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Saturday, November 26, 2016

Surname Saturday ~ Susannah UNKNOWN, wife of Thomas Burnham


Who was Susannah, wife of Thomas Burnham of Ipswich, Massachusetts, my 7th great grandfather?

According to a microfilm at the Family History Library “Burnham Family Lineage Charts”, a book by Walter J. Burnham, 1966 a Thomas Burnham was born on 30 September 1673 and married 30 September 1700 to a woman named Susannah or Margaret Boardman, born 5 April 1681.  Both died in 1748.  According to the vital records of Ipswich, Massachusetts, another Thomas Burnham (my 1st cousin 9 generations removed, son of James Burnham (1650 – 1729), married Margaret Boardman on 30 September 1708 in Ipswich.   These two Thomas Burnhams are two different people.  Susannah is not Margaret Boardman.  

In the book Burnham Genealogy, written by Roderick Henry Burnham in 1869 my 7th great grandfather, Thomas Burnham, married a Susannah, maiden name unknown.  They are not listed in the vital records.  They had six children, including a son Nathan who died at Fort Ticonderoga during the French and Indian War in 1758 . His son, Nathan, Jr. , was an early settler at Dunbarton, New Hampshire.  

So who was Susannah?  She would be my 7th great grandmother and I cannot find her in the primary source records.  Nor is their son in the vital records – Stephen Burnham, my 6th great grandfather, who removed from Essex County and went to Amherst, New Hampshire to the part of town that is now the town of Milford.  Stephen is member #3 of the first nineteen members of the First Congregational Church in Milford, founded in 1788.  His name is on the first list of tax payers in Milford, 1 April 1794. 

Stephen Burnham and his wife, Mary Andrews, had seven sons who all served in the Revolutionary War.  Colonel Joshua Burnham, Susannah’s grandson, my 5th great grandfather.  Colonel Burnham lived on his parents land in Milford, New Hampshire where he built a tavern that still stands on North River Road.  It is not far from where I live now.

Does anyone have a clue to the identity of Susannah?

My lineage from Susannah UNKNOWN:

Generation 1:  Susannah UNKNOWN, married Thomas Burnham, son of John Burnham and Elizabeth Wells.  Six children.

Generation 2: Stephen Burnham, born about 1715 in Ipswich, died about 1790 in Milford, New Hampshire; married 16 August 1735 in Ipswich to Mary Andrews, daughter of Thomas Andrews and Mary Smith.  She was born about 1712 in Ipswich. Thirteen children.

Generation 3:  Colonel Joshua Burnham, born 26 January 1754 in Gloucester, died 7 June 1835 in Milford, New Hampshire; married on 21 January 1779 to Jemima Wyman, daughter of Increase Wyman and Catherine UNKNOWN.  She was born 10 February 1757 in Billerica, and died 6 September 1843 in South Boston. Eleven children.

Generation 4:  Jemima Burnham, born 9 May 1783 in Milford, died 5 August 1868 at 88 Emerson Street in South Boston; married on 22 November 1810 to Romanus Emerson, son of John Emerson and Katherine Eaton.  He was born 1 September 1782 in Townsend, and died 10 October 1852 in South Boston. Seven children.

Generation 5:  George Emerson m. Mary Esther Younger
Generation 6: Mary Katharine Emerson m. George E. Batchlder
Generation 7: Carrie Maude Batchelder m. Joseph Elmer Allen
Generation 8:  Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandparents)

  
Here are a few more ancestresses with UNKNOWN maiden names or unknown parents:

Catherine UNKNOWN, wife of Increase WYMAN (b. 1732) Billerica, Massachusetts

Margery UNKNOWN, (d. 1687) wife of three different men who were all my 10th great grandfathers!  Believe it or not!  William Godfrey (d. 1671), Thomas Webster (1570 – 1634), and John Marrian, all of seacoast New Hampshire. 

Hannah SMITH married George Lillie in 1659 in Reading, Massachusetts.  Who are her parents?   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/07/surname-saturday-smith-of-reading.html

UNKNOWN wife of William BATES (about 1675 – before 1731), resident of Rye?, New Hampshire  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/06/surname-saturday-bates-of-new-castle.html 

Margaret WELCH (about 1796 – 1860 ) married  Captain Richard LOCKE 1823 in Chichester, New Hampshire.  She might be from Kittery, Maine.

Nancy Thompson (1804 – after 1847) married Jonathan BATCHELDER in 1822 in Belmont, New Hampshire. 

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Surname Saturday ~ Susannah UNKNOWN, wife of Thomas Burnham", Nutfield Genealogy,  posted Novemberr  26, 2016, (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/11/surname-saturday-susannah-unknown-wife.html: accessed [access date]). 

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