Recently Cissy called and asked me to look into the parentage of our 5th great grandfather, Churchwell Curtis b. 1744 in Virginia. The Curtises are mother’s maternal line and one of the four major lines in my tree. Churchwell is the earliest documented ancestor that we have found in America…until now.
Cissy had seen other users' trees that showed that Churchwell’s parents had originated in England. I had investigated this before but was never able to find documentation that this was so. (Let me say that sometimes families have access to information not available on the Internet. And sometimes they just want it to be so and find a link without substantiation. I do not do this and thus have not been able to link Churchwell to England.) I told her I would take another look at it since, after all, new data sources are added to the Ancestry data base daily.
I spend a couple of hours looking at other folks’ trees and, as before, was not able to find any acceptable documentation. I decided to spend some time looking at others in the time period. First I looked at Churchwell’s wife, Lucy. Unfortunately, the only thing we know about her is her first name. So that was a dead end.
Next I dropped back to Churchwell’s son, Zachariah b. 1809, and looked at his wife, Sally Powers b. 1778. I found a number of marriage records for the pair, but none of them named her parents. Then I stumbled across a Family Histories record for a Sally Powers, born in Yarmouth, Mass, that named her mother as Sarah “Sally” Webb of Yarmouth, Mass who married a Powers (first name not shown).
However, her birthplace of Yarmouth was in conflict with the birthplace of VA shown in the 1850 Census. I had to find a link between the two women to resolve this.
Finally, I found the Will of Sampson Powers that named his daughter as Sally Curtis (the Sally named in the Family Histories) and named Zachariah Curtis as an executor of his Will. This linked Zachariah’s wife, Sally Powers, directly back to the Thacher line.
While this seems to be a lot of trivia, it lays the foundation for what I found next. From the Family History, Sally Webb’s mother was Ruth Thacher b. 1736. Ruth’s father was Joseph Thacher b. 1699. Joseph’s mother,
Lydia Gorham b. 1661, was the daughter of John Gorham b. 1621 and Desire Howland b. 1624. Now, Desire’s parents were John b. 1591 and Elizabeth (Tilley) Howland b. 1607 and her grandparents were John b. 1571 and Joan (Hurst) Tilley b. 1568 and her great grandparents were William b. 1515 and Agnes (Cooper) Tilley. All are listed as passengers on the Mayflower when it landed at
Plymouth, Mass in 1620 (click here for an official passenger list). Obviously I had found a connection back to England, though not the one I expected.
Even though I share this connection with the Mayflower with about 10,000,000 other Americans, it is certainly a great honor to be counted among them. However, further investigation turned up even more interesting ancestors.
It seems that Joseph Thacher was married to Ruth Hawes b. 1709. Her father was Ebenezer Hawes b. 1678; her grandfather was Capt. John Hawes b. 1635 and her great grandfather was Edmund Hawes b. 1608 in Solihull, Warwickshire, England. Edmund arrived in American in June of 1635, only fifteen years after the Mayflower. However, his ancestors were quite significant.
Among the records I found for Edmund was one titled The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants. This document was quite interesting and on page 423 I found the following statement.
While this further supported the information I had previously found, its primary goal was to link immigrants back to their royal ancestors. In this
case it linked Edmond through fifteen generations to William I (Dunkeld) “the Lion”, King of Scotland d. 1214. This is the line of the ancient kings of 
Scotland. And this makes King William I my 24th great grandfather. And, if you have looked into any royalty’s genealogy, you know that once such a connection is made, it opens a lineage that can be traced quite far back. Using the resources of WikiTree, I finally stopped when I reached Kenneth I (MacAlpin) King of Picts and Scots b. 0810.
King William had a bastard daughter, Isabel Dunkeld b. 1170, by his kept mistress, Isabel de Avenal. Isabel married Robert de Ros b. 1170 making them my 23rd great grandparents. In 1215 King John of England bowed to a group of rebel barons and signed the Magna Carta Liberatum. Robert de Ros was one of the 25 barons appointed under clause 61 of the Magna Carta to monitor King John’s future conduct.
Encouraged by these results, I continued to explore this branch of the tree. Further expansion of the tree through King William’s mother, Ada Warenne b. 1123, I found William de Warenne, my 27th great grandfather. In 1066, William was one of the Norman barons summoned by William, Duke of Normandy. He took part in the invasion of England and was present at the Battle of Hastings. For his service, he was rewarded with lands in 13 English counties.
