Meghan Markle’s New Hampshire Roots

Did you know that Meghan Markle’s paternal grandmother, Doris Mary Rita Sanders (born about 1920), daughter of Fred George Sanders and Gertrude May Merrill,  was born in New Hampshire? She has a New Hampshire lineage that goes back for another ten generations in New Hampshire!

I won’t give her entire family tree here, since it is easily seen online at the resources listed below, and also since it would be enormous!  But I will tell you a little about Meghan’s New Hampshire ancestors.   The newspapers recently were all aflutter about Meghan’s Wentworth and Hussey shared ancestry with her husband Harry, but that goes back more than fifteen generations before they share an ancestor.  You might be even more closely related to the new royal bride if you match some of this New Hampshire ancestry.

From the lists of surnames below, I can see that I share common ancestors with Meghan through BURNHAM, PAGE, BATCHELDER, SANBORN, TAYLOR, SWETT, STACY and GODFREY, and kinship with a few other New Hampshire surnames.

Are these surnames in your New Hampshire family tree?  If so, you might be a cousin!  I’ve listed the surnames in Meghan’s family tree, and the immigrant ancestors of those surnames.

SMITH from Center Harbor, Meredith and Hampton (immigrant ancestor John Smith abt. 1616 – 1674)

MUDGETT  from New Hampton and Brentwood  (immigrant Thomas Mudgett abt. 1640 – 1701)

DRAKE from Holderness and Hampton (Abraham Drake 1623 – 1709)

MERRILL from Plymouth and Holderness (untraced before 1768)

HUCKINS from Gilmanton, Madbury and Durham (Oyster River) (Robert Huckins 1620 – 1694)

BICKFORD from Newington and Dover (John Bickford 1607 – 1677)

PAGE from Hampton  (Robert Page 1604 – 1679)

HOBBS from Hampton (Morris Hobbs 1615 – 1706)

SHAW from Cambridge MA and Hampton, NH (Roger Shaw 1600 – 1661)

BATCHELDER from Hampton (Rev. Stephen Batchelder 1561 – 1656)

DOW from Hampton (Henry Dow 1605 – 1659)

TAYLOR from Hampton (Anthony Taylor 1607 – 1687)

GODFREY from Hampton (William Godfrey d.1671)

HUSSEY from Hampton ( Christopher Hussey 1598 – 1685)

SANBORN from Hampton (John Sanborn 1588 – 1650)

MEAD (untraced before Hannah Mead m. Joseph Mudgett b. 1731)

SCRIBNER from Dover  (John Scriven (1623 – 1675)

SWETT from Hampton (Benjamin Swett 1624 – 1677)

THOMAS from Durham (Oyster River) (James Thomas (1642 – 1718)

GODDARD from Durham (Oyster River)  (John Goddard (1608 – 1666)

TIBBETTS from Dover (Jeremiah Tibbetts 1631 – 1677)

BENMORE from Dover (Philip Benmore 1630 – 1676)

ADAMS from Durham (Charles Adams (1621 – 1694)

WEARE from Nantucket and Hampton (Nathaniel Weare 1605 – 1681)

ROBIE from Hampton (Henry Robie)

------------------------

Some of Meghan’s Essex County, Massachusetts ancestors:

LEE from Manchester

KILHAM from Wenham

LUNT from Newbury

BROWNE from Newbury

EATON from Salisbury and Haverhill

ROWLANDSON from Lancaster and Salisbury

WORTHEN (untraced)

TILTON from Lynn

BURNHAM from Ipswich

FRENCH from Salisbury

STACY from Salisbury

CARTER from Woburn

WHITCHER/WHITTIER from Salisbury, MA and Chester, NH

ELLSWORTH (untraced before Jeremiah Ellsworth 1692 – 1779 m. Hannah Tenney of Rowley, MA)

Some of the many online sources for Meghan’s ancestry:

From NEHGS    https://www.americanancestors.org/Royal-Ancestry-of-Meghan-Markle.aspx  

from Fame Chain  http://www.famechain.com/  

A chart of Meghan and Harry’s shared ancestry:

https://www.americanancestors.org/uploadedfiles/content/features/meghan-markle-chart.pdf

Famous Kin   https://famouskin.com/family-tree.php?name=80923+meghan+markle

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Meghan Markle’s New Hampshire Roots", Nutfield Genealogy, posted June 4, 2018, (https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/06/meghan-markles-new-hampshire-roots.html: accessed [access date]).

Tombstone Tuesday ~ A Knight Templar and His Effigy

WILLIAM MARSHAL
first Earl of Pembroke (died 1219)

Believe it or not, the Knights Templar were not a fantasy created for a Dan Brown novel. They were living people in the middle ages.  Thanks to genealogists like Gary Boyd Roberts and William Addams Reitwiesner, I have traced my family tree back to William Marshal (about 1146 – 1219), my 23^rd great grandfather.  He was buried as a Knight Templar in the Temple Church of London in 1219.  Because of this, I have always wanted to return to London and visit the Temple Church, and see his effigy.

I descend from his daughter Eve Marshal (about 1206 – 1246) who married William de Braiose.  This lineage goes down through Judith Lewis (1626 – 1688), my 9th great grandmother, who married James Gibbons (about 1614 – 1692), an early settler at York County, Maine.  This kind of ancestor is called a “gateway ancestor” because they connect you to a noble or royal lineage.  This is the kind of ancestor you can find in books by Gary Boyd Roberts or on the Reitwiesner website.  There are only a few of these immigrants who qualify as “gateway ancestors”, but they fill up books with names like Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans or The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants to the American Colonies or the United States. This line from William Marshal to James Gibbons was confirmed in the book Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists who came to America before 1700, by Frederick Weis Lewis and Walter Sheppard, 1995.

