Christmas 2025

 

Christmas 2025

We thought that 2024 would be our last year together for our annual family vacation at Pinebrook, but then in addition to Tiernan getting a job there Aryon had trouble finding a job the Pinebrook asked Tiernan if his brother was available. But next year Aryon will be doing his military service and Tiernan has already let Pinebrook he will not be there so we’ll be down to just 5 grandchildren. So we’ve already decided that 2026 will be the last Russell summer at Pinebrook after being there nearly every year since 1977 – a run of nearly 50 consecutive years! Prices are also increasing regularly, so now is a good time to stop.

 

Family Updates

            I thought it might be interesting to give a quick synopsis of each family member.

·       Chris – was just named an associate at Lockheed – no increase in pay, just in responsibility

·       Pam – lots of responsibilities at their church

·       Aryon – in his junior year at Taylor. May be leaving college for the time being and getting a job.

·       Tiernan – in his freshman year at Taylor

·       Ilyanna – planning on going into the trades (not sure which one)

·       Matthew – still working for gun parts company (receiving, repackaging, shipping). Lives part-time with his parents and helps give medical aid to them.

·       Kim – Lost her job this summer and currently unemployed – actively looking for new job

·       Ethan – in an 11^th grade dual-enrollment program at Liberty University Online Academy. If all goes well will be graduating with an associates degree in 2028, then would like to get a job in railroading

·       Isaiah – 10^th grader at LUOA, thinking of getting a job in the trades – probably as an auto mechanic

·       Caleb – 10^th grader at LUOA, will likely go into their dual enrollment program

·       Asher – 8th grader at LUOA, probably will go into military

·       Donna – doing yard work (since I can’t), takes care of pets (4 cats, dog, 2 birds). Recently taking care of me (see next item)

Medical Update

Until about two months ago things were going well. Then started having physical issues and ended up in the hospital with a case of cirrhosis of the liver (sound familiar?) Still working through the issues involved, but a lot depends on a change of diet. However during the process I reached a milestone with a total weight loss of just over 200 (down nearly 30 pounds in the last year.) One more thing to track.

As always, we are finding that HE is in control and we need follow his leading.

 

 

Harold Granger Pierpont – Who, When, Where

I’ve known the basic story of my grandfather’s birth, how his mother died as result of complications of childbirth, and how he was raised by a family in the next town. So when I found his baptism certificate in the box of papers that my mother had kept and then passed on to me, it did not originally seem like it added much to the story. But then I thought I put it in context with all the other facts that I knew or could find out and see if it all hung together.

[Baptism Certificate]

 

Just a bunch of names and a date on a pre-printed certificate. But whose names? And what date? And does even the form itself help to tell a story?

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My grandfather’s uncle, Charles Somers Miller, kept a very detailed diary for his entire life. Let’s also look at his entries for three days in March of 1898.

3/3/1898

“When my wife got home from the Grange, she was greatly excited because her brother Wilson L. Pierpont (who is Master of the Grange) and his wife Annie (who is Secretary of the  Grange) were in their respective places when she got there, after a time recess was declared and she did not see Wilson or Annie again, but just before the Grange closed a note was received by the acting Secretary which stated that the Master and Secretary had a new ten pound son.”

3/17/1898

“This noon Mr.  Tucker asked me if Wilson Pierpont’s wife was dead. He said that Mrs. Dickinson heard the little French girls ask Austin B. Pierpont how she was and he only said a few words and they replied oh isn’t it too bad, so she judged that she was dead. I went and asked Paul Hesphalt and he said that she was. It seems that she died at about 8 o’clock this morning. She was 39 years old, the same age as myself. She leaves an infant child and six children.”

3/20/1898

“… This I think was the largest funeral ever held in the Chapel, all the seats being filled as well as all of the standing room being taken and a great crowd outside who could not get it. Rev. Mr. Buckley of Trinity Church officiated. … There must have been over 400 people present.”

Don’t seem to be any inconsistencies with the information from the baptism certificate. But there are a few specifics in the wording that are much more important than they first seem. Let’s do some detailed research, not specifically on my grandfather, but on the practice of baptism and of the history of the churches in Waterbury where this takes place.

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While it’s not true in churches which practice believer’s baptism (such as the one which I belong to) those which practice infant baptism may feel that there is much more to it than just a ceremony. A simple search notes that “In a baptism ceremony, naming an infant is a significant part of the ritual…” That is often the first time that the infant’s name is actually given. The church named on this baptism certificate, Trinity Church in Waterbury, was an Episcopal church which practiced this. Note carefully the wording for the diary entry of 3/17/1898, “She leaves an infant child and six children.” Harold was called an “infant child” and he was NOT counted among the “six children.” Even his name, Harold Granger, was not given to him until he was baptized at age four months.

Next, let’s look at the location where this baptism took place. While the form has pre-printed on it “in Trinity Church, Waterbury,” did it take place there? The answer is, surprisingly, “no.” I found an interesting book on the history of the Waterbury Episcopal church.

