Military Monday: Can You Hear Me Major Tom?

Military Monday is a daily blogging prompt used by many genealogy bloggers to help them post content on their sites. Military Monday is an ongoing series by Cindy at Everything’s Relative.


Three years ago my brother posted about Major Tom Clark, a pilot MIA in Viet Nam.  Tom was well-known to our family because of his friendship with one of our uncles.  My brother recently posted a follow-up.  He also posted a link to another blog (Solomon's words for the wise) with Tom's complete story which I have included, in part, here.

On February 8, 1969 Captain Clark was flying an F-100D Super Sabre, of 416th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 37th Tactical Fight Wing, in a flight of four mission over Laos. The flight controlled by an F-4 Forward Air Controller, engaged a 23mm Anti-Aircraft Artillery battery. Captain Clark's aircraft was hit by rounds from the artillery battery, burst into flames, and crashed. No parachute was observed. Aircraft in the area conducted visual and electronic searches, with negative results. Subsequent to the incident, the U.S. Air Force determined Captain Clark to be Killed in Action (KIA), Body not Recovered (BNR). The Air Force posthumously promoted Tom to the rank of Major.
On February 12, 1991, a joint U.S./Lao People's Democratic Republic team investigated the crash of Thomas E. Clark's F-100. In late 1991, a Thai citizen turned over to U.S. Officials in Thailand human remains as well as military identification tag and a partial military identification tag bearing Major Clark's name. The remains were identified as other than Captain Clark's. In February of 1992 a team worked to excavate the suspected crash site of Thomas E. Clark in the Savannakhet Province with no apparent results. In October of 2005 a joint team re-investigated the crash site excavated in 1992. Another bone fragment was found but later identified as not part of a human. In October of 2009 another joint team re-excavated portions of the crash site and recovered human remains. After extensive examination, including isotope testing, the human remains were identified as the remains of Thomas E. Clark. 

The Clark family was notified in June 2011 that the remains of Thomas E. Clark would be returned to the family.

Going Dutch

I’ve written about some of my Colonial American Dutch ancestry (Ditmars and Voorhees) and it took me back to the early 1600s in New Amsterdam.  It seems probable, at a certain point, that my New Amsterdam history involves exclusively Dutch ancestry.  It wasn’t until the 1800s that the first of my original New Amsterdam lines married outside the Dutch community.  So, no matter how many more surnames I uncovered, they probably weren’t going to lead me much further than the Netherlands.

I found tracing the Dutch names to be a bit overwhelming—the Dutch names were often transcribed with inconsistent English spelling (plus, even the first names didn’t roll off my tongue), naming patterns meant there were people of the same name floating around at the same time, and, worst of all, a lot of really bad research had found it’s way into the viral internet genealogy world.  Fortunately, there are a lot of dedicated researchers working on my lines.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to match their efforts and, frankly, I just can’t motivate myself to do the work to uncover every Dutch surname.  In fact, the various families intermarried so much, I suspected many lines would actually merge.  I’m indebted to earlier researchers who provided much of the information on the various Ditmarsen-connected spouses.  

  

So, starting with a 4x great-grandmother Jannetje (Jane) Vandeveer, who married Isaac Voorhees, I found no documented sources about her parents, but several places indicated her parents were Jan Vanderveer and Seytje Vanderveer (see intermarriage comment above) and led back to Cornelius Janse VanDerVeer, the emigrant from Holland.  But no proof going back even one generation from Jane.

And then there’s Aeltje Suydam, a 5x great-grandmother who married Douwes Ditmar.  Her line probably leads back to, well, hmm…I dunno yet.  Not comfortable even speculating here, though names are out there in family trees.

Jannetje Remsen, a 6x great-grandmother won’t fare any better.  Hard to believe, but I turned up more than one Jannetje Remsen, but not one married to the right Johannes Van Ditmarsen (yes, more than one of him, too).

I had more success with my 7x great-grandmother, Catryntje Lott.  She was the daughter of Peter Lott and Gertrude Lambert.  She married Douwe Jansz Van Ditmarsen in 1688.  Peter emigrated in 1652 from Holland and became a landowner in Flatbush, NY and was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church there. 