It’s not often you can go back 23 generations in your family tree. But because noble and royal marriages were (and in some cases still are) so important for legal contracts, political alliances, and family connections they were always carefully documented.  The lower classes often had no record at all of marriages, births or deaths until about the late 1500s when one of the Pope passed an edict on record keeping.  The Protestant churches followed up with records, too, after the Reformation. 

About 1850 a cast was made of the effigy of William Marshal, and it is usually
displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
However, it was on display this year in the Temple Church, right next to the real effigy.
The actual effigy was damaged in 1941 during "The Blitz" when a German
firebomb hit the roof, and molten lead landed on the effigies on the church floor.

detail of the face of William Marshal's cast effigy

The Temple Church, London

 The Temple Church dates from 1162, and is a round church to represent the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.  A rectangular chancel was added in 1240.  It was built by the Knights Templar as their London headquarters.  During the crisis that lead to the Magna Carta in 1235, King John took shelter here in the Temple Church.  William Marshal, the First, and his son, William Marshal II are both buried here, and both were at Runnymede for the signing of the Magna Carta.  

In the 14th century the Templars were suppressed, and James I gave all the Templar land including the church to the societies of the Inner and Middle Temple, which are two of London's famous Inns of Court.  It was interesting to learn about the Templar's connection with the Magna Carta, and the current legal system in London which is centered in this area of the city. 

The Temple church was restored after World War II after extensive bombing damage destroyed the roof, and molten lead heavily marred and broke the effigies. It is still a working church with a community of parishioners.  This church was featured in Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code, in a scene where Langdon is searching for clues left by the Templar Knights. 

I was not aware of the damage done to William Marshall's effigy until I visited the Temple Church last month and saw the displays, including this information board (above).  The bomb damage to the effigy is heart breaking.  Fortunately it was skillfully repaired, and I cannot explain how wonderful it was to see the cast of the original effigy made in 1850.  I can only compare it to finding an LDS microfilm of a church register for a congregation that had burned and lost or damaged all its documents! 

More information on William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke
"The Greatest Knight That Ever Lived!"

------------------------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~  A Knight Templar and His Effigy", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 7, 2017, (https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/11/tombstone-tuesday-knight-templar-and.html: accessed [access date]). 

Surname Saturday ~ JONES of Wales and Boston, Massachusetts

Vincent and I at Washington Place, Honolulu, Hawaii
the home built by my 4th great aunt
Mary Lambert (Jones) Dominis, born in Boston, 1803.
This was Queen Lili'uokalani's last residence,
and the current governor's residence.

My 6^th great grandfather, Owen Jones, born about 1735, was a Royal Customs agent at Aberystwyth, Wales and also a customs agent at Boston, Massachusetts (probably before the Revolutionary War).  His son, Owen Jones, my 5^th great grandfather, was born about 1768 in Wales and he married Elizabeth Lambert in Boston.  Apparently the rest of the family returned to Wales, and Owen, Jr. stayed in Boston.  Owen’s sister, Ann, is buried at Aberystwyth with the following epitaph:

“Here lies the body of Ann, the daughter of Owen Jones, Collector of the Customs at Aberystwyth, by Ann, his wife, who was born at Boston, New England on the 17th of February 1769, and departed this life the 18th of February 1791, aged 22 years. Also to the above named Owen Jones, who departed this life the 28th of February 1798, aged 62”

Owen Jones, Jr. was a mariner, and he lived at Ship Street in Boston’s North End in the 1810, 1820 and 1820 censuses and city directories.  In the 1842 Boston directory he was living at 199 Hanover Street, also in the North End.  His death notice in the New England Historic Genealogical Society Register, Vol. 4, page 293 (July 1850) reads: “Jones, Mr. Owen, Dorchester, 22 April, ae 82, formerly of Boston”.    His obituary in the Boston Evening Transcript, 22 April 1850, page 2 reads “At Dorchester, this morning, at the residence of Wm. Hart, Mr. Owen Jones, 82, formerly of this city.  Funeral services at the house of Enoch H. Snelling, No. 108 Salem Street, on Tuesday, at 3 ½ o’clock PM. Relatives and friends are invited to attend.”   William Hart was his son-in-law (married to his daughter Agnes Jones), and Enoch Snelling was another son-in-law (married to his eldest daughter Sarah Dargue Jones).

Owen Jones married Elizabeth Lambert and had eight children.  Six daughters, and two sons (one died young, the other died at sea unmarried).   One of these daughters was my 4^th great grandmother, Catherine Plummer Jones (about 1799 – 1828).  Another daughter was Mary Lambert Jones (1803 – 1889), who married Capt. John Dominis and removed to the Kingdom of Hawaii where she became the mother-in-law to Queen Liliuokalani.  Two other daughters are named above, and the other two were Laura Williams Jones, who married John Lee, and Anne Marie Stanwood Jones, who was the first wife of Robert William Holt who also removed to the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Catherine Plummer (Jones) Younger died at age 29 and left her husband a widower with young children.  Their daughter, my 3^rd great grandmother Mary Esther Younger, was adopted by her aunt Mary (Younger) Harris and raised in Boston.  It was a letter written by her nephew, William Lee, to his aunt Mary Dominis in Hawaii that told me the connection to Queen Liliuokalani.  This letter in the Hawaii State Archives, dated May 9, 1887, was written when Princess Liliuokalani, her husband Governor John Owen Dominis, and Queen Kapiolani were visiting relatives in Boston enroute to Queen Victoria’s Jubilee celebration in London.  “…I tell you Aunt Dominis, the Jones & Lambert race will never die out!... [mentions Esther Emerson]… you can easily see the coming of the Queen and her party has been a marked event with our people.”  [M-93 Lili’uokalani Collection, Box 9, Folder 94 (years 1185 – 1888, #1164, s.n. 1305, Hawai’i State Archives]. 

