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My version of the Brown family tree is available on Rootsweb. On this page are some highlights, references, and general genealogy resources (including genealogy.com and ancestry.com). This page is intended for family members looking to explore our ancestry as well as friends looking for resources to advance their own genealogical research. Beware: None of the information presented here is the result of primary research. Everything is collected from other researchers, and I have been remiss at not siting sources. I believe most of the information is correct back to the Great Migration (1630s), the majority is correct back to the first millenium, half is right back to Charlemagne, some is valid to about A.D. 500, and anything prior to that is for amusement only. I have drawn upon the work of other family members for this information. My maternal aunt Karen and her daughter Jean have been busily researching that side of the family. Jean has a web site. On my paternal side, my great aunt Mabel (Brown) Johnson and her brother Weldon had documented the Brown side of the family and Weldon's grandson (my second cousin) made that information available on Family Tree Maker. |
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| Ethelyn Packard Clough, Great-Great-Grandmother Ethelyn is the woman where both of my longest branches come together. On her father's side is the Packard line I found with Daniel Packard, son of Rebekah Rose and John Packard. On her mother's side is the Hubbell family which has a very active society, the Hubbell Family Historical Society with their own site. Ethelyn founded the Brooklyn Michigan Exponent, a paper still in publication. After her husband Charles Walter Clough died, Ethelyn ran the paper herself. She went to Cleary Business College and became an editor. |
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William McKinley, Great-Great-Grandfather William is on my dad's side (as are 99.9% of this tree), the grandfather of my grandfather (see bottom of page). He came from Irish stock, from the north of Ireland, but I haven't been able to find anymore information than I started with on his parents. A good source if you hit a wall, or are just starting is Cyndi's List the prime example of individual effort in making information available. William married Martha West, of English and Irish descent. Her grandfather, George West, came to Canada in 1817 on board a ship owned by his father-in-law, Robert Saunders, the "Valiant". The only extension to my grandfathers' tree I've found is the identity of Robert's wife, Hannah Taylor, from an article about that trip. Here again, I found information from peripheral sources. |
| Reverand John Cotton, G-11 Grandfather The Reverend John Cotton preached in Boston, England and was the minister of the First Church, Boston, Massachusetts. He's one of an alarming number of Puritan ministers in my tree, most of them from the Hubbell branch, including Solomon Stoddard. John Cotton's son was born on the ship to America, the "Griffin". His name was Seaborn, one of my favorite family first names, along with Fearnaught Packard. Seaborn's sister was Mary Cotton, who married Increase Mather and produced Cotton Mather. From Ethelyn Packard, the tree contains over 120 individuals who came to New England during the "Great Migration" from England during the 1630s and 1640s. If my assumptions about who Charles Clough's grandparents were are correct, there are another 30 known immigrants during that period. The Winthrop Society has some interesting material on this period. |
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Anne Dudley Bradstreet, Poet, G-11 Grandmother Anne Dudley Bradstreet was America's first woman poet, her collected works are still available today. Anne was the daughter of Thomas Dudley, Governor of Massachusetts, and married Simon Bradstreet, also Governor. Several individuals in the tree were town founders or leaders, including: Robert Rose Wethersfield CT Thomas Holcombe Windsor, CT William Rockwell Windsor, CT Rev. John Warham Windsor, CT Thomas Sherwood Norwalk, CT William French Billerica, MA |
| Eleanor of Castile, G-28 Grandmother Eleanor of Castile was the wife of Edward I, King of England. Our tree goes back to the Plantagenet line of English Kings, with Edward III being the last direct ancestor to rule England. The intermarriage of the English Kings with French and Spanish wives also brings the royal lines of those countries into the tree. |
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| Charlemagne, G-41 Grandfather |
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| Constantine IX and Zoe, Byzantine Emperor and Empress, G-31 Grandparents The two on either side, not descended, as far as I know, from the guy in the middle. |
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Chilperic, King of the Franks Chilperic, King of the Franks, or at least part of them, in the act of strangling his dear wife, Goswintha. She is not in our tree. The instigator of this act, Chilperic's soon-to-be wife, Fredegunde, is in our tree. You go girl. If not for this horrific act, I wouldn't be here. Fredegunde got into one of the best blood feuds of all time with her sister-in-law, Brunhilde, who happened to be Goswintha's sister. |
| William the Conqueror, G29 Grandfather I think that besides William the Bastard, all of the other guys in this boat are my ancestors as well. Maybe not the guy on the left. Extremely helpful are the pages maintained by Pat Patterson, including the general page and page on the Companions of William. |
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Wedding of Richard de Clare "Strongbow" and Aoife MacMurchada, my 26g grandparents. One of the reasons I started push back the leaves of the family tree was to try to find ancestors from the the Irish Republic, since all ancestors in the tree by Aunt Gael had put together were from Northern Ireland, not recognized as really Irish by my wife, Irene Mary Kathleen Shannon. Finally, I found an ancestor from over 800 years ago who not only came from southern Ireland, he was the King of Leinster - Dermait MacMurchada. Wow! Those of you who know Irish history can now savor the irony. Dermait was run off the island by the High King O'Connor and appealed to King Henry II of England for help. One of the landless Norman gentry, Richard de Clare led an invasion force into Ireland on behalf of Dermait, liked it, stayed and became known in history as Strongbow. The picture is a rather romanticized view of Strongbow marrying the daughter of Dermait, Aiofe (Eve). Legend has it the hem of her wedding gown became red, stained with the blood of the battle field. So, now I not only had Northern Irish blood, but my ancestor was the one who invited the bloody brits over in the first place! |
| Eleanor of Aquitaine, G28 Grandmother Eleanor has had her ups and downs over the years. Check this site for a run down of the genealogy from before William the Conquerer to beyond Joane Vincent. |
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Lady Godiva, G31-Grandmother Every genealogy page should have at least one picture of your ancestor naked. Luckily, there are lots of pictures of this distant grandmother in the buff. Along with Godiva (or Godgifu), there are quite a few of the Anglo-Saxon nobility and petty kings of the small fragments of the U.K. that existed prior to A.D. 1000 in our tree, including Alfred the Great. |
| Ross Brown, Grandfather The man most responsible for having all of the other pictures on this page. Aside from his grandfather, William McKinley, everyone else is here because he had the good sense to marry Marian Cameron. |
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