Results: 21% DNA - Ireland/Scotland/Wales

My DNA reveals that I have 21% Irish/Scottish/Welsh ancestry. I have ruled out any significant amount of Irish blood in my family, which is too bad considering that my son is traveling to Ireland next Spring... I was hoping to find some places of origin for him to explore. The Scotland and Wales connections are easier to identify.

Scotland
The Croffords are most certainly from Scotland. The original Horace Crawford (Crawfurd, Craufurd) came from Scotland to New York and settled in the Genessee Valley. He was a millwright. Horace is my 3X great grandfather. My primary source is a document written by my great grandmother Ada Crofford. Granted, she sometimes has errors in her family histories, but Horace would have been a close relative - her father-in-law - so the likelihood of error in information about him is less. The Crofford DNA is probably enough to account for most of the 21% Scottish blood in me.

The Crawford clan originates in the Southern part of Scotland

Crawford Castle was in existence in 1175

Wales

John Dillingham, my 3rd great grandfather whose daughter Anna married Calvin Crawford, is said to have come to America from Wales. This particular piece of family lore is in question, but is mentioned in several fairly reliable sources.

Then there is my 14th great grandfather, Sir Ieuan Deulwyn Bushe. born in 1427 at Rodes Court in Carmarthenshire, Wales. He was a famous poet whose work (50 poems) has survived to the present day. Whitfield Barrie Abbott is descended from the Bushe line through the Sabin family.

Breakthrough with the Allen family!

If you searched back through this blog you would find several posts lamenting the gaps in my research regarding the Allen family. Finally, finally, I found what I was looking for!

Buried deep in a publication by the DAR was a detailed genealogy of my great grandfather Augustus Allen. It confirmed his lineage back to the Allens of Mecklenburg Va. It also revealed that his middle name was Dozier and gave the date of his death. There was a lot more information that fleshed out his family tree. The link to the Dozier family adds an interesting twist to our family story...I knew we were connected to the Doziers of Lunenburg County by DNA, but until now, could not confirm the lineage. The Doziers were French Huguenots who became respected leaders in early Virginia history.

This is what I found at first...a mere snippet:

It took some digging in the DAR archives to find the actual article... so very exciting!

Here is the lineage denoted in the article... the DAR couldn't be wrong, could they?

Augustus Dozier Allen, b. 1859, Illinois, son of...
Robert Scott Allen, b. 1797, Lunenburg, Virginia, son of...
John Watson Allen, b. 1769, Lunenburg, Virginia, son of...
Turner Allen, b. 1751, Mecklenburg, Virginia, son of...
William Allen, b. 1725...

William's parentage gets a little muddy but there is evidence that his father was from New Kent County. I think a visit to the Library of Virginia is in order.

Full text of the article from DAR Magazine, May 1988, pp. 352-353:

http://services.dar.org/members/magazine_archive/download/?file=DARMAG_1988_05.pdf

Midwest Cemeteries

As Drew and I traveled back home from Minneapolis this week, our route from Minnesota to Virginia included two of my "bucket list" cemeteries. It was moving experience to stand at the graves of the ancestors that I have come to know through my research.

Ada Crofford

The first cemetery we visited was "Mound Prairie Cemetery" in Twin Lakes, near Kenosha on the southeastern corner of Wisconsin by the shore of Lake Michigan. We approached the cemetery on a long, lonely country road in the middle of cornfields that stretched as far as we could see.  Not too far away is a beautiful lake that appears to be in the middle of a resort community. 

Mound Prairie Cemetery is just ahead at the line of trees.

We turned into the cemetery, drove toward the back and parked. Methodically, we walked up and down the rows of gravestones looking for Ada Crofford's. Ada was my maternal great grandmother. I knew a lot about her life and this was a big moment for me. After a while, Drew called me over. Ada's stone was barely readable, but there she was next to Robert Luke, her son-in-law, and two of the Luke grandchildren, Catherine and Lowell.  

I stood for a few long minutes at this grave.

Looking back toward the entrance to the cemetery. Ada's grave
can be seen along the road to the right, beside the graves
of the Luke family.

My thoughts of Ada as I stood there were to marvel at how she lived in so many places and lived such a rough pioneer life only to end up in this place that had nothing to do with her life. She was born in New York. She had lived in Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, Missouri, and Illinois. Then finally buried in Wisconsin. Her very life and death represents the restless spirit of the Old West. 