Another letter dated May 11, 1887 from Governor John Owen Dominis to his mother says “Yesterday forenoon we had a reception for all my Cousins and aunts and nearly all were here…. The Queen and Lydia [Liliuokalani’s Christian name] had quite a jolly time with our cousins – Lydia has the names of all who were here.”  [ibid]

Esther Emerson, who met the Royal party in Boston, lived at #57 Nixon Street in Boston.  Her 1913 death record in the Massachusetts vital records gives her maiden name as Younger and her adopted name of Harris, as well as her parents and husband’s names.  She is buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Boston.   My great grandmother, Carrie Maude (Batchelder) Allen, died during my lifetime, and she was alive during the Queen’s visits to Boston both in 1887 and later after the overthrow of the monarchy.  She remembers visiting with “Auntie Lydia” and was one of the cousins mentioned in the letters above.   It was Great Grandmother Carrie’s insistence that we had a princess in our family tree that led me to start tracing this line back in the 1970s – my first foray into genealogy!

My JONES genealogy:

Generation 1:  Owen Jones, born about 1735, died 28 February 1798 in Aberystwth, Wales; married to Anne Unknown.  Two known children (probably more)

Generation 2:  Owen Jones, born about 1768 in Wales, died 22 April 1850 in Dorchester, Massachusetts; married on 11 May 1793 at the 2^nd Baptist Church, Boston, Massachusetts to Elizabeth Lambert.  She was born about 1775 and died 6 February 1834 in Boston.  Eight children

Generation 3:  Catherine Plummer Jones, born about 1799, died 2 May 1828 probably in Boston; married on 23 October 1816 in Gloucester, Massachusetts to Levi Younger, son of Levi Younger and Mary Wotton.  He was born 1 May 1786 in Gloucester, and died 8 December 1858 in Boston.  Five children.

Generation 4:  Mary Esther Younger, born 17 February 1826, died 7 January 1913 in Boston; married on 11 August 1845 in Boston to George Emerson, son of Romanus Emerson and Jemima Burnham.  He was born 11 July 1817 in South Boston, and died 11 January 1890 in Dorchester.  Eight children.

Generation 5: Mary Katharine Emerson m. George E. Batchelder

Generation 6:  Carrie Maude Batchelder m. Joseph Elmer Allen

Generation 7: Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandparents)

-----------------------------------------

To cite/link to this blog post: 

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, " Surname Saturday ~ JONES of Wales and Boston, Massachusetts ", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 14, 2017,  (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/01/surname-saturday-jones-of-wales-and.html: accessed [access date]). 

Some Thoughts about Cindy Crawford on "Who Do You Think You Are?"

On 27 August 2013, TLC aired an episode of WDYTYA? starring  supermodel Cindy Crawford as the featured celebrity.  She discovered that she had a colonial lineage that traced back to Thomas Trowbridge, her 10^th great grandfather.  He was involved with the Siege of Taunton, England during their civil war in 1645.  She met with professional genealogists who presented her with impressive scrolls that outlined her lineage to Trowbridge, and ultimately a very fancy scroll that traced back about 30 generations to Charlemagne and early kings of Europe.

According to Matthew Deighton of Ancestry.com, the research team at WDYTYA? spent more than 1000 hours of research on Cindy Crawford’s story.  Imagine how many hours this would take amateur genealogists to research?  Most viewers watching this show have never done any family history research.  Do they believe that they can walk into a repository or archive and be handed generations of genealogy? Does this support the myth that you can connect online at Ancestry.com and immediately find an impressive lineage back to someone famous?

I’ve been at the Nashua Family History center and witnessed folks walking in off the street demanding to see their family history.  At the reading room at the NEHGS library in Boston I overheard a man requesting to see specifically “The last six generations of my family tree in book form, not microfilm, please”.  The ensuing discussion with the genealogist behind the desk was quite humorous. 

Although I am descended of too many farmers, paupers and simple laborers to count, I have found links between several colonial ancestors and royal lineages.  It took me hundreds of hours to reach that colonial immigrant ancestor, and then I relied on books such as Gary Boyd Roberts’ book The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants to the American Colonies, or websites such as  William Addams Reitwiesner’s http://wargs.com/ databases of European royalty and nobility.  Using these resources is the closest thing I know to being handed an impressive lineage scroll.   Someone else has done the work, and you need to verify your connection.   Just go to the NEHGS website at www.americanancestors.org and try the library catalog search using the subject “families of royal descent” and you will find over 150 books and manuscripts. 

Never forget the hundreds, or thousands of hours it took to get to this point. And take this gift with a grain of salt.  I’ve pored over these genealogies and found many semi-mythical ancestors such as the Scandinavian descents from Odin, or ancient British king like Arthur or Beli Mawr, who also connect to biblical descents according to some genealogies (including Adam and Eve).  You must remember that historically the royalty maintained these written genealogies to prove they had “the blood of the gods” or inherited privilege.  Google the “Stone of Scone” to see how this tradition and myth is still perpetuated in the British Monarchy.

This episode seemed be about name collecting, which is something Ancestry.com and other websites are blamed for promoting.  There was no mention of the 1000 hours I learned from Matthew Deighton.  As a spokesperson for Ancestry.com, it would have been nice if the viewers knew that the verification of those many, many generations of Cindy Crawford's lineage took a long, long time and an entire team of researchers.Someone had to spend hours verifying this documentation. You can read all about this process at the ProGenealogist blog post here:
http://www.progenealogists.com/whodoyou.htm

Some resources for working with royal and noble descents

Europe:

The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants to the American Colonies, by Gary Boyd Roberts, Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co, 2008

Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700, by Frederick Lewis Weis, Baltimore, Md: Genealogical Pub. Co, 2004.

