The descendants,in the female as well as in the male lines, from William Hyde, of Norwich...

by Reuben Hyde Walworth, , 1788-1867. Source: Internet Archive]

Olive was born in Canterbury in Windham County, Connecticut on September 2, 1779. Her parents were Aaron Baldwin and Mehitable Leonard.

She married Joseph around 1794, probably in Windham although I haven't found any online record of their marriage. Their first child was born in 1795--a daughter whose name isn't known.

As always with women before 1850, we have to follow Olive through records in her husband's name. In 1800 according to the federal census they were living in Preston in New London County. Most likely the Dorothy Gates whose name follows Joseph's in the enumeration is his widowed mother.

[Year: 1800; Census Place: Preston, New London, Connecticut; Series: M32; Roll: 3; Page: 708; Image: 220; Family History Library Film: 205620. Ancestry.com. 1800 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Second Census of the United States, 1800. NARA microfilm publication M32 (52 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Dorothy Gates died in February of 1805 and by September of that year Joseph, Olive and their family were living in Otsego County, New York, where Polly Gates was born. Here's the household in the 1810 U.S. Census for Unadilla.

[Year: 1810; Census Place: Unadilla, Otsego, New York; Roll: 34; Page: 173; Image: 00098; Family History Library Film: 0181388. Ancestry.com. 1810 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Third Census of the United States, 1810. (NARA microfilm publication M252, 71 rolls). Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

[Image from The pioneers of Unadilla village, 1784-1840 by Halsey, Francis Whiting, 1851-1919; Gaius Leonard Halsey, 1819-1891.

Source: Internet Archive.]

By 1820 the Gates family had moved to Virgil in Cortland County, New York.

[1820 U S Census; Census Place: Virgil, Cortland, New York; Page: 621; NARA Roll: M33_66; Image: 341. Ancestry.com. 1820 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Fourth Census of the United States, 1820. (NARA microfilm publication M33, 142 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Olive died in 1843 so this 1840 U.S. Census record is the last official document she's represented in.

[Year: 1840; Census Place: Cortland, New York; Roll: 275; Page: 8; Image: 20; Family History Library Film: 0017184. Ancestry.com. 1840 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Sixth Census of the United States, 1840. (NARA microfilm publication M704, 580 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Olive Baldwin Gates died on January 6, 1843, and is buried in the Snyder Hill Cemetery in Virgil.

[Created by: Larry Wales; Record added: Apr 04, 2011

Find A Grave Memorial #67882262.

Photo: Larry Wales (#47374334)]

Joseph survived Olive by 11 years. He moved in with Polly and David Darling in Iowa and is buried there in Jones County.



*Credit where credit's due--Christine found this reference. Olive is not a very common given name among my ancestors and I think it's significant that Polly and her husband David Darling named one of their daughters Olive G. Darling (1838-1852). (Note that the Hyde connection is not in my direct line.)

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Celebrations: As 2016 Comes to a Close

[Life's ups-and-downs -- Puck's improvement on Cole's "Voyage of Life" / J. Keppler. N.Y. : Published by Keppler & Schwarzmann, 1883 July Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.]*

Here's a look backward at Ancestry Island at some of my favorites for the year.

I think Christine's discovery that out ancestor John Warren Avery (1835-1900) was a target of KKK attacks in Winston County, Alabama, in the 1870's easily ranks as the biggest surprise all year.

Christine is also responsible for finding a letter written by my great grandmother Nannie Freeman Warren (1857-1934) describing her family's move to Johnson County, Texas, in 1870.

I'm rather proud of my successful search for my paternal great uncle (Henry) Hill Freeman Warren (1896-1956) a graduate of Vanderbilt University's medical school. (Honestly, I never expected to find him in Connecticut!)

A multi-week (and still not completed) review of the Macon County, Alabama, probate records of my third great grandmother Timney P. Watts Warren Phillips (1805-1863) has been fruitful, bringing to light (among other things) the medical care she received during her last illness and the names of three more of her stepchildren and even a daughter, Martha Norman Phillips Adams (1833-1916), that we didn't know about previously.

An important outcome of researching the will and probate records of my fourth great uncle Jeremiah Warren (1772-1832)** was learning the fate of several of the enslaved persons named in 10th Item of his will through a comment posted by a descendant of the woman named Mary. And I will be posting more about Jeremiah's probate in the coming year.

Finally, and just for fun, I'm including a link to one of my most memorable experiences abroad: French Pirate Bikers. Enjoy!

*LOC's commentary on this image is priceless: Illustration shows two men on bicycles, one just starting out on life's journey, being towed by Father Time, the second one is nearing the end of life's journey and about to get caught by a scythe and thrown from the bicycle into a grave. Milestones and signs mark the journey: in youth there is "Health", between 20 and 30 there is "Happiness", at 40 there is "Pleasure", at 50 "Hope", at 60 there is "Neglect", between 60 and 70 there is "Regrets" and "Sickness", at 80 there is "Fear", and at 90 is an open grave with an owl perched on the mile-marker. At the top center is a "Half Way House" and at bottom center, in a floral arrangement, is an hourglass on top of a clock.
** Timney's brother-in-law


© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Hill Freeman Warren (1896 - 1956), MD

We've been searching for my grandfather James Chappell Warren Jr.'s older brother "Henry H." for a long time.

