Hello, hello! Don't you just love it when you make a discovery and find yourself exclaiming "YES!" or happy dancing around the room? I do.
When I finally found the Parish Register entry in Billinghay, Lincolnshire for my 4X great grandparents in 1804 I celebrated hard. It noted John Winter was "of the Parish of Digby." I was finally confident they were my direct-line kin. I had some inkling this was true but no proof. My family records showed my 3X great grandfather William Winter was born in Bloxholm and this was borne out by the census. Those records also included sisters Jane and Ann both born in Digby. Digby is a small parish and, when Find My Past brought those registers on line, I was able to confirm their baptism years, place, and parents. I was happy dancing, laughing, joyous! The next moment I was weeping. My 3X great-grandaunt Ann was baptized less than a month after her father's death in 1808. My heart broke for them. My great grandmother, Martha Palding Winter, was a widow with 3 young children and under age 30. The outlook for her was bleak. Martha remarried in 1816 and bore a daughter to William Lank in 1817. William died sometime between 1841 and 1851, Martha in 1865. I can't get back behind John and Martha. This is my mother's paternal line.
That said, I recently made a fabulous discovery that, if I can prove it out - and it looks good so far - takes me back far into the mists on my mother's maternal side. Say what? Yeah. I couldn't believe it. It turns out my Cole line may go back into Colonial history almost as far as my children's Mayflower ancestor. My Coles reportedly trace back to Ann Marbury Hutchinson who made her way to the Colonies in 1634 and not long after caused an uproar in Massachusetts Bay Colony that finally had her banished. She went to what is now Rhode Island and later to New Netherlands and what is now The Bronx in New York City. She rubbed shoulders with and fell afoul of some of the great religious, civic, and political leaders of her time. And she derives from two ancient lines. One line runs back through the English royal line through the Dukes of Normandy to Rollo of Normandy 860-932. This line is well-researched and documented for centuries but cannot go back farther with certainty. The other line is through the Plantagenets which runs through Charlemagne to Arnulf of Metz 582-640. This line, too, is well researched and documented for centuries. I am inclined to accept what is already known, but I will do the research AFTER I document my Coles.
Anne's daughter, Susannah, who was 10 at the time of massacre that took her mother's and siblings' lives and the sole survivor, married John Cole after her release from Indian captivity. It is this line I need to validate first and the line I have suspected for 20 years although I did not know it connected to Anne Hutchinson. I am so excited to have a direction to go in. But you could bowl me over with a feather if this turns out to be my lineage, too. As a historian that's just an incredible time in England and the family was deeply involved in the birth of the nation. That rocks!
Coincidentally, Anne was born in Alford, Lincolnshire about 30 miles from where John and Martha Palding Winter lived and died. I wonder if that side of my family ever met and interacted with them.
When I finally found the Parish Register entry in Billinghay, Lincolnshire for my 4X great grandparents in 1804 I celebrated hard. It noted John Winter was "of the Parish of Digby." I was finally confident they were my direct-line kin. I had some inkling this was true but no proof. My family records showed my 3X great grandfather William Winter was born in Bloxholm and this was borne out by the census. Those records also included sisters Jane and Ann both born in Digby. Digby is a small parish and, when Find My Past brought those registers on line, I was able to confirm their baptism years, place, and parents. I was happy dancing, laughing, joyous! The next moment I was weeping. My 3X great-grandaunt Ann was baptized less than a month after her father's death in 1808. My heart broke for them. My great grandmother, Martha Palding Winter, was a widow with 3 young children and under age 30. The outlook for her was bleak. Martha remarried in 1816 and bore a daughter to William Lank in 1817. William died sometime between 1841 and 1851, Martha in 1865. I can't get back behind John and Martha. This is my mother's paternal line.
That said, I recently made a fabulous discovery that, if I can prove it out - and it looks good so far - takes me back far into the mists on my mother's maternal side. Say what? Yeah. I couldn't believe it. It turns out my Cole line may go back into Colonial history almost as far as my children's Mayflower ancestor. My Coles reportedly trace back to Ann Marbury Hutchinson who made her way to the Colonies in 1634 and not long after caused an uproar in Massachusetts Bay Colony that finally had her banished. She went to what is now Rhode Island and later to New Netherlands and what is now The Bronx in New York City. She rubbed shoulders with and fell afoul of some of the great religious, civic, and political leaders of her time. And she derives from two ancient lines. One line runs back through the English royal line through the Dukes of Normandy to Rollo of Normandy 860-932. This line is well-researched and documented for centuries but cannot go back farther with certainty. The other line is through the Plantagenets which runs through Charlemagne to Arnulf of Metz 582-640. This line, too, is well researched and documented for centuries. I am inclined to accept what is already known, but I will do the research AFTER I document my Coles.
Anne's daughter, Susannah, who was 10 at the time of massacre that took her mother's and siblings' lives and the sole survivor, married John Cole after her release from Indian captivity. It is this line I need to validate first and the line I have suspected for 20 years although I did not know it connected to Anne Hutchinson. I am so excited to have a direction to go in. But you could bowl me over with a feather if this turns out to be my lineage, too. As a historian that's just an incredible time in England and the family was deeply involved in the birth of the nation. That rocks!
Coincidentally, Anne was born in Alford, Lincolnshire about 30 miles from where John and Martha Palding Winter lived and died. I wonder if that side of my family ever met and interacted with them.