[Episcopal Church]

 

On page 171, it gives the officers of the Trinity Parish, including the Rector, Rev. Frederick D. Buckley, M.A. Also, the first vestryman is named as C. J. Pierpont. But this is not Charles J. Pierpont, Wilson’s father, as he passed away in 1884. Rather, it’s Wilson’s brother, Charles J. Pierpont, Jr. Trinity Parish/Church is located at 25 Prospect St. where the back side of the Immaculata Basilica is located today (it was built on that site in the 1920’s – see https://www.waterburybasilica.org/parish-history).  But it doesn’t make sense that the Pierpont family would travel all the way downtown from where they lived in East Farms just for a baptism. Also, look at Charles Miller’s diary for 3/20/1898 where the funeral for Annie Pierpont was held at the “Chapel” on a Sunday afternoon with Rev. Buckley conducting the service.

To resolve this situation, one must understand that the “Chapel” being referred to is the Mill Plain Chapel – which is still there with the larger Mill Plain Church having been built next door during the 1920’s. Mill Plain was/is a “union” chapel/church. They did not have a pastor of their own. Rather, they were served by a number of pastors from downtown who traveled out each Sunday afternoon from other churches. One of these visiting pastors was Rev. Buckley from Trinity Parish/Church. Since these visiting individuals were sometimes Rectors (like Rev. Buckley), but other times pastors or ministers, Mill Plain did not have their own stationary, relying on the visitor to bring their own – hence the wording “IN” on this baptism certificate.

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This also gives the rationale for the list of names on the baptism certificate.

·       Harold Granger Pierpont is receiving his official name for the first time

·       Wilson L. Pierpont is the father

·       Annie E. Pierpont is the mother – even though she died four months prior

·       Edith L. Pierpont is Harold’s older sister – she’s 17, but is no longer attending school and has been taking care of all her younger siblings (all male), including Harold

·       F. D. Buckley from Trinity Parish is the visiting rector for the day (it’s a Sunday afternoon) and who has supplied the certificate

·       Nellie A. Buckley is the rector’s wife and is signing as a witness (sponsor)

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The only remaining question is when did Harold move to Prospect where he was raised by Samuel and Hattie Nichols. We know that it was some time after July 1898 when he was baptized in the presence of his father and sister and before June 1900 when he appears in the 1900 census in Prospect living with Sam and Hattie as a “boarder”. (Interestingly, the census taker for the Nichols household was Stephen Talmadge, the grandfather of Sara Blackman whom Harold went to school with in Prospect and eventually married!)

This has been a fun bit of research!

 

 

 

Time Flies

         It was February 1955. Our little street, which had been a dead-end, was being pushed through. What had been a narrow path through a swampy area just wide enough for one person to walk would soon be a paved road that connected to the street beyond. My world was about to expand.

[Alan in 1^st grade]

 

I was the oldest in our family of what had just expanded from two children to three. I was six-and-a-half and in first grade. My sister had just turned five at the end of the previous year. She was a cute and precocious girl with blond hair. My brother was only two months old. Our family had been living in this house in Wolcott, CT since my father purchased it nearly nine years ago. He was 34-years-old and had been working at Scovill Manufacturing as a draftsman since graduating from high school (except for the two years he spent in the U.S. Navy during WWII). My mother was a beautiful 30-year-old and was focused on raising we children.

My grandparents (most of them) were in their mid-to-late 50’s. The primary exception was my grandmother’s second husband who was 30 years older than she was. He had been born just a few months after the end of the Civil War, making him almost 90. I thought about him growing up at a time before Edison invented the carbon filament light bulb. Even when my other grandparents were born in the 1890s, light bulbs were not common outside of major cities. Automobiles came along toward the end of the 1800s, but even by 1910 there were only 5 vehicles per 1000 people in the US. Commercial aviation was not available until the mid-1930s when my father was a teenager. So the lives that my grandparents and parents lived were totally different than my own has been.

While the road from our house to the city where my father worked had been paved about twenty-years earlier, he saw few cars on the road during the seven miles he drove to work. Telephone service was provided by the cities to the north and south of us, so it was a long-distance phone call to others even in the same town. We had recently gotten a television (black-and-white of course). It only got three stations, and they came from different directions so my father had put a motorized antenna turner so we could turn the antenna on the chimney to get the best reception possible. Shows were all live and after the late-night news there was only a test pattern being broadcast until the following morning.

As noted above, I had recently started school. Our little school serviced the entire northern section of town, but still only had one class per grade. Some of my classmates came from English backgrounds, as did I, and our ancestors had been here in the US for over 300 years. Others came from more recent immigrant families and had ancestors from places like French Canada, Italy, Poland, Ireland, Denmark, Germany, or Austria. We were a pretty motley crew, but our differing backgrounds really didn’t matter. Having the commonality of being in the same class was more important than our ancestries.

 

Time Moved On

I stayed in that small town until I graduated from high school in 1966. Then I spent five years in Michigan for undergraduate and graduate school. Getting married, my wife and I spent four years back in Connecticut, living in Prospect. Then in 1975 I got a job offer in Eastern PA. We moved here in June of 1975 and have now been here for approaching fifty years.

