Tom's Christmas Message - 2016

Thank goodness "someone" is writing a post for this blog. Merry Christmas from Tom and all of the Jones family.

Stephen Deane - Our 9th Great-Grandfather

When I started investigating our colonial ancestors, I had no idea that our family first arrived on American shores in 1621. This was just one year after the Mayflower arrived in Plymouth Bay. As mentioned in the last post, almost one-half of the passengers who arrived aboard the Mayflower in 1620 did not survive the winter.

It is thought that our ancestor, Stephen Deane, was born in Southwark, Surrey, England. He arrived aboard the Fortune the on November 9th, 1621 in the fall following the arrival of the Mayflower, in Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This was the second ship to arrive in Plymouth Bay successfully, but the new arrivals were hardly a welcome addition. They arrived with very few supplies, and thus added to the burden of the Mayflower survivors who had already suffered too much.

Born about 1605, Stephen arrived in America as a single man. His occupation was listed as "miller." He met and married Elizabeth Ring. Together they became the parents of three daughters: Elizabeth (1630), Miriam (1632), and Susanna (1634), Elizabeth married William Twining in Eastham, MA about 1650, Miriam married John Wing in 1662/63, and Susanna married Joseph Rogers in 1660, grandson of Thomas Rogers of the Mayflower. In 1663, Susanna married her second husband, Stephen Snow.

Stephen Deane was a successful businessman. In 1627, he bought an additional acre of property from William Delaney. In 1632, he was given permission to open a corn mill, probably his second, adjoining the town of Plymouth. The agreement allowed him to collect a toll of one pottle (half gallon) of each bushel ground. Stephen's biography is listed below.

Unfortunately, Stephen died before the age of 30, leaving his widow, Elizabeth Ring Deane, with three young children. I've not been able to find a cause of death. Elizabeth would later marry Josiah Cooke, who graciously became the stepfather of Elizabeth's children.

The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England

Additional References:

Master Profile for Stephen Deane on Geni.com

Excellent reference for the arrival of Stephen Deane, his subsequent marriage to Elizabeth Ring and their children. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~paxson/deane/Deane.html

Find A Grave - includes a short biography of Stephen Deane  http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=34800329

Boston Globe article about Stephen Deane reenactment: Boston Globe: Pilgrim for a Day

Nasalroad Family Genealogy http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/n/a/s/Kennieth-J-Nasalroad/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0296.html

Passengers of 1621 Fortune Voyage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passengers_of_1621_Fortune_voyage

They Came to America

It seems hard for me to believe that our Joneses have roots that extend back to 1621 in America. Our first ancestor in America was Stephen Deane, my 9th great-grandfather. To put his story in context, we have to go back to the Mayflower, and the first group of people to come to what became known as the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.

Credit: Wikipedia

Background
It was ALL about religion

In 1605 in England, there was no religious freedom. The Church of England was the state religion, and an attack on it was an attack on England. Although this church was the result of the Protestant Reformation, there were individuals who felt that the church still retained too much of the liturgy, sacraments, and ritual and had not gone far enough to reform the church. They referred to themselves as "Separatists."

They had to meet in secret and not promote their views among the rest of the population. Doing so could result in a loss of livelihood, imprisonment, and even death. Conditions became so difficult that a group of about 80 Separatists decided to relocate to Amsterdam and, later, the town of Leiden. At the time, it was illegal for Catholics and Protestant Separatists to emigrate without permission. In 1607, part of their group was able to escape to Amsterdam before being discovered. The rest of the group was able to join them in 1608. William Brewster of Mayflower fame, became one of their leaders after losing his job as postmaster in Scrooby, England because of his religious beliefs.

The reality of life in Leiden, Netherlands did not live up to their expectations. As they were not citizens, they were limited in the kinds of employment they could obtain.Their children wanted to adopt the ways of the Dutch. And so the decision was made to reestablish a community in the New World.

On September 5th, 1620, 102 passengers and crew, departed for what turned out to be a 66-day passage. The voyage started out smoothly, but by October, they encountered fierce Atlantic storms that made the voyage treacherous. The winds blew them off-course, but they finally landed in what is now Cape Cod on November 9th. This late fall arrival date forced the passengers to rely on the provisions on board, and most of the winter was spent living on the boat. Food dwindled, disease spread, and temperatures dropped resulting in the deaths of half of the passengers and crew that first winter.

I could write a book about the rough beginning in what came to be known as Plymouth, but several others already have. If you are interested in this topic, you can find a lot of information at the links listed. I recommend that you read the first link, in particular. It explains in detail the beliefs of the Separatists (Pilgrims) and the role that faith played in their every day lives.

