Deep Connecticut Roots

The settlement of colonial Connecticut began in earnest is the mid-1630s with groups traveling from the Massachusetts Bay Colony either overland to the Connecticut River Valley and places like Wethersfield and Hartford, or via ship along the coast to places like New Haven and Milford. In each of these groups there were a number who were my ancestors. While the migration from England known as the Great Migration ended somewhat abruptly in 1640 with the outbreak of the civil war there, the spreading of the colonists to other new cities and towns, both along the Connecticut River and along Long Island Sound continued.

I had always thought of my ancestors being from New Haven as my mother’s maiden name was Pierpont and the Pierpont family is centered there due to Rev. James Pierpont who became the pastor of the Congregational Church in the late 1600s. Although he was from Boston and received his education at Harvard, he was very well connected and through marriages of his and his descendants established lineages with many other Connecticut families. My father’s family was originally from Dutchess County, NY, but they had also married into a number of CT families.

So, when there was a recent Facebook posting about the founders of Hartford and I decided to see which of them were in my family tree, I was somewhat surprised to discover that about a quarter of them are my ancestors (*1). I was able to do this because I spent several weeks last year tracing back all my family lines to the original immigrant families so I could simply do name searches for each of the Hartford founders to see if they were in my tree. I still have quite a few roadblocks and a number of relationships that I don’t totally trust, but I’m pretty sure of most of my research (*2).

Recently, there are been a number of postings in another Facebook forum about ancestors from other Connecticut cities/towns and I’ve been wondering if I would have similar success there. There is a list in (*3) that shows the founding date of each city/town in the state, so I have undertaken a quest to go through the early cities. I’ve used the first 20 years of founding dates, i.e. 1633-1653 as the cutoff as there are 14 on that list and then a gap until later settlements.

Below are the overall results as well as the details for the other 13 cities/town in alphabetical order. I am astounded at how deep and broad my Connecticut genealogical roots are!

A few notes on the below. First, the number of founders of each place is sometimes subject to interpretation. For some there are multiple sources which quote different figures. I have not tried to reconcile these disparate figures, but have used the references that seem to have the most inclusive list of individuals. Second, there are sometimes different spellings for a person’s name. This is fairly common in colonial times and especially vowel substitution makes genealogical research challenging. Third, I’ve used the following notations in the detail list: (a) g9gf means great*9 grandfather; (b) I’ve marked with an “*” those who are ancestors of my wife who has some family lines back to CT, some of these are to the same individuals as my ancestors, some are in addition; and (c) the notation “(step)” refers to a few cases where a woman had multiple marriages, usually due to the death of a first husband, and while she is my direct ancestor, the individual listed as a founder is not the father of the child that led to me.

[Chart]

 

Notes:

*1 – https://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2020/11/founders-of-hartford.html

*2 – https://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2019/04/great-migration-ancestors.html

*3 – https://ctstatelibrary.org/cttowns/counties

 

Deep River (formerly Saybrook)

https://saybrookhistory.org/history-of-old-saybrook/

·       Lion Gardiner - *

Fairfield

https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/16157/images/dvm_LocHist004103-00047-1?ssrc=&backlabel=Return

·       William Bateman – g9gf

·       James Bennett – g9gf

·       William Frost – g10gf

·       Henry Gray – g9gf

·       George Squire – g9gf

·       Thomas Staples – g10gf*

·       Benjamin Turney – g10gf

·       Ephraim Wheeler – g9gf

·       Thomas Wheeler – g10gf

 

Farmington

http://josfamilyhistory.com/locations/farmington-ct.htm#:~:text=Most%20of%20Farmington's%20first%20settlers,the%20new%20colony%2C%20such%20as

·       John Bronson – g8gf

·       William Hickox – g9gf

·       Thomas Orton – (step)g9gf

·       Thomas Upson – g8gf*

·       George Wyllys - *

 

Guilford

https://www.geni.com/projects/Original-Planters-Guilford-Connecticut-1639/1494

·       John Bishop – g11gf

·       Francis Bushnell – g11gf

·       William Dudley – g10gf

·       John Parmarly/Parmalee – g8gf

 

Middletown

http://www.middletown1650.org/Membership.html

·       John Hall – g9gf

·       Giles Hamlin – g8gf

·       George Hubbard – g10gf*

·       William Smith - *

·       Nathaniel White – g8gf

 

