Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Holbrook line: Thomasine Belgrave 1562-1653 or sooner; Immigrant or not?

I mostly have been writing posts about immigrant or colonial ancestors, and I'm not sure whether my subject today qualifies.  I have seen her death given as "undoubtedly about 1620 in England: and as 1653 in Sudbury, Middelsex, Massachusetts.  As I write this, I have been unable to confirm either date.  If she truly lived until 1653 then she was over 90 years old at the time of her death.  In the process of researching this article, I found that she had a most remarkable daughter, who is also our ancestor.  What fun it is to do this research, even when finding facts seems to be an elusive goal!

Thomasine Belgrave's origins are fairly well documented.  She was baptized February 1, 1561/62 to John Belgrave and Joanna Strutt in Leverington, Cambridgeshire, England. and was one of at least 6 children.  She married Edmund Frost, son of John and Ann Scott Frost, on September 26, 1585 in Chelmsford, Suffolk, England, where the Belgrave family was apparently living. She and Edmund had at least 11 children before Edmund died in August of 1616.

Here's the question:  Did Thomasine die about 1620, or did she survive to travel to New England with one or more of her children?  Elizabeth, Alice, and Thomasine all came to America with their husbands and settled in Sudbury, Massachusetts so it seems possible that she came with one of them.  The Sudbury town records, or at least the deaths, appear to be missing from 1650 until August of 1653, so they are of little help in resolving the situation. 

I'm hoping that by posting this, maybe someone has come up with additional information to give a definite place and date of death for our ancestor.  Does her story end in England, with her surviving children still there, or does it extend across the Atlantic Ocean to a land her husband would have only heard rumors about? 

I promise that I will do a follow up post about her daughter Alice.  She was remarkable.

Our line of descent is:

Thomasine Belgrave-Edmund Frost
Alice Frost-Thomas Blower
Alice Blower-Richard Brackett
John Brackett-Hannah French
Hannah Bracket-Joseph Stannard
John Stannard-Hannah Jordan
John Stannard-Hannah Hatchett
Libbeus Stannard-Eunice Pomeroy
Libbeus Stannard Jr-Luceba Fay
Hiram Stanard-Susan Eddy
Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

I've used mostly articles from "The American Genealogist" for this post. I'm so grateful for all the genealogists and family historians who have gone before.  If everyone had to start from scratch with all their ancestors and do all the research themselves, we'd not know much.








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