My biological grandparents passed at ages 68, 71, 75, and 81, so I have lived longer than three of them already and am quickly approaching the age of the last one. My step-grandfather is the exception as he lived until the ripe-old age of 93. My parents were married for nearly 60 years and both passed away at that house in Wolcott.

Now, my children are in their mid-40s and only 20 years away from retirement. My oldest grandson is in college and the youngest is several years older than I was back in 1955.

Interestingly, despite having moved away so long ago, I still remain friends with many of my classmates from that small school. We communicate frequently, despite being scattered around the country – it’s a rare day that I don’t see a message from one of them.

The technological changes that my grandparents and my parents experienced may have seemed extraordinary to them all those years ago. But in my lifetime, I’ve experienced changes just as revolutionary. Just think what things like computers and instant communication have brought to our world. Children the age that I was 70 years ago often have access to smartphones of their own on a regular basis!

 

As my time here on this earth grows shorter and shorter, I can’t imagine what changes my grandchildren will see. The youngest ones may live until the next century (just 75 years away!). And they will experience things that I can’t even imagine over the intervening years. I won’t be around for those changes. But I’m glad that I’ve gotten to experience all that I have!

When one is younger, time moves much more slowly – after all, between the ages of 10 and 11 one gets to experience 10% of their life. But that same year only represents 1.3% of my life at this age, so the years seem to roll by so much more quickly.

 

Christmas 2024

Family

As has been our family custom for many years, we had our full family together at Pinebrook in the Poconos in the summer. We had thought that 2023 would be the last year to have all 7 grandchildren, but Aryon got a summer job working there so we were blessed to have them all together this past summer as well. Below is a picture of all of them.

For a few months all of them were 1x years old – Asher turned 10 in July and Aryon did not turn 20 until October. Aryon is now in his second year of college, Tiernan is a senior in high school (he once again took a missions trip to Japan to help take care of a group of younger students while their parents, who are missionaries, had a week of meetings), and Ilyanna is in 9^th grade. In PA, the four boys are in grades 9, 7, 7, and 5 this year. We’ve enrolled Ethan in a dual-enrollment program at Liberty University Online Academy where he will graduate in 2028 with a high school diploma as well as a full associates’ degree. We’re planning on doing the same with all the younger boys as well.

Ethan is led in his coursework by Kim, and I handle the three younger boys – with the exception of Isaiah and Caleb taking Spanish (led by Kim as she knows that language and I do not) and Asher’s literature class where Donna has a chance to get involved. All of them are straight A students. It keeps me busy every day as I sit in my recliner and there is a constant stream of boys coming through my room.

 

Medical

While I’ve been dealing with various medical issues over the years, 2024 was a memorable one. I’ve had a diabetic ulcer on the bottom of my right foot for several years. Over the Christmas holidays last year, I developed a case of COVID. It was not a bad case, but the extra level of infection got into my foot. I went into the hospital on January 2^nd and didn’t come home for an entire month. And when I did come home it was after a partial foot amputation. The surgeon did an excellent job of closing the wound back up, but having only a partial foot has been a definite challenge (see picture below).

          I can get around pretty well, but only with the use of a cane. People see me as pretty normal as I have a “toe-filler” prosthesis and wear a regular shoe. But navigating stairs is difficult and I am constantly in danger of falling. I have other medical issues, but this one overshadows all of them. At home I spend most of my time in a recliner as I want to avoid any further injury to that foot. Getting old is not for the faint of heart.

          I’ve had to give up all outdoor activities. It’s good to have several growing grandsons around to pick up tasks like grass mowing, taking the trash cans up to the corner each week, and even smaller things like walking up to get the mail each day.

          On the plus side, I can now relate easily to other older member of the church who have canes or who have issues like Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons, or any of the other infirmities that come with getting older.

 

Genealogy

          While a large portion of my day is consumed by overseeing the schooling of our grandsons, I’m still quite involved in genealogy – mostly for others. As an example, just this week I was able to introduce two men in our church to each other as being third cousins (i.e. sharing a great-great-grandfather) that they had not been aware of.

          A lot of my investigation is for people in our church (where I am related to about 2/3 of them) or to some of our new neighbors, I’m also enjoying my relationships with others in the Pierpont/Russell lines with whom I have established relationships in the past. I am now the official historian of the Pierpont Family Association due to the passing of Bob Kraft, but with my driving being restricted due to my foot, I may not be able to go to our annual meetings. While many of these relatives are not like me and they have different views on life (including their political persuasion during the past election season), I enjoy the challenge of not being in a political “echo chamber” and having my views be challenged.

 

Putting Christ in Christmas

          This time of year is one where I focus on sharing my Christian values with those around me. For those reading this who share those values, may the joy of Christ encourage you. Any of those who may not share those values, know that we love you anyway. Christ is the basis for our family’s outlook and we will always encourage others to see His love through us.

 

Merry Christmas!

Alan & Donna

 

 

Death in the Family

At the beginning of August we received a phone call that Donna’s sister Cora (generally known as “Pixie”) had passed away. While we have had other deaths in the family, this was the first one of one of the siblings.