[Year: 1900; Census Place: Justice Precinct 1, Johnson, Texas; Roll: 1649; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 0053; FHL microfilm: 1241649. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.]

As Christine wrote in a post focusing on their father James Chappell Warren Sr. in January of 2015:

"His son Henry was not on the 1910 Census but Nannie counted him as still living.  I am unsure of Henry's fate as I don't find him after the 1900 Census."

As you can see in the 1910 U.S. Census, although only two were still living at home, Nannie stated she had three surviving children at the time.

[Year: 1910; Census Place: Justice Precinct 1, Johnson, Texas; Roll: T624_1569; Page: 17B; Enumeration District: 0042; FHL microfilm: 1375582. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: Thirteenth Census of the United States, Washington, D.C.]

His maternal grandfather was Henry Hill Freeman so we assumed that Henry's middle name was probably Hill too but never found a trace of that name in subsequent censuses, military or school records, or Texas death records. In our family tree Henry's profile ended in 1900. What happened to him?

Last Sunday night, since I planned to write about my great great grandmother Nannie Freeman Warren in my Monday Is for Mothers post, it seemed a good idea to take another look for her oldest son. I knew from experience that trying to locate a Henry H. Warren had proved fruitless so I decided to see what an Ancestry.com search for an H. Warren would turn up.

[Ancestry.com]

Well, the age was right and we thought there was a "Hill" in his name but Connecticut? However the next record, from Social Security Applications and Claims, 1936-2007 database, was dispositive:

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:

Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.]

I had found my missing great uncle!

We still haven't found Hill Freeman Warren* in the 1910 U.S. Census but we know where he was in 1915--studying medicine at Vanderbilt University. We even have a portrait of him.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012 (database on-line).]

[Detail of above yearbook page]

Hill was active in college sports. How good was he? A student representative speaking for Vanderbilt's Medical Department at a Faculty-Senior Dinner on April 16, 1915, said in part:

[Vanderbilt University Quarterly, Volume 15. page 114.

Source: Google Books]

From records published during World War II listing retired naval officers we learn than Hill enlisted as an assistant surgeon in the U.S. Navy on August 20, 1917, was ranked a lieutenant on June 6, 1920 and left the service on October 22, 1923.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Select Military Registers, 1862-1985 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Original data: United States Military Registers, 1902–1985. Salem, Oregon: Oregon State Library.]

From the 1920 U.S. Census we learn that Hill was then living in Newport, Rhode Island, with his Connecticut-born wife Grace (Morris) Warren.

[Year: 1920; Census Place: Newport Ward 5, Newport, Rhode Island; Roll: T625_1670; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 59; Image: 1095. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

The couple's firstborn, Morris Hill Warren. was born in 1921 and their second child, Elizabeth, came into the world on May 20, 1923, only three weeks after my father Tracy Stuart Warren's birth in Texas.

By the 1930 U.S. Census, Hill, Grace and their family were settled in New London, Connecticut, and he was a general practitioner. His mother-in-law Grace (Morley) Morris was living with them. (They owned their house but didn't have a radio.)

[Year: 1930; Census Place: New London, New London, Connecticut; Roll: 282; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 0026; Image: 317.0; FHL microfilm: 2340017. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.]

All five of  them were still living together in New London in the 1940 U.S. Census and Hill was now calling himself "Physician & Surgeon."

[Year: 1940; Census Place: New London, New London, Connecticut; Roll: T627_524; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 6-44. Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.]

And the Warrens are listed in the 1945 New London City Directory.**

[Ancestry.com - U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995]

As i knew from the first post-1900 record I found, my "lost" great uncle died on October 13, 1956 in Hartford, Connecticut. So far I haven't located his obituary or place of burial.




*He appears never to have used his first name as an adult.
**Checking the listings, Grace Morris was still living with them.



© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Barking Up the Wrong Tree

Snapshot of the Greenwich Town Records from the Barbour Collection via Ancestry.  I was disappointed that the online version does not seem to contain an explanation for the source abbreviations (ex. LR1), which are supposed to exist at the beginning of each bound volume. This seems to be an example where the online version is not as informative as a book in the hand.

I originally titled this post as "Daniel Smith and Rebeckah Butler Were Married by Rev. Joseph Morgan in 1706, in Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut" but just realized I'm not descended through  this couple after all.

*** (see "Edited to add" below)  My 8th great grandparents (through my mother's father's Porter side) Daniel Smith (b circa 1680 - 1755) and Rebeckah Butler (b circa 1684 - 1751, daughter of Walter Butler/Rebecca Reynolds) were married by Reverend Joseph Morgan, who was apparently a Presbyterian by 1709 (and possibly when he married Daniel and Rebeckah 3 years earlier).  I was a little surprised by this, as I thought most of my ancestors in New England were typically Puritans, Congregationalists, Baptists, and the occasional Quaker.

from MapofUs, 1706.