American Ancestors and Cousins of the Princess of Wales by Gary Boyd Roberts, Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1984

Ancestral Roots of Sixty Colonists Who Came to New England between 1623 and 1650: The lineage of Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, Malcolm of Scotland, Robert the Strong, and some of their descendants, by Frederick Lewis Weis, Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Pub. Co, 1982.

Ancestry of Catherine Middleton: Who Will Marry Prince William of Wales 29 April 2011, compiled by William Addams Reitwiesner,  edited by Christopher Challender Child  and Scott Campbell Steward, NEHGS, 2011.

The Magna Charta Sureties, 1215, The Barons Named in the Magna Charta, and some of their Descendants, by Arthur Adams, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co, 1964.

Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans: Many of the English Ancestral Lines Prior to 1300, by Carl Boyer, Santa Clarita, CA, 2001.

Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, Douglas Richardson, Baltimore, Md: Genealogical Pub. Co, 2011

Royal Families: Americans of Royal and Noble Ancestry, by Marston Watson, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co, 2004

William Addams Reitwiesner  http://wargs.com/

Directory of Royal Genealogical Data by Brian Tompsett, University of Hull, UK

http://www.hull.ac.uk/php/cssbct/genealogy/royal/

Genealogical Gleanings http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~royalty/

The Official Website of the British Monarchy http://www.royal.gov.uk/Home.aspx

Royal Genealogies http://ftp.cac.psu.edu/~saw/royal/royalgen.html

Polynesian:

Native Hawaiian Genealogy Society website

https://sites.google.com/site/nativehawaiiangenealogygroup/

Royal Lineages of Hawaii  http://www.keouanui.org/Menu.html

See the Brian Tompsett website above for other places in Oceania

Other places in the world:

Islamic Dynasties by Brian Tompsett , see above

Genealogical Gleanings http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~royalty/ (includes Africa, Asia, Oceania, Near and Far East, including India)

The Royal Ark website for the Royal and Ruling Houses of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas

http://www.royalark.net/

Of special interest:

Papal Genealogy: The Families and Descendants of the Popes by George L. Williams, 2004

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

The Sneaker King, Marquis Mills Converse

Kristen Stewart
wearing Chuck Taylor sneakers
on the red carpet in Hollywood
UP photo 2009

When I was just a teen aged kid, I started tracing our genealogy.  I had some help from a night class I took, and then I was on my own in the genealogy stacks of the reading room at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts.   I was lucky because it was the mid-1970s, and I had interviewed my grandparents, who had been born in the 1890s.  They knew all about their own parents and grandparents, which took me right to the “Tan Books”.  In those days (pre-internet), anyone doing Massachusetts ancestry used the Tan books, which are the published vital records for most of the towns in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.   The Tan books cover from the beginning of vital records in the early 1600s up to 1850.

I was also lucky because the AAS had, and still has, a great collection of compiled genealogies.  I was able to find a book on my MUNROE ancestors, and my EMERSONs, and then the CONVERSE family.  I carefully compared all the notes and dates to vital records.  I was sure that I was on the right track. However, the CONVERSE family had information on the family going back into the eons of time in England.  I took it all for granted and added it to my family tree.  There was no way of checking information pre-1620 in the Massachusetts Vital Records.

Still on the hunt for proof of my CONVERSE line led me to check the information I previously found with some books on heraldry and peerages.  All the Converse information matched, except for the leap from England to Massachusetts in the 1600s. Which is exactly where I found my first case of “trimming the family tree” a few years later.  As I advanced in my genealogy research experience, I learned about genealogy journals and using the latest available research.  The CONVERSE book I had read was published in the 1800s. Newer information in the NEHGS Register later in the 20thcentury straightened out the line and trimmed off my noble CONVERS line which had led to the knight Sir Roger de Coigneries, companion to William the Conqueror. 

Fast forward  - in the year 2001 a book was published called The Name’s Familiar II, a second volume of a book by Laura Lee which gives biographies and family histories on the inventors or historical figures who lent their names to brands, inventions, and other commonly used words.  This is the book for you if you are curious about the people and names behind CliffsNotes,  Bunker Hill, or Converse athletic shoes.   You can read this book online at Google Books.

The very first line of the sketch on Marquis Mills Converse, founder of the Converse athletic shoe company,  states “…was born October 25, 1861 into a family that traces its lineage all the way back to Edward III of England…”.   I wondered if they used his noble heritage in any early advertising.  And hey, that CONVERSE name sounded familiar?  Marquis Mills Converse turned out to be a relative. To me.  Not to any noble King in England.  If a fifteen year old could figure out that family history, why couldn't a book author?  (Did his parents name him "Marquis" after a mythical royal lineage?)

Did you ever wear a pair of Chuck Taylor basketball shoes? This is the same Converse shoe company, founded in 1908 in Malden, Massachusetts.  Our common ancestor, the Puritan Deacon Edward Converse first came to the New World and settled in Charlestown, and then Woburn, Massachusetts.  Malden was a great place for this famous sneaker factory since it is right in between the two towns where Deacon Converse lived in the 1600s.  These shoes are probably now made in China, but I don't know for sure.  Converse sneakers were wildly popular with both basketball players and teenagers in the 1950s and 1960s, until designer athletic shoes became the rage in the 1970s and 1980s.  The company is still making athletic shoes, and they are more popular today with skateboarders and red carpet actresses in Hollywood than with NBA athletes.

Here’s the real story!