[Gravestone]

But that got me thinking – how many of our combined family members have passed away and what percentage does that represent.

 

Defining the population

The goal here was to assemble a list of all the family members in “our” generation. So, I started with myself, my wife, and all of our combined siblings (I’m one of five and my wife is one of seven). That part was easy. Then I added all our first cousins, i.e. the children of our parent’s siblings (ignoring whether such individuals were biological relatives or adopted). Then, I added in all the spouses/significant others of each of the siblings/cousins.

But, as in many families, there were a few “exceptions”. First, I included my Hill cousins (who are technically cousins of cousins) as we always treated them as first cousins during all our growing-up lives and since. Secondly, I did not include any cousins on my wife’s mother’s side. When my wife’s grandfather passed away, his mother obtained custody of all his children, so there was never any contact between my wife’s mother and her older siblings. Even as the family genealogist, I do not have any good records of what happened to all of them. Finally, there are a few other miscellaneous exceptions – such as my wife’s sister was married briefly when she was 18 to a local soldier but they divorced shortly thereafter and he moved away, so no one in the family has been in contact with him for 50 years.

At the end of the above process, I had accumulated a total of 74 names of individuals. These 74 are all age 70 (+/- 12) with the oldest still living being 82 and the youngest being nearly 60.

 

Population Analysis

Exactly half of these 74 individuals are male and half are female. But beyond this, the percentages tell very different stories.

Of the 74 individuals, 28 (38%) of them have passed away. But the ratio of M/F is quite different. 18 (49%) of the 37 men have passed away, but only 10 (27%) of the females have passed away. So even in this small sample, the women are outliving the men.

Our immediate families seem to be living longer that the others. While the cousins and their spouses represent 65% (48/74) in this population they account for 75% of the deaths (21/28). Similarly, the spouses represent 55% (41/74) of the population, but they account for 64% of the deaths (18/28).

 

My Outlook

So, what does this say about me? Already, nearly half of the men in my generation of this extended family have passed away. But of the 19 men still living, only 3 are older than I am and the oldest is only 2 years older (Donna’s brother Chuck is 78 and is currently in an assisted living home).

I also maintain the records for our church senior citizens. While there are 68 individuals older than myself among our church attendees, only 26 men are older than I am. And of the five funerals of men this year, four of them were for men younger than me.

In doing some research, there are different figures given for the average lifespan of people in the US based on their gender. The CDC gives figures of 73.2/79.1 (M/F). But other websites give figures of 74.8/80.2 and 75.3/80.5 (these latter ones are for white males/females where the corresponding figures for black males/females are 69.0/76.1).

I’m reminded of a comedian I saw a video of recently. He stated, “I’m 74 and the average lifespan of men is age 76. But for women the average lifespan in 81, so now seems to be the ideal time to do a gender transition in order to add 5 years to my life.”

While one can’t apply averages to individuals, they do give some idea on where one stands. Already in 2024 I’ve had two hospital stays as well as 18 doctor/dentist visits (with 6 more scheduled in the next 3 months). But while I may be having physical issues, mentally I’m doing quite well. I had my annual Alzheimer’s aging test earlier this week and the person running the tests said that she’s not used to having anyone who goes through the test battery as fast as I do. And while I spend a lot of my day in a recliner with my foot raised due to my amputation and neuropathy, I have a constant stream of grandsons coming through the room as I oversee their home schooling.

So, I may be aging, but when people ask how I’m doing, my response is always, “I’m doing great!” And that, to me, is the most important aspect!

 

Who is Like Me?

I began this blog 9.5 years ago. One of the things I posted in the first few months was titled “The ‘Like Me’ Syndrome”.

            https://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-like-me-syndrome.html

In this post I talked about how we tend to feel comfortable when we are with groups of people who are like us. I used as examples Racial/Ethnic Clumping and Female/Male dominated professions. I then noted some of the solutions to these issues and which don’t work and which might work. I also looked at some of my experiences of being with people who are NOT like me. I finished with the following paragraph.

Think about your own experiences.  When you are with others who are “like you” do you feel more comfortable than when you are with others who are “not like you?”  What is it about the group that makes you “like” each other?  What other aspects of the group could you focus on so that the “like me” could dominate the “not like me?”

 

Is This Still An Issue?

If anything, this is even more of an issue than it has been historically. We now live in an era of what is sometimes referred to as “identity politics.” This is politics based on particular identities such as ethnicity, race, nationality, religion, denomination, gender, sexual orientation, social background, caste, and social caste. Although it’s been around since the late 20^th century, we are now drawing very distinct lines around the various groups.

More recently, we have begun to put a lot of effort into DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), but in doing so, we are requiring that people identify the racial/ethnic/sexual aspects that they have and thus we are enforcing the differences between people rather than looking for commonality. Then our political system tries to take advantage of these differences with such statements as “I am a woman, you are a woman, therefore you must vote for me.” (Or substitute other aspects into “I am ____” like I am an African-American, I come from a family of immigrants.)

