Sunday Sopabox: Special Edition ~ Immigrant Ancestors

I usually reserve the Sunday Soapbox for getting something off my chest. On Sunday. But I am feeling compelled, strongly, by all the recent global events to take a minute and give a shout out to all my immigrant ancestors. The ancestors who risked everything, everything, to make a new life for themselves. In a strange new world. Thousands upon thousands of miles away from all that was familiar. Not really knowing what fate awaited them, but believing that staying where they were was certain death, if not certain destitute poverty. We all want a bright, hopeful future. We all want a better life for our family and our children. This has not changed in the 2 million years since our first ancestors walked out of Africa. Countless wars have been waged over this very same issue. Territory. My territory, your territory. Heck, it's waged in sandboxes and kindergarten playgrounds every day, all around the globe.

But I digress.

I am here now, in this place, because of this roll call of dreamers and doers who had the gumption to get up out of their mediocrity - leave their ancestral homelands - go boldly toward the hope of a brighter tomorrow. To believe in themselves, and in humankind, enough to create something better than what had been. And in doing so joined millions of other immigrants, speaking a variety of languages, celebrating different customs, yet all cohabiting in this the New World.  Working toward the same goal.

Most of my immigrants were not 'legal' by today's standards. They just got on a boat and came. (Although I think a few may have come by TARDIS ....) But they all contributed to the tapestry that is America today. There are names of Pilgrims, Patriots, Pioneers and a lot of just plain folk working hard and getting by. Professors and politicians, housewives, farmers, lots of farmers, doctors, inventors, preachers, the list goes on.  I am proud of them all.

Immigrant Roll Call:

Arrival 1601 to 1700
1609 - Stephen Hopkins - England
1613 - Joseph Cobb - England
1620 - Isaac Allerton - England
1620 - Mary Norris - England
1621 - Stephen Deane - England
1621 - Elizabeth Ring - England
1623 - Nicholas Snow - England
1628 - Thomas Gerrard - England
1628 - Susannah Snow - England
1630 - John Doane - England
1630 - Mosses Mavericke - England
1630 - John Moseley - England
1630 - William Phelps - England
1631 - Richard Lyman - England
1631 - Sarah Osborne - England
1632 - Moses Rowley Sr - England
1632 - Henry Howland - England
1632 - Thomas Woodford - England
1632 - Mary Blott - England
1632 - Nathaniel Merriman - England
1633 - Matthew Allyn - England
1634 - Rowland Stebbins - Engalnd
1634 - Sarah Whiting - England
1634 - Thomas Newberry - England
1634 - John Stiles - England
1635 - John Thomas - England
1635 - Sarah Pitney - England
1636 - John Plumb - England
1636 - Dorothy Wood - England
1638 - Henry Burt - England
1638 - Ulalia Marche - England
1638 - John Hutchins - England
1638 - Walter Chiles - England
1638 - Polly Strangeman - England
1640 - Matthew Fuller - England
abt 1640 - Daniel Cole - England
abt 1640 - William Twining Sr - England
abt 1640 - John Curtiss - England
abt 1640 Elizabeth Welles - England
1643 - Robert Ellyson - Scotland
1650 - Robert Harris - Wales
1652 - Isaac Sheldon - England
1655 - Richmont Terrell - England
1655 - Elizabeth Wather - England
1656 - Mary Norton - England
1669 - William Overton - England
1669 - Mary Elizabeth Waters - England
1669 - John Hampton - Scotland
1679 - Christopher Gist - England
1679 - Edith Cromwell - England
1682 - Ezra Croasdale - England
1684 - Ann Peacock - England
1683 - Thomas Canby - England
1685 - Thomas Curtis - England
1685 - Jane Ogborne - England
1695 - John Potwine - England
abt 1699 Zachariah How - England
abt 1699 - Sarah Gilbert - England
1700 - Jerome Dumas - France
1700 - AbsolomVaughn - ?

