The outline of ancestors who will ultimately be included in this series of online multigenerational stories is provided in the CONTENTS. Once all of the generational stories have been completed, there will be multigenerational stories for a number of parallel ancestral lines. Each multigenerational story begins with a family headed by an immigrant to the Plymouth Colony prior to 1640 and ends with one of my grandparents at the time the 1950 Federal Census was taken [Edward William Benson Jr. and Mary Jewett (Mixter) Benson in Lansing, Ingham County, Michigan, or Wesley Edgar Ellis in Ironwood, Gogebic County, Michigan]. Therefore, each parallel, multigenerational story covers at least three hundred years.
Over the years, as I was researching my ancestry back to the early Plymouth Colony, I became interested in the migrations which these families made from Plymouth Colony to Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, and/or western New York, and later on to Ohio, Michigan or Wisconsin. For example, Betsey (Bill) (Arnold) Pratt was born in Hartland, Connecticut in 1783 and arrived in Adrian, Lenawee County, Michigan from Farmington, Ontario County, New York in 1834. Sally (Goff) Claflin was born in Chatham, Connecticut in 1788 and died in Ashtabula County, Ohio in 1831; while her son, William Claflin, born in Ashtabula County, Ohio in 1823, removed to Mendon, Monroe County, New York [where his father’s mother lived] sometime after his mother’s death, and arrived in Vevay, Ingham County, Michigan in 1856. Submit (Porter) Jewett was born in Covington, Connecticut in 1773 and died in Langdon, New Hampshire in 1827; while her son, Joseph Porter Jewett, born in Langdon, New Hampshire in 1807, removed to Seneca, Ontario County, New York [where an older brother lived] sometime after his mother’s death, and arrived in Lima, Washtenaw County, Michigan in 1836. Paschal and Alzina (Tripp) Taylor, were born in Waterford, Vermont in 1805 and Penfield, Monroe County, New York in 1810 respectively, and arrived in St. Joseph, Berrien County, Michigan from Penfield, Monroe County, New York in 1854.
It is my intention to eventually complete the family stories for all of those immigrants to the Plymouth Colony who are included in the CONTENTS. I have elected to use this online format to allow me to “grow” the overall story as well as to update the story as new information may become available.
Born in Michigan... Made in America since 1620 