Holbrook line: John Perrin 1701-1770

 I like John Perrin for one reason, which family historians will appreciate: He was born, lived, and died in the same small town in Connecticut.  Thank you, Grandfather John!  

John was the son of Samuel and Mehitable Child Perrin, and was born March 18, 1701/1702 in Woodstock, Connecticut, except that it was Massachusetts at the time.  He was the fifth of at least eight children born to the couple, and the family multiplied so that by the time John died, his own children and those of his siblings were numerous in the town.  This makes it "fun" because it looks like there were at least two other John Perrins who lived in Woodstock, and some records seem to be confused.  They are certainly, to me, confusing.  There was a John who died in 1770 (ours), one who died in 1773, and one who died in 1803, among possibly others. 

We owe a debt of gratitude to the Perrin family in general, for many of the men fought in the French and Indian War, and in the Revolutionary War.  I found no reference to our John having served in either conflict, but John would have been in his 50's when the French and Indian War broke out.  There is a possibility that he fought in King George's War, (1744-48) but I've not found a record yet. I'm not sure whether he would be in Massachusetts or in Connecticut records, since the transfer to Connecticut took place in 1749.  That search continues.

John married Abigail Morris, daughter of Samuel and Dorothy Martin Morris, shortly after December 28, 1725, the date their intentions were published.  At the time, Abigail was noted as being "of "Mianoxit", which I haven't been able to identify.  John was about 24 and Abigail was about 18 years old.  Their first son was born soon after, on April 17, 1726.  John and Abigail had at least fourteen children together, with an apparent gap between 1748, when number 13 was born, and 1753, when the last son is reported to have been born.  There is room for an additional pregnancy between those two dates but I've not located a record for a child born then.  At any rate, Abigail in 1753 was 46 years old and probably had her hands full.  

John's father, Samuel, had been a founder of the town and served in several civic offices.  John appears to have not served to the same extent, but he did leave some records.  We know that he lived in the southwest section of Woodstock, that he and Abigail were admitted to full communion in the Woodstock church in 1727, and that he was a part of the (Congregational) church in West Woodstock and he was apparently assigned per number 5 in 1747, , indicating a degree of respect in the community.  His name is on a petition in 1750 for a division of school districts, asking for a new school to be built nearer to his part of town.  

We don't know what John did for a living but he likely farmed.  He did have several parcels of land at his death, and it seems that he may have given some of his older children land or money as they married and left home.  

John died without a will on April 5, 1770.  Ancestry has a copy of the estate papers.  The older children mostly agreed to renounce their claims in favor of the younger children, but I didn't find out what happened to Abigail.  I didn't see her name mentioned anywhere, although I have a death date for her of June 14, 1787, and she is mentioned on Find a Grave as the widow of John Perrin.  There are also records in 1803 which seem to me to be for a different John Perrin, although some of the same names are in those records.  Surely settling the estate didn't take 33 years?

John is buried at the Bungay Cemetery in West Woodstock.  Engraved on his tombstone are the following lines: "Let not the dead forgotten lie Lest men forget that they must die."

John's family was obviously close, as siblings named their children after not only their parents, but their parent's siblings.  John was undoubtedly proud of the men who went off to war, as well as those who stayed behind.  And we are proud to be his descendants.

The line of descent is:

John Perrin-Abigail Morris

Benjamin Perrin-Mary or Marcy possibly Osborn

Mary Perrin-David Fay

Luceba Fay-Libbeus Stanard

Hiram Stanard-Susan Eddy

Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick

Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants

Harshbarger line: Leonard Duliban Tullepan and related spellings 1730-1785

 It's always interesting to find an ancestor who hasn't been researched very thoroughly.  Sometimes, it seems, maybe he has been researched and very little has been found about him.  That seems to be the case with immigrant Leonard Duliban.  He has a name that is spelled many different ways, and that is part of the problem, I'm sure.  I have seen it spelled Duliban, Tulepane, Dulibohn, Dullenbaum, Dulybantz, Dulleton, Tulpan, and Dulban, and I've undoubtedly missed some spellings. To add to the fun, Leonard is also seen as Lenhard and over variant spellings.

