When
I was growing up in Wolcott there was another Russell family on the other side
of town. My father always jokingly said that they were not related, but they
were “kissing cousins”. Benoit (Ben) and Nancy had three children – about the
ages of my youngest siblings.
Since
I have followed my own Russell family line back to the origins of the family
name, this afternoon I decided to see if I could trace their family tree and
see if we were cousins after all. Fortunately, it did not take nearly as long
as tracing my own family – primarily because their line remained in New
England. Here is their line going back:
Benoit
Russell, Sr (1934-2008)
Philip
(1909-1979) – moved from ME to Prospect, CT
Howard
(1872-)
Benjamin
(1847-1874)
Joseph
(1811-1887)
Joseph
(1780-1858) – moved from NH to ME
Thomas
(1732-1818) – moved to NY from Andover MA (it was at this point that I knew we
would be cousins!)
Joseph
(1702-1742)
Thomas
(1663-1731)
Robert
(1630-1710) – our common ancestor
That
means that my father and Ben were 8th cousins and that I am 9th
cousin to his three children.
After
locating a phone number for Ben’s wife, Nancy, who is still living in Wolcott,
I called her tonight and we had a great conversation.
How
cool is that – to discover that the “other” Russells in town really were our
cousins all along!
There was also a Russell one or two classes ahead of you. That was a third family in town.
ReplyDeleteUpdate 12/27/17 - Recent research has uncovered the fact that my great*6 grandfather, Robert Russell, was not a migrant from MA to NY. Rather, he was an immigrant to NY, likely from Scotland, around 1750. Since it is nearly impossible to trace the Russell family back through Scottish history, I cannot say where they were before that. However, Scottish tradition is that they are descended from the same Baron de Rozel in Normandy as indicated above. So while I can no longer document how I might be related to the other Wolcott Russells, it is still possible, just may be much further back in history.
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