Sturdy Stuff

Today I visited the Temecula library for the first time (It's beautiful and has a wonderful genealogy collection!) and did some research in the series of books titled: Mayflower Families Through Five Generations.  There are separate volumes for many of the passengers, including the three that are of interest to me and my husband:  Francis Cooke, Stephen Hopkins and John Howland.  

I was able to confirm the line from Francis Cooke and Stephen Hopkins for the first five generations, but the information I needed on John Howland was not available.  Now I have to go to the Los Angeles Public Library to find a book on the Landon family, and Mary Ann Landon, who  is the crucial link between the most recent five generations and the five I have already confirmed.  While I don't have any doubts as to Tony's connection to the Mayflower passengers, I am seeking iron-clad documentation and this book should provide it. 

Later, I came home and worked on the Schulien side of my family.  My mother's maternal grandparents were Schuliens.  Joseph Schulien, my great grandfather, was born in this country shortly after the family emigrated from Germany but I had not found an immigration date for his parents, and my usual sources online were not leading me anywhere.  So I began going in the "back door" as I often do. 

I looked up immigration dates for each of the children and came across one passenger list that could be viewed in its entirety.  On the list were the names of Joseph's mother, father and siblings on June 29, 1852.  Although they had come from Germany, the ship they traveled on had departed from Liverpool, England.  They must have traveled across the channel to England, and either stayed there for a while or left immediately for America.  The 4 children ranged in age from 10 years to 9 months. 

Today's genealogy quests reinforced something I am finding again and again. Our ancestors were made of sturdy stuff.  Whether they risked everything in 1620 to come to a land that was completely unknown and most likely very dangerous, or whether they left the dire economic conditions in mid nineteenth century Germany in the hopes of starting over in America, they set out with courage, determination and faith.

I couldn't help wondering how many of us would have the courage and the stamina to do what they did.

An astonishing discovery

Once I learned about my husband's Ruby ancestors, I traced more lines on his mother's side of the family.  One of his great great grandmothers was a woman named Mary Ann Landon (1820-1889).  Tracing her line led to one amazing discovery, followed by a disappointment, followed by an even more amazing discovery.

I traced the family back seven generations from Mary Ann Landon to her father Samuel Landon to his mother Experience Cooke, to her mother Rebecca Edgerton, to her mother Experience Bearse, to her mother Experience Howland, to her father John Joseph Howland, to his father John Howland.

When I learned that  John Howland (1592-1673) and his wife Elizabeth Tilley (1607-1687) were both passengers on the Mayflower, as were Elizabeth's parents, John Tilley (1571-1621) and Joan Hurst (1567-1621), I was dumbfounded and certain the information was wrong.  He couldn't be related to anyone on the Mayflower.  After all, his ancestors were Catholic, as were mine.  And Catholics did not come to this country on the Mayflower.  But I had forgotten that my husband's mother converted to Catholicism and that her ancestors were not Catholic.

Still, I found the possibility hard to believe so I went over my records again, and sure enough, there was a glitch.  One of the names in the line is a controversial figure.  The person in dispute is "Experience Howland" whom the Mayflower Society does not recognize as a verifiable link in the ancestry chain.   

Even though some genealogists believe there is a good case to be made for the existence of Experience Howland, I realized this is not something that could be proven, so I returned to my research to see if anyone else from my husband's family came from the early 1600s.  

I found three more Mayflower passengers and this time, the information was not in dispute. 

Again, the trail started with Mary Ann Landon, only this time it led back through her great grandfather Elisha Cooke, instead of her great grandmother, Rebecca Edgerton.  From Elisha Cooke, the line went to his father William Cooke, to his father Jacob Cooke II, to his father Jacob Cooke I, to Francis Cooke (1584-1663), a passenger on the Mayflower.  His wife, Hester Mahieu (1585-1666), did not accompany him but came later with the children, one of whom was Jacob Cooke I, who later married a woman named Damaris Hopkins. Her parents, it turns out, were also Mayflower passengers, Steven Hopkins (1581-1644) and Elizabeth Fisher (1595-1639).

 

While this discovery astonished me, as no one in the immediate family had any knowledge of a Mayflower connection, I was still skeptical.  I had found a glitch in the first trail.  Perhaps there was a glitch in this one. 

Then I received a message through ancestry.com from a third cousin of my husband, someone he had never met.  The man, who has been doing genealogy research since the mid 1980s, had seen my husband's family tree on ancestry, where he also has one, and he wanted to talk. He had information to give me and wanted to ask some questions about my husband's branch of the family. I learned from him that my discoveries were accurate and that my husband's mother's family is definitely descended from Francis Cooke, Steven Hopkins and Elizabeth Fisher of the Mayflower.

But there was still more to discover-- this time on my side of the family-- and to say that it blew me away would be understating it.