The implicit meaning behind this is that it’s not who we are or what we do, but that we are defined by whatever aspect/identity is being discussed. Thus, things like the color of our skin are the most important things about us (“Black” lives matter!) so if we have just one drop of blood from a Black ancestor many generations ago, then we are supposed to act, to BE, Black. Universities are now having special graduation exercises just for those in a particular identity group.

In this hyper-identity world, we are now using these aspects of our life to divide us! And by dividing us into smaller groups it discourages people from working together. The “Like Me” syndrome that I noted several years ago is being used as a weapon. Instead of America being a “melting pot” where people of many different backgrounds can come together, we have been turned into a collection of identities and encouraged to NOT work together. It’s a sad state of affairs.

So, what can we as individuals do about it? Let me repeat what I wrote nine years ago:

What other aspects of the group could you focus on so that the “like me” could dominate the “not like me?”

 

So What About Me?

I thought it would be interesting to use myself as a case study and whether I actually practice what I preach. I’ve been using social media, i.e. Facebook, since shortly after I retired 17 years ago. I have now accumulated a list of “friends” numbering roughly 400. But being the organized person that I am, I also maintain a spreadsheet of all these friends which notes how I am connected to them. So, I’d like to use this spreadsheet as a surrogate for which aspect of “like me” each individual is primarily associated with.

Here are my categories:

·       Family: those with some sort of genealogical connection. This accounts for nearly 150 individuals. There are four subcategories in this. (1) Immediate family – siblings, first cousins, nieces/nephews, etc. (note that because those two generations below, i.e. grandchildren, do not use Facebook this is not a complete list of family); (2) Pierpont – those related on my mother’s side – because I am the historian of the Pierpont Family Association, I also have connections to the wider family tree including relatives in France, England, and Canada; (3) Russell – extended family on my father’s side – the subject of much of my genealogical research; (4) VanDeCar – extended family on my wife’s side.

·       Church: those individuals in the church we have attended for nearly 50 years as well as others in the denomination that we have established connections to. This accounts for about 130 individuals.

·       Wolcott: individuals from my hometown in Connecticut. About 65 individuals, roughly 2/3 are my high school classmates, the others are individuals who have an interest in Wolcott History which I often blog about.

·       Work: individuals who I have worked with in some capacity, either my job at Air Products where I spent over 30 years, or via one of the non-profits that I had a long-term connection to (school boards, international students). About 45 individuals.

·       Other: those who do not fit one of the above categories. Only a dozen individuals.

That’s actually a pretty short list of ways that define “like me”. Genealogy, church, geography, shared experiences. There is nothing here about race, color, gender, sexual orientation, or any of the other aspects of identity politics or DEI. But are these “not like me” aspects hidden in the details or otherwise being used? Let me look at some of the details below the surface in each of the above categories.

 

Family

This group is defined by genealogical connection and the origins of each of the families listed are northern European (French, English, etc.) But that does not mean that every individual has that same heritage as people are free to marry others from different heritages. So, besides the French/English/Canadian members of the extended Pierpont family, I am aware of several other instances of this which have created connections to (1) Native Americans, (2) Haiti, and (3) Japan. But these individuals are still “Family”.

And there are many other aspects of “not like me” that get passed over. I am aware of several instances of same-sex relationships, political orientations that span the spectrum of our current political situation in the US, etc. But these individuals are still family, so I don’t let our differences get in the way.

 

Church

The part of Pennsylvania where I live was settled by German immigrants in the early 1700s. But with English immigrants to the N/E/S there was a fair amount of English connection as well. And the church reflected that heritage. But as the demographics of the area are changing, so are the demographics of the church. Just a few examples: (1) our senior pastor is Black; (2) our weekly church bulletin is available in Spanish as well as English; (3) the church hosts an Arabic-speaking congregation on Sunday afternoon and we now have two Syrian young men serving on our worship team; (4) the couple who sits in front of us consists of a young man who met and married a woman from Dominica while on a missions trip and they have since adopted four African-American siblings; and (5) as part of the church’s mission focus we currently have church members serving in Mexico, Jamaica, Germany, and Czech Republic.

Because of my genealogy interests, one of the “fun” things I like to do is see if I can build a rudimentary family tree for people in the church and see if there is any genealogical connection to me. I have found such a connection for about 2/3 of the church members/attendees (usually back about 400 years). But this leads to some interesting personal connections that might not otherwise happen. For example, there are a couple of ladies who are quite different than me. Because of some poor life choices, they are now part of a very low-income group and have no connections to other relatives. They came to our church because of our outreach to the community, but they didn’t have any other connections to it. Then they were approached by me with the message that they were distant cousins. That personal connection made a real difference. Now they look me up each Sunday morning and greet me with “hello cuz”.

 

Wolcott

Because Wolcott was not incorporated until 1796 and the population only grew beyond 1000 people after the paving of Wolcott Rd in the 1930s, the demographics of the residents were very reflective of the “melting pot” of the New England in the late 1800s and early 1900s. At one time I had undertaken a genealogical study of my high school classmates. While this study only is of the 2/3 of my friends in this category, the others are of this same demographic mixture.

