Pete's great-great-great grandmother, Marcia Willis Allen, was the daughter of Sylvia Beecher, whose great grandfather, Joseph (b. 1698), was the brother of Nathaniel Beecher, who was Lyman Beecher's grandfather. I've drawn a diagram, which is slightly more effective at showing this relationship, but it's tough to reproduce on the computer. Here's the best I can do (the vertical arrows indicate a parent/child relationship):
I'm not a genealogy expert, so please let me know if I've gotten the terminology wrong here. In any event, Pete can now trace one strand of his family back to the Great Migration and a specific location in England (Kent), so that's exciting.
Also, his ancestors inspired mobs to burn down convents.
Update (1/18/09): Ok, another big "duh" moment for me. I've been going around telling people my husband is a second cousin of Lyman Beecher and have been sort of surprised that most people are underwhelmed by this news. I couldn't figure it out until I realized that "Lyman Beecher" probably meant nothing to my in-laws or their friends. When I started saying "third cousin of Harriet Beecher Stowe" instead, I got much better reactions. Thus, I am adding an updated diagram that includes Mrs. Stowe and am laughing at myself for not thinking of adding her in the first place.
1 comment:
Thanks for the confirmation and the tips. I'll definitely look into the "Notable Kin."
We've spent most of this past holiday week investigating the family history, and as far as I can tell, my husband is related to every Yankee in Connecticut. The big question mark at the moment is whether we can follow one of his family lines back to the Mayflower. There's a promising connection to Giles Hopkins, but we have to document it more definitively. His 18th-century ancestors were Tories, and it's a bit tricky to trace them when they move to Canada after the revolution.
I'll have to poke around and see if there's any way to connect the family to the Obamas — my mother-in-law would be tickled to death.
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