The Converse Family genealogy:

          Richard Convers d. 1542 in Navestock, Essex, England m. Margaret Unknown

                                                               I

                                         John Convers m. Joan Fuller

                                                               I

                                         Anthony Convers m. Clemence Spady

                                                               I

                                         Deacon Edward Converse m. Sarah Parker

                                         b. 1590 Stanford Rivers, Essex, England

                                         d. 10 August 1663 Woburn, Massachusetts

                              I                                                                   I

James Converse m. Anna Long                                     Samuel Converse m. Judith Carter

                              I                                                                   I

James Converse m. Hannah Carter                              Samuel Converse m. Dorcas Pain

                              I                                                                   I

Robert Converse m. Mary Sawyer                                Thomas Converse m. Abigail Fay

                              I                                                                   I

Susanna Converse m. Caleb Simonds                           Joel Converse m. Elizabeth Bixby

                              I                                                                   I

Ruth Simonds m. Andrew Munroe                               Marquis Converse m. Electa White

                              I                                                                   I

Luther Simonds Munroe m. Olive Flint                        Peter Mills Converse m. Mary Spear Clement

                              I                                                                   I

Phebe Munroe m. Robert W. Wilkinson         Marquis Mills Converse m. Alice Houghton Sargent
                             I                                                   Founder of the Converse Shoe Company

Albert M. Wilkinson m. Isabella L. Bill                         

                              I

Donald M. Wilkinson m. Bertha L. Roberts

                (my grandparents)

Slightly inaccurate source:

The Name’s Familiar II, by Laura Lee, Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing Company, 2001.  (See pages 83-84 for the sketch on Marquis Mills Converse)

Better sources for CONVERSE genealogy:

NEHGS Register, Volume 146, pages 130 -132

NEHGS Register, Volume 153, pages 81 - 96

Great Migration Begins, Volume 1, pages 459 - 463

Internet resources:

Converse History   http://www.insidehoops.com/converse-history.shtml

Converse Shoes official website    www.converse.com

------------------------------

Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Tombstone Tuesday ~ The Cathedral at Toledo, Spain

The Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo, located in Toledo, Spain was begun in 1226 and the last parts were finished in 1493.  I have visited this cathedral three or four times, but just last month I found a genealogical connection to some of the tombs inside. 

The tombs of Henry III (4 October 1379 - 25 December 1406) of Castile and his wife, Catherine of Lancaster, in the Chapel of the New Monarchs inside the Toledo Cathedral, Toledo, Spain.  He was known as Henry the Sufferer "Enrique el Doliente" (I never found out what illness he suffered from).   Catherine of Lancaster, also known as Catherine Plantagenet, is my half 21st great grand aunt.  Her father, John of Gaunt, is my 22nd great grandfather, and I descend from his wife, Catherine Roet, through their daughter Joan de Beaufort.  John of Gaunt had four wives, and Costanza, was the mother of Catherine the wife of King Henry III of Castile.

Joan de Beaufort (about 1375 - 1440), my 21st great grandmother, had two husbands.  I descend from three of her children.  With her husband Robert de Ferrers (about 1373 - 1396) I descend from their daughter Mary de Ferrers.  From her second husband Ralph de Neville (about 1364 - 1425) I descend from Ralph Neville (about 1392 - 1458) and Eleanor Neville (born 1407).

How did I find out I was descended from royalty?  There are several books listed below which name "gateway" ancestors to royal lineages.  I am also lucky enough to live near the New England Historic Genealogical Society, where Gary Boyd Roberts has checked my family tree several times and pointed out ancestors who descend from the Plantagenets and other royal and noble families.  William Adams Reitwiesner's website is valuable, too.

The immigrant ancestor I have who descended from John of Gaunt is Thomas Lawrence (1589 - 1625) who married Joan Antrobus.  I descend from two of their six children.  He is a descendant of Mary de Ferrers described above.  Some other ancestors with royal lineages are Reverend Peter Bulkely (1583 - 1659) as well as his wife Olyff Irby (about 1547 - 1615), Judith Lewis (1626- 1688) wife of James Gibbons, and Elearnor Slingsby (died 1647) wife of Arthur Ingraham.

Henry III and Catherine of Lancaster were the grandparents of Queen Isabella, wife of King Ferdinand, who is most famous to Americans as the benefactor of the explorer Christopher Columbus.

According to Wikipedia, the plaque above the tomb of Henry III says:

" "AQUI IACE EL MUI TEMIDO Y JUSTICIERO REI DON ENRIQUE DE DULCE MEMORIA QUE DIOS DE SANTO PARAISO HIJO DEL CATHOLICO REI DON JUAN NIETO DEL NOBLE CAVALLERO DON ENRIQUE EN 16 AÑOS QUE REINO FUE CASTILLA TEMIDA Y HONRRADA NACIO EN BURGOS DIA DE SAN FRANCISCO Y MURIO DIA DE NABIDAD EN TOLEDO IENDO A LA GUERRA DE LOS MOROS CON LOS NOBLES DEL REINO FINO AÑO DEL SEÑOR DE 1407."

Which translates to:

Here lies the late feared and just king Henry, in the sweet memory of the Holy God of Paradise, son of the Catholic King John I and grandson of Henry. The noble 16 year old knight, who ruled over Castile justly and honourably, was born in Burgos on the day of St Francis and died on Christmas Day in Toledo, during the war between the Moors and the kingdom's nobles, which finished in 1407."

There are many monarchs of Spain buried inside the Toledo Cathedral.  The others are Sancha II, Sancho III, Emperor Alfonso VII and his wife Berenguela, Sancho IV the Brave, Henry II and his wife Juana Manuel, Juan I (father of Henry III), John II is represented here in Toledo Cathedral with a cenotaph (his body lies in Burgos, Spain).

The coolest thing about the above inscription is the mention of these kings being born in Burgos.  My father-in-law was born in Burgos.  Perhaps if I could trace his lineage back far enough I would find our line might cross in Burgos?