Further Reading:

https://www.plimoth.org/what-see-do/17th-century-english-village/faith-pilgrims

http://mayflowerhistory.com/newsblog/

Five Generation Birthplace Pedigree

Five Generation Birthplace Pedigree

Yesterday on facebook, fellow genealogist J Paul Hawthorne shared a template inviting us to note the birthplaces of our ancestors for the past five generations. After showing the number of ancestors from England we have ten generations ago, it was fun to look at the origins of our more recent ancestors. This chart starts with me on the left. I was born in Ohio, as were both of my parents. You can see our Buckeye roots run deep. If you want to know who is represented in each of the color-coded blocks, refer to the chart below.

Click to enlarge

Our Colonial Ancestors from England

I am often asked, "How can you have so many ancestors?" The short answer is that the number of direct answers doubles with every generation. By the 10th generation, we have 1024 direct ancestors. We each have 2 grandparents, 4 great-grandparents, 8 gg-grandparents, etc. On our paternal Jones side of the family, we have deep roots going back to the early 1600s in this country.

Since so much of my ancestral DNA is attributed to England, I decided to go through our family tree and identify our earliest ancestors who immigrated to the U.S. from England. Although this is not a comprehensive list, you can see we have quite a few. The numbered locations in the map below correspond with the list of our ancestors, their relationship to me, and their approximate date of arrival. With this information, you should be able to determine how they are related to you.

Number	Location	Ancestor	Relationship to Me	Approximate Date in U.S.
1	Leicestershire	William Lynn Almy	8 X Great-Grandfather	1628-31
1	Leicestershire	Audrey Barlowe Almy	8 X Great-Grandmother	1635
1	Leicestershire	Elizabeth Dillingham	8 X Great-Grandmother	Bef. 1645
2	Derbyshire	Emmanuel Woolley	7 X Great-Grandfather	Abt. 1652
3	England	Mary Sarah Brown	9 X Great-Grandmother	Bef. 1639
4	Sheffield, Yorkshire	John Worthley	9 X Great-Grandfather	1638
4	Sheffield, Yorkshire	Nicholas Wainwright	9 X Great-Grandfather	Bef. 1647
4	Sheffield, Yorkshire	Elyzabeth Chapman	9 X Great-Grandmother	Bef. 1647
4	Sheffield, Yorkshire	Elizabeth Offerton	8 X Great-Grandmother	Bef. 1647
4	Sheffield, Yorkshire	Thomas Wainwright	8 X Great-Grandfather	Bef. 1647
5	Gloucestershire	William Twining	8 X Great-Grandfather	Bef. 1649
6	East Grimstead, Wiltshire	Robert Tucker	7 X Great-Grandfather	Bef. 1651
6	Wiltshire	Thomas Mayhew, Sr.	9 X Great- Grandfather	Bef. 1648
6	Wiltshire	Rev. Thomas Mayhew	8 X Great- Grandfather	Bef. 1648
7	Southwark, Surrey	Stephen Deane	9 X Great-Grandfather	1621
8	Deal, Kent, England	Thomas White	8 X Great-Grandfather	Bef. 1658
8	Sandwich, Kent, England	John Wing	8 X Great-Grandfather	Bef. 1645
9	Woodbridge, Suffolk	Elizabeth Ring (wife of Stephen Deane)	9 X Great-Grandmother	Abt. 1628
10	London, Middlesex	Jane Paine	8 X Great-Grandmother	Bef. 1648
11	Buckinghamshire	Matthew West	8 X Great-Grandfather	1636
12	Wherwell, Hampshire	Deborah Batchiler	9 X Great-Grandmother	1632

I counted twenty-one 7th through 9th Great-Grandparents who emigrated from England in the 17th Century. The first arrived in 1621 and the last in 1658. These are all DIRECT ANCESTORS! Recall that the Mayflower and its 102 passengers came to America in 1620 -- and half of them died that first winter.

So Joneses, Scardinas, and Brevings, we have deep roots in this country. There should be no surprise that a large percentage of our DNA comes to us by way of England. And now for the stories. The next several posts will discuss some of the amazing things I discovered about many of our ancestors in the New World. I hope you come along for the ride.

Who Are We?

Several years ago, I sent a sample of my DNA to 23andme and had some surprises in my ethnicity estimates. (For the uninitiated, one must remember that these are ESTIMATES in an ever-evolving science). I was not surprised that I was classified as 99.7% European, (just look at me), but I was surprised that such a large percentage was designated as "British and Irish."

Over the past couple of years, I have spent a lot of time researching our paternal colonial ancestors. I had no idea that so many of my ancestors arrived here from England in the 1600s! Some of our English surnames include: Almy, Bickerdyke, Chambers, Darby, Havens, Wainwright and West. Many settled in Monmouth County, New Jersey where they intermarried. This concentrated that English DNA. Many started out as Quakers but soon included Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians.

