You Who?

Climbing the Family Tree

I've been reading a lot of books on, around or about Cape Cod recently, includng one (The Widow's War) about life in 1761 Satucket village (now Brewster). It prompted me to get on The Google and see what I could come up with on my family. I knew we'd been around the Cape a long time. Turns out I was able to trace my paternal side straight back to Plymouth circa 1623:

1. Me (1972-)
2. David (1949-)
3. Robert (1923-1999)
4. Everett (1899-1976)
5. Austin (1877-1947)
6. Capt Noah (1845-1902)
7. Noah (1811-1885)
8. Noah (1787-1863)
9. Stephen (1761-1844)
10. Barnabas (1730-1802)
11. Israel (1686-1760)
12. John (1649-1717)
13. John (1623-1691)

I was lucky in my search because, after John moved from Plymouth, every generation stayed in the same town until Everett (my great-grandfather whom I can remember), and someone had taken the time to put all of the town's old records online. Unfortunatey I found no record of how John showed up in Plymouth. However, I did find that if I follow the tree another way, it would appear my 10xgreat-grandfather John was also my great-something-uncle (or, put another way, 3xgreat-grandfather Capt Noah married his something-cousin some-number-of-times removed):

1. Me (1972-)
2. David (1949-)
3. Robert (1923-1999)
4. Everett (1899-1976)
5. Austin (1877-1947)
6. Capt Noah (1845-1902) was married to Emma (1847-1928)
7. Isaac (1809-1859) was Emma's father
8. Elisabeth (1770-1854) was Isaac's mother and her father was...
9. David (1733-?)
10. David (1701-1741)
11. David (1662-1745)
12. John (1623-1691)

I also found a great collection of family names in the extended tree (almost reads like an Andrew Lloyd Webber song): Apphia, Azuba, Bethiah, Dorcas, Ebenezer, Eleazer, Ezekiel, Ezra, Jedediah, Levi, Matilda, Meltiah, Mercy, Nabby, Nehemiah, Octavia, Reuben, Solomon, Zibiah & Zilah. My those Puritans sure did like their Biblical names! My sister called dibs on Nabby and Dorcas (for kids or pets). I'm split, since I feel like good old New England names like Ebenezer and Ezra deserve a resurgence, but I'd have a hard time not going for Azuba or Zibiah.