You can read more about Henry III of Castile at this Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_III_of_Castile 

You can find royal lineages, including the ones described above at William Adams Reitwiesner's website:
WARGS.com 

Some books to consult if you think your ancestor has a noble lineage:

Plantagenet Ancestry of Seventeenth Century Colonists, by Davis Faris, Baltimore: Gneealogical Publishing Company, 1996

The Royal Descents of 500 Immigrants to the American Colonies or the United States, by Gary Boyd Roberts, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1993

Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700, by Frederick Lewis Weis, 7th edition, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1992

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Lili'uokalani's Birthday, September 2, 1838

This is my favorite photograph of Queen Lili'uokalani.  I snapped this photo of a photo inside Washington Place, the family home in Honolulu.  It is the Queen, in her very last years, with her grandchildren.  These are the children of John Owen Aimoku Dominis.  Her third grandchild was born in 1916, and the Queen passed away in 1917.  It was originally photographed in the garden of Washington Place. 

The Queen's birthday is celebrated in Hawaii with a prayer service at Iolani Palace, and the Royal Mausoleum is opened for the public to pay their respects.   Hula and mele (music) are usually performed in her honor, and often the music the Queen herself composed is played.  

Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Wewehi Kamakaʻeha was born to her parents to High Chiefess Analea Keohokalole and High Chief Caesar Kaluaiku Kapa'akea on this day, 2 September 1838. She was raised by her hanai (adoptive parents in the Hawaiian style) Abner Paki and Laura Konia. Her royal name, upon being named Crown Princess, was Lili'uokalani.

On 16 September 1862 Lydia/Lili'oukalani married John Owen Dominis, the son of Captain John Dominis and Mary Lambert Jones.  Mary Lambert Jones was born in Boston on 3 August 1803, the daughter of Owen Jones, a Welsh customs official, and Elizabeth Lambert.  Mary's sister, Catherine Plummer Jones, was my 4th great grandmother.  Which makes John Owen Dominis my first cousin, several generations removed.  Washington Place, the family home mentioned above, was built out of parts sent from Boston to Honolulu by ship. 

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Lili'uokalani's Birthday, September 2, 1838", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 2, 2012, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/09/liliuokalanis-birthday-september-2-1838.html: accessed [access date]).  

Lili'uokalani News Clippings

My cousin's mother in law found these news clippings in a scrapbook.  She runs a little historical society museum in the small town of Bradford, Maine.  The news clippings are probably from the Bangor Commercial, and are undated, but probably date from the 1890s after the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

There is quite an unflattering description of my 4x great aunt, Mary Lambert (Jones) Dominis.  However, even in Lili'uokalani's own autobiography, she described her mother-in-law as cold and unfriendly.  I have seen this description in other accounts, too.  However, some of the other family members were described as friendly and welcoming to "Cousin Lydia".  It makes me wonder what kind of person her sister, my 4x great great grandmother was in her time.  She died even before Mary went to Hawaii, so she never knew Lili'uokalani, but her daughter and grandchildren met her during the Queen's visits to Boston.

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Favorite Cemetery Photo for the Carnival of Graveyard Rabbits

The Dominis Family Plot at Oahu Cemetery, Hawaii

It was easy to choose a photograph for this Carnival of Graveyard Rabbits "Favorite Cemetery Photo" theme.  It's not a favorite family member, or a a particularly beautiful photo, but it is the "brick wall smashing" that this photo represents which makes it a favorite.

All my life I heard that we were related to someone in Hawaii.  Over time people told me it was a Princess in Hawaii, but I thought that it was just that the fish tale had grown over the years.  I first researched this family story when I was in high school.  I wrote a thesis paper on the annexation of Hawaii by the United States under the guise of learning more about Queen Lili'uokalani.  I didn't find a family connection, but I was puzzled by some names she wrote about in her autobiography.  I learned that when the Queen came to Boston to visit her husband's relatives she visited with people named Jones, Emerson, Lee and Snelling.

Over time I found some tantalizing clues in our family tree. My great great grandmother was an Emerson.  Her grand mother was a Jones.  The Queen's mother-in-law had the maiden name of Jones.  There were too many Joneses in Boston to find a link.  It was like searching for a needle in a haystack. For years I wrote to Hawaii, to family members, to authors and genealogists.  Nothing matched.

Finally, a curator in Honolulu sent me copies of two letters that named my relatives and their relationship to the Queen's mother-in-law.  This gave me just the small evidence I needed to weed through the Joneses in Boston and put together a family tree.  I found six Jones sisters; two had families in Hawaii, one was my 4x great grandmother, and one married a Snelling who helped send windows from Boston to build the Queen's residence in Honolulu.  The last Jones sister I researched married a Lee, and was the mother of the Boston publisher who printed up Queen Lili'uokalani's autobiography.  Most of the sisters had letters in the Hawaii State Archives which helped me to piece together a family tree when I compared the names to those in the Massachusetts Vital Records, city directories and census records.

Going to Honolulu to complete my research, and to drape leis over Aunt Mary Dominis's grave was one of my most unforgettable genealogy moments!  We also went with my distant cousin, a Dominis descendant, to visit Governor John Owen Dominis's and Queen Lili'uokalani's tomb at Mauna 'Ala, the Royal Mausoleum across the street from the Oahu Cemetery.

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Happy Halloween! The Story of the Willey Family of Crawford Notch

Crawford Notch State Park October 2010
The Site of the Willey House

Many writers, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, have told the sad story of the Willey Family of Crawford Notch. The tragedy was also included in songs, poems and paintings of the time period. This remote mountain pass was used by Native Americans, who told Timothy Nash its whereabouts. He is generally credited with its discovery in 1771. The first permanent settlers in the notch were the Abel Crawford family in 1792, on land originally granted to Nash.