Vincent Wainwright, our 4th great-grandfather, fought in the Revolutionary War. A cousin of Vincent was killed in a battle at Toms River, New Jersey. So our very diverse Jones family of Germans, Irish, Welsh and Scots has roots that extend back to the 1600s in America. It is these colonial ancestors that I hope to share over the next few months.

The Doctor Says It Is Inoperable ... Now What?

Bill, Kathy and Nathan
January 2016

I love my husband. On January 1, 2016 we celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary. (Actually, we didn't celebrate because we were afraid to schedule anything as we were on "babywatch" for Nathan Jozsef. Nathan waited until January 17th to make his entrance).

So with our family complete, my thoughts turned to what we could do to celebrate. There are a couple of "issues" that need to be considered. Bill tells me he is not interested in doing anything that requires much walking. I was surprised because we went to D.C. less than two years ago, and he walked everywhere. He told me it was different now. We went to New Jersey last spring, and he let me know that it was difficult.

He gets three or four colds a year, and when he does, they are life-threatening. His doctor suspected pneumonia with his last cold, but the X-rays showed his lungs were very congested, but no pneumonia. Bill will be 80 years-old on May 6th, and he has let me know repeatedly that his personal goal is to "make it" until then.

As his spouse, I don't know how to plan. Almost two years ago, his cardiologist ordered up several tests. We were then called in and told, among other things, that he had three blocked arteries. They advised us that they would not recommend surgery as they thought that any surgical intervention would leave Bill in worse shape than he currently was. Bill continued to ride his bike on the bike trail and meet with friends over coffee and/or lunch. He tinkered with his multiple hobbies. Things were as good as could be expected.

Three weeks ago, Bill was experiencing extreme back pain. We went to the Emergency Room at U.C. and spent the entire night there. It was a snowy night and the hospital was understaffed. After a few tests, Bill was diagnosed with polymyalgia rheumatica, a condition he's had before that is usually treated with prednisone and anti-inflammatories. It ended up being a misdiagnosis as the ER doc had misread the SED rate -- that's another story. They gave him an injection of dilaudid which took the edge off, and home we went.

Three days later, we were in the ER at Christ Hospital. We've always known that Bill has an extremely bad back, but due to his cardiac history, he had been told to wait until he couldn't stand it. Now is that time. They ordered an MRI for the next day and we were able to get an appointment with one of the Joint and Spine Center doctors for the following afternoon. The MRI showed that his back was in far worse shape than we thought and that he needed surgery. Now for the conundrum. BILL CAN'T HAVE SURGERY! When we met with the doctor, she told us that she didn't think she would be able to find a surgeon willing to take the risk.

Three days later we were back at Christ again because of Bill's fears that his "back problem" had now extended down his left leg and throughout his groin area. This is not an unexpected symptom, and the doctor ordered an ultrasound, blood and urine test. They ended up giving him an injection of a heavy-duty anti-inflammatory, with the hope that it would "get him through" to his follow-up appointment scheduled for next Monday.

So here is my question: What do either of us do in light of what looks like "the end of the road?" How many second opinions do we want to get? Do we dare plan a trip? How can we get a doctor to level with us? Do we want a doctor to level with us? What does Bill want vs. what I might want? I think we will just have to play out our hand because, unfortunately, the answer doesn't seem to be on google.Thoughts?.

Bill and I have both tried to follow the philosophy of Theodore Roosevelt who once said, "Do what you can with what you have where you are."  

I pray for God's guidance.

Kath

Welcome Nathan Jozsef Varga!

Nathan Jozsef Varga
1-17-2016

We are proud to announce the birth of Nathan Jozsef Varga on January 17, 2016. He is the 3rd son or Imre Roland Varga and Elizabeth Hellmann Varga. He has several proud grandparents. Weighing in at close to 8 1/2 pounds, everyone is proud to welcome him to the family -- especially older brothers Ian and Andrew.

Newborn, Nathan, gave his parents plenty to worry about as his mother almost had him at 33 weeks. Through weeks of premature contractions, he managed to hang on until his mother was 39 weeks and 2 days pregnant -- full term! He arrived at 2:38 AM. Neighbor Dan Smith saved the night by coming over to the Varga household with his "Forty" until Grandma Kathy could arrive from Cincinnati.

Now 3 1/2 weeks old, Nathan is the pride of all of the Varga/Hellmann/Reed families. So far, he seems to be a very content baby. He is growing rapidly, already weighing ten pounds. He likes being held and enjoys feeding times with Mom. His brothers are completely enamored, and Dad is happy to have a third son to whom he can teach the finer points of soccer. Needless to say, Grandma Kathy couldn't be happier. Welcome, Nathan.