Why post about them today? Well G grandmother Eleanor Adams died on this date in 1677.
These were the Puritans who came to America.
Robert and Eleanor Wilmot Adams landed in one of the early ships...in Ipswich MA in 1635.
They brought their first two children (John, age 3, and Joanna, age 1) with them, and had one child born and die in 1635 the year they arrived in America. They then had 2 more children in the original settlement of Salem, Essex County, MA. Then they moved to Newbury, Essex county, MA, and had 8 more children, with the last one born when Eleanor was 41. Eleanor died in 1677 at age 67, and Robert II remarried the next year to Sarah Glover Short, who was his age (according to the records at Ancestry) 76, and she lived until she was 95. She was the widow of Henry Short and then of Robert Adams.
When Robert and Eleanor's daughter, Joanna Adams married Lancelot Granger, he was not part of the freedmen of the Puritan church. One commentator in Ancestry said that he had enough riches that his not being a Puritan was overlooked by the tight church group. The Grangers raised their family in Newbury MA until after their last child, then moved to Suffield CT as it was originally being settled. (See post about Lancelot Granger HERE. and about Suffield CT HERE. )
Because there are only a few records about their lives, there are some controversies about who the Adams children were. One descendent is positive 3 of the children listed at Find-A-Grave, didn't exist, nor did Eleanor as a "Wilmot." There will probably continue to be controversies, and I just hope that my ancestors are listed and really existed...though of course they did exist whether or not they're listed in Ancestry!
I enjoy the controversy of different opinions about various ancestors, but I can certainly understand why some might lose the friendship of other historians over a conflict of their common ancestors. I just read very thorough information written in 1900 by a descendant of these Adams...which offers a great printed rendition of Robert Adams' will. However, the author also is among those with his own opinion as to which members of this family should be included.
Robert and Eleanor Adams are my 9th great grandparents.
They are no relation to the Adams of Quincy MA, of whom President John Adams was a descendant. But there is an interesting story in which these Adams might be cousins of the President's family...if our line were Welsh. Another story alludes to a possible Scottish connection.
I'm very impressed that you've traced an ancestor as far back as the early 17th century. Some years ago I read Nathaniel Philbrick's great history: Mayflower, A Story of Courage, Community, and War, which described the circumstances and ordeals that brought the Pilgrims to Massachusetts. The New World did not make for them an easy life but they thought it better than where they came from. When families of the time typically had as many children as Robert and Eleanor did, it's not surprising that their history gets confused by mistaken identities, incorrect dates, and wrong locations. Sometimes you can't even trust a grave marker.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to read Philbrick's book, but Buncombe County libraries don't seem to have it. I've been thinking of more difficulties, even when southerners moved west to Texas, how they had to clear land, build houses, and raise families...of course with the help of enslaved people...who they also provided food and shelter for. So it wasn't just the little house on the prairie for many of my ancestors...and then the very intelligent enslaved peoples suddenly had freedom and no resources. History is really interesting!
DeleteI’m with Mike. I have only gotten back to the 1600s on my French-Canadian line. I have ancestors who migrated to New York State from New England. This blog post prompts me to make a start on researching them to see what I can find. Meanwhile, hopefully further research will lead to more specific details on your “disputed” ancestors.
ReplyDeleteOh there are probably some interesting ancestors on your tree. I just found some Mi'kmaq Indians on one of my branches. I looked them up on line, because I hadn't ever learned the Canadian history.
DeleteMy many-times great grandfather, George Smedley, came to the U.S. - to Philadelphia - in 1682 at the behest of William Penn as a member of the "Friends" society. I know this from a 3" thick book compiled about the Smedley family in 1900! I'm not sure who, exactly, had the ancestry traced so completely, but I believe it was my great grandmother, Ella Chase Taylor Smedley. Whoever - I thank them dearly for having it done! :)
ReplyDeleteThe Quakers were great at keeping meticulous records...and I had some ancestors who were in the meeting house in Guilford NC...but I don't think the family kept up as they moved to Alabama. I've also found books of ancestors written in 1900, it must have been a thing about the turn of the century!
DeleteIt is just so hard with those ancient ancestors! Lots of disputes about a few of mine and ... who knows? And the others I may never find. It is all an interesting puzzle to try to piece together.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you...and I've found even the "pro" genealogists make mistakes...perhaps because they want to give a family a famous connection when they are hired by them. Even the DAR publications can be wrong. Our Rogers ancestors didn't marry a Mary Byrd in early Virginia, yet they published that they did.
DeleteLuckily for me, others have done a great deal of research on two of my German lines that came to Pennsylvania in the 1600s. My Irish and Scottish - forget it! Can't even get out of the 1800s!!
ReplyDeleteThere do seem to be some people that care about recording names and dates for the descendants. And those who want to hide their histories. I guess many times there might have been some authority that would have said they did something illegal...in order to survive. I'm just glad they did, and had their children who lived to raise their own children.
DeleteBeautiful blog
ReplyDeleteThank you.
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