In 1825 Samuel Willey, Jr. of Bartlett, New Hampshire built a small house in Crawford Notch at the foot of what is now called Mt. Willey. He brought his wife and five children to live there. On 28 August 1826 there was an extended drought, followed by heavy rain. The Saco River, which has its headwaters in Crawford Notch, rose 20 feet overnight. Two days later, friends came to the valley and were horrified to find the house unharmed, but the surrounding slopes littered with landslide and avalanche boulders. A large ledge above the house had divided the landslide, which passed around the house. The bodies of the Willey parents and two children were found, and three other children remained missing.

Poets and writers have dreamed up many versions of scary tales about what happened the day of the tragedy. Did the family flee the house when they heard the landslide? Were they escaping the flood when caught by an avalanche? Were they warned ahead of time? The house stood untouched, with a bible on the table and a dog still inside.

The Willey house stood as an inn to travelers until 1898 when it burned to the ground. Its site is marked by a large boulder with a bronze plaque. As a child we used to camp nearby, and my Dad would tell the story of the Willey family in his best Halloween voice. We would get the shivers standing there looking at the park and historical marker. We were there just two weeks ago to see the Fall foliage and visit the site. I still get the shivers even today!

1971, my sister and I at Crawford Notch
(the hills still bear the marks of the landslide 150 years before)

Willey Family Lineage (Thanks to Sue and Rick Willey, please see below)

Generation 1. Thomas Willey was born 1617 in Lincolnshire or Lancashire, England, died September 1681 in Oyster River (now Durham), New Hampshire; married Margaret Geaffit, born about 1615 in England.

Generation 2. John Willey, born between 1655 and 1656 in Oyster River, died 10 Sept 1770 in Oyster River; married Alice Dorcas about 1688.

Generation 3. Samuel Willey, born 1693 in Dover, New Hampshire; married about 1715 to Sarah Stevenson, daughter of Bartholomew Stevenson and Mary Clark.

Generation 4. Samuel Willey, born before 6 March 1719/20; married 16 June 1749 to Sarah Glazier.

Generation 5. Captain Samuel Willey, born 31 January 1753 in Lee, New Hampshire, died 14 June 1844; married on 23 October 1782 to Betsey Glazier, born 1 January 1761, and died 7 April 1844 in Conway, New Hampshire.

Generation 6. Samuel Willey, born 31 March 1788, died on 28 March 1826 in Crawford Notch Avalanche; married to Polly Lovejoy, born 1791, died on 28 March 1826, daughter of Jeremiah Lovejoy and Elizabeth Spring. (Polly had a royal ancestral lineage from King Edward III of England through her ancestor Edward Carleton of Rowley, Massachusetts, see Ancestral Roots of Sixty Colonists who came to New England between 1623 and 1650, by Frederick Lewis Weis, Genealogical Publishing Co., 1988 ).

For more information:

The story of the Willey Family from the NH State Park’s Website (scroll down under History)
http://www.nhstateparks.com/crawford.html

“The Ambitious Guest” a short story from Twice Told Tales, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1837

“The Story of the Willey Family”, brochure by the New Hampshire State Parks (from Crawford Notch State Park, picked up in October 2010 at the gift shop, free)

This link has a beautiful painting by Thomas Cole of Crawford Notch “A View of the Mountain Pass Called the Notch of the White Mountains”, 1839, an excerpt from Hawthorne’s version of the tale, and also a passage from Cole’s journal, 1828, just two years after the incident.
http://www.nga.gov/education/classroom/19th_century_america/art_crawfordnotch.shtm

The New Hampshire Willey Family Tree, by Sue and Rick Willey
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/pearl/www.geocities.com/Pentagon/6315/family/willeynh.pdf

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Happy Halloween!  The Story of the Willey Family of Crawford Notch", Nutfield Genealogy, posted 28 October 2010, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/10/happy-halloween-story-of-willey-family.html: accessed [access date]). 

Wordless Wednesday- Last week in Spain

The Alcazar in Segovia, Spain

The castle of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand

Inside the Alcazar is the "Room of the Monarchs"

which is a giant genealogy or line of succession for the Spanish Royalty.

Alfonso IV - my 29th great grandfather (on the left)

Queen Berenguela (wife of Alfonso V) my 28th great grandmother (on the left)

Ferdinand II - my 27th great grandfather, Berenguela's son (on the right)

Ferdinand's daughter was Eleanor of Castile, who married Edward Longshanks

(He was the evil king in the "Braveheart" movie, and another one of my ancestors)

All are ancestors of my Connecticut Ingraham line, and my Massachusetts Wymans

The Room of the Monarchs inside the Alcazar

they are carved into the ceiling freize

(that's me walking around whilst Hubby craned his neck to take photos)

The Alcazar's wall, looking down from the keep

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Treasure Chest Thursday - The Imprisonment Quilt

The Imprisonment Quilt

Perhaps the most historic quilt ever made in American History is the quilt made by a queen. A queen in American history? Well, once upon a time there was a Kingdom of Hawaii, with a beautiful palace more high tech than any in Europe or America. There were Kings and Princesses. They had a beautiful, peaceful island nation and political ties with the crowned heads of Asia and Europe. Queen Lili’uokalani of the Kingdom of Hawaii was its last sovereign, and she was deposed and arrested and held as a prisoner at Iolani Palace for six months. During this time she made a famous Victorian style crazy quilt known as the “Imprisonment Quilt”

In 1893, when the ex-queen was implicated in the attempted counter revolution they imprisoned her in a corner room. She was unjustly arrested. Although the other rooms at Iolani Palace are opulent and well appointed, this one room contains only a bare metal bed and a chair. The windows are still furnished with the frosted glass installed to prevent her from looking out the window. It is spartan and definitely "not royal". The one wonderful feature of this room is the display of the famous quilt.