About 1/3 of my classmates are related to me genealogically. However, there are a wide range of  countries represented. Nearly all are from Europe with the predominant ones being England, Ireland, Italy, France (actually French-Canadian), and Polish – these were the source of much of the immigration into that part of New England in that time period. Of my 170 classmates, only two had ancestry from Africa, only one had ancestry from Asia (Philippines), and there was no Spanish (either Spain or from South America). Some had very complex mixtures such as one girl whose heritage was from Germany, Russia, Poland, Ireland, and England, another whose heritage was from French-Canadian, Sweden, Ireland, Scotland, and England, and another whose heritage was from Italy, French-Canadian, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, and Netherlands. But we all were having the same experience – growing up in a close-knit community and attending the same new high school. So not only did we all get along quite well, but we continue to be in close contact with one another. I know from their postings that there are a wide range of political views in this group, but that doesn’t matter.

 

Work

The shared experience here is working together. The only item of significance is that there are about a dozen international students (1/4 of the total of this group). I’ll have more to say about this below.

 

Other

This remaining small category includes some of my neighbors, my best man (the only individual from my college years among my friends), and some individuals who I work with on genealogical issues of WWII soldiers.

 

International Aspect

While I have always lived and worked in the United States, I have had more than the typical amount of international travel. While this has enriched my life and given me a perspective that many do not have, most of the international friends among my 400 Facebook friends did not come from this travel. I count as “international” not those who simply have a heritage from another part of the world. Rather I only give this designation to someone who was born in another country, or who lives/works/worked there for a significant length of time.

With this designation, over 10% of my Facebook friends are international (41 out of roughly 400). These 41 individuals represent 24 different countries and thus a wide range of different backgrounds. For example, I have friends who are Buddhists from Thailand/Hong Kong, a Catholic from Indonesia, Christian from Ghana, Christian from Pakistan, missionaries in Mexico, Jamaica, Germany, Zambia, Kenya, as well as individuals from Norway, Belgium, England, France, Venezuela and other places.

Having interactions with this wide variety of individuals, as well as seeing other things that they post about their life, keeps me from being narrowly focused and only having a US-centric view of the world.

 

Conclusion

This 400-member collection of friends have a wide range of backgrounds and interests. Some I see regularly at church each week. Some I haven’t seen for several decades (since high school). Some I have never actually met outside of social media. Some share political views with me, and others have views that are totally the opposite. Some are going through physical or personal problems and I pray for them regularly (and let them know that I do), others do the same for me as I deal with various physical issues as I age. With each I have at least one thing in common – be it genealogy, religion, working together, or being from the same town.

But in each area where we are different I use our relationship to learn about things from their perspective. I get to learn about the discrimination that my native American nieces feel. I share with my same-sex cousins and try to understand them instead of argue with them. I pray with my high school classmates who, like me, are aging, having physical issues, losing a spouse, etc. I pray for my Pakistani friend who is poor and suffers from persecution on a regular basis (and she prays for me too!). I share with those in our church who have had very different life experiences but who worship the same God that I do.

 

That’s the key in all this. Instead of only associating with those who are just like you, look for one aspect that you can agree upon – be it shared DNA, living in the same town, working together, or some other shared experience like going to the same church – and then use our differences to learn from each other instead of using them to divide us. My life is so much richer having learned from my friends.

Yesterday was my 76^th birthday. Between yesterday and today, I received greetings from about 25% of my 400 friends. I love them all. And I hope to continue the relationship I have with each of them for many more years to come.

 

Who are the Pierponts?

There are two Pierpont/Pierpoint family reunions taking place this summer. The Pierpont Family Association (PFA), who are mostly the descendants of two brothers who came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in about 1640, are having their 101^st consecutive reunion at Hammonasett State Park in Connecticut in June. And the Pierpont/Pierpoint family, who are mostly the descendants of Henry Pierpoint who came to Maryland in 1650 are meeting in western Tennessee in September. But there are also family members elsewhere in the US, in Canada, in the UK, and in France.

But who are all these groups of people? Are they all related to each other? And if so, how?

I’ve done a lot of research on behalf of the greater Pierpont family over the years, and I’d like to first pull it together, then list all these various groups and tie them together as best I can.

 

Beginnings in Normandy

No one disputes that the family had their origins in Normandy, France, in the 900s. While it is not known for certain who was the first person to bear that name, the earliest which has been documented is Sir Hugh de Pierrepont who was born around 980. The name de Pierrepont, meaning of/from the stone bridge, has been the subject of considerable research over the years.

My own contribution to this research can be found here, where I explored the various sites around France and identified the most likely location for where Hugh lived. I’ll not repeat that research here, except to note that the de Pierrepont name can still be found in France now – over 1000 years later!   