Arrival 1701 to 1800
abt 1710 - Jonathan Hays - England
1726 - William Faulkner - Scotland
1726 - Mary Faulkner - Scotland
1728 - James McBride - Ireland
1729 - John Busby - England
1729 - Elizabeth Lisle - England
1732 - Thomas Wilson Sr - Scotland
1732 - Mary Riley - Ireland

Arrival 1801 to 1900
1819 - Michael Sammon - Ireland
1819 - Catherine Dunne - Ireland
1830 - Francis O'Rourke - Ireland
1830 - Ann Mclingin - Ireland
1832 - Alexander Fraser - Scotland
1832 - Elizabeth Chalmers - Scotland
1840 - James O'Connell - Ireland
1840 - Mary Dempsey - Ireland
1870 - Frederick Colyer - England

Born in America - parents unknown (probably came by TARDIS)
abt 1600 Thomas Crew
1631 Samuel Rockwell
1632 Elizabeth Wallace
1634 Mary Holton
1636 Abigail Bartlett
1640 Susannah Brooks
1642 Nathanial Grafton
1642 John Rogers
1649 Mary Claiborne
1655 Elizabeth Mayo
1658 Matthew Peatross
1660 Mordecai Price
1660 Henry Watkins
1662 Mary Parsons
1668 Mary Tilden
1669 Sarah Jarvis
1670 Ruth Bancroft
1670 Sarah Gatley
1670 Sarah Hill
1673 Anne Myhill
1673 Thomas Jackson
1680 Abigail Root
1681 Unity Smith
1684 Patience Lumbert
1684 Anne Skinner
1690 Elizabeth Elliot
1696 Mary Osborne
1704 Apphia Lewis
1717 Keturrah Merryman
1723 Melchezedec Brame
1726 Thomas Loveland
1728 Samuel Mannon
1734 Hannah Norcott
1740 Jerusha Kingsley
1744 William Wilton Ashby
1745 Sarah Williams
1772 Naomi Clarke
1775 Nathan Bass
1760 Samuel Beach
1786 Jesse Thomas
1790 Hackaliah Vredenburgh
1791 Sally Blackman
1803 Margaret Roberts
1829 Pamela Thompson
1833 Jennie Whitford

This land is your land, this land is my land

From the California to the New York Island

From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters

This land was made for you and me

As I went walking that ribbon of highway

I saw above me that endless skyway

Saw below me the golden valley

This land was made for you and me

I roamed and rambled and followed my footsteps

To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts

All around me a voice was sounding

This land was made for you and me

When the sun come shining, then I was strolling

In wheat fields waving and dust clouds rolling

The voice was chanting as the fog was lifting

This land was made for you and me

This land is your land, this land is my land

From the California to the New York Island

From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters

This land was made for you and me

When the sun come shining, then I was strolling

In wheat fields waving and dust clouds rolling

The voice was chanting as the fog was lifting

This land was made for you and me

~Woody Guthrie

©2017 Anne Faulkner - AncestorArchaeology.net, All Rights Reserved

Mathias Wisner: Of Maryland Not Of Pennsylvania (52 Ancestors #12)

Mathias Wisner was my fifth great grandfather. And another good mystery! There is a lot of information floating around about Mathias Wisner. A lot of confusing and contradictory information. Here is what I have been able to prove, and a bit of reasonable conclusion, I will leave the speculation to others.

Mathias first shows up in Baltimore MD in 1770 when he has a plot of land surveyed. He is mentioned in the book "The Wisner's in America" as the "progenitor of the Palatinate family." Settling in Baltimore County. By this I suspect that he immigrated from Germany as an adult, sometime prior to 1770. Mathias received his patent in October of 1774 for a piece of property known as Wisner's Prospect.

He married Sarah Mannon sometime before 1775. It is listed on Find A Grave, and other public places around the old genealogical 'hood, that their first child was born in 1775. I have found no documentation to support this and there is not an actual grave marker or cemetery listed on FAG, just a memorial page. I have treated this as a bit of information that requires further investigation.

I have found no evidence of Mathias' actual birth date or birth place, however it is reasonable to conclude that he was born sometime between 1740 and 1750. Certainly no later. His wife is said to have been born about 1748 by other researchers, I have found no proof of this to date.

