Tuesday, March 1, 2016

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.

3 comments:

  1. Wow, that is very interesting! Thanks for all your work.

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