 Leonard is believed to have been born to a French Huguenot family, in Alsace, what is now France, and likely the family went to Germany to escape the persecutions under Louis XIV, perhaps around 1680.  The "D" and "T" sounds are very similar in German, which would explain some of the differences in spelling. 

The Duliban (used here for convenience) family probably came to Philadelphia in 1752.  The man generally acknowledged as his father, Frantz Dulibon, arrived then.  Leonard is not enumerated on that list, which I have recently learned means he likely came as an indentured servant, meaning neither he nor his father could pay his way here.  That may explain why there seem to be no records of him during the 1750s; he was serving an indentureship and thus more or less invisible.  

We don't know when he married, nor whom.  His wife when he died was named Margaret, but as far as I know no records have been found regarding his marriage.  He may have been married when he and his father came here from Germany or Alsace, France, or he may have married here.  The list of children that I have starts in 1762, so that would indicate a marriage after his arrival here, but it's not proof.  

Leonard seems to have been either a tenant farmer or a tradesman of some sort, because none of the tax records I've seen indicate that he owned land or a dwelling.  The most taxable items I've seen him listed with is 2 cows, which could easily have been for household use and kept wherever it was he was living.  We know he spent most if not all of his life in America in Warwick Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  

Assuming that the French Huguenot religion is correct, Leonard likely supported or belonged to a Reformed church of some kind, Calvinist in nature.  The most likely candidate is Old Zion Church at Brickerville, which has a communion table that was crafted in 1743 by Wendell Laber, the grandfather of his son's wife.  I have not, however, found records that support this.  

We don't know what role, if any, Leonard played in the French and Indian War.  That whole area was subject to raids and many families left their homes for relative safety in larger cities.  However, we don't know whether Leonard was in Warwick Township that early.  

I've found his name listed twice in Revolutionary War records.  The Pennsylvania State Archives shows him as being in the inactive duty militia, 9th battalion, 3rd company, second class, with the note "Non Attendance Return 1777-1780", so possibly he missed more than one training session.  He is also noted as being in the Lititz District, 3rd Battalion, 8th company, 2nd class in 1781.  There is a note that the first class served in Northumberland County but nothing is said about the 2nd class.  By this time, he was about 51 years old, so I hope he didn't have to go on a long expedition.  

Leonard and (possibly) Margaret are credited with having at least seven children: Henry, John, Susanna, Elizabeth, Margaret, Jacob, and Christian.  They were born between 1762 and 1783.

Leonard died prior to March 4, 1785, when Margaret Dullebaun was granted administration of his estate.  Apparently the will itself is in German and has not been translated, based on the introduction to "An index to the will books and intestate records of Lancaster County".  One of my fellow researchers says that the administration notice is all that the County has, so someone is right!  Margaret would have had a long road ahead of her, if she lived to raise her children.  I have not been able to find a death date for her, and she may well have re-married.  

This is the total of my information about Leonard.  I hope someone reading this has more information than this and will contact me so we can learn more about him.  He lived through some interesting times.

The line of descent is

Leonard Duliban-possibly Margaret

Elizabeth Tullepan-Conrad Mentzer

Catherine Mentzer (Mancer)-Lewis Harshbarger

Emmanuel Harshbarger-Clara Ellen Harter

Grover Harshbarger-Goldie Withers

Cleveland Harshbarger-Mary Beeks

Their descendants

Holbrook line: John Whittemore 1638ish-1694

 I did quite a bit of research for this post, and then found almost all of it tied up quite neatly in an article "The Whittemore Family in America" in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, volume 106, page 89.  So although I've found other sources, if you are interested the above article is the place to go for a "correct", more scholarly version of what I will write.  As my reader knows, I tend to speculate a little and try to get into our ancestor's shoes, if I can, or at least, see what his or her neighbors would have seen.  

