Week 42’s theme is “conflict.” I started this post a couple of weeks ago and then had to redo it after finding and reviewing a key source. A while back I wrote about my ancestor Reverend Jonathan Ellis. He followed in the pastoral footsteps of his father, Reverend John Ellis, though he went to Yale instead…
The theme for week 27 was “Independence” in honor of the 4th of July. I am working through reviewing all the patriots in my line, so I chose one John Douglas to feature for this week. John Douglas was born in 1724 to Thomas and Hannah (Sperry) Douglas(s) of New London, Connecticut. He married his…
This week’s theme is Father’s Day. My father was a contrarian. He always loved the underdog best and often took the less popular side of an argument. One of his more interesting assertions was that if he had lived during the American Revolution, he would have been a Loyalist instead of fighting for the Revolution….
The 52 Ancestors prompt for this week is Longevity. My first thought was to feature my 2nd great-uncle who was confirmed to have lived 105 years. I never met him despite his living past my high school graduation. The story was that he lived the last 20 years of his life in poor health. An…
William Seward was born around 1746 in Killingworth, Connecticut to the Rev. William Seward and his wife Concurrence Crane. He was third in a line of William Sewards, though there doesn’t appear to be any records showing a III after his name. They were all descendants of a William Seward who immigrated from England and…