That leads me to Catryntje’s mother, Gertrude Lambert, my 8x great-grandmother.  I’ve seen her first name written as Gerritje, leading me to believe she is of Dutch heritage, but I found nothing about her parents.  I found trees with her birth in 1632 in Flatbush, but no sources.  Recently I found this, which made me wonder:

The next of the Ditmarsen wives, another 8x great-grandmother, Ariantje Lollensz, or something like that.  Her surname has been found in only one New Amstredam record, where her name was written Adryaenyen Lollenckx.  She had immigrated to America with her first husband (who died shortly after arrival) and son in 1664 and married Jan Jansz Van Ditmarsen junior in 1665.  It is possible she was not Dutch, but that her name was later changed to the Dutch version.

The genealgocal trail for Aeltje Douwesz, married to Jan Jansz Van Ditmarsen senior, has some clues, including a 1635 Amsterdam marriage intention for Jan Janss and Aeltje Douwens, but there is nothing that definitively links this couple to my ancestors.  It is known that she arrived in America in 1639, possibly via Bermuda.

The final Dutch ancestor, a 9x great-grandmother, included in this post was not connected to the Ditmarsen line.  Mary Deurcant married Lion Gardiner, an officer in the British army, when he was in Holland.  She was born in 1601 in Woerden, Hoolland to Derike Derocant and Hachin Bastians.  She and her husband arrived in America in 1635.

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And so here I find myself at the end of my first pass at uncovering my first immigrant ancestors in America.  I found out my family arrived much earlier than I ever anticipated and that they participated in some famous and infamous historic events.  I solved a few mysteries, including one I didn't even know existed, and discovered some new ones.

Now I’m going go back to the beginning to fill in the gaps as best I can.  I’ll be doing more research and less posting because of the nature of the work that will be required.  I’ll definitely need to spend some time at the Library of Congress.  I will probably need to hire a researcher for at least one line where I think the answers will be found in local records I can’t access online.

Fones Home

There’s more than one wild child in the family, I’m sure, but there’s one who really stands out:  Elizabeth Fones.  Elizabeth led quite a life—interesting enough for someone to write historical fiction based on it, The Winthrop Woman.

Elizabeth Fones, my 9x great-grandmother, was born January 21, 1610 in Groton Manor, England to Thomas Fones and Ann Winthrop.  Ann was the sister of John Winthrop, a strict Puritan who became governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and who became Elizabeth's guardian after the deaths of both her parents.

Scandal number one:  Elizabeth married her first cousin, John Winthrop’s son Henry.  About a year after their marriage, Henry sailed to America, leaving Elizabeth behind because of her pregnancy--their daughter, Martha (my ancestor), was born while her father was at sea.  The day after he arrived in Massachusetts in 1630, Henry drowned in the North River.

In 1631 Elizabeth followed her uncle, by then Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, sailing with her daughter, Martha, to America. A year later Elizabeth married her second husband, Robert Feake.  Robert was already a large landowner and, subsequently, he and Elizabeth acquired additional land in Connecticut.  She is considered one of the founders of Greenwich, including what is today called Old Greenwich.  Scandal number two:  A woman with property in her own name was not considered proper by the mores of the times.  Sadly, in 1647, after experiencing persona crises, Feake went insane and abandoned his wife and five children.

Scandal number three: Elizabeth married William Hallett, without divorcing Feake.  In a transcribed letter in the Winthrop Papers, from John Haynes to John Winthrop, Jr. (Elizabeth’s brother-in-law):

Ther is cognisaunce taken by our Court, of somme partyes resident with yow, that are of ill fame, as one that was the wife sometimes of Mr. Feake and who it seemes did confesse her selfe an Adulteresse, (which is vppon record at the Dutch) and now pretends marriadge with another man, how trew, or legall is not well knowen. I am therfor to acquainte yow, that she with somme others are sent for by warrant to apeare att the Court heere to answeare accordinge to the tenure therof. 

Elizabeth and her new husband and family were forced to leave--to avoid a court hearing and possible death sentence--and moved to for the Dutch colony of New Netherlands, New York.  In September 1655, they survived an attack by Indians, but their house and farm were burned down.  Elizabeth Fones Winthrop Feake Hallett died in New York in 1673.

Seems like Elizabeth faced a lot of challenges, but it also looks like she could hold her own.  This is a Puritan I'll celebrate on Thanksgiving. 

Five Eights (Grandmothers, that is)

Now that I’m at the last of my 8x great-grandmothers (who’ve been identified), I decided to put them all in the same post. 