 

Invasion of England

Sir Robert de Pierrepont, a grandson of Sir Hugh, was one of the leaders under William the Conqueror during the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Once the Normans had taken over southern England, Robert was rewarded with land in what came to be called Hurst Pierrepont in Lewes, Sussex, on the south coast of England. However, within a few generations, the family had relocated to Halliwell in Lancashire. And just two generations later, the family seat moved to the town of Holme, Nottinghamshire, which would eventually be renamed as Holme Pierrepont. This would remain the family home for the next several hundred years.

The below picture of an official genealogy of the Pierrepont family, which was drawn in 1764, shows the early generations of the family, including their place of residence.

[Beginning in England]

 

Moving to the Americas

There were a number of family members who made the trip to the Americas, with documented immigrations beginning in the 1600s, and continuing until the 1900s. I’ll give more details on these below as I explore the various branches of the family tree.

 

The Problem of Changing Names

The spelling of the Pierpont family name has gone through many changes over the last 1000 years. It’s tempting to simplify these changes by attributing the original name of “de Pierrepont” to those in France, to drop the “de” and give a name of “Pierrepont” to the generations in England, and to anglicize the name to a simple “Pierpont” or “Pierpoint” in the US. But things are not that simple!

While the family members still in France continue to use “de Pierrepont”, the “de” was not dropped immediately upon the Norman invasion in 1066. The above picture of the top portion of an English genealogy shows that the early generations continued to use the “de Pierrepont” surname. It was not until the 1300s that the “de” was dropped.

[Dropping the de]

 

While the “Pierrepont” spelling dominated in England after the 1300s, it was only consistent within the “peers” of the family. Thus, in the blogs I’ve written on this topic (see here and here), I’ve not had to deal with other variations. But outside of this main line, family members were merchants and other professions and were often not even literate.

The consonants in the name (P_rp_nt) stayed pretty consistent. But the first syllable was sometimes rendered “Pier”, “Peir”, “Par”, “Per” as well as the original “Pierre”. And the last syllable might be “Pont”, “Point”, “Poynt” or “Pointe”. Thus, variants such as Pierpont, Pierpoint, Peirpont, Parpoynt, Perpoynt, Perpointe, and others were often recorded. The name was pronounced per local dialects, but written down according to the hearing of the listener. Among the peerage, since the name was also associated with the estate (Hurst Pierrepont or later “Holme Pierrepont), the name remained consistent, but the farther one lived from these estates, the more variation crept in over the centuries. I’ve documented a number of these variants here just among the early New England settlers of the family. Even as late as 1848, my great*3 grandfather, Austin Pierpont, had his name chiseled on his tombstone as “Pierpoint” (see https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/53032273/austin-pierpoint).  

 

The Problem of English Hereditary Rules

In England, not only were titles subject to rules of inheritance such as being only able to be passed to males or only to legitimate children, but property was also subject to those same types of rules. There was benefit to this as it kept estates intact. But if you were a second son, your only chance of inheritance would be if your older brother died without a male heir, and if you were a third or greater son, you would have to leave the family home and make your living through something other than the taxes that were paid by the individuals working on the family lands.

This also meant that the family name would not be recorded or preserved over the following centuries, but would be even more likely to be distorted as in the above discussion. As you’ll see in the below, most of those who came to North America no longer carried the Pierrepont name.

 

Many Groups – All with a Common Heritage

Over the past decade or so, during which I have used my interest in genealogy and during which I’ve been privileged to be a co-historian of the Pierpont Family Association, I’ve been able to make connections to several distinct groups of Pierpont/Pierpoint/Pierrepont/de Pierrepont family members. The power of computers in investigating ancestral records and the power of social media (principally Facebook) in establishing connections has enabled research far more easily than in past generations. Here are the groups which I’ve investigated – groups which are not necessarily proved to be connected, but which connection is still quite certain.

 

Group 1 – the French de Pierreponts

As I mentioned above, while Robert de Pierrepont went to England in 1066 with William the Conqueror, he left behind his uncles and any male siblings or cousins. The de Pierrepont family name has continued on to this day. Two current members of this French branch of the family have joined the Pierpont Family Association and, with the help of Google Translate, I have had conversations with them in French.

 

Group 2 – the English Pierreponts

There have been family members in England for over 950 years. While the line of those in the peerage has “daughtered out”, there are others still living there. Like our French relatives, there are a couple of individuals who still carry the Pierrepont family name and who have joined the PFA.

 

Group 3 – the New England Pierponts

Most of my research into the Pierpont family has been on behalf of the Pierpont Family Association (PFA) of New England. While this branch of the family has been in New England since around 1640, many of the lines from the two brothers, John and Robert, daughtered out fairly early on, so all the members in this family line are descendants of the Rev. James Pierpont who got his education at Harvard and who became the pastor of the Congregational Church in New Haven, CT (see this daughtering out here). While most of these family members carry the Pierpont surname, in the early years there were many other variations. One of the Rev James grandsons changed his name back to Pierrepont, so that surname has also been passed along through that sub-branch.

