Sunday, August 11, 2013
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Josiah Willard
Oh, and here's an interesting story that I found. Ephraim Brigham Willard, my Great Great Grandmother Rose's Great Grandfather had an older brother named Josiah Willard. This story is about him.
Tasty, eh?
Great Great Grandma Rose
In the spirit of my wonderful cousin Desi, I thought I would do a genealogy blog. Not that I really did any of this work on my own (I just plugged the name into FamilySearch and it autopopulated), but I did find it interesting to know a little history about my family. This picture shows my Great Great Grandma Rose's family. You can see her as the youngest child of Lester and Catherine Shadduck.
Of the 30 ancestors of Lester, 28 of them were born in Massachusetts. (The other two were born in Vermont and Rhode Island). It appears that even though the Graham side of the family was kind of a tumbleweed in the wind, the Shadduck side had set deep roots. This map shows the counties in Massachusetts in which these people were born. As you can see it was kind of rooted in one county. (Yea, I know. It only adds up to 27. That's because one of these people only listed the state they were born in, not the city or county.)
Something interesting happened to Lester, his parents, and his grandparents. For some reason they all moved to an area just outside of Erie, Pennsylvania. For some reason Joseph and his parents all died in a town called Greenfield and Betsy and her parents all died in a town called Harborcreek. These two towns are just 8 miles apart. See this map.
Before you conjure up too many soap opera scenarios, it is of note that Joseph and his parents all died before Betsy and her parents, so it is possible that Betsy and her parents moved after the other three had died.
Anyway, Lester was born in Greenfield in 1828 (only six years before his father's death). The guy was still siring children at the ripe old age of 55. Even more impressive (not sure that is the right word) is that he married Betsy in 1807 when he was 33 and she was 16 (yikes). Talk about robbing the cradle. It's late. Maybe I did my math wrong.
Lester went on to Marry Catherine Johnston in Scott, Wisconsin, which from the map below looks like it doesn't even exist. But I looked it up and there was a population of 791 as of the 2000 census. They married when Lester was 38 and Catherine was 21. It also looks like Lester may have had a first wife named Tabitha. I guess he wanted his second wife to be young.
My great great grandma Rose was born in 1873 when Lester was 45. Rose was the baby.
Anyway, Lester was born in Greenfield in 1828 (only six years before his father's death). The guy was still siring children at the ripe old age of 55. Even more impressive (not sure that is the right word) is that he married Betsy in 1807 when he was 33 and she was 16 (yikes). Talk about robbing the cradle. It's late. Maybe I did my math wrong.
Lester went on to Marry Catherine Johnston in Scott, Wisconsin, which from the map below looks like it doesn't even exist. But I looked it up and there was a population of 791 as of the 2000 census. They married when Lester was 38 and Catherine was 21. It also looks like Lester may have had a first wife named Tabitha. I guess he wanted his second wife to be young.
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