Milford

http://daneovideo.com/mhs-new/founders.php

·       Nathaniel Baldwin – g9gf

·       Timothy Baldwin – g9gf

·       Henry Botsford – g9gf

·       Nathaniel Briscoe – g9gf

·       John Burwell – (step)g9gf

·       Nicholas Camp – g10gf

·       George Clark – g9gf

·       Jasper Gunn – g10gf

·       John Lane – g9gf

·       Richard Miles – (step)g8gf

·       James Prudden – g11gf

·       Peter Prudden – g9gf

·       Micah Tomkins/Tompkins – g9gf

·       Thomas Wheeler – g10gf

·       Thomas Uffott/Ufford – g9gf

 

New Haven

https://www.geni.com/projects/Founders-of-the-New-Haven-Colony/30351

·       William Andrews – g10gf*

·       John Charles – g10gf

·       John Clark – g10gf

·       John Cooper – g9gf*

·       Jasper Crane – g10gf

·       Timothy Ford – g8gf

·       Matthew Gilbert – g9gf*

·       Matthias Hitchcock – *

·       William Ives – (step)g8gf

·       Andrew Messenger – g9gf

·       John Peacock – g10gf

·       William Potter – g8gf*

·       William Preston – g10gf

·       Robert Seeley – g10gf

·       George Smith – g9gf

·       Nathaniel Turner – g10gf

·       William Tuttle – g9gf

·       Thomas Yale – g9gf

 

New London

http://dunhamwilcox.net/town_hist/nl-chap11a.htm

·       George Chappell - *

·       Robert Isbell – g9gf

·       Thomas Stedman – g9gf

 

Norwalk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Founding_settlers_of_Norwalk,_Connecticut

https://familypedia.wikia.org/wiki/Norwalk_1649_Founders_Stone

·       George Abbitt/Abbott – g9gf

·       Thomas Fitch – g9gf

·       John Gregory – g9gf

·       Ralph Keeler – g9gf

·       Daniel Kellogg – g8gf*

·       Thomas Lupton – g8gf

·       Matthew Marvin Sr – g11gf

·       John Ruscoe – g9gf

 

Stamford

https://www.ctgenweb.org/county/cofairfield/pages/stamford/settlers_page.htm

·       Francis Bell - *

·       Jeffrey Ferris - *

·       Joseph Garnsey – (step)g11gf

·       John Holly – g10gf

·       Francis Holmes – g11gf

·       Simon Hoyt – g9gf

·       Nicholas Knapp - *

·       Robert Lockwood – g8gf

·       Obadiah Seeley – g10gf

·       Henry Smith - *

·       John Waterbury – g11gf

·       Jonas Weed – g10gf*

 

Stratford

https://www.geni.com/projects/Founding-Families-of-Stratford-Connecticut/47320

·       Adam Blackman – g10gf

·       Richard Boothe – g10gf

·       John Curtis – g8gf*

·       Thomas Fairchild – g10gf

·       Henry Gregory – g10gf

·       Francis Hall – g9gf

·       Richard Harvey – g10gf

·       John Hurd – g9gf

·       Joseph Judson – g9gf

·       John Peacock – g10gf

·       Thomas Sherwood – g10gf

·       John Tompson/Thompson – g10gf

·       Thomas Ufford – g9gf

·       John Wells/Welles – g9gf*

·       William WIlcockson/WIlcockson – g10gf

 

Wethersfield

https://sites.google.com/a/oldconnecticutpath.com/oldconnecticutpath/home/5-founders-of-wethersfield

·       Robert Seeley – g10gf

·       Nathaniel Foote – g8gf

 

Windsor

http://tourwindsorct.org/historic/FoundersofWindsorM/

https://sites.google.com/a/oldconnecticutpath.com/oldconnecticutpath/home/4-founders-of-windsor

https://www.werelate.org/wiki/List_of_Founders_of_Windsor,_Connecticut

·       Matthew Allyn – g11gf

·       John Bartlett – *

·       William Buell – g10gf

·       Nicholas Denslow – g11gf

·       Thomas Dibble – g9gf

·       John Drake – *

·       John Hawkes – *

·       William Hulbert – *

·       Joseph Loomis – g10gf*

·       Thomas Newberry – g11gf

·       Thomas Newell – g9gf

·       Nicholas Palmer – g10gf

·       Thomas Parsons – g9gf

·       William Phelps – g10gf

·       Eltweed Pomeroy – (step)g9gf

·       Samuel Pond – g9gf

·       John Porter – g10gf

·       John Taylor – g10gf

·       Richard Vore – g10gf