Queen Lili’uokalani was allowed to have one lady in waiting during her imprisonment, but she was not allowed to choose her companion. A woman was chosen every day to sit with her, and to help her pass the time the ladies would sew. She started with four small pieces of scrap material, and the other ladies would ask if they could add to the quilt. Over time hundreds of pieces of ribbons and cloth were put together in the quilt. It is covered with silk embroidery, of symbols of the Hawaiian Kingdom, names of supporters, the Queen’s biography and even a family tree.

Queen Lili'uokalani

As a palace treasure, the quilt is displayed in the Imprisonment Room at Iolani Palace under Plexiglas. We were not allowed to photograph it during our tour of the palace, but I have a photograph of a poster that was on display in the Royal Barracks behind the palace. I was lucky enough to be on the tour with a distant cousin, who pointed out her great grandfather’s name, Ernest Renkin, on one of the quilt squares. Her great grandmother was one of the ladies chosen to be a companion to the Queen during her imprisonment.

There are mysterious symbols embroidered in silk all over the quilt. These include a clock with its hands set at 8:27, a fork and knife, a turtle, a Chinese gentleman with a parasol, a key, a pair of pliers, symbols of Freemasonry, etc. Her brother, King Kalakua, and her husband, John Owen Dominis, my first cousin 4x removed, was a 33rd degree Mason. A small book, The Queen’s Quilt, describes each square on the quilt, many of the names and symbols. This book is available through the Palace gift shop at http://www.iolanipalace.org/ or through bookstores and on-line at Amazon.com.

Note:

There is a second type of famous quilt in Hawaiian history. In 1893 when the monarchy was overthrown, the flag of the Kingdom was outlawed. Women began to sew quilts incorporating the old flag and other symbols of royalty. Scraps of the old flags were often used. Today they are valuable possessions known as “My Beloved Flag”.

A Hawaiian woman displays her flag quilt

Quilting is a very popular hobby in Hawaii. The missionaries who arrived from New England in the 1820s taught quilting to the local women, and it spread in popularity. There are many quilt shops, exhibits, galleries and museums. The women of Hawaii have developed their own style of quilting, which is often using just one or two colors on a white background, usually stylized flowers and leaves. It is very distinctive and popular with tourists as locally made souvenirs; in full sized quilts, pot holders, bags and other smaller gifts.

For more information:

The Queen’s Quilt, by Rhoda E. A. Hackler and Loretta G. H. Woodard, 2004, Friends of Iolani Palace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dl3boyzSsM A Hawaiian TV news story on the Imprisonment Quilt, and the story of one of the names on the quilt.


Note:  Queen Lilioukalani married, my first cousin five generations removed, John Owen Dominis (1832 - 1891).  His mother, Mary Lambert (Jones) (1803 - 1889) and my 4th great grandmother, Catherine Plummer (Jones) Younger (about 1799 - 1828) were sisters.

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Treasure Chest Thursday - The Imprisonment Quilt", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 26, 2010, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/08/treasure-chest-thursday-imprisonment.html: accessed [access date]).

Genealogy Trip to Hawaii- Day Seven

This is a continuation of the story of my family history research trip to Hawaii. It was our second to last day in Honolulu, and we had a second appointment with the curator at Washington Place. This was the home built by Captain John Dominis for his wife, Mary Lambert Jones, sister to my 4x great grandmother, Catherine Plummer Jones. The Jones family was from Boston, and so he built her a grand, New England style home in Honolulu. We had visited Washington Place the previous week, and were happy to see it one more time before returning home.

After driving by Washington Place all week, I began to appreciate its location and its architecture even more at the second visit. It was within walking distance of where our cruise ship docked, and so imagine that in the 1830s Capt. Dominis could see or walk to his shipping interests in Honolulu harbor. Now, it is near the Hawaii State Capitol building, Iolani Palace and other governmental offices downtown. It certainly is a prime location. And it certainly looks very grand, so in the 1840s it must have been considered very palatial for Honolulu!

We went over the family tree in detail with the curator at this meeting, and I’ll be sending her my updated descendant report on all the Jones family. We also explored the family tree of the Emersons who are buried at the Queen Lili’uokalani church in Haleiwa, and some of the other names of early Honolulu settlers who came from Boston. There may or not be family relationships between some of these folks. Now I have letters from people like Captain Charles Brewer and Reverend Andrew Yates to Mary Dominis, and I hope to find out how they are or aren’t family.

After this meeting we finally found the statue of Queen Lili’uokalani. It was right behind Iolani Palace and the Hawaii State Archives, actually tucked next to the State Capitol building. It was easy to miss, because of several huge banyan trees growing nearby. We had been to Iolani Palace three times, so this was our fourth trip! I had meant to ask a cousin for directions, but it had always slipped my mind.

I was quite emotional when we were finally standing next to this statue. We were alone and the area was so peaceful and quiet. Many other people had left flower offerings at her feet. Suddenly I felt compelled to remove the leis I had been given the previous day, and draped them on the Queen’s outstretched hand. I was so grateful to finally find her, and see her home, and find all the family letters and cousin connections. I’ll never forget that moment.

Later that day we drove along the west coast of Oahu, making an almost complete circuit of the island. There is one small place where the roads do not connect. It was near the end of our vacation and seeing (almost) the entire shoreline of Oahu was my Hubby’s goal. Of course, we had been upgraded to a nice Volvo convertible by the rental company, so driving anywhere in Oahu was fun!

We ended the day with our usual walk along Waikiki Beach, and had dinner at another hotel’s poolside grill. The sun was setting over the water to the west, which is something we don’t see back home in New England, and the last surfers of the day were catching a few last waves. The duet of singers at this restaurant ended their set of music with Lili’uokalani’s “Aloha Oe” which was a very nice end to our beautiful day in Hawaii.

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo