Wolcott Genealogy Connections

I have a Facebook friend, Robert Perry. He writes some amazing stories about his time growing up in Wolcott, and I have written a number of stories about Wolcott History. While we have never actually met as he graduated from Wolcott High School many years after I did, we have a mutual admiration for each other’s writing.

Recently I was reading one of his stories where he mentioned his moving “to the tiny cottage that my great-grandfather built in the land of five generations of my mother’s ancestors, the mountaintop Town of Wolcott.” Since I knew so many of the long-time families in Wolcott, I messaged him and asked, “What was their family name? Maybe we’re related.”

Even before getting a response, I managed to find his mother’s obituary on the Internet which gave the names of her parents and began building a family tree for them. Thus began a very interesting day as I explored the various lines of Robert’s family tree to see if any family names occurred in it that also occur in my own family tree. Before the day was over I had discovered four connections!

The hint to the first connection was in his mother’s grandmother, Lillie Coe (1880-1915). The Coe last name is well known in Wolcott and persists in the name of a road in town, Coe Road. (I note that my parents were good friends of the Coes for many years, even participating in the wedding of Albert and Betty Coe while my parents were technically on their honeymoon. Albert Coe was a nephew of Lillie, and thus a first cousin of Robert’s mother.) But, the only Coe in my family tree is the name of the spouse of my great-great-uncle, George Talmadge (*1). In tracing Mary [Coe] Talmadge’s family tree, I found a common ancestor, John Coe (1658-1741). John is Robert’s great*8 grandfather, and Mary’s great*4 grandfather. This is a second order relationship, i.e. a cousin of a cousin, but a relationship nonetheless.

The second connection was something that showed up as I traced our two Coe lines back and noticed that there were three instances of a male Coe marrying a female with the last name of Elmer (they lived near each other in the Torrington area for many years). Following each of them, I found that Joseph Elmer (1718-1769) is the great*6 grandfather of Robert as well as the great*2 grandfather of Mary Coe. This is another second order relationship, but one that is closer than the previous connection.

The third connection was a more direct one as Mary Coe’s grandmother was Lois Bassett. Our common ancestor is my great*7 grandfather, John Bassett (1652-1714) who is also Robert’s great*8 grandfather. This makes us 8^th cousins, once removed – a true blood relationship, although a distant one.

Finally, Robert mentioned that his paternal grandmother’s last name was Trombley. My wife had a great-grandmother Trombley when she was growing up, so I investigated that line as well. Both lines go back to the early days of Quebec (1600s) where they intersect. But since my wife’s “grandma Trombley” was actually her step-great-grandmother, that is not a direct connection either.

I was also able to give Robert information on some of his ancestors who came to the US from Sweden in the 1880s.

I love genealogy – and now I have a new person whom I can address as “cousin”!

Notes:

*1 – http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-blackman-and-talmadge-family-picture.html