Greenwich relative to Connecticut, Long Island, and New York.  From MapofUS.com "1776 Provinces of Connecticut, Connecticut and Rhode Island Atlas Map. (Southern section)," 70 years after the marriage ceremony.

When I map out where Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut, it becomes clear that New York practically surrounds most of the Greenwich area, which leads me to think I will need to eventually consult the surrounding New York counties (Westchester County, Putnam County, and Dutchess County), as well as the Connecticut counties Litchfield and New Haven, for hints on where Daniel Smith came from or who his parents were.

Westchester County, New York is adjacent to Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut, and the areas in New Jersey were about 75 miles away as the crow flies   From pages 34-35, "Morgan genealogy : A history of James Morgan, of New London, Conn., and his descendants; from 1607 to 1869 by Nathaniel Morgan" (available on the Internet Archive), by Nathaniel H Morgan.

A Yale man from its earliest years, no less!  But did he start as a Congregationalist?  The Yale founders were Congregationalists and were alumni of Harvard.  So did he marry my ancestors in the Congregationalist faith or as Presbyterians?  I don't know, although my assumption is Congregationalist.

At this point I know a lot more about him than the people he married, my ancestors Daniel and Rebeckah, although I have found Daniel's will (the link works for Ancestry users--I'll have to transcribe this at a later date).



***Edited to add:
These probably aren't my ancestors after all!  Their daughter Rebeckah Smith was born on 5 March 1706, while the FindAGrave dates for my Rebeckah Smith Carpenter (daughter of Philip Smith and Mary Bliss) indicate she was born on 17 April 1705.  This fact, coupled with comparing Greenwich to where I found my Rebeckah's marriage occurred (in Coventry, Tolland, Connecticut), which is at least 100 miles away, it just dawned on me that I am climbing up the wrong tree.  Duh!

I guess this is a good example of why it is important to analyze my collected facts and see if they actually make sense.




© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: William Wilcockson (1601 - 1652), Linen Weaver, Farmer

One April 2, 1635, three people were enrolled as passengers on the ship Planter in London bound for Massachusetts Bay. They were my eighth great grandfather 24-year-old William Wilcockson,* his wife Margaret (Harvey), who was 24, and their two-year-old John. The Planter left England eight days later and landed in Boston on June 7th.

Because the couple produced the required certificate attesting to their conformity with the Church of England** signed by the Vicar of St. Albans, it used to be believed that they were residents of Hertfordshire. However, more recent research hasn't found any record of them in that county and now it's thought they came from Derbyshire, perhaps because of William's occupation as a linen weaver.*** Once he arrived in Massachusetts, he appears to have become a farmer.

[Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae Tabula. Published by Willem Janszoon Blaeu, Amsterdam-1630.

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]

[Detail of above map showing Derbyshire, St. Albans and London.]

These two couples, taken from the right margin of the 1630 map above, show an artist's conception of how the English dressed in the city and country. William and Margaret probably wore similar clothes.












Their first residence was in Concord, Massachusetts, where William became a freeman on December 7, 1636, which meant he had to have been admitted as a member of the church before that date.

However, William and Margaret didn't remain in Massachusetts, removing to Stratford, Connecticut, by 1639. And that's where my direct ancestor Obediah, the seventh of their ten children, was born about 1645.

[Detail of A Map of New England and New York, 1676, showing locations of Boston and Stratford. Sold by Tho. Basset in Fleet Street and Richard Chiswell in St. Paul's Church Yard. Source: Wikimedia Commons]

In 1647 William acted as the Deputy for Stratford to the Connecticut General Court (he served on petit juries there) so he had some standing in the community.

His will was signed on May 29, 1651. It was damaged in a fire and the top part of the page was lost but he desired his younger children to live with their mother who was to give each one a cow along with their property when they reached adulthood. The inventory of his estate is dated June 16, 1652, suffered a similar loss. William's total estate was valued at £322 13s. 3d. most of which appears to have been land but included "arms" worth £3 and "books" valued at £3 14s. He left £30 to the Concord Church which he had been a member of many years earlier.

William Wilcockson is buried in the Old Congregational Burying Ground in Stratford. His widow Margaret married William Hayden some time between May 1656 and December 22, 1657, when John Winthrop, Jr. treated "Heiden William his wife 47 years old" at Windsor, Connecticut, and several of her children in later years.

William's entry in volume VII of The Great Migration is five pages long and is my source for most of what I've written here (via the New England Historic Genealogical Society's website).

*Alternate spellings of the surname include Willcoxson and Wilcoxon. Several generations later it was shortened to Willcox.
**You can read more about what government requirements were for prospective travelers to the New World here.
***Hertfordshire was known for its silk weavers. According to the Great Migration Project, the case for his father being William Wilcockson of Biggin-by-Hulland in Derbyshire is "suggested but not proven."

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.