Genealogy Story – My Wolcott Connections

As I’ve been writing various stories about Wolcott History and mentioning my ancestor’s roles, some have commented about how I seem to be related to so many people in Wolcott’s past. So I thought I’d take one of my blog entries to explain how this came to be.

In Wolcott and the surrounding area, the population back in colonial times was not all that large. The few families often had many children (nine-to-twelve was not uncommon). And so families often inter-married, even having multiple connections with one son in family X marrying a daughter in family Y while a daughter in family X also married a son in family Y. In addition, one could often find that there was only one family with any family name from whom all other families of that name were descended. So if you can find a direct ancestor connection back to the initial progenitor of that family, then every other person descended from that individual will have some sort of cousin relationship with you.

This is the case with me. My mother’s maiden name is Pierpont. While there are few Pierponts in Wolcott, the Pierpont family at one time owned nearly all the land in the eastern end of Waterbury (centered on what is now called Pierpont Road). My great*4 grandfather, Ezra Pierpont came to that area in the late 1700’s, but his great-grandfather, James Pierpont had moved to the New Haven area a century prior to that. In the period from 1650 to 1900, there were lots of opportunities for marriage into other families. So most of my Wolcott connections come through my mother’s side of the family. Here are some of the initial progenitors of various family names in Wolcott and how I am descended from them:

·         Alcox/Alcott – John Alcox (1705-1777) was the first person to settle on the Waterbury side of Farmingbury in 1731. He came from New Haven and is my 6^th great-grandfather.

·         Beecher – Samuel Beecher (1687-1756) moved from New Haven to Cheshire in the early 1700’s. He is my 7^th great-grandfather. The Hall family in Wolcott are descended from Rachel [Beecher] Hall, a grand-daughter of Samuel. Eva Tyrrell and the Lewis family (Lewis School) are related to the Hall family.

·         Frisbie – John Frisbie (1676-1736) lived in Branford and is also my 6^th great-grandfather. The Frisbie family in Farmingbury/Wolcott were his descendants. Also, one of his daughters married Deacon Josiah Rogers (see Rogers family below).

·         Hotchkiss – John Hotchkiss (1643-1689) lived in New Haven and is my 8^th great-grandfather. His grandson, Wait Hotchkiss came to Farmingbury in 1765.

·         Nichols – Joseph Nichols (1680-1733) moved to Waterbury in the early 1700s. He is my 7^th great-grandfather. His daughter married Ebenezer Wakelee (see Wakelee family below).

·         Rogers – Deacon Josiah Rogers (1708-1784) lived in Branford. Several of his children came to Farmingbury in the late 1700s either with the Rogers surname or through marriage to other families like the Frisbies. Deacon Rogers is not one of my direct ancestors, but we are related (see below).

·         Upson – Stephen Upson (1655-1735) was one of the early settlers in Farmingbury. He is my 7^th great-grandfather.

·         Wakelee – Ebenezer Wakelee (1716-1800) purchased property in Farmingbury in the early 1700s. He is also another of my 6^th great-grandfathers

My Rogers family connections are a little more complicated and come through my father’s side of the family tree instead of my mother’s. My 2^nd great-grandmother was a Rogers. Her family line comes from a much earlier progenitor, John Rogers (1507-1555), in England. John is my 12^th great-grandfather. He had several sons, and sons/grandsons from three of his children came to America in the early 1600’s, including on the Mayflower. Most of the Rogers family in New England can trace their family lines back to John. He is the 5^th great-grandfather of Deacon Josiah Rogers, so Deacon Rogers is my 6^th cousin, several times removed. Olcott’s History of Wolcott even notes that Deacon Rogers is descended from “John Rogers, the martyr”. (Wikipedia says, “John Rogers was a clergyman, Bible translator and commentator, and the first English Protestant martyr under Mary I of England.”) He was burned at the stake.

Because so many of the early settlers were related by marriage to these eight families, once I find that one of the early settlers was related to one of these eight families it’s fairly easy to establish the appropriate cousin relationship I have to them.

I find genealogy a fascinating subject, and being able to use it to give some flesh-and-blood to so much of Farmingbury/Wolcott history is a fun activity for me.