Drew and I searched in vain for my great aunt Miriam's grave. Miriam was my grandfather's sister. I have memories of receiving regular gifts in the mail as a child from Aunt Miriam. She was married first to Robert Luke, then to Mr. Darrow. We walked around for a good 30-45 minutes looking at every gravestone. I came to the conclusion that maybe she wasn't buried there after all. After I got home, I did some checking and found that she is buried there and we just missed it somehow. Here is a picture of her gravestone that I found online:

From Findagrave.com

I learned from Mom that Miriam's first husband Robert Luke was killed at age 40 by a train that hit his car. After further searching, I learned that two of Miriam's daughters, Emma and Catherine, twins, were also killed in separate automobile accidents. [Mom kept a gold bracelet that had belonged to her cousins.] Catherine and Robert are buried next to Ada at Twin Lakes. There was a news article about the three family tragedies:

John Dillingham

The next cemetery we visited was in Liberty, Indiana. We stopped first at the Brown museum in an old house in nearby Chesterton. The ladies who worked there were enthusiastic and brought out many binders of documentation on my ancestor, John Dillingham, who was an original settler in the area. We set out for Liberty, traveled down more country roads and almost missed the tiny plot of graves. The Dillingham monuments stood tall among the other worn headstones in the tiny family cemetery. A power substation was built next to the plot. 

From behind the cemetery looking toward the road.

Olcott, John's son by his first wife, Clarissa.
Olcott had traveled with John from Ohio to settle in Indiana.

Standing next to John Dillingham's gravestone.
Hannah's memorial is on the other side of the same
monument.

Later, a fellow relative in the Dillingham family (Cole) sent me a photo of something I missed seeing... the house of Olcott Dillingham, son of John Dillingham. It was right behind the cemetery but seemed like private property so I hadn't explored it. John Dillingham, my 3Xgg, probably lived in this house at the end of his life. Amazing to imagine!

Whitfield Barrie Abbott, 1844-1889

Whitfield Barrie Abbott was born on July 18, 1844 in New Jersey, to John C. and Sarah "Sally" Godfrey Whitfield Abbott. The Abbotts owned a hotel/boarding house in Hackensack, NJ; others who lived in the house were a mixed assortment of folks from England, New York, New Jersey, Germany, Ireland, and South America. The tenants worked either at the hotel or at the Abbott Piano Factory.

At age 16, Whitfield was living in a large boarding house in NY City and was working as a "clerk" according to the 1860 Census; he was also counted on the census at his parents' home in Hackensack that year. From 1863-66, he attended the Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York City. By 1870, he was back home living with his extended family in Hackensack, working at his father's piano factory. He was married with two daughters. In 1876, he purchased land in Ridgefield, Bergen, New Jersey, on Palisades Ave (1500 block - see below). By 1880, he was widowed with three children - Bonnie, May, and Barrett - and was working as a school teacher near his home in Coytesville, a borough of Fort Lee.

Here is a current street view of that property location. It's commercial land now.
Whitfield's house was on the lot at the far right of this picture. It is now a bank building.
The property is very near the NJ Tnpk where it crosses the George Washington Bridge.

Gertrude Clayton Abbott

Whitfield was married twice. His first marriage was to Gertrude Clayton, by whom he had five children; three survived to adulthood:

• Rebecca "Bonnie" Godfrey Curtis Abbott, b. 1868, 
• Mary "May" Clayton Abbott, b. 1870, 
• Barrett H. Abbott, b. 1873 (d.?), 
• Whitfield Barry Abbott, Jr., b. 1873,  
• Sarah Godfrey Abbott, b. 1874 (d.?). 

Gertrude died in 1879. Whitfield then married Sarah A. "Sadie" Wright in June 1882 in the Dutch Reformed Free Church. They had five children; two survived to adulthood:

• George Wright Abbott, b. Aug. 1882, 
• William Smith Abbott, b. 1883 (d. 1884), 
• Alice Barry Abbott, b. 1886 (d. 1887), 
• John A. Abbott b. 1887 (d. 1887), and 
• Leonie Abbott, b. 1889.

Whitfield died in December 1889; his last will was dated 17 September 1889, just ten days before Leonie was born. Sadie died in 1903.

Some interesting notes:

• I have received much information about the Abbott family from M.W. in NJ. He has copies of the Abbott family bible and many documents of the family history. He is descended from May Abbott Eggers, the second eldest daughter of Whitfield and Gertrude. 
• Barry Vaughan was named after Whitfield Barrie Abbott (as George Wright Abbott requested).
• A recent DNA test shows that Glenn Watson's son Ben is descended from Whitfield through May Abbott Eggers' family.
• May's son Ray Eggers was an avid genealogist who did most of the Abbott family research before it could be done by computer. He traveled all up and down the east coast and sent many information-packed letters to Miriam Lukhard, which I now have in my possession.