John was actually an immigrant.  He was baptized February 11, 1638 in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England, and was probably born shortly before that date.  His parents were Thomas and Hannah Chawkley Whittermore, and when they immigrated to New England in 1642, they brought their five children with them.  Five more children were born to this couple after their arrival, so John had as many as nine siblings to grow up with.

John was fortunate to be taught a trade, that of wheelwright.  I've not found who his master was, but the family lived mainly in Malden so it's possible that is where his apprenticeship took place.  However, he was married in Charlestown, so perhaps that is where he learned his trade.  His first wife was Mary Upham, daughter of Deacon John and Elizabeth Slade Upham.  Mary had seven children before dying 12 days after the birth of her last son, likely of complications from childbirth.  With seven young children to care for, John remarried quickly, to Mary Miller, who was the daughter of Rev. John and Lydia Miller, on November 8, 1677.  John and the second Mary had six children together, and she out-lived him by many years.

John began acquiring land in Charlestown as early as 1665 and perhaps sooner.  By 1666, he was able to sell a property in Charlestown that included a dwelling house with outhouses, barn, orchard, and garden, plus 42 acres of land for "a valuable sum".  This may have been his father's estate; his father had died in 1661 and his mother remarried in 1663, so this may have been John's inheritance.  

He was able to purchase 15 acres of land in Cambridge in 1670, another 60 acres in 1671, and 20 acres in Cambridge in 1673. By 1681 he was considered a proprietor of Charlestown and received smaller parcels of land in land divisions.  He seems to have moved to Watertown for a few years about 1690, and agreed to help pay for repairs to the Watertown church in 1694, apparently shortly before his death.  However, in his estate records he is consistently noted as being "of Charlestown", so the Watertown John may be another John, or it may be that John was there for only a short time.

John served on juries, gave testimony in some trials, and had various civic jobs within Charlestown.  In 1668 he was a fence viewer, in 1675 a hog reeve, in 1678 a tythingman, in 1679 fence viewer again, a surveyor of highways in 1681, and constable in 1684 and again in 1692, indicating he was no longer in Watertown, if he had ever indeed been there.  These positions indicate that he was respected but not necessarily in the very top tier of citizens of the town, since he seems to have never been a selectman.

John died December 8, 1694, seemingly without a will.  He would have been about 58 years old, so perhaps his was a sudden death.  I found no mention in the estate papers of his wife or her support, but there is a distribution of 234 pounds to be divided among the children or their guardians, and son Thomas apparently got the house and land.  Some of the writing was difficult for me to read so I may have missed something, since Mary would have needed support in some fashion.  The inventory had a value of 333 pounds.  It included books and household goods, as well as livestock and farm goods and equipment.  I didn't see mention of guns, or of any servants or slaves.  

John seems to have made a good life for himself, coming as such a young child to a new colony, and learning a trade, then raising 13 children (well, the youngest was just three when his father died, but he was provided for in the estate, anyway), and participating in church and community life.  We can be proud to be his descendants.

The line of descent is:

John Whittemore-Mary Upham

John Whittemore-Elizabeth Annable

John Whittemore-Elizabeth Lloyd

John Whittemore-Lydia Clough

Josiah Whittemore-Lucy Snow

Josiah Whittemore-Betsy Foster

Mary Elizabeth Whittemore-Joseph Holbrook

Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown

Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants

Holbrook line: Thomas Marsh 1651-1725

The Marsh family loved Hingham, Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, or at least they liked it well enough to stay there for several generations.  Thomas's paternal grandparents, George and Elizabeth Key Marsh, and his maternal grandfather, John Beal, were early immigrants to the town.  His parents, Thomas and Sarah Beal Lincoln, were also immigrants who may have known each other before they arrived in America.  They were married in Hingham, Plymouth Colony, in 1649, and our Thomas was born two years later, on December 4, 1651. 

