Genealogy Story – Spouses of my Mother’s Siblings

I have done much genealogical research into both of my parents. Their ancestors, both on the Russell side and the Pierpont side, extend back into early New England as they came to America as part of the Great Migration in the 1630’s. I have also written about my father’s sister and her marriage to Robert Hill (http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2017/06/genealogy-story-my-hill-relatives.html). The Hill family also has the same sort of deep American roots. But I’ve never done much research into the spouses of my mother’s four siblings and their ancestry. So this will fill in that gap in my research.

My mother had four siblings – Clarence (Zeke) who married Barbara (Babs) Bishop, Alice (Alie) who married Ewell (Joe) Tucker, Richard (Dick) who married Gertrude (Trudy) Clark, and Violet (Vi) who married Anthony (Tony) Semeraro. Here is the story of each of these spouses.

Aunt Babs

My Aunt Babs maiden name was Barbara Leete Bishop. I have touched briefly on the Leete connection before as her great*8 grandfather was William Leete who was one of the early governors of Connecticut (http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2017/04/governors-of-connecticut.html). But the Bishop family has also been in New England since the 1600s. Her great*7 grandfather, John Bishop, was born in England in 1625, but he arrived on a ship in the New Haven Colony as a young lad of 14 in 1639 – just one year after the founding of that colony. So her American roots are as deep as my Uncle Zeke’s.

Uncle Joe

My Aunt Alie did not marry until a bit later in life, marrying Uncle Joe in Arizona when she was in her late 30’s. But Uncle Joe was not a native of Arizona either, having been born in Laurel, Mississippi. His family had been in Mississippi for several generations, in South Carolina before that, and in Virginia since the 1600s. So while not the same type of New England English roots, the Tucker family has been in this country just as long and originated from England as well.

Aunt Trudy

The Clark family has the same sort of deep American roots as the Bishop family. My Aunt Trudy’s great*8 grandfather, George Clark, was born in England in 1604, but he came to Boston as part of the Great Migration in 1637. But Boston was only a stop on his journey as his son Thomas was born in Milford, CT the following year. The family resided in Milford for several generations, then moved inland to Orange, CT for several more generations, before settling in Prospect in the mid-1800s. Clark Hill Road in Prospect, named for them, has been the home of the Clark family ever since. My Aunt Trudy is the only one still living among those of my parent’s generation. She is now 92 and living with my cousin Cindy and her husband on the family farm on Clark Hill Road.

Uncle Tony

My Uncle Tony is the only decidedly non-English individual among my aunts and uncles. His father, Pasquale Semeraro, was born in Sortino, Sicily in 1887 and his mother Lucia was also from Sortino. They emigrated to the US in 1910 and married here a year later. Although the Pierponts are pretty accepting, there was never much mixing with the Semeraros like there was with the other families above. I knew the siblings of my other aunts and uncles, but not the Semeraro family. Pasquale died before I was born, but Lucia did not pass away until 1971. She continued to speak Italian and not English. And the Semeraro family were staunch Catholics which the Pierpont family were not, putting another barrier between them. I wish that I could have known more about that branch of the family when I was growing up.