Deconstructing Deborah: an examination of the Quaker Baynes of Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Death at sea. It sure makes for a compelling family origin story.

And the story of the ill-fated voyage of the Matthew Banes family from Lancashire, England to Pennsylvania in 1687 is true one that has been published in annals of history.

Matthew Banes, his wife Margaret and two of their four children, Thomas and Timothy, died en route to William Penn’s Quaker colony when disease broke out aboard their ship. Two children – a son, William, and a daughter, Eleanor – were the sole survivors and later taken in by families from the close-knit Quaker community in colonial Pennsylvania.

Somehow this tragic event has become part of the family lore of another Banes:  Deborah Baynes, wife of Thomas Ashton of Makefield, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

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From mystery to Maben: breaking down a genealogical brick wall

It’s been said that setting goals turns the invisible into the visible.

With a brick wall ancestor, it often seems like one is chasing a ghost, hoping one day for identity to materialize. The pursuit can last years – decades, even.

This is the story of how setting a concrete goal enabled me  – nearly one year after I had set my goal – to finally busted one of the biggest brick walls in my family tree!

Leap day birthday

Being born on a leap day is so uncommon that I’ve only ever found one of my confirmed direct line ancestors to have been so.

Today would have been Araminta Rebecca “Mintie” Brown’s 140th birthday.

Finding love in Ancestry.com’s weekend freebie

ICYMI: Ancestry.com is offering free access to some of their featured UK records through midnight on Monday.

I managed to find one particular gem: a memorial copy of the Quaker marriage certificate for my 8th-great grandparents, Hannah Cullimore and William Watson, who married 22 Mar 1710/1711 in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England.

 

The Three Sarahs, part 1

Like every genealogist, I have my share of so-called brick wall ancestors. Ones for whom a paper trail is scant or missing.

On my paternal grandmother’s side there are three such ancestors, each with the given name Sarah.

The origins for two of “The Three Sarahs” have long been a mystery with very few clues and even fewer records to assist in figuring out their background. The third Sarah was an illegitimate birth, with no record of  who her father may have been.

This post concerns the Sarah for whom I have the least amount of information.