There is a record of Mathias paying a supply tax in 1783, which has earned him a spot on the Daughters of the American Revolution's roster an a new patriot. (Ancestor #A210952). Curiously, he is listed as having an unknown wife prior to marrying Sarah (who has been recorded by the DAR as Mathias' second wife). The woman who submitted the initial information for Mathias did not supply this information, so currently it is a mystery as to where the DAR unearthed it.

Mathias shows up in the 1790, 1810 and 1820 Federal Census. I was very sad to read that in 1790 he had one slave in his household. Thankfully he came to his senses, as by 1810 he no longer was a slaveholder. This part of our history is just appalling to me.

In 1816 Mathias wrote his Last Will and Testament, which was presented for probate Feb 26, 1823.

Mathias' exact date of death is unknown, or at least unproved. There is a date floating around, but I have yet to discover it's accuracy.

It is said that he is buried in the family plot on Wisner's Prospect.

This Mathias Wisner is often confused with a Mathias Wisner who immigrated to Pennsylvania from Germany in 1752. The Pennsylvania Mathias Wisner has been well documented as living the remainder of his life in PA. There should be no confusion, but the rumor still persists.

Frederick Colyer: A Bit Of Genealogy Karma (52 Ancestors #11)

Frederick Colyer was my 2nd great grandfather. Born in Kent, England Novenber 4, 1847 to Frederick Henry Colyer and Ann Pritchard Colyer. Frederick was the middle child, second of three children, two boys and a girl.

Now I don't pretend to know what life in England was like in the mid-1800's, but for some unexplained reason Frederick decided to leave England and head for America as a young man of 22.

In the spring of 1870 Frederick traveled to London and boarded the ship the New World bound for America. Listed as a passenger in steerage, Frederick arrived in New York June 21, 1870 to begin his new life. It is unclear as to whether he traveled alone or with companions, but I do know that his entire family stayed behind in England.

Listed as a bricklayer by trade, I'm sure the job prospects were good for a young immigrant in the later part of the 1800's. Cities were being established, the railroads were being built, America was growing and needed good skilled men to fuel the growth.

Frederick finds his way to Chicago sometime prior to 1872, where he meets and marries my 2nd great grandmother, Ann Sammon, on September 13, 1872.

It is unclear as to whether Frederick was in Chicago prior to the Great Fire, but I would suspect that if not, he arrived shortly after. Chicago needed all the skilled bricklayers they could find to help rebuild the city devastated by fire.

Frederick and Ann would go on to have two children, a son and a daughter.

Their son, Henry, died at the age of 20. Ten years later Frederick lost his wife, Ann.

Frederick's golden years were spent in the residence of his daughter and son-in-law, finally joining his wife on February 19, 1928 at the respectable age of 80.

From left to right:
Standing: Margaret Colyer Irons, Frederick Colyer,
 Agnes Irons (granddaughter), Harry Irons (grandson)
Seated: William Irons (Margaret's husband)

The interesting aside to this story is that for years no one knew who Frederick's parents were. When I started my investigation into my family, my knowledge of Frederick's lineage was zero. I posted a Family Tree to OneWorldTree (a very incorrect tree, I might add, it has since been deleted). And that was that.

For a while.

One day I received an email from a man in England who had been looking for Frederick. He was a Colyer, descended from our mutual 4th great grandfather. He was tracing the family and was always stumped as to what has happened to Frederick. All he knew was Frederick got on a ship headed to America in 1870.  It puzzled and frustrated him not knowing Frederick's fate.

Then he came across my Tree.

For several weeks we emailed back and forth furiously. I supplied him with the information I had and he supplied me with the MOTHERLOAD of family tree research I would never be able to accomplish without an extended trip to England, and the seasoned knowledge of exactly where to look. He has been compiling family history for years. I now had parts of Frederick's lineage going back to 1515! With sources!

A magical day in the pursuit of genealogy, to be sure. A rare and glorious encounter.

One of those things we all secretly wish for when we post our trees for "cousin bait".

I have not has such a windfall of success since that time, but I have been able to 'pay it forward' here and there with other parts of my family tree. To enlighten others in some small ways, the way I was so blessed to have experienced.

Whatever possessed Frederick Colyer to leave his home and family so long ago, he was finally reunited 140 years later. The world just got a wee bit smaller.