Pike

Hannah Pike (Pyke) was supposedly born around 1632 in England, married Maturin Ballou, and died in Providence, RI in 1715.  She was the daughter of English immigrant Robert Pike and Catherine (Unknown).   Robert and his future son-in-law, Maturin Ballou, were each granted 25 acres in Providence in 1646   and then admitted as a freeman in 1658.

Warren

Mary Warren, who married John Youngs, was the daughter of Thomas Warren of Southold, England.  Mary was married first to a Gardiner--her father’s will mentions his daughter’s daughter, Mary Gardiner, who would have been a child at the time of his death. 

I don’t know how uncommon it would have been for a woman to emigrate without her parents or a husband, so I suppose she might have been married in England and thus come to America with her husband, a Gardiner.  She was born around 1600 and died in 1678.

Boyse/Boyce

Joanna Boyce (Boyse), born in England to John Boyse and Joanna Stowe, likely came to America with her sister’s family or possibly as a newlywed with her husband, Peter Prudden.  Her birth, marriage, and death dates are undocumented.  She was not married yet in 1631 when she appears in her mother’s will (in England) and her first child was born in 1640 in Connecticut, and her will was written in 1681, so those dates provide a window when events occurred.  Despite the lack of records for those important dates, following her husband’s death in 1656, she is found in the Milford court records and they show she was a woman who knew how to manage her affairs and was not hesitant to claim what she felt was rightfully hers.

Bateman

Elizabeth Bateman was born around 1631 in England to William Bateman.  She married Henry Lyon in 1652 in Connecticut.

There are multiple William Batemans in the records of the period.  In one instance in 1630 there was an inquest for a William Bateman and a second William Bateman sat on the jury.  A William Bateman was made a freeman of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1631 and a William Bateman of Concord was made a freeman in 1641.  It is thought these two are not the same individual because one person would not need freeman admittance twice.  I did see references to the fact that a William Bateman’s admittance was revoked in 1634, but indicated the reason was unknown.  If the admittance was revoked, there is the possibility it is one person.  There is some support for the revocation as I found in my research on the freeman’s oath:

At the General Court held at Boston, May 14, 1634: It was agreed and ordered, that the former oath of freemen shall be revoked, so far as it is dissonant from the oath of freemen hereunder written; and that those that received the former oath shall stand bound no further thereby, to any intent or purpose, than this new oath ties those that now take the same.

Maybe some intrepid researcher will decide this is an interesting avenue to pursue and uncover more details linking these two Batemans….

Winthrop

On the other hand, lots of details are known about the Winthrops, in fact so much is so readily available, I’ll just provide an overview here.

Martha Joanna Winthrop was born in England in 1630 to Henry Winthrop and Elizabeth Fones.  She was sickly, especially after her marriage to Thomas Lyons and then the birth of her only child, Mary, in 1649.  She died in Greenwich, CT in 1653.

Henry Winthrop died a few months after Martha was born.  He traveled to America, leaving his pregnant wife behind and drowned the day after he arrived in July 1630.  Martha and her mother Elizabeth, still in England, eventually immigrated to America where Martha’s grandfather, John Winthrop, was governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

I’m saving the good stuff for my next post—about Martha’s mother and the Fones line—when I start on my 9x great-grandmothers.

In like Flint

Alice Flint is the last of my 7x great-grandmothers who I’ve uncovered.  Her parents were William Flint and Alice (Unknown). I’ve seen references that she was born in England and some that indicate she was born in Salem, MA.  And the date ranges from 1636-1640.  I’ve found nothing that cites an original source.   [9/17/2011 8 PM:  True confession.  I just realized that my original posting of this had some misleading info that I have now deleted]

She married John Pickering around 1657, after the death of her first husband, Henry Bullock.  Alice appears in the Essex County court record in 1652, accused of wearing a silk hood; but, because she could prove she was worth £200, it was discharged.  In researching this, I found this article, umm...story, umm...historical fiction, or whatever, and was amused by the amount of detail in “hearsay”:

Published in Wide Awake magazine, Volume 27, June 1888:

Alice's father, William, was born around 1603 in Great Britain, possibly Wales, but again, the sources I found seemed to rely on family tradition for the birthplace, as opposed to documented material.  It is said he arrived in America in 1640 and he does actually appear in Salem records in 1642.  It seems there is much more known about William’s brother, Thomas, but in Pioneers of Massachusetts, I did find information that William was an overseer of fences and highways and a juryman.