 Hingham is at the very north of what used to be Plymouth Colony, and is now considered part of the South Shore of Boston.  It was a good place to raise a family, and to grow a colony.  It was right on the coast so there was ample fishing and sea food available, and probably docks and wharves for small ships to trade.  There was much to keep a young boy busy and happy.  Sadly, Thomas Senior died when our Thomas was just six years old, so he and his siblings had to adjust to a new way of life.  Five years later, there was another adjustment, as his mother remarried to Edmund Sheffield.  He was a widower with nine  children, and another three children were born while Thomas was likely still part of the household, unless he had been sent to another home to learn a trade, which is possible.  

Thomas was a man of good reputation and if not well to do, at least one of the wealthier people in town.  He was made a freeman in 1677, two years after his marriage to Sarah Lincoln, daughter of Thomas and Margaret Langer Lincoln, also of Hingham.  The couple had six children together.  We are told that he lived on his father's homestead on North Street, so he likely inherited that parcel. A picture on the Hingham Wikipedia page shows a home that was built in 1640 and is still extant, and the Marsh home may have been similar to this one.  

Thomas was chosen as a selectman for at least four years in the 1690s and early 1700s.  He likely also held other positions at various times, but I've been unable to locate further information.  It is also likely that he was a member of the local church, which was led for many years by Peter Hobart.  The church he would have attended, the Old Ship Church, was built in 1681 and is the oldest Puritan meeting house in America.  Thomas would have contributed funds or supplies during the building process.  

Thomas's name is also listed on a petition of February, 1708/09, stating that "Mahitabel Warren" has been afflicted for many years, that she is a widow and that she believes that "God gave her a sanctified improvement of his afflictive hand to her".  This petition is protesting her innocence as she has apparently been accused or charged with witchcraft.  This would have been 16-17 years after the Salem witchcraft trials and perhaps his particular part of New England had learned a lesson.  

I've not been able to find any mention of Thomas's actions during King Philip's War, or in any of the subsequent wars that our ancestors endured.  I will keep looking, as I find new sources.  I also have not found his will.  He died March 23, 1725 according to Cohassett records, where he is noted as being of Hingham, and "Aged man".  Cohasset and Hingham were adjoining towns.  If he died in Cohasset, he may have been there on business, or possibly living with a child during his last months or years.  If he lived with a child, that may be why no will has been found.  He may have given his estate away prior to his death.  His widow, Sarah, lived until 1738, so it seems that he would have made provision for her.  The search continues.

The line of descent is

Thomas Marsh-Sarah Lincoln

Thomas Marsh-Mary Burr

Deborah Marsh-Isaac Lazell

Deborah Lazell-Levi Rockwood

Susanna Rockwood-Nahum Holbrook

Joseph Holbrook-Mary Elizabeth Whittemore

Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown

Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants

 

Holbrook line: John Stannard of Suffield, Connecticut and Sheffield and New Marlborough Massachusetts

 After writing 902 blog posts, I'm finding that many of the remaining ancestors I want to write about have great big question marks around their names.  John Stannard is one of them.  He is reported to have been born anywhere from 1720 to 1729, and there is a good deal of discussion about the identification of his mother.  The problem is that Suffield, Connecticut, where John may or may not have been born, contained more than one, possibly as many as three, men by the name of John Stannard.  

Our John was the son of John Stannard, which still doesn't narrow the field down by much.  Most trees give his mother as Rachel Conklin, but, although I don't have proof yet, I currently believe his mother was Hannah Jordan, widow of Samuel Bate.  This couple was married in 1717 in "Old Saybrook", Connecticut.  There is an article in the 2019 Connecticut Nutmegger which I am unable to access, which may very well straighten this out.  

Assuming that John and Hannah were his parents, John would have had at least three sisters.  One was born about 1718, one about 1721 and one about 1725.  John could have fit into either of those times between daughters, or he may have been born after the last one.  We don't know why records of his birth haven't been located.  New England records are good, but not perfect!