Turning to Ada Warrene's line through her mother, Isabel Vermandos, Countess of Surrey and Warenne, I discovered a whole new line of royalty. Her grandfather, Robert Capet, Robert II "the Pious, King of France", is my 29th great-grandfather. Robert's father was Hugues Capet "King of the Franks", first of the Capétiens lineage. His father, Robert de Paris Robert I "Roi de France", my 32nd great-grandfather, was the last of the Robertiens rulers.
After sharing this with Cissy, she wrote to tell me that, while looking into John Howland, she found his Find-a-Grave record. On the record was the following - "John Howland's descendants include President Franklin Delano Roosevelt; President George H. W. Bush; President George W. Bush; author Louis S. Auchincloss; historian Henry Brooks Adams; Ralph Waldo Emerson; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; and Nathaniel Gorham, a signer of the United States Constitution." I have confirmed the relation to Nathaniel Gorham and continue to research the other references.
When I began this quest, my goal was to link the Curtises, our earliest American ancestors, to England. Though I am positive that their origin is English, I am not able to make that link given the information available. However, I found something much more significant. Not only are our earliest known American ancestors among the passengers of the Mayflower that landed in Plymouth in 1620, but we are also descended from the ancient Kings of the Scots and the Picts.
All in all, a very productive day. And it shows that, lingering among the many branches of our family trees could be the link to great people of historical note.
Oh yeah, you might wonder at my reference to cabbages. According to Mayflowerhistory.com, the diet of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower would have consisted of, among other things, various pickled foods. It is well known that, during the Age of Sail, sauerkraut, yes fermented cabbage, played an important role in preventing scurvy. It was not citrus fruit, which would not remain fresh on long voyages, but sauerkraut, rich in vitamin C that is responsible for exploration and emigration throughout the Earth. And it makes a damned good Reuben! The Pilgrims’ diet included salt pork and dried cow tongue, but, alas, no corned beef.
I have had some time to expand my knowledge of my family tree. To see a list of those that I have so far identified, click on More Ancestors. And if you would like to know how to calculate the relationship between you and any of your relatives, click on Cousin Calculator.
Cissy had seen other users' trees that showed that Churchwell’s parents had originated in England. I had investigated this before but was never able to find documentation that this was so. (Let me say that sometimes families have access to information not available on the Internet. And sometimes they just want it to be so and find a link without substantiation. I do not do this and thus have not been able to link Churchwell to England.) I told her I would take another look at it since, after all, new data sources are added to the Ancestry data base daily.
I spend a couple of hours looking at other folks’ trees and, as before, was not able to find any acceptable documentation. I decided to spend some time looking at others in the time period. First I looked at Churchwell’s wife, Lucy. Unfortunately, the only thing we know about her is her first name. So that was a dead end.
Next I dropped back to Churchwell’s son, Zachariah b. 1809, and looked at his wife, Sally Powers b. 1778. I found a number of marriage records for the pair, but none of them named her parents. Then I stumbled across a Family Histories record for a Sally Powers, born in Yarmouth, Mass, that named her mother as Sarah “Sally” Webb of Yarmouth, Mass who married a Powers (first name not shown).
However, her birthplace of Yarmouth was in conflict with the birthplace of VA shown in the 1850 Census. I had to find a link between the two women to resolve this.
Finally, I found the Will of Sampson Powers that named his daughter as Sally Curtis (the Sally named in the Family Histories) and named Zachariah Curtis as an executor of his Will. This linked Zachariah’s wife, Sally Powers, directly back to the Thacher line.
While this seems to be a lot of trivia, it lays the foundation for what I found next. From the Family History, Sally Webb’s mother was Ruth Thacher b. 1736. Ruth’s father was Joseph Thacher b. 1699. Joseph’s mother,
Lydia Gorham b. 1661, was the daughter of John Gorham b. 1621 and Desire Howland b. 1624. Now, Desire’s parents were John b. 1591 and Elizabeth (Tilley) Howland b. 1607 and her grandparents were John b. 1571 and Joan (Hurst) Tilley b. 1568 and her great grandparents were William b. 1515 and Agnes (Cooper) Tilley. All are listed as passengers on the Mayflower when it landed at Plymouth, Mass in 1620 (click here for an official passenger list). Obviously I had found a connection back to England, though not the one I expected.