Princess Anne County history: where we fit in

Long time Virginia Beach City Councilwoman Barbara Henley gave a two-hour talk to the ILR this morning about the history of Pungo. It was fascinating, but I quickly realized that my family is not quite as deeply rooted in old Princess Anne County as I thought. Blucher Fletcher did not live at the property on Blackwater Road until about 1880. Before then, according to an old map, it was a 1500 acre estate owned by a man named Augustus C. Smith. The Fletcher family's migration northward from North Carolina was typical of the way that the southern part of county was populated.

My 2X great grandfather Eley Bryant bought the farm at Blackwater and Head of River Road around 1885. Eley died in 1895 so he was definitely not a long term resident of the county. Margaret lived there until around 1900, and shortly thereafter, the Fletchers moved to Ocean View. So, all in all, my family claimed citizenship in Princess Anne County for less than 20 years. 

UPDATE 9/20/21: I discovered that we had the incorrect location for the Bryant farm. Looking at the old handwritten map above - the Bryants purchased the land owned by Johnston Forbes. You can see his name hand written on the map at Head of River Road. Also, I learned that the Fletchers did not own the land on Pungo Ferry Road all the way back to the North Landing River. They owned the land along Blackwater Road on both sides of Pungo ferry Road, shown in the gray area on the map. Their property extended south to the mill.

There are many families "down county" whose roots go back to the 1600's.

The Bryant farm was where "John D. Lewis" 
is shown, next to the Cox farm at the corner of 
Blackwater and Head of River Roads.

The length of Blackwater Rd showing the area
of both family farms.

Mayflower

Here is the line of descendancy from our Mayflower ancestors, John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley:

1. John Howland m. Elizabeth Tilley (1624, Plymouth)

2. Hannah Howland m. Jonathan Bosworth (1661)

3. Ichabod Bosworth m. Mary ________ (after 1710)

4. Benjamin Bosworth m. Anne Collins 

5. Benajah Bosworth m. _____________.

6. Joseph Bosworth m. Lucinda Hopkins

7. Orlando Marcus Bosworth m. Eliza Ann Applegate

8. Eva L Bosworth m. Augustus D. Allen (1883)

9. Ethelyn (Teresa) Allen m. Horace C. Crofford (1926)

10. Virginia Crofford m. John Zaun (1950)

11. Teresa Zaun m. Michael Austin (1976)

I would like to give a brief summary of each of these lives and follow their migration through the generations across our country. 

John Howland was born in Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire, England to Henry and Margaret (____) Howland. Elizabeth Tilley was born to John and Joan (Hurst) Tilley and baptized in 1607 at Henlow, Bedfordshore, England. Elizabeth sailed to Plymouth on the Mayflower with her parents when she was only 12 years old. Gov. Bradford wrote an account of the voyage, telling about John being thrown into the sea during a storm. John managed to hold onto a line and was pulled back on board with a boat hook. John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley married on March 25, 1624 at Plymouth. Their children were: John, Jabez, Isaac, Desiree, Hope, Elizabeth, Lydia, Hannah, and Ruth. John died at Plymouth in 1672/3. Elizabeth died at Swansea in 1687 at 79 years old.

Hannah Howland, born in Plymouth, married Jonathan Bosworth in 1661. They had 8 children: Mercy, Hannah, Elizabeth, Jonathan (died at age 10), David, John, Jabez, Ichabod, and Jonathan.

Ichabod Bosworth was born in March 18, 1676 at Swansea. He first married Sarah Stacey and had six children, the first three children dying in infancy. After Sarah died in 1710, apparently in childbirth, Ichabod married Mary ______ and had four more children: Sarah, Jonathan, Benjamin, and Joseph. Ichabod was a blacksmith in Rehoboth for a time, near the border of Bellingham, Mass and Cumberland, R.I.*

Benjamin Bosworth (Bozworth) was born in either Mendon or Bellingham ca. 1716.  He married Anne Collins at Providence, R.I. on October 23, 1743. Benjamin owned land in Scituate, R.I. He died on November 16, 1790. His son, Benajah, was his eldest and administrator of his estate.

Benajah Bosworth was born ca. 1744. He enlisted in the army in 1775 and joined Crary's troop from Rhode Island. His wife is unknown (perhaps Bucklin), but the 1800 census shows a wife, 5 sons, and 6 daughters.

