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.