Even though I share this connection with the Mayflower with about 10,000,000 other Americans, it is certainly a great honor to be counted among them. However, further investigation turned up even more interesting ancestors.
It seems that Joseph Thacher was married to Ruth Hawes b. 1709. Her father was Ebenezer Hawes b. 1678; her grandfather was Capt. John Hawes b. 1635 and her great grandfather was Edmund Hawes b. 1608 in Solihull, Warwickshire, England. Edmund arrived in American in June of 1635, only fifteen years after the Mayflower. However, his ancestors were quite significant.
Among the records I found for Edmund was one titled The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants. This document was quite interesting and on page 423 I found the following statement.
“Edmond Hawes of Mass . . . His only child, John Hawes, married Desire Gorham, daughter of John Gorham and Desire Howland, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Tilley) Howland of the Mayflower.”
While this further supported the information I had previously found, its primary goal was to link immigrants back to their royal ancestors. In this
case it linked Edmond through fifteen generations to William I (Dunkeld) “the Lion”, King of Scotland d. 1214. This is the line of the ancient kings of Scotland. And this makes King William I my 24th great grandfather. And, if you have looked into any royalty’s genealogy, you know that once such a connection is made, it opens a lineage that can be traced quite far back. Using the resources of WikiTree, I finally stopped when I reached Kenneth I (MacAlpin) King of Picts and Scots b. 0810.
King William had a bastard daughter, Isabel Dunkeld b. 1170, by his kept mistress, Isabel de Avenal. Isabel married Robert de Ros b. 1170 making them my 23rd great grandparents. In 1215 King John of England bowed to a group of rebel barons and signed the Magna Carta Liberatum. Robert de Ros was one of the 25 barons appointed under clause 61 of the Magna Carta to monitor King John’s future conduct.
Encouraged by these results, I continued to explore this branch of the tree. Further expansion of the tree through King William’s mother, Ada Warenne b. 1123, I found William de Warenne, my 27th great grandfather. In 1066, William was one of the Norman barons summoned by William, Duke of Normandy. He took part in the invasion of England and was present at the Battle of Hastings. For his service, he was rewarded with lands in 13 English counties.
Turning to Ada Warrene's line through her mother, Isabel Vermandos, Countess of Surrey and Warenne, I discovered a whole new line of royalty. Her grandfather, Robert Capet, Robert II "the Pious, King of France", is my 29th great-grandfather. Robert's father was Hugues Capet "King of the Franks", first of the Capétiens lineage. His father, Robert de Paris Robert I "Roi de France", my 32nd great-grandfather, was the last of the Robertiens rulers.
After sharing this with Cissy, she wrote to tell me that, while looking into John Howland, she found his Find-a-Grave record. On the record was the following - "John Howland's descendants include President Franklin Delano Roosevelt; President George H. W. Bush; President George W. Bush; author Louis S. Auchincloss; historian Henry Brooks Adams; Ralph Waldo Emerson; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; and Nathaniel Gorham, a signer of the United States Constitution." I have confirmed the relation to Nathaniel Gorham and continue to research the other references.
When I began this quest, my goal was to link the Curtises, our earliest American ancestors, to England. Though I am positive that their origin is English, I am not able to make that link given the information available. However, I found something much more significant. Not only are our earliest known American ancestors among the passengers of the Mayflower that landed in Plymouth in 1620, but we are also descended from the ancient Kings of the Scots and the Picts.
All in all, a very productive day. And it shows that, lingering among the many branches of our family trees could be the link to great people of historical note.
Oh yeah, you might wonder at my reference to cabbages. According to Mayflowerhistory.com, the diet of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower would have consisted of, among other things, various pickled foods. It is well known that, during the Age of Sail, sauerkraut, yes fermented cabbage, played an important role in preventing scurvy. It was not citrus fruit, which would not remain fresh on long voyages, but sauerkraut, rich in vitamin C that is responsible for exploration and emigration throughout the Earth. And it makes a damned good Reuben! The Pilgrims’ diet included salt pork and dried cow tongue, but, alas, no corned beef.
I have had some time to expand my knowledge of my family tree. To see a list of those that I have so far identified, click on More Ancestors. And if you would like to know how to calculate the relationship between you and any of your relatives, click on Cousin Calculator.