Joseph Bucklin Bosworth was born in Providence, R.I. in 1790, the 3rd or 4th son of Benajah. He is by far the most interesting character in this family line! He served as a musician in the War of 1812. He migrated to Ohio and became a highly respected minister in the Mormon church, directly under Joseph Smith (see Joseph Smith's diaries). He married Lucinda Hopkins on May 17, 1815; they had eleven children: William, Elvira, Albert, Miles, Giles, Carlos, Orlando Marcus, Omer, Benejah, Malon, and Joseph Bucklin, Jr. Joseph and Lucinda lived most of their lives in Copley, Ohio. Joseph died in 1850 of cholera while visiting his son Miles in Peoria, Illinois.

Orlando Marcus Bosworth was born April 19, 1825 in Summit, Ohio. He joined the military and fought in the Mexican War. He married Eliza Ann Applegate on February 3, 1853 in Schuyler, Illinois. They had three children: James (died at infancy), Richard, and Eva. Orlando and Eliza resided in Littleton, Illinois. Orlando died on November 6, 1884.

Eva L. Bosworth (middle name Louise according to family lore) was born in June 1867 in Littleton, Illinois. Her story is perhaps the saddest. She married Augustus D. Allen of nearby Hancock County, Illinois on November 25, 1883 at age 16 (Augustus was 24). They moved across the river to Keokuk, Iowa, then to Wichita, Kansas in 1900. Their only child, Ethelyn was born in July 1893. Eva died in a mental institution at Old Fort Supply in Woodward, Oklahoma in 1911.

Ethelyn Allen (named later changed to Teresa Marie) was born in July 1893, location unknown. Family lore places her birth in Chicago, but that is unlikely. According to the timeline, she could have been born in Hancock County or Schuyler County, Illinois, or possibly in Keokuk, Iowa. Ethelyn lived with her parents in Wichita until around 1903. Sometime after that she was sent to an orphanage or boarding school in Paris, Texas. Her mother was living alone in Wichita in 1904; her father remarried in 1905. There is no further documentation of "Ethelyn" after 1903. The first mention of "Teresa" is in 1916 in Sherman, Texas, where she worked as a student nurse. She graduated from nursing school in 1919 at which time she attempted unsuccessfully to locate her father. She worked as a nurse in Oklahoma City according to the census in 1920. She moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she married Horace Calvin Crofford in 1926. They resided in Waukegan, Illinois where Teresa worked as a private secretary/assistant to an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor. There they had two children, Horace Calvin, Jr. and Virginia Maude. The family moved to Virginia in search of employment in the early 1940's. Teresa died in 1966 of breast cancer. She never knew anything about her family history or what became of her parents. She never even knew her birthday or birth year.

Virginia Maude Crofford was born on March 3, 1932 in Waukegan, Illinois. She attended school there until 5th grade when her family moved to Norfolk, Virginia. She married John Beverly Zaun in 1952; they had two children, Teresa Jacqueline and Holly Diana.

From England to Plymouth to Ohio to Illinois and Iowa, to Kansas, then Oklahoma and Texas; back to Illinois and then to Virginia... almost full circle.

*Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, v. 23, pt. 1

Horace Calvin Crofford, 1894-1968

Horace was born in Newcastle, Wyoming, and grew up on his father's ranch. His father was Horace Calvin Crofford, Sr.; his mother was Ada Clemina Hall. Horace and Ada had four children:  my grandfather Horace born in 1894, Oliver born in 1896, Abram born in 1898, and the baby Miriam born in 1900. The four siblings grew up and scattered all over the northern part of the mid-west, in Montana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and South Dakota.

Horace C. Crofford
on the beach in 
Normany, France

Horace enlisted in the army on July 1, 1917 at age 22. He trained as a telegrapher, and was stationed in France in 1918 and 1919. (I remember him teaching me the Morse Code when I was a child). His rank was Sergeant. From September 26 to October 12, 1918, he was in the Gerardmer Sector (in German territory); from November 2nd to 9th he was in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, also called Battle of the Argonne Forest.* Once, as he later told his children, Horace had to walk in knee-deep water for weeks and developed a leg infection. He also shared that he was up a telephone pole when the Armistice was announced. He was honorably discharged on June 22, 1919.

*Interesting that in later years, his son, "Sonny," also named Horace Calvin Crofford, lived with his wife and four children on Argonne Avenue in Norfolk, Virginia.

Horace's closest friend was Joe Pivernitz.
They remained friends and in touch after
leaving the army.

After the war, he lived with his widowed mother in Waukagan, Illinois, where she was a telephone operator. He used his telegrapher skills with the railroad for a time. He attended school at the AMBU Engineering Institute in Chicago, training as an electrician.

...to be continued...