John's parents moved to Suffield, Connecticut at some point, and that is where this John married Hannah Hanchett, daughter of John and Lydia Hayward Hanchett, on November 9, 1748.  He may have just returned from military duty, because there is record of a John Stannard of Suffield, Ct. in 1747, in "Colonial Officers and Soldiers in New England 1620-1775". He is listed as a private on 6/23/1747.  But there were other John Stannards of the right age to have served then, so I am only saying this is a possibility, not a given.  This was likely connected to King George's war, which was an uprising by native Americans against the colonists and the British, primarily in what is now Maine.  Again, this is just a guess, and there were other campaigns in eastern New York that may have been the area that John Stannard, whoever he was, participated in.

John and Hannah's children were apparently all born in Suffield.  Their family is quite recognizable because they chose just a few family names for their eleven children.  The majority were given names going back to Roman days, such as Libbeus, Claudius, and Pliny, as well as unusual Biblical names such as Jehiel, and Greek names such as Chloe.  We needn't speculate about the education of this family; the parents were certainly literate and familiar with the classics.

Here's where it gets even more complicated.  Most trees say that John died in Suffield, Connecticut in 1807 and indeed there is a will for John Stannard with that date.  However, none of the names of the children, or of the wife, match with what we know of John's family.  I don't think this is our John Stannard.

I would like to find someone who has researched this man, and learn whether there is support for John having moved to Sheffield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts.  A man by that name died there in 1772.  His widow's name was Hannah, later Hannah Huxley.  He died without a will and the case file contains about 32 pages in his estate file, but I didn't locate the name of any of his children in the file.  His estate didn't cover his debts, so although the widow got her one third share, the rest of the estate seems to have gone to his creditors, of whom there were many.  Sheffield caught my eye because Ethan Allen had some connections in that place, and Libbeus Stannard was one of Allen's  "Green Mountain Boys" during the Revolutionary War. Actually, John is referred to as being from New Marlborough, which wasn't incorporated until 1775.  At the time John died, it would still have officially been Sheffield.

I hope to do more research regarding John.  If he died in Massachusetts in 1772, then there should be guardianship records for the children.  There should be marriage records for Hannah's second marriage, and there may be records in Mr. Huxley's file that relate to the children, possibly including land records.  And there's that tantalizing article in the Connecticut Nutmegger, which I must track down.  I will try to update this post when I learn more.

The line of descent is:

John Stannard-Hannah Hanchett

Libbeus Stannard-Eunice Pomeroy

Libbeus Stanard-Luceba Fay

Hiram Stanard-Susan Eddy

Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick

Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants

Beeks line: Samuel Demarest 1656-1728, Immigrant

Technically, hard working David Demarest, Samuel's father, was the immigrant of the family, but Samuel was about 7 years old when he arrived in America so he also immigrated.  The difference of course, is that he had no choice in the matter, although he would certainly have chosen to come with his family had he been asked.  The Demarest family (seen in several different spelling variations) was French Huguenot, with Samuel's parents, David and Marie Sohier Demarest, having been married in the Netherlands, and Samuel and his siblings born in what is now Mannheim, Germany.  Being a Huguenot wasn't easy economically, even though physically the family was certainly safer there then they had been had the earlier generations stayed in France.  

Some of the Mannheim Huguenots began to go to New Amsterdam, where the Dutch were in control and there was no religious persecution.  The Demarest family joined this exodus in 1663, and soon moved from New Amsterdam to Staten Island and then on to New Harlem, where other Dutch and French families also had prosperous farms.  They may have thought they had finally found a congenial home, but the very next year, the English took control of the Dutch colony.  Still, the family stayed in New York until 1678, so Samuel's adolescent years were spent there.  He would have learned to farm, and he would have watched his father become a leader in the community, at one time a constable.  Lessons of good citizenship were modeled by David, both in the government, the school, and the church.  

In 1678, the Demarests moved to what was known as the French Patent, on the Hackensack River in Bergen County, New Jersey.  Two of Samuel's brothers were married, and they also moved west, to settle near their parents.  Samuel soon married Maria De Ruine on August 11, 1678.  Maria was the half sister of the wife of Jean Demarest, Samuel's older brother, so the two were well-acquainted.  