This is the only branch where we have established a definite connection back to the main English line. The father of John and Robert, James, had also come to New England later in his life. But James’ father was William Pierrepont. He was unfortunately the third son of his father and so had to leave the family home (Holme Pierrepont) in Nottinghamshire and make his living in a small town nearby. In the process, he encountered many of the Puritans in that area – likely the primary reason that his grandsons, and later his son, made the trek to New England to join their Puritan friends in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. You can see William listed in the genealogical tree of the Pierrepont peers from the drawing in 1764. He is listed simply as “third son” and his marriage and any offspring are not even shown.

[William]

 

Group 4 – the Maryland/Virginia Pierpoints

The second largest group of Pierpont/Pierpoints in the US are the descendants of Henry Pierpoint who came to America in the mid-1600s. I’ve done some fairly detailed analysis of this branch of the family in an effort to see if/how they were connected to the New England branch of the family (see here), but like other researchers have not been successful. There are enough matches of names and similarities of places that it’s pretty certain that these two branches connect back in England, but to-date a connection has not been documented. On social media, the NE and MD/VA Facebook groups have a number of joint members and we will stay connected in years to come. A member of the MD/VA branch attended the PFA meeting in 1960 and just a few years ago one of the PFA members attended a reunion of the MD/VA branch. A link to this blog will be sent to the members of both branches for everyone’s reading pleasure.

 

Group 5 – the Maine Pierponts

The Maine branch of the family are the descendants of Richard Pierpont/Pierpoint. He was born in Liverpool, England in 1790, came to Norfolk, VA in 1811, and just a few years later moved to Washington, ME. His naturalization record (from 1857) has his surname as Pierpont, but he signed with an “X” as he was illiterate. His grave lists his surname as Pierpoint. Other records of the time for him and his children have his name listed variously as Pierpont or Pierpoint. Three of his great*3 granddaughters have joined the PFA. While the PFA is happy to have them be part of the ”New England Pierpont” association (PFA), the nearly 200 years between the immigration of Richard and John and Robert has made it difficult to document a genealogical connection.

 

Group 6 – the Utah Pierponts

The Utah branch of the family are the descendants of Thomas Fairclough Pierpont. He was born in Lancashire, England in 1836 and came to New York in 1851. There he married, became a Mormon, moved to Canada during the US Civil War, then moved to Salt Lake City in late 1865. I’ve documented his story here. I’ve traced his family tree back to the mid-1500s and noted that there were various spellings such as Parpoynt and Pierpoint until Thomas’ father, John Pierpont changed the family name one more time. But I have not been able to make a connection to any of the other Pierpont groups. As a relatively recently immigrant group, even with the Mormon tradition of multiple wives and large families, this is still a relatively small group.

 

Group 7 – the Canadian Pierreponts

Although the prior four groups came to what is now the United States, there is also one family branch which came to Canada. I’ve written about them before here. As noted in that blog, Samuel Whitworth Pierrepont came to western Canada (Manitoba) in 1911. He had been born in Nottinghamshire in 1887, married in 1911, came to Canada just 3 weeks later as an indentured servant to work off the cost of his passage, then sponsored his wife to come join him in 1912. While he and his ancestors were from several small towns just a few miles from Holme Pierrepont, because it was nearly 300 years from when John and Robert came to New England, it was too many years to make a definitive connection to the New England Pierponts. But it is quite likely that the two groups are connected. Only having been here for slightly more than 100 years, this group is pretty small, but one of the great-granddaughters of Samuel has joined the PFA and we have regular communication with her.

 

Group 8 – the Wolcott Pierpoints

In my hometown of Wolcott, CT, there was a Pierpoint family. Upon investigation, they were the descendants of Jesse Pierpoint who had been born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England in 1860 and who had come to Rhode Island in 1880. This family had been in Warwickshire for over 100 years and had been in Cheshire before that. The spelling of Pierpoint in this family line appears to have been unchanged since the 1600s.

 

Other Groups

It’s been nearly 400 years since the first family members came to North America. It is pretty likely that there have been other members of the greater Pierpont/Pierpoint family who have done so just as the above groups (as an example, the Wolcott Pierpoint family would be unknown to the other groups except that they happened to be in the same town as a few members of the PFA). But finding records that can document exact family connections between these groups over such a long period of time is difficult and may even be impossible. But I have not yet found any groups/individuals where there is any indication that they are not connected. Some of the above groups have come to our attention just recently and we are happy to have additional family members.

 

Conclusion

Despite the considerable changes/variations in surname over the last 1000 years, all these Pierpont/Pierpoint/Pierrepont/de Pierrepont/etc. groups share a common heritage. I have documented all the groups that I am aware of, but there may be others. All of them are descendants of the original de Pierrepont in what is now Normandy, France. And all of them, whatever the spelling of their surname, and even if they no longer have the surname at all because of subsequent marriages and name changes, can be proud to be part of this connected family! My mother was a Pierpont, and my ancestral line includes a number of the variant spellings. But I am proud of my heritage and my connections to all my cousins, however distantly we may be connected!

If you are reading this post, what is your story? Are you a member of one of the groups listed above? Or are you a member of some other branch of the family? Share this post with other members of the greater Pierpont/Pierpoint/etc. family. And share your own connection as well. We’re all family and we all enjoy talking with other family members!