Samuel and Maria had eleven children together, so they were kept busy raising their family and planning for their future.  Samuel helped run his father's mill business, and when his father died in 1693 he received 1/3 of the mills (presumably one mill), with instructions as to what was to happen to the entire business if there was a water shortage (equal water, taking turns).  Since Samuel's home was on the Hackensack River, it stands to reason that he had a wharf there and could conduct trade for the grains at the mill, as well as produce raised at the farm, and whatever textiles the farm might have produced. 

The family originally worshiped at a French church, but when the Dutch church acquired a full time pastor, they transferred membership there.  One wonders how many languages Samuel would have spoken.  Surely he spoke French, probably Dutch (or why transfer to that church), perhaps German, and probably at least some English.  We don't know whether he could read and write in all of these languages, but he probably at least could make out legal terms, for contracts, and he may well have been able to read letters written by family members and friends in any of the above languages. 

Samuel never had an easy or secure life until his later years, when it probably still wasn't easy.  He lived in several frontier areas and there were tensions with the native Americans at various times in both New York and New Jersey.  We have no indication that he was in the militia but there is a possibility that he was. 

 Maria died in 1704 and Samuel died October 19, 1728, when seven of his children were still living.  I have seen indications that he had a will which was probated but I have not been able to locate it.  That would surely give us additional information about this remarkable ancestor.

The line of descent is:

Samuel Demarest-Maria De Ruine

David Demarest-Matie DeBaun

Samuel Demaree-Lea Demarest

Sarah Demaree-Benjamin Slot

William Lock-Elizabeth Teague

Sally Lock-Jeremiah Folsom

Leah Folsom-Darlington Aldridge

Harvey Aldridge-Margaret Catherine Dunham

Cleo Aldridge-Wilbur Beeks

Mary Beeks-Cleveland Harshbarger

Their descendants

Holbrook line: Benoni Clough 1675-1757

 Benoni Clough (pronounced Cluff, probably) was the grandson of immigrant John Clough, and the son of John Clough and Mercy Page.  His grandfather had settled in Salisbury, Essex County, Massachusetts, and his parents lived their entire lives there.  (Well, Mercy had been born in Haverhill but she spent her married life in Salisbury.) Benoni was born at Salisbury on May 23, 1675, and if he had wanted to make this descendant's life a little easier, he would have stayed there his entire life also.  But apparently he wasn't thinking about me!

What Benoni did was to move to New Hampshire.  We have a few, a very few, ancestors who also were to be found in New Hampshire, but this still feels like new territory to me.  I'm not really sure how far he moved.  His father and his grandfather are both listed as buried at the Salisbury Plains burying ground in Amesbury.  Amesbury and Salisbury lie very close together, so likely they lived close to the border of the two Massachusetts towns.  Kensington, New Hampshire, where Benoni lived for many years, is just a few miles north of Amesbury and Salisbury, so he may very well have lived within just a few miles of his birthplace, but it was enough to put him in another state.  

Benoni married Hannah, usually seen as the daughter of Nathaniel and Joanna Kinney Merrill, probably about 1694 as children started arriving in 1695.  Hannah's birth date is given as 1672, so Benoni, at age 19, may have married a woman three or so years older than he was.  All 10 of their children are shown as having been born in Salisbury, with the last being born in 1712.  Hannah was a busy woman!  

Benoni bought land from Caleb Webster in what became Kensington, New Hampshire in 1715, and that may be when the family moved there.  I haven't traced all the children, to see how many moved with him but there were plenty of Cloughs in both Kensington and Salisbury, and the family likely stayed in close touch.  Kensington wasn't actually formed as a town until 1737; up to that time it had been part of Hampton. This entire area is just a few miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean, but probably was a farming rather than a maritime economy.  

Based on Benoni's residence and age, it is likely that he served in the militia and very well have been involved in some of the many wars, battles, or skirmishes that took place when he was a young to middle-aged man.  The Britsh (and their colonists) were regularly at war with the French and their native American allies, such as King William's War, Queen Anne's War, and other named conflicts.  It is not likely that the family ever felt entirely safe, even though their area had been (sparsely) settled since the 1630s.

I've not been able to locate a will or inventory for Benoni, nor any other details that would help bring him to life.  He was likely a church member, at least in Salisbury, and he would have been knowledgeable about the arms of the day.  He probably farmed and hunted, but whether he had an additional occupation is not known at this time.  We do know he had children, and one of them became our ancestor.  For that, he earns a place in our family history.

The line of descent is:

Benoni Clough-Hannah probably Merrill

Benjamin Clough-Faith Hart

Lydia Clough-John Whittemore

Josiah Whittemore-Lucy Snow

Josiah Whittemore-Betsy Foster

Mary Elizabeth Whittemore-Joseph Holbrook

Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown

Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants

Harshbarger line: Hans Jacob Kestenholtz 1700-1768

 Regretfully. this is another blog post which has minimal information in it.  Even some of what we think we know is confusing.  But we can plce Jacob in definite places at definite times, and that, at least, is something.  

Part of the difficulty in researching Jacob is his name.  I've found several different spellings for it, and he may have also used the name Chestnutwood, which his granddaughter and probably his son definitely used.  Chestnutwood is the translation for Kestenholtz.

Jacob was born October 21, 1700 in Sissach, Basel Canton, Switzerland, the son of Abraham and Barbara Itin Kestenholtz.  The religion of his family is not known, except that he was baptized in Switzerland.  His parents may have been part of the state church, or it's possible that they were Mennonites, or Lutherans, and had their child baptized in order to comply with regulations.  Some Mennonite4s fled to the Palatinate rather than have their children baptized, but we don't know whether that was the case here.  They may have been perfectly happy to support the state church.  

We know nothing of Jacob's childhood, except that his mother died in 1713.  THe next record we have of Jacob is his arrival in America.  Whether it was for religious or for economic reasons, the Kestenholtz family, arrived here in 1738.  That's when Jacob was reported to have arrived on the snow Enterprise, in Philadelphia.  It's also when Jacob, along with his wife Anna Maria Glintz (also seen as Blintz) and their children Sepastian, Barbara, Hans Jacob, and Hans George arrived in "Carolina".  Jacob had married Anna Maria, who may have been the daughter of Emmert Glintz, on July 7, 1726 at Sissach, Basel, Switzerland.  

Currently I am unable to reconcile the two records.  Did the family first land in Carolina, and then made their way to Pennsylvania?  If so, I wonder what the story was behind that.  Were they driven off course by a storm, or did they perhaps first settle in New Bern, or is there another twist I've not yet thought of?  At any rate, they were in Pennsylvania, in what was then Bucks or Philadelphia County but later became Berks County.  The only mention I've found of him was in Union Township of Berks County, at the end of his life.

If Jacob lived in Union Township for most of his residence in America, I've not found him in tax records of the time.  Nor have I found his male children.  This makes me wonder whether Jacob may have been a merchant or a tradesman of some sort, not owning land or a dwelling.  Perhaps the records are just missing.  

It seems reasonable to place Jacob in Berks county at the time of the French and Indian War, and during the times of other unpleasantness with the native Americans.  The family, like many of their neighbors, may have had to leave their home to go to a larger city for protection, if they didn't already live in a town like Reading.  It would have been a time of tension and we don't know how it affected the family's livelihood.  

I've not found church records for Jacob, either.  He is said to have died at Union City, but that was not yet a town when Jacob died on September 5, 1768.  I've not found a grave site for him, nor have I found a will or inventory.  So there is much we don't know about Jacob, but we do know he was part of the Harshbarger family line, and we know he was brave enough, and adventurous enough, to come to America to start a new life. 

The line of descent is  

Hans Jacob Kestenholtz-Anna Maria Glintz

Sebastian Kestenholtz (referred to as Chestnutwood in his brother Abraham's will)-Christina Glintz

Christina Chestnutwood-Matthias Bruder or Brothers

Barbara Brothers-David Brown

Elizabeth Brown-William Cook

Barbara Cook-William Withers

William Withers-Della Kemery

Goldie Withers-Grover Harshbarger

Cleveland Harshbarger-Mary Beeks

Their descendants

Beeks line: Harvey Homer Aldridge 1857-1930

 I've posted a couple of articles about Harvey Aldridge before, one transcribing his obituary and one an article about the celebration of his (and Margaret Catherine Dunham's) 50th wedding celebration.  But I've not really outlined his life, and I'm reminded I needed to do that as I've seen obituaries for two Aldridge-related cousins over the past couple of weeks.  

Harvey was born August 13, 1857 near Kempton, Tipton County, Indiana.  Less than two years later, his father, Darlington Dart Aldridge, died, so he was raised mainly by his mother, Leah Folsom Aldridge.   After about twelve years of widowhood, she married Asa Sewell in 1871, when Harvey was 12, and he probably lived with the couple, although we don't know for sure.  Harvey was the youngest of the nine Aldridge children.

The next record I can find for Harvey is his marriage to Margaret Catherine Dunham, daughter of Samuel G and Eliza Matilda Reese Dunham, on April 1, 1880 in Kempton.  When the 1880 census was taken on June 1 of that year, the couple was living with her parents, and Harvey worked on her family's farm.  Of course, the 1890 census is missing, but in 1900 Harvey was living on his own (mortgaged) farm in Jefferson township, Tipton County, along with all 7 of the couple's children.  He apparently lived in several locations in Tipton County, because I've seen him referred to as of Goldsmith, and Ekin, also.  He moved to Ekin not long before he moved to Huntington County, where we find him in the 1910 census on "Thomas Road" in Polk Township.  Once again, he owned his own farm and it was mortgaged.  5 of the couple's children were living with them, the other two having died during that ten year period.

By 1920, all of the remaining children were living on their own.  Bertha's death in 1909 left two children who were living with their grandparents, and they lived on Berry Street in Andrews, Dallas Township, Huntington County.  Their home was mortgaged, and Harvey was working at a lumberyard, probably Wasmuth's, in Andrews.  It's possible that they had moved to town so their grandchildren, now 15 and 12, could more easily attend school. Harvey had just an eighth grade education and may have wished for better for his grandchildren.  

There are newspaper references to him as living near Bippus, Warren Township, Huntington County, Indiana during the mid 1920s so perhaps once the grandchildren had finished their education, the couple once again turned to farming.  In 1930, the couple, now just the two of them, lived on "Long School House Road" in Polk Township.  They rented this property, where he was a farmer.  The couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on April 1 with a large, mostly family, open house, and sadly, Harvey died a few months later, on August 1, 1930.  His wife lived until May 7, 1942.

I've learned a few other things from reading the gossip columns of Tipton and Huntington County newspapers.  The Aldridge family was quite close knit, and they visited back and forth often.  At lease one of Harvey's siblings lived in Huntington County also, and there were quite a few nephews and nieces who were in the area.  It seems a bit odd that although I've found a lot of mentions of Mr. and Mrs. Aldridge visiting other Aldridge members, I haven't seen any that I recognized as being relatives of Margaret Dunham.  As far as religion, Harvey seems to have been a Methodist (that was the only church near Kempton in Tipton County, and that's where his funeral was held) but I'm not sure how active he was, or what church, if any, he attended in Huntington County.  

Harvey Aldridge was a man on the move, probably striving always to better provide for his family with his many residence changes.  He was a caring man, as he raised grandchildren, and definitely was a family man.  It must have been heartbreaking for him to see six of his Beeks grandchildren die, and to watch Wilbur go to World War I.  There are family members still alive who may remember hearing stories about Harvey from his widow, and I'd love to hear those stories!

The line of descent is

Harvey Aldridge-Margaret Catherine Dunham

Cleo Aldridge-Wilbur Beeks

Mary Beeks-Cleveland Harshbarger

Their descendants